Created by Eileen Krause
Challa Dunn written by Eardulin Dragana, Iris and Siri written by Eileen Krause. Sscashii and Nigrahm written by Serena Firesong.
Gradually the darkness fades, though the ache in her head remains, like someone had pounded it with a handful of rocks. Challa Dunn lies in something soft and spongy, and feels the stiffness of being motionless for some time. She opens her eyes apprehensively, and thinks she is still dreaming.
A strange light emanates from somewhere near, green and flickering. Challa sits up slowly. This is nothing like where she'd been before. The last thing she remembers is diving into a deep pool to retrieve something shiny she'd been curious about, then suddenly being sucked down toward a cave or something, before losing consiousness.
But there is no water here. The surface on which she sits is dry but comfortable. Upon inspection of her head, she finds a large bruise. She must have hit her head on a rock ceiling or something. She stands slowly with a sudden groan. "Och, man. Wot en the world 'appened? Seems oi was konked aowt fer a bit!"
Then footsteps are heard fast approaching, not running, but with a sort of shuffling gate, as though whoever is limping or dragging something large. Challa listens carefully, casting about for a place to hide but found none. Soon the whatever is in sight.
"Hssihichahh!" comes an urgent hiss. Then she sees them.
They are quadrupeds, creeping along on four long, supple legs, bodies low to the ground. Their long necks hold heads with powerful jaws and large, alert eyes. Behind, their tails swing from side to side as they quicken their pace upon drawing near to her.
Challa notices the creature in the lead stop a few feet from her. It raises its head above the rest in obvious show of command, and they also halt. Challa hods her breath, her heart working like a steel drum as she feels a drop of sweat trickle down her nose. These beasts are intelligent, that much is clear, but what _are_ they? And more importantly, what do they want from her?
The leader issues some quick hisses to the others, and a few break away from the back to surround her, and she notes in horror that they are now formed into ranks. Challa holds out her hands in an attempt to show she is unarmed, saying, "Oi am Challa Dunn. Oi mean ye no 'arm."
The leader regards her silently, then hisses and barks at his/her minions. One of them reaches its head to the ground and sways its head from side to side, making a strange squeaking sound. Apparently the wrong answer, because immediately the leader darts its head to the shoulder of that unfortunate creature and bites him hard. Challa notices several rows of sharp, two-inch-long teeth.
Challa tries to back away, but is hemmed from behind by the others. She tries again, trying to control her mounting fear. "Wher' am oi? 'oo are ye all?" She gestures by spreading her arms and turning in a circle to convey the idea of foreign surroundings, then waves her hand to take the group in.
Now the leader does something unexpected. He/She lifts a flap of skin on the side of its face, revealing a pad of biolights that flicker in different colors. Immediately the others shoot forth some sticky string from their mouths and Challa struggles to keep from falling down as she is effectively tied up.
As they march her away, she notices with warm, tingling relief that her hands are still free, besides her legs. Maybe they are not planning her harm but only tied her up to protect themselves.
Challa decides to try another tactic. She visualizes herself swimming down to the shiny thing, then being swept into a cave, then the darkness, and herself waking up in this strange place. Lacing these images with bright colors to indicate nothing sinister, she directs them at the leader.
It turns its head around to look at her, seeming to study her, then returns its head to gaze ahead.
*****
"Did you feel something?" Siri looks up, to the East.
Iris blinks. "What is it?"
Siri stands up in the garden, her head peaking above the tops of the tall plants. Her elven features are wrinkled in concentration. "I feel trouble." She starts walking down the row.
Iris follows. Her own face mirror's her identical twin's expression. "East?" Then she feels a tug, the eerie pull of magic. "Yes, there it is. I feel it."
Siri stops at the edge of the garden. The twins face each other and close their eyes in a communion that few others of their race could achieve. They see a girl, a human girl, in the forest, looking as if she was lost. Then, the creatures appear, and capture the girl, and the picture fades.
Iris opens her eyes. "The Nigrahm are hunting again."
Siri nods. "We need to help her, whoever she is."
Iris, always the indecisive, jumps in surprise. "What? One of the Elders will help, won't they?"
Siri shakes her head. "Not a human. Only elves. Come on, Iris, we need to help her. She might be..." Siri stops, and shakes her head.
Iris blinks. "You aren't serious, are you? How could she be the One? She's... she's _human_!"
Siri simply looks at Iris, her eyes pleading.
Iris sags in defeat. "Oh, all right. I'll go. You watch for me, all right?"
Siri nods, and suddenly hugs her sister. "Thanks, Iris!"
Iris laughs. "All right, all right, let's go already!"
The garden is abandoned, the only evidence of its former occupants the footprints in the soft soil.
*****
The Nigrahm lead a worried Challa through the forest with many a furtive glance her way. She continues to try to communicate with them, trying one tactic after another, but if they understand her, they are doing a good job of hiding it. Only when she had sent that image had she gotten any sort of response, but upon trying it again, she receives a--glare?--from the leader.
Now that it is lighter, she can see more distinctly what they look like. They are covered in dark brown pebbly skin, not scaled, but more like leather. All except for their heads and feet, which are a lighter hazel.
Large ears indicate they are keen in hearing. Challa can barely make out the flap of skin that hides the biolights she had seen the leader use earlier. They constantly sniff the air as experienced hunters do, warding off any challengers.
Looking around, Challa notices more Nigrahm joining the party, slipping from behind trees and bushes. Up ahead she sees something that makes her heart stop. A long stone table surrounded by a circle of smaller stones, almost like seats. It looks eerily like an offering circle with an alter.
Suddenly Challa lets out a harsh hiss with a firm thought, directed at the leader: <_Stop!_> Challa does not know what she had expected to happen, but she is surprised.
The leader halts and looks back to her, then approaches and raises a foreclaw, displaying talons that could spit a small bird, recently retracted. The creature severs the sticky bonds with a swipe, passing the claws a mere whisker's breadth from Challa's skin.
She is free. But it has to be a trick. They want to see if she were is fool enough to run. Challa circumvents the pack of mammals around her, looking into their large lantern eyes but seeing no clue to what they are thinking. They hiss to each other as if daring her to run. They could have her on the ground and torn in half a second.
Yet something else tells her they are not evil, nor simple predators, for she had seen they are intelligent. No, they have something planned for her. She turns back to the leader and holds out her hands in guarded cooperation.
The leader rears back and stands erect on the hind legs, towering above Challa. It then stares straight at Challa, and in her mind she sees a herself walking to the alter and standing on it.
"No!" she cries before she can stop herself. "Ye don' 'spect me te go willin'ly te die?"
But the leader lowers its head down toward her, amber eyes narrowed, "Ahhhh, you will ssseeeeeeee," it hisses.
Challa is so taken aback she almost trips as she backs away. "'ow come ye didna speak te me 'afor' noaw?"
The Nigrahm only seems to smile at her, then jerks its head toward the alter. Reluctantly, Challa turns toward the alter, furiously trying to form a plan in her head.
*****
Iris walks quietly through the trees, listening with both her ears and her inner senses, trying to feel ahead, looking for any clues as to how she should go about what she needed to do.
Siri remains behind, flitting from tree limb to tree limb. She is talented at hiding herself, especially since she's never been the outgoing sort. She is nervous around people, except her mother and her twin. ~I feel anger and frustration, but mostly at being lost and not knowing what to do.~ She mindspeaks to Iris.
Iris nods, though no one but a squirrel is there to see. ~That's good, then. It will be easier to convince them to stop if they haven't really started yet.~
Siri sends a mental version of a snort. ~Not if Sscashii is still Queen. She doesn't take kindly to Elves.~
Iris groans, frightening a pair of sparrows nearby. ~Oh, great, I forgot about her!~
Siri doesn't answer, but smiles softly to herself, closes her eyes, and listens ahead.
*****
A quick hiss from the leader sends two of the beasts scurrying away. The rest fan out around the altar, arranging themselves in line with the smaller stones. One after another they raise the skinflaps on their faces to expose the biolights until all are blinking. In the predawn dimness, the effect is a bit like a swarm of multicolored fireflies... until they begin to synchronize, flashing in a steadily repeated pattern of orange-green-orange, pause, orange-green-orange.
The Nigrahm who left trot back, each bearing in its mouth a basket with a stout branch for a handle. The baskets are dirty and show signs of wear -- in particular, a great deal of deep tooth marks on the handles -- but they are tightly woven, sturdy, and obviously not of the Nigrahm. Only a creature with hands could make such things.
Then an idea occurs to her. //O' course, silly me! Why didna oi think o' that'un befor'?// she mentally reproves herself for forgetting. But then again, she was only just learning about this strange world. That large shiny oval she had swum down to inspect might be one of those weird _Doors_ Milimani had told her about, that lead to other parts of the realm, like shortcuts, she had described them. That means she is in Fan Tol Vanwa, the lost and misty isle. //'Old on!// she commands herself, //tha's onle a story a bookshop owner gave me, fantasy! 'Ave oi gon' daft?//
Yet here she was, and the two Nigrahm bow before the leader, then reverently set the baskets on the central stone. Challa can see that they are filled with some kind of muddy paste, which undoubtedly doesn't help their condition; one is orangey and the other greenish. The two assume positions flanking Challa, one on each side, and rise up on their hind legs, biolights blinking orange-green-orange in synchrony with the others.
Challa finds herself wishing very hard that she could spout fire, or at least have a flashlight. Light seems to mean a lot in communication with these creatures, the Nigrahm, and for ceremonial purposes.
The queen steps up on the altar and watches Challa Dunn expectantly. Again she sees in her mind an image of herself ascending the altar.
She does, still thinking. If somehow she had in fact entered this fastastic world, it would make sense she could communicate with mental images, like telepathy. But how to use that...
Now standing in the middle of the alter, somehow she knows which direction is east, and faces. She notices the biolight flickering change to blue and yellow, then yellow, orange, and red intermittants. The Nigrahm beging to hiss softly, almost soothingly. The only sound. Again Challa has a burning desire for a light.
The dawn was swift. An orange giant leapt into the sky like a mammoth firefly eluding the grasp of a pursuing child. And Challa's red hair bursts into a fiery mane. The effect this had on the Nigrahm was, well, startling. The Queen jerks fully upright, still taller than before and lets out an unnerving snarl of wonder and denial. But the others are silent.
They stare unmoving at Challa, standing on the alter there with flaming hair and it not bothering her at all. In fact, she only now realizes it.
"Stop!" a commanding voice rings in the still air. Challa looks toward the voice to see a tall female with long hair and a very stern expression for a such a lovely face. She reminds Challa strangely of an Elf. She sighs inwardly in relief.
The Nigrahm queen hisses softly at the sight of the woman, eyes narrowing.
Iris wastes no time. “What is going on here?” Inside, though, Iris is surprised. ~This one is special, Siri. She has magic.~
The Nigrahm steps off of the dais, tail lashing, and approaches the elven girl on all fours. "Thiss isz Nigrahm land. Why you come?"
"Will soomone 'splain te me wot 'appened? Oi 'm swimming daown to this thing en the water, an' then oi'm bein' sucked inte thes tunnel, an' then oi wake up an' they come an' take me."
Iris dips her head in acknowledgement of Challa, then turns her attention back to the Queen. "I come to dispute your claim to this human girl."
As the two speak, Challa is weasling out of her bonds. The two Nigrahm who had been alongside her are still several feet away. // Ah, got te get free naow, while those creat'rs 're distracted, surely they won' harm me ef that noice elf is here.//
The Nigrahm watch their leader, who is watching the Elf. "This human girl not yourss. You leave now."
Iris blinks. "According to Law, I must not allow you to take this girl as your slave."
At the mention of the word 'slave' challa jerks bolt upright. //What!?// "Slave?? But oi'm no slave!"
One of the Nigrahm who had brought out the colored paste now turns toward Challa and hisses in surprise at the sight of the broken bonds. It nudges its companion, then hurries over to grab Challa's arms. The other approaches the queen and grunts agitatedly.
"Human not follow Law. Sshe not from heerre, we find her by Wassha Hhaaola!" The queen replies to Iris before quietly hissing instructions to the alert Nigrahm. It nods once and trots back to Challa, taking no immediate action but watching her intently while its partner keeps hold of her.
Iris responds, ignoring the Nigrahm guard, "A human found by the Hhaaola Lake, or anywhere else in this land, still is protected by the law."
"Well oi shid 'ope so... " Challa says with mounting frustration.
The queen snarls menacingly and stands up on her hind legs, a full head taller than the elf. "Human ourss! You not take her!"
Iris steps back, startled, trying to not appear afraid. ~Um, Siri?~
Siri slowly moves around the Nigrahm through the trees until she is across from Iris. ~I hear.~
~Why isn't this working?~
Siri shrugs. ~You are alone, for all they know, and you are not an elder, so you don't have the power they would be afraid of. We need to do something to surprise them.~
~Like what? Make a light? As soon as they see me casting a spell, they'll jump me!~
~I'll cast, you hold. That way, they think you could cast without having to think about it and believe you're more powerful. And if they test for where the spell is coming from, you'll be holding it.~
Iris keeps herself from nodding, since the queen is watching her. ~All right, that sounds good. Do you think it will make them let her go?~
Siri snorts. ~What happened to my optimistic twin?~, she jokes.
Iris holds her breath until she has control of herself. Laughing in the middle of this situation without any apparent reason wouldn't help anyone.
Out loud, she says, "No one is to belong to anyone else. That is the law. No matter where you found her, this human child must be freed."
The Nigrahm queen frowns. "You not ssay what Law iss," she growls. "Yearrling cub you are."
Immediately anger wells up inside Iris. She has no right! Iris catches hold of herself. Now is not the time to lost control, she decides. She can feel the spell Siri is in the process of casting. Not long now. "The Law," Iris begins in an even, measured voice, "states: No being shall be held against its will without the consent of proper authority, proper authority being that which is defined by the Elven Council of Elders, or the elected officials of the human government, Consent being defined by law, stating that no being shall be held without proper reason or due process of law, Due process being defined by the laws of the lands. Due process in Selmandora requires that any being held against its will be held in a public law enforcement facility, for proper questioning and trial." Through her speech, Iris’ voice becomes louder, but betrays no outright emotion.
**
Siri quickly, silently runs to a nearby clearing. The sunlight streams down, bright from the East. Siri holds out her hands in a cup, closes her eyes, and starts murmuring words under her breath. Sunlight from all parts of the clearing starts bending and gathering into a bright point in Siri's hands, shielded from her closed eyes by her hands. By the time Iris has finished reciting the law, Siri has gathered enough sunlight for the spell she wants to cast. She tucks it in a pouch to hide the bright glow, and sprints back toward Iris.
**
As Challa listens, the roughness of the creatures' hands is forgotten. How could that girl know so much about law? She only looks a little older than Challa herself. But then again, Challa had always hated politics, and never bothered to really study much.
Still, she wonders who the girl is, a lawyer in training, or an office aid?
The queen, meanwhile, has been lashing her tail restlessly. At blinked signals from her biolights, three more Nigrahm have quietly come up behind her.
Finally finished, Iris takes a deep breath. Reciting the laws has always been tiring to her. She looks at the queen again, notices the three new Nigrahm at her side, and stiffens.
Challa watches intently, curious to see what the girl has planned.
"Sso you know many wordss," the queen hisses calmly, nearly drawling if such a thing is possible for someone with a mouth like hers. "But you not do anything herre, cub. You leave now -- or ssoon yourr motherr wonderr wherre you arre." She blinks a yellow light and drops back down to all fours, while the other three step forward menacingly.
Iris' throat tightens. //Uh, oh.// She begins to sweat. //What are they going to do? I forgot there isn't anyone here except us! And they look like they mean business! What should I do?// Iris brushes back her hair behind her ears.
Challa catches that instant in a flash. //Och, she es an Elf! Oi thought so!//
Iris continues her thoughts, //And even if we cast the spell, will they stop? Will Sscashii give up? Maybe I should just leave...// But another part of her said that she could not abandon this child now. //All right, onward then. Oh spirits, help us!//
Iris stands up straight. //I guess I'll have to give her a taste of her own medicine.// "That would not be wise, Madame Sscashii." ~Siri, where are you???~ Iris thinks desperately.
"What not be wisse, youngling? You not Elven elderr, you not tell me what to do. Brrave cub, but foolissh. You rrun too farr. You tresspass on Nigrahm land." She leers at Iris. "We ssend you back home."
Challa's mounting anxiety strives to escape in a gasp, but Challa manages to keep it down by breathing deeply. Suddenly the Elf doesn't seem as confident as before, somehow. Maybe she is getting worried; Challa had seen her swallow when the Queen advanced on her. Challa begins darting her eyes back and forth for anything to call attention to. Buy some more time, or whatever the Elf needs.
The three Nigrahm encircle Iris and open their mouths to spit forth the sticky cords. Iris squeezes her eyes shut and calls. ~Siri!~
But almost before the thought has left her mind, Siri opens a connection only the twins can share. Iris opens her end of the link and takes the spell Siri sends her, ready to cast.
She opens her eyes. Her hands are before her, cupped, hiding something. Iris’ face shows deep anger. She does not stop to think, but instead throws her hands up above her head and releases the spell.
Without warning, a silvery-white light almost as bright as the sun itself blasts through the clearing. Iris shouts words in the ancient speech, holding the spell at its strongest as long as possible, before allowing the light to begin to fade.
The Nigrahm roar in shock and dismay, and the three that had been about to bind Iris stumble backward. Challa is forced to look away at the sudden brightness. Her hair brushes in her face, helping to shield her eyes. //Boi the flow'rs of Alargyl// she thinks in wonder, //tha' wuz magic ef oi ev'r saw aneh!//
Before the light has faded away, a deep rumble shakes the earth, knocking down everyone and everything that is not secured to the ground. Iris stumbles, but manages to keep her footing, unlike the other beings in the area. Even Siri has trouble holding onto the tree she had climbed.
The Nigrahm who had been holding Challa are knocked to the ground by the quake, squealing with surprise. Challa tries to scramble away, fighting to stay up on the shaking. After the intense light subsides, she opens her eyes fully again. That is much safer than squinting.
The ground slowly stops its rumblings. Branches fly through the air, torn off by the sudden movements. A strong wind pushes through the clearing, again knocking over anything that has managed to stand up after the earthquake. Challa fights her way to a tree and grabs fast to a low limb, waiting for the wind to die down. The air turns cold for a long moment, before everything finally settles back to normal.
Iris breathes in deeply. ~Siri, is it me, or did you make that spell a little stronger than I thought you could?~
Siri coughs up the leaves that had been blown into her mouth. ~Not me! I don’t know what happened, but it wasn’t me! I just made the light for you and sent a small quake for effect. I don’t know how it got to be so powerful!~
The queen is the first of the Nigrahm to get back on her feet. She blinks several times, her wounded retinas still seeing the flash of light. "Elf," she says finally, “you win. Take the human, and leave Nigrahm be --pleasse."
Challa tries to scramble away on the shaking ground, but she still cannot see clearly through the lingering brightness. Her hair is tossed in her face, and she stumbles upon one of the creatures.
It blinks and hisses reflexively, scooting away from her.
Iris' feels her heart finally slow down to a normal beat, and her arms relax. ~Thank the spirits, she gave up!~
Siri wipes her face. ~What do you expect after all that? Geez, that was strong.~
Iris turns her attention back to Sscashii. She bows gently, her hands together in a gesture of acceptance. "Thank you, Madame Sscashii."
Sscashii grumbles. "Becausse of you, we not hunt good thiss day."
Iris sighs, //I'm too tired to be polite to her anymore.// "I am sorry you did not wish to resolve this conflict sooner." Not wanting to prolong what must be an embarrassing moment for the queen, Iris turns to Challa. "Come, child. Let us go."
Sscashii does not answer the elf. "Hsschii shiaa. Rrassa." The Nigrahm assemble into a pack again.
Challa slowly detaches herself from the tree and steps toward the Elf. She has no idea what just happened, but she knows she can trust her.
After Challa is at her side, Iris turns back to Sscashii. "If you wish to present your argument to the Council of Elders, you are most welcome to do so. Good day."
Sscashii mutters unintelligibly, fully aware that to bring the case to the Council would mean disclosing her less than law-abiding behavior. She cuts through to the other side of the pack and the Nigrahm walk out of the clearing.
Gently leading Challa by the hand, Iris strolls from the clearing in the opposite direction.
*****
They’ve been walking for half an hour. Challa cannot stand being in the dark any longer. Now that the two are far enough away from the creatures, she stops and turns to the elf. "A' roight, whot's goin' on? "oo are those creatures? An' 'ow cum they wanted te keep me?"
Iris stops with Challa. "The creatures are the Nigrahm. They used to keep slaves before the laws outlawed slavery, and sometimes they attempt to continue their traditions."
Challa is shocked. "Slaves? Tha't 'orrible! 'ow can they?"
Iris shrugs. "They cannot, legally, anymore. And when they used to, they did not believe that slavery was bad, just that it was tradition, so it must be right."
Challa realizes the Elf had just saved here from a fate she would rather not consider, and looks up at her seriously. "Thank ye fer gettin' me oaut o' there. You are an Elf?" Challa wants to make sure.
Iris nods. "You are most welcome. And yes, I'm an Elf." //Doesn't she know? Elves are the most populous people here!//
"Wot's yer name? Oi'm Challa, Challa Dunn."
"And my name is Iris. I am please to meet you, Ms. Dunn." ~Let me guess, Siri, you don't want to introduce yourself, right?~
Siri shakes her head. ~Of course not!~
Challa is surprised. "Oh, call me Challa. Boi the way, whot es thes place? Thes strange land?"
Iris blinks. //Strange land?// "This land is called Selmandora. Where do you come from?" //She must come from someplace far away to not know where she is, and to call this land strange.//
Challa blinks at the Iris. //Whoi es she lookin' at me funny??// "Oi cum from Roan Inish. Et's an oisland off the coast of Ireland, me 'ome."
//Ireland? Sounds dangerous.// "And where is this land... this land of ... of Ire?"
At this Challa cannot resist a giggle. "'Ire'? No! Et's nothin' loike that! The people are the most merry folk ye'd ever 'ope te meet! There are rollin' 'ills an' green plains an' water all 'roaund. Moi family are fishers. We catch an' sell 'em a' the market."
//Water? But there's no large body of water anywhere near here? And what are fish? Where is this place, anyway?// "Where is this land?"
//Where es Ireland?? 'oo doesn't know where Ireland es?// "Um, et's en Western Europe." is all Challa can think to say. What person, Elf or no, would not know of Faire Eire? "Oi've never seen the loike o' the Nigrahm before. An' oi doan' remember ever meetin' an Elf before, ehther."
"So..." Challa considers her words carefully. //Iris seems te think oi am some crazy stranger, wot wid me askin' thing loike where es thes place an' whotnot. Still, oi suppose et's werth a troi... // She takes a deep breath. "Where es Selmandora?"
Iris has already realized that Challa must not know where Selmandora is, so she does not even hesitate with her answer. "Selmandora is the central land on the continent of El. Where is this Europe you spoke of?"
By now Challa knows she is surely not on Earth. Maybe she _had_ somehow gotten transported to some sort of fantasia. As if by... magic. "Et's a continent on Earth. Actu'lly et's a group of small countries."
Iris feels that this is becoming too strange for her to figure out. "Where is this Urth?"
//Cuild oi 'ave gotten onto another planet some'ow?// "Earth es the name o' moi planet. En the Milky Way."
Iris freezes. //Oh, spirits preserve us!//
~Did you hear that Iris?~
~Yes, but… does it mean…~
Siri slips from the branch she’d been sitting in to the ground. ~The gates? If Earth is really another world, then it _must_ mean that the gates are opening.~
Iris cannot answer. She stares into space, a look of shock on her face, trying to piece together what is happening.
Siri starts jogging away from Iris and Challa, unseen by either. ~I’m going to see the Elder. If anyone knows, he will.~
Iris nods, and sends her good wishes with Siri, before turning her attention back to Challa. Forcing a smile, she says, "Come, let’s keep moving. It is dangerous to stand still for so long here."
Iris shakes her head. "Nothing to worry about, Challa." She smiles sweetly at the young girl beside her.
// Well. She doesnt seam te trust me wid a bit o' knowledge. Well, maybe oi cuild foind oawt wot 'appened wid moi hair.// "Cuild ye tell me whot 'appened back there? Oi mean, wid moi hair suddenly burnin', and et didna even 'urt me!"
Iris sighs. // She doesn't know? She doesn't know she has magic?// "That was magic. That's how the fire didn't burn you; it wasn't real fire."
Challa stares at the Elf. Her mouth forms the words. // M- _magic_? But oi doan' know magic??// "Wot de ye mean? 'oo did et?"
Iris smiles. "_You_ did it, Challa. If you've never used magic before, then you must have felt a great need and used it without realizing it."
Wide-eyed, Challa continues to stare at Iris as the walk. Finally she says, "Well,... oi _did_ want a loight, oi remember, te troi te communicate wid the Nigrahm..." her voice trails off into thoughts.
Iris nods her head. "Yes. It is a great gift, and a rare one for a human to possess, at least in _this_ world. It demands much responsibility."
Challa suddenly brightens. "Can ye teach me 'ow?"
Iris grins at Challa's enthusiasm. "Of course. I can teach you some, but most of the knowledge and understanding must come from you. It is a difficult task, but it does have its advantages." Iris smiles, thinking of the advantages magic has given the Elves.
Challa's eyes light up and she grins very wide. She can't think of much to say. // Boi me auld mum's 'arp! Oi 'ave _magic_!// "Wot aboot that spell you did? That was magic oi bet! 'ow did ye do tha'?"
Iris breathes in deeply. Until now, she had been able to tell the truth, or to avoid telling anything at all. Now, she had to lie for Siri. "Well, that was a light spell I cast, with a quake, to get the Nigrahm's attention. Sscashii would not have listened if I had not shown her that I am capable of taking her power away from her. So, I used magic to convince her to let you go." // There! I've done it. Oh, Siri, why do you have to be so shy?// Iris thinks idly to herself, with no hard feelings. Siri, after all, is a good sister.
"Tha' wuz a moight powerful spell, tho'!" // whoi es she actin' loike et's jest sum little thin'?//
Iris nods solemnly. "Yes, that was a powerful spell. I did not realize it would be so powerful, or else I would have cast a smaller spell instead."
Challa takes this in, not knowing quite what to make of it. But instead she asks, "Wher're w' goin'?"
"We're going to my home. My mother will be happy to see you, and we can take care of you until we help you find a way back to your home. I'm certain your parents are worried about you by now."
Challa looks down at her feet. // Aye, that mae well be.// She looks up at Iris. "Well, thank ye again, fer yer 'ospitality." she smiles.
Iris grins. "You're welcome! I'm glad to have a friend with me anytime."
// Friend?// Challa grins and giggles. "Aye, a friend es roight guid!"
The trees grow steadily thinner as they continue onward, heralding the end of the forest. They reach a clearing and see Iris' home, surrounded by a large garden. The scent of food drifts from the cottage, tantalizing the stomachs of both girls.
Without pausing to knock, Iris leads Challa inside. "Mother? We have a guest!"
*****
"....She says she’s from another world, a planet she calls 'Urth.' Do you know where this is, or what it means? Does she really come from another world?" Siri’s voice holds a thousand emotions, most of which are connected with fear, anxiety, and impatience.
The Elder leans back, listening. "Are you certain she tells the truth?"
Siri nods, too shy to speak.
The Elder says nothing more, but simply looks at Siri, waiting. His deep brown eyes stare into her, seeking her inner thoughts. His black hair, cut short, moves a little with the breeze coming in through the window of the small room.
Siri shudders. "Yes, sir, I believe she is the One. Or, I hope." This last sentence is more a question than a statement.
The Elder shakes his head. "She is not."
Siri blinks. "Wha-? But how do you know, sir?"
The Elder stands up, slowly, regally. "The prophesy does not speak about her. That is all I can tell you." He walks to the door, and opens it. "Thank you for coming to tell me of this, Siri. I know what it means to you." He looks on the young elf with an almost fatherly tenderness in his eyes. "Please come again, if there is anything you wish to speak about."
Siri smiles, pushing back her disappointment. "Of course, thank you for listening, sir." She slips out through the door, and soon disappears among the nearby trees.
The Elder closes the door behind her. // If only it were that simple, Siri. If only it were that simple.//
*****
From a doorway in back, an elfin woman enters wiping flour-dusted hands on her apron. "How perfect, Iris dear! I've prepared enough soup for an army of guests."
Iris grins. "Hi mother! This is Challa Dunn. Challa, this is my mother, Rosalinda."
Rosalinda brushes back her hair, unintentionally dusting it with sparkling flour. She reaches out to take Challa's hand into both her own.
Challa looks into her eyes, fair and beautiful. "Oi thank ye fer 'avin' me, good lady." she says smiling. Challa is immediately taken with the homely Elf lady, and her friendly manner.
"Challa Dunn, it is our honor to have you. You are most welcome. Please feel free to take your rest and join us for our humble supper," Rosalinda says. She offers an affectionate arm to Challa and draws the girl through a warm and cluttered kitchen; then further back again to a smaller room where flowering plants overflow the many windows.
Rosalinda offers an affectionate arm to Challa and draws her toward a back room, through a warm and cluttered kitchen, and further back again to smaller room, where flowering plants overflow the many windows.
As they enter the cluttered house, Iris briefly tells her mother what had happened that morning.
Pressing Challa into a deeply cushioned chair, Rosalinda fusses mildly about, setting the table and seeing to the girls' needs. "As you can see, between the girls' many projects and my own, our house is so full, finding a table to set properly is like finding a needle in a henhouse."
"Girls? Wot girls? Are there others heere?"
Iris turns red and coughs.
Rosalinda turns suddenly thoughtful. "Dunn," she muses, "what an interesting name. Does it have a meaning where you're from?"
Challa blushes slightly and grins broadly. "Et means 'Dark-clad warrior'. 'Tis a variehtion o' the name 'Duncan'."
"Fascinating," Rosalinda murmurs as she offers honey for Challa's bread. "Do tell me more. Tell us about your home?"
Challa follows her, happy to telspeak again of her homeland. "Well, Oi lehve en Roan Inish, me fam'ly were fishers."
Iris sighs quietly. // Thanks, Mother. You're the best,// she thinks.
"How lovely for you, dear. I'm sure it's a comfort to have such a heritage. And those nigrahm," Rosalinda suppresses a shiver, "how did you come to get mixed up with them?"
At this Challa grimaces. She had hoped Rosalinda would not ask that, for Challa still does not know exactly. She tries, "Trueleh oi don' know. Oi were swimmin' in the mar, an' suddenly wuz swept up en a current, blacked aowt an' found meself en da Nigraham territory."
"Swept? How horrid for you! I've wondered before why Sscashii's band is allowed to run loose. She's a fox in the haystack, that one. Though, in your case, perhaps a fox in the sea ... or something," Rosalinda shakes her head as if to clear it.
"'ow far es the sea from 'ere?" Challa wants to know.
"Oh, let me see. I've heard stories about travel to the sea, but it is so many days journey..." Rosalinda answers.
Challa casts her eyes down. // That's alroight, ah wasn't 'specktin' te be able te go there. //
Iris sits down next to Challa and hugs her. "It's ok, I'm sure we'll find you a way to get home soon."
Challa tries to smile, though she is getting worried. "Thank ye. oi shere 'ope so." Then she perks up. "Do ye 'ave many forest creature here?"
Rosalinda looks affectionately at her daughter. "I think Iris can tell you about our little neighbors here."
Iris grins. "Oh, yes! There are thousands of animals out there, though most are too shy to show themselves."
Challa brightens considerably at this. "Loike whot koinds?"
"And some are not so small," Rosalinda grins back. "I seem to recall a particular honey bear..."
Iris grimaces. "Mother! That wasn't my fault!"
"Wot aboot a bear?" Challa asks excitedly.
"I'll never tell," Rosalinda swears, "Silent as the gravy, me."
Iris bursts out laughing. "Silent? When?" She jokes.
Rosalinda cocks a delicate eyebrow in her daughter's direction.
Iris' expression changes to serious. "Well, if you really want to know, Challa, I can tell you sometime." Then she looks up, a half laughing, half stern expression crossing her features. "But _not_ right now." Then she grins.
Challa draws her lips into a scowl that comes off looking more comical than angry. "oh, all roight!" She regards Iris with a strange half-smile.
Iris giggles and hugs Challa playfully. "I'll tell you tomorrow. It's getting late, and I don't want you to have the wrong impression of me on the first day of our friendship."
"Ha! Wrong empression?"
Iris smiles. "Yes, a wrong impression."
"An' wot aboot me? Hope ye don' think me too outgoin' or blunt?"
"No, you're just right. Sweet and sincere."
Rosalinda laughs at them both. "I think I have two rascals on my hands. Now, off with you! I have work to do." She chases the girls from the room. "Iris, would you like to show Challa the attic room? I think she'll be comfortable there."
"Come on, Challa, let's go up there. It's a lot of fun to play games in the attic."
While the girls leave, waving, Rosalinda works furiously on a half-finished painting in one corner of the parlor. She only looks up to flash a smile before returning to her work.
Challa follows Iris into the attic.
The attic smells sweetly of wood, and is filled with some of the more beautiful paintings and art projects the family had completed.
Iris puts down the candle she was carrying. Its light is plenty to light up the little room. A bed sits in the corner, neatly made and clean.
"Hm.. Et's quite homey en here." She smiles, giving the room a once-over.
Suddenly Challa yawns. "Mm. Must'a been up a long toime!"
Iris walks over to the bed and pulls back the covers. "Have a good rest then."
She sits on the bed experimentally.
Challa lies down and gazes up at Siri. "Ye won' ferget, will ye? Tomorrow?" She asks with a wink.
"Of course I won't forget. I'll be here." As Challa lies down, Iris pulls up the covers and tucks her in. "Good night. Sweet dreams, Challa."
"Guid noight, Iris."
Iris softly slips out the door, leaving the candle for Challa to blow out when she is ready to go to sleep.
Challa lies awake, idly watching the candle's shadows play across the walls and ceiling. In her memory she hears the waves crashing on the rocks near her home, and the seagulls' cry. She sighs softly. // Wonder when oi'll get back there? // Lulled by the heartfelt sound of the surf, she slips into the wind of dreams.
*****
Iris slips back out of the attic. She carries the candle that she found still lit by Challa's sleeping figure, blown out. Now that Challa is asleep, Siri will feel safe enough to come home. ~Siri? She's asleep.~
~Ok. I'll be there in a few minutes. Thanks.~
Iris walks down into the cellar and opens a chest. Inside is a collection of soft cloth bags. Iris selects a small one, closes the chest, and goes back upstairs. She sets the bag in the center of the table and opens it. The cloth falls away, revealing a light, similar to the one Iris and Siri had summoned to convince Sscashii to let Challa go. It sits on the table and lights up the room with the warm but soft glow of sunlight.
Iris turns to her mother. "Mother, Siri is almost.." The door opens before Iris can finish her sentence.
"Hi, Mother!" Siri says brightly.
Iris replies, "Wow, Siri, that was fast!"
"Quiet, girls," Rosalinda cautions. "Don't wake Challa." She sets steaming cups of tea on the kitchen table and sits, leaning close. "Do either of you think that Challa is the One?"
Siri slumps down into a chair across from her mother. Iris speaks up, "Siri does. She went to talk to the Elder."
Siri sighs. "He said that she's not the One, and that he can't explain any more than that. But he said that he knows for certain that Challa isn't the One." After a moment of silence, Siri adds, "How can he say that without knowing Challa?"
Iris shakes her head, as if trying to clear her mind. "Yes, how can he?"
Rosalinda smiles sympathetically. "It is all too often that we must trust what the Elders choose to reveal. All we can know is that they know more than we."
"But what if they're wrong to keep silent? Why can't they trust our judgement?" Siri protests.
Rosalinda chuckles. "And why do you not trust theirs?"
Siri pauses in the middle of opening her mouth to answer, thinking. She absently sips from her cup of tea.
"They've seen those who oppose us. We never have."
Iris rests her head in her hands, elbows on the table. "I'm curious, why do they never tell us? I mean, if the prophesy really says they will come back, shouldn't we know what to expect?"
"Consider the very nature of their authority, dear. We have entrusted them with both the priviledge and the responsibility to lead us. We rely on their judgment and one price we pay for that security is loyalty, respect. Our part is not to undermine their legitimate authority. Even when it frustrates us." She smiles. "Or chafes like an ill-fitted harness."
Siri nods. "You're right, Mother. Like always." She smiles wanly.
Iris stands up tiredly. "I'm going to see how Challa is sleeping." She doesn't feel like talking about the world's concerns anymore; she needs a break.
"Wait, Iris, about Challa..." Rosalinda raises her hand.
"Yes?" Iris pauses.
"What shall we do with her? Do you intend to keep her like a pet?" Rosalinda grins.
Siri snorts. Iris turns a deep red. "No." Then she grins. "Well, maybe."
Siri grins. "Another pet, Iris?"
"Did you know, Mother brought up the honey bear! To Challa! On the very first day!" She sighs frustratingly.
Siri blushes. "Oops, I forgot about that one."
Rosalinda laughs at them both. "Do you know what a joy it is to watch the two of you together?"
Iris replies, "Yeah, when we _are_ together." She glares at Siri. // Why did I say that? I don't know why I'm so angry right now.//
Placing a hand gently over Iris's drumming fingers, Rosalinda speaks slowly and seriously. Iris frowns. "I am going to pillow this old head of mine, but I charge you both. Siri, Iris, take care. Challa's appearance here does indeed seem to indicate the time of open portals has returned." Siri listens intently. "We have notified the elders but true danger is a most real possibility."
She turns to Siri, "When you spoke to him, did he give you advice regarding how we should respond?"
Siri shakes her head. "He didn't say anything about the portals at all. All he would tell me is that Challa is not the One. And that that was all he could say."
Rosalinda sighs. "We may be treading on the edge of darkness, my sweets. Tread lightly. Be wise."
Worry builds up inside Iris. // But what if the portals are really opening? What if another war comes? Who is the One? How will we know?// All these questions, but no answers. Iris becomes even more frustrated than before. // Why can't we go back to a time when we had no worries?// But at the same time, a voice inside her tells her that that is not possible. Not willing to agree, Iris struggles with her inner turmoil.
Rosalinda rises and walks away, talking as if to herself. "Oh, and Iris darling, do please put out the lights before you go to bed." Then she is gone.
Iris nods absently. Siri can feel the feelings inside Iris; the two were so close that she couldn't _not_ feel them. Iris carefully picks up the light, now glowing more dimly than before, and puts it back in its bag. Siri stands up.
Before she can speak, Iris' frustrated side wins out. "Are you going to sleep outside tonight, Siri?" She says this with anger and annoyance obvious in her manner.
Siri cannot respond. She stares at Iris for a moment, then leaves out the front door.
Iris heaves a sigh. // Again! I did it again!// "Why?" she whispers to the light in the bag, but it holds no answers for her. Sighing again, Iris closes the bag and carries it with her to her room to use as a light while she prepares to sleep.
*****
Outside the cottage, in the forest, under a bright star, is a small tree house. Or, rather, a tree platform that can barely be seen from ground level. If a person walks through the forest, he would not see the platform unless he is really looking for it.
That's the way Siri likes it. Whenever there are guests that do not know about her, Siri sleeps outside in her tree. Though sometimes, she sleeps there anyway. She feels much more comfortable in the open space of comforting forestdom than she does inside a house.
Siri wakes up with a start. She hears someone coming. She looks up at the sky to see what time it is. // Only midnight. Who could it be?// But she already knows the answer; she can feel Iris coming.
A few moments later, Iris has climbed the tree and sits next to Siri.
They sit, not saying anything. Siri knew this would happen; Iris has too good a heart to let an argument go unforgiven. After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Siri reaches out and hugs Iris.
Iris melts into her sister's embrace and begins to cry. "Oh, Siri, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened!"
Siri pulls Iris closer and simply sits, listening.
Iris sniffs, "I'm just so angry that ... I mean, if the portals are opening, then won't there be a war? Why isn't anyone reacting? Why doesn't the Elder care? And... and what about Challa? The poor girl ripped away from her home, she doesn't belong here, not with all our problems, but no one cares about that either."
Siri whispers, "I care, Iris."
Iris goes on, "But you're only one; we're only two. What can we do? I ..." Iris suddenly sees in her mind the forest, her Mother, Siri, the village, _everyone_. And she knows she can't allow them to disappear. ~What will we do?~
Siri shakes her head. "I don't know what to do, Iris, but I trust in the Elders, and in Mother. I don't think they'll let anything happen without fighting it with everything they have." Siri shifts position. "I've been thinking."
Iris looks up, calmer now that her worries, small as they seemed when spoken aloud, were in Siri's care.
"If the Elder told the people that the portals were opening, what do you think they'd do?"
Iris thinks for a moment. "Well, I suppose they'd be scared."
"And? What about strangers? How will they feel about strangers?"
"They will be afraid, they might even attack others, or at least not allow anyone in or out... oh." Iris hangs her head. "I get it. People will overreact, and we'll have fighting on our hands before the war we fear even gets started."
Siri nods. "So, we'll just have to fight it ourselves."
Iris looks up. "What?"
Siri smiles. "We can't help if we only have questions, so let's start finding the answers. Do you think you can take Challa back to the place she appeared?"
Iris shrugs. "Sure. Why?"
"I think we should see whether the portal is still there, and if it will send her home. And while we're there, we can see if there's anything else strange about the place she was found, different from before. Something to tell us why this happened."
Iris nods in agreement. "All right, that sounds good." She gives Siri a hug. "Thanks for helping."
"Anytime!" Siri grins and returns the hug.
A few minutes later, the empty bed in the cottage is occupied once again, and the platform in the tree holds a slumbering elf.
*****
Though she still feels sleepy, Iris wakes up early. She has never been able to sleep once the birds start singing, anyway. She walks into the main room to see her mother half-hidden within the leaves of an oversized tropical plant.
Iris tilts her head in curiosity, but knows better than to ask what her mother is doing. "Mother, can I talk to you?"
Rosalinda peeks out from between the leaves baffled but smiling. "Um, let me just finish this, dear. I'll be right..." her words are lost in the rustle of foliage.
Iris smiles. "Sure." ~Siri, are you going to come in, or shall we mindspeak?~
Siri does not twitch from her sitting position on her sleeping platform. ~I'll stay here. I don't know when Challa will wake up.~
Iris nods. ~All right.~
Brushing soil from her hands, Rosalinda climbs clear of the leaves and stretches the stiffness from her back. "What can I do for you?"
Iris clears her throat. "Well, there's something we forgot to talk to you about because we were so startled about the portals."
Iris sits down in a chair (after removing the half-finished sketch, a bottle of paint, a pack of beads, and other paraphernalia). "See, when Siri and I cast the light spell, it came out much stronger than it should have."
"At the Nigrahm ceremony, you mean?"
Iris looks up. "Yes, that's right." Then her face creases in worry. "It was as if..." She pauses, searching for the right words. "...as if some of the light was _created_ somehow."
"Created? Some power other than your own? Was someone else involved?"
Iris shakes her head. "Only Siri and I, and only Siri gathered the sunlight. I don't know where, or _how_ the rest appeared."
As they speak, Iris sends the conversation to Siri.
"How odd. Was there anything else out of the ordinary?"
"Yes. The quake we made to follow the light spell was supposed to only tremble, but instead, it knocked _everything_ down. It was so powerful that the wind blew to make up for the imbalance."
"Magnified somehow. Fascinating..."
Iris stares deeply, seriously, into her mother's eyes. "Mother,... I don't know how we did it, but somehow we did what none but the most powerful could do, creating-magic. And we didn't even try, we didn't _know_." Iris' voice cracks. "Mother, I'm scared."
"Iris, is there more to this than you're telling? Anything else?"
Iris shakes her head to clear it. "Well, I know Challa has magic; she set a safe fire to her hair in an attempt to get the Nigrahms' attention, but she didn't know she has magic. There's no way she could have created a light spell; she doesn't even know what it is." Iris pauses as she sees Challa enter the room. "Good morning."
Challa walks in rubbing a last bit of sleep from her eye. "Oh! An' a guid mornin' te you both! Say, whot can we do teday? Oi mean, aboot showin' me yer world, an 'hopefilly gettin' me back home?"
Mildly stupified, Rosalinda stares at her daughter then at Challa then back to Iris. Suddenly a light dawns and, with a snap of her fingers she dives behind a heavy tapestry hanging against the stone wall.
Iris would answer Challa's question, but she is too engrossed in what her mother is doing to think anything but, // What is she _doing_?//
Challa arches a brow and stares after Rosalinda. She turns a questioning look at Iris.
Iris does not see this look, but continues to watch her mother.
Muttering to herself Rosalinda fumbles about and emerges with a heavy metal-bound book. "Here," she says reading, "'conjurings of microcosmic proportions can be made visible when...' no, no! that's not it."
Iris blinks. "Oh, do you think you find something to explain what happened?"
"Here! 'Magnitude: fluctuations in radiant products occasionally occur in incidents affected by the convergence of galactic energy sources...' hmmm" Rosalinda frowns.
Challa's eyes widen, but she doesn't say anything. // They're talkin' abaowt _magic_!! Wonder ef they'll tell me anehthing oi can do? // She doesn't understand all those terms, but nevertheless... _magic_. She contents herself with looking at all the plants and various art projects around the room, though never far from hearing.
"You mean it might have been because... what kind of galactic energy sources?" Iris asks curiously.
"I'm afraid this is very nonspecific. It's only a suggestion, a
possibility," her mother says.
Iris sighs heavily, her hopes crushed. "Oh."
Siri sends, ~Can she find anything about connections between two beings casting a spell? Could our connection have done it?~
Iris repeats Siri's words to their mother.
"But it does confirm what you saw. You three, um..... you two will want to be watchful. Sources of magical energy sometimes have an effect of.... resonating when they are aligned in just the right position."
Iris thinks about this for a moment. "Do you think the reopening of the portals might have something to do with it?"
"Let's not put the hart before the course, darling. But the magnitude of a spell could _possibly_ be affected by such things. A portal could certainly be a path over which such effects could travel. At least, I think so. Maybe." Rosalinda shrugs, "Maybe not."
"I guess that's the best explanation we can find?"
"I don't know," her mother sighs. "I'll keep looking. There must be a clear explanation."
Iris nods. "All right. Thank you, Mother."
"Mmhmm, of course," Rosalinda mutters, settling into a chair with her book.
Iris turns to Challa. "Good morning. Are you hungry? Would you like some breakfast?"
Challa turns a bit surprised as she hears her name. "Aye, mornin'." She thinks a moment. // Breakfast? // "Well, oi usually have fruit an' bread, but ah'm not too picky," she says with a smile.
Iris replies, "All right, we have plenty of fruit, and Mother cooked new bread yesterday."
Challa grins and looks toward the kitchen. "Mm! An' oi can smell et!"
"And if you'd like," she continues, "we have some jelly you can put on the bread..." Iris starts searching the shelves in the pantry next to the kitchen, "...somewhere..." Iris begins to take items out of the pantry in her search, placing them on the table.
Three paintings, four half-knitted socks, a jar of honey, a nightcap, a ball of thread, three cans of paint, and a model of the solar system later, "Ah ha!" Iris backs out of the pantry, a jar of jelly in her hand.
Challa looks at items and selects a jar of golden honey. "Honey, does a bod' guid!"
"Here you are!" Iris hands Challa the jelly and begins to put everything she'd taken out back into the pantry. // Mother knows where they are, she'd be upset if I moved them,// Iris thinks.
Challa sniffs appreciatively at the air. "That bread sure smells guid! Whot koind es et?"
Iris replies, "Well, I think it's just plain rolls," she turns to Challa apologetically, "we weren't expecting a guest, you see."
Challa shrugs and tosses her hair out of her face. "Oh, well. 'Tis fresh, an' _that_ es whot caounts! Back home we wid make all sorts o' pastries..."
Iris nods, listening, then proceeds to clear more art and science supplies off the table to make space, which seems to have disappeared since the night before.
Challa watches this, wondering who on Earth could have the time to do it all. // Then again, oi'm not on Earth, // she thinks with a chuckle.
"One thing we made that wuz truly top wuz gingerbread. Mum's own recipe! She taught me when oi wuz very young. Oi'd be 'appy te give et to ye." she finishes with a smile.
Iris grins. "We already have recipies for many things like that, in fact I remember making gingerbread one time, but we just haven't made anything recently." Then, Iris adds, "But thank you for offering!"
// 'Ow can oi show moi appreciation ef she doesn't accept anehthing oi offer? Oi 'aven't got much here! //
Finished, Iris gives Challa a napkin and pulls up a chair for each of them. They eat in silence, each lost in her own thoughts.
But Challa cannot bear the silence long. She grows uneasy. // Somethin's wrong again. An' oi bet she won' tell me. //
Iris wonders, // So, what do we do? If we find the portal, and we send Challa back, doesn't that mean that the portals are back, and...// Iris wonders, // So, what do we do? If we find the portal, and we send Challa back, doesn't that mean that the portals are back, and.... But then, they're here anyway. Whether Challa can go back or not.// Iris frowns, but hides it behind a large chunk of the roll she is eating.
Finally finished, Iris takes the plates and places them in the sink to be washed later.
Iris turns back. "Well, Challa, would you like to go back to where you appeared, and see whether we can find a way to send you back?"
Challa looks up. Suddenly it occurs to her that she does not want to go back. At least not yet. // But thes esn't moi world. An' there es somethin' amis here. That much oi can tell. // "Aye, ah suppose," she says a bit sadly.
Iris can tell that Challa does not want to return home quite yet, but at the same time, she knows that Challa belongs on Earth with her family, and Iris has no right to keep her away from her home.
"The Noigrahm said sumthin aboaut a lake, roight?"
Iris nods. "Yes. I know where it is, but I do not know where at the lake you appeared."
Challa thinks, trying to remember. "Well, et wuz kinda damp, the graound, an' a bit spongy, lots of trees, and green loight."
Iris nods. "All right, we'll find it when we get there." She walks to the living room, where they'd left Rosalinda. "Hey, Mother?"
"Yes?" Rosalinda says from behind the cover of her book.
"We're going to see if we can find the portal that brought Challa here, and send her back home. All right?" Iris asks over the book. "Is there anything you'd like me to pick up on the way?"
"Mm, of course, dear. Don't let the redbugs bite."
Iris nods. "All right, thank you, Mother." She turns back to Challa. "Are you ready?"
"Aye," Challa answers wistfully. "You have a lovely world, Oiris." She shudders slightly. "Cept fer those Noigrahm!"
Iris grins. "Well, the Nigrahm aren't the only ones you could have had trouble with. At least the only thing _they_ wanted to do was use you as a slave."
"Ye sound loike that esn't a bad loife!" Challa says with a quizical look.
Iris giggles. "Well, it is, but not when you look at your other choices."
"Whot _else_ cuil 'ave happened?"
"Well, you could have been found by the humans, and there's no telling what _they_ would have done with an out-worlder. They're very unpredictable. No offense intended." Iris adds, giving Challa a hug.
This confuses Challa very much. "Humans here are unpredictable?"
Iris is too busy to hear Challa. She pats the air as if trying to make a large, flat box out of nothing. Then, she turns to Challa. "Ready?"
At the same time, Iris asks Siri, ~Are you ready?~
Siri sends a confirmation, and Iris turns her attention back to Challa.
"Aye, fer whot?"
Iris tilts her head. "To travel to the lake."
Challa's eyes widen. // Whot en the world es she doin'? // "Ahh, sure, which way do we go?"
Iris points at nothing. "Right here. We don't have to go anywhere."
"Wot he ye mean we don' 'ave te go anehwhere??" Then a sudden thought occurs to her. "Are we goin' te use _magic_?"
Iris felt like hitting herself. // Oh, I forgot she doesn't know about this magic!//
Challa watches eagerly, eyes dancing. // Surely tha's et! Magic! //
She nods. "Yes, I've made an air pad. All we have to do is climb on, and it'll take us where we want to go, though only for short distances."
"Aye, by the flower at Donegal! 'ow strange! Whot do oi do?"
Iris grins at Challa's eagerness. "Here, let me give you a hand up." She boosts Challa into thin air. Or, rather, thick air. Challa sits balanced as if she's sitting on a plush carpet with solid ground beneath it.
Challs tests the air pad by jumping lightly. "Et's jest loike the ground, but softer!"
Iris grins as she climbs up alongside Challa. "You might want to sit, these can be a bit unsteady, and we wouldn't want you to fall, would we?" She smiles.
Challa obliges, though with a bit of a scowl. "Aroight." then she grins.
As soon as Challa is seated, they begin to rise above the trees and swiftly travel to Hhaaola Lake.
[OOC-heehee, who needs a magic carpet? *grin*]
The leaves below sway with the wind, looking like an ocean of green waves.
Challa smiles as an old song runs through her head, of the rolling fields of Ireland.
"Tis beautiful," she murmurs.
Soon, their journey is at an end. They slow down and descend in a small clearing near the lake.
Iris stands up and pulls Challa up as well, just before the air becomes thin again and they are dropped lightly to the ground. "Sorry for not warning you, I forgot." Iris blushes.
Challa jerks up. "Thes spot luks familiar! Sort of," she says.
Iris leads Challa in the direction of the lake, hoping they will find the portal open. // I wonder what it looks like?// They enter a thicket, and emerge in another clearing. They see a small outlet from the lake before them. Trees surround them, giving them a view only of the outlet of the lake.
Iris turns to Challa. "Here?"
Challa surveys the land and outlet. // mm. // "No, et wuz..., et wuz not so many trees, kinda spongy graound."
Iris nods and leads them to the lake edge and around the trees that block their view of the rest of the water.
The first thing the two of them notice is the stench. The air literally reeks of rotting flesh. Mosquitoes and buzzards are everywhere, making it difficult to see the area before them.
When the birds notice the girls' movements, though, they take to the air, taking some of their prizes with them. But behind, they leave much more.
Challa's eyes follow the birds worriedly. // Wot got them so roiled up? //
But while Challa watches the birds, Iris stares in horror at what they have left behind.
Littering the ground are mutilated bodies, barely recognizable as Nigrahm.
Challa finally looks down to see.
And gasps.
Their intestines are everywhere. Guts were splattered on tree trunks, on the grass, all over the Nigrahm. The water around the edge of the lake is a darker, sickening brown.
Wide-eyed in revolted horror, all Challa can do is stare. She can't even look away.
A new wave of stench assaults their sense of smell, making Iris want to throw up. Except that she already wants to throw up.
// Thes smells worse 'than an 'undred rotten fish! //
Suddenly, a voice pierces through Iris' frozen mind. ~GO! Get out!~
Iris jerks at Siri's warning and grabs Challa. Without waiting to see if Challa even manages to run and keep up, Iris turns and takes off.
Challa is knocked from her shock as Iris grabs her by the shirt, and takes off afterher, tripping once over a tails stump.
Iris grabs Challa back up and pulls her along until they are far away from the lake. "What... was... that?" Iris pants in terror.
Challa only looks back. Never had she seen anything so... heinous or... or gory.
With no more adrenaline to hold her back, Iris gives up the contents of her stomach over the grass.
*****
Dusk settles on the small, homely cottage at the edge of a thick woods. Shadows expand and cover every part of the world, waiting for the moon to light them once again.
Except tonight, there is no moon.
Every few years, the world of Sedran passes through... something which darkens the night, hiding its two moons and all the stars of the heavens.
Every time this happens, the villagers light candles and put them in their windows in an odd memory of the past, though few know the real reasons behind the Lighting. They just do it because this is the way it has been done all their lives.
The inhabitants of the cottage are the same. A young family, they follow the old customs for the sake of the customs. Usually on the Dark Nights, the family sits by the fire in its house, listening to stories of the past. The two children, twins barely three years of age, love to listen to the exciting tales of their father's adventures in the world.
They like to hear the stories. But tonight, they learn that living a story is no such pleasure.
Santam Lightheart walks home after a long day. //One day, three brawls, two disputes involving weapons, four threats with magic, one attempt on the Elder's life, and one crazy elf who doesn't know the difference between the Dark Nights and the end of the world.// He shakes his head in frustration, then puts his mind on his young wife, Rosalinda, and his two beautiful daughters. His annoyance melts away, and he smiles in anticipation of his children's eager faces when he strides in the door.
Santam looks ahead through the trees, searching for the candle, or caught sunlight, rather, that he knows is shining from the cottage window. When he finds the warm glow, he relaxes and allows himself a sigh; a luxury he dares not afford himself while he works.
Perhaps it is this allowance of contentment that takes his mind off of his surroundings. Or perhaps it is the opening of the door in front of him, and seeing his daughters and wife race to hug him that prevents him from hearing their approach.
But when the cudgel hits the back of his head, there is no way he could not notice what is behind him.
Feeding on years of experience, along with some magical help from his wife, Santam whirls and throws up a shield of air between himself and his opponents.
Behind him, Rosalinda tries to get her daughters back into the house, but, dangerously, they are more interested in helping their father. Rosalinda manages to get one of them inside before it happens.
Santam's opponents are three elves and two men, all with magic and all believing that the end of the world is at hand. Santam's shield protects him from the next blow the first man tries to hit him with, but then one of the elves casts a fire ball.
Santam's shield of air explods into a mass of orange and red. Just in time, the elf steps back and throws up another wall, this one of water, then sends spears of ice through his wall to attack the elves and men.
The second man and one of the elves fall with ice shards shattering through their bodies. The other two elves conjure a spell between them, and Santam prepares himself for the inevitable.
He does not notice the first man edging around behind him. He is in no condition to notice anything. Blood spilling into his eyes and mouth from the crushing wound in his head, Santam fights to stay awake and aware, waiting to cast the strongest spell at his disposal to counter whatever the elves before him will come up with.
Rosalinda loses hold of her second daughter, who begins to run toward her father, screaming.
The elves cast a bloc of air. Santam blinks in confusion, not understanding why his opponents use air in an attempt to get past a shield of water. He does not wonder long.
The man behind him catches and augments the spell, so that it becomes a hard block of air trapping Santam inside. Santam throws out his most powerful spell, and waits.
Nothing happens.
With the realization of what happened, Santam tries to open his mouth to scream, but he cannot move it an inch. His wall of water fades, and the elves before him cast another fireball into the air.
He screams.
An explosion shakes the air. Santam's opponents lay dead, all of them ripped apart. But Santam cannot save his own life; his soul is on fire.
His daughter freezes in horror and begins to scream with Santam. His entire body is lit in red flames, like blood. Blood is everywhere, she had been splashed with some of the blood of dead people when her father killed them.
Rosalinda turns away, unable to watch, unable to stop the spell from doing its terrible work.
Finally, an eternity later, Santam's ashes blow away in the soft breeze. A star peeks out, then the moon, casting the area around the cottage in a dull red.
*****
Stars float before his face. Santam reaches out... and cannot reach. He wonders simply why they are so near, yet too far. He begins to count them as the rotate around him. One... Two... Three...
*****
When her stomach has finally finished squeezing itself dry, Iris glances back over at Challa. "Are you all right?"
The Irish lass had turned away from Iris's wretching out of courtesy, and now she faces her again. For the first time in a long while, her features hold a look of despair mixed with denial and a question of 'why?' etched in her eyes. Having lived her life seeing the silver lining of every cloud, she can think of no words of comfort to speak to her elven friend.
"Aye, ah'm alroight," she deadpanned. "Yew?"
Iris nods. "I think so." She shudders.
Having waited until Iris looks calm enough to take more news, Siri sends, ~Iris, there's an alarm from the village. They want everyone to meet as soon as possible. Probably best you go; there's safety in numbers.~
Iris nods, barely, and turns to see the smoke signal from the village for herself. At one time, the Elders had used magic to summon the people, but some of the people of Selmandora have neither magic, nor magic perception, so they reverted back to the smoke signal. "Challa, do you see the smoke coming up there?"
The young girl looks in the direction indicated by Iris's finger. "Aye. Loike eh signal, long, short, followed by two long. We oaften yewsed sich ways of comunicehtion in Roan Inish. May'aps 'tis orgent?" She pauses, considering if she should ask her question. "Oi noticed ye give jest a sloight nod a moment ago, moi friend. Whot're ye thinkin'?"
Iris blinks as she thinks rapidly. "I was coming to a decision. I don't think we should be here alone, anymore. That's why I was looking for the smoke signal. It's the village bonfire," she explains. "They light it up when there's some trouble, and we need to gather. We need to go there, it'll be safer." She waits to see what Challa thinks.
Challa raises her head, mouthing the word 'Ah.' "Wehll let's goa then!" she says aloud, "Mehbe they can say whot caused that... massacre... ehn the fahrest teday." She shudders again as her mind stubbornly reverts back to the ripped bodies.
Iris swallows, trying to lose the taste of vomit remaining in her mouth. "Actually, I think I know what it was. But let's get going, I don't think it's safe to stand here too long. I'll tell you about it on the way."
Challa stares at Iris in shock, but says nothing. // Oi've heard tales of ancient magicks an' curses, but thay were oll myth, wid a bet o' truth as the seeds. Thes es real! // She picks her way carefully after her friend.
Iris leads the way from the clearing. "I would use the air cushion spell we used before, except I can't use it that often. Especially not when I'm this startled." She brushes her hair back to tuck behind her ears.
"Ah don' blame yew! But eht still meeks me worried tha' someone moight be watchin' us!" She lowers her voice to a whisper.
"Oi'll be 'appier when we geht te the village." She glances behind and around them as if expecting an attack. "Whot do ye think eht was done eht?"
Iris blinks, and hurries to put down her fear that Challa was figuring out that Siri is around before it shows in her face.
// After all, she has no reason to think that there's someone watching us. She's just nervous after seeing the Nigrahm// Iris reassures herself.
"I don't know much about it, but... well, it's part of our history, so I've heard about some of it. A long time ago, a few centuries, I think, this world was connected to others. Other worlds, I mean. I think maybe it was a connection between many worlds, a land where anything could happen, basically, because no rules were the same in all places. At least, that's what they told me, I don't really know what they mean by it. Anyway, these connections are called portals, like what you came through, and people came and went through them to trade, live, visit, whatever."
"Ye mean they war there fer a whoile, but not anehmore? Bu' then 'ow ded oi get 'ere?" Challa scowls in puzzlement as she steps daintily over an unruly tree root.
Iris thinks for a moment on how to answer while patting the unruly tree root as she passes. It curls up under her hand, almost like a cat's back arching with pleasure as it is rubbed. Having lived all her life knowing what portals are, she had never thought about how to explain them to someone else. "Well, a portal is an opening between worlds. For example, you came from your world, what's it called again?"
"Earth."
"Right, you came from Earth to Sedran through a portal. It's sort of a connection that people can walk through, swim through, or fall through. Sometimes it stays for a long time, connecting two worlds, and sometimes it only stays for a few days, hours, or minutes, and then it is gone again."
"Ah, Oi see. Amazin'." She brushes some hanging green tendrils from her hair as they brush through it, as if trying to grab it. Challa tries to touch them as Irish had the tree root, but they start fearfully away from her.
Iris ducks below the vines as they swing away from Challa, ignoring the curious tendrils that reach out toward her hair. She swallows again, wishing she hadn't thrown up. Her voice is less smooth than usual as she continues. "At one point, these weird things started happening. Well, first of all, not all people coming through the portals were good; some were criminals hoping to escape justice, or assassins looking for their targets. Anyway, these weird things started happening. Entire villages, cities even, turned into ghost towns. Bodies were left everywhere, but no one knew why or how it happened. Some doctors examined the bodies, but it was already obvious they died from their wounds. You've seen what it looks like already, so I don't have to try to describe it." Iris shudders, and pauses before continuing.
"So 'twas thought that someone cumin' through the partals wuz rampagin' an' killin' payple... or uther species?" Fascinated by the tale, Challa almost steps in a suspicious-looking reddish plant creeping its vine across the path. "Whot's 'at? Luks loik eht cuild sting."
"Oh, an aquanot! I haven't seen one of these in ages!" Iris trots off toward the source of the vine and waves Challa over.
"Here, taste this!" She pulls off two of the large, red leaves and crushes them in her hand. Then, she hands one of the wrinkled leaves to Challa. "It's a healing plant. It helps relax the mind after a shock. It's just what we need after that!" Iris shudders, then pops the other leaf into her mouth and chews.
More curious than careful, since Iris obviously knew this plant, Challa accepts and raises it to her mouth. Sniffs. "Hm. Beht ov an acrid/sweet odor, an' a sloight tang as well." She takes a nibble, expecting... she doesn't know what. "Ah, tastes a beth loike celery--a vegetable on Earth," she adds when Iris knits her brow at the word.
Iris nods with response. // I'm going to have to get used to remembering she's from another place; it's so confusing!//
"Now what did you ask? Oh, about people coming through the portals. Yes, someone had to be doing it. But they could never figure out who." Iris smiles as the plant begins to take effect, and her muscles and memories relax. At the same time, she becomes more aware of her surroundings.
"So all these people were dying. Mages came and found traces of portals that had apparently appeared, then disappeared. Private investagators swarmed all over the place, trying to make money being the one to solve the big mystery. No one ever saw the
"enemy," though some claimed to. The only ones that saw them were dead. Some of the mages got together and decided that if the enemy was coming through the portals, if they seal off Sedran from the rest of existance by closing the portals, they'd seal away the enemy, too."
"But 'ow did they knoaw anehone ever saw the 'enemy'? Wuz evidence found on the bodehs, loik phoatagraphs or... ah... traces... a luk uv froight etched parmenantly on their features?" Challa grabs Iris from behind suddenly, excited.
"Fehngers as steff as boards? An' de ye know 'ow long 'as eht been since they sealed 'em off?"
Iris stops, surprised. "Well, I don't know, they don't really talk about it much. But I suppose it's the same as what we saw back there. I don't think there was enough left of them to tell anything for sure. And I guess..." becoming thoughtful "...I guess that someone could have just sent a spell through a portal they'd made... but it would make more sense if they actually came. I mean, what could they get out of killing so many people like that if they were a world away?" She pauses in thought.
"And what could they get out of killing anyway?" Iris shakes her head, and continues with her description.
"Olso, 'twould take a tremehndous amoawnt o' power te send a spell thru a partal, ah wid imagine?"
Iris shrugs. "Perhaps. I don't really know; the portals have been gone since long before I was born. But I do remembering hearing about how the rules sometimes change across portals, so if someone sent a spell across, they would have no way of knowing whether it would work the way they intended it to work anyway.
"The Elders in the Elven Council of Selmandora were alive then, so they know more, but they haven't told us much. There's just the rumors and what was passed down through history. What the mages did must have worked, since there've been no attacks since then, but now...." Iris stops and slumps down to sit between the roots of a live oak. "What are we going to do?" she whispers, lost in a rare moment of helplessness, loneliness, and fear.
Challa stands before her, one hand on hip, as she looks in the direction the smoke is still coming from. "We'll put our 'eads tegether, jest loik they probably did las' toime, an' we'll think uv a way oawt o' thes!" She sits crosslegged in the grass near Iris. "'ey, oi don' know whot wuld've 'appened te me ef you'd not cum when ye did, Oiris. But yew rehsked a lot te get me awey frum the Noigrahm, an' boi the Blarney Stone oi'll be here wid yew an' 'ooever else 'as power an' guts te help!"
//Hm, let mea see...
//
A blush crosses Iris' face, and a warm feeling creeps back over her heart. // We did do that, Siri and I. I'm glad we got her out....//
Siri stops in the trees, not far from where Iris and Challa are sitting. She gets comfortable in a branch and simply lies there, waiting. Soon, she is fast asleep, knowing that Iris will send her a waking message when the two get up again.
She takes a handful of leaves from the ground and lets her eyes drift half-closed. Envisioning the leaves, she wills them, seeing down to the level of matter that makes up all things. The atom. Moves them with her mind, directs them.
After a few moments, the leaves in her hand begin to tremble, though there is no wind in the woods. The first one lifts a fraction of an inch, and another, and a second leaf follows it into the air. Challa breathes silently, calmly. Three, four... now five leaves dance in the air between her and the Elf.
Iris' eyes widen as she watches Challa's display of magic. // Amazing! That level of achievement with no training... that must be where her talent is, if it's that easy for her.//
She withdraws her hand, slowly.
Opens her eyes.
As the leaves settle gently once again to the ground, Challa extends one finger to point at the sky. "Moi grandfather yewsed te tell me stories uv hard toimes when 'e wuz a lad. An' then
'ed--"
Challa's finger sprouts a tiny flame at the tip--
"loight a candle an' say eht represehnts a toiny fleck of
'ope." She purses her lips, but the flame slowly dies out.
"Well, tha's whot he tauld me, an' oi alweys remember that ef oi get daown." She smiles, waiting for Iris to respond--and maybe even praise her for that little trick. // After oll, oi jest yehsterdey faound owt ah -have- magic!//
Iris smiles. "Your grandfather was very wise, then." She sits up straighter. "But you should be careful about jumping ahead of yourself with the magic... you never know when it could get out of control. Here." Iris takes Challa's hand and leads her to where some sunlight filters down through the trees. "We always start with handling sunlight because it teaches you to think about magic in a tangible way, while feeling it in an intangible way. Watch."
Iris holds her hand out under the sunlight. At first, it is just lit up like normal, then she cups her hand and concentrates a little. A pool of light begins to gather in the palm of her hand, a deep shadow stretching down beneath her hand.
"It's very difficult. No one ever gets it on the first try, though you might get a little sun-stream through your hand, at least. We can practice with this until you get the right feel, then we'll get to controlling the harder stuff." Iris pours out the sunlight, which slowly floats down until it touches the ground and spreads out like a heavy cloud, finally disappearing into the soil.
"Now you try. Don't concentrate on gathering the light. Just try to feel it when it touches your hand, and concentrate on that feeling." Iris steps aside to give Challa some space.
Challa takes on the challenge with a will. But not without a bit of planning. //Hm. 'ow cin oi appoach thes?// Feeling... How does sunlight feel? Warm. Lighter than a feather, for it has no weight. Fuzzy? Thick or thin? Does it have a sound?
Challa starts as this idea strikes her. //Sound? Maybe music!// She places her hand in the spot of sunlight, trying to imagine how it feels. In her mind she hears the tinkling of many tiny bells, mixed with airy harp cords. The sound she attributes to sunlight.
Looking back at her hand, she sees that it, if not gathering light in a cup, seems to be at least attracting it. Faint wisps of silver begin to swirl in eddies around her fingers, across her palm.
But that is her mistake. At that moment of excitement, she loses her 'feel' and her concentration. The light dissipates away from her hand.
Iris smiles and takes Challa's empty hand in her own.
"Wonderful job, Challa. We'll work more on it later, but we need to go. I forgot about how we need to get to the village. Probably was the aquanot." She pauses. "Actually, the aquanot probably helped you right now, with your magic."
~Siri, we're leaving~ she sends. Siri wakes with a start, shakes her head, and slides down the trunk to follow alongside her two "companions."
Iris leads the way through the trees. After a long time, perhaps another hour, they finally reach a point where the trees thin, and the sounds of the village echo faintly through the leaves.
Iris stops for a moment, and turns to Challa. "Um, I was thinking, the people might be afraid of you at first when they hear you've arrived through a portal. So, maybe it won't be a good idea to tell them." She hurriedly adds, "Not that we should lie, just not tell everyone unless they ask, which they probably won't. And if there's a problem, the Elders will help; they know you aren't the enemy."
After getting Challa's acknowledgement, Iris walks through the last of the trees into the village.
While moving through the trees, Iris hears light crunching noises not more then 5-10 feet away. Looking, she sees an odd little animal. It looks somewhat like a puppy, not more then a foot long, with a very thick looking coat of a pure white - though it seems to be turning gray. Its paws look rather oversized for its body, and the slits in the toes suggest that they house claws.
Iris' brow furrows in confusion. She certainly hasn't seen one of _these_ animals around here. Either it came through a portal like Challa did-- // Unlikely//, Iris decides-- or it came from another part of Sedran. She wonders whether this animal is dangerous, and backs away a step, just in case.
At the moment, it appears to be sniffing through the ground, but then suddenly a strange creature shows up. Its skin looks
really...really...loose, and it walks on its back feet like a predator. Not knowing what to do, the little thing just freezes in fear, and begins to shiver. Somewhere in the back of its mind, ~Hmm...can't find any food around here...~
Oh!" Challa gasps in ecstasy. She starts to step forward, but stops as it raises its startled head.
Iris feels a tendril of thought, no words, but a dim feeling of hunger. Immediately, her heart goes out to the little animal.
"Poor thing, you're hungry, aren't you?" She kneels down slowly, signalling Challa to keep quiet and make no sudden moves to frighten it off.
The girl follows suite and kneels in the grass, though she slowly creeps just an inch closer to the animal.
Iris digs into her pocket and finds a piece of biscuit she had been saving, just in case. She tears off a piece and puts in her hand, then holds it out, steadily, toward the animal. "Come on, it'll be all right." She smiles, and speaks reassuringly.
Challa eyes the animal raptly, hoping it will come a little closer. "Cum on, noaw, we won' hert ye."
The little creature hesitates, but smells the food. His stomach takes over, and he begins taking very slow steps towards her. He glances from side to side, making sure this isn't some sort of trick to try and capture him.
Iris talks softly, encouraging him, helping him to hear in her voice that she has no ill intentions.
Getting closer, he stretches his neck out as far as it will go, his eyes on the animal with the food, watching her for and sudden movements. He slowly sticks out his tongue, and snatches up the peice of food, then quickly skittles back to a safe distance.
Iris grins at the animal, and waits for it to eat the piece of biscuit before tearing off another chunk. This time, she hands the chunk to Challa. "Hold it out for him, and just talk to him like I did." She grins at the little animal.
With a proferred hand, Challa offers the food, holding it in the tips of her fingers. "Cum on," she coos. "Don' be afeared o' me. Tha't eht, noaw, cum on."
The little creature licks his chops, snatching any crumbs in his fur, then eyes the other one's hand. He could smell more food in it. He slowly creeps closer. Taking a small step, then pausing to glance around quickly, still not entirely sure that this isn't some sort of trap. Finally, he reaches the needed distance. He slowly stretches his neck out, then sticks his tongue out like before, catching the peice of food, then skittling back again to a safe distance.
Iris smiles reassuringly as she takes the last piece of biscuit, the biggest of all. She sits down and sets the biscuit in her lap. Then, she lays her arms, relaxed, at her sides and continues to talk to the animal.
"Are ye tryin' te mayke et eat oawt o' yer 'and--er--lap?" the lass whispers.
Iris' nod is barely perceptable, and her voice does not stop its murmur.
The little creature licks his lips in anticipation. Now came the hard part. He would actually have to *touch* her to get the food. Question was, is he really that hungry? Always!
Holding his body low, he slowly inches his way closer to her. After a few minutes, he lays an unsure paw on one of her knees, then slowly places the other paw up. Finally close enough, he captures the piece of food between his teeth, and is enjoying it so much that he forgets to make his quick escape.
Iris waits silently, not even daring to speak, not daring to move a muscle. After a few moments, a burning sensation in her chest reminds her that despite her daring, she cannot stop breathing forever. Softly, trying to keep from letting air rush in and out, she lets out a breath. Then, hoping that perhaps this animal can sense feelings or thoughts, Iris fills her mind with the sense of love and reassurance, and safety. She allows her thoughts to "project" toward the animal, hoping it will understand.
Beside her, Challa too sits still, though her eyes dart wildly from the little white critter to the Elf, and back again. A faint trembling starts it her hands and legs, of bottled, impatient energy as she wait for Iris to do -something-!
The little creature watches the female in front of him, and the female next to him carefully. So far, they haven't tried to eat him, they've been giving him food, and suddenly the one in front of him seems warm enough. Not having any other reason not to believe so, he makes the decision that these two are ok.
With that out of the way, the little creature dives at the female in front of him, and sniffs furiously around her person, searching for food. Climbing around her torso, on top of her head, around her body, the ground around here - *anywhere* she may be hiding food - then moved over to the other female, performing his thorough food hunt on her also.
Iris giggles uncontrollably, especially after the little animal has moved on to Challa. Challa looks so _funny_ with him!
Challa collapses in a fit of bubbling laughter as the little creature launches itself onto Iris. But when it dives at her head, she commences to shake as if being tickled by his feet.
"Hoh! Calm doawn, ye li'le rogue--hee hee!-- Oi don'--aa hee! have aney more. Unless theyse roots here be aneh food fer ye!" With an effort, she gets the animal off her waist pocket to hold it comfortably in her lap, throwing a questioning glance at Iris.
Iris shrugs and throws Challa a grin.
Not finding anything suitable to eat, the little guy sits in her lap, resting his chin on her thigh, and sort of coo/purrs softly at having had something to eat. Of course, were they to have more, he'd have to liberate it from them...
With a grin almost splitting her face, Challa turns, glowing, to Iris. "Noaw will ye luk at that? Certinley sehms te have gotten ohver 'is fear uv us!" She strokes his velvety head.
Iris opens her mouth to say something, but stops as she watches Challa stroke the animal's head.
At this, the little creatures body stiffened. He had never been touched before, unless something was trying to eat him. ~Oh no!~ he thought to himself, ~Being touched! They're gonna eat me! Gotta ru--...oh...hey...that's kinda nice...ah...a little lower, yeah...ahhh...~ Its body relaxes under her touch, his eyes half closing, and his purr/coo increasing in volume to being stroked.
// Ha ha! 'e loikes eht! Heh, jest loike a cat ar a puppy. // Her hand yields to the little guy's nosing and newly-found hunger for affection and friendship, scratching with her fingertips under his ears, and then around his temples, as if massaging.
And, just like a cat or puppy, he presses his head against one hand, trying to milk as much attention as he can possibly get, his body leaning into their hands, first this way, and then that. Out of joy, his tongue slips out of his mouth, and he pants quickly for a moment, then closes his eyes and sighs.
Iris reaches over to stroke him as well, marvelling at the softness and richness of his fur. "What do you think, Challa, shall we bring him with us?" She gives Challa her most mischievous look.
Her eyes dancing, "Ye think we can?" Then, catching Iris's look, gives a roguish crooked grin of her own. "Whoi not?"
Iris' eyes glint. "Well, he might not like it, but we can try." She opens her pack and pulls out a soft, fluffy cloth that seems made for the sole purpose of housing small animals in a travelling bag. The faint scent of ham comes from within. She holds it in her hands for the animal to sniff.
The creature smells the scent of food coming from within, and needs no more encouragement. Within seconds, he's in the backpack, sniffing around, searching for the source of the delicious smell.
Inside the bag is a few bits of dried ham. Its fluffy interior is soft and inviting for the animal to sleep and travel in. Iris encourages him to settle down, a grin spreading across her face.
The little creature gobbles up the food quickly, and nuzzles around in the sack for a bit. It is nice in there, and reminds him of his cave. After another moment, he settles down, and quickly falls asleep.
Iris grins at him and gently lifts the travel-bag onto a strap over her shoulder to ride comfortably at her side.
People, both human and elven and of all colors and many sizes, walk about the area. Many carry worried expressions. Some bad children run from their concerned parents, thinking the trouble is all a game. Other families are hurriedly packing everything they can, as if they expect it to be safer anywhere else.
Most people are worried, and confused. They do not understand the whole story, though some horrible rumors have been going around. Unfortunately, to every rumor, there is a grain of truth....
// Moi, these peyple oll lik so edgy! Mehbe et's even more serious 'an Oiris knows... // Challa thinks as they enter the town. // Luvly buildin's, though. //
Iris leads the way through the dusty streets. Tall buildings of white and brown rise up on either side, looking very much in tune with nature, as vines and ivy hang down from windows, and some foliage at the top suggests gardens kept on the rooves.
A small child runs quickly in front of Iris, almost causing her to stumble. Following closely behind is what could only be his mother, her hair wrapped in a scarf to keep it out of her eyes. She was hurrying along, hunched over, arms outstretched, trying to catch the little bundle of giggling joy.
Iris would giggle, except she is concentrating too hard on keeping her footing after her little run-in. // Who was _that_?//
As the two girls continued along, they passed various groups of people, exchanging rumors and ideas about what the meeting could be about.
Iris listens intently, hoping for some news, and whispers to Challa for her to do the same.
"Aye, o' course," came her answer. // Ah wonder ef anehbody actu'lly knoaws -facts- ar ef eht's oll jest fear. //
"Well I heard that a great portal has opened, and all sorts of evil has entered, and that we're all going to be turned into minons."
"Oh yeah? Well *I* heard that the murderer of so long ago never left. He's been around here biding his time, and now he's out again."
"Yeah, I heard that too. Only I heard that he needs to feed on the flesh of the living to stay alive or else he rots like a zombie."
The group quiets themselves as they notice the two passing by them, and keep their discussion to whispers.
"They're afeared o' me! De ye think they suspect oi'm not from 'round 'ere, coz they 'aven't seen me afore noaw?" Challa whispers in sudden anxiety.
Iris shakes her head. "No, there are lots of people here that travel from other places, and humans are not rare at all. I think they're just interested in us because we've just entered the village and might have more news for them."
Iris grunts inwardly. // Great, they quiet down just as I pass. They all have stupid ideas about it anyway.// Then, of course, her mind reminds her that what she has heard from her mother and teachers may not necessarily be the truth anyway. Iris rolls her eyes and smiles, determined to avoid all the complicated inner arguments that could arise from "but if..." situations.
Over all of the commotion, a gruff, hoarse voice called out over the crowd, "Afraid for your lives? Afraid for your family's lives? Protect yourselves and those you care about! Buy a magical stone, guaranteed to ward off all evil magics!" The man then basically repeated his beckoning in a few different ways, trying to make it sound more enticing. No doubt, he was making money by the minute.
Yes, the town square was truly alive on this day...
Iris giggles. // That Harrison, always trying to make some money.// Her face sobers at the sheer amount of business Harrison seems to be attracting. // Do they really expect stuff like that to protect them? Especially if it didn't protect anyone back then anyway?// She nudges Challa and asks, "What d'you think? About all this, I mean," she jerks her thumb in Harrison's general direction, but clearly indicating the entire village's reactions, and not that of just this one man.
In the meantime, Siri makes her way around the edge of the village, keeping out of sight but trying to keep Iris and Challa mostly in her sight from the trees.
But Challa only chuckles and tosses her spice-colored locks from her face. "Ah, noaw tha's not uncommon ehn sum parts o' moi
'omeland. There are maney who believe they can tap ehnte the magical pathways. Moi auld auntie wuz a divinist afore she passed awey."
Iris giggles. "Oh, I know _everyplace_ has people like that! I meant what do you think about the village?"
But before Challa can answer, the pair hears a bell clang loudly through the village streets. "That's the signal." Iris says.
"Come on." She leads the way, along with a crowd of villagers, to the center of the town.
The stone pathways provide comfortable places for a foot to step, while leaving space for many flowers and trees to grow. To the North, across from Iris and Challa, there is a raised platform with seats on it, obviously for whoever will be talking.
Iris and Challa manage to get a good place where they can see almost everything and hear clearly. A door in the building on the far side of the platform opens, and seven men exit the building and step up the stairs. The first man is tall with white hair flowing halfway down his back, and a smooth white beard to match. The second is almost as tall, with greying black hair and beard cut at shoulder length. The third is short and thin, looking almost tiny next to the two tall ones. The fourth is a woman, her lush brown hair longer than anyone else's has but a touch of grey. The fifth is another man with dark skin and white hair. The sixth Elder seems very young; he has a spring to his step that says he has not seen too many years yet, and his hair, flaming red, has no touch of aging at all. Yet, his eyes say there is much more to him than meets the eye. The seventh, and last Elder is the leader of them all. He wears long, flowing white robes that somehow perfectly match his hair, which is cut short. His eyes search the crowd, resting for a moment on Iris and Challa before moving on.
Challa nudges Iris gently. "'oo are they? The Chiefs?" in a whisper.
Iris leans over to whisper in Challa's ear, "They're the Elders. That last one is the leader of them."
Finally standing before their seats, the seven Elders sit simultaneously without looking at each other for any sort of confirmation. The crowd quiets immediately with respect and expectancy.
The last Elder rises slowly to his feet, his white robes rustling about his feet. A soft breeze moves his white hair, no more than half an inch long. But even now, the breeze quiets down, leaving the air still and nervous with the fearful energy rippling through the crowd.
"There has been a rumor." The Elder's deep voice echoes clearly throughout the entire village square, perhaps owing to the acoustical construction of the square, perhaps owing to some sort of magic. "The rumor says that a portal has opened nearby." He pauses while the people murmur fearfully among each other.
"The rumors are true." He stops as the noise of the crowd increases suddenly. Everyone had each known, somehow, that the rumors were true, but until they were said out loud, they had still had that hope... but now....
After a moment of patiently waiting, the Elder raises his hand. Immediately the talking subsides and a calmness, likely caused by magic, settles over the crowd. "We meet here determine what we shall do about this new developement." The floor now open for discussion, the Elder turns to his fellows, waiting for any thoughts or proposals they might have.
"Well, now," the second Elder rubs his bearded chin thoughtfully, "so we know from reports that the victims are in similar condition as were those before the portals were closed, with would point toward the possibility of the same powerful force behind it that lead us to close them in the first place," his deceptively passive tenor voice sounds. "There were witnesses, no, to the most recent occurrence?" He waits, hoping someone will come forward. After a moment of patiently waiting, the Elder raises his hand.
Iris' gasp at the Elder's revelation is covered by the gasps of the entire crowd. Apparently, everyone had been hoping that nothing serious had happened yet, only to have their hopes dashed.
When the crowd quiets at the Elder's signal, Iris feels her face turning red as she realizes that she will need to speak in front of the crowd. // Now I know what Siri feels like!// She turns back to the Elder and opens her mouth, but first, Elder Tamon begins to speak again.
"There were witnesses who saw the Nigrahm the night before the incident. There are witnesses who have seen the aftermath of the incident today. The evidence points directly to the idea that the portals have reopened and allowed the Enemy to return."
A collective gasp ripples through the crowd. Several elves and humans faint into the arms of strangers standing behind them.
Iris' face grows pale. Her heart sinks, despite having already known what Elder Tamon was going to say.
"Oiris!" Challa whispers, turning to see her. "Whetnessis? Cuild they mean us?"
"I don't know, maybe." Iris whispers back.
After the crowd has managed to calm down again to a managable level, the Elder continues. "I believe that we are no longer safe in staying here in the village. There is safety in numbers, and we can increase our strength by gathering in the mazes.
"The entire village, and its surrounding area, should leave first thing in the morning. That should give everyone enough time to gather what they absolutely need from their homes." He turns to face the other Elders.
A cloud seems to swim into Challa's brain and hover there, fuzzing her senses as she watches the faces of those around her. Somehow up till now, though she saw distress in her elven friend, Challa had not felt there was immediate danger, or had not known it...
One by one, they nod confirmation. Elder Tamon turns back to the crowd. "Very well. Tomorrow, and sunrise, we will depart from the village square. Everyone must come, for their safety. No exceptions." Iris half-sees his eyes flicker over to her and Challa before addressing the crowd at large once more.
"Go now, and gather only what you need. Food, blankets, light. No more. May the spirits walk with you." He bows his head to the people, then to the other Elders, and leaves the way he came.
The other Elders stand and spread out to help guide people and answer their questions on an individual basis, and the meeting is adjourned.
...But hearing the Elders speaking had opened some book in her and made it real. Overcome with a sudden fit of coldbumps, she turns to Iris and throws her arms about her shoulders.
Iris is rather taken aback by her friend's sudden outburst, but returns the embrace quickly. She, too, needs a hug at a time like this. "It's all right," she whispers to Challa, even though she knows very well that nothing is right at all.
After a few minutes, once Challa has calmed, Iris pulls back gently. "I think we'd better get back home. Mother will be looking for us, and we can get ready to go. Ok?"
Challa pushes a lock of hair back from her face, which had suddenly fallen across her eyes. "Roight."
After receiving Challa's reply, Iris leads the way back through the village to the forest and turns down a well-trodden path dappled by sunlight and flowers.
------------------------
Inside the cottage...
Whump!
A jumbled bundle of empty packs falls at the foot of the stairs. From the upper floor Rosalinda calls out, "Girls! Pack now. And fetch light! There's no time to waste. We're leaving immediately."
Challa glances up in the direction of her voice. "Pack? Well, eht seems ah'm olready done! As oi 'ave nuthin' save the clothes on me own back." Realizing she is still a guest in someone else's home, she shuffles her feet a bit uncomfortably.
"Sorry," she tells Iris. "Ah shidn't 'ave spoken se loud... Can oi help yeh wid packin'?"
Iris starts when the empty packs hit the floor, then grins at her mother. Finally, she turns back to Challa. "It's all right. How about you grab some clothes of mine for you and I both, and I'll gather some light." She smiles at Challa. "And hopefully, we'll be able to rest for more than a few minutes and I can actually show you some of the beautiful places I know here."
Surprised, Challa arches her brows. "Do we 'ave toime? Are thay close te here?" She calls back as she trots to Iris's room.
"Not really." Iris follows Challa. "But I'm hoping that maybe this mess will solve itself so I _can_ show you around. I hate that the only bits of my world that you get to see are the bad ones." She shows Challa to her dresser and opens some of the drawers, then hands Challa several of the empty packs. "Here you go. Stuff as much as you can in there, since I don't think we'll get back for a while."
// Guddniss! Oi _do_ 'ope thes mess can be solved quickly, oll the sooner we can enjoy ourselve a bit. // She pulls out some garments from a drawer. A bit curiously-looking, though she doesn't know exactly what it is. Irish might want only certain clothes and not others. // Ah, well. // Uncertainly, Challa throws several articles into the packs, taking care only to take a variety. That way, at least they'll have a bit of everything they might need.
She walks outside and glances around to make sure Challa can't see. ~Siri?~
"Here." Siri's quiet voice drifts toward Iris as her twin steps into sight. "Give me a pack and I'll fill it with light, if you want to pack some food."
Iris smiles. "Thanks." She hands a bag to Siri, hugs her sister, and then returns to the house to pack fruit, vegetables, and anything else she can find that won't rot too quickly. Finished, she goes back outside. Siri's pack of light lies against the doorframe. Iris picks it up and looks for Challa.
As she turns, Iris hears the sound of running feet behind her. She twists back around to see Lana, a friend from the village, running to the cottage. Her face is red and frightened, her hair diseveled and hood flopping behind her.
Immediately, the image/thought of the village being attacked flies through Iris' mind, but she dismisses it, at least long enough to hear Lana out. "Lana! What's wrong?" She comes forward to meet her friend.
"Iris! Where's that girl! The human!" Lana pants as she skids to a stop.
"Challa? She's inside, getting ready. Why? What's wrong?"
"Iris, get away from here, you gotta get her away!" Lana flaps her arms about, trying to express the extreme need, but not knowing what to do. "They're coming for her!"
Iris grabs Lana's shoulders to calm her and asks, "Who? Why?"
Lana shakes her head and pulls free. "Some of the villagers think Challa came through a portal. They think she brought the enemy, and they're coming to get her now. I don't want to know what they're going to do with her. You got to get away!"
Iris hesitates for a second as the magnitude of the situation sinks in. "Um.... ok, I'll get her out. I.... thanks for the warning." She gives Lana a hug then spins around to run into the cottage. "Challa! Mother! Hurry!"
Lana wipes her brow, then turns and leaves, not wanting to be anywhere near this situation when the villagers arrive.
Iris heads for the kitchen, but finds it empty. "Mother?" She turns toward the living room. "Hey Challa, come in here!" she calls toward her bedroom as she enters.
Her mind thrown instantly back into her head upon hearing her name, Challa's back straightens abruptly. // Oiris! // She dashes from the room, a delicate-looking elven shirt dropping forgotten to the floor.
"Right here, darling." Rosalinda emerges from a cellar stairway, all but her hands and legs obscured by a double armload of books, boxes and one glowing, blue potted plant.
"Have you girls packed for our trip?"
"Mother, Challa, we have...." She pauses when she sees the load in her mother's arms. "Are you sure you'll need all of that?" Then, she remembers why she is so upset, shakes her head, and starts again.
"We have a big problem! There're people from the village, they think Challa came in through a portal and they think she brought the enemy here and they want... I don't know what they're going to do but we gotta get outta here!" Iris stops to catch her breath.
~Iris! Calm down!~ Siri thinks. ~It'll be ok, we'll get her out!~
"Right," Rosalinda says slowly, setting down her burdens. "'If you can keep your head when all about you, are losing theirs and blaming it on you'... Well, like I always say, losers can't be choosers."
"Get your packs. Whatever you have will have to do." Rosalinda stands silently concentrating.
Iris' breathing slows and she calms, now that there is someone else to make the decisions.
"I'm going to trust you girls to take care of one another. Iris, do you remember the treehouse in the blue vale? And how to find it?"
"Um..." she reaches back into her memory. "Yeah. I think." ~Siri? Do you know where?~
"I'll draw you a map," Rosalinda says, snatching a scrap of paper from the table and flicking it into the air. As the paper settles again to the tabletop, lines etch themselves upon it. "Take Challa there. Now. And swiftly. Do not be distracted. It is protected and you should be safe there for a time."
Iris nods and accepts the map gratefully.
With nothing she can really do, Challa turns respectfully away. // Aye! Ah, olways feel okward a' toimes loike thes. Guid-byes. And 'oo know fer how long? //
"There's no time for explanations! Just go. And know that I will be here to ... persuade the villagers not to follow you, if possible. I'll be travelling with the rest of the townfolk to the mazes and may not be able to contact you right away. But I will be in touch as soon as I safely can."
Iris' stomach tightens when she hears her mother will not be there to protect them, but she forces herself to relax again; after all, she is not _entirely_ defenceless.
Kissing each girl and tucking small oddments into their packs, Rosalinda says, "I'm sure this will sort itself out. Take care of one another for my sake. Be brave." ~and be wise, my darling~ she thinks to Siri.
~I'll miss you, mother. And good luck. Do you want me to stay and make sure it goes all right?~ Siri's worried voice drifts into Iris' and Rosalinda's minds.
~No!~ Rosalinda's mind fairly shouts in alarm. ~No, Siri! I insist you consider this a vow to me now. You will take care of one another. And the two of you be what help you can to Challa.~
Siri holds back the mental flinch at her mother's sudden response. ~All right. I promise. Good luck, mother!~
"I will." Iris returns the hugs and kisses. She pauses, turns, then turns back to hug her mother again.
Challa rushes forward to hug Rosalinda quickly and speaks in her ear. "Thank ye again fer 'avin' me. May yeh olways 'ave sun te dapple yer fields," she adds as a wish for wellness.
When Challa is ready, Iris leads the way outside, checking with Siri first to make sure it's safe. The map is tucked safely in her pocket, the packs on her shoulders. Iris takes a deep breath and wonders if she will ever get to see her home, or her mother, ever again.
The map leads them to the east, away from the village. For the first hour there is a path, but then the path reaches a creek and disappears. Iris and Challa follow the creek until midafternoon when it splits.
Through their walk, they see and hear nothing unusual. The occasional bird flutters by, and squirrels turn up their noses at the two-legged beings that do not offer them food. A few lonely tadpoles occupy the shallow water and nose their way into the mud in search of food.
Iris' stomach (loudly) reminds her that they have skipped lunch. Not wanting to wait until dinner, she calls a halt. "Let's eat here. It's a nice enough spot." They found some largish rocks with dry, flat tops and settled there with all their bulky packs.
"So, what's it like where you come from? You said there are hills. And your family fishes, what's that like?" As she asks, Iris is searching through the packs, looking for food.
"Hm? Oh, sorry." Challa lowers her head from looking at a small brightly colored bird peck furiously at a hight branch. Its flowerpetal crest bobbed back and forth, trying to catch up with the bluring beat of its head. "Father es a commercial fishar, part ofe a team." She settles crosslegged on the grass and picks a delicate blue blossom. "They go aowt on their boawts, wid their long nets an' sometoimes stay fer week--"
Iris interrupts Challa midsentence with a sudden realization.
"Oh, no! We forgot to pack food! They're all clothes and light!" ~Siri! Did you pack any food?~
~Not while I was gathering light!~ Siri laughs lightly at her sister. ~But my tummy speaks louder than yours; I've been gathering fruit and stuff on our walk.~
Iris sighs in relief. ~Oh, what would I do without you?~ "Oh, good, I see some fruit trees over there. I hope they have something we can eat now. How about you stay here and watch over our things while I grab some?"
"Aye, sure." Challa finds a large piece of fabric with painted plant patterns that might do for a picnic cloth, and spreads it out, setting the packs on top. Rummaging in the grass, she discovers some small rounded stones suitable for weighing down the edges of it.
As she walks away, she calls back, "Oh, and see if our animal is doing okay! I forgot about him!"
-Slap!- Challa smacks her forehead. // Boi Dagda! So 'ave oi! // Quickly she opens the pack Iris had carried before, and looks in at the critter. "You a'roight, naow? Heh, sorry, m'chara. Yeh hungry? Oiris ehs cumin' back wid food!" She reaches in to stroke him.
Iris returns some ten minutes later, her arms full. "Here we are! Help me with this before it falls!" She leans over to keep various fruits from tumbling out of her arms.
"'Oly leapin' leaprechauns! Tha's quoite a lot, where'd yeh foind et oll?" Challa catches a few and sets them on the cloth.
"They luk roight tasty!"
Iris grins and lets the armful tumble gently onto the
"tablecloth." "Thanks. It's the right season, there were a bunch all over the place! We left at a good time." She pauses and her mind wanders back home to her mother.
Once they have finished eating, Iris stands and wipes her juicy hands on some rough leaves.
"Let's go, we have a long way to go." She pulls out the map again and looks for the path. "I think we follow... that way." She points across the creek. A few stepping stones mark a good path across. "We should get there by sunset, I hope."
She folds up the map again, helps Challa pack the tablecloth again, and they set off. Behind them, whitish clouds drift toward them, their bottoms growing slowly darker.
Early evening finds the girls following a faint trail through the dense trees. The sun has already retired beneath a layer of clouds which have grown large enough to take over the entire sky.
"We should be almost there. This is the tricky part, and I've only done this in daytime before." Iris peers at the map and holds it up, trying to catch the last light. "But I can't read it!" She frowns, then rummages through the packs. "I didn't want to use this, but..." she pulls out a small leather bag and undoes the string to reveal a ball of dim light "...we really need to get there."
Challa watches with interest over Iris's shoulder as she pulls out the pale orb.
She stares once again at the map, but for some odd reason, two--no, three--spots have grown on it and made the ink run. Iris brings her face closer to the map. Now there are six spots. A raindrop hits her head.
Realization hits her like a bolt of lightening. "Rain!" She stuffs the map away from the wet, but the damage is done and the path Rosalinda marked to the blue vale is already gone.
"Oh, great. -Noaw- whot do we do?" Challa gnaws her lower lip, brow knitted. A rain drop scatters from her eyelash as she blinks. She wipes it away as one would swipe a cobweb aside and mutters: "Rain. Ef et's not one thing et's anuther." // Oi sure hope Oiris can remember somethin -- aneh small thing -- aboawt the vale from the last toime she wuz there. //
Iris curses softly (~Iris!~ admonshes Siri) and holds up the light. "We need to find a place to stay for now. Come on."
Challa glances curiously at her. Although she is not very familiar with expressions of this world yet, Iris's tone had sounded strangely like she'd said an unpolite word. // Aye. Bet she wuildn't uh said that 'fronta Rosalinda! //
Iris leads the hurried way into a thicket of bushes. She ducks under the coarse green leaves to protect her head, then picks up a stick and starts drawing in the dirt. After a few minutes, she has a map, but she scratches it out and starts over again, mumbling under her breath.
Peering down at the stick moving in the elf's hand, Challa wonders if Iris is doing magic. // Hm? Whoi'd she start over? //
Above them, the storm breaks out into its full fury. The trees crack under the weight of the wind and buckets of rain smashing against their branches. Under the bushes the two girls experience a heavy rainstorm, but it is nothing compared to what is going on outside. Iris' map is continually flooded over and her new scribbles are futile.
After a while, she gives up and leans back against a tree, letting her foot wipe out the "map" in the mud. "Well, let's rest. I'd get out a blanket, but it'll just get as wet as we are anyway." She smiles at Challa. "I guess you haven't seen many good things around here at all. First the portals, and now this."
Challa absently picks a blade of grass. Twiddling it between her thumb and forfinger, she scowls mildly. "Aye, but thes es a'roight. Ah doan't moind gettin' a little wet." She tries to smoothe her hair with her fingers, but it's gotten too tangled. She plucks another blade of grass.
Iris' smile slowly melts away into an expression of thought. // I wonder what Mother is doing now. I wonder if she can still hear me.// ~Mother? Siri, can you hear Mother?~
There is nothing to hear from Rosalinda. But a wordless impression, like a whiff of their mother's scent or a touch from her hand, blows past the girls in the wind and rain.
Iris sighs, then sighs again when she receives a negative thought from Siri. // So much for that idea.//
The wind and rain beats down even harder, if possible. Iris flinches as a leaf trembles and dumps water down her back.
"Challa? I think there're people near here, Mother forgot to put them on the map, but they would have shelter. What do you think?"
Challa glanced up from thoughts of home. "People here? Wot sort?" She brings her knees up against her chest, trying to get warmer.
"They're a strange people, magical. They seem human but they aren't at all, and they like to keep to themselves. They're rather unpredictable, but I think they'd give us some shelter, if this isn't in the middle of their ritual season." Iris counts in her head. "No, I think that's in two more months. Want to try for it?"
"Mmm, Oi sippose... " Challa didn't know just what to make of that. "Are they friendly? 'ow unpredicteble are they?"
As Iris shifts her weight, she feels a chill creeping through her. A faint wail rises up from the South, echoing and reverberating through the trees, grass, and ground. It fades away without a trace. After a moment, an acrid smell drifts into the clearing.
Iris feels a part of herself go quiet, as if something magical she had always felt is gone.
It is.
*****
Siri pushes back the strand of hair that is trying to get into her eye and screws up her nose at the smell. She senses rather than hears something moving behind her--probably a squirrel--and leaps silently into the branches of a neighboring tree. The squirrel stops and chitters at her, then moves away.
Siri turns her head back to the south and peers through the leaves. The foliage is thick and the rain casts dark sheets on everything, but she can still see. She idly wonders what the squirrel is doing out in this weather, but her mind quickly returns to the task at hand.
Only a few minutes ago, she felt some sort of magic in this area, then she felt the strange wind, and then the magic again. Siri had the feeling that she had felt the arrival and disappearance of the "enemy."
// A little farther....// She swings down to the forest floor. The soaked leaves squelch beneath her light feet. Siri creeps forward and moves a branch out of her way to see...
...exactly what she had expected to see. Siri sighs and whispers a prayer to the Creater to watch over these souls on their journey to the next world. ~They're dead. It was them. Either they like what they find in Salamendora or they don't have access to the rest of the world yet. But I'd stay where you are, there's no reason to come here.~
Siri turns and leaves. Already the blood is being washed away. Within an hour the bodies will be covered in mud and in a week or two they will cease to exist forever.
*****
Iris sighs to herself at Siri's announcement. "I think maybe we shouldn't try going to those people after all. I have a feeling that they're... well, I don't think they're there anymore."
It is two hours before the rain stops. In the meantime, Iris teaches Challa how to play a game of wits in the mud with sticks and Challa teaches her something she calls "Tick Tack Toe."
It is early morning when the last drops from the sky have stopped falling. The sun isn't up yet, but thin rays of light are reflecting in the sky, turning it a faint purple.
Iris ducks out from under the leaves and stretches. Her hair is no longer a soft gold, but instead a clumped brownish-yellow, dripping water down her back. She would be annoyed by that if she weren't soaked all over already.
"I'll be glad to get out of this mess." Iris shakes out her hair and twists it until all the loose water runs out. ~You okay, Siri?~
~I haven't drowned yet, if that's what you mean.~ Siri's grumpy mental voice comes back.
"You alright, Challa?" Iris asks.
Challa stretches in the damp dead grass where she had been sleeping. "Aye, nuthin' loike a wet night ehn the woods," she says, sounding just a little sarcastically cheerful.
"I've been thinking, trying to think of a good place to go. I don't know how to get to the vale; it's been well hidden so no one else can find it unless you know where to look; that's why it was safe. But since we don't know where to go anymore, I say we forget it."
~How can I forget this?!? I'm wet!~ Siri interrupts.
For a moment Challa looks aghast. "But yer mother said! That wuz where she wonted us teh go!" She sits back reluctantly.
"But... yeh're right, we doan't know anehmore... Is there some uther place?"
Iris ignores Siri and continues, "There's a place, a temple, I've heard about not too far from here. The Elders always shut up the instant I asked, but I think it might be the place the prophet lived, you know, the one who gave the prophesy I told you about. It's two day's travel mostly to the West, and it's in the mountains so it's some work getting there. But if we need a good place to go, the temple attendants can help us out. What do you think?"
Challa considers. "Well, Oi sippose... ah, oi dinnoaw wha's safe anehmore." She twirls a clump of her reddish hair idly. // Aye, bein' afraid one o' those -things- 'ud come out and kill us as we slept, roight oawtta the trees! //
~If they don't kick us out for bringing in all the mold. That'd be a nice experiment, how much mold can two elves and a human grow in two days? I hope they didn't just fumigate the temple or anything.~
~Siri!~
~What?~ Siri's innocent expression floats in Iris' imagination.
Iris rolls her eyes out of Challa's sight and sighs softly. ~Nevermind. Just do me a favor and find a towel, will you?~
After digging through the packs to find some semi-dry clothes to wear, Iris and Challa set off. For the first hour, the forest is quiet. Then they hear a few cheeps of birds peeking out into the wet world, and a few minutes later the air is full of sound.
The ground has managed to absorb the fallen water very quickly, and it is only lightly spongy and damp grass they walk on now. Through the day, which quickly becomes warm and clear, Iris helps Challa practice catching sunlight. By the next afternoon, they have filled up the sunlight-pack with bags of light--a few caught by Challa all by herself--and climbed to the lowest plateau of Salamandora's "mountain," which really is a large rocky hill.
The temple is gray and blends in well with the sheer rock wall behind it. It has four cylindrical posts in the front and three steps up to the ground level of the temple floor. Nothing else is visible under the rock and there are no decorations of any kind.
Challa looks at the entrance doubtfully. // Hm, not very impressive, es eht? 'Course, eht's not really sipposed teh be if eht's a secret... //
Iris stops and leans over to rest after the hike up. "All right, we're here." She pants a little, trying to catch her breath. "We should go in soon, before sunset, because they close the temple doors. At least, that's what I've heard. Ready?" ~Dry?~
"Aye. But who's 'they'? Who closes them?"
~I think I'll stay out here.~
"The monks do, the people who keep the temple." ~You sure? What if they block our thoughts?~ Iris squints up at the non-obvious building in front of them and adds, "To tell you the truth, I don't really know who runs the temple, but someone does."
~You can take care of yourself, I'm sure. But I'll keep watch just the same.~
Iris sighs again and hefts her packs back onto her shoulders.
"Let's go."
Unsure of what they might find in the temple but trusting her elfin friend, Challa shoulders a pack and follows her inside.
*****
Iris turns over in her little bed, wrapping herself in her blankets. She stuffs her head in her pillow and tries to bury the sounds... but it does not work; the sounds are in her mind. The crying. The whimpering. The screams.
As if suddenly making up her mind for something, Iris pushes her pillow away, untangles herself, and slips out of bed. Her three-year-old figure cast a tiny shadow on the wall as she patters in her pajamas (the kind with feet) around the corner into the next room, automatically dodging the various projects scattered about the floor and against the walls.
The room she enters is clean--extremely clean, for this house. The few finished paintings in the house are all in here on the walls, and one on the ceiling so that if Iris looks up she can see a starscape, just as if there is a window in the roof. Under the starscape there is a small bed. Next to the bed is a rocking chair, and in the chair is Iris' mother.
She is asleep, Iris sees at once. Considering what had just happened three days ago, it was no small wonder, but Iris does not wonder about it; all she knows is her mother is asleep in her chair.
Rosalinda's breath is deep and peaceful, but the expression on her face still bears traces of worry. Three days ago, a tragedy occured just outside this house. Three days, and Rosalinda had not slept. Three days, Rosalinda had rocked by the bedside of her three-year-old daughter, comforting her when she was awake, giving her water and a little food, comforting her in her spells of delirium.
Iris approaches the bed with Siri and looks at her sister. Her hair is disheveled, her face very pale, her body shivering under the thick blankets. She mumbles something in her sleep, but Iris does not understand it.
Iris stands still, watching her sister sleep. She remembers a fire, a lot of shouting, and crying. She remembers her mother telling her... telling her that her father will not be coming home.
Iris sniffs and wipes her nose with the back of her hand. Then, her calm demeanor breaks and she begins to cry. She climbs into bed next to her sister, hugging her close for comfort.
A time of loneliness is no time for solitude.
*****
The temple walls become more obvious as Iris and Challa near them. Within arm's length, Iris can make out the cracks that are the difference between temple wall and mountain cliff. In the red sunset light, their shadows decorate the wall face before them in convoluted shadows that twist and turn along their edges.
Iris wishes she could stop and stare at the temple, but she reminds herself of the rumors that its inhabitants close their doors at sunset. // No time to get into the art. Maybe when we leave.//
She leads the way along the wall until they reach an opening in the cliff face. No elaborate door here, and Iris cannot even see traces of a door that would close, but that does not mean that there is none. She pauses, timidly wondering whether to knock.
After making sure Challa is nearby, Iris knocks on the stone right next to the opening and waits until the echoes die down. No reaction. No sound aside from the last taps of her knock coming back to her ears once again. // Maybe they're asleep?// she wonders, but she knows that is not true.
~Just go in. I don't think they're that picky.// Siri mentally nudges her twin.
~Sure, and _who's_ staying outside?~ Iris shoots back, but she takes a step, looks inside, then boldly steps in.
The room is cold and drafty, but seems dry. The walls are all hidden in shadow; in fact, Iris can see nothing beyond a square of light just inside the door. She says, again timidly, "Hello?"
Once Challa has stepped inside, there is a deep rumbling sound. The square of light dwindles, then disappears altogether as the doorway is closed. Caught by surprise, Iris doesn't even get to see whether there was a door, whether someone pushed it closed, or whether the cliff face itself had closed on them.
A quick memory of fear tumbles through Iris' mind--she never did like dark nights--but before she can drive it off or it can take hold, a glow grows around them. For the first time, they can see the room.
It is simple, with no furniture. The walls are of stone, and the light is a dim yellow-red that seems to come from the walls themselves. Iris realizes with a start that the room is really a hall with a low ceiling. There is no one else in the room but the two girls. // Well, there goes the someone-pushed-the-door-closed theory.//
Nothing happens, and Iris turns to Challa. "I think we're supposed to go down the hall. Are you ready? Got everything?"
She leads the way once again, keeping her eyes and senses alert for any problems; Challa may be learning to use her skills quickly, but she couldn't protect herself if someone were to attack them. Soon, it becomes clear that a door is set at the other end of the hall, open and waiting. There is light behind it, brighter than in the hall, but Iris still cannot see inside.
They step from the hall into the temple room. The place is large with a high ceiling, deep within the mountain. Pews like those from a church face the spacious dias in the front. On the dais, there is a pedestal about four feet high and candles light the path between the pews and around the dais. There is no other source of light, so here the corners are dark.
Iris can still see no people at all, nor can she feel any minds with her own. She stretches out and sends a message, ~Siri? Can you hear me?~
She can detect a reply, but it is to faint to decipher. But, at least, there is a reply.
*****
Siri relaxes once Iris and Challa reached the temple. She carefully positions herself among the rocks so she can watch closely, but makes sure Challa still cannot see her. Years of experience work in her favor.
She watches as Iris studies the wall, as her sister disappears into the temple, and as Challa follows. Siri jerks when the cliff face, where there had once been a door, becomes solid. No matter how hard she looks, she cannot see a door anymore.
Siri abandons her hiding place and creeps up close to the temple. When she reaches the wall, she discovers that it is only a mountain wall; all traces of the temple have disappeared.
//Is Iris all right?// she wonders, but then she dismisses her concern. //No, I don't need to think _that_. Iris can take care of herself. What am _I_ going to do now that I'm alone? Girl, think about that!//
She reclines against the wall and faces the sunset, or rather the light left behind by the sun when it disappeared behind the horizon. She jumps when she feels a faint touch. ~Iris? I'm here, it's okay!~ she sends back. Then she feels stupid. //As if she'd actually understand me!//
Siri shakes her head and lets it rest against the wall. Time to rest. She feels confident that no one will come and disturb her here. Still, she feels nervous, being apart both physically and mentally from her sister.
*****
Siri has no idea how long she has been asleep when she feels the jerk in her mind. Not even knowing just what woke her, Siri leaps to her feet fully aware and ready to blast anything within sight or scent.
Nothing happens, and Siri's fight-or-flight feeling fades. If she were a person who believed in imagining things, especially in sleep, she would just go back to sleep now. But Siri is not that kind of person. Something woke her up, and she wants to know what.
She sits down again and relaxes, but does not fall asleep again. Instead, she concentrates on remembering what had pulled her awake. And while she does, she cannot push away the nagging feeling that something horrible had happened. //Iris....//
*****
Iris stares at the room. She can't see any exits besides the one they just came through, and no people. Where are they? Surely this can not be all there is to the temple?
Leaning against one wall of the large, empty room, Challa gazes up to the ceiling. //Fer Sealkies' Sake! We've been wandering around in the forest fer days, been rained on too, then we 'ave to come hear coz the rain ruined the map. An' no one's even here te greet us!// "Is _anneh_one here?" she asks aloud, hearing her own frustrated voice echoing back at her. She crosses to a pew and drops her packs, sitting tiredly to rest.
Iris listens, too, but nothing but the echoes of Challa's voice return to her ears.
Everything is clean and dust-free, though the air seems very clean, too, so perhaps there was no dust to fall in the first place. Still, the air is fresh, and the place feels like there has been life in it. It feels alive.
Iris sets down her packs and stretches. The pews look comfortable, but she still feels nervous about imposing on someone else's hospitality. Still, there doesn't seem anyone to impose upon, so Iris approaches a pew.
The cushions are thin, but still look servicable, and certainly much better than last night in the rain. "I guess we can just sleep or something. I don't think they'd mind..." Iris trails off, thinking that they couldn't mind if they aren't here.
Her clothes felt damp against her body, dirty. A few snags as well. Challa reaches a hand to her mouth as she yawns mightily, then tries to smooth her course reddish hair. "How long do yeh think we haf te stay here? I mean, wot are the others goin' te think, us not gotten there, wouldn't they cum lookin' fer us or nuthin'?"
Iris sighs. //What _will_ we do? I doubt they'd come here to find us and we're safe here I think, but what then? And where're the people?//
She begins to sit, but the shadows in the room seem almost menacing, as if they are hiding something. Iris shudders and stands up again. She tries to not look scared or weak in front of her friend as she walks up to the dais in the front of the room. "What's up here?"
Challa raises her head from her hands to look in the direction.
She walks around the pedestal until she reaches its other side. There, she finds a closed book. It feels very old and looks like it will crumble the instant she touches it, but when she gently taps it with her finger it is firm. Trying to forget her mother's saying about curiosity, Iris opens the book.
"Oiris!" Challa calls, a bit admonishingly. She has jumped up "Are yeh goin' te answer me?" She sees the old book in her friend's hands. "Wot's that?"
"I...." Iris begins, but then the book is open and her voice dies down.
It is a diary, or a journal of some sort. The first page only has one line written in flowing script, "To my successor, as a reminder to take notes." Iris turns the page to find the first entry. It is dated from the year 12. Iris tries to remember whether the dating started the date the first people died from the enemy's attacks, or when the mages had declared the end of the era of peace because of the enemy's attacks five years after it began.
"It's a diary, I think. Back from when there was the enemy."
Iris reads, hoping to find some information about the enemy, or the portals, or _something_ that could help them get Challa home (or fill her curiosity). Instead, the book reads like an almanac except that it also quotes the verses the monks of the time had meditated upon that day. Iris sighs in frustration as she turns the pages through three years' worth of this.
"Wot are yeh lookin' fer, anyway?" Challa peers closer over the book, her shadow blocking some of the light.
"I'm reading it, I want to see--"
Then, she finds the gap. Her brow furrowed, Iris turns the blank pages, looking for more. //I'm not even through half the book yet!// Just as abruptly as it had stopped, though, the journal continued. But this time, Iris could see right away, it was not an almanac.
The introduction to the new section (undated) read:
She takes a deep breath and turns the page.
"Holy kittens and chipmunks! Challa, come look at this!"
"Aye!" Challa jumps, bumping Iris in the shoulder. "Wot, wot?" She stares at the page where Iris points. "Whot is that? Wha's it mean?"
Iris points to an entry on the third page. "The prophecy!" She leans in closer, trying to decypher the horrible handwriting.
"But there's all these words blotted out, and messed up. No wonder no one knows the wording!" She reads,
"Great ... drawn to...ther to ... the portals away ... Sedran sh...ders as its pathways to ... are closed. But the ...my will retu... and bring da...ess down upon the .... and Sedran will die. But a fork lies ... a great wi...d will bring magic pow...l enough to destr... but the One mu... it must journ... away to the ... worlds and lea... and when it returns, it will triumph or die.... cannot see past.... charge... ...ou."
Iris sighs in frustration. "All I can tell is what I already know about the One. Except...." her fingers trace over the entry again, "the One seems to be an it, not a he or she. How can someone be an it? Or is it someone from the worlds beyond that doesn't have gender?"
Iris turns the page to see if there are more entries. It is obvious to the two girls that pages after this one have been ripped out, but the rips are so uneven and random that they seem to have not been ripped on purpose, but rather in a fight. A few of the prophesies seem to deal with the One in more detail, and they're a bit clearer than the first, but Iris cannot read anything without the rest of the pages.
Iris takes a breath, and says, "Challa? You know how horrible the Nigrahm looked? That's what they do to everyone, and I don't think I can... I don't know. I just can't see myself sitting in a cave or in a house and doing nothing, you know what I mean?"
Challa only looks back at her, a grimace on her face. "Of carse not! We've got te help! But I don't know how..."
"I think we should find the missing pages to this book and see how we can help," Iris says, half stating and half questioning.
For a moment Challa stares at the strange, disheveled book, then purses her lips. "Right. Where do we look?"
Iris takes a breath and purses her lips, then shakes her head. "Good question. I have absolutely no idea. But if we look someplace else, we might want this book with us, don't you think? Should we take it?" She glances around the temple again. Its quiet walls suddenly seem like they are hiding something, that perhaps someone is listening in on them. She shivers and dismisses the thought.
"Aye, I think so. Ef it has oll that important stuff in it." She looks around at the walls again and crosses her arms, as though she were cold. "But whether this place 'as folk or not, I want te get out soon. Somethin' aboot it jest... is creepy."
Iris nods and turns through the blank pages slowly. //Would they get mad? Why did they leave it out here, anyway? Isn't this a bit strange, how they let us in and close the door behind us, but there's no one here, and how they light our way to this room, and there's no one here and no way out that we can see, and they leave this book here, unguarded, just like they want us to take it. Or is it just magic set to automatically close the door and stuff, and they didn't mean to do this? I can't imagine them leaving the book unguarded, though.// Iris stares down at the book again.
//Come on, girl, hurry up.// Iris shrugs nervously and lifts the heavy book.
The room goes black and the girls can see nothing. They feel a moment of dizzyness at the sudden change in setting, and Iris blinks absently. //What the--// Then there is a jerk in her mind and she feels totally, utterly alone. She only has to think a moment to realize why. ~Siri?!~ //She's gone!//
But before Iris can really start panicking, light returns. But they are not in the temple anymore.
"By the Burren! Where're we now?" Challa says faintly.
They stand at the end of a pathway--literally. It is a circle, a meter in radius, and the path leading from it is a meter in width. The path is made of some sort of rock and leads out of sight straight ahead. But of more concern to Iris is what is _off_ the path.
About twenty feet below their suspended pathway, Iris can see a huge fire. Liquid fire that she had only seen once, when an Elder had been telling a story and made some to show his students. A lake of fire.
When Challa sees the molten rock far below them, she begins to sweat. //Es that... _lava_? How on Earth did we get 'ere? Wait, Oi fergot again, we're not on Earth. Aye! Lava, fire tha's so hot eht can melt stone! Right there below us... //
She could see a few sparks here and there, though they did not reach up to the path where the two friends stood. Challa crouched precariously near the edge to look at the deadly lake. //Yeh die in seconds if yeh fall en. And Ah'm right above it! //
At last she tears her eyes away from the spectacle. "Iris? Yeh know where we are?"
"I've no idea." Iris stares in awe at her surroundings.
After seeing all this, the next thing the girls notice is the heat beneath their feet; the pathway is very hot, almost unbearable. Iris starts to shift from foot to foot to keep either of them from getting too hot. She realizes with dismay that they left their packs back in the temple--//Stupid!// --and they have nothing. Not even the book.
Iris wipes the sweat from her brow and turns to Challa. She shouts over the crackling fire, "I don't see any way to get back! Let's get out of here, hurry!"
Challa pulls herself to her feet. "Oi'm with you!" She glances back down at the fire, fascinating, frightening. She tries to adjust her packs, then realizes they are not there! "Iris, the sipplies!"
//Okay, now where are we?// Iris calls a halt and glances around. There is still a drop to either side of the pathway, too far to jump even into the water. Ahead, she thinks she can make out a building of some sort. "Well, grabbing the book was a mistake, I guess." Iris sighs.
Challa raises her brow. "Ye think et was the book that did this? This..." she remembers the story Iris had told her. "Was that a _portal_? If eht was then we cuid be annehwhere, oll over again!"
"Yes, I think so.
"Still, though," Iris continues, "I wonder how long that portal's been there. After all, it's only been, what, four or five days since you arrived? How many portals could have possibly appeared since then?"
Iris stops for a moment, her head cocked to the side. "I wonder... I hear that some people have the power to set up and make portals. Did someone do that?"
//Was it the enemy?//
Challa stares at her. "People can _make_ them? They're that skilled an' pow'rful?" She kicks a rock that is lying in the path, and sighs. "Wot do we do?"
"Okay, we have a choice. Forward, backward, or stay here. At least our clothes are dry now."
Challa's lip curls slightly as she considers. By now it had become clear to her she wasn't getting home any time soon. "Ehm, let's see. Go back an' face the lava, stay here an' get nowhere fast, or go fa'ard and maybe find e soul who can say somethin' of use or othewise help some'ow!" She pulls herself up wearily. "Let's go."
"Okay." Iris starts to shoulder her pack before she realizes that she does not have one, then turns to start down the road.
*****
Siri tries again and again to find her sister's mind. Never, ever, had she ever not felt her twin's mind in her own, or at least a faint touch like when the temple door had closed. She stretches her mind and strains, but to no avail.
When the sun hits her eyes, Siri jerks awake. //What time is it?// She gets to her feet and stumbles. She tries to shake the sleep out of her mind, and then she hears the sound of the door opening.
Siri hesitates for a moment, then decides to risk it. She's passed off as Iris before; no one can tell the difference but Rosalinda anyway, aside from how she acts. Challa couldn't know unless she saw both of them, and Iris can't be anywhere near here if her mind is nowhere to be found. Unless she's dead.
Siri forces that thought out of her mind //I would have felt something more for that, I would think)// and steps into the temple. She walks down the corridor and finds the empty chamber where Iris and Challa had rested last night. She sees their packs, but no Iris or Challa, and she knows she did not see any other exit on her way here. //Weird.//
Siri kneels and picks through the packs. She takes anything she thinks might come in useful and adds it to her packs, and removes anything from her own that she does not need. Obviously, Iris and Challa have gone somewhere, and she fully intends to follow, but after she is prepared.
Done, Siri makes her way around the room, careful not to touch anything, but sees nothing special about the walls. However, the pedastal on the dias does feel strange, magically. Siri probes it with her mind and recoils a bit at the strange touch. //What kind of thing is that?//
Unfortunately, there is nothing else in the room that could have taken Iris and Challa, so Siri takes in a breath and touches the book.
*****
Two hours of walking later, counting the three times the girls stopped to rest, they reach the end of the path. Ahead of them, there are several roads and some houses, but they are in such a deplorable condition that Iris doubts anyone has lived in them for a long time. Two of the roads seem to end when the houses do, but the third leads straight for the building. Some grass decorates the roadside, and a couple of sunflowers.
"Wow." Iris looks around. "You know what, this is my first time outside Selmandora. I've never seen pictures of other places, even, except in mother's paintings, and I don't even know if she ever saw them."
Challa turns to her. "So you really _do_ think we're in anuther place? Outside o' Sedran?"
"Oh, definitely. I've never seen or heard of a place like this at Sedran."
~Iris?~
Iris jumps. ~Siri? You're here too?!~ She manages to keep the expression of pure joy off her face, and plays off her surprise by checking her foot ("I could have sworn something hit me").
"Oh, are yeh oll right?" Challa glanced with concern down at Iris' foot.
~No, I'm talking to you out of nowhere. Gee, is this hot or am I just cold blooded?~
~It doesn't last long, it took us ten minutes to walk it. And it hurt.~ Iris rubs her sore foot absently. "Maybe we should check the houses before we go to that other place, I'm wondering whether we'll find something there. And then we can go to the building and find out if the people that live there won't tell us how to get back to Sedran, or at least to someone who might know."
"Ah, oll right," Challa says absently. Then she heaves a sigh, digging a heel into the dirt as she gazes at the scattered houses. "Fer pity's sake, when can we stop, I mean fer a _long_ time?." // So many... whot if the people think we're strange, don' belong here? How'ill they greet us? An' who know how manneh there _are_ //
~Yes, well, that's because you happened to leave your packs back here, and I didn't. Extra pairs of socks are wonderful things.~
~Yeah, whatever, just come out here, will you?~
~I'm working on it, I just don't really want to fall off and cook myself quite yet, thank you.~
~Okay.~ Iris lets her foot go and turns to Challa. "I don't know. I'd like to stop and rest, too. Things just seem to be happening so quickly here...."
Iris shakes her head and starts hobbling down the street. She lets Challa pick which house to start in first, though she makes sure she is in a good position to protect her friend if the need should arise.
Turning a curious eye to the first house, Challa takes a tentative step toward it. With Iris with her, she should be fine. There was something about mere company that made everything seem all right.
Iris follows, still half listening to Siri's ramblings. She takes comfort in feeling connected once more to her twin.
Dust swirls in the girls' wake as they walk on the broad gravel road. In some places, tufts of brown, dried grass peeps through a hole in the road, struggling to grow. As they draw nearer the house, Challa and Iris notice what look like chunks of metal in the yard that look like they used to be machines but have long been out of use, and have degraded and dilapidated.
"Aaaaaye," Challa grimaces, looking at a particularly large specimen. It stands on two wheels the length of her arm and broken treads; a long arm extends over its top, displaying something eerily resembling a laser pistol from a science fiction movie. "Lik ad that one. Ay'd hate te know what eht was used fer!"
Iris nods in agreement. "I wonder what it was, though? Surely the people here must have had _some_ use for it." She follows Challa up the "path" towards the first house.
Reaching the front stoop of the first house, Challa reaches a hand out to pull the door latch, when one of the window shutters suddenly drops with a loud bang.
Iris jumps at the sound. Her mind becomes extra alert and she automatically looks for danger before realizing what the source of the noise was. "Oh." She can hear Siri snickering in her mind, but Iris chooses to ignore it.
"Woh!" Challa starts as the wooden slab falls just a foot away from them onto a rock, splitting in two. Challa and her friend exchange nervous looks. Obviously, this place had been deserted long ago. She opens the door.
Iris leans forward, staring over Challa's shoulder expectantly.
Challa coughs several times as she is assaulted by a wave of dust from, she guesses, several years of neglect. A thin ray of sunlight threads through a small windowpane, and Challa finds a light switch. "'Ello?" she calls. // Ah, thes es such a waste, whot are yeh doin', there's no one here! // she chides herself as she wanders through the rooms with Iris.
The light switch had not worked; in fact, it seemed stuck in place. Iris stares at it curiously before following Challa around. She sneezes and a small cloud of dust settles around her.
An hour or so later, the frieds sit beneath the shade of a tree, under what sparse shade it can offer. A search of all the houses in the vacinity had turned up the same finds. Nothing but rotted junk. No important-looking journals, no photographs or letters or even weapons. Challa had found a few interesting knick-knacks yes, which she's shown Iris and then stuffed into her pocket. But that was all.
Iris had taken a few little trinkets as well, more out of curiosity than anything. She decided to show them to her mother--or someone--and find out what they are. Now, though, Iris relaxes in the shade of the scrawny tree.
Challa wipes a trickle of sweat off her forehead and looks around. "Well, the onleh place we 'aven't tried es that great buildin' o'er there," she says pointing at the structure farthest away from them. Set apart from the houses, it stands perhaps as long as five or six of them side-to-side, and three high, slightly newer in appearance and fashioned of a whiter stone.
Iris nods. "Well, I guess we'd better go try it then. No use staying here. And I'm hungry." She gets up and stretches, then brushes her tangled hair back behind her pointed ears.
In agreeance, Challa and Iris rise and head cautiously toward it. //An' ef we don' find aneythin' in there, or ef we get thrown to _anuther_ world, I'll... I'll, doh, I don' know, but Ah won' be happy!//
Iris, too, worries about what will happen when the two girls enter this building. She tells Siri what they're doing and tries to feel ahead into the building to look for danger. But she feels nothing, as if the building is protected from mental powers.
At last they stand outside the door, which is really more like a gate, a pair of gargantuan double doors with no latch or handle.
Iris steps forward and knocks. The girls can hear the sound echo through the building. There is no other noise, and after a few minutes, Iris shrugs. The doors before them still look imposing and... well, strange. Challa helps Iris push them inward.
Inside is very clean compared to the houses the girls searched earlier. In fact, it looks clean compared to anything Iris could compare it to. No dust. No scratches on the marble floor, walls, ceilings. No cobwebs, no rot. The very place seems to breath with life, except there is no life that Iris and Challa can see.
The hall is simple but magnificent. Circular pillars rise from the floor to the ceiling to either side and are set halfway into the hall. A large window above them provides the only light, but the whitish floor and walls helps make the light bright.
The girls move forward. Their footsteps echo softly. Iris finds herself trying to step lightly in an attempt to keep the place quiet. Every sound, even their breathing, seems to impinge on the respectful silence.
Ahead, there is a couple of doorways, apparently a hall crossing this one. Iris and Challa have nearly reached the new dark hall when they hear a sound that makes them spin.
"Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" The voice is male, strong, and sounds very, very dangerous.
Iris lands on her feet after her spin and tries to calm her heart enough so she can think. She automatically reaches out with her mind and calls to Siri, but she can feel nothing and she doubts that Siri heard her.
The owner of the voice is tall, dark, and is standing right in front of them. He glowers at them. His eyes glow slightly somehow, as if there were a very dim flashlight peeking out through them.
Challa begins instinctively backing away though she cannot speak.
Iris swallows. "I'm sorry, we..." she feels her ability to talk fade away as footsteps approach behind them from both sides of the dark hall. "I... I'm sorry..." She can feel several people behind her and instinctively knows that they must be dangerous.
~Siri!~
But there is no reply.
*****
Iris wakes up slowly. First, come the memories of leaving her home in Sedran, then being transported to a strange world, then being in the hall... but she cannot remember falling asleep or being knocked out.
She turns her head and groans. It is not painful, really, but every muscle in her body feels stiff. After all, it has been many long hours since she rested. When was it? That very first night? Aside from the rainy night under the bush where neither of them could sleep, they had gotten no sleep for several days. She finds herself being amazed that she could go for so long without resting.
Challa too, returns to consciousness with slowness, as though she is being drug from a pool of thick, dark mist. Her head hurts. Not acutely, but with a dull vibration feeling, and her mind zaps back to the time she had found herself in the forest, minutes before the Nigrahm had captured her. The feeling is much the same. What was they had knocked her and Iris out with? Magic. Perhaps not something physical, like a hit to the head, or the pain would be far worse.
She groggily reaches a hand to her head to rub it but her arm loathes to move, stiff and asleep. Slowly settling her forearm just above her eyes, she turns her head till she sees Iris.
Iris forces herself to bring her mind back to the matter at hand. Where is she? She realizes it would help to open her eyes to find out and does so.
She can see a pattern of metal like the top of a cage above her, and then a ceiling farther away. The ceiling is plain and not as well kept as the hall of the house was and it is lit by red-orange light.
Iris struggles to sit up. Everything is sore but nothing is broken or tied down. She glances to her left and sees Challa there, too.
Hearing the soft rustling of her friend's movement, Challa rolls onto her side and puts her hand by her face on the cold floor. She looks at Iris unspeaking, but her eyes dart around with one fearful thought: //Where are we now?//
The "cage" is square, two meters by two meters. It rests on a sort of ledge above what appears to be some sort of forge or factory. There are many machines and a few people handling them. Many fires in pits light up the room and cast the reddish glow Iris saw on the ceiling earlier. The room is very large, cavernous, and echoes like a cavern, too. There is a door on the far side, in the walls to the right, and, Iris assumes, in the wall just below them.
Iris draws her knees up and hugs them as she looks around. She cannot feel Siri very well, but she knows Siri is safe. She knows she has not been asleep longer than a few hours.
And she knows that magic will work here.
Two people walk into the room through the door below the two girls. One is holding a clipboard, and the other is talking. "Les machines marchent trés bien, pas de problème."
"Et les employés? Comment travaillent-ils?" the man with the clipboard asks as he scribbles something.
Iris has no idea what is going on. She watches them and tries to understand, but this is one of the languages they do not teach in Sedran schools. The two keep talking to each other until the one with the clipboard glances up and sees the girls in their small prison.
Challa, however, realized the words sound remarkably like a language spoken on Earth...
"Qu'est-ce que c'est? Qui sont-elles?" He points. "Une autre expérience de Morgan?"
//I know that language... at least it _sounds_ like... ohh, the one me mum's friend used to speak when she got angry. Whot _was_ it?//
The second man shakes his head. "Je ne sais pas. Il ne m'est pas dit. Il y a quatre heures quand elles sont arrivées. Je pense qu'il a un projet pour elles."
The first man nods. "D'accord. Peut-être, je pouvais le regarder." He says this last bit with a nasty smile, and Iris' stomach plummets.
//What's going on? What are they going to do?//
But they move on and no longer seem to be talking about the girls, so Iris stops listening. "Challa?" she whispers. "You all right?"
"Uh-uh," Challa shakes her head a fraction. She hadn't liked the sound in the man's voice who last spoke. "Iris, I think we're back on Earth!" she whispers. She pauses to see if Iris has anything to say. "Because I know that language, oi've heard eht b'fore, mum had a friend 'who talked like that sumtimes. Et's colled French." She stops again, thinking. "I couldn't understand oll the words, but Ah heard the words 'Morgan,' and 'experiment' an' he was obviously referring te us. We 'ave got te get out of 'ere, Oiris!"
Iris starts at the idea of being on Earth, then nods. Finally, she says,
"Definitely. But first let's wait until those men leave. I think I can get us loose."
Challa wants to help. "Whot can I do?"
Iris glances around, thinking quickly. "Um... be ready to run? We'll go through the door... and try to find a way out of here." The desparation of this plot finally reaches her and she thinks hopelessly about finding an exit... until Siri says, ~I found a way in! What do you want me to do?~
~Um, come in! Can you figure out where we are?~ Iris replies.
"So what are ye goin' te do?" Challa asks, mystified, as she tries the bars, looking for loose ones.
"I'm going to... let me see." She glances around at the cage, then up and down the room. "I think I'll make it fall. There's a door here somewhere, I'm sure, and I'll get it open and we'll run for it."
~Yeah, you're in trouble, that's where you are.~ Siri's voice is dim; she seems to be concentrating on something else at the same time. ~I found a way in through this waterway deal, but I don't think you can get back out this way.~
"Right. Here, ah've found the door, eht's got a very smoll latch on eht. Goes almost the height o' the cage."
"Good." Iris rubs her hands together, then glances out at the workers in the hall. "Now we just wait.... I wonder why they put us in here, anyway?" ~Is there a way out at the other end?~
"Aye, but ah didn't loike 'is tone o' voice. I don't want te stay an' find out."
Siri replies, ~Gee, I'm sure I can see all the way down this long, dark river to see if there's a way out at the other end... No, I don't know if there is. But I have a feeling there might be, seeing as how the river's got to go -somewhere-.~
~Excellent. We'll have to find our way there when we escape.~ Then, Iris fills Siri in on the details of their planned escapade.
Iris shakes her head. "Neither do I, but it's too crowded to leave now. Maybe after those two men that were looking at us are gone." She pulls up her knees and hugs them. "While we wait, I guess there's that story about the bear I promised to tell you..."
Reluctantly, Challa leaves the bars of the cage door. "I suppose yeh're right, but ...." She glances nervously around and mutters. "We just need te leave soon." She sits down cross-legged beside Iris. "Oll right, let's 'ave that story."
Iris nods, then leans back and looks up, as if searching her memory. "I was about ten. We were doing a play in school about honey bees. I think the teacher was trying to make us learn how to be busy like bees are. Anyway, I was one of the worker bees. Mother made me this big, wonderful costume. I had the best costume in the class." She smiles at the memory. "And we performed it for our parents and the village. I can't remember the whole story, but I do remember that I was the bee that got stuck in all the honey that the other bees had to rescue." She laughs quietly. "I had gooy stuff all over me! And then I walked home and..." she breaks into giggles.
One of the workers looks up at the cage with an eyebrow raised, then shakes his head and returns his attention to his work.
Challa had been smiling so big her grin threatened to split her face. "Nice! Bet ye smelled brilliant, didn't yeh?"
"Horrible! I couldn't look at honey for weeks!" Iris nods. "I was walking home," Iris continues, "and about halfway there I start hearing something big moving in the bushes. I sang to it because I like animals, and this really REALLY big honey bear comes out of the trees! It didn't slow down or anything, and it startled me. I might have screamed, but I can't remember." She laughs again. "I ran all the way home with a hungry honey bear right behind me. I must have been shouting or something because mother came out and saw us." Iris turns red. "She looked really mad at first, then when she saw the honey she started laughing! I barely even noticed; I just ran for my room."
Challa chuckled. "Yeh really brought home the bear, eh? Oh, sorry, eht's an Earth sayin'."
*****
Meanwhile, Siri creeps along a corridor. She is talented at spying out places to hide and find paths around other people, and this talent comes in useful now as she uses Iris' mind and her skills to figure out a path. Within a short time, she has a map in her mind, complete with locations of various workers. She snuggles farther back into her cold, wet stone crevice and keeps an eye on the people nearby.
Shortly after entering the underground waterway, she had found these people near what looked like a fleet of boats--light craft that they used to ferry materials and people across the water. Iris seems to be on the opposite side of the river from the old building, so apparently they were brought across while unconscious. Siri starts developing plans of thievery... //I always wanted to steal a boat and go sailing.//
*****
Challa leans close. "Did she stop the ragin' bear? You must've run -very- fast to outrun 'im oll the way!"
Iris shakes her head, face down. "She tried, but it was really hungry, and-" ~Iris! Get out of there!~ Iris jumps.
Challa is instantly alert. "Whot's the matter?"
She looks around. "Maybe we should leave now. I felt something... maybe that guy is coming this way." ~Siri, you startled me! What's going on?~
"Right. Good thinkin'." She jumps back to the door.
~Nothing besides the fact that they're slightly -on their way!-~
~Oh, violinsticks,~ Iris replies, using one of her mother's phrases.
Iris admonishes absentmindedly, "Hold on to something..." then closes her eyes. For a few minutes nothing happens...
...then the girls can hear a little clink. The cage shifts slightly. A few more clinks and a rattle, and the cage suddenly drops toward the ground.
Then, it slows and comes to a gentler crash than the girls might have expected on the ground. Iris takes a loud breath and opens her eyes. She is sweating and looks tired, but she does not give Challa time to worry about her. "Let's go!" The door springs open and Iris helps Challa climb out.
Challa had almost managed to hold on to the door during the fall, but not quite. She had landed on her side with a dull thud and painfully rises, rubbing her shoulder. "So we make a run fer the door?" she whispered.
The workers jump at the crash and stare for a moment in surprise.
Iris asks Siri, ~Okay, we're out. What now?~
~West!~
Iris blinks in confusion and begins to ask, warily watching the workers turning towards them, ~Which way's we- ~ Then Siri gives her a mental "push" in the right direction and she takes off. "This way!" She checks to make sure Challa follows. Challa does, leaping just in time to avoid tripping over a low bench.
As they begin to run, workers are nearing them. A couple have dangerous-looking tools in their hands, and they are shouting to each other. Someone runs in the opposite direction and by the time the girls reach the door , an announcement is made over some speakers, presumably to the entire building.
~Gee, they're really going wild now around here, what'd you do, fly outta the coop?~ Siri sends.
The door is not locked, luckily, and opens into a very long hall. Iris cannot see the end, but she can see many other halls branching from this one, and closed doors along the walls.
Iris springs to a run again, ignoring the other doors and passageways.
Challa has some difficulty keeping up as she tries to stay as close to her Elf friend as possible. "Do ye know where we're goin'?" Challa calls breathlessly after her.
"Um... just away from -him- I think...." She suddenly skids to a halt, backtracks a few steps, and turns down a hall to the left. Iris probes the area with her mind. She can sense many people moving about and tries to avoid them, but since they are looking for them, that is not always easy. Siri carefully directs Iris. She finds it difficult to keep track of all the people now and gives up on trying to guide Iris around them; instead, she keeps her twin pointed in the right direction.
Iris stops and puts out an arm in front of Challa. A second later, a group of workers appears around the corner they were about to pass. They are carrying strange metallic objects, which Challa recognizes as guns.
"Ahh!" Challa gives a short cry of fear. "They've got phasers! Oh, it's a movie at 'ome. Guns! Could put us down jest by pointin'!"
Iris concentrates and strains her mind. Siri lends a neuron or two and the workers' clothes burst into flame.
Iris takes off and they pass by the burning workers, who have dropped their weapons and start running away from her as quickly as possible.
Suddenly she spots a stray "phaser" lying on the floor and grabs it. "Well well! Somebody's a bit careless, eh?" Challa fires a shot as a worker runs her way. He trips, and clutches his foot with a scream. She looks at the weapon in alarm. "Powerful!"
The weapon goes off with a *bang* that brings Iris to a consternated halt.
"Challa, are you all right?" She glances at the worker and at Challa, trying to comprehend... then gives up. "Come on, they're right behind us!"
Running half backwards, half forwards, Challa fires again at the feet of their pursuers. She does not want to harm them but only to incapacitate them from running. She misses, but her next shot hits a woman's leg. The woman curses in pain.
Suddenly, Iris' probing mind meets with resistance. She recoils at the touch and hesitates in her run. //It's him... or someone else with magic... they can sense me!// She shudders and steps up the pace again with new energy.
Siri, in close connection with Iris, shudders. //Uhoh...//
Adrenaline has taken full hold. Challa fires three more shots, missing only one. Two more pursuers limp behind. She does not even stop to marvel that her shots have not gone astray and killed anyone.
Iris is very tired. She has strained her mind through the entire run and it doesn't seem to be anywhere near over yet. Siri is guiding her and lending her strength, but she still feels her resevoirs of energy running low.
Siri shifts in worry, her brow furrowed in concentration. She is no longer paying attention to the underground harbor.
Still firing, Challa struggles to keep their pursuers at bay. She had never shot a gun before, but she rather enjoys it. Then the gun stops working. "Uh-oh." She shakes it. "Liks like ah ran outta bullets." Desparately she looks for another "phaser."
Then, to make matters worse, a pressure descends on the girls' minds. They find it difficult to keep running. They become weary at heart and their steps are more and more difficult to take.
The pursuers sense Challa's predicament. One inches forward, laughing wickedly. Challa is suddenly exhausted. "Whot's 'appening?... Must... keep... goin'."
Iris takes a moment to realize where this problem comes from and shouts, "It's him slowing us down! Don't stop!" But her voice sounds weak in her throat and she doubts Challa can hear.
Siri's voice is further away now, difficult to understand. The end of the hall is near and Iris stumbles into the chamber into which it opens.
"He" is there.
Challa gazes at the imposing dark figure. Part of her wants to cower in fear, but part of her wants to show every bit of haughty insolence she ever possessed. She manages to squeak softly to Iris. "Wh-who's dat?"
Iris barely detects Siri's worried direction to go through the doorway to the left as she stares at the magician before them. Yet, they cannot see him well; there seems to be a black cloud hanging around him, or perhaps they are too tired and wearied to be able to see him clearly in the first place.
Challa steels herself. "Aye, bring eht on, yeh great black smokestack!"
Iris cannot answer. She suddenly snaps awake with the realization that she needs to do -something- now! The magician raises his hands across the room.
Just as an athlete knows exactly what to do when he comes upon a hurtle in a race, Iris finds confidence within herself. She knows instinctively she cannot get away by running, but perhaps by slowing him down Challa can. "Run! To the left! Doorway! Don't wait for me!" Then just as the magician's spell lets lose a fury of fire and ice, she throws up a desperate shield.
Challa springs at the left doorway. It was as if a spell had been broken, allowing her to move freely again.
Iris steps forward,--away from Challa--pushing the invisible shield before her. A flurry of more magic blasts from the magician at Iris, some visible and some invisible. Iris' sheild disolves and she stumbles backward before she throws up a new one. As she does, she launches a ball of light at him.
It splatters against an invisible shield and the girls can hear the magician's evil chuckle.
Challa pulls her arm back as if to hurl something as well, and to her surprise she does. A ball of blue fire, toward his chest.
It, too splatters against an invisible wall. Iris steps forward again, her hands in front of her as if pushing something. "Go! Hurry!" Her voice is very strained.
Challa stares at her hand momentarily. ~Ah threw fire! I did magic again!~ Again Challa launches herself at the door on the left.
The ground starts to tremble. There are voices and the sound of running feet in the hall behind Iris--she moves forward again--but no one in front of Challa. The path is clear.
Challa runs through the door, then looks back to make sure Iris is coming.
But Iris has moved, if anything, farther from the door. There is a steady magic fight going on, complete with flashes and bangs, but Iris seems to be at a disadvantage. In addition, Challa can see the tips of guns and some workers' shoes in the doorway through which they came.
Challa holds out a hand as if she could pull Iris through. "Iris! Cum on!" she screams.
Before she can take a step either way, they fire. But even though they are firing at close range, nothing seems to hit Iris. A few holes appear in the wall behind the magician.
Iris does not, or cannot, answer Challa's call. Her face is strained, her hair marred, and thin trickle of blood makes its way down her cheek.
Challa chances it and races back to her friend. "Come on!" She throws an arm around her and tries to pull her. Her heart is pounding as fear and adrenaline flow like lightning through her. She glances back at the door they had entered from.
Something explodes and Challa is thrust back by the force of the explosion. Iris is still there and the pursuers have caught sight of Challa and are beginning to aim. She feels a strong mental push toward the door.
Challa feels energies inside her. She sees guns aimed at her. They fill her vision. One hand stretches out and a bolt of white lightning shoots from her fingertips, knocking away the guns.
And again she feels the mental push and urge to run. Then, a word accompanies the push: ~Go!~
Iris' feet have lifted from the floor, but whether that is a result of her own spells or those of the magician, Challa cannot tell. The pursuers have disappeared.
Challa runs to Iris and tries to grab her again, but instead crashes into something invisible. It's like hitting a rubber ball.
The magician and Iris draw closer together. Challa can barely see either of them now through the thick weave of magic.
"No... no," she murmurs. "Fight."
~Run!~
There is another invisible explosion and Challa is pushed along the floor farther away. She cannot seem to move any closer. Challa fights to keep conciousness, but a dark mist keeps swirling in her senses.
~GO!!!~ The thought is like a blast of cold water, desperate.
The magician aims a fireball at Challa. She does not see it until it passes through the magical barrier.
Challa's eyes snap open. She sees Iris suspended in some force she can't see. She takes a desparate moment, then runs through the door alone. "Ah'll come back!" she calls softly, knowing Iris could not hear her.
The fireball follows her, but as soon as she passes out of sight it disappears. The hall is old, damp, and poorly lit, but there are no side passageways or doors for Challa to get confused about. She races down the hallway.
A couple of minutes later, there is an explosion like the ones before, but this one is much more powerful. Challa is knocked off her feet and everything is lit up for an instant in a blinding flash, then it is dark again.
The unnatural weariness is lifted from Challa's mind and heart.
She sits for a moment in the silence.
Then it hits her. The full realization of what had happened in the last several minutes. She and Iris had been facing some... -monster- and she had narrowly escaped while her friend had not.
She turns toward the passage behind her, and her heart drops like a stone down a wishing well. The hallway has collapsed. "NOOOOOOO! Iris!"
But all that comes back is an echo of her shout.
Unwittingly, Challa plops down on the cold stone. She does not know how long she stays there, but eventually realizes she must move on before she is discovered. Getting up numbly, she continues down the passage, passing a few halls branching from hers.
//'E was like a blinkin' sorceror 'e was. I felt cold and sad and hopeless all over when we were fightin' him.// What was she to do now? Without Iris, she is lost, most completely. Challa feels a surge of guilt as memories bubble up.
//She rescued me, took me to her home, become a most wonderful friend. And what did I do? I left her back with that... sorceror. But,// she thinks defensively, //what else could I have done? I heard -- or thought I heard -- a voice in my head, telling me to go on. But how could that be possible? Still, I was jerked awake by -something- and made to run for the door....//
Her musings are cut short by the sound of voices coming from up ahead. Curious, she walks a little faster.
"Hey, Challa!" The voice is quiet, but it echoes down the hall effectively. It sounds like Iris.
She pauses, unable to believe it. "Iris?"
Soon, the elven girl appears. "Hurry! Just run for it!" Her face is strained and wet with sweat and a little blood, but she catches up with Challa with amazing speed.
"Iris!" Laughing with relief, Challa rushes to embrace her. "Whot 'appened? Are yeh oll right? How did yeh get free?"
Iris groans. "It was all very quick. I broke away, but he's coming after us. Come on!"
"I'm with yeh!"
Despite the fatigue, they run on. They can see the end of the hall, but can't quite make out what is there yet. Iris slows down. "Hold on a sec." She stops and stretches. "Ahead is a river that runs underground. We can try to steal one of their boats and escape down the river. Hopefully it leads out of here. Did you say-- did you say your family are fishers? Do you know how to use a boat?" She stops to allow Challa to speak, but is still breathing heavily.
"Of carse! We're regular sailors, me family is," she says, catching her breath.
"Excellent." Iris nods. "Then, you're in charge of the boat. But we have to grab one first!" She grins.
Before taking off after her, Challa scratches her head briefly. "How'd you know there are boats 'ere?"
Iris gasps out as she runs, "Probed... with... my... mind...." Then they're there and there's no more time to talk.
They take the workers by surprise. Running full speed out of the entrance, the girls barely catch the attention of the people before they have shoved full way into a boat half-full of crates. The rope loosely connected to a post on the pier unknots itself and the girls push the boat into the water, climb in, and Challa takes over.
Grabbing an oar from the bottom, Challa sits in the bow. "Iris, you sit in the stern --the back-- and push off from the bank. Tha's eht."
Iris swings one of the wooden sticks someone has conveniently placed in the boat and pushes off hard from the pier.
"Brilliant. Now you paddle on the port side --sorry, the right -- like this, and I'll do on starboard."
"Er, right." Iris puts down the wooden stick, wipes her hands on her tunic, and starts paddling. With her hands.
An instant later, she sees Challa using the wooden stick and realizes what it is for. She wipes her hands off again (quickly), grabs the stick, and paddles.
Challa mutters to herself as she steers between other boats. "Mm, might be a bit tricky not to 'it anyone else..." Aloud she says, "We're olmost out en the mainstream now, where we won't 'af te paddle as much."
Iris glances around. "They're starting to come after us. We should keep as fast as we can. Let me know when we're clear and I'll try to speed things up." She puts her back into her paddling, but since this is her first time, she is not very good at it.
Abruptly, Challa backpaddles to avoid a collision with another boat. "Watch out, yeh crazy bloke!" She shakes her head and mutters again. "Blimey, yeh'd tink they -want- to 'it us, eh?"
The rower obviously cannot understand, but he laughs derisively and aims his boat for a collision again. Many other boats are converging. The ones still ahead of them are trying to block off the path ahead, but they are not far away, and the girls are not moving very quickly....
Challa looks at the water ahead and smiles. "Iris!" she calls back. "We're in mainstream, goin' a bit faster now."
With her expert steering skills, Challa manages to snip past the pursuers' noses (and bows and sterns) with only a slight jar to one side.
"So ehf we can stay on this course downstream widdout gettin' bumped too much that would be great."
Once they are through, Iris glances up ahead to each side of Challa, then back. The other boats are close behind, but are still turning to catch them. She stops rowing and closes her eyes.
There is a splash up front, then the boat gradually speeds up. Its stern and bow were not made for moving quickly through water, and splash some into the boat. Iris does not notice and continues to concentrate.
One more boat moves up to intercept the girls. Challa gives it a hard thwack off its course. No more catch up.
The boats steadily fall behind as the girls' boat fairly whips through the water. But it is also whipping water into the boat, dangerously quickly.
Challa wonders if they should be concerned with too much water splashing in the boat, as a small puddle is beginning to form in the bottom.
As if in response to her question, a veritable wave pours itself into the small craft.
She looks at the two crates doubtfully. //Ah wonder if we could get rid o' these things.// Challa glances again behind her with hightened worry. //Hope Iris stops us soon. Ah don' have anything to bail with!//
There seems to be no chance of Iris stopping yet, not until they get back out into the light of day. If it -is- day outside.
Challa decides to try it. Carefully, she raises one leg at a time so she is facing Iris. Then she tries to lift one of the crates, but it's too heavy.
//Hmm, have to pry it open then...// She digs her fingernails under the lid and it comes off without much hassle.
If she had expected guns, food supplies, or magic tricks, she surely did not expect this.
The crate is full of... nail clippers.
"Wha-??? Ooooo-kay." Quickly Challa throws handfulls of the things into the water until the crate is empty. Thankfully, it is watertight.
Without further ado she begins bailing.
Challa glances in front, hoping to see an end of the waterway, or something. Still nothing. But what she -does- notice is that the boat is not moving straight down the mainstream anymore. Soon, it might even crash into one of the banks.
"Blimey!" She rights herself in the bow and grabs her oar again to keep the little craft on course.
Water splashes in. And there is a roar up ahead, and a telltale mist and foam.
"Uh-oh. Jest our flippin' luck! Iris! Yeh've got te stop us, now! There's a waterfall ahead! Can yeh hear me?"
There is no response and the boat is still surging on.
"Oh no," Challa murmurs despairingly. //Maybe she can magic us a safe landing at least!// She gets a firm hold on the sides of the craft.
Just in time. The craft shoots out into the air with a slight spray of water... then quickly falls to splash back in. The waterfall, luckily for them, was only four feet high. They land upright and only slightly turned off course. The splash jerks Iris' eyes open and she glances around. The boat slows without her pushing it back to the river's natural speed.
Challa slowly lets out her breath, which she'd been holding. "Wheeww. Thank the Blarney! Hey, tha' wuz fun!"
There are no more signs of their pursuers, but there is very little light, either. Iris blinks. "Wow." She wiggles her wet toes and peers ahead. "Is that some light?"
"Aye, so 't is. Bu' whot sort o' light?"
It shines like a shimmering cloud in the air. Behind it the girls can see a greenish light, a bit like that of trees shading a river.
"Is that... shimmering?" Iris squints. "What's going on?"
She thinks frantically for a moment about stopping the boat, and all the while the opening is getting larger.
Challa shakes her head wordlessly. "Ah wish I knew meself. Wish ah knew whot oll this means..."
Iris puts on the "brakes" and the boat slows... but not enough. They float through the strange opening...
*** [OOC: This thread now appears in the Nexus Christmas Special III!.]
...And immediately the boat tips over to the side, dumping its contents--girls and all--unceremoniously onto the hard ground. There is a loud scraping noise as the wooden craft skids along the road and comes to a splintered stop.
Iris and Challa roll for a few meters before they, too, stop. Iris rolls into the second box of nail clippers with a loud, painful *thumpclank*.
"Ow!" Thoroughly bewildered, Challa springs up. "Don' tell me, anuther portal!"
Iris gets to her feet groggily, staring around at the unfamiliar landscape.
The words of Prophet Emen.
DO NOT READ
Iris takes a breath. Again, Rosalinda's warnings about the dangers of over-curiosity run through her mind. But Iris has a motive: the rumor about the prophesy of the One who would come. She wanted to know, is it Challa, or someone else? How will they know? Who is the enemy?
She walks beside Challa (they do not run so they won't trip and fall) quickly, hoping that this "lake" has a shore close by. It is the longest ten-minute walk Iris has walked in her life, other than that time when she was three. But finally they reach a place where the fire stops, and the walk opens up. It is still made of stone, and still hot, but Iris and Challa soon walk over a river of water and the stone becomes cool again.
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