The other world
Disclaimer: Only a few of characters are mine. Coraline and her friends and neighbours belong to Neil Gaiman and LAIKA studios.
The next time Coraline woke, it was late afternoon, and the rain had stopped falling. True, the land around the flats was still overly saturated with rain water, and the layer of black and dark brown mud has not even began to dry, and neither did the abundant puddles, which now lay all around the yard, like gaping watery holes. The sky, however, was no longer truly overcast, but rather was covered in patches of clear sky and clouds, and the clouds were losing.
Coraline looked at the view outside her room and paused, deep in thought, regarding her further actions. On one hand, she could stay in her room, knowing that probably at any moment something scary and monstrous could climb out of one the mirrors – from the kitchen, the bathroom, or the corridor – and take her onto the other side. Alternatively, she could go outside and have some good times with Wybie instead. What a tough choice, right?
[Break]
...It took Coraline a matter of minutes to put on her rainy day gear, her bright yellow coat and matching boots. Usually, this could be a lengthy process, but after the earlier events, Coraline did not want to spend more time inside than necessarily. "I will probably have to drape them or something," she muttered to herself quietly, "when I go back home," she paused, "when I go back home..." Something about getting back home bothered her, something from the past, but she could not quite put her finger on it, and besides...
Coraline frowned with concern back outside. It was getting late, and if she didn't hurry, Wybie's grandmother, being who she is, probably wouldn't let Wybie go out and play with her – and right now, Coraline wanted to have some friendly company with her real badly, even if that company was only temporary. Consequently, she stopped dawdling on her thoughts, and quickly went outside, determined to visit Wybie before the sunset.
However, as Coraline was walking from one end of the Pink Palaces to the other, the first being she met was Cat, who apparently was just as eager for Coraline's company, as Coraline was for anybody's: he immediately trotted to the girl, and began to rub against her legs, purring with a loud intensity.
Coraline smiled, probably for the first time since today, but it was still a rather sad smile. "Hey Cat," she said slowly. "Did you know that the other mother is gone?"
Cat obviously did not, as he immediately stopped tugging at her pants and stared at Coraline with rather startled eyes. "It's true!" Coraline insisted. "Several hags came to her, and did some sort of a chant, and it was all over!"
Cat nodded, visibly almost as startled by the whole development, as Coraline herself was. Then, however, he shook himself, and began again to tug at Coraline's pant legs, as if suggesting that the girl would follow him.
And Coraline did not disappoint, but followed her feline friend: today has been just too freaky for her to let things just go. Consequently, she went away from the direction of the Lovats' domestic domain, as Cat was trotting briskly before her, occasionally looking backwards to ensure that Coraline was not getting lost.
And there was already a good chance of her doing exactly that. Though the rain stopped, and the sky was clearing, it was already late in the afternoon, and the afternoon was slowly going towards the evening, with the sun slowly setting over the horizon, down from the sky.
Abruptly, Cat stopped, and so did Coraline. Right before them, lay tracks of Wybie...and some other tracks, which Coraline initially mistook for footprints of boots, but then she realized that on the contrary, these were footprints of bare feet, with toes lying tightly one to another forming a boot-like footprint, and they led Wybie's footprints...straight to a small green hill, where both vanished abruptly.
"Now what?" Coraline helplessly asked her friend, not expecting anything in reply, but receiving one anyways:
"I have no idea."
There was a pause, filled only by twit-twitting of some birds, as the pair stared at each other.
"You can talk...I mean, I can understand you?" Coraline slowly said, as if she did not trust herself. "I thought that this worked only in the other world."
"True, but the two of you are standing at its doorway, so to speak, and I thought that certain rules can be wavered here," spoke-up a third voice.
Slowly, Coraline and Cat turned around, to see a roughly humanoid creature emerge from the nearby tree. It looked female, but was dressed in nothing but a mane of curly black hair, which obscured all body parts that needed to be obscured, and the limbs terminated in thorny claws, rather than human hands.
"Greetings, travellers," the apparition spoke, as it bowed forwards, respectfully. "I am Ashira, the guardian of this doorway."
"Um, hello," Coraline did a timid little wave in return. "We're, ah, looking for our friend, Wybie Lowat. He is also a human, just like me. Have you seen him?"
"I do believe that I've seen someone like that," Ashira said thoughtfully. "He was lured in by a gahonga, who was, unfortunately, in a possession of a certain key, that allowed it to bypass my wards, and so the two of them went beyond, into our world."
"Can you let us in so that we could rescue him?" Coraline pressed on, still polite.
"But certainly, I will let you two in," Ashira nodded. "What's more, I will even give you advice: do not eat or drink anything from anyone who did not give you an oath of safety and good conduct, and what is even more important, beware the hags."
"The hags," Coraline slowly repeated.
"Yes," Ashira nodded. "The covey. They've been steadily encroaching onto our lands, and not even Queen of Summer was able to stop their advance, not since..." Ashira shook her head even more wildly than usual and then visibly changed the subject. "Anyways, if your friend is still in the gahonga's clutches, it's the Queen of Summer who is most likely to help you."
"And who do we find her?"
"That's easy – just follow the path that will start on the other side to the door and don't go off of it," Ashira said calmly. "And do not forget to keep wary of those who do not give you an oath of friendship, or at least good conduct!"
"We will," Coraline nodded solemnly. "Can we now go and rescue Wybie?"
"Very well," Ashira nodded and turned around towards the hill. "I, Ashira of the Seelie court, allow them entry in good conscience and good will! Go in now and be in peace!"
The hill elongated and extending, forming an open doorway. Coraline and Cat entered it, and then the hill snapped shut.
[Break]
For few moments after the two adventurers entered the doorway in the hill, all was quiet, with just squirrels and birds doing their usual thing. Then a foot in a sensible black shoe was put down into the clearing, then another one, and then rest of the person in a dotted black and white dress and a matching sunhat that obscured a pair beetle-black button eyes from the setting sun.
And in one of her hands, there was a shovel.
"Well?" the Beldam spoke nonchalantly, making a big show of speaking to no one in particular. "I do believe that my erstwhile child and her familiar of a friend have gone that a-way. To whom do I speak about it? Maybe... to you?" she whirled around, putting the shovel firmly between herself and Ashira, who tried to sneak-up on her, thorny claws ready to strike.
For several moments a pair of button eyes stared into a pair of woodcarved (and coloured in a leafy green colour) ones. Neither blinked, and not because neither of them could.
"You have no right!" Ashira spoke finally.
"My dear, what I have is a shovel with a metal blade in the end. With it, I could dig through a lot of things, including your wards," the Beldam replied.
"Perhaps, but wouldn't you rather try the magic words?" Ashira finally ground out, realizing her opposite's point.
To her surprise, that point – the tip of the shovel, really – wavered and finally went down. `
"Very well," the Beldam said in a brisk, and determined, tone of voice. "I, Christabell de Veaux, Beldam of the Unseelie court, ask the guardian of this doorway for the permission to pass freely and without harm in the heart!"
There was a pause, as Ashira actually looked startled. "That's not what you were supposed to say," she finally stammered.
"No, that's not what I was expected to say," the Beldam said, smiling. It was not a very nice smile. "But that, as far as I have figured it out, would lead to me being eventually killed by my daughter, so I am trying the other path first. So – will you grant me your permission?"
"With a shovel, made from iron, no doubt," Ashira said distastefully.
"Yes, well, in times like these a good weapon is never amiss," the Beldam said airily. "After all, Trilobia is no more; there are only three of us left now."
"Really?" Ashira's woodcarved eyes could not have expressions, "that is interesting news. And yet you are asking my permission rather than taking it."
The Beldam just continued to smile, or rather to demonstrate her sharp teeth. "Very well," Ashira said. "I, Ashira of the Seelie Court, the guardian of the doorway, grant thee a free passage for as long as you respect the customs of the land and promise no unprovoked aggression!"
"The promise is freely given!" the Beldam said solemnly and spat on her arm. "Let's shake."
"Let's!" Ashira spat on her own thorny hand and shook the Beldam's clawed hand.
As the doorway in the hill opened behind the hand-shaken pair, the forest around them held its breath...
To be continued...