"Ren. Reeeeeennnnnn. Hey, Ren!" Rachel came running up the street and stopped, panting. "I think I found that girl!"
"You're awfully good at finding people, aren't you…" Ren commented, not really paying attention. She was busy readjusting her new swords for the fifth or sixth time since she'd left the blacksmith that morning. Then Rachel's words caught up with her. "What girl?"
"The girl the scary guy was looking for!" Rachel stamped her foot impatiently.
"Scary guy?" Ren thought back. "Oh. That one. I'd almost forgotten him."
Rachel stared at her in disbelief. "It was only yesterday! Do you just…forget everything when you wake up in the morning or what?"
"No, no." Ren waved a hand vaguely through the air. "I just…wasn't thinking about it. So, you said you saw her?"
"Yes!" Rachel bounced up and down a little, anxiously. "In the woods outside town. It had to be her, she was wearing all white and had silvery hair, like a pearl."
"I suppose that makes sense, in a very unimaginative sort of way." Ren shrugged. "Where did she go?"
"I tried to follow her but she disappeared." Rachel frowned. "The woods are usually pretty safe, but the last couple of days, I've heard rumors of strange monsters being seen out there. Usually monsters wouldn't come so close to town but…I'm worried about her. She seemed confused, walking in sort of a daze. Kind of like you."
"Gee. Thanks," Ren muttered. "I'd better go tell that Elazul guy. Coming?"
Rachel shook her head rapidly. "No way! He scares me. I'm going back to the restaurant, so tell me if you find her." The girl turned and buzzed quickly back down the path.
Ren sighed. So much for moral support. She turned off the main path and took the road to the village inn. Locating the large bird-like innkeeper, she inquired about the sandy-caped man, struggling to keep a straight face the whole time. Talking to a huge yellow chicken was a true exercise in self-control. It's normal, right? Animal people are normal. Why am I so surprised every time I see one? No one else is...
"Oh, he's gone out somewhere," the chicken lady answered. "To the park I think, he was asking for directions. Good riddance, if you ask me! He kept pacing around, scaring my baby every time he passed!"
Ren excused herself quickly, expressing condolences for the well-being of the chicken's…hatchling. Shaking her head in amusement, she took the path to the park she had found the day before.
The man who called himself Elazul was standing near the fountain, eyes closed as if he was listening to something. Ren waited a moment, but he didn't move, so she stepped forward.
"Hey," she said, trying to mimic the air-chilling voice he'd used the afternoon before. It didn't quite work, but it did get his attention.
"Oh. You," he said.
Ren was more than a little irritated by his tone. Before she could snap though, she noticed a look on his face, out of the corner of her eye. A worried, desperate kind of look. It disappeared quickly, but it made her decide not to bait him after all. "I think I saw your friend," she said instead. "Well, I didn't see her, Rachel did, but she told me. In the woods just east of town a bit."
Elazul stood up straighter and strode towards her. "She did? Will she show me where?"
"No, she's too frightened of you." Ren let her continued disapproval of his actions show in her tone. "But I'll go with you and help look. If you want."
He stopped, having the decency to look a bit embarrassed. "I…guess so. I haven't had much luck on my own." The guy sounded like he was grinding the words out between two millstones, but Ren figured that was the best she was going to get out of him.
"Come on then." She turned, beckoning over her shoulder. "Rachel said there were monsters about recently. We'd better hurry."
As they walked through the woods, Elazul stopped occasionally and took up that 'listening' pose again. Once, Ren thought she caught a flash of blue from beneath the scarf he was wearing. "So…what exactly are you doing?" she asked after the third or fourth time.
"Listening," he said unhelpfully.
Ren rolled her eyes. "I could tell that, I mean how?"
"I think we had this conversation already."
"Some kind of magic?" she persisted, but he cut her off.
"Over there," he said, pointing at what looked like a half-buried pile of rocks. Ren gave up on getting answers and walked over to the pile instead. Walking a little to one side and peering around a largish bush, she found the entrance to what seemed to be a cave.
"Look here," she called to Elazul, who hurried over. "I bet she went in here."
"Let's go," he said, and swung into the hole before Ren could protest. With a shrug, she lowered herself after him. Just beyond the hole was a short tunnel, which widened into a good-sized cavern. A shaft of light shone down from the entrance and clumps of bright fungus grew here and there, casting a greenish glow over the area. Water dripped incessantly from somewhere, and the whole place smelled damp.
"Huh," Elazul was a few feet away, looking around. "She would wander into a place like this. Every time." He sighed. "Come on, this way, I'm sure of it."
"Why, exactly, would she wander into a place like this?" Ren asked, looking over her shoulder. She thought saw eyes glow in the depths of the shadows, and then ran quickly to catch up with Elazul as strange creatures began emerging from the crevices behind her. "Look out!" she called, drawing her swords.
Elazul did the same, but he was still facing forward. "There's more over here."
Ren gripped the hilts tighter. She hoped she really did know how to use them. The creatures crept forward, some low and elongated like slugs, others craggy and hard, like turtles. Some even looking like walking mushrooms. Behind her, Elazul leapt forward, and then there was nothing to do but swing a weapon and hope it went well.
It did. Her sword connected with a slug-like monster and it exploded in a spray of goo. "Oh, disgusting," Ren complained, but luckily Elazul was too busy to glare at her.
After that, it became like a chaotic, goo stained dance. Her eyes seemed to glaze over and she moved from monster to monster with ease, dispatching one here, kicking a second one into a third, slicing both in half. The swords sang to her in a language only metal knows, and the monsters responded in kind. How much time passed she didn't know, so caught up in the fray that when she abruptly ran out of monsters, she nearly tripped and fell. The haze drifted away from her vision, and reality returned with sharp clarity and a lot of mess.
"You're a little bloodthirsty, aren't you?" Elazul asked, walking over to her.
Ren looked at the carnage surrounding her. "Er…did I do all that?"
"Did you…?" Elazul stared at her. "Just because you're amnesiac, doesn't mean you have to be insane as well. What do you mean 'did I do all that'?"
"Um, well that is…" Ren thought quickly. "I mean, you helped too, right?"
Elazul thought about it. "Well, I suppose so." He looked a bit proud of himself, and let the subject drop, to Ren's relief. "Come on, we'd better keep moving."
Now and then a leftover monster would try to press its luck and drop off the ceiling onto their heads, but they didn't encounter any more big groups. Elazul picked his way carefully through the labyrinth of tunnels, stopping at every turning point to 'listen'. Ren just hoped he remembered the way back, she certainly didn't.
As they were waiting at a particularly confusing cross-section, Ren thought she heard something. "Listen," she urged Elazul.
"I am," he snapped. "But something's interfering with me."
"No, with your ears."
Elazul paused, turning his head this way and that. "I don't hear anything."
Ren stepped closer to one of the tunnels. "It's coming from this way." Without waiting for him to agree, she took off down the tunnel. Elazul followed her a bit hesitantly, but as they progressed, the strange sound Ren had barely heard was replaced by a more audible crashing that neither of them could miss.
"This way!" Ren rocketed around a corner with Elazul on her heels. They burst out of the tunnel into another large cave…occupied by what looked like a cross between a monkey and a bear. A really big monkey and an even larger bear. She stopped dead and Elazul ran into her from behind, knocking them both into the room, and the monster's presence.
Elazul scrambled to his feet, one hand at the base of his throat. "Pearl!" he yelled. "Where are you?"
"El…Elazul?" A faint voice came from a strange set of rocky columns and crystals at the far end of the room. Anything else she would have liked to say was quickly drowned out by a deafening roar from the monster as it focused on the newcomers to its domain. Raising a crude but very heavy looking club, it charged toward the intruders.
Ren flung herself to one side, but Elazul stood his ground and raised his sword. With a shout, he swung the blade sideways and a wave of light sprang from the edge, slicing towards the monster. It gave another ear-piercing cry and clawed at its eyes, blinded.
"Oh, nice!" Ren exclaimed, but was quickly dismayed as the bear-ape stumbled away from them and back towards the rock formation. It swung its arms about blindly, smashing its club into the columns, sending a shower of broken slate and quartz raining down. A feminine scream echoed through the cave. "Stop him!" Ren shrieked in response. Elazul sped forward, but couldn't do much to parry the blows of that huge weapon. He was forced to dodge to the side as the club crashed down once again.
Ren took a deep breath and launched herself at the monster. Grabbing for handholds on its thick fur, she scrambled up its back. The ape growled in frustration and tried to scrape this irritating insect off with huge hands, but Ren dodged them, swinging under one arm and stabbing her sword up right under its chin. The blade struck home and Ren let go of the ape's fur, letting her weight pull the sword free as she dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way. The monster tried to cry out, once, and then fell with a crash, scattering shards of rock everywhere.
Ren got slowly to her feet, shaking a bit, but the ape monster stayed where it was, quite dead. She let her breath out in a rush, and turned to the rock formation.
Elazul was already there, peering among the columns. "Pearl? Are you okay?"
Slowly, a small figure crawled out from behind a rock. She looked about the same age as Rachel, or maybe she was older and just looked young, Ren couldn't tell. "Elazul?" Pearl asked again, as he ran forward to help her up. "Oh, I'm so glad you came!"
"Of course I came!" Elazul snapped. "The question is why you came! What are you doing in a place like this?"
"I…I don't know…something was calling me but, it stopped…and then that thing was here…" She sounded so sad and confused, Ren took a step forward.
"It's all right…" she said. "It's dead now."
Pearl seemed to notice her for the first time, and darted behind Elazul. "Who's that?"
Elazul looked at Pearl and then back at Ren, who realized she was still holding a bear-ape blood stained sword and probably didn't look very harmless at the moment. "Oh, her," he said. "She helped me find this place."
"You're welcome," Ren muttered. She looked around at the wreck the monster had made of the cavern, the dead monster itself, then back at Pearl, trying to figure out what the point had been. "So…have I rated an explanation yet? Who are you two?"
Elazul looked at the floor for a moment, then sighed. "All right. Pearl and I are…Jumi." He reached up and loosened the scarf around his neck, revealing a large blue gemstone embedded just below his collarbone. It caught a spark of light reflected from a quartz crystal and shone briefly. Glancing at Pearl, Ren could see a similar stone in white, not quite hidden by her dress, disheveled as it was.
She tilted her head to one side. "That's very pretty. Is Jumi a country?" Elazul gaped at her.
Behind him, Pearl giggled, very softly, with one hand over her mouth. "Elazul…" she murmured. "You were all worried that she might find out, weren't you, and she doesn't even know what a Jumi is."
Elazul closed his mouth. "Jumi are…" he started, then stopped. "Oh forget it. Go ask someone. Come on Pearl, we're leaving." He turned and strode out of the cave.
Pearl started to hurry after him, then turned back to Ren. "Sorry," she whispered. "He's always like that lately. I think it's my fault so…" She looked sad. "Don't take it personally. Thank you for all your help."
"No problem." Ren raised a hand in farewell, confused as she was, and Pearl flashed a shy smile before racing to catch up with Elazul. In another moment, they were gone, leaving Ren standing in a silent cave.
She shrugged and looked around for something to clean her sword on. Figuring the monster's body was better than her clothes, she started towards it, but even as she did, it began to glow, and with a near blinding flash of light, it disappeared completely. Ren blinked, and glanced at her sword.
It was clean. She sheathed it thoughtfully, then took a more careful look at the room. There was only one exit…the way they'd come in, and that was narrow, leading into an even narrower tunnel. How had that huge bear-thing gotten inside without breaking the wall down?
Ren was still pondering this when the sound she'd heard back out in the tunnels broke into her thoughts. It seemed to be coming from the columns-and-crystal formation Pearl had been hiding behind. Closer now, it sounded like someone crying.
"Hello?" Ren called softly. "Is someone else there?"
There was a faint glow in response. Slowly it gathered shape until it became a bluish semi-transparent being, curled over a mound in the center of the formation, arms stretched around it like she was protecting something. As Ren approached, the spirit lifted her head, peering over her shoulder, and spoke.
"I'm sorry," Ren replied. "I don't understand you."
The spirit looked confused, then turned, hovering a bit with slow motions of her fish-like tail. She beckoned, reaching out with a slender arm and laying a cool hand along Ren's cheek.
You came back. A soft voice, like water over smooth pebbles, spoke in Ren's mind.
"Back?"
I knew you would.
"Who are you? Do you know me? I can't remember anything, you see…" Ren tried to explain, but the spirit didn't seem to hear her.
I kept him safe for you. The blue woman looked back at the mound she'd been protecting. Safe. I did not think I could hold on much longer, but you came.
"Kept who safe?"
Thank you. The spirit withdrew her hand and began to fade, as slowly as she'd appeared.
"Wait! Wait, what do you mean, don't leave…" Ren let her voice trail off, as her listener was already gone. She swallowed back a cry of frustration and turned her attention to the mound the spirit had been hovering over. It looked like any other mass of water-deposited rock, lumpy and shapeless with a slight greenish hue. She reached out to touch it and yanked her hand back fast as it began to dissolve before her eyes.
The rock melted back like ice in front of a candle, leaving no residue behind on the object it had been surrounding. It was an egg.
At least, that's what it looked like to Ren, though as she picked it up and tapped the shell carefully, it seemed too heavy and too hard to be a real egg. Besides, it had been sitting here for long enough for rock to grow over it, which had to be way too long for any kind of egg. So, maybe it was just an egg-shaped stone. It was pretty enough, green and smooth, like jade.
Ren didn't get much time to think about it, however. As she held the egg-stone up for a better look, the floor shifted ominously under her and a spattering of pebbles and dust fell from above. She looked up, worried, and then dove to one side just as a huge chunk of ceiling collapsed next to her. Glancing at the columns nearby, she could see them shake and begin to crumble; the whole place was about to come down.
Clutching the egg to her chest, Ren made a mad dash for the exit, but too late. With a rumble and a crash, the tunnel mouth shattered into fragments, blocking the passage. Stumbling backwards, Ren looked around in a panic. The quartz-crystal formation the spirit had been protecting fell in on itself with a cloud of shining particles and refracted light.
Light? Ren ran for the flash she had seen, coughing in the dust. Behind the formation, a hole had opened up, just big enough for a person to crawl through. Cradling the egg with one arm, Ren hauled herself through it and up the short tunnel into the woods beyond.
"What was that all about?" she said a few minutes later, facing the collapsed, debris filled pit that used to be the cavern. It didn't answer. Ren shook her head and looked around. She had no clue where she was.
Thinking about it, Ren figured she and Elazul had been roughly south of Domina when they'd stumbled on the cave, so depending on which way they had been going underground…she had no idea. Well, north was probably the best direction to head. Checking the sun, Ren set out, hoping she wasn't actually widening the gap between herself and the town.
She hadn't been walking for more than twenty minutes when she stumbled into a clearing between trees. A small hill rose up, with a semi-clear path leading up it. At the top of the hill was a tree. No, a house. No…a treehouse, but not in the usual sense of the word. The house seemed to be built into the tree…or perhaps the tree had been deliberately grown into a house shape.
Ren was fascinated. Also, the egg was getting heavy and she wanted to put it down somewhere, so maybe whoever lived there could lend her a table or something. She started hopefully up the path.
As she reached the house, however, it became apparent that the place was deserted. The windows were boarded up, but the door was slightly ajar. Peering through it she could see what looked like several years worth of dead leaves and junk blown in by the wind and scattered about the floor. There was some furniture and such, but it obviously hadn't been used for a long time.
Ren set the egg on the table. There was a kitchen-like alcove in the corner, and another room to the right that might have been a library at one point. Climbing the stairs she found a small bedroom, and further up an empty attic.
"What a cute little house," she said to herself, descending the stairs again. She stepped outside and shut the door carefully behind her. "Living in a tree…" she ran a hand along the bark and looked up at the leaves overhead. "And it's still alive and growing. I could live here, I think. Something about it feels…" Ren sighed at herself. "What am I talking about? This place must belong to someone in town, and I don't have any money for rent."
Circling the tree she saw a path in the back leading to what looked like a barn or storage shed and on the other side, an overgrown orchard. A lifetime's worth of work to get this place up and running again, but…
"Well, I'll have to ask around about it. Someone in town must know a thing or two."
"Yes, yes, good idea!" A voice said behind her. Ren gave a small shriek and spun around. A large pelican was standing behind her. The Domina mailbird, what was her name, Ama-something. Ren let out a sigh.
"Don't do that!" she snapped. "You startled me!"
The pelican didn't bother to apologize. "Jennifer sent me to find you. She said that Rachel said that you went off with some strange man, and she was worried, so she asked me. You should go back you know, it's getting late and everyone's worried. Or did I say that already?"
"You did, actually."
"Oh." The pelican cocked her head. "Well, no harm in saying it twice, to make sure it's heard. Anyway, you should go back."
Ren sighed. "All right, all right. Which way is back?"
The pelican flapped her wings and hopped into the air, hovering rather ungracefully. "This way! I'll show you. It's not far at all."
"Then can't you just point it out to me, I'm sure I can…oh never mind." Ren gave up and followed the pelican.
Only when they had actually reached Domina proper did Ren remember that she'd left the egg on the table in the strange house. "Oh well. It's just a stone anyway, right? I'll go get it tomorrow or something."
