Journal # II
I confronted him. I know I'd said I wouldn't worry about it, but he was bothering me. Plus, I think the villagers were starting to think I'd lost it, running around and screaming at birds. I just couldn't figure out why he kept hanging around. Was he planning something? Had he fixed the flume, and started wreaking havoc on Halla again? Or was he going to exact revenge against me, as punishment for trapping him here?
The paranoia was killing me. I couldn't get him out of my head, couldn't stop wondering what he'd do next.
So I waited by the beach, eyes peeled for the large raven that I knew he'd be disguised as. When he showed up, I watched him flying around, making a big show of not screaming and throwing things like I had been doing. Once he'd noticed this apparent truce, he circled low and landed in the sand about ten feet away.
I eyed the bird suspiciously, watching as he ruffled his feathers and regarded me with unreadable raven eyes. For a moment, I worried that it was just a normal bird, and I'd just been traumatizing the local wildlife. But it was a pretty big bird-like, the size of a large house cat-and I'm almost certain I'd never seen a raven on Ibara before. It had to be him.
"What are you planning?" I asked.
The bird cawed, and again I had the creeping fear that I was just talking to a bird. But it had to be him. It had to be.
"I know it's you," I said. "So turn back into a human and stop making me look crazy."
The raven cawed again, then shifted into mist, and a moment later, there he was in front of me: Saint Dane.
"I have to admit," he said, "It's incredibly fun to make everyone think you've gone mad."
I wasn't going to let him get to me. "What are you planning?"
He smirked. "Would you believe me if I said 'nothing'?"
Probably not, I realized. In fact, the more he insists that he's not up to something, the more likely I am to think he's up to something. I think he realized it, too.
"Look, Pendragon," he said. "You've destroyed the flume over here, and the other may as well be impassable. Unless I could move several tons of rubble or create my own flumes, I'm trapped here, the same as you."
He was still smirking. Like he knew something I didn't. I hazarded a guess. "Can you make your own flumes?"
Dane let out a dry laugh. "Would I tell you if I could?"
Touche. I guess that would have made things a lot easier, if I could have just played 20 questions with my nemesis. As it was, I was left to assume that he couldn't. Why else would he still be hanging around Ibara?
And he was still smirking at me. I wanted to hit him, if only to wipe that stupid smug grin off his face. But that wouldn't accomplish anything, would it?
"Well?" he said. "Are you satisfied that I'm not up to something?"
I wasn't, but I couldn't really prove he was up to anything, either. With a shrug, I muttered, "I guess. For now."
Evidently, he found this pretty damn amusing. "Should I take that to mean that you're keeping an eye on me, Pendragon?"
Have I already mentioned how much I wanted to hit him?
I nodded, even though if he went back over to Rubic City there would literally be no way for me to watch what he was doing. He'd figured this out, I could tell. But instead of pointing this out, he just smirked some more.
"Very well," he responded. "But rest assured, I won't make it an easy task."
With that, he morphed back into a large raven, cawed once, and took to the skies, headed toward the city.
It's been about a week since then, and I haven't seen any sign of him, bird or human. He's probably been hiding out in the city, laughing to himself as he wonders how I'm going to get across the sea.
I have no idea how to get over there. Even with some sort of boat, the quig bees would sting me to death before I ever reached the shore. If I could shapeshift like Dane, maybe I could just fly over; trust me, I've tried, and I can't.
I'll just have to hope he's not up to anything.
