Chapter 11: The Shadows Move
Penelope
Perry and I were looking at the cannibals' village from the safety of the tree line on its outskirts. The grass grew thick in the shade and did well in hiding us. We were too far out to see the center where the kids, Doofenshmirtz, and Siwatu would undoubtedly be.
"So, what's the plan?" I asked.
"Follow me," said Perry. I followed his lead as he slunk silently into the open. We darted from shadow to shadow. There were plenty of huts to hide behind.
Finally, we reached a place where we could see the center. Perry stood in front of me and peered around our hiding place. I could only catch glimpses. From what I caught, it seemed like it would be a hard task indeed to get to the middle. Cannibals lurked everywhere.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped. I whipped around and saw a cannibal. Perry turned around and gave a solid glare at the cannibal. He stood tall and had the staff held straight and steady. The native seemed afraid. He muttered something in a language neither Perry nor I understood. With his spear, he directed us toward the center of the village. Around a great pole were tied our friends and children. Natives lurked from every shadow. We were surrounded.
The one who had discovered us started a conversation with one that had more markings than the others (presumably, he had to be their leader). It was confirmed when this leader spoke in a language we understood. "What brings you here?" he asked in our language.
"Maxwell! Hand me the staff of Tau!" shouted Siwatu.
"What right have you to it?" I asked.
"It is a matter I do not wish to indulge in nor do I expect you to understand it," replied Siwatu. To Perry, he said, "Trust me, Maxwell, you know not the power you hold in your hands."
"You must be Tau come back from the grave. No other would dare carry his armaments," said the chief.
"What matters it to you?" asked Perry.
"Is it not obvious, Tau? We have been awaiting your return. We have been making sacrifices in vain trying to search for the one who cannot die," said the chief.
Perry looked at me and me at him. He looked back to the chief and asked, "Excuse me?"
"Did you not know? Tau goes through the great sacrifices in order to obtain his power. He must show goodness in his heart, but also have shed blood. He must save those from death while also knowing what death of another is. He must see both good and evil equally. Do you not see these things?" asked the chief.
"Maxwell, listen to me! The power that Tau held made him powerful, but it also wouldn't let him die. Imagine having to watch as everyone you care about die and everything you know fade away into inexistence. The last Tau had to wait over 1,000 years for the next one. How much longer do you think you would have to wait?" asked Siwatu.
"Silence!" said the chief. Siwatu received a blow to the head from the butt of the chief's spear. It was then that I noticed something I should have realized long ago. Siwatu did not bleed.
"Hand me the staff and amulet, Maxwell, and believe me when I say that we shall all be delivered safely from this place," said Siwatu. He looked at Perry pleadingly yet also with that same dignity that I knew him for. "Please."
"Your time is over. A new time is to begin," said the chief.
"Not yet it's not," said Siwatu. He slipped his arm free of the binds and held it toward the staff. By some unknown force, the staff and amulet went into his hand. The amulet slipped over his neck and the ropes melted away. Then, in a great flash of light, Siwatu was immediately transformed. When the light faded, he had on all the markings and clothing of the ancient Tau.
Perry, the natives, and I gave a collective gasp. With one wave of his hand, the natives fell to the ground. They struggled into the most submissive of bowing, their faces and hands to the ground. Perry was taking a moment to make sure everyone was all right while I stood in awe.
"Imagine that this is only a piece of what I can do," said Siwatu, who I now knew to be Tau.
"How is it possible that you have lived this long? I know that the spirits wanted you to wait for a successor, but still… this is all so…" I said.
"Impossible?" he asked. I nodded. "Come, let us walk back and I shall explain everything.
"A long time ago, when I was a young ankle-biter in Australia, I saw my people as well as other animals falling to the wayside. Humans were a constant threat to our way of life. They didn't understand us and we didn't understand them. My mother told me to pray and to learn the ways of the spirits. She thought that, perhaps, they might listen to me. Many were praying, she said, but no replies were being given.
"After a short time, I received a visit. That visit haunts me to this day. The spirit told me I had to step away from everything I knew and just observe. I asked how long that would have to be. No reply was given, only the last subject was restated. So, I removed myself from my village and my family and watched. I saw the perverseness of the humans before and the goodness of my own people, but, as I watched, I noticed the perverseness of my own race and the goodness of the humans. I was greatly confused. Traits I had seen in one I now saw in both.
"Finally, I received another visit from the spirits. They asked that, now that I saw these things, how I felt about the situation. I had no answer. I was then picked up, literally picked up, by the scruff of my neck and carried around the globe. I saw good and evil. I saw guilt and innocence. When I returned to my home, six years had passed and I had not aged a day.
"I was asked again how I felt about the situation that we all faced. I am not ashamed to say that I wept. I wept bitterly for something I had not known possible before. I felt myself sorry for the entire globe, yet also a great compassion for every creature. The spirits knew this. I was taken aside again and I was taught things of knowledge and great wisdoms that I dare not divulge since it is beyond common understanding. When that had finished, they furnished me with these clothes, markings, and instruments: my staff and amulet. They gave me power and told me to use it however I saw fit.
"Naturally, I knew not where to begin. Even in everything I had learned and seen, I still felt my own mortality in me since, at that time, I had not been given the immortality I now possess. I began walking the land, searching for the perfect souls to help me in my quest.
"I finally found my first disciples: a few boys. They were not brothers by blood, but by bond. They remind me very much of your Phineas and Ferb." He nodded to the boys as he said this. "They wished to help change the world for the better and I was glad to help them. With my powers and their ideas and ingenuity, the land became very prosperous. Then… then came a bad time.
"I had been helping the boys for seven years, but I had scarcely aged. I was encountered by a spirit one night and I was told my soul was being preserved on Earth so that I may pass my good deeds onto others. They said I needed to charter a boat and spread my gifts across the world. I was warned that if I tarried long from this quest that I would be severely punished. I heeded the warnings not.
"Not six months later, a great war broke out. Creatures animal and human alike fought. At the end of that war, I looked among the bodies and saw everyone I ever cared about, including those boys, slaughtered. Needless to say, I tore my clothes and threw ashes upon myself and smeared myself in the blood and dirt that I collected from the fallen. My eyes cried for days and I wailed louder than any mourner I had ever heard. I needed my sorrow to be expressed as if being expressed by all the souls dead there plus a thousand.
"When my voice had finally broke, I collapsed to the ground and wished myself dead. Then, the rains came and everything was washed away. I was delirious from hunger, thirst, and sorrow, so I knew not what happened until I woke up at a port that was not of my home land. I knew then that the spirits had conveyed me there.
"Well, I knew there was nothing left for me back home, so I walked forward and helped all who I could. I spread my care, power, and compassion to all those who I met as if they were my own family and friends. I also received the mistreatment from some for having magic. I was tortured and thrown at many weapons of death. They wished me dead, but I lived. Among the many names I have attained over the years, one constant has been 'the walking corpse.'
"So, after a few hundred years of my service to the people, I was visited by the spirits again. I was told that I may yet escape my fate if I found a replacement. I searched, nay, scoured the globe for such a being. It was not to my luck. In the meantime, the people and animals I had come to love slowly began to die. I had to get away from society. I retreated to the most inhospitable place in the world that I knew: my home. I fought many monsters and my stories were recorded.
"After a time, I realized a new bit of wisdom: so long as I couldn't die, I would never be happy. I retreated once again, only this time, to a greater solitude than before. I have been in this valley for over 300 years. I have adapted, in the best ways that I could. I have watched humanity and the animal kingdom evolve through various means, and I was proud and saddened all at once. I have spent many nights weeping for reasons none can understand. I soon began to wish that I would never meet my replacement and that I would live to see the world come to its end so that it may take me with it and I may finally die alone and in peace.
"You can understand, then, that when I found my replacement, the mixture of feelings I had. I was relieved to die yet afraid for what he must face. It is pain to know… and I know Rose knows this to a small degree."
"Yes," I replied.
We looked up and found ourselves back in familiar surroundings. "I am afraid that there is nothing in this valley but old bones and the despair of many that have passed through here. You… none of you… know," said Tau. He looked to Perry. "I know that you are the destined one… but realize this: if you choose this path, you shall outlive everything you know and care for. You shall know everyone's joy and pain… and… you shall feel a sadness unlike any being on this planet can profess to comprehend."
"And what if he doesn't have a choice?" I asked softly.
Tau paled slightly. "I know what you have seen, Rose, and it pains me. There is much in your future that weighs heavily upon my heart." He silenced and seemed to be lost in thought. "The time is coming soon, I know, so I shall consider it. I… I know what must be done. There is but one thing Max must do to become Tau." He paused. "He must come to know. It is something that I cannot teach nor show in any fathomable way."
"Actually, there might be a way," I said.
Tau sighed. "It is painful… too painful that everything must come to this. Innocence fades, evil arises, and all eyes shall become opened to the path ahead. I see it clearly and fear it similarly if not more so than Rose. Caution to all of you… these coming days will make your past events appear but gentle outings in compare. You must all come to know." He said no more. He went into the hut and, by the time the rest of us had entered, I perceived him to be already asleep. Every part of him was relaxed apart from the hand that held the staff, which was clenched tightly.
"Penelope…?" Perry asked.
"Don't ask me, Perry. Please, don't pain me anymore than need be," I said.
"Is there any hope for us?" asked Isabella.
"I, regrettably, have become bound to what I have seen. My paths are not as many nor open as before. I am coming closer and closer to that one path where I see a dark forest, seemingly unending. I see death and sadness and no light. As carefully as we tread, there is an event, quickly approaching, which cannot be avoided by any. Tau is right. We shall have to know, not just practically for the now, not just the remembrance of the past and the preparation for the future, but also of ourselves. We must know of ourselves and who we will be, beyond any doubt," I said.
"If you and Tau are so smart, why can't you just tell us?" asked Isabella.
"How can they tell us who we must be? Isn't that for us to decide?" asked Phineas.
"I grow weary of this," said Ferb. Doofenshmirtz looked indifferent and said nothing.
"Mother, why have you not cured yourself of your condition?" asked little Max.
"This… is how I must be. I know not how long, but this is how it must be," I replied. I was slowly beginning to understand some things… but I knew our path would be long and hard in coming. The forest we walked in, as far as my vision allowed, would not let me see any ending. I only saw so far as the war… I knew not its outcome nor its aftermath. I was afraid.
After a moment's silence, I said, "Excuse me, I must go. There is something I must do." I knew not why, but I was overcome with an intense sadness I had never felt so strongly before. I walked outside and spent the time between that part of the night and the late part of the following day doing what I had to do to dispel these feelings. I returned wiser and the changes in my companions were becoming more and more evident. I could see it in their eyes. The future I had seen for them most recently was not far in unfolding.
Well, there's that. Tell me what you think in the reviews. I am getting very excited for the chapters to come. I think you're all really gonna enjoy what I got coming next ;) Please keep reading and reviewing, thanks :D
