Author's Notes: As always, thanks for your reviews. Tarsix does look sorta like a cat, Yellowspotted lizard, but it's closest to a tarsier in appearance, of course. The plot is going to pick up the pace a bit more at this point, though we're really only just getting started with it.
Chapter 14: Outside
Jinx, like his guide, was peering intently over the ship's railing, watching the massive blue serpent lazily coil through the water, a yellow eye occasionally flashing up to discern its effects on the shipboard humans. As he observed, Jinx felt an unsettling sensation build at the base of his black feathers. It was a persistent, tingling itch, one that was so slight as to be barely noticeable but nevertheless maddeningly persistent. It seemed almost as though his feathers were vibrating in their sockets, twitching and twisting with a life of their own. He had barely enough time to comprehend it, however, before the action that it had portended manifested itself as the boat gave a sudden, wrenching yaw. Jinx's relaxed grip on the rail could not stop him from being pitched overboard, his talons wildly clawing at the empty air.
Jinx quickly opened his wings, bringing his fall to a halt as he flapped madly, perhaps two feet from the water's surface. Croaking irritably, he made to flutter back up to the deck, only to be distracted by the cacophonous splash that blossomed nearby. Squawking irritably at the dousing he received as a result, Jinx flapped closer to the source of the noise. He saw that it was a young human boy who had apparently fallen from the ship, who had hit the water's surface and was now proceeding to sink fast.
For one curious moment, Jinx couldn't recognize the terrified child's face. Then, with a sudden sickening realization, he saw that it was his own guide, Tobias, who had plunged into the water. Even as he realized this, Tobias sunk from view, leaving Jinx to hover dazedly over the spot, unsure of what to do.
A hump of blue-scaled body rose from the water nearby, only to be followed by another, and another. The leering head that broke the surface before them snapped Jinx out of his stupor. Of course! The Slipstri would be sure to help. Jinx eagerly darted over to hover before the Pokemon's face. "Please, help me! My guide fell in the water, just there, and he's drowning. Save him!"
The Slipstri was completely taken aback as the Murkrow swooped down in front of his snout. "What?" he asked.
Jinx was fighting to keep the panic that was quickly rising in his breast from leaking out into his words, but it was a losing battle. "My guide! He's fallen off the boat and he's drowning! Save him, please!"
The Slipstri's cunning yellow eyes, which had widened in shock as the Murkrow appeared before him, now narrowed unpleasantly as he processed the information that it provided him with. His mouth opened in a leering, fangy grin. "Drowning, isss he?" he hissed, cutting off any further pleas by Jinx. "An amusssing habit of humansss, that."
Jinx felt cold horror begin to creep in over the panic clutching at his hear. "No, it's not amusing. He's my guide; he can't drown!"
"I asssure you that he can and probably will," replied the Splipstri. "Now, if you'll excussse me, I'm misssing the ssshow." His horned head began to sink from sight once more.
Jinx went a little bit mad at this point. Unable to deal with the feelings of futility and hopelessness that engulfed his small form, he lashed blindly out at the Slipstri. "You can't do this! Save my guide! Save him! Save him!" he shrieked as he lunged forward at the retreating Slipstri. His outstretched talons skated across the slick scales that covered the Pokemon's face before finding purchase in the tough flesh surrounding his right nostril. Jinx's claws tore into it with a will, and the Slipstri bellowed with shock and pain.
The massive Pokemon writhed angrily, throwing Jinx off and lashing the Sea Pidgeot with his broad and powerful tail. Jinx was oblivious to the screams and cries echoing from the ship as it listed once more, quickly regaining control of his flight. The Slipstri, too, quickly regained control of himself. He lunged at Jinx with murder in his eyes and dozens of needle-sharp teeth in his gaping maw.
As Jinx weaved and dodged, avoiding the snapping teeth and battering snout of the Slipstri, he babbled wildly, not fully comprehending his own words as they tumbled from his beak. "You can't do this! He's my guide, mine! He can't drown! They gave him to me! I was his first! He can't drown!"
The Slipstri, though maddened by the Murkrow's impudent attack and his own failure to prevent it, was still brought up short by Jinx's proclamation. "They gave him to you?" he asked, halting his attacks.
"Yes, I was his first," Jinx repeated, panting as he wearily flapped to maintain altitude, his sanity slowly returning.
"A Murkrow guide," murmured the Slipstri, half to himself. "Interesssting." Then, without warning and before Jinx had time to respond, he submerged once more, sinuous body going into a dive as he strove towards the bottom of the ocean.
Jinx was left alone to desperately circle the area where he had last seen Tobias. He pumped his wings wearily, already beginning to tire from his frantic maneuvers to avoid the Slipstri's jaws and the effort of keeping himself aloft for so long. Murkrow, after all, were not adapted to long, sustained flights as were Pidgeot. He was in shock as he numbly pumped his black-feathered wings; in all of his short life, Tobias was the first human that he had felt remotely close to, and now he was, apparently, gone.
Without warning, the itching sensation that had preceded the ship's sudden lurch began again, though even fainter this time, and restricted to his left side. He whipped around to look in that direction as quickly as he was able, only to find himself regarding the departing Sea Pidgeot. And there, on the railing, was a boy, one who had apparently just turned away from watching the Murkrow. Jinx recognized him as guide who had sent that arrogant Scalgolin against him in battle and, what's worse, won.
The itching sensation ceased once more, the Sea Pidgeot sailing swiftly onward, propelled by one of its captain's Pidgeot, eager to speed the boat away from the marauding Slipstri. Somehow, Jinx was convinced that this whole incident had been that boy's doing, and he watched the figure recede into the distance with unveiled hatred.
As the boy drifted from sight, Jinx returned to his morose flapping. He thought dully that perhaps he might continue to circle here until his wings at last gave out, and then he, too, would be claimed by the ocean.
His dark thoughts were brought to an abrupt close as the water beneath him rose up once more, sloshing aside to make way for the head of the Slipstri, which once more thrust its way into the salty air. This time, however, there was a human draped across his broad horns, lying on his side in what seemed to be a peaceful slumber. "Your guide ssswimsss like a boulder," complained the Slipstri as he caught sight of Jinx.
Overjoyed, Jinx fluttered down to land on Tobias's shoulder. The boy hung limply across the yellowed horns of the serpent, one hand trailing listlessly in the water. As Jinx made his landing, he found that the flesh beneath his claws was horribly cold.
"He's dead!" Jinx shrieked, taking flight once more.
"Don't be ssstupid," the Slipstri snapped irritably. "I wouldn't have bothered to bring him up if he wasss dead. No, the water isss cold. He livesss."
As if to verify the Pokemon's statement, Tobias stirred faintly, vomiting forth a stream of seawater. The Slipstri shook his head irritably, jolting Jinx, who had reluctantly landed once more upon Tobias's shoulder. No further signs of life were forthcoming, however. Tobias lay still and cold across the Slipstri's horns. "If you are lucky, he may continue to live. Now, we mussst be going. Time isss ssshort," the Slipstri announced.
He began to swim, four powerful flippers beating in tandem to rocket him forward, sinuous body and fluked tail following the stroke through. He traveled even faster than the Sea Pidgeot had, slashing through the salty water like a blue lightning bolt. Jinx clung to Tobias and marveled as the massive Slipstri effortlessly glided through the water, seemingly able to take his remarkable speed for granted. The Murkrow was even more surprised, however, to find that he was traveling away from shore.
"Where are you going," Jinx asked, puzzled.
"Outssside," the Slipstri replied without slowing.
"What's outside?" Jinx persisted.
"Don't asssk sssuch ssstupid quessstionsss," the Slipstri hissed in irritation. "Don't dissstract me; this will be hard enough asss it isss."
"But why don't you just take him back to the mainland?" Jinx persisted.
"I sssaid be quiet," snarled the Slipstri, tipping his head at a dangerous angle so that it appeared that Tobias might slide from his horns. Jinx fell silent, fuming inwardly. He felt uneasy, disquieted by the Slipstri's odd actions and suspicious of his motives. What could he do, though? Tobias's life relied upon the Slipstri's cooperation, and Jinx couldn't risk irritating the serpent lest his kindness run out. The Slipstri righted his head and continued forward.
The Slipstri and his passengers drew nearer to the World's Teeth. They now loomed before Jinx, thrusting over fifty feet out of the water. Jinx shivered slightly as he observed their weathered surfaces, imagining how truly massive the stone structures must be to still thrust up from the water even as they rested on the ocean floor. The Slipstri strove forward steadily, closing the distance to the grim monoliths. As he neared them, Jinx noticed something odd in the waters ahead. There was a perfect strip of calm, perhaps two feet wide, stretching out in both directions as far as he could see. The water's surface rippled and undulated normally on either side of the band, though the waters beyond it seemed greener for some reason, but those within its boundaries might well have been frozen ice.
"What's tha--" Jinx began, only to have his question answered as the Slipstri lunged across the closer edge of the barrier. It seemed that he had swum beneath a great waterfall of invisible molasses. Jinx felt a great weight pressing down on him, something viscous oozing down from the top of his head to weigh down the brim of his feathery "hat." The mysterious substance trickled into his open beak, choking off the half-formed question as it strove to force itself down his throat. He reflexively closed his eyes before they, too, could become exposed to the sinister muck. Everywhere that the vile goo touched stung and burned, the itching sensation that Jinx had felt on the boat magnified a thousand times over.
Though it couldn't have lasted more than a couple seconds, the ordeal seemed to stretch on for an eternity as the Slipstri strove to break free from the cloying embrace of the odd substance. At last, his efforts were rewarded, his snout breaking into open air once more. Soon, Jinx, too, was being borne out of the strange muck. He gasped for air as it retreated from his still-open beak, uncertainly flexed his wings as they, too, were freed. At last, the miring substance reluctantly releases its hold on his tailfeathers. With its retreat the pain of its touch departed as well, and Jinx sighed with relief. Sensing that the danger to them had passed, Jinx opened his eyes, only to have a new pain replace the old.
Blinding radiance exploded in his vision, fiery light racing along his optic nerve and into his muddle brain. Jinx squeezed his eyes shut again with a small moan. Beneath him he could feel the Slipstri rocketing along once more, his tail finally extricated from whatever that strange patch had been. He seemed oblivious to the burning light.
Reluctantly, Jinx opened his eyes once more, though he couldn't force them wider than slits. Though they watered furiously, he was able to make out the area around him well enough. Nothing in his surroundings seemed to have changed, though they were now passing directly beside the World's Teeth. All that he could see before him was the sea and empty sky, as before. As no explanation seemed forthcoming, Jinx asked, "What's that light?"
The Slipstri chuckled, a noise that startled the Murkrow, who had been accustomed to hearing only derisive hisses and snarls from the huge serpent. "That," the Slipstri informed him, "Isss the great Sssol himssself, watching over you. Don't worry; you'll get usssed to it in due courssse."
Jinx was amazed. Was it possible that the sun could suddenly gain such fury? Curious, he glanced back over his shoulder to see if anything seemed different in the land behind. There were the World's Teeth, now basked in the unusual radiance of the sun, and beyond that…beyond that was nothing! No trace of Waytar was to be seen, not even a smudge on the horizon that would indicate land. "It's gone," Jinx breathed in shock.
The Slipstri didn't even turn around to confirm the Murkrow's statement. "It'sss not gone, jussst hidden. No one on thisss ssside of the ssshield can sssee anything of Waytar, nor can they enter itsss bordersss."
"That was the shield that we came through?" Jinx gasped. "But…it's supposed to be able to keep anything and everything out of--or in--Waytar! How could we pass through it?"
"Oh, you believe thossse foolsss?" snorted the Slipstri. "They only wisssh that the ssshield were that ssstrong. Oh, yesss. And that isss why we had to leave, you sssee? You Murkrow are rather…dangerousss…to them. More ssso, the people who guide them. I could not take you back to land, or they would sssimply try to him or yourssself again. But never fear; there are few who can passs through the ssshield. We jussst happen to be three of the chosssen few who can."
"Chosen? By whom?" Jinx asked. "And why are they after us?"
"No, no, that wasssn't the bessst way to put it," grunted the Sliptstri. "Not chosssen, but unfortunately lucky, I sssupossse. It mattersss little. Asss to why they are after usss, well, that ssshould be obviousss."
"But it's not," Jinx replied petulantly. The Slipstri ignored him. Their trip continued in virtual silence, only the shushing sound of water gushing past the Slipstri's striving body and the sighing of wind across the ocean being heard. The landscape remained featureless; if anything, it became less so, as the World's Teeth at last disappeared into the distance behind the trio. Tobias seemed unchanged; his body was warmer now, at least, but he still showed no signs of life.
Hours rolled past. The sun sank towards the waters behind them, and at last Jinx's eyes, which had barely grown accustomed to its burning fury, were granted some reprieve. Though they were apparently still far from shore, the Slipstri slowed down, eventually coming to a halt, floating languidly in the middle of the open ocean.
"Why're we stopping?" Jinx cawed. "We're in the middle of the ocean! There's nothing for miles around!"
"Thisss isss where your free ride endsss," the Slipstri replied. "I will go no further. I have strayed far enough from my territory already. But never fear…here there resssidesss a…friend…of mine who will carry you to your journey'sss end."
"Who is this friend?" Jinx asked suspiciously. The Slipstri merely hissed quietly, as though shushing the Murkrow. He then suddenly gave a loud bellow that rolled out across the empty water. Jinx nearly lost his grip on Tobias, glaring angrily down at the Slipstri as the huge serpent cocked his head slightly, waiting for any sort of reply.
The call was repeated three times before the Slipstri received his answer. After the fourth roar, by which point Jinx was beginning to go deaf and grumpy, a huge form rose from the waters before them. Water sloughed from azure scales and opaque membranes as the creature welled up from the depths. "Alsokaran!" it roared, peering down at the Slipstri from on high. "How dare you enter my territory?"
"Might I remind you, dear Lokalor, that I merely permit you to retain thisss asss your territory?" asked the Slipstri, whom Jinx assumed must be Alsokaran. "I am merely asssking that you, my tenant, perform one sssmall tasssk for me in return for my generosssity in allowing you to live here."
The Gyrados, for this is what Jinx found Lokalor to be, scowled even more ferociously than was normal for one of his ilk. "A small favor? What is the occasion?"
"I merely require that you transssport this human and thisss Murkrow to the nearest human sssettlement," Alsokaran replied. "And the occasssion…I am feeling particularly generousss. Ssso generousss, in fact, that I'm willing to allow you to come away from thisss encounter alive, sssshould you accept."
Jinx was shocked. Alsokaran seemed completely sure of himself, staring coolly up at the towering Gyardos as though he had just announced that it might possibly be sunny tomorrow. How could the Slipstri hope to battle a Gyrados--and an obviously powerful specimen of a Gyardos, at that--while hampered with a comatose human and a tiny Murkrow?
Lokalor had no doubt of Alsokaran's sincerity, however. He seemed to droop a bit, his long body sinking a few feet back into the water. After a moment of silence, he finally acquiesced. "Very well, Alsokaran," he spat. "I will carry your…human friend and his charge to the mainland." He bowed his great head, bringing it down so that it was level with Alsokaran.
The Slipstri smiled indulgently at the cowed Gyrados, then tipped his head forward so that Tobias slid from his slick horns, Jinx fluttering up and out of the way. Lokalor snorted, tossing his head so that the boy came to rest high up on his forehead, just in front of the major ridge that rose from his head. The arrangement would be uncomfortable for the Gyrados, but there was really nowhere else that he could hope to carry Tobias. Lokalor straightened his neck once more, lifting Tobias into the sky. Jinx landed upon the boy's shoulder once more and peered back down at the Slipstri below.
"Sssee to it that the boy arrivesss sssafely," Alsokaran called. "I will hear of it if you ssshould dissspossse of him, Lokalor. And I can asssure you, my punissshment will be mossst terrible. Ssso carry him carefully. Farewell, Murkrow."
"Thank you, Alsokaran," Jinx replied, genuinely grateful to the powerful Slipstri.
Alsokaran snorted derisively. "I didn't do it for you, or for your foolisssh guide, for that matter. It would truly have been a worthwhile treat to watch the boy perisssh. But I think that it will be even more amusssing to watch what will transsspire if he isss kept alive. You are in my debt, Murkrow. I expect to be repaid in full for my trouble." And, with a flash of fluked tail and scaled body, he dove beneath the surface, vanishing from sight.
Lokalor growled in the general direction that Alsokaran had apparently been headed, then wheeled about and began to plow through the water, considerably more slowly than had the Slipstri. "You're lucky, Murkrow. If it weren't for Alsokaran, I would gladly tear you both to pieces in an instant for entering my territory so flippantly." Jinx, not knowing what to reply to this, remained silent. Lokalor continued, "Though you're even more lucky that he helped you at all. Why he did such a thing I'm sure I'll never know. Never fear, I'll get you to land. But my generosity ends there. If I see you again, Murkrow, I'll be sure to kill you."
The Gyrados fell silent, undulating sullenly across the trackless ocean, intent on a destination only he could envision. Jinx, wholly distrustful of the great sea beast, clung to his guide's unconscious form, red eyes watching as night crept over the open waters, marveling at the strange points of light that appeared in the sky next to the familiar moon. Its usually pale face shone a piercing silver, and Jinx wondered sullenly why, in this unfamiliar land, it had to be so light, even at night. He was still watching as the dark line of shore appeared on the horizon, drawing closer by the minute.