Chapter: 035- Stuff out of Rocks.
Location: The Mountain Where The Lights Touch the Earth
Characters: Vexen, Larxene, Zexion, Axel, Marluxia, Lexaeus.
Rating/Warnings: PG. Mild swearing, the usual violent thoughts from everyone.
Summary: This just aren't getting any better for anyone here in the forest, and it's starting to wear on everyone's nerves.
Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, Grad School, you know, eating the soul, eating the life, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Chapter 035 : The Mountain Where the Lights Touch the Earth – Stuff out of Rocks.
Axel was really starting to get tired of the woods. Sure, they were nice to look at, and the little birdies flying around and singing was nice when it was sunny and warm (which was rare) and the air was nice and clean…
But it was cold. And wet. And he hated the stupid little birds.
He raked a hand through his hair. Goddamn. I didn't think everything would be so annoying by this point. Everything and everyone, really. Zexion had, at least, quieted down somewhat from Larxene's last little outburst. In fact, the little shrimp had been quieter than normal, brooding, sullen, and Axel was pretty sure he'd heard him sneezing at some point or another.
Ha-ha. Pathetic little wimp.
That thought was, of course, immediately followed by Oh, shit, what if I'm next? That little creepy bastard better stay the hell away from me…
He rubbed his face. Don't worry about it. Worryin' won't help. Now, let's focus on something nice. Like… Marluxia. Well, Marluxia's suffering, anyway…
The pink-haired Nobody had been more quiet than anything else since his ill-fated dish-duty had begun. He still shot irritated glances towards Axel whenever Larxene got a little to… vocal in her appreciations.
Heh. Jealous, Marluxia? I'd never have thought.
The ass was probably jealous just because he wanted something Axel had. You always were selfish, Marluxia. Always have been, always will be.
Besides, Axel wasn't happy with the vapid blond bitch. He had a hankering for a much more interesting blond.
Hard to get to him when I'm stuck in this damned forest!
Growling to himself, he folded his hands under his armpits in order to warm them. Damn, we need to get out of this damned forest… I just want to see Roxas again, dammit, that's just too much to ask, isn't it…
He glanced up as Zexion, nose faintly pink, called everyone together in a voice that was slightly thicker than usual. Great. Time to go play nice with the special kids. He pulled himself to his feet with as much grace as he could muster with wet leaves sticking to his backside, and drifted over to the others.
"It's no use staying here," Larxene was already trumpeting loudly. "There's nothing here for us. And I do mean nothing."
"As loath as I am to agree," Marluxia said, stiffly, "Larxene may have a point."
"I hate this place," Axel offered. He was ignored, which made him sulk briefly.
"This place is nicely anonymous," Zexion said, and turned away to sneeze. "Bud," he admitted, rubbing his nose with one hand, "we bay as well discuz leabing."
Vexen looked downright amused at Zexion's new speech impediment. "Feeling a little under the weather, Zexion? Do you have a suggestion as to where we go next?"
"It should be a group decision." Lexaeus rumbled, draping the stitched-together skins of several nights' dinners over Zexion's shoulders. "No more haring about willy-nilly, with one person opening a portal on which all our lives depend."
"Just prancing about in the darkness is dangerous," Vexen agreed cautiously, sitting back against a tree. "Planning is essential."
"I want someplace warmer," Axel groused. "And drier."
"With better company," Larxene sniffed. "I'm tired of trying to wrest my entertainment from Zexion's bitter fingers."
"Shut up," Zexion grumbled. "I told you, I'll not let you find another reason to cry wolf on assault."
Larxene's lips pursed, and it appeared that she was now rethinking her witty riposte from earlier days. "Hmph. Somewhere with civilization would be nice."
"But not a desert," Marluxia added, with a short glare towards Axel. The redhead shrugged.
"Hey, it seemed like a great idea at the time. Look, if you all want suggestions? I've got one: Twilight Town."
Everyone stared at him for a moment, and he waited for the cacophony of voices to start, the protests, the declarations of insanity, the insults. It never came; the others sat back, chins in respective hands, looking thoughtful.
Presented with such a glorious opportunity, Axel decided to press his luck. "Seriously, think about it. It's nice, it's civilized, it's warm… I mean, really. We can have real food again, not half-raw deer or rodent, or whatever Larxene manages to catch and kill in a day. Coffee! Tea! Cake!"
Zexion rubbed his nose, sighing. "Twilight Town."
Vexen wrung his cold hands together. "Perhaps a little too close, too close to the Darkness. We should rethink…"
"I disagree, Vexen," Marluxia interrupted. "Twilight Town would be a very good starting place to rebuild our supplies. We are running low on favoring herbs, salt, our blankets are getting worn and dirty, and I have lost two forks in the stream." He gave everyone cold glares as if to say If I had help and you idiots didn't let me work until my hands were frostbitten and numb with cold, it wouldn't have happened! Idiots!
"Twilight Town does have its advantages," Lexaeus agreed, his low rumble cutting between the sharp glares traveling back and forth between Marluxia and Vexen. "Perhaps Axel's idea has merit."
"For once," Marluxia agreed, if reluctantly. "I, for one, cannot think of a better place, I suppose…"
"Surely, there…" Vexen fell silent, turning quickly as the bushes to his left began to rustle.
"Oh, great," Larxene groaned. "I hope it's not another one of those big wolves…"
"Maybe it's a bear," Axel pulled himself to his feet, flames already licking along his fingers. "Or another moose." He cast a significant glance at Lexaeus, who was already standing, hovering protectively over his bedmate, whose own hands were out in an unmistakable gesture of summoning.
Everyone was on a hair trigger, and had to immediately stumble back and dispel half-called weapons when a short, old woman toddled into their camp.
She looked around, looked at them, looked briefly amused before arching an eyebrow. "Oh? What's all this?"
No one could form any sort of response. Struck, quite literally, dumb, everyone simply stared for a moment, before rounding on Vexen.
"You said this world was uninhabited," Zexion hissed, eyes sparking briefly.
"I said I thought it was uninhabited, and how was I to know! We didn't see any sign of civilization, any spark of human life…" Vexen snarled in response, eyes narrowed.
"I would hardly call them civilized," Marluxia's eyes never left the old woman. "What now?"
Hands behind her back, the woman hummed to herself as if she couldn't hear them plainly discussing her as if she was a brick. Lexaeus was the only one who didn't speak, eyes flicking between the looming peak of the mountain and her.
"We could just get rid of her," Larxene suggested with a giggle, and was immediately shot down with five "No"s. She pouted. "Just a suggestion."
"Look, ok, let me handle this," Axel said, pulling away from the group. Before anyone could stop him, he puffed his chest up and swaggered towards the old woman. "Hey, what gives you the right to just barge into our camp like this, don't you know who we are?"
"Hm. Well, I was just on my way back from the Mountain where the Great Spirits touch the Earth," she said, rubbing her chin. "They had some fascinating things to say, let me tell you. Anyway. Oh, goodness me, I suppose I should introduce myself!" She grinned, not at all afraid of Axel's presence, and put a hand to her chest. "I am the angakkuq for my tribe." At everyone's blank look, she sighed. "Ah… I suppose you could call it "spirit woman" or… "shaman", if you wanted to. Hm. As for why I'm here, why, your camp wasn't here when I came through the first time." She looked honestly amused. "Can you say you own this Earth?"
"No," Lexaeus rumbled, cutting off whatever Axel was going to say. He looked more relaxed now; something had apparently been bothering him, and this woman must have explained it. "Not technically."
Zexion looked rather amused. Axel glowered at Lexaeus and quickly snagged control of the conversation back before anyone could interrupt again. "Look, you'd better just move on, and not tell anyone you saw us, got it, or something bad might happen."
He figured this wasn't the best idea, because he felt several angry pairs of eyes on his back. Relax, assholes, I'm not really going to do anything to this stupid old bitch. Sheesh, you'd kill me before I'd even try, thinking I'd turn on you all next. Heh. Maybe you're smarter than I gave you credit for…
The old woman's lips were pursed, her eyes narrowed. "I didn't peg you for a bunch of tuurngait," she finally said, taking a step back. "And I wasn't warned either."
"Turnwhatsit?" Larxene piped up, eyes narrowed. "Are you insulting us?"
"Evil spirits," the shaman said, jabbing a finger at Axel's chest. "You're quite rude and arrogant, but I didn't take you for evil…"
"Clearly, you've never met him before," someone muttered, and Axel was almost certain it was Marluxia.
"We're not evil," Zexion broke in quickly, raking a nervous hand through his hair. He immediately followed that with a wet sneeze.
Axel rolled his eyes. "Look, uh, we're not evil spirits, we're Gods, got it memorized? Look, we just didn't want to draw the attention to ourselves, really. Yeah, see, I'm the Great Sun God and he's the Earth God and over there you've got the Storm Goddess and the Winter God and he's the Shadow God, and, uh… the guy with the pink hair is the God of Fertility."
"Oh, so that's a man, I see," the shaman said, and Axel had to swallow a cackle at Marluxia's strangled noise of rage. The woman, however, seemed unconvinced at Axel's brilliant ploy. "And… Gods. Of course."
"No, I mean it," Axel said, throwing his arms out to his sides dramatically. "I'll show you that the great Axel doesn't lie!" His chakrams were in his hands with a flare of orange light, spinning in his hands with a simple flick of his wrists, and yellow flame licked its way along the metal spokes.
He sensed everyone tense, knew that if he wasn't quick and smart about this, other weapons would soon be drawn. He kept the show brief but flashy, dispelling his weapons with a small explosion of fire.
Nose twitching, the woman didn't seem afraid or even slightly cowed. "Hm," was all she said in reply to that, rubbing her chin. "You have interesting totems," she said instead, picking up an empty can of beans. "What sort of animal is this?"
"…it's a can," Axel said, briefly at a loss for words at her apparent stupidity and rapid shift of topics. "…a tin can," he elaborated after a moment.
"Hm," the shaman woman said again, shaking it briefly before tossing it over her shoulder. "That'll never do. If you're truly God spirits then I should think you'd need real totems on the earth."
"Uh," Axel said intelligently. "Well, sure, but you know, we really should be going soon, you know, important Godly duties and all that."
"Now hold on just a minute," the woman said, and it woke some distant memory in the back of Axel's mind, of some similar old woman with a wrinkled face, someone to be obeyed at all costs. "I'm pretty sure you're the group they were talking about… you're certainly strange enough."
Zexion's eyes flicked to Lexaeus' nervously, then back to the woman. "Who was talking about us?"
The woman waved a hand, frowning thoughtfully. "I mean, this is Salmon Run Falls, and you are certainly a strange group. Ah, well. I suppose it's for the best after all, I'll never use these…" she started fishing around in a pouch at her waist, muttering, pulling out small bits of sinewy string, a fishing hook, a polished, rounded stone, a bundle of dried herbs, and the furry foot of some sort of small mammal. "Oh, where did I put those…"
Axel traded a look with Zexion. "I should've let you handle this," he muttered. "You're better with crazy people."
"Aha!" the shaman straightened, hands cupped together. "Now, I am Tenana," she said, smiling. "And you are?"
"…Axel," Axel said. "We went over this once. Remember?"
"Akychal," she mused. "Hm. Well, let's see. This one should fit you nicely," she pressed a carved stone into his hand. He held it up, frowning. It was neither shiny, nor pretty; just a regular brown rock that had been carefully shaped to look like a dog.
"…it's a rock," he said.
"It's a totem," she corrected him.
"It's a dog," he added, determined to be upset with this.
"No, you're definitely not doglike," Tenana looked distinctly amused. "It's a Coyote. And boy, it's hit the nail on the head this time. You certainly are a trickster. 'Coyote is known as the great one and the foolish one, and will go to great troubles to ensure the safety and well-being of those closest to him,'" she said, and sounded like she was quoting someone.
"Uh." Axel quickly pocketed the rock. "Right. Huh."
She simply gave him another piercing look, and he felt suddenly quite, quite uncomfortable, like she was seeing far more than he wanted her to. He quickly took a step back. "Look, let's just… hurry this up, huh? We're busy beings."
Snorting, the woman moved over to Larxene, giving her a smile. "Must be difficult being the only woman in the group."
"You've no idea," Larxene sighed dramatically. "What have you got for me?" she then asked, perking at the idea of getting any sort of possible gift that was better than what Axel got.
"Hm, let's see here… Aha, here you are." She pressed another totem-rock into Larxene's hand. "Fox; witty, clever, crafty, feminine magic and feminine courage. 'Fox teaches
us how to slip out of unpleasant situations quietly and unnoticed.'" She smiled, patted Larxene's hand in a motherly manner and moved past her to Marluxia.
"I do like your hair," she said, holding out a totem to him. "And I think this fits you nicely."
Marluxia snatched it from her, barely even looking at it. "Hmph," he said. "We don't have time for this."
"Hawk," Tenana said, ignoring his rudeness. "Observant, leadership, courage. Pride, nobility and strength, beauty and grace. The hawk is regal and aggressive. Having this totem can be bittersweet," she added, her expression becoming serious and stern. "If we accept its presence in our life we will be asked to surrender anything that doesn't honor the integrity of all life, be it an idea, a feeling or an action."
Marluxia's jaw twitched lightly. "I accept no demands. Especially not from you."
"Oh, I'm not sure how much of a choice you'll have," Tenana shrugged. "The spirits work in strange ways." She turned away from Marluxia, who appeared to be fighting down an angry snarl.
Vexen had been largely ignoring the confrontation, eyes distant, mind focused more on what the near future held, and the probability of going back to Twilight Town. As Tenana approached him, his gaze snapped back into focus, and he straightened. "What is it," he snapped, drawing chilly dignity about him like a cloak.
"Something for you, too," she said thoughtfully, handing him his own carved rock. "Crow suits you best, so they say. Survival, eloquence, teaching, a cunning trickster in your own right, though different than Coyote. Change follows you, though you may not welcome it." She took a step back, regarding him thoughtfully. "Crow knows the unknowable mysteries of creation and is the keeper of all sacred law."
Vexen gave her a faint smile, and pocketed the totem. "Thank you," he said, determined to be polite where Marluxia had been crass. What utter nonsense. I never held with spirituality.
"Dusty old bird," Larxene tittered behind her hand. She'd seen several crows already, loudly cawing and rattling about. Vexen gave her a cold glare.
Tenana pretended to ignore all this, too, and moved to Lexaeus. "Why, I've never seen a man as large as you," she said, eyes crinkling in a smile. "Do you fall under the category of "gentle giant"?"
"I will not harm you," Lexaeus kept his arms relaxed at his sides. "As long as you do not mean us any harm."
Tenana just smiled and held out a totem, which he took without hesitation. "Bear," she said, and chuckled. "And not just for the fact that you are as large as one! Bear brings patience, strength, power, self-knowledge and fearlessness. Bear is guarding, nurturing, fiercely loyal and protective." Her eyes flicked between Lexaeus and Zexion; she hadn't missed the way he had stood so protectively over him. "But beware, Bear can sometimes be too quick to anger and too sure of it own power. While they have little to fear they can forget caution, which is an important trait to have." She smiled and turned to Zexion. "And, let's see, last of all…"
Zexion straightened, meeting her gaze evenly and calmly, and promptly squinched his face up to prevent a sneeze. After a moment, he fought it off and shook his head. "Hmph. Continue."
Tenana merely chuckled and handed him a small totem. "Weasel," she said, and couldn't help but grin at Zexion's somewhat crestfallen look. Someone behind her snickered. "Don't be so disheartened, Weasel is elusive, intuitive, ingenious, crafty and intelligent, as well as cunning, fierce and relentless. Weasel has a keen sense of smell, and an ability to see clearly in the dark, linking them to the underworld, where the secrets of creation are hidden." She folded her arms into her sleeves, and her voice dropped a bit in volume. "But it is said that Weasel is a loner who has no code of honor. They often kill more than they can eat, and steal food from other creatures. Be aware of both of the positive aspects of your totem, and the negative, and work to counteract it!"
She turned to face the others. "That goes for you all, friends," she said, bestowing everyone severe looks. "These totems should serve to remind you of who you are, and to help guide you in your quest."
"Who said we were on a quest?" Axel's fingers automatically dropped to the pocket of his coat, fingering the carved coyote.
"Well, I should be going!" Tenana was suddenly all smiles again. "It was really a pleasure meeting all of you, and if you are truly Gods, then it was an honor indeed!" She bowed. "Now, remember what I've told you, and may the spirits guide your paths. Hm, good thing I had those extra totems lying around…" Smiling, she wandered off out of the clearing, heading back towards her tribe, leaving the surprised and silent Nobodies behind.
"…so," Axel finally said. "Twilight Town?"
"Sounds good to me," Larxene nodded.
"I agree," Zexion looked down at the carved weasel in his hand. He closed his fingers around it, turned his hand over to drop the stone and stopped, fist clenched tightly. Then, he put his hand in his pocket and sighed. "Let's go, quickly, before someone less friendly shows up. This world is inhabited by civilized humans after all."
"I would hardly call wearing skins and believing in rocks civilized," Marluxia scoffed, but he, too, did not throw his totem away. "This is clearly no great world of men."
"It doesn't matter," Lexaeus rumbled. "We have done what we needed to do, and now we should return somewhere to restock our supplies. Come."
"Right," Axel agreed, turning and opening up a portal. "Twilight Town, this way." And just to show everyone that he wasn't as much of a trickster as his totem- aw, hell, I've gotta stop believing in this fairy-tale bullshit- showed, he stepped through first, knowing the others would follow.