The Tale of Three
Chapter 32
Past and Present
Boredom hung in the air as every person on the bottom floor of the Avarius household stood or sat around doing nothing, all of them waiting for Meteora's return. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes had turned into a full hour since she had left in a hurry, and now everybody was just doing their own thing. Brudo was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, Jenkins was grimacing in a corner while leaning up against the wall, Dennis was mumbling something to himself, Mariposa was rubbing her arm for a reason that only she remembered at the moment, and Lady Avarius was still looking over the family portraits, studying each and every fleck of paint like a critic at a high-class art gallery.
Jenkins tapped his foot impatiently against the floor. Previously he thought she had gone to use the bathroom or something equally insignificant, but after a full hour he was wondering if she had just ran off entirely. That loathsome and untrustworthy Voice might have told her to do so, but if that was the case, then they shouldn't be waiting. They should be out looking for her. Who knows what could have happened.
'I hate all of this.' He thought. 'Why couldn't today have just been a normal day? With normal things trying to kill us? Hell, I'd take another squad of those demons over having to wait around in this wreck of a house. God knows how it's still standing. And we learned that the Avarius' are fucking immortal now, so that's a thing. But why them? What makes them so special? They were hardly a noteworthy family before all this bullshit, so if there's a specific reason they were spared, I'm not seeing it.'
He looked over at Brudo, who looked like he was in a slightly better mood, abit still frowning. No doubt he was still recovering from Jenkins utburst earlier. Probably scared the old bastard half to death. Along with everyone else. Especially Mariposa, after he grabbed her arm and-
And...
'Oh. Shit.' He thought, a wave of shame coming over him. 'Damn it, I can't believe I did that. The look she had on her face...I definitely hurt her. And that meager apology I gave her afterwards was hardly worthy of anything. I'll apologize for real after we leave. The only thing I can do now is hope that she forgives me…'
He turned back toward Brudo. 'But as for you...don't think you're out of the woods yet.' He thought, almost believing that Brudo could hear him for some reason. 'I wouldn't be surprised if this family tears you to pieces for what you've done. And I for one would love to watch that happen.'
Jenkins almost smiled right then and there, but this quickly faded back into a frown as realization hit him in the face like a sack of bricks.
'Oh, don't get so enthusiastic.' He told himself. 'Tearing him apart is what you would do. Not them. Hell, they might be grateful that he saved them all. You're the one who would rather die by the truth then live a lie. Dennis, Lady Avarius, and maybe Cudo are an exception, but I don't think the rest of the family will care about his lies. They'll just care about being alive. I'll have to tell Dennis to try and knock some sense into them.'
After he had finished this disturbing chain of thoughts, Jenkins went back to waiting with the others. And waiting. And waiting. And once it was apparent that Meteora wasn't going to return anytime soon, he straightened himself, brushed his hair out his eyes and got ready to leave.
"Mariposa." He said, catching her attention. "We're leaving. We're going to look for Meteora, because she's obviously not coming back anytime soon."
"Oh thank god." Mariposa said in relief. "I thought I'd have to request to go do that myself. What took you so long?"
"I got tired of waiting." Jenkins said. "And you could have asked at any time. I'm not sure I would have stopped you…"
"Gee, that would have been nice to know." She scoffed. "But it doesn't matter. Okay. We're leaving." She turned towards the various Avarius's in the room. "Dennis, thanks for your help. Brudo, not so much. And um...you." She said said, pointing at Lady Avarius. "Do yourself a favor and rip Brudo out of those paintings. It'll make staring at them a lot less painful."
Lady Avarius didn't respond, but Dennis nodded. "No problem." He said. "And if you guys ever need any help…...feel free to drop by I guess? I don't think we'll be leaving this place anytime soon."
"Why not?" Jenkins asked.
"Are you kidding?" Dennis asked, shocked that they would ask a question like that. "We have nowhere else to go. This house is all we have now. Everything else is destroyed or dead. There's nothing out there."
"We're still here." Mariposa pointed out.
Dennis paused for a moment. "Well, you guys are the exception. You got one of the worlds biggest badasses raising and protecting you out there, and your sister has magic. I think you're good."
"I appreciate the compliment." Jenkins said, even if he personally felt it was something of an exaggeration. "But there's still a lot out there. In fact, we know where we're going after we take care of the Underworld war."
"After the what?"
"Not important right now." Jenkins said. "Hopefully, at least. But like I said, we know where we're going. There's a community a long way away from here. Meteora said so after she communicated with her mother using some kind of dream spell. It's full of almost everyone from this town that survived. That's our end goal."
"..."
"So yeah. You could just go there."
"Why didn't you mention this earlier?" Dennis asked. "We might already be packing our things! Now that we know there's still a place out there for us, we have no reason to stay here!"
"Slipped my mind." Jenkins said. "Simple as that. But you shouldn't leave yet. You need us to help you get there. Since you've been in this house since the beginning, you wouldn't last a day out there." He pointed towards the door. "Everything that isn't an ally wants to kill you. You can't trust anyone, can't listen to anyone, best thing to do is lay low and keep to yourself. Which, I'll admit, we haven't been very successful at…"
"Okay, but just how bad is it?" Dennis asked. "What kind of things have you guys seen out there?"
"I don't even know where to begin…" Jenkins said, reminiscing. "It's crazy. It's all crazy. How about that time-"
"When I saw an eleven year old girl bash a boys head in with a rock." Mariposa interrupted, deciding to hit them with the worst thing she had. "And that boy was the same age as her. Only eleven. Not even a teenager. But she didn't care. She hit him again and again, not stopping for anything. Not even when his head was in two separate pieces. And then she ran away with her family, leaving the body behind. There's something for you. That's how bad it can get."
A heavy silence suddenly hung over the air, even heavier than what it had been before. Three-fifths of the room was horrified by what they had heard. It was impossible to try and hide it.
"Oh my god…" Dennis said. "What-what did you guys do to that girl? Did you chase her down? What happened to her?"
"Nothing." Mariposa said. "Because that girl was me."
Less than a second after she said that, several things happened at the same time. Dennis stumbled away from her, his hand covering his mouth in shock. Lady Avarius stopped gazing at the paintings to look at Mariposa in shock and slight fear. Brudo scooted away from her on the floor, acting like she would do the exact same thing to him that she just described. And Jenkins just looked away from the scene, not actually being conscious to witness the event but still remembering how Mariposa had described it. Tears and all.
"You-you…" Dennis stuttered. "You really-"
"I did it to protect them." Mariposa said. "My sister and Jenkins. That boy had hurt Meteora, so I retaliated. Brutally. Violently. With almost no hesitation. I only realized what I had done after the fact. And that's when I started crying my eyes out."
"All that…" Dennis said, horrified. "At only eleven years old?"
Mariposa nodded.
Dennis put a hand on his forehead and slowly rubbed it across his scalp. "Uh...wow. I mean, I don't know what to say. I figured that it must be pretty bad out there, but I never thought it would come to something like-"
"Grow some thicker skin." Jenkins said. "Bit of a recommendation there. I know it sounds harsh, but it's something you're going to need. Because while an event like this is rare, and has really only happened to us once, it still happened. So there's a chance something like it might happen again. That's the world now. It hurts. It hurts even when you're doing something that shouldn't bring you pain. People abandon and kill each other over the pettiest reasons. And as for Mariposa's story...well, we had to abandon someone too. I can only imagine what happened to that boys sister. What she woke up too…"
"Hold on." Dennis said. "Sister? He wasn't alone?"
"Wha-of course he wasn't along!" Mariposa screeched. "If he was alone, Jenkins would have just punched him in the face and ended it! No need for me to attack him like a rabid animal."
"Okay okay! Sorry!" Dennis said, taking another step back. "Didn't mean to make you mad." He muttered. "But uh, sister? Who else was with him?"
"Their parents." Jenkins said. "It was a whole family."
"What happened to the paren-"
"Ah, they were assholes." Jenkins said casually. "I killed them. But only because they tried it first. But after they died, that boys sister went nutso, can't really blame her though, and tazed me. I fell, and they attacked Meteora and Mariposa. Meteora knocked the girl out, then that boy attacked her and cut her cheek open. And then you know what happened next.."
Dennis bit his bottom lip. This was even worse than he ever could have expected. Eleven year old girls bashing in people's heads? The bombs were one thing, but this...this was just horrible.
But the story wasn't finished quite yet.
"And so we left her." Mariposa chimed in. "Me and Meteora carried Jenkins out of there and left that boys sister. We never went back, never looked back, and eventually I started to forget about her a week later. We were all scared that she would come back for revenge, but she never did." Mariposa looked away guiltily, clearly disgusted by her own actions.
"What-what do you think happened to her?" Dennis asked.
"She's dead." Jenkins said confidently. "No way she survived for long out there by herself. And from what Meteora and Mariposa told me, she was roughed her up pretty bad."
"So when she woke up…"
"She was met with the sight of her dead brother, brains spilling out into the ground and all." Jenkins sighed. "Alright. Time to change the subject. This is getting disturbing, even for me."
That was certainly saying something, and everyone in the room couldn't agree more.
"Why don't we talk about-" Mariposa started, before they saw a flash of golden light from outside, right in the edge of their vision. Everyone looked at the smashed in door as the light faded as soon as it had appeared. It had almost looked like…
"A spell?" Jenkins said. "Okay, Meteora's doing something out there. That seals it. She's definitely not coming back anytime soon, so I'm going out like I said earlier. You guys are free to join me." He glared at Brudo. "Except for you of course. If you step anywhere outside this house without me knowing, you're dead."
Jenkins the left and exited the house, his footsteps quickly fading. Mariposa was quick to follow him and headed for the door as well.
"Wait." Dennis said, making her stop mid-step. "You guys aren't leaving forever, right? You'll come back and help us get to that place Jenkins was talking about?"
Mariposa paused and then opened her mouth slightly, but said nothing. Eventually she nodded and spoke.
"Yeah. I promise. We're not going to abandon you guys out here. You deserve a better life than this. We all do. But like Jenkins said, stay in the house for now. Chain Brudo up or something, and...wait."
Mariposa then turned back towards the door and resumed her saunter, leaving a few moments later. Everyone watched in silence as she left, and then Dennis turned to his father.
"I think it's time you get what deserve for lying to us…"
Sometime in the past…
In another time, and most certainly another place, a lone lizard made their way through a thick snowbank. Tall, determined, and not letting anything stop him from completely his journey. A journey they had made several times before. But that didn't make it any less dangerous. The environment out here was cold and unforgiving, claiming anything and everything. Even the few animals they had evolved to survive in these lands seemed to freeze to death on the regular. And at the same time, it was a beautiful sight. One of deception and cruelty. One of deceit and duplicity.
But it was still beautiful.
They trudged along, leaving enormous footprints in the snow that would be covered up in mere minutes. It was simply amazing just how hard the snow could fill them up. The power of a blizzard in a place like this was incredible. But they didn't care about blizzards any more than they cared about what shape the snowflakes falling around them were. They were looking for food. Anything would do at this point. Tree bark, a patch of grass, even a dead body. They had learned to never be picky. Out here, one couldn't afford to-
They stopped.
They blinked slowly and rubbed their eyes.
Something was lying on the ground in front of them.
As they took a closer look at the scene, they saw that it was something unfamiliar. Something that had clothes. Which meant it was something alive.
Carefully, they unsheathed their knife and held it out in front of them, taking no chances. Anything that had the strength and wits to make this far deep into the snowy wastes must be powerful. But as he got closer, he saw a disappointing sight. One that quickly filled hm with anger.
A Mewman?
He almost threw up as he saw that his brief suspicion was correct. A Mewman, half-buried in the snow, their eyes facing the sky. He could tell just from looking at them. He looked closer. Was what were they doing this far out? This far away from their little towns? The Mewman in question appeared to be some kind of teenage girl, wearing clothes that shouldn't have lasted her the journey one would have taken to get this far. It didn't make sense.
"How did you get out here…" He grumbled. But in all honesty, it didn't matter. Mewmans were plague upon this world, and to kill them was a duty he must abide. All thoughts besides a brutal killing instinct were swept out of his mind as he approached them further and raised their knife in the air, preparing to finish it off.
But then he hesitated. This wasn't right. He had to do it properly. One must do everything properly.
He wanted her to see him as he killed her. That was the only way to kill. He wasn't an assassin. He wasn't some weak coward hiding in the shadows, refusing to fight a real battle. And while this wasn't a "real" battle, he didn't have much of a choice.
"Wake up." He growled, kicking her in the ribs. But the girl remained unmoving.
"Wake up!" He thundered, kicking her again. Harder, quicker, and with such force that it would make any normal person throw up from the blow.
But still she didn't stir.
The lizard tilted their head at this. How was she still unconscious? He leaned down and put two of his fingers to her neck. Her skin was as cold as ice and felt like it was made of glass, as if striking it would shatter it into pieces.
He waited. He waited for a heartbeat, but none came.
Dead.
He scoffed. Why didn't he figure that out from the beginning? Of course the girl was dead. She wasn't moving. She didn't look like she was breathing, and anybody lying on the ground in a place like this was sure to be a corpse.
But her status as a corpse didn't matter anymore. What mattered to him was how long she had been just that. His mind flickered back to what he had been thinking about earlier.
"Hmm...when did it happen?" He wondered aloud. He thought about it for a brief moment. "If it's only been a few hours, the body shouldn't have spoiled. My food supplies are too low to pass this opportunity up. Anything goes at this point…"
They looked down at the girl, as if expecting her to give them an answer.
Silence.
"Heh." They chuckled. "What am I doing? Take the body, figure it out later. Doesn't matter how long she's been dead anyways, the cold would have preserved the meat no matter what."
They bent down to pick the girl up, brushing some snow off her face while doing so. But as they did this, they felt something sharp prick their finger. They pulled back and stared at their finger in confusion, which now had a tiny bead of blood on it, and then back at the girl. They looked closer again, seeing that there was something they had missed. Something that was not supposed to be there.
Horns?
Yes, horns. A pair of two monster-esque horns sticking out of the girls head. How he had missed them until now was anyone's guess.
This was odd. Very, very odd. He reeled back in confusion. He had heard stories of Mewmans growing horns before, usually by some kind of mutation, but these didn't look like some kind of messy mutation. They were sleek, clean, and sharp. They almost looked like they belonged there.
He frowned and decided to investigate further. Perhaps there was more to this corpse than a quick meal. Picking her up from under her shoulders, he shook all the snow off and looked at her up and down, searching for anything else that shouldn't be there.
The second thing he noticed was the ears. One of them was bandaged and looked like part of it was missing, but the other was pointed and elf-like. Also a trait not normally found in Mewmans. Now he was even more suspicious. Something was definitely wrong with this girl.
But it was the third thing that really set it in.
A tail. A medium-length, purple tail with a white fluff ball at the end of it. The horns and ears were one thing, but this he just couldn't understand. This was entirely new. A species he hadn't known about perhaps? Or something else altogether?
He frowned. There was only one way to find out. He set the girl on the ground again and pulled his bag off his back. Zipping it open, he started rummaging around in it like someone shopping for groceries.
"Vials...vials...where did I-ah." He said, finding what he was looking for. A set of rainbow colored vials, each of them unique in power. He looked back to the girl and then back to the set. If he wanted to find answers, he knew what he had to do. Fake being friendly.
"You better be worth this." He warned, although no one else was around to hear it. "Otherwise I'm chewing your face off inch by inch…"
He zipped his bag up, threw it in his back, grabbed the girl, threw that over his shoulder, and kept going.
...
There is a place.
Known only to a few.
A place with infinite borders and endless skies. A place, by all the laws of magic and universe, that should not exist.
But it does. It is the place for the survivors. The ones that lasted the longest when all odds were against them. Created by the first Reflection, in a moment of doubt, when they decided that such a place was needed.
Almost impossible to enter, and equally impossible to exit, it is seen as one of the greatest honors to be taken to this dimension.
But there is a sub-dimension of these lands.
The realm for those whose internal clocks are due to start once again.
And that is where Meteora Butterfly currently resides.
...
She awoke.
And she wasn't exactly sure what to expect.
The face of that level five being? The face of Lythol? Neither? Maybe she could finally meet the Voice. See what it really looked like. Only for it to then berate her for dying and ruining everything. Or maybe she would see her mother one last time, a small miracle that was never going to happen.
But what she knew for certain is that she was dead.
She heard no heartbeat. She wasn't breathing. She felt no hunger, no thirst, no nothing.
Just emptiness.
She tried to open her eyes, but they didn't respond for some reason. She was awake, but her body didn't seem to realize it. Only the mind.
She was dead.
The thought repeated in her mind like a mantra.
Dead. Dead. Dead.
She wanted to cry out. Then she wanted to cry. But no sound could be made, no noise could be heard, she could do nothing for herself anymore. The thought was poisonous and true. And a new one came to mind.
What had changed?
She still remembered. She remembered it all. The snow. The travel spell. The cold stinging her skin and bringing her to her knees. Then her acceptance of her fate. And the faint sound of the Voice calling out for her a final time, sounding so scared, so worried. Something that didn't happen often.
Then it had all gone dark. And now she was here. In...wherever this was.
She couldn't feel anything anymore. But she could sense movement around her. Footsteps echoing against the ground, creating vibrations that seemed to cause her whole body to tremble. Almost like a great earthquake was occuring.
She tried to move again. But still her body stubbornly refused. She would have cursed if she had access to her mouth. But even that small gift had been taken away.
Then she felt a hand touch her face.
Her eyes would have widened if they could, and she tried to scream. But as expected, it never came to pass. The hand felt rough. Scaly. She felt it touch the point of one of her horns and then pull back suddenly, apparently upset.
'Come on.' She thought. 'Get up Meteora. You have to open your eyes. You have to-'
Before she could give herself any more useless words of self encouragement, she felt two hands grab her, lifting her up from under her armpits and then shaking her violently. She was now nothing short of terrified, at the mercy of an opponent that she couldn't see. She didn't know if she could die again, and she wasn't particularly interested in finding out.
Before she could think about any further though, she felt herself being thrown over someone's shoulder, some kind of cloth now pressing against her. She felt movement and realized that she was being carried. She tried to growl. She tried to let out some sound of protest, but there was nothing but silence.
All she could now was wait.
The Present…
"Come on, where the heck did it go? That light was right here. Right. Here. She couldn't have possibly gotten they far away in-"
"Jenkins!"
At the sound of his voice being called out, Jenkins put his self-complaints on hold and turned around to see Mariposa speed-walking towards him. He grinned slightly. So she decided to come along. Good. Now that Meteora might be missing, he could use all the help her could get.
But then he recalled a promise he had made earlier. One he had still yet to fulfill.
"I'm coming with you." Mariposa said, catching up to him. "There's no way I'm staying in that house, plus I think that-"
"Wait." Jenkins said, before kneeling down slightly to get to her level. Mariposa arched an eyebrow at this behavior, which could be called peculiar. As a start.
"I...just want to say that I'm sorry." He said. "For grabbing you like that earlier and squeezing your arm. I didn't mean to hurt you, it was just that after Brudo mentioned making a deal, I started to freak out inside, and then you-"
"It's okay." Mariposa said, putting a hand up. She had already forgiven him for the most part. "I-I get it. You didn't mean to hurt me. I know you would never hurt either of us. And you didn't really hurt me that much. Honestly."
"Are you sure?" Jenkins asked fearfully. "I was just concerned about-"
"Don't let it eat you up inside." Mariposa said, waving him off. Now that he had really apologized, she wanted the whole event to be forgotten like it should be. Like most things today should be really.
"Oh." Jenkins said, surprised that it had been that easy. "Well, I guess that's that then." He smiled slightly, happy that she held no real animosity towards him.
"Sure." Mariposa said. "But promise me that you won't go nuts again. If I lose you, then me and Meteora are doomed."
"Eh, I wouldn't be so sure." Jenkins said. "You guys seem like you have the capacity to do fine without me. I'm sure I could have left at several points in the past and you two could have easily survived. I've taught you literally everything you need to know by this point."
"Doesn't mean I don't forget some of it at times…" Mariposa said. "Like all your knot tying lessons. I don't remember those. I know we did them, but that's it. I don't remember how to tie a knot. I don't think I even know got to tie a pair of shoes." She looked down at her velcro shoes, the same pair she had been wearing for over a year. To say they were in a sorry state would be an understatement. "Speaking of which, I think I'm going to need a new pair soon…"
"When we get back to the Underworld, we can ask Dave about it." Jenkins said. "But it's okay. I never expect you to have perfect memory for those lessons. I'll admit, even out here, a good chunk of the stuff you learned you'll only use maybe once or twice. Or never at all. Do you remember that time like 7 years ago when Meteora looked in the dictionary we found and saw the word igloo? I can still remember the look on her face when I told her that it was literally impossible for us to make one."
Mariposa laughed. A low, forced laugh. But it was still a laugh. "She was so disappointed. She was disappointed with a lot of things back then. Sucks we had to use that dictionary for kindling when our fire went out that one time…"
"Still regret doing that." Jenkins said. "Still regret doing that."
"Don't worry about it." Mariposa said. "I'm sure we'll find another one eventually."
"Wanna bet?"
"Definitely not." Mariposa replied. She then averted her gaze away from Jenkins and looked out into the woods, frowning all the while. "But seriously, where is she? I don't see any sign of her."
"I'm going to assume she went back to the portal." Jenkins said. "Maybe to try and move that stone again. So...I guess we should check over there."
The two then set off for the portal, looking for a person that was impossible to find.
...
'Keep trying. One more time. Just…...argh! Useless! Uselessuselessuselessuselesss-'
It had been hours. Hours since Meteora had been awkwardly picked up, shook, and then thrown over the shoulder of an invisible scaly creature. All the while not being able to see, hear, or even move. It was hellish. She had tried to move time and time again, each time thinking she was getting closer, but ultimately failing in the end. Like a machine on loop performing one function for all eternity.
But whatever was carrying her had stopped after a while. She had been roughly thrown onto the ground, and now she was back to staring into darkness, her new (and only) hobby.
And she was still afraid. Afraid of what would happen next. Possibilities swarmed into her mind. Under attack by an enemy she couldn't stop and couldn't see. She didn't want to think about it, but it happened anyways.
None of the outcomes she saw were good.
Then she felt something being poured on her forehead. It felt cold. Thin. But tingly? It was the same kind of feeling she got when casting a spell. She wanted to try and stop it, but now she was too intrigued. Was somebody putting some kind of weird potion on her?
Whatever the liquid was streamed down her face and got in her eyes and mouth, and even though Meteora couldn't taste anything, she could still feel it. Soupy. Colder than anything she had drunk before. And still having the feeling of magic behind it.
'What are they doing…' She thought. She was still clueless about what was going on. She knew she was dead, and likely in some form of limbo, but other then that she knew nothing. And it was even worse without the Voice telling her everything about this place. Because that's what it did. She asked, it answer. And now it was gone. Meteora wondered. Did it die too? Could they even happen?
This question would have to wait as she felt the sensation of another stream of liquid being poured on her, this time over her right arm. It felt similar to the first liquid, but slightly warmer. Like a glass of water that had been sitting out in a cool basement for hours. Meteora started to get an idea of what was going to happen after they were done with her right arm.
This process repeated itself four more times, just like she suspected. After the second stream of liquid had stopped, another one splashed over her left arm. Then her torso. And then her right and left legs. Each one increasing in temperature as it went on. The last one was so hot it felt like it would boil her skin right off.
But the pain soon faded and turned into something else entirely. She could move her legs again. Then her arms. Then the rest of her body. The emptiness that had surrounded them ceased as she slowly regained control. Then she heard something that had been noticeably absent for quite some time.
Her heartbeat.
It was slow and rather faint, but she still heard it. And it was the most beautiful sound she had even heard. Then her breath returned to her loud and quick gasps. And after that, there was only one thing left to do.
She opened her eyes, ready to return to life.
Only for the first thing she saw to be a mouthful of teeth looming over her. She screamed in terror and instinctively punched whatever it was in the face with everything she had, sending the toothy creature flying backwards out of sight. She leaped up off the ground and backed away as fast as she could, her back eventually hitting what felt like a wall made out of old logs.
The figure she had just socked in the jaw groaned and held the bruise she had made, before spitting out a few teeth into the floor. The creature stared at her with newfound contempt, it's terrible yellow eyes boring her skull.
"S-stay back!" Meteora yelled. "I have magic!" She held her arm and pointed it at the creature, hoping that it would glow in response. It didn't, but it was enough. The figure stayed where it was, cautiously moving backwards.
"I don't want to hurt you." It said. Meteora flinched at the sound of it's voice. Deep. Male. Raspy, like it's throat had been horribly burned. It was a voice that she took an immediate dislike to. "I just want to talk."
"And why should I believe you?" Meteora asked, keeping her arm steady. "When I woke up, it looked like you were about to bite a chunk out of my face!"
"Yes. And I apologize for that." The creature said politely. "It was merely bad timing. I wasn't trying to...eat you or anything like that."
Meteora glowered at them. It's claim didn't reassure her at all. Lying was hardly a difficult thing to do. Although why would it bring her back just to chow down on her nose a second later…?
"I know you're scared." It continued, knocking Meteora into the real world. "But I don't mean you any harm. I promise."
Meteora gulped. Although her magic bluff was working for now, it was just that: a bluff. She could feel how drained she was. There was no way she would be able to cast any type of spell right now, much less an attack one. And with the Voice apparently absent, she was alone in this.
So she just had to start asking questions. As per usual. That's what seemed to take up most of her damn life nowadays anyways.
"Where am I?" She asked. "And who the hell are you?"
"You're in my home." The creature answered. "I brought you here after I found you out there." It pointed a thumb at a nearby door. "As for who I am, you can call me...Erysichthon."
Meteora paused. "Ery-what now?"
"Erysichthon" sighed. "Just called me Ery. Everyone else does. Although I suppose that's not really saying much, considering you're the first real person I've met in weeks."
"Weeks?" Meteora said. "How far away are we from civilization?"
"A good day's walk." Ery said. "And right now, with the way the snow is blowing, you wouldn't make it five feet outside without freezing solid."
Meteora shuddered. "That...reminds me. When you found me out there...was I, um, d-dead?"
Ery nodded. "Yes." He said. "You has been dead for a while, although the snow had preserved your body long enough for me to bring you back here and resurrect you."
Although Meteora has suspected that that was exactly what had happened, it was still a shock. But this certainly explained what had happened earlier with her being carried, although the shaking was still a mystery.
But they didn't answer how they did.
"How did you do it?" She asked. "Did you use magic to bring me back?"
"No." Ery said. "Well, technically, yes. I used a mix of magic and a few other things."
"Like what?"
"Something that you don't need to know about." Ery replied.
"Actually, I do." Meteora said. "If you brought me back to life, then I'd like to know what you used, so I can know if there's any side effects."
"There not." Ery said confidently. "And I don't want you to know, because I don't want you to go around babbling about it. If somebody knew the secret, then everyone soon would."
Meteora clenched her teeth. Ery made a good point. She wouldn't want everyone knowing all of her secrets either.
Although it's not like she had many to begin with…
"So, I guess you know what magic still exists?" Ery asked. "Considering you were threatening me with it earlier and you mentioned if I brought you back with it."
"Yeah…" Meteora said.
"Then who told you?"
"Um, I don't want you knowing that. If somebody knew the secret, everyone would." She said, echoing Ery's own words, who chuckled in response.
"That's fair." He said. "I don't want anyone knowing about how I found out either. Although it seems you're more skilled than me, if you really know spells. Controlling the magic contained in those atoms is extremely difficult."
"You get used to if you do it long enough." Meteora said. "So you don't know any spells then?"
"No." Ery said. "And I'm not afraid to admit that. No point in making a threat if I can't ever deliver on it."
"Yeah...no point." Meteora said, who was doing just that at the moment. "Now where are we? And I don't mean your house this time. I mean where are we in the world?"
"I believe the humans call it Canada." Ery said. "Northern Canada. Nothing but ice and snow up here. I live here because nobody else does, and I like to be alone."
'Canada?' Meteora thought. 'Jenkins told me about that country once. It's way up north. How the hell did I get up there? Come to think of it, why did the time traveling spell change my location too? What the hell is up with that?'
"Now, it's time for my questions." Ery said. "Who are you, and where did you come from?"
"I…" Meteora hesitated. This person might not even know who she was depending on when she was. Still a baby back then, although apparently she was famous. But if Ery likes to keep to himself...then he might know nothing. And she didn't have the time to come up with a new name and make it convincing.
Wait. She didn't hear to come up with one at all. She could just...
"Mariposa." She said. "Just Mariposa."
Ery scratched his head. "Mariposa, eh? Can't say I've heard the name before. Guessing you're not from around here, are you? How's you get here?"
"I...can't remember." Meteora said, deciding to go with the amnesia route. "I heard a voice telling me to go somewhere, and I remember walking in the snow. Then...nothingness."
"Amnesia, eh?" Ery said. "That's a shame. You look like you have quite a story to tell…"
"What do you mean?" Meteora asked, finally lowering her arm.
"Well, just look at you." Ery replied. "You look like a Mewman, but you got horns, those weird ears, and that tail. And if I didn't know better, I think there's a semblance of some claws on your hands…"
Meteora winced. While she was grateful that Ery was evidently too thick to immediately discern that she was half-monster, her appearance definitely had him looking at her suspiciously. She had to be careful. Hopefully she could keep this conversation going long enough for her magic to recharge if Ery decided to attack.
"Oh, is there?" Meteora said, looking herself up and down while still playing dumb. "Where I come from, this is how most people look. I'm considered quite normal by my society's standards."
"And what society is that?" Ery asked, his left eye narrowing slightly.
"Uh, the…Jenoraclipa society." Meteora said, combining the first three names that popped into her head. "I wouldn't expect you to know anything about it. We're very reclusive."
"No kidding." Ery said. "Never heard of anything like that before. Ah well, can't know everything. How far away from it is here?"
"I don't know." Meteora said. "I know we're in northern Canada, but how far north?"
"Far enough that you could walk south for three days straight and it would still be an arctic wasteland." Ery said. "So...pretty far."
"Well that's just great." Meteora said. "Now I'll never see any of my friends or family ever again!"
"I wouldn't say that." Ery said. "Listen Mariposa. Or Mari. Can I call you Mari?"
Meteora flinched at Ery's use of her sisters nickname, a nickname that she invented first. But right now, there were more important things to care about. And if it made things easier…
"Sure." She said. "Call me whatever you like."
"O…k." Ery said, briefly confused. "Listen Mari, you can't lose hope like that. I'll get you back to wherever you need to go."
"Really?" Meteora asked. "You'd do that for a total stranger?"
"Hey, it's not like I got much going on." Ery said. "And besides, you could help me. In fact, I promise to get you home if you help me with one little thing."
"What is it?"
Ery paused and smiled. "It's requires your magic."
"Magic?" Meteora said. "You want me to cast a spell for you?"
"That's exactly right." Ery said. "Nothing much, just a little thing, but it will me greatly. As well as others…"
"Well, if it's helping people…" Meteora shrugged. "I guess I can do it."
Ery grinned even wider, his teeth now showing off like a sharks. "Excellent." He said. "Now, I'm sure you're hungry, so let me fix you something up." Ery then turned around and rummaged around in what looked like a pile of old fruit, searching for a ripe one. Meteora stared in shock as he turned his back to her, seeming to forget that she could just sneak up and kill him at any moment while he was like that.
'Wow, he's really trusting.' She thought. 'If I had magic, I could literally blast him from behind right now. But he doesn't even seem to care. Am I really that important to him? Is my magic really worth that much? To the point where-'
"Yes."
If Meteora was drinking anything she would have spit it out at the sudden voice abruptly speaking in her head. She almost started freaking out before she remembered who it was. The Voice.
"I apologize for my absence." It said. "Because I'm pretty sure you're going to ask where I've been."
"No shit." Meteora whispered, trying her hardest to not scream at it. "Where have you been? I could have been killed again by this guy. Or worse. And you wouldn't have even been there to see it. What happened?" Meteora continued to struggle keeping her voice at a whisper, knowing they Ery was still lurking around no more than a dozen feet away.
"You died, that's what happened." The Voice replied. "A few moments after that unfortunate event, I was thrust back into the mind realm until that lizard brought you back. I stayed silent so I could analyze the situation, see what we were dealing with."
"And of course you didn't speak up." Meteora grumbled. "That could have ended very badly. For both of us."
"It's still going to end badly. In fact, I'd leave while we still can. The snowstorm outside it much more preferable to this."
"Why? Do you know Ery?"
"No." The Voice hesitated. "But if we are where he says we are, and if we traveled to when I think we are, then Ery is the least of our problems…"
Meteora clenched her fist upon hearing this. Whatever the answer to her next question would be, it was going to be bad. She could feel it.
"Why?" She asked. "What about this place is so important?"
"Because if my suspicions are correct, then we are only a few hours walk from the prison where Seth it Septaris is currently being held."
Meteora felt her breath being taken away from her like she had been punched in the gut.
"A-and what does that mean for us?" She stammered.
"Nothing." The Voice said. "Apart from the fact that he is due to escaping very soon…"
End chapter 32
A/N: That should be fun. We have a new character, a new setting, and a whole new crisis to resolve.
What a mess, as per usual.
But as always, thank you for reading and please PM me or leave a review if you have any questions or comments.