Journey

Part II

Rating: PG

Author: Nikoru

Disclaimer: The characters portrayed herein belong to DC. Well, except for my original characters, who by dint of being original, don't. No profit is being made from this fic. Please don't sue me.

The Cycle left him half way up a mountain, somewhere in the nameless reaches of Tibet. At least, Robin thought it was Tibet. For all the attention he'd been paying on the cycle-ride over, it could well have been Nepal, India or even any of the higher mountains in Rheelasia.

Cheerful thought.

Utterly disoriented, and, he feared, going stark raving mad, Robin did the only thing that seemed remotely reasonable. He followed the voice. Beckoning, cooing, now it even seemed to be begging.

Amazing how many different nuances can be put in a name. //But whoever's calling me has had plenty of practice. Jerk.// His irritation warmed him, and he climbed steadily upwards, following the tug on his heart and mind, breath puffing mist in the icily still air.

The climb was easier than he'd anticipated, for the Cycle had in fact set him down at the base of a crumbling, ancient staircase, hewn out of the living mountain. //A stair that starts half way up a nearly sheer cliff? Who – or what – would do such a thing? And in an area as deserted as this, why would you bother?// Frowning, he pulled out a small digital camera, snapping a shot of the path.

Moving closer, he noted the glyphs carved into the steps. Crusted with the detritus of ages, they nonetheless stood out, paler grey against the indeterminate black of the rock they were carved in.  //I can't tell what sort of writing this is at all. It looks almost Nordic. And it's repeated, over and over, on every step. Identical. Some sort of prayer or something?// Shrugging, he took a close-up shot. He'd run both pictures through the database back in the cave. (Due to the unpredictable nature of Gotham's costumed criminals, the Crays, while specialising in forensic information, nonetheless had a wealth of other, more esoteric data. Including an exceptionally good translation programme for dead languages.)

The voice, louder and more insistent, broke him from his musing. Lips set in a grim line, Robin continued climbing. This was going to be one of the most well-deserved punches he ever landed. And land it, he was determined, was exactly what he'd do.

He hit the top abruptly, without fanfare.

He sighed, creating some small fanfare of his own. In front of him lay a cave. //Figures. All this way up, just to have to go down again.// Closer inspection, however, yielded an impasse. The cave's mouth was blocked by bar-like stalactites, biting down in a not quite regular pattern. //Nowhere here is there a gap big enough to fit through, even for someone as small as me.// Dispiritedly, Robin approached, wanting to test the strength of the ancient rock formations. //Perhaps if I kick one down.//

The shriek of joy brought him to his knees.

Half conscious from the onslaught, Robin reached out blindly, fingers clutching at the bare rock pillars in front of him, bars that crumbled to dust at his touch. Too greatly distracted by the noise echoing through his mind, he did not see the brief flare of light that accompanied the disintegration, nor would he have recognised it for what it was. Not then, not until much later would he realise the significance of the event. As it was, he simply focussed on not passing out.

The noise in his mind did not lessen, but Robin managed to adjust to it just enough to raise his head. In front of him was a ragged being of indeterminate age and sex. Humanoid in appearance, though graced with large, dog-like ears and long matted hair tumbling from it's shaggy head, the creature was obviously half starving. Half starving, and utterly, ecstatically pleased to see him. Delight mirrored in huge, yellow eyes, it crouched. Every line screaming joy, it stared almost unbelievingly, seeming to fear that approaching him would cause Robin to vanish - to prove to be a dream. As if it's continued joyful chortles were all that would keep the boy wonder present. Faced with such overwhelming hope and joy, the echoes of it still ricocheting through his head, Robin said the first thing that came to mind.

"Will you shut up!?"

Silence. Total and utter. Yet though the voice that had haunted him over the past few months had gone, Robin realised that the sense of presence behind it, presence he'd been too distracted to fully register, remained. With a startled blink, it appeared the creature realised the same. If anything, this excited it more, and unleashed it into motion.

It pounced, paw-like hands striking Robin squarely in the chest, knocking both of them to the ground. The being's mouth opened, revealing strong white teeth, incisors pointed and razor sharp. Sharp and long enough, certainly, to rip through a Kevlar and steel gorget like so much paper to get to the tender, vulnerable throat within.

Not that Robin was worried in the slightest, though a small, analytical part of him wondered why that should be the case. As it was, his subconscious was proven correct by the rough licks that the creature plastered his face with, the shaggy tail that the being's sudden movement had revealed wagging furiously.

//The being? No, that's not right is it. Your name is Fen.// Robin didn't know how it was that he knew this, but he knew with unshakeable certainly that he was right. "Erk. . . Okay Fen, that's enough. Let me up."  With a final lick, the creature obeyed, and Robin hauled himself to his feet. "Come on." He said, dusting the grit from his cape, "let's get out of here."

With that, Robin turned and walked back to the hewn steps, Fen bounding around him in a capering dance of two and four-legged motion. Neither of them spared the cave a further glance. Neither of them saw the glyph hanging in the air where it glowed briefly before vanishing.

Notes:
No, I don't know how Robin, having been dumped half way up a mountain, avoided a nasty case of altitude sickness. Actually, I do. It made story-telling sense for him to be fine, so he was. (Just like Batman when he went wandering around the Himalayas, in the 'Tales of the Demon' TPB.  See? Precedent.)

Yes, Robin seems somewhat out of character to me, too. But I guess that most people would be acting a little out of character if they started hearing voices, so. . .