AN: I just wanted to remind you that I do not own DDR or any of its songs.
I also want to give you a heads-up. There are some DDR references in this
chapter, so keep your eyes peeled.
Chapter 4: Safe Haven
There was darkness. A curtain of darkness across Holly's eyes. And there was music. The same music that Holly had heard just before....
And then Holly woke up.
As her eyes flew open, she was in someplace entirely new. She was surrounded by dark green vines covered in beautiful purple flowers. She was lying on a giant mushroom...
And she was completely naked.
Holly realized this and covered herself. It didn't matter that no one else was there, she just covered herself on instinct. But then she realized something. She looked down. "My arm," she thought. "It's... It's there." She raised her left arm. She flexed her fingers and looked at it closely. Every birthmark, every hair, every fingernail, every palm line was exactly like the arm that was... "That was burned off by the tox."
Holly looked down again. Her foot was there as well. She was sure that was the same foot that she lost just a while ago. Or was it just a while ago?
Before Holly could think further, something caught her eye. It seemed to be on the other side of her vine-grown curtain. Holly climbed down from her mushroom bed and onto soft, springy grass. She approached the curtain, and reached out to push it aside.
But she hesitated. The music seemed to be coming from over there. Holly was apparently still in the Dark Black Forest, and whatever made music in the Forest probably wasn't friendly. But this whole place was full of light! Holly didn't need the lantern to cut through the pitch black anymore, and everyone knew that the Forest was heavy with darkness. Something didn't add up, but Holly figured that the only way to get answers was to leave the curtained area. But, just to be safe, Holly took a few minutes to artfully drape her long hair in front of her breasts, just in case someone else was there.
So, Holly pulled back the curtain. All she saw was paradise. Immediately in front of her was a fountain with inlaid jewels and intricate carvings of marble, filled with crystal clear water. Trees completely surrounded the fountain, going up into the sky as far as Holly could see. The water from the fountain fed a large stream leading out of the circle... and into sheer darkness.
Holly turned away, focusing instead on the smaller trees dotting the paradise, offering pears and oranges and apples. Holly took a pear and sampled it. Her whole mouth instantly flooded with a taste that was riper and sweeter than anything Holly had ever known.
This Eden was very small, but Holly couldn't stop wandering around and taking in everything. Under normal circumstances, the taste of the fruit and the tickling of the grass under her bare feet would have been heavenly, but with the crystalline, music, it became nothing short of dreamlike.
And then Holly felt something under her feet. It felt like wood. She took a step back and looked down. It was a rectangular piece of wood with a hand- shaped imprint on it. A Dictionary.
"But who is there to talk to around here?" Holly asked herself. She looked around, and no one else seemed to be there. She tentatively spread her hand across the board. Immediately, the music stopped.
"Could you keep your hand there, please?"
Holly did, but she covered herself again and looked around frantically. "Who said that? Who's there?" she asked to no one.
"There is no need to be nervous or bashful, my dear. I am a doctor." But it also sounded like a boy. "May I introduce myself?"
Suddenly, something had come out of the fountain. It looked like a boy about Holly's age. But Holly noticed the slight point to his ears, not to mention the grayish skin and the seaweed-colored hair. The boy also had something around his head. It looked like a circlet made out of twigs, leaves, berries and bits of vine. Holly noticed that while the boy was up to his chest in water, he also appeared to be naked.
He spoke. "Welcome to my home, dear. I like to call it Safe Haven."
Holly turned her head away, but she could feel a slight tinge in her cheeks. "What are you?"
"What do you want me to be?"
Holly heard a rather bizarre noise. It almost like a liquid noise and a "crack!" at the same time, like ice that had been melted and refrozen in a split-second. Holly forced herself to look again. The boy still had gray skin, seaweed hair, pointed ears and the circlet, except that he was now an exact image of Holly.
The whatzit changed again into an old man, and again into a beautiful woman of about thirty, and again into a boy of about seven, and again and again and again. And in all of its transformations, it always stayed waist-deep in water, with seaweed-colored hair, pointy ears, grayish skin, and that circlet. Finally, it changed back into the boy that Holly had first seen him as.
"I simply thought that you might prefer this form." With that, he glided over and put his elbows up on the fountain's rim. Then, he propped his head up on his hands. He gave a wide grin. "Like your arm?"
Holly involuntarily looked at her left arm again. "You did that?"
"Amazing what a bit of the Cure will do, hmm?"
Holly stared. "You're Niomo?"
He shrugged. "Yes, some call me that." He cocked his head. "It seems that you still do not entirely trust me." Holly nodded slowly. Niomo grinned. "How about a peace offering?" He clapped his hands and pointed in a random direction.
"Didyar!" he cried out.
Suddenly, a tiny hole appeared in the soil where he had pointed. A thick bush promptly started growing from the hole and reached full size within five seconds. Green berries appeared on the leaves of the bush, and something bizarre appeared at its roots.
"My clothes." Holly ran over to the bush and looked them over. They were her clothes all right. Neatly folded and everything. Her rucksack was even there, with everything intact.
Holly looked back at Niomo. "Would you mind leaving while I get dressed?"
Niomo grinned and shook his head. "All right, I guess I should respect the privacy of my guest. But if you are feeling hungry, might I recommend the berries?" And with that, he dived into the fountain, and the crystalline music returned.
***
When Holly had finished getting her clothes back on, she looked over at the fountain. It only looked like it was about three feet deep. That definitely wasn't enough for a teenaged boy to dive into without a trace. Holly looked into the fountain. She could see clear to the bottom, and there was no trace of Niomo. And the fountain appeared to be as deep on the inside as it was on the outside. The stream was just as clear. How bizarre.
And then the bush caught Holly's attention. She went to it and plucked off a berry. She looked at it tentatively. It felt far too firm to be ripe. It was almost like she was squeezing a pebble. But still, Niomo had apparently healed her arm, and Tebo seemed to have trusted him. So, Holly popped the berry in her mouth.
She never knew what hit her. When the berry entered her mouth and the juice hit her tongue, it was like the juice expanded. The juice grew and grew until Holly felt as if she was drowning in sweet syrup. She tried hard to swallow and swallow, but was finding it difficult to breathe.
Holly collapsed to her knees, she fell onto her hands, and she threw up. A long, thick stream of dark purple syrup cascaded from her mouth. When her mouth and throat were empty, she rolled over onto her back, spread-eagled on the dark grass of Safe Haven.
Her stomach felt full, but she was panting hard and her mouth felt incredibly dry. Suddenly, she felt her hand being guided toward something. Her palm met something that seemed like wood.
"How did you like it?" Niomo was there, leaning against the fountain's rim, his hand around her wrist.
He took his hand away as Holly fought to sit up. "What... was that?" Holly asked, still panting hard.
Niomo took a berry. "Dewstones. They are as hard as a rock when they are dry, but their skin softens with water." He paused. "And their juice absorbs water."
"Saliva," Holly panted. "I nearly drowned because the dewstone juice was absorbing my spit?"
Niomo smiled. "You get used to the expansion, trust me." He faced Holly and his smile faded.
"Now," he said. "May I ask why you came to see me?"
Holly paused for a moment. "Could I ask something first?"
"Certainly."
"How did I get here? I remember being chased by toxes, but everything else is a blur."
"The toxes chased you right into my territory," said Niomo. "You managed to stumble through just before the acid got to your foot."
"And..." Holly gulped, "and what about Tebo?"
Niomo blinked. "Do you mean the one stranded ashore? The one burned by tox acid?"
Holly nodded. "Yes. It was a friend of mine. It rescued me from locans when I first came here."
Niomo sighed and shook his head. "My Cure can do many miracles, but it could not have saved it."
"It's really dead?" Holly asked.
He nodded. "I am sorry."
They bowed their head for a long moment. A moment of silence for Tebo.
"Now," Niomo said. "If you have no further questions, I wish to know why you have come to me. Why would a human come here again?"
"We need the Cure," Holly said. "My people and I." Holly then went on to explain everything that was going on. The boils, the epidemic, everything except Lync. As Holly was talking, she noticed how quickly Niomo's face had hardened.
"Bloodbarb poisoning," Niomo spat.
"That's what my master called it," said Holly.
Niomo put a finger to his temple. "My dear, I have no idea how that could have happened. The poisoning could only have come from a plant native to the Forest. But the Forest is protected by magic. The Bridge is the only way in or out." He leaned over the rim of the fountain until his face was inches away from Holly's. His playful disposition was entirely gone. "Do you realize how serious this is? If a bloodbarb seed got past the shield, then imagine what else could!"
"Entire swarms of locans tearing people to shreds...." The words just tumbled out of Holly's mouth, even though she was afraid of the idea.
"My dear," Niomo said. "I know how dire this is, but if I grant you the Cure, I must still put you through a terrible ordeal."
"I have to get out of here with every creature in the Forest hunting me down, right?" Niomo threw a shocked look at Holly. "Tebo told me."
"Then I am glad that it died," Niomo replied. "Now I am spared the duty of killing it myself! Now, my dear, could you please hand me one of the empty vials in your pack?"
It was an odd request, but Holly handed over a bottle. "And there's one more thing. The Cure needs more dewstone juice to work." He pointed to the dewstone bush. "Only one berry of juice is necessary to start the Cure, but the poisoning could have spread far by now. Take as many as you can while I work," he instructed. Holly nodded and went to the dewstone bush. Meanwhile, Niomo filled the bottle with water from his fountain, and then he crushed random flowers and grass stems, putting the supplies in the bottle as he went. He added a few dewstones to the mix, as well as one of the jewels from his fountain. Finally, he corked the bottle and slowly waved his hand around. Holly watched as she finished her packing.
Niomo began to chant: "Ladidi dam dariram la di dam la di da di dariram la di da dam dam." He chanted the bizarre song once more, and the bottle erupted in a blinding green flash of light. When the light had died away and Holly had quit shielding her eyes, she had seen that the bottle was still glowing with an eerie, bright green aura.
"Now listen, my dear," said Niomo. "I must ask you once more. Are you willing to put yourself at risk to deliver this Cure? Are you willing to leave the Forest and never come back?" Holly nodded. She already had too many evil memories related to the Forest. She knew that she would choose death over coming back.
Niomo handed over the Cure. "Now leave. Cure the bloodbarb poisoning and never enter the Forest again."
"Thank you, Niomo – " Holly started, but Niomo cut her off.
"Leave!" She left.
Chapter 4: Safe Haven
There was darkness. A curtain of darkness across Holly's eyes. And there was music. The same music that Holly had heard just before....
And then Holly woke up.
As her eyes flew open, she was in someplace entirely new. She was surrounded by dark green vines covered in beautiful purple flowers. She was lying on a giant mushroom...
And she was completely naked.
Holly realized this and covered herself. It didn't matter that no one else was there, she just covered herself on instinct. But then she realized something. She looked down. "My arm," she thought. "It's... It's there." She raised her left arm. She flexed her fingers and looked at it closely. Every birthmark, every hair, every fingernail, every palm line was exactly like the arm that was... "That was burned off by the tox."
Holly looked down again. Her foot was there as well. She was sure that was the same foot that she lost just a while ago. Or was it just a while ago?
Before Holly could think further, something caught her eye. It seemed to be on the other side of her vine-grown curtain. Holly climbed down from her mushroom bed and onto soft, springy grass. She approached the curtain, and reached out to push it aside.
But she hesitated. The music seemed to be coming from over there. Holly was apparently still in the Dark Black Forest, and whatever made music in the Forest probably wasn't friendly. But this whole place was full of light! Holly didn't need the lantern to cut through the pitch black anymore, and everyone knew that the Forest was heavy with darkness. Something didn't add up, but Holly figured that the only way to get answers was to leave the curtained area. But, just to be safe, Holly took a few minutes to artfully drape her long hair in front of her breasts, just in case someone else was there.
So, Holly pulled back the curtain. All she saw was paradise. Immediately in front of her was a fountain with inlaid jewels and intricate carvings of marble, filled with crystal clear water. Trees completely surrounded the fountain, going up into the sky as far as Holly could see. The water from the fountain fed a large stream leading out of the circle... and into sheer darkness.
Holly turned away, focusing instead on the smaller trees dotting the paradise, offering pears and oranges and apples. Holly took a pear and sampled it. Her whole mouth instantly flooded with a taste that was riper and sweeter than anything Holly had ever known.
This Eden was very small, but Holly couldn't stop wandering around and taking in everything. Under normal circumstances, the taste of the fruit and the tickling of the grass under her bare feet would have been heavenly, but with the crystalline, music, it became nothing short of dreamlike.
And then Holly felt something under her feet. It felt like wood. She took a step back and looked down. It was a rectangular piece of wood with a hand- shaped imprint on it. A Dictionary.
"But who is there to talk to around here?" Holly asked herself. She looked around, and no one else seemed to be there. She tentatively spread her hand across the board. Immediately, the music stopped.
"Could you keep your hand there, please?"
Holly did, but she covered herself again and looked around frantically. "Who said that? Who's there?" she asked to no one.
"There is no need to be nervous or bashful, my dear. I am a doctor." But it also sounded like a boy. "May I introduce myself?"
Suddenly, something had come out of the fountain. It looked like a boy about Holly's age. But Holly noticed the slight point to his ears, not to mention the grayish skin and the seaweed-colored hair. The boy also had something around his head. It looked like a circlet made out of twigs, leaves, berries and bits of vine. Holly noticed that while the boy was up to his chest in water, he also appeared to be naked.
He spoke. "Welcome to my home, dear. I like to call it Safe Haven."
Holly turned her head away, but she could feel a slight tinge in her cheeks. "What are you?"
"What do you want me to be?"
Holly heard a rather bizarre noise. It almost like a liquid noise and a "crack!" at the same time, like ice that had been melted and refrozen in a split-second. Holly forced herself to look again. The boy still had gray skin, seaweed hair, pointed ears and the circlet, except that he was now an exact image of Holly.
The whatzit changed again into an old man, and again into a beautiful woman of about thirty, and again into a boy of about seven, and again and again and again. And in all of its transformations, it always stayed waist-deep in water, with seaweed-colored hair, pointy ears, grayish skin, and that circlet. Finally, it changed back into the boy that Holly had first seen him as.
"I simply thought that you might prefer this form." With that, he glided over and put his elbows up on the fountain's rim. Then, he propped his head up on his hands. He gave a wide grin. "Like your arm?"
Holly involuntarily looked at her left arm again. "You did that?"
"Amazing what a bit of the Cure will do, hmm?"
Holly stared. "You're Niomo?"
He shrugged. "Yes, some call me that." He cocked his head. "It seems that you still do not entirely trust me." Holly nodded slowly. Niomo grinned. "How about a peace offering?" He clapped his hands and pointed in a random direction.
"Didyar!" he cried out.
Suddenly, a tiny hole appeared in the soil where he had pointed. A thick bush promptly started growing from the hole and reached full size within five seconds. Green berries appeared on the leaves of the bush, and something bizarre appeared at its roots.
"My clothes." Holly ran over to the bush and looked them over. They were her clothes all right. Neatly folded and everything. Her rucksack was even there, with everything intact.
Holly looked back at Niomo. "Would you mind leaving while I get dressed?"
Niomo grinned and shook his head. "All right, I guess I should respect the privacy of my guest. But if you are feeling hungry, might I recommend the berries?" And with that, he dived into the fountain, and the crystalline music returned.
***
When Holly had finished getting her clothes back on, she looked over at the fountain. It only looked like it was about three feet deep. That definitely wasn't enough for a teenaged boy to dive into without a trace. Holly looked into the fountain. She could see clear to the bottom, and there was no trace of Niomo. And the fountain appeared to be as deep on the inside as it was on the outside. The stream was just as clear. How bizarre.
And then the bush caught Holly's attention. She went to it and plucked off a berry. She looked at it tentatively. It felt far too firm to be ripe. It was almost like she was squeezing a pebble. But still, Niomo had apparently healed her arm, and Tebo seemed to have trusted him. So, Holly popped the berry in her mouth.
She never knew what hit her. When the berry entered her mouth and the juice hit her tongue, it was like the juice expanded. The juice grew and grew until Holly felt as if she was drowning in sweet syrup. She tried hard to swallow and swallow, but was finding it difficult to breathe.
Holly collapsed to her knees, she fell onto her hands, and she threw up. A long, thick stream of dark purple syrup cascaded from her mouth. When her mouth and throat were empty, she rolled over onto her back, spread-eagled on the dark grass of Safe Haven.
Her stomach felt full, but she was panting hard and her mouth felt incredibly dry. Suddenly, she felt her hand being guided toward something. Her palm met something that seemed like wood.
"How did you like it?" Niomo was there, leaning against the fountain's rim, his hand around her wrist.
He took his hand away as Holly fought to sit up. "What... was that?" Holly asked, still panting hard.
Niomo took a berry. "Dewstones. They are as hard as a rock when they are dry, but their skin softens with water." He paused. "And their juice absorbs water."
"Saliva," Holly panted. "I nearly drowned because the dewstone juice was absorbing my spit?"
Niomo smiled. "You get used to the expansion, trust me." He faced Holly and his smile faded.
"Now," he said. "May I ask why you came to see me?"
Holly paused for a moment. "Could I ask something first?"
"Certainly."
"How did I get here? I remember being chased by toxes, but everything else is a blur."
"The toxes chased you right into my territory," said Niomo. "You managed to stumble through just before the acid got to your foot."
"And..." Holly gulped, "and what about Tebo?"
Niomo blinked. "Do you mean the one stranded ashore? The one burned by tox acid?"
Holly nodded. "Yes. It was a friend of mine. It rescued me from locans when I first came here."
Niomo sighed and shook his head. "My Cure can do many miracles, but it could not have saved it."
"It's really dead?" Holly asked.
He nodded. "I am sorry."
They bowed their head for a long moment. A moment of silence for Tebo.
"Now," Niomo said. "If you have no further questions, I wish to know why you have come to me. Why would a human come here again?"
"We need the Cure," Holly said. "My people and I." Holly then went on to explain everything that was going on. The boils, the epidemic, everything except Lync. As Holly was talking, she noticed how quickly Niomo's face had hardened.
"Bloodbarb poisoning," Niomo spat.
"That's what my master called it," said Holly.
Niomo put a finger to his temple. "My dear, I have no idea how that could have happened. The poisoning could only have come from a plant native to the Forest. But the Forest is protected by magic. The Bridge is the only way in or out." He leaned over the rim of the fountain until his face was inches away from Holly's. His playful disposition was entirely gone. "Do you realize how serious this is? If a bloodbarb seed got past the shield, then imagine what else could!"
"Entire swarms of locans tearing people to shreds...." The words just tumbled out of Holly's mouth, even though she was afraid of the idea.
"My dear," Niomo said. "I know how dire this is, but if I grant you the Cure, I must still put you through a terrible ordeal."
"I have to get out of here with every creature in the Forest hunting me down, right?" Niomo threw a shocked look at Holly. "Tebo told me."
"Then I am glad that it died," Niomo replied. "Now I am spared the duty of killing it myself! Now, my dear, could you please hand me one of the empty vials in your pack?"
It was an odd request, but Holly handed over a bottle. "And there's one more thing. The Cure needs more dewstone juice to work." He pointed to the dewstone bush. "Only one berry of juice is necessary to start the Cure, but the poisoning could have spread far by now. Take as many as you can while I work," he instructed. Holly nodded and went to the dewstone bush. Meanwhile, Niomo filled the bottle with water from his fountain, and then he crushed random flowers and grass stems, putting the supplies in the bottle as he went. He added a few dewstones to the mix, as well as one of the jewels from his fountain. Finally, he corked the bottle and slowly waved his hand around. Holly watched as she finished her packing.
Niomo began to chant: "Ladidi dam dariram la di dam la di da di dariram la di da dam dam." He chanted the bizarre song once more, and the bottle erupted in a blinding green flash of light. When the light had died away and Holly had quit shielding her eyes, she had seen that the bottle was still glowing with an eerie, bright green aura.
"Now listen, my dear," said Niomo. "I must ask you once more. Are you willing to put yourself at risk to deliver this Cure? Are you willing to leave the Forest and never come back?" Holly nodded. She already had too many evil memories related to the Forest. She knew that she would choose death over coming back.
Niomo handed over the Cure. "Now leave. Cure the bloodbarb poisoning and never enter the Forest again."
"Thank you, Niomo – " Holly started, but Niomo cut her off.
"Leave!" She left.