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The Other

Gard, Davaak and Bengali

Continuing on their way, Bengali suddenly found himself pausing as he stared back at the herd of Gruisdiers. When Gard called for him to follow, the White Tiger ran over to his Evabon and Labinnac companions, the latter rubbing his throat.

"Are you alright, Davaak?" inquired Bengali.

"Oh, oui!" Davaak answered with a nod. "I just have a… a mal de gorge coming on."

Bengali took "mal de gorge" to mean a sore throat. Nodding in understanding, he held out his canteen of water. "Here my friend, drink."

Shaking his head, the Labinnac uttered: "Non, non! Not here, Bengali! I do not trust the offering of water out here! Who knows what tricks the Elfes Noirs could be up to? Might turn it to sand or blood as I drink from it!"

Confused, Bengali asked: "The what?"

"The Tir Aonach." Gard answered, stopping in his tracks and turning to look at his cat companion. Turning his head to look around with his good eye, the Old Savage nodded. "Aye, one must be careful, but I do not think those beings are about, Davaak. Look around. The sky isn't green, there is the correct number of suns in the sky, yond river isn't purple… Of course, not all of those beings made their presence known through such trickery of the eyes."

"What talk is this?" asked Bengali, more than a little alarmed and confused. "What are these things you two speak of?"

Brigid

It was almost as if she were looking into a mirror… And yet, was she? Alas, Brigid knew not. Standing up, the Evabon Girl stared at the figure before her, her very twin, even dressed as she was… For the most part. Her double lacked the detachable skirt, the dress, the veil, but that seemed to be because Brigid herself had removed them from her person before going into the water. If she were to put those pieces of her attire on, would they suddenly appear upon her twin's person?

Reaching down for her skirt, Brigid quickly found her skirt, dress and veil snatched up by her counterpart. Her red eyes widening, the Little Beauty watched as her double ran off into the Wilderness.

"Wait!" Brigid yelled. "Come back! Those are mine!"

Without even thinking, Brigid ran after her double into the Wilderness where the trees grew big as mountains, darkness was one's greatest friends and beasts that were unknown to the outside world roamed… Not that she was frightened. The Vast, Unknown Wilderness was one of her three homes, the other two being Wilusa and the Valley of the Tombs.

And yet, perhaps she should have been… Running through the Wilderness, Brigid suddenly found herself running in a circle… Yet all that time she had been running in a straight line after her double. A rotting tree stump, a clearing where no tree's shade touched leaving one exposed to their enemies, a rock that looked like it could have once been a person.

Though an Evabon, her village had fallen under Thunderan influence and so, falling to her knees, clasping her hands together and looking to the heavens, Brigid of the Zuvowangidae prayed to the gods that those of Thundera had worshipped rather than to the spirits her own people did. Surely, some divine being would come to her aid! And then, Brigid could hear her own voice from behind her asking: "Are you Brigid the Thag Dancer or not?"

Balor

Bored out of his mind, Balor watched with Ekoto as two tortoise-like creatures began to move forward. Sighing, he couldn't believe that the other boys were enjoying this… this idiocy! Maybe it was because he was not city-born, but he could not understand what was so exciting of having these two little beasts race one another.

"Come on, Pukq!" Ekoto cheered. "Move! Move! A few more steps!"

"You can't seriously find this exciting." Balor commented, a four-fingered hand against his face while he sat cross-legged, his elbow resting against his knee.

"We can do something else later, Balor." The older boy assured him.

"Later?" the Boy Shaman asked incredulously. "I want to do something else now! I've been calling Wilusa home this long and now of all the things that can be done you want to watch two irahs race?"

Sighing once more, Balor closed his eyes and tried to get his imagination to take him elsewhere. Perhaps Procyon would come to him, take his spirit on some sort of journey, away from this lunacy! Instead, all he saw in his mind's eye was Brigid… and… Brigid? One completed dressed, the other as if she was going to take a swim or something. It was probably just some random daydream… Or a proper dream and despite the cheering of the other boys, he had fallen asleep. If he was indeed asleep, this was a strange dream.

And then he heard a voice… A voice of one no longer living. Yes… He knew it… It was Procyon, brother of Gard… Balor could only smile, hoping that Procyon would take him away, but alas, it was not to be for the warrior's spirit did say to him: "Go forth, Balor! Go forth! Go into the Wilderness and bring Brigid back!"

Bring her back? But she was forbidden from leaving Wilusa.