Phyllis chapter 9
Asterix had been observing all three Roman camps for quite a while, but he did not spot Mesmeron or Phyllis. Of course, he had no idea what she looked like, but a girl or a young woman in a Roman camp would stick out anyway. Since he had promised not to get noticed, he could only observe the camps from a distance. There was no telling if they really weren't residing in one of the camps, but it seemed to be business as usual in all three of them. The Romans did exactly what they normally did near their village: they kept quiet.
He also searched through the forest, which was a bit trickier. He did his best to move as quietly as possible, scanning it quickly aided by the magic potion in his body. But he saw absolutely nothing strange. He was now quite a bit past Babaorum, which was further than they usually went to hunt. Mainly because Obelix liked to keep his Romans close and did not want to miss an opportunity to meet them. The effects of the magic potion were starting to wear off, and the forest slowly became darker. Since it was too early for the sun to go under, Asterix concluded a storm was brewing. Which meant it was better to go back. He did not mind some rain and thunder, if anything it would be easier to move unnoticed, but the other villagers always got nervous during storms, and Obelix would worry for him. It was better to turn back. The only reason he hadn't turned home as soon as he felt the effects of the potion wear off, was that he hated going home empty-handed. But he would just have to deal with that and try again tomorrow. He had only just turned in the direction of the village when a bored voice cur through the sounds of the forest:
"Looking for something?"
Asterix looked around wildly, he saw no one around. Then he felt a pebble hit his helmet, and as he looked up in the direction it came from, he spotted a small figure sitting on one of the branches of a large oak tree. It was a girl, and she was leaning back against the trunk of the tree, looking quite confident, despite being quite high up in the tree, on a branch that Asterix himself never would have trusted to support his weight. In fact, he doubted he would have been able to get to the branch in the first place without the magic potion, there were no lower branches to climb up. So he guessed he had finally found Phyllis.
"You, I think," Asterix called back, trying to ignore the strangeness of the situation.
"Well then you should have said something sooner, I've been following you for over an hour."
This made him feel quite uncomfortable, and this time it was not because he sensed someone trying to meddle with his mind. It was because simply because he had not once had the impression of being followed, despite checking carefully if he wasn't. And he had moved way too quickly for a normal person to keep up. As he walked up to the tree, he introduced himself. "I'm Asterix. Are you…" Before he could finish, he felt a powerful rush of wind, nothing at all like the gushes of wind the nearing storm sent through the forest. It threw him back effortlessly, and sent him right into the trunk of a tree behind him. His helmet kept him from hitting his head too hard against it, and still there was no sign of the threatening atmosphere he had felt around Mesmeron. But the gesture was aggressive on its own, and as he tried to step forward again, he felt he couldn't move.
Suddenly the girl was right in front of him, and he immediately saw that despite her not being taller than him, she was clearly a young woman, not a girl. He had not even seen her get down from the tree. The one eye not shielded by her hair was a pale green, clouded with specks of grey and it was fixed on a point above his head. She seemed to be studying the wings on his helmet.
He looked at her more closely. She looked quite thin and fragile; from a distance you got mistake her for a fourteen year old. From where he was standing, he saw a grown but young woman who seemed to have been lacking the proper feedings he was used to himself. She wore a simple black top and skirt, framed by a long-sleeved vest pulled tight around her waist with a cord. The tight skirt reached halfway her calves and it was ripped at the sides, which must have been necessary if she was climbing trees with it. His eyes moved up to her pale face, and the wavy black hair that went a little past her shoulders, hanging freely and a bit messed up by the wind that had clearly picked up now. Soon the rain would be pouring all over them. He caught her staring eye again, and noticed a flicker of blue underneath it. Suddenly it was fixed right upon his face, and the fragile impression was gone in an instant.
"Well, Mister Asterix, is there an actual reason that you are looking for me, or are you just going to keep staring at me?" she sounded quite irritated, but she was not alone it that.
"Seems there is little else I can do at the moment," he retorted.
"You can still talk, at the moment," she mimicked.
All the things he had wanted to say or ask where erased from his mind by her ability to immobilize him and the unfriendly attitude she showed. He could have expected it, but somehow it was not how he had imagined she would be like.
"I thought you would be taller," he said, quite off-handedly not able to gather his thoughts more quickly. His remark seemed to catch her off-guard, for her eye widened a little, and he saw a flicker of surprise in it. The same moment, he felt the immobility of his body lift a little. He could move his hands, and if he concentrated, probably the rest of his body, but he did not try it out.
"Taller?" Suddenly the malice returned. "Taller than whom? Her perhaps?" As she spoke, she was gone, and Bonny stood right in front of him, her soft brown eyes immediately placing their calming effect on him, the sweet scent of herbs encircling her. Involuntarily he stepped forward, and Phyllis's voice sounded as if coming from a large distance when she spoke: "Yes, quite the looker, isn't she? But since we were talking of tall people, I bet he's even taller." Bonny was gone in an instant and he found himself staring in the cold and immobilizing eyes of the man he now knew as Mesmeron. The dreadful feeling of yesterday was back in an instant, and without even realizing it he stepped back, almost tripping over the roots of the tree as he did. As he steadied himself against the trunk, he noticed something strange (well stranger).
The man's cloak was not entirely solid anymore. He could see a much smaller silhouette behind it. And as soon as he noticed it, Phyllis gradually became clearer. Bonny and Mesmeron were nothing but illusions. Terrifyingly real ones. Just a while ago it would not have surprised him if he could actually….he reached for the cloak around the glooming mans shoulders, but instead of heavy wool his hand touched nothing but air. "I thought I might be able to touch it." He looked at the black-haired woman who had now stepped in front of her self-created illusion and she shook her head, looking quite serious now.
"Not now you know." If you hadn't realized it wasn't real, If I hadn't let you realize (her smirk returned at once, but it did not reach her eyes) he would have felt as real as the ground beneath your feet. The same goes for the blow I could have make him deal you. You would not see or feel the difference." She was probably trying to make a point, but a thought occurred to Asterix again: "Yesterday I also saw Mesmeron…"
"Happy to hear that you're on first-name grounds with him already," she snapped sarcastically. Then the bored expression returned to her face in a second, "Quite real, I am afraid." She did not look frightened at all, but she did get an annoyed expression as he added: "Just like the guests your village so accidentally welcomed yesterday."
"There is definitely something wrong with her," Asterix thought by himself, as he tried to keep up with the myriad of emotions that passed over her face. "Even a drama queen like Cleopatra does not change moods as often as this girl." It was starting to annoy him a little.
"Of course that was not a coincidence," he replied "They came to warn us about Mesmeron."
She snorted "Nice of them."
"They seem nice enough. Especially your friend," he added, knowing fully well she was no longer on friendly basis with Bonny. But she was not the only one who could make sharp remarks.
She fumed, but sounded dead quiet when she spoke again: "Nice enough to make sure he will attack your village and not their home."
He was sure it was supposed to irk him more, and in a way it did sting, because it reminded him that if he had known of Mesmeron sooner, he could have tried to fight the villain from a safe distance of his home and friends. But he did not fully understand the implication behind it.
"Of course they are not simply here to warn and protect us." He ignored how she raised an eyebrow at that and continued, " They want to make sure that Mesmeron does not get hold of the magic potion. Manilla said…" Phyllis seemed to have little interest in what Manilla said, since she interrupted him right there: "What makes you so sure that he is after the magic potion?" Before he could answer, her voice got a warning note as she added: "If you say 'Manilla said' one more time, this conversation is totally over."
Now he was doubly irritated. For one thing, he had just without any reservation told her about the magic potion. She was bound to have noticed his unusual speed as he crossed the village, but she could also have been lying about having followed him around. And even if she didn't he shouldn't have spelled it out for her. He had made a mistake there.
And secondly, who was she to be telling him what he could or could not say? Just as he was about to tell her that, he realized he hàd a different reason than Manilla's story. "Mesmeron told me. Well not literally, but he said he found the effects amazing, and he was trying to find out more about them."
"Yeah, you made a smooth cover back there." She was mocking him again, causing him to brim with irritation and rising anger.
"Since you have apparently been following me around everywhere, why put up all this show," he bit at her, "You know what I want to talk to you for."
"Do not flatter yourself, you're not that interesting."
"And the second reason is indeed, because your teacher told us so." He was now really starting to lose his patience with her. But he was making her fume again, and it was just not in the best interest of his village to do so, so he tried to calm down.
"Look," he tried to calm thing down, "I understand you have plenty of reasons to dislike her and I'm not saying you shouldn't but as far as her trying to protect us goes…I trust her." He hesitated, because he might have drawn another conclusion about Manilla if Getafix hadn't been so taken with the woman. At the very least he doubted her approach to Mesmeron. And Phyllis picked up the uncertainty in his words as Obelix picked up the trace of a hidden roman…far too quick for the liking of the person who was hiding.
"Oh really," she said, and her voice was full of fake sweetness as she stepped closer to him, bringing her face closer as she continued, almost in a whisper "I see. You trust her sooo much, you immediately ignore her advice and turn straight to someone she called a danger to your safety." As she saw the furious look in his eyes, she backed away. "Oh, get real," she said, now simply frustrated, "I have not been eavesdropping inside your village, I'd rather eat mud than to come close to it with all the vermin you have residing there at the moment. But as you so happily pointed out, Manilla wàs my teacher, and I have a pretty good idea of what she told you. And didn't tell you."
She struck gold with that remark, but she didn't seem to notice it, because her eyes were turned away from him as she continued, "she has the habit of telling fairytales, while reality is an entirely different story. Seems you got to realize that in time. I had to find out the hard way." Her entire composure seemed to fall as she retreated to her own memories, and she only vaguely resembled the sharp-tongued vixen that had been infuriating him just moments ago. It seemed as if she was ready to just walk away from him. Drops were starting to fall, and the most air made her hair frizzle.
Asterix thought fast. This arguing back at her was not going to solve anything. He would just have to accept that she was not prepared to see anything good in Manilla or Bonny for the moment. And before she had started to get on his nerves so badly, he had found that easy to understand. He had even thought she was right. Her hostile words were making him forget that during Manilla's story, he had been on her side. And if he had seen nothing wrong in Manilla's approach, why had he been searching Phyllis in the first place? Her anger was not really directed towards him. He would just have to let it go if he ever wanted to get past her attitude. He decided to address the brave, maybe a bit vengeful girl of the story , instead of the moody teenager she reminded him of right now.
"Phyllis," he said quietly. "You're right, I do not completely trust Manilla. I do think she wants to protect everyone from Mesmeron as well as she can, but I'm not convinced she is handling it the right way. As far as I know, you are the only one who ever managed to stop him for quite a while."
"I delayed him," she corrected quietly, not turning back at him. "It is not the same." The rain was pouring down now, and her hair and clothes were beginning to stick to her body, making her look even smaller.
"Your plan could have stopped him." Asterix was getting to his real intention of talking to her now.
"It failed." She was now plucking at the sleeve of her vest.
"Not because it was a bad plan. It just…went wrong." Suddenly she turned round and she looked positively livid. Drops of water fell from her hair and dripped on his face as she somehow towered over him, which was not logical at all, but he was past caring for it.
"Just went wrong?" She snarled. Asterix realized it was a little insensitive to put it that way. "Terribly wrong," he corrected. "But still that doesn't mean it could not work, with some help you could still…" This time she did not interrupt him, but her look and darkening eyes made him stop anyway. "Help?" she whispered, "Help from who? Them? You?" Before he could answer she backed up, and she started to circle him, seemingly contemplating something.
"What has he done to you?" The venom was gone again from her voice, and it almost sounded like a regular question. The sudden change in mood had been distracting him, and her question caught him off guard. "Who? Mesmeron?" She rolled her eyes.
"Well nothing yet," he said "and…" "And you'd like to keep it that way? Then listen up. Your village does not interest Mesmeron. Maybe the potion does, but only to strengthen his troops, he has no need for it himself. He's not interested in the secret behind it, not when he can equal its power that easily. He would only need it to make his attack on the Forest House more powerful. So if you just give him what he wants, and make sure those other two have left by the time you do, I doubt he will waste forces and time on your village."
Asterix did not believe what she was saying. It sounded completely wrong. "But he will attack the Forest House!" She shrugged. "Your home, and friends!" She wanted to say something to that, but this time he did not let her "I don't care what you're going to say, you went so far to protect all that in the past, I do not believe you are fine with him attacking it now!" He had been yelling in spite of himself, thoughts of patience forgotten as he stepped towards her. She did not react immediately, seemingly a little taken aback by his change in attitude. But of course she did retort after a while.
"Revenge. That was my reason. I thought I had already lost so much to him, that he had to pay, and that he could not make things worse. But that was a very big mistake. And I won't make it twice. You want to play the hero in this story? Be my guest, just as long as you keep me out of it. You seem to have some kind of sense for Mesmerons' power. Good for you. But as far as I can see, you're big boned friend does not. He has no defense against him. An interesting target. A large vessel of potion, waiting to be used and disposed off…" She gasped as Asterix forcefully grabbed her and threw her against the tree she had been immobilizing him against before. She had finally crossed the line.
"Enough," he yelled. He saw her flinch and slowly realized how tight his grip on her arms was. He let go, feeling defeated and ashamed of losing his temper so badly he had actually hurt her. He fully expected to have her attack him, but she didn't. She was completely confusing him. One second, she was a like a viper, hissing and ready to sting, the next she looked like a lost little girl.
"You want to know more about Mesmeron," she said softly. He turned to face her again. "I'm telling you more. You want to understand what you're facing, and I'm showing you. It takes no expert to see that the bond between you and Obelix, and if you start to cross Mesmeron, that is where he will attack you. Do you really want to risk that and probably even more, for a fight that's not even yours?"
"For a mad girl, you sound pretty rational." He answered. She looked surprised, then, while she pushed back a few strands of soaked hair, a small smile appeared on her lips. Just as he was starting to smile back, it was gone again. He sighed.
"Look, for some people, that would be very valuable advice. But I know the people in our village. Some of them lost a lot fighting for their freedom, and they will see your solution as surrendering to another enemy. That is not how they want to live, and neither do I. Standing back is good advice for a little while, but sooner or later, someone will lose his or her patience and defy him. I'd rather have a plan ready when it comes to that." He was somewhat surprised he had been able to say that much without being interrupted.
"Are the people of you village generally impatient then?" A small smile had returned. "Well, I guess they can't all be as easy-going as me," he joked, and this time she really laughed. It was a stunning difference. She sobered up quite quickly, but he made a mental note not forget to tell Obelix about this.
"if Manilla would just step forward and taught him, neither the Forest House or your village would be in danger," She said. Then her look darkened again. "But she won't do that. If you fight, you'll be on your own, and you'll lose."
"And you?" Asterix asked. "Can you really live with Mesmeron walking around freely?" "Barely. But there are still things I could bear even less, and Mesmeron knows me too well by now not to make sure they would happen."
Asterix studied her face. There were small scars from branches that had brushed against it, and a minor bruise on one of her cheeks. "Have you really lost your healing powers?" he asked. "Can't seem to set my mind on them very well," she replied airily. Still he felt it was better not to push this matter.
"Look Phyllis, I understand you don't want to be near Manilla, but you could probably use some rest and shelter. Even if you're not willing to fight him, you're still following Mesmeron around. Apparently you're strategy of standing back is not working that well. If you come to our village, maybe we can find a way to break the power he has over your life and you'd at least be free to decide what you want to do next."
Her eyes were large as saucers and her entire expression was as if he had been talking to her in a foreign language.
"Is it your parents you think he'll hurt?" he asked softly? "I'm sure Manilla could protect them with her defensive powers. It is really the least she could do."
He reached for one of her pale hands, but she withdrew it at the last moment, stepping back.
"I can't. I won't" she said, a little more forcefully, though there was still some doubt in her voice. "If there is one way to make sure you get Mesmeron's attention on you, that would be it." Before Asterix could argue, she was gone. There was not even a rush of wind this time. It was a little disappointing that he did not get her to come with him, but at least he had seen she had not completely lost her marbles, like Manilla had implied. And he knew what he had to find out next. Mesmeron apparently had some influence over her, and he doubted it had something to do with mind-control. She had been far too random to be controlled by someone.
Phyllis was clearly not going to tell him more, and he very much doubted Manilla would. So he could only turn to Bonny next. He really hoped the lunch between her and Obelix had gone well.