This story has been experimental for me in all forms of creative writing. It's been a wild ride, in terms of story and structure. I've had lots of fun with it and hope you have, too. I hope I don't disappoint in the final few chapters. Happy travels! -M.
Two mates entangled in each others' arms and a drooling pet at their feet: a quirky, touching sight that rifts the new dawn, and usually one of the mates meets the sun every morning but he enjoys the cuddle a little too much. Leonardo opens one eye, peering at the mellow Zera and removes her tiny landfill of hair out of the eyes. In a perfect, romantic world, the lady wakes up to her gentle lover's touch, but instead, she doesn't move. Only Nipal grunts at the foot of the bed and pretends he's running in his sleep. Leo nudges the little rabbit, and he eventually calms down, suckling on his own scraggly ear.
The turtle has no idea how he's going to wake up his friends. When he rose his brothers, he would clap his hands, turn on lights, and shake each one until their brains spilled out of their ears. Those were brothers and not friends. And not a girlfriend. He woke up April one time by combing her hair; that didn't bode well for either one.
"Zera," he whispers into her ear like a telephone, "Zeeeeeera. Wakey, wakey. I want to see your pretty eyes." There. That should do it, he grins.
And... nope. Not even a stir.
He taps her muzzle. "I'll prepare some breakfast for you!"
A lip smack. This is frustrating!
One more try: a smooch on the cheek. No movement. Two more smooches. An ear flick. Three smooches with one on the forehead. One little shift of her arm.
Okay, hardball tactics now, Leonardo concludes, and he presses into her face and playfully bites the tip of her ear. Harder. And harder. As he finally resorts to shaking her awake, all three of them are lunged from the bed and scrambled on the floor. Leonardo gracefully bounces back to his feet and watches Nipal pinwheel and bumble against the wall. Zera growls from the door and stands ready to fight. That got her up.
"Good morning!" Leonardo says, flashing an award-winning smile and waves at Nipal on the ground. "I'm glad we're all up. Would you like some breakfast?"
Zera and Nipal ravage into their meals on the counter, like a couple of starved zombies. Food arrows everywhere with more of it on the floor than in anyone's mouth. Leonardo shoots both of them a disapproving look, wondering who will be the one to clean the mess. Zera catches the glare and swallows her food quickly.
"Don't worry your pretty morning head off," she mumbles, "I'll do it."
"Actually, I was hoping we could go for a run. You like running, don't you?" He eyes a glass full of pink fluid and sips it, expecting it to taste like stomach medicine but is surprised by the fruity flavor. "You kept up with me the other day during the Rasta Duck marathon. I was impressed."
Nipal reaches for a ball of meat and whimpers, "The Ducks are so vicious! Only you great warriors could live to tell the stories!"
"If you wish." She swallows the same pink juice and leans back in her chair. "We must be going shortly, though. Where we need to go is almost a day's journey, even on Nipal's wings."
"My father taught me to fly! Of all the obstacles in my life, flying felt the most natural to me," Nipal munches on the meatball and beams, "I make money with this talent."
Zera's muzzle splits into a crooked grin, only half amused at a messy Nipal, but Leonardo's kind eyes warms her grumpy demeanor. Jogging with Leonardo Hamato doesn't seem like a bad way to start the day. Besides, by UnderLight, he will be on his way back home and there would be no more worries about his safety or direction. As they leave the Crib and dash through the gaudy Thicket, she muses about his future though, and what sort of fantastic adventure he will find next with new people, skills, and experiences. Perhaps one day he will return to Anavrin with a new set of eyes and heart and catch her up on what she missed.
"Keep up with me, Pup! That's your new nickname," he jokes through short breaths, occasionally peering behind and grinning at the lagging Zera. As much as she wants to kick him for the nickname, it's endearing, and the last few hours they have shouldn't be spent with petty arguments.
She avoids a plump caterpillar playing a piano on a leaf and snarks back at her opponent, "You'll have to do better than that if you want a rise out of me. Maybe women back in your world cry over something so insignificant."
"I don't know many women in my world so it's a moot point."
"You don't need a woman. They only slow you down!"
Leonardo sidesteps a marching line of prairie dogs. He jogs in place as Zera grudgingly brings up the rear. "I get your point very clearly! You do slow me down."
She ricochets pass him, taking a shot at being in the lead for a short time, but she quickly returns to her old spot as the Bullet Turtle races back to the leading position. They compete through more laps and it eventually leads them outside the thicket and into a clearing. Three hills later, Zera calls it quits and dumps herself on top of the second mound.
"You're the only person I've ever known who has jogged up a hill both ways! How did we do that?" she mumbles over her sweaty arm. He rests beside her, panting a little harder this time.
"I like challenges, and it seemed like you needed one, too."
The pair catch their breath and stare across the mundane landscape. It certainly isn't as colorful as the nearby Blue Sung Thicket and Is painted mostly with colors of gold and amber. Leonardo inspects the wavy sky, wondering if home is just beyond those vivid borders and if his family is patiently waiting behind them. He feels a pair of small eyes on him and breaks his concentration to meet with them.
Zera blinks at his warmness and snuggles with her arms. "I didn't notice you were wearing the necklace. It looks good on you. I was worried it might look too feminine."
A breeze sweeps across the hill and brushes across the feathers in his necklace; he leans toward her, a calm look gracing his eyes. "I want to go home with a part of you attached to me," he smiles as his fingers slide down the necklace. "Are you okay? I can be brutal with workouts."
She rests on one elbow and gazes at him. "Is it possible for you to finish a sentence without worrying about me?"
He studies every pattern of fur from her muzzle to her forehead, the mangled whiskers, and tired but sparkling beady black eyes. He didn't mean to fall in love with her or even act on his feelings. Warriors shouldn't have adolescent crushes or waste their time on romances. It's not in the Code and there is no room for broken hearts. The wind barely touches his cheeks again before he presses into her lips, squishing his beak into her muzzle. He silently begs for Zera not to flail and turn away, and he can safely relax as she shakily returns his wet embrace.
The sweet moment is abruptly over as the hill shakes beneath them. Leonardo releases and is alarmed by a prodigious moon in the sky. "Did that thing just..?"
Zera nods, giggling, "Our moon is a little blind in his old age. It explains why there's so much chaos and confusion here lately. It also happens when he gets too close."
He couldn't rip his eyes away from the massive, hovering lump. "I'd say...!"
Upon his masters' return, Nipal notices something different about them: how close they stand next to each other, long glances, and big smiles. Never in his life has he seen Lady Zera so calm and relaxed, except the time when she was enchanted by a spell and saw a buffet full of coconut goldfish but he distinctly remembers that she wasn't relaxed and mostly giddy and bouncy. The nervous rabbit wonders if his masters are suffering from the dreadful Rovref epidemic. RomRom died of the same illness, he worries and pops into his flying walrus form, so it is essential to guide the masters to the Dreamlight Vista and use the Littos' magic to cure them!
High heels dig into his plump head; Zera peers down at him. "What are we thinking, Nipal? Will you share with the group?"
"Um, um, um!" he rattles in his skin, shaking Zera's short tuxedo dress and glittery silver hat, "Are—are you well, Lady Zera? Y-your eyes are p-puffy!"
She wants, intensely, to dig her feet deeper into his skin and call him a buffoon, but his face burns of sympathy and concern, and it stops her from causing bodily harm. "I have never slept with two people before so it was a rough night. Yes. Uh-"
Nipal blinks, ceasing his tattered nerves over her rare indecisiveness.
She straightens and looks forward. "Thank you for your concern."
Leonardo hops onto Nipal and pats his side. "Let's get this show on the road. We trust you, Honest Rabbit. And nice dress, Zera." He peers at her muscular legs and reminisces. "You're wearing the dress and hat again like old times."
"Life makes a fine clockwise pattern. It feels right do this. To send you back the way you met us," she turns and softly smiles. He returns the gesture with a salute and taps her sparkly hat in the sunshine. With this, Zera signals Nipal to ride the skies. It's a shaky start since Nipal had big eyes and a tiny tummy for his breakfast. Zera and Leonardo are almost gassed off their ride!
After the rocky start, Air Walrus drifts through the whipped skies. A peek into the past few days, Leonardo is reminded of the bizarre events, and mostly wonders if he is indeed dreaming. It all began in the murky waters with the fanged mermaid, or Litto as they are named in this world, and one step after another into Anavrin's abyss. He had to be dreaming but then he and his brothers have visited other worlds. How did he get here? Leonardo Hamato can't remember anything prior to the Litto's attack, and meditation hadn't produced any concrete results.
Zera stands before him, guiding Nipal, and Leonardo, sitting, touches her ankle and squeezes gently. She notices but doesn't respond. He overlooks the passing ground, witnessing the Blue Sung Thicket gradually shrinking into a jagged shape in the distance. Nothing but golden plains now, and further ahead, darker clouds and giant hills. Yes, that's where the threat will be: always with the sinister sky and bleak unknown. He can hear waves cracking in the distance and as they gain more speed and closer to the edge, his heart's sharp beats sync with the water's drums. His fingers push a little deeper into Zera's ankle, and she acknowledges him.
"You will never be alone, Leonardo."
He spends much too long smiling back at her, and a vicious, undetected threat rumbles beneath them. Nipal's wails tear through the sky and the riders desperately hold on as huge, slimy black tentacles clamber around the frantic walrus. Immediately, the Rook reaches for Zera, who violently rocks back and forth and tries calming Nipal unsuccessfully.
Leonardo kicks and punches at the tentacles, quickly conjuring up any escape plan. "They're coming from everywhere!" He touches one, feeling its thick scaly surface against his fingertips; he peeks over the edge. "Completely dark down there! Are you okay, Zera? Nipal! Stay strong!"
Snarls bellow from the growth, scaring Nipal even more, and whimpers escape his quivering lips. Zera steadies herself and lies down on Nipal's back, patting and rubbing him, "Be still, be silent. If I remember correctly, they feed off one's fear and trauma. Sssssh, steady, my Reformer. Steaaaady."
A few moments later after Zera's comforting words, the tentacles cease their intrusion, and all appears normal, save for enormous lassos around Nipal's hovering body. Leonardo balances on one knee, spreading his arms at his side. He glances over at Zera, returning his confused gaze. It's premature to celebrate or announce victory, and the troubling darkness below their feet kicks the settling dust in their minds.
Nipal chokes on his words, the fear tickling his throat as much as the tentacle wrapped around it. "Is... is it .. o-over? It- it... mmm.." the walrus closes his eyes and swallows hard, "...it feels so cold down- down there."
"Sssssh," Zera soothes his worries, rolling her fingers over his skin. "I won't let anyone hurt you."
"Just – just... please.." Nipal's throat collapses. Zera tiredly sighs into his neck.
Leonardo rubs on the walrus as well, whispering, "Maybe we can move these things now, gently move them, and hopefully we can depart without a hitch."
Nipal's eyes floats in warm tears; his riders can feel the anxiety simmering off his skin. He blurts, rather hoarsely, "...please don't let me suffer. End – end it quickly. That is all I a-ask."
Upon hearing the simple but powerful request, Zera's heart plummets into her stomach, and the only thing she does is send a sad glance to Leonardo. His face isn't nearly as devastated as hers, but it's met with a note of sympathy. She sits up and squeezes Nipal's skin between her hairy fingers, reaching for any sense of comfort for her Reformer. Nothing came through her tongue at all.
Leonardo can no longer stand the silence and being sitting ducks, so he takes a wild chance and shoves against a tentacle. He grunts against the force, squeezing air through his nostrils and clenching his teeth. "Like moving a brick wall!" he groans, and relents after a few more tries. The snarling from the trap brews again, awakening their concerns of another attack, and the tentacles roll around Nipal, twice as fast and in a more sinister motion.
Zera rockets to her feet and kicks as many as she can plant her feet on, furiously beating her fight into every one of them. "Leave him alone, Monsters! Leave him ALONE!"
Leonardo catches a different kind of movement in the void, and his eyes didn't have time to follow the events: slimmer, fleeting gold tentacles cruising out of the depth, shielding more of Nipal's surface area, and the sound of a thousand horses stampeding through the rippled sky. The noise breaks his concentration. He can't even hear Zera and Nipal's screams anymore, even as Zera's mouth is as wide as it can go. She's being pulled away, and all of his senses are having a difficult time catching up with his brain. Everything moves like it's in a silent film. He reaches for her hand, and he could normally rescue her in a heartbeat, but the tentacles already have his legs seized. His upper torso jolts with Nipal's tantrum, and, similar to a steady minute hand, Leonardo's vision, his world, swings on its head.
They are completely upside down and with their heads only inches away from the unknown, muddling shadows. Everything remains static, as if the world is the only thing that rotates. If the tentacles release him, would he fall into the black hole, or whatever it is? There didn't seem to be any time for thoughts to catch up with the events. Battling upside down... now that's a little new, he scoffs, viewing his surroundings cautiously. The shadows grope around their fortress, like tiny spiders, and the landscape regresses into the void, dry of its color and overwhelmed.
"Leonardo!" Her faint voice tickles in his right ear, followed by a series of grunts. He can't see her from the enveloping darkness. "Don't be fooled by this monster's simple tricks!" His legs weaved by the tentacles, the struggling Turtle's brain falls short of the race against time. Nipal and Zera's voices fade, fade, fade so far away, and just a miniscule part of his soul craves defeat, if only it might send him back home; maybe even wake up from this nightmare, or back to the warm bed with a sweet, dependable lady by his side and a loyal pet at his feet. As quickly as the Evil binds him, Leonardo's stomach turns chilly, firmly chastising him for thinking of abandoning his comrades. He wiggles in place, gradually more and more, and Zera's cries can no longer be heard over the swell of darkness in his ears. Where is the chance to save them? There's always that slim margin of chance. Think, Leo, concentrate! With all of the noise thundering in the air and a deafening collision nearby, he almost doesn't feel the odd fresh breeze tickling on his cheek. It jerks him awake.
A pair of large, inky eyes burn into his soul; Leonardo flinches and waits for his vision to clear. "Nipal? You're a rabbit again?"
"Oh, Master Rook, I tried my b-best to save her, b-b-but..." Nipal trembles in his red coat, tucking away his huge glasses. Leonardo notices they're back on the ground, and he follows Nipal's frightful glances between the ground and sky. In the midst of orbital beauty, the clump of darkness and its tentacles groan, turning on its axis and slowly retracting its fangs. No longer feeling a constriction of any kind, Leonardo returns to his feet, never letting the threat out of his sight.
"The monster still has her?"
"I'm afraid," Nipal swallows, "that she might have already ex—expired. The monster rejected you and she used the opportunity to s—save me." He hangs his head low, sniffling. "This Redeemer is not worthy. It … it should have been me."
"It should be nobody." Leonardo tilts his head slightly, following the moving target across the sky. "I won't believe she's dead until I see a body. That's the first rule of thumb."
Nipal wipes his eyes with a wrinkled yellow handkerchief and muddles his steps behind Leonardo. "I already miss her pretty smile and the way she kicked me and kept me in line. I liked that toughness about Lady Zera. She was a dear friend to me..." His forehead bumps into Leonardo's leg and he peers up at the quiet turtle. "R—Rook, are you upset with m- me?"
"Why are you talking about her like she's already gone?" His sharpness frightens Nipal, causing the rabbit to shuffle backwards. "She told you to be strong and you should. We don't give up on our friends."
"Y-yes..." furry hands merry-go-round nervously, "yes, you're right. I'm sorry-"
Leonardo hooks his head upwards, glaring into the flying dark mass. "Trade your troubles for a sword, and have faith in steady hands."
Nipal's ears peak from curiosity, and assembling in Leonardo's graceful anchor before the rabbit's very eyes is Sinai, a brilliant testament of the young man's resolve to save a lost friend. Sinai's beauty is unmistakable with its fine twirls of gold, silver, and majestic white. The leery darkness steers from the cutting beacon and is caught off-guard when the beacon launches from the ground and catapults into its twisted form. Nipal can't rip his eyes away from the spectacular light show. Sparkles populate the air from impact, and he intently watches the monster garble and retaliate Leonardo wielding Sinai. The rabbit almost crushes his hands from holding them so tightly, and each force from Sinai echoes across the land, curling his toes into the ground. Leonardo the mighty Rook has shown his true form!
The young turtle's journey through the labyrinth of tentacles exhilarates him. Monstrous heaps of rolling growth scream under the crystal fire, and each of his swings forges the threat into a memory. He calls her name, multiple times, into and over the currents and is careful not to push through before a second, or third, glance. The monster crushes under the sky, reaching its arms as far into the wilderness and yearning for anyone to save it, but its misery is short-lived. Every extension is severed, disappearing before it hits the ground, under the two blades of a young man's power and determination.
His feet catapult off the final tentacle and he aims the sword high under the monster. His hands as steady as they have ever been, Leonardo shouts over the creature's wails, "Release the last one you ingested or I will rip her out of you!"
It responds with the speed of a new avalanche, "No... longer ... here."
His teeth cracks under the pressure, "Then let me pass."
"Relinquish.." the voice gains haunting momentum, "...your weapon."
Hesitation is a small bubble inside his chest, and it dies as soon as his tired green hands obey the dark one's order. The two-spear headed Sinai whistles down to Anavrin, and as the brittle, worm-like newborn tentacles slowly cover his body, he sees a vision of a desert landscape and a tiny fennec fox awaiting him.