Coming up with all those town names was hard...I tried to make them sound not-Japanese, and not like something out of LOTR. I don't think many of you realize how hard that is. IT'S HARD. I ended up using a generator and using the ones that caught my eye. I'm pretty sure it worked by mixing and matching a bunch of prefixes and suffixes. That's why two of the places had the same suffix, 'lea'; Ostlea and Vertlea. But Wayford I came up with on my own. And Wyvern. And Niccola.

Window to the Past

Chapter 12: Which Way to Wyvern?

It is common knowledge that if left alone, everything that exists will eventually fall into a state of disorder. Some call this principle 'entropy', though the word is mostly applied to thermodynamics. Nonetheless, the fact remains that, given enough time and neglection, nothing will stand in a state of order forever. It is a physical impossibility. This law does not work in reverse. Without outside influence, what has fallen into discord will not sort itself out. All things in this plane of existence are doomed to an eventual fate of eternal chaos.

I raised an eyebrow.

"What, I'm not allowed to use the word 'chaos'?" my coauthor protested, folding his arms angrily.

"Not like that!" I said, pointing at the laptop screen. "You're supposed to be describing Wayford! You're just talking about thermodynamics!"

Chaos furrowed his brow and started massaging his temples. "If you let me keep going one more sentence, I would've gotten to Wayford."

I rolled my eyes. "But why the encyclopedia entry? It's just...it's so cliche! Describing Chaos because of your name!"

Suddenly, my coauthor stopped all motion. His hands clenched into fists. "Oh, yeah. Because this is so much worse than making a 'Kirby' with 'multiple' personalities!"

"That's just a coincidence!" I yelled indignantly. "And my name is not Multikirby!"

"Really?" Chaos said in mock surprise. "That's what all the reviewers are calling you. I guarantee you that when they think about the author of this story, they don't think 'Cameron'. They think 'Multikirby'. Because that's your name."

"Not everybody!" I retorted.

Chaos nodded, exasperated. "Well, of course, I don't mean your family. I'm not stupid."

"My name is Cameron."

"One thing's for sure," Chaos sighed. "Nobody's going to be thinking 'Multikirby' now. Congratulations."

"Just get on with the story."

Wayford's silhouette cleared as it made its way through the morning fog. From the moment the shadows were dispelled, it was clear to Daphne that it had seen better days. Daphne could make out flickering neon signs scaling the sides of select buildings, the letters of each faded out enough that the message each sign was trying to convey became unintelligible. The buildings themselves were in various states of decay; some with large chunks missing from the upper floors, as if someone had begun construction, then abandoned it nearly immediately. The sky was a slate grey, matching the somber colour palette of Wayford.

"She doesn't look like much," Glenn sighed wistfully through the open windshield, drawing Daphne's attention. "But I remember Wayford back in her heyday. A sparklin' metropolis with a bright future. O' course, it didn't turn out that way, did it?"

Daphne didn't respond. Although her negative predictions about Wayford had been dead wrong, she wasn't sure if this option was much better. She began to wonder how bad it would be if she simply stayed on this boat with Glenn. Sure, they'd be near water all the time, which terrified her, but at least she'd be surrounded by danger than submerged in it.

But I can't do that, can I? Daphne thought to herself, sighing. I can't make Glenn take me. I'm going to have to get off this boat at some point.

"You're not scared, are you?" Glenn asked, another small chuckle escaping him. "It may not look pretty, Daph, but s'long as you're only passin' through, y'shouldn't run into any problems."

"Are you sure?" Daphne asked uneasily. "And actually, yes, I am a bit nervous. Excuse me for saying this, but Wayford doesn't strike me as a very safe place."

Glenn shook his head patronizingly. "I wish I could help 'r give you some insider info, but in all my years, I've never ventured further than a thousand steps from Daybreak. I ship cargo, 'n there's a grocery store right up near the coast that I use t' keep me stocked. Never gone further than that."

Daphne's heart sank. She didn't like Wayford. She did not think Wayford was a good place. "Even so, isn't there anything you can say?" she pleaded. "Anything that would keep me...well...alive?"

Glenn's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates before he threw his head back and laughed again. "Oh, dear, y'think your life's in danger? No, no! As long as you get out of the city by nightfall, you should be fine!"

Something told Daphne that she wasn't going to make it out of Wayford by nightfall.

As Wayford drew closer, Daphne and Glenn stood together in silence, watching the buildings grow even clearer as they worked through the thinning morning mist.

"Glenn?" Daphne asked absently.

"Mmm," Glenn mumbled, affirming that he had heard her.

"Did you get David drunk?"

Glenn gave her a look. "Not on purpose, o' course. 'Bout thirty minutes after I fished you out o' the water, you come back up here an say you're wantin' somethin' to drink," Glenn explained. "Now me, bein' tired an' all from sailin' the entire night, thought y' meant you wanted somethin' to drink. Y' had almost drowned, after all; I thought y' might've needed somethin' to cool off with. So I gave y' a shot o' whiskey, and you drank it. Then y' went back to bed, an' came back up later askin' who I was."

Daphne frowned. She'd have to ask the others about that.

"I'm gettin' ready to dock," Glenn said suddenly, changing the subject. "Could y' do me a favour and go out onto the port side, see if the bumpers are tied t' the hull?"

"Ah..." Daphne blinked, missing around forty percent of his request. "Could you repeat that, please?"

Glenn sighed, smirked, and tried again.. "Go to the left side of the boat and tell me if there're any rubber cylinders tied to the body of the boat."

"Okay."

Daphne walked out of the cabin to the front deck and peered over the left side. After a bit of searching, she saw small white cylinders evenly spaced apart. She assumed these were the bumpers. She looked back at Glenn through the windshield and nodded.

After another five minutes, they had docked. Glenn stepped out from behind the wheel and handed Daphne her bag.

"I don't like leavin' you like this either, Daph," Glenn said solemnly. "But there isn't much more I can do."

Daphne, for once, didn't know what to say. But the fear on her face must've been evident because Glenn's face softened.

"You'll be fine, Daph," he comforted as he turned around to pick up a crate. "You've got six people on your side! That's five more than I've got, and I've gotten through okay, right?"

Daphne nodded absently, though she still didn't know whether she'd make it. Ifshe couldn't handle this city...

"One more thing," Glenn said as he hauled a crate onto a dolly. "You're the main one, aren't you? You've gotta take care of the others, right?" Glenn shook his head. "You're uptight, Daph. You've gotta loosen up. Workin' forever ain't good for you. Let's hope our paths cross again, Daph. Good luck."

What did he say? I'm the main one? Daphne thought in surprise. What does that mean?

Nonetheless, five minutes later, Daphne found herself staring at Wayford alone. The streets were nearly deserted, and the little amount of pedestrians that were there didn't fill Daphne's heart with confidence. They were the dark type, the kind to slink through the shadows, the ones with the look in their eyes that betrayed their desperation. With low expectations and a heavy sack, Daphne walked through the streets of Wayford, hoping to make it out alive.

Daphne realized early on that she had no idea which direction to go. Where was this 'Wyvern' she was supposed to be heading off to? She made a quick note in the journal for the others in case they surfaced before continuing.

"Excuse me, sir?" Daphne called to a passing pedestrian. When he turned, Daphne nearly froze under his icy glare. He looked like a large ape with a hammer.

"...What?" the monkey growled.

Daphne tried to tell him, but her voice came out small and weak. "Would you...know...where Wyvern is?"

"Wyvern?" he laughed mirthlessly. "You should be setting off there as soon as you can if you know what's good for you, cream puff."

"I'm...trying to do that, sir," Daphne said patiently, now aware of the fact that this person evidently did not like her race.

"Then GET OUT OF MY FACE!" he roared before storming off, mumbling something about jobs.

Adrian held back the urge to run after him. He had no idea what context the monkey had said that to him in, but frankly, he didn't care. Shaking his head, he pulled out the journal in hopes that it gave him some context to his situation.

"Wyvern?" he mumbled, reading Daphne's note. "Well, it's better than wandering around until we die."

Adrian, as it turned out, took a much more aggressive approach to getting directions.

"Hey, you!" he yelled, waving down what looked like a brownish puffball. When it turned around, however, he realized that it was something different. For one, the face was two-toned, with a cream-coloured interior. Secondly, it didn't have a mouth. Third, it looked absolutely terrified.

"Ah..." Adrian was caught off guard by the not-have-mouthiness. "...Where's Wyvern from here?"

The small lookalike didn't move save for the mortified shaking in its boots. Adrian started to feel bad for the thing when another voice piped up.

"Hey! Leave him alone!"

Adrian looked up at the source of the voice and tried not to gape when he saw an eye stalking towards him. "B-back off! I was just asking for directions!"

"Yeah, right! As soon as I look away, there he goes, soaring into the horizon from a Megaton Punch!" the eye retorted.

This only made the poor round thing shiver even harder.

"Why the heck would I do that?!" Adrian yelled irritably.

The eye raised his...stubs...in harried uncertainty. "Why do you puffballs kill anything?! That's what I'm trying to figure out, and until I do, stay the heck away from us!"

This isn't working, Adrian thought to himself.

Well, no duh! You're being too mean!

"Aah! What the heck!?" Adrian yelled out loud, earning a look from the eye and a nervous twitch from the coward.

Here, let me give it a go.

"I'm really really sorry if I offended you, sir, but I only want directions to Wyvern," Mia said patronizingly. "If you could just point me in the right direction, I'll be out of your way. I've been trying all morning, and it hasn't really worked that well..."

Somehow, the eye's...eye...narrowed. "You're headed to Wyvern, huh? Well, if you're going there, I might as well tell you. Only place your kind belongs until you're ready to make peace, anyways. Head that way, halfway between that mountain and where the sun rises in the north. You'll see Wyvern on the horizon. Now goodbye!"

"Wait, sorry, sorry," Mia said quickly before the two of them could walk away. "There were just two things that I didn't really get."

The eye sighed, clearly wanting to be finished with the conversation, but turned around anyways.

"First, uh...you said that our kind hadn't made peace yet. I'm kinda new, so I don't really know what that means."

The small one cowering behind the eye peeked out a bit, obviously intrigued by that comment. The eye turned to him and gently pushed him backwards. "Keep away for now, Dee. He could still be dangerous. Or she," he whispered, giving Mia a strange look. "What do you mean 'you don't really know what that means'!? Why do you think there's a Wyvern in the first place?"

Mia gave a sheepish smile in reply. "I'm sorry, really. But I don't even really know what Wyvern is, only that I'm supposed to go there."

"You have amnesia or something?" The eye said with a mirthless chuckle. When he got nothing but a blank stare from Mia, he turned much more serious. "Oi, you gotta be kidding me...How many fingers am I holding up?"

Mia, again, said nothing. The eye, realizing what he just said, scoffed at himself. "Sorry, stupid question. Do you seriously not know anything about you puffballs and the rest of us?"

"Guess not," Mia said with a sad smile.

"Oi, vey..." the eye huffed. "I'm not in an exposition-y mood, so I'll make this quick. You puffballs are fine most of the time. But if you have a vendetta against someone, anyone even with the potential to hurt you gets the slaughter. That's why I stepped in so quickly. You guys are dangerous."

"W...wait, wait, wait, WHAT?!" Mia yelled in shock, attracting the attention of quite a few pedestrians. She quickly noticed this and shrunk down. "...Sorry..."

Dee looked ready to bolt, and even the eye looked mortified. "Look, you don't seem bad. But I really have some place to be and I really can't be seen talking to you. Don't take the wrong way."

And he was off.

Mia struck a mildly annoyed pose. "Well, at least we got the way to Wyvern. But did you catch what he said about the sun, guys? He said it rose in the north!"

She waited for a response but got none. "...Guys?...Oh, you have to be joking."

"C'mon, guys, you've been doing this for like for-EVER! You need to get away from this journal!" Mia wrote exasperated. "But I got the way to Wyvern. We have to go between the far off mountain and where the sun rises in the north. Does anyone else find that weird? Like, do you feel like it should be somewhere else? Like...east-west or something? Is it just me?"

Closing the journal, Mia threw it into the sack and began making her way through Wayford, avoiding eye contact with anyone she walked past. Judging from what Dee's companion said, talking to them wouldn't be a good idea. Mia didn't really like the sound of that but didn't have much choice at this point. So she kept her head low and her trap shut.

This didn't last long.

"Okay," she mumbled to herself. "Wyvern is between a far-off mountain and where the sun rises. Where would that..." Mia trailed off as she noticed the sun on its way to set in front of herself. Realizing what this meant, she turned around and headed the other way.

"I can just use the moon as a gauge. It's pretty much the same thing, right...?" Again, she trailed off as she saw the moon rising in the west. "Oh, you've got to be joking!"

Her eyes drifted upwards in exasperation, realizing she'd have to wait until morning to continue her journey.

"Well, maybe I'll finally be able to get acquainted with the others," she reasoned as she entered an abandoned building that seemed to still be under construction. A long climb later, she came to the level where the walls thinned out and gave way to the reddish beams that made the outline of the building. By this time, the moon had risen quite high in the sky. Sitting down on the edge of the building, she tried talking to the others again.

"Do none of you really understand how to do this?" she asked. After another response, she sighed. "I'll have to work on that later..."

"Okay, I'm just going to write here because we seem to switch a bit faster when we're talking through this thing. I guess I'll start with an introduction. My name's Mia and I know who all of you guys are, so you don't have to introduce yourselves. I've been around since...well, after David but before Tristan. I mean, I was there before then, of course, but...I guess I knew I was here between David and Tristan."

"...Did you get David drunk?" Alice wrote suspiciously.

"Hey, I see you got the directions to Wyvern," Daphne wrote, drawing an arrow to the paragraph above. "Thank you for that."

"No prob," Mia responded. "And no, I didn't get David drunk. I've been pretty inactive up until now because I wanted to make a dramatic entrance, but Adrian was botching up that conversation with Dee and the other one so much I just had to step in. Speaking of conversations, actually," Mia continued. "I can't help noticing that you guys are still using this thing."

"What thing?" Toby asked. "The journal?"

"No, the pen," Adrian said sarcastically. "Of course she means the journal! I heard her talking to me when I was talking to the mutant eye!"

"She was talking to you?! While you were awake?!" Tristan asked incredulously. "How did you do that?!"

"I'm surprised you guys aren't, really," Mia said simply. "I thought you were sticking to this thing for sentimental value or something like that, but I guess you really can't do it. That's weird. I mean, why can I do it when you guys can't? We're the same person, aren't we?"

"We haven't really figured out the logistics about this 'switching' thing," Toby answered. "So...we aren't able to do the talking thing. Sorry."

"You apologize a lot, Toby," Daphne observed. "Do you feel you're inferior to the rest of us?"

"Okay, shut up!" Adrian wrote, angrily circling Daphne's post. "You're no shrink, okay? We're all in the same boat, so stop acting like you're better than us!"

"Well...I guess if I have to I'll write in the journal," Mia spoke as she wrote, after a bit of thought. "I mean, it's a little unnatural to me, but I can deal. I wouldn't want to seem better than you guys, since...y'know, that's a hot spot for Hothead."

Alice circled 'Hothead' and wrote a little blurb that said "I'm totally using this from now on."

"...Guys..." Tristan wrote. "Flip to the back of the book."

Mia, curious, did so. What she saw made her heart leap up into her throat.

Littering the last few pages of the journal were crude, dark drawings depicting hordes of dark oppressing creatures. Their eyes seemed to glow through the white paper on the other side. The lines were thick and rough, as if they had been drawn with a fifteen-pound weight strapped to the pen. There were small depictions of a round thing staring up at these figures in what was obviously fear. These sketches ranged from the round thing being surrounded by the tall dark figures, to the round thing experiencing pain from these figures...and there was water in every drawing. Every drawing...except one.

One had fire.

I actually seriously didn't realize the thing with Cece and 'Multikirby' until this chapter. I'm dead serious.

Also, yay, that talky thing where you say a bunch of adjective-nouny stuff with abuse of 'thing', 'stuff', and hyphens like when you know what you want to say but you don't have the word so you say this run-on sentence-type thing to get your point across kind of like Buffy! That thing! Yay!

Also also, for those of you not familiar with the Kirby series, the species that appeared were Bonkers, Waddle Dee, Waddle Doo. Look 'em up if you want to see what I was talking about.