Go north huh? That wasn't vague at all. Not gonna tell me any land markers I should be looking for? A guestimation of how far I need to go? Just go north. Yeah, thanks for that Dave. I shifted the salamander in my arms until it was in a more comfortable position. That's what was inside of the sheets. For a giant large amphibian, the little girl was absolutely adorable. There was no way I could take her home, no matter how much I wanted to. I couldn't raise a tomagotchi, much less an actual living being.
So north I went, onward on my quest to deliver the young damsel back to her species that apparently were dangerous or something. Was this a suicide mission? Probably. It didn't really surprise me that my new acquaintance might try to get rid of me. For one thing I didn't even know exactly what this guy looked like, whether it really was a guy, or even what his voice sounded like. Just went ahead and ignored everything I've ever been told about strangers.
100 points to Egbertdor. Yes. Perfect.
I walked in that direction for what felt like ages. So probably 5 or ten minutes. That was about the time when the salamander started to squirm a bit, blink its eyes open, and looked up at me, head cocked slightly to the side curiously. She had bright golden eyes that sparkled in the morning sun, adding to the cuteness.
"Hey there." I grinned down at her. She blew a spit bubble, and then seemed to smile back. I giggled, even though it had gotten all over me, and she blew another. "My name's John Egbert. I don't suppose you have a name, so i'm going to give you one. How do you feel about… hm… Casey?" Another spit bubble. "Casey it is then! Well Casey, my friend has asked me to take you to where a bunch of other salamanders apparently live. You're really adorable, but you're kinda heavy. Is there anyway I can convince you to just walk beside me?"
I set Casey on the ground and half-expected her to scamper off into the woods, but instead she stood on her back legs. It looked a bit strange, but she just looked up at me and blew yet another bubble.
"glub."
"Well then, let's get going." Casey had no problem keeping up with me. She'd wrapped herself in the sheets, which dragged in the dirt behind us. "I don't suppose you know where we're going, do you?"
"glub"
"Okay. Just making sure. You sure are cute, the wilderness is no place for a little thing like you. Not that you really have a choice I guess, being a wild amphibian. Are salamanders even supposed to live in Washington? I don't really know much about salamanders. When I get home I should look it up. Sorry, am I rambling?"
"glub glub glub"
"It's just that, I haven't really had anybody new to talk to for a long time. I mean, sure Dave is new and all, but I've only known him for 2 days, and only a couple minutes both times we met. You see, I'm not really what you'd call, um, popular. In fact I've seen my fair share of the insides of lockers. It doesn't help that I'm super skinny that I can fit inside without too much pushing and shoving. But I think I might be claustrophobic. Okay, I am claustrophobic. Fine, I'm really really claustrophobic. Just stop pressing me!"
"glub glub"
I sighed and we walked mostly in silence for the rest of the way. But there was the occasional *glub* and at some point I picked Casey up and carried her piggyback. Every-so-often I'd take a moment to tell her about my home life, what my dad and sister were like. Occasionally she'd pull on my hair and direct me in a different direction, and I guess she must have recognized some things.
Eventually we came to a cave in the side of the mountain. Casey patted my head, as if reassuring me that it was okay to go in. Yep, this was what I had sunk to. Needing to be reassured by a weird salamander. Steeling myself, I stepped into the darkness. I was glad I wearing my robe still as the inside of the was quite cold, though the slippers had been hell to walk in.
It eventually got to the point where I couldn't see me hand in front of my face and i was starting to think that I should turn around when I saw something glowing up ahead. As I got closer, I realized it was an honest to goodness glowing mushroom. If the ninja kid and the bipedal salamander weren't weird, surely this qualified. Or was this something normal mushrooms actually did? I wasn't a mushroom expert. The further I went the more and more there were, until they were lining the edges of both walls.
Figuring this was the place I set Casey back on the ground. She started to go off down the tunnel but turned around and ran back, putting her chubby little salamander arms around me and hugging me as tight as she could, which was admittedly not that tight. I hugged her back. Why was I sad to see her leave? It was like with Dave. I hadn't known them both for not very long, yet I felt some type of connection with them.
"You be a good girl, okay Casey?"
I pulled away eventually and the scampered off down the tunnel. I watched until she disappeared into the blackness before turning back myself. Time to find my way home. I honestly had no idea where I was.
The next morning I once again headed out. I didn't want dad and Jane to get suspicious or anything, so I made sure that they were gone this time. It helped that Dave wasn't bugging me in the early hours of the morning. In fact, he hadn't pestered me at all since he asked me to take the salamander home. Probably was too busy with his supposed 'mission' that was probably made up so that he didn't have to deal with Casey. Jokes on him, since Casey had been great company.
I was more than a bit surprised to see said salamander at the normal meeting spot.
Even more than that, I was surprised to find her sitting on a human girl's lap.
The girl was wearing a long, dark purple dress with a cut in the skirt that pooled at her feet. One of her legs peeked through the gap, revealing simple black shoes. The top half of the dress had vertical black stripes and was edged on the top and bottom with gold. Black sleeves, only about three fingers thick, looped over her shoulders. A thin black veil covered part of her head, little purple ornaments hanging off it. The girl's hair was bleach-blonde and her skin was deathly pale.
But her most striking feature had to be bright violet eyes that I could see looking at me from behind veil. Lips covered in what looked like black lipstick curled into a small smile.
Casey jumped off of the strangers lap and walked over to me, gesturing that she wanted to be picked up. I did so and she pulled at a scarf around her neck, showing it off. Did this new girl give it to her? Probably.
"I see Viceroy Bubbles Von Salamancer has taken a liking to you." The girl spoke, though didn't get up. She also hasn't blinked yet.
"You mean Casey? Yeah, I helped her get home yesterday. It looks like she got lost again."
"He was talking about seeing her father again. I suppose that was you."
"I guess. Why are you here? I haven't ever met anybody else in these woods besides Casey and Dave." She cocked her head to the side, the smile unchanging.
"I saw TurntechDiety coming here in a dream and I was intrigued. And instead of finding a secret tunnel or some valuable kept hidden I find a salamander and a boy. I can assume who this Dave is, but I'm afraid that I have never seen you before, whether I was awake, asleep, or in between."
"Well, I'm John Egbert. Nice to meet you?" I stuck my hand out. I wasn't really sure if that was a good response to the situation. Nonetheless, she stuck out a pale hand and placed it in mine.
"TentacleShamen, Seer of Light, Hero of Derse. Perhaps that is too long though. If you like, you may simply call me… Rose. Yes, I like that name." Now she got up, using my hand to help pull herself to her feet and then proceeded to walk around me several times. I just stood still as Casey blew another spit bubble, feeling really creeped out by the Rose girl. "Hm, you're an interesting one. It's really quite surprising how hard it is for me to read you."
"Thanks, I guess." She stopped in front of me.
"John Egbert, you are one to be watched. And trust me when I say that I will be watching. I can see it, woven into your soul, there's something special about you. The details of your life and hard to read, like trying to see what the wind looks like." Rose drew in close, our noses almost touching. I could feel my face turning a bright shade of red as I stumbled away, stuttering out something along the lines of 'I'm only 15'. The small smile never so much as wavered the entire time. "Even when you are surprised, anything deeper than emotions are hard to read. Very impressive. Perhaps our paths will cross again in the future."
She took Casey from me, and Casey didn't seem to bothered by it, simply waving goodbye to me.
"Viceroy has agreed to be my apprentice. I do hope you, as his father, don't mind." I shook my head. "Then I must bid thee farewell, John Egbert. I'm glad that I have something to keep me occupied. Life has become so dull lately."
And just like that, she walked into the woods. I just watched her go, thinking that so far it looked like my entire summer was doomed to be collage of meeting random people in the woods for only a few minutes. Woods which, as stated on several previous occasions, have seemed to be void of human life for, like, most of my life. And now salamanders and weird people who seem to know a disturbing amount of information on me are showing up.
Yep, just a normal summer.
Back at my house, as I entered back into the wifi, my pesterchum dinged a few times signaling that Dave had apparently been trying to contact me while I was out.
- timetechDiety [TD] started pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 10:12-
TD: dude
TD: john
TD: yo
TD: egdork you there
TD: john
TD: john
TD: broski
TD: this is the worst mission in the history of missions
EB: what are you doing
TD: spying in enemy territory
TD: trying to find out if they're plotting anything
EB: and you're doing it during the day because…?
TD: because the people in charge are idiots
EB: is this the important thing you were talking about yesterday
EB: why did you go if it's so boring?
TD: you think i had a choice?
TD: dude, i am just supposed to follow orders
TD: protect my people and all that crap
TD: be one of their Heroes
EB: you're not making any sense
EB: are ever going to explain anything ever
EB: or just leave me in the dark for the rest of my life
TD: even though it is more fun to watch you try and figure out my cryptic words
TD: i will indulge you and feed your curiosity like it is my new pet goldfish
TD: basically i live with these guys called carapacians
TD: more specifically they are dersites
TD: they are always somewhere between war and cold war with the prospitian carapacians
TD: i am some special guy that fights for derse
EB: well that seems like it sucks
EB: wait if you were going into prospit territory
EB: and you said casey lives there
EB: why didn't you take her?
TD: the lizard?
EB: she's a salamander
TD: whatever
TD: for one thing it confirmed something about you
TD: and for another it is not like i can just slip past my group
EB: but you're a sneaky ninja guy that jumps around the forest spying on innocent boys
TD: you obviously have not met my bro
TD: that guy can kick my but using nothing but a puppet and a twig
TD: leave me traumatized by the horrors of the plush rumps he keeps in his room
TD: yeah ever since i was little everything has been ironic or a puppet
TD: crap, bro is coming over
TD: we can talk more later
EB: hey, wait, i still have a some questions!
-turtechDiety [TD] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 10:12-
EB: and i met this one girl in the woods today
EB: ugh, whatever
(A/N: just wanted to take a minute and say a quick thanks to everybody who has read this so far. You all mean a lot to me :)