The wrinkles in Lucario's snout disappeared and his expression gradually became calm. His fur still had that faint, radiant glow from when I dispersed the 'white light'. He still moaned in his sleep every once in a while.
"Lucario was almost a black monster…" Kirby muttered.
"All he did was touch those strange symbols in the plaza." Zelda began. "Perhaps those symbols gave a curse to those who touch it?"
Reflexively, we all turned to Priscilla. She was the one that was shocked to see Lucario touch the symbols. But the little girl kept her lips shut, staring at the tiles on the ground, fumbling and entwining her fingers nervously. She began to stammer out everything she knew very quietly. "It was for people who touch the ground. Y-You're not supposed to touch the ground with your hands. It makes the white light dirty because hands are very important to make the white light."
"So… did the people here carve the letters?" I asked.
"No. My daddy and his team just figured out what it said. It was there in the first place. He said it was 'evil arts' and he liked it."
I frowned. Priscilla's father may be a little obsessed with the dark parts of this cave. That could be the reason he chose his humble home in here. But then his daughter, Priscilla, was one of the people who could use the healing 'white light'. No wonder he resented it and called it 'pesticide'.
"So Priscilla," I turned so I faced her. "Your white light is a magic light that heals people and their fear. And only a few people can make it."
She nodded.
"You dad didn't like it because he likes the 'evil arts' than your 'white light'."
She nodded once, slowly.
"Were you born with it? Or did you have to do something to get the white light power?"
"I don't know."
"Okay." I nodded. I didn't expect her to remember if she had gone through a ritual of some sort. She may have been born with that special power, saying I don't remember going through a special ceremony.
"But um, I know why you can make the white light." Priscilla laced her fingers. "You have pretty blue eyes and you have pretty white wings."
I blinked. Priscilla has blue eyes, and she wears a pure white dress. I have blue eyes and I dress in white. But was that all you needed to be a savior? That shouldn't be it. There must be something more to be chosen.
"Mm, oh, my head…" Lucario mumbled. He rubbed his temple and groaned as he sat up.
"Lucario!" Kirby exclaimed as he wrapped himself around Lucario's face. Priscilla giggled as Lucario snorted and peeled his pink friend off like a sticker. He bowed to the girl and apologized for scaring her earlier.
"It was a terrifying experience for me also. I managed to maintain my conscious but my body was controlled by a mind of another. I'm sorry." He turned to us also. He bowed so low that his nose touched his thighs.
"I'm just glad you're still with us. And I found out I have a really cool ability." I smiled.
Lucario looked relieved.
"Are you sure you don't want to join us?" Zelda asked sympathetically. She matched her eyes with Priscilla's and held her hands. Priscilla shook her head.
"No, I'll just be in the way. I'm safe here too. And everybody might come back."
I pursed my lips. I didn't want to accept it, but I had a feeling Priscilla was right and she might be in the way. I don't know if I could protect her from those monsters like the reptilian hellhound or that humanoid with the chain. There was another problem with the lights. Would Priscilla be separated from me when the lights go out? If she did, than I would be stumped on how to find her again, alive.
Right as we were about to leave, Priscilla tugged at my wings lightly. "Angel, Angel. I want you to have these."
Priscilla presented me a couple of papers and a large locket with an elegant chain. The locket revealed an old-fashioned analog clock with long arms that pointed out the current time: 4:19 PM. Now I finally know what time it is without trying to guess with how sleepy I am.
One of the papers had a series of symbols with their attributes in a language I could understand. I noticed it was Priscilla's father's notes when he was researching the strange haunting letters. The feather that Lucario touched meant "savior". The second sheet was somewhat of a poem. It read:
"Find the tree. Find the tree. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Down the stairs the lost child awaits. Hurry. Hurry."
"Could the 'lost child' mean the phantom you saw?" Zelda suggested.
"The one that shot lava? Probably. " I sighed and placed the papers in my black notebook. I decided to keep the locket chained to my bag so I can always see what time it is.
"Bye everyone." Priscilla waved politely. "Good luck and be careful."
I was surprised that she was so nonchalant. She waved at us as if she was sending us out to buy groceries. I imagined her to be more… expressive. But I was glad she did send us out cleanly.
"You too. Don't be practicing the piano too much, okay? I don't want those blisters to come back." I pointed out her bandaged fingers.
She nodded. "Be careful of the clickers. Especially the green bird."
With one last smile and wave, we said good-bye to the little girl, hopefully not for forever.
Our walk back to the station was quiet. Pebbles and sand crunched with every progression. I'm going to miss stepping on concrete. The rocky paths really get to your knees after a while, and the tracks weren't any better also. I guessed we could visit other cities and look for more inhabitants and clues. We did get some valuable information from one, so I wondered if I could finally figure out the history of this cave if I could meet an adult with more experience than Priscilla.
Once we got to the tunnel with wooden arches, Zelda tapped my shoulder. She gestured we walk while we talk.
"I've wanted to talk to you about this but I couldn't find a right time." She whispered.
"We have all the time now." I replied.
"It's about that little girl."
Kirby's grip on my toga tightened. Lucario looked up at me with a tinge of worry in his eyes.
"Did you notice all of the dust in her house at first?" Zelda asked. She came closer to me.
"Yeah. Everything was covered in dust. It was a pain to clean it all."
"I'll dismiss the fact that she hasn't cleaned the house, because it must be a horrible feeling to be left behind by one's family, I wouldn't be able to do anything if that happened to me also. But did you notice the floor?"
I tried to remember her house the first time we came. Her whole house was covered in dust. The countertops, the bloody piano, every corner and small space, and the floor…
"She can't hide under the piano forever. She has to walk around someday. So why were there no footprints on the floor?"
I stopped in my tracks. There weren't any footprints in the house. We thought the house was abandoned. We only suspected that someone was in the house with us when I saw the bloody piano. How did Priscilla move about?
"And why didn't she warn us about the curse before? If it gave a strong curse just by touching the symbols, wouldn't she warn us about it?" Lucario joined in.
I shook my head. I was the one that lead us down to the plaza, but Priscilla had more than enough time to tell us about the symbols. She might have simply forgotten about them, but the way her whole face changed when she saw Lucario touching the symbols, she must have known in the first place.
"Are you guys saying that… that little girl was trying to trick us? And that she's actually a ghost that wants us dead? That doesn't make sense… Then why did she try to save Lucario by bringing all of us down to the altar? Because of that, I finally realized I could save all of us with my light. And what about these papers she gave me? Aren't these pretty valuable clues?"
Zelda blinked. "You do have a point."
"I understand. But I believe she was no longer of this world. I don't know if she understands that, but I think that is the prime reason she is not able to produce the healing light. …But, she did try to save me. I apologize." Lucario added.
"She was a pretty ghost. I'm sorry I was scared of you." Kirby rubbed his hands together in a small prayer.
Reflexively, an apology almost escaped my mouth also. I thought I finally found something remotely close to our life back home, but I've never noticed the signs. I wondered if Priscilla felt the same feelings as I did when we visited after the time she's been abandoned in that Polis. I just found myself relating to her so much and I wanted some kind of escape.
A strange sensation went through me and I checked my feet. Lucario noticed my sudden change and chuckled. "We have footprints. You can feel your pulse if you'd like, also."
I blushed. "J-Just checking. I… I felt sad for her. I don't think she's aware that she's deceased."
"But she was happy to be with us. She laughed." Lucario said softly.
"I guess so." I sighed. It was really strange to think that we spent almost a day with a little ghost girl. Now, I couldn't remember if her hands were warm or cold when I washed the blisters on her hands. She just seemed so real. But then, I don't know anything about spirits and apparitions.
Kirby tapped at my head. "What's the green bird?"
"Isn't that the piano piece?" I replied.
"No no, she said 'be careful of the green bird.' What is it? A monster?"
"I thought the green bird was a story of a pet bird that went lost. But yes, Priscilla did say be careful of it." Zelda mused.
Once we got back to the entrance of the city, the wooden sign that read "NECROPolis 3" was on the ground seething smoke. It was broken off from the chain.
"That's strange. The metal wasn't that old, was it?"
I kneeled to see the sign, just as something dripped and hissed when it came contact with the ground. The droplet was glowing orange and immediately burned black.
"Watch out!" Kirby yelled. Impulsively, I brought out my arm out. The mirror shield I got back from Priscilla sprung into power and materialized from thin air. I felt a bone-shattering impact run up my arm as a heat wave engulfed us. Everyone was kneeling behind me, protected by the shield. We all stepped back to escape from the oozing orange liquid. Sweat dribbled down my chin.
I couldn't see the phantom, but his voice seemed to come from everywhere. Judging the trajectory of the lava beam, he should be down the tunnel from the city.
"Hahahaha that's not fair! You're getting stronger. I don't like that."
"Show yourself!" Zelda called out. Green shimmering magic manifested her hands. The phantom, still invisible, became quiet. He seemed to react to her voice.
"…I see you found some friends. That's not good too." He cackled. I gripped my bow with one hand. Fighting with a shield in hand wasn't what I prefer, but it beats being melted into pulp by the phantom's lava.
The candle lamps around us seemed to blaze with energy. But we still couldn't determine where the phantom was. There was no one down the tunnel. A sweat dripped from my forehead and conveniently landed near my eye. I thought about wiping it away but the tension was too much.
Lucario whirled around behind us. His sensors under his ears buzzed. The phantom's red eyes striking open were the last things I saw before I got pushed away. The phantom sneered, coughing and sputtering the glowing liquid that bubbled at his mouth. Lucario let out a horrible howl that was almost erased by the hissing sound of his foot burning.
"Lucario!" I grabbed him under the arms and pulled him away from the boiling puddle. The one part of his leg spewed gray smoke and twitched violently. I gritted my teeth.
Green flashes danced at the phantom, making him stagger back a couple steps. His foot got caught on the tracks and fell onto his haunches. While the phantom was dazed from Zelda's magic, Kirby used my back as a slope to achieve air with his curved four-foot weapon. A wild vertical cut evaporated the phantom's head clean off from the collarbone. But before the head could touch ground, it disappeared into ash and the stump that was left erupted in a column of fire.
"Wh-What's going on…?" Kirby stuttered.
The phantom leaned back, and when the head regenerated from an assertive crackle of the fire, the new head exploded in laughter. "Hahahahaha this was fun! Show me some new people next time, Angel." The kid stood up quick, and formed his fingers in a snap.
Lucario placed a paw on my arm and smiled, as if to tell me he's all right. Zelda and Kirby kneeled and held a tight grip on Lucario and me. They understood what was going on. The three of them nodded to me: a silent exchange that we will hopefully meet again. And as I gasped, the candle lamps wore out. Everybody's grip and their warmth all escaped from me.
The fire flickered on again quickly, leaving only me on the tracks. I heard the phantom's cackle diminishing along with his lava, slowly sinking into the ground.
"No… No! Why did you have to come now! I could've…" I choked back. I still felt Lucario's feverish warmth before he disappeared. I still felt Zelda's and Kirby's grip on my shoulders and arms.
But most importantly, I couldn't help Lucario's burn in time. When I received a burn, it was significantly tiny and I had many friends to help me around with. Lucario may have healing power, but who's going to look after him?
My legs felt weak. I couldn't stand up.
How am I going to fight that kid like this? Was I going to have everyone be my shield? Is that how I'm going to survive and 'save' everyone?
I cupped my face with my hands. I noticed they were throbbing and hot. My face was cold with anxiety. It felt a little good breathing into my hands and I was glad I didn't start sobbing again.
Without even thinking, my hands entwined into a prayer. I never actually prayed before. I always thought it was a beautiful thing humans practiced whenever I see them in churches. But it was sad at the same time. You never know if your prayers, whichever deity it was for, ever reach them or not.
"For now, I just hope everything is all right." I whispered. I didn't know whom I was praying too. I never prayed to my goddess. I was supposed to protect her, not ask her for help. So whom was I praying to?
Warm hands wrapped around mine. A soft, familiar voice greeted me. "Your prayer has been sent."
I struck my eyes open to see just the company I wanted. "My goodness, Roy!"
"You know, you're very formal sometimes. 'My goodness'? I used to say that." Roy laughed as he assisted me up. My thighs shivered upon standing but I was able to stand. "So what's been happening? Seems like you're in trouble if you're praying in the middle of the train tracks."
Something between a groan and a sigh escaped from my mouth, and I let all of my anxiety and experiences out on Roy. He listened tentatively, and somewhat passively like he was listening to me talk about love problems. As I sped through my story, I was getting emotionally upset and breathing hard, so Roy patted my shoulders to breathe every once in a while.
After I finished, he nodded one last time and turned to face the entrance to Polis 3. "Is this the city? Oh there's a sign." He crouched down to the wooden sign. There was no more smoke, but a good portion of the sign was burned and blackened. "So are there a Polis 1 and a Polis 2?"
"This was the first one we've came across."
"I see. Hmm… remember I told you that a man came up to me and turned me into a phantom?"
"He touched you on the shoulders and then you magically became one?"
"Yeah. So if Lucario was about to become a phantom just by touching a symbol carved into the ground, would that be like there are multiple ways to become a phantom? That's not fair."
"Maybe there are more ways… the little girl, Priscilla, she told us about a thing called the "darkness" and it devours anyone or anything that wanders in it."
"That's just not fair. You only have the 'white light' thing. Except when you fought me. My phantom was pretty dumb hovering above water when his attribute is fire."
Roy had a good point. His ink peeled off like stickers when we plunged into the lake. I didn't use the white light power at that time, but water did seem pretty effective. So does the kid have a 'weakness' also?
"But what's weak against lava?"
As we still followed the tracks, Roy told me his side of the story after we separated. Although it wasn't quite as 'interesting' as mine, he did evade some battles with the dwellers. One of them he described as a monstrous man with a candle lamp. I was convinced that was the humanoid Lucario and I fought.
"And bats. Bats everywhere. I should've guessed there were bats since it is a cave. But look at this." Roy showed me his left arm, which had a long scratch mark. "Some curious bats swooped down on me and took a little bite. I didn't want them eating me alive so I walked around with my sword out."
"Did the bats stop pecking at you?"
"They did after I summoned fire. That worked like a charm."
The thought of Roy swinging his double-edged, fire-spewing sword around fighting off some bats made me smile a little.
"Oh look, the tunnel's ending." Roy pointed out.
The room was similar to the workstation with the dark river. Only in this one, we were floating on a colossal lake. The water was emerald-green and so clear, I could see the rocks that adorned the bottom of the lake. Some boats were lapping at the edges but the pulley that pulled them up was broken at the rope. The rope was thick and seemed to be in good shape except at the point were it ripped. We examined the stump and it didn't seem to be cut manually judging the random strings jutting out everywhere.
Candle lamps were stapled up the walls parallel to the tracks we were on. I think electric lamps would be more convenient but maybe it was for saving energy. One of the lamps was missing and was floating at the surface. The lamps next to the one that was missing in the sequence were doused. When I stared at them carefully, I saw water dripping from the bottom of the lamps.
"Maybe a really excited fish jumped and hit those lamps." Roy shrugged. I stifled a laugh.
"Well do you see any fish in the water? And how could a fish jump that high? It'll need to be a flea to jump from the lake to up here."
We both shrugged. Maybe it was a flea. A really big flea that has the potential to jump out of water and knock off a couple lamps. But as far as we know, there seemed to be no significant life in the water from where we could see.
I stared into the lake for a good minute or two as Roy yawned and said "Do you want to keep going?"
"What, aren't you interested in the mystery of the lamps?" I turned to him with a frown.
"Not really. It could be like a falling rock conveniently hit the lamp and it fell."
I was about to say how does that explain the water dripping from the other lamps? But I sighed. Roy seemed very uninterested anyway. I guess a couple of wet lamps might not really mean anything.
Until we heard a gasp. A desperate gasp, as if someone was drowning and giving off their final breath. Roy started walking but as we heard that sound, he paused. "What was that?"
I looked back into the water. A foreign shine made me squint. The surface of the lake bubbled at the shine and I staggered back as soon as I noticed what it was.
A javelin disturbed the calm surface and shot out of the lake. The golden sword reflected off the ceiling with a metallic 'clang' and skidded onto the tracks. I recognized the long two-handed sword immediately.
"Ohh, here we go again." Roy unsheathed his double-edged sword and took a fighting stance.
"My goodness…" I mumbled. Roy smiled a bit.
From the lake, spawned an unstable monster made of the emerald-green water. The water gathered around the creature to create massive wings that dripped at its flight feathers. As the long neck slowly regained its shape, I saw a person trapped inside the water, struggling loosely. Goggling, disproportional eyes rolled around in its sockets as the head spawned.
As the creature located us, it opened his beak and produced an ear-piercing screech that shook the room and crumbled the walls. Roy and I floated off the ground and hit our bottoms. A single roar made a small earthquake.
It was a bird, a green bird, just as Priscilla warned us.
And it has my friend captive.
Author's Note: This could have been two chapters but I wanted the green bird to make its appearance. It's one of my favorite monsters.