Chapter Thirteen
When I awoke, I was amazed to find my headache was gone. I felt great. Though, maybe a bit grungy. I'd slept in the clothes I'd been wearing all the previous day. I got up to find my friends, and maybe a place I could wash up a little. Change into some fresh clothes from my pack.
"Your awake," Rundee said as I exited the building I'd been sleeping in. He was leaning against the outside wall near the door. "Good. Silver said you had success last night. With your, condition."
"Yeah, I feel great." The Never-Tree came to mind again, barely affecting me at all. I ignored it, but enjoyed the endearing emotions that now came with the Memory.
"Your looking better. You have some, pep in your step this morning," Rundee commented.
"I feel lighter than air," I said, doing a little twirl just for the fun of it. I stopped when I was facing the feline. "Though, it would be nice to clean up a little. And maybe get something to eat. I'm starving." I had been so preoccupied with overcoming the Memory last night, I hadn't eaten dinner.
"All taken care of," Rundee said. He turned his head and shouted up into a nearby tree, "Hey, Piper. Get down here."
Looking around, I saw there were several buildings like the one I had just been in. While most were much larger, all were living buildings. Made from living trees apparently grown for the purpose. I'd seen this before, though the style was much different. My tree house—where I do my enchanting experiments—was grown for me by the Dryads. But it's a single oak tree, not many grown together forming walls and a roof. These were all birch and aspen. Trees that tend to grow straight and tall. Still, the buildings here were impressive. I looked up to where Rundee had shouted, but couldn't see anything.
"Piper," Rundee shouted again. "Where are ya? Your supposed to be helping the girl."
From up in the tree Rundee was shouting at, an answering shout came. Well, mostly a shout. Whoever it was sounded like they were half asleep.
"Not so loud, Rundee," came the sleepy voice from somewhere above us. It was feminine, clear and slow. High up in the tree I saw a small form come into view. She jumped from the tree and I gasped. That was a long way down. Before my worry could increase, the creature spread her arms and legs wide. Air caught folds of skin or fur that connected to each appendage. She glided out to circle around another tree before gliding back, landing low on the trunk she had started from. Piper—I assumed—was a squirrel. A flying squirrel, apparently. "Whats all this noise, Rundee? You know its gettin late," she said, stopping for a huge yawn. "The suns already up."
"You know the rules," Rundee admonished. "This is a diurnal town. We all agreed sleeping schedules would be consistent. Go back to nocturnal town if you wanna sleep during the day."
"Cat, your such a downer," Piper said, with another huge yawn.
Piper was really cute. She was only medium size compared to the other Omahkimi I had seen so far. Gripping the tree with her hands and feet, it was hard to tell her height. She was at least a foot or two shorter than me. Her clothing was baggy, layered fabrics. When she had been in the air though, it had all been tightly stretched. I guess it would be hard to wear regular clothes and be able to spread her 'wings'. Wings isn't the right word, but I couldn't remember what that membrane that allowed her to glide was called. Oh well.
Piper looked at me with huge, dark eyes in her small head. "So, you must be the girl. Whatcha need?"
"Oh, hello. My names Liz. Your, Piper?"
"Yup, that's me. Nice ta meet'cha Liz," she said with a sleepy smile. "You lookin like a starved mouse. Guess I should take ya to the mess." She sniffed, wrinkling her nose. "Might wanna get washed up first."
I grimaced. I didn't think I could smell that bad. I sniffed, wrinkling my own nose. "That's exactly what I was thinking."
"Right. This way," she said as she scrambled up the tree.
"Um, I cant—," I broke off as she pushed off the tree, gliding to another one further away. "Oh. I see." I waved good-bye to Rundee, who nodded in return, then made my way to the next tree.
"Walkins too much of a bother," she said when I caught up to her. "Much easier to glide."
"Looks like a lot of fun, too," I said. It really did. Wish I could try.
"Yup, glidin is the bees knees," she said, yawning once more. "That's a proper human expression, right?" She asked.
"Uh, yeah, I guess. If your an old person…"
"Never did get in ta human expressions much. That one stuck with me though. It just don't make sense. What's so good 'bout a bees knees?" She yawned again. Must be tough being a nocturnal animal out during the day. She scrambled up the tree to glide off again. I followed. "Okey dokey, here ya are. Should find all ya need in there. Think your friend even put'cha bag in there. I'll wait here, to take ya to the mess."
I thanked her, entering the building to wash up. Didn't take long, but I had a couple surprises while I was in there.
"Hey, Piper," I said as I came out. Now smelling fresh with a new but similar outfit, sans all the rips and tears from our excursion through the Briar Patch. "Did, someone heal me while I was sleeping?" I asked as I rubbed the back of my head. The bump that had been there last night was gone. As were all the small cuts I had received in the Briar Patch. I didn't think healing like that was possible. Not even our best healers at Strong Roots or the village could pull off healing like this.
"What? No. Why d'ya ask?"
"Well, I had a bump on the back of my head. Some scratches on my arms too. They're all gone now."
"Your in the Enchanted Forest, as ya call it. Course little wounds like that aint gonna stick around. Now, bigger wounds are another story. Magic here only helps your body out. Still gotta heal itself. Just happens faster here."
"Wow, that's, really cool." Must be part of the magic in the Enchanted Forest.
"Time to eat. Mess aint far from here." She scrambled up the tree and glided a short ways off. As I approached the building, I could hear the sounds of many people inside. Hopefully Chase and Cid would be in there.
"Compatibility issues, hahahoink," said a loud gravelly voice. Like Rundee, this person seemed to have to talk around large teeth. "What they say to that?"
I entered the building to find a large rectangular room with four long tables. Enough room was left on each side of the tables and benches for people to move around, keeping the space from feeling cramped. The extra space was needed. A couple of the people inside were simply huge. The benches were half full of Omahkimi of all sorts.
"They didn't get it. Had to be specific," Chase said conspiratorially. "Said I'd tell them the song of Bear and Pig. When they're older."
The room exploded in laughter, and I saw Cid blush. He joined the laughter a moment later. Chase just looked smug.
"Hahahoink, you got em good, Chase. And with that song too. Hahahoink," said the very large pig—or was it a boar? It had some wicked looking tusks emerging from its mouth. The humanoid porker could hardly contain its mirth.
"Ha, ha, ha," I said dryly as I walked over to take the open seat beside Cid. "Lets all make fun of the humans. Sooo funny."
"It is, it is, he-hee," said Jack, who had a large mug of something in front of him. Better not be coffee.
"Told ya. Humans are easy," said Chase, still smug.
"Of course it was easy. When you lead us there by the nose," Cid said, but he was still laughing. Chase had gotten us pretty good with that one.
"This must be the last of your party," the boar said after standing. He offered me his large leathery hand and I took it. He bowed grandly over it. "Good morning, young lady. You may call me Wilder. At your service. Come, eat. Make yourself at home. I've heard you had a trying night, with a long day to come. A tiny thing like you needs to eat, or you might collapse before you make it half way home, hahahahoink."
I didn't really appreciate being called a 'tiny thing', but I guess I couldn't blame him. He was huge. When he stood, he was nearly six and a half feet tall. His shoulders were massive, easily two, maybe even three times as wide as my own. He had to weigh at least four times what I do. And those tusks were rather intimidating. He seemed nice enough though.
"A pleasure to meet you, Wilder. You can call me Liz," I said. The middle of the table was loaded with all kinds of tasty food. I began heaping it onto a plate.
"That's a lot of food. Are you that hungry?" squeaked a voice near my elbow. Looking to it, I found a mouse had climbed up onto the bench in between Cid and I. It stood, leaning on the table to look up at all the food I was piling on my plate. The little mouse was about two feet tall.
"Oh, hi. Um, yeah. I am. Didn't have dinner last night. Was a little, preoccupied," I said to the mouse. It nodded gravely.
"Yes yes, I heard about that. Are you okay?" it asked, but continued before I could answer. "Are you really going to eat all that? Your so small."
"Me, small?" I asked the tiny creature.
"Yeah. Small. For a human, at least," it said, apparently not realizing the irony. "Whats in the pouch?" it asked. It was pointing at the small bag I had secured to my belt.
"Those are my gadgets. Enchanted gadgets. An adventurer has to be prepared," I told the mouse.
"Yes, always good to be prepared. Specially in a place like the Forest. More so now-a-days," it said. "Do you go on lots of adventures?"
I laughed. "I try to. The only adventure I'm concerned with right now is the one this foods about to go on. But I have to put it in my mouth and chew first. Kind of hard to do that while talking…"
"Of course. That is how eating works, your quite right. Go ahead. I wont bother you anymore."
"Maybe I can tell you about some of my adventures. Later. When I've finished stuffing myself," I said, not wanting to hurt the little things feelings.
"Oh yes. Please. I would like that, very much," it squeaked eagerly.
"I didn't get your nam—," I cut off, remembering Jacks response to that question. "I mean, what should I call you?"
"You can call me Shoe. And I already know your called Liz. Is that short for something?" I laughed again, which was unfortunate, as I had just taken a big bite. "Oh, so sorry. You can answer that later," Shoe said as I cough choked around my mouthful. She—I was pretty sure Shoe was a girl, though I couldn't be positive—turned and began speaking to Cid. I resumed inhaling my food, too lost in the delicious flavors to pay attention to the conversations around me.
When I had scrapped my plate of the last morsel, Wilder turned to me. "Now that girl has one healthy appetite. Reminds me of my youngsters, hahahoink." He became serious after this latest bout of piggy laughter. "We have a long trip ahead of us, you three. The trip to the Wood Elves fortress is quite far. May not make it there today. The Forest has been restless recently, making the normally safe journey less so. But some of the folk here shall accompany you."
"Do we have to go all the way to the Elves bridge?" I asked, expecting we would just go back the way we came. Plus, Pops Magi-Bikes were still where we abandoned them on the Briar path. "Can't we return the way we entered? We left our stuff in the Scattered Forest on the other side of the river."
"Hoo-hoo, wants to get her stuff does she?" Jack said. "To late for that, little mouse, he-hee. Briar Patch is all closed up. Maybe the little wizard can shrink herself to the size of the Little People? No other way through now, he-hee."
I hadn't thought of that. It made sense though. I had never seen it open like that. Must be some kind of magic at work. Maybe the White Stag could—
I banged my head lightly on the table several times. How could I have forgotten the entire reason we had entered the Enchanted Forest in the first place?
"What happened to the White Stag after I passed out? The first time…" I asked Cid and Chase. Jack beat them to the answer.
"Hoo-hoo, she thinks the White Stag just waits around for people. He's long gone by now, little mouse, he-hee. Not like you'd ever catch it, am I right? Not unless it wanted you too, he-hee."
Cid looked startled. "Wow, when you collapsed, I completely forgot about it…"
"Not me," Chase said. "Just wasn't important no more. Had to get you help. Priorities."
"Yeah, thanks for that, you guys. Your both the best. Sorry I was such a bother, and that I hadn't thanked you until now."
Chase looked at my empty plate. "Priorities," he said with a nod. We laughed.
"True. But now that my bellies full and I can think clearly, thanks. Not sure what I did to deserve such good friends."
"Me neither. We like you anyways," Chase said.
"Still sad," I said. "The whole reason we came here was to find out where the White Stag was leading us. I'm sure it wanted us to follow. Otherwise, why would it have let us keep catching up to it? It could have lost itself in the forest as soon as it had crossed the Little Bridge. Now we have to head home, sans our adventure."
"Ha," Chase barked a laugh. "No adventure? Made it through the Briar Patch, into the Enchanted Forest. You lose consciousness. Can't speak and can barely move. Then we meet Omahkimi. Yeah, so boring. Where's the adventure?"
I stuck my tongue out at him. I guess he did have a point though. "Alright, I'll just have to be content with that. Sucks that I was incapacitated for half of it. And we left Pops new Magi-Bikes on the side of the road. He's not gonna be happy about that. If it ends up taking more than a day to get home, Cid and I will miss class too. Gramps is going to kill me for sure this time." Gramps would forgive me a lot of things, but he's crazy strict when it comes to my education.
"You think your in trouble," Cid said. "My dad…" his face fell. "I'll be lucky to keep my skin after this." I felt for him. Especially since it was my fault he was here in the first place.
"Maybe I can talk to him. Make sure he understands it was my fault. Shouldn't be too hard, right? He knows me well enough."
"Maybe…" Cid said, but he didn't sound hopeful.
"Well, we better get an early start," I said. "The sooner we get back, the better chance we have of keeping our skins."
"That's the spirit," Wilder said. "We are leaving presently. You have all you brought with you?" Cid and I nodded. "Good. Let us set forth. Who's coming with us?" he asked the other Omahkimi. Several of them chorused their desire to join. We all got up to begin our long trek out of the Enchanted Forest.