CHAPTER 27: RETURN OF OCTOROCHI
I awaken to Lil, Lu, Te, Ag, and Lao, all absolutely covered in mud, staring down at me, seeming too shocked to say anything. Or if they’re talking, I can’t make anything out. I feel so ashamed for putting them through that, they must have been worried sick. I just keep whimpering “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.” My danger wraps tell me Mata’s on the far side of the dugout, holding the twins tightly, almost seemingly cowering. I think Teuila is stammering, trying to say something. I did it again, I did something so dangerously stupid, I almost got one of us killed, me. I didn’t even think, at all, I could have dug down, then up and out at an angle, and at least ran somewhere in the swamp, but I was too wrapped up in self pity, fetal, to think of moving even an inch, and just used magic to drop into the dirt, murk, mud, earth.
I can finally make out what Teuila’s trying to ask. “Re, Re, Re, Reggie? My Reggie? Is that really you? My, my, my.” She trails off, unable to finish, her tears splashing down onto my face. I must look a pretty awful muddy sight for my Teuila to not recognize me. No one else is saying anything, I just lay there, tears streaming down my cheeks, as I reach a hand towards Teuila, my wonderful, loving, brave Teuila, and my hand eclipses hers, it’s far larger. What in the what? What is this? What’s going on? Level 17? My energy capacity is back down below a thousand, again? What? Why!? No, no no no, no, please let this be a nightmare. Please, please, please let me just be my little self again, and be held by Teuila, please, please, I’m begging this world, please. I feel something uncoiling from around me, at first I think it’s the tattoo tendrils, but they probably already vanished when I passed out. It feels somewhat like the energy tether I use for Lil, or rather more like the one I use for Te, that one with an odd feedback that’s almost an absence of my own senses, replaced by or strengthened by hers, that hard to explain feeling. However, it’s like I tethered myself, and subverted my own senses with my own senses. As the tether uncoils, there’s a bright flash, after which Teuila immediately tackles me into a tight embrace, and my hand is Teuila’s hand’s size again.
I whisper over and over, “I’m so sorry for putting you through that just now, I’m so sorry for putting you through that just now, I’m so sorry for putting you through that just now.” Even as I’m shushed by those that love me, I keep mumbling it over and over. Suddenly I have something new to say, “I feel like I’m going to throw up,” I roll to the side looking for a place to do it that isn’t one of my loved ones’ laps, and nearly roll into the hole they dug me out of, where I vomit profusely, tears and snot mingling and streaming below with the contents of my stomach into a dark pit. I’m gripped tightly from behind, keeping me from accidentally falling in. I feel Lil’s teeth digging into my clothes, keeping me away from the edge. “You rescued me, you rescued me, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking, I didn’t think about air, I’m sorry.” My stomach heaves once again, I feel so terrible, I drop a large amount of mud into the hole from my inventory, filling it mostly back up. After the hole is filled, it appears to introduce a new silence. It seems like no one dares move, for minutes on end. Oddly, my thoughts drift to the days ahead. I’m suddenly more certain than ever that we’ll face Octorochi soon, perhaps multiple times. I realize I saw more during the encounters with the serpent than I could keep track of as it was happening. Octorochi had nine bars that must have been health bars. It has defenses that keep it from even noticing any damage below that threshold of a thousand, but my radiant weaponry copies seem to be able to ignore thresholds. Somewhat at least, maybe a percentage based on how much energy I use.
“Buddy, that was bad, that was mega mega mega bad, I thought I lost you pal, you’re my pal, I can’t lose you. I can’t lose you, okay? You know I love you right? Right Reggie buddy? No matter what.” Lil nervously rambles at me at a fast pace, the only one able to break the current awkward silence. Luni and Te are hugging me from opposite sides, Lao and Ag are hugging all of us from opposite sides. I feel so loved but my lips continue to quiver and eyes continue to water as I’m distraught beyond words. Despite the love, my brain feels as if it’s swirling in a vortex of pain, being sucked down a drain. Great, now my internal monologues of thoughts are rhyming. This couldn’t have worse timing. Ugh!
“Reggie, talk to me, please, my, my, my Reggie?” Teuila keeps trying to put a word to whatever I am to her, but her challenge in expressing herself remains, and I can’t even do her the honor of answering, I’m so exhausted, mentally and emotionally, and well, physically from lack of oxygen. Plus, I think I can permanently force evolve myself into an essentially adult body, something that I somewhat feared. Age doesn’t work quite the same here as it does in my memories, it’s levels, or something similar at least. Lil has about three years worth of experiences, and as many levels, most of the Shellcrackers have more years, but less levels. Regardless, this revelation throws my mind into chaos about my place in our world yet again. I just imagine that our life expectancies are tied to our stage of evolution, is it better to stay in a lower, younger seeming stage longer? Do we, at some point, evolve into decrepit elders? Or evolve straight into death?
Through gritted teeth, as Teuila turns away from me suddenly, she growls out, “Ali, how could you!?” The family is so stunned, still, that no one reaches to stop her as she leaps towards Mataalii in a near feral rage, no one save me. With the lightest grip on her tail, I beg her, pleading with my eyes. She turns to look at my hand gripping her tail, then my face. My gaze says please don’t make me use them, my tattoo limbs. The appearance of defeat in my untense muscles says don’t hurt him, not for me. Teuila, my understanding, caring, courageous, kind Teuila is able to read my look, and her anger drips away as her shoulders sag, her features droop, and she drops to her knees, deflated and defeated. She crawls back over to me, and tries to drag me away from everyone else’s embrace, they can’t help but let her, her strength is so great she’d overpower them, the others probably fear I’d get hurt in the process.
Somehow my throat’s so dry that I can barely form words. Which is weird, since words mostly come out as text boxes anyway, text boxes that have voice flavor from fonts, or something, which somehow reaches our ears. Life is so weird, everything is so weird. I’m light headed, and I begin to pass out in Teuila’s embrace, but she shakes me lightly, keeping me awake, staring into my blurry eyes with her own wettened eyes. “You gotta stay awake for a bit, okay? Just til we’re sure you’re okay.”
Trying to reassure her, trying to lighten the mood, I manage to croak out, “Do you feel as bad as you look right now? Because you look as bad as I feel.” She looks stunned for a bit, before her face turns from one of utter sorrow, to one of pure joy, as she starts laughing, at first a halting, unsure laugh, that turns into a full bout of laughter.
“You, you, you big dummy, hahaha, that was so mean! That’s the first thing you say to me when you get your words back?” She then whispers to me, and only to me, “I love you, you get me so well.” Teuila somehow manages to blush so hard it’s visible through both mud and copper fur.
The tension in the air seems defused, the various worries of the family seem to drift away as there’s many a sigh of relief. I’m mortified at having put them through that. I know I was reacting emotionally, and maybe overreacting, obviously, but, I don’t know how to face any of them about this, neither about what Mataalii said, nor about my reaction to it. It’s a really good thing I didn’t use any of the fired clay, it might have been hard for them to dig through it and rescue me, it’s also a good thing that I didn’t try to dig up out away at an angle, they’d never have found me if they kept going straight down. I’m surprised once again as Agwai of all people comes over and asks of Teuila, “May I?” Agwai indicates to me, and Teuila begrudgingly lets Agwai closer. Ag lifts me to a seated position, and sits directly in front of me, leaning low and close, their legs crossed.
“Little one, I feel I’ve failed you, that you should feel so distraught. You are one of us, one of us to whom we owe every single thing we have left. As I’ve said before, what we yet have left is one another. None of us, save perhaps Mataalii, feel you bear any responsibility for events that unfolded.” I can’t meet Agwai’s gaze as they continue, hitting home the topic at hand. Avoiding eye contact, I look down at the floor of our dugout, both of us sitting cross-legged, in white bodysuits covered in mud. My heart races, and my breath catches in my throat as I gulp, I’m filled with panic about the topic at hand. Ag continues, “Perhaps I have failed to let you know it, as you are newer, perhaps my lack of letting you know has left you feeling as an outsider, for that I beg your forgiveness, but you should know, I love you, Lao loves you, you are one of our own.” I’m a bit floored that Agwai, of anyone in the family, would take me aside to express such sentiment. I didn’t necessarily think of them as cold or hateful, but I definitely didn’t feel close to Ag before now. I start to reach forward and lean forward, wrapping my arms around Agwai’s torso, and burying my face in their chest. I’m met with open arms, and comfort. I can sense Agwai use one arm to motion the others over. In a moment, I am embraced on all sides yet again, and Lil has squeezed in the midst of all of us.
After what seems like an embrace that lasts a lifetime, I hear Luni’s harp as we continue to hold one another, she strums only a few notes, and begins humming softly. I can feel the family falling asleep around me, each of us seated in awkward positions to be able to hug one another as we drift off to sleep. I can scarcely believe it’s Agwai’s arms that I fall asleep in, this night. This reminds me, that I almost suspected Agwai of shoving me into the river not so many days ago, how foolish could I have been to think such a thing? It would make more sense if Mata had snuck up, and shoved me to get my attention, to have the talk we had recently. When I fell into the river, Mataalii probably feared he would be blamed, so he likely darted away. There was no malice in it, of that I’m certain, with the last of my strength before I fall asleep, I beckon to Mata to join us with the twins.
I awaken to being held only by Teuila, as the others are breaking fast, she’s rocking slightly back and forth with my head and torso in her lap, her heels under her butt. I want to ask her if Mata joined us in the sleep, but it seems so awkward a question to ask, that I just say nothing. My stomach hurts, and feels extremely empty, which makes sense. I basically didn’t have dinner, since I lost my lunch, well, dinner, before sleeping. Luni seems to have helped everyone clean off with the magic soap stone, that wonderful little bit of porous rock. “Where’s Lil?” I look around, not spying Lil anywhere, then I realize Teuila’s lap can’t be this big, and I roll to the side, realizing I’ve been squashing Lil this entire time. “Oh buddy, I’m sorry, I can’t believe I didn’t notice you down there.”
“S’alright pal, we’re good! You look famished, c’mon, let’s eat!” Lil’s ability to show exuberance early after waking never ceases to amaze me, or well, at least amuse me. Watching Lil eat gives me an idea, the inside of Lil’s mouth seems much softer than their outer scales, and mid-bite, I stick my head in Lil’s mouth, to look at their insides, which nets me a “Vwhat va heck? Bubby? Vvucka boin in by bouf?” I’m able to learn a few things, firstly, Lil probably said what the heck buddy, whacha doin’ in my mouth, secondly, Lil’s definitely softer on the inside, even softer than their bottom, and third, I have no idea where food goes, because they are basically just a head with a tail.
“Sorry about that Lil’ buddy, I got to thinking about how we’re likely going to face Octorochi soon, and I was in its mouth the other day. Inside its mouth seemed much less armored, I wonder if its threshold is lower in there?” Lil gives me a curious glance as I get around to explaining what I surmise.
Teuila, listening in, and laughing that my face is covered in dragon slobber, gives a bit of an indignant hmf, before stating, “If you think I’m letting you fools fight that giant snake from the inside, before we’re sure you can win, you’ve got another think coming. You’re mad, you’re mad, you’re mad. Utterly bonkers, totally nuts.” My brain slightly has that blue screen of death error message style flicker, and another tv screen in my mind’s eye turns on, filled with that static snow, a couple in fact.
Even Lao, gazing over from sharing food with Agwai, puts a pawed hand to her face to stifle a chuckle at the three of us. Luni is oddly enough, doing stretches in the middle of the dugout, then equipping her gear. I wonder if Luni’s musical magic could enhance the speed of our attacks if we had to fight, though it’s probably better to just enhance our escape velocity. That’s probably not the right term, but the words mean the right things, in context.
Oh, right, I’d better get a move on and catch up to the others. Thankfully, meals only take an instant to consume if you want them to, and I’m a bit sick of fish and frog, so I’m happy to instantly consume the food. I then set about pulling out equipment from my inventory, for those whose gear I’d been carrying. Teuila and I armor up and arm ourselves, I’m not exactly adept at sword fighting, I’m more used to just wielding a stick like a club or spear, but I don’t dare wield the spears I’ve got in my inventory, my walking-stick spear is useless against the serpent, and Gae Buidhe is terrifying for an amateur to wield. I kind of wish I could just use Gae Buidhe’s haft, or is it shaft? The handle. Basically, I think I’d be better with a staff, of all things. Maybe since it was my first possession, more or less.
“Lil, I spotted another clay deposit a little bit upriver last night, can you help me collect it, and fire it into bricks before we set off?”
“Sure thing buddy, I’m always at your service! Especially when I get to show off that I’m a draaaagon.” Lil wobbles their voice in a silly fashion, that somehow comes through both textually and auditorily. We carefully head out, together, and replace the lid on the dugout, while the rest of the family makes their own preparations for today’s leg of the journey.
“Something made me realize that a pyramid is easier, faster to build than a box, less material, and more stable too. If our backs are literally to a wall, if I’m simultaneously creating two faces at a sixty degree angle, Well, those two faces can meet at a point above us, then I don’t have to make four faces out of three walls and a ceiling before closing off the snake’s attacks. It’s literally half as much work, twice as fast to get to the point where we’ll be safe enough to pelt it with attacks, annoy it or scare it off. And if we don’t have a wall at our backs, by the third wall, we’re completely encased and safe. If I make an equilateral floor for support, it’s a tetrahedron.”
“Huh, sounds like a plan pal, but where’s all this coming from?”
“Would you believe me if I told you, the inspiration came from something involving dragons?” I don’t know where or when I started to remember it, but there are games of fantasy, played with dice, and their shapes, well, sure the cube is simple, easy to remember, easy to visualize to construct, but the tetrahedral reminds me of when I was thinking about construction with Lil, way back when. I know that angles are somehow important for support, something about triangles being the simplest shape.
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“You betcha I would, dragons give the best inspiration!” Lil exclaims in a way that’s somehow slightly incredulous, yet also completely trusting, while being a bit amused. There’s laughter under Lil’s breath.
Continuing the line of thought, I think I used an octahedron, or dodecahedron style shape on the Night of High Water, to encase us in our flimsy vessel. “Lil, oh Lil we need to find a way to capture air. I can’t let that happen ever again.” I fall to my knees and quiver, sucking in a ragged breath.
“Buddy, what’s wrong?”
“The Night of High Water, if I’d had air in my inventory, things would have gone so much better. I think.” Lil’ bounds into me as I state this, snuggling into my chest. My chest, which feels tight with regret, but at least I can try to learn, and be better prepared. I’m still alive, and moving forward. Mata can continue to think whatever he wants, I’m done trying to win his approval. Last night hurt worse than nearly being eaten. I’ll strive to be less over-emotional in reaction to things, maybe even ignore Mata completely. “Anyway, seems like we have enough now, pal, to make a full pyramid, let’s get everyone out here, and practice it once or twice before we head out.”
I head back to the dugout, scrape the muck off the door, and knock a couple of times as I claim it to my inventory. “Knock knock, I need everyone out here and close together for a few seconds, please. I need to practice, to be ready.”
“Be ready for what?” “Practice what?” “What now?” are questions from the twins and Mata. I only let myself heave a slight sigh.
“I’m trying to be better prepared, I have a plan, but I haven’t tested to see if I can even do the plan with my powers. Any time we’re not marching, or running, we’re going to need to be within, hm, this distance, of a shape like this.” I draw out a rough triangle on the ground, about the shape of the amount of materials I have. Lao, Ag, Luni and Teuila immediately bunch up in the center of the triangle, Mata rolls his eyes before ushering the twins to one corner. “Near the edges, the amount of room will be really low, you’ll have to stay ducked low.”
Lil and I begin to try to rapidly construct a pyramid around us, but the process is slow, too slow to be used in an emergency. We try several times, but can’t speed up the process quickly enough when trying to construct it brick by brick. Larger objects seem to use up exponentially larger amounts of energy when called to and expelled from my inventory, so I was hoping to be able to do it with individual bricks, nearly for free, but even at several bricks per second, that’s too many seconds of the serpent having a chance to eat my family.
Sighing, somewhat exhausted, I let Lil’ know the change of plans across our shared mental wavelength, and as we finish the pyramid, we leave several gaps to attack out of. Once we’re completely surrounded, I claim entire faces of the structure to my inventory at once. Once it’s claimed, everyone seems about ready to leave, but as practice, I quickly throw the faces back up around us before they can. It’s much quicker, and leaves me panting for breath. If I put up three faces, with no floor, I can do it without energy debt. However, with no floor, it’s less a stable structure, and more some walls that sink and fall away from one another. I grimace, and try to hold back sadness and tears. I’m not strong enough yet, to protect my family without risk, without sacrifice. The fourth face is almost enough energy debt to evolve one of us. It takes around six hundred sixty energy per face, three faces is nearly all of my energy, the fourth sets me around twenty five percent negative.
I’m tempted to just not tell anyone, but Lil’ already knows, Luni already knows. I don’t want Mataalii thinking I’m trying to look like a hero, claiming I’m making a sacrifice. “Who cares what that jerk thinks?” Asks Lil’ across our wavelength. Luni adds, “You are a hero, to me, I wouldn’t have Lil’ if not for you, I wouldn’t be alive, if not for you.”
Sighing, and a bit gasping for breath, I close my eyes for a moment, then state as plainly as I can. “My plan only works if I risk energy debt, the real reason I was knocked out for several weeks, back then.” The rest of the family murmur or gasp as I reveal this, Teuila socks me in the shoulder. “I mean, hopefully it was a combination of injury and energy debt. Also, the energy debt won’t be so drastic this time, it’s not nearly as far into the negative, but there are consequences that seem a bit random, so I can’t guarantee what they will be.”
“What if you put it up, before we’re attacked? More slowly?” Luni asks aloud.
“My plan partially relies on the element of surprise. I think the serpent is smart enough to find a way to break a structure, either from a distance, or all at once. It’s not a bad idea Lu, but, I worry that it might possibly risk invalidating the plan, and leave us more vulnerable. A structure in the middle of the swamp sticks out, it’s pretty obvious. It’s better to quickly create a dugout every time we need a break, rather than to give away our backup surprise. I think so at least, anyway.”
“Hmf, I guess so, what you say makes sense at least.” Luni replies, yielding.
Teuila however continues to sock me in the shoulder, lightly growling. I turn my attention to Te, staring mournfully into her angered gaze. She says “It’s not fair, why do burdens keep falling on you?” I can only shrug, and half-smile, as I hug her tightly, and hide my shame in the crook of her neck.
“Lu, I need you to promise me that you won’t overwork yourself just because of this, promise me we’ll take breaks. I’ll never forgive either of us if I’m the reason something happens to you.” Luni looks guiltily at me, she knows I know she was thinking of marching the whole day through, just so we wouldn’t need my fallback plan. “Promise me, please.”
“I,” She stutters a moment, halting, then she heaves a sigh, “I promise.” Ag and Lao seem to be confusedly switching focus, peering at one of us then the other, they then look down at Lil, expectantly, who says nothing, then their gaze turns to Teuila.
“What? I’m the responsible one of these dorks, I’m not going to do something risky, I keep them all in line. Well, as much as I can anyway.” Teuila’s reply causes Laomati and Agwai to sigh with relief. As brash as Teuila is, she is definitely the level-headed one amongst my little inner-circle. At least right now. I would have thought Lu would be even more clear-headed, as she wasn’t really part of any fights, but now she’s trying to push herself for all of our sakes.
I couldn’t ask for a better family for this life, in this wilderness so fraught with danger. Even Mataalii, he reminds me that I’m not invincible, and I’m definitely nowhere near perfect. Not that I really truly needed to be reminded of such, but his mere existence at this point will probably keep me from ever having an over-inflated ego. Self-doubt can be a good thing, right? If it forces us to face ourselves, and always try to be better, one moment to the next?
There are some other things I need to practice, and I realize we probably should have been on the East side of the river this entire time. Lil, are you up for evolving and carrying us across the river so I can test a few things? Can you hear me buddy?
“Yep yep! Hey everyone! Who wants a dragon-back ride!? Go for it pal!” Lil exclaims aloud for everyone to hear, I guess that’s my cue to help them evolve, I’d be a jerk to leave them hanging after an announcement like that, so I quickly form our tether.
In a moment, Lil’s form shifts to that of Lilagnewt, a quadrupedal winged gecko more or less, and I test out teleporting to Lil’s back as they take a quick flight around the family to show off their wings. It’s exceedingly difficult to do, when it happened, I was really angry at one creature in particular, and I wanted to get to them, so it was less teleporting onto Lil’s back, and more teleporting to a place of anger, with Lil as a stopping point. Realizing that might be the key, and that I’ve only got two creatures I could possibly be angry at at the moment, one of them being myself, I sigh, and picture Mata as my anger anchor, and sure enough, for the briefest moment I find myself atop Lil, then right in front of Mata.
I casually whisper, “Boo.” Mata tumbles backwards as I give the ghostly greeting. I wonder, if I’m my anger target, will I still move to Lil’s back as a midpoint of a telejump? Or can I somehow drop my anger and my target, while I’m on Lil? After several attempts, I’m still no closer to staying atop Lil with a teleport, but I could at least teleport in front of someone I’m fighting, if for example, I’m in their mouth. I wonder if Lil has to have line of sight on my target for the teleportation to work. There might be a lot of factors to play around with. Maybe if Lil sees my target as I engage the ability, but loses sight the split second I begin to teleport, I might get stuck on their back.
All of my testing and pondering happens over only a few split seconds, during which it probably looks like I’m harassing Mataalii, which sucks. The twins are clamoring excitedly as Lil swoops around one last time for a landing to start taking passengers. “I think we should be on the east side of the river, Lil will carry anyone across who doesn’t want to swim. The serpent was near the west bank two nights ago, I’m hoping that it’s still somewhere out there.” I motion off to the west.
Lao is standing near Lil, stroking their wings and flank with a curious expression on her face. I wonder what’s up, but I have to stay a bit focused on maintaining the tether. Teuila beats everyone to the east bank in a split second, not even the least bit slowed by the river as she swims across it. I try to join Teuila in crossing the river manually, via my own power, and I lose quite a bit of distance to the river’s flow as it sends me downstream during my crossing. Teuila looks like she’s struggling to stifle laughter as she walks along the bank to bring me back to the rest of the family. Mata crossed the river while Teuila and I were making our way back up the bank, seemingly fairly handily. In that same time, Lil had ferried the twins, and Ag and Lao across.
“Is this who you are now? Have you evolved dear child? Can you stay like this? It’s such a beautiful form for you.” Lao dotes on Lil in a curious manner, seeming very impressed with Lil’s draconic form.
“Awe shucks, but nah, it’s temporary, Reggie’s gotta keep pumping energy into this weird bond we have. Without it, watch this, hey Reggie, let ‘er rip!” As Lil requests, I let loose the tether, reclaiming my energy. Lil drops to the ground and Lil’s form shrinks as they bounce a bit in the standing water of the swamp.
Teuila tugs on me a bit, and she begins stripping her gear, I raise an eyebrow, curious what she’s on about, then I realize, she wants to get to show off her form too, she’s just embarrassed to ask, since it would be like admitting being jealous of Lil. I claim Teuila’s gear for a bit, and whisper to her not to do anything fancy that takes a lot of energy. I hope she understands why, since things seem to cost more out of combat, we could both end up in energy debt, if we do, and the consequence is passing out, we leave the family pretty vulnerable.
Since Teuila wants this, I politely announce, “Our family’s primary protector Teuila also has another form, and this! is what she looks like.” As I emphasize the word this, I pour energy into a bond with Teuila, showing everyone at hand the appearance of her evolved form. I clutch my chest as I’m stricken with a bit of pain, and an odd pressure builds in my forehead just above and between my eyes, thankfully no one’s attention is on me, as Teuila shows off her gear, and mimics her moves without fully leaping into the air. I gasp for breath as a pain also starts in my right suboccipital area, then lances to the pressure point in my forehead, passing through my right eye. I clench my jaw and grit my teeth, pressing through the pain. What’s more, my right temple is in a pain that can’t decide if it’s pounding, throbbing, pulsing, or a dull ache.
I think the oxygen deprivation, or self-transformation of last night probably left some lasting damage, though I’m not sure what kind. Teuila touches her forehead, and glances back at me, it’s pretty obvious she can sense something is up as she announces “But I’ll only be like this in a dire emergency, and remember, never touch this spear, its magic is super dangerous.” Teuila divests in front of me, I guess she figures we may as well grab any extra copies of her equipment that we can, so I claim them before dropping the tether, then I hand her a copy of her equipment once we’re finished. Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is there a tiny white streak in Teuila’s brilliant copper fur?
“Reggie, how’d that happen?” Teuila points to my forehead, and if she’s asking about the pain, I have no idea how to answer. Her hand darts forward and she grabs a shock of my hair, bringing it in front of my eyes, it’s lightly streaked with white.
“I, I don’t know, but it happened to you too.” I stroke her forehead where there’s the tiniest streak of white amidst her gorgeous fur, and if I brush it the right way, it’s completely hidden. She holds my hand with both of hers, and nuzzles it momentarily. “Do you see any white spots on Lil?” I ask her quietly.
“Hm, no, none.” Her answer is given as she quickly glances over at Lil, and I struggle with the pain in my temple and various spots in my head. “What’s wrong?” She asks as she returns her gaze to me.
“It hurts, it hurts really badly. I might be paying the price for being an idiot last night.”
“Shut up, you weren’t an idiot, well okay, you kind of were, that was really dumb, but it’s not your fault.” Teuila chastises me, but I can’t help but to laugh as she basically backpedals my own insult to insult me then defend me.
For probably the first time ever, I pull my leaf leather hood that I’ve only ever used to give Lil a hammock on my back, over my head, and down over one eye, then I tie it tighter with a vine, leaving the helmet off for now. “We should get moving, can you give Lu some sort of signal to get everyone started?”
She nods, then shouts, “Lu, let’s roll!” I roll my eyes and chuckle, rolling my eyes hurts, but it was funny.
“Subtle, very subtle.”
“Heee.” She lets out a single giggle, then socks me in the shoulder.
Over the next few hours, Lu tries out a new variation on her marching song, that uses “And a one, and a two, and a three,” instead of “Zero, one, two, three, four.” Similarly, the twins, Ag, and Lao are able to easily join in on the counting bits, and I’m able to zone out, letting the scenery just pass us by, slowly feeling the pain recede. I’m grateful for the distraction, and the mindlessness of the march itself. Three hours into the march or so, I signal for Teuila to get Lu to stop and rest. I’m not willing to risk Lu going through any of the sorts of pain I have gone through, or am going through.
The family gathers close to sit together, knowing how close we need to stay together, so we partake of a meal temporarily as we recuperate. The jade and emerald lighting that reaches down through the canopy leaves our family awash in diamond patterns of different shades of green, and it’s a slightly mesmerizing effect.
I lean against Teuila, still somewhat recovering from the surprise headache, I drift into a bit of a short nap. It’s slightly uncomfortable to sit in standing water, but it’s better than staying on our feet marching for eight or more hours straight in a row.
Luni announces, “I’m going to go get a drink, and cool my toes in the river.” She takes off her boots and puts them away in the magic bag inside her harp, and heads down towards the bank. I’m nervous that she’s outside the range of the structure I can throw up, and Lil senses my nervousness, so joins Luni down on the riverbank.
Lao and Ag, Mata and the twins, Teuila and myself, are all sitting in corners of a triangle, holding our pair, or pairs. I let my eyes droop, my breathing slow, as I try to recover for the march ahead. I hear Luni playfully splashing Lil, and Lil indignantly joking and occasionally squirting her with water. Their innocent joy lets me smile.
That’s when I hear it, feel it, sense it. That undulating roll, that swishing slither that shakes the surface of the whole swamp. I even see its heads already on the west bank, the bastard has six front heads somehow, but one of its neck stumps has no heads. Like some form of hydra, it must have torn off one of its own heads and grown two back to replace it. The magic of the spear Gae Buidhe worked at least, if only we had managed to jab each of its necks at least once.