The questions from Kikito and I are never ending. We had gotten off of Dark to trek alongside him–I still wasn’t sure if he was joking or not when he told us he could stop using him for transport now. I was by her side, watching her like Kikito had watched me for signs of change. Her eyes, aside from being catty like mine, looked sad, weighed down by something I could understand but I didn’t know. So I had asked, and with a heavy heart she had told us this story Dark had told her of the cosmos, how it all began and fit together. I didn’t need a mirror to see how I was reacting: I knew it was identical to Kikito. Reality fell out from under my feet and I still hadn’t found my footing yet.
“Crazy to think we just walked around, no clue any of this was going on,” she says with a wondrous expression. I follow her eyes to a small group of birds fluttering at each other in branches above us. Their feathers glowed different colors from the lights, and they weren’t the same species. Some of them looked akin to flying peacocks with wide, tall feathers that pulsated at the various dots speckled on them. A few others looked more like vultures, bald heads but a glorious neck-beard of plumage it puffed up as it communicated.
“I was under the impression everything here wanted to kill us,” I say.
“Me too, but it’s not all like that,” Mirana says.
I look confused so Dark chimes in and says, “The friendlier creatures have gravitated here over the years. First those Kobus, and when I stopped chasing them off others came. The Kobus have a unique ability to be sentient. They live in a cave in the Grove but they roam the entire forest.”
“Where did they come from?” I ask.
“Your guess is as good as mine. It was one at first and then they were everywhere. The other animals here seem to trust them.”
Several Kobus bounce across the trees and the birds pause their talks long enough to acknowledge their presence. The mushroom creatures bounce on, their thick-bottomed bodies undulating slightly with their landings. Describing them isn’t easy: they’re short, only about three feet off the ground, and chubby like plush teddy bears. Their skin glows green and is brightest at the wide drooping caps on their heads obscuring any face they might have. Some have smaller caps but none of them have drifted close enough to us yet.
“What now?” I ask. I feel like a broken record knowing I’m probably going to ask that again sooner rather than later.
“We need to get to Za’at. Akhenaten’s cult, the Reaching of Aten, is there with the Repression. They’re in the way so we’ll need to get rid of them,” Mirana says.
“That will be easier said than done. They have a piece of Inbetween that makes them strong and they have it inside of a entity made of clay that watches over their city. And we have four other pieces we need to locate before we can get there, and we don’t know where they are…well most of them.”
We look at it. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Mirana asks. Dark snorts.
“Patience. The celeste doesn’t work nearly as hastily as you insist it does,” he says as the Kobus gather distance from us, and the forest darkens. The last of the lights leave us. Bird calls are replaced by deep throaty ribbits from creatures hiding just behind my sight. Ruffles in the shrubs and trees make Mirana and I jerk our heads around like crazy. A small creature leaps from tree to tree accompanied by the ribbits. With enough glances I can piece together its appearance to describe it to Kikito: furry and built like a small orangutan, the fur orange but with a slight green light shimmer: its face is more like a toad with beady eyes and a wide brimmed mouth and loose furry skin under the mouth that expands with the ribbits.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I’m definitely calling it a Toakey,” Kikito says.
“Nuisance is a better word to describe them,” Dark replies. A group of them darts through the trees, to the brighter parts of the forest where a flock of birds squack angrily and flies off to various parts of the Grove.
“Are they eating them?” I ask.
“No, nothing here is carnivorous, but some of them enjoy passing the time harassing each other. Most animals down here do that.”
“Why do they look so weird?”
“Same reason as bothering the other animals: there’s no advantage to mutation so it gets to experiment with itself. That being said, not everything is inherently friendly as there’s no need to survive on that either, so watch what you wander up to.”
We come to a large swampy hole in the ground, deliberately carved with the excess debris poking out of the waters and around the hole. These waters are black and look more of the consistency of loose slime. Dark steps into it, front hooves sinking deep into it.
“I must rest, if only temporarily. You all would do well to do the same.”
“Life said I didn’t need to sleep,” I say.
“Sleep and rest are two different things. I will return.”
“Where do we–
Dark disappears into the fluid like Godzilla retreating from Tokyo. It would be comical if the scene wasn’t unsettling.
When we’re alone Kikito and I breathe a heavy sigh. He collapses next to a rock. “Well I need to sleep guys so I’m taking advantage. Don’t you go leaving me by myself with those Toakies,” he says. Sleep takes him within minutes.
Mirana and I stare at each other. I’m not sure what to say, where to begin. “I stole your ashes,” I blurt. She blinks in surprise.
“They cremated me?”
“You died in a car accident. I hate to say it but you weren’t exactly in one piece.”
“I know. I’m just surprised to hear it, is all.” She sits down near Kikito, facing the deep brush of the forest. I sit down next to her. “So you stole my urn and then what?”
“I took you to the cave.”
Mirana eye’s widen. “My cave? What possessed you to go there?”
“I have no idea. It just felt right, if I could feel anything that felt right. That’s where I found Kikito–he’s a park ranger.”
“I thought I recognized his face. I’ve seen him around the park,” she says and laughs, “he was always hanging around that other one. Real hard ass, that guy.”
“Yeah, that guy didn’t make it if we’re thinking of the same one. This monster burst out of the ground and ate him. It’s chasing me.”
“I hate to hear that. But I’m glad you weren’t alone. It feels like being in space down here. The only things that’ll hear you scream don’t even know what you are.” She shudders.
“Mirana. What happened to you, after…you know? You don’t have to talk about it,” I say.
“No, there’s nothing to lose from talking about it, and there’s things you should know. About me.”
“We have the same eyes.”
“That’s not lost on me. Inbetween must have caused that to happen to you. Death did this to me, is currently doing it.”
“Where is he?”
“I want to say dead, but it’s more complicated than that. I found him in the Tides and he asked me to do something for him. Death dispersed himself over Earth to slow the Repression’s wakening, and he needs something to anchor to when he returns, me. He’ll fuse to me slowly as he comes back. It isn’t a resurrection so he would be me forever, and I’d be him.”
“A new being entirely,” I surmise.
“Not dissimilar to your situation from what I understand,” she says. I nod.
After some time I ask, “if you’re replacing the Loomer, does that mean the Tides belong to you now?”
“I’ll belong to them, if there is a Tides after this. I intend to take on all his responsibilities.”
“We’re saving a home we may not get to go back to.”
Mirana nods. “Can’t be undone, so might as well take some responsibility for it.” I know I agree with her as I lay my head on her shoulder and close my eyes for a time with her.