Chapter Four
Tyr Park
“What kind of stuff can you do when your Vitality isn’t broken?” Claudius asked.
“It is not broken,” Forest Boy said, “Something is just…off at the moment.”
“Can you really fly? Fly by yourself, like a bird?” Claudius asked, perusing the shelves in front of him for useful items. The two had sought out a store that sold Animator Constructs. Without them, Claudius would have been as useless as Forest Boy currently was.
He picked up a few short lengths of rope and clay half-discs before moving into the next aisle.
“Humans cannot fly. Even if my powers weren’t…”
“Broken?”
“Diminished. The best I could manage is increasing the height of another’s jump, and only for a moment.”
“Oh, that sounds fun.” Claudius said, “I wouldn’t mind trying it one day.”
Suddenly Forest Boy became very interested in the goods in this aisle. “What’s the purpose of this?” He asked, holding up a channel-jack. It was a tool marked so an Animator could place it underneath something and raise or lower it with their vitality. This one was small enough to be used around the home, for repairing furniture and not much else. Claudius explained and added it to the pile.
“But how does it work?” Forest Boy asked. “How does your vitality…work?”
Claudius pulled out his last remaining hummingbird and pointed out the channels carved deep into it. Deep into every object meant for channeling, “Basically my vitality can fill up these channels and I move the hummingbird like that.”
“So you will the bird to move and it moves?”
Claudius shook his head. “I don’t move the hummingbird; I just move my vitality; the hummingbird comes with it.”
Forest Boy nodded thoughtfully, “So you can wrap your vitality around this rope and move it?”
Claudius shook his head again. “No. Animator vitality has to be concentrated to move anything. If I wrapped the whole rope in vitality, I wouldn’t be able to budge it more than an inch or two. It concentrates in the grooves for a stronger effect and it's easier to move the whole bird if the vitality is closer to the core of it."
Forest Boy nodded thoughtfully.
Just in case.
The pair had filled Claudius' satchel with various cheap constructs and headed to the counter to pay for everything. The shopkeeper eyed the assortment of tools between them before saying, “Boys your age are too old to be building playhouses.”
“We-”
“Doesn’t matter to me. Seventy-two reels.”
It was then that Claudius remembered that all his money was in the bag he'd left behind while chasing Thief the first time somewhere between the tea shop and The Humble Dumpling.
“Ah. I ah…uh…”
The shopkeeper began to look annoyed but before he could cuss them out, Forest Boy reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of blue papers and set a few sheets of it on the countertop.
“This should suffice,” He said.
That stack was more money than Claudius had been given, maybe more than he’d ever seen at one time before.
“Of course. You gentleman have a lovely day.” The shopkeeper’s sour mood evaporated like fog on a hot day. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
He was all too willing to give them directions to Tyr Park after that.
“Have you been carrying around that much money all day?” Claudius asked, after they left the store.
Forest Boy looked confused. “Yes, why? Was it too little?”
“Too little?!” Claudius said, “No it’s not too little.” With that much money Forest Boy could probably afford a home outright. Whatever medallions sold for, Thief could have made a dozen times more if she’d stolen the bag instead.
Suddenly, Claudius felt a little cheated.
“Whatever.” He snapped. “Let’s just go to the stupid park.”
...
The sun was low in the sky when the pair reached Tyr Park. It was almost strange seeing so much vibrant green again after spending the day running around a city as grey as Meridian, but Claudius was glad for it. The trees were tall, small grassy hills littered the park, and ducks waddled across the greenery and through the ponds. A leisurely stroll through it sounded fantastic on any other day but finding that statue was urgent.
Old, headless statue, waving a flag. Both he and Forest Boy walked for what felt like hours, searching but no one they asked seemed to know about any headless statue waving a flag. He wished he’d asked for a more specific description. Tyr Park was massive and searching it all on foot would take hours.
The pair walked over bridges, around ponds, past couples and families, uphill and downhill all before ending up in a secluded area of the park. Here the path must not have been replaced for years, the only notable feature was a misshapen rock covered in overgrowth in the center of a small clearing. Its shape was unlike any rock Claudius had seen before.
He leaned against it, trying not to lose hope.
Maybe we should split up. We could search faster.
But if either of us get lost we have no way to find each other again.
Maybe we could come back to the rock after a few minutes, but if we’re spending all our time coming back here… He was about to ask Forest Boy for his opinion when he noticed him staring upwards with a look Claudius had never seen before.
“What are you thinking about?” Claudius asked.
Forest Boy startled back to reality but took a moment to answer. “This place, the trees are so small, like sapling Aumiga. It’s quite adorable.”
“Who finds trees adorable? We’re here to find a statue, not ogle cute trees.” Claudius said.
Forest Boy sighed. “The trees are small, and the grass is tame, but this is the closest I’ve felt to home since I arrived in this city.” His face changed, “But you are right. We have to find that thief girl.”
Claudius tried to stand but the exhaustion of running around all day, fighting cute girls was catching up to him, “Maybe we should rest a minute.” He said.
Forest Boy looked unamused. “You said we had no time to be idle.”
“Rest is important.”
“More important than our search?”
“If you want to search anymore, you’ll have to carry me on your back.”
Forest Boy sighed, “You are just like Leaf.”
“Leaf? Is that some Naturalist insult?”
“Far from an insult. Leaf was the pillar of our community. No one else could calm down a crying child like him, or discipline an adult and earn more of their respect while doing it. And he was the only person I knew who’d mastered all six disciplines. But he valued rest more highly than I or anyone else I know.”
What are the six disciplines? “What does he do in your village? It sounds like he’d be a great teacher.”
“He died.” Forest Boy said.
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Don’t be. He was…content the last time I saw him. The worst thing in the world you could do is be sad for him. Besides he’s not gone. Somewhere out there a tree has sprouted, or a river has begun flowing and everything that was Leaf is inside it, slumbering.”
Claudius chuckled.
Instantly Forest Boy whipped around, “Why are you laughing?”
Claudius frowned. “Your joke.”
“I told no joke. Leaf is still with us, though in a new form.”
“People can’t become plants…” Claudius said, "It just doesn't make sense."
Forest Boy looked irritated, but more than that, he looked hurt. "You don't know what you're speaking about."
"No," Claudius said, "It just doesn't make sense. When you die, your body gets buried and your spirit evaporates into vitality. It's pretty simple."
Forest Boy opened his mouth, looking as though he wanted to argue. "I will go and look for this statue and return here in ten minutes. Then you will go." His tone left little room for argument. He left the clearing.
He's mad. Claudius thought, leaning into the odd rock. But I'm right. People can't become trees. Obviously. He took full advantage of his ten minute reprieve, recovering from all the running and walking today had been. Eventually, footsteps approached from the mouth of the clearing right up to the base of the rock, followed by the sound of someone digging.
What is Forest Boy doing? Claudius wondered. He stood up.
The digging stopped.
He peered over the stone and looked down to where the noise had come from, right into an increasingly familiar pair of grey eyes.
Thief, crouched with a bright silver spade wedged into the dirt.
Mutual disbelief gripped them tightly. Thief broke out of it first; raising her spade and swinging it, while it lengthened and narrowed into a staff once more. Claudius ducked and it clanged off the rock.
“You again?” She shrieked.
Claudius was too busy searching through the bag of supplies, cursing himself for buying so much to confirm.
Just his luck that she appeared while Forest Boy was gone. His vitality may have been useless, but he was taller and faster. At the very least having him around was preferable to trying to fight her alone.
Skies above hurry back!
Thief dashed around the statue; staff poised to crack his skull open. That moment his fingers connected with the pair of clay discs.
In an instant he launched them towards her, glowing with vitality and forced her backwards. He scrambled towards the middle of the clearing while she…
Just stood there.
“How do you keep finding me? How did you know I’d be here?” Her eyes narrowed, “Did someone rat me out? Who?”
Why isn’t she attacking me right now?
“Who. Ratted. Me. Out?” Thief said.
She wants answers.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Tell me who!” She shouted.
“Why do you think someone ratted you out? Did it ever occur to you that I could be clever and handsome?” He said.
The girl looked irritated. “Listen. I don’t know what far away little town you come from, but this is Meridian. Look out for yourself, before someone like me stops being nice. Tell me who sold me out, turn around and leave, and I won’t hurt you.”
Claudius said nothing. He just launched the channel-snare he’d purchased towards her.
She jumped it effortlessly.
He launched disc after disc of her from his remaining stash, but she had grown familiar with this trick and smashed each one of them as they came, nearly dizzying Claudius with the disorientation of each shattering.
Thief had nearly managed to close the distance between them, only a step or two out of range to pummel him.
Plan B it is, He thought as his fingers closed around a fishing net. He breathed vitality into its four nodes and launched it, spreading them wide. A massive thing, large enough to bring in a fisherman’s haul, or with much less work one teenage girl, flew towards her,
Unfortunately, Thief was quicker witted than he hoped. The end of the staff sharpened to a point and the girl wielding it cut through the net.
Claudius cursed and ducked a swipe of the staff that would have knocked him unconscious.
I have to get Forest Boy’s attentions without signalling her. He thought.
Claudius shouted at the top of his lungs, holding it for at long as he could. Thief stared at him as though he’d lost his mind.
“Don’t bother calling for help. This close to the Gardens, even if anybody’s around, they won’t bother.” She punctuated her words with a vicious swing. Claudius ran further into the trees where branches shredded his skin. Thief followed but even she could only maneuver so fast, and the greenery was too dense to navigate easily.
Plan C. His final real contingency.
Behind him, Thief made it through the dense foliage and ran towards him.
He circled back to the clearing and raced for the bag in the center, searching through it.
His second hunting snare sped through the air towards Thief, but she managed to jump over them at the last second, which left her open to his third hunting snare.
She jumped instinctively, but he was not aiming for her legs.
The snare wrapped around her staff and wrenched it out of her hands before she could morph its shape, while the second hunting snare circled back and wrapped around her legs and she fell to her knees.
The snare holding her staff returned to Claudius and deposited said staff before he launched it and ensnared her arms as well.
Thief let out a cry of pure frustration muffled by the ground and struggled against her restraints while Claudius exhaled deeply, unable to help admiring his own brilliance. It was good that he weas as clever as he was.
“I hope that rope isn’t too tight, wouldn’t want to cause you any pain.” He said, as he approached her. She struggled with her bonds, eventually taking a fetal position facing away.
“Look, just give the medallion back and you’ll never see me again. All this can’t have been worth it.” He said.
Thief said nothing.
“Don’t make me try to find it myself,” Claudius said, reddening slightly, “Please just tell me where it is so I don’t have to…search you.”
She was oddly silent.
His face burned bright red now. He steeled himself to search her pockets, one hand reaching towards the pockets of her pants.
Suddenly a bright blade of metal burst from under her pantleg, a blade that materialized out of seeming nothingness, whose creation had cut through most of her pant leg beneath the knee and the rope binding her ankles.
She contorted her body and used this new blade to cut through the ropes binding her torso, before that blade turned into a second staff.
She Transmuted a second piece of metal hidden under her clothing, He realized before her fist collided hard with his cheek.
Claudius stumbled backwards seeing stars, until the increasingly familiar swipe of a staff connected with his ankles and put him on his back.
The staff collided with his stomach, then his shins, his elbows. The beating continued for several seconds before Thief, turned, morphed the staff into a thick club and smashed the satchel containing his recent purchases again and again.
She turned her attention back to Claudius, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. Before his eyes the flat staff top sharpened into a point, pressed against his neck.
“I’m finished playing your stupid games and I’m done with your inane garbage.” She said. “Tell me how you found out about this spot right now.”
Claudius looked around frantically. Everything in the satchel was little more than dust. As long as she was armed, he couldn’t count on overpowering, and even if she weren’t there was a firmness to her body that made him uncertain, he could.
“How did you escape?” Claudius asked.
Thief looked irate. “You’re not the one asking questions. Who ratted me out? I want his name.”
Her words almost sounded distant, his mind was too busy puzzling how she could have gotten her staff back and escaped.
“Just the name. That’s all I care about.” Thief said, with something odd in her eyes.
“You don’t want to do this. Whatever you have in mind, you don’t want to do it.” Claudius mumbled.
Thief’s face twisted in indignation, but before she could reply a rustling came from the clearing.
“This statue is nowhere nearby, I think that boy may have been lying to us.” Forest Boy’s said as he stepped into the clearing and beheld the scene.
“She broke all my constructs, Do something!” Claudius shouted.
Forest Boy took a stance unfamiliar to Claudius, as if preparing to strike with his fist.
Thief tensed up in anticipation, “Don’t try anything!”
She doesn’t know his powers don’t work. Claudius prepared to throw himself backwards the moment she fell for the bluff.
Any second no-
A storm howled in both his ears. For a moment he felt his skin press deeper against the muscle underneath, and his hair whip around wildly. There was a moment of weightlessness before he collided with the ground, rolling until he collided with the base of the stone statue.
He looked up, finding himself a few body lengths away from where he’d been captive a moment ago, Thief sprawled out a few feet away.
It was impossible to tell who was most shocked; him, her, or Forest Boy. For a moment all three were stunned into inaction.
Forest Boy made another motion, one completely alien to Claudius, and he heard a gasp from Thief, who was now ankle deep in soil and sinking further by the second. She tried to pull out, making the mistake of pressing a hand on the ground to try and lift herself out but that too only sank deeper into the earth.
She stopped sinking, but was completely and utterly, stuck.
“Give it back.” Forest Boy said, with eyes ice-cold.
Thief returned an equally cold gaze but said nothing.
“Give it back. Now!” He shouted. “You had no right to take it from me.”
Thief merely turned her face away, staying completely silent.
The animosity between the two was almost palpable, Claudius felt as though both had forgotten his presence entirely.
This was concerning. He’d learned enough about these two over the course of the day to know they had strong wills, and two wills as strong as theirs could easily end catastrophically.
He sauntered between the pair of them, wiggling Thief’s original staff and picking up the second which had fallen onto the ground. “Fine, since you want to play mute, keep the medallion. We’ll just sell these instead.”
Instantly the stone obstinance in her eyes turn to fiery objection. She pursed her lips tightly together to keep from speaking.
Forest Boy looked more than ready to object but Claudius gave a very pointed look and managed to silence him.
“I think a shop that would pay a decent price for it.” Claudius said, “Between that and all the money we already have, we can just buy a new medallion.”
Thief tried to force a grin, but it looked more like a wolf baring its fangs, “It would be stupid to sell it. This city is full of pseudanite, a few pounds won’t fetch a high price.”
“Pseudanite? Is that what you call it? Where I’m from they call it Fool’s Silver. Doesn’t matter though, if I can’t sell it, I guess I’ll just give it away. Maybe even throw it away.” He said. Spinning it once again. It felt clumsy in his hands, but Thief looked angrier and angrier the more he handled it. He wrapped an arm around Forest Boy and began leading him out of the clearing.
“What are you doing?” Forest Boy hissed.
“She wasn’t going to give you the medallion. Listen, this plan might work but only if she thinks we are serious. It’s just a guess but maybe she’s attached to this staff.”
The pair reached the mouth of the clearing before Thief cried out, “Come back!”
Claudius sighed in relief.
The pair waited a moment and walked, not ran, back to their adversary still sunk into the earth.
“Give it back.” Thief said, weakly. “Please.”
“Doesn’t feel good when someone takes your stuff, does it?” Claudius said, “But we forgive you. You give us back the medallion and we’ll give back your pseudanite.”
Thief glare at the trees to her left, “Fine.”
“Where is it?” Claudius said.
“I don’t have it right now.”
“You sold it?”
“It’s at my apartment!” She said. “I can go back and get it for you.”
“No.” Forest Boy said. “We can’t trust her. If she goes, she’ll come back with her criminal friends.”
Thief looked indignant. “I wouldn’t go back on my word like that.
“How can we know that?” Forest Boy said.
“You can’t but I can’t get it if I’m buried halfway in the earth!” Thief said.
“Tell us how to get to your home and we’ll retrieve it, return and release you.” Forest Boy said.
“Never.” Thief said. “You’re insane if you think I’ll give you free reign to my apartment, not that you would be let it in anyways.”
“Why?” Claudius said, “Worried we’ll take something?”
Forest Boy scoffed. “As if I’d lower myself to thievery.”
“It’s not happening!”
“How can we trust that you betray us?”
“I gave you my word.” Thief said.
“What can a thief’s word be worth?” Forest Boy said.
Thief’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not my fault you were both stupid enough to get robbed, not that it matters but I promised you nothing before. Now, I’m giving you my word that I won’t try anything strange.”
She was technically correct. She had never promised not to rob them before robbing them.
“No.” Forest Boy said.
Claudius was tiring of the debate, “Fine. What if we leave your staff somewhere we both know the location, then we all go to your home to get the medallion and come back here to get your staff? You can keep an eye on us so we don’t rob your home and you can make sure we get your medallion back.” He said, spotting the obstinance in both their eyes. “This is the only way it’s going to work, unless either of you want concede to the other.”
There was a long moment of silence.
Both parties looked as though they’d swallowed a spoonful of curdled milk. Forest Boy gave Claudius an uncertain frown, but ultimately nodded. Thief refused to look at either of them but grumbled, “Fine.”
“Fantastic,” Claudius said, “You go hide the medallion and I’ll blindfold her so she can’t see.” He moved towards Thief. He prepared to cover her eyes with the strap of his satchel when suddenly she bit him.
He let out a curse, trying to soothe the pain. “I told you I was going to blindfold you!”
“I agreed to your idea, I never agreed for you to blindfold me.”
“This only works if you can’t see where it’s hidden! Otherwise-”
Just then there was the sound, not quite a rumbling, not quite a grinding, coming from the ground below his feet.
He turned around to see a hole, wide enough to fit a satchel bored into the ground. Forest Boy knelt behind it, with one hand on the ground.
“What are you doing? It doesn’t work if she knows exactly where the staff is!” Claudius said.
“It doesn’t matter if she knows where it is. Let her try and get it.”
“All she’d need it a shovel and-” Claudius said as he walked over to the hole.
It was too deep to even see the bottom. He wondered if even all the rope they’d purchased would reach the bottom.
Forest Boy offered a hand and Claudius gave him both rods of metal. They dropped into the hole, all the while Claudius waited for the sound of them hitting the bottom, and waited, and waited, and waited, before he finally heard the faint sound of them hitting the soil.
That same not quite grinding, not quite rumbling noise returned and the earth itself shifted back into place, apart from a notable recently disturbed patch above the rods.
Then, Forest Boy made another motion and the earth spit out Thief’s entrapped limbs. She glared at him, “If you can’t get my pseudanite back out then I’ll break every bone in your body.”
“I’ll be able to.” He said, “I don’t doubt I’m the only one who could. Now lead the way, criminal.”
Thief shot both of them a bitter glare and began walking out of the clearing, not waiting to see if the pair was following her.
Forest Boy followed, and Claudius trailed behind the both of them. He had thought catching Thief would be the easy part, but from here, things had the potential to get more complicated than before.
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