Chapter Twenty-six

I left it to my humans to find a way off the beach and to go somewhere. Anywhere, really — we knew nothing about this place. My companions were nervous, but I was rather excited: Krissy hadn’t immediately demanded that I leave her, Akela seemed fine after I’d migrated from him to the girl, and the icing on the cake: elves.

Krissy and the others weren’t happy about this development — they seemed to be somewhat scared of elves, but I was looking forward to seeing one. I only had Kenta’s bad drawings to go on, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether the elves would look like the stereotypical elves I knew from fantasy books and movies, or if they’d turn out to be something different. And what if they didn’t like spirits? Minor issue. Based my own experience, material creatures couldn’t see spirits. I just had to lay low and refrain from using Mana. And if we came across someone who had a familiar? Not an issue either. Familiars apparently didn’t speak to their hosts. At all. Unless they came across a so called “evil or corrupting spirit”, in which case they’d demand that their hosts assist in killing it. Apparently I qualified for that role on account of being a Spiritual Tentacle Horror — which really did explain Jevan and his familiar — so I had to figure out how to disguise myself as a proper familiar. If I managed to do that, maybe we could meet Wensah’s demand without any of us dying at the hands of angry, pitchfork toting elf villagers rushing to slay the evil, unholy spirit and its companions.

I said as much to Krissy, but she just kept walking, grumbling something about how she had thought becoming a “spiritualist” would be a different kind of experience, one that wouldn’t result in her imminent demise in the near future. I thought she was just upset that I wasn’t going to let her use Mana until it was safe to do so. Well, I did understand where she was coming from.

The beach turned into a grassy field, then the field turned into a forest. Akela felt at home immediately — I wasn’t an expert on trees, but I thought they were different from what we had on Misery Island, but not that different. And how time was flying when you were having fun: it wasn’t proper autumn yet — at least I didn’t think it was — but the crowns of trees were already turning brown and yellow, leaves falling and covering the ground.

Quenta found a path — some sort of animal trail according to my two and a half years of experience in a forest — and for the lack of a better option and without a destination in mind, we followed it. Quenta didn’t know how large the Island of Solace was, whether it had cities or towns, or how many elves lived here. I was sure we’d find out eventually.

Akela was a good scout for us: he rushed ahead, exploring. The thin Essence wires stretched and expanded, drawing Essence and Mana from their pools to add to their length when needed. I could talk with my buddy even when he was at least thirty or more meters ahead of us, and so could Krissy. This was probably the result of both their comm-wires connecting to the same node in my body. I didn't have a problem with this: it worked like a charm.

Krissy had agreed that if the elves were indeed hostile to spiritualists, she should be able to talk to me without opening her mouth. I gave her a short course in how to direct her thoughts at me.

So … is this alright? Can you hear me? She asked, her thoughts ringing in my metaphorical ears.

‘Perfect. You’ve got the hang of this quickly,’ I complimented her.

Alright, good. Now. How do we go about this business for your patron god?

‘I’m not sure to be honest,’ I said. ‘According to Wensha it’s not a matter of us finding the corrupting spirit, it’s a matter of whether we can deal with it when it finds us.’

I don’t like the sound of that. Krissy complained.

‘Me neither, but that’s what she said. If we’re lucky it finds Sivera’s people first.’ I said.

I don’t like that either. I never thought I’d be dragged into a rivalry between two gods I’d never even heard of.

‘Could be worse … like being kraken-food, for instance.’ I said, chuckling.

Ah. It could be worse. You’re right. So, what do we do if the evil spirit finds us? And what do we do if we run into Sivera’s spiritualists?

‘I don’t know yet.’ I said, flailing my tenties in frustration. ‘I’d love to make a plan, but Wensah skimped on most of the details. She didn’t even know how many people Sivera sent here.’

So?

‘So … we’ll improvise.’

***

By the time we found a river and a clearing near it, the day was coming to an end. We decided to set up camp for the night, and I brought out some of the wooden beams and planks from Jack’s Room. I glued them into a makeshift table and benches so the humans could eat in relative comfort. Then I set up a campfire, brought out leftover canvas pieces and clothes to be used as blankets, and the humans went to sleep.

Akela had nothing to report: all he had to say was “forest is forest”. He settled down to sleep next to Krissy. Since I didn’t need rest, watch duty was mine.

The morning was cold according to Krissy, so I brought out the crate with all the theater costumes, and Kenta and Tommi soon had their own hooded capes.

We broke camp — I took everything back into Jack’s Room, even the burned wood and ashes from the campfire. Kenta insisted that we should leave as few traces of our presence as possible, and I couldn’t argue with that. Then we walked. And walked and walked and walked. Rather slowly.

Kenta and Tommy didn’t complain about Krissy’s leisurely pace. They sometimes commented on things or asked the odd question here and there — I supposed they were just happy to be alive after escaping my tentacled cousin at sea. Akela was running around just as he had been yesterday, calling out prey here and there, asking me to go hunt with him.

Akela knew I wasn’t with him any more, despite still being able to talk to me, or use my Mana. I had thought I’d have a harder time keeping him close, but he behaved well, not wandering too far and always coming back to check on us. He seemed to have grown quite attached to Krissy ... or her belly-rubs specifically. I wasn’t an expert, but I thought Akela’s domestication was more or less complete. He wasn’t a pet dog, but he was no longer a wild wolf. I hoped we’d find some wolfs on this island. I wasn’t keen to let Akela go, but a promise was a promise: if he wanted to meet a nice girl and settle down, who was I to stop him?

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***

This place, Solace, was much larger than Misery Island. The river was four or five times wider than the Thames-Junior. None of us wanted to attempt to cross it, so we just followed it up-stream, hoping we’d find something, maybe a settlement, maybe something else.

By the end of the second day a distant mountain range came into view. Kenta estimated it to be at least twenty, maybe even thirty miles away. I asked him to show me — through a reluctant Krissy — how long a pace was, how many paces were in a mile, and some quick calculations later I put the local mile down to about 1.1 kilometers.

When evening came again, we camped by the riverbank. I started the fire, set up the table and served my humans the same, brined meat and roots as always.

‘Never thought I’d be eatin’ at a spirit’s table, my lady. And on Solace no less,’ Kenta said, munching on the meat, then added,‘I’m gettin’ a taste for this meat, though.’

‘Huh! I used to work in a restaurant,’ I said, knowing Kenta couldn’t hear me and hoping Krissy would convey my words to him. ‘If we find ingredients, I can do a lot better than this.’

Krissy, instead of telling the sailor what I’d said, slammed her hands on the table, her eyes widening. I had no idea what had got into her so suddenly. But once she swallowed the food she had in her mouth, she said,

‘There are restaurants in hell?

Kenta and Tommy stopped chewing their food, looking at the girl, startled.

‘Hell?’ I asked, confused. ‘I mean … it was a rough part of town, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it that.’

‘What?’ Krissy asked, her confusion glaringly obvious.

Then it struck me that not knowing anything about local mythologies was quite the detriment when it came to conversations such as this. Maybe hell meant something different here than back on Earth. I couldn’t know. I hadn’t told Krissy where I’d come from: as far as she knew, I was just some random spirit. I was fine with that.

‘So … you really think I’m from hell? Like an evil spirit?’ I asked her.

‘You eat souls, you said it yourself. And you have a terrifying hell-hound,’ she said, glancing over at Akela, who was enjoying a juicy boar-leg.

‘I thought you liked Akela,’ I said, feeling a little offended on behalf of the wolf.

‘Wait, my lady, your familiar … is an evil spirit?’ Tommy interrupted us, leaning over the table, his mouth hung open.

‘Oh, you ain’t gone realisin’ that?’ Kenta asked, pulling the younger man back.

‘Shush, you two!’ Krissy silenced them, then said, ‘I like Akela. But a hell-hound is a hell-hound. I thought they weren’t real, you know, just stories.’

'I been thinkin’ the same right until I first saw ‘im red-eyed pup over here,’ Kenta said, nodding and reaching down to pet Akela on the head.

‘Am I to assume it is frowned upon to associate with me then?’ I asked.

‘To put it mildly.’ Krissy said with a scoff.

‘Well, in that case you associating with me says a lot more about you then about me.’ I stated, grinning inside. ‘Would people … shun you for it?’

‘They’d probably kill me for it,’ she grumbled. ‘Which reminds me: you said other familiars can see you. That’s a problem if we run into spiritualists.’

‘I know,’ I said, recalling Jevan’s familiar. ‘I’m working on a disguise.’

‘Uhm …’ Tommy said, gulping ‘… I’m very much likin’ any spirit that’s helpin’ me stayin’ alive. Could you tell your familiar that, my lady?’

‘He can hear you,’ Krissy said to the young man.

‘Good man, that Tommi.’ I said.

‘Hm.’ Krissy hummed, then asked, ‘So how is this … disguise coming along?’

***

I had assured Krissy my disguise was well on the way, then I spent the night working on my disguise to turn my lie into at least a partial truth.

At first I just tried to pull my tenties back, folding them and pressing them against my body, hoping I could look like something else. It didn’t work: a Tentacle Horror was a Tentacle Horror, no matter what. But, with all my tenties coiled around my body, I was rather small, even compared to Jevan’s familiar, who had been almost the size of a human. What I needed was a way to mask myself, something like Trojan Horse made of Spirit-Stuff so I could hide inside it. And that’s exactly what I did.

I woke Akela up. He wasn’t thrilled when I asked him to bring me same prey alive, but he went and came back an hour later, dragging a small deer, its neck in his jaws. The deer had long horns instead of antlers, just as I'd expected. I took its body into Jack’s Room, leaving me a decent amount of Spirit-Stuff to work with.

I consumed the deer’s soul and immediately mixed some Essence into it before my body could turn into EXP.

I had never tried my hands at sculpting, but if Jevan’s familiar — or my own appearance — was any indication, spirits didn’t have clearly defined features. All I had to do was to mold the blob of Spirit-Stuff and Essence into a vague shape, add some Mana to fix it, and I had a … kind of … I wasn’t sure. Body suit? No. Costume. Like the mascots in amusement parks. Yeah, that was probably it.

I shaped my costume to resemble Jevan’s familiar — that guy was the only spirit I’d ever seen, not counting Wensah. I still had no idea how that wench was able to appear as a life-like, beautiful woman, every detail from her hair to her dress perfectly done. She did call herself a Grand Spirit, and my humans kept calling her a god, so it sort of made sense that she could do that. I wondered what it would take for me to become a Grand Spirit — even if the only perks of godhood were looking like a human and being able to come and go as I pleased, then it was worth becoming one.

I finished my costume before Krissy and the others woke up. It was a little… crude. It had a torso in which my spherical body could fit, I could cram two of my tentacles into each of the two arms it had and I could move them around a little. With another tentacle I could turn its featureless head around and I could keep the one remaining tentie coiled up inside. It was time to put the costume on — or to arrange it around myself — and to have a look at myself.

I strectched out one tentacle, twisting its end backward, pointing at myself from a distance of four meters. I focused my vision into the tip of it so I could look at myself.

I looked weird.

Spiritual matter was invisible to physical creatures, such as my humans. Or Akela. To me — and to most if not all spirits by extension — they appeared translucent, like stained-glass or something, depending on color. That meant any spirit would more or less see my writhing little tenties inside the costume, so I decided to make the surface as broken and uneven as I could. The costume ended up looking like it was made of hundreds of small, pale-blue ice crystals and prisms, which made it look very strange, but it hid my tentacled body quite well. The tips of my tenties poked just a few millimeters through the costume so I could see properly, and with that my work was done. I wondered if other spirits would accept or believe if I told them I had a skin condition. But overall I was happy with my spirit-costume, my only complaint that I couldn’t show it to Krissy or Akela — I really could have used some compliments for my work.

***

The next morning we broke camp. I took everything into Jack’s Room, smoldering ashes of the campfire included. We followed the river, same as the previous day, walking mostly in silence until we came across a clearing.

Akela had warned us, but curiosity had won, and we decided to take a look at the gruesome sight waiting for us in the clearing.

Krissy stared wide-eyed at all the dead animals littering the grassy ground, covering her mouth and nose with the the edge of her poncho-cape-thing. Kenta and Tommy did the same. By the look of it, it’s been days since the animals had died, and I imagined the smell must have been overwhelming.

‘What the hell?’ Krissy asked, coughing.

I wasn’t sure myself. I’d never seen so many slain prey in one place. A couple of deer, some fox looking creatures, a bear, and even some wolves. Akela did not like the scene.

Bad. He commented.

‘What kind of beast goes killin’ and pilin ‘em up instead of eatin’ 'em?’ Tommy asked, gasping at the sight.

‘No beast I ever heard of.’ Kenta said.

Krissy took a few, cautious steps forward into the clearing, leaving the cover of the trees behind.

‘Is that safe, my lady?’ Kenta asked, sounding worried.

Krissy didn’t reply; she walked forward slowly, looking around. I looked around, too, pushing my tenties through my costume a little more so I could see better.

Krissy stopped and looked down.

On the ground, next to the corpse of a wolf, lay a long, slightly curved sword.