I’m not sure what got to me first. Hearing the clear and rather detailed threat from Suamalie about all of the different way’s I would get to see Luna faster than expected, or hearing Lily and Eon screaming from the other side of the wall, and Eon quite obviously being beat to within an inch of his life. The only thing that comes to mind for the situation I currently find myself is that the Goddesses decided to play a prank or something, because I wasn’t even touching Suamalie when Luna took us out of our dreams, so I couldn’t have been the reason we woke up together. After having several pillows thrown on top of my face, followed by a blanket, I received the warning of “If I feel like you’re looking at me, you’ll be out that window before you can even think of getting through the door.”
Silence was my response, the last thing I wanted was to accidentally shift my mountain of bedding in any way and risk her threat becoming a reality. I like my insides where they are, and the longer I can go without seeing what they look like, the better for the longevity of my life. Whatever the case, man am I glad that my dream walk left me with a full set of only slightly torn clothes, rather than my normal sleep wear. Through my fortress of pillows and blankets, I heard the door in the room next to us open and then slam shut. I guess Lily finally got Eon out of the room, hopefully with all of his limbs still in tact. Having traveled with the both of them for the actually brief, yet seemingly long, time, I have come to know that Lily packs a punch, even if she only ever manages to land her swings and people rather than things. This coming from the guy who was basically beat up by his dad and didn’t complain much about it, she hurts when contact is made.
Back to my current predicament, I heard the door open and quickly close, followed by a solid thud. A swift river of swear words swam through the air, definitely from Suamalie, and then the door opened once more. “What is going on with this town…” Eon said softly. This was queue enough for me and I removed the steadily growing weight of softness that enveloped me.
“Dear Sol… I almost forgot what fresh air tasted like under there.”
“I figured you were around here somewhere, I mean, the pile of pillow was kind of obvious, but I didn’t want to assume.”
“Oh hardy har-har Eon. Nice uh… how’s the view from your end?” once I got all the pillows off of me and I actually saw him, it definitely appeared that Lily had landed more than one good punch judging by how black and swollen his left eye was.
“Half as good as I’m used to, but glad that I can still see at all. I would say that Lily was ruthless, but I was technically in her room. Not that a technicality has ever done me much good. I’m not even sure how I ended up there. The last thing I remember was me falling asleep here… any ideas on your end?”
Ideas? Yes. Possible answer too, not that I’m going to tell Eon that. the less he knows of my overall situation, the better for his health… much like me and making sure my insides stay where they are. So a truthful statement while withholding some rather pertinent information it is I guess. “I honestly have ni idea how it happened, let alone what IT even is.” The truth. “Because the last thing I remember, I was on that bed over there, and you were in this one right here, and then I woke up over here with a sharp metal blade pressed to my throat,” the lie… mostly. “Followed by a few severe death threats that I really didn’t want to risk not actually being threats. Looks like you woke up to similar circumstances.”
“A blade for you, and face full of fist for me… I swear, Lily is more Guardian than Judiciary or Scripter. Those were not the hands of someone who dealt with papers all day…” before he could continue speaking his mind, several rapid and loud thumps came from the girls room. These walls were obviously thinner than what either of us thought. “… Just my luck, I managed to sign my death certificate not once but twice in a single morning.” Letting out a heavy sigh, Eon took a seat on the bed opposite me. “With how my morning has gone so far, I’m scared to guess what might happen next. At this point in time, I think Sol is just messing with me.”
“Sol? Nah, I don’t think so. He might like to play tricks on us every now and then, but those had only ever been visual in nature. With all of the research I did being cooped up in that storage shed the Conclave called the library due to… excess assignments from my Bright, I never once came across an incident where Sol physically tricked someone so much as made them see what wasn’t there.”
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“So what? Am I supposed to just accept the fact that I walked my way over to that room?”
“You know, for someone who basically answered his own question, you jumped to conclusions really quickly. I mean, think about it. Sol exists. Sol is real. So my question for you, where are we?”
“Uhh… Gai’Faitotoa?”
Oooooh boy… this is ganna be a bit of work. “Ok, yeah… good. That’s where we are. Now think broader. Where are we?”
“The Forests of Ga… oh. Oh. OOOOHHH MY GOD!! GAIA!! IT WAS GAIA!!!”
And the last piece falls into place. Maybe that punch did more than I initially thought. “That’s my guess yeah. I don’t know much about what Gaia can or cannot do, but I do have a fairly good idea as to what Sol can do, and it’s not something like this. So the next logical thing? Gaia. Thought I don’t think Gaia swapped you so much as she swapped Suamalie. Gaia is the Goddess who embodies the many aspects of nature, in all its beauty and all its horror. That also encompasses survival of the fittest, with the emphasis on survival. And among other things, what does survival entail at a basic level?”
“I’m assuming you’re about to tell me, aren’t you?”
“If you so insist, then yes. Survival entails self-sustainability first and foremost, followed by group stability, and then growth and expansion until one of the first two stops working at a basic level. Given where we are, self-sustainability is a must have for anyone to be able to survive here to begin with. So that gets that, now to answer for group stability. This place pretty much has that, they lose fewer overall versus the amount they add. With each survivor trying their best to meet the first condition to contribute to the second condition. Given enough time of the second condition having been met, growth and expansion naturally occur. But how does one grow and expand? Rhetorical question, I’ve told you this far, so I’ll go ahead and tell you what I think. Well, to expand, you lengthen your borders, increase your living space, and increase your farm yield or trade. In term of grow? If everything else I mentioned falls under expanding, then growing could only mean to bolster numbers. And unless someone tells me otherwise, I think that’s what Gaia was trying to get Suamalie to do. Bolster numbers. You just kinda happened to be caught in the mix.”
“That was… oddly enlightening.” I know right? Not to bad for someone speaking off the topside of his head. If only I could ever use this ability at will, would have made my schooling life so much easier. “It makes to much sense for you to have come up with that out of nowhere.” If only you knew… “is that information you gleaned during your interrogation?”
You know, I keep forgetting that Eon is the kid of a merchant family, he’s oddly observant of seemingly random details. Not like Lily who can quote a conversation line for line, but Eon can tell you the details of a room or spot the odd parts out on a seemingly well put together outfit, like dust here or mud there. It’s bits of seemingly nonimportant information like that that he manages to gather important detail from, and how he does it I have no idea. But when this kid starts his own business, he’ll be one of hell of a custom order merchant. I just try and sound smart because I had to work at it, this guys is actually smart and only accidentally shows it.
“Yeah. We had a bit of an information trade. Why we were here from Sol’s dessert mainly. And in return, they basically told me what they do around here, and to basically not to be to surprised if we come across anything animalistic in nature or, and this is the more likely one, dead bodies.”
“… bit late for that on my end. Didn’t want to ruin the mood last night, but I saw at least one dead body while you were in for interrogation. Would have been nice to know that earlier.”
“On that point, we can most certainly agree Eon.” Finally crawling my way out of the bed, I honestly forgot what I was wearing before Eon spoke up.
“Wow Adamas, you weren’t kidding when you said that Suamalie did a number on you. You’re basically half dressed in what you wore yesterday. What happened?”
“Eon, if I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t be in this situation.” Getting up out of the bed, I slightly stumble my way over to where my clothes were located and start changing. “I’m just glad it was limited to my clothes and not any deeper than that. anyway, we should get dressed for the day man. If we take much longer, I’m afraid the girls will start to talk a bit more avidly than what they did yesterday. And considering how out of our element we are currently, I don’t like the fact that Lily has a head start on being budy-budy with our new guide.” The response to my statement came from below us. More thuds followed by a ‘GET YOUR ASSES MOVING’ from Suamalie.
“You’d better get dressed Eon, I think breakfast awaits, among other things anyway.”