Prelude 6 - Open Books

First quest...done. Kaye felt a warming sense of relief like a long sip from a fresh bowl of porridge. More potential flowed into his presence and parchment. Cestia would swiftly and confidently make herself stronger.

He couldn’t even disentangle a webbing of things to say to Reiden and Crosha. Maybe nothing else needed to be said. Cestia started walking back towards Char’s stage. Kaye managed a friendly wave but soon followed after his friend.

Back in the clearing, Char faced away from them while quietly running through what Kaye imagined was a grand and billowing speech when he was giving a performance. Meanwhile, Rufus delicately folded up a portion of the dress without creasing it. Of the two of them, Char was the first to note their return.

“And so, the curtain draws closed on my part to play. I’m afraid you’ll have to lower it in your imaginations. Although, I do have ambitions for the future of this modest stage.”

Suddenly stepping forward, Kaye proposed, “We were paid a decent sum for returning that pet. If you need some help too, I’d gladly chip in.”

His knees threatened to knock as his face felt flush with raw concern. Still, he did nothing to recant or withdraw his words. Silence from the other three filled an empty chasm between his racing thoughts. At the moment it started to feel painful, Char gave an inscrutable chuckle.

Before Kaye could tussle with himself further, the Charmie elaborated, “No need. Save your Nortmir silver coins for the necessities of your kind. What you’ve earned so far may seem bountiful, but not even adventurers can escape unseen expenses.” Finishing off with a surprisingly deep laugh, Char assured them he was fine.

Kaye pressed himself to ask, “Do you have a home? Family?...”

“I have and am what you see before you. This is my home and it holds more beauty than any Nortmir castle.”

Kaye gazed around the modest glade. Aside from the simple stage made from a tree that had to have been at least as large as the one at the center of their first adventures as children, Kaye didn’t notice any homely amenities. But if the old Charmie was satisfied with it, then he had no need to fret.

Rufus dusted his hands with the dress put away delicately and remarked, “Congrats on completing your first quest. I wanted to make sure you understood that it wouldn’t just be fighting monsters. Your next goal, which I will guide you through, involves your first adventuring gear and the official Adventurers Alliance Encyclopedia. Aside from your special inventory, this will likely be the most useful resource I can give you. There are hundreds upon hundreds of mystical items, strange creatures, and storied individuals you will encounter out there. More knowledge keeps you and others safe.”

Kaye swallowed hard as Rufus swung back into his teacherly mode. His mother patiently taught him how to read at an early age. It was hard. He liked listening to her flowing, dramatic, yet dulcet tones as she read from ancient storybooks, recent cookbooks, and practical growing guides for work around the farm. Even if all other memories failed him, the last thing he would be left with, in oblivion, would be the sound of her voice.

But...book! He could teach himself the mighty, tangled mess of all this. It wouldn’t matter that so many instructions felt like trying to trap all the rainwater of a storm between his cupped, cold fingers. And he could use that empty book to save the rest, especially questions left unanswered to be summoned at the right time.

As the three got ready to depart, Kaye looked back at Char. I'll return, he told himself, even if this is a trip out of the way. With some ropes and pulleys, once he had a little more Zelver, a proper curtain could be installed. He didn’t belabor this point, but he held fast to his silent promise.

Meanwhile, Char regarded them with focused serenity and announced, “I have said my own words, the words of those long past, and opened the reserves. But, please, permit an old fool just a few more. Rufus, I thank you as always. Enthusiastic hunter, dear Miss Cestia Eretawn. When you meet foes in fight, better stout heart than sharpest sword. You are destined to expertly wield both. Do not forget the former. Careful voice, dear Mister Kearny Lindgren. As much my half-forgotten, grammar-drifting preserved words of Nortmir ages past could serve you, I will say: What is done shall be told all the same. Hard words break no bones while soft ones prick the teller. Finally, I shall pluck then my favorite ones to leave you with: To thine own self be true, always. All else will sort itself.”

And that was it. Though Char seemed to brace himself as though he still had another speech or two in him, he left whatever further words unsaid. Kaye let what was spoken sink into him as much as possible. True to himself. But was that a good thing?

Cestia commented that she would “keep it in mind”, but she seemed to leave the clearing faster than her words did. Kaye’s mouth tussled and rippled before he managed a simple “thank you”. Rufus waved casually and followed Cestia through the trees.

It didn’t take long before they were back where they had first met. A light noise, like the books being set aside, issued from within. Cestia noticed, going for her knife but not drawing it, while scrunching up her sky-toned eyebrows.

Tapping gently on the wood, Rufus asked simply, “Momo? Ready?” A muffled sigh and some incoherent noises drifted from inside. Soon, the handle jiggled and the door popped open a crack. Resting at the threshold, with a vast eye peeking through, was a modestly-sized Charmie.

“Pahaa? Bashaaaaba laalaaaalaaa daaahh ponpah.” With a squishy bump, the Charmdrop opened the creaky door wider. In the light of the fading afternoon, Kaye could see the creature wore a brown, leather satchel secured through angled harnesses. Atop the center pinnacle, it also wore a wide-brimmed hat with a bright ribbon.

“I’ll mend it soon. I’ve been with my Daring charges. Cestia?... Kaye? This is Momo, my invaluable assistant.”

After some rather animated jiggles, Momo soon muttered and then clearly spoke a series of babbling sounds that reminded Kaye of a river swelling during a storm. Rufus raised his hand and added, “Not that sort of assistant, I know. Although they really need not worry about that distinction until they’re established adventurers. Are the books ready?”

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Darting briefly away, Momo made some light popping noises before returning with a pair of weighty tomes Kaye feared might squish the creature. They were balanced in a depression that seemed like the inverse of tucking under an arm. Momo grunted while maneuvering to the steps.

Watching the creature struggle so, Kaye crouched forward and offered to relieve it of one of the books. In response, Momo grumbled and made a series of very clear sounds that almost felt like a language Kaye could understand. At least in mood, it seemed to tell him a lot. The first bit was a cautionary, “Ah ah ah!” It was followed by scolding sounds and a repetitive tempo like instructions. Putting it all together, Kaye inferred, “No no, hands off it. I’m going to deliver these, THEN you can have them.”

Once Momo arrived at Rufus’s side, he was permitted to lift them up. With a warm smile, he explained, “Momo will be a mount someday. She’s working hard to get stronger.”

Following that, Rufus briefly detailed mounts. Kaye didn’t have too much trouble on this point because of the farm. His eyes widened though as Rufus explained that, in the runic lands, giant cats, mystical foxes, and especially the most resilient of drop-like creatures served as speedy transport and delivery.

He also elaborated, “Charmies understand us after a long enough time, but the same goes vice versa. Now, plenty of demi-human pets can speak languages close enough to the common tongue but all sorts of beings have a language, if you listen.”

They each received a book from Rufus, as he continued, “These pages are made from the same as your parchments. I had Momo clean them, since they were gathering dust. However, they can hold and amend their contents. As you journey, what you learn through your potential and what you absorb from all the worlds out there will be traced and linked to the branches of Yggdrasil. This book has many empty pages now, but you will fill them without ever needing to lift a quill. And the first entry will be your headgear.”

He instructed them to turn to a section several pages deep. Kaye’s eyes danced across the pages. Ancient Runic, faded drawings, and shimmering margins washed over him. Nothing like the books back home. But, he reminded himself, he just needed to focus on one thing and that was whatever Rufus wanted him to know.

Without settling on any specific page, Kaye looked away from the exhausting text and watched as Rufus pressed his thumb and forefinger together at the edge of his lips and blew.

The sound that emerged reminded Kaye of a festival balloon Bixley had filled with his lumbering, hot air and repeatedly tortured to make rude noises with. The only difference was the sounds that Rufus made were much quieter, muffled as he flexed his fingers and strained his forehead. After several efforts, Rufus dropped his hand and admitted, “I can never get that to work.” Instead, he made a shrill, piercing note with his lips puckered. Several birds in the branches above complained but were soon silenced by a loud cry.

“GAA GAAHHH GAAA TEHHH TEHHHH!”

The ground quivered beneath his feet as Kaye watched a Taye Taye scamper from around the bend. It went right for Rufus and a feather-ruffling nuzzle.

”Hey girl, how are you tonight? Got an itch? Let me help you.” Rufus spoke gently to the Taye Taye as it dipped and bobbed its head to catch his fingers. Cooing idly, the immense bird shut its black marble eyes.

They’d seen Taye Tayes regularly along the way, especially once they reached the Runic lands. But, while Cestia had boldly taken the opportunity to pet and feed several with the permission of their owners, Kearny hunched close to their evening fire and sufficed with Cestia‘s gleeful accounts.

Up close, the Taye Taye looked much the same as all the others he had seen. Both of its muscular legs ended in four pitch-black talons, three resting forward with one splayed back and to the side for support. Its feet only vaguely resembled those of chickens back home, wrinkled and rough the same way but dense like evergreen trunks all around. Flaxen feathers ruffled up, thick and downy, across its breast. Tawny tones threaded with orange and yellow cascaded over its back where a leather seat and harness were secured. A matching bridal looped around and underneath its immense beak. It resembled an exotic, stretched melon with spiraling crimson and obsidian meeting the raised caruncles accenting its face. Wings unfurled from the bird's sides and, with a few quick flaps, ruffled their hair and clothes.

It wasn’t long before their instructor invited them each to get hands-on with the Taye Taye, giving her name as “Sekina”. Cestia needed no further prompting to treat the creature the same as an overgrown, feathered kitten. Kaye followed behind her, but she soon cut around, leaving him open to start petting while she worked on its neck from the other side. Just a big chicken, he told himself. Or a weird horse. Either way, he had plenty of experience with animals this size. It was no big deal.

Still, he scratched at his elbows under his traveling clothes to buy a few more seconds of delay.

Drawing in a final breath, he stretched out his non-dominant hand towards its side, just in case it suddenly decided it was hungry and used its pointed, hard beak to snatch up some finger food.

He desperately did his best not to give this possibility any time to linger. Like a well crank pistoning upward, his hand darted out until it finally made contact with the gentlest tufts of Sekina’s coat. Once there, it was much easier to count his racing heartbeats as he brushed her thick but soft side. As he managed to get a rhythm that looked like it was soothing Sekina, Rufus reached over and pulled out some dusty, silvery-yellow eggshell pieces. He passed a handful to them.

Careful not to touch the jagged edges, Kaye noticed that the pieces were light but had a sturdy sense of weight to them. Like a lean ceramic with aspects of metal.

Before either of them could inquire further about this gift, a new but familiar voice passed between the trees and called out, “Looks like I’m just in time!”