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Escape From Manitou Island: Part 188 |
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(DISCLAIMER: This part, and all parts hereafter, are works in progress (WIPs) and have not been proofread or checked for plot inconsistencies. I've decided to present them "as is" for now, as there is a significant amount of unfinished material; yet this story has been on hiatus for a long while, I've forgotten certain details, and I have no plans to resume work on it any time soon. Please keep in mind while reading that details may change in the future. Should you spot an inconsistency, however, please feel free to point it out to me for possible correction.)
OVERLOOKING THE OBVIOUS "ONE RABBIT HOP, two rabbit hop--three rabbit hop, four rabbit hop!" Winter Born ducked, then jumped with both feet, landing wobbily in the nearest giant hoofprint. Marten landed next to her; Remy landed in the hoofprint just off to their right, falling on his knee as he did so, then X'aaru landed and bowled him over, and they all laughed. Winter Born and Marten hurried to jump into the next hoofprint along, by now ignoring the massive buffalo spirit that slowly walked ahead of them, and cheered when they both managed to land on their feet without stumbling. Remy still hadn't extricated himself from X'aaru's arms and legs and wings, though it wasn't long before the other two were jumping after them, albeit not nearly as gracefully. "One rabbit hop--two!" Winter Born called, jumping. "Ribbit ribbit!" Marten exclaimed, and pounced like a frog into the next print. Remy landed in the print off to the right, falling on his face. Winter Born stuck out her tongue at him and received a rude gesture in return, when X'aaru again landed atop the boy with an awful squawk. "Hey!" Remy yelled, muffled beneath the demon's weight. "Stop doing that! You're making me lose!" Winter Born opened her mouth to laugh, but X'aaru's response was to yelp and bristle in fright, wings flapping. He clambered off of the prone Remy, staring wide eyed behind himself; then he glanced ahead of them and yelped again, his fur prickling even more and his tail thrashing through the grass. Winter Born's amusement promptly died away. "X'aaru! What is it--?" A squeak--she let out a cry of her own when she found Marten affixed to her head. "HEY! LOOK!!" the Mikumwesu yelled, pointing. "What happened to Mishibeekeeper--?!" "Huh--?" Winter Born exclaimed, having to pry one of his arms loose to see. She sucked in a gasp; Mishibizhiki had disappeared. And so, apparently, had the landscape before them--at least, the seemingly endless expanse of grass had at last come to an end, judging by the swirl of darkness just ahead. She stared at this for a moment, anxiety making her breathless; the grass ahead of them faded out after a few more of the Great Buffalo's hoofprints, and there was nothing there now but something that looked vaguely like the northern lights* shimmering faintly in the nighttime sky. That was the only comparison she could think of. It was more dark than light, but it wasn't quite black, and every so often it shimmered in a sort of swirl. She'd imagined seeing patterns in the steam rising from the Island springs in the winter, or in thick fog over the water, and this was a bit like that, only it was dark, not white. "What happened to him...?" she murmured, Remy and Marten staring at the darkness as well. "What--what happened to the others?" X'aaru cried, hunching his wings and flicking his tail in the opposite direction. "They all disappeared!" The other three turned to look. Indeed--the grassland behind them vanished into the weird swirling darkness as well, and aside from the four of them, there wasn't a trace of anyone else. Until the darkness rippled and shimmered a bit and then Mishosha hopped through. All of them cried out and hopped backwards simultaneously. This time it was Winter Born who fell over, taking Marten with her. She scuttled back, squeezing the Mikumwesu to her, but all that the wabano did was stand up, straighten out his necklaces, and take a glance around. On seeing that they were the only ones present, his stare fixed on Winter Born and his eyes narrowed, his mouth twitching. "Looks like your friend doesn't know how to follow instructions," he said, and Winter Born swallowed hard. Charmian let out a panicked shout and raced forward, flinging her arms up at--nothing, apparently--and battering at thin air as she went. Everyone else remaining with her--which was everyone but Mishibizhiki and those who had been following him most closely, namely, the children, Marten, X'aaru, and Mishosha--stared in dumb shock as she flailed and jumped about, looking for all the world like she was fighting off some invisible opponent. "WHERE IS HE?!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "WHERE'S MISHIBIZHIKI?!" A few seconds of stunned silence. Then the others began reacting--Thomas and Stick-In-The-Dirt hurried forward to restrain her before she could run off or hurt herself, and Francois and Moon Wolf and Black Elk Horn, and several of the others, rushed ahead a few paces to start looking around. Even the voyageur seemed confused beyond measure; they looked upwards, to the sides, ahead and back, and even at the ground, but there was no trace of the others. Charmian let out a horrible scream that made the two restraining her flinch back. "Mishibizhiki's a manitou so he'd never break his word!" she shouted. "That means it's MISHOSHA who did this!" She wrenched her arm loose from Thomas, and Stick-In-The-Dirt accordingly let go as well. She clenched her fists and fire formed around them. "When I find him I'm going to KILL him this time--!!" "Stop getting your stockings* in a tangle! Did that louse actually have anything to do with this at all--?" The fire around Charmian's fists abruptly died and she blinked in surprise. It was Lieutenant Barrington, of course, who had spoken; he stood not too far away from Francois and Black Elk Horn and was staring at the ground. He glanced up at her, then got a cross look and threw up his arms. "Oh, so the one time I bother to listen to all you fellows' annoying prattle and YOU don't bother listening! How about you try taking your own advice sometime--?" "What?" Charmian snapped, then stormed toward him, fuming. "What the hell are you talking about, jackass?" Barrington pointed at the ground. "Prints," he said, and everyone looked. The last several tracks that Mishibizhiki had left still remained in the grass, shimmering, though they were growing fainter. The older prints some distance behind them had already disappeared completely. "What about them?" Charmian asked, still not enlightened. Barrington rolled his eyes and sighed gustily. "What was it that immense cow said? 'Follow in my hoofprints'? Well, how many of us actually listened? You and that silly little girl of yours are always going on about listening and whatnot, aren't you?" Charmian's brow furrowed. "I still don't..." "So foolish!" Little Wind exclaimed, stooping beside the nearest print. He pulled on his own braids.* "Grandfather Mishosha would call me such a fool if he were here..." "MISHOSHA!" Charmian yelled, loud enough to make everyone jump. She raced to Little Wind and grabbed his arm, making him yelp. "Where did he go? He's with Winter Born and the others, I just know it! If he's doing anything--" Little Wind jerked his arm back. "Grandfather Mishosha had nothing to do with this!" he retorted. "In fact he's one of the few of us who DID listen--!" Charmian opened her mouth to shriek at him, then ended up shrieking at Mishosha himself when he appeared out of thin air just a few paces away. She threw a fireball at him without even thinking; he lifted a hand and batted it harmlessly away before tucking both hands back into his sleeves and giving her a neutral look. "So," he said, "were any of you planning on coming west, too?" Before Charmian could yell, he pointed at the print he stood within. "Seeing as these won't remain here for long." Charmian grabbed at her hair. "WHY is everyone so damn interested in these hoofprints--?!" "Because that's what Mishibizhiki told us to follow," Moon Wolf said, making a face. When she looked at him he shook his head. "He said to follow in his hoofprints if we wish to reach the entryway to the mountains. He was being literal. Winter Born and the others were the only ones actually following in his hoofprints, so they passed through, whereas we did not." "That--? But, they were just playing a game!" Charmian protested, suddenly feeling very stupid; hadn't the lesson with Little Wind's scroll taught her anything? Moon Wolf shrugged; she was a bit mollified to notice that he seemed just as embarrassed. "Just because they didn't do it on purpose doesn't mean it shouldn't work. Mishibizhiki's prints are fading away; if we wish to follow him, we'd better do so now." Charmian bit down any further protests she might have had, instead hurrying forward into the nearest print--which was also the last she could see before the Great Buffalo had apparently vanished into thin air--and running forward. She had no clue what would happen, but the thought of Winter Born being stuck in some other dimension, without her, made her throw all caution to the wind. After a mere two hurried steps, there Winter Born was, along with Marten and Remy and X'aaru; their eyes went as round as moons and the demon barked and flared his wings in fright. Charmian, for her part, promptly tripped and fell with an awful thud, then yelled when something fell atop her and again when something fell atop that. For a moment she couldn't breathe; Winter Born hurried forward to tug on her arm and the weight left her back as the others who had come hurrying through the gateway rolled off, stumbling and confused. "OW!" Charmian shouted as she got to her feet, and shook a fist at Peepaukawiss, who was still trying to straighten his feathers. "Watch where you're going, dumbass!" "Charmian!" Winter Born exclaimed. "You made it through! We were so worried! Especially when Old M--um--especially when--well..." She shook her head and let out a breath. "I'm so glad you got here!" Then, in Charmian's head--I couldn't believe it, Charmian! He didn't try to carry us off or turn us into bugs or anything like that! "As if it serves any of my purposes to go changing people into insects," Mishosha, stepping back through the--strange void of swirling darkness that had appeared behind them--said. Winter Born blushed furiously but he didn't even cast her a glance as he stepped past and gestured at the matching wall of darkness ahead. "Well? Any of you wish to go first? It looks like the Great Buffalo couldn't deign to stay in our company any longer than absolutely necessary; his tracks end here. The only way is through." He turned and gave Charmian a smile which she didn't like, though she was discovering that she didn't care for any of his smiles. "You first, my dear?" Charmian shuddered and had to shake herself off. "For all I know this funny black stuff is your doing..." The wabano rolled his eyes in response, turned, and stepped through the dark wall ahead of them, disappearing. "Like I said--as if I'd be the idiot to walk point through that!" "But, Charmian, it was there before he showed up..." Winter Born started to say; Moon Wolf stepped past and went through the wall, though not before reaching out and tentatively touching it with his fingers as if to test it. There was a brief pause, then the others began moving forward and stepping through, mixed looks of tension and curiosity on their faces. Charmian bit her lip; Winter Born grasped her hand and hopped up and down, earning her attention. "Come on! I want to see what's on the other side too!" And she started pulling Charmian after her, just like their first meeting back on the Island; Charmian realized she hadn't even known who Winter Born was back then, and it felt like it was both yesterday and a lifetime ago. She felt a sharp pang, suddenly missing the Island more than ever. Everything had seemed so normal back then--would it ever be normal again? Stop thinking such stupid thoughts! she rebuked herself, blushing and trying not to trip again. We've gotten this far, haven't we? And if everybody's been telling the truth, then Kabeyun's mountains are right on the other side of this wall... Winter Born, still holding Charmian's hand, vanished through the swirling darkness without the slightest hesitation. Charmian braced herself, hoping it would be as painless as passing through the Fairy Arch or the Sky Tree, though she couldn't keep herself from shutting her eyes tight; she felt something almost like water, only not wet, and it passed over her, from her front to her back--her ears briefly felt plugged, then they cleared, and she heard Winter Born let out a small sound of wonder before it seemed like everything around her started blasting apart. She gasped and her eyes shot open, her hand reflexively jerking Winter Born back toward her. There was no retreat through the swirling wall, as it seemed to be gone--that much she noticed, before whirling to look ahead. Something--Mani--slammed into her side, shoving her out of the way as a gigantic boulder smashed into the ground right where she'd been standing. She and Winter Born collapsed; the manitou stood over them, bracing himself and deflecting another, smaller boulder as it swept past. Charmian managed to catch another breath. "What--?" "Is the mountain collapsing--?" Winter Born cried, clinging to Charmian's arm. Mountain! Charmian remembered what she should be seeing, and looked ahead again. There it was--looming over them as real and as solid as anything--an immense peak, a row of them, jutting up at the sky and casting them into shadow. The sight took Charmian's breath away again--there had just been so many false starts and broken hopes that she'd almost come to believe she'd never see them, yet here they were. But that was all she got to think, as there were even more boulders hurtling down toward them, and she yelled and flung herself over Winter Born, throwing up a hand. "WIND!" The gust she called up didn't quite manage to blow the nearest rock off course, but it worked enough so that it didn't crush Mani when he swung his antlers at it; Charmian felt the impact jar through her bones as it jarred through him, and grimaced, clutching at her head. With a scrabbling sound, Manabozho appeared at her side; he stood up and, with both fists balled together, shattered the next boulder to come along, though afterward he did drop to his knees and make a face as awful as hers. "Is it an avalanche--?" Charmian blurted out. "How is it we come through at the absolute WORST time--?" he barked in response, voicing what she was just starting to think. He smacked aside a much smaller rock and shook a fist. "Next time--I go through first! And knock some sense into whatever stupid manitou is--" Charmian shrieked, spotting a massive hunk of rockwall far bigger than the one he'd just obliterated zooming down at them before he could see it. Manabozho blinked at her, then tensed, bracing himself for its impact--when a gust of wind buffeted them, all went dark, and the boulder was gone. Charmian blinked now, her cry cutting off. Manabozho's head popped up. "What--" "BEHOLD! NEVER FEAR, I SHALL PROTECT YOU FROM THE ONSLAUGHT, TINY INSIGNIFICANT BE--ER--I MEAN, MY TINY FRIENDS!" "Kenu!" Charmian gasped the name out and staggered to her feet, bringing Winter Born with her. Now that boulders weren't flying past every second or so, she could at last get a good look at what was going on--the others stood and crouched and sprawled around them at various distances, some bearing a few scrapes and bruises, but aside from that, they'd apparently managed to fend off the rockslide well enough. Some hunks of boulder lay scorched around Moon Wolf, while Pakwa and Thomas were gasping for breath, and Augwak looked to be pretty much unconscious. She could still hear rocks cascading down the mountainside, but instead of crashing around them, they struck something higher up with dull thudding noises, followed by a string of "OW! OUCH! OO! OW!!" from above. He's shielding us, Charmian thought, glancing upward. The shadow falling over them was cast by Kenu's massive wing; he'd landed not far from them and braced himself against the mountainside, where now the boulders that were rolling and crashing downward rained over his back and head instead of crashing atop them. He was much bigger than any of the rocks, but she could tell from the way that he winced every time one struck that the blows must still be pretty painful. Noticing this, she hurried to wave and gesture at the others. "Come on! The avalanche doesn't look so bad over there." She pointed to her left. "Move it so he doesn't end up with a concussion!" Everyone started clambering southward. Kenu waited until they'd moved out of harm's way before following, keeping his wing spread over them like a hen over her chicks; a few smaller rocks pelted down over here, but it was nowhere near as hazardous as before. They peered out from under Kenu's feathers, watching the cascade of gigantic rocks as it continued some distance away. "So--what's going on?" Charmian had to call out, since the Thunderbird's head was way above her, plus he was shaking it, as if his ears were ringing. "Did one of you run into the mountain or something--?" "WHAT? NO!" Kenu bellowed, making her grimace. "OF COURSE NOT! WHAT A FOOLISH THING TO--" He coughed and lowered his voice when he saw the look on her face. "I mean--of course not! Why would you think that? We Animiki are among the most graceful of beings to exist!" "The fact that the mountain's practically falling apart is a good place to start," Augwak grumbled, rubbing at his own head. "Oh, that," Kenu scoffed. "It's nothing! Merely the efforts of my esteemed tribemates to secure passage for my good friend the Lynx!" He gestured with his beak. "You see? There's no way through the mountain for him, so I told them to MAKE him a way!" Charmian and the others looked. Now that she didn't have to shield her head, she could see, high up beyond the cascade of boulders, multiple plumes of smoke and dust fanning out into the air from the peak; bright flashes illuminated the area every few seconds, and every time they did a fresh rain of rocks swept past. She was reminded of woodpeckers attacking a tree, and glanced up at Kenu again. "Aren't I clever?" he said, lifting his head smugly. "Would've been a hell of a lot MORE clever if you'd thought of us coming through first!" Barrington snapped back. "What are they going to do with him once they break through?" Charmian asked before Kenu's face could fall too much. "He still needs water, doesn't he?" "Oh--don't worry about that," Kenu reassured her. "My people have ways of making such things work! I'm not sure if he'll be able to meet Kabeyun with us, but at least we won't leave him behind! Ah!" He looked up. "I think they're about done!" He carefully withdrew his wing and they peered up the mountainside. The rain of larger boulders had ceased and now only smaller rocks and pebbles trickled past; the lightning still flashed, and booming noises still came, but they seemed to be from further inside the mountain. Charmian wondered what the mountain manitous must be thinking, and hoped that the Animiki had bothered to ask permission before plowing their way through; she didn't get to mull this over very long, as Kenu's massive talon nearly knocked her over when he stepped aside. "Now all you need merely enter the mountain, and we'll be on our way!" "Easier said than done," Charmian said. "I can't imagine us all climbing way up there, and I don't see any entrances or anything where we are. I thought Zeegwun said the entrance would be obvious!" "If we look for it, perhaps," Thomas said with a frown. He eyed the slope. "How did you find the entrance into that other mountain...?" I didn't find it*, Charmian thought with a miserable sigh, remembering how she hadn't even seen the entrance until Winter Born had pointed it out, and Winter Born seemed just as puzzled as the rest of them right now. "Guess that's what we'll have to do," she said at last. "Look for it." She cast a final, envious glance upwards at the flashes of lightning, wishing that Kenu could just plow his way through for them, but from the looks of it it was hard enough work for adult Thunderbirds; plus, she didn't get the feeling that was the way they were supposed to go, based on what Zeegwun had said. If the entrance was supposed to be obvious, then it was supposed to be obvious...maybe it was just being obvious in a place that was really hard to find. Should've known it wouldn't be easy once we reached the frigging mountains, she grumbled mentally. These mountains were much steeper than Kabebonikka's or Mudjikawiss's; and what was even more disheartening was that there didn't seem to be nearly as many trails or paths or any such running up between them, meaning, not many places in which to seek a passage through. Even Kenu, towering over them and able to see into some spots that they couldn't, didn't locate anything worth pointing out, and it wasn't long before Charmian began to grow discouraged. As she ran her hands over the rockside for what felt like the hundredth time, seeking anything the least bit conspicuous, she couldn't help but think they were just going in circles. But Kabebonikka promised. So did Zeegwun. And Mishibizhiki! They can't all be tricking us... She stopped with her hand held flat to the stone, willing any manitous to appear, but was so disheartened by the time a few faces faded into view among the rocks that she didn't feel very enthusiastic for any help. She vaguely asked for directions, but the response she got was just as vague in return; their eyes shifted toward Manabozho, then they faded away again, and with a sigh of frustration she let her hand drop, running the other one across her face. "Maybe Kenu should call the other Thunderbirds back down here after all," she muttered. "Maybe we're overthinking this," Manabozho said suddenly. Charmian blinked, then turned to look at him. He seemed indecisive, fiddling his fingers a little and chewing on his lip as he stared up the mountainside. "Overthinking...?" Charmian echoed. "You have something really obvious in mind, then?" "Spring said Kabeyun's home would be obvious," he said, meeting her eyes just a little. "So if we're not seeing it..." He trailed off. Charmian waited a moment for him to finish, then threw up her arms in frustration. "Well, what's--" "We're looking for a way in," he interrupted. "I don't think it's a where. I think it's a who." And he swung his fist at the rock, his knuckles connecting with it, and abruptly vanished. |