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Escape From Manitou Island: Part 197 |
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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.)
SIMMER EVENING WAS FALLING, and the air was at last cooling, but for some reason that didn't lighten Augwak's mood. He perched hunched over on a hunk of earth he'd torn loose from the ground, simply because there were no rocks or cliffs or trees anywhere and he despised sitting on the ground itself, so wide and flat and useless. He liked being up higher, where he could survey things, and there was simply no place higher than ground level out here. He remembered the way back to the Island, but it was going to be a long flight, even for a windling, and he had other things on his mind right now. Thank GITCHI I've got my power back at last! Why is it always my luck that somebody wants to take something that's mine? That's my job, not theirs! That louse stealing my medicine, those wretches trying to eat my limbs, that little brat keeping hold of my spirit stone... Well, she at least gave it back... Not that that matters any, when it wasn't hers to take in the first place! Well...she didn't exactly TAKE it, and she pretty much DID save my life after that wolf-bitch stole it...* NOT that that matters any! Spirits, I wish this flight was shorter so I could just get back there and brain somebody for a change!! "When I get back things are going to change," he muttered aloud, gnashing his teeth. "For one thing, there will be fewer GeeBees in Devil's Kitchen--namely, the ones who didn't try to EAT me! As soon as I sniff out the ones who put these marks on my arms, they'll get what's coming to them...then I and those who DIDN'T come after me will have good feasting of our own to take care of...! "And for another thing, I'm going to make damn sure something like THIS never happens again...stealing my medicine so easily like that! Intolerable! I was a great Wendigo once, I'll become one again; I won't even need another spirit stone to do it. We GeeBees used to be the scourge of the Island! It won't take much to make that happen. I can probably get some practice on the way home!" He shot up into the air as a gust of wind, whirled about, and with a cackle swung one arm through the air, opening up a giant rift in the ground. He spun head over heels and repeated the process again, and again; within seconds the grassy plain below had been reduced to little more than a crazy jumble of crisscrossing* gashes and gouges, earth and rocks thrown every which way. "Feh!" Augwak huffed. "This is nothing. ANYBODY can dig up a little bit of dirt." So he spun over again and aimed at the sky, spotting a small flock of birds passing overhead, and with one flick of his hand sent them spinning wildly to earth. He listened to their panicked cries before they struck the ground and fell silent, then let out another piercing cackle, then swept down and landed beside the little broken bodies, grinning from ear to ear. This didn't last very long; the grin faded, and a moment later the GeeBee simply sat there staring disconsolately at the dead birds. He poked one with a long bony finger, almost hoping to see it move, though of course it didn't. After another moment he scowled. "PAH! Anybody can kill a bunch of stupid birds! If I were any other GeeBee I'd feel the exact same way. What a waste of good power. I have to find something more worthwhile killing..." He now spotted a shape moving slowly along the horizon--one of the large shaggy horned things like those they'd confronted earlier, all on its own--and aimed a hand at it. "Like that! Nowhere near as appetizing as human flesh, but I bet I could digest it, in a pinch--or I could always just leave it for the crows..." He trailed off. No wind attack came from his hand. He furrowed his brow and looked at his fingers in confusion. He hadn't lost his power again--it was still very much there. He could feel it. So how come it wasn't coming out? He shook his hand a little bit--"Come on, stupid thing, I have places to get going!"--and aimed again, but still nothing happened. He began to grow frustrated and irritated, but when it slowly dawned on him that he hadn't even been calling his medicine up properly, he just started to grow confused instead. Why...why am I not calling up my own attacks? What on earth is stopping me--? He turned away from the buffalo and hunched over, staring at his hands, feeling a gnawing unease in his breast. Although he hated doing it, since he considered such things a waste of time, he started searching his feelings to figure out what would stop him from killing the creature. He didn't care for the buffalo at all, and was rather hungry, so eating it did seem appealing, so any concern for its life apparently wasn't the problem; he wasn't afraid of expending his energy, since he'd just gotten it back and felt like destroying something besides dirt and birds; so what else was there...? What happens if I kill that thing? I vent some annoyance and get something to eat. No wrong in that. So what else happens if I kill it? Anything bad? I know for sure it would cause her to have a fit... He blinked. There was no way that was the reason, was there--? He hopped around and aimed at the buffalo again--it wasn't in any great hurry to pass through, and had even stopped to graze a bit--nothing happened, so he aimed some distance behind it and shot a blast of frigid wind which gouged through the soil and sent hunks of grass hurtling into the air. The buffalo let out a lowing noise and started to hasten away; he aimed once more, and yet again, nothing happened. An image of the mainlander's angry face, her shaking a hand at him and rebuking him for doing something so selfish and useless, flashed through his head, and no attack came. HER? SHE'S the reason I can't use my medicine--?! "That makes no sense!!" Augwak screeched, shooting upwards again and hovering in midair, ignoring the buffalo as it disappeared from sight. "Since when have I cared what she thinks? She was certainly angry when I LEFT and that didn't stop me, did it? Not by a long shot! I have no problems 'bailing out' on her, then why should I have problems caring what she thinks--?" She did look incredibly let down when I left... Augwak put his hands to his head and let out an awful noise, willing the annoying little voice--since when had he had such an annoying little voice?--to shut up. It wasn't good to have an annoying little voice. That was for fleshlings, not for GeeBees. For some reason he had the sneaking suspicion that the human had a pretty big loud little voice of her own, at least, based on how she'd reacted when he'd appealed to her-- "I didn't say it was a GOOD thing or a SMART thing! It's just...well... It's just that--what kind of hypocrite would I be if I didn't help him?! You remember what I learned from Snow Bear! And from Crooked Creek and everyone else. You don't take without asking...." Not a good thing...not a smart thing...but the right thing? The proper thing? Is that what she meant? Is that why she helped me even when she obviously didn't want to, when I obviously didn't deserve it? I've never cared what I deserve or not before, if I want something then it's mine! Deserving has nothing to do with it. Right and wrong have nothing to do with it. So how come she even bothered to help me--and how come I'm even bothering to wonder about it...? "We'll try to find this manitou guy. And get your medicine back before it's too late. If your spirit starts to get too light, it changes, and then you begin to lose your old Wendigo powers. You become just like him..." Augwak sucked in a breath, then flew up higher, hovered in place, and put a hand to his chest. A glow appeared...the familiar murky red of his own spirit, black swirling and clouding around it. But there was no mistaking it now. In the very middle was a bright red light, nearly orange, glowing like a tiny ember, the black and murk not able to completely conceal it. Almost like somebody had taken a bit of the human's own spirit stone and stuck it right inside his. WHAT in the-- Hers--mine--the--the SAME--?! Augwak yanked his hand away and let out a shriek, starting to spin until he turned into a gale of wind and tore off across the sky, the earth blasting open far below him. It was a waste of power, but he couldn't dare let his mind think about anything now, anything but death and senseless destruction, for that's what the GeeBees were about. They weren't about right and wrong or little voices or deserving or pondering such things too much--that was what humans and fleshlings did--and if he did that too much then-- Something sparked at the corner of his mind and halted him so he materialized partway, ears flicking. He hadn't heard or seen anything, but he sensed something below. He gasped for breath, panic still surging through him, as his eyes flicked left and right; no, nothing there--but when he focused on where the feeling was coming from, he finally thought he could detect something. Being windlings, GeeBees could see fluctuations in the air when they chose to, and this was similar to that, though it wasn't just air moving around above the grass; rather, it was something moving through the air. It didn't quite displace it, but it didn't quite move through without any effect, either. He didn't understand it, but he didn't care, for he recognized what he was sensing now. "That wretch. That one who stole my medicine!" Teeth gnashing, he flew down toward it. The fleshlings had said something about a traveling cave* which could move through space undetected--surely this disturbance was it. Understanding dawned on Augwak and he let out a cackle of glee. It wasn't moving terribly fast, and he knew that lout had been badly injured, even if not killed--"Well, I can always fix that myself!" he gloated, and aimed at the disturbance, sending out a blast of wind. He sensed that he'd hit it, jarring it severely and slowing it down. He hovered and waited a moment for it to start moving again; his impression of it became more distinct, and he thought he even saw it flicker, so he hurled another gust. Ice crystals formed an irregular pattern in the air, outlining the invisible cave for just a fraction of a second before dissipating, and the air rippled. Augwak laughed again, did a cartwheel in midair, and hurled a third blast, this one stronger than the last. The disturbance in the air ceased moving entirely; in fact, it seemed to have changed shape or position somehow. Augwak had to fight to contain his glee as it rippled again and a shape stepped out, Megissogwun taking a limping step and glancing around himself. Of course he saw nothing but grass, for Augwak was high above him. Stupid, Augwak thought. "Aww! What's wrong? Lose your way?" he jeered; Megissogwun looked up and blinked at him, just like a big stupid moose, and Augwak hurtled at him in the form of wind, slamming into him and knocking him to the ground. He immediately popped back up into the air again and hovered, watching the manitou sit up and put a hand to his head, making an awful face. "Well well well!" Augwak exclaimed, spinning in lazy circles out of his reach. "Looks like I was a tiny bit wrong and you're not dead after all, but as I was just telling myself, I can easily remedy that. I guess it takes a Wendigo to do a so-called manitou's job!" "Half manitou," Megissogwun muttered, starting to push himself up. Augwak rolled his eyes. "Big difference! Either way it's pathetic. You manitous, thinking you're Gitchi's gift to the world. Fah. Well, the world won't notice one less manitou, especially one as bothersome as you." "Oh?" Megissogwun squinted up at him as if he were hard to see--which very well could have been possible, seeing as Augwak kept shifting between being solid and being wind. "I take it that means you side with those humans. Those humans whose company, even I could tell, you could barely stand. The girl in particular, with the strange hair, and I don't mean the winter-haired one--you mean to tell me you actually defend that useless thing?" This time Augwak blinked, then flushed furious red. "DEFEND? What in the hell makes you think anything I do to you has to be about DEFENDING those specks? When YOU'RE the one who stole my medicine and left me to be eaten by my own kind! This has nothing to do with those runts and everything to do with you and me. They just happened to be my way to getting back at you. Well, they fail, but you fail, too." And with that, he threw up both hands, flicked them at the air, and started screaming and cackling as a gale arose seemingly out of nowhere. Megissogwun scowled and jerked a hand at the disturbance in the air behind him. He started to step backwards into it, but Augwak flicked a hand again and the manitou tripped and actually fell over when he found nothing behind him but the ground. He blinked and looked around in confusion, then gave Augwak a malevolent scowl. "Oh, that's right," Augwak chuckled. "Seems I forgot to mention a little something I've discovered about myself. You see, one of the last times somebody messed with me, taking something that wasn't theirs, I acquired a few new abilities that that person themselves once had. Looks like the same thing happened here as well! Meaning, that nice little cave of yours that nobody else can see too well?--well, I can see it plain as day, right behind you. That's what you get for crossing me--even less than what you had previously, whereas I have more!" He spread out a hand and made a pulling motion. "Here, I'll just move this out of the way a tiny bit...and you and I can get back to what we were doing..." Megissogwun turned his head, apparently noticing the traveling cave moving off to his side. He stared at it dumbly for only a second before regathering himself and putting out a hand, halting it. He clenched his other hand and then held it up, aiming at Augwak. The GeeBee shrugged. "Oh well, you can keep it if you want. I don't really care. You see, superior creatures such as GeeBees don't even need such silly things to travel around in--" he flickered into thin air when a blast of medicine sped past where he'd just been, then reappeared a fraction to the side "--but I just thought you should know, I can see exactly where you are at all times now. Isn't that wonderful? Makes it so much easier to finish you off, or at least make your trip back as annoying as possible!" "And your reason for wanting to slow me down--" this time Megissogwun dodged a blast of wind, albeit much more clumsily than Augwak had "--when you claim that those humans are the least of your concerns?" "Easy," Augwak said. "That Island you're so set on destroying? I don't give a flying flip about it personally, but it's where my home is, and where my food is, and I rather prefer not going back and finding it completely gone! So--" He held up his hand and grinned, showing all his teeth. "I do hope it's comfy in that little hole of yours, seeing as it's going to be a bumpy ride back, probably with a really unpleasant ending!" He didn't bother attacking when Megissogwun stepped back into the cave this time, instead waiting for him to disappear from sight. He couldn't see him anymore, but the disturbance in the air was as plain as anything, and he laughed and began tossing spurts of wind at it, watching in great amusement as it limped its pathetic way across the ground. As it headed eastward he kept right on its tail, like a large blackfly worrying a wounded animal. Chakenapok...? You still there...? Entering a half-waking, half-sleeping state was relatively easy right now, probably because Charmian was so tense yet so exhausted. She expected to hear Chakenapok's voice at any moment--she knew he must still be around, seeing as he'd just communicated with her when Megissogwun was present--but she wasn't expecting it when she suddenly found herself facing him seemingly in person. She gasped, then yelped and pinwheeled her arms--they were both hovering over a vast expanse of water! "It isn't real, Mainlander," Chakenapok said, rolling his eyes skyward, and she forced herself to fall still, her face growing hot. "I--I know that! I just wasn't expecting to see it, is all. Where are we? How come you aren't just talking in my head like usual?" "Because I know what you're doing and I advise against it. You don't recognize where you are?" Charmian frowned at him, then looked around. "Croghan Water?" she said; then, immediately after, "No...wait...what are we doing over Gitchi-Gami?" For that's what this was--she recognized it now, the dream version of the lake which she always saw whenever she met the Red Swan. "What are you doing out here?" she added, confused. "As you should already realize, I'm not really here," he said with a weary sigh. "At least, not in the way you know things to be in certain places. This lake is part of the Red Swan's ongoing dream. She spins it herself, from what I can tell. For some reason the lake brings her comfort." "Well, since you know I'm here to see her, what's the holdup? And why is she sleeping? I have to talk to her about Megissogwun; things aren't working out like I hoped." "She's sleeping, Mainlander, because she always sleeps. Right now, and the entire time we've been communicating with her, she's been asleep. She's never been awake in the first place." Silence. Charmian stared at him for a few moments, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. "...Huh?" she said at last. Chakenapok offered nothing, just crossed his arms and gave her a look that said she should know what he meant. "Asleep?" Charmian echoed after another moment. "But...how could she be talking with us if she's asleep? And you just told me what Nathalit told you--that she even attacked Megissogwun and sent him packing! I can barely even move my arms in my sleep, and you tell me she's been talking to us and attacking people and everything in her sleep?" Another pause, then her frown grew. "You're not telling me everything. What's going on? I thought this crap between you and her was over!" "There is no 'crap' between us, whatever that means," Chakenapok said sourly. "Nathalit filled me in on what's been happening because she knew it was something I would understand immediately, and also because I'm not the one trying to figure this whole mess out. She said that you yourself should be able to put the pieces together. But you wanted to talk to the Red Swan? Well here she is." He floated sideways, a foot or so above the water, and Charmian now saw the Stone Canoe bobbing on the waves. The Red Swan sat within it, her head slightly bowed and her eyes shut. Charmian furrowed her brow and tried to step closer, only to remember that there was no ground beneath her--she willed herself to float toward them instead, stopping so that she hovered at the Canoe's prow. "Red Swan...?" she murmured. There was no response. She floated down and let herself carefully settle into the front of the Canoe, leaning toward the Red Swan and staring her in the face. She will not answer you, Pebble, the Stone Canoe said. She doesn't answer even me, now. The Flint was telling you the truth--she always sleeps--but at least while she was sleeping, it was easy for us to speak to each other. Now, however, she's awakened just a little bit... Charmian tilted her head and saw how the Red Swan's eyes were open, just a sliver ...and it's as if a wall has been placed between us. I realize it sounds strange to your sort, but this is how it is. She could be a million glacier-spans away from me right now and I wouldn't know the difference. "She's more aware when she's asleep," Charmian said. "Which makes Dreamspinning for her make sense, even if she's not technically a Dreamspinner. Then what is she?" She peered back at Chakenapok. "You said Nathalit wants me to figure this out myself. Which means it's something important I've already learned about, but had no reason to think about right now." A pause. "Is it about what she is? Who she is? How do I figure that out when even she doesn't know what she is?" "Often other people will see us more clearly than we see ourselves, Mainlander," Chakenapok said. "Just because she doesn't know who she is doesn't mean you couldn't figure it out. Start asking yourself questions. Otherwise, we might never figure out how to speak to her." Charmian said nothing, unable to think of anything to say. She stared at the Red Swan for a while, feeling the Canoe bobbing under them, as real as anything. For not even knowing if she was a Dreamspinner or not, she was certainly skilled at spinning them. "If she's more aware when she's asleep, then she was meant to be asleep," she said at last. "She was never meant to be awake. Which means something's gone wrong with her. What sort of being is created to just sleep and dream?" She paused, then asked, "Can Nebanaubae change their shape?" She sensed a flare of indignation from the Canoe, and just as quickly felt Chakenapok mentally stifle it. "When they come upon land during rainstorms, they can walk upright," he answered. "Meaning their tail takes the form of legs. Aside from this, they do not change their shape." "Just making sure," Charmian said, more to mollify the Canoe than anything else. "Since she seems drawn to the water and such. So, what other beings are meant to be unconscious all the time...?" Now she trailed off and was silent for quite a while; the other two waited, and the Canoe bobbed a bit more after a while as if growing impatient; yet still Charmian didn't speak. She was too lost in staring at the Red Swan, strange thoughts swirling dimly in her head. "Who does she remind you of?" she said at last. Chakenapok frowned. "You were to figure this out on your own." "I already know who she reminds me of. But what about you guys?" She reminds me of herself, the Stone Canoe replied, seeming nonplussed. "I can understand you having nothing to compare her to, I guess. But Chakenapok? What about you? After what Nathalit said?" Chakenapok's frown grew, but he stared at the Red Swan as well. The look on his face changed slightly but he didn't speak. Charmian didn't need him to. That was affirmation enough. "The first thing I remember is...coming to in this place. And I've always been here as far as I know... I had to guess I've been trapped...I mean, I've seen others, in their dreams, and they move about just fine, but if I try to move, there's simply nothing there..." "Your wings. They look just like Michinimakinong wings. I met somebody once, named Chepi, and she had the same wings... Sorry...it's just, I thought maybe it would help. But I can't think of why a Michinimakinong would be way out here. Now that I think about it it doesn't make much sense..." "I have no memory of coming to the island, or of anything before it... All I can say is...it doesn't feel like I've forgotten anything...like I no longer remember anything before the island...rather it feels like...there simply was nothing, before then...like there is simply nothing to remember..." I've asked the island all I could venture, pebble. Most of it would not speak to me. But the oldest bits of it tell me that she has been here from the start--that the land formed around her--basically, that she has been here a very, very long time... All I can say that I have positively discovered: She is immensely old; she is a manitou herself; and for some reason, it is in Mishosha's best interests to keep tight watch over her... I fail to understand it myself, but I asked all that I could, and all who answered agreed. The Pearl Feather knows nothing of her presence here... "Megissogwun did not go after some other manitou child long ago. He did not kidnap another one. Because I was the child he kidnapped so long ago... You said she is dressed all in red. This is sometimes how I dressed when I was a girl. It was the outfit I was wearing when he made off with me..." "It...it was my old dream, with the big stone fountain...I saw that thing the last two times I've been on the Island. Every time I look at my reflection in a dream, something weird happens, but it usually makes sense later on... This time I saw me...but I had a little tree in my chest. The Sky Tree!... That's what it makes me think of now...but then it didn't make any sense. Anyway...it changed colors...it was blue...then it went all the way to red--really bright red. Then... Then it turned into a black spirit stone. I just know it was Chakenapok's or Tal Natha's way of telling me something, but I have no idea what! A black spirit stone--? A red tree? For some reason, it makes me think of you, though I don't know why..." "Everyone's been saying she's trapped because she's too dangerous if she's set free," Charmian murmured, "yet she's never been free in the first place. She had no life before she was trapped. Ishkode was right.* She was meant to be where she is right now, and something's upsetting that." She paused. "On the Island when there was something nobody wanted to deal with or see, they locked it--her--away in a cave and hoped she'd never get out. People are the same everywhere." What? The Stone Canoe bobbed. What do you mean? Nobody wants to deal with or see? I see her every day and don't regret it one bit! Her spirit looks dark, but how can it possibly be when she's always been so good to me--? "She's not a bad manitou," Charmian said, looking down into the Canoe. "But she's dangerous, and she was put here with the thought that she could turn bad. And eventually, it backfires. The same thing started happening with Ocryana. Maybe back when this happened it was the right thing to do, but when you shove away stuff you don't want to see, it just sits and simmers and simmers and then comes right back up, even worse than ever." Her eyes shifted toward the Red Swan. "And I think she's getting tired of simmering." Then...someone did place her here, long ago...? Charmian could sense the Canoe sizing up the Red Swan. Who would do it? It wasn't Megissogwun, and it couldn't have been Mishosha. She was here even before I can remember. Who is that old? And that powerful? And would want to do such a thing? "You haven't met her," Charmian said, "which is why you weren't reminded. But I've met her." She looked the sleeping Red Swan in the face once more. "She looks just like Geezhigo-Quae." |