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Escape From Manitou Island: Part 203 |
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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.)
THE UNEXPECTED GATEWAY CHARMIAN ALLOWED WINTER Born to crawl ahead of her for a short while, then, when the tunnel Kenu and Marten had carved out met with the preexisting* tunnel, they switched places. Charmian peered into it nervously before crawling in on her hands and knees, which she knew must be filthy by now. "Ick," she muttered. "Never gonna get clean." "It's just dirt," Winter Born said. "As Mother always says, dirt's just what happens when you crawl over the Turtle's back." "Or more like way deep inside the Turtle," Charmian said, making a face and swiping back her hair, which had grown wet and sticky by now. "You weren't with me when I went to the Sky Tree before,* so I'll lay it all out. Pretty much I take us as far as this can go and then use the Weaver webs I have left and try to get through from there. It worked before...I ended up in a mine or something.* Here's hoping it works this time." She tried crossing her fingers, found them too smudged and blackened, so gave up. "You really think I'm strong enough to hold the demon back...?" Winter Born asked in a small voice. "Look, Winter Born, there's no way I'd even let you follow me down here if I didn't think you stood some chance. I didn't want to say it in front of your dad, but there's always some doubt. But, isn't that pretty much the way it always is?" "I don't doubt the sun will come up tomorrow morning," Winter Born countered. "What about something like that?" Charmian grimaced. Go figure I'd get stuck with an eleven-year-old philosophy major. "Well...what if the Turtle rolls over in his sleep?" she said at last, realizing it was probably one of the stupidest things she'd ever said, but unable to think of anything else. "And rolls right over the sun. Couldn't that happen?" No response. She thought maybe the comment had been seen as insulting, and peered back over her shoulder. Winter Born's brow was furrowed but she kept crawling along. "I guess," she said at last. "Mother and Father never said he could roll over...but they said he moves around once in a while, so I suppose it could happen..." Holy cripes, you mean that junk I just said actually makes sense here...? "Not that he's going to," she hastened to add. "But anyway...I think I forgot what I was talking about." "I think I had a dream about him a while back," Winter Born said. "Huh?" Charmian glanced back at her again. "What do you mean? Who are you talking about?" "Michinimakinak. At least, it looked kind of like him, the way I imagine he looks. Though I guess it's silly to think I actually dreamed of him...I bet he has better things to do than visit my dreams..." Michinimakinak's one of the more powerful manitous, isn't he? Charmian mused, furrowing her own brow in the dark. The one who visits medicine men? That's what Stick told me, at least*...would he go visiting Winter Born when she's not even seeking her vision yet? Or is that just it...? "How'd it go?" she asked, not sure if she'd get an answer--Moon Wolf had been pretty testy about discussing his vision*, though Winter Born hadn't mentioned this being the same thing. "It was when I went to ask Tal Natha about that dream of yours, you remember?* Before I ended up in his dream I showed up in a whole bunch of water! There was this huge snapping turtle staring at me! Then Tal Natha said he wasn't the only one having that dream, only he didn't mention the turtle, and he said somebody called Ghost Rabbit had said the Island itself was sending the dreams because he wasn't..." They drifted into silence again. Charmian couldn't shake the feeling of unease these words gave her. She knew from experience that shared dreams meant something; but as for what these ones meant, she had no idea, and the thought of an Island sending dreams like some sort of Dreamspinner was just bizarre. "It might've meant nothing," Winter Born said now, and Charmian knew she meant the turtle. She could think of nothing in response to this, so changed the subject. "I'm guessing this must be the remains of one of those abandoned tunnels I heard about earlier,*" she murmured, peering at the walls; tiny fragments of crystal embedded in them kept the place lit just well enough for them to see vaguely but not to make out many details. She remembered the Pukwudjininee* story of how the crystals had come to be in such places. "At least, I hope it is, and not an old Mishupishu tunnel...I guess the lack of water is a good thing! Oh." She slowed down gradually enough so that Winter Born wouldn't bump into her. "I think the ending is just ahead. Jeez, Marten made this seem a whole lot shorter than it is, I'm surprised it took us this far!" She scootched aside to let the little girl press up beside her and they looked at the dead end where the tunnel had apparently collapsed in the distant past. "Time to see if this works," Charmian announced, and the two of them shared a look before nodding, and she pulled out the wadded sticky webs, separating the mass into two and handing one clump to Winter Born. "Here, you start over there, and I'll start over here. This is probably our last bet so let's make the most of it." They fell silent as they tore off tiny bits of web and pressed it into the soil or spread it out the best they could. It barely glowed by now; Charmian wondered if it would even still work after everything they'd been through, but tried not to think about it too much. If this didn't work then they'd somehow find the old tunnel back east.* If that didn't work, then... She let the thought trail off. "All done," Winter Born said, crawling back from the wall and glancing at Charmian. "What do we do now?" Charmian pressed the last bit of web into the soil, hoping she wasn't making a mistake using it up. "We dig a bit," she said, "right here at the collapse. It shouldn't take long before we end up somewhere, though I can't say for sure where it'll be..." Winter Born started digging with her hands in the loose soil ahead. Charmian joined her and for a few moments they picked away the dirt and rocks, occasionally wiping their faces with the backs of their wrists. "Was there anything you wanted me to go over or explain?" Charmian said at last. "Because I know this is a pretty big undertaking..." "You already said everything I need to know," Winter Born said. "That you think I can do it. I'm not so sure I can...but if you think it, and Father thinks it, and maybe if I think it a little harder..." She trailed off, then, "I just want to go home and see Mother and White Deer and Khiieta and everyone again." Her eyes filled with tears and she halted in her digging to sniffle and rub at them, smudging her face. Charmian's own digging slowed and stopped and she stared at her as she started crying. There had been a lot of occasions before when she'd thought crying was warranted, and had completely expected it, but Winter Born had never broken down once,* so to see it now was a surprise. She hardly seemed like the frighteningly powerful and destructive part-demon* she'd been before; now she just looked like a scared little girl, and the transformation made Charmian feel uncomfortable and a bit guilty; it had been easy enough asking her to come along and do this when she'd just seemed frighteningly powerful. She felt she could have handled it better if Winter Born had been the type to break down crying more often, but this was the first time, so she wasn't sure what to do. She waited a moment, reaching out once or twice to touch her arm but drawing back before she could, then bit her lip. Before she could make up her mind to say anything Winter Born's tears abated and she rubbed at her eyes again, sniffing loudly and seeming somewhat embarrassed. "I'll...I'll be okay," she sniffled. "I just...really, really miss them." "I do too," Charmian admitted. "But we'll see them again soon, I'm sure of it," she added when Winter Born peered at her, still rubbing away the tears. "First things first. I think the dirt's loosening up a bit here. Do you feel up to finishing with it?" Winter Born nodded vigorously, and they resumed their digging. True to Charmian's word, the soil started falling away more and more, and at last a gout of it collapsed, exposing a small dark opening. They halted to peer into this; Charmian stuck her hand in and called up fire to get a better look. There was more soil within, and lots of tangled roots. "Hm," she said, puzzled, and they cleared away more of the dirt so the opening was big enough to crawl through. Winter Born slipped through first. "See anything useful?" Charmian asked. "There's another hole over here...it looks like it's between the roots. Hold on, I'll make it bigger." A few moments of scuffling noises passed, then she returned to the first opening, panting and dirty. "I think maybe we can fit through now, but I'm not sure where it goes." "Only one way to find out." Charmian knocked a few more hunks of earth aside and crawled in. She had to bat the hanging roots away when they threatened to entangle her; the opening Winter Born had mentioned indeed lay between what looked like two massive roots embedded deep in the earth, and the soil that had caked them had been brushed away so the crevice was just big enough for her to squeeze through, if she went at an uncomfortable angle. "I do wish this would get easier at some point," Charmian sighed. "It can't be that much further," Winter Born said. "Here, I'll go first!" She slipped out of sight again, and Charmian fought down another sigh, rather missing the timid, crying girl who had been there a few minutes ago. "Hey! It's not so dirty in here anymore!" Winter Born's voice called out from within. "It feels kind of like wood...ow!" "Are you okay?" Charmian exclaimed, alarmed. "I'm fine...I just got a big splinter in my thumb! Be careful when you come in, there are splinters everywhere!" Splinters...? Charmian frowned but followed her in, having to remove her pack, and even then it was a tight squeeze and she was groaning and gasping for breath when only halfway through. She at last collapsed inside, wheezing and vowing to start exercising more and eating less; ahead, she could hear Winter Born shuffling along, every so often letting out a little ow as she must have picked up yet more splinters. She raked her hair back, dragging her pack along under her as she started moving. The surface of the ground and walls was rough, like unsanded wood; she moved more carefully than Winter Born, feeling her way along, though she did scrape her elbow once or twice. How the heck did we end up in a wooden tunnel? She touched the wall and wondered if perhaps the miners had put this here, but no, it felt and looked too natural. This didn't look at all like the copper mine she'd popped out by* earlier. I wish these shortcut thingies were more reliable! How the heck do the Weavers manage it? How do they not end up underwater or up in the air or--or--in MY dimension--? Winter Born halted. "Did you hear that?" Charmian stopped as well and tilted her head. "Hear what?" she asked. "I'm not sure. I'm not sure it's even a noise, but..." She glanced over her shoulder and shrugged. "I thought somebody said something, but it was kind of in my head." Telepathy...? "What did they say?" "Well...it wasn't really saying something, but it was. Just, not with words like when you talk. You know, like pictures on birchbark?" "You mean images? Well, what did you see, then?" "Well..." Winter Born bit her lip. "I didn't really see anything, either! I can't explain it. I just got this feeling that I should run my head into the wall." Charmian blinked. "Wha--?" She shuffled forward and grasped Winter Born's braid, careful not to yank too hard as she pulled her back. "The hell you will! There must be some kind of mitchi manitou down here..." "I didn't get the feeling it's bad or anything," Winter Born protested, twisting her head at an odd angle to try to pull her braid loose. "It just kind of said to hit my head against the wall, or else cross my eyes. At least, I think that's what it said. It wasn't really saying anything at all, but..." She stopped squirming and got a very silly look on her face, her eyes going crossed. She sucked in a sharp breath. "OH! I see it! Right there!" "Huh--?" Charmian blurted out, when Winter Born lurched at the righthand wall--probably to hit her head, she thought, and tried to pull her back again, but there was nobody there. Charmian let out a scream when Winter Born vanished from sight, and started clawing at the wall, not even noticing the splinters. "WHERE DID YOU GO?! Come back! Whoever the hell took her, give her back!!" She drew her hand back and got ready to hurl a blast of fire, when a strange mental impression flickered through her--she got the distinct feeling of stomping on Geezhigo-Quae's foot. She blinked again and her mouth fell open at the bizarre thought--then just as she started to puzzle that over, another one replaced it, giving her the strong urge to either hit her head or cross her eyes. "HELL no!" she yelled, shutting them instead and clamping her hands over her ears. "There IS some kind of bad manitou down here! Just like when they sing at Devil's Lake and make you do stupid things! I'm not listening! It's bad enough hitting my head on accident, I'm hardly going to do it on PURPOSE!" Cross your eyes, then, the thought seemed to say, though it was just as Winter Born had tried to explain, and it was more of a feeling than actual words. She wanted to resist it, having seen what happened when Winter Born had done the same, when she felt as if something were searching her thoughts--and then another image flashed in her head--that of Manabozho and Wisakedjak touching the rock* back at Wisakedjak's deadfall lodge and then disappearing. Her eyes shot open and she gasped. THAT'S what this is--? Another mental image came along on the tail end of this one--a familiar face--and convinced her to try it out. She crossed her eyes--as that seemed immensely preferable to hitting her head--and found herself staring at a dual image of the wall before her. That wasn't all that was there, though. One image was exactly what she'd been looking at a moment before; the other looked much the same, but felt different, somehow, so that she reached out a hand to try to touch it, while at the same time touching the other image with her other hand. Her left hand touched solid wood while her right passed through nothing--then she felt someone grasp it from the other side. The color white flickered through her mind--Winter Born--and she leaned forward into the wall. Just as with her entry into Geezhigo-Quae's dream, she passed instead into another room, and immediately felt stupid that she hadn't realized such a thing sooner. She blinked a couple of times to uncross her eyes and clear her head, finding Winter Born and Cheengwun staring at her. As soon as they noticed her attention, Winter Born cheered and Cheengwun let out a relieved breath, slumping back against the wall of the small space they crouched within. He was clasping a large crystal in his hand. "You finally made it through! My viewing stone told me you would be trying to come here, like you did through the mine*, and for some reason I thought of the Tree so I came here to keep my eyes open for you. I didn't know it'd be so hard to convince you to pass through, though...you really thought I was a mitchi manitou?" His brow furrowed. "Well...see how you react when some unknown being starts putting weird thoughts in your head!" Charmian retorted. "And taking them out, too, might I add! What's this about the Tree--? Is that where we are, why I thought I'd be stomping on Geezhigo-Quae's foot? Is this the Sky Tree?" Cheengwun nodded. "Far under it...I wasn't even aware it went so deep, until I came looking for the Sky Mother. She's seeking a vision somewhere down here..." "I know, I saw her myself. Is she still there?" "She is, which is why I decided to try to find you. There must be a reason for you coming through without the others." Charmian blushed. "They're okay, honestly--" "I know, but things aren't over yet, are they? If there's something you need, then I can try to get it for you, since the Sky Mother is in her vision." "Oh." Charmian blinked. "Well...actually we were looking for a way back to the Island, just for a bit. To a particular part of it. We need to...fetch somebody and bring them back with us. It won't be much trouble." "Your face is scrunching up again," Cheengwun said. "You noticed that, too?" Winter Born asked. The Michinimakinong laughed when Charmian felt her ears grow hot and tried not to grimace. "I won't question. I know you wouldn't be doing it if it weren't necessary. If you want to reach the Island quickly, I assume that means through the crystals. I'm not sure how to work them, but the Tree talked to me earlier*, so maybe I can convince it to listen to me again." He gestured and crawled toward what, thankfully, looked to be an ordinary opening in the wall. Charmian peered around and saw that the entire space was composed of earth and roots. She shivered and let Winter Born through first, then followed; she let out a small sigh of relief on discovering that only the opening was small and once they were through they could walk normally again, though it was still rather narrow and she still had to look out for splinters. "So I'm guessing you found Geezhigo-Quae the same way I just got into the roots here," Charmian said. Cheengwun nodded; she could see her surroundings just fine although there were no lights*, but she was used to this sort of thing by now. "Only the hard way; I hit my head. I was worried about the Sky Mother as she'd been absent so long, and her Tree, well..." He paused long enough to hand the large crystal he was carrying to Winter Born, who peered at it for a moment before passing it back to Charmian. "You can see why we were growing alarmed." Charmian frowned at the crystal, rubbing it with her hand; she was treated to a dim image of what looked like the Sky Tree, except it was all gray, not blue and white like it should have been in the daytime. "Oh. I guess when she goes into a vision she kind of takes the Tree with her then, huh." "For that reason it might be a little iffy getting you through, since the Tree seems to be sleeping as well, but Grandmother talked with me while I was with her, so I think if we try hard enough it should work." He stepped aside and now they were in a hallway more like the ones Charmian was familiar with; she hadn't even noticed until now that they'd been heading gradually upward the entire time. "The particular part of the Island you needed to reach?" he inquired as she handed back his crystal. "The Borderlands, if possible." He gave her a curious look so she tried to explain. "They're somewhere way under the Island...near this place called the Gemfields. It's where dreams are born. I know it sounds weird, a land under the Island, but..." Cheengwun hitched his shoulders. "Why should it? I feel rather stupid that these roots surprised me. I'm sure there must be a crystal leading there, if I can just find it." "I wish we could go say hello to Tal Natha and Mother and everybody," Winter Born murmured. "Me too," Charmian sighed. Even meeting with Nathalit would have been wonderful, but there was only one person--two people--they had time to look for right now. "How's things up there, anyway?" she asked. "On the Island, I mean." "My crystal won't show me much but it seems fine, at the moment. They seem to be having a lot of thunderstorms for some reason, is all." That must be Ishkode's guys, Charmian thought, hoping that the Mishupishus weren't giving them too much trouble. They walked in silence for a while longer, passing up through higher and higher hallways; the floor sloped so gradually, or else the properties of the Tree were such that she was surprised to discover how high up they were when they at last reached the main part of the trunk that she'd been in before. They passed the entryway to Geezhigo-Quae's balcony room--Charmian felt weird, knowing that Geezhigo-Quae was not within it--and then went on to the hub room itself; Cheengwun raised a hand and the door vanished, each of them stepping inside to face the ring of cabochon doorways surrounding them. The smooth crystals glittered in the dim light. "I wonder which one we go through this time?" Winter Born mused aloud, looking at each in turn. "It was sure interesting the last time..."* "The places they lead to change now and then," Charmian said; "Something Geezhigo-Quae told me,"* she added, at their questioning looks. "But the Tree seems to know when a particular doorway is needed. As for which one that is..." She trailed off and like Winter Born looked at one after another, though more slowly. "Maybe this one?" she suggested, pointing out a light green-colored cabochon. Cheengwun approached and held his hand out toward it, shutting his eyes. A moment passed before the doorway slid back and disappeared and Winter Born stuck her head out. She pulled back in, brow furrowed. "Some place with lots of grassy fields and little bits of trees here and there." "No crystals or caves or anything?" Winter Born shook her head. "None." "That's probably not it, then." Charmian peered into it. "I think I used that to find Wabasso the last time I came to the Island." She turned while Cheengwun waved and the door shut. She nibbled on her thumbnail as she perused her options. "Well...how about this one, then?" she said, pointing at a pinkish-purple one. Cheengwun raised his hand and concentrated and the door pulled away. Winter Born peered out again, then started hopping up and down. "Oh! The ground is all shiny and sparkling! And there's trees and grass and everything. It's so pretty!" Charmian went to look, leaning over her. Her face lit up. "That's the Gemfields! The Borderlands are right nearby!" She turned to Cheengwun. "We need to go talk with somebody there, then we should be coming back through with somebody else. It...might seem kind of strange when we get back, so I thought I should warn you..." Cheengwun shook his head. "You wouldn't do it if you didn't have to, remember? I've heard all the stories about the last two times you were on the Island. This is probably nothing compared to all that." There was a pause and he started to frown. "Why is your face twisting up again...?" Charmian didn't bother hiding her grimace this time, she knew it was no use. She waved hurriedly. "No reason! We won't be long, promise. You'll stay nearby?" Cheengwun nodded. "Okay. See you in a bit, then." She gestured at Winter Born and the two of them climbed through the doorway, away from the Sky Tree and into the Gemfields. |