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Escape From Manitou Island: Part 218 |
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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.)
UNTITLED THE GLOW BEFORE Charmian died down and she cheered when the Red Swan was left standing there, wings flaring. "WOOHOO!" Charmian yelled, jumping and punching a fist at the sky. "I did it!" Megissogwun's eyes had gone wide and all of the blood had drained from his face--she didn't know if she'd ever seen him so startled. The Red Swan, for her part, glanced from side to side, blinked a few times, then turned to look back at Charmian, seeming startled herself. "Charmian--?" she blurted out. "What--how did I get here?" She looked around again. "Where am I--?" Charmian flung a hand out to point at Megissogwun. "Long story short! In his dream! Has dream power. Not too good with it yet though. Everybody's flipping out. We're all really here. Have to figure a way out!!" "So you called me--?" the Red Swan cried. Charmian threw up her arms. "What else could I do?! You have dream power too! I knew I should be able to reach you from here, easily, and I know that even if you can't defeat him, you can at least--" The Red Swan whirled away from her--at first Charmian thought she was being snubbed, until she noticed that Megissogwun seemed to be regaining his composure, stormclouds practically forming over his face. He clenched his fists and started stalking toward them. "Interesting tactic," he growled, "and I admit, I should have seen it coming, what with all these other annoyances you've all called up. But you honestly think this frightens me--?" He doesn't think she's real--? Charmian thought, when the Red Swan lifted a hand, and a second later, Megissogwun flew back through the air, landing hard within the circle--for it had appeared again, Charmian could see it, rippling hazily like one image superimposed over another. She looked around in awe at the two translucent landscapes surrounding them, the indistinct grayness of Megissogwun's dream, and the fainter images of the real scenery lying just beyond it. Megissogwun lifted his head and shook it, blinking in confusion. "And you honestly think I'm just some figment of your imagination?" the Red Swan snapped, hand still outheld. "That you can call me up, and put me down whenever it suits you? You said yourself, you should have seen it coming--I have power here too. And the moment you thought to bring all of them into this, you opened yourself to me. Who's to say you're not a figment of my imagination, now?" Charmian's eyes grew and her face blanched; this had been a whole lot easier when they'd all been awake. She sucked in a breath--now a third translucent, hazy landscape began to fade into view around them, superimposed upon the other two--the giant trees of before, towering so high she could barely see to the top of them. The nightmare images that had started springing up all around everyone faded away as these grew more distinct; Charmian realized that the change of scenery had distracted everyone so much that they forgot their fear, also staring up at the trees in awe. Charmian thought to look down. She could still see the grass of the plain, with the glowing* circle Manabozho* had created, and the grayish, muted grass of Megissogwun's dream, but over both she saw a third layer of grass, lush and brilliant green and rippling in the breeze; what was level land on the first two levels sloped gently downward into various valleys and hills on the third, the giant pines cresting* the rises, and it looked like this for as far as the eye could see. Interspersed among the stands of gigantic trees were equally gigantic lodges, wigwams so big and long as to almost be longhouses, easily rivaling the Midewiwin lodge* on the Island; the blanket doorflap of each was decorated with strange images and symbols that to Charmian seemed vaguely familiar but she couldn't place them. She didn't know why they looked so familiar until she realized that she hadn't ever seen them before, but each seemed to represent something quite basic and uncomplicated--a tall tree--a cloud--a snapping turtle--a lightning bolt--a tomahawk--a birchbark scroll. She didn't get to take this all in, there was so much of it, the landscape was unending. "Ooooh! I know this place!" Turtle, clinging on to Manabozho's leg, hopped up and down. "The place with the little girl in red! Oh! That's her!" She pointed wildly at the Red Swan and commenced hopping again. "Papapapapapa, it's her! The wall showed me and everything!"* Most of the others just looked confused, though a spark of understanding flickered in Charmian's head, and she looked to Megissogwun and the Red Swan again. Megissogwun appeared just as put off* by the images; he scowled and seemed to concentrate, and the landscape wavered, but Charmian took in what she could of it and focused her own thoughts, trying to keep it all intact. She didn't know if she had the power since it wasn't her imagery; she saw the slightest quiver in the Red Swan's wings, then she too clenched her fists, and the landscape solidified again. "What's here that you don't want anyone to see?" the Red Swan asked. "You're the one who brought them all here, so I think they have the right to look. What's wrong...you don't like it here anymore?" Megissogwun's scowl darkened. "Merely that I have better things to do than stare at pretty landscapes! So you freely admit it now--? That was you? Funny...you seem a lot younger than I remember you." Manabozho turned to look at Charmian, baffled. "What's going on here?" "I'm not entirely sure," Charmian admitted. "All I know is these two know each other from long ago." She paused, choosing her words carefully. "That story Ishkode* told us, it was pretty spot on. If kind of confusing. I'll explain it all later!" she said with a grimace when his brow furrowed. "But this place..." She peered up at the wavering trees. "I have no idea what this is. Turtle says she's seen it before? How?" "The wall in the cave showed me," Turtle repeated herself, as if Charmian were stupid. "It showed me lots! Lots more than it'd show him 'cause he was MEAN to it!" She stuck her tongue out at Megissogwun. "This is where the red girl comes from! Isn't it--?" "I've seen this place," the Red Swan said, still facing Megissogwun. "I see it sometimes, when I dream. I know I've been here...yet at the same time, I know I haven't." She looked back at Charmian over her shoulder. "Because it wasn't really me, was it?" Charmian paled again and cringed, expecting the wavery landscape to evaporate around them...yet when she blinked, she saw that it had become more real than before, and the hazy images of Megissogwun's dream faded completely from view. She took in a breath and looked around again as the others did the same--she could feel the grass tickling her ankles, and a warm breeze wafting over her--she could even smell the scent of pine in the air. That made no sense. When she looked to the Red Swan again, the Red Swan's eyes softened. "I think I'm beginning to understand." She turned once more to Megissogwun. "You know this place, too, do you not? At least, you seem rather anxious that no one else see it." "Merely from when I passed through to get my hands on you," Megissogwun retorted. "A lot of good that it did me. You would rather spin pretty little dreams than deal with me, now?" "You are the one who doesn't seem to wish to deal with things. Do you know what this place is?" The Red Swan turned to the others and spread her arms. "This is the home of the elder manitous. The oldest beings, the great ones who control great things. This is the land above the sky. The Keepers of the animals and plants and land, the ancestors of the Four Winds, the Sky Mother, the Great Medicine Tree, the Mide Manitou*, Michinimakinak, perhaps even Gitchi Manitou himself, all of them and more reside here--or did reside, as the Sky Mother left long ago to be closer to humans. I lived here, countless ages ago, before I was myself." "What the..." Manabozho put his hands to his head and made a face. "What is going on here?" he demanded of Charmian again, but she had no idea how to answer that; the Red Swan's words worried her beyond all measure, and she hurried forward to grasp at her hand. She didn't know why she was surprised to feel that it was so solid. "Red Swan," she urged, "you have to be really careful what you think about right now! Geezhigo-Quae wanted you to stay asleep for now, remember? If you wake up..." "Do not worry." The Red Swan spoke so softly that Charmian almost didn't hear. "I have been sleeping my whole life," she said, as if she and Charmian were the only two there. "It's given me time to be used to such things. I miss how peaceful it once was...when it was just the Stone Canoe and me...but even then, I knew something was missing. I've seen bits and pieces, here and there, ever since you first found me. When you and the Sky Mother called me, I still did not understand, but since then..." She trailed off, then said, "I know how to stay asleep until I am needed. I was born to sleep, wasn't I? You were right that I could not simply be told the truth outright. I never could have handled it as I was back then. But when I have time to think about it...it makes sense and explains everything. I miss the calm but it's such a relief to finally know where I came from." Her stare fixed on Megissogwun and grew flinty. "I will stay asleep until she calls me to wake up...but as for you..." She gestured at the landscape again. "I acknowledge how it is that I know this place...so what's your story? Everyone has been dying to know." "I have no story, you pathetic upstart brat," Megissogwun said. "You want me to put an end to this nonsense once and for all?" "I was right," Charmian said. She clenched her fists. "You do come from here! The same place she came from! All this stuff about you coming from some distant land and nobody knows who you are or where you're from, and you're as old as time and junk, that's all it is, is a bunch of junk! You're just an elder manitou the same as everybody else here--powerful, yeah, but still just the same!" "Why would no one remember this, then?" Niskigwun asked, confused. "Cutfoot's tale," Stick-In-The-Dirt added. "How would things have become so confused? Why would even the elder manitous not remember where he came from, if he was one of them?" "Cutfoot must've gotten some of it right," Charmian said. "Like Megissogwun coming from the east. Even he wasn't sure of all the details, but you know how things get garbled the further along they go. I'm guessing if he's such a powerful manitou, surely he'd be able to do something like that, too. Make people forget. Scramble the story so nobody really knows what happened." "I fully believe this could be done," the Red Swan said, still staring at Megissogwun. "This is no small power, making even the great manitous forget," she said as he scowled at her. "But even they are not perfect. If he willed it enough, it could be done." efmi089 124 200 [NOTE: This is likely a notation to remind me of chapters to refer back to for events in the current chapter.] |