“Well, if it’s a spirit, there’s no way for us to fight those without magic weapons,” Lilian told Aycenia after a moment. Everyone looked troubled. Couldn’t blame them. It wasn’t every day that you were asked to kill a god.
“Not a spirit,” Aycenia replied hurriedly. “I simply felt that was the best comparison based on how the Gray God is controlling its puppets. Better alternatives would be…a parasite? A fungus? This creature infects its hosts and takes them over, turns them into Grays. But they do not come this far inland…Yet their skirmishes with the people of the Fang leave the latter group infected, weakening them and empowering the Gray God.” She bowed her head. “I fear that the Grays will take over the people of the Fang. The animals can only help so much. This thing is not natural. So, again, I beseech you to help me restore order to my home.”
“Wow,” Paco murmured, tossing his coconut over his shoulder. “Right up front. Hey, I need y’all to kill a god.”
“If the animals are helping you,” Belkross said, pointing straight up, “have you tried asking the Shadow for aid?”
I felt Aycenia stiffen. “…I believe I know of the creature you speak…Have you all encountered the Shadow?” she asked carefully.
“No,” Nakoda answered. “But we heard all about it from Mr. Pezock. Maybe you know him? Bird man who lives in a crab?”
“I have passing knowledge of him, yes,” Aycenia said. “As for the Shadow…I know where it nests…I hesitate to speak ill of my neighbors. The natural ones, at least. Yet the Shadow kills not only to eat, but to entertain itself. It knows that it is the strongest beast on this island, so it is constantly in search of challenge.”
“Lines up with what Pezock told us,” Alton grunted.
“Alright then,” Lilian said. She narrowed her eyes at Aycenia. “Wait. Is it a dragon?”
“I do not think so? But then again,” Aycenia gestured down to herself, “I barely understand what I am.”
“Does it breathe fire or something?” Lilian pressed.
“Not fire. But its fangs kill whatever they touch. Eventually.”
“So it’s venomous,” Alton noted. “You said you know where it nests.”
Aycenia nodded. “It nests at the farthest south-east point of this island. But as for the Grays, you will be heading north-west from here.”
“Does that take us near the cannibals?” Paco asked. “Or ‘Fang People’ or whatever.”
“It should not.”
“Okay.” The gunslinger eyed her distrustfully. “Alright. But if we do this, what exactly are we getting? What are you going to do for us? How are you contributing to this mission?”
“I will put out a call,” Aycenia answered, “tempering the animals, keeping them from attacking you. Of course, they are within their right to ignore me. But I am reasonably sure that my influence will grant you safer passage during your stay here.”
“So less chance of me being eaten by a snake?” Nakoda asked hopefully.
Aycenia laughed. “Yes.”
She gently removed my head from her lap, stood up, and stepped back towards the tree. Like a ghost, the lower half of her body went right through, though the rest of her remained outside, looking as solid as I was. “Talk amongst yourselves. Decide. If you need more coconuts you need simply knock.” With that she merged completely with the palm tree.
Near a full minute passed before Nakoda raised his hand.
“I think she’s nice!” he declared. He pointed at me. “And Don really likes her. And she’s gonna help us. Only fair we help her. Up until now we didn’t know where anything was or where we were going.” He threw his arms open. “She literally is the island-”
“She’s a tree,” Paco interrupted.
“Of the island.”
“A tree on the island.”
“Well, either way, before we didn’t have a tree, and NOW we have a tree!”
“Okay, Nakoda, okay,” Lilian said, showing her hands. “So since we now have a tree, how about you climb up it? See if you can get a proper lay of the land and spot this ‘Gray God’s’ island.”
“Oh. Um.” Nakoda turned to tree, hesitated, and then knocked his fist against its trunk. “I-I’m not asking for more coconuts. Just…is it okay if I climb up so that I can look around?”
“At least take her out for a few drinks first,” Alton snickered.
The bark of the tree that Nakoda had touched turned into Aycenia’s face. “Yes, you may.”
Nakoda stared at her and then looked up at the rest of the tree.
“Is all of it your face?”
“No. Usually I don’t need a face. But hold on. Instead of climbing, take my hand.” As she said this, a hand appeared. Nakoda swallowed hard and then did so. He yelped up in alarm as the hand zipped straight up to the very top of the tree, taking him along for the ride.
“OKAY!” Nakoda screamed down at us. “NOW WHAT?”
“Look around!” Lilian called up. “Do you see anything of interest?”
“…I SEE A LOT OF SHIPS ALONG THE EDGES! AND-AND AYCENIA’S NOT LYING! THERE’S, LIKE, THIS PIECE OF THE ISLAND THAT’S JUST…GRAY! LIKE IT’S DEAD!”
Paco cupped his hand by his mouth and screamed, “Any signs of cannibals?”
“UM! I DON’T SEE ANY CAMPS OR FIRES! THERE’S THE TIP OF A TOWER, OR SOMETHING, BUT THE TREES ARE TOO TALL AND CLOSE TOGETHER TO SEE ANY HUTS OR WHATEVER!”
“Okay, that’s fine,” Lilian told him. “Come down.”
“ER, ACTUALLY, MAYBE I’LL JUST SLEEP UP HERE. YOU GUYS CAN BEAT THAT GOD-THING WITHOUT ME-WHOA!”
Nakoda quickly came back into view, being carried down in a pair of arms. “It’s okay, I have you,” Aycenia reassured him, rocking him back and forth as if the little Rider were a baby. “I have you.”
She brought Nakoda back down to the trunk of the tree. Nakoda clung to her arms, eyes wide with adoration. “Is…is this what it’s like to have a mom?” Aycenia’s face reappeared and simply smiled down at him.
#
Unless someone was talking to her or she was directly needed, Aycenia stayed inside of the palm tree. I think she wanted to make the group feel like they had space and that she wasn’t trying to pressure us into deciding one way or the other. Nakoda and I took some the time to scout the rim of the clearing. Her calming presence extended a little past the trees but waned the farther we went. When we returned, Camp had been mostly set up. Aycenia had stepped back out of the tree and was in deep conversation with Paco and Lilian. Or really, it sounded like they were both interrogating her.
“Is there any way to keep ourselves from getting infected by the Gray God’s parasites or spores? Whatever they are,” Lilian asked.
“We could all wear scarves or pieces cloths around our mouths to keep from breathing it in,” Paco offered.
“Better safe than sorry,” Aycenia replied. “But all who’ve been infected were done so through wounds. Through the blood.”
Paco scratched at his neck anxiously. “Well, that lowers the chance of us being infected. Somewhat. But that means none of us can get wounded in an entire area that’s just surrounded by this gray stuff. One mistake and,” he snapped his fingers, “your grayed.”
Lilian gestured to him and then over to Belkross. “But what about tieflings? Those with cursed blood descended from demons or devils. Will it affect them the same as humans?”
“Everything that has been successfully infected have been humanoids,” Aycenia answered.
“What about the plants?” Nakoda called out while I trotted over to join them. Aycenia smiled and scratched me behind the ear. “What happened to all the trees and stuff?”
“That is what worries me,” she sighed. “The Grays do not wander this far inland, but the fungus is steadily expanding on its own.”
“So its infects vegetation and humanoid creatures,” Lilian murmured more to herself.
Nakoda looked at her and then back at Aycenia. “But you’re kind of both,” he said. “Will you become one of them?”
“…I’m hoping that it never comes to that, Nakoda, and that we never have to find out.” She managed to keep a smile on her face, but her words trembled. She was terrified of being taken over by the Gray God. Taken and turned into a monster.
“If we kill this fungus god,” Paco sad, “will that stop the spread? Or just slow it down until another Gray takes the ‘god’s’ place?”
“Again, it feels similar to me,” Aycenia said patiently. “In how it has control over its own domain. But also opposite. So I cannot speak for the Gray God, but I can…can only hope that destroying the source will destroy the rest of the hive.”
“Can it be burned with fire?” Belkross grunted, arms crossed over his chest. He kept his distance from Aycenia. For some reason, the mercenary seemed determined not to trust her.
“Nothing kills a tree faster than fire. So it is only safe to assume-”
“Ah! But you know what they say about assuming,” Paco interjected.
Aycenia tilted her head. “No. What do they say?”
Lilian jerked a thumb over at me and said dryly, “Something about donkey over here.”
“Oh. I see,” Aycenia said, still looking confused. And as if she were developing a not so mild migraine. “Yes. Well. If you think of any more questions, please don’t hesitate. Or do. Whichever you decide.”
The others nodded. She slid back into her tree. Nakoda and I cuddle up next to it. Belkross and Lilian slept in her tent. And Paco, Turtle, and Alton took first watch. It was the most peaceful sleep I’d experienced since…well, ever. The breeze tickled my skin like gentle fingertips and the wind hummed a lullaby that made me feel small but also loved. All I can say is that if Aycenia was evil she was a VERY good actress.
After a full day’s rest, it was time to head out on the mission. We readied ourselves an hour before dawn so that we’d have the most amount of sunlight during our journey. “Now,” Aycenia said, face filled with both gratitude and worry, “just because you cannot see me, does not mean I am not there. Of course, I can’t protect you against everything, but I will try my best.”
“So will we,” Nakoda promised her.
Aycenia pinched his cheek. “That’s a good boy.”
If Nakoda heard Paco and Alton snicker behind his back he didn’t show it.
True to the tree woman’s word, the jungle felt…different after we exited the clearing, heading north. A mile or so past Aycenia’s domain we realized just how much she had been manipulating the weather to make her home so cozy and inviting. Back in the jungle, we were exposed to its almost hellish humidity. And the flies! Oh, gods, the flies! I lost count of the times one of those tiny bastards “accidently” landed in one of my eyes.
Other than these tiny monsters, it seemed that Aycenia had put out a call to the wildlife. I could still feel eyes on us, either through the brush, or from up above, but nothing attacked. Even when we stepped out into a shallow stream and came upon two large, yellow-spotted lizards, they eyed the group as we went but otherwise remained docile.
“Maybe we should’ve killed those two,” Paco thought aloud. “For rations.”
“Waste of time and resources,” Lilian reprimanded him. She held up a flame-covered hand and was casually waving it back and forth to kill any and all flies who dared come near her. Couldn’t say I wasn’t jealous. She had so much control over her magic. Meanwhile, I…Well, I still had no clue how to make the magic come and go…
Inevitably, after roughly four hours trekking through the jungle, the first signs of the Gray God’s touch began to appear. The jungle’s vegetation thinned, with the trees that were left having died and fallen during a storm some time ago. We eventually left the jungle behind, and found ourselves staring at a vast, gray terrain. The grass wasn’t gray. Instead it’d been replaced by patches of fungus. There was an acrid taste to the air that was only made worse by the sun beating down on our heads and the surrounding lands.
“You guys see that?” Paco asked. Everyone turned to look at him. He was staring back towards the jungle. “…Think I saw a baby shadow…”
“Maybe it’s one of Aycenia’s animal helpers keeping an eye on us?” Nakoda offered.
“And maybe you’re riding a cow,” Lilian supplied irritably, her hair sticking to her brow and cheeks with sweat.
“Don’s not a cow,” Nakoda retorted. “He’s half donkey, half-” He caught himself. “…Special.” In a clear attempt to change the subject, he called over to Belkross. “Aren’t you hot in that big coat and hat, Mr. Belkross?”
“I’m resistant to fire,” was the mercenary’s grumpy answer. He then slashed his blade through the air, cutting the wings off of a fly that had flown too close.
Nakoda stared at him, swallowed hard, and then declared, gazing off towards the grayed horizon before us, “Okay, guys, I have a plan!”
“But the shadow I saw,” Paco began.
“Shhhh! Do you wanna hear my plan or not?” Paco rolled his eyes but gestured for Nakoda to go ahead. “Okay.” The little Rider pointed at Belkross. “Okay. So we set you on fire. And you go in and,” he began punching the air repeatedly, “you punch the god a lot. Or hug him. Or both!”
“Fantastic plan,” Alton said sarcastically, shooting him a thumbs up.
“Yes, why don’t you demonstrate?” Paco asked hopefully.
“I’m not immune to fire,” Nakoda reminded him. “Or do you mean setting Mr. Belkross on fire-”
“He’s fire resistant, not immune, Drake!” Lilian groaned into her hands while shaking her head. “Gods, we are so going to die.”
“I’m trying!” Nakoda cried, throwing his hands up. “And hey, why don’t you use your eagle more? Or your pony?”
“My magic is finite,” she answered while resuming to walk into the gray lands. The rest of the group did the same. “I can only cast spells like that so many times a day. I’m saving them up for when it’s really necessary.”
Nakoda frowned at her. “…And it wasn’t necessary when I was getting killed by the snake?”
“We didn’t need one of her animals to distract the snake,” Paco called out from the rear. “You were already distracting it.”
Nakoda slumped forward a little in my saddle. “But then she set me on fire,” he murmured, sounding betrayed. “And I’m not immune or resistant to fire.”
“It was a fucking big snake, mate,” Alton told him sternly. “Girl saved you in her own way. Live and let die. Like that snake.”
Nakoda eyed him for a moment, probably wondering if the first mate was making fun of him again. He then straightened up and said to Lilian, “Okay, okay, you know what? Part of being friends with someone is putting up with things you don’t like about them. It’s okay. I was just…Okay. It’s okay.”
Lilian shrugged. “I was saving my magic to heal you.”
“But you’ve never healed me. Not even once.”
She shrugged again. “Like I told, Alton. Since you’re kind of a good person my magic will heal you, but you won’t like it very much.”
“I don’t remember any of that,” Alton said.
“You were dying at the time.”
“Ah.” He ran a hand through his unkempt hair. “So it’s like burning a wound closed to stop the bleeding. Gets the job done but, unless you’re drunk, hurts like hell. And might cause more problems down the line if it ain’t dealt with properly.”
“Basically,” Lilian said, wiping another layer of sweat off of her brow.
“Always thought magic would be more…whoosh,” Nakoda thought aloud. He touched my neck. I glanced back at him. Want me to ask? he asked me with both a look and a nod to Lilian.
I snorted once.
“Speaking of magic,” he said, miming a rainbow unfolding outwards with his hands, “how do you do it?”
“It’s natural to me,” Lilian answered, beginning to sound annoyed by all of his constant questions. Maybe she was starting to realize how Aycenia felt back in the clearing. “Runs in my family.”
“But is it like a brain thing? A muscle thing?”
“Uh-”
Do you just oomph? Is it like pooping?
“…”
Do you poop the magic out?”
Lilian exhaled very, very deeply. She then asked Nakoda, her words trembling with frustration, irritation, and likely some murderous intent, “When you walk, how do you do it?”
“Uh, one leg at a time.”
“But how do you know how to do it?”
Nakoda frowned. “Training? You do it so much you learn how to do it.”
“But do you think about it? Is it a brain thing? Do you poop your steps out?”
“…No? I guess you gotta think about it when you wanna go faster, wanna run, but when I walk I just…I just do it.”
Lilian tapped a finger to her left breast. “Magic’s the same way when it’s in your blood. You just kind of know what to do. And when you want to make it happen you do it. And different spells are like different moves that you would do. Like a punch or kick.” She gestured to Nakoda’s lance. “Or thrust. You walk one way, you jump another way. So each spell is like that.”
“Huh,” Nakoda said thoughtfully. “…What was the first spell you ever did? Since you’d never done magic before, how did that feel?”
Lilian’s look of annoyance towards Nakoda was replaced by an almost wistful expression. “Not much of a feeling. I just wanted something to die. So it died.” She held up her right hand. The tiniest black flame appeared floating above her palm. She looked down at it the same way someone might look at their favorite pet. “Something was attacking me. So needed it to burn. So it did.”
She suddenly glanced to the side and saw me staring at her. When she spoke next I wasn’t sure if she was still talking to Nakoda, or now to me. “It’s driven by emotion. By a primal want. It can be because you’re afraid. Or enraged. Or maybe even because you want to protect someone.”
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