parent nodes: AkaileaTheWitch
DP Epic
My name is FenmereTheWorm, and I am the Poet of the DragonPeople. Not long ago I gazed across the Plataeu of Patterns to watch my youngest brother, BoneJackdaw, make his way to me. Leaning on my old Dragon bone, I could not help but think of the days before the tearing of the sky, when as the Story Teller he would tell us of things we could only imagine. Now that evil is in the world, and partly by his doing, he only tells the truth. I miss his lies.
Shortly it seemed, he drew himself up before me and declared, "We need to find the Witch."
"Akailea?" I asked.
He spat on his left foot and snarled at me, "What other Witch is there?"
I rocked back and chuckled, saying, "Aye, there is no other. But why?"
Leaning on his walking stick, Jackdaw smiled to show rotten teeth. He waited and grew more smug by the second as I stared at him. Finally he shifted his weight and relented, "JadeCrow and I have found the Fallen Scale." He spat on his left foot again and said, "Only Akailea knows how to replace it."
I must confess I mocked him then. I put on my best little show, waving my hand and pshawing him. I tapped my forhead, and stumbled to the side. I muttered and sputtered and said to the sky, "Here he is. The one who knows all and everything that happens and all that might. And here he is declaring to me that there is something he does not know!" Then I turned to Jackdaw, "I thought you were cursed with omnitience! What happened?"
"I know everything," he replied matter of factly, "including the knowledge of what it is that I do not know."
"Very good," I said, "then let's go find the Witch." And after a moment's indicision, "which way was she again?"
My name is Fenmere, the Worm, and I am the Poet of the Dragon People. I was the First, and my youngest brother, Bone Jackdaw, says that I shall be the last. And though I am the oldest of my people, I only feign senility for the benefit of others.
We left then, to look for Akailea, the Witch.
Bone Jackdaw and I were halfway climbing down the sheer cliff at the East edge of the Plateau of Patterns when I thought to ask, "If you've found the Fallen Scale, where is it?"
"Jade Crow has it in safe keeping," he replied. "It is bigger than we'd suspected, for the Great One is indeed HUGE." This he said with emphasis, waving an arm and nearly losing grip on the cliff face. "Never-the-less, despite its inconvenient size, we feared what might happen if an Outsider were to make off with it. So Jade Crow guards it at the Great Shrine, and she is accompanied by the Burning Hand. You'll get to see it, once we've retrieved Akailea." Then he tried to spit on his left foot, without much success for hanging onto the cliff face.
Indeed. This scale business was a major task, such an important matter that calling upon the Burning Hand was not only warrented but required. Jackdaw had no need to mention the Five that Flame, for I'd taken them for granted in this. But his mentioning of the Fire Claw got me to really thinking on it for the rest of the way down. However, the only conclusion that I could come to was that Jackdaw must have mentioned them for a reason, and likely as not it was in order to simply get me thinking. So I began to worry about his motive.
Bone Jackdaw is the Story Teller, and my youngest brother, but that does not mean we do not fight and scheme against each other. He and I have our own motives. I wear mine on my sleeve, along with a couple other items. With him, you never can tell.
And there, at the base of the cliff, with the Great Blue Planes spread out before us, we met Grass Dog, the Artist. Grass Dog was busy drawing in the rough of the plain by pushing the blue stalks of grain flat one way or another. From above we could see the intricate image that he was creating, and it was easy to guess at who was the creator, for only Grass Dog would think of drawing in such a manner. I more than suspect that Bone Jackdaw knew to find him there, and had subtly directed our travel to intersect with his slow but sure path through life.
"Ah, my great friend and brother, Grass Dog!" Jackdaw bellowed.
"Don't step there," Grass Dog replied.
Jackdaw looked somewhat surprised and said, "But I already have. What should I do now?" To which Grass Dog only growled, so Jackdaw continued, "Grass Dog, I think you may wish to accompany us. We are on a great journey the likes of which would give you the grandest inspiration!"
Grass Dog sighed and stopped what he was doing to look Jackdaw in the face, "Bone Jackdaw, I don't need such high falutin' sparks of delite s'one of your Art requires. For me, these blades of grain are more'an enough."
"We've also found the Fallen Scale and are about to set the World straight again," said Jackdaw.
GrassDog stomped his feet and brushed off his hands and demanded, "well, why didn't you say so in the first place!" I found that I'd been smirking the whole time, so I stopped. Grass Dog then asked, "which way're we headed, then?"
To which Jackdaw replied, "to find Akailea, the Witch," and proceded to spit on his left foot again.
"Will you stop doing that?" I shouted at him, brandishing my bone.
"What do you think you're accomplishing when you spit on your foot? Who do you think you are appeasing?" I asked Bone Jackdaw as we hiked accross the Great Blue Planes. I was nagging him, trying to goad him into sounding more stupid than he already was, like a true brother should. "I'm the superstitious one. You're the one who goes around touting the wonders of Science to the Children of Akailea! I'm the one who eats his toast the same way every morning, in fear that it will be bad any other way. You're the one that claims to them that there is no magic but what is wraught with human hands! If you keep spitting on your foot like that, it will remain so damp that you'll grow fungus! It's an annoying habit, and I beg - nay, DEMAND that you stop!"
At what point Jackdaw spat on his foot again and said, "I shall spit on that foot how ever often and whenever I like, if only to annoy you!"
I turned to Grass Dog, to draw him into this and maybe enlist his help. "Can you believe our brother, here? He says that his life's work is to annoy me! Is he not the most obnoxious person we know?"
"Nope," smiled Grass Dog, "e'en your bickering seems perfect in the glare of the sun, t'day. It feels like we're the heroes of some great comedy. And this argument's only part of the development. No, please continue, I'm enjoying it."
"See?" Jackdaw turned and gestured, "Even he, who is so clumsy at words that he uses an economy of them, knows well the Art of story telling. Bravo to him, Fenmere! I'm pleased to learn I've taught someone SOMETHING."
"You're no help at all," I told Grass Dog, who grinned at me.
Jackdaw then pointed to a darkness far to the North-East of us, "I think we should go over there. Yon woods are known to hold great secrets. And maybe Akailea even hides in them!"
We were sitting around a fire burning on magic alone, for there was no wood, still in the middle of the Great Blue Plains, eating dinner and counting the stars. I could see storm clouds billowing on the horizon, reflecting the moonlight on their whispy edges. There was a bit of a wind, but it was very dry on the grassy plain.
"And that's another hipocrasy," I pointed out, trying to continue our discussion around the food in my mouth. "You speak of great machines that will process millions of stories in a matter of seconds, and retell them in halucinatory displays of light and sound. And you speak of sending sound through the air unheard, and storing it for years before hearing it again, and all sorts of wonderful archival and spectacular inventions that the Children of Akailea will build. And you encourage them! Yet you yourself distain to even wr-"
"Will you shut up?" Grass Dog interjected. "The sun's gone down."
"No, no," Jackdaw assured him, "I want to answer this-"
"No, you will not," Grass Dog snapped. And Bone Jackdaw was so surprised that Grass Dog had not used a contraction, that he obeyed.
We were quiet for a while.
"We should shelter," Grass Dog observed finally.
"How?" I asked, gesturing at the miles of waving blue grain.
"We'll be fine," said Jackdaw, with an air of prophasy.
Then the storm hit.
Outsiders, fugitive spirits, ghosts from beyond the veil of the sky come through the tear made by Ghost Owl's wayward arrow, by Bone Jackdaw's bold wager. Most are malevolent, vicious. Some are otherwise. We were beset by what seemed to be millions of them!
No sooner had the word "fine" escaped Jackdaw's throat than an unearthly scream, a thousand unearthly screams, ripped the air. Then our vision and hearing were filled with nothing but chaotic, black fluttering, like that of a million hand sized moths, punctuated occasionally by a blindingly white scream of anguish and pain, like stars and nightly shrowd fallen together. I felt claws, wings, leathery fingers, wormlike tendrils, and a thousand other unspeakable appendages grasping and pulling at me. It was all I could do to remain in contact with the ground, let alone stand fast. I feared for my soul. And when the cloud as suddenly lifted with a shriek, I found myself rolling on the ground as if to put out flaming garments. And the fluttering was receding as the wind picked up to terrifying speed, this time with the tang of rain and thunder not yet unleashed.
I stood, and watched, robes flapping madly in the gale, as my brothers struggled to their feet. Beyond them I could see the cloud of nethermoths being whipped into a great wind spout, a spinning, whirling pillar of feathery darkness and fireflies. It was huge, filling my eyesight, but slowly shrinking and receding till I could see its edges. Someone stepped up to stand beside me and survey her handywork with the pride of a job well done.
"PitchWolf," Grass Dog said. "What're you doing here?"
"Doing JadeCrow's work," she said smuggly just before Grass Dog smothered her in a bear hug.
"She's a little busy right now," explained Jackdaw to no one in particular.
I turned my gaze from them to watch the maelstrom wind itself into a twisted sheet and rise into the sky, like someone pulling knotted linens back into a window after someone's successful escape. The storm pulled in around it, filled the gap, then let loose with the promised thunder and clean, wonderful rain. Grass Dog pulled himself away from Pitch Wolf to watch himself get wet, and she poked him, laughing hartily.
Jackdaw approached Grass Dog, looking him up and down with mirth, and said, "I told you we'd be fine."
We slept well in the wind and rain, and found the new day when the sun rose above the tall grain that had shaded us until well after dawn. I watched the steam rise off my forarm for several minutes before anyone else stirred. I'm a poet, the Poet, so that's the kind of thing I do.
Then I heard Pitch Wolf exclaim, "what is that?"
I commanded my cranky legs to bring me to my feet. Slowly, I rose. And there, nestled in the grass, not fifty feet away, was a big, silent, pink monster. After my third blink, I realized that it was a vehicle, not an animal. It had four off-white seats, four black wheels, and a pane of what looked like glass near what was presumably the front, no doubt to protect it's passengers from mud. It shined in the early morning sun, as Jackdaw approached it with outstretched hands.
"A 1996 Hollywood Heidy Cadillac!" he breathed. "It'll go from zero to sixty faster than you can say 'you too can be Heidy!'"
"What in'a five blazes r'you babbling about?" demanded Grass Dog.
"I have no idea," replied Jackdaw, looking back at us, "but isn't she pretty? This baby will get us where we need to go in no time."
"Where did it come from?" asked Pitch Wolf.
"Outsider trap," Grass Dog decided.
"No," said Jackdaw, shaking his head and carefully putting his hands on the flank of the Cadillac. "I don't think so..."
"How do you know?" asked Pitch Wolf.
Even I could tell that wasn't quite the answer. "I think the Great One gave it to us," I suggested.
"What?" Grass Dog demanded.
Bone Jackdaw nodded. He was walking around to the other side of the monstrosity. He looked up from what appeared to be a door, and said, "hop in. We are meant to ride it to our destination."
Even behind the glass-like shield, the wind was powerful enough to violently whip my hair about like flame under a bellows. Looking back, I could see that Pitch Wolf and Grass Dog had to squint, seated in the rear couch as they were. The rush of grain stalks slapping the hood of the vehicle could be heard over the roar of its engine. And the uneven ground of the Great Blue Plains made it bounce and buck as Bone Jackdaw wildly swerved and winded his way through the corn. Jackdaw howled with delight.
A strange irony overcame me then. I looked over at him, and with a solemn face said, "As your attorney, I advise you to gun it." Being the Poet of the Dragon People, sometimes I find it is my duty to say things that no one quite understands, not even myself. Everyone looked at me with blank expressions. Then Jackdaw grinned and pressed his foot hard on one of the pedals. And the car, as he called it, shot forward like a frightenned horse. It was all he could do to hold the wheel steady, and the spead at which we took the hilloks and bumps caused them to blend together until it was like flying.
A journey that would have taken us three days was passed in a matter of hours instead. Soon we were driving along the edge of Yon Woods, in search of a road that Jackdaw claimed to be there. We heckled him, of course, but let him drive on as none of us were want to walk through the dark forest. The ride in the Cadillac was too fun.
"Jackdaw," I said, watching tree trunks pass lazily by, "do you even know where Akailea is? Will searching these woods serve us any purpose?"
After a few minutes of sauntering the car down the dirt road that wound through the middle of Yon Wood, he said without glancing at me, "yes." That was obviously all I was going to get from him, so I settled in my seat to concider the road ahead. I couldn't see very far, and it was impossible to guess which way we were going to turn next beyond the immediate curve of our path. And our destination was completely hidden. It wasn't like we were headed for the mountain that towered above the trees, ever on the horizon. All that we knew was that there was some great task ahead. And who could fortell what force might crop up to waylay us. Jackdaw, for all his knowledge and wisdom, his veritable fortune telling, was being annoyingly silent. In fact, he seemed troubled. A bad omen.
Pitch Wolf began to sing.
That's what she does, actually. All of the bards in the world, the get of Akailea who ply their voices in chorus or solo, to entertain or to sooth, find Pitch Wolf their muse. She is Pitch Wolf, the Singer. When she breathes, the world breathes, and when she howls, all the souls raise their throats in unison. And the song she chose to sing then was a long, sad, lazy wail, with peaks of cheerful banter. It was perfect, and Grass Dog smiled in contentment, watching the trees go by.
Then Jackdaw clenched all his muscles and we scrudded to a halt. Pitch Wolf's song cut off with a little yelp. And a pair of meaty hands attatched to wooly arms came down hard on the hood of the car. The arms belonged to a big, equally hairy man with a wild beard and a huge white grin and fiery blue eyes.
"Well," he gruffed, "what have we here?"
"I think I'm going to run this guy over," Jackdaw said to me out of the corner of his mouth.
"Don't," I insisted.
Then the big, hairy man in our way stood back, put his hands on his hips and said, "now, if you'll kindly hand over you vehicle, I'll refrain from crushing you all flat!"
Reflexively, Jackdaw gunned it. There was a bump, a krunk, and a thump, and we were bounding down the road with the barbarian plastered to the hood of the Pink Hollywood Heidy Cadillac, his face pressed against the glass-like shield. His visage was pulled into something of a grimace. Pitch Wolf yelled and Grass Dog was pounding on Jackdaw's shoulder, trying to get him to stop. And all the while he was being jounced around on the hood of the bucking car, the barbarian was pulling himself up over the clear mud shield. Suddenly he had a grasp of Jackdaw's lapels in one of his giant hands. With a roar and a yank, he pulled Jackdaw over the steering wheel and mud shield, halfway onto the hood of the car. Then we ran into a tree.
<>
"I can't say he didn't deserve it," I observed. "But could you please carry him until we can find a place for him to rest and revive?"
"Well, I don't know..." said the ruffian.
We were looking down at Bone Jackdaw, who was lying on the ground unconscious. I looked at the hairy man.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Raymond," he replied.
"Raymond, the Cadillac is broken, it won't go anywhere. We'd like to find shelter and food and we need to find word of where Akailea, the Witch, might be."
"Akailea?" ask Raymond.
"Yes, we-" but Raymond ran away before I could finish. I turned to Grass Dog and Pitch Wolf. "See? Rarely do misundertandings need to be resolved with violence. Often one word will settle the issue. If only Jackdaw had elected to use it rather than the Cadillac, we wouldn't be in this mess."
"Mmm..." Grass Dog concurred.
I gestured, "you grab the ankles and I'll grab the writsts." I was then overcome with an intense feeling of de ja vous and found myself muttering cryptically, "it comes down to this." I shook off the subsequent chill as we hefted Jackdaw off the ground and began trudging down the road. It occured to me that we were wondering aimlessly, and now that our aimless lead was out cold, there was no telling why we were so aimless. If only I'd thought to ask Jadkcaw before we were so rudely interrupted.
We passed a few more travellers on the road through Yon Wood, none so rude as the first fellow. But every time I mentioned Akailea's name, they'd up and run. In fact, we crossed paths with a bear at one point, and in jest I muttered "Akailea." The bear, upon hearing my voice, rose to his hind legs, yowled and turned and trundled back into the woods.
"She is not THAT evil," I grumbled over my shoulder.
"Mmmm..." replied Grass Dog and Pitch Wolf in unison.
After a time, we came to an Inn with smoke rising lazily from its chimney. We carried Jackdaw inside to the cozy common room, and the Innkeep, a stout, friendly woman, dutyfully produced a cot for him. We stood back to look at him and ponder what to do, when I saw his nose twitching. I raised a finger and said, "porter. A pint of your finest."
Bone Jackdaw sat bolt upright and said, "Porter?!"
I grinned at my friends and declared, "one word! The power of one word can move mountains!"
"Indeed," said Grass Dog.
Jackdaw looked at me, "where's the porter?"
"Jackdaw," I said. "You'll get no ale until you answer a couple questions, ok?"
"I shoulda stood in bed," he muttered.
Ignoring that, I continued, "Do you know where Akailea is?"
"Yes, of course," he replied.
"Where is she?"
"In the Underworld," he said, bored, "where else?"
"Then, what're we doing here?" Grass Dog interjected.
Jackdaw looked at Grass Dog like he'd just asked what color the sky was and said, "not drinking porter?"
I put my forhead in my hand and rephrased it, "why did you bring us here?"
"Because, where ever you go, there you are," he said, blinking. I blinked back. Something was not going right. Those words sounded awefully familiar, but I couldn't place them. Jackdaw didn't seem to realize the weight of what he'd said, though, so I brushed it asside for a moment. Jackdaw looked at the Innkeep, "can I have my beer now?"
"This isn't working," Grass Dog said to me.
"Let me," Pitch Wolf said, leaning into Jackdaw's face. Grinning with mirth, she jested "Everytime you tell a lie, I cut off a finger."
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I felt like someone was watching us, so I looked around. Absently, I muttered, "listen, do you.."
"I feel a great distrubence in the force," Jackdaw interrupted. I looked at him. His expression was blank, like he hadn't said a thing. We were all very quiet for a while.
Then Grass Dog said, "Now what?"
Pointing at him, I growled, "don't... talk..." I looked around, at each of my friends in turn. I continued with great deliberation, "when... someone... talks... that's... when... IT happens."
"What?" asked Pitch Wolf, and I pointed at her meaningfully. She blinked.
"We've been quoting lines from stories yet untold," Jackdaw explained casually. I pointed at him too, then slowly dropped my arm.
"I guess it's stopped. For now," I said.
"Can I have my beer now?" Jackdaw asked.
"Give him his beer now," I sighed.
"Laugh while you can, Monkey boy!" Jackdaw shouted at the rest of the inn, waving a half empty stein of porter, sloshing dark brown liquid all over his shirt.
"Now he's doing it just to annoy me," I growled.
Pitch Wolf put a hand on my arm, "that may be. But let him, it's harmless."
"Maybe... maybe not," Grass Dog intoned, "but we needs make 'r journey to the underworld if we want t'find the Witch. And hangin' 'round here 'nt gettin' us no closer."
"Now, Jackdaw," I said, crouching in front of Jackdaw to look him in the eyes. "Would you be so kind as to inform us why you led us to this in?"
"But, of course, my dear friend!" he declared, putting his arm around my shoulder, splashing dark brown liquid all of my shirt. "To drink!"
I dissentangled myself and turned to the others. "Oh, he's gone," I said. "I don't think he wants to face Akailea. Let us leave him be and make our way."
Grass Dog frowned and Pitch Wolf nodded. The innkeep overheard me and leaned in with a concerned look on her face. "I couldn't help overhearing," she said. "You mean to find Akailea. I'd leave that witch alone if I were you. She's done nothing but evil, and like won't do you naught but harm if you find her."
"What's this?" Grass dog asked. "She's our sister, and I won't have you spreadin' false whitness-"
"Nea, I'm not! I swear it," the innkeep looked frightenned, "why, I saw her work myself! Not four leagues north of here, the village that lies there built a temple to their gods. Every hand in the village helped construct it. It was beautiful. I was there buying goods for my porter and dinner, when I saw a wild and disheveled woman stride into town declaring to be Akailea, of the Dragon People."
We all looked at each other.
"She stomped on the ground and the earth shuttered," the innkeep continued. "It was a most fearsome thing. Everyone stopped what they were doing in fright. Then this Akailea said, 'You, my children, worship false gods! Deamons from beyond the veil! As your mother, it is my duty to set you straight!' and with that she razed the temple with a single strike of her staff. And that's not the only thing she's done. There're tales far and wide of the distruction she has wraught, on inocent and honest people. She is evil, a pox upon the land!"
"Here, here!" cried Jackdaw, waving his porter.
--- the story continues, but the words do not ---
Everything from the beginning of the world to the end of it, and all the fiddly messy bits in between.
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