An Age of Mysterious Memories

The rest of the family is sleeping quietly, we somehow still have an hour or so before dawn, so we all agree to at least nap, to recover from any stress from the adventure we had over the course of the night, also hoping to delay leaving a little bit longer in the hopes that the serpent finds somewhere else in the swamp to be.

As everyone begins to drift off to sleep for a nap before our journey, I feel like I’ve barely fallen asleep when I see Mataalii standing over me, nudging me and flicking his head towards the river. I oblige, groggy as I am in my half-sleeping state, and I carefully un-entwine myself from Teuila, Luni, and Lil. As we approach the river, Mata crosses their limbs, and looks crossly at me.

Mat growls, “It’s your fault.”

I blink, stupefied, “I’m… I’m sorry?”

Through gritted teeth, Mat interrupts before I can process, “You should be. You saved the rest of us, so I’m grateful, but you’re not forgiven, you’ll never be forgiven.”

I rattle my head, starting to finally awaken, sadness tearing at my heart, “Wait, wait, do you blame me for the tidal wave?”

Mat confirms my fear, “Maybe the wave, maybe being home when it hit, maybe not acting faster to save all of us, maybe all of that. Point is, Teuila sees something in you, and I don’t. I can’t forgive you, and if you let her, Luni, or the twins come to harm, I will find some way to end you, exile you, something.”

I bite back tears and hysterics as I virtually shout, “Mataalii, I, I’m sorry, I never wanted any of you to be hurt, much less die!”

“Quiet!” Mata hoarse whispers. I’m not sure if they’re telling me to shut up, or to keep my voice down.

My eyes feel puffy and sore, not ready to produce tears after recovering from blindness as I try to continue, more quietly, “Mataalii, I’m sorry. I don’t know how to…”

“Ag was right, you’ve all these vaunted magics as Agwai puts it, yet you’re a danger to yourself and others.” Mata interrupts me.

I'm starting to get pissed that he's being so confrontational, “Now hold on, I’ve existed for a grand total of a few months, I barely know anything about myself and my powers, let alone this world.”

“Liar!” Mat's call-out of my claim is a hissed shout that makes no sense whatsoever. The whole family knows I spawned alone, met Lil a few weeks later, camped at our pond for several weeks, journeyed for several weeks, then I met the family. It's pure insanity to call me out on this.

“What? I’m not lying, I’ll give you access to my memory notes.” I flick through some menus internally, in my mind’s eye, to make sure Mataalii has access to my memories, and I gesture at them to take a look. Mata seems to be spaced out for a moment, hopefully reading.

Mat growls, “That’s impossible.”

I can't believe his disbelief as I respond, “I wouldn’t lie to any of you, I don’t know how or why I am the way I am.”

Mat tries to strike a different blow, “You are a child, a child with a weapon that is far too powerful for you. You should give it to someone wiser, more mature.”

Despite there being no such thing as children on our world, despite everyone spawning with a head full of encyclopedic knowledge, and assortments of skills, I partially agree with Mat on this one. I ask, “Is that even a thing I can do? Who should I give it to, you?”

“Unlikely I suppose, and no.” Mata sighs and smacks a nearby tree. I feel like there’s subconscious anger at me that’s not going to go away, and maybe Mata now feels guilty for it, now that they’ve seen things from my perspective. “Remove my access to your memories, I can’t stomach this nonsense.”

“Oh, I, sure, I’m sorry.” I stammer and try to comply as quickly as possible. It seems far more difficult to remove access than to grant it, but eventually I’m successful. “Um… where do you and I stand? I mean, uh, I don’t want you to hate me, but I don’t want to get in your way or tell you how to feel, or, or well, anything. Mataalii…”

Mata sighs “Just Mata, or just Ali, it’s exasperating waiting for you to try to pronounce my name. We’re family, family doesn’t have to like one another, but I don’t hate you. My threat still stands, but I don’t hate you. I just want my family to be safe again, to chase each other across the waves and sands. To play beneath the sun and beneath the sea.”

There is no sun, but I don't want to be pedantic with Mat right now. It's weird that we have the concept of a sun without ever having seen one. Weirder still that there isn't one. It's also weird that Mat has a concept of pronunciation, since our speech is all in weird semi-auditory text. Still, I agree, “I want that too Mata, I want that too.” Mata’s expression still seems cross with me, and I can see him sigh with frustration as he pounds the tree again. If only I could somehow show Mataalii how much I care for all of them.

“You retired late, if you’re to protect anyone, you had best get some rest. Don’t fail me. Don’t fail us.” Mata’s final words to me before he heads off strike like daggers, he doesn’t return to the cuddle pile, I’m not sure where he’s heading at the moment.

I probably shouldn’t tell Mata we just fought and ran away from the serpent again, and struck it a massive blow. Knowing my luck, when next the serpent strikes, its head will somehow have regrown, and I’d look like a liar. I do actually have one of its severed heads in my inventory though, thanks to Teuila's rescue. Oddly, despite her having split it down the center of the skull, instead of a bisected cranium, I have an intact, severed head. We didn't chop it off, she split it from skull down its long neck to the base of its multi-necked body. I guess finishing off part of a creature, in whatever way, can possibly allow such a part to be considered by loot if someone snags it before it derezzes.

I return to the warmth and tenderness of those I love the most, but have trouble resuming my nap. Who wouldn’t? I was basically accused of murdering the family of the people I love the most, in a roundabout way, then threatened to be cast away from them. As if I didn’t already harbor the fear that I was responsible somehow. Oh, I guess Mata knows I worried about that, if he was skimming my memories about the subject. If I could give Agwai or Laomati my space inventory magic, would they wield it better? Could they protect the family better than I could?

I just want them to be safe and happy, and maybe emotionally fulfilled. I drift back to sleep thinking of my family finding their ways to happier days. Lil being a dragon that watches over us all, soaring high in the air, Luni composing music and telling stories through song, Teuila becoming a winged warrior who can leap down from atop Lil to strike down nearly any foe, Laomati giving everyone the best hugs and guiding us to be our best selves and be our best to each other, Agwai finding a passion and pursuing it. Not knowing anything about Mata or the Mana twins, my thoughts only see them growing into their own personalities, beyond identifying with youth, hopefully content in whatever they pursue.

When I do awaken, I’m not certain where my dreams took me, though it must have been a short journey, as I was asleep for so little time before being roused as everyone comes to their senses on what’s likely to be a very somber morning. Or maybe solemn is the right word? Or perhaps just serious? Ugh, why do I have such vocabulary but barely recall its uses? It reminds me how I, in some ways, feel young. But in other ways, I feel weary, old, like I've had lifetimes of experiences, filled with plenty of turmoil and strife. I have no such memories, yet I do have memories that are insistent on the way the world should work, though they're entirely incorrect. I occasionally recall a planet full of humans called Earth, though sometimes even that escapes my memory. It's terribly hard to parse this brain of mine.

Ag and Lao are up, and to my surprise, they’ve fashioned some sort of kelp backpacks or something, basically packs made of seaweed, that they’re packing away the fish and frog meals into. I go to assist, motioning that I can just pull them into my inventory when Ag stops me, holding up an arm as Lao speaks. “Please child, let us shoulder our own burdens.” Laomati requests, in that motherly soothing yet authoritative tone of hers.

Naught to do but let them, I suppose, I mean, I suppose if I did actually die holding back the serpent, it would suck if they had no food, and no one to show them where to go to get to the pond, though it’s basically straight up the river to the north. Oh actually, I was asleep a lot riding the river, there could be offshoots that I don’t know about, but my gut tells me that just going straight upstream will take us home. It’s kind of weird to say it like that, right? It’s not really a home, not for any of us. I spent time there, alone, and with Lil, but I didn’t even bother making shelter until Lil showed up, then it was just some leaves tied against a tree. I distracted myself from a dark line of thought, didn’t I? Oh well, that works I suppose.

Mata and the Mana twins are puzzling over Luni’s new appearance, even moreso as she gets up and gets dressed, fully decked out in padding, then armor, and then puts her adorable dress on atop all of that, their jaws drop to the floor as Luni demonstrates her bag’s magical nature to hold more on the inside. She twirls and chats with them excitedly, I think she’s pretty happy with it, I’m glad of that. I don’t often get to see what she’s like by herself, she really is beautiful in her own right, in personality, with all that charm and exuberance, as well as, well, I’ve already put my foot in my mouth about her adorableness or gorgeousness, no need to rehash that. Mata apparently notices me staring, and then sends a dark look my way, which hurts to my very core, but I understand his feelings.

Lil and Te are sleeping in, which worries me, but they’re snuggled up extra tightly, they deserve the rest, and they look adorably peaceful like this. I guess I could talk to Lao alone about what happened last night. “Um, Lao, could I talk to you a second over there?” I ask hesitantly. Ag and Lao exchange a glance, but she nods, and we walk a little ways out of earshot of the others.

I begin, “So, Lil, Teuila, Luni and I went to gather some supplies for the journey before we bedded down for the night.”

Lao nods, interrupting, “I could tell you hadn’t arrived til quite late.”

Blushing, chagrined, I continue, “Erm, well, yes, the thing is, we got the supplies, but were attacked by these thieves, no no, not like that, we still have the supplies, we got attacked by things that stole our energy with some kind of darts, it left us helpless. It’s okay, there’s more.” I try to reassure Lao as I speak and her face expresses deeper concern at every turn in the tale.

“We got our energy back, Teuila was in the river so they didn’t know she was with us, she was able to track them down, but when she did, and remember, we’re all here, back and safe. Anyway, when she did, the serpent showed up.” Lao’s startled expression is almost aghast in horror, but she composes herself, waiting patiently, knowing there must be more to the tale.

I try to finish the night's tale quickly, in a single breath to avoid any interruptions, or to cause Lao any more concern than she needs, “Right, so, anyway, I um, I went even more blind than I was, and deaf, and, well, I was in a panic, and a rage, and something snapped, or broke, or unbroke, and I got my energy back that had been locked away. If it hadn’t been locked away, things might have turned out differently, since the thieves stole all of my energy, and I needed my energy for, well, evolving Lil to get Lil and Luni out of there. Yeah, Lil can turn into a dragon, well a little one, pretty much any time now that I’ve got my energy back. Teuila was helping Luni get away, but Lil flew Luni out, and Teuila ran back to help me. I didn’t want her to, I promise I was just trying to buy time for them to all get away, but when she came back, I got distracted, and got eaten by the snake, sort of, I ended up in its mouth, with one of its fangs through my leg. To try to get Teuila away, and keep it distracted, I dropped the evolution link with Lil, and tried to send the same thing to Teuila.”

Lao manages to interrupt as I'm losing wind, “You can turn our little Teuila into a dragon?”

I try not to laugh as I gasp for breath to continue, “What? Oh no, no, um, like a temporary forced evolution, she turned into an angelic winged warrior, she seemed to leap away in frustration, but really that was just her method of attack, she soared up into the sky, and came down so hard she split an entire head of the serpent down to its base, the one I was in.”

Lao raises an eyebrow to beyond incredulous levels as she responds, “That seems implausible, yet here you are, and I sense no deception in you my child.”

I try to finally get around to my point in telling this tale, “Well um, the thing is, I found out a weird thing happens if I claim items that, well, you see how Luni has new clothing, and she evolved? That clothing and harp was part of her evolution. When Teuila evolved, there were magical armors and weapons, and the weird thing is, they resize to whomever was using them. Since I can claim things to my inventory, and for some reason they sort of become mine, they don’t disappear. I mean, you see Teuila isn’t evolved right now and Lil isn’t a bigger dragon form right now, the thing I can do for them is temporary. But every time I do it, Teuila’s equipment comes back.”

“You created spares.” Lao surmises before I can finish.

“I created spares.” I begin pulling out copies of the equipment, though I leave all copies of Gae Buidhe in my inventory for now, I don’t want anyone accidentally hurting themselves on it, and having to lose a hand to save a finger, or something weird.

“And you say this somehow fits?” Lao pokes at the equipment that’s entirely neither her size nor shape.

I nod confirmation, “Yes, I, um, I think maybe the family would be safer, if they’d be willing, the ones that can anyway, would be willing to wear as much of it as they’re comfortable with? It was able to withstand blows from the serpent.”

Lao taps her chin, gazing between me and the pile of equipment, “That is quite the feat, if I’m understanding correctly the magnitude of the beast.”

I nod emphatically about Octorochi's size, “It really is enormous, I fit into just one of its mouths completely. The padding seems to absorb a lot of impact, or um, blunt or bludgeoning resistance I guess is the right stat, the armor adds more to that, and a lot against slashing and such things. I obviously didn’t create the spares or test that all out in the heat of battle, Teuila got me out of its mouth when she split its skull, and we escaped to rendezvous with Lil and Luni, to a dugout that we sealed off.”

Lao puzzles aloud, “A dugout? This is what you and Lil spoke of yesterday, a way to keep us safe on the journey, when we rest?”

I try not to come off as patronizing, since I know we all have encyclopedic knowledge, “Yeah, scooping out some earth, muck, mud, what have you, either by hand, or with inventory magic, and then having Lil literally fire it to harden it, to keep it safe and dry, and then us baking a hard cover, then coating that cover with swamp muck to disguise it. Not only that, but we gathered enough mud material, and clay material, to maybe be able to put up a temporary shelter if the serpent, or multiple things attack us. I figure we’ll pick up more as we progress northward.”

“I’d chide you for journeying alone at night, yet you didn’t, our three strongest were with you.” I’m a bit confused by the count, does Lao mean Luni is one of the three strongest here, or is she counting me as with myself?

Blushing, I still want to apologize, “Um, right, I’m sorry I put them in danger, I’d hoped our luck would hold, and we wouldn’t run into that thing, so we could be better prepared in case we DO run into it on our march.”

“Your heart and mind were in the right place child, luck it seems was not on your side in that regard, but perhaps in others.” I’d swear there’s a twinkle in her eye as she speaks.

I rub the back of my skull with one hand while blushing with an closed-jawed open-lipped grin, “I do feel more confident than ever that we can get the whole family past the swamp safely, which makes me feel like it’s definitely the right move.”

“Your tale doesn’t spark additional confidence in me, but mine was already high in you to begin with, the Shellcrackers will journey North, and come what may, that is the path in our lives that we must walk.” Lao seems to be subtly praising me, while also remaining somber about the realities of the dangers we face. She continues, “I’d always thought it unnecessary, Teuila’s dream of becoming a warrior, a protector for us, the most adversity we’d face is a rare shortage in food for a brief time, or the occasional flighted creature who would come to steal our food, we could either leave it be or scare it off with stones and shells. Yet now, I’m glad for it.”

“Me too, oh, speaking of flighted creatures. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any birds, or, gosh, I haven’t seen many creatures at all, mostly plants, the fish and frogs that basically spawn out of nowhere, there aren’t even insects to deal with. What’s up with the ecosystem? Normally I’d say it couldn’t possibly be sustainable, but there’s like, no decay, no rot, barely any hint of passing of time, it’s not like plants need pollination. I don’t understand our world, not based on my memories anyway.” I get around to rambling about my curiosities.

“I’m having trouble following, the others have mentioned this, you spawned with incorrect knowledge and memories, yes? Perhaps it be best you leave such thoughts for idle time when we’re safer, you can sate your curiosities when we’ve landed at your home, perhaps the Shellcracker pond it may come to be known as. One can only hope. Maybe such is your calling, to answer the mysteries of your memories, some long time hence.” Lao basically skirts answering, but I suppose that’s only fair. She probably doesn’t have answers to; ‘why isn’t science like my head says it should be?’ Ya know?

Lao motions back towards the rest, and it seems everyone has awoken and gotten ready, though Te seems to be tapping her foot impatiently. Seeing her brings a smile to my face. Oh! “Oh Lao! I can see! My sight returned after the fight, I forgot to mention that!”

“Hm, that however does spark improved confidence. Your eyes do look different, I hadn’t thought to mention it, I didn’t want to raise your hopes falsely or prematurely.” Her gaze is filled with warm concern, but subtle pride. “We should begin our journey, it is many days travel according to your own word.”

“True, true, yes, I’m excited to bring you all to Shellcracker Pond, I’d be happy to have it named that. I can’t wait to start building things for my family, our family.” I chatter excitedly as Lao beams a warm smile to me, it seems even her spirits are higher than they’d been, since she was so long in mourning. We proceed back towards the others, and Te is doing her gimme gimme motion.

Oh right, I have her gear. “Oh, oh, um, anyone who’s willing, would you maybe like to try on some armor? It seems to magically fit, it even changes shape some, hm, I hadn’t thought to try it on Lil.” I set down all six spare sets of equipment that I had brought out to show Lao, once again leaving the spears in my inventory, those things terrify me. In a world where I’m used to constant bumps bruises and cuts just miraculously healing overnight, a cut that never heals, I just, I don’t even want to imagine it.

Mata walks near and begins inspecting the equipment, he plainly makes an obvious observation, “There’s not enough for all of us, nine of us, seven sets counting the one on Luni, or is this one of those self-sacrifice things to try to win our favor? Or maybe you think you’re too good to need armor?” His observation devolves into a jibe, I think.

“Hm? No, oh, no, um, I just, the way we got them, I couldn’t keep doing it at the time, because I didn’t know if there were risks involved, and I wasn’t sure Lil or the twins could wear them, or if everyone would even want to.” I try to answer as coolly and calmly as possible. Mata doesn’t seem to be being hateful, just, just um, slightly mean I guess? Mostly just observant, and poignant, that is, he does have a point.

Mat scoffs, “You’re right that, I’ve no interest in wearing metal, I’ll be swimming the whole way, we all should.”

“Swimming upriver, for days on end? Can you do that? I can barely swim downriver, heh.” I try to chuckle to emphasize the joking nature of my statement, to maybe show that I look up to Mata for such strength, but it comes out as a weakly nervous single breath.

Teuila comes to my rescue, “Oh? Didn’t know you’ve been training day and night too in the river, thought I was the only one. It’s a rough workout, not as bad as an undertow, mind, but hours at a time is a massive strain, let’s just compare numbers, yeah?” Mata scoffs and stalks off. “Didn’t think so Ali. Besides, they’re light as a feather.” Teuila scoops up a set of identical clothing and armor, and ends up in them in the blink of an eye. I wonder if it’s part of the form-fitting magic that causes them to slip on easily. Teuila takes two sets and asks “Do you think they might shape to the twins somehow?”

“It’s worth a shot, right? Better safe than sorry.” I answer, and with that, Te calls the Mana twins to the side, and tries to help them into the padded body stocking type clothes and armor. It sort of works, kind of, kind of not really. Basically the clothing wraps them up like a mummy, and only the helmet resizes, which makes sense, they kind of look like little heads with tiny-paws, and tails. Luni isn’t wearing her helmet, so there might be enough equipment to go around, more or less. Out of the seven full sets, only two were used, three helmets though, that leaves five sets, and four helmets. Let’s see, Mana and Mana in helmets, seven left, Mata says no, six left, Teuila and Luni accounted for, four left. Me, Lil, Ag, and Lao, huh, I guess there is enough, even for Mataali, if one of the four or five of us is willing to not wear a helmet. That can’t be right. Nine of us, seven sets, two helmets for the twins, but one less helmet for Luni, so basically six full sets and one helmetless set left over for seven of us. Oh, yeah, I guess things did work out. Two of the rest of us would have to go without helmets, and there would be a spare set, if Lil wants to wear a helmet.

I bring two sets to Lao and Ag, who seemed to be discussing the armor as I was handing it out. Ag looks, hm, incredulous maybe? It’s so weird seeing things with my own eyes again, and not looking through Lil’s vision, though I guess I could still do that too. I kind of shrug as if to say “I have no idea if this is going to work” without actually saying it, but sure enough, shortly after accepting the equipment, the two of them are outfitted, though they both turn down the weapons and sheathes from the belts.

“So um, we basically just have to head upriver, nonstop until pretty much the end, it sort of ends up in the fire biome, but the waterfall just before that is just a little ways past the offshoot where our pond is. I don’t remember how many days the journey was, we won’t run out of supplies, but the biggest thing I worry about is that serpent, first it was on the east side of the river, atop the cliffs in the swamp, now it’s way down here on the west side of the river, way, way way too close for my comfort. Or there could be multiple serpents, either way is bad.” I check around to be certain the others have gotten themselves as equipped as they’re interested in being

As close as I can figure it, if the river averaged five to ten miles per hour, and I was in the drink for ten to fifteen hours a day, we were covering anywhere from fifty to a hundred fifty miles in a day. I think those are accurate’ish. If we can trudge through the swamp about two miles an hour, ugh, it’s tough going in the swamp, and we march for sixteen hours a day, we can make it thirty two miles northwards daily.

How many days were we snoozing drifting downriver on the raft? I can’t even remember. Was it just two? Five? Two weeks? That gets us to the cliff, then we need to safely find a way up. Well I suppose we can topple a tree and use it like a ramp. I’d prefer to save that as a last resort. What is it with me and not wanting to hurt trees? Err, anyway, time scale. If it was about a week of drifting, it will take about three weeks to get back there on foot going upriver, well, going north alongside the river.

Ow, oh right, my ankle, I should probably take a look at that. Shifting what clothes I can, I free my ankle to look at it, and it is a tad grotesque. The flesh is growing back inside the wound, now there’s no longer a path through my ankle, but being able to see some muscle as it knits back together is weird, and gross. Also there’s a lot of black veininess, I’m unsure if it’s mud, or some kind of necrotizing toxin. Regardless, I don’t feel up to trying to draw it out of my own veins at the moment, instead I have a better idea.

“Lu, Te, Lil, can one of you bring me the soapstone please?” I call out to my closest friends, unsure if one of them might have it at the moment from wanting to freshen up for the trek. I know Luni was carrying it in her hidden pocket in her wristband recently though. Sure enough, Luni arrives, and takes it out. She looks me over and furrows her brow, with a look that contains a bit of seriousness and mayhaps upsettedness that I haven’t ever seen play across her face before. Well, okay, I’ve never seen this face of hers before getting my sight back, and I haven’t even seen her ottery spherical face in however long it was since the Night of High Water.

I’m getting distracted, I think Luni is chastising me across our mental wavelength and out loud.

Lu responds, “Yes, I am, you should have had this cleaned out before we even got back to camp, what were you thinking?”

Blushing, I apologize, “Sorry, I was just, well, distracted, we got out alive, which, well, I was excited about that, and then there was the equipment, then getting back home safely was still a bit nerve wracking, I didn’t have time to think about me.”

“Ugh, stop doing that, sometimes, you have to think about you. No one else can necessarily do that, we’re not mind readers you know. Wait, scratch that, okay, some of us are sort of mind readers with you, but that’s no excuse. We can’t know what you don’t know about you.” Luni pushes her hand into my face and smooshes my nose and cheek. “Start taking better care of yourself, okay?” She applies the soapstone to my ankle, and instantly it both feels massively better, and stings like heck.

I gulp as I mutter, “Ow, ow, ow, okay, I’ll try, wow that stings!”

“Give me some cloth or leaf or something from your inventory to wrap around this.” Luni demands, I guess she inherited some of Lao’s authoritativeness. It’s almost cute in a way, err, oh yeah, right, she knows what I’m thinking, and I don’t think that shade of red is embarrassment, I think she’s annoyed, right, right, fabric. I produce what I think might suit what she’s asking for as quickly as I can. Luni takes it, inspects it closely, rubs the soapstone on it, then flicks her harp once, and hums at it until she matches the key of the harpstring, then binds my ankle gently. “There, much better. Wouldn’t you say?”

“I, um, wow, yeah. What was the humming about?” I sort of stammer, having another new appreciation for her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about in the slightest, hmph.” She harumphs, turns around, and walks away. I guess she’s still annoyed at me for not taking care of myself. I’ll have to do better. It does not feel good having her upset at me. Even Lil feels a little off across the shared wavelength, likely annoyed. I’m sorry, both of you, I will try to do better. I can’t even get their attention to thank Luni. Not being able to thank her, well, that stings worse than the soapstone.

I guess it’s kind of sinking in to all of us that I’m a bit of a lucky idiot. Getting out of the fight alive was dangerous enough, they thought they might lose me, then this wound would have had some sort of toxin or poison in it that might have been killing me, and I didn’t take care of it until now. Yeah, I kind of get why they’re upset. Dang, I could have really let them down there, and they wouldn’t have known how or why until it was too late. That’s going to be hard to make it up to them. Ugh, I feel awful.

I rub some wetness from my eyes, realizing the mistake I made in hiding the hole in my ankle without attending to it. What a mistake to make, never hide a bite, ever! Zombies taught us that. I think. Zombies? Are zombies real? Could Octorochi have made me into some kind of snake zombie? I promise I’ll never make that mistake again. My brain is having more random BSOD flickers as it skirts this topic, and a pressure grows near my right temple, and right occipital lobe. Why do I know what an occipital lobe is? Regardless, thinking right now hurts, so I’ll have to drop these trains of thought.

Oh, hey, Teuila’s walking this way. “Hi Te, oof!” She socked me in the face so suddenly she bowled me over! “Te, what? Ow!”

“You have a magical soapstone, you can literally clean any wound instantly, and you put it off until now? You, you, you big freaking dingus! You’re important to us! How hard are we going to have to pound that into your thick skull til you realize you need to do your best to stick around!” She grabs my shoulders and looks like she’s about to headbutt me, before I see her gritting her teeth and trying to hold back a sob and tears. She buries her snout in my clavicle.

I gulp back my own sob as I apologize, “Te, Te I’m sorry, it didn’t even occur to me that it could be dangerous, I’m sorry I’m so stupid, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Teuila mutters, “You’re not stupid, stupid.”

I snirk, fighting back a smile as I respond, “Te, heh, Te that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Sh’up.” She socks me in the gut, but thanks to the padding I barely feel anything.

I try to apologize again, “I love you all so much, I love you Teuila, I’m sorry. Please forgive me? I’ll try to be better, I’ll try to do better.”

“And no more ‘go, save yourself!’ yeah?” She mimics me in a derisive tone.

“I uh, can’t promise it won’t come to mind, but I’ll try not to act that way.” I reply as honestly as I can. Trying to predict future actions of myself at the present isn’t something I feel capable of at the moment. At least, not a future me that’s trying to adhere to promises. Without them, I could guess that I’d probably try the same thing over and over.

Teuila makes a face like I’d just offered her a cantaloupe when she asked for sweet rolls or frogs or something. “Fiiiiine, I gueessss. At least you’re here with us. Don’t ever leave, except, right now, okay? ‘Cause we’re leaving, now.”

I chuckle while I agree, “Heh, alright. Let’s get this show on the road. I feel like an entire chapter of my life has passed since I intended us to start heading North. Wait, do you capitalize North? Or only when you’re talking about The North?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about goofball.” Her reply seems, what’s the word, sardonic? Like sarcastic, but more hidden annoyance, but there’s still that endearment under the surface that warms my heart. I feel slightly better than I did a few moments ago.

I call out to the family, an odd feat with textual speech, “So, um, hey everyone, there’s probably two ways to keep safest as we head upriver. We could try being as quiet and stealthy as possible, though slipups and smaller aggressors might call unwanted attention to us, or, well, we could, um, sing and be loud, alerting things around that we’re a pretty big party, so maybe we shouldn’t be messed with. I think us being loud would probably scare off anyone and anything other than the serpent, because anything smaller that might have attacked us will probably assume we’ll get the serpent’s attention eventually, and won’t want to risk dealing with that. What way do you all prefer?”

“A silent march seems dolorous at such a time in our lives.” States Lao, I guess she could use some reprieve from her grieving, a reminder that she still has these remnants of her family.

“I wouldn’t mind learning a song or two.” Comes an unexpected reply from Agwai.

“I think we should all shut up and be quiet.” Mata’s reply however, is quite expected, after he turned down the armor.

“I’m a draagon, can’t keep me quiet for long!” Lil’s chipper, boisterous, upbeat, prideful, almost silly response is pretty much par for the course for Lil.

The twins don’t reply, and Teuila is oddly silent, facing away from everyone. I wonder if she’s hiding recent tears? Luni however replies, “I think playing my instrument could actually make our trip faster, like magic.”

“Wait what?” Every last one of us asks as we turn towards Luni. Luni who is now brightly blushing with the embarrassment of an entire family’s worth of attention on her.

“Well, um, it has a magic pocket, and a magic bag, and it’s, um, well, magic.” Luni’s reply seems uncertain, yet confident, as if she doesn’t know the certain truth, but she knows what she believes. The question on my mind is, is the harp magical, or is it Luni, or both? Maybe on evolving, she earned a level in bard or something? Wait, what is that, a videogame reference? No, another kind of game, well, both.

Regardless, it sounds like our course of action is set, and we’re finally headed back home. A dangerous journey awaits us, but we’ll meet it with song and cheer. I’m so happy to be alive.