TWWM - Lost Events

Down the mountain they plummeted, careening wildly across the rocky slopes. All sound was chaos to them amidst the swirling debris. Sauvi cried out, but her voice was lost in the torrent. Howels struggled to catch footing on something, anything, but the angry press of the avalanche was too great. Ent was lost in the sea of snow, a black fleck, flickering in and out of sight as the icy mass curled against itself.

Ice crystals and branches stung their faces as they tumbled down the mountain. The sting hissed and burned as it morphed from white, to tan, to a dark brown, swirling around them, pelting their bodies. Sauvi heard a rattle, a familiar sound of Ent’s quills. Squinting through the spinning sand she saw they’d been brought near each other again, and were being spun by a massive sandstorm. The cyclone hissed and whipped them about, squeezing them closer to each other as it heaved inwards, thinning gradually. Dust puffed anticlimactically above them as the twist of sand thinned into nothingness, dropping them unceremoniously on the ground.

They groaned in unison, finding their feet and standing slowly. Ent panted hard, his quills slicked against him, defeated. They stood, in a circle, breathing heavily as the dust settled around them. The sun above leered angrily, threatening to bake them. A whisper escaped Sauvi,

“It…”

Ent stopped her, taking a step forward. His voice was low and full of pain, he winced as he spoke. “I… I am sorry. I…”

He turned away, fighting tears. He tensed, his toes gouging trails in the sun-baked earth. Sauvi winced, his remorse was palpable. Howels stood unmoving, watching.

A large tear crept down Ent’s nose, he wiped at it hastily, trying to hide his weakness. He fought his pride and spoke again. “I… I am sorry… to both of you, and to…” he looked up, at where the cyclone had been. “To whoever...or whatever I just did…” dropping his head back towards the ground, he pawed restlessly. “I let my anger control me… I try so hard...not to. It just…” the words seemed to fight him every step. The pain and remorse shuddering through the large esk.

Sauvi tilted her head cautiously, “I… I don’t know what that was… it seemed like the very mountain itself…”

Ent met her gaze for a moment before looking down again, sullen. Howels seemed unmoved by the emotional state Ent was in. Padding around quietly he sniffed the air, then the ground.

“Something's not right here either…” he said quietly, investigating a rock.

They watched him for a moment before looking to each other again. Ent seemed lost, and Sauvi had no answers.

He tensed again for a moment before his shoulders dropped one more. “I just want to go home… back to my pond. I can’t even go… something is…” he pawed at the ground again, a criss-cross of lines below him now. “I feel trapped…”

Sauvi hadn’t even tried to teleport away, it was as if the idea hadn’t occurred to her. She tried now, and realized Ent was right. She was unable to move through the planes at all. Panic threatened to envelop her, she fought to remain composed. Holding her head high she thought.

“Well… we’ve been moved three times now, and seen two shrines… perhaps there's another one around here. We should find it.”

Ent nodded glumly and shuffled off, peering around the rocks and boulders, the sun beating down on his dark fur. Sauvi tiptoed daintily across the dusty surface, patiently waiting to feel the familiar pull again, but nothing came.

“Aowlie?” Howels said out of nowhere, “Is that you?”

He was standing a ways off the rocky plateau, looking out across the waves of sand. Sauvi and Ent trotted over to him.

“What?” she said.

“I … I think i see my friend… over there.” Howels crept cautiously forward. The sand seemed hotter with each step as the desert threatened to cook them. For several moments the trio slipped quietly across the sand, waiting for a shrine to call to them, looking for Aowlie. As they neared the area he’d seen her though… there was nothing.

“I...I could of sworn she was here… I saw her.” Howels was distracted and suspicious, sniffing around the sand. Sauvi squinted against the sun, it beat down on them mercilessly. In the distance she saw a patch of trees. “Let's head towards those trees, it will be shady there and we can try to make a plan.” Howels was too distracted to object, and Ent hadn’t said a word since they left the rocky place. So they followed her onward across the dunes, towards the dark green trees that rippled in the distance.

It felt like hours they’d walked, but the trees seemed to dance away from them, licking and flickering against the horizon, always out of reach. “I...I think it might not be real…” she admitted, fear creeping up her chest. They walked onward in silence for a while.

Suddenly Ent shot past her, pawing across the sand with enthusiasm. “A pond! Water!” he called back, his voice ringing with the most joy Sauvi had heard from him since meeting. The two smaller esk broke into a trot to keep up. Kicking up sand they sped across the dry earth, a cloud of dust whisping away behind them. After several minutes though Ent’s pace slowed to walking again, and the joy had left his voice. “Its not real either…”

For hours they wandered, further and further across the sand, seemingly lost to the world, lost to time. Sauvi wondered if she’d ever see her cool vineyards again, their shadowed growth seemed so far away from this desolate landscape. After a time, they found themselves at the mouth of a canyon. A weak stream trickled from inside, a welcome site. They waded through the warm water, it felt so good against their sun-baked toes.

"At least its a bit shaded in here..." Sauvi said, pulling her feet slowly through the trickling streamlet.

Ent grunted in agreement. Howels was already on alert, investigating their surroundings once more, always flicking his attention from one curious thing to the next. Without a word he trotted deeper into the canyon. They followed.

Deeper and deeper into the canyon they crept, the weary stream beside them a constant. The red and orange walls rose around them, sweeping towers of earth that seemed to shoot up from the earth in a perfect row. Layers of color hung on the walls, bands of black and grey, red and pink. Sauvi found herself in awe of their beauty as the canyon deepened.

Howels paused suddenly, his tufted ears twitching nervously. "Hear that?" he whispered.

Listening, the two waited, and heard a muffled hissing sound.

"A snake?" Sauvi asked.

"No...this is different..." Howels dipped his head towards the earth, smelling, listening intently. He trotted forward again, following the mysterious sound.

Turning another few corners, the sound grew louder, until finally they came face to face with another shrine.

They froze in their tracks as the hissing stopped, plummeting the entire cavern into a deathly silence. Time itself seemed to slow to a crawl as the trio stood, staring at the scene before them.

Scattered across the cavern floor lie the remnants of the shrine, shattered and tossed about. A intense sadness seemed to hang over it. Sauvi spun to face Ent, fearful of what he'd do. He looked at her, shame written on his face. He hung his head.

"I'm not going to hurt it..."

Howels tiptoed carefully through the shattered pieces, sniffing them.

"This is definitely where the hissing sound came from...its fallen silent now though..."

Sauvi tilted her head to the side, her long whispy ears dangling freely behind her. "Why didn't this one call to us...pull us? Like the other two did..."

"Maybe it was afraid to..." Ent said quietly, wincing at his own words.

Silence fell again as they observed the broken stones.

"Well?" Howels said, "What do we do?"

Sauvi looked at the stones, then back towards the desert. "I don't know..."

Ent sat quietly in the corner, staring sadly at the stones. "I'm sorry..." he whispered. "I just... I wanted to go home...I just wanted to feel...whole again..."

He shot to his feet, "Guys!" shuffling eagerly towards the stones, he cupped the shards in his front paws, gently scooping them into a pile again. "What if we fix it?" he scrambled, tripping over himself in his urgency.

"Fix it?" Sauvi said.

Howels watched them, curious.

"Yes. I just feel like..." he paused, looking at the dark stones in his paws. "The jungle...and the mountain..." he winced, remembering the pain and anger that had lashed out of the shrine as he'd crushed it.

"I feel like they were calling... maybe to help them. Maybe we can fix it..."

He placed the stones one on top of the other, awkwardly. They tumbled down again, rolling to stop by Sauvi's feet. She peered down at them. "Fix them?"

She summoned up some strength, energy humming within her. "We can't teleport away... but we still have some ..."

Ent looked to her, hopefully. She looked to Howels. He stepped forward, a small bead of energy forming on his chest. Turning to Ent again, she pulled her strength too, their glow filling the space. Ent's eyes brightened, hope flickering there as he too pulled his energy forth, pouring it onto the shattered stones.

They exhaled slowly, relaxing, willing the stone to heal. Their energy rippled and curled around the fragments, lifting them gently, piecing them together again. Rays of light coursed across the cracks, sealing them, a steady pulse rippling from within the stone's heart. A warming thrum that seemed to lift the weight of the day from them, soothing their tiredness and filling them with peace. The rhythm rippled outward, past them. Turning, they saw the meager stream grow in strength, as grasses and flowers thrust up through the sand along the water, a line of green weaving itself across the sand.

Stepping back, they sighed in relief. Ent sat down heavily, tears in his eyes. He had no words. Sauvi turned away, giving him time, and Howels led her back out of the cavern. They waded into the water again, this time it was crisp and cool. The sun's glare didn't seem as harsh now. The sun dipping lower in the sky, gracing them in a sunset of glorious purples and pinks. After a few moments Ent shuffled out of the cave as well, dipping his feet in the cool water, soaking in the wonderful feeling. He still missed his pond greatly, but something had changed. He no longer felt trapped here, he felt as if he'd been given a task, he'd fought it for too long.

"I'm glad we healed that shrine..." he said quietly.

Wordlessly they nodded, watching the sun set quietly over the dunes.