NOVEL NEXT B 3 C 17: To Speak In Colors
B 3 C 17: To Speak In Colors
Thankfully after three days of meditation in solitude, more or less, my legs are alright to walk on. They’d shatter in an instant if I tried to use any remotely powerful JT movement on them currently though. At least everything is just hairline fractures across contiguous bones now instead of broken bone bits floating near one another in approximately the right places. I’m always so glad that the world in my memories is fake. Imagine taking months just to heal from where I’m at right now, never mind possibly never healing from my previous injuries. I wonder if the humans recover from injuries as quickly as the rest of us? Well, I know they don’t, I’ve seen their military drills and accidental injuries. Maybe my memories are of some human’s life on another continent. Could there be a computer age society just across the seas?
Anyway, it seems like Lil has made some progress on at least deciphering some of what the chameleon people try to communicate to them. So the first step is practicing with Lil near a friendly chameleon, until I can at least communicate some basics.
The practice seems to be going well, and the chameleon sitting with us seems to be giving us positive feedback. I feel like they should be able to read and write, what with them having worshiped over a book, but none respond to my attempts to communicate in writing. Okay, now that I know some basic expressions, I can ask them to teach me more on my own.
Ugh, how often does trying to ask a simple question normally result in one’s face hurting? It’s a constant state of being for me at the moment. I’m not used to exerting minor control over frequencies of muscle vibration to trick sections of my face into flipping their iridophores or squeeze their chromatophores. This is worse than mandibular joint pain when my jaw is locked, and worse, it’s my entire draconic face.
They’ve never had to teach anyone before. I don’t think anyone else in the world possessed the ability to communicate in their fashion. At least no one who didn’t already spawn with the memories available of their entire vocabulary.
Thankfully they don’t mind Lil and me wandering in and out of town, and sleeping nearby. Lil’s celebrity status is slowly dying down since Lil can’t do much in the way of returning their communication or praise. I’m scared to ask Lil to bring out that tome to see if there are any more secrets buried within.
I am able to ask about the shrine though, apparently the depictions on the plaques are four gods of elements. Land, Sea, Sky and Fire. I’m fairly certain we’ve met the sea god or gods. I’m not sure which is more frightening, if all those loops belong to a single serpent the size of a continent, or if there are just that many mountain sized serpents. I wonder if the phoenix is a god of sky or fire? For some reason, I don’t think I’d have survived even a single pass by a fire god’s attacks. Similarly, I doubt the roc was a sky god, impressive though they were. The chameleon people have some sort of superstition, or legend about the gods meeting. The ringing of the bell is to keep them driven apart. Something about if the four gods meet, a great calamity will befall the continent, maybe the world. Or will bring about an apocalypse. It’s really hard to determine esoteric concepts from facial coloration manipulation. They both seem catastrophically bad, so I have no intention of getting in the way of their practices. If they were sacrificing people, it’d be a different story, but ringing a bell seems pretty harmless.
Alright, it has been days, maybe weeks of hanging out with the chameleon people, none of them have names in a way I could express, just patterns of colors used to get one another’s attention. I’m confident I can safely ask to speak with a leader capable of making decisions. This has been a mentally exhausting experience, and all I want from this entire stay is to make sure that they don’t have a problem with our people moving east along a route to their north. We met Teuila and Luni once a few miles north of their city to catch up, apparently the majority of the contingent is now several days march northwest, and approaching Point A rapidly, which is too close to the chameleon people’s village for my liking.
Apparently Linti is rarely even with the camp, she seems to make trips to The Hollow to stock up on insect meat and parts for her family. Luni loaned her one of the magical bags, the one that isn’t attached to the inside of her harp, and Lu now has the tattoo beneath the fur on her left arm. The amount of hunting that Linti is capable of, and the quantity of supplies she can bring in with a magical bag is enormous. Linti distributes it only to her family, but they share with mine. Both directly with the Shellcrackers, and also the hundreds of other folk in our sub party.
As I’d hoped, Magnus and Spice seem to be hitting it off, they’re seen hanging out alone, with Sugar hovering protectively nearby on occasion. I’m a little bit afraid that Sugar might break him if she feels threatened. Breaking things is her favorite activity after all.
Te lets me know that several hundred critterkin that didn’t join the SCRAP have taken off on their own to try to make their own settlement far to the southwest. They can’t forgive the humans, and aren’t willing to risk being near humans even with offers of protection. They’re perfectly within their right to be wary and not to trust us to be able to protect everyone. Still, I’d never gotten an exact census of how many individuals hatched, but it seems like we only have about half of the critterkin in our party. Half of us willing to give humans a chance to prove themselves able to coexist. About as good as I could hope for I suppose.
Now that they’ve led Lil and me into one of the humble domiciles, I’m meeting with someone I haven’t ever seen partake in the bell ceremony. They seem to be excused due to being an elder. We exchange pleasantries as I try to work my way towards the topic I most desire covering. Similar to everyone else in the world, I can’t really suss out much of a history beyond what I’ve witnessed. The world is in this constant state of non-decay, but also non-progress.
After enough hours to make my face hurt in agonizing new ways, I finally ask the elder if it would be okay to discuss the path of my family. I indicate that it’s a large family, several times larger than their entire village, but that we don’t want any trouble. We’re simply wandering in search of a new place that’s safe to settle. Before they make any decisions, I do my best to convey the loss of my home to the volcano, the struggle against the lava that miraculously ended with only few deaths.
I sigh sadly. Two of the only deaths that night were Sal and Har, they didn’t need to die, I wasn’t in mortal danger. My panic got them killed. My heart aches at the memory as an icy grip plunges into my center. It claws its way around the inside of my torso, but everywhere it leaves behind it a burning sensation of fury and fire, disappointment and dismay. I was at immediate fault, but there were greater forces at play overall. The tightness in my chest threatens to implode my torso until I suddenly realize I haven’t been breathing and reactively gulp down a ragged breath through an unuttered sob.
The chameleon elder says something, and Lil suddenly exclaims, “You can talk!?”
The placid, stunned look on my face as I slowly blink must speak volumes. I can’t even bring myself to be confused or upset. Lil must pass the elder an invite, because we’re greeted by a host of messages indicating many individuals joining a subparty under Lil. I sigh with only the mildest hint of exasperation.
The elder replies, “Yes, but your friend seemed so intent, we wanted to see just how far they were willing to go to ally within our culture. The greater the respect shown us, the less we know we have to fear. You have gone to great lengths. You and yours have nothing to fear from we and ours. You will however need to prove yourself in a temple beneath the center of Naga society before you can secure their peace. You will be lucky if they don’t kill you on sight as strangers. It would be best if none see you until after you return from below their secret temple.”
I don’t even have the energy to be further exasperated, bewildered, or stunned by this new revelation. Of course I have to perform espionage in hostile territory again. Of course some subterranean temple is involved again, like the depths of the pyramid near the beavers. Of course they’ll be trying to kill me, while I have to do my best to not kill any of them, while staying alive, so that when I try to broker peace, they won’t just decline me for being a murderer. I draw another ragged breath and heave a hefty sigh. I’m tempted to just stop wearing reptile skin and fight my way through the naga ranks. It’s so much easier to kill people than to not.
“Are you able to give me any further directions? Also, are you comfortable with the humans passing nearby? Or maybe not comfortable, but willing to let them be if I can keep them out of your hair? Figuratively.” I chuckle, chagrined at my own faux pas. Keeping people out of reptiles’ hair, good one Reggie you goon. Although Lil and I do have hair in several of our forms, including my reptile form.
The elder responds, “Hm? Oh yes, if you head west to the Miracle Oak, then south, you may stand a chance at a straight shot to the temple. You will have to enter their above-ground temple, and find its secret entrance to the underground temple within. I’m not even certain how I know of its existence, the knowledge is just there. As for the rest, we are passive unless attacked. We could certainly cause trouble if angered, but against these forces alone I’m surprised you don’t simply threaten your way to peace. You say you have even more humans who are further dangerous still. If you choose to tread the path of peace, your course is plotted to the temple beneath the soil. I know not its contents, only that it is there.”
Ah, yes, wonderful, let’s go on a deadly mission trusting mysteriously there information. I shouldn’t be snarky, the elder has been kind. I flash gratitude patterns at the elder, and begin to take my leave. My legs feel in pretty much full working order at this point, I’m ready to get out of here.
Lil leaps at the elder to nuzzle them, surprising the elder who pats my little dragon buddy in return. I purse and chew on my scaled lips trying not to show my amusement. I’ve got a stealth skill, I’m going to see if I can get my chromatophores to passively aid my stealth as I march towards this Miracle Oak.
Lil hops along after me, and we march westward in silence as I try different methods of engaging my stealth skill as an activated ability. Eventually Lil remarks that I’ve done it, or done something. Apparently I appear as a translucent shimmer, somewhat obfuscating whatever’s behind me from the viewer, it’s a bit obvious when you know what to look for. Still, if I jet from far beyond their sentries’ ranges while I’ve got this stealth mode engaged, I should be able to make it into their temple. Then I should be able to carefully sneak along its halls attempting to secure a path to whatever lower level leads into a secret subtemple.
It’s physically and mana exhausting to engage stealth in this fashion, so I’ll keep it up as long as possible. Then I’ll rest at the Miracle Oak, and not engage it again til we’re pretty sure we’re within Naga territory. Lil will use their new shapeshifting to shrink down their base spheriform as small as they can, and hide in the crook of one of my arms, or wings.
As if out of nowhere, a mighty tree that’s dozens of times the girth and height of all other trees appears before us. How could we miss this!? This should be visible all the way from Fire Biome! The ancient flora itself is massive trees that are at least thirty meters tall at the very minimum, probably sixty or so, and this one is easily several dozen times that height.
Since I’m floored, I fall back, allowing myself to be actually floored as I sit with a whumpf, tumbling back slightly. The tree suddenly disappears. I’m not exactly brilliant but I think I’ve put two and two together already. I lift myself back into a seated position, and move my face back and forth where I lost sight of the tree. Sure enough, after crossing some arbitrary imaginary line, on the inside, the tree is visible, on the outside, it simply appears to be a slightly canopied clearing.
I wonder how many of these exist in our world, on our continent. Is this the only one? It’s definitely a miracle regardless. Miracle Oak indeed. It should also be a fairly safe place to rest between many of its surface-arcing roots. My heart races as I approach what must be the most magnificent plant in all creation. It feels like there’s something missing. It’s not exactly yggdrasil pouring forth dew of immortality, or myrrh. It doesn’t feel like it contains portals to other realms. Yet it feels massively, uniquely important in ways I can’t comprehend or fathom at the moment. I suppose one day maybe these weird broken memories might actually come in handy. If I end up needing to save this tree or something like that.
Crap, we can’t risk resting here, if Mat’s following my soul trail, letting this tree get caught in the crossfire would be disastrous. Okay, so I double back and make sure that it looks like I took a sharp left, rather than having walked to a spot and suddenly no longer leaving aura. Hopefully if he’s following my trail at some point, he turns left before making it past the camouflage barrier.
I query my draconic pal, “I guess we’d better make another dugout, right Lil?”
Lil responds with their usual verve, “Sure thing Pal! Maybe you’ll tell me another story!”
Chuckling, we make camp one more time before a ridiculously dangerous segment of our journey begins. We tell the gals not to visit and not to worry about us for a while if we’re out of touch for a couple of days, since we’ll be doing a stealth mission. Teuila hems and haws but agrees, Luni is oddly silent. She knows something we’re about to face, I can sense it.