Day 3
"Wait!" Jon exclaimed from a dead sleep, "I want Ice cream too!"
"We asked you and you said no," Elisheva said, "but don't worry, I scooped you a bowl."
"Oh, I don't remember that, I must have triggered my, 'let me sleep longer,' morning defense mechanism, oops." Everyone enjoyed their morning ice cream which Elisheva had made herself, from scratch; from salt found in her special handbag, milk squeezed from the teat of a mountain goat, ice found floating down the streams that came from the highest peaks of Yosemite, and sugar distilled from boiling an orange away. It wasn't long before they all cleared their breakfast and headed out to find Jordan, who was still under a curse leaving him frozen all except for his vocal chords.
"Well it does seem to have cleared up since last night's rain," Philip said with a sudden switch to an Englsih accent, "there's not a cloud in the sky." Nobody questioned the change. They scaled the base of the rock wall that the cave was part of, hoping to God no rocks broke from the mountain to tumble their way.
A large brown movement caught the corner of Jon's eye. He turned to look, but saw nothing, and said nothing; the others would call him crazy, no doubt. Large prancing footsteps were heard from behind them. All three turned around, still nothing. Jon then decided it might be beneficial to bring up the brown blur he thought to be a bear, as a precaution, but the others just called him crazy.
"You should listen to him," a deep growling voice tried to emit a condescending feeling, but
the wheezing and the nasaly sound that came with the voice made you feel a sort of pity instead, "there could very well be a bear in this forest."
Their backs were to the sheer rock wall, and a giant grizzly bear completed their, 'rock and a hard place,' scenario they now found themselves in. None of them said another word, they stood there, staring at the bear.
"Well," said the giant beast, nearly coughing the sentence out with a sense of snobbiness, "with my heightened sense of smell, I know you had ice cream this morning," the three continued their silence, "I'm pretty sure that means I'll be eating all three of you today because you'll all be extra sweet!"
Philip turned around, without seeming alarmed at all by the bear, to begin studying the wall.
"Ok, uhh, just... don't... hurt me..." Jon said, followed by a hard gulp.
"Look here," Philip's accent now Australian, "we could climb the wall, the bear could never make it up." Immediately the three turned around and saw the small rocks sticking out from the cliffside that Philip had noticed. They were soon out from the bear's reach, but the monster sat waiting under them, "looks like we're climbing to the top then, eh mate?" the accent persisted. One protruding rock and foothold at a time, they began to make their way up the wall, vowing silently to themselves never too look down.
What a rough weekend, though Grant, waking up in the dirt with a cloudy memory for the second night in a row. He quickly found his footing, almost too quickly, and began to follow the foot steps leftover from the night before. Stepping first with his back pair of legs, and working through all eight pairs, from back to front, before his back pair took another step. This all came so naturally to him that he didn't seem to notice the extra pairs until he stopped and nearly tripped over one of his own feet. Looking back he saw the other eight pairs of legs sticking out from behind him. The biggest mystery to his second overnight transformation was how his pants also grew eight extra pairs of legs to clothe his new body parts.
It must have been the centipede. Thinking back, Grant recalled a bug with a hundred legs digging into and under his skin. Grant continued on, following the foot steps, and hoping to pick up the scent of the pretzels. While he walked he spent the time thinking about what he could call his new self. Part jackalope, part centipede, and part Grant. Centigrope? No, funny, but not cool enough. Jackipedrant? Lame. Grentipelope? He didn't think of a name he wanted to keep, not yet anyways. He continued to walk, seeing the signs of their trailer growing stronger.
"It's you," Grant whispered when he saw the familiar face of a man standing in the road with a staff in hand. Grant's many feet brought him over to the man and standing behind him, whispered into his ear, "hello."
The standing man stood motionless, "oh, you scared me. Hi!"
"Interesting," said Grant, still behind the other man's view, "I tried to creep you out, but you seem.....?"
"Excited? Happy? Inviting? Oh I've been here all night, alone in the rain, I'm just looking for someone to talk to. At least until my friends show up."
"Your friends?" Grant moved to the front of the staff holding man, keeping close. His back legs were still behind, leaving his back eight legs curving around Jordan, "where did your friends go?"
"I guess to a cave, with a champagne bottle, a magical one that can--"
"Magical cave!?" Grant interrupted him, "I know where that is thanks!" and Grant took off behind him.
He ignored the man's, "wait," and was too far away to hear when he said, "you can just wait here for them to come back, with, me..." and Jordan stood waiting, once again alone.
It seemed to be hours before they reached the top, everyone's arms a solid limp jello... Or something like that.
"Oh wow," for some reason, everyone heard it before they saw it, "look what fell into our laps."
"I know," another voice replied, equally as deep and raspy, "Lucky for us."
"Well," the monster took a step towards them as it inhaled a powerful snorting grunt, "You'll either come with us, or fall off the cliff."
The three of them, now with their back to a hundred foot fall to the previous bear, found themselves cornered between death and two bears both eager for a meal.
"Wait!" yelled Elisheva, halting their movement towards them, "you do intend to eat us do you?"
"Why," The words came slow, and there was a clear sound of mucus building in the throat, "yes we do."
"Shall we strike a deal then? It'll be in both our favors," Elisheva said, remembering the bear before.
The grizzly thought for a moment, then replied, "What could you possibly offer me?"
"Well," Elisheva started, "I have something in bag that everybody likes, I'm assuming you like egg salad sandwiches."
The bear nodded, "go on."
"Let us eat them, as a last meal. If you could grant us this one last pleasure before our lives end," Elisheva then tried to cater to the bears, remembering how the other wanted the ice cream, "then, when you eat us, we'll be twice as delicious! Imagine, egg salad sandwich flavored humans. What a wonderful treat that would be wouldn't it?"
The bear sat thinking, then it moved back to where the other was standing and they whispered. The three adventurers could only hear snorts and grunts until finally they spoke: "Ok, we'll stand here, there is no escape. Try to enjoy your last meal as much as we'll enjoy you!"
"Oh," Elisheva gave out a fake laugh, "impossible m'lords," the bears smiled. Elisheva turned around and the three of them sat in a triangle next to the cliff facing each other. She pulled the loaf of sandwiches out from her bag of magical wonders, and with it a phial of red powder, lightly pouring it onto the sandwiches.
"Paprika?" asked Jon.
"Prepare to fly," she said.
And with no other explanation, they all ate their sandwiches.
"Oh," Jon, seated, fell to his hands, "one of the only bones I remember from anatomy, and for some reason it hurts."
The others shortly brought their hands to the floor as well, "Don't worry," said Elisheva, "it's normal, well, the reaction is, the paprika was not."
"What was in the paprika?"
"Nothing was in it," she answered, gasping as the pressure in her shoulder blades grew "the spice was magically enchanted itself."
"With what?" Jon asked, then just like his hands fell seconds sooner than the others, wings shot out from his scapulas, three white small feathers with black stems fell to the ground.
"Jump!" Elisheva demanded, "these wings practically fly themselves," then she jumped, shortly followed by Philip.
Jon looked back at the wide eyed bears, then glanced down the side of the cliff. The great distance down seemed to rise up and punch into his chest as he slid from the cliffside, losing his breath to fear. His heart seemed to be testing his rib cage. The bears had a sudden dash towards him, roaring, causing Jon to simply jump away from the more immediate of the two fears, and into the open air. Both of Jon's hands grabbed the opposite arm, and his new wings spread out like a parachute, keeping him seemingly weightless for a few moments before his wings began to lose balance on the air, then he started to fall. Jon loosened his arms, and his wings straightened, cutting through the air rather than grabbing it, and as his slice of wind got more horizontal, so did his fall. Soon, he found himself falling completely horizontally and eventually flying.
"You're doing it! I knew you could," yelled Elisheva through the whistle the wind made past their ears, "now, lets find Jordan, the wings won't last for long."
It wasn't hard to spot Jordan through the clouds and trees, and though they had little time left before the wings disappeared, the three of them hesitated to return to the ground, for there is nothing quite like flying through the clouds. As their wings began to blink in and out of existence, they decided to head for the ground, and as they got closer the speed of the blinks became increasingly faster until the time between the blinks faded into seeing the wings and what's behind them, in much the way a ceiling fan looks when turned on high. Their feet lightly touched the ground and the transparency of the wings increased until after a few seconds they were gone.
"Ok Jordan," said Elisheva, with the champagne bottle in hand "I'm about to crash this over your head, are you ready?"
"Oh please do!" exclaimed Jordan, "I can't stand this."
The crashing commenced, the broken glass didn't seem to hurt Jordan. The bubbly wine soaked Jordan and the staff, and he continued to stand there like a statue, until the liquid looked as if it sizzled on his clothes and skin and the staff, gradually disappearing and leaving Jordan dry. As soon as the last of it bubbled away Jordan fell to the ground, dropping the staff and raising his arms above his head (well, beside his head really, but if he was standing rather than laying down it would be above), and his legs stuck straight out as well.
"Oh yeah!" he once again yelled, "this feels pretty good."
"Is the staff still cursed?" asked Jon, hunching over it.
"It should be fine," Philip answered, waving his hand it's way as if it were completely unimportant. Jon hesitantly hovered his hand over the staff, then decided not to grab it and stood up. Philip waved his hand back at it, but this time kept it up rather than dropping it, and flames flew from his palm like a squirt bottle sprays stuff. The flames flew far enough it burn the broken staff but concentrated enough to leave Jon unharmed even before he jumped back. The fire stopped and where the staff had laid, were now two grey sticks of ash.
"Wait a second!" Everyone sensed anger in her voice, "you know magic? You knew magic this whole time and did nothing about the bears!?"
"You saw bears?" Jordan's question immediately followed.
"Hold on!" Elisheva snapped at him, then looked at Philip, "Why didn't you flame the bears!?"
"Well," Philip calmly wiggled his glasses as he cleared his throat, "quite simply, I didn't have my magic before, the staff had absorbed all of it. You see, every wizard has a staff of their own. The staff, magical itself, works with his or her master, and together they heighten each other's powers. The two of them lend their own powers to the others, and by learning each other's strengths and weaknesses, both grow. I once had a staff, but it abandoned me for another master, leaving me to find a new one. Instead of looking, I began to craft my own from a fallen branch off a giant redwood.
"There were two things I didn't consider, the power of such an old and large tree, and second, I didn't know that a fallen branch from a tree contains some sort of evil that the tree no longer wanted. In this case, it was greed. I did all I knew how to do to make the most exceptional staff I could. Once I started using it, and we started exchanging our powers, I soon found out the staff had the power to bend the will of another. It was half dead when I found it, and it's powers were drained; it only retained half of it's power, which was altering the will of another; or simply, mind control. This process could no longer be completed because I chose a dying branch.
"So this staff, unable to bend my will and use my powers, altered my ability to move; or simply, stopped my brain from controlling myself. I was stuck, and although I resisted, and never meant to surrender any of my powers over to it, over the course of the next 10,000 years, it eventually got a hold and drained all of my power, every last bit. Knowing I would find a way to break the curse, it kept me under it's hold. Being half dead when I made it, it fully died many thousands of years ago and in the way a dead man's arm will hold it's grasp when cut off, the staff had held me under it's will for so long that it's natural being then held the will of anyone touching it, that is, until we broke that curse. And along with breaking the staff's power, my powers soon found their way back to me, allowing me to exact my revenge." Philip went silent for a few moments.
"Oh," Elisheva soon broke that silence, "well sorry."
"Philip," Jordan now stood, standing, "I've never seen a wizard that powerful, even with a great staff in hand, how were you able to shoot such powerful magic back there? I've never seen a thing quite like it."
"10,000 years is a long time," he answered, "there are few who have ever had such time to... What's the best word for it? Meditate? Or contemplate? Something along those lines. I've had much time to think, and thinking is the biggest part of magic, my friend."
The group began to walk toward the direction of the buffalo city they were originally heading for, talking with Philip further about the part of his past he had kept secret before. Jordan, at some point began to complain about the night he spent in the rain, alone, out in the open, and about the centipede human with white fur about him. This alarmed everybody, but none knew how to deal with this information and decided pushing forwards and forgetting it would be the best choice. Though in the backs of their minds, they did recall the unpleasant encounter with the sniffing man from the day before.
Suddenly, a squishing noise came from Jordan's foot, and all looked down to see Jordan standing in what some would consider a heaping pile of buffalo droppings. Jordan complained further about how this was the most horrible adventure ever, so everyone agreed that Jordan deserved the rest of the yogurt covered pretzels, especially since it was the last of the sweet food. All the ice cream had been eaten, which was another complaint of Jordan's.
A sniffing noise was heard, ever so faintly by Jon, who passed it over as the wind. Jordan munched out on the pretzels, pulling one after another out more rapidly than was necessary to eat them. The sniffing noise got louder and louder, until suddenly, just as Jon recognized the noise as sniffing, a loud high pitched scream came from all around them, and the arm of Jordan's that was holding the bag of pretzels, before he realized that something was running his way, was halfway down the centipede man's throat. The furry many legged man opened his mouth wide enough to put it over Jordan's head and around his other arm. Then, he kicked his head back and tossed Jordan down his throat like a pelican would drop a fish. After a quick swallow, the man looked at the others with beastly eyes and let out another high pitched scream.
Philip raised his hand like he did just before he shot the fire from his palm, but Elisheva slapped his hand in a weird sideways high five, "no," she said, "Jordan's in there."
"But-" Philip started but was cut off.
"No!" Elisheva said to Philip, but with her eyes on the monster. With it's many feet, the monster scurried away at high speeds. Elisheva stood at ease and looked back at the other two, "he may still be alive."
"Wait," said Jon, "You don't think that was a--?"
Elisheva finished Jon's suspicion, "Jackalope! I think Jordan is going to be part of that, thing. In which case he may come find us. Philip, do you know any magic that could break someone free from a jackalope?"
"Umm, no, none that I know of."
"I thought you had 10,000 years to learn magic."
"Oh no, that was 10,000 years to imrove my magic, I had no way of learning new spells. I can shoot a fireball like a muvva fuvva, but I wouldn't know where to start learning how to shoot ice rockets."
"Well, there has to be some way, don't flame him if you see him. Ok?" Elisheva asked of Philip.
"What if he tries to eat you too?"
"Umm, ok. Then you can torch him away, but only then ok?"
"Agreed."
The team continued on, knowing that the buffalo poop on the ground meant they were getting ever closer to the city of the buffalo. It wasn't long until they actually came to the city of the buffalo, there was a sign next to the road that read, "Welcome to The City of the Buffalo, Population, Some Buffalo," and there was a broken fence that crossed the road where the sign was.
"Wow," said Jon, "I didn't realize that was the actual name of the city."
They hopped the fence in anticipation of actually meeting a buffalo, but all they saw were abandoned cabins with broken windows, missing walls, and fallen trees lying scattered across the floor in every direction. Jon fell to his knees yelling, "Why!" As Jon was yelling, the others noticed Jon's scream scaring a silvery haired bear cub run from it's rumbling power.
"Follow that baby bear!" Elisheva yelled, the others followed. The three of our heroes were humans, with sweat glands, this allowed them to outrun the bear. exhausted, the bear layed on it's back, showing it's belly.
"Please," it had a little voice, not raspy like the others but clear as a young child's, "Don't hurt me."
"Tell us then," started Elisheva, always the best at questioning strangers, "What happened here, and do you know of the food box?"
"Oh I don't know what happened," said the cub, "and the food box, it's just north of here, past the purple pond and over Harken Hill. The hill is rather flat when it needs to be, you shouldn't have a problem passing over."
"You guys go," said Philip, "I'll stay with the bear. There's something else here, some other source of information he won't tell us. I'll catch up with you."
"How do you know?"
"Magic," Philip said just before reaching down and grabbing the bear's neck. The bear lay frozen, staring in fear into the fierce eyes of Philip, who arched frozen over the bear.
Jon snapped his fingers between the two faces, no movement, "He must be searching it's mind. I guess we should go then," and the two made their way past the purple-green pond, seemingly switching between the two colors but also both colors at the same time. Impossible to describe, you just have to see it. What seemed a daunting hill to climb at a distance seemed to get smaller and smaller as they approached it, until it was almost flat by the time they got to the top of it.
"Oh look," Jon pointed past the hill, "you can see the food box from all the way up here!"
The two of them, excited to have finally reached their destination, ran to the food box as fast as they could. The box was locked, and fashioned into the ground so it could not be taken. They put their ears to the green metal door and heard the faint voice of a young boy singing. It almost sounded familiar, but they could not quite make out the words. The two of them were now more determined than ever to get into the box and save the young boy. There was a padlock that didn't quite fasten the box's door completely shut, and they could fit their skinny arms through the small part of the door they could open.
Elisheva was the first to try, and her arm was just big enough to slide it up to her elbow.
The young boy grabbed Elisheva's hand, and small tear came to Elisheva's left eye when the boy's voice gave a hint of hope in his song.
"We have to save him," she said to Jon.
"What else is in there?" asked Jon, "Are there chips?"
"Probably," Elisheva's voice lightly answered, and immediately Jon pushed Elisheva to the ground and stuck his arm into the box. Jon felt around and found a bag of chips. He popped the bag open to let out the air, and in trying to pull the bag out hastily, crumbled the few bigger chips into many smaller chips.
"Oh," Jon smiled, "I'm ok now, thank you," he walked to a rock not ten feet from the box, sat down and began eating chips.
A wetness began to swell up in the right eye of Elisheva. Her eyes closed, releasing both tears to her cheeks. She got up and leapt to the green box, landing both palms on the door, "I'll get you out yet, little boy!" Elisheva dropped her hands to her lap and looked down at the dirt she found herself sitting in, and whispered to herself, "I'll get you out."
Jon ignored all of it, lost in the trance of the, "Crunch, crunch, crunch," the chips gave him.
Philip, back from the bear, walked so silently Elisheva jumped when he put his hand on her shoulder, "I've got the key," he said. Elisheva turned around to see the key clearly in his hand, and jumped up to hug him.
"Oh thank you!" she said, sniffling away her leftover cry. She took the key and put it in the lock. Nothing happened, "It's not working!" she said.
"Oh, it's definitely the right key, we must be doing something wrong," Philip replied, taking a closer look.
"Try turning it," It was Jordan's voice from behind them. They both turned around.
Jon still sat there, mindlessly eating chips, paying attention to nothing but the crunches so loud to him and so quiet to the rest.
It was Jordan, furry, with two horns, numerous massive legs, and something else, someone else. Philip put his palm up and Jordan raised his hands, "It's me don't worry, turn the key," he nodded at the padlock. Elisheva turned the key and the lock unlocked. The door swung open, and the little boy jumped out holding coffee and ice cream for everybody. They all danced to the little boy's songs that he sang.
Jon stopped eating his chips for a moment and heard the voice of the child.
"You're Chris aren't you?" Jon left his chips on the rock and approached the party, "Chris Garneau. I know you from somewhere, I've heard that song somewhere," the boy continued to dance, as did everyone else.
Jon stood there as the song brought back the memory of the girl from the river, "she was a Naiad!" Jon exclaimed to himself.
"Yes," the boy stopped singing, "the song of the Naiads. They taught it to me when I was very young."
"You seem pretty yo--" Jon stopped himself from finishing his sentence because suddenly when he looked at Chris Garneau, he was now a full grown man. Jon and Elisheva exchanged looks of confusion but didn't say anything. Chris Garneau started to sing again, and everyone, including Jon, began to dance.
After Returning Home
"And do you, Elisheva," said Philip standing between Elisheva and Jordan, who had somehow found himself as one creature combined with the jackalope, Grant who had been eaten by the jackalope, a centipede who had spliced it's DNA into Grant's at some point, and a buffalo who got in the mix from the poop Jordan stepped in. Jon stood behind Elisheva, supporting her. Cameron and Leonda, the hobbits, stood behind Jordan, supporting him.
"Take just the Jordan part of GrantalJordapedeallo, to be you're awfully wedded husband?"
"Oh yes, because to marry just part of a man is an awful wedding indeed."
"I now pronounce you, Mr. and Mrs. Just-the-Jordan-Part-of-Grantallordapedallo, you may kiss the bride." The rest of the minds within the creature receded, leaving just Jordan there to kiss and receive a kiss. As their lips touched, an explosion not of force, but of light blinded all at the wedding, and as the light faded, there stood on the altar Elisheva kissing just Jordan. Looking around, the others could see scattered Grant, a jackalope, and buffalo poop. The centipede was nowhere to be found but the jackalope had ten legs, it ran away. The reception started then and there, and the wedding singer, Chris Garneau, began to sing. Grant stood up from the ground and found that he was still holding the bag Anjelica had given him. Such a large bag, Grant thought to himself, I could fit a whole person in here, what did she want I never found out? Just then, looking at the wedding singer, he figured it out. He slipped the bag over Chris Garneau's head, and down to his feet. He then ran away to Anjelica's tent with the bag over his shoulder. Nobody stopped him.
Later that night, and many nights following, Jon went to the nearest river and listened to the sound of the flowing water. Almost like a static, but soothing, changing, and musical. It cleared his mind even better than the crunch of the chips. He laid there under the stars, listening to the water, listening to the song of the Naiads.
