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Authors note: This is the third part of a short story series, the first
part being That
Fall Day, followed by End
of the World.
The world stretches on longer than we know, but also
stops shorter than what we could possibly expect it to. Boundless fields and
cramping corner comprise all of the world as we know and see it.
The world, at that time, seemed to expand before
Tahoshi in a blossoming mystery of confusion and twists, each of his pounding
paws mirroring the thumping of his excitable heart that simply could not rest.
The past events had become far too confusing and overwhelming, but Tahoshi didn't
consciously mind it for, if anything, the swelling whiteness inside his mind,
which clouded his thoughts and future, was an exhilarating feel, one that he
had not felt in a very long time and relished the return of.
The Lupe's mind suddenly snapped back into the
present as the symmetrical valley gave way to the budding forest before him.
The colors still bloomed with their beautiful abundance of fall, but their color
was reduced now, far less fiery and glowing than it was before. Even now, he
couldn't hear the tranquil wind in the grove, inviting him along on his journey.
He was sorely on his own now, and rather for perhaps the first time in his life
it made a bit of the fur on his back arch up in fear.
"The beginning of the world," Tahoshi mused,
looking at the forest with clear apprehension. He feared for what he may find
in the second venture inside these woods. After all, a simple walk into these
woods unearthed a sinister plot that Tahoshi perhaps thought nothing of, and
a simple trip in the hills earned him a threat from the Faerie Queen herself.
Tahoshi looked secretly over his shoulder, wondering if perhaps he would find
Sloth in the forest having a tea luncheon with Hubrid Nox.
"There’s no time to stand here and dawdle about,"
Tahoshi asserted to himself, noting that he was still standing outside the forest.
He gave himself a deep heave of breath and plowed through the curtain of fall
leaves cascading down to the ground. Quickly he raced through the forest, not
a sound echoing from the woods that sat silent and still about him. He tried
to recall through his memory the day that he came there, but it was so blurry
and false he couldn't remember which was real and what was simply his mind running
away with things.
"It was a left—no right.. .or maybe a left. That
tree, I've seen it..." he muttered erratically whilst running beneath the obscured
sky, his thoughts flying by him as fast as the trees beside him. His mind seemed
to simply work without him commanding it to, though he did not think that if
he tried to control it would obey him.
Suddenly, he stopped in front of a bush, skidding
sharply as his face rested next to the leaves. His mind took a few seconds to
realize what exactly led him to stop, that is until he recognized the treaded
patterns on the dusty ground, which were identical to that of a Lupe’s. Tahoshi
looked at his own paw in a quizzical manner, silently placed it on top of the
already trampled mark, creating a perfect match.
"I've been here," he decided, looking about for
another track. He peered through the bush before him, his brain instantly matching
it with the Faeries from before. He could almost see them, specters of the mind,
sitting there, their conversation existing only as ghosts of the past, and nothing
more.
However, the scene was different than last time,
even with the absences of the faeries. Tahoshi slowly traveled up to see the
grass which in one section was completely dead, as if it was charred into oblivion.
His nose wrinkled in disgust while he sniffed it, an odd fume raising in his
mind causing him to chock back images of sadness and despair.
"A Dark Faerie," he gagged, still trying to shake
off the images beforehand. He scowled a bit at the burned section, until his
eyes were caught but the shimmering ground adjacent to it.
If that was where the Dark Faerie had stood,
Tahoshi instantly recognized that this must have been where the Light Faerie
was. The grass instantly grew over the Dark Faerie’s shadow, countering it to
produce such fertility in the ground that golden blossoms sprung up from the
ground.
"Is this the mark of a Faerie?" Tahoshi wondered
aloud as he gently he pulled the flower out of the ground. His heart gave a
pang as he felt regret for having to end the life of the beautiful flower while
he deeply inhaled the simple scent of the flower, his nostrils clearing from
the putrid smell of the Dark Faerie and gently flooding with a gentle scent.
He couldn’t place his finger on it, but something in the simplistic smell put
his mind in a state of relaxed serenity.
"This must be hers," Tahoshi mused as he stared
at the flowers pensively. "A mark of the Faerie and yet... only powerful Faeries..."
he said, looking at them in confusion. He had read a book a few days ago about
Faeries, allowing it almost to become his handbook for life in the past few
days. He read that some Faeries, depending on their rank, power, or element,
could leave traces behind identifying who they were…
But these signs did not seem to be intentional,
they appeared purely to be unintentional, rather like a fingerprint. Tahoshi
felt a big revealed that they had left such an obvious clue, but what exactly
the clue could do for him, he did not know...
"I dunno about this stuff," Tahoshi said, resting
his paw over his weary eyes. "Faeries, plots, this is so over my head. Gimmie
a cold mountain any day to these Faerie politics!" he mumbled angrily. He was
so lost, so close to a clue, and yet so confused and not sure about anything.
What was he to do? He couldn't decipher any of these things… however... someone
else could...
***
It was a stark contract, Tahoshi noticed, from the two places. It was almost
like an alien world to him as he stepped back into the hustle and bustle of
Neopia Central. Children cried, petpets squeaked, squawked and drooled, disgusting
Tahoshi to no end. He didn't want to be here, he wanted to be with the Faerie,
to help her. She needed some sort of help, or and if not for her, than for him!
For his answers that he needed...
The pets before him indicated to him that his
goal was close, but he hated looking at them. He always detested passing the
line of poor pets before him, mere mongrels in their most pathetic state. Disheveled,
sad, and in some cases simply out of their minds, Tahoshi tried desperately
not to make eye contact with them while his paws thudded on the ground towards
the giant cauldron-like-building where the pets were entering.
"Get outta the way!" he snapped roughly shoving
aside a hungry looking Kacheek into an emaciated Grarrl. The two pets (as well
as many others in the line) shot Tahoshi a look of pure loathing, but he didn't
care, there were other things at stake besides their hunger.
The aroma wafted into his nose, washing away
the remainder of the light Faerie’s sent. He was sorry to have it disappear.
Ginger, pepper, salt, meats, everything that could possibly be wanted or desired
in a soup was being mixed about here, dished out from the magical pot of the
Soup Faerie, who stood before him.
"Oh, back for second helping again, Mindy?" the
Soup Faerie giggled lightly, looking down at a very gray Zafara who nodded vigorously.
The soup splashed gluttonously into the bowl, overflowing from the sides and
splashing on her fur. The pet did not even offer a thank you as it dashed away
to happily indulge on it's spoils.
"TAHOSHI!" An electric blue paw obstructed Tahoshi's
view as the Lupe’s brother, Harri, latched his arms around the Christmas Lupe’s
neck in a happy, and particularly annoying, embrace.
"You came to help! I didn't know that you—" Harri's
cries were quickly stifled as Tahoshi roughly wrenched away from the electric
Gelert’s grasp, positioning himself in front of the Soup Faerie.
"Tahoshi? Good of you to come! Have you come
here to help out?" The Soup Faerie smiled brightly, her eyes shimmering with
the hope and promise of a better tomorrow. It simply sickened Tahoshi.
"No," he said in a hollow voice.
"Here for some lunch?"
"No."
"Hrm, well how about you think about it while
I fix up some soup for these nice pets!"
"No, we need to talk, now."
"Tahoshi dear, I know that you want to talk but
I—"
"I SAID NOW!" the Lupe roared kicking the pot
in anger. He did not know what he was doing, but did it matter? Not to him at
least. The black cauldron gave an ominous moan and crashed over its side, the
thick contents of the soup spilling out in a shower of meat and potatoes.
"Back room," he snarled, his tail pointed high
in the air while he daintily skipped over the flood of soup in the room. The
pets in stared in shock at the scene, for no one had ever done such a thing
for the Soup Faerie. It was atrocious, horrible, unspeakable! Some mummers broke
out left and right, while others ran out of the room to spread the news about.
The Soup Faerie looked down at her soup in sadness,
writing her hands in a nervous state, but the soup was not her concern. She
looked at the pets and offered a silent ‘I'll be right back’ before disappearing
into the room followed closely by Harri.
Upon the scrubbed wooden table Tahoshi laid out
his items, the flower and the grass. The items were meaningless to Harri, but
the Soup Faerie stared at them with an uneasy glance.
"Tahoshi... I—I know what you want, but Fyora…"
"Fyora can--" Tahoshi cut off his words when
he caught the eye of Harri, trying not to anger the Gelert any more than he
was. "Look, can you just tell me anything about these faeries? These things
are magical finger prints, and I want answers! I know you can give them to me!
I'm tired of staying up, and I want an—"
"But I cannot! You don’t know what I could face!"
the Soup Faerie cried in fear, frightfully clutching at her blue apron as if
trying to hold back tears. Harri looked at the Soup Faerie, his heart gently
snapping in two at his friend’s tears.
"Tahoshi, leave her alone, please?" Harri asked
gently, receiving only a cold glare from his brother and then shunned into indifference.
"Yeah? And you know what, Fyora threatened me,
too… but I don't care. I have to know who she was! Now TELL ME!" He snarled,
but the Soup Faerie continue to shake her head back and forth viciously.
"LEAVE HER ALONE TAHOSHI! SHE DOESN'T WANNA SAY!"
Harri yelled, the fur on his back standing on end.
"I DIDN'T ASK YOUR OPINION!" Tahoshi snarled,
crashing his paw into the table so forcefully that it came out the other end.
The two brothers stared at each other, unsure which was feeling more passion
and detest for the other, but it did not matter, they were no longer brothers
in each other’s eyes...
"...If-if I help you, will you not interfere?
I need an answer... and then I'll tell you what I can," the Soup Faerie sobbed.
Tahoshi's bulbous eyes fixed on the Faerie's red eyes as he gave a curt nod.
He never thought that he would be able to lie
to a Faerie and get away with it.
Gently, the Soup Faerie pushed up her pink sleeves
and took the golden flower. She seemed to study it with bored amusement for
a long time, before gently blowing on it with a gentle breath. As she did a
shower of sparkles of gold flew up into the air and over the Soup Faerie. Tahoshi
could decipher nothing of interest from this, however to the Soup Faerie this
was of the greatest of importance as she stared up at the sparkles with a knowing
eye.
“Trenglia, they say… they say her name is Trenglia.
Her order, it’s light, that much I know for sure,” the Soup Faerie mumbled mindlessly.
Tahoshi was not sure if she was telling him this, or if she was saying it as
some sort of subconscious reflex, but he listened with interest at ever word
which she uttered. Beyond those words she said nothing else as the sparkles
faded into oblivion and the Soup Faerie’s gaze fixed back upon the Lupe.
“I cannot — I cannot say anything. No, it’s not
that I will not,” she explained as Tahoshi opened his mouth, “it is just that,
I cannot, I’m incapable of doing so…”
“Why?” Tahoshi asked, his curiosity rising quickly
to the top. “Her heart, it’s clouded, everything about her is clouded and… it’s
so hard to see through the cloud. I hope... I hope you can forgive me,” she
said sadly looking down at the ground. Tahoshi knew that this was crushing the
Soup Faerie’s gentle heart, but he had to have answers. He couldn’t allow her
to stop so quickly, and perhaps for a few more seconds of her pain he could
have answers.
“What about the Dark Faerie?” Tahoshi asked.
The Soup Faerie brushed a few rouge stands of hair out of her eyes, slowly reaching
for the grass. Her graceful fingertips had barley even touched their smoldering
surface when she wrenched back fearfully, her eyes contracted with a complete
and absolute fear.
Harri jumped off his stool sending it crashing
to the ground as he rushed to the quivering Faerie’s side. She barley noticed
the Gelert as she stared at the grass in horror.
“No, I will not touch it. She’ll know and she’ll
come! She knows about you, but I cannot let her know about me! I cannot, I will
not!” The Faerie cried in a frantic manner before rushing from the room without
another word or even excusing herself. Tahoshi watched after the Soup Faerie,
hurrying to her side as well, however the electric Gelert had beaten him to
the door. His eyes narrowed into a look of compete and uttering loathing, causing
his brother to stop dead in his tracks.
“Get out of here, Tahoshi. Go home… you’re not
wanted here...” Harri hissed before turning his beautiful blue eyes to the room
where the Soup Faerie had barricaded herself. Tahoshi’s tail rested sadly on
the ground as he stood in a dumbfounded manner. Never, never in his entire life
had he ever heard an ill word or ill thought come out of Harri’s mouth. Though
he had repeatedly called the Gelert many things and caused him a great deal
of pain, never before had Harri done anything except happily smile through it
all. The Gelert was the sun after the rain, you always knew it would be there
even after the worst storm, smiling down upon you… never scolding you for your
ways…
And yet here was Tahoshi’s storm, but the sun
would never come out again, and even if it did, it would never shine with the
radiance on him again…
***
The grass beneath his paws crunched loudly, dead and brown, as he trudged
over it. A cold wind mercilessly sliced through his red jacket, but Tahoshi
didn’t care, nothing much seemed to matter…
The Christmas Lupe looked up as his home silently
came into view with two shadows sitting on the front lawn, hurriedly talking
to one another. Harri was bent low towards their sister’s mutated floppy grey
ear, whispering into it nervously. His voice stopped once he caught sight of
Tahoshi, shooting him a look of hatred and retreating into the house without
another word. It didn’t take Tahoshi three guesses to know what in the world
they were discussing.
Kuraiiro didn’t voice anything as the Lupe passed
by her, choosing simply to stare at an interesting bush in the opposite direction.
He paused for a second; thinking perhaps to open his mouth and say something,
yet the words never came out of his mouth. As Tahoshi entered the room the only
thing he noticed was a pair of blue eyes glowering at him from the pink armchair
in the living room.
“…Look… Harri I—” Tahoshi’s words were lost as a
threatening growl erupted from the Gelert’s throat. The Lupe focused his eyes
ahead and continued to walk towards his room.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, no one
was supposed to get hurt. He mulled these thoughts over that night, too
wired to sleep, but to dour to do much of anything else. Tahoshi did not know
when, or even if, he fell asleep, his dream seeming to mirror that of his awakened
state, a confusing mass of darkness and sorrow…
But all through his dreams, Tahoshi never felt
as if he was never entirely alone, and when he awoke… he knew why…
The End
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