Si & Jay

     Si and Jay were lost.

     Not actually lost lost, but were confused as to where to go next.

     It had only been three weeks since Siyana (Si), the light faerie, and Jerdana (Jay), the sorceress Aisha, had met while both auditioning to be the Meridell sorcerer. The episode had ended terribly, but from it both had gained a friend and travelling companion.

     The duo had spent the past weeks floating from town to town. Jay had begun this journey as a way to find more work, but this was proving more difficult than it seemed, especially with Si leading their travels. Si, though she began wandering around to find some sort of occupation, was on more of a spiritual journey, and therefore was not the best at listening to Jay’s logical plans for them. Jay had resigned herself to enjoying the past weeks as a mini-vacation of sorts, a reward for her hard work as a sorceress’ apprentice and as a way to nurse her wounds from her most recent job interview catastrophe.

     The two had first travelled to Brightvale on the whim that there were any jobs there; there were not, but they enjoyed the stately surroundings and good literature. They then traversed to Kiko Lake, sunning themselves on the shores and enjoying snorkelling trips. From Kiko Lake, they took a boat to Tyrannia, where they enjoyed concerts and feasted on omelettes of all varieties. They took another boat to Mystery Island, then Krawk Island, back to Brightvale, and then travelled to the Haunted Woods, where they had spent a week.

     Now, Jay and Si had different ideas for their future escapades. The two sat on a fell tree on the outskirts of the Haunted Woods, hunched over Si’s wrinkled map of Neopia, faded and scored from folding.

     “The royalty of Sakhmet and Qasala surely must need a sorceress. I think we should try the Lost Desert next, I’ve always wanted to visit it,” Jay said, poking it with her paw.

     “And,” she added, “It’s so close! It won’t take us too long to get there, maybe five days or so? We have enough provisions for that. It would be perfect.” She nodded her head, her face serious. Jay did not mess around when it came to organization and planning; she would prove a persistent opponent to sway on the topic.

     “Ehhhh,” Si groaned, tilting her head, her golden locks falling to the side. She peered at the map this way, sideways. “I’ve been to the Lost Desert. It’s so hot, and awful to trudge through. We’d have to pack so much water for it. You’d hate it. Plus, the royalty there is … strange. They’re kind of weird about outsiders, let alone about the other neighbouring city. I don’t think it’d work.”

     “Have you ever been in either of the palaces? How do you know?” Jay fired back.

     “I just … do. Ya know? I’ve talked to enough of the locals,” Si said. She was getting bored with this conversation. She watched a Spyder spin webbing around a Draphfly ensnared in its web in a crooked tree beside her. Everything seemed so clear for these small creatures. Eat, sleep, repeat. Survive. Why was she having such a difficult time finding her routine? Her leather sandals’ soles were worn with holes.

     “Hey! C’mon, focus,” Si said, clapping her paws together in front of Si’s gaze.

     “Woah! Sorry. Old habit. Used to zoning out all the time when I’m alone, ya know,” Si said.

     Jay deflated a little. “Yeah, I get that. I spent a lot of time alone while I was an apprentice. Which, you wouldn’t think would happen, right? But it seems my mentor was always busy with something or other.”

     Si frowned. “What, your mentor just bolted and made you clean up her shop for her or something?”

     “Kind of. She would provide instruction when necessary, but most of it I learned myself. I think anyone who has taken an internship or volunteered can relate. It doesn’t matter how much you learn, you’re still being taken advantage of.” Jay shrugged. “But I learned. It made me stronger. And I brought her a lot of revenue, making potions for her shop. Her shop and home will never be as clean as it was when I was there, I can honestly say.”

     “Huh. I’m happy I’ve always existed with magic,” Si said, rubbing her chin.

     Jay darkened again and scrunched her face up, staring at the map. It was almost as if a little cumulonimbus cloud had appeared above her head, flashing with lightning. But wait. There actually was one. A tiny personal storm.

     Si poked Jay’s arm. “Hey, uh … you conjured something there.”

     Jay waved her hands around her head frantically, and it vanished. “Not again,” she mumbled.

     “Sorry, Jay. I know you’ve had a rougher go of it than me. I shouldn’t remind you.”

     “It’s okay. But, please, can’t we go somewhere at least that takes my goals into mind? Somewhere we can agree on?”

     Si began to open her mouth to speak, but Jay cut her off.

     “Not Terror Mountain. There’s nothing for me there.”

     Si closed her mouth. “But they have awesome ice cream and Chia pops!” She protested. “Also, snow! It’d be so much fun.”

     Jay shook her head. “You negated my number one, and I’m negating yours. How about we agree on a second option?”

     Si shrugged. “Alright.”

     They sat in silence for a moment, each holding one side of the map, and stared at it blankly.

     “Oh! I know!” exclaimed Si. “Illusen told me about this place just west of the mountain range beside the Woods. I can’t remember the name. ‘You’-land. Something with ‘you’ in it. Anyway, it’s rumoured to be over there, even if it’s not on maps yet. You know how Neopia is, things appearing and disappearing all the time.”

     Jay let out a sarcastic laugh. “Great! An imaginary village. That’s where I’ll get a job, for sure. This is ridiculous.” Jay let go of the map, stood, crossed her arms, and gazed at the expanse of the Haunted Woods. Her embroidered robes swished around her dramatically.

     Si knew that travelling with a partner wouldn’t always be easy. She had thought that Jay’s tensions would be relieved as she lived longer on the road. That’s what had happened to Si, anyway. First you leave and you’re in search of something: hungry, driven. When you realize it may take you longer to find said something, you slow down. You drift. You float. Everything is suddenly calmer, and not worth hurrying for.

     Si stood, joining Jay, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

     “You’re not going to be able to find work unless you let go of this agenda of yours. Your field is an unusual one, so why do you think finding a job in it will be so easy? Yours will be an unusual path. And anyways, why would you want a normal path. Would you really want to run a shop, like your mentor? What kind of a life is that for the great Jay?”

     Jay laughed and grinned up at Si. “Fine! You’re right. What’s one more adventure, anyway?”

     Si removed her hand from Jay’s shoulder and danced around. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes! Over the mountains we go! ‘You’ something, we’re coming for ya!”

     Si smacked Jay in the face with her large, yellow, glittery wings, knocking Jay to the ground. The two laughed and laughed with the Werelupes howling in the distance.

     ---

     The two had decided on a destination, but they were by no means prepared to cross a range of mountains. All of the shops in the Haunted Woods proved useless, so they traversed back to Neopia Central. There, they were able to purchase warm clothing and boots for the journey, as well as resupply water and food. Jay was able to gather the ingredients for a spell to make all of their provisions small (she would be able to make the items normal-sized again, too), so that they could carry more than they would need. Si thought that this would have made crossing the Lost Desert easier than she had earlier imagined, but she remained silent, now too excited about their new destination.

     After a week’s journey back to their starting location in the Haunted Woods, the two aimed their compass west and began. It was a little daunting to have your only landmark to aim towards be invisible behind a massive spiral of mountains, poking up like the spine of a Draik.

     As they trudged, the mountains grew taller and taller, until the pair was staring up at them. There were no trails here, so everything had to be forged by hand. Si and Jay had not thought of this, so they decided to make staffs. You cannot simply just whittle or carve a staff. Likewise, you cannot just pick up a broom or mop, perhaps a particularly tall and skinny lamp, and make one thus. Making a magical staff is all about intent.

     “Alright, Si,” Jay said, her face serious, but waggling her eyebrows. “It’s time for you to show off your magic.”

     Si laughed. “Alright. I’m a little rusty, though.”

     Si picked up the fell young tree she had chosen, much larger than the branch Jay had chosen. This one was once a Star Tree; now its bark frayed and splintered, the trunk discoloured with dark brown and black blotches. No doubt a foraging group of Rainblugs had been the tree’s demise. Si had chosen this tree for this reason.

     “Well,” Si said, turning the tree over in her hands. “Let’s dance!”

     Closing her eyes, she began to whisper a chant, as she hugged the tree close to her chest.

     Once of emerald gleam

     Listen to this spell

     The sun was your queen

     To Rainblugs you fell

     Now rise up before me

     Lift your head

     You and I shall be ‘we’

     Light my path ahead

     A burst of bright, yellow-gold light emitted from Si’s hands, surrounding her in a bubble. It lingered a moment, then disappeared completely. Si opened her eyes to see Jay slowly uncover her eyes with her gloved hands. She stared at her with wide eyes.

     Si glanced down at her new friend. The staff was beautiful. Si had altered the colour, shape, and texture of the wood. It had become a perfect walking staff for her height, and a brilliant ivory colour with a smoothed texture, with the top of it ending in a zig-zag shape. She tapped it to the ground beside her, covered in thorny blackberry bushes; when she did so, the bushes moved over perfectly for her to walk through without a scratch to her ankles or robes. She walked through, spun around, and walked back to Jay, sashaying a little, and bowed.

     “How was that, Jay? Skarl would’ve hated it. Probably called me a witch.”

     Jay shook her head, frowning at the ground. “That was … amazing, really. I could never do something like that. Not that easily, anyway.”

     Si was always surprised by her friend’s insecurities, especially when she was so talented. “Jay, you gotta give yourself more credit. You’re awesome. Now make your staff!”

     Jay nodded, grimacing at the stick she had chosen: a small birch branch, probably blown down in a windstorm. Jay glanced up at Si self-consciously. “I like to chant silently.”

     Si shrugged. “Do as you will. Magic is magic.”

     And, Si thought, Magic is personal. Everyone has a different style.

     Jay shut her eyes tightly, gripping the branch close to her. After a few moments, the branch began to spin in her hands, swirls of a deep blue fog swirling around it counterclockwise. After a couple of minutes, the branch stopped spinning. The branch had smoothed but kept the texture of its bark, almost as if someone had coated it in resin. The bottom of the staff had been levelled off and smoothed, and the top of the staff retained one smaller branch, which looked as lively as if there were no approaching winter, and bobbing its green leaves about as if there were a gentle breeze blowing.

     “Wow!” Si exclaimed, rushing over to look at it, and turning it over in her hands. “You kept it just as it was, but made it better. It’s still itself, but it’s more. It’s beautiful, truly.” She handed it gently back to Jay.

     “I told you that you have nothing to be nervous about. You have to trust yourself,” Si said.

     Jay kept her head bent, gazing at the staff silently.

     “And,” Si added. “If you can’t trust yourself, trust me. And I think you’re a wonderful sorceress.”

     Jay grinned at the ground. “Okay. Thanks Si. Alright, let’s get through this brush.”

     Si nodded, leading the two of them into the forest.

     ---

     Though the two travellers had become accustomed to roughing it on the road, this forest was unlike any other they had travelled through, even the Haunted Woods. Once they had entered it, they had not seen daylight for days. The forest was so thick with vegetation that there was no discernable light anywhere. They knew, at least, that they were travelling up, up, up in elevation, as the ground became rockier and less grassy.

     But still, no light. The canopy was impenetrable. Though it was late autumn, the leaves were stubborn, and even those at higher elevations had not fallen yet. Si and Jay, though pleased that it was not cold enough for snow at high elevations, still wished for it to be cold enough for the leaves here to drop from their stubborn posts. Still, they plodded on, their staffs guiding their way.

     They had no way to know they were conducting their descent from the mountains, because they had no idea how wide the range was, and they had no way to look out at the expanse of mountains. The forest surrounded them, even when they were almost certain they had summited a peak.

     This became their routine for an unknowable amount of days. Si became worried that Jay would get frustrated and want to give up, but she did not. She did not either blame Si for this misadventure. Instead, they kept their slow, steady routine, plodding quietly along their staff-generated trail during the day, then laughing and singing songs together after dinner around a fire.

     And so, this continued for many days. One day, the two were descending from a perhaps-summit when Jay stopped. She was leading the two, so Si stopped, as well.

     “There. Stars. I haven’t seen them in … well, however long we’ve been here,” Jay said, pointing.

     Si, so relieved to see them once again, fluttered up towards the break in the canopy, hovering above the canopy for a moment. Behind her, she saw the expanse of the range, and before her: clear fields with sparse stands of trees intermixed. Elated, she flew back down to Jay.

     “Jay, this is it! We’ve made it! We’ve done it!” She exclaimed. Giddy with happiness, the two embraced, spinning around in circles while hugging. They both collapsed to the ground, gazing up at the starry canopy gap on their backs.

     “I can’t believe we did it. I thought we would be trapped here forever,” Si said.

     “You know what’s weird?” Jay began slowly. “Is we should have been panicking, fretting about going nowhere. Shouting and blaming one another. Why didn’t we?”

     There was a silence and they felt a coldness they had not felt before.

     At once, they both sat up, staring at one another with wide eyes.

     “These mountains are enchanted,” Si said.

     Jay nodded. “We’re lucky to have gotten out. Enchanted places, especially forests and mountains … they have complete control of who survives them.”

     Silence followed, then Jay spoke, frowning. “So why did they allow us to go? Do you think this is a sign that we’ll find ‘You’-land?”

     Si gazed at the stars through the canopy again. “Dunno, Maybe they knew that we’re good magic.”

     Jay shrugged, stood, and helped Si up. The two continued to the edge of the forested mountains, where they camped and ate far too many ghost marshmallows that they had saved from the Haunted Woods for their celebration of the passing of the mountains.

     ---

     Sunrise greeted the two weary travellers with not the gentle waking of the sun, but with the abrupt calling and yelling of strangers. The two scrambled to their feet, only to find themselves and their camp surrounded by a group of Kougras – yellow, blue, red, rainbow, purple, and orange – bearing magical staffs. They wore flowing black robes, and all had their left ears and left nostrils pierced with gold rings.

     When they had all formed a perfect circle around the two, their calling and talking ceased. One, a red Kougra, spoke. “You have trespassed onto Nuxvare land. Leave or face the consequences.”

     Si and Jay looked at one another. Si nudged Jay, but she did not speak, nervously rubbing her paws together.

     “Fine, I’ll do it,” Si hissed at Jay quietly.

     Si cleared her throat. “Greetings! Uh … I am Siyana, the light faerie, and this is Jerdana, the great Aisha sorceress. We come in peace. Do you know where a secret city is around here with the word ‘you’ in its name? I don’t remember the name, but we’re here to find it.”

     The red Kougra waved his left hand, and the circle of Kougras relaxed, lowering their staffs. “You are seeking a land you do not even know the name of?” He asked. The ring of Kougras laughed, now beginning to chatter with another again.

     Si cleared her throat, raising her voice. “Yes! We need help finding it. We’re new around here, clearly. We’ve never travelled across this mountain range, and our map doesn’t even show any villages in this part of Neopia.”

     The red Kougra laughed again, this time more heartily. “Well … if you made it across the mountains, I’m sure you’ll do just fine here.” He said. The circle of Kougras snickered around them.

     He continued, “Just stay away from our land. Go north. And when you attempt to cross the mountains again, do not come back here.” With that, he waved his right hand, and the circle dispersed, all of the Kougras running in a group together, south into a large stand of trees.

     Si and Jay relaxed.

     “Well … that was weird. I think we just got made fun of by a group of powerful magicians,” Si said.

     Jay sat down on her bedroll again. “Yeah, we did. I feel like a fool. Why did we come all this way, anyway? And what if we don’t find it? And what if the land Illusen told you about was their land? Which they obviously do not want to share.”

     Si moved to collapse onto her bedroll again, but a squeak from within it halted her.

     “Woah! What is that! What is that!” She yelled, the squeaking offender now a lump in her sleeping bag, moving slowly to the foot of the sleeping bag. “Get it! Get it!” She shouted, pushing Jay towards it.

     Jay gingerly grabbed the sleeping bag, turning it upside down. A petpet fell out, but a species the two had never seen before.

     “What is that?” Si asked.

     Jay shrugged. “You’re asking me? You’ve travelled more than I. Reminds me of a Doglefox.”

     “But that’s not what it is. It’s weird,” Si returned.

     The petpet was a small orange Lupe-like creature with a pointy cream-coloured muzzle and a matching cream-coloured stripe on its tail. Its paws looked as if they were dipped in dark chocolate, which matched the tip of its tail.

     Jay laughed. “No it’s not, it’s cute.”

     The petpet was now snuffling their ankles, then walking in little circles around them. It suddenly began walking north, turning around to look at them expectantly.

     “It wants us to follow it,” Jay said.

     Si laughed. “Where did you get that? Maybe it wants you to play fetch with it. Or take it to go to the bathroom,” Si laughed again, finding her own joke funny.

     Jay shook her head. “No, I’m serious. I think we should try. What do we have to lose, anyway? The Nuxvare told us to go north. So let’s go.”

     Si stared a moment at her friend. It was very unlike her to suggest anything like this, especially on such a whim. She was in.

     “Alright. Lead on, Weirdo.” Si said, gesturing to the petpet.

     The two quickly packed up their camp, extinguished their fire completely, and followed the petpet.

     The pair had been following the petpet for what seemed like a couple hours when the scenery began to change. The heavy deciduous forest stands began to turn into sparse, curved trees, bent as if someone had folded them. Strange grassy hilltops and mossy rock outcroppings appeared, with trickling streams and waterfalls flowing about them. A heavy mist, not quite pale like normal fog, but an almost glimmering gold, appeared.

     Si grabbed Jay’s hand. The petpet had led them to a small village, perched on knobby, spire-like hillsides.

     “We found it,” Jay whispered.

     “Well, technically the petpet led us here …” Si said, laughing. “So, here you are, ‘You’-land.”

     Jay shook her head, pointing to a wooden gate, bearing the village’s name. “Shenkuu. We made it. It exists.”

     To be continued…