Chapter 7 – The Inosital Fields
“And the moon is the only light…Stand by me, oh Alye, won’t you stand by me?”
“Tanya, keep singing and you won’t have any vocal cords!”
Philipia the owl promptly landed on my hair and pecked. I swiped up with a stick I was holding to bat her off. Knew I wouldn’t regret carrying that around. Unfortunately, the light was too dim for me to see properly, so I couldn’t actually watch her get smacked. Oh well.
The five of us walked quietly along, the silence punctuated by bursts of insanity from Philipia, me, or Alye (usually me or Alye). Lunae and Selene strode ahead, speaking quietly about stuff relating to the Inosital herb. Occasionally, words like “proper knife” or “easy to spot” drifted back to our ears. And then the phrase “trust them” stood out. Needless to say, that made us feel decent. Philipia stopped trying to impale my hair and silently flapped ahead, passing over Selene and Lunae. They didn’t bother looking up but the snatches I caught of their conversation dropped to zero as they lowered their voices further. Philipia circled twice and then flapped ahead, making no noise in the night air.
The minutes passed. Alye and I had stopped talking as we were trying to keep up with Lunae and Selene, who walked ever faster. Philipia was only a brown dot in the distance, flitting through the trees and occasionally hooting. But finally, Lunae turned and gave a grin.
“Look.”
We looked.
A field of shimmering stalks of herbs lay before us, crawling up the tree trunks, covering the ground, and glowing all the while. The smell of fresh moonlight surged through our noses. Philipia flew back over to us, and after a minute of serious concentration, morphed back into her normal self. She blinked as she readjusted to the dark night.
“Man, I miss my owl eyes,” she muttered.
“But the whole glowing herb thing makes up for it, don’t you think?” Alye suggested.
Several feet away, Lunae was extracting knives from her pack. They were blunt and short with a curve in the blade and a firm wooden handle. Selene took one and Alye managed to swipe one as well, her obsession with pointy objects compelling her to do so. Philipia and I shrugged our shoulders and followed Lunae. She was bending down next to one of the patches of Inosital herb. With a quick movement, she cut the stalks right below the leaves and stowed them into a pouch on her bag. She motioned Alye to do the same.
The three of us took turns harvesting the herb; Alye got the most since she refused to give up her knife unless we fought her for it. Philipia and I ended up with about a hundred bruises between the two of us. At last, however, our canvas bag was full. The herbs made the bag look like a glowing lantern and the smell was unbelievably wonderful. Alye got a familiar flicker in her eyes.
“Don’t tell me you’ve got an idea,” I groaned.
“Yep. Let’s eat some.”
“WHAT?!?” Philipia and I hollered, causing Selene and Lunae to stare at us. We smiled weakly and turned back to Alye.
“Are you insane?” I demanded. “You don’t know what this stuff will do!”
“Of course I do. It’ll let us use fire. What’s wrong with that?”
“You mean besides the fact that we’re in the middle of a dry forest at night and the only reason Lunae hasn’t shooed us away yet is because Selene likes us?” Philipia hissed furiously.
“Oh come on…” her insane friend wheedled. “Just two sprigs per person. What’s the harm in that?” Her face twisted itself into a wild grin. “And if you don’t, I’m still going to. So you might as well. You can keep an eye on me or whatever it is you paranoid people do.”
Well, there was nothing else we could do.
Weirdly enough, the first sensation of eating Inosital is of a startling cold. I guess the herb first makes some kind of reaction to prevent the person in question from lighting his or herself on fire (not a good habit, by the way). Following the intense chill was a strange static sensation. I could practically feel the energy crackling at my fingertips. Friction gone insane was one way to describe it. With a sense of unreality, I watched as Alye’s eyes glinted with an orange light.
And then she snapped her fingers.
A tongue of orange flame burst from her fingertips, only the size of a lighter fire. Even so, the shock of seeing flames shoot forth from someone’s hand is quite bizarre. Philipia stared at her friend and then snapped her own fingers. Sure enough, a small spark snapped and burst into red and orange fire.
Alye stared at me. “What are you waiting for? It feels great! Snap your fingers, for crying out loud!”
Hesitation. This could go wrong in so many ways. We could light the forest on fire. We could invoke the wrath of Lunae; I wouldn’t put it past her to shoot us if we got out of control. We could completely lose Selene’s fragile trust, whatever it was worth.
But hey, if I was stuck in a fantasy world gone nuts, I might as well have some fun. So I snapped my fingers.
The friction erupted and energy shot out onto my hand, forming a small ball of flickering fire. It was amazing, the sensation of holding fire, something people had wanted to do since the first flint created sparks. And it made for handy flashlights.
But something was wrong. The fire was ebbing; our flames were disappearing. Alye cried out in dismay as her tongues smothered in the night air. Without thinking, apparently, she dove into our bag of Inosital and pulled out as much of the herb as she could get her small hands on. Philipia and I rushed towards her to stop her from consuming God-knew-how-many herbs she was clutching. Yet before we could thwart her, she managed to shove at least a handful down her throat.
The air instantly turned hotter as Alye poured fire from her hands like water from a faucet (weird analogy, no?). Leaves and stray insects shriveled instantly and the moss beneath our feet was turning black. We had to stop her…somehow. But I didn’t know how to use magic in this kind of circumstance (heck, I barely knew how to use it, period!) and Philipia didn’t have complete control over her shapeshifting abilities. So how to stop Alye from flaming up the forest?
Without warning, a fireball soared through the air and straight into Alye. I turned to see Selene, surrounded by an aura of orange but not outright flame, marching towards us, dangerous fires in her eyes. Alye cringed but then glared and summoned her own sphere of flame. Someone hurtled towards Philipia and me and forced us onto the carpet of leaves as the fireballs shot over our head; Lunae’s quick reflexes had prevented the two of us from being roasted. It was a bizarre duel that Selene and Alye were fighting, half dance, half fight with a huge splash of unreality.
However, as the seconds turned to half-minutes, I noticed a change. Alye’s attacks were weakening and she no longer could block Selene’s efforts at all. Several times, fire smacked into her side and the only reason she didn’t catch fire was because of the lingering effects of the herb. At last, however, the spark of flame died in her eyes and she crumpled to the ground, sweat pouring off of her. Selene quickened her pace and marched towards Alye; she looked like she intended to stomp on her. But as her shoes got within two inches of Alye’s face, she stopped…
…and held out her hand.
“It’s always like that the first time you try it,” she laughed as she helped Alye stagger to her feet. “It’s addictive. You have a small taste of it and the taste turns to hunger. I can understand why you did it. No harm done.”
Lunae arched her eyebrows. “Selene, they nearly burned the forest down. You still think we can trust them?”
“Well, thanks for saying that in the open now instead of whispering!” I blurted without thinking. And promptly kicked myself when Lunae turned her head to stare at me. “Dangit.”
Selene gave a quick laugh. “Can you blame us? You three are the oddest people I have ever known. You use expressions we don’t understand. You have magical powers. And Lunae tells me you’re from the future.”
Philipia grimaced. “So that’s what you were talking about! I caught the word future when I flew above you but then figured I shouldn’t eavesdrop.”
“You not eavesdrop?” Alye barked hoarsely as she staggered to her feet. “When’s the last time that happened?”
“Decent harvest this month,” Selene proclaimed as we stumbled back into Lunae’s tree house. “We’ll have enough for quite a while until the next full moon.”
Lunae shrugged and put away her bows and knives. Her blue eyes flickered with thought; presumably, she was still puzzling about us. Selene, however, showed no intention of leaving and sat down on the floor in front of the three of us.
“Tell me your story,” she demanded.
“What story?”
“Your tale of being from the future. Lunae wasn’t able to give me every detail. I want to hear it. Haven’t heard a good story in a long time.”
And so we told our story again. Selene didn’t say a word throughout the entire time. She just sat there, nodding her head occasionally. At last, when we had finished, she blinked for a minute, and then gave a quick grin.
“I believe you.”
“WHAT?” we nearly shouted back.
“Of course,” she replied. “It fits perfectly. It explains why you speak strangely and how you don’t seem to fit in with this village. Most people who come passing through leave in a hurry, especially when they learn there’s a fire-manipulating girl who lives right outside the town. But never do three girls come here with no money and then stay. And they especially do not make friends with Aubrey.”
“Do you know Aubrey?” Alye interjected, a blush coming onto her cheek.
“Not really. I’ve met him a few times. I saw him standing in the crowd the day I nearly was executed. And I believe he once visited me when he heard that I nearly roasted two of his soldiers for bothering me. He holds a great deal of influence, that one.” She frowned. “I don’t like him. He’s too smooth and slick and classy for my tastes.”
Philipia elbowed Alye with a smirk and grinned. “So where do we sleep tonight? Your place or here?”
“I suppose you can stay up here,” Lunae answered. “It’s not a good idea for you to run up and down ladders if you cannot see properly.”
“Fine,” I sighed, yawning. “I’m going to bed.” I rose and shuffled to a corner, but not before Selene had seized Alye’s wrist.
“Touch any Inosital again,” the Goth said quietly, “and I will hurt you.”
This was getting old.
Usually when I wake up, it’s in a warm bed in my room, my cat’s sitting on me, and my glasses are within six inches of my hands.
But ever since we stepped through that door, we’d gone from one insanity to another. Staying in a not-so-cheerful inn, sleeping in the castle of an uber-rich and inanely snobby nobledude, learning of magic and shapeshifting and firepowers, and witnessing a firefight between a friend and a medieval Goth. But waking up in a tree house with the smell of moonlight in the air and rabbits cooking on the hearth was just jarring. It didn’t help that my nose was making indentations in the wall (and was that a splinter?).
“Wake up, Tanya,” Alye grunted as she poked me in the shoulder. Philipia’s scrabbling for her glasses promptly ceased as she sat up and blinked. I did the same and wished for sugar. But toasted rabbit had to do.
As we munched, our reverie was broken by the sound of rustling below the hut. Selene’s eyes glinted and Lunae reached for a bow. She held it loosely but cautiously opened the trapdoor for the rope ladder.
Six soldiers stood below, guarding a single messenger whose messy brown hair was incredibly familiar…oh god, Redmond! Why’d HE’D been chosen as a messenger?
“Hallo!” he called up the ladder, grinning all the while. “His lordship Aubrey requests respectfully that you join him at his castle as he wishes to become better acquainted with you…and there’s some long introduction I should have mentioned but I decided not to bore you. Will you come?”
“Sure, why not?” Philipia grumbled. “Let’s go back to the guy whom Tanya oh-so-nicely insulted a couple days ago. Great plan.”
I glared. “I can’t change his personality.”
“Then control your mouth!” Alye interjected.
“Follow your own advice!” I shot back.
“Get a grip, you two,” Philipia sighed. “Let’s go. I want to ransack the library again.”
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