Out Of The Frying Pan...
CHARMIAN LET OUT a scream of agony, Chakenapok's flames searing through her chest, surrounding her spirit stone, and clinging around it as if to pull it right out. In fact that was exactly what it felt like was happening, and she flailed against the pain, tears springing to her eyes.
She managed--somehow--to drag herself away from the fire's grasp, stumbling back out onto the Spirit Road; its three pathways opened up before her, Chakenapok standing in the middle one, and he smiled at her as she hunched over, clutching at her chest and gasping for breath. Flames still danced atop his fingers; he seemed amused.
"Ready to try that again, Mainlander?" he inquired.
Charmian stared at him with watery eyes, her teeth bared in fear and her heart pounding. "Wh--what did you--d-do--?" she gasped, unable to believe the agony she'd just felt. That was WAY more than any of the other tricks the Road had pulled on her!
His mouth twitched and he lowered his hand. "The same as any other time. Tried to get that pretty little stone out of your chest." He cocked his head. "What's wrong, Mainlander? One could almost say you look...surprised."
Charmian had to force herself to stand upright, wincing as she did so. "I--I don't know how you did that," she stammered, anger surging up inside her, "but that's a dirty trick even for the ROAD!"
He gave her a pitying look. "No trick about it, I'm afraid." He lifted his hand. "Care to see for yourself...?"
Charmian stared at him, her eyes growing wide in disbelief. She looked down at her chest, then gingerly pulled the collar of her shirt open just a bit. She winced to see the raw angry redness of her skin--just like what had happened before, which even Justin couldn't heal. Feeling a growing panic, she held up her hand and revealed her spirit stone--and gaped when she saw how the black cracks in it had spread, forming themselves into jagged obsidian bolts. Even as she stared at it, it throbbed, and she cringed and fell slowly to her knees, whimpering in pain.
"H...how...?" she barely managed to whisper.
Chakenapok merely smiled. "It was actually quite easy, Mainlander."
"B...but...you're not...even here..."
He shrugged. "I do not have to be. You gave me access to you yourself. It was easy, just as I said." He crossed his arms and smirked. "Remember? That power that wabano gave you...?" When she lifted her head his smirk grew. "Suffice it to say...that along with that power, comes a price. I gave him that power, when I brought him back from the Spirit Road. And wouldn't you know it, but he was so generous as to give it to you." He laughed at the stricken look on Charmian's face. "That's right, Mainlander...I cannot control you just yet, as I did with him, because your spirit is not dark enough...but as long as you are on this Road, I can reach you...and as long as you are here, I can do whatever I wish to that pretty spirit stone of yours." His smirk shifted into a sneer, and the flames danced around his fingers. "Care to give it another try?"
Charmian scowled and clenched her fists, getting up again. "Like I'll ever let you do that," she said in a dangerous voice. "My spirit is my own. So is Moon Wolf's. You don't have his, and there's no way in HELL I'll ever give you MINE!"
"Oh really?" He lifted an eyebrow.
Her lip curled back. "Yeah, REALLY!" She took another step away from him. "You're not really here? Then that means I don't HAVE to go near you! What's the matter, can't move around any--?" She stepped toward the right trail, then the left. "Can't follow me wherever you want? Well isn't that too bad? If you want my spirit stone you'll have to wait until I reach YOU. Because like hell am I going to LET you take it!"
He gave her another pitying look. "You really think you can do this...?" When she scowled he smiled and waved at the path to his right, then to his left. "Then go right ahead, and take one of those paths. But just so you know..." he said, as she started to turn toward the more rundown of the trails, "...that's no way to reach the Spirit Land, by skipping the most difficult path."
Charmian halted in midstep. It was as if a jolt surged through her, and she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up; she brought her foot down and slowly turned to face him, her eyes wide and face pale.
"What...what do you mean?" she whispered.
He gestured around himself. "Take a look at it, Mainlander. You were seeking the most difficult path...then here it is."
Charmian's eyes grew. "That's..." Panic surged up in her breast. "That's--that's not fair! This can't be the only way!"
That maddening smile again. "I hate to tell you this...but it is. If you want to reach the Spirit Land, that is. That is what your wabano friend said, isn't it...?" He put a finger to his chin and looked thoughtful. "'Take always the most difficult path'...? Yes, I rather believe that is what he said." He looked at her again, his yellow eyes amused. "I fail to see how you can take that path...if you're so intent on avoiding me."
Charmian clenched her fists again. "I'll--I'll just go BACK, then!" she cried. "Another fork! This Road keeps changing! I'll take a different path, and stick to the most difficult ones, and YOU won't be there!"
He shook his head. "Sorry, Mainlander...but once you've taken a path on this Road...short of heading back home, there is no turning back." He waved his hand at the Road behind her. "Care to go and see...?"
Charmian ground her teeth, then whirled around. She stalked away from him several paces, seeking a familiar bend...yet the further she walked...the more unfamiliar it seemed...and she realized with a growing feeling of sickness that the Road had changed again, shifting itself subtly about. She sought about desperately for a side trail yet found none; and whenever she glanced back, all that she saw was the three forks ahead, the middle one occupied by Chakenapok himself. He smiled and waved at her from afar. Her eyes stinging, she was forced to walk back toward him, her chest hitching.
"This isn't fair!" she insisted. "The Road is supposed to try to trick me! Not use YOU to get to me!"
He shrugged. "The Road could not care less what it does, as long as it gets its job done--which is keeping you from the Spirit Land. As long as I am here to block your way...then the Road's duties are finished. You can seek an alternate path all you like. This is the only one you'll find. You can either go through...or stay stuck here." His mouth twitched and he tilted his head. "And so...what will it be?" He spread his arms. "Either you can go through me, and put your spirit almost completely under my control...or you can go another way, and miss the Spirit Land...and not fetch back poor Wabasso." He grinned, teeth glinting. "Whichever you do, you lose...and so what do you choose?"
Charmian's eyes welled up. Her vision of him blurred and she raked one hand across her eyes, hissing even as her shoulders shook. "How can you do this?" she cried. "I SPOKE to you! You APOLOGIZED for what you did to Wenonah! So how can you do this to your own brother? And how can you KEEP me from him--?"
Chakenapok feigned a bored yawn. "Oh, here we go with the guilt again." He gave a gusty sigh. "You caught me at a weak moment, that one time. I admit, I did not intend to kill the one who gave me life--she hardly had a thing to do with anything that came afterward. But that was the one thing I didn't plan." He crossed his arms. "You truly think I care one bit what happens to Wabasso, or Peepaukawiss, or that dolt Mudjikawiss? They are as much playpieces as you are. Only without your four pieces, how can you ever hope to save that little Island of yours?"
"What do you have against the Island?" Charmian demanded.
He shrugged. "Not a thing. But for the fact that it is his home...and wouldn't he be so sad to see it go away, and never come back?" He smirked. "Just like everything else in his life. Isn't that interesting? First Father, then Mother, then all his brothers and then that Michinimakinong. And now this. History does repeat itself."
"Manabozho didn't have a DAMN thing to do with what happened to you!" Charmian retorted. "He was just a baby, just like you! You hold a baby responsible for everything that's happened to you? You'd destroy an entire Island and everything on it just because of this--?"
Chakenapok looked bored again. "And you would think you can somehow change my mind with all this prattling?" He stepped aside, and she saw the Road opening up behind him, flames still flickering around it. "Remember," he said, "you have a little trip to take. Wabasso's waiting for you...right through there. The only problem is, so am I...so what was your decision, again?"
Charmian stared at the flaming path, and started chewing on her lip. She glanced at Chakenapok just in time for him to lift his hand again, the flames returning; the smile that he gave her told her he wouldn't bother just standing aside and letting her through.
Her heart thumped. I CAN'T go that way! He's already damaged my spirit stone--if I go through there, he'll make it even worse, or even take it away from me! I can't let him do that!
But--that's the only way to Wabasso. I KNOW he's not lying about this. Moon Wolf himself said the most difficult path--and that's exactly what this is! He didn't tell me I'd have to face THIS, though!
What do I do--? I can't do one, and I can't do the other, without hurting the Island! If I take this path then what if he corrupts my spirit stone--? My spirit will go dark...I'll be under his control, just like Moon Wolf...I could end up destroying the Island MYSELF! I would be just like Ocryana!
Just like my reflection...!
Her hand crept up to her chest and clutched at the fabric of her shirt and her eyes welled up, her vision blurring.
But I promised Manabozho...I told him...I'd do everything I could...
I didn't know I would have to do THIS...
She blinked then, as another voice, Geezhigo-Quae's voice, echoed somewhere in her mind. A question she had been asked, back at the Sky Tree.
Would you be willing to give up everything you have to help this Island? Not just your life--but everything that means even more to you. Every single thing you've ever fought for or believed in. Everything that makes you, you...
And her own words, said in the same Tree...
I made a promise. I don't go back on my promises.
And if I were to relieve you of this obligation...?
I wouldn't let you. I don't make promises unless I want to.
What if fulfilling this promise endangered your life? Does the Island really mean so much to you?
I don't care if it endangered my life. Would I even be here if that worried me? I can't count how many times somebody's tried to kill me. I never have to watch out for my life on the mainland, but I don't care that I have to here. The Island does mean that much to me...
She sucked in a shaky breath, then let it out. She lifted her head and blinked the tears from her eyes to look at Chakenapok again. He still gave her that amused questioning look...and the tears still streamed from her eyes, her shoulders shaking...but she took a hesitant step forward nonetheless, and then another one.
Chakenapok's smile grew. "You've finally made up your mind, Mainlander...?"
"I promised I would take the most difficult path," Charmian said, her voice nearly choking in her throat. "I don't go back on my promises."
"Even if it means endangering the very thing you're trying so hard to save?" He tilted his head. "Now how can you reconcile that, Mainlander?"
"I don't know," Charmian answered. "I don't know what'll happen. All I know is that I promised I would go through with it. And all I can hope is that I can hold you off long enough to keep that promise." Her eyes watered again and she had to swallow before she could even speak. "If I don't keep it, it's no fault of mine then."
Chakenapok smirked. "Oh--so here we go with blame, once more. I was just starting to find you amusing, too." He stepped aside again and gestured at the Road. "Go right on through, Mainlander. I won't try to stop you."
Charmian's step faltered, and she came to a halt; this seemed to greatly amuse him, so that a tiny flare of anger surged up inside her. She bit it down and forced her feet to move, walking straight toward him again. She couldn't keep her chest from hitching and her eyes from running, as the mere sight of the flames surrounding his fingers--as well as the memory of the searing agony that had just shot through her--filled her with a deeper dread than almost anything else. Anything else, but the thought of what would happen if he did get her spirit stone.
If he takes it from me, I die--
And if he leaves it in me, it goes dark--
I can't win, no matter what I do. Either way, the Island could be destroyed.
But at least this way, there's the smallest chance...
She stepped through the fire and started to walk past him. She kept her eyes focused on the Road itself, knowing that if she took her stare off of it she would lose her nerve; true to his word, Chakenapok didn't get in her way, though as she passed him he held out his hand as if to pat her on the shoulder. His fingers spread open in front of her and the flames immediately seared through her breastbone, gripping her spirit stone again and tugging on it. Charmian's eyes squinched shut and she let out a broken cry, doubling over and nearly falling to her knees; it was only through sheer will that she managed to keep moving, wrapping her arms around herself and dragging her feet painfully slowly as if trying to resist a giant magnet. Her spirit stone alternated between feeling like it was going to be crushed, and feeling like it was going to tear into pieces; she started crying, hating the gasping whining sounds that were escaping her, yet unable to stop them. Chakenapok's hand passed through her as if he were made of smoke, and after an instant that felt like an eternity, she was past him, and he pulled his hand away; she did fall now, landing hard on her knees, slumping forward so that her head touched the ground as her entire body shook with pained sobs. The fire disappeared but she could still feel her spirit stone throbbing agonizingly in her chest, as if a million tiny white-hot pokers had been thrust into her heart.
She heard Chakenapok take a step to the side. "Actually," he said in that same mild voice, "I do believe I like this plan better...letting you keep your pretty little stone...and letting it slowly take you over..." She lifted her head to shakily look at him, and he smiled. "Every minute passing by, and you never knowing which one will be your last moment as yourself...nor when you will turn upon your friends..." His mouth twisted. "What do you think, Mainlander...? Being my pawn, just like the wabano...?"
"He's...not your pawn," Charmian just barely managed to say, her voice as thin as paper. "And neither...am I."
Another smirk. "You will find this so easy to say once you finally lose your spirit to me--? Even your wabano friend ended up breaking his promise. I think I should like to see you try to fight back." He waved at the Road. "Go right ahead, Mainlander. The path is wide open to you, now. The only thing you have to contend with is that pretty little pebble in your chest--and how much time it might decide to give you." His smile grew into a grin, and he started stepping backward toward the fire--"Tell Wabasso I said hello," he called, slowly fading away into it--and the flames faded as well, until Charmian found herself on a regular dirt trail, the green-gray mist swirling around its edges. The Road stretched on ahead of her the same as before, and she slowly forced her way to her feet, wincing and cringing at the stabbing pains shooting through her chest. They began to fade even as she stood there trying to catch her breath, and after a moment or two she couldn't even be certain that any of that had ever even happened.
She blinked the tears from her eyes, letting out a shaky breath. "Was...was it real, then...?" she whispered, and looked down at herself. The ugly burn was still there on her skin, but maybe the Road had done that...just maybe, the whole thing had been the toughest trick yet? Feeling the tiniest bit of hope, she held up her hand to reveal her spirit stone, biting her lip as she did so.
Her hope immediately vanished as soon as she saw it. The jagged bolts of jet black had only grown wider, so that now the crystal seemed even parts fiery red and murky obsidian. It throbbed and she winced, then lowered her hand so the vision faded. Tears flooded her eyes again.
I didn't imagine it...it was really him...
He made it even worse. What Geezhigo said would happen to me--it'll happen sooner now! I'll become just like Moon Wolf was! I'll forget EVERYTHING!
I'll even hurt the people I care about...Stick...Mani...
Thomas...
She gasped and ran her hand across her eyes, blinking furiously. She looked up at the Road, hiccupping around her tears.
"I'll fight it," she murmured. "Every step of the way, I'll fight it. I can't fight it off forever. But I can try to fight it off as long as I can." She started walking ahead, fists clenching. "I'll get Wabasso back...if we defeat Chakenapok, I'll get better...but if I don't even try..." She lifted her head, her eyes still wet, but her shoulders didn't shake so badly anymore, and the look on her face was resolved.
"I don't have anything left to lose," she said aloud, and picked up her pace, striding resolutely down the Spirit Road.
For some odd reason, she found no more tricks awaiting her.
She walked for what seemed like hours, stopping every once in a while to sit and rest, as what Chakenapok had done had drained some of the energy from her; then she walked on again. The Road stretched on endlessly and didn't even wind anymore, instead heading in a straight path. She kept her eyes open for forks but came across none. She didn't even have it in her to feel surprise.
Eventually the mist grew thicker so that the Road ahead was more obscured, and she could see only several yards ahead of herself. She barely even noticed, as she was too busy staring down at the ground itself, rubbing at her chest every so often and trying not to think too hard about what had happened. Her eyes hurt from all of the tears that had fallen from them and she didn't relish the thought of breaking down crying yet again.
The mist rippled, and a sound as of a breath being let out came from far ahead. Charmian halted and lifted her head, feeling a cool breeze wash over her, and something about it smelled oddly.
She immediately felt ill at ease, and drew her vest around herself more tightly. "Hello...?" she called out, sensing that she wasn't alone any longer. There was no answer--not even an echo--yet she stood stock still and waited. After what seemed like an eternity, the soft sound and the clammy breeze came again, and she grimaced.
It smells like...a compost pit...?
She tried not to gag as she started walking tentatively forward again. "Guess it's about time for another trick," she murmured to herself, and kept a close watch on the Road as the mist might obscure any new pathways. She frowned the longer she went and yet didn't come across any. She even slowed down and peered around herself in case she'd missed one, but the Road was as straight as ever. When was it supposed to offer her a choice...?
The cool reeking air wafted over her again, and this time she coughed, holding a hand up over her nose. The smell billowed around her and even seemed to settle in her hair and clothes, and she knew that the look on her face must be horrible by now.
"What have people been doing, dumping garbage...?" she choked as she went. "You'd think something died down there..."
Again came the chilly breeze, and this time she was certain that she heard it--a long, low breath being let out, right at the same time as the stench. Her head jerked up and her eyes grew, focusing on the haze ahead, but that was all that she saw, the mist, though even it rippled and swirled in the breeze, breaking apart and re-forming again. She scoured the pathway ahead and saw nothing there. Then again, her view wasn't the best in the world...
"Hello...?" she called again, more loudly this time; and this time, she was finally answered.
Something lit up in the trail ahead--two lights, as of two torches or lanterns suddenly being lit--and started bobbing her way. She stood and watched them come, furrowing her brow and trying to figure out who or what would be on the Road in such a state. One last glance showed her no side trails to tempt her; so it couldn't be a trick. As the lights came closer she felt a vague uneasiness, as they reminded her of something, yet she couldn't put her finger on it; she also felt like she should be remembering something else, yet it somehow slipped her mind. All that she could do was stand and watch them draw ever closer, and the breeze came wafting over her, chilling her skin and carrying that horrid scent with it. Charmian coughed again, shaking her head in disgust and trying to wave the smell away.
What the hell IS that--!
The noise came again, like a soft but giant breath, and she slowly looked up, her face going white as all of the blood drained from it.
Glowing lights--two of them--
Just like Augwak--
Not lights. EYES!
FIERY EYES--!
Charmian sucked in a breath and took a step back. The mist began to blow away, as the thing approaching her came into hazy view, and the shadowy indistinct outline of an immense skeleton with fire for eyes emerged from the Spirit Road.
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