408. Visiting friends, 9

(Rose)

I continued heading north, in that land of the Pol.

It didn’t quite look like the ideas I had of it.

Jungles. Dense woods with countless different species of trees as far can be.

And high plateaus, mesas, here and there, like inlandis, inselbergs, void of vegetation with steep cliffs.

It was a landscape I would have assumed to be found in southern Americas. I guess I was wrong.

The land maybe changed more than I expected over time.

I didn’t expect to find this lush jungles in northern Europe.

I had an intuition that my friends had headed north after fleeing the scene of the fight.

I wonder how they found us by the way. But I think I can find them back.

I climbed one of the plateaux of the area to better see in the distance.

All I could see to the horizon were the forest fading into distance as if they were endless, from every direction.

Wow. I’m lost?

Somehow like that, it seems like a first.

I made a soup of the flowers still growing over the grass of the plateau I was on. I took shelter beside a rock for the night.

~

During the night, something woke me up. Dawn was near.

Maybe it was luck, but it was probably that we had indeed the same idea as I expected.

I saw the ship in the distance.

I was too far away to just yell.

I recalled the first time I met Licht.

She did a spell of blinding light like fireworks. Nothing harmful, only visible light.

I tried. I focused. I could then see and interact with the flows of T.I. around me.

Spots of higher concentrations, whether they are bacteria, primitive lifeforms or just droplets of energy, they saturate the air. I weave them between my senses as I will it, condensing them and shaping their intention.

I then released my will in my surroundings. The closest particles to me became sparks, disappearing into small flashes.

I raised the invisible cloud carrying my wish into the air.

Everything begins to glow, with scattered sparkles. It looks like a cloud of fireworks is burning small coloured elements. It doesn’t look like anything I ever saw, and neither quite what I expected.

I stop this weirdness after a minute. The flow of air and T.I. was beginning to change and to carry me more than I carried it, increasing gradually. I stopped the interference, the chemical or physical reaction between T.I. and reality.

If my friends saw it, they will find me.

~

Slowly as the sun rose, the ship silently sailed toward my position, in a long and gentle, careful curve, not in a straight line. They learnt well by themselves, colour me impressed.

After an hour or so, I could see the ship that was once mine reaching the air above me.

The rope ladder fell next to me, and the black girl climbed down first. She’s grown.

We looked at each other for a few seconds. We could hardly recognise each other. She’s not the girl I remember. And inside her eyes, I probably look much older and different as well.

One could think each time you come back to life, your youth is restored and you’re twenty again. It does not work that way for me. Something inside of me remembers my real age, it keeps track and tabs. If anything, it grows even faster as I get debts of energy that age me.

Weird. But we hug each other nonetheless.

Then I give a good hug to Zeslinry as well. My oldest friend. She changes far less.

M - Cut one rose, another one will grow.

R - That sounds about right.

~

They told me over time what happened to them since we left.

Their story means more to me than the last four hundred years of history.

Many of the mindless roses died tragically.

Since it became obvious that something was hunting them down, they scattered all across the old kingdom.

Myls and Zes began their journey about that time as well.

Myls has a fire in her heart and inside her eyes that is probably as strong as mine now.

Zeslinry is gentle and kind behind. But she also has a smile I know means a lot. She’s happy.

M - We saw a baby once.

R - A human baby?

The most wondrous discovery of the time is as simple as that. I manage to find the irony amusing...

I eventually tell them what happened to us, and Bleue. She died suddenly, from a kind of systemic failure I couldn’t diagnose nor cure.

Which was probably if not definitely the consequence of her pregnancy as a human in our day. It doesn’t work anymore, and mothers in the becoming usually just die.

They’re sorry of course. They’re also puzzled hearing I was technically the father.

It’s embarrassing to explain you know?

Well, I explain it anyway. The weirdness is a little too much for them given the faces they make.

The fact that she had wings in the end is more fun.

M - That’s cool.

R - It really was. We all have different metabolisms, and we can affect it as well. Like the monsters do.

Z - I barely recognised you when you were flying and landing on the back of that huge monster.

R - I have clothes now, sorry for that...

I remember perforating the chest and noble organs of the beast back then, with one swift trust. The memory fades.

We have a fun moment together between friends. A day, chatting peacefully. An anchored ship is floating above the forest. We look at it as it’s by an impromptu pier next to us on that mesa, above the woods.

Z - Do you...

R - Hm? Oh, no, not at all. Please, keep the ship. It will be more useful to you now.

Z - Thank you Rose. By the way, I’m surprised you speak our language now?

R - I had an opportunity, and a firm scold or two to work on that.

I tell them about the dream of the twelve labours as well, that she invented for me.

M - Why so many more than twelve? And they are insane.

R - I know. But they remain in the back of my head now.

Z - So... I think I know where you will go next then.

R - Oh?

Z - You’re going to search for the source of T.I. on Earth?

R - Ooh. Not yet, but that’s the right guess. I will probably soon look for it yes. But I need to go elsewhere first. Actually now that I think about it... Maybe we could go together? Because I could use a lift in the ship to reach that place faster.

Z - We’re not in a hurry, so, I think that’s okay. What do you think?

M - Hm hm. I’m curious to hear where you need to head first Rose. Before you start searching for that source.

I tap the tips of my index fingers one against another. Pale on left, grey on right.

The thing about the source of T.I on Earth, its origin truly, is that nobody knows. I don’t at least.

What is was, nor even where it is.

I’ve seen clues. I’ve seen consequences. I’ve heard legends. I’ve heard calls. But if I want to go further on that path, I need to discuss the matter a little deeper with someone who was there since it began, and slightly before as well. Someone who can read the flows of T.I. since back then.

R - I kind of... Made another friend, along the way. Someone who’s likely to know more.

Z - Kind of?

M - It’s not human you mean? Like Blume?

R - Yes. I call her Nightmare. She lives on the south western shore of the black sea.

~

Because currently, the two trails I have about the source of T.I. on Earth, the Tamźródlo, are heading in two radically opposite directions.

One is in Antarctica, where began something exotic. The other one is in Karelia, further north. I don’t know what’s out there, but legends are numerous.

I might as well head north right away, since it’s much closer and easier to reach from here.

But Nightmare is likely to know a little more, if I ask her kindly.

Until Blume reappears on me, Nightmare is my only friend being-like-her I have.

Z - You think Blume will return as well?

R - Yes. She is like me. She is a part of me as much as I’m a part of her. One day she will reappear on my chest as if she had only slept for a little while, longer than usual.

M - When she does, say hi to her for me. And treat her well. She’s a good one.

R - Deal, I will.

Blume is more than a good one. She’s the best flower I ever encountered in my entire life.

We agreed. We will travel together for a little while.

And we will go meet my kindred spirit friend, in a few ways. My odd friend...

We could have been or become mortal enemies, but something in me always wanted to have her as a friend. And that odd desire won back then. I’m sure she could still be conflicted about what she herself feels about that.

We will see in a few days how that dark little one has been doing.

I’m curious.

We shall see.

~