21: A Simple Exchange

"Careful, Skyler! You're gonna choke!"

"Don't care."

My tongue rejoiced and sang praises from that very first bite. Spicy, smoky, and a hint of sweetness, delicious didn't seem a deserving enough description. I shoved another piece of jerky in my mouth.

"Really? Just… slow down, will ya? Chew, swallow, then speak. I can't understand anything ya say with a full mouth."

"M—?!" She was right. I almost choked that time, but refused to admit she was right. "More?"

"More? What do ya mean, more?"

"Food."

"That’s not… There's plenty of… Hold on, are ya telling me it’s all… gone? Ya ate it all?!"

"I dunno," I mumbled, still chewing what was in my mouth, and shrugged. I shoved a final piece of jerky in and shut my mouth before the taste could escape. "Did I?"

"Nysh, help me. Ya have to be kidding, right?" Fabrienne snatched the previously full bag from me, turned it upside down, and gave it a shake. A few small chunks, only crumbs, fell into her palm.

"Joke?" I finally swallowed the last of what I'd been savoring. "About food? Nope. Not after eating all those… Loo…? Loo-tear…? Luterrum roots? I never want to eat another one of those again." Recalling their taste after having something so wonderful made me shudder in disgust. "Warm dirt—" I dry heaved.

"This was supposed to be a quick chat, not a chance for ya to gobble down the last of my rations. Ya can go catch your own food if you're still hungry after eating all that. Now, once more, tell me what you're doing in these ruins."

I licked the lingering taste of the jerky from my bandaged fingers.

Did I really eat it all? She has to have more somewhere.

Thinking about how to answer her questions left me with the sickening reality that she'd never believe a word I said. I didn't want to lie and become her next meal, either. Starting from the beginning, I doubted she'd know what a video game was. I'd have to skip that part. Plus, someone can't crash through a window that didn't actually exist, or talk to a disembodied, sadistic voice who got its jollies from insulting me. Fabrienne would probably think the whole thing was fiction. I took a deep breath and attempted to summarize things in as few details as possible.

"I… woke up here, by the jewel where you found me. I guess you might say I was… thrown out and injured." Vague and simple answers made the chances of being caught in a lie or unexplainable truth seem low. "Back then, the jewel looked… normal? Just a useless purple gem. I ignored the stupid thing for a while. Maybe if I hadn’t…" I looked at my hands again.

Would she have come sooner? If I didn't have the sword when the bandits arrived… How different would things be?

"But… I've been here plenty of times. Something must have… The jewel's never lit up before, not like when I found ya with it. Sure, the one in Docheo sparkles in the sun sometimes, but it certainly doesn't—"

I sputtered, coughed, and choked on the pieces of jerky I was picking out of my teeth with my tongue.

"W-whoa! Wait! B-back… Back the truck up. There's… a-another one?!"

"Truck? What's a—?"

"Forget about the truck, Fabri! There's another jewel? Seriously? In Docheo?"

"Yeah. Probably more out there, too, somewhere. I guess it’s nice to look at, i-if ya like that sort of thing, and the kids enjoy making up stories about why it twinkles."

Ideas and theories bubbled up in my mind and overflowed. They took my focus away from the interrogation turned interview and her.

If a jewel was right here, at the same spot where I arrived, then maybe others are located somewhere near OTHER ways back to that thing's church. I'd prefer a door next time, but didn't it say that was… decoration? Would it work like the window? Whatever. If I find my way there first, maybe I can even get home! The jewels have to be the key… somehow. Everything else was in shambles, but it… Why else was it right there, on this side of the window?

The wheels kept turning in my head. Until now, I'd given up on figuring out how to get home. I wanted to believe the jewel was the answer to my problem, but now I had a feeling it wouldn't be that simple. For all I knew, I had to find another church or a copy of the window I went through instead. My mind kept coming up with different tangents and possibilities for what I needed to do. My biggest fear was the voice's game would only finish once it decided whether I'd failed or passed, and that I had to appease it by pursuing a currently unknown task. That, or I'd just die here and never go home.

"Hey! Ya aren't even listening anymore. Nysh, I should've known… Ya don't get to inhale all my food, then pretend ya can't hear me, little man. We had a deal—! Again with the hand? Really? I just changed… Give it here."

"I… Huh? What were you—? Whoa!" Fabrienne grabbed me by the wrist and pulled. Apparently, I'd balled my left hand into a fist again while lost in thought. "S-sorry."

"Don't 'sorry' me. It's not my hand," she growled. "What's wrong with ya? Even animals know better than… Ugh!" Fabrienne grabbed one of those berries I liked from a pouch on her belt and crushed it over the open wound in my hand. I inhaled sharply and pulled away. The juice stung, but she held firm. I had no chance of escaping her grip if she didn't want me to. Next, she splinted my fingers together to prevent me from making another fist, and wrapped my hand in a fresh strip of cloth. When the job was complete, she huffed out a frustrated sigh. "Ya hear me now, aye?" She glared at me, but there was something unsettling about how she kept looking at me like I wasn't real.

"Y-yes." She only let go of me once I answered.

"Good. Now, I asked if ya did something to the jewel, little man. The light was so bright when I found ya standing over it, but… How do I say this? There was more… The sun was useless. The ruins were being swallowed in darkness except for the jewel… and then there were those tremors, that… noise. It felt almost like the heart of someone in panic or… None of it stopped entirely until ya… and I couldn't wake ya after. No matter what I—"

"Rewind. What?"

"Huh?"

"Go back."

"Ya want me to leave? 'Cause I'll do it. I'll leave ya out here if ya keep—!"

"The jewel was… You mean it was just glowing, right? Like when I woke up and… No. Then you wouldn’t have said… How bright was it?!"

"What? Why am I suddenly…? I’m supposed to be the one asking…"

"Please? I need to know. It's important."

Her frustration with my half-answers and the questions I threw back at her that kept interrupting hers was understandable, but now it seemed like she was pouting. I'd never seen a blacksmith pout, and she'd called me the child.

Maybe if I hadn't passed out it would've…? No. If it was going to heal me, I’d already be… I wouldn't have needed her help to still be—

"The jewel was, ya know… bright. Shining, I guess ya could say? There was a lot of light. I dunno what else to say, but it's how I found… Well, it led me to… Nysh, how did ya not—? Ya were laying on it, Skyler. Ya had to see—Oh…" Her cheeks reddened, and she looked away. "I, um, forgot about… Your eyes… were in worse shape than I…"

Her questions paused for the moment. Her recollection of events when she found me somewhat mirrored my puzzling experience, albeit without ever understanding the reasons behind the bandit's final absurd screams. His demands for me to stop were just as confusing as before. I wasn't doing anything except trying to fight back. It had to be more of his resonance nonsense, but I had a question that nobody could answer.

If it was really all connected to… me… somehow… then why was it missing when that wolf-beast… Wolfang…? When that creature attacked me?

"You almost had it that time, but… You need… more, Skyler. Start believing in…" Fragments of the voice's cryptic taunts resurfaced in my memory.

What did I almost have? What do I need more of? What am I supposed to believe?!

"I… I'm sorry, Fabri. I don't… I'm not sure what you saw. I have so many questions… Probably more than you."

Even if what I told her was technically true, I hadn't exactly been forthcoming with all the details. It might have been guilt, but every breath felt more difficult than my last. I wondered if I'd just stop breathing if I ignored it.

The question-and-answer portion of our deal stretched on longer than either of us wanted, probably in an attempt to catch me in a lie. She sat there, listening as I droned on about what I chose to share about my many bumbling and failed attempts to survive in as broad strokes as possible. I left out the finer points any chance I could, anything to take away the sting of admitting how useless and incompetent I'd been.

Our conversation turned into more of a 'fill in the gaps' session until she thought my explanation made enough sense to her. Then came the topic of the sword. Apparently, the stone weapon was something she considered a valuable relic, and I had no business touching it. To put it plainly, I wasn't worthy.

"If I hadn't… I'd be dead if… It's not like I vandalized the statue, smashing a rock against…" Nope. I only did that to the jewel and failed miserably. I never thought of trying to break the statue. "I was on my knees, beg—" I stopped. I still wasn't sure I understood how or why the statue released his sword. Trying to explain the events with that in mind would make things even more awkward, if that was even possible. I pleaded for the statue's—his—help, unless maybe I was asking the voice. It could've been a plea to the universe for all I knew. Regardless, the answer came in the form of his sword, and my life being saved. Afterwards, I hated any moment without it, including now.

"So, there wasn't anyone else? That's what you're going with? The statue… No. HE gave it to ya? Really, Skyler? Ya expect me to believe that nonsense?"

"W-weirder things have happened?"

But I won't tell you those parts.

"Ya just shouldn't have been able to take it. Plain and simple, really. Considering ya don't—" She looked away again. I wasn't even worth a proper explanation, let alone being allowed to touch the damn thing.

It hurt to admit, but there were plenty of reasons I shouldn't handle any sword, let alone that sword, and they were far from absurd. She already said as much, calling me a hazard to myself. My lack of experience and weak strength were just the top two contenders based on how crudely I used the weapon against the bandits. Whatever she wasn't saying now had to have been a doozy of an insult.

"Fine. Whatever. It's not like you'll… Are we done?"

I wanted to end the conversation there rather than let her continue with what she clearly didn't want to say. I hoped when we finished talking she'd have seen things my way, but not after that. The chance was a resounding zero.

"Yeah, I… guess we are. A deal's a deal. Are ya ready to go? If not, ya best take care of anything now. We should leave sooner rather than later. We still have lots of sun, but it's quite a hike if ya aren't used to the terrain."

Intended or not, everything with her had to be so humiliating. I felt like a child, and that she was asking me if I had to pee before heading out.

"There is… one thing. I should… I need to… I won't take long. Just don't leave without me, okay?"

Giving her any specifics seemed like a surefire way of getting further ridiculed. She'd call me a baby again, or worse. I returned to my hovel, then to the berry shrubs, followed by the garden of wild flowers and disgusting dinners I'd been digging up. Everywhere I looked came up empty.

"Hey, it's me! Are you here… somewhere? Come on, please? I can't leave without… Where are you?" The branches of a nearby tree shook, and two little heads popped out. I found them. "There you are. Want a treat? I've got some tasty berries."

I held out a handful of ripe berries for them, my entire stash. There weren't many, but it was all I had to offer them. Both flying fennec pups jumped from the tree, glided towards me, and landed on the ground before rushing over. I sat in the grass and fed each a palmful while their bushy tails wagged. Their mother suddenly appeared from somewhere, sat at my side, and nuzzled my arm before climbing in my lap.

Food was the only gift I had to repay them for the time they spent with me, and I knew they liked berries. When my hands were empty, the pups licked the leftover juice that stained my bandages.

"Stay safe out here, okay?" I scratched the mother fennec under her chin and along the side of her neck. She leaned into it. "I know you probably don't understand me, but… No more jumping on crazy bandits, got it?"

"Yirf!"

"Yeah, I'll take that as a promise, and… th-thanks… for tolerating—"

A twig snapped. The furry trio went on alert, then tore through the grass and bolted up a tree. Gone forever. My goodbye remained unfinished.

Bye…

"Skyler? I thought I heard ya calling out. Who are…?" Fabrienne scouted the now empty area. "Were ya talking to someone?"

"N-no." My face wasn't just hot, it burned from being found by her like that. I wiped my eyes and swallowed, trying to recompose myself. "Nobody. I-I was just… thinking… out loud, t-talking to… myself."

"Ya sure? I thought I saw—"

"I'm sure. Okay?" In an instant, I was back on my feet and already returning to the ruins with her behind me. I avoided eye contact at all costs.

"Aye. Let's get a move on then, little Skyler. Stay close. I'll protect ya from any nasties that might cross our path." Fabrienne picked up her speed, taking off at a brisk pace into the forest north of the ruins.

"Hey! I'm taller than you!" It probably wasn't the smartest thing to call out. She sped up even more, but I chased after her. I couldn't afford to lose her in the trees. "Slow down, will you? That's not fair. I don't have any boots!"

Twigs and leaves crunched under our feet as we left the flying fennecs, the ruins, and the statue behind.