StoryPaws: A Mystical Old World Story: The Toxics (7)

Chapter 7 OCEANIDS As dawn broke,

A huge torrent of water drenched the camp.

Felicity leapt up with a scream.

The others woke gasping and ran in all directions.

They were soaked.

The fire remains had splashed sideways,

Covering those too slow to move in black,

Soggy charcoal.

Felicity looked for Reuben.

He was standing on the shoreline,

Calmly talking to a whale or something close to it.

Its eye was as large as Felicity's head.

This giant mammal's spume had saturated them,

She realised.

They clearly don't do small in this world,

She thought,

Furiously squeezing out her soggy cape and shaking her sodden hair.

The water droplets landed on her cheek,

Reeking of salty,

Smelly fish.

Oh,

Gross,

Felicity said as she slushed through the sodden sand.

Reuben held his hand behind him to signal her to stop approaching,

Whilst he continued his conversation with the creature.

The mammoth's eye swivelled and bored into him.

He felt himself thoroughly searched.

As it returned its glare to Reuben,

Felicity could see Gus's spines trembling.

She wasn't sure how to touch him with those long spikes,

So she leant across and looked deep into his eyes.

They were the same pools of sorrow as the first time she saw him,

Dark and lonely.

She felt the horror of isolation flowing through her like an icy draft.

Reuben had finished communicating with the oceanid and he dropped back to Felicity and Gus.

Right,

He said.

Luparta bored first,

Then all other followers,

And key troop members,

Please bring up the rear.

George,

Would you bore last,

So Oceanid One Thousandth Five Hundred can redistribute our weight?

You probably weigh more or less our equivalent.

What!

Exclaimed Felicity.

We're mounting that thing.

The oceanid's eye swivelled fast and pierced her with its black nothingness.

She felt her mind being trawled.

Images of the Welsh hills and waterfalls she so loved,

The golden stone villages of her birth,

Beloved people,

Planes,

Bridges,

Steeples,

All flashed through her involuntarily as it flicked and picked her images.

She fought to blank them.

How dare it?

But it was like a fist grabbing hold of her.

Then it stopped.

A voice came into her head,

Much like the voice of the mist the day she'd bumped into this old world.

Felicity's face reddened with anger,

But she kept her eyes down and followed the others.

George was huffing at Reuben's comment.

I weigh no more than a little feather,

He said.

His neck was arched and he tossed his huge head,

Snorting vociferously.

The poor colour changes were being blown all over the place.

Reuben raised his hands in apology.

Your fine physique must attract the Torrelles in droves,

He said.

The wind was picking up and the oceanid would only grace them with her offer of transport for so long.

It was beneath the dignity of oceanids to act as cargo carriers,

But the cold wind was blowing them away.

Reuben knew she must be acting on the orders of the ancients,

The elders of her kind,

But she could still change her mind.

They must board.

George made his grand entrance into the waves.

He was unceremoniously lifted by a column of the largest greens,

Their branches creaking with the strain of this vast beast's weight.

The mighty oceanid set her course.

She arched her smooth,

Warm back and they all nestled in the dip.

Like ducklings on a mother's back,

Thought Felicity,

With a smile.

She sat down to avoid falling and looked back at the land they were leaving very fast behind.

The oceanid slid smoothly and extremely efficiently through the dark,

Green waters.

Felicity sighed and Reuben moved close to her.

Everyone was silent as they left the land and the first step of the journey behind.

Reuben thought of his task.

The oceanid had informed him they must go north to find the next member.

He was relieved.

There were only three.

He had to foil an army of bitter and raged toxics.

He wondered how.

The Orion elders had confidence he could achieve this.

He chewed the side of his finger as he assessed the situation so far.

Well,

He had successfully travelled east and had picked up Felicity and their connection was strong.

He felt it like a rope of steel.

They would work well together.

She was small,

Of course,

But he'd seen tinier Orion defeat larger in childhood scuffles.

His plan,

Then,

Would be to travel fast,

Take on members that presented themselves if they felt true to the quest.

Then,

In the absence of any signs,

He would return home to consult the Orion elders.

It was like jumping into the void and simply trusting that the path of the quest would appear like an invisible safety net.

He would not falter.

He trusted this old world to help him.

He'd grown up with its mystical signs and hidden powers.

However,

It would be wise to seek and speak with the aquatics to try to discover a clearer outline of what might be.

The rebel toxics were sadly misguided and he knew it must stop.

He shook his head as if to resettle its weight for a moment.

Felicity saw the movement and wondered where his big mind was wandering.

She looked at him discreetly.

He really was so,

Well,

Gorgeous.

His dark hair was whipping about as the wind loosened it from the cord.

And his olive,

Downy skin glowed in the flashes of sunshine.

She found herself staring at the slight bump on the bridge of his nose.

She wanted to touch it,

To stroke her finger down it.

She leant back on the warm beast and stared up at the skies.

So like how beautiful earth and sky,

She thought sleepily.

But if she turned her head,

The weird and wonderful collection of lives reclining and standing in this gigantic dell were a shocking reminder of where she was not.

The swell of the sea got larger and Felicity started to feel queasy.

George was sidling carefully up to her.

The sun was eclipsed as he eased himself in front of her.

The oceanid let out a groan of irritation as the movement of his massive bulk necessitated she repositioned herself quickly.

George lowered his head and Felicity tried not to cringe away.

His face was not a pretty sight.

His furry coat almost covered his eyes.

Tiny lights in a cavern of fur.

His nose was encrusted with limpets or something like them and his lips were caked with substances Felicity was not keen to analyse.

I suppose if you live for thousands of years you pick up a few warts along the way,

She thought,

Trying to remember to block those thoughts so as not to offend him.

She'd noticed as they moved further west that she could hear the murmuring of mines if she tried to tune in,

Like a radio picking up a far-off station.

It felt wrong to listen in to someone else's thoughts,

But it was fun,

She acknowledged,

With little guilt.

George looked at her and spoke.

So,

Sweet-smelling young one,

He said in his gravelly rumbling voice,

What make you of this quest?

Um,

I'm honoured to be invited along,

Said Felicity,

Uncertain of protocol with such an aged personage.

The old world has been shifting slowly on its axis,

Said George.

For many years we Toro have seen these changes.

So slowly they've insidiously crept in and now,

Like an avalanche of boulders in my beautiful country,

These unhappy toxics try to rip our whole balance with their misery and their complaining.

His voice increased in volume as his anger rose and Felicity looked desperately for Reuben.

But it was Gus who came to her rescue.

Forgive me,

Aged sire,

For joining your talk,

But being of their kind,

I feel moved to help explain,

He said.

George kept his head facing Felicity.

He did not move,

Nor acknowledge Gus had spoken.

There was an awkward silence.

Then George raised his massive shoulders,

Inhaling the longest breath.

Felicity began counting.

She reached forty before George began to let it go.

He lifted his head to the sky,

Letting the long stream of air gush out.

Felicity was relieved.

She thought she was about to join the fate of the colour-changers and be blown up into the air,

Or worse,

Into the deep black water beneath them.

Reuben the Orion is well chosen,

But… George faltered and fell silent at this point.

He slowly said to Gus,

If you want so much to be a part of this world,

Then first you'd better take the time to listen to it and to learn.

I have travelled and listened through the passing of the years.

I have seen injustice from the old beasts and plants to the toxics.

I have also seen bitterness and closed hearts from you,

The toxics.

Now all I hear is anger.

There is a reason for your birth.

And there is a reason for your survival.

This should have been resolved by now.

But the imbalances increased as the bitterness and closed minds fed them.

It's too late for unaided harmony.

It's time this quest discovers the answers.

Somewhere is a healing water to quench the fires of anger.

Somewhere is the answer to put out the fury and cries of the new rebel toxics that threaten not only themselves,

But the world they claim a right to inherit.

Reuben shows courage in an Orion I have not witnessed in many hundreds of years.

The optimism of his youth is essential.

If you're here,

Toxic,

Then I,

George,

Will accept the way of the world.

It is a time of change.

We must make sure this change is the right one.

Let's work together.

I will join this quest.

Will you work with me?

The ancient Toro and gentle toxic faced each other.

And the sea winds abated.

The water swell dropped to a calm ripple.

The ocean had paused in her journey.

All the passengers listened.

George voice had traveled far and high in the sky.

Felicity saw those shapes again.

What are they?

She thought.

Finally,

Gus bowed his odd long head to George.

Reuben watched with pleasure.

He'd so hope George would stay.

Seeing a toxic prepared to fight for the quest against his own kind must have done it,

He thought.

He put an arm around Felicity's shoulders.

The ocean had broke the moment with another pouring of water that saturated them all.

There was laughter.

And then someone shouted,

Land,

I see land.

They derived safely at the temperate north.