TTR 8: "We must not wait"

  Scotty: Drim. Calvin: Brooke/Cliff.

Grandaunt Ngeng will not wed!

Middle Month of Summer. Day 6, beginning of night watch. HEX L.

Tree, and rebirth

Drim, Brooke, Shiri, and Alira discuss the next course of action. Alira must head north with her two children to rejoin her village. Shiri must head north with Yamin to return the scepter to Grandaunt Ngeng. Krun will follow the duo of Drim and Brooke. The duo decides they will head north as well, after Krun shows confidence in Nana's raid of Once Soot. Shiri explains that only Children of the Forest can pass under the shade of Grandaunt Ngeng's tree, and that if Brooke wishes to travel north he will have to undergo a Cleaving at the hands of Krun. There's a 5% chance of immediate death. The "Zum" will be shred from Brooke's body, birthing a Child of the Forest with his memories. Brooke agrees.

Krun takes a wicked curved blade from the wall of his shack and rips it through Brooke, vertically bisecting him. The skin peels away, a form covered in embryonic goop shivering underneath. He survives the ritual. Krun flicks the blood off of his blade and the blood flies off of Brooke's new Witch Folk body. He appears in his thirties, muscular, well formed and handsome. Brooke renames himself "Cliff Stone." The party decides to rest tonight and travel into the shade of Grandaunt Ngeng's tree in the morning.

Day 7, an hour into morning watch (7AM). HEX L.

Krun grabs a cleaver the size of a wagon with nasty serrated edges and brings it aboard his canoe. Shiri and Yamin join him. Yamin seems confused and disinterested and stupid, and like he just wants this whole ordeal over with so he can be with Shiri. Alira and her children continue to ride aboard the duo's skiff.

Day 7, three hours into travel (10AM). HEX L > HEX Q.

Three escaped canny-ware paddling towards Ngeng's shade on their paired items; an ornate chest, a folding screen, and a pillow. Drim offers to tie their items together to the end of their skiff so they can rest atop instead of paddling. 

Day 7, afternoon watch (3PM). HEX Q.

The edge of the mangrove forest. The wood disappears as the sea beyond opens up. In a watery alcove just beyond the beach of roots, in front of the sea, stretches a silvery tree sprawling upward with its branches. Roots entangled on orange laterite rock, the shimmering leaves cast a shadow on the bank. A woman at the base of the tree waves at the party. She has long white hair and only one arm. "I expected to see three of you, but more company is always welcome. Where's Meaw?" Ngeng asks Shiri. Shiri explains that the trickster cat guide was killed in their travels. Ngeng invites the group to her hut atop the tree for porridge and fish flakes. 

Ngeng knows why they are here. She knows the risks in traveling back through history alone, so she accepts help. Alira's children and the canny-ware are spared from traveling back. Ngeng touches her remaining hand on the foreheads of the canny-ware and their paired items harmlessly dissolve. The canny ritual is broken. 

With Drim, Cliff, Shiri, Yamin, Krun, and Alira; Ngeng performs the ritual and binds the bone scepter to the stub of her ar. Skin travels up the bone, and entwines the scepter, forming the start of young fingers before--

130 YEARS AGO...

The arrival of Zum

The party splashes up out of the sea, gasping for air. Yamin is nowhere to be seen. The forest is higher, the beach in plain view; the roots rest atop a stony island. Less of a mangrove swamp and more of a stone-floored island forest: the tide rises much in the years to follow. Bonfires near shore. A war galley floats in from the north where Ngeng's tree is now absent. The war galley bears flags of royal Zum, early flags. Within are two Zum soldiers in strange metal armor, nasal helms, and spears. Ba'al Zum, the fifth Zum King, poses at the prow. He stands nearly seven feet tall, with wide shoulders and a large belly covered by golden armor ornamented in the form of a gong. He bangs against the armor with a decorated scimitar and laughs deeply. At the bank of the island is a young girl with a bladed club and shield, Young Ngeng. Around her are her siblings, Children of the Forest. Young Soot, with her shaved head and sturdy build. Young See, with carefree smile and relaxed shoulders. Young Rie, Young Shing, and Young Beg. All youths in their teens or early twenties. 

"Maiden! Put up your arms! We will battle, and if I win you will give me your hand. We will be married! If you win, I will serve you forever, or leave and never be seen again. Whichever you prefer!" The Zum King shouts across the sea as his soldiers row closer.

Drim and Cliff observe the scene. Shiri is stunned: it really worked. Krun and Alira begin swimming to shore. Drim and Cliff know that soon Ngeng will accept the King's offer and history will repeat. Through cunning words and swift action Drim and Cliff and Shiri persuade Ngeng to abandon her pride and think of her friends and siblings. Meanwhile Alira moves through the crowd, collecting items. The Zum King laughs defiantly as he steps ashore.

Suddenly, Krun, with his cleaver raised, is behind the King. "When I was four I stopped being a person. My mother was killed and my sister taken by your people. Granduncle See made me a deal: he could replace my heart with one of his bitter fruits, and I could make my pain bloom outward into death and revenge against Zum-kind." Krun swings the massive blade at the Zum king, but it swerves into the rock beside him. The Zum King is unflinching, and bellows laughter. The Zum King shouts to stop scheming. He believes these strangers to be agents of the Basilisks. "He cannot be harmed by human hands," whispers Drim to Ngeng. 

One day all will blacken and burn

"The caress of fire's hands shall be inhuman enough," says Alira, handing one end of an oil-soaked rope to Ngeng. Alira tells Ngeng to run around the King and his soldiers, tying them together. Once they are restrained Alira lights a torch and sets the rope, and the Zum King, aflame. Because of the burning pain Alira and Ngeng grip the lit rope with supernatural strength. Fire burns the flesh off of Ngeng's arm. Cliff takes her place, flame racing up his limbs instead. Alira stares at the bonfire, white and red light flashing off of her spectacles. Drim, afraid of the prophecy, dashes them off of her face and crunches them underneath his foot. Eventually Drim pulls Alira away as the Zum King and his soldiers blacken and roast. Ngeng cools her arm in the sea with Shiri and the other children's help. 

Alira, crazed, begins to scrawl the written language of the forest on to the rock. Cliff can understand it, now. It is the beginning of The Fire Foretold. Krun stands ashamed, defeated. His bloody violence and cleaving action was not the answer. Cliff's body is badly burned. Drim looks into the crowd. Mend, a witch of the forest, the only elderly "child" here, waddles out of the gathering. She gives an augury to the party:

Krun: Death: Pain begetting pain and violence, wandering immortal, hated slayer. Alira: Chariot: Going, going, going, racing forward, never stopping, always doing, raw power. Drim: Fool: Beginning, young hero, springing, leaping, dancing, an adventurer. Ngeng: Fortune: Luck, change, revolving and transforming, fates averted. Shiri: Empress: Leader and mother, nurturer, warrior, paving the path, wall of protection. Cliff: Moon: Mystery, cloudiness, a strange obfuscation, bad dreams, a shapeshifter.

Drim looks over to Shiri: "So now we wait?" 

"We must not wait," she responds, "Now we must do." 

"Alright, Grandaunt," Drim winks.