557. Joy, 4
Over the following days, Blume agreed to help Nightmare carry the egg over land.
It mostly meant for her to abandon her current floating body. Her huge self crawled over the possibly semi volcanic ground, making woods walk over land. Quite a sight.
She reminded me of how mushrooms can grow over a decomposing corpse.
Her body too heavy to carry herself out of the water struggled to get mostly out, and collapsed there.
And Blume being as kind as she is, she didn’t recycle all of her body to move herself further. On the contrary.
Because an entire ecosystem had gathered around her aquatic roots and trees, she left a good spread of them inside the sea and along the shore.
And all the semi foreign species constituting her body were given independence. She didn’t consume them all as she’s now leaving.
Meaning she’s not feeling desperate but rather better. Trees and plants suddenly took roots as they separated from the gathering. The collapsing body was turning into a rather normal patch of woods and fields.
Blume focused her rebirth into my chest flowers, and the newly built shell of Nightmare’s egg thing.
It grew like the bud and fruit of a hellish and titanic flower. A black fruit the size of a shed, being slowly covered by petals wider than I’m tall. And petal by petal, the fruit was covered, wrapped, and risen to the bank.
Nightmare was overseeing the work at first, but then lost interest, realising she could trust her friend with this, without second thoughts.
While Blume was transforming, Nightmare and I went to scout the safest path down north.
~
We’re probably still far from the area where the two Americas meet. The land of rivers and jungles below stretches endlessly.
Nightmare looks puzzled. Unusually so.
R - Is there something you’re noticing? Something odd?
N - A little... It’s... Maybe a message or a call. But I can’t understand its meaning if so.
The landscape looks eerie and calm to me. But some invisible waves are passing through. Nightmare hears something I can’t.
N - I don’t know what it was, but it sounded friendly.
Nightmare was looking at the summit of the mountains on our right, hiding the sea and the falls.
It seems something crossed the ocean, and was mostly lost along its way. Maybe Blume will have deciphered more.
R - Still feeling good as a human?
Nightmare looked at me and pinched one of my cheeks, while wearing a grin.
N - It’s alright.
She looked slowly all across the horizon while I massaged my cheek.
N - The world is definitely wider now.
She poked me on the cheek where it hurts, and a fragment of magic spread on it, cooling it down and soothing the pain.
R - Finding new ways to have fun, are we?
N - Yes. The funniest one isn’t here, but you can be amusing too to play with.
I wonder where the funniest one and Zeslinry are.
~
Blume and her large fruit were an interesting sight on the edge of this small bosket on the shore.
R - Blume? Have you noticed the call?
B - I did. It was such a nice message.
Obviously she heard it better than Night did.
R - What did it say?
B - More or less just a kind hello.
R - To us?
B - Yes. From our friends. I think they’re doing well, and wishing us the same.
R - Ah. They have no clue where we are, don’t they? At least they realised we’re alive.
B - Probably not. They also likely think you’re dead. It was addressed to me.
N - Sensible thought.
Bitches.
R - Could we send them a reply easily?
B - Hm...
Neither of them are very fond of the idea of yelling to the winds and world and everything monstrous it holds that we’re alive and where.
Nightmare sighs and agrees though, surprisingly.
N - But let’s not make it magical.
Rather than sending a magical shockwave or bolt, we’ll go another route, more discreet in the other ocean.
The way these two are far more at ease with.
And soon enough, an egg of mud about my size and boiling hot protrudes out of the ground.
A new life is born between their crafty hands. A living messenger.
One easy to make. A bird, with some vines and flowery elements.
The bird that blossomed there, suddenly pulled out of the earth and its warmth, was a kind of corvus. A big one, maybe eagle size.
It lied as dead, not conscious yet. Blood vessels still protruding from all over its body as they fed and built it.
The feathers completed taking shape, colours of earths. Grey beak and talons. Some sort of petals and feathers mixed together around the neck.
Nightmare completed its brain while Blume made most of its wings turn a vivid leaf green. This bird will fly over the Atlantic Ocean in one go. So Blume gives it some helpful attributes she knows well.
The beak opened as the mind began to awaken. A sharp red tongue. A small shriek ensued, and the eyes full of sudden life began to blink.
Nightmare raised it without lifting a finger. Her creation obeyed on instinct. They spoke then, silently.
Nightmare pointed at me and the bird suddenly looked at me.
It jumped. I instinctively stiffened my shoulders and rose my left arm.
The bird landed on my arm, ripping my skin open to hold onto it.
I made a pained face but held.
The bird balanced itself on my arm with its slightly opened wings. An exercise of balance.
We didn’t have very specific words to give it to carry.
Just the nice fact that we’re all doing well and happy.
The bird pinched my ear lobe as if to eat it, and flew away as I reacted to it, letting go.
Of course Nightmare was laughing. And Blume too...
I’ll make them pay later.
I saw the bird rapidly rise and fly away into the sky, heading East.
It will fly over the falls, and disappear into the sky, far above the ocean.
The clouds always changing and the winds even more rich and varied.
It will surely take it a month to find our friends. It will pick up their smell gradually as it flies over the mediterranean sea...
And I know a good friend or two and a sharp girl who will understand what the look of that odd bird means.
We’re all smiling as we think of you.
Once our journey on these continents ends, I know where I’ll need to go. But before that, I’ve got some manners to teach these two brats!
Kindred spirits in more ways than one these two are, but mostly when it comes to teasing me.
I start by pinching Nightmare’s cheeks, although it appears to mostly making her laugh further at me...
~
