Etude 15, as yet unnamed

So, what I've been doing is writing in 15-minute spurts with short breaks in between. In the interests of not breaking my momentum , I didn't give this chapter a title. (I have to consult my handy-dandy list of musical terms, mull over the choices, and pick the right one, which all takes time when I could be writing more.)



     She had the sudden feeling of falling, and sharp pain, and it snapped her out of the dream. She realized she was tumbling down the rock face, the ropes flying loose around her. Then, suddenly, the rock reached up to catch her, and she landed with a soft thump. Her arms ached from the impact, but she was mostly unhurt. She looked up, in time to see Armand descending slowly from the rock, with Rosemary floating beside him.

     "Armand?"

     "Hrnh?"

     "What happened?"

     "I Awakened the rock."

     "Oh."

     "It was very nice of you to set Rosemary free."

     "It came with the rest of the rocks."

     "But it was still a great kindness on your part, Armand. I did not realize that you were the one Renath had sent..."

     "I don't even know who Renath is." He finished his descent, and dusted off his clothing. "Now, how do we get out of here?"

     "This is the highest point within the cave. It does not so much go down as into a mountain."

     "Great."

     "Um, I'm kind of scared of heights..."

     Armand glared at her. "You would be."

     "Sorry."

     He looked pale, even allowing for the strange light of the star metal. "Are you okay?"

     "I've only just escaped from being drowned to death in a cave. Of course I'm okay."

     "No, it's not that, it's --" Armand stumbled suddenly, and fell, gasping with pain. Sarah could see that he'd hurt his hands somewhere... They were raw and scraped and bleeding, and he'd automatically stopped his fall with them.

     "Your hands!"

     "Rock isn't exactly the softest thing."

     "But --"

     "Just shut up and let's get out of here, okay."

     "Sorry."

     He glared at her and continued onwards, clutching his hands to cushion them.


     Armand didn't want to tell Sarah, but he was feeling really dizzy. He still didn't feel quite as if he were back in his body, which was why he'd tripped. He had a feeling that he was still suffering the after effects of Rosemary's tears. Thankfully, the star metal of her shackles was glowing quite brightly by now. He still wasn't sure what had happened, but he'd manage to awaken... Well, pretty much everything in the area. At least I didn't manage to awaken our clothes. That would have been too embarassing. He shook his head, trying to clear the dizziness.

     "Is something wrong?" It was Rosemary. She looked concerned.

     "Dizzy," he murmured.

     "It was a great awakening you performed there."

     "Yeah. Right."

     "It must have drained you to do something so difficult."

     "Ha, and here I thought this was supposed to be easy."

     "You should rest."

     "I think I've had enough rest, thanks to you."

     "I am sorry."

     "Right. You sound just like Sarah." And he stomped off ahead. At the moment, Sarah seemed like better company than Rosemary, who still did not entirely believe that she was free. At the very least, Sarah was wise enough to keep her mouth shut. And, amazingly, she didn't snicker when he stumbled again, ramming into the side of the cave wall. She just quietly helped him back up. Maybe she's learning...


     It was a long time before they emerged from the cave, and it was not where they had entered. Gone was the forest and the quaint cottage; now they faced an expanse of brown hills that stretched on for miles. In the distance, there seemed to be some black structure with a hint of red.

     "Okay, Rosemary, where are we?"

     "These must be the Living Hills."

     "Living Hills?"

     "Yes. They are not really hills, just the oldest of the Mound Folk who have decided to give up moving around and rest quietly."

     "That's not reassuring."

     "I am sorry, Armand."

     "Yeah, you would be."

     "I think I need to rest and catch my breath," said Sarah. She turned to Rosemary. "Do you know where it's safe to stop for a bit?"

     "It should be quite safe here. The Mound Folk are not terribly picky, and the older they get, the less sensitive they become."

     "Okay. I'm stopping." She sat down. "Ahhh... I never liked caves. I'm really glad to be out of that one."

     "As am I."

     "Well, you were in it a lot longer than I was."

     Armand sat down heavily. He wasn't about to admit it, but he was very glad of the chance to rest. Whatever he'd done had been much more difficult than he thought it had been at first, and he really did feel like sleeping again. Or eating. "Sarah?"

     "Hmm?"

     "Abenath took our packs, didn't he."

     "Oh!" She sat up. "He did! How are we going to survive?"

     "That had our water and food, didn't it. And you've eaten more recently than I have." He glared at Sarah.

     "I'm sorry about what happened back there... I don't know what came over me."

     Armand leaned back. "At least we managed to get okay. So. Rosemary. Any ideas how to get food or water out here?"

     She blinked at him, surprised. "Ask the Mound Folk. They are usually quite kind to travellers, as long as they do not light fires or try to dig into them."

     "But what do they have to eat?" Asked Sarah.

     "And I don't think we have anything to pay them with, either."

     "You are an Awakener and a Nexus. You can easily exchange services for anything, if the Mound Folk do not decide to gift you outright."

     "What about you, Rosemary?"

     "I am a creature of the air. I do not need to eat."

     "Okay. After Sarah's rested up we can go find one of the Mound Folk and ask for help."

     Sarah leaned back again. "Good. I'm hungry." They sat for a while in a rather companionable silence. Eventually, lulled by the peace of the hills and exhausted from their adventures, Sarah and Armand fell asleep.


     "Rethan?"

     "Yes, Raminas?"

     "I have the two of them. They have escaped the Weeping Cave and are in the Living Hills."

     "Good. Very, very good, my dear. You may yet make up for your mistakes."


     Armand awoke from a deep, dreamless sleep. Strangely, he felt more tired than he had when he first lay down. He stood up and started pacing, trying to shake off the sleep. Sarah was still asleep. He realized, after a moment, that Rosemary was nowhere around.

     "Rosemary?" He called out. There was no answer. He started walking around the side of the hill. "Rosemary?" He went back to where Sarah lay, and shook her awake. "Sarah!"

     "Hunh?"

     "Rosemary's gone."

     "Oh." She turned away to go back to sleep. Then her eyes slammed open and she sat up. "Rosemary's gone?"

     "I can't find her, and she won't answer when I call."

     "That doesn't sound like a good thing."

     "No, it's not."

     Sarah started looking around muzzily. "Is this the same hill we were at earlier?"

     Armand said, "Huh?" He started looking around. "The cave entrance isn't here. I can't tell if it's the same hill or not..."

     Sarah frowned. "I don't think it is. There was a rock jutting out that I remember almost tripping on as we were leaving, and it's not here anymore."

     "Great."

     "So... no supplies, no map..."

     "We could try talking to the Mound Folk like Rosemary suggested."

     "I guess."

     Sarah looked at the hill beside them doubtfully. "Do you think this is one of them?"

     "Probably." Armand started circling the hill. "Any ideas how we're going to know how to talk to it?"

     "Hello, Mound Person?" Sarah yelled. There was no response. She shrugged. "I guess not that way."

     Armand looked back at her for a moment, then continued circling the hill. As far as he was concerned, it looked like a perfectly normal hill. "I don't see anything special here."

     "Maybe it's asleep and we need to wake it up."

     "Wake it up?"

     "Yeah." She poked Armand. "So get to it, Awakener." She giggled a little bit.

     He glared at her. "Okay." He sat back down on the ground, and put his palms to the hill. I wish I could remember exactly what I did last time... He tried to blank his mind, feeling for any hint of tingling or vibration. For a while there was nothing. And then, as he relaxed further, he began to feel the faintest hint of movement. He did his best not to rush for it, but to let it grow slowly and fill his awareness. He was aware of the hot sun above and the smell of dried grass, and the rough rock beneath him. Is that a pulse in the rock? After a moment, he confirmed it. It was a pulse, but a very slow one. He reached for it, inwardly, and tried to match his own pulse to it. The tingling sensation grew stronger. He could feel the consciousnes of the rock, the slow patient watching as the centuries rolled past, the flickers of the living things that moved and passed over it. He thought he was able to touch a mind, wake it from its slumbering. But then there was blackness everywhere, and he could no longer feel his body. And then suddenly, he could. It was being shaken. He snapped his eyes open. Sarah was shaking him, looking slightly panicky and worried.

     "You fell over and stopped breathing."

     "Oh. Um. I think I found the Mound Person."

     "Is it awake?"

     "Maybe. I think we move too quickly for it to really notice us... I was trying to match its rhythms to speak to it. I almost had it."

     "You were almost dead."

     "Oh." Armand looked sheepish.

     "But... If it's a matter of being slower... Maybe I can help. Rosemary said that I since I'm a nexus, I can manipulate the flow of time. So maybe I can make you slow enough to communicate with the Mound Person."

     "Hmm." He looked surprised. "That's a good idea."

     "I've never done this before. I'm not sure how."

     "Well, you've managed to stop things without knowing how. That sounds like it should be harder."

     Sarah nodded and swallowed. "I don't know how long I can keep this up."

     "What if you slow both of us down, so that you're only maintaining it for a short time?"

     "I don't know if I can affect two people at once."

     "Okay then. Whatever." He leaned back against the rock again and closed his eyes.

     "I'll try my best," said Sarah nervously. Armand tried to ignore her, tried to reach the same place that he had before where he'd just barely contacted the consciousness of the mound. He felt a sudden tension rising around him, and then it crested. He had a sudden feeling of being mired in a bog, sinking in quicksand. She must have succeeded. Now I have to do this... And probably quickly, too. He tried to breathe evenly and deeply, and felt his awareness of the rock grow. This time he was able to sense the pulse far more quickly, and it was faster as well. Still not as fast as his own, but fast enough. Hopefully. He reached it for it, and felt the spark of contact. He was speaking to one of the Mound Folk.

     "Who disturbs me?"

     "A traveler in need of aid."

     "Ahhh. It has been a very long time since any travellers passed this way. But how are you speaking to me now?"

     "I am an awakener."

     "Ahh, yes, of course. It has been a long time since I communicated with one of the quickling races... A moment." And then the contact was gone, and he felt a shocking rush as he speeded up again. Sarah lay on the ground, apparently exhausted.

     "Sarah?"

     "Nng?"

     "I did it."

     "Nngg."

     "I'll let you rest." He looked back to the hill and saw bits of rock moving around, sliding this way and that. A shower of pebbles fell, shaken loose by the adjustments. He jumped in front of them to protect Sarah. Then the initial tremor was over, and he was facing a large face in the rock.

     "Greetings, travellers."

     "Greetings. Um, what should we call you?"

     "You may call me Rocky." Armand almost laughed at the name.

     "Okay then... Rocky."

     "What kind of aid do you need?"

     "We're lost and have no more food or water."

     "That is certainly a difficult situation. Hmmm..." The rock moved again, and the face acquired a pensive look. "What do you eat?"

     "Eat? Umm... Meat, vegetables, plants..."

     "Ahh, one of those. I was afraid you might be of the Jeweleyes."

     "Jeweleyes?"

     "They look much like you do, but they eat crystals and gemstones." A tremor passed through the rock. "They can be a very nasty folk when they decide on Mound guts for dinner..."

     "Oh."

     "Nnng?" It was Sarah.

     "Is that your companion? It looks ill."

     "She's just tired. I think."

     "Sarah?" He tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

     "Huh?" She blinked awake, looking muzzily at Armand and then at the rock face. "Hello rock person."

     "Greetings, quick one."

     She turned to Armand "So you did it. Yay. I want to go back to sleep." She lay her head back again.

     Armand looked at her a little worriedly. "Oh yeah. Um. Do you know anywhere we can stay for the night that's safe?"

     "Why, inside me, of course."

     "Inside you?"

     "Yes, that's usually why travellers seek us out. You'll just have to remind me not to sneeze."

     "Oh, um, okay." He just sat there for a while, looking at Rocky. "Um, we don't have anything to pay you with, for food or shelter."

     The rock quivered a little, bit a few more pebbles bouncing loose. Armand realized that Rocky was laughing. "No fear, no fear. It has been far too long since I talked to one of the quickling ones. You can tell me what is going on in return for my hospitality." The mouth of the rock face gaped wide open, wide enough for Armand to walk in. "Come in, come in."

     "Are you sure it's safe?"

     "Yes, of course."

     "I... I want your oath. The last time someone offered us hospitality he didn't, and he ended up imprisoning us in the Weeping Cave."

     "Ahhh... Tut, tut, such a bad host. But very well then. I swear by the Lord of the Stars and the Lady of the Moons that you will come to no harm through any action of mine, and that I give to you the guest-right of food and shelter."

     Armand breathed a sigh of relief. The oath was correct to the word. "Thank you." He turned to Sarah and tapped hero n the shoulder again. "Sarah?"

     "Wha?" She sounded a little annoyed.

     "Rocky says we can take shelter inside of him. Why don't you move in so that you're safe?"

     "Oh, okay." She got up slowly. "My head hurts. Uuuugh..."

     Armand reached out to steady her. "This way." Slowly, they made their way into Rocky's mouth.