Sasha looks down at the beast. "I don't know about training it," she says. "It may be a bit vicious. If I had one from a baby, like Alton here, it would be easier. Still, it would be an interesting challenge." There's a mischievous glint in her eyes and a hint of a smile on her lips. However, after a moment, she shakes her head. "Alas, I need all my energy to raise Alton. I wouldn't want to take on training something else at the same time."
"Wise man would give thanks. Great work Gelik - I think you've done us a great help in this fight; though it's hard to explain why. Same goes for everybody though: well done!"
Sasha looks down at the beast. "I don't know about training it," she says. "It may be a bit vicious. If I had one from a baby, like Alton here, it would be easier. Still, it would be an interesting challenge." There's a mischievous glint in her eyes and a hint of a smile on her lips. However, after a moment, she shakes her head. "Alas, I need all my energy to raise Alton. I wouldn't want to take on training something else at the same time."
Douena sighs deeply. "If we find any eggs," she asserts, "I want one to ride. I helped you get your flappybite egg, Sasha." She looks up hopefully. "Any chance this was a mating pair? We could track them back to their nest...."
"Nest?" Pezock says. "Ba! You don't need an egg. What do you want to ride a dragon for?" He pauses briefly. "Although the eggs could make good eating. But no! We have a quest and we must continue on! Nests can wait! Forward!" He points southwest with a flourish of his sword and begins trudging through the jungle, not waiting to see if anybody follows.
"How can you eat eggs?" Douena demands, trotting after him. "Didn't you hatch out of one?"
Sasha looks up and sighs. "Exactly who put him in charge anyway? Anyone got the urge to not follow him and see how long before he notices?" She sighs again, adjusts Alton's perch on her back and follows after the vanishing tengu.
"I do Sasha, but he knows the island better than we do... I think." Makoa reluctantly starts to follow Pezock. "Besides, any cannibals he kills we don't need to worry about killing ourselves."
Mahjik is extra cautious now that they've moved so deep into enemy territory. Even Pezock's assurance that they're well off the beaten track does not give him pause.
"Keep your eyes open - we don't know how many more of these dragons are about. And we could stumble over pretty much anything around here."
Lorenz watches the feathered man stalking into the forest with a smile. "I don't think anyone nominated him as group leader or anything but I find his enthusiasm rather amusing. Gelik, you must be getting all kinds of good stories ideas off Pezock!"
He looks down at Douena. "I don't think we have time to hunt for the eggs but we can always keep out eyes out for one. If I see a nest or some eggs I'll let you know."
He follows after the others, searching the undergrowth for a nest with eggs of any particular kind.
Douena trots alongside Lorenz with a sad look back at the dead lizard. "Why kill them if we're not going to eat them?" she asks. "They didn't do anything to us."
Lorenz nods sadly. "I was wondering that too. The only reason I attacked was because people were already in danger from the things. But that last part where the second one was surrounded...I don't know...it seemed kind of sad. I wonder, if we had tried to go around them, would they have attacked us at all?"
He sighs and glances back one last time. "It's too bad they didn't look more appetizing."
Douena trots alongside Lorenz with a sad look back at the dead lizard. "Why kill them if we're not going to eat them?" she asks. "They didn't do anything to us."
You continue on your way through the jungle. The ground's incline gradually increases and before long, you are trudging up a tall hill (and still pushing through undergrowth). "Somewhere on this hill, I think," Pezock says. "Shouldn't be long now."
After an exhausting climb, you finally come out of the jungle at the top of the hill. A single, immense banyan tree grows here, surrounded by a grove of smaller trees that seem almost like supplicants gathered around a revered elder to bask in the wisdom of ages.
"This looks promising," Sasha says.
At that moment, a woman steps out from behind the trees, her hands held out welcomingly. She has deep green hair and eyes the colour of a tropical sunset. She steps towards you.
Douena runs forward to meet her, delighted. "Oh, are you the lady who lives in the tree? It's so nice to meet someone who's happy to see us. Even Pezock didn't like us at first, although we grew on him. We met a lady who had flowers growing out of her and I thought she would be nice, but she wasn't at all. I'm Douena. What's your name?"
"Hi - don't let Douena overrun you with her stream of words. She's just excited at seeing somebody new. I'm Mahjik; and we've shipwrecked on this island a few weeks ago."
The woman kneels down in front of Douena. "Welcome, Douena," she says. She has an accent that Douena and the rest of the party don't recognize. "My name is Aycenia. Are you the ones who ended the fungal blight to the north?"
"Oh, I forgot about them," Douena answers a bit anxiously. "They weren't very nice either, although I did try to make friends. But we locked them in a room and then we fought a big purple fungus thing and I guess they all wilted away." She smiles up at the lovely woman. "We made friends with a flappybite, though."
"In case it isn't clear, she means the flying reptiles." To the astonishment of everybody he follows it up with a flawless rendition of a flappybite swoop-and-caw! Even little flappy Alton is astonished and looks up to Mahjik.
Aycenia looks momentarily confused by the mention of "flappybites", but she smiles as Mahjik does his impression. "Ah, of course," she says. "I am glad to hear that you have made at least one friend here."
She stands up and looks over the entire group. "I owe you a great debt of gratitude. The fungal blight appeared many years ago, but it was isolated. I did not consider it much threat as long as it remained in its rock. After all, we all have a right to exist. But then it began spreading, a first so slowly it wasn't noticeable. It took years to overtake the entire northern island, but the more land it took, the faster it progressed. If the rate had continued to increase, it would have infested the entire Shiv in matter of a few more months. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have little I can offer as a reward, but you may remain here on this hilltop for as long as you are on the island. It is a safe haven here. The cannibals of the island do not come here. They are superstitious and consider me an evil spirit. And the island's predators know that I am their friend. They will not bother you here. Only the winged chupacabra remains a potential threat, but it has not bothered me in many years. Not since the cannibals arrived. I think their sacrifices placate it enough. I'm not sure."
Overjoyed, Douena flings herself upon the woman's legs and envelops them in a hug. "Oh, you're lovely!" she exclaims. "Tell me, have you ever considered putting a swing in your tree? Makoa's been wanting to make one."
"You came up with the idea little one, not I. I just said I'd help." He turns to Aycenia. "I'm Makoa Wolf'skin. Thank you for offering us shelter in this grove."
Lorenz smiles shyly as he steps forward. "Greetings to you. I'm Lorenz Aeryson. I am honored...er, no...humbled? by your welcome." He stops, looking flustered.
"I, uh, am glad we were able to help with the mold men. And the giant mushroom. And what's that about a chupercahra?" He stumbles over the last word and blushes some more.
"A pleasure to meet you, Makoa and Lorenz," Aycenia says. "And the rest of you. It's so rare I get visitors. To answer your question, Lorenz, the chupacabra is like a giant lizard, somewhat dragon-like in appearance. This one has wings, which is very unusual for a chupacabra. You may have seen it flying around from time to time. I believe the cannibals call it the Red Mountain Devil since it has a reddish tinge to its coloration and it lives on the mountain at the southeast end of the island."
She turns to the rest of the party. "Please make yourselves at home. I look forward to getting to know you and hearing your stories."
The others begin introducing themselves.
Douena tags along at Aycenia's feet through the introductions, not wanting to be parted from her new friend. "You said the cannibals 'arrived' here? They're not from here originally? Were they shipwrecked, too?"
"I am Urza Sha'rahad. It is a pleasure to meet you. Your hospitality is a most welcome change from what we have encountered thus far on this island." Urza makes a place for him and Aerys to sit.
Douena tags along at Aycenia's feet through the introductions, not wanting to be parted from her new friend. "You said the cannibals 'arrived' here? They're not from here originally? Were they shipwrecked, too?"
Aycenia nods. "They weren't cannibals originally. That came later. They were from a ship called the Thrune's Fang. It crashed along the southwest coast. There were many survivors at first. They set up a camp near the old ruined lighthouse. But then they started fighting amongst themselves. One of them led a mutiny, I believe, drove their captain out. I don't know the details. Their captain lived alone for many years after that in an old hut on one of the plateaus northeast of here. I spoke to him a few times, but isolation had driven him somewhat mad. He never made much sense. Eventually, the others who had rebelled against him turned to cannibalism. At first, I think it was just out of fear of the one who now led them. She demanded that they eat human flesh and so to save themselves, they did as she commanded. There was something unnatural about her. Of course, they could not survive as a group long if they ate each other, so they decided their former captain would be ideal as one of their first victims. They killed and ate him. They now go on occasional pilgrimages to his old hut, which they've turned into a shrine. The poor man. I feel sorry for him. And I feel sorry for his crew, who only did what they did out of fear. Of course, all the originals are long dead and their descendants are highly inbred. I don't know whatever happened to the unnatural woman. Presumably she died at some point."
"Maybe you know some of this: we suspect foul play to have caused us to be shipwrecked. The captain and Ieana, a wizard perhaps, apparently engineered it. Have you noticed anything? It's possible that Ieana is now among the cannibals in disguise." Mahjik looks a bit perturbed, "And I don't understand why she wanted to get herself shipwrecked here."
"Perhaps we could investigate the Captain's cabin. There could be something there that can aid us against the cannibals. Even demoralizing them some would be a help."
"We may have already been there. Do you remember the building we found with the pentagram that had teeth stuck in it?" Makoa says, an uneasy look in his eyes. "These cannibals may be smarter than we first thought, or at least crazy enough to seem so."
"Yes. I do remember that place. It was creepy. Ok, new idea, let's go kill some cannibals, repair the lighthouse, and get rescued."
"To clarify what Mahjik was saying...we were traveling on a ship called the Jenivere that was captained by a man named Kovack. He seems to have been infatuated or driven mad or controlled somehow by a woman named Ieana. Pezock said he saw two people fitting their descriptions passing through and one of the cannibals we interrogated told us that Captain Kovack had been taken prisoner into the cannibal village."
He pauses, biting his lip as he tries to make sure he got everything right. "Anyway, Ieana is a Varisian...a scholar or something. We don't know what happened to her but we think she was the primary cause of our getting shipwrecked."
He frowns. "Does that make any sense?"
"I follow you, Lorenz," Aycenia says. "I have a strong connection with the land, and it tells me many things. But I can only travel a short distance from my tree, so I am reliant on visitors to tell me all the details, and I don't get a lot of those. This island does get more than its share of castaways, but despite the large numbers, the wrecks are usually due to perfectly natural causes. I do not know why someone would want to purposefully shipwreck themselves here, although I do know that when your group arrived, another smaller group--presumably your captain and this Ieana--arrived at the same time. Perhaps she seeks something specific, and is willing to use any means necessary to find it. This island holds many secrets, some of them ancient and far older than even I am, secrets the land hasn't even revealed to me."
"They weren't cannibals originally. That came later. They were from a ship called the Thrune's Fang. It crashed along the southwest coast. There were many survivors at first. They set up a camp near the old ruined lighthouse. But then they started fighting amongst themselves. One of them led a mutiny, I believe, drove their captain out. I don't know the details. Their captain lived alone for many years after that in an old hut on one of the plateaus northeast of here. I spoke to him a few times, but isolation had driven him somewhat mad. He never made much sense. Eventually, the others who had rebelled against him turned to cannibalism. At first, I think it was just out of fear of the one who now led them. She demanded that they eat human flesh and so to save themselves, they did as she commanded. There was something unnatural about her. Of course, they could not survive as a group long if they ate each other, so they decided their former captain would be ideal as one of their first victims. They killed and ate him. They now go on occasional pilgrimages to his old hut, which they've turned into a shrine. The poor man. I feel sorry for him. And I feel sorry for his crew, who only did what they did out of fear. Of course, all the originals are long dead and their descendants are highly inbred. I don't know whatever happened to the unnatural woman. Presumably she died at some point."
"'An unnatural woman....' You don't suppose Ieana could be the same one? I don't know how she could have got off the island or why she'd come back, but there's definitely something 'unnatural' about her."
"We may have already been there. Do you remember the building we found with the pentagram that had teeth stuck in it?"
"I told you destroying that wall was a good thing," Douena says triumphantly. "I knew it was evil. Desna told me."
"That reminds me, our little one here," Mahjik points to Douena, "receives vivid dreams from Desna. These dreams guided us to move against the fungal blight for example. Most recently she dreamed of a serpent-temple cave. Does that sound familiar in any way?"
"We may have already been there. Do you remember the building we found with the pentagram that had teeth stuck in it?""I told you destroying that wall was a good thing," Douena says triumphantly. "I knew it was evil. Desna told me."
Aycenia shakes her head. "The shrine has not been destroyed. The land would have told me. Unless you destroyed it in just the few hours since I last communed with the land, but you would not have had time to reach here if that were the case. I think you must be thinking of one of the old castaway camps along the shorelines. The captain's hut was on a plateau in the heart of the jungle northeast of here."
In response to Mahjik's question, she shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I do not know of such a cave. However, there are ancient caverns beneath the island. It could be one of those. They are older than I am. But Desna is older still. She would know better than I."
"How old are you?" Douena asks curiously. "And do you know how far it is from your hill to the cannibals' town? We promised Pezock we'd kill them."
"Yes! Any aid you could give us would be greatly appreciated. Even a particularly fine and sturdy club or staff would help me fight."
Lorenz flushes with embarrassment. "Douena! You're not supposed to ask a lady's age!"
He turns back to Aycenia. "I don't suppose you happen to know anything about curing diseases, do you? Some of our friends have the tendency to get them."
"How old are you?" Douena asks curiously. "And do you know how far it is from your hill to the cannibals' town? We promised Pezock we'd kill them."
Aycenia thinks for a moment. "I am not really sure," she says. "Very old as you would term things. I don't fully remember how or when I came to be, it was so long ago. But as I said, the land is older, and there definitely were things here before I was."
She smiles down at Douena. "But it is of no real matter. I exist and have done for some time. That is all that matters to me. Now, for the cannibals, perhaps it is time that their blight be removed from this land. They are only a couple of miles from here, on the other side of the small bay at the southwest corner of the island. I am afraid I cannot give you much assistance against them, however. I cannot leave this hill. I must remain close to my tree or I will die. But I can help in other ways. As I said, you are welcome to use this place as a safe haven to retreat to if necessary. And I can heal your wounds. Indeed, one of you looks in need of attention already."
She walks over to Jask, who is sitting on the ground, exhausted. "May I?" she asks. He nods and she bends down over him. "I cannot remove the affliction you suffer from, but I can mitigate its effects." She places her hands on his head. A dim glow briefly surrounds Jask's head and then fades. She removes her hands.
"Hmmm..." Aycenia says. "That was clearly not enough." She bends over again and repeat the process.
She shakes her head, obviously annoyed. "I can only do this one more time before the sun next rises." She leans over and repeats the process again.
Aycenia scowls. "I am sorry I could not do more," she says sullenly.
Jask smiles. "Don't worry. What little you have done has made me feel much better, and I thank you.
"Hmmm..." Aycenia says. "That was clearly not enough." She bends over again and repeat the process.
She shakes her head, obviously annoyed. "I can only do this one more time before the sun next rises." She leans over and repeats the process again.
...
"Douena! You're not supposed to ask a lady's age!"
"Why not?" she asks him, mystified. "I'm fifty-four."
"Don't worry. Jask is closely attuned with Nethys - I imagine that in some ways that can be both a benefit and a hindrance." Mahjik looks at the position of the sun. "Hey guys, do you think we should stay and impose on Miss Aycenia for the night; then prepare our assault tomorrow? Or perhaps we can take another day off first, the cannibals don't know we're this deep in their territory - so perhaps we have a chance to explore a bit more first. Like the captain's hut. Or," he turns back to Aycenia, "perhaps you have something we can help you with? Since it's hard for you to travel far from your tree, maybe we can do something to aid you now?"
Aycenia smiles. "You have already done more than enough for me by ending the fungal blight, but thank you for your offer."
"A day or two to recover from our afflictions would be useful," Jask says. "Information from the cabin could be very useful in planning our attack. Assuming there's any information to be found, of course. If you do go in search of the cabin, though, you will need to be careful to avoid detection by the cannibals. We don't want to lose the advantage we have by alerting them to our presence here."
Douena turns around 360 degrees, her arms outstretched, enjoying the breeze from above the jungle's growth. "This ought to be a much more healthy place to camp, with all this fresh air. I'll bet everyone gets to feeling better in no time!"
Lorenz's eyes widen at Douena when she speaks her age. "Wow that's a lot...er, never mind."
He seizes on Mahjik's change of topic. "We should definitely stay here for as long as we need to so that everyone is feeling better. But I think we should try and scout out the village a little before we try to attack, just so we know what we're dealing with."
You begin to set up camp just outside the grove of trees. Ishirou starts to set up his usual traps, but Aycenia asks him not to. She doesn't want any animals that wander by to get hurt, and she assures him that you do not need to fear attack on this hill. Pezock doesn't help with setting up camp much. Instead, he wanders about loudly proclaiming how the cannibals will soon meet their end.
Once the camp is set up, you sit down to eat dinner and Gelik performs the sixth section of the Abendego Cantos.
Gelik seems distracted throughout the performance, however. He keeps glancing over at Aycenia, almost as though he's worried about how she might judge him.
Lorenz finds himself trusting Aycenia implicitly and decides to skip watch for the first time since the shipwreck, savoring a long, restful night's sleep as pleasant as any he's had for years.
In the morning when he arises he argues for taking a day off.
"We've been working hard for days now and with all the illnesses and fights and things, I think it'd do us good to relax a little now that we've found a safe place." He looks to Aycenia and quickly adds, "If you don't mind, I mean, my lady."
"I thought it might be nice if we could finish Aerys' cantos and maybe Jask could begin showing us what he knows, assuming you feel better, Jask."