Part 55: Easterly Advice

Main story folder & table of contents: "Escape From Manitou Island" 
Previous chapter: "Part 54: The Not-So-Dead End" 

PART FIFTY-FIVE:
Easterly Advice

"I SAID I don't know where to find Kabeyun. I never said I did not know where to find Kabebonikka!"

Charmian halted in her steps. She slowly turned to look back into the cave. Wabun still stood where she'd left him, only he was staring at her with an oddly smug look, his arms crossed over his chest. She turned around fully and furrowed her brow.

"You...mean you know where the North Wind is...?" she asked hesitantly. When he just lifted his head she blinked, then frowned. "Well...why didn't you tell me?"

Wabun's nose twitched. "You never asked," he said, and that made her start to fume. "You seemed so intent on finding merely Kabeyun that I had to assume this was your sole mission. When you started speaking of Kabebonikka, you never gave me a chance to speak up."

Charmian threw up her hands. "Well...where is he then?!"

"In the north," Wabun said, and she nearly collapsed. She put her hands to her head and started slowly drawing her fingernails down her face, a strange strangled noise escaping her throat. Wabun sighed as if she were quite simple. "He lives in the northern wastes. Above the evergreen forests, in a range of mountains."

"Mountains...?" Charmian's frown grew. "I didn't know there was a mountain range up there."

"This is because most people such as yourself cannot find it on their own," Wabun replied. "You would need to take a certain route to reach it...I know very little of this Island you came from...but I believe it's the same way? A certain path?"

Charmian's face lit up. "Oh! You mean a mountain range that's there, and then it's not--? Like, I have to go through the fog to reach it--?"

Wabun frowned a bit, but nodded. "Yes...something like this. Only fog has nothing to do with it." He pursed his lips, then gestured at the pallets; Charmian glanced at them, then suppressed a sigh and went to sit down again. The East Wind seated himself near her and started talking.

"I was the next-to-last to leave home," he explained. "Shawondassee was the youngest and so she stayed the longest. Kabeyun and Kabebonikka were the first two to go. I did not ask Kabeyun where he was going, for I must admit, I detested him even more than Kabebonikka. At least Kabebonikka bothered to look amused while pummeling the insides out of us." He crossed his arms. "Kabeyun always looked as if he would rather be doing anything else! So you can imagine that we were not remarkably close."

Charmian nodded, hoping to urge him on a bit.

"In any event, I have tried not to harbor too many negative feelings toward Kabebonikka...although this is difficult sometimes." His eye twitched. "For one thing, every time he shows himself, he is a remarkable ass."

"You've run into him again? I thought you said he doesn't like coming here."

"He doesn't. He fails to set foot near these falls, but he has come close. I've heard him speaking to me from the north." He made a face now. "Vile thing! I could do very well without him." He took a breath and forced himself to calm down somewhat. "But...as I said...I have attempted to let go of these feelings. I'm...still working on it. In any case, it was not he who came to visit me anyway. I went to see him."

Charmian's eyes grew. "You did?"

Wabun nodded, looking rather aloof. "His home is hardly anything to aspire to," he sniffed. "He told me where to find it, and it still took me forever! This is because I did not know the path. He failed to tell me. By the time I discovered this he was having quite a grand time laughing at my expense. But once I had found the right path it was simple enough business to reach his mountains. Getting there, on the other hand..." He frowned at her. "You are just a little human, and would have a great deal of difficulty. Even with that strange friend of yours."

"I have a lot more friends," Charmian insisted. "I just have to run into them again! Can you tell me the way to Kabebonikka? Please?"

Wabun stared at her for a moment, then let out a small sigh. "Very well...though I have the feeling that, if he knows you are coming, you will be in for more difficulty than you face otherwise!"

"He's really that big a jerk?"

Wabun pursed his lips again. "I am not certain how to explain...how would your people put it...a butterfly." When she looked puzzled he started making picking gestures at the air. "The little boy who would pull its wings off as slowly as he could..."

Charmian's face screwed up. "Eww..."

"Well...this is the best that I can describe Kabebonikka," Wabun finished, and she shivered a little uneasily. "Surely you have wondered why it is that, whenever your people decide to go on a trip or voyage, the blizzards decide to arrive, and the lake waters whip up, and the wind blows hard enough to topple over trees," he added.

Charmian reluctantly nodded. "Yeah...I guess so. I always just figured it was crappy weather, though!"

"I must correct you to say that no, it is just Kabebonikka amusing himself. He takes great pleasure in doing such things to little humans. I can imagine you would provide him with great sport, if you got that far." He paused, then rubbed at his neck; Charmian paused as well, seeing the look on his face. "I do hope your friends are bigger than you are..."

"A few of them are," Charmian said meekly, fiddling her fingers. She sat upright again and cleared her throat. "Anyway...the path?"

"Right," Wabun said, blushing a little as if he'd been caught in the middle of something. He took a breath. "You must head back toward your own country," he said. "For the path is easiest to find from here. I wandered for ages before I found it. It turns out that I needed to set out from the great water in the first place, something he did not tell me."

"Great water--?" Charmian tilted her head. "Gitchi-Gami?" Wabun nodded and her face lit up again. "I know exactly where that is! You mean he's there--?"

Wabun shook his head and held up a hand. "No--much further north than this. Gitchi-Gami is merely the starting point." Charmian's spirits deflated a little and he lowered his hand. "I suppose it all depends, though, on which part of the path that you take. Tell me, how was it that you came into our country? From the sound of it you came from the land of these lakes, and the people there have long been at war with the people here. How did you manage?"

"We took a shortcut...kind of," Charmian said, not sure how to explain. "It had these spiderwebs in it," she started to say, but as soon as the word spiderwebs left her mouth, Wabun's own face lit up, and he nodded.

"This is as I thought...you used the old tunnels that the Weavers once used." Charmian let out a breath of relief that at least she wouldn't have to explain how a horde of giant spiders had assisted her in her travels. "These tunnels are everywhere...even into the far lands, where none of our people live. Only I'm supposing that there, the Weavers have different names. There is nowhere the Weavers won't tunnel, from what I've heard. Once I had arrived, Kabebonikka informed me that there is even a tunnel that goes right up into his mountain, if I had only bothered to look for it further." His face darkened. "In any event...there are several tunnels setting out northward from around Gitchi-Gami. This is the safest means of travel there, for the Mishupishus cannot make it into the Weavers' tunnels, and the Weavers will not tunnel through the water--only above, around, and beneath it. In short, the Weavers' tunnels are dry and those of the Lynxes are submerged. The Lynxes cannot use the same shortcuts that the Weavers offer unless they manage to flood a Weaver tunnel."

"How many of these shortcuts are there and which one should we take? We're kind of working on a tight schedule..."

"Well...there may be a few on the south shore, but I'm afraid I am unaware of them," Wabun admitted, rubbing his neck again. "If you wished to utilize one you would likely have to travel to the north shore of the lake."

"The north shore...?" Charmian sank in on herself. She had only ever visited the south shore of Lake Superior--and judging by the looks of it on maps, it didn't look like she could exactly swim her way across. She doubted that the tiny canoes that Francois and the others had made would hold up, either.

"You can take the one in the middle," Wabun offered.

"Middle--?" Charmian's head popped up and she blinked. "What do you mean...the one in the middle?"

He shrugged. "Just as I say. The tunnel that opens up from the island in the lake. This is supposedly the best shortcut to take--as the island itself floats about between the worlds, just like the mountains of Kabebonikka themselves."

As he spoke, Charmian's eyes slowly grew bigger and bigger until she stared at him, practically goggling. "A...a floating island...?" she echoed in disbelief. The words of the strange red woman in her dream came drifting back to her, as if she'd forgotten.

An island right out in the middle! A small island which travels in the fog...

Is this the same island...? Charmian wondered, while Wabun frowned at her, puzzled. It hardly seems like it could be a coincidence...but...would it be so convenient? That the same place I have to go to is the same place where that woman is...?

What else was it she said? About the north being deceitful...?

"Wabun," she said, lifting her head and meeting his eyes. "Can you tell me anything else about this island? Anything at all--like what might be on it, or anything?"

Wabun's brow furrowed but he lifted a shoulder. "Well...I admit I know little of it, seeing as I took another path. But from what I was told, it is much similar to the Island which you yourself claim to have come from. It wanders in the fog, and is sometimes there, sometimes not. Kabebonikka claimed it had a tunnel upon it, a way to reach his mountain; he could always be telling a falsehood, though I fail to see why he would lie to me after I had already gone to the trouble of taking a more difficult path." He shifted and then settled himself. "In fact he said that it was too bad that I had not taken this path, for it would have offered more of a challenge--says he!"

These last two words shot out of the East Wind's mouth so abruptly that Charmian flinched, and Wabun promptly clapped a hand to his mouth, eyes goggling as if he'd been caught stealing lawn ornaments while naked. "You think he's lying--?" Charmian asked, as he blushed furiously and scowled, shrinking in on himself a bit and tucking his hands into his sleeves.

"Doubtful," he said. "Kabebonikka is a great liar and deceiver, but he has never lied to me when he had a chance to rub my face in something, or to insult me. And that was precisely what he was doing. What he said was that, if I had taken to this island instead of to the north shore, I would have faced an even greater challenge--but he said he was glad I had not, as he doubted I would have made it. He claimed that some HUMAN who lives there would have defeated me. A human--defeating ME!" He huffed and pulled himself up to his full sitting height. "THE NERVE! I would HARDLY mind him telling me I am the weakest of all four of us, or that he could pick his teeth with my armbones, or that Shawondassee could beat me just by sitting on me. Any of that I can easily stand. But to claim that I can be beaten by some piddling HUMAN--!" He abruptly stopped talking, as Charmian was beginning to shrink back, wishing that she could seep into the floor; Wabun blinked at her, went red, then took another few breaths and let them out. He started resuming his normal appearance--his eyes had been flaring as blue as the lights on a cop car--and settled himself on his pallet once more. "Anyway," he said in an oddly bland voice, "he made this preposterous claim, that some powerful human dwells upon this island, and I decided to leave it at that." He sniffed. "It hardly seemed worth the trouble of looking into. But this is what Kabebonikka claimed about this island."

"This powerful human," Charmian ventured. "Did he describe them? Was it a woman dressed in red...?"

Wabun frowned a little and tilted his head. "A woman...? I admit I have no idea. Judging by the way that Kabebonikka talked, I would doubt it is a woman. He is..." He trailed off and looked thoughtful. "He is not the most...enlightened...when it comes to women," he said after a moment.

Charmian chewed on her lip pensively. So much for that idea...if it wasn't the woman in red who was the powerful person there...then who was it?

"Then again," Wabun added, "it could have been a woman, simply because he would have much more enjoyed rubbing my face in THAT!" He coughed. "In any event...perhaps, if you manage to find this floating island, you can find the easiest path to Kabebonikka. If he doesn't somehow waylay you, first."

"Do you have any suggestions for how to reach it? The only weird island I've ever figured out is Manitou Island."

"Perhaps it's much the same? It does travel in a fog. Your best bet would be to approach it as you approach your own Island. The fact that you seem so at ease with Weaver medicine, and your own Island's medicine, gives me a little bit of hope. Perhaps the way will be a little more open to you. I have heard that this island...lives, almost. As if it has a mind of its own." His face reddened a little. "I realize it sounds quite odd..."

Charmian shook her head. "No, as a matter of fact, it sounds just about right!" She got to her feet again and bobbed her head, since he was still sitting and she had no idea what else to do. "Thanks, Wabun. I'll see if I can find that tunnel. Maybe we'll actually get west after all!" She paused and rubbed at her neck. "Oh. Um...actually, I think we kind of lost track of where our tunnel here is," she said a bit meekly. "Could you maybe point me in the right direction...?"

"I would much rather you take one of our tunnels, if only they were open yet," Wabun sighed. "Those spirits you saw were seeking a way to lengthen the one that heads west. It's too bad that your quest didn't come up a few weeks later, else you could take that path." He stood and adjusted his robes. "I doubt you could reach the same tunnel that you took to get here, as it should lie far to the east. I know of another tunnel just downriver a ways that should serve you though. You'll have to make your way back out over the rocks and toward the last set of rapids that you traversed. In the stand of trees to the west of these, you should find one tree whose roots are particularly warped and twisted with rocks. One of the rocks was placed here by the little people of this land. They are much like the Pukwudjininees. They shouldn't bother you. Just poke around at the rocks until one gives way and this should take you back west."

Charmian nodded. "Got it! Thank you!"

Wabun nodded at her in return as she turned and started jogging back up the tunnel. "Good luck," he called after her, and she just barely heard him add, "You'll need it."

This sounds simple enough, she thought, her spirits already rising. In fact I bet clambering over those rocks will be the hardest part of it! And I think I trust in Francois and the others enough to know to turn back if they don't run into me...they can always make their way to Cedars's camp and ask him...

She didn't like the thought of heading back without finding the others, but couldn't think of any other route to take. Based on what Singing Cedars and the Seneca had said, it wouldn't be wise to just hang out in this country, especially not with Walks-On-The-Shore in tow...she frowned and started glancing from side to side but he was nowhere to be found. "Dumbass," she muttered, picking up her pace. "Running on without me! He better hope he knows about that tunnel and is going that way because if somebody decides to take his head I'll hardly have it resting on mine..."

She picked her way back to the cave mouth with its overhang, and sighed miserably at the spray of mist still hovering in the air; just when she'd been drying off at last, too. She secured her pack and squinted to keep the water out of her eyes, beginning to scale the slippery rocks at the base of the falls; at least it didn't seem so hard this way as it had been getting in. Though she did still hate having to hug the rim of the basin of water which churned not that far below. Her teeth were chattering and she was again soaked through by the time that the edge of the river began to come into view.

"When I get to that tunnel--pffttt," she said, spitting out water as she started on her way toward land, "I'm going to go inside it, and put the rock back in place, and LEAVE him here!--pffftt!"

She heard a whistle from the shore and sighed, shakily standing and scrubbing at her eyes. "Where the hell were you?" she yelled. "I know you're nuts but to just leave me to climb out of there ALONE--? What sort of person--"

She heard an odd clacking sound next, and opened her eyes, frowning in puzzlement. Her eyes goggled when she saw the huge shadowy shape leaping over the rocks right toward her--when it leapt up once more and let out a blaring whistle, she gasped and bolted, vaulting over the nearest rock and nearly falling headfirst into the roiling water. It was only by sheer luck that she managed to land on solid ground, and started half-climbing, half-sprinting up the steep slope that she and Singing Cedars and Walks-On-The-Shore had earlier descended.

"What the--!!" she managed to get out, glancing over her shoulder. Bad idea--the oki had whirled around, regained its footing, and was now coming back after her. She could tell it was the same one that had led her between the rocks, where the bear had been waiting--there was no telling what it might be up to now. She glanced around herself quickly, dreading the thought of seeing a bear, yet there weren't any, at least not nearby. She bared her teeth at the oki and kept climbing.

"I KNOW YOU'RE A FAKE!!" she yelled, her voice cracking.

The oki--or whatever it was--didn't even bother answering. It let out an unintelligible whistle as it started bounding after her; Charmian gasped and moved even faster, but it was only when its antler gouged open the earth right beside her that she realized she couldn't even hope to outrace it. She rolled over and out of the way instead, tumbling into a little hollow. Thanking it for saving her life, she scrambled to her feet and launched herself at the side of it, scaling the pine-needled slope and trying not to look over her shoulder too much as she went. The oki whirled around, stomped a hoof, and came after her.

"What's your problem?!" Charmian screeched, hurling a handful of needles at it. "I have PERMISSION to be here! I even SPOKE with a real oki! A REAL one! You aren't supposed to be fighting--"

SNAP. The tree beside her broke in two, creaking horribly as it toppled to the ground. She managed to evade it in time to avoid getting crushed, only to find that the oki was on one side of her, and a steep section of rocky land was right on the other, and no matter how much she'd climbed around on the Island, she wasn't prepared enough to try her hand at something like that.

Crap crap crap crap crap... her mind thought uselessly, and she railed at it, wishing that, out of all the times that she'd gotten brilliant ideas, this time would be one of them. The oki snorted, tossed its head, and started charging; she flung up her hand and yelled the first thing that came to mind.

"F-FIRE!"

Even before she said it, she could feel the flames surging from her fingers, and only just then remembered the gift that Wabun had given her. She let out a breath of relief when the fireball struck the oki in the head--then sucked in a gasp of disbelief when the oki merely batted it aside with its antlers, and kept coming. Her eyes went wide and she froze.

But--!

Is--is he a FIRE elemental--?

"Why don't you leave me alone?" she begged, whirling around to the wall and trying to climb up it, though all that she could do was grasp onto a few handfuls of needles and grass before digging into rock and falling back. She glanced over her shoulder to see that the oki hadn't even slowed its approach; it tossed its head and whistled at the air, and she could at last make out what it said.

You should have stayed where you came from, Islander!

Islander--? He KNOWS me--? Charmian had just enough time to think, before the oki lowered its head and aimed at her, its hooves gouging up hunks of dirt and sending it flying every which way. She hurled her hand up and squinched her eyes shut, willing fire toward it even though she knew that it was pointless, now.

She felt the fire leave her fingers, and heard it whoosh through the air. She felt the hot breeze of it being batted harmlessly aside, and ground her teeth together, readying herself for something really painful. Then she heard an oddly unplaceable thunk, and the oki let out a pained squeal, and with a seemingly thunderous racket skidded and tumbled to a halt before her.

Continue:

Part 56: Tooth & Nail  (13+) The okis prove troublesome for Charmian, and perplexing for Singing Cedars... #1457034 by Tehuti, Lord Of The Eight

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