Part 125: Parting Ways

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PART ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE:
Parting Ways

NISKIGWUN MADE AN even more pathetic figure now, Charmian believed, than he had just after Megissogwun had torn out his wings and left him lying battered in Cutfoot's lodge. He was still standing, at least, though his head hung so much that she wondered why he didn't just sit down. His wings hung limply as well; every so often they'd flare just a bit, then sink again, and she wondered in addition why they didn't simply fall off, they looked so lifeless now.

She approached him tentatively, biting her lip and walking partway around him, at a distance, trying to gauge his mental state by the look on his face. In the dimming light she couldn't see him very well, but his posture said everything. She halted and fiddled her fingers a bit before drawing closer, to at last come to a halt several feet away. He didn't even acknowledge that he noticed her presence, and she thought that perhaps he'd fallen asleep, until she saw that his eyes were in fact open and he was staring at the ground.

"Niskigwun...?" she murmured, then chewed on her lip again when he didn't answer. Fiddle-fiddle-fiddle. "Are you okay...?"

The Michinimakinong still said nothing, just stared at the grass. She edged a bit closer and decided to stare at it with him; that had always worked in the past. Sure enough, after several moments of (nearly unbearable, to her) silence, one of his wings twitched, and she almost felt her ear strain to catch whatever he might say.

"All this time," he said, his voice so small that she almost didn't hear it. "And she never...she never said a word..."

Charmian bit her lip. "I'm sure she..."

She cut herself off when he lifted his head abruptly to look at her, and she took pause at the aggrieved look in his eyes. "I knew there was something she was not telling," he blurted out, "but that? How could she not tell such a thing? How could she never tell us that?"

Charmian tried not to wince. "Probably because she didn't want to upset you," she said.

He flared his wings. "And finding out like this doesn't do the same--?"

"Well...can you blame her?"

Niskigwun blinked as if in surprise. "Maybe she thought it'd be best if you just never knew," Charmian offered. "Seeing how you take it now, can you blame her for that? I'm all for the truth, yeah, but some things...well..."

"Some things?" Niskigwun echoed, as if she'd just pointed at a redwood and exclaimed, "Sapling!" He turned to face her, his wings beating the air as if he intended to fly off right then and there. "If what all of you say is true," he said, "then that means--that--that beast who is trying to destroy the Island--"

"I know," Charmian said, forcing down a sigh. "I couldn't believe it either. But she has no reason to lie now."

He was already shaking his head. "Then this means that all of us--all of us--we are of the same thing as he is!" he exclaimed, and shuddered. "Every last one of us--even me! That vile creature is part of us, and she did not see fit to say--she even gathers us around her--knowing what we are--" He made a face and looked down at himself, then started pulling the feathers from his spear and his clothing. Charmian blinked and then gawked at him in disbelief. She hastened forward to start grabbing the feathers up before the breeze could carry them away.

"Hey--!" she blurted out, snatching a handful. "What are you doing? Stop doing that!"

"His name is Feather! Just like mine!" Niskigwun grimaced and now pulled off his headdress--she blushed when he did so, as if he'd suddenly stripped naked--and threw it at the ground; she stooped to pick it up as well. She'd never seen him without all his feathers before, and he looked strangely bare without them, like a bird that had been mostly plucked. She was surprised to see that he bore a strip of roached hair which went down the middle of his head, ending in a small braid which dangled over his back, but other than that his head was shaved smooth. He continued grimacing as he rubbed at it, as if little bugs were crawling over him. "How else are we alike--? If he could so easily destroy the Island, doesn't that mean we could too--?"

"Of course not!" Charmian snapped, stomping toward him. "Stop thinking like that! You're being stupid!" She stood on tiptoe--as he was a few inches taller than she was--and started trying to put his headdress back on. "And stand still and take this thing back!"

He bared his teeth and batted at her arms, shoving the feathers away. "No! Any reminder is too MUCH of a reminder! How she could live with such FILTH around her all this time as if it is nothing is BEYOND my understanding--!"

Charmian stopped reaching for his head and instead smacked him with the headdress, making him yelp. "STUPID!" she yelled, and he flinched. "Don't you frigging get it? It doesn't MATTER what you are to him! It's what you are to HER that matters! Doesn't it tell you anything that she knows what you all are yet she keeps you around anyway? She cares about you guys more than anyone else! I think that says a hell of a lot more than anything Megissogwun ever did!"

"You would of course have NO IDEA what this is like!" Niskigwun retorted.

Charmian clenched her fists. "I would of course TOO have an idea! You wouldn't BELIEVE all the shit I've heard so far about all the people I've met on the Island! Noko killed her own grandson when he was just a newborn! Moon Wolf traded his daughter for medicine! Stick lied about his manitou! Thomas drank my BLOOD once! So? So they all messed up! They all did stupid things, and they were all lousy people for a moment, but guess what? I STILL like them! Because at least they KNOW what they did, and that's what matters. You're hardly just like Megissogwun because of what he did, so stop saying that!"

"You have no way of knowing," he said, and she blinked when his voice cracked; she'd never seen him so upset before. "It's one thing to do despicable things," he said, "but it's something else entirely to be something despicable. That's something that never goes away."

"You honestly think that...?" Charmian furrowed her brow. "Then do you think that of Cheengwun and--your fifteen OTHER siblings? And Turtle and everybody else who lives around the Sky Tree?"

A flinch passed across his face and he had to look away. "All of us," he murmured. "All of us are the same, then. Since he is the one who destroyed her first Island, I fail to see why she could keep such a reminder around, knowing what he did."

Charmian was silent for a moment, thinking. She took a step toward him. "Do you know what?" she said, and paused, as if expecting him to reply. "Remember what I learned my last time on the Island? You weren't with us when we beat Chakenapok so I guess I have to explain it a bit...but the way we did it was, his brothers had to understand that they were capable of doing the exact same things, of being the exact same way, that he was." Niskigwun peered at her slightly, his own brow furrowing. "It sounded absolutely nuts and Manabozho didn't want to do it at all," Charmian said. "He insisted he could NEVER be even remotely like Chakenapok...but do you know what? He could. And he learned that. And do you know what? I found out the exact same thing when he nearly got my spirit stone. Do you know that whenever I looked at my reflection, I kept seeing Ocryana? You must know how reflections tend to work around there," she said, on seeing the look of disbelief come to his face, "so you must know I can't make this stuff up. And exactly what that means."

"But you could never destroy the Island," Niskigwun insisted. "There isn't a single part of you that could ever do such a thing."

"I used to think so," Charmian said. "But I've sure messed up enough times to nearly get it all destroyed, even now." She fought a wince and rubbed at her neck. "You saw what happened to Nigankwam...and there was this little Nebanaubae...even what happened to you. You say it's not my fault," she said before he could protest, "but I did send you back there for something stupid. I don't always think things through and because of that I'm always messing things up! So who knows, maybe one day I will destroy the Island!"

"And you would so easily claim the reverse of me?" Niskigwun said.

"No," Charmian replied, and he nearly gawked. "I won't tell you you could never do something terrible," she said, "because everybody can. But I can tell you that you're not a terrible person. And I can tell you that you stand a far greater chance of doing GOOD things rather than messing up. And I can tell you with ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CERTAINTY that, even while Megissogwun's a part of you, and maybe you could do something like him someday, you're not HIM, and you never will be." She racked her brain for a moment, then added, "Do you think Megissogwun would even be standing here having this conversation in the first place--?"

She saw him flush, and he averted his eyes again. He stared at the feathered headdress she still held. "What do I even say?" he murmured, and she frowned a little, confused. "If--when we return. How do I face her and how does she face me knowing that? It changes everything..."

"Only if you want it to," Charmian said. "I know it's all different now, but it doesn't have to change. I know that every time somebody didn't tell me something about themselves, it was because they were afraid of hurting me. The only reason she didn't mention it was probably because she didn't want that on your shoulders. When you were hurt, remember how you didn't want me to worry? I even lied to Cheengwun so he wouldn't be upset, because he was asking how you were doing."

"Cheengwun tends to worry," Niskigwun agreed, looking worried himself as he stared off into space.

"And take a look, you're fine now," Charmian said. "But if things hadn't turned out fine, wouldn't you have wanted him to know? Put yourself in Geezhigo-Quae's place for a minute and imagine how hard that must have been keeping quiet, and how hard it'll be for her once she knows you know. The last thing she needs is you losing it. If she can take it then can't you too?"

Silence. The Michinimakinong continued staring for a few moments, then she frowned a little when his hands slowly curled into fists and a dark look came to his eyes; if he'd still been wearing his feathers she felt that they would have started standing on end. She began chewing on her lip a bit uneasily. "Niskigwun...?" she said hesitantly, not sure of what to expect.

"If this is all true," Niskigwun said, his voice grating, "then that means he not only mistreated her in the first place...but he did not ever care, either. Not one bit about anything he did. He destroyed what she loved most and left her with this. She is the one who has every reason to despise us...but she has always cared for us more than I can ever say. And meanwhile he would destroy it all again, including us, just because. He never cared for anything he destroyed nor anything he created." Charmian took a step back when his eyes glittered and he bared his teeth again. "NO ONE does this to the Sky Mother and gets away with it! Not as long as I fight for her!" He gripped his spear almost hard enough to crack. "He will have to jab this through me a HUNDRED more times before he can even think of finishing me off!"

Charmian gasped and threw an arm over her head when he came stomping toward her, but all that he did was grab the headdress and loose feathers from her hand and storm off with them; she turned to watch him jamming the headdress down over his head again, raking one hand through the feathers so they went every which way, and quickly affixing the rest back to his clothing. She blinked again when she noticed Manabozho now, standing some distance away; he glanced at Niskigwun as the Michinimakinong swept past, and she almost expected some sort of pissy exchange, though neither of them said anything. When she walked toward Manabozho herself, she was surprised to see the strangely cool look on his face. He seemed almost like he was impressed.

"For once," he said as soon as she reached him, and he looked over his shoulder at the retreating Niskigwun, "I understand him."

* * * * *

Charmian was relieved that at least Ishkode-Aanakwad had remained in their now-makeshift camp, as she'd fully been expecting him to decide to leave in her absence. Kenu was regaling him with tales of everything that had happened so far prior to him joining their party, while Ishkode sat and frowned but nodded every so often as if to tell him to go on. Ishkode turned his head to see them reenter the clearing, and Kenu's story trailed off as Charmian sighed and selected a seat not too far away, Niskigwun still working on his feathers.

"I have been told of how you came to have a Mishupishu in your company," Ishkode said, and she looked up at him hesitantly. "Little Brother here tells me that this Lynx apparently saved him from drowning some time back."

Kenu's head bobbed up and down like a cockatoo's. "It's true, every single word of it!"

"Yeah, pretty much," Charmian agreed. "I told you he's not a bad Lynx when you get to know him."

"Still," Ishkode said. "It troubles me that your group seems to be trailing undesirables after it at every turn. My men sensed several others following your company. A pair of humans, and some manitous. Do these beings have something to do with everything that you humans are doing--?"

"Pretty much," Charmian admitted again. "They're two wabanos--named Mishosha and Makwaquae." She decided not to mention Little Wind. "The manitous work for them. Apparently, Mishosha keeps watch over the Red Swan, but they all work for Megissogwun. Which confuses me, since Megissogwun doesn't seem to know about the Red Swan."

"Whatever her location or purpose," Ishkode said, "you would be well advised not to seek her out so lightly. I cannot say what would happen if you did free her. But my elders were pretty insistent that it would be bad. There is an order to things, and it's best not to mess with it."

"I hoped she might have some way to fight Megissogwun herself, seeing as she's so powerful," Charmian sighed.

Ishkode resituated himself. "I have further been told that among your goals is not only saving this Island of yours, but finding a missing child."

Charmian blinked, then blushed. "Turtle! I forgot about her!" She grimaced when she realized that she'd said that aloud, and waved hastily at Manabozho. "Sorry!!"

"Kenu here has stated that he has no desire to return with us to the sky realm until he is finished seeking his revenge against the Pearl Feather," Ishkode went on. "He has furthermore requested that a war party be gathered for such a purpose, to avenge Grandfather Nigankwam, who was friend to all the Animiki tribes and among our most esteemed number. My men and I have decided to accept this request, and fight on behalf of the ogimah Kenu."

"Ogimah--?" Charmian asked, puzzled.

Kenu drew himself up and made certain that Nigankwam's feather was conspicuously placed. "I proclaim myself war chief in Grandfather Nigankwam's stead! And Brother Ishkode-Aanakwad and his men, and all of you tiny humans, shall serve as my war party as I seek my revenge for my tribe!" He paused and lowered his head somewhat. "That is...if you want to," he said meekly.

Manabozho at last seemed to lose his composure. "What do you mean, your war pa--" Charmian signaled Pakwa, who was nearest, and the GeeBee rapped his fist against Manabozho's funnybone, making him scream and leap to his feet, grabbing at his elbow in agony.

"Sure," Charmian said, then, a bit awkwardly, "um...we would be honored to...serve as your war party to avenge Nigankwam...Grandfather Nigankwam. Us tiny humans."

Kenu's face promptly lit up again and he leapt to his feet, little fists clenched. "EXCELLENT! The demon and loons may serve as my scouts, and the manitou as my lookout, and the Lynx as my bodyguard..."

Charmian shot Manabozho a look that was half threatening, half sympathetic in order to keep him from growling. "Do not worry," Ishkode said as the little Animiki began wandering around, obliviously rattling off his list of assigned duties. "I realize full well that your main objective is not to avenge Grandfather Nigankwam. But Brother Kenu may be more disposed to give you his best if he thinks this effort is in his name."

Charmian nodded with a bit of relief. "Thanks...we actually kind of have our plate full, so to speak, taking care of a bunch of things at once...but hopefully once Megissogwun's out of the way it'll take care of all our problems."

"You truly plan to face him yourselves?" Ishkode asked with a frown.

"I can defeat him," Manabozho said stubbornly. "I only need to prepare myself."

"It took the West Wind to defeat him before..."

"'Bozho here is the son of the West Wind," Charmian stated, which earned Manabozho a curious look from the Animiki. He frowned and tilted his head a little.

"I seem to recall hearing that his son was considerably bigger than this..."

Manabozho's face started going brilliant red. "You must mean Mudjikawiss," Charmian quickly said. "And no, he's not the one who can save the Island. Manabozho's lived there a long time; he cares about it too. And Megissogwun does have his daughter." She paused. "Were you saying that you and your guys were going to help us, then...?" she added, hopefully.

"If by 'help' you mean follow you along on the ground as humans, then no," Ishkode said, growing somewhat aloof again. "Our time would best be served in the sky. We will keep our eyes open for more Lynxes. I was told they were attempting to reach the Island again. Seeing as Grandfather Nigankwam is no longer with us, and Little Brother Kenu is occupied with seeking out the Pearl Feather, we will head southward toward Gitchi-Gami and then on toward the Island until you should return."

Charmian let out a breath and nodded. "We really appreciate it!" she said. "I was kind of worried because nobody's really back there keeping an eye on things!"

"Well," Ishkode said, and rose, dusting a loose leaf from his clothing. "You needn't worry now. I highly doubt one manitou alone can stand up against a tribe of Animiki."

"Oh." Charmian got to her feet as well and he looked at her over his shoulder as he started to turn back toward the meadow. "If you reach there before us," she said, "do you think you could let them know that we're okay and we're doing all we can...? I know...I know you guys don't really like conversing with humans much...so if you prefer it...there's a demon living near the top of the Island, and I meant to keep him filled in on what's going on, but it hasn't worked out too well. His name's Tal Natha and he's a Dreamspinner. Do you think you can pass this on?"

Ishkode's frown returned but he let out a curt sigh and turned away again. "I suppose we could manage one small message, as long as it regards our war upon the Pearl Feather." He strode off through the trees and they watched him go before casting glances at each other and shrugging slightly.

"He wasn't that bad!" Marten said.

"He did have a rather nicely made shirt," Peepaukawiss agreed, "though his moccasins look like they've seen better days..."

"I guess all Animiki are kind of...well..." Winter Born said, and her stare drifted skyward as she paused thoughtfully.

"Full of themselves?" Lieutenant Barrington groused. "I rather take it that they are!"

Charmian cringed. "Guys!" she whispered and whirled around. "He just left! If you have to be so pissy couldn't you at least wait until he's gone--?"

She gasped when the ground abruptly shook, a boom of thunder making her teeth chatter. She blinked to hear that it was in fact Ishkode's voice, and he was apparently quite unhappy about something.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF GITCHI MANITOU IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE?!"

Everyone glanced toward the meadow, eyes wide. Charmian started chewing on her lip, suddenly anxious; the Animiki hadn't sounded pleased. She turned and began jogging after him, several of the others following, she sensed more out of curiosity than out of any desire to actually confront him or anything.

Ishkode stood right at the treeline, feathers flaring and a hum of electricity almost visible around him. "Wh...what is it...?" Charmian panted as she caught up.

In response he turned to glare at her over his shoulder, then pointed ahead of himself.

"THAT! Is this some sort of asinine JOKE--?"

"Huh?" Charmian furrowed her brow and nudged her way past him to look. "What is i..."

She trailed off, staring in silence at what she saw. Winter Born now pushed her way forward to pop out between her and Ishkode, and her eyes widened.

Where there had been damp grassland before, there was now a seemingly endless expanse of white, specked with those blades of grass just long enough to poke their way out the top. Large fat flakes were drifting down from a leaden sky. When Winter Born stooped to stick her fingers in the nearest edge of the snow, they came out wet up to her second knuckle, and Charmian felt her throat constrict.

"What is the meaning of this?" Ishkode demanded. "Snow? At this time of the year--? This particular region has always been miserable, but snow--?"

"Kabebonikka," Charmian murmured, and turned away to look back at the others. The tree cover had been so thick that none of the snow had even reached them yet, but she could tell how it was piling up, and how much deeper it was likely to get if it continued falling as heavily as it did now.

"He said he wouldn't start anything until we got down from the mountain," Winter Born said, the others looking at her. "Then he said he would keep Mishosha off our backs for a little bit."

"Well, we're way off the mountain." Charmian craned her neck to look eastward, but of course could see nothing. "I take it that we're on our own now."

"The Wintermaker?" Ishkode asked, and that dark frown returned. "You had some sort of altercation with him?"

"Actually, he's helped us out quite a bit," Charmian corrected him, adjusting her pack, "but we kind of owe him now." She looked up at the Thunderbird. "Can you point out the easiest way west? To the great plain?"

He seemed perplexed, but pointed just the same. "That way. We passed over it on our way to Gitchi-Gami."

"That's the way we go, then," Charmian said, and waved at the others. "X--Kenu," she called out, and the two of them came forward. "You guys head south and keep Mishu company. Kwemoo, Maang, you two fly up and keep watch to make sure we're headed in the same direction. If they start meandering off some other way, let them know; maybe they can find a regular tunnel. The rest of us keep heading the way we were already. If we keep walking westward we're bound to run into somebody who knows where Kabeyun is, eventually." She turned back to see Ishkode giving her an odd look, and she furrowed her brow again, peering left and right. "What...? Why are you looking at me like that? What is it?"

"Oh," Ishkode said, and turned back to the meadow. "Nothing. It is just that, for a ridiculous moment, it seemed as if you were the ogimah here."

Charmian blinked. Her ears began to burn, but Ishkode-Aanakwad was already running, his arms spreading out and feathers sprouting from them, a glow surrounding him as he grew to the size of an airplane, snow and clouds swirling around him as he let out a boom and ascended into the sky with the rest of the Animiki following closely after.

Continued...


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