"Fall? I crashed actually. oh crap, my gear. We need to go back, I got some supplies that could be useful."
"Blast it all! Rahna is missing, and Lee.. Well, to be perfectly honest, aye... I'm not too clear on anything right now! One minute I'm writhin' on the ground like a fish outta water with a spike in my lung, the next, there's a wee dragon creature givin' me the courage of a god!"
The little mushroom man looked between them. He saw that his tiny existence had been completely ignored by the tin man, and the sleepy boy had completely forgotten. Little fingers tapped together, and he shuffled his little foot in the dirt. So it seemed Kip was unwanted! So it seemed his new friends didn't want to be friends at all! How sad, how cruel, but such was life.
Well! If there were no new friends here, the least he cold do was to offer his assistance. He raised his capped head and puffed his chest.
"My tribe can repair your gliders!" he announced proudly.
"We may be little and weak, but we're many, and our hands are very skilled. I'll send them to retrieve your machines and start work!" He let out a piercing whistle, and a flock of birds overhead twittered in unison. The flock dispersed suddenly, a cloud of dark wings expanding through the leaves.
"Now! To find your friends! I bet they're this way." He began to march over the bones of the chimes.
"People always end up going this way. The temple is this way."Faintly, in the direction of his pointing finger, they could see through the thick foliage a high sprawling hill, and atop it the crumbled ruins of something that had once been a manmade structure, broken by vines and thick roots.
More dreamwisps peeked out from within the bushes and hovered over tall grasses, braver now that the chimes were gone. They did not venture close, but gave the travelers a wide berth while they seemed to watch curiously.
Overhead, a flock of chimes clunked softly while they soared over the treetops in a V formation -- headed straight toward the site of the fallen star.
Through a break in the trees, Gaius and Blin might spot Rahna in the distance, hiking toward the same steps that led up the hill to the temple.
Well, since we're the only ones here, it's best that we stay together right? I'm going to go look at the statue, want to come with me?"
The little mushroom opened his eyes slowly, one at a time, when he found himself still alive and not-eaten. After a long moment he took the leaf of mint, sniffed at it, and gave it a nibble. With a pleasant shiver, he ate the whole thing in one mouthful -- then gave Clover a sidelong look, to see if there was any more growing on the strange dreamwisp's back.
"Hm? Statue?" He'd quite forgotten his fear in the wake of the mint, and turned his head to see what the stranger was pointing at.
"Oh. Yes. Let's see." He waddled ahead, quicker than might have been expected of his tiny legs, and though he nearly tripped a few times he managed to keep pace through the brush.
The statue was covered in vines and sinewy roots, but underneath it all was a stone hawk on a pedestal, a clawed foot gripping a translucent black crystal. An eerie glow pulsed deep within it; it was the source of the aura that Clover felt. It was like a distant star, so deep within the crystal, so far away. The stone hawk glowered across the horizon, its wings half-unfurled.
"That's just the testing stone," the little mushroom explained.
"The hawk is the temple's gatekeeper. If you had bad intentions it would kill you dead."A long flight of weathered stone stairs led up past the hawk, into a wide overgrown courtyard that had once been beautifully arranged with fountains and flowerbeds, now rusted and broken. The temple itself was a small half-enclosure with holes in the rotted roof and weeds growing thick around the pillars. At its center was a pure-white statue of a little girl sitting in meditation -- untouched by time, pristine and bright among the dust and dirt of the forest.
To one side was a pond filled with water lilies, and long orange fish with black hollow eyes. Toads creaked and cicadas buzzed; wind hushed through the boughs overhead as a few more chimes darted across the sky.
