Mole
ButtsnBalls
MurderVictim
Little Bird
AlteredTundra
Izurich
Carlyle
Kidd
ruler of spades
shylarah
While Izzy spoke -- while the castaway told of shipwrecks and an abandoned crew and a monstrosity and an urchin with goats -- North's sable eyes grew wide with a strike of fear. The light of the Lantern behind her, pulsing to Izzy's heartbeat, haloed in the woman's flyaway tangled hair.
"Quickly." Without hesitation, North dropped her basket of grain spilling to the ground, grasped Izzy's hand and whisked her away into the town. They sped past lopsided shacks that leaned against one another, skirted around a group of small children playing, past the sizzle and aroma of grilling mushrooms, the spark and flash of small fires.
North called urgently into a gathering around a campfire, her voice cracking on the verge of hysterics. "Have you seen Sunny?"
An old man looked up, nodded and pointed deeper into the village. Not a few moments ago, he said. North breathed, slowed down a little, was able to focus knowing her child was indeed safe -- but there were still Izzy's comrades.
"That was a Hollow you met," she explained as she ran, clutching Izzy's hand. "You can't fight them on your own, you were right to come here."
She weaved through narrow streets, until finally they came upon a dark stone tower that was girdled high above by a ringed wooden platform. Bluish lights cast a dim but constant glow, hanging from hooks and posts. In front of the open archway of the tower, two strong women in pale-blue and yellow uniforms stood guard with spears in their practiced hands.
"There's been a Hollow attack!" North cried as soon as they were within earshot of the two women.
Immediately, one of the women rushed inside and up the stairs to prepare the team, while the other approached. "Where was the sighting?" she demanded. "How many hollows? Tell me exactly, or come along and show us. Quickly, now."
Above, the whirr of mechanical parts echoed over the town, then the fwoom of rushing air. Feet pounded on the wooden platform above, and engines were being revved.
Meanwhile...
Ifor stepped on a jellyfish -- which ultimately would cause a blue, glowing stain to appear on his boot -- and huddled against the shadowed rocks in wait. Golde joined him in hiding.
Elliot got as close as he could -- or dared -- in order to hear what the children were saying. He would have to traverse over a treacherous field of rocks, skirt around the light of the obelisk, and hop along the wet stones that stood above the moving waves in order to get closer to the high, sheer rock island upon which the children and the griffins were perched. Hearing what they were saying was very hard indeed over the roar of the water, especially from this precarious distance, but he might pick up a few words:
"Is he waking up? Is he waking up and we're the ones who'll see it? We'll go down in history!"
"But why, do you think? Have we done something? Is someone down there?"
"Who knows! I wanna know why he stopped! C'mon!"
Great wings opened, momentarily blocking the moon from Elliot's vision, until the griffin -- with two small passengers -- swooped down and made a neat landing upon a jutting rock just beside the yellow obelisk, where the seaspray foamed all around.
The children dropped from the griffin's back, and they both waded across the slippery rocks toward the obelisk. Thus illuminated brightly, their forms were made very clear to the shadowed observers; they wore furs and crude leathers, and hoods made of the hollowed faces of dead animals. The boy's hood was fashioned with the beak and feathers and vacant eyes of a great eagle, while the smaller girl's hood was made from the dead empty face of a coyote.
The boy leaped and splashed recklessly across the rocks, nearly slipped once, and boldly pressed both hands against the obelisk while the water frothed at his ankles. "Wind-god! Come out!" he hollered with a grin. The obelisk didn't respond at all. "We've been watching over you! We're ready for your return! Help us take back the island! We'll fight for our land and our freedom!"
"That is not quite how I would speak to a god," the girl pointed out calmly -- and she did not mention the fact that the wind-god did not appear to be at all interested in the boy's raucous crowing.
The girl, instead, scanned the dark silhouettes of the rocks -- and her eyes stopped on Elliot. Although by all logic any normal person should not be able to see into such shadows, this girl's eyes were perfectly accustomed to seeing in darkness.
The griffin, in turn, raised its head and looked in the direction of her gaze -- and so Elliot had both pair of eyes on him now.
"You can release him," she called to Eliot, while her companion was distracted by his own ego. "It was you."
Meanwhile...
Ifor and Golde had a perfectly good hiding spot -- far enough away from the obelisk that there was little risk of being spotted, yet close enough to see and hear much of what transpired. They saw the winged beast land among the wave-beaten rocks, they saw two children splash across to the obelisk, they saw the boy touch the obelisk and shout raucously while the girl turned her back to Ifor and Golde, spotting Elliot. The next moment, and Elliot's decision, would determine his fate --
A rush of flapping wings and a dark shadow overhead was the only warning before the second griffin dropped down off the cliff above Ifor and Golde; it landed with a spray of sand only a few feet away -- behind them, leaving only the path to the obelisk open to them -- its eyes fixed upon them warily. The beast towered over them, bigger than the largest horses, its hooked beak and shining talons a far greater threat than any hooves or teeth. Its tufted tail swished, and the griffin lowered its head with a dangerous warble.
Its eyes glanced down to Ifor's boot, stained in the luminescence of the jellyfish, then snapped its beak with a huff of breath that was so close it ruffled Golde's hair.
