Wandering Eternal: Brothers of War

The Mountain Part 2

“Alright, but just so you know, while you’re here time doesn’t flow the same as in your world. So you will be sent back at the same time you left, around sunset,” she raises her arms up and the vines on the ceiling start glowing. The glowing pollen drifts down surrounding Zee then he suddenly vanishes.

“What is the reason that you have called this meeting so urgently?” Suddenly the pools of water around the throne start glowing brightly then four statuesque figures appear above them. From left to right they include; a tall, long blonde haired man with bright sky blue eyes wearing a large dark green leaf loincloth and is extremely skinny being barely a skeleton, a very small girl the size of an infant with bright green short spiky hair and completely nude but resting on a nimbus cloud that envelopes certain parts of her body, her eyes are tightly squinted but are blood red when she opens them, an old looking white haired woman sitting on a toadstool and covered in moss and various mushrooms, and lastly a young boy with carrot orange hair and mustache and very plump wearing a white cloth diaper hugging a giant yellow stuffed bear like animal with six legs, big rounded ears, and a long curly tail.

“I want to request a replacement,” Nova says nonchalantly lowering herself down on the throne. All of them flinch in surprise then they all look at each other as if they are having a conversation without speaking, “you gave Ezmerella the freedom to go to the human world and made Lianostra the guardian, then Moriarni, and Cnodgtifir. When I took over the responsibilities of guardian I did not realize I was going to be interacting with humans, much less the two that entered the forest yesterday,” she pouts while starting to get angry.

“Do you wish to go to the human world as well Nova?” The old woman asks with whispering voiceless judgment.

“I wish to travel with these two humans,” she leans over propping her head on her arm.

“You do know that we would have to strip some of your powers?” The small girl on the cloud looks at Nova.

“Yes, but...”

“Your size will be limited to the size of a normal human, but you can still control your size, just not above your limit,” the blonde haired man never makes eye contact with Nova.

“That’s reasonable, I couldn’t imagine how many humans go crazy with fear and curiosity,” Nova leans forward propping on her legs.

“If you die in the human world, it is not the same as it is here. Here, we can revive anything that is mortally wounded if treated quickly. But if you die over there it is permanent, we could fix your injuries but it is not always effective,” the elderly woman covered in moss speaks with care and compassion.

“I didn’t know that either, however I still want to go with them. With your blessing and ability to find a replacement. But I also would like to learn how to make myself invisible to everyone unless you allow them to see you. They all start looking at each other again communicating amongst themselves. After around thirty minutes, Ezma strolls into the garden taking the scenery in, then she notices Nova on the throne and the four people on top of the pools.

“Hey! Are these your friends Nova? You didn’t say you were having a party!” She runs up to the throne and looks at all of them who all seem to be in speechless shock.

“I..i...is that?”

“No way! She...”

“Can it be?”

“She is...”

“Hey! My name is Ezma! Nice to meet you all!” She bows to them respectfully.

“This is one of the travelers I was speaking about,” Nova reaches down and pats Ezma on the head. The four of them look at each other in silence again for a few moments.

“What are they doing? It looks like they are talking but I can’t hear them,” Ezma looks at them with curiosity. She walks over to the old woman and tries to touch her but her hand just passes through her, “what? She is a ghost?” Ezma’s eyes widen then her face turns white.

“It is just an image of them. They are using a form of astral projection that allows them to meet with other guardians with leaving their posts as the fairy council. Right now they are using telepathy to talk to each other, many different beings are able to use it,” Nova sits back in the throne impatiently.

“We have come to a decision. We have sent a replacement to the Titan Tree. She should reach you in two hours time. But we have a request,” the old woman points at Ezma, “bring her to us when you come to prepare for leaving,” they all focus their attention on Ezma and she points to herself in confusion.

“Understood, thank you council,” Nova rises off of the throne floating out of the garden as the four people disappear causing the pools to stop glowing. Ezma runs after her while still holding her shoes. Ezma stops at Vesper and puts her shoes in the saddle bag then she pulls out her boots. She sits down putting them on then she walks over to Zee’s courier bag looking at it.

“Hey, where did Zee go? I haven’t seen him around here and he left his bag here. He never leaves without this bag,” she picks it up and realizes that all of his stuff is still inside. She walks back over to Vesper and notices his hat is on Vesper’s head, “you look silly, but it does look kind of nice on you,” she laughs petting Vesper on the head then she takes the hat off and puts it on her head, “how do I look huh?” She spins around making her dress sway. She hangs the courier bag on the saddle horn then she walks up the stairs to see Nova floating around the room. Her hair is holding a small bag open catching things that she tosses to it. She collects about half of the book collection and various other things around the room then she flies up to the fountain while Ezma follows close behind. While Nova darts around the fountain collecting things, Ezma walks over to the fountain and sits down with a gloomy face, “do you know where Zee went? I haven’t seen him since this morning and the last thing I said to him was pretty mean,” she pulls his hat off and sets it on her legs looking at it.

“He had to go do something that he implied might be dangerous so he wanted to go alone and asked me to watch you for a while,” Nova continues to rummage around. Ezma begins to think the worst and starts crying, then as Nova finishes and the bag her hair is holding disappears in a poof of smoke she notices Ezma crying, “there’s no reason to cry. He said he would let us know when he’s finished so that we...you can join him,” she smiles at her then she drinks from the fountain.

“May I drink this water too?” Ezma asks l*****g her lips. Nova looks up and nods to her then puts her head back in the water. Ezma stands up turning around and then drops to her knees putting her head in the water drinking it. They both raise up out of the water and laugh at each other then Ezma splashes water at Nova and she splashes back. They play around splashing water for a few moments then Nova strips her vine off and lowers herself into the fountain. Ezma strips all of her clothes off and joins her in the fountain. They lay in the water relaxing and talking about Ezma and Zee’s adventures for a couple of hours then they hear a voice yelling from below.

“Hellooooooo!!!! I am here to...I am your...can you just let me in please?” Nova and Ezma look at each other and laugh hysterically. Nova steps out of the water and grabs her vine putting it on her body and it absorbs all of the water from her hair and body. She puts it on Ezma as she steps out of the fountain and it dries her off as well. They both then make their way down to the ground level and open the door, “finally! Hey, I’m Freesia, I was sent to be your replacement!” A girl half the size of Nova stands at the door with a string of nimbus clouds around her body. She has hot pink hair that reaches her mid back with aquamarine highlights throughout and her hair is thick and wild flowing. Her eyes are emerald green and have blue outer circles. She has markings on her cheeks and her forehead between her eyebrows that have a faint blue glow. As she walks inside carrying a large bag, the light shows her skin has a dark tan and all of her fingernails and toenails are painted a different color.

“Thank you Freesia, I really appreciate you coming here to guard the Titan Tree,” Nova hugs her as she comes in the room. Ezma is frozen gawking at how Freesia’s body looks to be sculpted by an artist.

“Are all fairies good looking like you two?” Ezma squeals then she runs over to Freesia playing with her nimbus clouds.

“Hehehoohoo! Agh! Stop! That tickles!” Freesia’s face turns red and she hops around uncontrollably.

“Wait what? How did I tickle you when I was just playing with the fluffy stuff around you...” Ezma’s face changes to disgust, “that’s not hair is it?”

“Haha! No! That is my Nimbus, every fairy has a Nimbus, I like mine to be clouds because they’re so soft and cuddly!” She pulls the clouds up to her face hugging them tightly with passion.

“Where is your Nimbus Nova?” Ezma asks curiously studying her body. Nova pulls the vine off of her body holding it out.

“This is my Nimbus, I don’t really like covering my body but when humans are around it serves to cover up to keep from being stared at all the time,” Nova twists the vine in her hands and it turns into a cloud.

“Wow! That is neat! Can I have a Nimbus?” Ezma begs with a pleading look.

“Umm, I’m not sure that humans are allowed...but it’s not unheard of. I guess it just depends on how lucky you are. I see you have a beautiful Ixion already! And I know there are some animals that get attached to humans and follow them around,” just then, a small rabbit with bat-like wings hops out of Freesia’s bag onto her shoulder, “kind of like Pipo here!”

“Oh my gosh! It’s so cute!!” Ezma squeals.

“We must be going, thank you again Freesia. Everything here is ready for you to take over,” Nova grabs Ezma and floats over to Vesper putting her hand on her then they suddenly they all disappear in a flash.

They reappear inside a large glass ball with hundreds of pillows laying in the bottom. The infant looking boy is floating around a crystal ball hovering in the middle. He holds his hand out to Nova and she starts glowing brightly with an amethyst color then her skin cracks all over her body and she starts writhing in pain. Her skin starts peeling off in shards and floating towards the crystal ball as she screams in agony shrinking in size.

“Hey! What’s going on? What are you doing?! Stop it you’re hurting her!” Ezma screams. The boy stays silent continuing to sap Nova’s powers until finally she is human sized only a foot taller than Ezma. Nova, barely able to stand, stumbles over to the crystal ball and starts messing with it.

“If you wouldn’t mind could you not tell the girl anything, put us out here, please,” Nova uses telepathy to communicate with the boy. She walks back over to Ezma and Vesper slowly and puts her hands on both of them then they all disappear again. Ezma and Vesper reappear inside a cabin similar to the one Ezma took care of Zee in. She looks around frantically then hugs Vesper tightly.

“Where did Nova go? I thought she was with us, but wait where are we?” She continues looking around with a somber expression. Nova hovers over them quietly being invisible to them and also the size of a hummingbird.

Zee appears about a mile from the fork in the mountain pass where he disables the poacher’s pitfall trap. He looks up and notices a large circular area distorting the area around it, warping space and time. He looks around gaining his bearings and takes his watch out noticing it is not spinning wildly anymore and actually reverted back to the correct time and date, “how unusual, I wonder if being in the fairy world caused the watch to be contaminated with magic?” He puts the watch away then carefully finds his way back to the road he was on earlier, avoiding the rift so not to accidentally be sent back to the fairy world. Once on the road again, he starts running west as fast as he can while the waning light of the sun disappears. A couple of hours pass and he notices some signal fires along a line across the horizon, “finally, I have made it to the wall. I will take a break and rest there before going to the mountain,” he makes it to the wall while in a full sprint, and as soon as gets close enough he comes to a full stop squatting down. As the forward momentum works its way through his body he leaps, using the excessive force, high into the air and lands right beside one of the signal fires. He walks over to the western edge of the wall removing the backpack and sits down opening it to grab a water skin. He drinks the entire thing almost instantly then he returns it to his bag and pulls out a fruit tart from the side pouch and eats it slowly while packing the pipe. Once he is finished he wipes his mouth with his sleeve and lights his pipe up wishing he had brought his courier bag. He relaxes while smoking and studying the night sky. He notices a very large shadow of a mountain on the horizon and stands up to get a better look, “Wow, that really is a big mountain! I am actually getting excited to see it up close,” he finishes smoking and dumps the ashes out then puts it away picking the backpack up putting it on. He makes sure everything is put up and tightly secured then he pushes off the side of the wall launching off into the dense forest. He sprints through the trees leaping from the limbs pushing harder each time building a massive amount of speed until he reaches the end of the forest landing on the ground without slowing even the slightest. He reaches the base of the mountain shortly before sunrise and stops as he feels a great feeling of evil intent suddenly and he feels as if he is smaller than an ant as the presence feels even bigger than the mountain in front of him. He looks around in a terrible fright with his left hand gripped on the sword and his right hand holding one of the special kunai ready to fight if he is forced to. He feels the hair on the back of his neck rise and goosebumps around his arms and legs as he shivers slightly with a cold chill, “I have never felt this kind of fear before, what the hell is this immense evil energy?” He takes a deep breath in from the nose and holds it feeling the brisk cold air filling his lungs then he exhales slowly pushing the air out of his mouth and he watches his breath cloud out of his mouth. He retains his courage then he draws the sword from the scabbard and the kunai from its holster and begins to search for a path up the mountain. He comes across a cabin with smoke billowing out of the chimney and runs over to it trying to open the door but it is locked. He knocks patiently with the hilt of the sword and hears people cowering in fear, “hello? I can hear you inside there, I mean you no harm. I am trying to find a way up the mountain, please open the door,” he says loudly but not so loud as to draw attention. The door unlocks and opens revealing a young Sherpa girl no older than ten years of age.

“Sorry mister! There was a man here earlier that killed my father who was just trying to help,” she seems unaffected by the death of her father. Zee sheathes the weapons and walks inside seeing six Sherpas around the cabin cowering.

“I am sorry for your loss, how much earlier was this? I cannot help anyone seek revenge, but I would gladly assist in arresting the culprit responsible for it,” Zee tries to smile and ease the tension.

“He was headed to the top of the mountain and was in a real hurry so he is long gone by now...”

“What is the quickest way up the mountain, and do you have a hot drink I could buy and fill this skin with?” Zee pulls the empty water skin out of his bag putting it on the bar then takes ten gold pieces and drops them on the counter. The man behind the counter jumps at the sight of the gold and hurries to make him a hot drink. A few moments pass then the man sets a steaming cup of jazmine tea with milk and honey in front of Zee then fills the skin with the rest, “thank you kindly bar keep, now which way is the quickest to the top?” Zee sips the tea while several of the Sherpas exchange different ideas of how to scale the mountain with haste. He finishes the cup of tea and puts the skin in the pocket of the jacket standing up then walking to the door, “I appreciate your help, I wish I could’ve been here sooner,” he bows to them then exits the cabin hearing it lock behind him. He runs over to the southeast col then begins his trek up the mountain running as fast as he can while being careful as to not cause an avalanche. He soars up the mountain at lightning speed as the suns light begins to blanket the land. He stops suddenly around two hundred and fifty yards from the Hillary Step realizing the evil energy just completely disappears as if whoever it was coming from vanished into extremely thin air, “I wonder what happened? The feeling of evil intent grew larger as I got closer to the summit but...”

“Is someone there? Please, if someone is there, I am in desperate need of help,” Zee hears a voice coming from the summit then dashes forward toward the Hillary Step. He reaches the step and jumps up without a second thought and lands beside a woman dressed in a green and black bodysuit with bright eyes and jet black hair. She is laying face down in the snow and there are blood stains all around her, “please...help...me...”

“What happened to you?” Zee says kneeling down to roll her over then he takes his backpack off opening it to grab the flask of Titan Tree water out. He takes the top off then raises her to a sitting position and pours the water in her mouth. He pours slowly to give her time to swallow so not to cause her to choke and she drinks the entire flask. She slowly begins to regain her strength and she looks at her wounds which are healing rapidly.

“How did you obtain water from the Titan Tree in the fairy world?” She tries to stand up but cannot seem to keep her feet under her.

“It was a gift from a friend. But I did stumble into the fairy world for while,” Zee picks her up cradling her and she passes out, “well, it is not so bad, I will carry you to a safe place,” he turns to the east and notices the sun peeking over the horizon. He stands there watching it in awe then when it is fully clear of the horizon, the woman wakes up. She is startled when she realizes she is cradled in his arms and jumps out from his arms. Zee notices that whoever was responsible for doing this to her must have really tortured her by the looks of her bodysuit which is pretty much torn to shreds. Her large voluptuous breasts are barely covered by a small line of cloth, the torso is still attached to the bottom part of the suit by a small strip of cloth. The arms and legs have been torn off completely leaving just barely enough to cover her bottom and lady parts.

“It took you long enough to get here, I can’t believe you made me wait. If you had been here earlier you could’ve stopped him from almost killing me,” she scoffs in an angry fit of rage. She suddenly realizes she is almost completely n***d when an icy breeze shuffles across the summit pushing snow around making her shiver.

“I am not sure who you are, but if you would just let me help you, it would be easier than casting blame,” Zee takes the fur lined jacket off then starts to walk over to her offering to put it on.

“Stop! I am not falling for another trick! Your brother has already...” she loses consciousness and Zee quickly darts over catching her before she hits the ground. He wraps her in the jacket then picks her up cradling her and starts to descend the mountain. He finds it amusing at how easy it is to descend rather than ascend as he glides down the mountain sliding on the snow and ice. He looks at her as he hits a dry spot and notices that her body is starting to go into shock from frostbite. He takes his bag off and takes the water skin out which is still warm and takes a sip then pinches her nose and opens her mouth with his feeding her the hot tea. She wakes in surprise swallowing the tea and realizing she cannot move, “what are you doing? Why are you helping me?”

“Just drink this, it will help warm your body. I have gotten us off the summit but we are still too far away from anything that will work for shelter. There’s a blizzard about to hit and I do not think we can outrun it,” he helps her drink the rest of the tea then he puts the bag back on and picks her up continuing to descend. He finally reaches the base sprinting down a beaten path that leads west into a forest. He notices a cave in the distance as well as the blizzard moving in quickly and hurries to the cave. He reaches the cave noticing it is deeper than he anticipated with a hook to the left in the back. He hurries to the back placing her on the ground carefully then he runs around gathering dry wood and tinder as fast as can as the sleet and snow harshly blast against his skin. He rushes back to the cave as the brunt of the blizzard starts covering the entrance almost immediately. He builds a fire close to the woman then loads his pipe lighting it to create embers and dumps them onto the tinder. He blows on it lightly causing the flame to increase until he has a full sized fire then he rushes back outside remembering he saw a dead tree on his way to the cave. He draws the sword as he approaches the dead maple tree then strikes it as he passes it then he turns around and slices upwards. He sheathes the sword walking to the front of the tree as it splits in half falling towards him and just as it reaches him he catches both halves then runs back to the cave bursting through the snow bank covering the entrance. He sets them down slicing them into smaller pieces and adds them to the fire stacking the rest up hoping he had enough to last through the storm. He takes the bandolier off hanging it on an outlet rock then the sword and his coat. He takes his shirt and pants off rolling them up and putting them in the bag, then he pulls a large rolled up flannel quilt causing the bag to cave in. He lays the quilt out next to the fire then he picks the woman up and sets her on the quilt with her back facing the fire. He grabs his coat opening it up wide then lays next to the woman putting coat around them as a blanket then he pulls the fur lined jacket over them.

“I still don’t understand why you are going through all of this trouble just for me. If the roles were reversed, I would have let you die up there on the mountain,” the woman attempts to struggle but Zee overpowers her forcing her to stop resisting.

“Look, I know I did not have to save you but I remembered hearing your voice when I was at the temple. You said that you called me here for a reason then when I show up you are mortally wounded and even the water was not working on you. So I decided to help you as best as I can, even though I have no idea who you are,” he says smiling, “now hold still, I do not want to cut you, and do not mistake me for doing something else,” he reaches up the bandolier and grabs a kunai out then he cuts her clothes off. He looks at her and notices a shocked expression on her face, “look, I had to get them off of you. They were soaking wet and the easiest way to help someone regain their body heat is to be touching skin,” he puts the kunai back in its holster then he pulls her clothes off from behind her tossing them into the fire and it blazes up brightly with green flames for a moment then returns to normal.

“You truly have lost your memory haven’t you? I can’t believe it...” she still has a shocked expression on her face but it soon turns to a warm smile as she realizes he really is just trying to help her, “well then, my name is Hela. I am the goddess of death. But right now I am freezing my a*s off because the other man that came before you tricked me. He stabbed me with that damned halberd, cutting off my magic but just before he killed me I sent him as far as I could using the last bit of magic I could,” she sheds a couple of tears. Zee pulls his bag closer pulling his pants out and wraps her hair up in them then he puts his arms around her holding her tightly to his body while scooting closer to the fire. She reacts innocently towards his embrace and it confuses him.