Story Paws: A Mystical World: Toxics 31
Story Paws: Stories to help you pause, and relax. Felicity is swept into a Mystical Old World where plants and beasts are equal, and all is heard. There she meets Reuben, whom she must help, to save his beloved Old World from the threat of the Toxics...if she wants to return home. Use this story to help you unwind, rest, and take a mindful pause. You may like to listen to the first 30 instalments of this story first, or simply jump in and use my voice as a tool for rest! Blessings, Maite
Transcript
CHAPTER XXXI UNDERGROUND Pippi was lifted on to Nathaniel,
And with Georges' guide the wounded party slowly set off into the forest.
Wolfgang carried their cups,
Scrat was to remain at the bowl.
The guardians,
Together with a band of Orion warriors,
Were more than capable of containing the toxics.
In spite of Demet's intermittent rails of bitterness,
They were calming down faster than Gus had hoped.
Gers approached.
He held something out to Ruben.
It was Orion balm,
Mixed and gelled by the fragrance using pollens from their forest canopies.
Its healing was potent for the Orion,
Their anharmonics.
Your mother sent this,
He said.
Ruben was relieved that within minutes his semi-paralysed shoulder was regaining feeling.
He drank the blue river water Gers gave him,
And they shared it with Scrat and Gus.
Its antiseptic and cleansing properties will help purify our tainted bloodstreams,
Said Ruben,
As he encouraged them both to have plenty.
Did you know Nathaniel was the son of Georges?
Asked Scrat as they drank.
I wondered when we first saw him,
Said Ruben.
Something in the stance,
I think.
No,
The head,
Said Gus.
They all thought of Georges' huge head.
Ruben smiled.
A fine son,
He said.
It's time I leave,
My shoulder is functioning,
I dare not rest any longer.
Scrat was sent to help Gers,
And Ruben packed up his things.
He would carry only a small flask of river water and a pot of bark balm.
Gus waited quietly to see him off.
But at the very last moment,
Ruben said,
Come with me,
Gus.
Why?
Said Gus.
My job is here with the lost toxics.
Because I need you when I meet Arras,
Replied Ruben.
Gers and Scrat will help the guardians contain the toxics until we return.
Gus remembered Kerr's instructions.
Remain open to all possibilities.
It was almost midnight when they finally entered the caves.
The guardian had been reluctant to let them through.
The last mishap had been unfortunate.
But Ruben dealt sternly with him,
And they passed inside.
Let's keep to the main path for now,
He said to Gus.
He was worried about Felicity.
Why can't I hear?
Don't worry,
Ruben,
Said Gus.
Little Green will protect them.
There was some vision,
But it was poor.
A little moonlight pierced the small roof holes.
Ruben could hear flutterings above his head and knew they were not alone.
The tiny Bat-Ats that nested here were busy with their near-dawn activities.
The roar of the cave-fall lessened as they travelled deeper within.
Ruben thought of Pippi.
Though he had heard of the fortitude of the Luparta,
He had never witnessed such valour.
He was not afraid of Arras.
He was afraid of failing the old world.
Felicity gasped as the waterfall took her down.
The icy water filled her nose and mouth.
Holding her breath,
She prayed for release.
She was discharged into a large lake.
As she bogged up to the surface,
Spluttering and choking,
She looked around.
The cavern she had landed in felt large.
It was hard to see exactly how big,
For the darkness clung to its sides.
Miles above,
Felicity could see a roof hole.
It let in a singular beam of light that struck the water's surface,
A tiny spot in the gloom.
She swam smoothly over to it.
It barely penetrated the water with its glow.
Fear trickled up her back.
What lay beneath?
Speeding to the side,
She climbed out and lay down,
Breathless.
She searched in a pocket for drink.
There was none.
The lake lapped enticingly,
But the survival instinct flickered in her tired brain.
She sighed.
What now?
Lying flat on her back,
She contemplated.
The ground that held her was warm,
To her surprise.
If she squinted up at the tiny speck of light above,
It seemed to grow lengthways.
She lay in the near dark,
Considering her options,
And fell asleep.
Little Green,
At that moment,
Was trundling along on her growing stipple root as she descended the myriad pathways of this maze cave.
The water had disappeared,
And the paths looked dry.
She travelled as fast as she could,
But the growing root was a hindrance.
Not yet,
She pleaded.
I don't want to be incarcerated here just yet.
She wanted to find a partner and lead a normal green life.
She tripped.
Elegantly raising herself,
She took some deep breaths.
Her phosphorescence was invaluable in this gloom,
And she did not want it to dim.
She must rebalance her mind.
She thought of her family who had given so much,
And she smiled.
Her glow increased and lit up a hidden path,
Sloping steeply down and out of sight.
At intermittent levels along its walls were irregular holes,
As if someone had created it.
As she skimmed as fast as she dared down the steep slope,
She heard a noise behind.
It was like the wind,
But there were other notes in the sound.
Continuing to descend,
She listened.
The rushing sound was coming closer.
Then,
In the moment she identified the sound,
It lifted her off her feet.
The wave of water knocked her over and she was carried down the sluice,
Powerless to prevent her watery abduction.
The walls scraped as she tried to gather her trailing branches.
Finally,
The nightmare was over.
Dizzy and shaken,
She lay like an unwanted leaf,
Stranded by the waning watercourse.
She stood and assessed herself.
She was bruised and her head had repeatedly thumped the sides of the hard passage,
But her branches felt intact.
Knowing the water overflow might return,
She left the perilous path.
She scrambled through one of the wall holes and found herself in a new web of passages.
Pausing,
She turned left.
Ruben and Gus were making good progress.
They had continued along the main route and not taken Little Green's treacherous path.
Ruben calculated that Felicity and Little Green started about five hours ahead,
But he would catch up.
He must catch up.
He tried repeatedly to reach Felicity's thoughts.
Once he had felt a whisper of sensation,
As if she spoke to him in a dream,
But nothing since.
He would not worry Gus,
But he was beginning to sense something amiss.
The fact that Little Green was also silent was of grave concern.
He was here,
Said Gus into the silence.
In the dim light,
Gus had found smears of toxic acid on the floor.
They both looked at each other.
Felicity and Little Green were far ahead,
And sandwiched in the middle was Arras.
Gus swerved,
Avoiding a jut of rock,
And replied,
The patches were dry,
But there was a trace of scent.
They came to a fork in the cave's path.
That one has better light,
Said Gus,
Pointing to the left.
But the path seemed to wander and not descend.
Little Green told me the old route is laid in an inner chamber.
It makes sense it will be deep.
We must descend.
We'll go this way,
Said Ruben.
In the near darkness,
Images swamped his mind.
Felicity laughing by the river.
Scrat striding from the pass.
George bellowing on the planks.
Demet's black mouth on the beach.
Faster,
He urged Gus,
His voice cracking with the dryness of his throat.
Felicity had woken.
She heard a noise high above.
The tiny spot of daylight had turned navy blue.
It must be dark outside,
She thought.
Panic rose,
And she quelled it.
Standing as quietly as possible,
She crept to the side of the cave,
Into the protective shadows.
There was the noise again.
Her stomach filled with acid,
And her heart lurched an extra beat.
She knew that sound.
It was a toxic.
.
.
Arras!
Tears of terror coursed down her cheeks.
The salt stung,
And as her tongue licked away the liquid from her upper lip,
She knew she must act.
Ruben,
She murmured softly.
With desperation,
She pushed her mind up,
Up,
Through the layers of sand and limestone,
Until finally,
In a blessed gift,
She found him.
Felicity!
Ruben!
Where are you in Little Green?
He sensed her fear and felt helpless.
I fell!
I fell down the big waterfall.
Little Green must be somewhere above me.
The thoughts wrapped between them like morse code.
Where are you now?
At the bottom of the fall by a large lake.
Are you hurt?
No,
Very thirsty and weak,
Nothing broken.
Can you see anything?
Tiny spot of moonlight.
Here,
Arras!
Arras!
Scared?
No,
I'm coming.
Scared.
Love you.
Love,
Hope,
Light,
Hide,
Hide,
Hide,
Love you.
And then Ruben heard no more.
The effort of pushing her thoughts through such heavy layers of root and earth had been exhausting.
He roared in pain and frustration.
Ruben,
What is it?
Asked Gus.
Felicity!
She mind-shared at last.
She's alone,
Far below.
And Arras has found her.
Gus howled and Ruben saw him,
Like the dark toxics.
His anger changed his mellow voice to a rasp of fury.
He will not harm her,
Gus cried.
And in the bowels of the cave,
Arras heard him.
The sick creature bubbled with joy at the infidel's distress.
He looked down from his rocky ledge at the calm water below.
He saw the trail in the soft ground that the stranger had left as she lay by the lake.
And his diseased mouth drooled as he planned his descent.
Little Green could smell water.
She had been travelling for a long time.
Perhaps even hours,
She thought,
Frustrated.
But she was close now,
Close to the floor of this subterranean world.
Whenever there was a chink of pale light,
The gnarled,
Intertwining layers of thousands of years' planting decorated the corners and walls like organic sculptures of glory.
She could almost hear the knowledge calling out to her.
Once she had felicity,
She knew what she had to do.
The roots would lead her to her inner sanctum.
A movement overhead caught her attention.
Although she had travelled continually down,
The ground above had clearly had some sort of collapse.
Pictured above,
She could see tiny swirlings against the fading stars.
A small contingent broke away from the flock and swooped down.
They kept coming until they reached her.
In the glow of her phosphorescence,
Little Green watched their performance.
They danced and formed shapes.
She suddenly realised they were trying to communicate.
Their fat bodies nimbly illustrated their message.
Once she had calmed her excitement,
Little Green saw their plan.
They were showing her the old route.
They drew it with their dance,
And then they continued.
In a sequence of shapes,
Little Green saw the map these tiny creatures were so desperate to give her.
They hovered as they waited for her to understand the second image.
She spoke aloud.
Close to a large pool are two paths,
She murmured.
They squeaked in delight and spat out the water they had been dribbling from their beaks.
The dance went on.
I take the wide path,
Straight,
Left,
Left,
Right,
And up.
Up?
She said,
Confused.
She thought the old route was down.
The Batats chattered and beat her arms gently with their soft wings.
They flew up in concord to reiterate the direction.
OK,
Up,
She said,
Smiling.
She waited for the next part,
But then they shocked her.
Their pretty faces became wicked and they flew at her with claws outstretched.
Ow!
She gasped as one of them scratched her face.
Why?
Their answer was revealed with awful clarity as they formed a large letter in midair.
The realisation chilled her.
Arras,
She said.
They squeaked and danced.
Where?
She asked.
But the Batats had gone.
They were soaring upwards to the pure air and the light.
She watched them swirl and twist until they were minute specks against a pale blue sky.
