Chapter 11: Forest of tricks

And so we continue where we left our heroes…Falling down into darkness for what felt like an immeasurable amount of time. Ife focused aura to his eyes. Although it was pitch dark he could see traces of aura and dove further down and was relieved to find the source of the trail was belle. Ife pulled her closer to him and wrapped his arms around her, he concentrated on the restoration technique he had learnt.

So it can also heal people. This technique is draining but I can handle at least this much.

He thought. Please wake up. An arc of electricity flowed from his aura into her, prompting her to shiver.

"I'm sorry!" He blurted out.

"What the hell happened?"

"You're awake, oh yeah, we've been falling". She began to mumble.

"Something wrong?"

"Do you feel any air?". 

What does she mean by- Huh? That's odd.

"Not at all but what does that mean?"

"I see let go for a moment". He slowly moved his hands away and drifted upwards. She caught his right leg.

"try to stand". He flung his upper body and found no problems in footing.

"what?".

"pull me up". He reached for her hand and pulled. We are standing how are we standing?

"Belle?"

"I would expect no less from a trickster, we were moving downwards not falling"

"What does that mean?"

"When you walk you say, you can also say your moving in a certain direction right?".

"So youre saying we were doing the same thing but downwards? That's-"

"Absurd right? My guess is the space here is different. It doesn't matter what direction "

"CORRECT!" a voice boomed.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Ife yelled looking around for aura.

"In due time, but before that lets have ourselves a little fun". Ife held his head in his hands

"whats wrong!"

"You don't hear the ringing?" he managed to say. She took a step something and felt a cold wrap around her freezing her in place. Ife completely collapsed to the floor

"boys will never be men if a lady such as yourself keeps pampering them"

"Esu!"

 ""Correct! Now lets see ah yes, perfect place for a growing boy. See you both soon!"

He said and a wave of light washed over them.

*****

Ife slowly opened his eyes, and stood up.

"Whats that sound a bird?" rubbing his eyes he turned his sight upwards and spotted a sparrow gently perched on top an unusually tall calabash tree. On closer inspection he was in a field with mango, orange, tangerine, peach, plum, palm, pine and calabash trees.

"BELLE" he screamed.

Am I stupid? If she was near she would have found me by now.

He took a deep breath and sigh. His stomach growled furiously.

 Ah yes the god of the throat demands a sacrifice.

"You hungry?" a small shrill voice yelled from the trees. He looked up then left and right.

"look up! Up!"                               

"I must be running mad" he said scratching his head. The sparrow swooped down and aggressively pecked his head. Ife flailed his hands around trying to grab it but his feathery aggressor was nimble.

 "what is wrong with you? That's enough"

Mustering up the last of his energy he channelled his aura to his hands and sent off small charge of electricity to the sparrow and caught the paralysed bird between his shaking hands.

"No salt and no fire just great looks like youll live until I find one of them"

"please don't eat me".

…im growing delirious with hunger

"I have a husband and unhatched children"

"Was it you trying to call me?"

"who else is here but you and me"

''I truly am mad''

''never heard a talking animal?''

''don't say it likes its normal!''

''you must be from the other side I see''

''have I died? Have I gone to the other side?''

''what are you saying?''

'' No, no, no that's impossible my head was just aching and''

''are you suffering from a head injury?''

''…I HAVE DIED, I REALLY DIED IM AT THE OTHER SIDE. Wait it looks like heaven''

He cupped his mouth and let tears flow.

''mum, dad I made it we get to-'' the sparrow jumped out of his hand and continued to peck him.

''pull yourself together! I meant you came from the face right'' ife grabbed it again

''yes''

''that's what I meant you came from the other side of the forest''

''what?''

''ill explain after you eat I know im quite the snack for the eyes but im off the menu''

''the only thing around here is fruits''

''allow me face the tree behind me'' he turned the bird around and looked up at the calabash tree. He remembered a tale of how the tortoise found a magic calabash tree whose gourds contained food of all kinds.

''oi tree hes hungry could you give us something''. The tree rustled and two gourds fell and rolled to his feet. His nose celebrated the smell of something sweet. He dropped the sparrow and hurriedly got a sizeable stone and broke the top of the first gourd and brought out the contents  out one by one.

Just like in the stories fufu, plantain, beans, banga. This is just like the stories but whats in the other one.

He broke the top of the second and saw a clear liquid. He sipped it and immediately recognised its true nature, it was palm wine.

''this is awesome thank you sparrow" he looked at the bird and for the first time realized what he had done. Its chest was black from the charge and it was having trouble breathing.

Despite that you tried to help me.

He picked up the miserable looking thing and used restoration to heal it. It's wings twitched and shortly after it jumped out of his hand and started hovering around him.

"You feel better now?" he asked with a smile that was quickly wiped from his face as small sparks of electricity flowed around the sparrows body

"Let's see how you like getting shocked"

***********

After a few minutes of electrified pecking ife sat down with his legs crossed ready to eat. He stretched a hand out to the fufu and was met with another hand over his. He turned to see a lady about his age stuffing her cheeks with fufu.

"What lost your appetite?"

"who are you?"

"i never did show you my real form did I?" she said in between mouthfuls

"So when you were the Sparrow and I held you-"

"Yes, but don't worry about it, you're not completely a pervert" she said reaching for the wine.

"It wasn't my fault"

"sure anyways" she turned to him, and held his head in place and looked into his eyes with her heterochromic eyes of blue and green. Ife froze with a confused face.

"not bad" she said gently pushing back.

"You have real talent kid"

"I guess I got my dad goods look ha" he laughed nervously.

"That's not what I meant but you're not bad there either" she said tossing plantain to her mouth.

"Your spiritual energy is building up quite nicely for someone who just recently awakened it"

"how do you know?"

"You really need to get your alignment checked out"

"what do you mean?"

"You really don't know or are you plain stupid?"

Ife sighed and sat next to her

"This is going to be a long story"

********

Belle groaned as she opened her eyes to bright light shortly covered by a cloud. She slowly sat up taking in the smell of pine leaves and fresh grass. She yawned and looked to her side and was petrified and wide eyed on seeing a dark skinned, blonde curly hair male the same age as efe gently purring in his see comfortably resting on a calabash tree carefully clutching a brief case. She took a deep breath

"XAVIER GET YOUR ASS UP"

"You really don't need to alert the entire forest, a simple nudge would have sufficed" he said groggily

"Yeah, it's nice to see you too" the corners of her mouth formed a sly grin.

"give me a break I had to follow you to make sure you weren't doing something stupid and it appears that I arrived too late, no the correct thing to say would be too early"

He gently tugged on an exposed root and two calabash fell down beside him. He pulled unlocked his brief case and brought out a small camping knife and cut the tops of the gourds and handed the food over to her.

"When was the last time I had a meal like this" Xavier carried a fallen branch and began to trim it.

"Best part is it's all balanced so you're definitely getting a good deal for free"

"how do you…" she was looking puzzled at the starch and watermelon soup. The beans she could slurp it, the plantains she could handle but this was a dish she had no idea on where to start from not like it was her first time experiencing culture shock.

"You eat it like this" Xavier dropped his work and pinched a lump of starch and rolled it in his palm and dipped in the soup before effortlessly guiding it to his mouth.

"since when did you become a native?" she said her eyes sparkling with awe. He continued to strip the thin bark and sharpen a tip.

"Didn't dive right into this dimension spent some time learning the fascinating culture like for instance, their king is now dead but they believe that he is merely sleeping and the new king is still him but in another body" he looked over the clean shaven branch and gently smiled in satisfaction.

"Cool, what else?" she pinched too little into the starch and idly dipped into the soup spilling soup as she guided the morsel to her mouth

"Our informant was right on the king did die recently, which means that you should have found the compass right?"

"Yes, but I ran into trouble" she steeled herself and dug her fingers much too deep causing it to stick. She tried to salvage the blunder by making a surge of aura run through her fingers and cover the starch. She then made the aura into hands that gingerly rolled the starch into little balls. Xavier chuckled at the scene then briefly, looked over the beef beside the plantain and poked between them with his make shift skewer.

"That's going to be a really big issue I'll tell you that" she gently carried a ball and gently dipped into the soup and carefully guided it to her mouth and clapped at her success

"when you jumped in didn't you start mapping out the place or something?"

"Sure did but I quickly realized that it was a waste of time. The landscape, the weather even the time keeps changing incoherently. This tree I'm under was still a sapling ten minutes ago. Before my very eyes it grew up " he said between mouthfuls.

"so hopes of finding the compass?" she began to slurp on the beans

"Dangerously low but not zero"

"That god really did a number on us but if that's what he thinks will stop me he's fucking wrong".

"Anyway I got you something" he opened his palm and a myriad of strings of light interwove with each other materialising into a sheathed sword with a silver hilt and a plain cup guard.

He gave it to her as well as a handkerchief which she used to hurriedly wipe her hands with.

She slowly unsheathed it smiling at the nostalgia behind the short slightly curved blade with a motif of a skeleton with an hour glass in its mouth on the slender body of the blade.

She tossed it between hands feeling out the weight before settling on her right hand. She turned to a pine tree and kicked it shaking down leaves. She took a deep breath and began slicing through each leaf before they could touch the ground. She held the sword in both hands and coated it in aura swinging straight through the tree like butter. The tree gently teetered back Belle grinned and sliced upwards splitting the falling tree in half.

"I see you like it"

"Smooth as butter, what kind of steel is this?"

"I call it uron found it near the volcano that-" his smile was cleaned off his face and replaced with a hurt in his eyes

"You don't have to say it I'm sorry for asking" she sheathed the blade

"its just I don't think they're,  you know?" he sighed

"of course they aren't "

"Hopefully because If you're impressed with that then you will be blown away by the metal cultivated there". He smirked

"Belle I think you should pull your sword back out"

"Live target?" she quickly unsheathed it, Xavier made strings of light that absorbed his brief case. He looked to the skies, eyes scrolling through looking for the threat and squinted at a flash of light.

"What was that –" Belle stretched the flat of the blade against his face and a gentle tapping sound followed. Xavier looked to the side and saw the now broken arrow that had ricochet off her blade.

"Close" she said putting down her sword.

"Not close enough". As their eyes widened to a hail of arrows approaching.

"Heavenly gail"

 Belle coated the blade in aura and swung upwards with a flying slash of air and aura that sliced a hole in the downpour

"Rusty?"

"Not in the slightest". Her aura rapidly expanded and created a vacuum of air distorting the target area of the arrows.

"Impressive"

"Lend a hand why don't you?"

"Analysing the situation and might I say what a clever tactic hiding in the clouds to shoot at us isn't that just remarkable?". He walked to the palm tree and made made surrounded it's roots in strings of light from his palms.

"Remember the story of Jack and the beanstalk?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"it has to do with everything. I can see the vibration of energy and make strings out of them"

"Tell me something I don't know about your ability" she sent another upwards slash

"They can also make me do this" he withdrew his strings from the root and wrapped them to the top of the tree. It vibrated heavily before explosively growing upwards to the clouds but started curving away due to lack of balance.

The curve may affect the trajectory but it's worth it

The tree abruptly halted and Xavier withdrew his strings freely launching himself into the white soft clouds. He briefly came into contact with another body and held unto its grass-like texture which followed with a shrill scream and a descent with the foreign beast in hand. Outside of the clouds he looked at the creature and noted a mask for a face, a body of grass and a bow in hand.

"Oh, quit your yapping" he wrapped it in string

"Air net" air currents wove into a net stopping his descent. He dropped the cocooned creature beside him and unwrapped the face. He could hear screams but no mouth.

"okay gonna have to take a look underneath" he sent a surge of aura through the mask shattering it and the creature began to shed away it's grass body and revealed a woman with a streak of white in her otherwise black hair. He checked her pulse

"Oh, thank God" he sighed deeply before stretching a hand to catch an arrow flying inbetween her eyes.

"Guessing your pals don't like the new look don't worry too much about it they'll soon join in. I'll make sure of that".

"You done flirting with sleeping beauty?" he turned back and saw belle, wings flapping

"and here I thought they got tired of shooting at us"  belle rolled her eyes and turned to the direction of the clouds

" I keep firing that thing but nothing comes out what a pain"

"That's because it is them, they turn gas on impact and swirl ammo around in their gas bodies then when materialise the moment they want to fire"

"so if I make the fight close combat"

"They'll be cornered" He stood up and looked over the arrow

"Xavier you need to stay with her just in case anything happens"

"Take care the arrows seem poisonous". With that, she ascended cutting arrows. As she got closer the clouds split into smaller pieces and swooped down to meet her some maintained their position upwards.

What are they planning? Her thoughts were cut short by a spear brandishing her cheek and she retaliated with a slash creating a spurt of blood and exposing the grass figure descending.

They've made themselves less durable but the sheer number of these guys

She halted  to block incoming arrows

"Heavenly Gail she swung making a group of them forcefully come together. She sent a flying slash of aura to the cluster resulting in a small pile of falling bodies.

Am I rusty but  should wake me up

A cloud approached thrusting a spear to which she cut right down the middle and slashed at what would be its back.

I need to take care of the ones up there

"divine wrath" she swung making a tsunami of flames covering the sky. The pungent smell of burnt grass followed. The remaining handful of clouds stopped in their flight and gently descended.

"guess there are smart ones among them".

She descended to Xavier's air net now filled with people and grass men.

"Little help here"

"what do I do?" she retracted her wings and gently touched the net.

"Take care of the masks".

"Roger".  They hurriedly broke the masks to avoid them waking another round of fighting.

"take us down Xavier to avoid any accidents up here"

"right" He slowly descended the net to the ground

"Man am I tired" Xavier sighed sprawled on the ground

"What do we do now?" Belle asked slumping back on a tree.

"That the compass of yours will come for us right?"

"He just gained his powers and I don't mean to be a downer but he may already be dead"

She pinched her nose and shook her head

"Well fate has a weird way of doing things he may even be on the high life in a nice little village have faith"

The streak-haired woman grumbled as she sat up.

"Whoa, whoa calm down lady," Xavier said sitting up

"What, where"

"Listen you must have been through a lot but you're okay for the most part"

"Do you remember anything?"

" I was looking at the sky, then a man came, and then and then"

"don't stress yourself too much"

"Esu it was definitely Esu" she blurted