Chapter 8, cont.

After thinking over what would happen if she didn't take her rod, however, Arratoi finally had to admit that maybe not everything Cavall said was meant to be mean. If she HAD gone to bed earlier as she was told, instead of sitting up and watching Idol, she wouldn't feel as groggy as she did now, the adrenalin from yelling and being yelled at the only thing keeping her even moderately alert. It was irritating being wrong.

In dejection, she bent down to pick up her rod, when—

*VWORP*

It was an odd sound, sort of like piano wire being scraped in slow motion, but it was only once—over almost too quickly to notice it had happened. Arratoi looked up in surprise to see an older man lying on the ground behind her, the fragments of – SOMETHING flapping lightly in the breeze several paces above him.

"Cavall?" she cried, but her prior had trotted off to join the others in the short time Arratoi had spent musing. Curious, she approached the man with caution, alternately staring at him and at the odd flapping bit of – SOMETHING hanging out of her reach.

"Unngh..."

"Are you okay, sir?" she asked politely, not certain what she would do to help him. Maybe it would be better to get help—

The man rolled over, looking for all the world like he had been through the most torturous of tortures. He had to have been at least thirty years, his fur streaked with strands of silver and his eyes sunken as though having not slept in ages. Still, he looked just a bit familiar... "Now where am I," he moaned softly, barely a whisper.

Was he asking her? Arratoi crept closer, hesitant to do anything despite her instinct that she should do SOMETHING. "This is the port town off third face 15,20," she explained.

"What is today?"

This was eerily familiar. "Tenth day, eighth month."

"Year?"

Arratoi blanched. "Who are you?"

At last the man stared at her, a glimmer of recognition in his eyes. "I think I remember you. A long time ago, more than a life away."

Now Arratoi was nervous. She was certain she didn't know who he was, and she didn't want to handle him on her own. "Cavall!" she cried again.

"Yeah. You're that sub I knocked down the first night. Cavall's your prior. I think. Light shines off the white walls into your eyes."

She stared at him, trying to decipher the message in his gibberish. Could it be? "Are you – Vepar of Drzak style?"

"That sounds familiar. I might be. I have nothing to choose. Looking away seems the only remedy. This is the end of me living the moment, it seems."

It shocked her to see him now. He wasn't nearly this old before, was he?! Wisps of conversations between the captains she hadn't been meant to overhear flooded her ears, about certain members of the Brigade disappearing without notice. "What happened to you?!"

Vepar? seemed to grow more tense as he started to get his bearings. "No," he whispered. He strained to stand, his voice growing more incessant as he gathered his strength. "No no no no nonononono—"

He tapped his emblem, withdrawing a two-handed axe and swinging it at the – SOMETHING overhead. It was out of reach even then, and he could barely touch it even when he leapt at it.

"What's that?" she asked, not sensing the danger he sensed.

"NNNGH!" he grunted, swinging madly. At best, he nudged some of the – SOMETHING back onto itself, and it seemed to seal away, disappearing into nothingness.

"Can I help?" she offered, not sure how she could. He wouldn't answer, though, too focused on closing up the tear in...

Was that a tear in REALITY? Suddenly, Arratoi didn't want to be alone with him anymore. "Cavall!" she cried again, starting to run after the others. She hadn't gotten more than a few steps before glancing behind her and seeing the man dart into the patch of jungle leading into fourth face. Did she dare leave him? She was the only one who knew what had happened...

Gulping in uncertainty, Arratoi faltered before following him.

"Welcome to the jungle, Jim," he muttered as she approached.

"Huh?"

If he was aware of her presence, he didn't make it known as he crawled through the thicket. "I think you're gonna like it once you give the jungle a chance."

She hadn't really thought about it. It was sunny in the port town, and the weather was good, though a little humid. The jungle at least provided some shade.

"Now you will be with me. Put your hand in my hand."

"Say again?" She wasn't sure she wanted to follow him anymore. Cavall had warned her about going by herself with strangers who made her feel uncomfortable.

If he changed his mind, the man still didn't let on anything was out of the ordinary. "Lift up the rock and see all the things that share the jungle with us."

"Eew," she whined, thinking of the crawly things that lived under rocks. Why would he want her to look at those?

"I didn't really like the last time when you punched me in the face."

"I did no such thing!" she complained in reflex. Wait. Something was off. Choking back her inclinations, Arratoi made her way around the disgusting gooey, sticky, prickly plants to get in front of him and look him in the eye. He didn't even seem to see her despite being in front of her face. "Hey!" she shouted, waving her hand at him and snapping her fingers.

There was a moment of hesitation when he seemed to recognize her again. "It's you," he muttered.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked, concerned that he seemed to have lost his mind. "Where did you go?"

"...where did I go?"

"I heard the captains say some people went missing, but they didn't announce it or anything, and I haven't seen you since the second night's matches. Now you appear out of the sky and look OLD. What did you do? Where have you been?"

He stared at her as though not understanding words. She tapped a mirror out of her emblem and held it up to his face.

The sight was like a shock through his body, knocking some sense back into him. "Oh no," he whimpered, on the verge of tears. "No no no no nonononono—" He clutched the sides of his face in pain and horror, threatening to tear out the overgrown whiskers he had accumulated in his advanced age.

"Stop it!" Arratoi cried, fearing she had made everything worse. How could she help...

CTRL-Z, Step 1

She recited and mimicked Cavall's habitual motions, trying her prior's base for the first time. She hoped it worked, instead of backfiring fantastically as a lot of her spells did. No, she couldn't think of a backfire, or it would come true, and fixing that mess would be even more trouble and—NO, focus!

CTRL-Z, Step 10

"Oops!" she cried. That was too much. Granted, the difference wasn't excessive, but who knew what side effects it could have to revert too far on her first try?

"AAAAAGH!" he screamed, as though in even worse pain than before. At least he wasn't inflicting it upon himself, but it didn't seem like Arratoi did anything to help him. What had happened to put him in such agony? Rather than continue to make things worse, she tried a sleep spell on him:

CTRL-ALT-DEL > Shut Down > Hibernate

At once, the man started to quiet, drooping his head as he started to nod off. At least he seemed to be more at peace, if not completely, as he flopped lazily onto the ground, slumbering noisily. Ugh, what an awful sound. Is that why Cavall got so angry with her?

Now to find Cavall for real. This was way too much for her to deal with on her own.