Chapter 23: 20: Belief

I would like to give a shoutout to https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/whiteNoiseGenerator.php for helping me focus. I'm an easily distracted person.

On an unsteady gait still carrying the bow she tried to return, by the time the sun had sunk below the horizon and the burst of maddening orange,  deep blues and magenta from the secondary sunset died out, at last after a long day - thankfully without any furthers incidents - Alicia was somewhere familiar. Darkness accompanying the twilight set in, shadows elongating. Before she knew, at some time her pulse and warmth returned to her. Without the evidence of a blood soaked shirt one wouldn’t think she survived a struggle with a Warhog not just any but due to a rare mutation causing it to be much stronger and tougher than usual, evidenced by its newfound albino characteristics. Though the perpetrator had no way of knowing this, for now.

When she reached the oak tree the loosely hung silken clothes seemed to sparkle and shimmer ever so slightly under the moonlight. A brief thought of ‘Was this tree always this tall?’ crossed her mind. Although she didn’t pursue that train of thought due to exhaustion. At this point her injuries were healed spotless. Strangely this was her first time feeling tired since coming to this world. Drained, the only thing on her mind was to change clothes and get some rest. Throwing away the ripped and bloody attire she had onto a nearby branch along with the bow, changing into a type of shirt dress created in a way to accommodate for her awkward anatomy. It was created with that in mind, however Alicia was reluctant to wear it, until now where it was simply the closest thing within her reach and not stuffy to put on. On a side note the skirt of it was made longer to cover for the lack of certain other types of clothes, specifically the undergarments.

Coarse texture of the branches and lacking surface area was uncomfortable to lie on top normally, not to mention the difficulty sleeping on it. That however was not an issue to the dog-tired girl who had no energy to be bothered by it. Almost fainting as soon as she settled down. Albeit her lying position was unnatural she slept like a log. But as morn came, she would regret it just a bit on account of short lived but still annoyingly painful neck strain.

‘Hungry… I have to return this bow somehow. The Water spirit seemed to know the girl or at least acquainted…’

⟨ Olfactory ⟩

On her path to the lake she caught the whiff of something… inviting and peculiar.

‘I remember this… where was it again…? When the blue spear guy was cooking a pheasant if I recall correctly… There’s something else in it too, something herbal. Is it him or one of his friends…?

I don’t think I’ve had anything since… the day before yesterday? Alice no, I’m not counting the shirt you had this morning, it’s not food, it’s recycling the silk. Nevermind that, think they'll share some again? Well just meeting them shouldn’t cost me anything.’

Taking a small diversion by following the scent by its intensity Alicia could eventually make out a hushed voice in the distance. Still under the effects of ‘Stealth’ she closed the distance. Under the cover of a tree one of them - who had half his face covered by cloth akin to a bandana other half barely visible through his grizzled hair. On his back a basket knapsack filled with strange dolls and tools - was tending to a makeshift stone table resembling an altar which had unknown lines and geometric shapes of blue dyed on it giving an impression of a tribalistic ritual. On top of it some sort of incense was burning with pleasant fragrance, and freshly cooked pheasants were lined up. The person was kneeling, head down, hands up and chanting curious prayers that seemed to be religious in nature.

‘What’s that next to him...? Hiking stick? Too long… staff? Maybe…’

The other one was a familiar face, one broken tusk, tall stature, fur cloak, it was the one she met before. Recently snuffed out fire with its embers still glowing next to him. He was vigilant, eyes darting everywhere so as to not miss a detail, spear in hand ready for anything, though unfortunately for him she still slipped in without his knowledge. ‘I think it’s some religious ceremony… I shouldn’t interrupt this. Besides, taking those foodstuffs would be disrespectful to their beliefs.’ As she was getting ready to leave;

‘White crawler eh…?’ After a few steps she stopped in her tracks frozen. ‘Wait! Isn’t that me? What I do now… It would be pretty embarrassing to just walk in if they weren’t talking about me… Uhh… I’ll just wait until they’re done and then ask… that sounds good…’ 

It was the day the tribe chieftain brought along Sha’ko to meet the loa who had supposedly saved him. According to him, it seeked the materialistic taste of rockbirds. A chieftain never left the tribe, they simply couldn’t, for where they go the tribe follows. This was of quite the issue for a witch doctor. Mediums of the spirit world and the material, they had a well of knowledge about spirits. Though some would need grand rituals needing the participation of many to answer the call, others wouldn’t acknowledge you if you are not alone. His experience told him that this speaking spider was of the latter. Spiders are solitary hunters, they do not appreciate the company of many. Thus a small summoning that directly called out for them necessary. This was not possible with his whole tribe coming along with him. Thus a discreet exit had to be made under the cloak of night, buying them time to prepare.

Being led to where he encountered the spirit, the scars of battle were still fresh. The hunter brought rockbirds caught in traps set overnight as he prepared for the summoning ritual. Everything was set, they had little time left before the tribesmen realized the chieftain had gone missing.

The summoning ceremony had been going on since dawnbreak, well before light of the sun had to illuminate the forest. Thus far it was mostly unsuccessful…

As they turned around to leave…

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“Could I ask what you two were doing? It seemed important…” Disembodied voice questioned them. ‘Hath trees started to speak now?’ A joking thought but quick glance at the face of his companion told him that this was the one they were looking for all this time. ‘So it has come.’

‘A trick? Or truth? We shall see.’

‘The Bandana guy wanted to see me… I forgot to stop using stealth. No wonder they were staring off into the distance when I called out to them, almost considered him blind for a moment there. It’s not embarrassing if I act like I wanted it to be like that. Yes, just play it cool.’

As soon as Alicia unveiled herself from the cover of stealth. The two seemed to freeze up in shock.

‘Wait, why are you in shock? It's the second time for you. I mean I can understand the old guy.’

After a while their brains finally thawed out: Old witch doctor started prostrate and bow furiously, driving his forehead to the ground muttering incoherent nonsense causing both the spider and his own escort to panic before breaking into a maniacal laughter intermittently yelling ‘T’was true!’ In time snapping back to reality after being shaken by his aide.

‘I won’t turn away food given but why does this guy speak like this… It’s freaking me out… I’m starting to talk in the same manner as him. Still this is kind of a rip off hum… Oh is that boardozer still there? It shouldn’t have gone anywhere overnight.’

The hunter was confounded momentarily but answered thus;

Either by her amiable smile or the fact that she introduced herself. Both of them came to a halt. They soundlessly and obediently followed her to a certain place of clearing. Though the hike was not long, silence would’ve made it seem long. With that line of thought Alicia questioned the two various things. Especially about food. ‘So they live as a nomadic hunter gatherers following their food, seems they recently settled here a number of generations ago and started pursuing a type of horticulture… and I validated the existence of humans apparently their society and technological level is akin to the feudal era. If you exclude the magic and murderous animals that enact genocide against each (humans included) other for breakfast.’

She had become quite learned and adept at navigating the forest after being routinely lost multiple times, sometimes in a single day.

They reached a clearing, trees uprooted.

‘Whew it’s still here… There’s god up there somewhere…. I mean I met her… him? Maybe?’

‘The completely hollowed skull is grim but the body should still have some good, relatively safe to eat meat on it since the venom didn’t enter it’s system but localized in its neck… in fact it’s blood is all drained so I did them a favor. Where did the blood go actually…?’

‘Oh the two are doing their gag of freezing up again. Well the show must go on.’

‘Not like I can cook it… well maybe I can with the fire magic… I’ll try it next time.’

How long have they been standing there mouth gaping open like goldfish sucking in water… You wouldn’t be able to tell the other one was also agape  under the veil. When they came to the White spirit was gone. Needless to say there was another banquet that quelled any suspicions of the chieftain missing. While in the doctor’s teepee a significant decision was made that would influence the tribe’s future tremendously.

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