justice

Chapter Eighteen

"We should be coming up on the Kayu Gelap soon, Nellie," said Just, peering at her map. There was still a fair amount of squiggly red line left, but that was ahead of their glowing figures. Behind them, the light had turned green.

"Hey, Nellie, I have a question," said Just, examining the map.

"Sure! What's up?" said Nellie.

"So, if you look at the village, you can still see Tees' glowing figure, so he is still there. However, his glowing figure is of him when he is Kepribadian Pokok. And I noticed that yours looks..." Just trailed off and pointed to the map.

Next to Justs' icon, there was a figure about her size. She had a magnificent flowing purple skirt, adorned with shiny white crystals. Above her skirt, she had a lovely long-sleeved crop top, with a dark blue torso and light blue arms, which had long strips of white gauze hanging from them. The figure had hair that swirled around her head, with silver ribbons braided throughout. And her face, around her eyes, was painted with black and white storm clouds.

"Uh, I, uh...." said Nellie, gaping at the picture. Just looked at her expectantly and raised her eyebrows. The two had stopped walking. Nellie made a circle with her hands, and said, "I, um, I can expla-" Just clamped a hand over Nellies' mouth before she could finish.

"Nellie," hissed Just. "Look at those boulders," Nellie nodded and peered around at the...wait. Those weren't boulders. They were...cracked eggs?

"Just," said Nellie, "Where are we?" Just rolled out the map, very slowly, and said, "Eep!" Just pointed a finger at the words etched over their current location. RAKSASA BREEDING GROUND.

Nellie sucked in a breath and Just quietly put the map back in her satchel.

"Whadda we do?" whisper-shouted Nellie. Just shrugged, and Nellie looked around.

"The shells look empty-I think if we are super quiet, we can sneak through, to the other side." Nellie looked at Just, who nodded, and the two crept towards one of the shells.

"Maybe we could climb up and look around?" suggested Just. Nellie nodded, and the two boosted each other up onto an eggshell.

While Just looked at the map, to try and figure out where they should go, Nellie summoned her wind powers and launched herself a few feet more in the air to look around. When she came back down, Nellie tapped Just shoulder, and said, "If you have a plan, we should execute it NOW. There are movements in the trees converging on us!" Just nodded, stuffed the map in her satchel, and pointed. The two hopped aboard Lemmy and sped in that direction.

The two were almost clear of the Kayu Gelap when they heard the crash. They hopped off Lemmy and ducked behind a bush-just in time to see a raksasa waddling in the direction of the babies.

"I wonder if its' a parent," said Nellie. Just widened her eyes and mentally swatted Nellie, because the raksasa had stopped. It sniffed the air, and now, it was coming towards them.

The girls crouched down and crawled backward, but the raksasa was onto them, so they stood up and ran. Once the girls thought they had put enough distance between them and the raksasa, they stood up and surveyed their enemy.

It had the feet of a duck, which explained why it waddled. It had the body of a tiger, with four duck feet instead of paws. It had the long neck of a swan topped with a snakehead. It hissed at the girls and waddled in their direction. Nellie drew her sword, and Just spelled Lemmy into a spear, holding him out in front of her. The raksasa stopped at the sign of weapons, then shook his head and charged.

Nellie and Just each leaped to a different side, and the raksasa bonked into a tree. Then it reared back and hissed, then charged at Nellie. Nellie jumped up, using her powers for a boost, and swiped at the tiger body of the raksasa. It howled, then changed targets and gnashed its fangs at Just.

Just aimed Lemmy at the sky and shouted, "Pokok anggur!" Lemmys' tip glowed green and vines sprouted around the raksasa. They wrapped around his legs and torso, stopping him. Just charged forward, and the fire tip of Lemmy began to glow. Just pointed the glowing red flash at the raksasa, and burned the vines off of him.

The raksasa howled and fell to the ground. The girls wrinkled their noses at the smell of raksasa flambé. Just wondered for a moment why it smelled so much like hamburgers, then got back to business. Nellie hovered over the raksasas' head, sword drawn. The raksasa closed its eyes, and Nellie hesitated.

"Just, I don't wanna kill it. It already can't follow us," she said.

Just nodded, and said, "I agree. We should just leave him here, he will get help soon." Reluctantly, Lemmy returned to necklace form, and the two made their way out of the Kayu Gelap.

"Perhaps we should get onto Lemmy for a bit? My legs are sore," asked Nellie. Just giggled, and made Lemmy into a flat, flying board. Then two clambered on, and Lemmy sped towards the huge cash-topped tree in the distance.

"So, Nellie," said Just. "You were going to comment on your icon on the map?" Just raised her eyebrows expectantly, and Nellie reluctantly looked at her.

"Well, my village, in the Realm of Wind, is deep in the mountains. Thus, the wisest seers were granted a place atop the mountains. The wisest seer in my village was Pelihat Udara. She was so wise because the winds whispered her secrets, and she knew a great many things. So one day, at the end of the year, she glided down on a cloud from the mountain top, and raised her arms, and shouted, 'To you, the people of the wind, I give you a great gift - ten of your most skilled youth shall journey to the forest to serve his majesty King Regaily!' And the village rejoiced."

"And you were one of the youth?" prompted Just.

"Yes, I was. But before I left with the others, the Pelihat took me aside, and whispered, 'Young one. You are destined to help someone much more important than the King.' And I nodded, and we traveled to the Forest of Isolation. There, I met Tee, but he had already met a young girl from a distant land, who had arrived with an invasion but had helped the spirits to fight back her invading force. I was smitten, but alas, so was he."

Nellie looked towards the ever-growing Palace of Wealth, and said, "When I was really, really young, everyone thought I would be the Personification of Wind, as my birth aligned with the legends. But alas, my powers have yet to manifest, if they indeed exist at all."

Just willed Lemmy to stop. The two girls looked at each other, then at the palace.

"So...I am from a distant land?" asked Just. Nellie looked at her, and said, "You know just as much as I. For all we know, you could have been originally from Earth." Just nodded and looked back at the Palace.

"Thank you, Nellie," she said. Nellie nodded and looked down at her lap. Just looked towards the palace and willed Lemmy to go forward.