Awakening, Quickening

Out of the Mountain Part 2

Muse was skipping around in miniature fawn form, head-butting tree trunks...tree trunks! And grass! A blue sky opened its soaring dome above her, and golden sunlight sparked and glittered off dew-drops, on a long, sloping hillside which spread away from them, on two sides. Between the hills, almost directly in front of her, Harmony saw a dimple of a valley, with a tiny brown creek winding down the center. That creek found its beginnings in a spring; cold, clear water rushed from a hole in the side of the rock-wall, next to the tomb's thick door. That door had swung silently closed; Harmony pushed on it, but she might as well have been pushing on the stone itself; it was immovable. Harmony pointed her wand at it, but the mana flow twisted away from the door; it was anti-magic, too. Good thing she hadn't left anything important in there; she wouldn't be able to go back in anytime soon, if at all.

Suddenly, Harmony felt her abdominal muscles tighten again, sharply and painfully; she leaned back and crouched on the earth by the door. To distract herself, she studied the stone wall. It wasn't that high--only a foot or so of the wall appeared above the door, before disappearing under a thick cover of ivy. More and more grassy hillside rose above that, growing bluer and fainter the higher they went. To the sides, the slabs of the stone wall were set together so closely that they might have been one stone; only the natural pattern showed that these were, in fact, separate stones. Harmony focused on this; in a few moments, the sharp cramping pain passed, and she was able to stand and draw deep breaths again.

Looking further up, Harmony saw craggy gray slopes and snow-capped cliffs, disappearing into a mist. It appeared that the entire burial maze was beneath a mountain. No wonder it had been dark...and oddly magical. Harmony stared for a moment at the stream, rippling merrily out of a deep hole in the solid rock beside the door. Where did that water come from? There had been no trace of water within, only a moldering dampness. Yet here it was.
Muse stopped head-butting trees and chose to jump in the water instead, splashing drops everywhere, then turning into an elf and bending down to scoop handfuls of water and fling them; laughing squeakily, she dove in, came up with a fish, and hurled it at Harmony. Harmony pinned it on the grass with her foot, and grabbling a few sticks, she clicked her fingers to start a fire. This much, she knew she could do; and it would be nice to eat something real.

Muse helped her gather more firewood, and soon they had a nice blaze; Muse dove in, chuckling and flinging sparks from the fire, digging through the hot campfire coals like a sooty, purple-eyed fire lizard. Harmony struggled to clean the fish alone. The sun was beginning to set before Harmony was able to successfully clean it; she had used her wand to make a stick into a knife, and flatten a stone to cut on; but she could only heal, she couldn't modify animal flesh, not even dead fish, to filet it. So, she had to try to scrape and cut it herself. She was inexperienced, and it made a mess, but she was so hungry she didn't even mind the work or the smell, or the sticky feeling it left on her fingers. She tossed the guts back into the creek, whispering a word of thanks to whatever water-spirits might live there; then she washed her hands and speared the fish on a stick to cook it over the fire.

No, Harmony thought, what she minded, was the fact that it was now getting dark, and she was alone with Muse on an open hillside. At least it wasn't cold. And the waves of pain were continuing, and getting stronger. As she had worked on the fish, the pain had begun again; it came and went more slowly than before, but now it lasted longer, too. The last bout had left Harmony shuddering, curled on the ground. She'd nearly fallen into the creek while trying to get herself a drink; she was so top-heavy that she couldn't balance, even when she lowered herself to her hands and knees. It felt so strange to her, that her body was like this. It almost didn't feel real. Wrapping the leaf-tapestry around her shoulders, she held the fish over the flame. After a while, Muse helped her test the fish for doneness, and then they ate. It was good, and Muse ate all of the leftovers, then transformed into a white cat and took the bones, crunched them up, and played with them in front of the fire, batting them back and forth.
Harmony watched Muse in a daze, hunger finally sated, and felt a deep weariness threatening to overtake her. She leaned back on the hillside and wrapped the tapestry over her, and curled her legs up to support her so she wouldn't slide.

Muse, she thought, sleepily,

Make sure nothing happens to me while I sleep, ok?
Harmony smiled as Muse–the-cat sat up and used her little soft white paw to make a tiny salute.

Of course.