[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 13.5 -- Wild Boars

[JMR20190312: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-50-pink-unicorns-or-purple.html
and https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-55-wild-boars.html
(originally https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html)
Original of this scene written February to March 2019.
]

Previous: Gwen

Table of Contents

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You're here with us today? Good. We appreciate it.

We can definitely use an additional pair of eyes this morning. This is a difficult assignment, also requiring the assistance of our two friends and Water Princess's parents.

As you see, the forest is thick here, with needled ever-violets growing tall and close together in the early morning mists, deciduous white-bushes with translucent leaves of a color you place in the ultraviolet part of your physically visible spectrum, and indigo vines draping from tree to bush making progress difficult off the few, irregularly traveled paths.

Are the unfamiliar colors of this world interesting? How is it, you ask, that you see them?

Now, there's a good question.

"Not what I'd call a tourist attraction." Earth Prince's voice comes low through the trees.

"We aren't here to be tourists. We're here to do family history research." As they appear between the trees, Water Princess's hair glows amber in the deep gloom, catching what little light there is and re-radiating it.

"I can't imagine you'd have any ancestors there."

"As my dad sometimes says, no stone unturned." She giggles.

"I'm not sure that's an appropriate joke this time. Say where are they?"

"My parents?" Both stop and turn around.

"We're coming." Her father's voice comes through the gloom. "You two go ahead. We'll come at our own pace. No need to wait for us."

"Trying to give us time to be alone together again?" Water Princess mutters with a wry smile.

Earth Prince shakes his head, ever so slightly, and replies in a low voice. "This graveyard is definitely not a place for games, although some of my friends go there to make out on dares."

"Make out?"

"Heavy kissing, hands where they shouldn't, etc."

"I know what it means. Dangerous play. On dares?"

"Thrill seekers."

"What usually happens?"

"They usually come back saying it was too scary to do anything bad."

"And they want to be bad, I guess."

Both laugh quiet, wry laughs.

Her parents come into view, holding hands, smiling. "Did you wait?"

"Better to stay together, even if it's just to keep from getting lost." Earth Prince smiles, but his voice has something of an edge, and he reaches out to take Water Princess's hand.

The four proceed ahead of us, Earth Prince and Water Princess leading the way along a path that is becoming less of a path than a thinning of undergrowth, which they must push out of their way to proceed.

"You'd think you believed in ghosts." Water Princess's father is still jocular.

"You disbelieve in the spirit that animates the body?" Earth Prince's voice turns sardonic.

"Touché. But, as you should know, I do not give power to rebellious spirits who refuse to move on."

"But even the scriptures advise against testing evil. What did the bishop say when you asked him about coming to this particular site to record names?"

"He laughed." Water Princess's mother also laughs. "Said it was work someone needed to be brave enough to do."

"Oh, for —"

Earth Prince stops, dropping Water Princess's hand and raising his arm in front of her to hold her back, trying to cover her eyes.

But she has already seen and pushes his hand down. "She looks younger than me," she says, quietly, sadly.

Her parents come up behind and draw quick breaths.

They have come to a clearing, and this is where our unusual business for the morning lies, in the form of a young charge of ours, on her back in the clearing in a space between monument stones, uncovered, except for a loincloth, a scarf draped over her torso, and long strands of a yellow-green vine stretched over her body to form an eight-point star. The vine's white berries rest against her skin, and she shows no signs of consciousness.

"What?" Water Princess's mother quietly asks of no one in particular. "Is she alive?"

"Can't tell from here." Earth Prince turns. "I did mention other rumors, didn't I? I think there will be priests around. This could get dangerous."

観 -- Priests? Eight initiates — four males, four females — one older priestess, to be exact. Dangerous, perhaps.

"Well, you guys might actually be useful for something after all." Even in a whisper, Water Princess's voice has a tinge of sarcasm.

"Br-- Dywysoges!" Her mother's voice is quiet but sharp.

"Mom, ..."

助 -- She should say what she thinks.

"Where are they?" Water Princess's father asks, quietly.

観 -- In the woods around here, preparing, as they consider it, for the sacrifice.

"I wonder if they know we are here." His voice drops yet further.

観 -- You saw the vines?

"Hallucinogens." Earth Prince's voice is low, but the heat is audible. "Even less likely to behave reasonably." He motions and turns out, away from what remains of the path, and the others follow him a few paces in.

"So, I suppose, since I am here, I should become the part." Water Princess's voice now shows resignation.

観 -- It is your choice. You may even choose to leave."

"I doubt we'll ever see that happen." Her father shakes his head soberly.

"What is our assignment, other than to rescue as many as possible?" she asks.

使 -- That's all. No force. No violence. As little intimidation as possible. As natural as possible.

"Can't let it be easy, I guess." Earth Prince expresses his dissatisfaction. "What else, pink unicorns?"

"That might not be a bad idea." Water Princess looks thoughtful.

助 -- That would not be natural. None of the equestrian unicorns in this area. And the bovine unicorn is not exactly in it's natural habit here, either.

"Wild boars," Earth Prince suggests without thinking. "Plenty of those around here. Wait, what am I saying?"

This world of Xhilr also has horses and rhinoceroses and tusked wild boars ... and, yes, equestrian unicorns.

"Great idea." Water Princess takes his hand and reaches out for her father's.

"Maybe I'd prefer pink unicorns. Or even purple."

"Just relax." Water Princess's mother takes his other hand and reaches for her husband's free hand. Water Princess's father just shrugs and joins the circle.

使 -- We'll be in the graveyard, keeping an eye on the sacrificial victim.

"We'll call if we need help." Already, Earth Prince's clothes are changing to ebony fur streaked with purple and pink. Water Princess's clothes change to amber fur, also streaked with pink and purple. Her parents' fur is a more sedate black, with streaks of sand and teak.

As we move to the clearing, four wild boars begin snuffling through the forest undergrowth.

Entering the clearing, we begin our examinations. This will all be new to you, but we have been here before. There are a large number of grave marker stones, including several monuments. This is the grave site of a once prominent family, now fallen from grace, and the subject of whispered stories.

The ceremonial victim's chest rises and falls slowly. Now her body shivers, and she moans quietly.

An adult woman dressed in long robes slips into the clearing from the opposite side from which we entered. She goes to the victim, checking checking her breath with her hand, then checking the vines. She draws a ceremonial dagger from her robes, lightly tracing the veins in one of the victim's arms with its tip.

Suddenly, there is a commotion in the undergrowth, and a boy and girl, both barely a hexadecade in age, dressed only in loincloth and tied scarf, back into the clearing.

"Easy, easy, we're not threatening anyone's babies," the girl says in an unsteady voice.

"What are you doing here? It's not time yet. Who are you talking to?"

The boy replies, "There's a pair of wild boars out there."

"Where?" The woman goes over to check, as a commotion breaks out on the other side of the clearing and a boy and girl of similar age and dress to the first pair break into the clearing.

"Boars!"

"Run!"

"Impossible. No boars come into these mountains." The woman turns, just as another pair bursts into the clearing, panting heavily.

The girl looks around wildly.

The boy looks at the woman, then the other pairs. "You guys, too?" he asks. "How many are there?"

Another pair crashes into the clearing, falling, more than running. The boy stumbles to his feet, then helps the girl up.

"Whatever you do, don't fight them," she says.

From four directions, our friends enter the clearing, followed by true denizens of the forest, four from each side, each heavier than any two humans in the clearing, snorting and pawing the ground.

The victim stirs, waking, mumbling. Her voice becomes clear. "We should not be here."

The woman's head jerks around. "How can you be awake?"

"I've seen dreams. We are on sacred ground, but what we do is a different kind of separate." She sits, holding the scarf over her breasts. "I'm getting dressed." The woman seems about to object, but the wild boars begin hollering and squealing, rooting around the stones, urging the group away from the spot that had been their alter ground.

At one side of the clearing, where clothing has been piled up haphazardly, the youths begin putting their clothes back on, shedding the ceremonial loincloths and other paraphernalia. The woman lags behind.

With sudden determination, she whirls around, screeching and howling, brandishing her ceremonial dagger, attempting to surprise and scare the boars, but the boars respond by standing on their hind-paws, snuffling and grunting, dropping again to the ground, pressing her with more urgency.

"Give it up!" One of the boys calls.

"You're the leader!" She slashes at the ebony furred male, only to find herself bowled over and lying on the ground, the tusks of the amber furred female inches from her face, breath fierce and hot in her face.

Now shes squirms backwards, then rolls and runs for the group of children, abandoning her ceremonial dagger.

As the children regain their state of dress, the boars melt back into the woods.

"Don't they say these woods are haunted?"

"I've heard it's safe for people who are are not thinking impure thoughts."

"Pure thoughts. I'm busy thinking pure thoughts for the rest of the day, today."

"We should go back in a group, just in case."

The woman remains in her robes, sitting in a heap on the ground.

"Aren't you coming?"

"No. Run away if you're scared. I'm staying."

The erstwhile victim comes over to stand by the woman. "Yr Athro, I am not staying. And I'm not going through with it at all. The things I have seen."

She turns to the other children. "Some of you think you are stuck. Damned for things you have done. It isn't so. There is hope as long as we are alive."

The woman howls, reaching out to attack the girl, but suddenly two boars are behind her, snuffling and grunting again. Instead of attacking, she hides behind the girl.

The girl reaches out to the boars, who nuzzle her hands.

"Nothing to be afraid of, if we think pure thoughts."

"What is a pure thought?" the woman snarls. "I suppose you think you know. You are just a slut."

"That is definitely an impure thought, Yr Athro. You can't let people who did bad things to you in the past define who you are now."

The amber boar ambles over to the woman and grunts, nuzzling her arm. The woman suddenly crumbles, reaching out and hugging the boar, sobbing. The ebony boar joins them, snuffling gently beside them. For a long minute or two, five or ten minutes, as you experience time, the woman remains as it were in the boars' embrace, and then she dries her tears and stands, shedding her robes. One of the boys hands her her clothes and she proceeds to dress.

The group soberly begins the hike out as the morning sun breaks into the clearing.

Four boars silently track the group on their way back to the roads and fields of civilization, then, stopping at the edge of the forests, watch them separate and go on their ways.

"I've got to get back to the shop." Earth Prince, back in Xhilran form, turns to Water Princess and her parents. "Are you going back in today?"

"I think I need to ask you to help me check my hand-held." Water Princess's father nods his head.

"We have some more transcriptions," her mother says.

"Maybe we need to save this place for when Ceri and Morris can come with us, and maybe some of the members of the church."

"Good idea. That place sure has it's share of odd things happen."

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Next: Beryl

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[JMR2019: Backed up here:
]