Moonstone: Scene 2

G Minor Frettolosamente

I was pushed, pulled, grabbed, yanked, and generally moved by Itxata into nearly running through the streets of Asa. That is not an easy task when you're wearing thin little slipper things on your feet! We stopped in front of the Ikebana garden gate. Itxata placed her hand on the leaf or petal of one of the gate flowers. I couldn't really tell because it was dark. The gate stretched and moved so that an opening was made for us to enter. Itxata produced a small light and motioned for us to follow her.
At the end of the long passageway (was it lined with trees?) was what appeared to be another gate, just from the sheer scale that I could see, but it wasn't Itxata that placed her hand on the entrance key, to my surprise it was Drendyn.

"I'll wait for you here, please be quick," he whispered.
Itxata nodded and shoved me through the portal. I couldn't see jack squat. Itxata flashed her light around a bit and grabbed something from some kind of platform to my right.
"Close your eyes."
She gave me less than a blink's worth of time to do as she said before she had wrapped something warm and gooey around my head.
"GAH!"
"SHHHHH!" She smacked me.
"Open your eyes!"
"What?! No way this is nasty! OW!"
"DO IT NOW!"
Hellfire, she hits hard!
I opened my eyes into that sticky goo. Gah. My eyes tried to blink this stuff away but it was covering my eyes completely. My hands went up to my face to pull this crap off.
"No, don't touch it." She grabbed my arms and held them down.
"Now, do you see anything?" She was turning me around like I was some kind of puppet.
"No-wait, yeah!" I tried moving myself back to the left but I was completely disoriented and I felt sick. She caught me as I lost my balance and turned me back to the left.
"Yeah, it's glowing blue." Glowing was an understatement. It's like my whole head was a giant eyeball filled with blue light.
"Can you see anything else?"
"No, it's all blue light."
"Ok, I'm going to move you toward it, so you tell me when you see the source of that light." Itxata must have turned on her little light because I could see a tiny ghost-like trace of light beside me. She said I was going to go closer to the source of the light?
"I assume this won't blind me."
"No, it won't."
Scoot. Scoot. She nudged me toward the blue glow. The blue glow started pulsing slightly.
"It's pulsing."
"Good you're getting closer."
She renewed her efforts to push me forward. I realized I couldn't hear anything except her voice. I couldn't even hear my own steps. I think we stepped up; at least it felt like I had walked up an incline. When I moved my head down I could see rays of blue, gold, and green light moving like a swaying prism.
"That's it."
Itxata gasped. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I see rays of blue, gold, and green light."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"Hellfire! No I'm not sure, but it seems to me since I've never had my face slapped with warm goo and then told to look for the source of the light that even the hairs on my head can see, that this is pretty close to what I think I should see!"
She bristled. "Flowers do NOT speak like STUDENTS!"
"Did I ask to be a flower? NO!" I was so angry. I was tired of all this secrecy, running, being told what not to do, and everything else that had to do with being a female.
She bristled again, but said nothing. I could feel her bend down.
"Now what do you see?"
"I see a dark spot covering the rays of light."
"Stretch out your hand, I'll help you squat down." I did as she said and found myself squatting near the ground. She moved my hand by the wrist over the rays of light.
"Press your hand down."
"OW!" It burned. The light stopped.
Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.
"Ok, one more stop and we're done." She helped me back up and pulled me along behind her, stumbling.
"Stay here." I felt her hands on the back of my head. I felt the goo slide off of my eyes, out of my nose, out of my mouth, and out of my ears. I felt relieved, disgusted, and sickened all in one moment and dropped down to the ground. Ugh.
"Let's go."
Where did she go? That was answered soon enough when she grabbed my arm and yanked me up. Oh please let her stop yanking, pushing, shoving and pulling me! Hellfire! I'm SORE! She shined her light at a wall of vines. Within an instant, the vines had moved apart to create an opening. I had never seen such a highly guarded gate! How many vines were there to create such a solid mass? Before I could even begin to calculate a theory, I was running again.
It was First Dawn over Asa as the three of us were tearing down the streets. All I wanted was to stop for just a moment and retch. That warm goo sensation hadn't left me. I caught a glimpse of the street where all of this had started. I felt even worse. Hellfire! If it hadn't been for that damned sign I wouldn't feel like I was an egg being tossed around!
"YOU RUINED MY LIFE!" I screamed.
So then, I was face down on the walkway with Itxata's hand covering my mouth.
"ARE YOU CRAZY?! SHUT UP!" She scrambled to her feet and yanked me along with her, first giving me the look of death. I just shut my eyes and let her pull me stumbling the rest of the way home.
I was deflated.