The Hollow

Sojourner

The group spent several days assembling mountain-ready outer garments, provisions, and gear. As Onu put it, they needed 'more than lutes and flutes' for their journey. Coin wasn't of much value in Slipshod, so in exchange they did odd jobs and traded information about the outside world. Nom was quite happy about the cold-weather cloak he acquired—at least it hid his ill-fitting and now battered cloak underneath—and felt snug while they waited for Onu at daybreak outside the market. Nom passed the time by idly inspecting his staff, all the soot cleaned off, the wood oiled, and ready for hiking with the speartip in his pack. Onu showed up with good cheer and approval for their gear, and grandly pointed their way with his alpenstock, then they set off on a steep path out of Slipshod.

After a day of hiking they had come close to the timber line, beyond which was mostly rocks, shrubs, grasses, wildflowers, and occasionally a hardy straggler tree. The great peaks loomed a great distance away, decorated with snow, glaciers, and clouds. When Nom peered more carefully, he saw another line of trees far above them on the slopes.

"Oho, so you noticed the Sojourner," said Onu when Nom pointed it out. "Don't tell anyone," Onu exaggeratedly peered around and put his finger to his lips, then pointed it toward the tree line, "but therein lies our secret path."

"Probably," Nom qualified, pausing to lean on his walking staff.

"Most likely," Onu admitted. "That treeline is not always there. Sometimes it is elsewhere, sometimes it is nowhere. It depends on the whim of the Rachis." He unveiled his big smile again and said, "But lucky for us, right now Sojourner is here," then he stepped past the first tree line and continued leading them up the mountain. Whereas the trees had prevented undergrowth, the grasses grew unfettered amongst the shrubbery, so Onu led them onto an area of dense stone and rocks, and their progress hastened.

The sun beat down cold, bright, and hard. Onu pulled goggles out of a pocket and placed them over his eyes, eliciting a rare recognizable emotion from Omega, of surprise. Onu picked up on this and said cheerfully, "Not all light is dark, my friend. Some light is just too light." Omega smiled and gazed around at the landscape. Pebbles rolled downhill with a pleasant pitter-patter as they passed.

"They're so cute." Omega said.

Nom looked around and all he saw was rocks. He and Dev said almost simultaneously, "What's cute?"

"The rocks, they look like little clams," she said with delight.

Nom heard more pebbles falling, but as he looked, instead of rolling downhill, pairs of stones clicked against one another in place.

Omega added, "The darklight washes over them like waves on a beach." She made a rippling motion with her hand. Wind rushed by through the short sparse grasses in the region, waving them like underwater seagrass, adding to the illusion in a way the rest of them could see.

Nom grunted in acknowledgement as they passed.

About halfway up to the second treeline Dev continued the game by pointing out some lichen formations that plumed like seaweed, between patches of snow, and others that spread on the rocky terrain in colorful coral-like patterns.

"Perhaps Sojourner previously overlooked the oceanside cliffs near Endo," Nom suggested.

"A veritable sea of darklight flows from those trees," Omega added, less warmly.

"Ouch," Dev suddenly yelped. "A clam bit me!"

"Look there, your clam is a crab," Onu said without a smile.

Nom heard a tick-tacking, and saw a stone scuttling away from Dev's foot. Uphill, he saw a pattern of movement, little formations of stones with pairs of clacking pincer stones connected, swirling about through the lichen on the rocky slope.