Tales of Arlo

Listen To My Music

Climbing up the Evenspire mountainside felt like a walk through the forest compared to Mount Angorus. From our perspective, the shisa-guarded forest was a green and purple blurb that swayed in unison. 

The air had a sharp crisp, making breathing in feel like taking a bite out of fresh, autumn apple. Sivero conjured his ghostly lantern as we began nearing the fog. The thicker into the fog we got, more I struggled to make out Sivero's lantern despite having been directly behind him. 

"Siv? Oda?" I called out repeatedly, with the only response being a muffling silence. 

I thought I could faintly make out a light far ahead, so I began to follow it. As I got closer to the light, the fog began clear  slowly. When the fog fully dissipated, I was standing lower on the mountain. I swore I had been walking forward the entire time, questioning how I could have gotten so turned around. 

I followed Sivero's light, yet neither him or Oda were anywhere to be seen. Before I could begin calling out to them, I could see a small figure with a lantern walking towards me. 

"Sivero! That you, buddy?" I yelled.

Sivero began cawing and running towards me, nearly running into me as he escaped the fog. Together, Sivero and I tried to find Oda. We walked along the nearby perimeter, despite having no sight of him. When we returned to our original exit out of fog, we could hear the faint whistling of a flute. 

As the music became louder, Oda's tall figure and wispy tail could just barely be seen through the fog. Sivero began cawing, causing Oda to stop playing and the sound of music was replaced with running feet. Unlike when Sivero was released from the fog, Oda ran directly into me and sent me flying towards the ground. 

"I am so sorry!" Oda immediately began apologizing, picking me up off the ground and dusting me off, "You can't see anything through that fog until you're nearly out of it."

"I don't understand how we got so turned around," I pondered, "We followed each other in a straight line."

"Yeah, it went Sivero, you, and then me in the back," Oda confirmed, adding to the confusion. 

Sivero grabbed a rope from his bag, tying each of our bag straps to the rope. When were securely tied, Sivero led our procession back into the fog. After only seconds of being in the fog, I could no longer see Sivero. I could only feel the gentle tugging of the rope as we walked forward cautiously. 

The rope stayed as straight as a pin, ensuring that we were continually walking forward. The fog began to clear up enough to see I was still behind Sivero and Oda was walking right behind me. 

Our face dropped with disappointment when the path that appeared before us was exactly where we just came from once again. We set our bags down for moment and convened, circled around each other. 

"I think I understand why nobody goes here anymore" I half-joked, shrugging my shoulders and pointing towards the fog. 

"Just a deep, magical fog," Oda responded sarcastically, "It clearly doesn't want to let us through."

"You seemed to get the furthest in there the first time, though," I reminded him. 

Sivero tugged on Oda's sleeve, mimicking a flute in his hands. The old Kenku cleared his throat and tried his best to chirp out a vaguely familiar tune. 

"...Away with you to the Fountain of Spirit, with crystal pipes and sounds of glory..." Oda hummed, "Let's grab our bags and tried this again."

We suited up and made our way back into the fog, with Oda filling the silent air with song. As we walked through the fog, I could make out a small, white shape in the distance.