Face of Eternity : The Little Angel

We returned home with all the parts we needed. Marek got right to work fixing up both cars. With my help, it only took him about an hour to get everything in place and working.

While we were working on his car, I found this weird USB slot on part of the engine. I don't know what it was, but something was stuck in it, probably damaged from the crash.

Come to think of it, I saw that same port in the car we took the parts from. I didn't see one on the car in the garage though. What were these? Even Marek didn’t know.

"Let me do a test drive before we leave." Marek said, happy when his car started up.

Once he left, it got kinda quiet around here. Yamin went upstairs to take a nap, Indena went into the kitchen to make some food for us.

I was just laying out in the grass of the front yard, letting my skin absorb as much sunlight as possible so I could use my stardust powers again. Who knows the next time we’ll be getting modernly sunny weather?

“Ahhh…” I cooed out in pleasure of the warm sun. “So nice…”

If this valley weren’t full of monsters and demons, it might not be so bad for a vacation.

*Chrip!*

That chirp was all too familiar. A spirit bird was sitting up in a tree, watching me.

I gave him a wave, which prompted him to fly down and land on my belly.

*Chrip chrip!*

He hopped off me and started doing this little dance. It was cute.

Weirdly, his wing stretched out and he pointed in a specific direction. Could this have been him trying to get me to go that direction?

As I stood up, he flew to a branch, making sure I'd keep track of him.

"Should I follow?" I didn't want to run off on my own, but I needed to know what was going on here.

I called out to the others, but nobody responded. I wanted to go look, but the bird flew in my path and blocked me from getting inside.

“You really want me to follow you, huh?”

*Chrip!*

I did owe these birds for helping fight against the demons, so I decided to go with him on my own.

~☆☆☆~

While he took me down the cobblestone path, we came upon a bird laying in the grass. My bio scanners were reading that he was a blue jay, and he’d died very recently. He looked exactly like a spirit blue, but not like a ghost.

Poor little guy.

The spirit blue I followed landed around the dead one. He got real close, then dipped his beak into the body of the blue jay and pulled out the spirit of the bird.

*Chirp!*

*Chirp chirp!*

They whistled and chirped their little hearts out, making marry as this newfound companion joined the dead.

So, these spirit animals were the spirits of dead wildlife? That’s interesting. Was this what he wanted me to see?

Suddenly, An arrow icon appeared in my feld of view.

-Navpoint set-

I didn’t set that navpoint. It just appeared in my field of view a kilometer away. Based on my map, we were heading for the mana cave near where Indena and I teleported in.

“Mr. Bird, why are you taking me there?”

*Chirp!*

Better question, what just set that navpoint for me?

More of those spirit blue birds flew over us, heading straight for that destination. Other spirit animals also raced right along with us. A Lizard thing jumped across the tree branches, a couple of raccoons scampered through the grass, not mention a bunch of cats and dogs too, and that moose from before.

I certainly felt like a ‘nature girl’ right now, what with all these animals running alongside me.

The moose galloped up next to me and made a motion like he wanted me to ride on him the rest of the way. I hopped on, hugging his neck tightly to keep from falling off.

Moosy might have been a spirit, but he felt so soft and warm. It was scary at first sitting so high up on a galloping animal like this, but I got used to it quickly.

We came up on a small lake. Moosy pranced right across the top of the water like it was nothing!

“Woah!” I cheered, seeing the other animals skate across the water next to us.

Not exactly a pony, but just as fun!

With his help, we cleared that kilometer pretty quick. All the animals ran into the cave before me and went deep inside. Moosy didn’t go in yet, hearing the sounds of battle deep inside. Once those cleared, he slowly entered.

Lowering down, Moosy let me step off him. I gave him a good petting just to show my appreciation.

“Never thought I’d get to ride on a moose,” I said.

He stayed quiet, but gave a slight head nod to gesture for me to head deeper inside.

The mana crystals all over the walls lit up the inside of the cave bright enough to see.

A young woman was laying up against a big mana crystal, coveting the violet glow radiating off of it. Her soft face made it look like she was enjoying herself. Her head turned to me and her tired purple eyes slowly lifted open in surprise.

Her words breathed out slowly. “At last, the Little One of Hyam.”

She sounded so monotone and spooky.

As she lifted her body up straight, the spirit blue I’d been following landed on her shoulder, illuminating her more.

She wore a purple dress with a white coat over it. A big, pointy purple hat sat on her head, just like a witch. A variety of charms and little items dangled from the ends of its rim.

“Are you a witch?” I asked.

“Does that scare you?”

If she was going to boil me in a stew, then yes. But for some reason, she gave me an oddly comforting feeling, like there was goodness in her. Was there really such a thing as a good witch?

“I guess I'm not scared.” I answered her question, wondering how truthful I was being.

There was an awkward silence from her before she responded.

“What do you smell?” she asked.

What did I smell? That’s an odd question, but there was a pleasant scent in the air…

“I smell…pine tree?” I took another sniff.

There were pine trees outside, but this was a bit different. I couldn’t place why.

She put down her hat to cover her face up, it was big enough that even tilting it down slightly would cover down to her chin.

“You have found favour with the spirits, Little One of Hyam.”

Hyam? Who the heck was that?

Hold on, that voice…that name she called me…I remember hearing it before I passed out after using the mana cannon.

“Wait a minute. Did you…” I tried to ask her about it, but she interpreted me.

“Little One, I require your aid.” She lifted up her hat slightly to reveal a strip of her glowing purple eyes. “A great evil has come to this valley. It must be destroyed.”

She must have been talking about the Reaper.

I shook my head. “No, the Reaper’s gone.”

“The Reaper, as you call it, is not my target. And you are wrong on both accounts.”

She started walking right past me while whispering as silent as a breath.

“You mean, the Reaper is still around?” I asked, worrying my original fears were justified.

“For whom can kill death?” She continued heading toward the cave exit. “This evil is far worse than that. Follow me. We must hurry before it manifests.”

I didn’t have much choice, did I? She hadn’t even given her name yet.

“Wait! What’s your name?” I asked, catching up to her.

“Melpomene,” she answered. “I know your name...no need for introductions.”

I had a hunch she’d been watching us for a while. Probably since we got here. It wouldn’t surprise me if she had something to do with that.

“So, what’s this evil you’re looking for?” I asked, catching up to her. If something really bad was around, I wanted to help.

“She is the root of all darkness. The mother of sin.”

So it was a woman? She sounded awful.

Indena isn’t that bad.

Wait, why did I think about Indena just then? It definitely couldn’t have been her.

Yamin was out of the running too, since she was super nice. And Marek was a guy, so it couldn’t have been him. It must have been someone else we didn’t know about.

“Who is this evil woman we’re looking for?”

“She will likely be swarmed with snakes, sharp teeth, and blood dripping from her eyes. Where she walks, life will wither.”

“Yeah, I have no idea who that is.” I shook my head.

She reassured me that I was fortunate to not know this person. “A blessing from the spirits,” as she claimed.

~☆☆☆~

Melpomene was having a really hard time tracking down where this person was. Based on what my map was showing, we’d just gone in a big circle, with the center point being the house we were staying at.

“That house?” Melpomene lowered her hat, looking like she was considering what to do. “Perhaps she is there.”

“There’s only two other girls there, and both don’t look anything like the person you described.”

“She may be disguised. We must hurry!”

I had a bad feeling about this…