The Right Shard
You breathe in and out once as you decide you’ll go back to waiting for Moirine to return. You have what you need to know (provided this broonie creature is being honest, but to your eyes, it doesn’t seem like it’s being deceitful or come off malicious).
“Thank you for the information, Ern,” you say to the broonie. “I appreciate it.”
“Of course, of course,” Ern says, nodding. “It’s been nice to have a chat with you, human friend. Perhaps we will meet again in the future, now that you have been touched by magics.” It smiles. “You may find your way back here someday.”
“Really?” you say.
It nods again. “Certainly so. When a human is touched by magics, it allows them to find Shards much easier compared to a human that hasn’t – and with your selkie friend, it wouldn’t surprise me if you ended up exploring more Shards, too. We only request you be mindful of whom you speak to among your own kin, human friend. Not that we fear humans intruding into our domain, mind, but for the sake of keeping the balance set.”
“I don’t think anyone I know would believe a word of this, honestly,” you say.
Ern giggles. “A fair enough response. Ah, and look, your friend is returning.”
It points toward the tree and after a short beat, you see Moirine. You smile, and you turn back to see Ern putting the strange cloth up to cover the oval-shaped hole, and in a flash, it blends in perfectly with the hole, as if it was never there to begin with.
“Thanks again,” you say.
“Safe travels, human friend,” Ern says.
You turn back and start toward the massive tree. Moirine has exited the Shard and spots you, and she waits for you to return. You notice she looks weirdly annoyed, and at first, you wonder if it’s because you went too far from the Shard… until you notice a few random feathers in her hair. She takes note of them, too, and removes them in a flash.
“Stinking, stupid griffons,” she mutters, shaking her head.
You eye her curiously, at which point, you also see that she’s got dirt stains on her body, like she’s been rolling around in the dirt for a few minutes. “Uh. Trouble?”
She scowls. “I’m sorry for taking so long to get back to you, pup, but I ran into a pain in my arse griffon that decided it would be fun to ‘play’ with me.” She folds her arms, her scowl deepening. “And by that, I mean that damnable beast was apparently of the foolish opinion trying to eat a selkie was a wise idea. I had to teach it otherwise.”
You stare. “I… I’m sorry, what? It tried to eat you?”
“Yes, it did,” Moirine replies. “I don’t care that it was a young griffon; it was being stupid and I damn near killed the daft beast before its kin showed up to prevent its demise.”
You continue to stare at her.
Moirine sighs and shakes her head. “I know, you’re confused over what I’m rambling on about. It’s a… long story, pup, but, we selkie and the griffons have a longstanding rivalry with one another. Our kinds have never really gotten along well, in part because centuries ago, those bastards liked to eat selkie, as apparently we’re quite the ‘delicacy’ for them.” She rolls her eyes. “Regardless, I’m in one piece and have returned as I promised, and I was merciful enough to not slaughter that stinking creature.”
“Are you okay?” you ask.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I assure you,” Moirine says, softer now. She cracks her neck from one side to the other. “I’m glad I was in my human form, since being in selkie form has its… disadvantages when dealing with griffons.” She shakes her head once more and grunts. “Don’t worry about me, my friend. I’m bitching because I’m irritated. Anyways,” she looks past you, then, “I saw you were hovering about near that tree over there.”
“Oh, uh, yeah,” you say. “I met a broonie.”
Moirine blinks. “A broonie?”
You nod. “It said its name was Ern. It told me that the Shard we’re looking for is apparently the one on the other side of the tree there, actually.”
Moirine stares at you for a beat. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“What?”
“I wasn’t aware this was broonie territory,” Moirine admits. She looks around for a moment and chuckles. “But now that you say it, I feel like a daft fool for not realizing the obvious. They’re the sort of species that prefer to live in trees, and given how there’s little else in the vicinity, it makes perfect sense this would be broonie territory.”
She pauses and eyes you. “I’m a bit surprised one of them spoke with you. Broonie are a very affable species, pup, that much I can confirm. But, they’re typically much shyer when it comes to dealing with non-broonie, least of all if it involves humans of any sort. To my knowledge, it’s incredibly rare for them to broach conversation with a human, without good reasoning, at least. I’m guessing the fact you were with me might have been part of the reason for it.” She shrugs. “Still, they said the other Shard, did they?”
“Yeah,” you say.
“Good,” Moirine says. “The sooner we can get to this damned djinn, the better.”
You crack a small smile. “And here I thought I was being impatient earlier.”
She snorts, and without another word, she gestures for you to follow. You both trek back around the gigantic tree, to the back where the other Shard is located – thankfully, it hasn’t moved since you saw it earlier, and, once you arrive at it, Moirine sniffs.
“Shite,” Moirine says. “Your scent is faintly emanating from inside this Shard, even stronger than it has been this whole time.” She grumbles under her breath. “What a pain in the butt this is. If I’d simply checked this Shard first, I would’ve saved myself the hassle of having that stinking, idiotic feather-brained dreg wanting to make me a meal!”
“Sorry, Moirine,” you say.
You feel a little bit, even though her expression of pure vitriol is admittedly kind of hilarious to see (she’s been incredibly calm and practically semi-sage when speaking to you this entire time, so seeing her this frazzled is hilariously out-of-character for her).
She waves a hand. “It isn’t your fault, pup. I’m still pissy, that’s all. I’m definitely going to have a word with the Seamother when we return to the ocean… she will see to it that the griffons in that Shard know better than to almost reignite our species’ feud.” She then glances at you, scowling briefly at your obvious look of mirth. “Wipe that grin off your face, pup, and get your sorry ass in the Shard. We’ve got a djinn to deal with.”
You chuckle to yourself and, together, you enter this Shard.
The interior of the Shard is pitch-black, just like the one in the cave from earlier, but funnily enough, it doesn’t take nearly as long for the blackness to light up. In fact, within mere seconds, you find that it opens up to a familiar-looking forest setting; you step out with Moirine and look around to find that, just like Ern the broonie said, this is the right place. It’s the same Shard you stumbled on, because the shop is right there beside you.
“Well, damn,” you say. You gawk at the shop, then glance at Moirine. “This is it!”
Her nostrils flare as she breathes in, slow and deep, several times. “Mm.” She nods along. “Yep, I can tell. Smells like you, pup; the lingering human stink is still about. No offense to you, of course.” She puts her hands on her hips and gives a sigh. “I can also smell Fia’s scent, too. She’s still here, probably waiting for word from the Seamother on how to proceed, which means she’s also probably expecting us to arrive here, I bet.”
“How would she know, though?” you ask, frowning.
Moirine smiles and taps the side of her head. “We selkie can communicate with one another telepathically, pup. We don’t have to be next to one another to speak, in fact. It’s just that only natural selkie can actively establish a mental link, whereas you would have to be near a selkie for you to be able to speak with them through your mind.”
“Wait. Moirine…” You stare at her, blinking several times, because something occurs to you. “…couldn’t you have asked Fia where this Shard was exactly, then? Couldn’t she have just given you the directions to get here since she’s been here the entire time, instead of us wandering around aimlessly through all those other Shards to find it?”
Moirine stares back at you, blank-faced, for a beat, and silence falls over the area. The look on her face basically screams to you that she either didn’t even think about doing this until you brought it up or she completely forgot about the possibility and is only now remembering it, but, she shakes it off and looks away from you rather suddenly.
“…anyways, moving onto the problem at hand.” She points toward the building not far from where the two of you are standing, without looking at you. “That’s the shop where you found the djinn responsible for you becoming a selkie in the first place, correct?”
“Yeah,” you say (aware that she didn’t answer, but, you don’t dwell on this now).
“Good,” Moirine says. “Shall we speak with Fia first before we enter? Or would you rather we go in and deal with the djinn ourselves, then catch her up on everything?” She shrugs. “We could also see about speaking to the… shopkeeper properly. They may be able to give us further insight onto the problem, since it IS their abode and all.”
“Where is Fia exactly?” you ask. “I don’t see her.”
Moirine sniffs the air. “Probably in front of the shop, or close to it. She’s nearby.”
“And, shopkeeper?” you say. Your frown returns. “I don’t remember seeing a shopkeeper when I first ended up here. The whole place was devoid of anyone.”
“There’s a… good reason for that, my friend,” Moirine says, and her lips purse. Her expression shows that she isn’t fond of whatever the shopkeeper of this place is; you can tell it makes her oddly uncomfortable for once. “To be blunt with you, pup, I’d much rather avoid dealing with them unless it’s something you really want to do. Fia would suffice in giving us the details we need, or going to the djinn directly works, too.”
You rub the back of your neck.
“But, it’s your choice,” Moirine says. “And I respect what you wish to do, pup.”
You turn your attention toward the shop. What do you want to do, then? Do you want to speak with Fia? Do you want to go into the shop to find the djinn? Or do you want to communicate with the shopkeeper, whatever they are, despite Moirine’s unease?
‘At least we’re here finally,’ you think, before you settle on mulling over the choices.
Written by Hollowpages on 06 February 2022