Misadventures: Letter 7

Dear Thaire,

As you know very well, I have been attempting to explore every world I can get my hands on. However, I believe that I have been a bit addicted to the feeling of summoning and exploring a fresh world. Any world. So I believed it would be better for myself to go back to a world which I felt like I had left prematurely. The one I spoke of in the letter before last- The Borealis Enclave. 

I mainly chose this world because I felt as though there was so much more to explore. The Epiales, the ravine I had seen the first day called the City of Lost Songs, the culture, and most importantly, Mythology Nights! How could anyone similar in any fashion to myself resist the chance to gain new knowledge? This was the main appeal of this world- an appeal which every world had, but for some odd reason, this world had already become my favorite.

The salty ocean water surrounded me as I regained my bearings, slightly less starstruck than I had the first time I had gone here. I took a second, looking around, a cautionary measure taught to me by a few seasoned locals that stayed after to clean at Mythology Night. After confirming there was no danger to be found in any direction, I began to make my way to the Borealis Enclave. 

Then I heard this beautiful voice- a voice more melodic and harmonious than I could begin to describe. A woman’s voice, sweet, singing some forgotten song in a language that seemed heavenly. It echoed all around me, impregnating the water like a strong perfume.

There was no question to be had- I had to investigate. Hardly any free will of my own guided me into the ravine closest to me. Wooden poles and broken planks jutted out from the sand, but I did not even try to avoid them. I simply made a beeline for the voice, the path of the shortest distance.

I stopped midway into the ravine, the singing coming to an abrupt end as well. I looked up, down, my mind slightly confused. The water felt like liquid ice. I shivered and attempted to pull my poncho slightly further down to preserve heat, when I felt someone grab my arm with a firm grip.

“I finally found you, Ronin.” I heard the woman’s voice again, now filled with malice and spite. Her nails dug into my arm, leaving behind a row of marks.

Anyone in my situation would panic, undoubtedly. In my terror, I whipped my other arm back, and to my surprise, a clay wall appeared. It seemed as though the ground and parts of the walls of the ravine had small amounts of clay hidden within them, which I had just pulled out. Her arm was forced off of me, and we both swam slightly back.

“Wait, brother?- Where-” I heard her hands strike against the clay, as if she were a blind person attempting to guide themselves.

I considered attempting to correct her, instead staying back from the wall. I could see her hands displacing the clay as she got more irritated.

“Ronin, we are going to talk about this, whether you like it or not!”

With a last shove, the wall collapsed into the floor, nearly hitting me. I swam back, looking around me only to see I had backed myself into a small nook in the ravine’s wall. She glared at me, her eyes filled with anger.

“What’s wrong with you?! Leaving our family! Leaving us? Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep up the business without you? You were our lifeblood, now look at you! You’ve changed, Ronin! Now that you’re running around with your little land friends, you don’t even look like yourself!”

She took another grab at my hand, and it was clear that she had become hostile. I grabbed at her wrist and yanked it off me, pushing her back and trying my best to escape. I was only able to get to the other side of the ravine before she caught up to me again. Like a cat, she had trapped her prey, the mouse, myself. Before I could find any other way to fight back, she took both my wrists and slammed them against the rock wall several times, her tail pressed against mine to restrict all movement I had.

“Ronin!” she exclaimed, her hair waving threateningly above her in the current. “How dare you? That’s it, I’m dragging you back and you’re gonna help us whether you like it or not!”

“Wait-” I began, but she cut me off.

“I’m not waiting! I’ve been waiting for years, Ronin! Years!”

She took my wrists and put them in one hand in front of me, makeshift handcuffs. She briefly pulled herself back from me, frowning at me before beginning to swim away with me in tow.

However, I refused to let who was so clearly an insane person take me to who knows where. As we passed the pile of clay left over from the wall I had made, I flung a bit of it into the air with my tail, catching it with my face. I slowly let it fall into my hands, manipulating it just so that she would not know I had it.

Now I was in the ideal position- she had captured my hands, yet I could do essentially anything with the clay I had gotten. I molded it into a small point, my favorite method of escape with clay, as you may well know. I delicately positioned it just right, and waited for the perfect moment.

She stopped for a moment, putting her free hand up to the current to check its direction. I seized this opportunity, poking her softly yet firmly with the sharpened clay. She let out a small yelp and took her hand back, turning around to face me as though processing what had just happened.

I, meanwhile, left myself no time to process it. I pushed off the seafloor and sped away from her, hands over my ears. I could hear her singing again, trying to persuade me back. It was so muffled that it did not work. I had successfully escaped a siren. An impossible task. One which had only been accomplished by one person in all of real life and fiction- the man of which I had told you from Mythology Nights. The hero.

I swam far away and into the Borealis Enclave, checking that she did not follow me. To my relief, she had not. I quickly ordered a room and hid for a little bit, slightly paranoid now that I had faced someone so beguiling and powerful. I stayed in the room all night, deliberately not attending Mythology Night.

I only stayed two weeks there. After what had happened, I was in no hurry to stay. I feared every second that she would emerge from the shadows and kidnap me once again. However, I did bring back a trinket for both you and myself. Matching shell necklaces. I have sent yours in the package this letter came with. I, meanwhile, shall wear mine whenever I wish to bring you with me to a world, like I have always wished to do.

 

With Great Love,

Jordini