Chapter 4: Departure

As Mongswai opened his eyes the next morning, NeeNee was already up, and had packed most of the things they needed for their trip. They were going to take a little food with them, just a little. They were also going to take the presents they had been given the day before with them. They were not just the national dresses, they were also items to be used. After all, they were actually quite comfortable in this almost tropical climate. The staffs were also to be used. They were wandering sticks, and they could be used to cross small rivers with, using them as a jumping stick. All in all a very useful thing. When the Sun stood at it's highest, they had everything packed and were ready to go. As they left the village, all the people stood by the path that lead out of the village into the forest. All were silent. No-one spoke a word. Even the wind seemed to go more still. Even the birds seemed to silence the moment they passed the borders of the village. But only shortly, then the wind started blowing again, and the birds started singing again. The people stood there still, but they looked at them and they cheered at them, for they were out on one of the hardest missions Oushla had ever seen. They were walking out in the world to search for the Child. That child that had killed the old woman in the forest and who had run through an indestructible wall.

They walked out in the forest, and Mongswai and NeeNee immediately started their search for the Child. First, they went to the hut, where the old woman lived. There, Mongswai said, he hoped to find some clues to where they might find the Child. When they got there, Mongswai was in for a surprise. The place looked like nothing he had ever seen in his life. The hut was not really a hut. It was made by the nature itself. Giant trees had wrinkled their branches into each other to form an enormous hall, where light seeped in from everywhere. In the exact middle of this hall, a small cabin were sited. It had a big hole in one side. "That is where the Child escaped through", NeeNee explained. Mongswai walked towards the hole, but before he could get to it, he heard a hollow bump behind him. He turned around and saw NeeNee lying on the ground. She had simply fell about, and was now lying there. Slowly she rose again and Mongswai went to her to ask, what had happened. Helped her to sit, and when she did, she started talking: "Thank you, young man," she said, while Mongswai had a very confused look in the face. She laughed and continued: "I can see you are surprised. I am sorry to hurt your mate here, but I needed a body to tell you what I know. Well, I guess I better introduce myself. My real name is, or was, Krinsha Drenhi, but you might just know me as the old woman from the forest. I am the woman, who lived here, until that day I was murdered by that child. And now I am doomed to walk around here until the child dies. No matter if it dies by itself, or it is killed. I just wanted to tell you that I trust you. Between us, I didn't trust the other ones who tried to find the child and kill it. But I trust you! Well, I am getting tired from this materializing business, so I'll get out of her now. But before I go, I just want to say, that I know who you really are and that you don't really know it yourself. Oh yes, yet one thing more: I will be following you. In the cabin there are a small coffin. In the coffin is still a little can with a potion in. If you pour a little bit of it on a fire of some kind, you will be able to bring a dead to speak. Use it with caution, because a living body for the materializing will be needed. Just like I do it now, just that the spirit does not chose itself, and does not use any of it's own energy on it. I use my energy on this, but if you use the potion to call me, I will not be doing so. Well, I guess that's it for this time. Remember: I trust you!"

As she said this, NeeNee's body fell to the ground again, but she quickly came to herself again. She asked what the spirit had said. Mongswai asked, how she could know it was a spirit. "I have been host for a spirit many times before. I have been her helper, and more than one have been here, who wanted to talk to someone who was dead. So, I helped by being host. Well, normally I sat on a blanket, so I wouldn't get hurt when the spirit entered my body and I fell about. Well, now I didn't, and now I have a headache. I would wish you had waited until we were in the cabin," she said out in the air, probably to the old woman's spirit. They rose from the ground and walked into the cabin.

As they entered the cabin, Mongswai was wondered by the cleanness of the place. To his surprise, everything looked cleaned yesterday. He had expected spider-webs all over the place and inch-thick layers of dust. Nothing of the like. "I see you are surprised. It's the aura of the place. It was not just the woman herself, but also the place. Well, now tell me: What did she say to you?" Mongswai asked her to wait a second, and walked to a little coffin in the most remote part of the small room. He opened it, and NeeNee walked to him and said: "I was never allowed into that coffin. Did she tell you to look in it?" Mongswai told her about the potion, and looked down in the small leather coffin, and found everything in a very fine order. Only one flask with liquid stood there, emitting a strange bluish light. "I have seen her use it. She used it only very seldom, because the place is actually the spiritual center of Abode. Most unbound spirits are here, and are quite easy to call without the use of the potion. But still, some of the spirits did not want to come to us freely, so we had to force them, and these times I was tied up, so the spirit could not hurt me, if it was violent. Some could still hurt me," she said and showed Mongswai a big, circular scar with a five spiked star in she had on her back. "The spirit was no ordinary spirit, which we forgot. It was a sorcerer, and he called a fire on my body, in the pattern you see here. Fortunately, he forgot to reverse the sign, so now it actually protects me from harm from magic sources in stead of harming me. But it hurt quite a lot when he made the fire. He might have found out, that he had made a mistake, because it was actually just a couple of moons before the Child was born..." She hesitates for some time, and continues: "I think we should pay the sorcerer's hideout a little visit, what do you think?" Mongswai found her suggestion a real good one, and said: "Don't you think we had better stay here for the night? After all, it's getting dark." NeeNee agreed with him, so they laid down to sleep. During the night, the old woman visited them in their dreams. She gave them her blessing, and told them, that she was going to take another turn in the ride of life when she was freed from the damnation of that child. "So," she said: "You might meet me again sometime. I will just be a lot younger, than you know me now."