Finding Peace pt 1 (cont)

Kalli stood in front of the leader. He just laid down motionless. Then a blink. His eyes looked over the room with extremity. Was it gone? He looked at the oddly dressed girl infront of him. She returned a big smile. The leader did not simply smile, but let out a non audible "Yahoo!" He began twisting in bed, feeling for what felt like the first time in an eternity, freedom.

Lan stared at the lifeless body of Jaff. The weird creature stood stiff, without so much as a twitch of his wiskers. "Is he?" Lan began to ask, wondering what the hell just happened. Lan took a step foreward, spear still ready in hand.

"Don't." The voice came from Er. Lan turned around, "What happened? Should I be cautious?"

A large gasp filled Jaff's lungs. The sight and sound made Lan jump up and almost shift the spear back in Jaff's direction. "Stop!" Er yelled. The human complied. Jaff looked around like a scared child. The The sensation he was feeling, he would never be able to describe it. A soft and scared voice came from within, "where�am I?"

The world had become a strange place to Jaff in this moment. He slowly began to realize the sins he had committed with his own hands. He rememebered the look in the famiy's eyes as he sentenced them to death. No, not him� the other that was inside of him. But still, he remembered savagely all the feelings that the other felt. The thrill, the warmness of the blood, the excitement from other's tears.

"I am a monster!" Jaff cried out.

He then heard someone elses voice call to him, "Everything will be alright." The voice, it felt so pure, like a goddess of mercy of sorts. He turned around to see Kalli standing there. She went on to say, "The spirit that had possessed you was indeed a strong force. I have no doubt you felt every sensation and thought that it had as well. It lived in you to breed hatred and destruction as it was a lost soul. But do not fear, it has found his way, and will not return. You are free."

"Free?" Jaff mocked. The word itself brought pain into him. Around him, he could see the faces of those who had died. No, he wasn't free, this was hell.

"Jaff?" A voice came from the inside. Jaff turned his head sideways, trying to understand who was now speaking. A figure slowly rose from the tent. It was the village leader. Jaff knelt down, tears still falling.

"My friend, it has been a dark time for us, hasn't it?" Jaff just nodded as the village leader spoke. Kalli walked up and put her hand on his shoulder. She could feel the softness of his fur, and is petting an animal, the creature seemed to understand, and stopped crying. She softly then whispered into his ear, "It's all over now, you are free to make amends."

The Village Leader looked on at her, "Is there any way we can make this up to you? I know you sacrificed a lot, and potentially your life just to save us. Please, if there is anything�"

She smiled back, "We are looking for someone." Kalli then froze, all that coolness that she had going for her left her body at once. All that started coming out was "Um�" The Village Leader obviously was hoping she would finish that train of thought, but in her own momentum, she forgot who they were there to see in the first place. She took a quick look back. Lan and Er were staring at her as well. Oh great! She kept imagining how foolish she was looking at the moment. She took a deep breath, where the heck was Yun when she needed her!?

Yun seemed to be enjoying the break of action that she didn't notice Kalli was losing her marbles. Perhaps it was a drawback of all that energy she used to exercise the demons. Yun finally decided it was best to step foreward. "We are looking for a friend of my family. He is supposed to live in this town."

The Village Leader then asked, "What's his name?"

To which Yun simply responded, "I� I don't like to refer to him by name if that is alright. I will say he is about your age, graying hair, and he is a form of a bull." The Leader laughed, "Ah him. I know just of whom you speak of. Yes, he does live here, and I am sure you will find his company quite interesting." This he said to Kalli, whom he knew was a stranger to these parts.

"Why do you not refer to him by name?" Kalli asked Yun. Was there something dark between the two individuals?" Yun just looked at him and laughed, "He is a bit crazy and eccentric. I am sure you will understand. He was given a name� I should know my mom is the one who named him, but she mistook his gender and he was given the name of a female. This is why I do not wish to refer to him by name."

Lan laughed, "Wow, that has to be pretty sad. I mean I knew a boy in my village that had a womans name. He was named after his mother who died giving birth to him�"

"That's not funny!" Kalli said with authority.

"No what I mean is, that wasn't funny, but it was to honor his dying mother that he had her name. However fact of the matter is, we used to give him nicknames and whatnot when we were kids. They were good times."

It was now that Yun walked up to Kalli and whispered in her ear, "I don't trust him. He was mean as a child, and I don't like the way that he looks at you."

"He looks at me!?" Kalli said without even thinking. Her face started going a bit red. "Is he� doing it now?" Kalli was in her own little world, refusing to even look foreward. Yun just gave her the "your such an idiot" look. "I see how it is" she just responded. Then again looked at Lan and gave him the evil eye.

"Well I guess our adventure has come to an end, eh Lan boy and Er, the horse?" Yun was becoming to the point of being flat out rude.

Lan walked up to Kalli, "I know I told you, I have three deeds to accomplish, however, I think perhaps one of them can be to escort you on your quest. If that is all right with you." With that remark, they said good bye to the Village Leader and Jaff, who still had their own problems to sort out and went back to the raft.

Yun then commented, "Should we just leave them there like that?" Kalli nodded. "That is what's best for them. They need to reconcile with themselves. This is there fight now, not ours. We did all we could."

"You make it sound like it's a failure," said Er. Yun then stuck out her tongue. Kalli all the while started wondering, what was with her.

"So Yun, can you tell me about this place?" Kalli finally asked. She then continued, "I get it, you're a deer, and Er, I think you might be a horse, if that makes sense. But� none of that makes any sense at all. We have been so busy with this journey you never had any time to tell me where we are, what this strange land is."

The deer looked around, unsure how to explain. "Well, basicly for the most part, there are two worlds."

"Two?" Kalli interrupted.

Yun ignored and resumed, "All things exist in these two worlds. In one we are nothing more then a shell, a physical state of being. In the other, here, we exist in an entire state of being, beyond physical."

Kalli looked on. "You lost me."

"In your world, I am nothing more then a creature that grazes on grass, here, I can speak and communicate. There is only one longuage in our world, where in your world there are many. This is because here, everything exists spirutally or beyond, becomes physical. Our "souls" are anchored here while our "bodies" are anchored there. Does that make sense?" Yun asked. She never had to explain this to someone else before and she was hoping the human would understand.

The Speaker in Training just shook her head no.

"What don't you understand?"

"Well, if all things exist in two planes of existence, how come there are no humans here? Or well�"

Lan looked at her and said, "As most creatures exist on two planes, we center our soul with our physical body in one. It has given us dominance over the land, but has cost us, for the most part, harmony with nature and all things."

In a strange way, to Kalli, that all made sense. As the sky hit noon, she dropped it all together and thought nothing more of it. Perhaps it was too much for her to all take in at once. Or maybe, just maybe, deep inside, she felt like she always knew.

And so they went, walking through the town as creatures of all sorts were milling about, some waking up, others preparing their dinner. Kalli now had begun a game, trying to guess which species each one was upon initial contact. After making a few notes here and there, she caught that Lan was looking at her. He simply just shook his head as if to tell her to stop. Feeling nervous, all Kalli could do was smile.

Yun led the way. There was something odd about this day, it was as if they were finally free to walk and do as they please and in a sense it was overwhelming. After all the time they had been in this village, they never once spoke to the one person they were looking for in the first place.

"Are you sure you know where you are going?" Kalli asked. To her, it felt like Yun just seemed to enjoy leading the way. She had only known the deer for so long and now, she felt like she knew her all to well. There was most definitely a sort of stubborn pride with this one that made Kalli almost want to laugh. In some way the cute deer felt more like a male ego then a female. The stubbroness reminded her of her image of the Speaker.

Suddenly a voice had came out of nowhere. "Yun," it had cried, "is that you?" The deer's strange ears seemed to perk up and she turned around to face an old friend. Kalli understood, they had finally reached their destination.

Kalli could not make heads or tails of who this individual was. When she stood there for a second, as if he could read her thoughts, Lan walked up to her ear and whispered, "I'm confused too." She giggled in reply.

The strangle looking creature led them in. "Please, by all means, sit down. So, how long have you been in the Untouched Plaza?" The strange one had asked.

Yun looked up, she seemed to have something special on her mind. "We haven't been here that long. I am sure you were well aware of the problem facing this village." The deer then leaned back, looked up and closed her eyes. She desperately wanted to rest.

"I am Kalli by the way, my companions with me are Lan and Er." They then exchancged formalties with the odd creature that was with them. What was so peculiar is that the creature himself, could very well have been a her. Perhaps when designed, the creator or whomever simply made a mistake. That or it was intended as a joke. Whatever the case, this had become the strange creatures luggage to bear.

"Well my dear Kalli, I believe I know why you are here." The strange creature looked at her and then began to bow. "There is an interesting air that surrounds you. I cannot lie, it impresses me."

Kalli looked at him oddly. "What do you mean? What is so special about me?" As she asked this, all she really wanted to ask him was why couldn't she be normal. As much as she seemed comfortable in this odd place, she figured she would just wake up and be home.

The strange creature just smiled. Yun walked over and whispered into the strange creatures ear. Kalli was naturally offended. Of course they were talking behind her back. When Yun let out a laugh, Kalli tried to not get angry. However, Yun just kept laughing.

Then Yun stopped talking and there was a silence in the room. The strange creature then nodded to Yun. Yun smiled at Kalli, "It's alright. Tells me that we aren't far from our next destination." Kalli just looked quizzically at her.

"What does she mean?" Kalli enquired of the strange creature.

The strange creature smiled and this time looked at Kalli. " You see, you need to head to a place called the Living Mountain. There you will likely find your guardian spirit. I would offer you to stay longer but�" Then came a look of concern.

"But what?" Kalli demanded.

"You must make haste. There is no time to rest here. If you leave now, I suspect you shall make it to the foot by� three cycles."

"What happens if we wait?"

The strange creature had a serious look. With a blink went on, "In four days there will be a festival� a festival for the dead. But it is not the festival you think. Rather then celebrating the passing, it is believed that the dead who can't find rest rise up and overcome the living."

Yun looked completely frightened. Obviously she knew about it. "Its coming already!?"

"What is this festival?" It was Lan who spoke.

"The dead spirits can't always pass. Many become vile and in this time of the passing of seasons, they rise up and roam the streets. We call it a festival because it is said they spend the dark celebrating and living up what they can before they go below. If you are without shelter during this time� it is possible ill may come to you."

Lan then spied on Er, "What do you think of all of this?"

Er just smiled with his horribly huge teeth. Yun, upon this observation whispered into Kalli's ears, "Those two are idiots. Why do we keep them around?" Kalli just shot her back an evil look. The two stared in eachothers eyes, analyzing the tension that is existing and in the air. It was here, Yun understood. "Oh no." Yun shot her eyes at Lan just to confirm. Out of the corner, Yun noticed that Kalli looked at Lan, trying to figure out what Yun was seeing, but then, her gaze stayed at the lad, briefly becoming lost in thought. If only for a moment, Kalli was blind, but Yun could see.

Lan simply was ignorant of this tension and merely stated, "Then we should be on our way. The sooner we make it to the mountain, the sooner we can all go home." Kalli nodded her head, "I agree." Er continued to smile and nodded his head, "Should be loads of fun. I can't wait for the adventure."

The strange creature then patted on Yun's head, "I understand your feelings. But you should be able to trust in some men. I know what they did to you. Hunters have killed some of my friends too. But between us, I sense a person who wants to be better then himself. My friend, I feel you shouldn't feel harshness towards these two. You are better then that. Now, go with them. They will need you to hike the mountain." As the advice ended, Yun understood the meaning although she did not believe a word of it. Regardless she followed the rest of the group out of the area.

As the darkness came, they had left the Untouched plaza.