In which Megan goes back to the beginning

Chapter 5 of The Time-Teller

Chapter 5
In which Megan goes back to the beginning

 

“So,” Jonah broke the silence. “What happened to your ankle?” Megan gasped slowly in pain.

 

“I tripped over a tree, and then some trolls hung me upside down,” Megan managed. Her head throbbed a little less, but the pain in her ankle seemed to be increasing at a rapid pace.

 

“Hmm,” Jonah said. “What were you doing here in the first place?”

 

“It’s…” Megan winced slightly at the pain. “It’s all… all Pyralis’ fault!” Jonah gazed down at her. Somehow, he felt he had heard her name associated with Pyralis’ before. Then, he remembered Tempus’ story.

 

“You’re Megan,” he said with sudden understanding.

 

“Uh, yeah,” Megan managed a weak sarcastic voice.

 

“That Pyralis accidentally brought with him after he was looking for an apprentice.”

 

“How did you…” Megan began, then stopped as her ankle erupted into new spasms of pain. Jonah looked up sighing. He wished he could do more for her. He had found all the healing herbs that he knew of in the area, which weren’t many. Megan moaned softly. Jonah gazed down at the key he had been fiddling with. It was gold and beautifully carved with leaves and branches. It was so well done that the trees looked almost real. He slipped the key into a pouch in his belt and closed it using its small silver button.

 

“Come on,” Pyralis’ voice cut through the silence like a knife, and Megan flinched as if stung. She looked through the trees, and sure enough, there was Pyralis facing their direction with his unseeing eyes and grotesque scar. Jonah stood up at once looking at Pyralis in astonishment.

 

“You heard me,” Pyralis spoke again. “And who are you?” He faced Jonah.

 

“Jonah.”

 

“Well, Jonah,” Pyralis nodded at him. “You carry Megan here and follow me.” Then, he turned and began his slow, ever changing walk through the marsh as if Megan had never left. Jonah picked Megan up and began to follow Pyralis, being careful not to bump her ankle into anything, which proved more difficult than he had first anticipated. After several hours, Megan began to recognize her surroundings, and there, in front of them, was the shabby hut in which Pyralis had first placed her. Megan sighed. She regretted wandering off with every bone in her body, especially the broken one. They entered the hut, and once again, Megan was placed on the ugly bed from which she had awoken earlier.

 

“Sit down,” Pyralis directed Jonah to a chair, which seemed to have come from nowhere. Jonah sat grateful to rest his feet.

 

“Now then,” Pyralis continued, slowly unwrapping the strip of Jonah’s shirt from Megan’s ankle. “You, Megan, are a very lucky girl. I had not intended to come back for you. I heard you wander off and went about my business. I figured that whoever had brought you here would be able to protect you well enough. Then, a rather disturbing thought came to me, so I came back to see how you were, and it’s a good thing too.” He swung his hand in the direction of Megan’s ankle. “I suppose you’re not the one who tampered with my spell.” He looked inquiringly at Jonah, who was taken aback by the sudden question but shook his head.

 

“You were just going to leave me to die!” Megan said as loudly as she could even though she had very little energy

 

“No,” Pyralis replied softly. “Whoever tampered with my spell would be powerful enough to get you out of whatever you got into. However, I had a sudden, as I said before, disturbing, but also interesting thought, so I had to come back.”

 

“And what thought was that?” Megan asked. Pyralis smiled.

 

“You’ll know later if it was correct. However, if it was not, then, do not worry yourself.” Pyralis pulled a long piece of shining, red ribbon from his cloak. He wrapped it slowly around his staff.

 

“Oh,” he faced Jonah. “Why are you here anyway.”

 

“A storm hit my boat, and I was looking for food when I found Megan.”

 

“Naturally.” Pyralis finished wrapping and examined his staff with his long, thin fingers.  Jonah eyed it curiously. Pyralis tapped his staff twice and the room grew so dim that it was hard for Megan to make out the positions of the other two in the room. Then, the ribbon, which was wrapped around Pyralis’ staff, began to glow slightly. He spun it around above his head muttering to himself. Finally, with one swift swing, he pointed his staff at Megan’s ankle. The ribbon unwound itself in less then a second and then wrapped itself smoothly around Megan’s foot and ankle. There was a deafening noise and then, the pain in Megan’s ankle vanished, and the room was lit with the green light of the forest once more.

 

Megan sat up and ran her finger down her no-longer-crooked ankle. The ribbon fell limply onto the bed. Pyralis gathered it up and stuffed it into some inner pocket of his cloak. Megan moved her ankle around in surprise. It felt as though she had never fallen that time so many days ago.

 

“Why didn’t you just do that earlier?” Megan asked angrily.

 

“I told you,” Pyralis replied simply as Megan began examining her ankle in awe. The soft tune of a bird echoed through the room. Pyralis walked to the small window and held up his arm. A brown finch landed gently on his outstretched wrist.

 

“What brings you here, Kato?” Pyralis whispered softly to the small bird. The bird held up one of its talons in reply. Attached to it, was a small, 1-inch leather tube, from which Pyralis extracted a folded up piece of paper. It had been folded so many times that it took Pyralis several tries before he could unfold it all the way. The bird, meanwhile, rested contently on his wrist. Pyralis handed the paper to Jonah.

 

“Read,” he ordered.

 

“It is what you think. Do not tell yet. Come immediately.” Jonah recognized the small scrawl on the page and thought of Ruth.

 

“Good then,” Pyralis whispered something to the bird and sent him out the window. “He will be expecting us.” Megan shifted uncomfortably. She did not like the thought of journeying any further with Pyralis, but it appeared that she had no choice.  Jonah looked around uncomfortably. His feet were so sore that they felt as though they were going to fall off. Leaving immediately did not sound very appealing to him, but if he didn’t leave with them, he knew that he would never find his way out of the forest. Before Jonah could say anything about this to the tall man in the middle of the room, Pyralis turned and walked out into the marshy woodland, his bag strung over his shoulder. Megan followed him. Jonah reluctantly did the same. Since Megan’s ankle was no longer a problem, Pyralis traveled much more swiftly to Jonah’s utter dismay.

 

“Where exactly are we going?” Jonah asked after they had been walking for about three hours.

 

“To a friend,” Pyralis said as he turned back the way he’d come, walked about twelve yards, then turned left. They had changed direction so many times the Megan was completely confused about their whereabouts and had no way of knowing which way was back to Pyralis’ small hut and which way would lead her out.

 

“Ah!” Pyralis suddenly exclaimed and turned purposefully to the right. Megan noticed that the forest began to get visibly brighter. Jonah let out a sigh of relief. His feet were now so numb that he felt as though he didn’t have any feet at all. Pyralis, then, turned around and began walking away from the brightening trees.

 

“Umm,” Megan spoke. “The light’s coming from that direction.”

 

“Luckily,” Pyralis said as the forest began to darken around them. “I can’t see.” As he said this, they suddenly emerged from the forest. Megan didn’t know how it had happened. One minute it looked as though there were a great many trees ahead, and the next, they were out.

 

“What the…” Jonah stammered. Megan was annoyed with a sudden respect for Pyralis, which began to build up in the pit of her stomach.

 

“Here we are!” Pyralis exclaimed. Megan looked around. Behind her, stood a huge uneven wall of swamp and messy woodland.  Before her, lay a vast plain into the distant horizon. Jonah gazed at it in dismay as the pain in his feet seemed to be gnawing away at his nerves, but Pyralis just began to walk again and on they went.

 

“Sit,” he ordered after they were a good distance from the forest. Megan sat with a loud exhausted thump, and Jonah all but collapsed.

 

“Are you okay?” Megan asked Jonah as she massaged her own aching limbs.

 

“Ow,” was Jonah’s painful response.

 

“Excellent,” Pyralis said softly to himself.

 

“What’s excellent?” Megan asked.

 

“I figured with my worn out senses and not having a good rest in quite some time that it would take us several days to leave Silvian Swamp” Megan again had to stop herself from beginning to respect the man she hated so much. It probably takes normal people much less time, Megan decided.

 

“Umm…” Jonah mumbled. “You wouldn’t happen to have brought any food?” Pyralis pulled the bag from over his shoulder and began feeling the around inside as his blind eyes remained motionless on the plains before them. He seemed to not be paying much attention to his immediate surroundings, but rather, to be caught up in distant thoughts that lay somewhere beyond the plain. Finally, he extracted a small silver vile filled with (Megan’s stomach gave a huge lurch) the same green slime Pyralis had forced down her throat so long ago. Jonah eyed it worriedly.

 

“Are you sure you pulled out the right bottle?” Jonah wanted to know. Pyralis remained motionless.

 

“It’s the right one,” Megan said. “He made me eat that stuff before we left and I haven’t been hungry or thirsty since.” Again, Megan had to keep the respect from building up to her chest. She had not thought about the fact that she had had a full feeling since leaving Pyralis’ hut until Pyralis gave Jonah the small vial. Megan, once again, forced herself to maintain cold feelings toward the black haired man with the scraggly goatee because, after all, it was his fault she was here.

 

After a long while, Megan found herself lying on the soft grass and wild flowers that covered the plains. Jonah was already asleep, and Pyralis still looked into the distance in the same position as he had been when he handed Jonah the vial, which Jonah had willingly eaten the contents of in order to keep from starving to death. The plains began to darken slightly as the sun slid down behind them. Megan wondered vaguely if it was the same sun she had seen set so often from her bedroom window. Then, slowly, she began to sleep.

 

“Dilana!” she heard a frantic, somewhat familiar male voice shout, but she couldn’t quite place whose it was. She was only vaguely aware that she was dreaming. She looked around. Emerald and blue flames were crackling all around her. Terrified, she pulled at the wooden bars that held her trapped.  

 

“Dilana!” the voice cried in even more desperation. “Dilana! Dilana!” Megan screamed as one of the emerald flames licked her side. She fell backwards, then woke up. She reached down and felt her side absently. There was nothing there. Megan sighed with relief. Looking down, she realized that she was drenched with sweat. It was dark, and Jonah was still sleeping soundly. Pyralis was still looking in the same direction he had been when she fell asleep. She stood up stiffly. Her whole body ached from having slept on the ground. She began pacing back and forth to relax, so that she could fall back asleep. Then, she lay down, but never did manage to fall asleep again. She dreamt.