Chapter 7: Chigaku the Musical, Chifuku the Hiding, and Tenko, the Lone Star

Dana didn’t know which was worse: the fact that she and Greg had to stay in a ratty hotel for the night, or the fact that they actually had to share the same bed. Though Greg tried to do the chivalrous thing and sleep on the floor, after a brief examination of the filthy wood that made the surface of their room, both adventurers decided it would be much better to tough it out and share the same bed.

Of course, this room was also the only one they could afford on such short notice. Most of the money they had received from the job involving Cord Roy had went to finding a ship. It seemed as if, in his extreme zealousness, Zet had left them rather high and dry after his departure. Not only did he himself leave, but he took their only transport with him. True, Zet was prone to behave rashly when he was in a foul mood, but this didn’t excuse the fact that he had stranded them on that planet.

Somehow, they managed. Both partners were very accustomed to having their own private sleeping chambers, and even though the single bed was large, there was still a little friction as the night rolled on. It wasn’t as if Dana and Greg hated each other--quite the opposite, actually. It was just that they were not exactly fond of sharing the same bed, that’s all.

When the alarm went off, Dana was the first to wake, as always. Groaning miserably, for she never liked getting up any earlier than 7:00, she somehow managed to rise up and amble off towards the shower. Greg continued to sleep until 7:30, when his partner got out and shook him awake.

“Hey, get up!” she hissed, wearing a towel around her body and hair. “You wanna get off of this planet soon, right?” A low mumbling sound was her reply, and Dana rolled her eyes as her partner continued to sleep. With a slight snarl, she shut his mouth with her hand and pinched his nose until he sputtered awake.

“P’daahh!! G’huuh!! Hey, what’s the big deal?!” demanded a nearly-suffocated young man. Dana sighed and tried desperately for a smile.

“Get up. The sooner we leave this place, the better.” Sighing, Greg wiped his sleepy face with his hand, and nodded his head.

“Oh yeah ... thanks...” Without another word, he ventured off towards the bathroom, and was not seen for another twenty minutes.

“Shift, please ... let’s leave...” Picking his teeth clean from the meal he had eaten, Gregory J. Rodriguez nodded his head and stood out of his chair. It was now 7:45 in the morning, and both adventurers were looking and smelling a little better. They had planned to leave Earth as soon as they could purchase a small ship, and with all the money they had with them now gone, a departure was all they could perform.

“ ... Not just yet,” he said after a pause. Dana raised her eyebrow and had to wonder what her partner was thinking.

“Hm?”

“There’s someone else I wanna visit while I’m here,” said Greg enigmatically. Dana blew out some irritated air and rolled her eyes.

“Oh, great ... another punk like Sahn?”

“No, nobody like him at all,” chuckled Greg. “Trust me, you’d like her.”

“Her?”

“Don’t get any funny ideas,” pointed Greg with a smile. “She’s like a grandmother to me.”

“Ah, an old wise mentor, eh?” said Dana with heavy intrigue. Greg nodded his head.

“Something like it. We’ll need the ship to find her, though.”

“Why’s that?” A pause. Gregory took in a deep breath, trying to figure out how best to explain everything to his partner.

“ ... Well, let’s just say that she lives on another continent. For now, we’d better get on the ship. Man!” He paused just long enough to let out a chuckle, which in turn made even Dana smile a little. “ ... It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen her ... Longer even than Sahn! Ha! I wonder if she even recognizes me...”

Gregory’s old friend did live on another continent--but that was just the tip of the iceberg. As their small and slightly junky rental ship flew above the surface, Dana noted that not only did Greg’s friend live on another continent, but she even lived in a place that had remained untouched and unaffected by the smoggy wastes of Earth. This land, the one they were approaching, was covered with such a lush green that not even the darkest of powers could corrupt it.

Clouds of pure white surrounded the land, and everything was a bright green and blue, so bright and powerful that it was visible from Earth’s moon. This was a Holy Land, a place unadulterated from the slums and the ruins of the rest of the planet. This was, in a sense, one of the last remnants of Earth’s true appearance, before the Final War occurred. There were other Holy Lands such as this scattered across the globe, but Greg seemed to know which one his friend lived in.

Dana had a feeling that whoever this old woman was, she was a figure of great veneration.

It was almost mystical.

Greg had parked the ship a little distance away from the Holy Land’s border, stating that “nothing filthy like that ship should enter this sacred ground”. Dana, who knew a little about religions and faiths and beliefs, knew enough to respect such things as this, and thus left behind everything she thought would have stained the lands. Both travelers ended up going into the sacred woods with little more than the clothes on their backs.

The transition from polluted wasteland to sacred Purelands was magical. In the middle of the dusty, dark, and dreary desert of cracked Earth, there laid an enormous forest, untouched and unfazed by the evils of the world surrounding it. It was thickly covered by pristine wood, dripping with sacred droplets of rain, and peopled by creatures so sacred that to even strike them by accident was sacrilegious. It was a Holy Forest, and into it did the two adventurers go.

As soon as they squeezed through the trees standing guard, Dana and Greg opened their mouths in breathless awe at the sacred forest surrounding them. Even if they had taken a hundred showers, and laundered their clothes a thousand times, both felt like they were far too filthy to be there. Even so, this forest was a safe haven for the downtrodden and the depressed--it gave refuge to the weak, and the defenseless; it protected those who were hiding, and shielded they that had nowhere else to go. Gregory had spent a lot of his youth in these woods.

“Wow...” whispered the young man. “I haven’t been to this place in so long...”

“ ... It’s ... beautiful,” whispered Dana, who up until this point, had thought she had seen everything the galaxy had to offer. Being the adopted daughter of an influential woman had its perks, and visiting the galaxy was one of them, but never before had she seen anything like this.

“Hey...” Dana snapped out of her trance as Greg shook her arm, and she gave him a haunting yet amazed look.

“Shift...”

“Let’s go,” he said with a smile, pointing off towards the heart of the forest. He took her wrist gently, and guided his partner into the thick of the forest. Dana, who was still mesmerized by the awesome majesty of the woods around her, let her feet do the walking while her eyes drank in the untouched beauty of the Holy Forest.

The woods were exceptionally thick and about as dangerous as a piece of toilet paper. The ponds were so clear and clean that the two travelers drank from them, and the fruits growing on a few of the trees were so unspoiled that they could be plucked and eaten right away. There was no danger here at all, not even for those who sought it, and for those who were constantly afraid or timid, the woods embraced and comforted them in peace.

But they had not always been like this. Someone had made the forest holy; it didn’t become sacred overnight. According to Greg, this same someone was the old woman he was looking for, and of course, Dana couldn’t believe him.

After a few good minutes of hiking through the forest, Greg and Dana came upon a clearing in the woods, one that outshined even the sacred area around it. If the woods before them had been holy and tranquil, then this clearing was indescribable. Both travelers instantly felt refreshed and at ease, and Greg let out a big smile as he saw the object of his search.

Standing before them was what might have been a human. She was incredibly tall, at least eight feet in all, and looked quite thin with just a hint of delicate muscle. The woman in fact resembled a willow tree instead of a human. She had long pure-white hair that went past her armpits, and dark green eyes that radiated with an infinite number of feelings. The woman had a whopping sixteen arms, but most of them were wrapped around her body. She had a dark green and velvet dress on, and an illuminating green stone for a brooch. Greg had claimed that she was very old, but in fact the woman looked no more than twenty-seven years old, even with her white hair.

The woman smiled an enchanting smile as Dana and Greg stepped forth, and she stretched her long arms out as if to hug them both. Her feet, which were not touching the ground at all, gently hovered over the waters as she approached them, and with the silence revered for two old friends who knew each other well, she gave Gregory a loving embrace.

“Oh, my child,” she sang in a haunting voice, “it is so good to see you again...”

“Yeah, I missed you too, Sayrah...” replied Greg. The woman knelt down slightly so she could kiss his forehead, and continued to hold him even as she glanced at Dana.

“My good child,” she said in a sweet Siren’s voice, “whom have you brought with you?”

“Oh, that’s my partner, Dana Withers,” pointed Greg carelessly. “She’s not exactly a role model for little kids, but she comes in handy a lot.” Dana normally would have retorted with one of her own glib remarks, but the mere sight of the willowy woman had taken her voice. The giant, thin lady smiled warmly as she saw Dana’s confused look, released Gregory, and hovered over to introduce herself.

“Good day, my child,” she said in a singing voice. Dana noted that the woman always spoke in a kind of song, and never in casual statements like most other species. Finding a creature that spoke through song and not speech wasn’t rare; Dana had seen her fair share in her own life, so this was nothing new.

“ ... Uh ... hello, ma’am,” said Dana with a semi-curtsy. The woman grinned merrily, showing beautiful teeth as she placed her long, bony hands on Dana’s shoulders.

“I can sense you would like clarification about myself,” sang the woman gently, and Dana nodded her head. “My name is Sayrah Antonnanise Dela Ancravienetta, and though I may resemble a human, I am in fact what is known as an Eternenenite.”

“A what?” said Dana. Miss Withers was a well-traveled woman, but she had never heard of such a species before. Sayrah paused, and reformed her song a little so that Dana could understand.

“ ... Perhaps I should explain it to you more,” she sang. Sayrah guided Dana over to where there were two great tree stumps, and sat down on one of them. Dana seated herself on another, and Greg joined her. Sayrah smiled at both of them.

“Dear child, you have heard this tale before,” she sang to Gregory.

“Yeah, but I wanna hear it again!!” Sayrah laughed out loud, a beautiful and melodic laugh that sounded prettier than any musical instrument, and her eyes twinkled a little.

“So you shall, then. So you shall.”

“Great!” Greg’s face grew a big goofy grin, and not even Dana could prevent the chuckling snort that came forth. With that said, Sayrah plucked out what appeared to be a hybrid of a guitar, a lute, and a cittar. Dana later learned that the willowy woman spoke not only in song, but in instrument as well, and was more musically-inclined than most impresarios she had seen at an opera.

Sayrah began to sing her story.

After Sayrah finished her ballad, Gregory stood out of his stump and clapped, and so did Dana. Sayrah blushed just slightly, a reddish hue making its way to her ghostly-green face, and she managed to take a bow before standing.

“I love that story!” exclaimed Greg. “No matter how many times I hear it, I’ll never get tired of it!”

“ ... Yes,” muttered Dana softly. “But ... I have a few questions. What was this ‘Final War’ you speak of? What happened? How did it affect the Earth? How did your kind evolve from that?”

“Many questions you ask, but few answers do I have to provide,” replied Sayrah sadly. “Perhaps in time, you shall discover these yourself. They are not essential, though, for t’was many a century ago did this war end...”