Episode 24: Where Dusk Falls

"Land ho!" shouted one of the crew members. It finally came into view; after over two months at sea, we found our fateful destination. I am wracked with conflicting emotions. The old Una, Bamuna, who had a feathered family, is thrilled beyond her life that she will actually set foot on the isle of the most revered Dusk Sages. The new Una, who watched her entire race destroy itself and was attacked by a Dusk sage trap at the Grand Chantry, feels her stomach roil with anxiety. Do they really still want us dead? Or was that just an outdated and forgotten image we saw? Either way we are here to uncover truths...and the truth can hurt, maim, and kill - at least in our experience.

The island seemed to give off 'green'. When we got closer it appeared as if the entire island was made of green nevergem. Goshi mining corp. would have a field day with this thing! I scouted ahead a bit to see if there was anything obvious to avoid, and I obviously should have avoided the razor-beaked hummingbirds. Ouch! By time I swung back to the ship it was making its way down an inlet to a lovely green-sand beach at the bottom of a waterfall. Some blessed person (at least to my flightless companions) had carved stairs to the north and south of the waterfall.

We made it to the top of the falls where we found minor 'game' trails and a river a mile wide. While looking out over the water, something smacked Rei in the back of the head. I whipped around to see the air full of black projectiles. Who knew what they were? They could be poison or worse! I put all the oomph I could muster into a kata meant to conceal us from the enemy a bit and chucked it into the jungle.

Whooosh-Pbbpbppbpbbpb. *Pleh* I sputtered as we were suddenly immersed in a storm of feathers. Damn, I still didn't throw far enough. True, we weren't getting pelted by any more black things, but the feathers were a bit ridiculous, even for me. After a few seconds I released the kata in case any of my companions had stumbled toward the river in the confusion. I hoped I looked sufficiently sheepish to my friends as the feathers disappeared. Luckily the primates that were flinging (what was apparently poo) were awfully scared by the feathers and ran off.

Feeling a bit safer after dealing with poop instead of Dusk Sage wrath, we debated upon the best way to continue. We decided that it would be worth it to haul a small boat to the top of the falls somehow. As usual, Moses did an awesome job rigging a system to pull it up and did the grunt work as well. Zipporah and I stood watch while her love machine tugged at the rope. I was smiling blithely thinking about how cute they were together when some thing, and I mean that in the truest sense, came crawling up toward us.

It looked at first like one of the primates, but with a huge bite-shaped piece missing from its side. As it dragged itself along it also changed into some dark humanoid creature, then into a sloth; each of them missing a chunk out of their sides. It looked so hurt, Zipporah tried to cut open the festering wound to let it drain. But despite all attempts at explaining her reasons, the thing did not like her ministrations and turned into some huge, hairy, four-footed beast.

I took one last ditch attempt at healing it and finally managed to perform the kata that Susanoo had let me use back at the Gogajin village. Amazingly the wound did appear to improve, and the creature calmed down and went to the river. It shifted once again (still missing a piece of side) into some large rodent with a flat tail. Wow, this island is full of weird stuff!

Enough excitement already! We piled into the boat and set off westward. (Keibatsu seemed to think that Kiyoshi was meant to go in that direction, which was more lead than we had with any other cardinal direction.) After a while on the boat, and glimpses of strange shadows, we ran into a tree. Huh, no. A talking tree? Try, oh dear - now it begins, a Dusk Sage. The One Who Sets Lately told us to go back, that there were those that wanted to harm us. We tried to explain that we needed answers or Karia would perish, and we started trying to decrypt his answers to the questions we began to pelt him with.

Unfortunately, right in the middle of our conversation (as it was) two more Dusk Sages approached us. One in an onyx mask launched himself from the shore and sunk his hand in Mr. Lately, tearing out rainbow light of some sort. The onyx mask absorbed it, and as he did so, our would-be savior crumbled into ash in the river. From there on out things just got nasty. Inari, Amaterasu, and Susanoo all showed up - eventually, as usually. We were able to do some damage to onyx and shell mask, but they were both finished off by the first two kyo-tee-shee. Unfortunately (I think?) both Dusk Sages were turned into kyo-tee-shee themselves and Susanoo would not harm them. They shifted into water animals and swam away (after one took a good try at Miss Poo-head's mana).

We got in the boat again and collected Kiyoshi and the others he had so admirably saved. (When does he ever do anything not admirable? Well, I guess when he told us all to piss off about Aimi, but that was the exception.) We tried to dry off and had a lively debate about whether the kyo-tee-shee were worth it or not. And just when things seemed normal again, we spotted fifteen or so dusk sages on the northern shore. Of course we made for the southern shore rather quickly.

I don't think five steaming tons of primate poo is adequate to describe our situation now...