"Wake up! You're about to fall off!"
Suddenly Azela was awake.
It felt as though more than an hour had passed, though her nap must have only lasted a few seconds. The morning chill gnawed at her skin.
They rode so far from the haven now that no sign of it could be seen through the haze. The motorcycle beneath Five and Azela rumbled steadily. Despite the rugged terrain, they seemed to almost glide. Strange glances from various animals marked their passage.
"I don't think we been properly introduced yet," Five said. "I'm Apostle Five. Keep watch behind us. We should be high enough to be safe, but if this fog starts to get suspiciously thick, I need to know."
Azela gazed dreamily at the fog around them, given many colors by the sunrise. "I'm... um... My number is Seven-Zero, but you can call me Azela if you like. Ayan called me that when I couldn't pronounce my number and it kind of stuck. Nice to meet you. So... uh... where are we going?"
Five burped and wiped the sweat from his brow. "We're almost there. I should probably explain. Barkeep knows you ain't no killer. But you gotta hide for a bit."
"How long is a bit?"
"Can't go back to Jastria until Ayan returns," he said. "Even then, it might be safer not to return at all. Four's influence is too strong. It's a tiny-ass ecosystem, politically. A lot only know One and Four, never even seen the others. If he wants you dead, others will want you dead. It ain't right to treat someone like that without any form of trial. I'm glad I got ya in time."
Azela reached up and hugged his shoulders. "Thank you," she murmured. "You still didn't tell me where we're going."
"Almost there."
"Am I really a demon?" she asked.
He was confused. "Where does this nonsense about demons come from?"
"Shi-Yon said I was a demon."
Five grunted. "He's full of crap. When you was sleeping for two years, he got real creepy around you. Had some strong opinions. Tried to say you were a threat."
"I'm just me," she said, and those words made her feel profoundly sad, though she didn't know why.
Their vehicle was made of many movable parts, almost organic in complexity if not form. This let it navigate the rough path with ease as they neared a dim light in the fog ahead.
"Motorcycle," Azela whispered.
"What about it?" Five asked.
"My mind finally gave me the word, that's all."
"Her name is Jessie. And she's probably the last of her kind," he told her, sadly.
As they gradually slowed to a stop, the engine's gentle purr faded into the stillness of the surroundings. Five swung a leg over the motorcycle's frame, preparing to dismount. "We're here," he declared as he stepped onto solid ground.
Azela followed suit, her eyes scanning the sight before her. They had reached the edge of a dense forest. Behind them, the wall of fog stopped so abruptly that it looked as if it were trapped behind glass. And in front, the trees' leaves were so bright that they seemed to glow.
No, Azela realized with a shock, they really were glowing!
The vibrant sounds of wildlife filled the air. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the array of smells that somehow made her feel both calmed and full of energy. The world softened around the edges. For a fleeting moment, she could have believed she had wandered into a dream.
"This here's your new home," Five said, "It's called the Mietha Forest. Uninhabited except for the blue-elven village between here and Tssaanjii's Marsh. Lots a' superstitions about this place. Barkeep says you'll be fine here, and I trust him. Finding food and shelter's up to you, though. Most fish and fruits should be edible. If you head straight in far enough, there's a creek of fresh water you can drink out of. What you do from here is up to you. I'll be back in a day or two with some supplies, so just stay near the creek." He turned to look at Azela with concern. "Do ya think you'll be alright?"
She smiled at him. "Believe me, I'll be alright. I read a lot of books on... plant life and outdoors stuff." She didn't mention that most of what she read had been about flowers.
As she stepped closer to the forest, Azela's senses were almost overwhelmed. The vibrant colors of the glowing leaves cast intricate patterns of shadow and illumination on the forest floor. She blinked, half expecting the surreal scene to dissolve before her eyes, and felt a sense of peace wash over her.
"Home," she said, the word feeling like a promise. She turned to Five. "Thank you for bringing me here," she said.
Five nodded, but his expression was solemn. "You're not safe. Predators live here, but they're the natural kind. Keep your wits." He remounted his motorcycle and said, "I'm gonna be needed to restore order and deal with the fallout. I'm still an apostle, even if no one respects me."
"Well, you just earned mine at least," Azela said.
He looked at her sympathetically, "MegaGlitch told me about your situation. How you don't even know what it means to be glitchen. So I'll be bringing you books and stuff that should help with that. Along with some supplies. I'll see ya again soon." His bike roared loudly, then peeled off the way they had come.
As Azela ventured deeper into the forest, the weight of loneliness settled upon her shoulders like a heavy cloak. She thought of Shi-Yon. Already she missed his company.
And he wanted her to die.
The sting of his deception cut deep. The tears that burned in her eyes threatened to spill over, but she brushed them away. An ember of anger added itself to the mix of emotions swelling within. She thought she had found an anchor in a sea of uncertainty, only to have her trust shattered in the worst way.
"You saved me once. Stood between me and a fiery death," she spoke into the stillness of the forest, her voice tinged with bitterness. "Guess you would have preferred the watery one." She thought about that now. How he had tried to murder her while she was just a comatose patient. He was not at all the kind of person she thought he was. The Shi-Yon she had known was a lie.
Yet it was a sweet lie. One she had trouble letting go of. "And now I'm alone."
Alone. The word was prominent in her mind, causing the sense of emptiness to grow. Discarded with nothing but the clothing she wore. Her past was taken, and now she had no future, either.
* * *
A day had passed.
Azela's camp was a poor sight, without any real shelter or fire, but she had made decent progress on a makeshift bed. Five was good on his promise of books, and she now sat atop a tree, apple in one hand and a book in the other, learning more about glitchen biology than she ever thought to ask. The forest around her hummed with life. The rustling of leaves and the chirping of birds provided a soothing backdrop to her studies.
Azela turned the page of her book. The section she uncovered caught her interest.
There was an ability that Azela had been using instinctively but didn't quite understand. When climbing, the pull of the ground seemed to fade while whatever she held on to drew her in, meaning that her body had some measure of control over not only how heavy she was, but the specific surface to which that weight was directed. How far she could push on either side of the scale wasn't something she could test, as her own conscious control of this ability was minimal and difficult. Attempts to influence her personal gravity met with mixed success… and occasional bruises from the ground.
Now she discovered that this trait was apparently something only known to glitchen.
"'The glitchen species possesses a unique cellular structure that includes a specialized particle known as the Glitchaerion,'" she read aloud. "'This particle is found within the muscle cells of the glitchen and plays a crucial role in the species' ability to control the gravitational pull of their muscle mass.'"
She took a bite of the apple before continuing. "'The Glitchaerion particle is a subatomic particle that is believed to interact with the muscle cells' cytoskeleton and the surrounding extracellular matrix. The exact mechanism by which it modulates the gravitational pull of muscle tissue is not yet fully understood, but it is thought to involve changes in the orientation and/or density of the cytoskeletal filaments within the muscle cells.'"
She groaned and said, "It would be nice to know what any of these words were," then continued reading, "'It is important to note that the Glitchaerion particle does not affect the bones or any other part of a glitch's body. This allows the species to maintain a stable skeletal structure.'"
Another bite. This was useful, even if she only got the gist. She could change her weight, but her skin, organs and bones would always weigh her down. A gross thought.
She started skimming ahead, past a lot of illustrations of people in bubbles with numbers and lines beside them. This part was too technical for her taste. Then the tree began to sway as a rumble reverberated through its branches. The book slipped from her grasp, plummeting to a branch below, while Azela managed to cling to her perch with the apple still in her mouth.
Emerging from the thick of the forest some distance away, stretching even above the treetops, was the head of something gigantic. Azela's eyes widened as the creature she beheld lumbered toward the area north of her camp.
"Sauropod!" she exclaimed, dropping the apple. She had heard them the night before, but this was the first she had seen. The majestic titan dwarfed the surrounding landscape. The ground trembled with each footfall, stirring the leaves of the trees. The creature seemed almost like a living mountain as it stepped out from a thicker part of the forest into an area with smaller trees.
"One of those is gonna crush me to death some night," she said, though she doubted anyone could sleep through the approach of something so massive. She watched it until it once again disappeared into the distant taller trees.
She worked her way down the branches to retrieve her fallen book, nearly slipping as she tried to grab a branch with a fifth limb she didn't have. Bark scraped against her palms as she clung tightly to the trunk.
"Not again…"
It was something she kept doing, expecting a tail that wasn’t there. This quirk had become all too familiar to her in recent days. She thought about what MegaGlitch had said about her body, but couldn't exactly remember the words. Her body may have changed, but the muscle memory was still there.
"Now if only I had more memories than that," she said in response to her thoughts, then continued her descent.
She felt a pang of longing for this part of herself, so lost now that only the instincts remained. "Too sapien now," she said sourly.
Azela let her familiarity with the tree guide her to its base. Returning to her camp, she settled on the makeshift bedding and turned her attention to the other books that Five had left for her. A decently sized stack. Promises of many hours of distraction and discovery. Her mind would have no trouble staying occupied, at least.
As she reclined, she found herself gazing at the sky. Not a single cloud had drifted across its surface in all the time she had been here. It was a sky untouched by the passage of time.
Surrounded by the soothing wind through the leaves and the distant calls of wildlife, Azela once again felt a sense of peace. The breeze carried the fresh scent of greenery and rich earth. This was a strange place. Every day seemed to reveal some new impossibility or unanswered question. Yet, amidst that strangeness was an undeniable sense of belonging as well; a growing sensation that this was her place.
Azela closed her eyes and surrendered to the serenity in the silence.