The Hollow

Lithuania and Marco had drifted back into sleep, recovering from their journey. isa was the first to notice them. She woke early because of the dream, again. This was the third time she had the dream but she hadn’t told winfry about it yet. It was going to happen soon, now that Marco was here and she was ready for her part. Surprisingly she was ready. But she wasn’t sure about winfry.

isa leaned over and whispered winfry awake. “Look who’s arrived.”

winfry rubbed out the crusts from his eyes and squinted in the direction isa was pointing. “Oh my–”

“Shhh. Don’t wake the rest of the camp.”

“Sorry. So she did it.”

“Yes.”

For a moment they just sat with dawn cracking out of the opaque and watched the recently reunited couple wrapped up with one another. They both noticed the strange almost scars that went around the third finger on the resting couple’s hands but they didn’t say anything.

Finally, isa said, “You know where you have to take them. Don’t you winfry?”

He didn’t say anything. But isa would know that enough time would pry out a response. So she waited.

“I… I don’t think it’s time for that. They aren’t ready.”

“Yes, it is time. winfry, you are ready. Trust yourself.”

Silence sat with them for the rest of the sunrise, each absorbed by their thoughts.

Eventually someone else woke up and discovered Marco and silence fled. The camp was all sorts of commotion and reunions but isa and winfry were still too preoccupied with they own musings to get much involved. Finally the excitement burned down and Marco was given an update on the situation.

“So what are we going to do now?” Marco unwittingly pulled the ten-ton gorilla’s tale and the company’s spirits sank.

Except for isa. “Follow winfry. Do whatever he tells you. He knows what to do.”

All eyes shifted to winfry, whose eyes shifted accusatorily to isa.

“Do you know what to do, winfry,” asked Marco.

After a pause. “Yes.”

“What are we going to do?” “How do you know?” “Did you see that bird again?” The harpies were at their questions again.

winfry snuck in a quick breath like he was going to offer a series of vague justifications and some downright excuses, but he stopped himself. “You know what. I’m going to go and if you want to stay here that’s fine with me” and winfry marched off with isa right beside him towards the tunnel that led out of geyser patch.

The rest of the company was a bit stunned but they all eventually gathered their things and followed winfry. And why was Felix smirking?

For the record, winfry always knew where they were going – he had seen it and its location in the librem – but he didn’t know how to get there. He did, however, have a plan for finding it: hope. Unfortunately, as he expected hope was never very timely and after circling the hill with the geysers and briars a few times, Estonia started complaining. winfry didn’t mind so much but it was starting to get to everyone else so he turned around.

“I know exactly where we are going but the place we want to find doesn’t want to be found, which is the whole point of us finding it.” And before the barrage of questions, he added, “and that’s all I’m going to say. I’m not making anyone follow me.” This time when winfry and isa continued Felix was right in step.

Finally there she was. hope, the bird, was on a rock but then she wasn’t. If winfry hadn’t been expecting her he would have thought he was just seeing things. So he walked off towards the rock and then she fluttered back into sight in the same place she had been. A second later she disappeared again. And of course no one else saw and they wanted to know why they had stopped.

“We are here. Well not here but we are at the entrance. We just have to figure out how to get in.”

winfry began to examine the rock but it appeared just like any of the other sizable boulders around the hill. He and isa both tried divining an opening but to know avail. Finally winfry went to sit down where he had seen the bird so that he could think for a bit but he fell through.

“Found it,” winfry called out. “You all need to come down here.” Somehow, whether it was magical or just some strange natural phenomenon, the rock hid an opening into a tunnel that lead the company into the center of the hill to a hollow right bellow the geyser patch.

The hollow was absolutely unworldly. The walls and floors glowed in swirls of yellow-orange with strange purple chemosynthetic plants. Throughout the circular alcove were alcoves with beds ready set and in the center of everything was a great table that seemed to grow out of the floor. While everyone else was still trying to get a grip on their awe, winfry went into a pantry like alcove and brought out a stone water jar and glasses. He set them on the table and poured wine for everyone.

“We need to drink this if we want to stay here,” which of course brought on a series of questions and skepticism, but Felix butted in.

Felix raised his glass, “We’ve been through a hell of a lot of trouble and now we are finally, finally having a bit of good luck. So how about we just enjoy it for now and just leave all the questions for later? To Lithuania and Marco, reunited at last!”

And so a celebration of sorts began.

When the wine had taken its effect and everyone was thinking about the alcove beds, Latvia asked winfry, “What is this place?”

“This is our home.”