[SRP] Labyrinthine Forest (Ailbhe)

[elfstar89]

Solo RP for my Soq Ailbhe. Please do not post. Ailbhe posts in Dodger Blue. This is a continuation of the SRP Claws and Voices.

Ailbhe painfully limped toward the edge of the little clearing her fall had made in the vegetation, eyes tearing up. Get out of here, get home, get help. Or get out of here, get help, then get home. Or possibly find help before getting out of here. At any rate, don't linger, stay quiet, don't let the crazy Catshifter find her. Pausing while keeping her probably broken leg lifted, she looked around to try to get her bearings and get a sense of how far she'd fallen.

Fortunately, it didn't look like a very long distance, but still far enough to hurt a lot if unprepared. No trail upward. Just sheer rock face with an unfamiliar forest at the bottom. Squinting her blue eyes upward, it looked like she'd been unconscious a few hours. No chance Karloff and Lucian hadn't noticed she'd gone missing, then. They had to be frantic by now. No time to waste. Best chance would probably mean going along the edge of the cliff to see if she could find a way back up, ideally as gentle as possible.

Ailbhe began to pick her way along a trail that seemed to wind near the base, as per the plan. Say what you like about the plan, at least this little forest at the bottom of what increasingly seemed to be a large crevasse was quite beautiful. Little waterfalls bounced and bubbled down the cliff face, spraying her with cool, sweet water. The Cheshire paused by the first one with a relatively shallow little pool at the bottom to soak and drink. She cried with how good it felt, letting the falling water wash away the dirt and the blood, soothing some of the minor aches and cuts. Mosses and little wildflowers grew on the stones and along the boulders that lined the pool, and even the small amount of sunlight that reached this far sparkled on the spray, turning them into crystals and refracting a little rainbow. Truly beautiful. If it wasn't for the events of the night before, she'd be happy to linger and note this place for later, to show it to Karloff and Lucian at a better time.

Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards right now. As good as the water had felt, as much as it eased the pain and cleaned the cuts and abrasions, the cold temperatures and the sudden exertion of the night before were catching up with her muscles, and Ailbhe could feel her legs stiffening. She sighed unhappily. Get out, get help, get home, refuse to leave the cave for a week. That seemed right.

Sighing, she returned to the trail, and resumed limping along.  

[elfstar89]

The trail had seemed like a good idea at the start. Unfortunately, an hour in, and the trail had wandered away from the cliff as the crevasse began to widen...though the cliffs seemed no less steep.

And now she was in a clearing full of ferns, wood sorrel, trefoil, irises, and gargantuan trees she'd never seen before. And the trail had petered out to nothing.

Ailbhe wanted to scream. Odds were good that she was just far enough away, especially after her little bath, that the Catshifter was no longer pursuing her, and vocalizations were no longer off the table. So she let herself emit a muffled scream of frustration.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! I just want to go home!"

And then, from somewhere in the branches far above her head, a voice laughed.

"Hello, Fool! Let's play a game, shall we? Right now, you're in the middle of a forest, and all YOU have to do is find your way out! Simple? Yes, truly! Just like your mind!"

The Voice laughed merrily, like bells, lilting.

"Who said that? Where are you?" Ailbhe called out, fear ripping through her after last night. Another Shifter? Was this one hostile, too? If it was another hostile Shifter...she couldn't run. She didn't know these woods well enough to hide.

Looking around, she couldn't even spot a source for the voice, so she couldn't fit a voice with a shape, either. Anything could be the Shifter, if it was a Shifter.

But it could also be another Soquili, or a familiar, right? Sure, familiars weren't really talkative, but they seemed sentient enough, so maybe one could talk! And they probably weren't hostile, right?

"Could...could you tell me how to get out of here? I have to get home!"

"Tick tock, tick tock, time's running out, Little Fool! This time, we'll play for a prize! If you fail, well, I won't take it out on your utter incompetence; but next time...the stakes will be higher."

"...Now's not really the best time for a game. Couldn't you just tell me the way out for now, and I'll play your game another time?" Her leg was aching again something fierce, and she just wasn't in the mood. She'd heard enough stories of other Cheshires from brief encounters with her father to know that their kindred were known to be mischievous, but would they choose such a malignant time to pull pranks or start games? Even to Ailbhe's whimsical mind, this Voice seemed to be pushing the line.

But the Voice didn't reply. It didn't seem to care what she had to say.

"Okay. I'll play your game. How do I play?" she called out, trying to mask her frustration with the callous nature of the Voice.  

[elfstar89]

The Voice laughed again and sang,

"If you can answer me these riddles three,
Lay the bent to the bonny broom!
From this forest shall you be free,
And you'll beguile a rabbit soon!

What manner of cherry has no stone?
Lay the bent to the bonny broom!
And what is mourned when it is flown?
And you'll beguile a rabbit soon!

What may you see, but never touch?
Lay the bent to the bonny broom!
And what may you feel, but never clutch?
And you'll beguile a rabbit soon!

What may grow without the sun's ray?
Lay the bent to the bonny broom!
And what is more when ta'en away?
And you'll beguile a rabbit soon!"

As the song finished, the Voice seemed to be receding, though in which direction, it was as yet unclear.

"Riddles, is it?" Ailbhe asked thoughtfully. Her father seemed to like riddles, though he hadn't really shared any with Ailbhe. They hadn't really come up much in her childhood.

But as games went, this seemed relatively harmless. Annoying, but not actively hostile. At least it wasn't a game of leapfrog with something predatory that lived in the streams of this forest.

"Okay. I can do this. A cherry without a stone, a cherry without a stone..." she mused, looking around aimlessly as she thought. Stoneless cherries? Too obvious. They occurred, but a riddle would never be that blatant. And then an unusual color caught her attention.

A flowering cherry, its pale pink petals standing out against the deeper emeralds and warm, ruddy browns of the rest of the forest.

A cherry with no stone? Cherry blossoms had no stones.

She limped over to the cherry tree. "A cherry with no stone is a cherry blossom, right?" she called out.

The Voice didn't reply.

But there was another cherry tree in the distance. Inhaling, the Cheshire could smell more cherry blossoms in the same direction.

Was the Voice...helping her? Obviously in the most obtuse manner possible. But it couldn't hurt to try paying attention to the rhymes and playing along. It could be no worse than randomly guessing her way out of this crevasse. Maybe the sooner she played along with the Voice, the sooner she'd get home to Karloff and Lucian.

It was worth a shot.

What was the next line? "What is mourned when it is flown?" As she limped toward the next cherry, she considered it. Birds? Bees? Butterflies? What about...time?

Her heart constricted with anxiety, and her leg ached. It wasn't just Karloff and Lucian she needed to find. It was someone who could heal her leg. Time wasn't something she could afford to waste down here.

Ailbhe picked up her pace.  

[elfstar89]

The cherries seemed to be getting further apart. This didn't seem right. Ailbhe considered the next line. "What can you see, but never touch?" she mused aloud. Not many things. Sunlight, shadows, rainbows--

Rainbows. Hadn't there been a cherry tree by the pool where she'd cooled off earlier that day? Rabbit fluff. She'd been going the wrong way, following the cherries away from the pool. Time to backtrack.

Turning around, she began to limp back the way she'd come, moving as fast as her aching muscles would let her. In the branches ahead, the Voice laughed.

"Not quite as simple as you might seem, Sweet Fool! Shall I sing again, Little Fool?"

"Sure, why not? It'll give me time to think as we go," Ailbhe replied with a muffled sigh. All things considered, she'd thought she'd been doing well, so being called a fool was...not the best thing in the world right now. Not when she just wanted to get home and get her leg fixed.

Ahead, dancing ahead and then dancing back, the Voice sang its song, adding verses around the verses already sung, weaving a framework of a story. Of a maiden challenged with answering riddles so she might marry a prince. The subject matter nagged at her, feeling uncomfortably close to home, but at least the Voice was sweet and could carry the tune beautifully.

What can you feel, but never hold? Ailbhe shivered. The wind. But what did the wind have to do with anything? She'd barely felt even the faintest whisper of a breeze all day. Maybe this was a clue meant for later, placed earlier to maintain the rhyming scheme. Tricky Voice.

What grew without the aid of the sun? Nothing vegetative, unless you counted fungi. But mountains got bigger the closer you got, right? And some said stones could grow without the dew. Maybe a mountain? That didn't make any sense, either. She knew she had to get up the mountain, but hadn't spotted a trail.

What was more when taken away? Nothing? Taking things away could increase nothingness? But most of the rhymes had had a natural bent to them. Maybe that wasn't it? But the concept of absence tugged at her thoughts. Was there a reason "mountain" had been paired with "nonexistence"? Unless...

As she came around a bend in the trail, she saw the pool again. And as she looked around more carefully, she spotted something she hadn't spotted earlier:

A cave behind the waterfall. As she haltingly waded through the pool and the spray, Ailbhe could tell. The floor slanted gently upward. And a stronger breeze was softly thrumming through the cave.

The rest of the rhyme fell into place. Smiling, Ailbhe stepped into the darkness of the cave. As she did so, she asked, "Have you any more rhymes, Wise Voice? Or is this a new challenge?"

If an expression could be applied to the Voice, it would be a pleased smile. "A new Challenge deserves a new Rhyme, don't you think, my Good Fool?"

The bell-like sound reverberated off the dripping stones of the cave. "Shall we begin, Sweet Fool?"  

[elfstar89]

"But, alas, I have no rhymes to fit the meter! Rhymes without meters! Riddles are the only rule!" the Voice cackled.

Okay. Different rules now. Perhaps a little rude, but when arguing with a disembodied Voice with a weird sense of humor, arguing about the niceties of a logic game sounded like a pointless endeavor.

But it hadn't given any new riddles. Waaaiiit. Did that mean...

"So you can only speak in riddles from now until I leave the cave. Got it." Ailbhe wanted to scream with exasperation. But it wasn't a good idea in a cave. Anything could be in here, anything could be sensitive to loud noises. And this wasn't the cave she shared with Karloff and Lucian; this looked far larger and more primeval from what she could see, which didn't extend far past the entrance, and her shadow was already swallowing up what little light remained.

It wasn't easy to make her way. The floor sloped gently upward, and she could tell she should walk into the wind that traveled through the cave. Wind from that direction surely meant there was air at the other end. Someplace the wind could howl freely. Somewhere that wasn't the forested crevasse.

Abruptly, the Voice barked out a new rhyme with a strange urgency.

"You use a knife to slice my head,
Yet weep when I am dead!"

Ailbhe paused. Knife? Lucian had one. She tried to think, wrinkling her nose at a faint and distracting scent. She couldn't see anything in this darkness, what was that sme--

It hit her. Onions. Onions made you cry when you sliced their bulbs. And onions smelled like this. So did skunks. So did sulfur. Was there a sulfur patch nearby? Ailbhe shivered uncomfortably and held her nose until she passed the area with the sulfurous reek. If the Voice hadn't warned her...nope. Not a good thought when she was this reliant on the Voice's guidance. Not when she needed to get out the other side. Get out, then have a nice quiet panic attack somewhere else.

She picked up the pace, and focused on the feel of the wind, the sound of the Voice barking out riddles as it guided her safely around ledges, along the edges of deep subterranean pools, and away from other unseen dangers.

Ailbhe was stumbling with pain and exhaustion before she noticed a change in the air around her.

The wind was stronger.

And...could she actually see the ground beneath her feet? She paused and lifted her head curiously, silks sagging damply against her pale fur.

Ahead of her was a deep reddish gold glow. Sunset?

The Voice laughed behind her as she exited the cave onto a lightly wooded hillside as the sun began to set. "Well done, my Good Fool! You're free of the forest and the mountain's heart! Be well, Little Fool, until our next game!"