Cecil leads us to the backroom of the tattoo place and sits on a couch. He signs us to do the same. We sit on another couch, facing him. Rachel disappears into another room. I get a glimpse of her arm while she goes. There's a black-and-white tattoo of a beetle on the inner side of the arm, along with the symbol on the rock and the cup.
"What is this?" Leea eyes Cecil suspiciously.
"What do you know about fire elementals?" Cecil asks. I stiffen. Something about the question makes me uncomfortable. I can feel Flame squirming in my bag next to me on my couch. I tighten my hold of the bag just a little, so that the movement won't show out.
"Pretty much what every one else does too," Leea says, still seeming a little suspicious. Knowing her she's probably more so now, but she's realised it might be better not to show it.
"Back in the day, a long time ago, there used to be these different kinds of fire elementals too," Cecil begins, as if this conversation made any sense, "Normal elementals aren't very special, just animals living in a forest. I'm actually a little surprised no one has ever tried to take them as pets. These other elementals, however, were different. They were only seen rarely, once a year. And even then not many of them."
He's quiet for a moment, like waiting us to say something. We just stare, trying to make sense of the situation.
"These other elementals were more than just animals. They had a language. They could sing the most beautiful songs. They were only be seen around Christmas, in groups, singing carols of their own. When other elementals go and hide from the dark and cold, these elementals came out and brought their light and warmth to everyone around the longest night of the year."
"This might be a stupid question," Leea interrupted, "But why are we in the back of a tattoo parlour listening to stories about mythical creatures?"
"They're not mythical. They are known to have existed. The last ones were seen some hundred years ago," Cecil answered, "I work not only as a tattoo artist, but also for an organisation that is looking for these elementals. We believe there are still some out there, and we intend to find them."
"That's what the symbol is?" I ask.
"Yes." He pulls up his sleeve and reveals the tattoos I thought I saw in the dream. The symbol in on his inner arm, along with a buttefly.
"And then what? What do you do with all the... super-elementals?" Leea asked, suspicion back in her voice.
"We want to know, what they are. How they're different from the ones we normally see. How their language works, how to understand it. How to make such beautiful carols for this time of year."
He was quiet for a moment again. I felt cold inside.
"What exactly has this got to do with us?" Leea asked, braking the silence.
"You said you saw me in a dream?" Cecil asks, turning to me.
"Uh..." I already said I did, there's no denying it any more, "Y-yes, I guess. It might be my mind is just adding your face into the dream," I lie right through my teeth and hope it doesn't show.
"No," Cecil says, "It must have been me. See, we have a system of breaking into people's dreams. The rare elementals, we call them white, because normally they're black under the flames, but these ones are white," I am trying to not give anything away, not look at the bag next to me, "They have powers. It is settles some time before seeing one someone will see one. We have a way to pull that information from the universe and appear in the dream of the person, who will meet one. We don't know about it ourselves, when we are in someone's dream, but it helps the people recognise us and come to us."
Because this wasn't creepy enough before...
"So... What's this got to do with us?" Leea asks again.
"I believe you have run into such an elemental," Cecil just looks at us. It's not even a question, it's just a statement of fact.
"Uh..." I pull myself together, even though Flame is getting increasingly restless next to me, "No, no I haven't seen one of those."
"But we did see an elemental back in the woods yesterday. It ran across a lake's ice," Leea comes in to save me, "It was on fire, though, so I don't know what color it was underneath. We did think it was weird, seeing one in the winter, but we didn't think much more of it."
Cecil eyes us suspiciously. Leea smiles at him.
"We don't know anything."
"Where in the woods?" Cecil finally asks.
"In the eastern part of the city somewhere, can't remember exactly," Leea says and looks at me, as if trying to remember.
"Yeah, somewhere around there. Not very far from the roads," I nod.
"Okay," I can tell Cecil doesn't believe us.
"Well, if there isn't anything more, I think we will leave now," Leea says and get up. I get up with her, and we start towards the door. On the other side I hear Cecil's voice coming from the backroom.
"Butterfly to Wasp, they're leaving..."
Outside the tattoo parlour we start into a run.
________________________________________________________________
"Start into a run"? Is that an actual phrase that means something?
Anyway...
Your topic for tomorrow is Darkness.
Because it is so dark all the time. Someone told me that on average the sun shone in Finland for seven hours in November.
7 of the 720 hours.
The sun is never up this time of year, and like last winter it seems this winter we don't see it even the few hours a day. Because it's always raining.Damn you rain.
I wish I could say "It's dark all the time" and exaggerate.
~matu
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