Winterbound, Part 20 - Scale

They were already about to leave, but Anaya looked around and saw that the village people were still curiously standing around the uroxoo tree, trying to get a grasp of what was going on and whether this was something worrying or important for their own lives. She noticed that there were many worried faces and realised that this might lead into trouble if people didn't know what to think about all of this. They would start to think all kinds of things, that was for sure. So she wanted to use this opportunity to nudge their thoughts toward positive expectations.

So Anaya turned to face them and raised her voice.

"People of Estirão, please listen to me. This is a special day. Those who are old may remember the time of dragons. Those were great days, and people lived in harmony with them. But we forgot the skills to bond with them, and therefore we haven't seen them for a long time. Now these times are coming back, and we should rejoice. Some of you may be worried, even afraid. I ensure you, there is no need. They have brought us skills and prosper, and they will again."

This seemed to work. Even the fact that someone finally addressed them directly and told something about what on earth was going on was relieving to the villagers. Some were clearly excited about the words like prosper and great.

The Madam was not. 

She had many reasons to be upset. Her pupils had lied to her and taken a school canoe and disappeared for a week with false pretext. She had started inquiries after they had not returned in due time. Questions among other pupils had revealed nothing, but rumours had started to spread. The three girls that had disappeared were known to not be good friends, so any shared enterprise was deemed suspicious. Indeed, various scenarios started to gain speed within the school, many of them involving horrible accidents or crimes.

Although the Madam was a rational person and thought most of them were plain absurd, she was painfully aware of their potential impact on the reputation of the school. She had had to use a lot of her time and energy to control the rumours that had spread like pests.

Things had gotten even worse when someone had noticed a connection: a boy from the town had disappeared with a canoe at the same time. Unlike the others, he had left a trace, but that did not really help Madam's position. There had been a note on the kitchen table, apparently written in a hurry with a crayon.

WENT DRAGON HUNTING. NO WORRIES. HAVE EQIPMENT. KIMO

After that there was no stopping the rumours. Many people had seen a dragon from their window on that fateful morning, so this short announcement opened up a whole new level of possibilities. It was no longer about disobedient school girls cutting class in a nearby city, it was about a mysterious threat that had taken four victims already and no knowledge about how it could be stopped.

The fact that the four victims had returned in good health and with the help of a dragon had resolved some of the mysteries but also created many new ones. 

But more importantly, it had made her look a fool and incompetent, when she had tried to manage the chaotic rumours and the reputation of the school. And as the final bitter cherry on top of this poisonous cake, the girls had just now publicly disobeyed and ridiculed her in front of the public audience.

She waited for the right moment to strike back. 

While Anaya was giving her speech, Tiu carefully observed the people's expressions and feelings. She understood that a sudden appearance of a dragon to their holy place was a mindboggling event, and things could start to evolve in very unexpected ways. It was important to understand the general attitude. She was relieved to notice that while Anaya spoke, people started to look more curious or even excited than worried.

Except the Madam.

She had been as sour as lemon when they appeared, and her gaze turned darker by minute. Of course Tiu could not read her mind but she could sense a thunderstorm gathering in that direction. 

When Anaya finished, Tiu stepped forward before anyone had time to do anything and continued:

"We especially want to thank our dear Madam the Schoolmaster for her great work and devotion to this endeavour. When we headed for this quest, it was utterly vital that not all details were revealed until we return. We relied on the Madam's skills and support in this, and that is why this quest was such a success. Let's shout three hurrahs for the Madam!"

All the exitment and anxiety of the people burst out in those shouts, and the noise was so sudden and loud that a flock if birds was scared onto their wings from the trees around them. 

But Madam was quiet and utterly confused. She looked like a wrestling master that had just prepared for a fight against a novice and then needs a second or two to understand that she is already lying on her back on the ground and the game is over.

In this confusing but also partly enthusiastic atmosphere Anaya and Tiu looked at each other in silent agreement that it is time to leave if they were going to get anything done. Anaya grabbed the tapestry from the ground and rolled it up while they headed back toward the school and their room.

They were searching a needle from a haystack but Anaya had a nasty feeling that their haystack was way too small to actually contain the needle. She had been seven when she moved to the school after her grandmother's death, so she did not have most of her belongings. Most of the furniture had been sold or given away to people in need, with some of the more important items, like grandma's loom and other more valuable things had been stored away in the school's warehouse and would be returned to Anaya once she was old enough.

Right now the only thing she had access to was a wooden trunk with her smaller, personal belongings. The tapestry had been there, as well as a twiddled tablecloth, a few books an old doll that could be her mother's or even older.

And a jewelry box.

Anaya hadn't remembered the box at all until she saw it again, its lid decorated with nacre. She pulled it carefully out of the trunk and placed it in the middle of the table.

"Grandma's jewelry box. This is it," she said. "If it's anywhere, it's here."

She opened the lid carefully. It shone in all the shades of a pearl. The box had a purple velvet lining inside, indicating that whatever was inside, it was precious to its owner. Inside was a few pairs of earrings, a bracelet, a silver brooch, and an envelope.

No gems of any colour.

Anaya pulled back in her chair and sighed deeply. "It's not here. I'm sure grandma would have kept it here if she had had it."

"Maybe it has a secret compartment," Tiu suggested. "Let's check for all alternatives."

They turned the box around in their hands and looked at the lining for small defects. But the conclusion was that even if there was a compartment, there was not enough space in the walls of the box to house a gem of the size Anaya had seen in the vision.

They went through the trunk and all the things inside it once more, but they couldn't find anything.

Finally they stopped and just sat on the floor for a long time. Neither wanted to speak. Finally, Anaya said, tears in her eyes:

"They drowned."

"I know."

"They needed to go out of town for the weekend and left me with a babysitter. Something happened during the trip. They never came back."

"Yes, I have heard this story. Their bodies were never recovered," Tiu said. "Oh! You mean... Your mother most likely had the necklace around her neck."

They fell silent. Neither of them wanted to say aloud what they were both thinking. They would never see the soul stone.

It was already getting dim outside. They had promised to see Madiza, but they did not feel like going to see if she was already in her room. It was of no use, because they already knew that she could not have found the stone.

"Hello, are you there?" they heard from the yard.

"Oh, no," Anaya cried out. She didn't think she had the strength to deal with this right now.

"We are here, just come up the stairs," Tiu replied as she knew that he would not leave them in peace anyway.

Kimo rattled up, apparently hitting each stair with a stick of some sorts. He appeared in their room and glanced around all the stuff that was lying around on the table and the floor and then looked at the depressed girls.

"Well, did you find it?"

"No, it's gone. Forever," Anaya snapped, annoyed by his optimism.

"Okay, well, no worries. I did some snooping."

"Please, Kimo, we are not in the mood for it," said Tiu tiredly.

"No, I mean this looks pretty good. I read my dragon book, and it said that soul stone can be cultivated."

"Oh, I know what that is!" Tiu exclaimed. "You go to a handicraft shop and buy this powder and make a solution, and so it starts crystallising and you get your own gem."

"Noo, that it kid's stuff, I did it when I was, like, seven," he said, shaking his head. "It said that a soul stone may be weak in the beginning but you can strengthen it by repeatedly casting a spell on it. So even if you don't find the original stone, you can cultivate a new one." He paused for a moment. "And you just said that the stone is gone."

Anaya raised her finger to object, but Kimo was faster.

"So, I went through my stone collection. You know, it is pretty awesome, I have collected it for many years. Zuzun has also helped me and I have all kinds of stones and gems, even. Look what I found."

He pulled a stone from his pocket. It was already fairly dark, but Anaya had seen enough.

"Kimo, that is just a piece of quartz," she huffed. "This is not helping. Please leave us alone."

Kimo was not deterrent of their reaction, on the contrary.

"Exactly! That's what I thought, too. It is a piece of quartz. But this is unlike any of my other stones. Did I say that the collection is very large?" The girls were not responding, so he went on. "I thought to myself: if I did have a soul stone in my collection, how would I know? That's the whole trick!"

Anaya hid her head in her knees. She was tired, she couldn't take Kimo's enthusiasm right know. But she also was too tired to throw him out. He would leave, eventually. She just wanted to be alone and rest for a while.

"Fungecidious."

The almost dark room was suddenly filled with white glow that made dancing shadows on the walls. Anaya raised her head and saw that the shine was coming from Kimo's palm. He was waving it slowly in front of him, back and forth.

"See? It works! I went through my collection and this one glowed! It is a soul stone."

"What did you say? Where did you learn that" Tiu asked.

"I said fungecidious. Madiza taught it to me when we were swimming the other day. She said that it can activate soul stones of the river. She also showed me a dragon scale that she had found near the uroxoo tree. It's great to have friends that trust you with their dragon secrets!"

Tiu and Anaya glanced quickly at each other. They had not trusted him at all with secrets or otherwise. But it seemed that he had said that sincerely, without any implied criticism. Kimo continued:

"So I thought that it might work in soul stones of ice as well. And this quartz is clearly not from a river. I found it from the mountains when I was visiting the North."

"Fungecidious," repeated Tiu, some of Kimo's enthusiasm starting to change her mood. The glow of the stone intensified and made the room almost as bright as daytime. 

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