Chapter 19: 19. Natasha: Friends in Odd Places

Natasha fell in step with the other girl as they picked their way through the forested path. No one must’ve come through this road for a long while, or maybe the snow had recently fallen covering whatever tracks had been made before. The trees beside the road were ancient growth. Their canopies reached up towards the bright blue sky and were so high up that Natasha had to crane her neck up to see the tops. It reminded Natasha of the forests back home. Thick, deep, and dark even with the snow that piled where the canopy didn’t quite protect the ground.

A strange peace fell over them as they walked along. It felt like nothing here would dare touch them in this forest. Between the trees Natasha noticed movement and she squinted to try to make out what it could be. A fluttering of sorts, like helicopter seeds drifting down from the canopy, except they didn’t all just float down. Some moved horizontally.

“What’re you staring at?” Elphy’s eyes followed Natasha’s intense gaze. “Oh, yeah—they like it when new people come to the forest. They all but ignore me these days.”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“What are they?” Natasha asked, looking away from the odd things.

“R-right, I keep forgetting you’re new to all of this.” Elphy thought for a moment, squinting up at the sky. “Hmmm, I guess it’s like the life stuff of the trees. Old forests tend to have lots of these little wandering spirits as the trees kind of…learn to manifest their presence in this world.”

Even those few sentences were a daunting amount of information. Too much to pick apart and managed to make Natasha’s questions double.

“Okay…but wait…” Natasha hesitated, concerned once she let the floodgates open there would be no stopping her from keeping on going. “The—the trees are... alive?”

Elphy snickered at the obtuse question. “I thought you’d at least understand that much. Oh boy, we’re really starting from square one here, hey—like basic biology?”

“You know what I mean!” Natasha retorted after sputtering for a moment.

It took a moment for Elphy to stop chuckling to herself enough to answer the question properly. “Okay, okay. So like, um, all life has souls, right? So there’s two amendments to the normal Inept thinking as mom tells me; one, is that plants also have souls as they are living things too; the second is that even inanimate objects can have a soul of sorts, if enough time and emotions are put into it. It doesn’t necessarily gain the ability to think but in the Otherwhere, it is represented by its own spirit.”

Natasha pulled down the toque that Ben had given her. “You just used like ten terms there that I have no about. Otherwhere, Inept?”

With a groan Elphy turned towards Natasha, walking backwards. “I’m not a dictionary, Natsa. It’d take a lifetime to walk you through all of it. How about this, I will give you two more questions. Let you digest those before you can ask another three, yeah?.”

Her curiosity was a tough thing to limit. There was too much to understand to even begin to know where she should start. A term that had been mentioned to Natasha popped up in her head, one that Benjamin had yet to explain to her.

“Fine, okay, two questions then.” Natasha held up her gloved hand with a finger up. “One, what is this ‘Otherwhere’ you’re talking about.”

Then holding up a second finger Natasha continued, “and two, in terms of magic what is a ‘Shard’.”

At the mention of that term Elphy’s face fell a little bit with an unplaceable emotion.

“Ugh, why do you have to pull that one on me?” Elphy grimaced. “Fine, fine, Otherwhere’s an easy one at least. It’s where mom and I are from, or our people—spirits and otherfolk.”

She gave a sly smile knowing that had also been on Natasha’s mind. “We’re something akin to those little ones in the forest except…bigger. Think of it like, how in some human folktales faeries have their own realm they live in, only visiting for a short time. That’s what the Otherwhere is, since this is mom’s forest we can slip easily between there and here. Whereas for humans it kind of has to be an accident for them to visit, or be pulled in by one of the other more powerful Otherfolk.”

Halting there, Elphy gave Natasha a breather to absorb that bite of information. It was little more than a tease of information, enough again for Natasha to have a hundred more.

“As to what a Shard is…” Elphy walked off slightly from their path to a small wilting tree. “Do you mind?”

The question was directed to it rather than Natasha who realized a moment too late. “No?”

The tree bent down and Elphy plucked an already dead stick from it. She made her way to a clear patch of snow and began to draw a crude image. Squiggles vaguely shaped as fire, a droplet of water, a puff of air and probably a mountain encompassed in a larger circle.

“Alright, so this isn’t really my forte, as it doesn’t really matter too much to us Otherfolk.” She pointed to each element separately. “Water, Earth, Fire, Air. These are what make up the elements that human Adept born with what they call Natural magic have the ability to use.”

She looked up at Natasha to see if she was following, receiving a curt nod as Natasha urged her to keep going. “Apparently, according to—I guess you can call it a myth—humans didn’t always have this ability. It was granted to them by some mythic human who I think is called Azog… oh no, Azag. They were supposed to have opened up a way for adept to channel the Aether; that’s a term for you to learn later.”

Natasha gave her an annoyed frown and after a knowing smirk Elphy continued, “in order for that ability to continue throughout the generations after their death Azag split their soul in four pieces and sent it out in the world to be reborn as four separate people through the ages. A Shard is a piece of Azag’s soul which lives today. They can appear anywhere, really, even to Inept families. I’ve heard they’re the strongest Adept of all.”

That explanation was not what Natasha had been expecting. Something had to be wrong in Elphy;s information; it seemed far too out there to be real. Or maybe it was the guy who’d attacked her on the ferry who’d misspoke. That must’ve been it. Her being some reincarnated soul of some mythical god of magic-wielding people was ludicrous. The very idea made Natasha break into laughter.

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“You okay there?” Elphy dropped her stick and put a worried hand on Natasha’s shoulders. “I guess that’s a weird concept for someone who’d never heard of such a thing.”

“No, no, I’m fine. I was—” Natasha wiped a tear from her eye. “Just caught off guard there. Yeah, a weird concept for sure but people will believe what they want, I guess.”

She shrugged and shook her head. There were still questions that hung in her mind but Natasha needed to let that information stew a little. Too many concepts were cramming her brain and it was starting to cause a headache. Besides, she could also tell Elphy was going to keep to her word.

“Pft, well you wouldn’t think that was a weird concept if you saw what was in the Otherwhere,” Elphy patted Natasha’s cheek like she was placating a kid. “Your brain wouldn’t be able to handle that.”

“I bet, I still want to ask more though.”

Elphy sighed. “Tomorrow. Today you can learn through experience. Come on, we’re far enough away they can’t see us leave the premises.”

She looked around squinting at the trees before calling out. “As long as no one tells on us!”

The trees nearby seemed to groan in response, bowing slightly in their direction. The movement unnerved Natasha just a bit but Elphy seemed to accept that.

Natasha and Elphy turned off the forest road onto a wider town road with Tucker taking the lead. At the end of the wood Natasha had the pleasure of being surprised again. The town didn’t stick out as being much different to some other backwater towns she’d come across back on the island. There was one road leading through the main town with a few shops here and there.

Upon closer inspection so many oddities leapt out at her. There were parts of Dinir that screamed old time, pre-car living. Wide roads which were cobbled rather than paved. The sidewalks were made from bricks of treated wood.

All the buildings either seemed to have been built by hand or had by magical means been implanted there. None of the architecture fit Natasha’s knowledge of anything in Canada. A mix of bright colours and odd shapes were sprinkled among extremely old wooden buildings. Rather than street lights, clear flat crystals hung suspended in the air. Somehow nothing seemed to look out of place, each and every element was purposeful with an elegant flow of decorations, lights, walls and plants, like it grew together as an ecosystem.

The main thoroughfare where the shops were was busy with all kinds of people, humans and what Natasha assumed were Otherfolk. Natasha stopped in her tracks just to take it all in. A mass of small stones which turned out to be a person rumbled by and gave Elphy a passive smile and wave. For a small town of maybe a thousand it was bustling.

With all the new smells Tucker sniffed at the air, running here and there following after the different scents.

“Wow.” Natasha croaked out, gaping still at the wonders. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but this is—”

“Different from human cities?” Elphy said, waving at another passerby. “Yeah, it’s pretty boring though, once the bark grows old.”

“I don’t know how you could ever say this is boring,” Natasha said and noticed another little family of Otherfolk greet Elphy. “Does everyone know who you are?”

“It’s a small town, everyone knows who I am.” Elphy took Natasha’s hand and led the way forward. “Just make sure you stick with me. Come on! Let’s get some snacks, then we can go to the old monument.”

“Yeah, I’m not going anywhere.” Natasha tugged the toque down more and hoped it was enough to obscure her face. “Hey, Tucker, come back here.”

Tucker had run further down the street but hearing Natasha calling after him he came bounding back to her side with his tongue lolled out the side. His tail wagged furiously with excitement, a white blur.

Passing by several shops Natasha could see through the windows into the bright interiors. From here they mostly seemed normal, a cafe and restaurant, a bakery, an antique store, and the like. A lot of what you could find on the main strip back home in Nanaimo, though all of them had a sort of family run homemade feeling to them. Several others though sold things like potions and tinctures, magically made wares, components for spellcrafting, things Natasha didn’t recognize. It was bad enough that Tucker kept excitedly running off, but Elphy also had to keep pulling Natasha along every time a new thing came into view.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a cute little store filled to the brim with sweets of all kinds sitting in jars and bulk dispensers. The ceiling was painted with the night sky, alive with the twinkling stars, and a large moon slowly made its way through the Milky Way providing silvery lighting for the store.

“Wait out here, okay boy?” Natasha said to Tucker as they made to enter.

He replied with a whine akin to saying, ‘I don’t like it but fine,’ as his tail fell slightly. She pat his head with her free hand before Elphy tugged her inside.

The place was packed with customers. Several tall shaggy teens wearing nothing but pants and backpacks bumped into them as they made their way out.

“Oh sorry, excuse me!” One yelled back.

“Hey! It’s Elphy,” another said, holding the door open for his friend. “Hey Leafy, been a while since you and your mom were in town! Good to see you, who's this cool guy?”

The one holding the door open mock punched Natasha in the shoulder, it was unexpected and jostled her. Natasha gave a nervous laugh and pulled her collar up and adjusted her hair.

“Hey, guys!” Elphy slipped in front of Natasha to block their view. “Yeah, we got some last minute bookings from some family friends so we’ve been hanging out with them at the Lodge. This is, uh, her name’s, ah—Merrick.”

Natasha leaned around Elphy and gave them a polite wave.

“Cool, hey Merrick, nice to meet you!” The hairiest teen that’d been outside called to the other insisting they leave. “Yeah, yeah, anyway—I gotta get going but hey, we gotta get together sometime again Elphy, and if your friend’s still in town she’s totally welcome.”

“For sure, next time!” Elphy waved as the two of them left and Natasha let go of the breath she’d been holding. “Close one! Aha, you good? Those two are so clumsy.”

“No worries here, but—” Natasha searched for the words to explain her bewilderment. “I’m sorry, it’s just so funny to me that this is how I learn that bigfoot is real. Bumping into a couple teens at a candy store.”

“Is that what human’s call ‘em?” Elphy asked not slyly looking back at their feet as they walked to the shop across the street. “Guess they are kinda big”

Natasha laughed, shaking her head, and walked over to the wall of candy. Elphy grabbed a paper bag and joined her to take a few pieces of everything she could reach. There was a variety of brightly coloured gummies, hard candies, sugared and dried fruit. With a full bag Elphy made her way to the counter and paid.

Two people walked down the sidewalk next to the shop and as someone else opened the door to leave Natasha heard, “I need time alone, mom. Leave me alone.”

A prick of familiarity caught Natasha’s ears. Confused, she looked out the window, only just managing to catch sight of the back of whoever had just walked by. She could’ve sworn it was the voice of someone she knew. Without thinking she booked it out the door and was back in the frigid air in a second.

“Okay honey, just be home soon, it’s cold out and I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine.” The voice was emotionless yet so profoundly sad.

With a gasp, Natasha confirmed her suspicion. Down a block from her a short young man with tousled brown hair stood staring at the back of his mom as she walked away from him. He was bundled up in many more layers than he ever needed in Nanaimo, and his shoulders slumped like he held up the weight of the world.

Time froze as Natasha tried to make sense of something so mundane as seeing him standing there his normalness in complete defiance of the magic that surrounded them. She didn’t know what to do with herself, run to or away from him.

“Natasha?” A bell above the door chimed as Elphy exited. “Is everything alright, you look like—”

“I’ve seen a ghost?” Natasha was still tensed up like a deer in headlights ready to go either way as she peered back at her new friend. “I know him.”