Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 25

Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 25

Picky
After going through the Two-Three Tunnnel, the Grey Hand bus that we were on drove towards Polestar Preschool, turned to the west, then backed up to the bus station near the now-closed Mach Pizza restaurant, the Twoson franchise having moved to the supermall that had replaced Burglin Park.
The supermall was owned by Enrich Flavor, famed Fourside trillionaire. Twoson asked Flavor to build the supermall as soon as Giygas had been defeated.
On learning of this decision, various suspicious left-wing columnists in Eagleland papers -- and even some semi-socialist right-on-centre journalists -- had claimed that Flavor had paid the town a healthy amount of money to lease him the land (at a moderate discount) on which Burglin Park was. Of course, the mayor of Twoson rebuked these claims. "Completely unsubstantiated," he had told the Twoson Today. "If it were not for the entrenchment of freedom of the press in both national and international charters, I would be half-tempted -- nay, sure -- to file a lawsuit of slander and improvable rumour-mongering."
And had the mayor told the truth? Were the rumours unsubstantiated?
Or were the columnists on the mark? Had there been shady, under-the-table dealings that got Flavor the land?
Did it matter?
"Should we check the supermall?" Tony asked.
"Perhaps," Ņrutas noted. "Haps."
"Hmm. We might as well," I mused. "Maybe we'll see the Polestars there." We walked down the street.
"Quick!" a voice suddenly cried. "Catch my hat!"
"Hat?" Tony wondered.
"There!" Ņrutas yelled. I turned in his direction, and, of course, I saw it: a hat, spinning and rolling on the wind like a lone leaf.
Tony ran after it, being the closest to it. He leapt up, grabbed the hat -- and proceeded to fall flat on his face. "I got it!" he cried in a rather squeaky voice, the air seemingly blown out of him.
The man whose hat it was turned the corner. "Did you see my hat go flying by?" he asked clickily. He was wearing sunglasses and a trenchcoat that was completely done up. His skin was pale, his ears were rather big -- even by the standards of, say, Prince Charles.
Tony stood up. "I have it here, sir." He extended the arm holding the hat towards the man, who gratefully took it back.
"Thank you, young man. What's your name?"
Tony smiled from being called 'young man' -- after all, he was probably about Jeff's age. And Jeff was about Ness' age. And Ness was seventeen.
"Tony Armuffin," he proudly beamed. "And these are my friends, Picky and Ņrutas."
The man looked at us and nodded. "I'm very glad to meet you." He lifted his sunglasses somewhat.
"And what's your name?" I pressed.
The man put his hat on and turned around. He walked away, but a few steps later, turned around. "Nash Walker," he answered. "I doubt we'll meet again, but perhaps knowing each other will be better if we do." Nash Walker continued walking off. Soon, he was a speck in the distance; and not long after that, he disappeared completely from view.
"That was a strange experience," I observed. "Nash Walker? That sounds sort of contrived to me." I shrugged almost invisibly, as if to suggest that I wasn't sure about the veracity of my statements. I looked at the others. Clearly, Tony disagreed with me.
"It doesn't to me," he argued. "He seems honest enough. I doubt that he has any negative plans in store for us. I mean, he only lost a hat. That's all. A hat. Why would someone who lost their hat lose it to gain our confidence?"
"I guess I'm too skeptical," I muttered, then continued in a higher voice, "but if you consider everything we've gone through with Robe, I should have the right to be."
"Maybe," Ņrutas noted. "I'm not passing a review until I know what he's really like."
He stopped talking there, but both Tony and I knew exactly he was talking about: Dusty, and the way Ņrutas prematurely defined him as 'evil', 'the servant of Giogas'. I guess Dusty understood why Ņrutas would think that, and wasn't holding it against him; I respected him for that.
Now with the problem with Nash Walker out of the way, we three continued onto the Twoson Supermall.

The supermall was bright. The lighting in it were like a year's worth of fireworks compounded upon itself, day after day after day of amazing brightness.
"It's gigantic!" Ņrutas yelled. And even though he'd yelled, I could barely hear him.
"I propose we stay close together," Tony loudly announced. "That way, we don't get lost in this place."
The intercom crackled, then said in a crackly voice, "Welcome to the Twoson Flavor Supermall. We hope you explore our supermall to your heart's content. For those sports afficionados among our visitors, we invite you to the Eagleland Junior Summer Baseball League game taking place in three hours between the Fourside Enrichs and Twoson's very own Bandits."
"A baseball game?" I wondered. "I bet Ness would love to see that game; I mean, he's a member of the Onett Crows. Wouldn't he want to see it, too?"
"Yeah!" Ņrutas exclaimed. "But where are they?"
In my backpack, a strange jiggling began to resonate. Within seconds, I could not hear anything but the jiggling. I opened it. My Crystal-shard and the two colourless Crystal-shards shot out and burst through the stained-glass window above the doors, shatttering them like three bullets.

Tracy
"You're kidding me!" BJ exclaimed. "Jeff's in Dalaam?"
"It appears to be so, BJ," Poo answered. "This 'scanner' software of which Tracy speaks indicates that Jeff's location is on Dalaamian land."
"Where on Dalaamian land is it, then?" Paula asked.
Ness and I were poring over a map of Dalaam. It included this mountain, in addition to other mountains that were connected to each other by bridges. Poo came over and looked at the map.
"He's in Miq Paat region. That is, the quiet mountain region. We have to go to Elb wu Pwan plateau," he mused. "That means meeting of vines in Dalaamian. It refers to the way that the first bridges that our ancestors built on Elb wu Pwan were like a vine," he explained. "From there, we take the eastern vine to Miq Paat."
"I'm afraid to ask this question, Poo," I said, "but why is it called Miq Paat?"
"Tracy, if you asked that because you believe that the other mountains are volcanic, you would be mistaken. It has nothing to do with the geological composition of the mountains; it is called Miq Paat because the rain is soft and the breezes are gentle." He sighed. "It is necessary that I tell you that Miq Paat's name has caused serious repercussions in the Dalaamian tourism industry. They stay until they learn the meaning of Miq Paat, because they worry that the other mountains are themselves volcanoes and leave. If only I could remedy this situation."
An old man, dressed in white robes with black fringing, came up. "Prince Poo," the old man said, "Miss Ani is at the castle doors. Shall I let her in?"
Poo groaned. "E-su-chi, let her in, but ask her to remain in the foyer."
"As you wish, my prince." E-su-chi left.
"BJ, Tracy," Paula began, "do you mind if Ness teleports me home? Paul only returned home a short time ago, and I want to help him return to normalcy."
"No, I don't mind at all," BJ said.
"It doesn't matter to me," I answered. Trying not to seem indifferent or cold -- neither of which I was nor wanted to seem, I continued: "Go ahead; I understand. Paul's been through a tough time. You want to be there with your parents to help him recover."
Ness and Paula walked out, and Ani walked in.
"Prince Poo! I know you weren't yourself when you expressed 'your' anger for me," Ani oozed. "And I forgive you."
"Ani, we're going to Miq Paat in a few minutes," Poo said. "Would you like to go with us?"
I could have sworn that Ani's eyes began shining like the sun after an hour's rain.
"YES!" she screamed so loudly that I was sure that Picky could have heard it, wherever he was.

Poo, Ani, BJ and I walked out of Dalaam's castle. Poo led the three of us around the elephant statue on the eastern side of the door, around the eastern wall, and finally to the back of the castle.
"As we cross the bridge to Elb wu Pwan," Poo reminded us, "be careful to walk carefully and keep your balance. The wood on the bridge has not been replaced in generations. I have tried to convince the builders to mend the bridges, but they claim the wood will be sturdy for generations to come. Or they might tell me that I am not yet King, and thus cannot make the proper decisions to rule my country correctly."
"Don't worry, Prince Poo!" exclaimed a rather perky Ani. "Once we are wed, your wishes will be done."
"Yes, Ani," Poo acknowledged. "That is right. As soon as I become King and marry, the builders will do as I say."
We crossed the bridge to Elb wu Pwan plateau. Poo led us along the bridge to our right. But then...
As we were crossing the eastern bridge, I heard an ominous cracking behind me. And then Ani screamed.
"Prince Poo! Save me!" came the worried plea for help. I whirled around. In front of me -- formerly behind me -- the bridge had cracked. About three or four of the bridge's planks were almost completely rotted away. Ani was holding onto one particularly raggedly-broken plank. The cry came again, and the voice was understandably panicking.
"BJ, Poo, hold my legs. Near the ankles," I ordered.
I knelt down and waited until one of the two, I'm not sure which it was, was gripping my legs. I began to stretch out.
"Ani," I said consolingly, "just hold on. I'm going to hold onto your arms, then you let go of the plank and grab my arms. Then I'll pull you up."
She looked up at me. She was scared beyond belief, and there was nothing I could do beyond what I already had done to help her out of this fright. Summoning all my courage, I lay prone on the bridge, also hoping that the planks that I was on wouldn't also break. I extended my arms over the bridge while Ani guided them through vocal instructions.
"Move your left a bit to the left, the right a bit more to the right," she said, then amended: "Move your right more to the left. Keep your left where it was! OK, that's perfect."
I flexed my hands out then gripped Ani's arms.
"Be careful that you don't lose your grip," said both Ani and I to each other.
She let go of the planks. As a result of Ani's sudden loss of half of what was keeping her from falling, my arms were badly scratched on the planks before she grabbed my arms.
I started standing up and began to ease my legs towards the gap in the bridge. BJ -- or Poo -- kept his grip on my legs. I pulled my arms up -- ignoring the pain -- and as I was doing so, I saw BJ leap over me like he was long jumping. He landed, luckily not breaking any more planks, turned around, sat down, and helped lift Ani up.
Ani, Poo and I backed up a bit, then stood up and crossed the rest of the bridge. BJ long jumped back over the gap and rejoined us.
"Ah, we have finally arrived at Miq Paat," Poo observed. "Does your scanner indicate Jeff's approximate location, Tracy?"
I pulled the scanner out of my backpack and consulted it. "We're facing east right now," I mused, "so Jeff's directly across from us, on the other side of Miq Paat."
We began to walk.
"We will have to walk through the Unexplored Regions then," Poo explained. "And we may encounter the yachi."
"Yachi?" BJ echoed.
Poo nodded, and continued, "The yachi are a race of mischievous snow imps of which ancient Dalaamian records speak."
Poo led the way into the Unexplored Regions. While we walked to the east, I think that we were all uneasy, half-expecting that a yachi -- or a few yachi -- would pop out and attack us. Finally, we emerged out of the Unexplored Regions. Maybe.
We found Jeff and untied him. He showed us a Crystal-shard. Ani grasped for it.
"Ani, what are you doing?" Poo demanded.
Suddenly four beams of light, one blue and the others clear, shot towards us from the west. I heard strange jigglings in both my backpack and BJ's. We opened them, and our shards shot out. The empty shard we'd found with Lomond had joined them. The Crystal-shard Ani had grasped for shot into the air with them, too. They contacted with the four beams of light from the west, and began to float down to us.
It hovered between BJ and I, starting to fade.
"...the Power Crystal!" BJ finally managed.