25. Chapter 25:
Chapter 25:
The hazy Morning light woke me from my empty slumber.
I opened my eyes, and looked around. I was on the island, on solid ground once more. I let myself breathe deeply and truly relax for the first time in a long while. Deep inside of me, I felt a strange sensation of both loss and fulfillment. I soon realised that I was not having to fight for control of my mind anymore. I was free - free of the fragment that had live in me for so many years and influenced my mind. I could truly be myself now.
I looked next to me, and saw Hawthorn grinding some leaves down in her mortar and pestle, each a different shade of green and a different texture. "Hello Stuvlok! How do you feel?" She asked me, looking at me caringly. I struggled for the words, though managed to get a few words out. "I feel much better." I told her.
She scooped the leaf-paste out, and put some on my forehead. "You had a fever all of yesterday." She told me. The paste cooled my head greatly, but I realised that I no longer had a fever, the fire I faintly remembered burning all across my skin was long gone. I felt much better, if not a little weak.
"Thank you so much. Can I stand up?" I asked her tentatively. "Yes, if you feel like it." she replied, waving me goodbye to go and tend to someone else, taking her bag of herbs with her.
I stood up, my feet wobbly initially and a strange fragility making its way across my bod, making my teeth tingle in my mouth. I walked slowly behind her, to see how all of the others who had come with me were. I soon saw Hejj sitting against a rock, smiling faintly and fashioning a whistle out of a blade of grass. When I went up to him, he blew into it softly, and made a high-pitched melody that reminded me of the fervour of the winds above us.
Afterwards, I noticed a small congregation of otters and Fa raven around a bush. I hobbled over to them.
When I peeked over their shoulders, I saw Foxglove, awake and smiling sitting to one side, being tended to by Hawthorn, while the Pup and Wea played with sticks and mud in the centre of the circle. The pup had had a bandage made out of rolled and dried herbs placed around his leg-stump to keep it safe. "Ah! Stuvlok!" Nettle looked over to me. His face seemed to have changed to one that conveyed a sense of serene peace. No longer did I see the face of a father grieving hopelessly over a son he would never see again. He had accepted it, and I was happy for him. "Foxglove, how are you? I am so sorry I let all of this happen to you." I said, walking over to her. She smiled back at me, her smile betraying a sense of deep sadness behind the facade.
Bloodroot came over, and took me to one side. "She has not been able to speak since she regained consciousness. She is otherwise fine. If I we had some paper and ink, she would be able to write down what she wanted to say. Once we are back at our colony, she will be able to learn The language of the Hands with our deaf otters. She does not seem to be too bothered. She is just happy that the children and the rest of us are safe. " He told me, his face grave yet hopeful.
I remembered my journal. I went over to my pack, the fierce winds rushing past my ears, and making me hear the tumult of the atmosphere closely, and retrieved it, along with a pen. I went over to Foxglove and gave it to her - I remembered how she had taken it to read it when I had first met her,a nd I told her that I wanted her to keep it. I did not need it anymore. I also brought something else with me.
She opened up the journal to one of the pages, and began to write in it. "It is not your fault," she penned, "I forgive you. Thank you for helping me." she closed the journal. I gave her her pouch full of snails, "I am sorry, I used all of them up." I told her, half in jest. She began to laugh - The Witches had not taken that from her - and attached it to her belt.
I heard a cawing coming from behind me, and turned around to see Fa Raven. They looked even more ragged and rotting than before, but they seemed as happy as the rest of us. "I see only one." Fa Raven told me. I almost cried with joy. I had felt it subtly ever since I had woken up, but the conformation made me giddy with happiness. "I am meeting with an old friend in a while." Fa Raven told me, still smiling. I suddenly remembered the story he had told me in the tent, oh so long ago now. I should have been sad, but I knew that it was what he had desired for so long, and so I only smiled, a small ball of tears developing in my throat.
Fa Raven called everybody else towards them. "It has been good watching the world fly past, but I am thankful that I got to see it walk with me for the last few weeks. I have nothing more left to say, nothing more left to do, and Death is waiting for me." Fa Raven told all of us. He looked around one last time, taking in the visceral physicality of existence, and then began to slowly fade away. In a few seconds, he had disappeared completely.
We all stood there silently for a while, even the children seemed to understand that something important had happened, and paused their games for a while.
Bloodroot then told us all to listen in, as he had something to tell us. "Last night, Fa Raven and I were talking about what had happened," he said, his deep voice drawing us in, "Fa Raven told me that the Witches got what they wanted, that is to say, they do not exist anymore. Whatever happened up there released them from existence, something they had been striving towards for millennia. I do not think we will ever see or feel them again. The Witches have gone for good, become one with the universe around them as they had hoped to be, if hope is the correct word here. The world is safe." Bloodroot finished, and sat down on a rock near us, watching the children play together, oblivious to what had been going on.
I was at a loss for words, and I did not mind.
I looked up, to see that the clouds above the island were no longer perfectly square, nor as dense as rock, but as bulbous and filamentous as you might expect them to be. They seemed to be heavy with rain, and I felt a drop of rain hit my nose, and tumble down the rest of my face. The rain gradually got heavier, falling in waves and making enchanting patterns all over the island. The soft pitter-patter of the rain calmed any nerves I may have had, and we were all soon drenched.
Over the cacophony of the rain, Nettle told us that we should probably get going back to the mainland. We all rushed over to the boat, and hid under one of the canopies that Hawthorn had quickly set up at one end, as the wind began to blow us back to the mainland. I looked back at the island for what could have been the last time, admiring its now radiant beauty, the wet plants shimmering their brilliant ruby red all around them. The sun was soon unveiled from behind a cloud, and made every raindrop glimmer like a crystal, and warmed our clothes and skin.
As we sailed the lake, the water seemed to me to be clearing up of the algae, patches of clean water, brilliant dark blue growing larger and larger as we sailed, small water lilies blossoming as we sailed farther and farther from the island. A bird sung its mournful song high above us somewhere, and I looked all around me.
The sky, the water, the clouds. The boat, the sail, the red canopy above me. The smiling face of Foxglove, entirely content, satisfied and joyful; Nettle finally at peace, his eyes closed in a relaxed serenity; Hawthorn happily pounding away at her mixtures; the children babbling to each other, not a care in the world.
I felt the wind touch my face, the raindrops splash against my damp hair and drip onto my nose, I felt myself breathe - I was free. I was happy. I looked around me at those who lay cuddled up next to me.
I was not alone anymore. The Absence had been filled.