Chapter III

  Escape from the Spiritwood

  “Okay, okay, so how’d you do it, shapeshifter?” Thing asked Vito when they’d calmed down.

  “It’s my clothes, Thing. That’s why you and the spirits thought I was a goat. It’s not that I’m a goat, I’m just wearing clothes that are made from a goat.”

  Thing looked intrigued, “Wait, humans can wear parts of other animals? But that’s crazy, they could look like whatever they want, and the residual energy from the animal’s spirit could disguise them as that creature! What did you call this stuff?”

  “Clothing?” Vito suggested, looking at Thing’s wrappings, ring, and scarf. He hopped over to his cast-off shoe and slipped it back on with a squelch from the mud coating his sock.

  “Wow…” said Thing.

  “Thing,” Vito asked, “you’re wearing clothes too, like your scarf.”

  “Oh these? Yeah, I knew spirits could do it, but I didn’t know humans could too! I mean, wow. Humans can make spirit-changing-stealth-equipment. Never thought I’d see the day. Well, take off all your clothes and we’ll get to the bottom of who you really are.”

  Vito’s eyes bugged out for a second.

  “No, Thing, I’m not going to do that.”

  Thing crossed its arms.

  “Well how else will I know whether you’re telling the truth about what you are or not?”

  Vito shivered, and looked around for a tree he might get under. He saw a broad-leafed maple, and strolled to it.

  “C’mon Thing, there’s gotta be some other way for you to be sure?”

  Thing followed Vito to the tree. The boy was exhausted, and sat down against the trunk, allowing himself to rest and dry a little under the protection of the tree. The rain began to roar around the corona of leaves. Thing grimaced.

  “Well, I guess I could give you a good sniff… I am pretty confident in my nose abilities.”

  Vito raised an eyebrow, “okay.”

  Thing nodded, and approached Vito. It began to sniff him: his head, then his left arm, then his chest, his right leg, and finally his back.

  “Hmm, you smell like a human, but… you can understand what I’m saying?”

  “Yes. We’re speaking the same language, aren’t we?”

  “No,” said Thing, “no we aren’t. I’m speaking in the language of spirits. I can understand human-talk, almost all spirits can. But usually, humans can’t learn spirit-talk, except in special cases…”

  Vito put his hands up. “I didn’t do anything special. To me, you and I sound the same.”

  Thing squinted, “a human who can understand spirits, huh? I don’t think something like that has happened in a long, long time. Is one of your parents a spirit?”

  “No,” answered Vito truthfully. When Thing heard that, a grin began to grow across its face.

  “Well then that seals it! Vito, you’re a spirit-talker! A human who can talk to spirits! That’s pretty rare!”

  Vito felt as though he should be more shocked than he was, but the wild day he’d just endured had sapped most of his emotional strength. He momentarily considered that he would hypothetically be able to speak with the Ashi’man, the gods themselves, but dismissed this possibility quickly. Even if he could talk to spirits, he likely wouldn’t run into the Ashi’man just casually wandering around Bangye-Rua. They probably had palaces or fortresses far away in rich lands where they could enjoy luxuries. He doubted they’d have any use for the islands of his home.

  “I think spirit-talkers could do other stuff too, but it probably wasn’t that important,” said Thing.

  “So usually you can’t understand humans either?” Vito asked.

  Thing waved its hand, causing its scarf to jump up slightly and catch in the wind.

  “No, no, we can understand human language just fine, we just can’t speak it. It’s humans who can’t speak to or understand us.”

  That statement made Vito curious— despite his exhaustion, he always had the energy for a question.

  “Why does it work that way? I guess it makes sense that humans can’t speak or understand spirit-talk, but why would spirits be able to understand humans but not speak their language?”

  Thing’s mouth opened, then closed. Then it opened again, “I don’t know— never really thought about it before. I guess that’s just how Arbiter decided it should be.”

  Vito noted in his memory that he’d have to follow up on that later. It seemed an odd thing for the gods of the spirits to decide, that the spirits should be able to understand humans, but not speak to them. As the rain fell in a curtain around the maple tree, Vito decided that it was high time that he got away from this place.

  “Well anyway, now that you know I’m a human, can you show me the way out?”

  Thing drifted to the right of Vito, then to his left.

  “Maybe… but you have to promise to do some-Thing for me, okay?”

  Vito was surprised. He had thought Thing might have a little more sympathy for him. He felt his heart sink a little. All his life, the people around him had worshipped the spirits, and while he had always known that some were dangerous, he had developed the basic understanding that they were essentially good when push came to shove. Hearing his mother’s analysis of them last night had caused him to begin questioning this assumption, and now it seemed just the opposite. The best you could hope for was a spirit who was just callous, and not violent or insane. Most of their kind seemed to be deranged at the very least.

  Vito frowned at Thing, “well, what do you want?”

  Thing batted the question away with its little three-digited hand, “just a little favor, that’s all.”

  “What kind of favor?” said Vito, becoming ever more skeptical of the spirit.

  “Well I don’t want to talk about it here! Who knows what other nosy spirits might be listening!”

  Vito looked around, checking just to make sure that the exit hadn’t appeared next to him. It seemed like something the spirits might do, just to play a trick on him. No such luck— all he saw was the obliterated hill, the rain-wetted ground, and the sea of trees beyond.

  “I guess I don’t have any other choice, so sure, I’ll help you.”

  “Oh great! Maybe we can even be friends!” Thing got a look of such pure joy on his face, that despite the situation, Vito couldn’t help but smile with it.

  The boy could not fathom how this spirit, Thing, seemed to express such genuine happiness, given that it had only just twisted his arm to get a favor from him. Truly the behavior of spirits was inexplicable. Thing snapped its fingers, and the gold ring around its horn flew off and into its hand.

  “How long will the journey out take?” asked Vito. Thing threw the ring down a few feet away, and it grew large, large enough to encircle a horse. The interior changed into something like a pool of purple gemstones, glimmering and reflecting their violet light. The color reminded Vito of his father’s eyes. Thing smiled.

  “However long it takes for you to jump into the hoop!”

  Vito stood and approached the ring. It looked a little frightening— a pit of purple light.

  “It’s safe! C’mon, you think a great and powerful spirit wouldn’t know how to use their own stuff?”

  Vito chuckled nervously, “I just jump in?”

  Thing nodded. “Yup!”

  Vito closed his eyes and imagined that he was diving into a pool of warm, clear water. He jumped over the ring’s golden brim, and into the purple depths.

  He felt a chill run up his entire body. He opened his eyes, and found that he was surrounded by an inky darkness. Looking into it, he could see shifting clouds of grey, and motes of what he thought might be dust, or grains of sand. He began to feel afraid that he had been trapped, and thrust his hands out to try to grab hold of something.

  He found that his palms slid down an invisible barrier. He felt his way around, and discovered that he was sequestered in a cylinder of glass, or some other transparent material, that prevented him from interacting with the strange, dark landscape beyond. He began to breathe more heavily, and looked down to the floor for some escape. He could see through the ground below him— it was just the same as around him, darkness, and particles of grit borne on winds laden with grey fog. He looked above, thinking he might be able to climb away, and saw a figure peering down at him. He shrank in fear at once. The creature looked a bit like a horned owl, eyes wide and glowing with pale light. It was nothing but a silhouette, backlit by a blinding light above.

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  Vito covered his face with his forearms, fearing that the thing would swoop down on him. A moment passed, and he could see the light change between his wrists. He peeked out from behind his arms and saw that he was on a beach with Thing, whose ring was once again adorning its right horn. It was looking down at him with concern.

  “Are you okay?” it asked.

  “What was that?” said Vito, looking around to see if he had truly returned to the normal world. When he saw the reddish yellow shore and the tranquil waves, he knew that he had. He stood, feeling the wet sand underneath his shoes.

  “What was what?” asked Thing. Vito didn’t want to get sand in his shoes, and knew it would be easier to walk on the beach without them, so he took them and his socks off. The rain was still falling heavily, and he looked for cover, but the only shelter to be found was the tree line where the shore ended, and the Spiritwood began. There was no way he would risk going near that place again. Vito began to feel cold, and very wet.

  “Thing, do you have an umbrella?”

  Thing looked around.

  “No, but…”

  It snapped, and the gold ring came back into its hand. It tossed it above Vito’s head, and it hovered there, growing to its giant size again, taking in the rain meant for Vito. The droplets disappeared into the purple light, leaving Vito dry. Thing pulled its scarf tighter around its neck.

  “Wish I still had my other ring right now…”

  “Thanks,” said Vito, only slightly afraid that the ring would fall on him and transport him back to that place.

  “What was that place I saw, between going from the Spiritwood and getting here? It was dark, and something saw me—” he said.

  Thing grimaced. “Oh yeah, that was weird. That’s never happened before. Must be because you’re a human or some-Thing, it’s usually instant. Some weird layover space I guess. I didn’t see anybody there though, just took a little longer than usual for me. Maybe you’ve got a secret admirer!” Thing tipped its head, “they were probably looking for me though, you know, with my bod and every-Thing.”

  “So you really don’t know what all that was?”

  “Nope. Probably just a misfire or some-Thing.”

  “Okay, if you say so.”

  The two of them stood in silence for a second, with Vito trying to figure out exactly where they were. He looked left, then right, trying to remember which way was home. His options were northeast, or southwest, since those were the directions the shoreline went. There was no way he’d cut through the forest, even with Thing by his side.

  The landmark they needed to locate was the home of Quldir the fisherman, which Vito knew was at the westernmost point of the island. His house on the beach would lead to an open field carved out by Vito’s ancestors, and it was here they’d find his own dwelling. If they could find the fisherman’s home, they could find Vito’s.

  The boy looked southwest, using the sun to confirm the heading, and began walking in that direction. He only hoped they weren’t days away. He had no food or water with him.

  “Why didn’t you just take me to Town, or my house?” Vito asked with a slight tone of irritation.

  “I can’t teleport to a place I haven’t seen before.”

  Vito and Thing walked quietly, the rain pattering sloppily against the sand and the ocean beyond it. Vito looked across the great expanse of water, allowing his imagination to run wild with what spirits might exist there. If such a great number existed in the tiny area of the Spiritwood he had run through, then surely there were countless more within the depths of the sea.

  Envisioning their outlandish forms began to improve his mood, along with the fact that they were now out of immediate danger. Vito had begun to seriously dislike the spirits over the course of this day, but now he couldn’t decide what he thought of them. He still felt terrified at the prospect of Envy, Lust, or Disgust eating him, or the black tree spirit merging with him, but Thing seemed alright, if a little crazy. Furthermore, the spirits filled him with a wonder that he could not explain. Such creatures begged more questions than they could ever answer. What were they? Where did they come from? How many were there? Why did he have the special power to speak with them? Vito loved to learn things, and while his experience in the woods had been one of the most terrifying in his eighteen years of being alive (as of today), he had been able to see things he could never have imagined. He had seen real spirits! –Heard them talk, and understood their language! He had potentially befriended one of them, and had even traveled across the island through a magic ring!

  “Knowledge comes with risk,” he thought to himself. It was a saying he had only just thought up, but it seemed to capture the events of the day well. He had learned something of the spirits, yet more mysteries had appeared, promising discovery and danger. Who was the owl-thing that had been watching him as he stepped through the ring? Who was Grandfather Oak? What favor would Thing ask him for? To this last question, he felt he could quickly attain an answer.

  “So Thing, about that favor…” Vito said, sounding more jovial now.

  Thing smiled sheepishly.

  “Well, it’s embarrassing… you promise you won’t tell anyone, little goat?”

  Vito nodded. “But Thing, I’m a human, not a goat, remember?”

  “Oh! Oh yeah!”

  Thing rested its head in one of its hands as it drifted alongside him. Vito prepared for Thing to ask him to do something violent, illegal, or insane.

  “I’ve got a problem— a BIG problem. I don’t… I can’t remember stuff.” Thing got a frustrated look on its face. “Except for a few Things, every-Thing from before two days ago is just… gone! I don’t know how, but I bet you anything a poser like that weirdo back on the hill took ‘em.”

  Vito was pleasantly surprised by Thing’s problem. It sounded like a worthy cause, and a real source of distress for the little blue spirit. On top of all that, it was a mystery— a potential memory heist.

  “Hmm… I’ll have to ask you a few questions to get to the bottom of this, is that okay?”

  “Not really sure how much help I’ll be, but I’ll try!” Thing said.

  “Okay, let’s begin. So can most spirits take memories?”

  “Nope.”

  “Do you have any enemies?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “What kind of spirit are you, Thing?”

  Thing lit up at that question.

  “I’m the spirit of space! Tailor of Travels! Executive of Excursions! Vizier of Voyages! I’m the most powerful spirit of the Man’a, charged with overseeing space, more specifically as it applies to travel. I can go to other lands, other worlds— anywhere! I can also change the dimensions of my own body into a bunch of different forms! If you help me out, I could even show you some— other worlds that is, unless you want to see my other forms, I can show you those too! My catalogue of places has been somewhat reduced though… since I can’t remember a lot of them…”

  Vito nodded, but didn’t want to get sidetracked, “I may take you up on that, but for now let’s focus on the questions.”

  Thing seemed a bit disheartened.

  “Okay…”

  “Tell me anything you can remember, Thing, anything at all.”

  Thing closed its eyes.

  “All I remember is someone talking to me… I saw something, like a vision, and I think someone was in danger, it was a matter of life and death… it might have been a group of people, like a lot of them…”

  Vito felt that they had seized on an important detail. He worried that someone might be in peril, and didn’t want to be too late to warn them of whatever might be going to happen.

  “Can you remember absolutely anything else about what happened? What you saw?”

  Thing seemed to exert real effort. Its expression looked as though it were struggling to pull its hand from within a tight space.

  “Something Terrible…”

  “Something terrible?” Vito repeated, hoping for more.

  “Something Terrible,” Thing said again. “I’m sorry, that’s all I can remember about the vision. Then I know that somebody gave me this scarf, and that’s it, I woke up in someone’s faucet!”

  “A faucet?”

  “Yeah, like to a bathtub. After that, I don’t really know… I was on this beach I brought us to, then I just went into the forest. That’s how I was able to teleport us back here, cause this is where I woke up!” It said triumphantly.

  Vito chuckled. “Where was this bathtub?”

  Thing answered this question right away: “Onagio, I’m pretty sure. I wish I could go there now, but I can’t remember what it looks like, just the faucet. And that’s not enough!” It threw its hands up in frustration.

  “Then that’s the place to start!” Vito concluded, feeling very accomplished in himself. He had been about to say: “Then that’s the place for us to start,” but decided to exclude “for us,” on account that he didn’t know whether he’d really be going with Thing. After all, he had school, his mother would need his help, and he wasn’t sure Thing could safely visit human settlements, on account of its blue skin and horns.

  Thing exhaled and clapped its hands together.

  “Wow, so thorough! What are you, like a detective or some-Thing? Looks like I picked a pretty good sidekick!” it said. The spirit seemed to be feeling accomplished at having gone through what it obviously felt was a tedious, though necessary, process.

  Then, Thing’s eyes lit up, and Vito could tell that it had been waiting to say something.

  “You know, since we’re working together, have you considered my offer?”

  Vito thought that the spirit was referring to his promise to get its memories back in exchange for getting him out of the Spiritwood, but that didn’t make sense, since he had already agreed to do that.

  “What offer?” he asked.

  “Of being friends!” Thing said, beaming at him. The sight was a tad strange, and even a little frightening, given that the smile was stretched across Thing’s strangely proportioned head, and populated with its (as Vito was just now noticing) numerous and motley teeth. The sense of surrealness was ill-helped by the fact that this strange smile was cast against a beach in the middle of a rainstorm, while a magical gold ring served as an umbrella.

  Vito nearly snickered at the oddness of the scene, but focused on Thing’s disturbing teeth to stop himself— he did not think laughing off Thing’s proposal of friendship would make it feel especially good.

  The spirit’s teeth were mostly white, but some were grey, and a few were black. Some spaces were inhabited by oversized flat teeth looking like they belonged to a cow, some by normal human teeth, some by wolffish fangs, and not a few by tiny, razor sharp needles of bone. Time seemed to slow as Vito’s eyes moved between each assorted tooth in turn. Did he really want to be Thing’s friend? He knew it wouldn’t want to hear “no”— but then again he could just lie.

  It was then that he remembered his mother’s wisdom: don’t use tricks. He remembered also the words both she and Mr. Quaglione had said to him: the spirits are not to be trifled with. He had learned that lesson well today, and he did not intend to ignore it. Whatever his answer to Thing was, it had to be honest. He’d rather have to fight or run from Thing now, rather than later, once it knew where he and his mother lived.

  So it was back to square one. Did he want to be Thing’s friend, or not? He didn’t really know Thing very well, and it was a tad frightening, and more than a tad unhinged. It had saved his life (though had asked for something in return), and had treated him well since. His main concern, then, was that Thing would do something unpredictable, suddenly get set off by something and go on a rampage. Again, his mother’s words came to him: They simply are. They don’t have free will like humans have. He wasn’t exactly sure how this would manifest in Thing’s behavior, but if spirits always acted according to their nature, then Thing had no tricks to reveal. It was already doing everything it was ever going to do. It seemed like it got very angry at the prospect of someone stealing its identity, but Vito had no intention of doing that. He decided then, that Thing was worth a shot, if nothing else.

  “Okay. Friends!”

  Thing’s reaction was extreme— It looked beside itself. Then it said, “alright! I’ve never had a friend before! Let’s shake on it!”

  Thing put out its hand for Vito to shake.

  Vito shook his head, “no, I’d rather not.” He still did not trust Thing. He couldn’t count the number of stories he’d heard about the dangers of shaking hands with a spirit.

  “Oh what! But—”

  Vito stiffened his lower lip, giving Thing his most authoritative eyes. “Listen Thing, if we’re really going to be friends, then a friend wouldn’t make me shake on it, right?”

  Thing crossed its little arms and frowned.

  “Well… okay! But you’re starting off at a pretty low friend-level, just so you know, so you’re really gonna have to put the hours in if you want to climb the ranks after this!”

  Vito chuckled. He supposed he found Thing’s na?veté a bit endearing.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Thing mumbled to itself, glancing to Vito every once and a while, but the only thing he could make out was “—can’t even get a handshake!”