Animalian

Chapter 3: The Sage's Story

A wet cloth pressed gently against Emily's forehead. She moaned and shifted in bed. She sat up slowly, and immediately dropped back onto the bed, feeling a penetrating pain run up her spine. Emily tried to speak but couldn't form the words from her mind to her lips. She smelled something tangy and sweet, familiar. It smelled like something she had tasted before. . . recently. Suddenly, she gasped, and her eyes flew open.

"The Bread of Greatness!"

Emily suddenly squinted, as a bright light hit her eyes. Her pupils dilated, and as her eyes got used to the blinding light, she saw a figure standing over the bed. Hackles raised, she inched backward painfully.

"Good. You've come to."

As her eyes adjusted better, Emily saw a short older man with graying hair and a long beard. He had dark, knowing eyes that crinkled at the corners, and a warm smile. The old man was applying a thick, greenish paste onto Emily's various cuts and bruises.

"Where am I?" Emily said aloud, half to herself.

"You've come to a friend," the man said with a slight foreign accent that Emily couldn't place. "If you had not gotten as far as you had, you and your jackalope friend would have been eaten by those wolves. You've been unconscious all night."

Emily shuddered, then gasped as she realized something he had said.

"Cinnamon!"

"That is his name? Yes, do not worry. He was the one who had led me to you. Luck had it that you landed right outside my yard. Interesting sense of humor, that rabbit."

Once Emily knew that Cinnamon was okay, she relaxed. Now that she knew she had not been kidnapped, drowned, or eaten, she could speak more freely.

"Thank you . . ."

"Soraan. Call me Soraan,"

"Thank you, Soraan, I'm Emily," Emily replied. "But where is Cinnamon?"

Soraan chuckled. "My herb garden." He suddenly grew solemn.

"How do you get here, Emily? I've lived here a long time, and I have heard of no other grasping-one to come here. Except . . . never mind, that is a different story that we shall tell later, one involving lots of ancient magic." He settled back in the chair, a faraway look in his eyes. "Well . . .there was a young boy once, a few months back. Or so I've been told. Wandered into the forest one day, and never returned."

Emily was still stuck on something Soraan had mentioned at the start. "Grasping-one? What's that?"

"All that I know is what I've been told by the egrets that found me. I know that I—we—are different from all other animals. Grasping-one is what they call me—my hands can grasp objects they cannot." Soraan sounded far away, reliving distant memories.

Hmm. That must be Animalian's name for humans, Emily thought. Soraan focused his gaze back to Emily. "So," he prompted. "You were going to tell me your story."

"Well, it started with the library next to my house," Emily said. She recounted her tale down to the last detail, including the part where she heard Queen Rosemary talk. She was fairly certain Soraan was not a killer, nor her parent's kidnapper. He did help heal her, after all.

". . .And that's when we saw the wolves—I think they were the Red Fang pack." Emily finished. "But I'm still confused. Have you heard anything about the Visioned human people keep talking about? And do you know if my family is here?"

Soraan was silent for a long time. Finally, he said, "I'm afraid I do not know about any other humans in Animalian aside from you and I. Although I have not been traveling in a spell; your family might have come while I was in the forest. I'm afraid you will have to get your answers elsewhere. But," Soraan added. "I do have the answers to some of your questions." the old man sighed. "But for you to understand, I must first tell you my story." He settled down in a chair by the bed.