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Chapter 22: Desert

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Chapter 22

Desert

Lake was incredibly glad that she kept her hat. The sun was beating down on them like a steel hammer. They weren't sure how far they had walked, Both Ingo and Emmet had taken their napkins out of their pockets and fit them over their necks, stuffing them in their hats that way the sun stayed off their necks.

Ingo ran his fingers over his face as he kept walking. He noticed his brother was beginning to falter. Sun poisoning already caused headaches and sickness. Lake found herself keeping her distance from them both. Ingo already voiced his curiosity for her act. She just simply said 'people get angry when they don't feel good.'

Did he say something to her when he was sick? He didn't remember, but then again she knew a lot of people before coming to live with them and more often than not they weren't very nice.

Emmet stopped and looked around. The wind blew over the dune carrying a song with it. Emmet turned and walked toward it.

"Emmet? We're supposed to head north!" Ingo called. Emmet didn't care, he could hear music. They probably had water, food, somewhere safe for them to sleep. He honestly wasn't sure why they had to go north anyways.

"I hear music, Ingo." Ingo didn't hear anything. Lake cupped her hands behind her ears. She looked up at Ingo and shook her head.

"Emmet, I think we should stop and start to dig a hole so we can have some sort of shelter." Ingo told his brother. Emmet shook his head.

Ingo grabbed his brother's shoulders gently trying to steer him back north. Some people who are about to have sunstroke will hear or see things.

"No Ingo...the music." He did hear it, he did...right?

He felt Lake against his chest hugging him.

"Please Emmet. I'm tired, my feet hurt, and my stomach isn't too happy." He could feel that through the connection.

"Oh sweet pea. I know, mine doesn't feel too good either." Emmet admitted to her. Ingo had to admit he felt rather sick as well. But before they could say anything they were falling.

With a loud splash the trio hit the underwater pond.

Ingo and Emmet made for Lake who was doggy paddling her best toward the shore. The light from the ceiling cascaded down into the water causing a prisming effect.

"It's not too far down Emmet we can walk." Ingo told his brother who held out his hand for Lake.

"Well, well well. Look what the Meowth dragged in." They knew that voice.

They turned to look at the shore to see a small cove full of trinkets. There was even a corner full of gold coins and trinkets. In the middle sat an extra fluffy futon with loads of pillows of several different colors. A tiny table with food and drinks on it.

"Pepper?" Ingo asked. The woman stood up putting her cigar down on the table letting the embers fall out onto the sandy floor.

"Damn right. I'd ask what brought you here but I'm pretty sure that pretty thing is what did. Yeah I see you there. You ain't hiding for anyone." Her wings flapped and she sat back down. To Lake the womans smile was like poison and her waving was the promise of all the wildfires in the world at once.

"I expect you're looking for the last rift then hum?" She pointed to the pool. "Its down there. I can't swim so I was waiting for the cove to empty. Looks like that ain't happening. It's been 8 months."

No it hasn't...has it?

"Between one realm and another time either goes fast or really slow. Here one day might pass while that one day might be a year to another." Ingo told his brother.

"Time does what it wants." Pepper said as she picked up the pipe and stuffed more tobacco into it. "How's the kid?"

"M, okay...just wet." Pepper sat up with a smile.

"Oh, listen to you! Found your voice again have you? That's perfect! Now can you tell me where the cavern is?" She looked up over the matchstick as she relit her cigar.

"Do I look like Dora?" Lake grumbled. Emmet snorted and tried not to laugh. It didn't work.

"Oh you don't understand sweet cub. If you don't tell me where it is, then I can't protect you...because there's a really bad man that wants to destroy every single one of us. I want to move them."

"Where?" Lake asked.

"Anywhere but there!"

The sudden question that popped into Lakes head.

"Wait...is this the only cavern we're made in?" The woman slowly sat up and gave a slow nod. "It's the last one. Humans...are evil people." She slowly turned to look at Ingo and Emmet.

"Not all of them are bad. My brothers aren't bad." Lake backed up into Emmet's arms.

"You think that because you're young. You saw what humans are capable of. You've seen it with your own eyes."

It clicked in Ingos head as he looked at the woman, and then remembered something that clicked rather hard in his brain. The manipulative nature from someone else he knew back in Hisui that nearly killed someone he now saw as family.

"Volo..." The person's appearance fluctuated and the being stood before Ingo.

"Oh you caught me." He slowly walked toward the family and pulled out a knife. "Yes I'm afraid I've been forced into the services of a certain God. He didn't like what I did, so I must earn his forgiveness."

"You are a bad person..." Lake whispered curling into Emmets arms.

"Ingo." Emmet turned and ran back into the water.

"Where are you going, Submas? It's not like you can get to the rift...she's asthmatic and can't possibly survive." Volo ran up behind Ingo. His knife held high over his head.

A loud thud echoed in the room. A very small shoe tapped as it landed on the floor behind Volo.

"A shoe!?" He turned to look at Ingo as he ran into the water with his brother. Both men looked at their little sister.

"Hang onto us..." Ingo told her.

"Don't let go." Emmet nuzzled her. Both brothers led their sister under water and toward the portal.