Beyond Our World

Chapter 2 - Part 3: Life of the Animal Party

This part of Chapter 2 is dedicated to just_fiona . For making my day by being the first person to comment other than myself.

My hair changed to wavy blonde and I wore a white sweetheart-necklined knee-length dress with pastel pink laced-up ankle boots. The topaz had turned a bright pink that stood out on the white, fur-like but stretchy, closed shawl I had wrapped around my shoulders.

"Do not dare to even touch me, young lady!"

I froze, my hand left out-stretched in mid-air. "What?" I thought.

The fox just stared at me with a look of disappointment. Well, if foxes could look disappointed I'm assuming they would look like that.

"Now. Slowly retract that unsightly paw of yours."

"Woah. Okay. That was definitely the fox." My inner voice said. I pulled back my hand and left it dangling by my side. I used my other hand to scratch the nape of my neck, unsure of my current situation.

The fox released a cross between a snort and a sigh, probably a very elegant snort of sorts.

"Finally. You can catch onto things it seems. Although at an extremely slow pace."

"Sorry. I'm still new to this magic world thing."

"Please refrain from using that horrendous voice aloud! It thoroughly disturbs my poor, sensitive ears." She flattened her ears onto her head to emphasize what she was telepathically saying.

'Oh. Sorry.' I mouthed. She shook her head subtly and shot me an exasperated look.

"So...Is she really mute or is she going to say something?"

The kitsune sharply turned her shocked gaze to myself, then lifted her snout up into the air to try and emit a feeling of superiority around herself. It worked. I felt rather sheepish for assuming the thought directed to myself about her wouldn't be heard. The thought itself was rather blunt.

"If I had excused your impertinent manner, I would have told you that I am in fact mute but my muteness is due to the fact that I do not wish to enslave other beings with my voice. But alas, I do not excuse you!"

"I'm sorry, umm milady? I'll try to learn how to do this right. And umm, what do you mean by enslave?"

"By enslave, I mean enslave. My voice is enrapturing, lures males to my immediate area and puts them in a trance where whatever they do they will later not be able to remember it."

"Oh. Thank you for the generous explanation, milady."

She eyed me with approval, obviously liking being called 'milady'.

"Very well. Since you so sincerely apologized, I will forgive you. And I will allow you to refer to me by my name. It is Tallarine."

"Can I just call you Rina?"

Talarina glared at me. "Don't push it, child."

I shrugged and sat down beside her. "Oh well, I tried." I thought. Tallarine chose to ignore that thought. She too settled into a more comfortable position and then began to open up to me.

"Do you know what your darling Raphael is doing now?"

"My darling?!" I blanched.

She looked at me with a disappointed gaze. "I was being sarcastic, dear. Anyways back to the main point of the conversation. I know you want to know where Raphael went. More specifically, you want to know who he's meeting." She now had a smug, arrogant look on her face.

"How did you know? Was I being that obvious? Do you think Raphael knows?..."

"Firstly, I know everything. I make it my business to know everything. Second of all, your face is rather difficult to decipher but for someone like me or Raphael your emotions are rather plain. And lastly, yes he knows. He knows that you are curious. He knows that you depend on him. What he doesn't know is if you truly like him."

I stayed silent, unable to answer her. I realised that I now had an advantage over Tallarine. She didn't know whether I liked Raphael or not, and frankly neither did I. She knew that I knew about her lack of information though and that I had mixed feelings on the situation. She seemed to wait a while, perhaps for my clarification, before continuing on.

"Very well then. We shall simply jump to the meeting. Now, take my paw."

In response to that, I tentatively held the offered paw. As soon as I made contact with it, I was teleported to another place. It felt as if I was burning to ashes and my ashes were being sucked into a spiralling current of air. Strangely, I could feel the pain distributed evenly throughout my pieces. It felt less individually but I'm pretty sure it would've crippled me had I been whole.

I landed falling into a bush. I was barely able to restrain myself from letting any moans out. I managed to avoid getting any new minor wounds but I was still quite intolerant to the pain of teleportation; pins and needles lanced my skin. I collected myself and got into a crouching position.

Tallarine was sitting next to me and simply turned her head forward when she had assessed my state. I followed the direction of her gaze and saw a semi-circle of animals gathered around Raphael.

"This is the Council of the Animal Party."

"They can't hear you?"

"I am only projecting my voice inside your head."

"We're not supposed to be here. How did you know of this place?"

She smirked and walked out of the brush haughtily. "Good morning, fellow council members! Has the meeting already started?"

The giant, red eagle and the tiny, silver owl both simultaneously swiveled their heads to look at Tallarine. The others simply ignored her presence and continued to stare calculatively at Raphael. The birds were about to say something but Raphael beat them to it.

"Tallarine, you're openly talking. And weren't you supposed to watch Arelisiana?" He voiced aloud.

"Relax, dear. I put her with the beavers." At that statement, collective sighs of admonition were made around the semi-circle. Talarine focused her attention on the owl and the eagle. "You two were going to say something."

"Yes. Since you are here, you might as well tell us what you know." Boldly suggested the eagle.

[The end of Part 3 and Chapter 2.]