When the Moon Lies ✓

Ch.23: Tornado and Lizlerrin

With a yowl, she reached for Daero's paw, but missed. The roaring wind erased his call and shook her around in a dizzying spin before hurling her towards the tornado. She was just arms, legs, and tail flailing around to get a grasp or a grip. She barely had time to get her bearings when the purple sky of the Forest Crup vanished in darkness.

Panic rose in her throat. Fear gripped her heart in its talons. There was only a ringing in her ears, and she shook her head, trying to rid of it. A lime green glow bloomed before her. Her body slowly floated forward.

"Easy there, easy," an old gruff male voice echoed all around. "Easy there, I see you...two."

Is this the Parlor? She feared her new predicament. How the Parlor would laugh at her seeing her come back when she had just escaped. They would certainly force her to sit on the chair and that would be the end of Pinti Segnoshua, the last Shamala of Makiista Clan.

And here lies a Kathula who was stupid enough to return to the Parlor. She scowled and sniffed the air.

Instantly her nose was filled with many scents—lime, mint, lemongrass, lavender, rosemary, thyme, oregano, nutmeg, iris, daffodil, cherry blossom, sage, wild wheat grass, cinnamon, orange, raspberry but that wasn't all. She could smell a fresh hunt of rabbit, squirrel, and sparrow. She could smell soap and clean laundry. She could smell cookies baking and banana muffins that she sometimes ate in Bairenshire. She could smell coffee and chocolate and a mixture of the two. It was almost overwhelming. Pinti sneezed.

"But there's nothing here," she whispered in Kathulan not expecting a reply, but it came.

"Oh, but there very much is. Curious, very curious," said that same old gruff male voice.

Her body jerked forward. The roaring wind pounding her eardrums overwhelmed her, filling her body to the brim. Like tossing a doll, the tornado threw her out and instantly her vision flooded with stars, two moons, and the silhouettes of tall leafy trees. Her body suspended in the air for just a moment before floating softly down to the ground. Her ears were ringing and the calmness around her was almost disturbing.

"My, my," came that familiar voice. "Something curious."

Into her vision poked the head of a lizard-like Halfhuman with a lizard head partially hidden inside a large black hood. He had a full wispy white mustache that draped over his nose and mouth like curtains. He pulled back his hood. A wrinkly dusty green face had saggy eyelids that blinked around large black eyes.

A scaly lizard hand reached down and pushed away her bangs. Obviously, he knew where to look for what.

"A Shamala. How curious," he said with a little smile turning his mustache corners up. There was a yowl of shock coming from above and Pinti could barely make out a Kathula silhouette dangling from the neck of his Faud. Daero managed to get himself back up and descended onto the ground behind her.

The old lizard-like male chuckled. "Oh, ho!" he exclaimed. "The Kathula Sorcerer and I make acquaintance at long fortunate last, oh! Curious, very curious." His eyes shifted back to her. Pinti struggled to get up, feeling dizzy. She fell back down as the world spun. A paw touched her shoulder.

Pinti had good scent memory. Whipping her head around—which made herself dizzier—she said, "Lalina! I thought you died!"

The Haundai Sorcerer gave a small smile and helped her up. "Sorcerers don't die easily, but it was hard, let me tell you."

Daero came over and there was surprise in his eyes, too. "Lalina, y-you're alive! Oh, thank stars." He breathed out and held a paw over his heart. "Feigat, my heart, and thank stars." He cracked a smile.