The Esper of Algol: Protector

Digging Deep

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, but there's no way you're going to be able to hack through all of that ice." Noah huffed to Odin.

Odin swung once more at the tall thick wall. His axe sunk deep into the soft snow, and when he tugged it out, a copious amount of ice fell with it. He turned to Alis and Noah, who were resting back-to-back on a large rocky bolder. "Thought I'd give you guys a head start once you're rested up enough to try that fire thing again."

"It's no use," Myau lighted down from the top of the wall along the ridges left by previous attempts to melt their way through the ice with magic. "The valley is snowed in as far as I can see. We can't go this way anyway."

Alis sighed heavily and let her head fall onto Noah's back. He tensed up for just a moment, then relaxed.

"That's the only way HAPSBY's map shows to get to Gumbious Temple," Alis pointed out. A flutter ran through Noah at the vibration of her speaking. Stop that.

"So what do we do, go back to Skure?" Myau asked.

Odin holstered his axe and looked at the map they had drawn from the robot's database - HAPSBY having been left in Skure with the ship. "There's a town to the east that's closer. And they might know how to get through this snow."

"The Dezolian town?" Noah clarified. "Good luck with them. Dezolians don't like Palmans. They'll play mind games with you."

***

Alis and Odin were nervous when they arrived in Twintown the next day. They'd never seen a Dezolian before. They looked similar to Palmans - they stood upright, had one head, two arms, and two legs in generally the same locations. But their skin was varying shades of green or dark yellow, they had small black eyes with no visible whites, no nose ridges, and the few that didn't wear hats were completely bald. And as Myau had said, they generally didn't like Palmans.

Noah had some experience from when he was a child, so he knew simply being polite was enough to get you by if you silently scrutinized everything they said. But Myau was simply adored. Musk Cats originated from a region in the southeast, and he was regarded as an honored guest. In turn, Myau was perfectly comfortable with the Dezolians.

"Ga? Dote-mew? Banaput?"

"What did they say?" Odin asked.

"How should I know? I've lived on Palma most of my life. I never learned Dezolian," Myau replied.

"They're wondering why Myau is with a bunch of Palmans," Alis translated breathily. "How did I know that?"

Odin's eyebrow raised and Myau tilted his head. Noah, however, grinned at her, "I told you months ago that was magic."

Alis' cheeks turning pink. "I can't talk to dragons or anything, though."

"It's useful!" Odin stated jovially. "We have a way to communicate with these guys!"

"Don't discredit being able to understand a complex language just by chatting to them," Noah encouraged. "People can usually tell when I try to use telepathy. Makes it kind of awkward."

Indeed it was useful, except that not even Myau's presence kept some of them from telling obvious lies. And not all of them lied; it was difficult to sift through the fibs to find useful information.

They hated and welcomed Palmans, told of a prism that showed another world, fruit that ripens only during an eclipse that's either their food or a toxic blue dye, a spring of life in a tower in the west, and they all accused others of lying. Alis had to sit down to give her head time to stop pounding.

When they asked the Dezolian at the supply shop if he knew a way through the ice, he pointed to a shop next door. The shop next door owned a tank. Except instead of a gun it had two huge drill bits attached to the front.