The Chronicle of Matahouroa Chapter 4: Serendipity

 “Well, here we are” Panahihou said, craning his neck.

Both  planeswalkers had chosen a good starting point: a slope in the Plateau’s  outer mountain rim, overseeing the juncture between the great Ingikiwai  river and the Wairepomango swamps.

Even in the darkness before  dawn, the flowing waters of the Ingikiwai shimmered in green tones like  an emerald, until they reached the trees. There, they suddenly lost  their movement and their sheen, and gave in to an inky blackness, the  only sight of the swamp waters that stretched for miles under the dense  canopy. It was as if the water died, and its corpse was buried under the  countless pale trunks and black leaves.

Panahihou could “see” it  all, and it would have been an awe-inspiring “sight” if not for the  expanding yellow line in the distant horizon, above the sea. The air  tasted the same as all those years ago, and he couldn’t help but shake a  little.

“Are you okay?” Feluz said, touching Panahihou’s shoulder.

The Aven calmed down, and looked at the human.

“I’m  more concerned about you” he said, “We’re going to make our way  downhill to the swamps. It’s all flooded over, so I hope you can swim.”

Something  occurred to Panahihou, and he stared down slope. It was rather steep,  the green of the moss-covered outcrop they were in quickly giving way to  naked rocks. A thick fog covered the bottom, but the Kawau figured  there wouldn’t be anything to break the fall down there.

“Or you can just stay here” Panahihou said, opening his wings, “I’ll bring you something to eat every once in awhile.”

“Oh  no, you don’t need to do that” Feluz chuckled, patting Panahihou’s  shoulder, “I can get down by myself. We just need to wait for a while.”

“Is that so?” Panahihou responded.

“Yeah” Feluz nodded, staring at the horizon.

He  kept staring at the golden line, watching intently. Panahihou blinked  at the increasing light, shielding his face with a wing. Then something  dawned on him, and with effort he uncovered his face, his eyes  straining. Feluz’s fingers began to glow in a soft yellow and orange,  light weaving like strands within and around his fingers.

He was grasping sunrays.

The moment the sun finally breached the horizon, Feluz jumped out of the outcrop.

“Are you mad!?” Panahihou shouted, taking flight and diving after.

But  to his surprise, Feluz held on to the rays, like countless ropes  enveloped in his fingers. The higher the sun rose, the more intense the  rays grew, and Feluz’s fall was instantly stalled.

“Pretty cool, right?” he said, loosening his grip slightly as to allow a slow, controlled descent.

“Very  impressive” Panahihou cooed, “But I thought you were a ‘sunrunner’.  This doesn’t seem like running to me, in fact it seems like my  skepticism was right after all.”

Feluz stuck his tongue out playfully.

“No duh, but this world’s sun doesn’t need my help” Feluz said, staring at the sun in a mixture of wonder and wistfulness.

“Is your world a dark wasteland now?” Panahihou said, “Not to guilt you or anything, you got me legitimately interested here.”

Feluz sighed.

“I guess not. I wasn’t the only sunrunner. But I don’t care to find out.”

“I know what you mean” Panahihou said.

He stretched his wings, taking advantage of an air current to hover next to Feluz, gliding down slowly with him.

“That’s why we’re here” Panahihou continued, “To face my demons. If we survive this, I can help you with yours.”

Feluz  stared into Panahihou’s eyes. The Kawau found a mixture of hesitation,  hope and gratitude, woven very beautifully in the glimmers of the rising  sun.

He said nothing, however. In fact, he brusquely began searching the canopy beneath them, as if to distract from the topic.

“So, what are we looking for?” Feluz asked.

It  was Panahihou’s moment to be uncomfortable. All he had thought about  was returning home, to fulfill his emotional needs, without even  considering what would have come after. The thought of killing his uncle  had occurred to him, but Panahihou just realised that, even after years  of growing more and more powerful in the dark arts, he could still be  woefully unprepared.

What was I even thinking!?, the Kawau berated himself.

“You alright?” Feluz asked.

“I’m fine, I just-”

Panahihou  stopped, taking a deep breath. No, if he was going through this, then  he would go through everything decisively. He would kill his uncle, then  the Parekareka who ignited his spark, then whatever else needed to die  until he felt at peace.

The Aven’s eyes scoured the Wairepomango  canopy, until he found what he was looking for: a small clearing, amidst  the otherwise almost unbreakable sea of leaves.

Panahihou glided  towards it, landing on a long, lone branch. It rose from the edge of  the canopy into the open air above the clearing, like the base of a  bridge. Panahihou wasted no time landing on it, measuring the distance  between it and the dark waters below.

“Kind of reminds me of a cliff” Feluz said, “Coming out of a steep slope.”

“It’s just a stubborn branch” Panahihou said, “Defying the natural order, as usual here. Why do you think I was born here?”

Feluz  sat on the branch, releasing the rays of light. A wave of pressure  informed Panahihou that the branch wouldn’t support Feluz’s weight for  much longer. Boundaries didn’t matter, but the role of the strong did,  and even the branch’s will to pierce the void would be crushed by an  outside force.

Nothing and no one will ever change Wairepomango, Panahihou mused, not even the stubborn.

***

The  brothers froze, thinking that it was about the healing. As sneakily as  possible, Pukehou pushed the box off the platform into the water with  his foot. The effort was rather successful, or Hinuhou was too lost in  his tantrums to care.

“The Meiolania corpses, they’re gone!” he  shouted Hinuhou madly, “Couldn’t just have had the gold, no, they had to  take them instead!”

Panahihou sighed in relief, though it was a  brief break from his paralysing fear. His uncle didn’t find out about  his brother’s waste of the cargo, but he somehow managed to lose even  more valuable (to him) instead, and he would massacre them for it.

“The Wairepomango is the master of economy”,  Panahihou quoted mentally what a local shrimp farmer had once told him.  He had to kill her - Hinuhou wanted more limbs for his chair -, but he  took her wisdom to heart.

“It had to be Pō” Hinuhou continued,  pacing madly in the stump, “It had to be her! Who else would be tempted  with all the riches of Wairepomango and take my masterpieces!?”

“You  have obsessed about her lately” Pukehou said, a suggestion carefully  laced with defiance, “I’m pretty sure the Wairepomango is full of other…  artists.”

Hinuhou glared at him, and for a moment Panahihou  feared for his brother’s life. Subconsciously, he began drawing on the  mana of the swamps, the area around him darkening.

“You think yourself smart, don’t you?” Hinuhou said calmy, the question toned by just the smallest hint of a crack.

Pukehou clenched his fist. It was time.

“You know my use to you” Pukehou continued, “You know my brother's use to you, every moment you spite him. Without us, you are nothing but a sad man, wasting his time on the undead.”

Hinuhou’s  purple eyes widened like nothing Panahihou had ever seen. He rose his  clawed hand, now crackling with a black, heatless lightning, and posed  to throw it at the brothers. Panahihou cowered and crawled next to his  brother. Pukehou stood still, bracing himself for the death...

...that  never came. Hinuhou degenerated into mad, intense coughing, spitting  blood, pus and bile into the dark waters, the fluids floating above them  like water on tar. The lightning vanished, fading into the surrounding  darkness, the Aven struggling to keep his balance and avoid falling into  the water.

In a brief respite from the coughing, Hinuhou turned to the brothers.

“Pukehou, you will stay here and heal me. Panahihou, you-”

To  his and Pukehou’s surprise, Panahihou was completely surrounded in  darkness. Deep shadows hid the contours of his body in a deep blackness;  it was as if staring into the dark beyond the stars. For a moment  Hinuhou doubted if he was even looking at his nephew, before the shadows  clung to Pukehou’s side, clearly seeking his comfort.

“Impressive” Hinuhou said sincerely, “You almost look like a shade.”

Panahihou only nuzzled against Pukehou, who responded by cooing softly, embracing him with one wing.

“It’s alright, you impressed uncle” Pukehou said comfortingly.

“Indeed you have!” Hinuhou rose his voice in a barking laughter, “Now I know how to get at Pō!”

Panahihou rose to his feet, back still curved and wings lowered in submission.

“You want me to spy on her?” he asked coyly.

“Bah,  stupid as ever” Hinuhou spat, “No, she is an Ataata Kahuna you moron,  she would know it was you. What I do want you to do is to go to the  village of Whareatua. Well, what’s left of it anyways, since a recent  raid by the Tawahou gang put that village off the Empire’s maps for  good. Well, until they steal from the dead all that they need, just like  us.”

“They were oyster farmers, so I imagine they’re particularly worth the price” Panahihou continued, hoping to impress Hinuhou.

“No duh you imbecile! Just sneak as many pearls and bodies as you can and carry them back!”

He  made a dismissive motion, before flying towards their platform. The  moment he landed, next to Pukehou was Panahihou’s turn to launch, the  weight of his uncle replacing his meager one as he took to the skies.

He  looked one last time at his brother, whose expression seemed as  supporting and loving as they have ever been. Panahihou smiled at him,  before turning his head forward, flying away amidst the trees.

***

“So”  Panahihou started, “We will need to remain undercover, at least until I  get to my uncle’s throat. This would be easy; all we need a good  ambush.”

“So, do we need to gather resources and built a base or something?” Feluz said.

His  choice of location - the air between two massive branches in the  canopy, holding to the “ray-cords” and swinging back and forth, was very  endearing to Panahihou, who flew out of the lone branch to join him at  the canopy. Laying on his chest, his neck was long enough to reach  Feluz’ nape, and soon the long jaws began preening the hair in the way  the human planeswalker love.

“Thanks, love” Feluz moaned.

The  memories of Pukehou’s designs for a swamp safe for the two brothers  came to Panahihou’s mind, and although he shed a tear he was only more  motivated to see his brother honour, either literally go through this  designs or to deliberately brand new ones, that honoured his wishes.

“Feluz,  I love you.” Panahihou said, trying to approach his beak to Feluz’s  face, “I love you so much, this whole plane could blow up and I could  die and I’d still love you.”

“Aw, I love you too” Feluz said, pushing himself up through the light rays.

The  faces were in now more or less equal ground, and repeated the same,  awkward kiss as before. The same protective jaws around the human’s  face, the same invitation of Panahihou’s tongue into Feluz’s mouth, the  same sweet and careful bumping and licking, as quick as it began.

They  stared at each other’s eyes, drinking each other’s blues - albeit  Panahihou’s dark, cold blues against Feluz’s bright, intense ones. Like the night and day skies together, thought Feluz, eager to plant another kiss on his beloved Panahihou.

Suddenly, however, his stomach began to rumble.

“Of course” Panahihou rolled his eyes.

“Sorry” Feluz lowered his head, before he started sniffing the air.

Most  of the swamp smelled of salt and rot; the closer one was to the water,  the more intense those horrid scents were. But on the canopy, small  hints of fragrancy came once in awhile: pollen, nectar, small fruits and  berries. Feluz turned his head to the left, and was greeted by a series  of colourful berry-like fruits amidst the leaves. Most had two  sections, a thicker, red tubular one and a smaller conical blue one,  while others had more usual berry-like fruits.

“Can I eat these? Feluz said, his mouth salivating.

“As  a Kawau I really don’t know a lot about fruits” Panahihou shook his  head, “I do know that humans sometimes eat the fruit of these podocarps,  but normally they either cook them or eat just a few raw ones. They say  too many will poison you.”

“Aw, that sucks, to be limited to just a few” Feluz said sadly, picking a purple one, “Mm, it’s delicious!”

“Remember, diet or death” Panahihou said.

He  looked below. On the clearing’s bottom was the same black, oily water  as in the rest of the Wairepomango, dotted only by a few water lilies  and azolla ferns. Small undulations betrayed the presence of fish.

“Hold on, I’ll get you a proper breakfast” Panahihou said, and jumped.

He  glided down to the water, holding his wings back and diving head-first  like a gannet. Bubbles marked his underwater trajectory, before his head  emerged triumphant, an eel in his beak.

“Woo!” said Feluz excitedly, picking some fruits to eat as he watched.

Panahihou  wasn’t done yet, and dove again. A trail of bubbles and other  triumphant surfacing, this time with a catfish, head trapped in  Panahihou’s hooked jaws. The eel was nowhere to be seen, however, and  Panahihou’s neck had widened.

Deeming it enough, Panahihou rose  from the water, extended his wings to dry off, then flew back to the  branch. Feluz was sitting on it two, having pushed the sunlight into  positioning him there. Only one half of a purple podocarp fruit remained  and it fell from Feluz’s fingers into the water down below.

“I’m not feeling very good” Feluz moaned, an arm on his stomach.

“Told you so” Panahihou chirped, “Now how about a real breakfast?”

Feluz eyed the fish, and raised a hand to his mouth.

“I can cook them for you” Feluz said, his hand just enough away from his mouth so that the words weren’t too muffled.

“Right” Panahihou said, laying the catfish on the branch.

Feluz  looked at it, and soon enough the sunlight on the fish intensified.  Panahihou winced, his wings covering his face and the air around him  darkening.

“Sorry” Feluz said apologetically, “I forgot you couldn’t stand the light.”

“I’ll wait there until they’re ready” Panahihou said, a talon pointing down, to the shadows beyond the clearing.

“Okay, call me to stop if you need anything” Feluz said, “Where is the other fish?”

With  effort, Panahihou removed the wings from his face, eyes squinting as  best as he could. Even if cast in magical darkness, the light managed to  pierce through slightly, hurting his eyes.

He walked next to  the catfish and arched, something he found hard to do with his neck full  as it was. Carefully, he expelled it from his esophagus into his palms,  using the abundant viscosity against it, gluing it onto the branch as  he spread it.

Panahihou took out his staff from his belt and  divided it in two, stabbing the eel’s skull and tail into the branch  with the junction ends. With effort, the slippery fish was now well  attached.

The same could not be said of Feluz’s stomachal contents.

Panahihou  stared at the stream of half-digested fruit with a morbid curiosity; it  was like a waterfall and a rainbow had a baby. They took the longest  while descending down the abyss between them and the Wairepomango  waters, until they finally touched them.

As Panahihou had  predicted, the chunks of fruit and bile hadn’t sunk right away,  spreading out as if even the darkness rejected them, if only for a brief  while.

***

The sun was much higher in the sky, much to  Panahihou’s dissatisfaction. Even before he had learned the ways of the  shadows, daylight was rather unpleasant, being too bright and too hot.  Now, while not necessarily lethal, bright daylight was almost painful,  and he avoided it whenever possible.

He had flown down to the  edges of the clearing, taking advantage of the shadows cast by the  massive trees. There, the darkness was only a penumbra compared to other  areas of the Wairepomango, but a shadow spell was all it took for it to  fall into the same eternal night.

Landing on an emerging root,  he looked around. The last time he had been on the Wairepomango was 6  years prior, one spent in slavery and five spent avoiding Matahouroa.  The memories of the swamps almost seemed distant, until that very  moment, when he saw its splendour and beauty in person once more.  Panahihou’s eyes welled, tears running down as he closed them and took a  deep breath.

He was home. He was finally home.

He sat  down on the root, his feather fingers touching the oily waters. In their  density they had a curious property, at once too heavy to remain stuck  but too thick to slide off neatly, resulting in drops that would either  fall fast or very slowly in what seemed entirely random. Panahihou felt  the mana infused in the water, its sheer power, and it made his heart  race.

He fully emerged his hand in the water. Although the water  seemed stagnant, beneath the surface there were currents, some subtle  and some strong. In that particular area they run in all directions, but  they were stronger than in the clearing. Panahihou reached out to them,  and sure enough he felt a much greater area of the Wairepomango.

“Guess this is how tree-huggers feel about ley-lines” Panahihou mused, rejoicing in the power he discovered.

Suddenly, there was a pulse. Not just in the currents, but the water as a whole. It was as if they were being shaken.

Another pulse, more intense, and the waters shook. Something was coming.

“Come see this!” Feluz shouted from the canopy.

Sighing,  Panahihou took off, flying to the clearing. This time, he was cloaked  in shadows, though it helped little against the harsh midday sun. Feluz  was standing on the branch, staring intently at something afar. The  cooked fish were still by his side, now turned over.

“What’s going on?” Panahihou asked, landing next to Feluz.

Feluz pointed. Far to the northeast, a part of the canopy rose like a tidal wave, before descending slowly.

“The  same thing happened some time ago” Feluz explained, “Only further away.  I couldn’t exactly make it out well, but I think I saw two people being  thrown in the air.”

Panahihou stared in disbelief. Even after  years of having his expectations and sanity tested to the limit, this  was unbelievably surreal.

“Oh, it’s happening again” Feluz pointed.

Part  of the canopy began withdrawing like a catapult, before it projected  itself forward and above rapidly. Just as that happened, the canopy  around them began to stir, branches shifting and rising.

“They’re coming here!” Panahihou said, taking to the air.

The  branch they stood in bent and moved to join the rest of the canopy,  ending its unique loneliness. The fish fell from it, caught mid-air by  Feluz.

The two planeswalkers, now aloft, watched the clearing be  emerged by the rising canopy. The mass of branches and leaves continued  to expand upward, the softer foliage pushed towards the front and the  top.

The combined cacophony of a scream and a laughter alerted  both planeswalkers. Approaching them quickly were two figures, a young  Patupaiarehe and… a Hoiho?

“It’s her” he muttered, staring at his former saviour plummet like a screaming, waving meteor.

Feluz  waved a hand, and just as the two newcomers were about to touch the  canopy, sunlight lassoed their limbs, halting them in midair.

“Aw, why did you do that?” said Throwing-Branch, struggling against the light, “It was cushioned and everything.

Maramawhā, by contrast, was rather relieved, catching her breath and muttering a thanks.

“Feluz, put them down” Panahihou said.

Gently,  the sunrunner laid the newcomers on the canopy. As the Patupairehe had  said, it was indeed soft, and both of them sank slightly. Panahihou  joined them, landing next to Maramawhā. Noticing the weight next to her,  the Hoiho rose her head, staring at him.

An awkward silence followed.