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About Tehuti
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Part 94: Confessions Main story folder & table of contents: "Escape From Manitou Island" 
Previous chapter: "Part 93: Tunnel To The Tree"
PART NINETY-FOUR:
Confessions
THE DOORFLAP OF the Mide lodge stayed slightly parted open long after the three strangers had departed from the ruined camp. One eye peered out across the ashes and rubble, watching them until they'd disappeared from sight, and even longer than that. The sky grumbled, but other than that it did little. Cutfoot stared out the entryway a moment longer, his eyes dark, then pulled his head back and let the doorflap fall. He turned around and walked back past the fire, to face the pallet on the other side. He stared at the now unconscious Michinimakinong for several moments before a scowl settled over his face.
"Fool," he muttered. "Taking on a manitou like that...as if you have even a pinch of the medicine he has."
He turned again and headed for the side of the lodge, where some pouches and belongings had been hung from the beams. "I have seen many fools in my time," he went on, taking several down, "but this is by far the most foolish thing yet." He glared at Niskigwun over his shoulder. "What were you expecting to do--feather him to death?" He selected the pouch he was looking for and went back toward the pallet. "I would knock your head in myself--if it hadn't already been done FOR me!"
He squatted beside the pallet and then sat down, letting out a snort and poking around in the pouch. "And those others with you--equally as foolish," he grumbled as he looked. "Heading to try to take on yet another pissy manitou in such a state--truly, all of you must have learned from the same stupid teachers. Take a look at this camp, fool, and see if you still believe you stand even the slightest chance as you all are." He snorted again. "You and I both know you're going to need something DAMNED more powerful than any of you put together. The thing is," and he pulled a small object out of the pouch and gave it a critical look, "are any of you brave enough?"
He blinked, then clasped his fist and turned his head. He stared vaguely southwestward for several moments, frowning, then snorted and started putting the items back in the pouch. "Well, well...looks like yet another fool is coming along soon to join you all...what a wonderful group you'll all make. Heading off to be killed together. You are indeed all cut from the same deerskin." He lifted his head and gave Niskigwun a malevolent glare. "Making me waste my time on such fools and idiots! As if I don't have better things to do than look after all of you!"
So saying, he held his hand out over Niskigwun's chest, and opened it. The small object started to fall, then halted in midair; the little white Megis shell floated just above the Turtle Fairy, bobbing slightly, and Cutfoot jerked his hand at it. It slowly descended, landed on Niskigwun's chest...and then started sinking into him, fading away from sight.
Cutfoot scowled again and shut the pouch. "That's the second one I've wasted today," he grumbled, and got to his feet to return the pouch to where it belonged.
Niskigwun lay silent, his eyes closed and one pale hand resting across his middle. The old man's words had started fading into his head, but they were hopelessly vague and muffled, and he had no idea of anything that had been said. Still, he felt himself starting to slowly come to again, and decided not to fight it, letting his eyes drag themselves open just a sliver to stare at the ceiling which flickered in the firelight. He could feel it warm against his right arm, and he stared for a long time.
It took him quite a while to notice that nothing hurt anymore.
He blinked. Then his eyes opened a bit wider, and he stared upwards, perplexed, now.
What happened...? Where am I...?
Charmian? That's right...she was here...but where...
A Mide lodge...?
Megissogwun...!
With a gasp he sat upright, then grimaced and clasped his hands to his middle. He froze that way for a moment, then his eyes crept open again and the grimace began to fade, confusion replacing it; he looked down, and slowly pulled his hands away. The spear wound to his middle was gone.
He stared at the smooth unbruised skin for a moment or two, brow furrowing, then lifted his arms and looked them over. They were the color of copper--not black and blue like Megissogwun had left them. He pressed his fingers against his ribs, but it didn't hurt; he poked at where his own spear had impaled him, but felt nothing unusual; he palpated his cheekbones and face, but didn't feel so much as one twinge of pain. Yet he was still coated with a fine layer of ashes, and his feathers were still askew, and he was still here, where they'd left him--so, what...?
He blinked, then took in a slow breath, feeling the skin on the back of his neck prickle. His teeth nearly started chattering; he slowly turned his head, his eyes growing wide and his face going pale.
Something arose behind him.
Niskigwun stopped breathing. His eyes grew as large as moons as he stared at his own wings, rising from his back; mouth opening in disbelief, he reached out and poked a finger at one, but it felt real--he gasped when he even felt the touch of his finger in his wing itself. He flapped them once, then lowered them, then raised them, and he felt the movement every time. His head whirled to glance at the space beside the wall, and he saw his wings there, coated in ashes, just as they'd been left--but when he looked over his shoulder, there they were, spreading from his back. He blinked at both sets, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.
He caught the slightest bit of movement at the side of the lodge and gasped, head whirling back around and wings flaring. He stared at the shadowy figure that stood near the wall, staring back at him. Niskigwun's brow furrowed again as Cutfoot frowned at him; then he put out a hand and gingerly pushed himself to his feet.
"Who...who are you?" he whispered, feeling nearly too much dread to even speak.
The old man's mouth twitched unpleasantly. "Cutfoot," he muttered.
The Michinimakinong could only chew on the inside of his mouth and peer down at the wings resting beside the wall, then flex his own again, just in case. He turned back to the Mide, and since he didn't have his spear, he started fiddling with one of his necklaces instead. It wasn't something he usually did, and he often chided the other Michinimakinong under his command not to do it, but right now it just seemed appropriate.
"What are you?" he amended his question.
Cutfoot offered no direct answer to this. Instead, he continued staring, his eyes nearly boring through Niskigwun's--Niskigwun had never seen eyes so penetrating, except on Geezhigo-Quae, and the Pearl Feather, just before he'd nearly slaughtered him--then his stare shifted slightly downward. Niskigwun's brow furrowed a bit again, then he looked down. He was staring at his own necklaces...but the longer that he looked, the more he could notice something. He felt his heart start beating harder when he could see the faint glow within, his spirit stone emerging into view...but in the middle of it...something small and white hovered. Niskigwun found himself staring at a Megis shell, and he tried to wrap his brain around that, to figure out how something like that had ended up in his spirit...and only then did he think to lift his head and meet Cutfoot's eyes. As soon as their stares met again...he understood.
He slowly lowered his hands from fiddling at his necklaces, and the glow faded away; he didn't notice it. He tried to think of something to say, but no words would come.
Cutfoot's unpleasant look returned, and he jerked his head toward the entryway. "Your friends left you a while ago," he said, "heading back the way they came. Maybe, if you're lucky, you can catch up now."
Niskigwun spread his wings. "How did you do this?" he blurted out, fanning them at the air. "They could never grow back!"
Cutfoot rolled his eyes. "I rather think I'm in a position to know such medicine!"
The Michinimakinong lowered his wings again, eyes widening. "Then...you are...?"
Cutfoot just waved toward the exit. "Go on! Spirits know how much time I've wasted on all of you when I could've been doing better things. I have places to go, you realize."
"What about your camp--?"
The old man shook his head curtly. "It wasn't mine. I was just staying. The rest of the story I told your friends though, every bit true." A very peeved look. "Would you get going now?"
Niskigwun bit his lip. He retrieved his spear and took a tentative step away from the pallet, then another; he managed to get past the fire, but then stopped again. The fiddling resumed.
"You will be heading westward...?" he asked hesitantly.
Cutfoot wrinkled his nose. "That's rather what I do, isn't it?"
Niskigwun's face lit up. "Then you are...?" He trailed off, then clasped his hands together and bowed his head. "Megwetch!" He started to turn, then halted and whirled around once more; Cutfoot let out a gusty sigh but Niskigwun ignored it, taking several quick steps toward him again.
"Payment!" he cried.
Cutfoot made a face. "I take CREDIT!"
"But I do not know what you would--"
The old man flung his hands up and let out an awful noise. "GET GOING!! Payment SETTLED!" When that resulted in a beyond confused look, he narrowed his eyes and his lip pulled back. "For you protecting the Mide lodge from that gigantic lout!"
Niskigwun's perplexed look returned. "But I wasn't--"
"OUT!" The Michinimakinong turned and started hurrying for the entryway before the old man's temper could grow any more sour. "Besides," Cutfoot groused as he reached the entryway, "I rather think I owe something for that beast being loose in the first place!"
Niskigwun's hand halted as it reached out for the doorflap, and all of his muscles tensed. He turned his head to look back--but all that he saw was ash-covered ground, and darkened sky. He blinked a few times and let his fingers grasp air, then lowered his hand, as there was no longer any reason to use it.
Niskigwun wrapped his arms around himself instead, turning in circles and staring at the empty ground where the Mide lodge had just been standing. He started gnawing furiously on the inside of his cheek, then decided not to think about it anymore. He turned and spotted three sets of prints in the ashes, leading away from where the lodge had been; they led back to the camp, he knew it. He tensed his leg to start running, then froze and glanced over his shoulder. His wings popped up and he flapped them, biting his lip tentatively, then deciding, again, not to think about it much. He hunched down, said a quick prayer to Gitchi Manitou, and then flapped them as hard as he could, and within seconds he was in the air, zooming off toward the distant camp.
* * * * *
"It is not that I do not believe you--it is just that it is impossible," Geezhigo-Quae said. "Megissogwun did not go after some other manitou child long ago. He did not kidnap another one."
Charmian's brow furrowed. "But--how do you know?"
The Sky Mother's wings quivered as if with cold. "Because I was the child he kidnapped so long ago."
Silence filled the Sky Tree. Charmian stared at the manitou woman in utter confusion. All of a sudden, her entire theory--that Megissogwun had kidnapped the Red Swan ages ago, and she had escaped and been captured by Mishosha, and to this day was imprisoned--collapsed into dust, and she found that she had no idea what to think. She blinked a few times, then lowered her head a little, trying to figure it out and not nearly succeeding.
"You...?" she said, stupidly. "It was you Megissogwun kidnapped...?" When Geezhigo-Quae nodded she slowly lifted a hand to rub at her head. "When...?"
"Far longer ago than anyone you know could understand," Geezhigo-Quae said. "I was but a girl at the time...a child. Just as this story you've heard says. No one knew who or what Megissogwun was, nor what he was seeking. I was foolish when I was much younger, and did not pay attention to my surroundings as I should have. He appeared and grabbed me up one day--and this is the story that you've heard."
"But what happened?" Charmian asked. "You got away, yeah, but..."
Geezhigo-Quae could only lift one shoulder. "I fled him when he was preoccupied. He is not the smartest manitou, thank the spirits, but I sense that he learns from experience. I learned to be more careful after that, and did not encounter him again until he came for my Island. I was surprised by him. I had not known he was so powerful, nor that he has such a long memory for insult."
"He's still mad at you for running away?" A nod. "You never found out why he kidnapped you in the first place?"
Geezhigo-Quae shook her head. "We did not...communicate much," she admitted, and Charmian blushed a little, ducking her head and nodding.
"Yeah, I...I think I understand." Her brow furrowed. "But...the Red Swan!" she blurted out, remembering. "I spoke with her..."
"I do not see how this is possible," Geezhigo-Quae said. "Are you certain she is not just some sort of trick?"
Charmian rubbed at her head even more, growing bewildered beyond belief. "I...well...she seems real! How can you be sure she's not another manitou Megissogwun went after, after he was done with you?" she asked, striving to make some sense out of all of it.
"You said she is dressed all in red," Geezhigo-Quae said. When Charmian nodded she added, "This is sometimes how I dressed when I was a girl."
"But--"
"It was the outfit I was wearing when he made off with me."
Charmian stared at her in silence, then lowered her eyes again and started gnawing on her lip. "But...if that's true then..."
"Please remember," Geezhigo-Quae said. "This creature will pull all sorts of tricks on you, anything to reach his ends. I know already that he enlists the aid of manitous, Lynxes, humans like your teachers...he has resources one would never think to look for. I would not be surprised if this Red Swan is merely another one of them..."
Charmian started shivering as a chill passed over her, the odd dream with the red tree coming back to her. Geezhigo-Quae trailed off, noticing the change and frowning. "Charmian? What is it...?"
"I...I'm not sure," Charmian murmured uneasily. She peered up into Geezhigo-Quae's eyes and wondered if she should trust her...then bit her lip and took a breath. She helped Thomas, she thought; she's helping us. If I can't trust her, then I may as well not even trust myself. "I had this weird dream not long back," she started, hesitantly. "I was in the Borderlands again..."
"Chakenapok is the one who brought you this dream?" Geezhigo-Quae asked.
Charmian shook her head, then frowned. "I don't really know. It was the real Borderlands...I'm not sure. It could've been him, but the Red Swan wasn't involved--I have both of them keeping me in touch with the Island--so I don't know how he would have sent it to me. Maybe it was from Tal Natha?"
"What did you see in it?"
Charmian started fiddling her fingers anxiously. "It...it was my old dream, with the big stone fountain...I saw that thing the last two times I've been on the Island. Every time I look at my reflection in a dream, something weird happens, but it usually makes sense later on. Like the first time, I saw Red Bird, and it turned out that we mirror each other...and the second time I saw Ocryana, and it turned out that I could become just like her. Well..." She looked confused. "This time I saw me...but I had a little tree in my chest." Her face lit up a little. "The Sky Tree!" she blurted out, without thinking.
Geezhigo-Quae frowned. "You are certain--?"
Charmian's certainty faded a bit. "Well...maybe...I'm not sure. That's what it makes me think of now...but then it didn't make any sense." More fiddling. "Anyway...it changed colors...it was blue...then it went all the way to red--really bright red. Then..." She trailed off for a moment or two. "Then it turned into a black spirit stone," she murmured, and noticed the way that Geezhigo-Quae furrowed her own brow, shuffling her wings uncertainly. "I just know it was Chakenapok's or Tal Natha's way of telling me something," she said, "but I have no idea what! A black spirit stone--? A red tree? For some reason, it makes me think of you, though I don't know why..."
"I saw him," Geeghizo-Quae murmured, and Charmian glanced up at her to see the pensive look on her face.
"Saw who, Geezhigo-Quae...?"
"The Flint," the sky manitou said; then, "Chakenapok." When this resulted in an even more confused look from Charmian, she said, "In my Tree...just a vision of him. He looked up at me...and then faded away." She frowned. "That was not that long ago...he seemed...lost, somehow." She shook her head and looked at Charmian, and her ear flicked. "He looked much as you do, right now," she corrected herself, and Charmian blinked.
Chakenapok--? she thought, feeling her head start to hurt. What would HE be doing here? Why does he keep popping up like this...and what does any of this have to do with ANYTHING...?
"Mainlander," Geezhigo-Quae said, earning her attention, "I cannot help but feel that this all might be greater than we'd thought, and you are dealing with forces you don't entirely understand. This Red Swan sounds like she might be one of them. I would not put it past the Pearl Feather to use such a ruse not only to get to you, but to get to me. Take a look at how he has kidnapped Turtle, and you can see how it is. It feels as if more and more forces are gathering around him...and perhaps I was hasty in sending you out against him."
"I'll figure it out," Charmian promised, though she cringed inside, saying it.
"I do not doubt this," Geezhigo-Quae said, "though I fear it might not be soon enough...already he has you thinking over so many things...you have not found the West Wind yet, have you?" Charmian's head lowered meekly. "All I suggest is, do not let him distract you. Perhaps this vision you have is merely his way of throwing you off of the trail. He may say that he wants a new fight with Kabeyun, but no matter what he gets, he will always seek the Island's destruction in the end. It reminds him of too much."
Charmian puzzled over that last comment, but the manitou woman didn't offer anything else; so she nodded and bit her lip. "Okay," she said, half to herself, then her head sank again. "The thing is...the only reason I'm still in TOUCH with the Island is because of her!" she said, wincing as she remembered. "She keeps me connected to Chakenapok!"
"Do you feel that you should trust her?" Geezhigo-Quae asked.
Charmian felt like shrinking into her vest, and couldn't meet her eyes. "Honestly...I don't even know if I should trust you," she said in a small voice, squirming inside.
She sensed slight surprise, then the feeling faded and she peered up. Geezhigo-Quae didn't look upset. "Perhaps then this is the best way to think," she said quietly, and Charmian let out her breath. "What will you be doing now?" she asked. "That we may keep apprised of you. For some reason...the Tree is giving me difficulty seeing anything at times. I was following Niskigwun a while ago, but lost him..."
Charmian's squirmy feeling returned and she grimaced. "We're digging a tunnel straight north," she vowed. "Right to Kabebonikka! We couldn't find the tunnel that Wabun promised, so we're using Weaver webs instead. It worked getting me here...so I hope it works with him, too. We'll do everything we can."
"Kabebonikka is a great manitou," Geezhigo-Quae said. "His temper is not the best...but perhaps he can help you find Kabeyun. I recall that he did give the Pearl Feather a good fight, before he was overcome."
"Anything we should know about dealing with him?" Charmian asked; when Geezhigo-Quae puffed out her breast slightly and thumped her fist against it, Charmian's mouth twitched. "That obvious, huh?"
"If you will pardon the expression, Mainlander," Geezhigo-Quae said, "manitous are only human. There is more than a little truth in the stories of the prideful medicine men who turn into them. At least, if certain manitous are any indication." She glanced at the cabochon she'd been observing. "You will be going back through your tunnel now...?"
Charmian nodded. "They should be waiting. I think Cheengwun will probably fly me back, if he's still out there." She bowed a little, not knowing what else to do, and turned for the entryway. "I'm still pretty confused," she added as she went, "but I guess that all clears up a few things...Niskigwun was saying it sounded like Megissogwun knew you better than he should, and if he kidnapped you once, I guess that explains that..."
"I said already that we did not speak much when this occurred," Geezhigo-Quae called out after her.
Charmian nodded, only half listening. It was only when she reached the doorway that she slowed to a stop, the words at last making sense; a small frown came to her face, and she turned to look over her shoulder. Geezhigo-Quae stared after her.
"Huh...?" Charmian furrowed her brow, then lowered her foot from midstep. "You mean, he didn't find out about you then...?"
"I was young then and did not speak with him much," Geezhigo-Quae replied.
Charmian blinked. "Oh. Then you must mean when he came again, and destroyed the Island!" She nodded. "I get it. That makes sense too. You don't have to worry, I'll clear it up with Niskigwun."
"This is not all that Megissogwun did when last he came here," Geezhigo-Quae said softly, and the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes were such that Charmian fell silent, a vague sense of unease creeping up inside her.
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