MWIC Chapter 4: The River Did What.

            It wasn’t long before she said to him, “It’s okay, you can open your eyes now.”

 He did as he was told. It wasn’t very long before he regretted it. “It’s really bright…” he muttered. He opened his eyes, only to find them scalded by the sunlight after spending so much time without it. Forced to shade his eyes with his free hand, he turned to look to his right, following the length of his arm down to his hand. Still holding onto it firmly, was Clarine’s hand. It was hard to tell with his eyes still adjusting to the light, but she seemed to be fidgeting in place, nervous about something.

            “Is something the matter, Clarine?” he decided to ask.

 “….” He was met with silence, and a quickly averted glance. “You don’t…feel any different, do you?” she asked of him in English.  He frowned. “Different? What do you mean? I feel fine! What else could I possibly feel, holding the hand of such a cute girl?”…a short pause. “Well, except maybe my eyes. They still hurt a little from the light, but I can deal with that much.” He said and grinned, not quite understanding her sudden concern about his well-being. “Well then, Clarine, shall we go?”

            “Eh?” she replied, startled. “W-where are we going?”

…That’s right. I never told Clarine how I got here… he mused. Would she even believe me if I told her I fell out into a river flowing upstream and waking up here?…then again, she did drag me into a pot and have us wind up in some strange alternate dimension, so maybe she wouldn’t find what happened to me so unbelievable.

            “To the river, outside the forest!” he said, walking taking a step forward. “Onward we go!” Well, I’ll just tell her when we get there.

            “The river…what river?” she mumbled quietly to herself, before being half dragged along with him, her own hand still firmly in his.

            “Ah, it’s gone.” He said simply. “Oh well, I may as well turn around and go back into the forest now.” His face hung low as he sat on his knees staring at the place where the river he remembered flopping out of used to be.

            “…LIKE HELL!!” He screamed wildly. “That I’d just accept that the river just up and disappeared,  who would believe crap like that!?” He was on his hands and knees now, almost ready to weep like a little child. Clarine was kneeling next to him, using her free hand to rub his back in an attempt to comfort him.

            “Oye, human!” A loud voice boomed seemingly from nowhere. “There’s no need for ye to be making so much damned noise this early in the morning!” Two small feet clad in sandals entered his view, standing upon the cracked earth. “Quit actin’ so damned depressed, will ya!?” Against his better judgment voice of reason saying otherwise, he raised his eyes to the source of the voice.

            What appeared to be a little girl with fiery red hair wielding a massive club almost twice the size of her own body towered before his lowered frame. “If yer really a man,” she continued to bellow, “Then instead of cryin’ on the damn floor like a loser, you should take your **** and **** in her ***** and ***** ‘till ya can’t stands no more!”

            “Er, what?” was all he could think to say. About half of what she said flew right by his ears, her accent was so thick. Clarine, ever perceptive, noticed his confusion and cupped her free hand around his ear, whispering while sporting a deep crimson mask upon her face.

            “…..Oh.” he managed to reply, ever relying on his clever wit. He too found himself blushing furiously.

            “Ahaha, we’ve got ourselves some shy ones!” the fiery redhead replied, throwing her head back as she laughed. He took the opportunity to readjust his position, sitting on his knees next to Clarine. He couldn’t help but find himself staring at the little girl before him. For a little girl, she dressed rather scantily, her shorts, although coming down to her knees, were made of a sheer green fabric, With only a large flapping piece of cloth tucked in at the waist preserving her modesty from being on display for the whole world to see. A thin strip of brown stretched across her meager chest, decorated with alternating triangles. The gloves she wore appeared to be made of leather, with bandages wrapped around them for good measure, fluttering in the slight breeze. She kept her fiery red hair in two small braids that hung no further than just a few inches past her shoulder line. Her eyes were a light shade of blue, although her ears ended in sharp points just like Clarine’s. Upon her back, however, was a hulk, bulky pack, appearing to be nearly three times the size of her own body. How she managed to carry it around and still lug around a huge club was beyond his comprehension.

“Aren’t you a little young to be talking about things like that?” he retorted.

Her laughter cut short very quickly, and she brought her steely gaze to bear on him. If looks could kill, he would have been obliterated into thousands of globs of chunky salsa.

            “Who are ya referring to as ‘a little young’!” She yelled at him angrily. He could feel literally feel her anger rise as it boiled the air. Clarine tightened her hold on his hand unconsciously. “I’ll have ya know ya damn lout, that I, Rana de Tlaloc vi Rumstrue Leyline of the Goblin clan, have lived for decades before you were but a twinkle in ya grandpappy’s eye!” Her club hit the ground with a heavy thud, as if settling the matter.

…Is this girl for real? He thought to himself.

“….A goblin?” he replied skeptically. “You look human to me. Sure, your ears are really pointy, but so are Clarine’s,” at which point he gestured towards her with his free hand, “and she’s just as human as you and I.”

            The goblin turned her head and stared at her, with a look in her eyes that seemed to say, Where did you find an idiot like him?

“Where did you find an idiot like him?”

            Or perhaps she just said it aloud. She sighed, and squatted down in front of him so that he could get a better look at her. The pack on her back trembled dangerously, but seemed no less balanced than it was moments before. “Look closely, lad.” She said as she raised a hand to her forehead. “When have ya ever seen a human girl who has horns protruding from tha side of her head?” she reached for her hair, sweeping it aside as two earth brown horns came into view.

            “……” Silence. The air seemed to stagnant as the man’s brain was forced to conclude, that yes, the fiery redhead-Rana, she said her name was, was indeed what she claimed to be; a "Goblin.”

           

“…Ah.” He said simply, his brain incapable of further thought processing.

“Ahahaha!” she laughed again with a wide grin on her face. “Yer quite the odd one, ain’tcha!? Next thing ya know, yer going to be telling me that ya didn’t know the hand of the girl yer holding is a Pot Devil, and tha ya thought she was some sort of pointy eared human! Now tha would be rich! Ahahahaha!”

            A long, awkward silence followed. The air felt heavy and stagnant. Rana frowned. “…don’t tell me she didn’t tell ya?” she said softly.

            “Is this true, Clarine?” he asked simply, without turning to looking at her. He could feel her hand trembling in his own . She was afraid. Afraid to answer him, afraid to tell him the truth. Finally, after some time, “….yes.” came the small and feeble reply. She was trembling now more than ever, he could feel it through her small hand. “…I see…” came his own response. It was a flat, neutral response. The next words to come from his mouth, however, were not. “What’s a Pot Devil?” he asked of Rana naively.

“I can’t believe ya…” Rana sighed, her expression unreadable through her mask of disbelief. She slipped the straps of the enormous pack from her shoulders, allowing it to rest on the ground. She rummaged deep inside, tossing many strange tools and objects flying through the air, a few even missing the side of his ear by a few centimeters. “Ah, here it is!” she said after several seconds, producing a large red tome from deep inside the abyss of her colossal pack, before giving it a quick wipe to remove the dust and handing it to him.

            “See for yerself, human. It was written by yer kind, after all.” She said to him as she pressed it into his hands.

“I can’t read this.” He said in response.

             “WHAT!?” She bellowed yet again, “A human that cannot read Common, the language of his own people!?” She shook her head. “Not knowing about Ouowaw, not being able to read…”

            “I can read just fine!” he replied hotly. “Just not…this.” He hefted the large book in his hand, about to hand it over back to her, when Clarine quickly snatched it from him.

            “I-I’ll read it,” she stuttered. “Y-you have the r-right to know.” She was still trembling, even more so than before.

 “Clarine, you don’t-“ he tried to say, but Rana put her hand up to ask for silence. He obeyed.

            “Page nineteen, dear.” She said, not unkindly, to Clarine. Clarine nodded in response, opening the cover and turning the pages slowly before stopping on the correct page. On one side, an illustration that looked identical to Clarine was drawn, while the other amounted to a large, detailed paragraph of text. Clearing her throat, she began to read as her trembling hand caused the book to shake.

            “Pot Devil. Mimic family, Shapeshifter type.” She said, her voice clear and strong. It was a sharp contrast to her constantly shaking frame.

“Habitat: Towers and castles, anywhere pots can be found. Disposition: Shy, cowardly. Diet: Souls of human men.” She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. She couldn’t bear to look at him, although she could feel his eyes watching her intently, so she focused her eyes on the page once more and continued to read. “A race of shapeshifters that mimic pots and commonly inhabit towers and old castles. Like normal Mimics they can be found anywhere there are pots, waiting for human men. Because they mimic pots, they are more likely to appear in private homes than chest mimics.”

            Another pause, then she continued on. “ Just like a chest Mimic, they won’t attack until someone looks into the pot. But while normal mimics jump out to attack, Pot Devils inhale the victim into the jar.  There’s no way to protect against this effect, making them much more dangerous than chest Mimics. Because of their shy nature, pot devils will not directly attack their inhaled victims and may even be frightened by them. However, captured men are affected by a charm magic that compels them to feed the pot devil by having sex with her. This spell, like the inhalation effect, is powered by the large pot that the pot devil wears on her hips. The entire feeding cycle operates automatically, regardless of the intentions of the pot devil herself.”

            Clarine inhaled and exhaled a deep breath, and continued to read. “Despite the extreme danger posed by pot devils, there is an extremely simple extermination technique: throw something into the pot and scare her. Assuming it doesn’t hit her and knock her out, she’ll jump out of the pot to escape. Once out of her pot, the pot devil is powerless and can be easily captured.” She finally finished. Her body was shaking horribly, the tears flowing freely from her eyes. The expression she bore spoke of sorrow and fear.

            The man looked over her as she read, and had remained silent the entire time. He could feel her warmth still firmly within his own hand grow cold.

            “Rana,” he said at last, now that Clarine had finished reading. “You said this was written by humans, correct.”

            “Aye, that I did, lad.” She replied neutrally.

 “Then how did you get a hold of it?” he pointed to the book.

“I be a traveling merchant, like much of mah kind.” She answered.

 “Was it expensive?”

            “Wha?” she asked stupidly.

 “Was the book an expensive purchase.” He stated, this time not even a question.

            “Aye, indeed it is, lad. There aren’t many copies of that book intact in circulation mah boy.”

            “…I see. I apologize, then.” he said, and before she could ask what he meant, he quickly grabbed the book from Clarine’s hand and set it on the floor. Placing his foot on it for leverage, he deftly tore out the article entry for Pot Devils.

            “WHAT DO YOU THINK YER DOING!? HAVE YE GONE MAD!?”Rana yelled incredulously. He ignored her, however, crumpling the paper into a tiny little ball before shoving it in his mouth and chewing furiously. Both Rana and Clarine looked onward with amazement, too shocked by his display to even move. After mashing the paper for several minutes between his teeth into a pulpy mess, he swallowed it all down, gulping audibly.

            “I hate dry literature…” he muttered to himself in English, then, raising his voice, in Common he said “I’m sorry for ruining your expensive book, Rana de Tlaloc vi Rumstrue Leyline,” he said, bowing his head before raising it again. “But that book, written by my fellow kind, made the woman I love cry, and I felt that I had to take responsibility for their actions.” He bowed once more, staying low this time. He heard Clarine gasp audibly, but he refused to raise his head until Rana acknowledged his actions.

            “Ya forgot to add ‘of the Goblin clan’ right there at tha end. It’s very important, ya know.” She said simply.

            “My apologies.” He replied back.

He heard her snicker, and raised his head to find her grinning from pointy ear to ear. Her shoulders were shaking, but not out of anger, but sheer amusement, as if trying to hold it in. It wasn’t long before she burst into her hearty gale of laughter.

            “Yer a strange one, human!” she said, laughing until she fell to the ground, rolling around and clutching at her sides! “Yer the first human I’ve met who would ever say he loved a Ouowaw!” She said, her eyes watering because she was laughing so hard.

            “D-do y-y-you r-really mean that…?” He heard Clarine say, very softly, almost a whisper carried away on the breeze. He turned to her, and without a word, pulled her towards him, until she fit snugly in his arm, and with his free arm, raised her chin and brushed his lips lightly against her own. “Aye, I do.” He said tenderly. “Regardless of how, or why we met, or even whether you are human or a “Devil”, to me, you will always be Clarine, the girl I fell in love with.  You are uniquely you, and nothing anyone can say, human or otherwise, will change how I feel about you.” He smiled at her, and used his hand to wipe away the tears still left on her face. It was useless, however, as she sniffed, and started crying all over again, and buried her face in his chest, clinging tightly to him. However, this time, her tears were those of happiness. He squeezed her hand gently, and felt her squeeze back in return. A short distance away, Rana continued to laugh and laugh at the happy pair.

           

            “Rana,” he asked of her, once her laughter finally subsided. “What happened to the river that used to run through here?” Hoping that a traveling merchant as herself would know many things about this strange world he found himself in, perhaps even of knowledge of where the river that brought him here went. Clarine was snuggling peacefully against him, her tears subsiding. 

            “Is tha what ya were cryin’ about earlier?” she replied casually. “It dried up a year ago.”

            “The river did what.” he replied flat out.

“The. ri-ver. dried. up.” She repeated, one word at a time.

            “That’s impossible! How could such a huge river dry up in such a short time!?”

”…Heh?” Rana asked. “Didn’t ya know? This river only flows for a day, once a hundred years, boy!” She cried out. “Supposedly, it’s because it’s a portal to ‘nother world, but I don’t believe it.”

“Well…start believing.” He stated heavily, and explained to Rana and Clarine what happened, and how he arrived in their world.

            “EEEEHHHH!?!?!?” Clarine and Rana exclaimed simultaneously.

 “That’s impossible!” Rana and Clarine cried out.

 “Says the girl who lived for over a century and the girl who can make dimensions inside of a pot.” He retorted.

            The two girls looked at each other, and broke out into uneasy grins. “Ahahaha….” they laughed lightly.

            “Well, it would explain why ya didn’t know about us Mamono.” Rana said at last.     

            “Or why he couldn’t speak Common; at first.” Clarine added.

 “Rana, what is that word you keep saying? Ouowaw.”

            “No, no, no. It’s Ma, mo, no. Say it with me now. Ma, mo, no.”

 “Ma…mo…no.” he said slowly.

            “Good!” she said happily. “Now…how should I put this. ‘Mamono’ is a general term, that refers to creatures such as myself and Clari here, among many others recorded in that encyclopedia ya damaged.” She added, with a glare that made him grin sheepishly back at her.

            She sighed. “If I’m ta believe yer story, that means ya don’t have any money to pay for the goods you just damaged, but I’m a forgiving gal; since I like ya, I’ll give that to ya as a gift; free of charge.” She grinned as the two thanked her for her generosity.

“HOWEVER-” She loomed darkly over him, her glare piercing though him like a drilling bore, “the next time ya damage my goods without payin’ for them first, I’m gonna hafta to teach ya a lesson about mindin’ other people’s possessions….” For a moment, he could have sworn her horns had grown to twice their size, and he almost imagined a devil’s tail sprouting from her lower back. “Is tha clear?” She finished with a childish grin.

            “Yes ma’m.” he said, cowed. Clarine patted his pack in comfort. “So then, human and Clari, what are ya goin’ to do now?”

            “What do you mean?” he asked naively.

 “Tha way I see it, you had- mind ya, had, two choices.” She held up a finger to demonstrate. “The first, being to stay here with Clari and live out your life in this forest, where many other Mamono roam wild. To be honest, I’m surprised ya did not see any on yer way out; or in, for tha matter.” She then stuck up a second finger. “Tha second choice ya had, -keyword bein’ had, would have been to escape and live the rest of ya short lifespan in the nearby human village.” She lowered her finger and pointed towards the south east.

“What do you mean, had?” the man asked of her.

 “Clari, could you kindly read the last paragraph on page two of the encyclopedia?” Clarine obeyed with a nod, and flipped open to the aforementioned page.

            “PS. By order of the Palace, it is forbidden to publicly carry this book. In order that citizens do not slacken in their self-defense, all citizens taken away by Mamono will be killed. Disseminating the information in this book is strictly forbidden. –The Palace Mamano Task Force Headquarters.” She read off matter of fact-ly.

“As Clari so kindly read for us,” at which Rana rubbed her hand on top of her head kindly, “ Any human who has lain with a Mamono will be killed. In other words, ya would be put to the sword…if ya were lucky.”

            He gulped at the implications. “If I were lucky?”

 “Well, if ya weren’t, you’dve probably been tortured, and then killed with yer corpse hung in public as a warning ta tha other humans to stay away from us.”

“Why…why would they do something like that!?” he asked angrily.

“Easy there, human.” Rana said soothingly. “Unlike ya, humans born here in our world, they fear us Mamono. They call us monsters, and spit on our kind. They view us as the spawns of devils come to ruin and corrupt their peaceful living.”

She looked away, sighing deeply. “In a way, they are justified in their fear. Some of Mamono kind, they sneak into their villages, kidnapping men. Others assault travelers on the road.” She looked back at him, with a long and serious gaze. “Every Mamono species is entirely female, ya see. Without human males, we would all have died out already.” She looked at Clarine, and then at him in turn, before continuing her explanation. “What scares them the most, however, is that every child we Mamono, without exception, bear is a female Mamono child, identical to the race of her mother. Yer human brethren are afraid that they will slowly dwindle into nothingness, fearing that less human children will be born, and tha their villages will succumb to all of Mamono kind.” She finished her lengthy explanation, and sat down cross-legged before them.

 “So what shall it be, human? Will you honor yer word and stay here, with Clarine, amongst the Mamono of the forest, risking yerself to falling prey to their wiles? Or shall you turn yerself in to yer fellow humans, and hope for a merciful death? Either decision ye make, I won’t condemn ye for it.”

           

He glanced down at Clarine for but a moment, then turned back immediately to Rana with his decision.

“I stay with Clarine.” He said firmly, without hesitation or fear. He could feel Clarine fidget against him, obviously pleased, and Rana beamed at him.

            “Glad ta hear it!” she boomed.

“Rana.” He said to her, which she met with her grin and answered “What tis it?” “You said you’re a traveling merchant, do you plan on stopping by this forest often?” The look on her face told him she was considering it.

            “Tha depends, are ya still gonna be here with Clari when ‘a do?” she asked.

He grinned and said, “count on it.” “Then I guess I better mark this place a stop on ma trade route then!” she declared boisterously, pulling a folded piece of parchment, and unfolding it to reveal a huge map of the world.

           

Several X’s marked a trail along a good portion of the region they currently resided in. With a large black piece of strange material, she etched a small black x near the place that marked the dried out river and the nearby forest on her map.

            “So then, human.” She asked after she returned her map to it’s pouch. “Where are ya and Clari plannin’ do now?”

“Hmm…” he muttered. Then louder, he said, “I have a plan, but I need to ask of you a favor, Rana.”

            “Aye, and what that be, lad?” She asked cautiously.

 “How do you feel about allowing me to accrue a tab with you?

            “My interest rates don’t come cheap ya know.”

            “That doesn’t matter, I’ll pay you back every cent I owe.”

“How do you plan to make money?”

 “Whatever it takes to support Clarine.”

The boisterous goblin eyed him for a while, then laughed whole heartedly. “Aye, that be a good answer, human! I’ll take you on, but mark my words, you will pay what you owe me.” She grinned, meaning everything she just said. “Now then, what is it that ya need? I have just about anything ya might need!”

            And so the man called off a long list of supplies: new clothes, ropes and twine, various tools for tilling the land, water buckets, and many other sundries. One by one, amazingly, Rana produced them again and again from inside the seemingly endless storage space of her pack, piling them before him.

            “Thank you, Rana.” He said, when she finished piling everything on the ground, producing a smaller pack from inside her larger one, and storing it all inside for him. “I just have last item on my mind.”

            “Aye, what is, lad?” she replied. She was doing the calculations on the prices, quickly writing them down on a sheet of parchment. She pulled out a small pair of glasses from her side pouch and had placed them on her tiny nose. She didn’t bother to look up.

            “Should you have them, I would like to purchase and add to my tab, a matching pair of rings.” He said calmly yet firmly.

            Clarine gasped and put her hands to her mouth, finally letting go of his hand for the first time since they left her pot back in the forest clearing. Rana’s hand stopped moving across the parchment as she looked up at him, and her tiny spectacles fell from her face. She made no move to pick them up, her face clearly expressing the shock she felt.

            “Y-y-ya m-mean…?” Rana managed to stutter, he mouth dropping open in her stupor. The man grinned widely.

            “Indeed I do.” He said simply. He reached with both of his hands, grabbing hold of Clarine’s sides and lifting her from his lap, placing her down in front of him as Rana hurriedly dug through her pack, flinging various items wildly into the air. It wasn’t long before she produced a tiny wooden box, with a tiny golden latch on the front. She handed it to the man, who opened it, finding two golden bands. He took one into his hand, and then offered it to Clarine as he said to her; “Clarine. Would you make me the happiest man alive, and do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

            Clarine offered her left hand to him, trembling happily as he slipped the ring onto her third finger. “Yes!” she managed to cry out, with the very same smile that he loved so much. He slipped the other ring onto his own hand, and grasped her ring hand with his own. The two rings met, along their fingers, glistening brightly with the sun’s reflected rays.

“Rana, would you do the honors?” he asked of the awestruck goblin.

“Are ya sure ya want me to do it?” She asked him, uncertain. “Wouldn’t ya want someone more…qualified, than a traveling merchant?”

            It was Clarine who spoke up first. “I-…we, want you to do it, Rana.” She said firmly, leaning against the man she loved.

“W-well, if that’s what ye want,” she replied, unable to say no to either of them. She fished her specs off of the floor, placing them back on the bridge of her nose, and reached into her pack, returning with yet another book, this time a navy blue. She quickly flipped the pages halfway through. Using her finger, she stabbed a point in the book. Before she began to read, however, she stopped and looked up. “I’m afraid I am only acquainted with the ceremony we Goblins used, in ages past, long before we became an all-female race.” She glanced at the two before continuing. “ Does this not bother any of ye?”

            The two of them looked at each other, and then at the same time nodded their agreement to use the goblin ceremony.

“Do ye man of the earth, son of Gnome and Undine, take thy bride that sit’eth beside ye, to love and to cherish, to protect and hold her and never let go? If ye shall, give yer oath to Gnome and thy pledge to yer bride and state that ya do.”

 He wrapped his arm around Clarine tenderly as she leaned against his side. “I do.” He responded in accordance to the goblin ceremony.

Rana then turned to Clarine, and continued to read. “Do ye woman of the fire, daughter of Gnome and Ignis, take thy groom that is thy pillar, to love and to cherish, to defend and hold him and never let go? If ye shall, give yer oath to Gnome and they pledge to yer groom and state that ya do.”

Clarine squeezed against him softly, and repeated “I do.”

 “Now, in accordance with the ancient Goblin rites, I who preside o’er the union, Rana de Tlaloc vi Rumstrue Leyline, invoke the rites of the bond!” She raised her massive club skyward as she finished her line. “Suffer none who shalt strive to sunder thy bond, as thee are as one. As decreed by the Goblin King of old, rise together, not as man and woman, but as husband and wife.”

Rana shut the book ceremoniously, and placed her club on the ground, and motioned for the two to rise.

“Stand, and rejoice, for ye are as one.” She finished.

“Well?” she said, prodding the man. “What are ya waiting for, an invitation?! Aren’t ya gonna kiss yer beautiful new bride?” she prompted mischievously.

He didn’t give her the opportunity for her to tell him twice.

From that moment onward, as he kissed his new bride deeply as her face turned a beautiful shade of scarlet, he knew that the rest of their lives together was just beginning.