Zacchaeus enjoys the forests on the Disc of Age. Currently, he lounges on the branch of a large tree that is lined with a soft moss and Coffey, the current leader of the Supreme Mmoatia, sits nearby, dangling her legs. The air is sweet like honeysuckle and it is warm; the air isn’t dry, but the humidity isn’t oppressive either.
“I shoulda came here a long time ago,” Zacchaeus says. The forest is full of sounds, but it serves as perfect ambiance and doesn’t drown out their words when they speak.
“I can’t believe y’all been here this long,” Coffee says. She has dark skin and her hair is a full afro of natural hair. “It’s been fifty years for real?”
Zacchaeus nods. “Almost. It’s funny, a lot of stuff done happened since I been here, but it’s crazy to say it out loud that I haven’t been home in fifty years. I haven’t forgotten about it, I still remember everybody and what it look like, but I’ve been here and on Bludon for so long that I don’t know, Mississippi is like a memory from a long time ago. I want to go back, but since we been here, I know that this is where I’m supposed to be. We been saying that since we got here. It’s all so crazy. We coulda left after what happened on Bludon, but it ain’t over.”
“It’s been a while but I still can’t believe that,” Coffey says. “I haven’t been in that universe in so long, I hardly remember it, and I never went to Bludon, but I can’t imagine half the people on a planet dying like that.”
“I know. If it wasn’t for this forest, and places like it on Age’s Disc, I would be fucking scared of the Fonlands. Owuo really is death. I can’t believe I talked to death, I just saw him the other day when I went to see Issac. He say he did what was best for the planet, and it was rough, but it’s hard to argue with him now that I know more about what was going on. I knew them blues was doomed when we found out about the disease, even if they looked healthy and didn’t go crazy. Owuo killed with a snap, it had to be painless, and it saved Bludon from a dark ass future.”
The two are quiet for a moment, seemingly out of respect for the deceased Bludonians.
“But I ain’t on Bludon now,” Zacchaeus says eventually. “When I go back, it’ll be to take Maxx home. I’m here now, with you.” He lifts himself up onto his elbows to smile at Coffey, who smiles back at him. She is almost half a millenia old, but she looks like a human woman in her early twenties. Zacchaeus is old, technically he is pushing a hundred, but he looks like a man in his early thirties. The two have spent a lot of time together over the years. Coffey will be forever grateful to Zacchaeus for helping her get to the Fonlands in the first place, and Zacchaeus has been in the Fonlands since he left Bludon to help in the search for Maxx, the Superguardian, who fled the Smiting Chamber deep in the caves on Sakpata’s Disc in pursuit of a way to kill Owuo.
Coffey leans over to kiss him and then she rests on his chest. They bask in the pleasantries of Age’s Disc, enjoying the presence of one another.
“I wish we could just do this,” Coffey said. “This place could be heaven. My mama woulda loved it here.”
“When we gotta go back to the Aziza Mound?” Zacchaeus asks. Since Tracia discovered that the azizas had largely fled the Disc of Age over the years, the former and current Supreme Mmoatia have taken up the mound as their residence, and it has largely returned to its primary function as a meeting place for inhabitants of the Disc to mingle with the Mmoatia who were their leaders in Age’s stead.
“Soon,” she says. “Ariel’s sister finally settled at the mound. Since they went up against Owuo and lost their uncle, Zana decided to embrace her talents. She and Zazel are more twins than Zazel’s real twin, Agiel. Leilar should be back from the Deep soon so we have to all get together. Maybe she found out something about Maxx for you.”
“I hope so, but Issac on it, he’ll get in touch when he know where to find him. I wonder if he even still in the Fonlands.”
“If he trying to find something to kill Owuo, he have to be. I hope you find him before he do something stupid and end up dying himself. I know he mean a lot to you.”
Zacchaeus is grave. “I just wish he had talked to me, I coulda went with him. But he know I woulda talked him out of it. I’ll find him before the shit hit the fan, I believe that.”
They are quiet for another moment, neither wanting to end the serenity they enjoy. But after a while, Coffey pushes up from his body, from the tree branch and her black feathered wings begin to unfold from her back. She wears a simple tunic skirt with no straps on the shoulders, so her wings spread freely behind her, and she flaps them to hover. Zacchaeus follows her, his black cape and hood materialing as he stands and he hovers next to her.
“Don’t worry,” Coffey says, ”we’ll be back.”
“I know we will,” he says as they fly in the direction of the mound.
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