“We are navigating the rock formations,” Pultine whispered, narrating the scene for Rusa who had no real appreciation for the journey on which he and Pultine embarked into the darkness of the Chamber of the Unseeing All-knowing.
“Can that thing see with those shiny eyes?” Rusa whispered. They were walking because it was easier to stay close and speak to one another.
“Grootslang is a noble creature and I don’t know much about his resplendent, prismatic eyes,” Pultine replied in a low voice and she pulled Rusa close so that he could see the look of anger on her face. “You are showing your ignorance, pretty boy. There are more ways to know than to see, and we are in the Chamber of the Unseeing All-knowing. The nobility here do not need to lay eyes on things to know their surroundings. Remember, it is best to keep quiet than to speak ignorance.”
Rusa nodded in the glow of Pultine’s aspect.
“Forgive me, my pristine.”
“Your boy is not of the Fonlands is he?” Grootslang said in his booming voice that seemed to vibrate the space around them.
“Don’t let a Wiiser upset you, my friend,” Pultine yelled to the giant snake. “He is good for carrying my things, I had to bring him. And he is very pretty, surely you of all the unseeing can appreciate one as pretty as my Rusa.”
“It is his beauty that saves him from my anger,” Grootslang said with a laugh. “But manners are important.”
“Forgive me, noble Grootslang,” Rusa said humbly and hung his head at the thought that he had embarrassed Pultine.
“He has the manners of his pristine, it would seem,” Gootslang said as he slithered toward the very large rock formation where he usually relaxed when he was on the disc of Sakpata.
“Have I offended you, Grote?” Pultine asked, though she knew that she had. In her surprise at seeing Grootslang in the Chamber, she’d told Rusa that she had timed this journey to avoid the large serpent and he had definitely heard her. If he wasn’t inside of his horde, he’d probably heard everything the two said since they entered the tunnel of rock more than twenty hours before.
“Oh, I’m Grote now?” Grootslang said as he slithered into the crack of a rock formation that dwarfed even him.
Rusa didn’t realize they were entering anything until the dull glow of Pultine’s aspect was reflected around the heaps of diamonds in every size that lined the expansive interior of the rock formation and he looked around himself in awe.
Grootslang slithered onto a heap of diamonds and nestled there, the massive length of his body was like a thin line in the glittering mass of the diamonds. Diamonds were scattered around the stone floor and Rusa sat on a diamond next to the one where Pultine sat close to the heaps where the serpent stared at them with sparkling eyes.
“I thought we were friends,” Pultine said. “Don’t your friends call you Grote?”
“They do, but I thought friends were eager to be in one another’s company. You meant to avoid me.”
He was insulted, Pultine wanted to kick herself for being so careless.
“Grote, do you remember when we were at the Platinum square on Gû’s disc…”
“Oh don’t bring that up,” Grootslang interrupted, seemingly embarrassed by the story Pultine meant to tell.
“No, this is important,” Pultine insisted. “It’s uncomfortable, but it explains my rudeness earlier. When we were at the Platinum square there was an awkward moment between us at the fair and we never talked about it. I thought you were inviting me to touch you the way I did. You made a gesture…”
“I remember, I was stretching and we had been laughing about how feeling feathers flap against that spot titillates me…”
“Exactly!” Pultine said. “And the look you made after I brushed my wings there made it clear that you didn’t mention it so that I would do it…”
“We were in public, Pultine! If a ninki nanka had seen that, there would have been a scandal on the volcano. I am like one of them, using mmoatia to tickle myself in public just looks lewd. I wouldn’t shun the gesture now in the privacy of my horde.”
Pultine laughed, “I’ve learned my lesson, Grote. We are just friends and I’m just going to have to deal with that.”
“And what a good friendship it is, why spoil it with intimacies? It is good to see you again, I’m glad we got that out in the open so we can enjoy the Platinum square together again. It’s been a while since I’ve been there.”
“We will go as soon as Rusa and I finish our mission. The minute we’re done, I’ll be in touch and meet you there.”
“What is this mission, Pultine? Is that why you’re here in the Chamber?”
“It is, actually. I am here to speak with Queen Yana.”
Grootslang’s diamond eyes rolled in the sockets and he sucked his thin lips to make a dismissive sound.
“That one, I should have known. She was only chosen because I was on Gû’s disc when they chose. What do you need from her that I can’t give you?”
“I need a weapon, and she is the master metal worker.”
“Do you underestimate the effects my rarest diamonds have on you Agê dwellers?”
“I know that your collection is filled with the most precious of jewels to exist in the Fonlands,” Pultine said, “but I need a tactile weapon for this mission. Maybe you can give me something to enhance Queen Yana’s creation…”
“No,” Grootslang said quickly. “I don’t lend my expertise to her stuff. I want to show Fonlanders that I am a much more reliable source for mystical enhancements than the so-called Queen. Pultine, I should be the leader of the cave-dwellers, don’t you agree?”
Pultine nodded but said, “I am just an appreciative tourist to the disc of Gû, I can’t speak on the politics.”
“Very diplomatic of you, Pultine,” Grootslang said with a sly smile.
They talked for a while longer, Rusa sitting quietly and respectfully next to Pultine. Even though she tried to end the encounter with Grootslang, he kept talking and she humored him for fear of insulting him. Eventually Grootslang fell silent and Pultine hoped that he was done with his catching up, but he perked up from his bed of diamonds and then slithered fast to the entrance of his horde.
“An unexpected guest?” Pultine offered to Rusa when he looked at her with confusion. She flew quickly to the pile of diamonds where Grootslang had been resting and Rusa watched her zip around to three locations before she returned to his side, and then they both flew after Grootslang. As they approached him, they saw him coiled with his broad back straight up, head angled down at the entrance like he was poised to attack.
“Are you expecting someone?” Pultine asked.
“It’s nothing,” Grootslang said dismissively. “Just some annoying gold diggers approaching and I don’t have time for whatever bargains they want to make. I’m enjoying our talk, Pultine, I’ll scare them off so we can relax for a while longer. You can tell me more about your helper boy.”
Just as he finished, large ants began to crowd the entrance of the cave. In the glow of the horde that reflected Pultine’s yellow-white aspect, the two dozen ants were golden and their bodies were about two feet long from head to abdomen.
“Show respect,” Grootslang said. “Don’t run up on my horde like I won’t eat every last one of you.”
“Be easy, big guy,” one of the golden ants said and approached the extremely large snake. The ant bowed its front legs in reference. “We come full of respect for you, and with excitement to enjoy the essence of the wonderful Pultine. She is here, we can’t help but to seek it out.”
“Pultine is occupied,” Grootslang said angrily. “Find her when she leaves my horde. Go!”
“Grote, don’t be so angry,” Pultine said and the ants seemed to perk up with excitement at the sound of her voice. “I should go with the ants, they can take me to Yana so that I can meet with her quickly and then come back to talk with you. That way, my business will be done and we can enjoy our time together before I leave the Fonlands.”
Grootslang turned to look at her, his glittering eyes cast in anger by the position of his scaly skin over each of them.
“Fine, I won’t keep you from your business, but Pultine, do keep me in mind in the future when you are questing. I think you’ll find that old Grote has some enhancements that will surprise you. I will say goodbye now because I will see you at the end of your quest at the Platinum square.”
“It’s a date!” Pultine said enthusiastically and she flew out of the horde and landed just outside with Rusa close behind her. The golden ants mostly disappeared in the darkness, but they crowded around Pultine as she and Rusa walked away from Grootslang’s horde.
They walked for a while with the ants complimenting Pultine and asking her questions about her recent travels, and Pultine regaled them with tales of the things she and Rusa had seen together. Rusa was uneasy at the size of the things, insects always made him nervous, but he eventually came to like them and he told them stories of Wiis.
“Thank you all for coming,” Pultine said quietly when the enthusiasm died down. “Grote is in his horde so we’re far enough away to speak carefully.”
“We came as soon as we felt your flares,” one of the ants said. “Just like we talked about.”
“Old Grote is an essence hog,” another of the ants said. “He would trap you in his horde forever if you let him.”
“I’m glad we had the signal,” Pultine said. “I can’t risk making an enemy of that one, but he’s so easy to offend.”
“I thought you did the flares for my sake,” Rusa said, “so I could see Grootslang.”
“He thought so too,” Pultine said. “I’m glad you insisted on coming here with me, you made the deceptions much easier. It really surprised me that he’s here, I needed some of his diamonds to bring to Yana for my weapon. I thought I’d have to get past his guards, which is much easier than he thinks, but we got what we needed anyway.”
“That’s what you were doing after he heard the ants coming?” Rusa asked.
“He won’t miss them, and I won’t owe him a favor because there was no ask.” Pultine smiled sheepishly in the dull glow of her aspect and Rusa nodded, genuinely impressed at her cunning. “Sorry for being so hard on you, but you have to have favor to get favor in the Fonlands, and Grootslang likes Fonlanders with a certain bearing.”
“I’ve never heard the term Wiiser before,” Rusa said.
“Fonlander term for beings from your realm. You’re from Wiis, you’re a Wiiser. Beings from Earth are Earthers. Anyway, the throne formation is close, we’re almost there.”
“Anything I need to know about the Queen?”
Pultine nodded.
“Definitely keep your mouth shut.”
“For sure,” Rusa said. “But can I ask before we get there, what did you do to Grootslang at the Platinum square?”
Pultine couldn’t control her laughter.
“I guess I kind of groped him,” Pultine said.
“Really,” Rusa said with a look of disappointment, like the news had tarnished the woman in his mind.
“Don’t judge me, pretty boy. You’ve seen the cunning necessary to deal with Grootslang. I made my obscene gesture at the Platinum square to justify my avoiding him. It has been a long time since that happened, but there are no hurt feelings because of the misunderstanding between us. And it also helped me to excuse my casual rudeness at discovering him in the Chamber. You and I have been together for a while now, you know I do not touch without the invitation to do so.”
This made Rusa smile.
“The Pultine that I am forced to be in the Fonlands is a show, pretty boy. Very few know me like you do.”
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