Arcene: The Island (2 page)

"Oh, Fasolt, some of it was great, but some of it was awful. Why do people have to be so mean? So cruel and evil?" Arcene let the tears flow freely down her pale cheeks, let her arms drop to her sides and just stood there, a little girl in her black vest, her kilt and over-the-knee black socks with the pink bunnies stitched up the sides. And her sword, her other faithful companion apart from Leel, the one thing that told others this was no mere teenager, this girl kicks ass.

But in front of Fasolt there was no need for pretense or bravado, so she cried.

"It's all right, I'm here. It's over now. Come on, let's sit, make a fire, and you can tell me all about it." Fasolt led her to the base of the ancient tree nearly as old as him, and he smiled at her. "Be back in a minute, I have just the thing to cheer you up. Leel too."

Woof.

Arcene watched the bony, bare bum of Fasolt retreat to the toppled basket. "Why can't he wear clothes? Ugh." She sniffed and wiped her eyes with her hands, surprised at her own reaction to seeing a familiar face. No matter how much she tried to convince herself things didn't get to her, that she was fine after leaving the blue castle and traveling with Leel again for a few days, enjoying the peace and quiet, the truth was the walls she built around her emotions couldn't be held back forever — you had to let them out, be honest with yourself, or you would go mad sooner or later.

It wasn't even the death that hurt, she was used to killing, it was the fact that it was necessary at all. The nastiness of people, their cruelty and lack of consideration for others, that's what was so upsetting, not the fact she chopped off their heads.

"Stupid people. Anyway," said Arcene to Leel, sat leaning against her like she was an extension of the tree, "it's all over now. Soon we will be home and I can see my son, and you can too, can't you, Leel?"

Woof.

A huge smile spread across Arcene's face at the thought of seeing Lucien, her seven-year-old miracle, although you wouldn't think that possible when you looked at Arcene. With her outward appearance halted at fifteen, body clock stopped, she would always look, and often act, like a teenager, but she was twenty-two in reality, although it meant little.

With her body static her mind didn't develop the same as it otherwise would have, so to all intents and purposes she was a fifteen-year-old girl and always would be. Sort of. It got complicated, ever for Arcene, so she did the obvious thing and simply didn't think about it much.

"Hey, hey!"

"Eh? Oh, sorry, I was miles away." Arcene looked up to see Fasolt stood in front of her, willy dangling between his legs like another weird dreadlock. "Ugh, Fasolt, that is so gross."

"It's just nature, Arcene, nothing gross about it."

"That's easy for you to say, but you aren't sitting where I am." Arcene got to her feet then stared at Fasolt's gift. "Is that what I think it is? No way!"

Fasolt smiled. "I've been saving it. I figured you might want it after your adventure."

"Oh, wow! Yes please, yes please." Arcene tried not to hop about and do a little jig like a child seeing its mommy again.

"Okay, let's make a fire and you can tell me all about your adventure. And eat. Haha."

"I'll get the wood."

A Nice Lunch

"Leel, will you stop that!" Arcene pushed Leel's snout away from the package on the dusty ground under the shade of the tree.

Huh, huh, huh. Huh, huh, huh.

Leel panted even faster, her excitement almost too much for her to bear. Her hot breath infiltrated Arcene's nostrils, the smell of their spartan morning meal more than evident.

Leel turned her head a little and stared at Arcene out of the corner of her eye, then turned her focus back to the treat laid out on the square of leather beside the fire just getting going.

"It's no good getting all excited, it will be ages yet. Right, Fasolt?" Arcene turned to him with pleading eyes, willing him to make the fire heat up quicker so it was ready to cook the two huge trout that shone all the colors of the rainbow as their iridescent scales caught the strong early afternoon sunlight through the sparse leaves of the bent tree.

"Haha, afraid so. But once the fire is ready it will only take a few minutes to cook. Leel, why don't you go get us some sticks so we can be all prepared to cook?" Fasolt smiled at Leel as her ears pricked up; she ran off to hunt.

"She'd never do that for me," complained Arcene. "She'd just stare at me like she didn't have a clue what I was talking about."

"That's because she knows you so well, Arcene. She knows what she can get away with."

"S'pose so." Arcene smiled. "I don't mind though, she's a great dog, the best. You should have seen her, Fasolt, she's been so well-behaved. Um, apart from an 'incident' with a moat."

"I'm sure. Now, are you going to tell me about your time away? I can see that there has been a lot of fun, but plenty of sadness too."

Arcene knew better than to hold it in, so with a sigh she told her story. "Well, we saw this castle, and it was painted blue..."

Arcene had known Fasolt for years, having lived at The Commorancy for as long as her. He was once a very bad man, evil on a scale impossible to imagine, but had been reborn after his son tried to kill him, finally washing up on the shore a changed man, understanding all the terrible things he had done in his life, the thousands upon thousands of lives he had ruined through his own actions and the warping of his son into a man that tried to eradicate what remained of humanity post-Lethargy.

For years Fasolt found it almost impossible to accept that people cared for him, enjoyed talking to him, liked his company. After all, he'd spent over three hundred years believing that others were nothing but dirt, undeserving of the least bit of kindness.

B
efore The Lethargy even happened he was a bad man: a cruel human being, a bad husband and a terrible father. And when he Awoke just after The Lethargy took almost every person on the planet, he truly became a nasty man by any standards.

He spent more and more time in The Noise, the place that was no place, the reality behind the facade of what most people thought of as the world. Immersed, he learned its secrets, learned how to control his own mind and those of other people, could enter the minds of animals with ease, could see the truth of the world and how everything was connected, much like Arcene could, but on a much deeper level.

He was incredibly powerful and had almost succeeded in putting an end to The Commorancy itself, wiping out centuries of hard work by Marcus, the founder, whose aim was to help humanity come through the terrible times and one day rebuild the world and make it better than it had ever been.

Luckily, Fasolt failed, had become a new man, the terrible things he had done a weight around his neck that nearly made him give up and enter The Void, but he'd remained alive, had helped where he could and was accepted by his new family as a man saved for a purpose. They forgave him.

Fasolt was one of the people Arcene cared for, obviously her young son coming first. She joked about how annoyed she got because he refused to ever wear clothes — he saw no point as he could change his temperature so easily to suit whatever environment he found himself in — but she loved him dearly, even if expressing such sentiments came hard for them both.

Their past meant that love, and showing it, was often the last thing on their minds. Arcene had been alone for most of her childhood and the overriding concern was always survival. Now it was food — just like Leel, she could never get enough.

"Leel! You little sneak!" Leel bounded off with the tail of the fish sticking out of her mouth. She turned and stared at Arcene, then swallowed it before she could do anything.

"Haha, that's what you get when you daydream," said Fasolt. He handed Arcene a piece of succulent flesh and continued to eat.

"I guess so, but still." Arcene turned to the fast-retreating Leel, already distracted by a bird flapping about in the grass some distance away. "You naughty girl." Arcene turned back to Fasolt. "Thanks for listening, I feel better already."

"We're family, right?" Arcene nodded. "Well then, no need to apologize. It sounds like a lot of it was fun, and certainly interesting, but I won't put it on my list of places I want to visit. Ugh, those people at the blue castle sound crazy. Cup of tea?"

"Ooh, yes please. I haven't had a proper cuppa for ages. You got sugar?" Fasolt stared at her like she had well and truly lost her mind. "Sorry, of course you have."

"You know me so well." Fasolt rummaged around in his thin leather satchel that hung by his side, as much a constant companion as Arcene's sword. Fasolt had no need for a sword — if he wanted he could shut you down, turn your mind to nothing but goop quicker than Arcene could ever pull out her weapon and slice. And she was fast, very fast.

Fasolt pulled teabags and sugar from his pouch and poured steaming water from the battered metal kettle into two fine bone-china teacups, complete with saucers. Arcene said nothing, didn't even think of it as unusual — Fasolt liked his home comforts even if he was in the middle of nowhere.

It was a far cry from the centuries he had lived deep underground, covered in grime and the detritus of years, never washing and hardly connecting with the real world. All that was a long time ago, but the tales he had told Arcene would give her nightmares if she ever let them.

They sat and sipped on their piping-hot tea. Arcene felt like she was almost home, the comfort of the familiar taste brought with it a real sense of what she was missing. "I can't wait to get back. It feels like it's been a lifetime."

"Me too. It will be great to sleep in my own bed again. It's been a little rough out here."

"How come you didn't go home after you dropped me off?" asked Arcene, keen to hear about his adventures now she'd shared hers.

"I fell asleep." Fasolt looked embarrassed, almost.

"Huh?"

"I fell asleep," he said again, almost a whisper.

"Well, so did I. We did loads of dozing."

"No, I mean I feel asleep the whole time. I woke up this morning as it was the day I was supposed to come get you."

"You fell asleep for weeks? What, like a bear hibernating?"

"I guess so. Probably all the fresh air," he muttered.

"Yeah, or you're getting old." Arcene stared at Fasolt. He looked the same as he always had. A skinny, naked man in his thirties and he always would, just like she would remain fifteen for what could be thousands of years.

Fasolt stopped as he was about to take a sip of his tea, pinkie finger poking out how you were supposed to hold such delicate china, and frowned at Arcene. "No, it isn't that. I've got plenty of years left in me yet, plenty."

"Well, what is it then?"

"Nothing, I just fancied a nap."

"Oh. Um, okay."

Arcene knew there was no point asking more, as Fasolt could be secretive at times. He had seen so much, knew so much, that sometimes it was hard to fathom him. After all, this was probably one of only a couple of people in the whole world that had grown up before The Lethargy. He had a very different perspective on the world as it now was than youngsters like Arcene who knew nothing but crumbling cities and empty countryside where people were few and far between and the survival of the whole human race hung in the balance.

Leel trotted back over, tail down, sad that she had failed to catch anything on her hunt.

"Never mind, Leel, we'll be home soon and you can eat as much as you want," said Fasolt. Leel perked up, and her eyes glinted with mischief.

"Uh-oh, you better look out."

"Haha, I know. She's so cheeky." It was too late, Leel went in for another full face lick. There was nothing to do but go with it — when a dog as large as her decides it wants to lick you there is nothing to do but take your punishment.

After Leel had finished slobbering over Fasolt he wiped his face and said, "Right, let's pack up and get that monstrosity in the air. And this is the last time, the very last time. Damn thing's a death trap."

"Home. That sounds nice." Arcene smiled at the thought of wrapping her son tight in her arms. How she'd missed him.

Pleasant Views

Arcene broke camp while Fasolt spent a half hour setting the hot air balloon up ready for their journey home. She was about to dig a hole to bury the scraps from their lunch, a habit that ensured no animals were attracted, when she realized that it was rather pointless: they were leaving and there were no scraps — Leel had eaten everything left, including the fish bones.

After dousing the fire with water, Arcene joined Leel and Fasolt at the base of the balloon. She admired the huge contraption, now fully inflated and pulling at the tethers holding the basket tight to the ground. The last trip had been great fun, partly because of the feeling of freedom, partly because Fasolt had acted like a baby and kept screaming as they rushed through the air like an out-of-control bird. Sometimes Arcene felt she should be scared when she wasn't — that particular emotion seemed to be missing from her genetic makeup.