“She lives on the top of that hill, so we have to climb it.” Tara declared with a concerned face. She was still supporting me while we walked, and the boulder was at least a hundred meters tall. I was struggling a bit because of the sand swallowed my foot and it was hard to keep my balance, but I recovered quickly all things considered. I was still severely exhausted, and all my muscles ached.
That was when it hit me. Why the hell am I even walking? I ignited a bit of xin and soupified the air around me. All the weight pushing me down disappeared, and a dull, burning pressure came in its place as my xin veins suffered under the repeated loads. But it was still better than walking and crawling up the hill the normal way. My body was exhausted, so I decided not to use it. I was floating with Neo next to Tara who was struggling in the sand.
“Funny. At least you won’t collapse like this, just gently float away when you lose consciousness.”
“Well, someone’s all stingy despite being carried all the way here.” I poked back at her.
“It was the best three hours of my life, fearing for our lives the whole time.”
“Well, sorry it wasn’t a first-class seat. Next time I’ll serve some champagne.” She let out a quiet chuckle. It was nice fooling around like this, much better than drowning in awkwardness. I decided not to let the drama bother me and just go with the flow. We have priorities as well.
We reached the first steps. It wasn’t steep, but a gentle slope as it coiled around the massive structure. I pushed myself along gently along the carved wall. It must have been made a while ago, as it was apparent the elements started to eat away at the stone.
“So, who’s this person we’re going to meet?” I asked Tara on the way up.
“Her name’s Anubis, and she’s an interesting character to say the least. I think you’ll get along fine, but she doesn’t really like me.”
“Why is that?”
“We don’t exactly have matching principles. She won’t help unless she gets something out of the deal, and when I asked for her help, she turned me down. I didn’t have anything to pay her.” She looked upset at her. I don’t know what the circumstances were here, but I hoped it didn’t affect our chances of her helping us.
“So do you have something to pay her now?” I asked after thinking about it a bit.
“What I have is a plan. It is a long shot, and I’ll need your help with it. Also, please be on your guard, she can see into your soul.”
“What does that even mean.” I let out a defeated sigh. I guess I won’t know until I meet her, which would be quite soon I imagine.
Just as we were reaching the top, and a few tropical trees peeked out from behind the corner, we heard the voice of a very angry woman.
“Identify yourselves.”
Tara immediately answered her. “I’m Tara, we’ve met before. We came to trade.” She just shouted it to the stone, but after a few moments of silence, a barely visible barrier was removed from in front of us. It was completely invisible until it started to move, and the air around it began to ripple and distort.
“Come in then.” She sounded really grumpy, and I began to worry. I hoped Tara knew what she was doing.
“Let’s go,” she declared, and we started to climb the final steps. I changed back to walking mode as soon as we heard the voice, just in case we needed to fight, I was still not confident in my ability to fly while in combat.
We took step after step, and finally reached the oasis. It was a contained ecosystem, with dozens of tropical trees, vines, small birds and small wildlife. It even had a creek with a waterfall, that poured into a small pond. Under the waterfall, the small lake’s surface rippled and danced in the sunlight, small droplets sparkled in the air. It would’ve been beautiful if I wasn’t constantly on guard, looking for enemies behind every tree.
Tara seemed to know exactly where to go, and sure enough, behind the central, largest tree, there was a sandstone stair leading down into some kind of basement. It was beautifully carved out, and it was massive. We had to take large steps carefully, and I almost fell again. After slowly descending the huge stairs, we found ourselves in a cave. It was also carved out, and it was a gigantic room with one side completely open, and we had a beautiful view of the desert. It was like a wall-to-wall window, and I imagined it would’ve been very expensive to live in a place like this a thousand and so years ago.
It combined modern with naturalistic styles and gave off a mesmerizing aura. “Wow.” I exclaimed accidentally. I knew we were in a possibly hostile environment, but this place completely captivated me. I suddenly stopped and stared in front of me. Because what I saw could only be Anubis.
“She” was a three-meter-tall cat, with soft golden-brown fur. Sitting like a sphynx, she carefully observed us as we entered her room. Her dark green, beautiful eyes had a piercing seriousness in them which made me quite uncomfortable.
“So, we meet again.” she opened her mouth and fully articulated, human words came out. She didn’t even have an accent. Her eyes were fixated on Tara, but after a few seconds, she looked at me. “You’re new. Explain yourself. Do you plan on drawing all the giant monsters in the area with that amount of xin pouring out of you? Do you perhaps desire… war?” Her eyes radiated a threatening amount of power and intelligence. I couldn’t help but feel like she was a deity. She commanded respect with her presence and words.
“Sorry about this, lady Anubis. We have no such intentions. We came for your help exactly because of this, he can’t control it yet.” Tara explained to her quickly. The look in Anubis’ eyes changed a bit, and the hostility changed to a careful curiosity. “Can you please help us?”
“Who do you think I am? Of course, I can help. But you know fully well, I am not charity.” It was just as Tara said. “What do you have in exchange for my aid?” Tara looked like a ghost. She was absolutely terrified. If her plan didn’t work, we were screwed. I need to meditate all day, but at night? It will all pour out and who knows what kinds of monsters will come for us.
“He has knowledge of the old world. We can give you this ancient information about the lost world.” Tara proposed nervously.
“How could this young man have any kind of…” She squinted her eyes suddenly and bored her sight into my very core. “Intriguing.” She was thinking about something for a second, then started laughing. It was nice, happy laughter, like the bubbling of the waterfall above us. “What a fantastic pair you two are… Ha-ha! A woman with a soul as old as time in a young body, and a man older than magic itself, even though his soul is barely mature enough to call an adult… Truly fascinating.” Again, I had no idea what she was even talking about, and it just reassured me that I knew nothing about Tara, and she was full of secrets. She looked at my confused face apologetically, as if to say she’ll tell me everything once I’m ready. “Also, what an interesting friend you have here as well. I accept the conditions,” she said while looking at Neo.
“Correct. His body is very old, and through the years he collected an incomprehensible amount of xin, and it’s too much for him to control. I don’t even know if it’s possible.” She had concern in her eyes. I understood that she cared for me for some reason, and she’d go through all this for my sake. But why? Why was I so important to her that she’s come back to this person that she disliked very much? I didn’t understand. But I trusted she’d tell me one day. I owed her a lot.
“How many layers do you even have? Let me see.” She stood up and took a few steps toward me. When she was so close, I could smell her fur, she sat down, back into the sphynx position. I could see in her massive eyes that she was observing me very carefully. After a few seconds of silence, when she was done, she finally spoke. “Incredible… Young man… you have 317 layers.”
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