Chapter 13

The other Forms watched with curiosity as Jennifer scrambled about the room, her dark hair sprawled half-hazardly across her face and her eyes manic and sleepless. Though they couldn’t exactly figure out what she was up to one thing seemed to stand out pretty clearly, Jennifer was going to leave.

“Aye love!” Freddy shouted at the neurotic bug-eyed Jennifer, “What exactly are ya up to”? She barely even processed that she was being spoken to. Lyla scoffed at the whole scene, and spun round toward the exit, her flowers calling to her. There was a slightly worried series of polite squeaks emerging from Claudia who just continued to repeat the phrase, ‘oh dear,’ over and over again. But Freddy was the one who finally grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around to face him,

“Love, I’m gonna need ya to slow down a sec and level with us, what in Destiny’s name are ya doin”? Jennifer’s eyes blinked rapidly, like a sleep walker finally waking back up only to see that they’re naked in their kitchen.

“James…” She mumbled, the only word on her mind at that moment.

“Yeah, what about em”? The whole room watched, none of them really all that surprised that a human would be acting strange, but thoroughly entertained watching it.

“I…” She slapped herself garnering a giggle from the crowd, but effectively returning her some sentience, “I have to find him!” She shouted suddenly, Freddy took a step back.

“O-Okay, sure, but why now…?” He wondered basically to himself since Jennifer had already scurried off to the back in search of something. The gang of Forms that knew her followed after, the rest hung back still wanting to watch, but not really wanting to join in on the action.

“Jennifer you’re acting so odd, are you feeling alright”? Claudia fumbled anxiously, the mention of James making her nervous, she had quite liked that young man.

“Death!” Jennifer shouted in reply, her head buried in splintered wooden crates as she shoveled out useless bottles. Everyone within ear shot froze, that name wasn’t one they were fond of hearing.

“What do ya mean Death”? Freddy asked, convinced Jennifer may have simply snapped. Jennifer turned to reply, frustrated at the interruption, but she quickly realized she didn’t have an answer, like someone awoken from a dream convinced that they have a pet dragon outside only to run out to pet it and realize half way down the steps that something about the notion seems a bit off. In Jennifer’s head all the pieces fit together quite nicely, but saying them aloud suddenly brought a great deal of questions to light. But she shook her head, none of that mattered, whatever this feeling was the overwhelming conclusion still amounted to the same things, she needed to save James.

“James is in danger, do y’all have any food”? The Forms shrugged, not really phased by some random human being in danger, but oddly perplexed that they’d never bothered to stock the place with food. As Forms none of them needed to eat and the drinks they stocked weren’t exactly for quenching thirst in the traditional sense, so they had never really considered it before now.

“We can get ya food love, but how in the world do ya know he’s in danger”?

“I just do,” Jennifer retorted as she headed toward Adam’s office. Freddy intercepted her and blocked her path, concern plastered across his face,

“Is it possible yere just feeling a wee bit guilty on account of well… ya know…” He hoped she did because he didn’t much feel like saying it.

“What? No.” She scoffed as she made another attempt for the door, but Freddy again stood in the way.

“It’s totally normal if ya do, but the situation hasn’t changed! If ya go out there now all alone then yere as good as dead!”

“He’s out there alone,” She replied sharply, these interruptions wearing her nerves thin, “now let me through!” She commanded, but Freddy held his ground,

“Adam’ll never let ya go love, rules are rules ya know.” Confident in his position he allowed her to push past him and walk into Adam’s office,

“I’m leaving!” She yelled in through the door,

“Good riddance,” Adam replied, never looking up from his papers. She smiled, closing the door and walking past a slack jawed Freddy. As she walked toward the exit she heard a small voice vying for her attention,

“Psssssssssssst, Jennifer,” She swung her head around to see a small child, barely over seven years old sitting in one of the side booths, sipping on a glass of water.

“I’m sort of in a rush…” Jennifer explained awkwardly, entirely unaware that there had been a child in the room the whole time.

“Oh… My appearance is throwing you off isn’t it”? The girl giggled. Before Jennifer could respond the little girl stuck her fingers into the glass of water, at which point they morphed into tiny fins and soon the rest of her body followed suit until Jennifer was face to face with a really tiny Meerous gliding about in the water cup.

“Meerous!” Jennifer beamed, her voice high and her smile unhindered.

“Nope,” The little serpent laughed, “but I am related to her.” A single eyebrow raise was attempted by a quite confused Jennifer,

“Are you one of the other oceans”?

“Not an ocean either.” The serpent winked. Jennifer was growing frustrated,

“Then what the hell are you?!” She hissed, not wanting to raise her voice and regain the attention of the other Forms.

“Oh dear, James seemed to think you were smarter than this.” The shoulderless serpent somehow managed to shrug.

“You know James?!” The little cup serpent nodded her little head,

“He spoke to me before he left, asked me for some supplies, supplies I’d like to offer you.”

“What sort of supplies”?

“Water,” Jennifer moved to interrupt and point out that she figured she could get water, but the serpent raised a fin, “I don’t simply mean a glass of water, I mean an unlimited supply of water, all kept within an easily carried bottle.”

“How is that…?” Jennifer began to ask when the full weight of her stupidity dawned on her, “You’re Alania! The Form of water right”? The little serpent seemed pleased to hear her name.

“It’s about time you caught up! I’d been meaning to talk to you since you got here. What you did for Meerous was so kind, she really needed someone like you. She’s always been one of my most stubborn children…” Alania sighed. A question popped into Jennifer’s head, one she’d wanted to ask for a while now but never had the courage, figuring the answer might ruin her place here, but since she was leaving…

“Why didn’t you help her yourself!?” Jennifer demanded, startling the little serpent, “You could have gone out and saved her anytime you wanted, but you hid down here instead!” Alania lowered her head slightly, clearly having struggled with this before,

“Jennifer… I wanted to, but I couldn’t.” Alania spoke slowly and, before Jennifer could interrupt she quickly regained her composure, “There’s a lot you don’t understand about Forms, but something you need to keep in mind moving forward is this, if a higher Form dies then all the Forms below them die as well.” That came as a bit of a shock. Jennifer remembered back to Eldritch and his genuine concern when Squawk had come up, she’d figured he’d just been being a good son, but now…

“So if you die out there then…”

“Meerous would die to, that’s right.” They sat in silence for a moment,

“So this bottle you mentioned…” Jennifer decided to change the subject, not wanting to cause the poor girl anymore shame.

“Yes! The bottle, is not special, so if you could just bring me any bottle I can make it special.” Jennifer shrugged and went and found herself a bottle, one with a bird on it, possibly an eagle, if it was Eldritch’s then that was a double win,

“Will this work”? Not sure what exactly the parameters for this unending bottle trick were.

“Yes, that’ll do quite nicely!” Alania returned to her human form, and the little girl pinched herself until a single tear rolled down her cheek into the bottle. “There you go!” She exclaimed proudly as she handed Jennifer the bottle, now filled to the brim with water. Jennifer looked it over skeptically,

“Looks kinda the same to me…” She mumbled.

“Drink it, then you’ll see.” Alania assured her. Jennifer sighed and took a swig and laid the bottle down, surprised to see that the bottle was just as full as it was before. Not sure if her eyes were simply playing tricks on her she again picked up the bottle and began chugging as much of it as she could before she finally let out a large gasp and slammed it back onto the table. The bottle remained full. Alania smiled gleefully,

“See! Infinite water right there!” Jennifer thanked her, tied the bottle to her waist and trekked up top, still wondering what she was going to do about food.

On the surface she noticed that a large slew of the garden had now been replaced with odd plants the likes of which Jennifer had never seen. Lyla sat against the tree watching an older woman tending to these new plants, each one of them with strange colorful objects hanging off of them, some red, some blue, others black, others yellow, many of them quite small, but some of them were really large, like these big green behemoths that laid strewn out across the ground. Small tufts of green sprouted from the ground at random intervals as the older woman clad in overalls and a wicker hat inspected each of them individually, humming with approval at their growth.

Jennifer approached Lyla and, before she could even ask Lyla began grumbling,

“She spends all her time in the corner complaining and then the second I finally get my garden back she swoops in and takes over, stupid bitch.”

“But who is she and what’s with the weird plants”? Jennifer asked, not surprised that another Form had managed to piss Lyla off.

“That’s my mom, Form of all vegetation and royal pain in the ass. As for those weird plants, well those are fruit and vegetable bearing plants, garbage plants that only serve to keep meat sacks alive.

“So those things are edible”? Jennifer mused.

“Yep, good news for you. Oh, before I forget,” Lyla ripped something out from a hole in the tree and shoved it in Jennifer’s hand.

“What’s th-” Lyla raised a hand,

“Mom wanted you to have it, said if I gave it to you then she’ll give me back my half of the garden.” Jennifer opened her hand to see a tiny little garden growing on a stone about the size of a baseball, all of those fruit and vegetable bearing plants organized into little sections. “If you pick any of those fruit or vegetables off then they’ll grow to their full size, should keep you from starving out there.”

“Thank you!” Jennifer exclaimed.

“Don’t thank me, thank her,” She stuck her thumb over to the old woman who was pretending not to listen, “she said that it’d been too long since a human enjoyed the benefits of the field or some crap.” Jennifer remembered back to her first impression of Lyla, funny how quick things can change.

Offering a goodbye that Lyla entirely ignored, Jennifer made her way over to Helios, still standing alone staring up at her children. Before Jennifer could even say a word Helios began to muse,

“I’d have kept her alive forever, suffering, trapped, and all these beautiful sons and daughters of mine would’ve never shined again…” She turned to face Jennifer, “If it wasn’t for James that is.” She spoke his name with no love, no admiration, but a deep-rooted respect.

“I’m going after him.” Jennifer had yet to say the words so confidently, and with the rolling snowy hills ahead of her, this was the time to mean it.

“I know, and I wish you luck,” She smiled sympathetically, “but when you find him I…” She paused and took a prolonged breath, then regained her smile, “I hope you’ll try to see things from his perspective.” Before Jennifer could ask what the hell she meant by that, Helios had already turned away to kneel down in the snow, her face focused intently on a patch of grass amidst the snow, separated from the rest. From the patch she gently lifted a single bright light from the ground and, cradling it gently, brought it over to Jennifer. “This is Solaris, he decided to stay behind.” Jennifer didn’t exactly know what she was supposed to do with that information, she figured she should greet the little star since he had a name and all… but how exactly does someone greet a star?

“Uh… Nice to meet you Solaris…” The delivery was as awkward as expected, especially since the star offered no sign it cared she’d made the effort. But Jennifer had to smile when Helios burst into a fit of giggles,

“Oh Jennifer!” She took a moment, covering her mouth, clearly embarrassed to have lost control like this, “of all the humans I’ve met you’ve got to be the cutest. I’m sure if Solaris had a little hand he’d by happy to shake yours.” Despite her regal appearance Jennifer couldn’t help but be amused at how dorky her laugh was, Helios seemed to pop every couple of breaths like hiccups, at which point her face would turn bright red and she’d raise her sleeve to cover it, that is until she thought she’d finished, but the second the sleeve lowered she’d, ‘pop’ again and the whole process repeated. That in addition to the fact that the current fit entirely was self-inflicted by a joke that wasn’t even that funny, caused Jennifer to burst out laughing as well. Lyla snapped her face toward them, a scowl of frustration and confusion met nothing but laughter that only grew louder when they saw her. Slightly humiliated, Lyla turned back to glare at her mom a bit longer.

“Oh my…” Helios fanned herself with her free hand, “I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time.” Jennifer found that hard to believe see, she figured if she’d made even the slightest funny face Helios may suffocate from laughter right then and there. “What were we talking about”? She wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye, the tear burned brightly, like smoldering gold until she flicked it out toward the heavens where it exploded into another star.

“Um, you were introducing me to Solaris…”

“Yes! Solaris wants to come with you!” Despite his lack of a mouth, eyes, eyebrows, or face in general, the star somehow managed to look exactly like the child who shows up for the Christmas pageant scowling as his mother takes his picture and demands he smile more.

“That’s really not necessary…” Now the star somehow made it perfectly known that her saying the wrong thing right now would result in her untimely death, fear aside Jennifer actually found his expressive nature quite impressive considering his limitations.

“Oh no I insist! He’s not sentient,” Jennifer found that impossibly hard to believe, “and I’ve placed a blocker on him to keep any Conversions from occurring, your welcome!”

“You’re saying he could converge with me?!” Even after discovering the process wasn’t exactly voluntary for humans, she hadn’t considered that a nonconverted Form might see her as a viable host.

“Could’ve, but won’t, I made sure of it.” Helios thought that must’ve reassured Jennifer enough, so she moved on, it had not. “While he’s with you he won’t assume his true form and destroy the planet-” Jennifer was taking a lotta steps back on the reassured front right then, “but he is useful, he can keep you warm, melt that pesky snow and, close your eyes for a second,” Jennifer started to ask why when Solaris began to glow, she snapped them shut just quick enough to avoid being blinded. The flash exploded so brightly that, even with her eyes closed Jennifer still had to take a moment or two to blink away the white light that staggered her vision. “So,” Helios continued, clearly not the least bit worried about a nearly blinded Jennifer frantically blinking, “that should help if any of those Deathless pursue you, just make sure you close your eyes before asking him to do it or you will likely be blinded permanently.”

“Great, glad to have you watching out for me…” The sarcasm flew right over Helios’ head.

“You’re welcome, now off you go!” She shooed Jennifer away as the little star followed after her, the star now imparting the clear message that Jennifer hadn’t tried hard enough and he’s going to get her for this, Jennifer wondered if she was just imagining this because this star man…

“Uh thanks Helios!” She yelled back, just remembering her manners.

“Of course, now go find James, we’re all counting on you!” What the hell was THAT supposed to mean, but Jennifer just shrugged it off, she knew it was time to go. She had unlimited food, water, and now heat, not exactly a bad haul considering she almost left with nothing like an hour ago. She stuck the garden rock in her pocket, the bottle bobbed up and down around her waist, and Solaris buzzed peevishly around her head, so it was time to get moving. She lifted her foot, a profound moment here, the beginning of a new adventure, the stuff of legends right here and-

“Jennifer! Hold up a moment.” Of course… Jennifer groaned, her perfect moment shattered and she turned to face Lyla,

“Since I, you know, almost made you into a murderer, I figured I’d tell you something, something you may find pretty interesting.” Her tone made Jennifer nervous, she was far too happy to be telling whatever this secret was.

“What”? Jennifer attempted to play it cool, but ever since she was a kid she hated not knowing things, the other kids had teased her for it and so she became more sly about it. Well, at least she thought she had. Lyla leaned in close, her minty breath blowing softly on Jennifer’s ear, close enough to hear Jennifer’s heart pounding, whatever this secret was it must’ve been something pretty shocking.

“That poison I gave you,” Jennifer nodded, Lyla leaned in closer, “Only works,” she took a breath, the pause driving Jennifer nuts. The final two words Lyla whispered, slowly, delicately, every syllable punctuated,

“on Forms…”