"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" I asked Thurge as I finished following him to a hidden cave. Placing the food we had managed to get from Bolunch down before I followed suit. Briefly adjusting my position as I tried to make myself comfortable on a bare piece of rock. With not much under me really to cushion it with.
"He is scared... Concerned, I don't know!" Thurge immediately opened up with as his seemingly usual demeanour of apathy and emotionless calm made way for a clear display of fear. He was greatly upset, that was clear.
"When did He start acting like this?"
"He's been like this for a while, but your fear has him acting up!" he pointed out as his finger suddenly swept up at me.
"So he too knows what is out there?" I asked as Thurge's eyes moved about erratically.
"But you shouldn't!" Thurge suddenly accused as if he had just been revealed something. And, I sighed in response. Because what else could I do?
"Maelta shouldn't know, no. But I do." I answered, most likely confusing him greatly. I was right as well because his bafflement was nearly instantaneous.
"You are Maelta...?"
And I shook my head, "Only physically."
Frowning as he seemed to only become even more lost, "He is warning me about you?"
"No! Of course not!" I let out, fearful of the idea that Thunder might've caught on. If this is who Thurge is referring to was who I thought it was.
"Then why are you acting strange!? Why do you know what you shouldn't!? Why does this all happen when He is suddenly disturbed!?" Thurge demanded to know as he suddenly approached me. Seemingly full of anger caused by the confusion.
"I need you to trust me, Thurge. Can you do that, please?" I begged as I got up and backed away slightly. Waiting a couple of metres away from him as he stops by the rock I was formerly on.
"You're my friend, how could I not...?" he said as he began to shake his head and groan.
"When the festival starts, or if now I suppose... Promise me that you'll help me win." I tell him as I try to urge him to calm down.
"But... What about Dad? I'm not as skilled as anyone else at anything and I don't have their energy... It is the only thing I can do to prove that I can..." he began to let out as trembles overtook him.
"You don't need to prove anything, Thurge." I told him with uncertainty. I had no idea how well he would take this. I barely knew him yet he seemingly knew me. Or, at least, he thought he did.
"You know I can't do that, Maelta... You know I can't... Ever since I was born, there's been bad portents! I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS EVER WHIMPERED AT THEIR FIRST VOICE CEREMONY!" he stuttered out before he roared with rage as he placed one step forward. A sudden distortion even appeared around him as well. A ghostly figure that flickered before disappearing.
"So you are Thunder..." I let out as I caught onto what I had to stop. Then, that meant, Thurge was Lightning's friend? So he won the race to the thunder-gold and met Lightning there? Or was that flickering image Lightning!?
"Thunder..." Thurge repeated as he looked up at the cloudy sky. And as if what he spoke became reality. Thunder boomed from the sky as white lightning suddenly struck above.
White...?
"No, that's not right... It should be golden!" I exclaimed. Completely at a loss for words. Was it just my eyes playing tricks on me!? No...
The lightning was truly white!
Did that mean that Lightning did not exist yet...?
"I'm sorry for bringing you out here, maybe we should both head ba-"
"No, you brought me here specifically. Is there anything special here!?" I decided to ask in the hopes that there might be something special up here. Maybe Thurge might win because this is where the thunder-gold was!?
"Because it's quiet..." he mutters as I suddenly go on ahead, only to find out how short this cave really was.
"R-Right..."
"You should know this already, Maelta." he comments as I turn around.
"Is there anything else you want to talk to me about, then?"
"I don't know how. He is just suddenly different and it is all happening as something happens to you!" he shrugs, clearly hurt by the stressful circumstances.
"Maybe he's just excited for the festival, that is tomorrow after all, yeah?"
"Y-Yeah, it's tomorrow. The adults will wake us up early and take us down to where we just were and we'll head all the way back up."
"We should go and get some sleep then, no? If we are going to have our nights interrupted?" I asked him with a forced, awkward laugh.
"I can't sleep with my mind like this." he complained as I started to move closer to him.
"Then let's go talk to Bolunch, or eat our food. You can settle down that way." I offer as I remind him that we did bring food.
"Right." he answered as he snatched it up and went into the cave. And, in a way, I was back to where I had started. On that same rock that I had initially sat down on.
"I know it doesn't mean much, Thurge, but, you'll be alright." I probably lied given what was outside of this mountain.
"Of all the strange things you know, this is the strangest." he commented before he slowly chewed on a piece of cooked but cold meat.
"I have, experience. When it comes to those who have awkward circumstances." I sigh out in explanation. Frowning as I glanced upwards and my mind began to fill with Nin and his troubles. One thing beyond his control with divine involvement had changed his life forever. Though, I suppose, Thurge was always like this so had his life really changed?
I wasn't really in the mood for philosophical thinking, however.
"Mum often talks at night when I am asleep, you know. She often talks about how embarrassed she was when I was presented before the High Priest. She had hoped that I would live up to her pride for me and I let her down."
"No... Thurge, you can't blame yourself for that." I told him, confused as to how he came to that line of thinking.
"It was me who failed to so much as cry, though!"
"You had just been born!" I remind him, frustrated by what he was doing. This was so ridiculous!
"I wish I hadn't been... Okay? Of the few things I have done, they have brought my family nothing but trouble. For as much as you have scolded Bolunch today, he is loved by everyone! A man fit to rule our people when the time comes! And what of me!? Nothing..." he rambles before he putters out into a miserable mutter.
"No... Thurge, don't speak like that. You're just getting stressed out right now. Just, eat and keep your mind occupied." I tried to offer as a solution before he put his food down completely.
"I'm going to do it. I am going to do one thing that matters in this life. I will go and get that thunder-gold and bring it back for Dad so he can make himself a new talisman from it!" he suddenly declared.
"No! The festival is tomorrow, you can do that then!"
"So now you want me to succeed?"
"N-No, you know that's not what I meant..." I groan as he seemingly reverts back to his usual expression.
"No, Maelta. I will not let you find that gold. I will not help you, not willingly. This is something I need to do." he told me as he went and left the cave.
"I am sorry, Thurge, but, that's just not something I can do." I say as he makes it to the end of the path we used to get up here. And he didn't even glance back once. So I tutted to myself quietly before I moved to gather up the leftover food. Even as my mind nagged me with the knowledge of this village's imminent demise.
Yet I went along with it anyway and I packed it all back up. Taking a brief moment to eat a little more myself if only to savour the experience. We found no animals before when we travelled the mountain. Maybe the mist hid them, but, I was inclined to believe that they died with the people of this village.
So at the very least, when I got back, I could tell Brewbrt about the food only I would ever eat! It was a thought a clung to so I could improve my mood. But it only lasted so long and I went back into the village with a dour expression. By contrast, most of the village was up and about so they could be involved with the soldiers.
"Torque." I let out quietly once I saw Maelta's grandfather attempting some kind of conversation with the lead soldier. But it didn't seem like they were getting anywhere. Seemingly because Torque was misinterpreting it all. He was clearly thinking about it as if it was a wild animal attack.
"Ah, Maelta, these men are ever so thankful for what you and the other two did for them."
"I am glad," I lied as it was neither my intent to help them nor was it a concern of mine, "Can I talk to you? Privately?"
"Of course, just head on up and I'll let someone else carry on from here." he whispered up to me as he patted my back to encourage my departure. However, rather than going up the path, I lingered at the very edge of it. Waiting for him until he finally relieved himself of whatever it was he was trying to understand.
"We could've probably answered everything you needed to know ourselves." I remark, having seen the trouble both parties were having.
"Hearing them out is wiser." he answers with a slight smirk. He clearly enjoyed irritating me with that small comment.
"So, anyway..."
"Yes, go on, what is it you wanted to talk to me about... Einervaene?" Torque asked after he finished looking behind us.
"It's about Thurge."
"And Thunder, I presume?"
"Yes, I think it is safe to say that your prior words were true. It is him, I presume."
"He has explained the strange things he sees?"
"Yes, he has told me about Him, and I am sure of the fact that I saw something as well."
"What did you see?"
"I couldn't get a good look at it, but, whatever it was, it had a dark core and a yellowish outline." I explain.
"I know they probably don't cross over, but, that might explain the blackened face you told me about."
"It also flickered as if it was lightning... Strikes from above even happened at about that time!"
"No, that was the sign that the festival will go forth. You probably didn't see it or feel it, but a small ball of fire rained down as the lightning struck."
"The thunder-gold..." I breathed as I realised that I probably missed that because of the white colour of those bolts. But, maybe that was why? The magic or something had been infused into that gold...? I didn't know how it worked, but I was trying to understand.
"Yes, and come the early hours of the morning. We shall take all the children down below so we can begin."
"I'm not sure that is wise... Those soldiers are running from something outside of this mountain! The place you will take us is right by whatever machines are chasing them!"
"You are familiar with what will happen, Einervaene? Do you know if this is part of the reason you are here?" Torque questioned as his expression became incredibly serious.
But I shook my head, "No, I was only brought here to prevent Thunder from doing something, somehow."
"Then I'll make some changes, it won't be popular, but it should keep you and the others safe." Torque explained as his hand went onto my shoulder.
"Thank you, but, so long as Thurge and I are further along, we should be fine." I say as I kept to the idea that Thunder was Thurge or associated with him at the very least.
"I won't be able to get away with just setting you two aside, so it will have to be everyone. I can, at the very least, justify it because of these..."
"Soldiers." I repeated
"Yes, these soldiers, stubborn as many might be to keeping to tradition."
"What tradition is that, exactly?"
"How we first came to this mountain. Our ancestors used those same tunnels many aeons ago before the moons were made when the Fourteen-Headed Beast was fought off. They used those same tunnels to escape the divine bloodshed and we hid in this mountain. And, eventually, we came across the first piece of thunder-gold."
"That's quite a journey." I huffed in amusement. Amazed by how far back the history of these people went! As far back as the time the gods walked among us! Or over us, I suppose, as the stories spoke of how they towered like mountains!
So vast in size that Sraacdchammu, the tallest of them, even gained a new domain!
"I might've said it before, Einervaene, but I feel as if yours is far greater than even what our distant forefathers did. Our, as in, my granddaughter."
"I know, it's fine." I say quietly.
"So outside of what you have come to know about young Thurge, what else is there that you wanted to talk about?" he asked so we could get back on track.
"I guess, maybe if you had any advice to give about this festival? Thurge is deadset on trying to find this gold, nebulous as the path to it seems to be."
"Stay near him, I have a feeling deep inside that his first sounds are related to this."
"But they were quiet, why would that link to this?"
"Have you ever been in a storm, Einervaene?" Torque asked as his expression solidified and his eyes stared me down.
"Yes, many." I answer as I really have been. All that time travelling across the All-Coast had seen many a turbulent wave and vicious gale.
"Then you know of the calm before the storm."