The summer solstice festival had changed. The atmosphere, full of revelry, the location, cleaned up and renovated by earth and air magic. The fields around Bek Tepe had been cleared of rot and murky ponds. The first rays of sunlight bounced off a temple where chipped stones and weather-worn statues had been restored. Even the pit, which used to have a few stone seats and a cramped stage, began to resemble the Odeon of Herodes, or Athenian amphitheater that I had seen in my previous world. I'd helped with the new design, but the humans had done an amazing job with the construction.
Last year, this was one of the most difficult and dangerous days of my life. Now, the mood was festive, the scenery revamped, and the relationships I had built with the humans over the past year had blossomed and bloomed. The longest day in the year would not feel that way this time, I told myself.
Speaking of years, the first order of business was to confirm the number of days in a year. I checked up on my tally marks and counted them up. I also went to the demon princess and compared the number that I had with the number her people used, only to find out that her people used a completely arbitrary calendar. Well, that meant I had something to announce at night, when the Assembly would meet.
The day began with a morning feast. The various tribes had brought delicacies from their homelands to share with the other tribesmen. The Ibog tribe's alcoholic drinks, which we'd used to make vinegar in the past, was the most popular item. Getting drunk before noon was a little concerning, but I figured letting loose once a year wouldn't be terrible. Still, I only sipped at my drink conservatively. Somebody had to be an adult today, I thought to myself as I watched the elders begin to sing and dance. I frowned and grabbed Kelser before he could down anything.
"You're too young!" I said.
"What?" he said. "Just a little! Come on!"
"Come on, let's go check up on the princess," I said, as I dragged Kelser away from the Ibog tribe's tent. I saw the princess eating fruits at the Jora tribe's tent and walked over. "Princess, how are you liking the festivities?"
"Oh, the food is amazing! You wouldn't believe what kind of stuff I had to eat at the palace," she said as she popped a berry into her mouth. "The food at your tribe's camp was amazing too." She pointed at Kelser, who was still grumpy about not being allowed to drink. "I didn't know you could make fish taste that good. You know, I used to hate fish, but I knew just from smelling it, that the way you guys made it was different. Wonderful!"
"I'm glad to hear that," I said. "If we ever manage to set up a trade route with your kingdom, we'll be sure to send over some of our food."
"Oh, yes, please do!" she said.
As the sun approached its zenith, the tribesmen began to congregate at the stone structures near the tents. Most of them were full of artifacts or stored food for the day's festivities, but now that the human Jora tribe were no longer in charge of the day's events, I decided to add something new to the schedule. Rocky overhangs shielded the tribesmen from the harsh sun, and gave all of us some room to enjoy our food and drinks in the shade. I gave a signal to Elder Lipo Pole, and he smiled back at me, turned around, and began to play his lute.
A group of humans, their hair a splatter of different colors, gathered around the elder and began playing their own instruments. Strings and drums and wind instruments of all kinds, played together with reckless abandon, forming sounds that should not work together but somehow did. Everybody was following Elder Lipo's rhythm, matching his beats and his pace, which kept the musical piece together and meant that soon, I was tapping my feet and watching the crowds of festive humans begin to dance.
Somebody began to sing. I frowned. The song sounded awkward and forced in my ear, but the others were clearly enjoying it. Oh right, that must be it! I turned off my translation magic and began to listen to the song in the humans' native language.
I wasn't completely fluent in this language yet, so I could not follow the lyrics entirely, but it definitely sounded better this way. And what I could understand of the lyrics was enough to get me happy and excited too, although a few of the references to elves and myself did make me blush and shy away.
I saw Princess Kol. She was smiling awkwardly and nursing a drink in a clay cup. I walked over and tapped her shoulder. She looked at me. I laughed. I pointed to her neck and she frowned. I tapped her necklace, then tapped my ear, and gave her a look. The princess took off her pendant and began to smile in earnest. I walked away, Kelser in tow, and let the music slowly fade away as I approached the pit.
Even inside the pit, I could hear the music, the singing, the beat of moving feet and cheers of happy people. Kelser looked like he wanted to go back to enjoy the fun, but I didn't let him leave. I needed another sober person down here with me!
The stage at the bottom of the pit had been widened, but it was still mostly the same. There were no artifacts, and no place to put them either, but that was okay. There would be a new kind of ceremony tonight. I walked towards the secret tunnel leading down into the dark underground and lit a torch. Kelser finally stopped pouting once he realized why I'd brought him here, and put on a serious expression. What a dependable kid!
"I need you to stay out here," I said.
"What?" he said. "No, I'm coming with you."
I shook my head. "I don't know how this tunnel works. If it leads somewhere else like it did last year, I don't want you to get stuck in there with me. And somebody's gotta lead the rescue party if something happens to me, right?" After a little more persuasion, Kelser agreed and stood guard at the entrance to the tunnel, pouting once again, as the music and revelry wafted down to us at the pit like the smell of something delicious.
I walked into the darkness and let the music fade away.
---
I stepped into a familiar room. It wasn't the room that had been here yesterday, which was the room where the human Jora priests used to keep the artifacts they used for their rituals. In fact, all of the artifacts were gone, either because they'd been lost during the fight last year or because I had had them buried to honor the elves who had been killed by the ancestors of the human Jora.
Instead, this was the room that I had first stumbled into last year. The room full of priests and other tribesmen who had been under the influence of the Immortal of Evil. I'd knocked them all out, and they'd all disappeared without a sign on my way out. There was nothing in here now, no sign of priests or artifacts or anything like that. Just my dancing torchlight sending shadows dancing on the walls. I passed through to the second tunnel.
The second tunnel was as disconcerting as I remembered it. I breathed softly as I walked through it, reliving in my head everything that had happened over the past year. A light appeared at the end of the tunnel. I stopped. My heartbeat thumped in my ears. I took a deep breath. And held it. I stepped into the secret ravine.
I threw my torch to the ground. The ravine was well-lit and as green as I remembered it. To see so much life, the flora and fauna that filled this place, it was kind of unbelievable that this place only seemed to appear once a year. In fact, it almost looked like no time had passed in the ravine since I was last here. The priests and elders that had fought me were gone, but marks of our battle still ran throughout the ravine. I could even tell, by the way the marks surrounded a small empty circle, where the floating globe with the sunflo beetle had been. Come to think of it, it was that beetle that led me to the grave of the elfin Jora tribe, which led to my fight with Noel.
A heavy feeling descended in my chest. I'd been trying to ignore it for a while. I tried replacing it with my desire to find the meaning of 'annihilation,' my desire to find a way home. But it was always there. In the back of my head and sunk at the bottom of my heart.
Sorrow. Pain. Memories. And a longing, a longing to see her once again.
"Noel," I whispered to the empty ravine, "I'm sorry." I sat in the shade of a tree, staring at a pair of birds flitting through the leaves. "I miss you."