Conscious, Conscientious

Something had changed.

Maybe Skip’s lessons, roundabout and random as they seemed, were far more calculated than Deon previously thought.

He jogged behind Skip and Skrili once more in the early daylight, trotting down the slope that led to the dreaded cliff. But this time, his mind wasn’t stuck on the haunting visions he was moments from experiencing. This time, he was still transfixed on what had happened yesterday after they were swept up in the rainstorm.

He and Skrili finally connected.

~

One day earlier…

With cracks and tired creaks, the black tree branches holding Skip suddenly came to life. The trunk sprung up from the ground, its roots protruding from the dirt. Then, the branches around Skip tightened, squeezing him against the harsh black bark.

“Wait, this is just one of your little tests, right?” Deon asked, trying to keep his cool.

Skip shook his head calmly. “Oh, no. Not at all,” he said. “I’m being totally serious. I’m in immediate, definitely lethal danger. Please help.”

Roots stomped against the ground in a fury, and the dark tree unleashed a piercing scream with its creaking limbs. The sharp tips of each branch fractured themselves into new positions, now pointing straight down at Deon and Skrili like dozens of swords.

“Just so you know, this tree will absolutely try to kill you if you try getting to me—that’s how these things work,” warned Skip, his voice growing choky as a branch wrapped around his neck. “But you know, do your best,” he squeezed composedly.

“Skip!” Deon shouted. Unnerved, he took a slow step forward.

Then one of the branches stabbed downward at him and Skrili, increasing in length. They pounced to opposite sides and tumbled against the dirt.

Skrili shot to her feet first, taking on a defensive stance.

“We have to hurry!” she urged. “Let’s—”

“Skrili, duck!!” cried Deon.

Another branch had come swooping down at her from the side, in a blind spot. She sunk low just in time to avoid a deadly impact, but the branch still scraped her back and sent her spinning back to the ground.

She stood again just as swiftly, appearing unharmed. If anything, Deon realized, she probably gained a minor Power Rebound from the impact.

Deon rose in a hurry, analyzing the tree with imagining techniques in mind. Skip watched on with a small, seemingly unbothered smile.

“Let’s attack at the same time,” Skrili said.

“Good idea,” agreed Deon. “Here!”

He imagined an oversized knife just before Skrili: the same one he’d used against the black branches in the tree cave. She grabbed hold.

Then, he imagined a second one for himself. “Got the branches on the left?”

Skrili nodded. “On my mark.”

“Ooh, this is exciting!” Skip choked above them.

“GO!”

After Skrili’s signal, they both charged forward, wielding their weapons tightly. The tree immediately returned the aggression, jabbing several of its branches their way. Deon and Skrili swung forcefully, and sticks and bark fell to the ground around them in the heat of their battle.

But the branches were durable, and at the speed they moved, incredibly difficult to destroy. The jabs kept coming, stopping Deon and Skrili in their progress towards Skip. Deon took blow after blow while he tried to keep up with their unpredictable aim.

“Ah!” Skrili exclaimed. Something clanked against the ground.

Deon turned in the midst of endless swinging, and barely made out that the tree had knocked Skrili’s knife out of her hands.

“Deon!” she shouted warningly.

Hearing her say his name caught him off-guard—he still wasn’t quite used to it. Consequently, his reaction was too delayed when he tried to find the subject of her alarm.

Several more branches swooped in towards him: the ones that had been fighting Skrili. They clashed with the others as they all attacked. Now it was impossible for Deon to hold his ground. Within moments, they slapped him to the dirt. He lost his grip on his knife along the way.

But once he landed, vulnerable to even worse punishment, the trees stopped in place.

Seizing the moment, Deon dove for his knife. He grasped it and turned to guard himself. The instant he did, the branches snapped back into hostility.

“Wait—drop the knife!” Skrili called over quickly.

“Huh?! Why?!” demanded Deon, slashing away.

“Just do it!”

Reluctantly, Deon let his weapon fall to the side. Again, the branches stopped.

“What’s up with this?” Deon wondered.

Across from him, Skrili tiptoed over to the knife she’d dropped. She crouched down and picked it up slowly. Frenziedly, all of the branches screeched to life and darted towards her. Then, when she dropped it again, they froze inches from her face.

“They only attack when they’re being attacked,” Skrili revealed.

“Whoa...wait—that’s it!” Deon exclaimed with a clap. “The drills from yesterday! That’s what we have to do!”

Skrili nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”

Reinvigorated with an attack plan, Deon took on a ready stance. “Alright, me first! When it comes your way, make sure you grab the handle!”

He imagined both knives out of existence, and then recreated just one, placing it in his hands.

“LET’S GO, TREE!” he bellowed.

The branches didn’t waste an instant as they cracked away from Skrili’s head and zoomed towards Deon. He ducked under the first one, and then swung fiercely at the next, chopping clean through it.

But more branches stabbed forward at an angle he couldn’t defend.

“ALL YOU!” he called to Skrili. Deon imagined his knife out of existence and immediately pictured another, ready to create. Surrounded by branches, he couldn’t aim it into Skrili’s hands. Instead, he placed it high in the air and let it fall freely.

Skrili sprung into action, pouncing into the air and catching the knife with a flip. The branches abandoned Deon to target her. Using the same midair momentum, Skrili spun and sliced two branches at once.

“YOURS!” she shouted the instant she landed. With a twist, she flung the knife Deon’s way.

His whole body tingled as he realized the danger spinning at him—knife blades weren’t quite as soft as the Twitchy attacks they’d used in their drills. But the training proved fruitful, as he caught the handle with surprising ease.

It was just in time to deflect a branch’s attack, and then chop another down. He had his way with a couple more branches before a third one struck him.

“In!” Skrili called to him.

Deon de-imagined his knife to make the branches stop. Though he couldn’t see, he knew Skrili’s general displacement based on her call. Skip had them run this yesterday.

He imagined another knife into the air behind the lifeless branches. The sound of Skrili’s swift footsteps stopped as she leaped up. Then, several of the branches before Deon fell to Skrili’s knife.

Before she landed in a roll, Skrili tossed the knife back to Deon. No verbal cue was needed this time—they’d fallen into a groove. The remaining branches had been trailing her, but once the knife left her hand, they stopped wide open to Deon’s oncoming blow.

Clutching the knife, Deon was too close for the branches to stir and react in time. With a shout, he slew them to the ground.

“Good work!” croaked Skip. “When you have a second, I don’t think I’ll last much longer in this…”

The tree was now bare of branches, besides the ones squeezing Skip. But the trunk shook in a rumble, and more suddenly shot out.

“We need to be faster,” Skrili realized. “Let’s go.”

They pounced forward, and the fight continued. But now, with a clear and proven strategy, Deon and Skrili claimed the advantage over the deadly plant. They dove back into their rapid turn-taking tossing technique, with twists, flips, and midair catches, chopping branch after branch as they closed in.

Deon had never fought so fluidly in his life. His partnership with Skrili was invigorating, like he’d instantly become twice the fighter with twice the capability. This was much more effective, and encouraging, than splitting up or assisting while Skrili took the heat.

So this is what it’s like to be a team, Deon realized.

Soon the quarrel was nearly over. Without having to plan it, they broke into a combined move they hadn’t even practiced in their training. Deon dove to slice one of the final branches while Skrili jumped up towards the tree. Picking up on her intent, Deon de-imagined his knife to freeze the last branch, allowing Skrili to land on it.

Then it was time for the finishing blow: Deon imagined the knife into Skrili’s hands, and the moment it appeared she swung down to take out their opponent.

The thick branch dropped unevenly, so Skrili fell at an awkward angle. Deon was quick to imagine a pillow beneath her, which she sunk into safely.

They waited for the tree to stir again while Skrili stood from the cushion.

But this time, its only movements were the loosening of its hold on Skip. He dropped down from high in the tree and landed elegantly.

Skip brushed off his scratched-up suit jacket, and then broke into spirited applause.

“YES! Excellent work!” he exclaimed. “Well, I’d better come clean. I absolutely knew that rainstorm was coming. I knew there was a good chance we’d get caught in all this if we went outside.”

“WHAT?!” Deon exclaimed.

“It’s called a weather forecast,” laughed Skip. “Didn’t you think the drills I had you run yesterday were a little too convenient for this tree fight?”

“And those ‘Caves of Insanity—’ those were part of your little plan, too?” pressed Deon.

“‘Caves of Insecurity,’ but yep.”

Deon grumbled to himself irately, and Skrili said nothing.

“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I really was gonna die if you guys didn’t fight well,” Skip promised. “What you displayed today was perfect. It’s safe to say, now you’re a real team.”

Deon and Skrili’s eyes met.

“I guess we are,” said Skrili. A smile curled at the corner of her mouth.

In that moment, Deon knew it was more than the technique from yesterday’s drills. Skrili’s whole demeanor towards him was transforming before his eyes. Sharing each other’s fears, learning of each other’s insecurities…perhaps it was all playing a part. Skrili was willing to work with him just now, not simply at the same time as him.

She was placing trust in him.

Maybe Skip’s training wasn’t so ridiculous, after all.

“Okay, I think that’s enough excitement for today,” Skip decided. He began walking past them into the woods. “I say we head back for a nice meal. While I was stuck up there choking to death, I came up with a new recipe! Come on!”

Unsure how Skip even knew where in the forest they were, Deon and Skrili joined him within the dense trees.

~

Deon felt a familiar, yet still unsettling chill as the air grew gray around him. It snapped his mind back to the present as he set foot on the beginning of the foggy cliff.

Skip and Skrili disappeared into the haze before him. He knew it was time once again to revisit his deepest fears.

Up first: his fear of not belonging in the Multiverse or in Tailpiece—of belonging nowhere.

But this time, coming off of their victory yesterday, he felt ready.

Skrili’s advice from the morning before played back in his head: that he should try talking to Savannah (or rather, this ghostly representation of her). Skrili seemed certain: Savannah’s behavior stood out from the rest in his vision, and her inclusion alone was inconsistent with the overall message. While the rest of his loved ones didn’t want him to leave Tailpiece, Savannah had always been in on it.

Deon could follow Skrili’s logic, but he wasn’t so sure her plan would work. Would speaking to a vision even accomplish anything? So far in previous visits, it hadn’t. They just persisted, reminding him of his worst horrors. If they responded, it was only to instill further fear.

But then again…thought Deon. His mind returned to their experiences with the rainstorm, the Caves of Insecurity, and the black tree.

Skrili was beginning to trust him now. And Skip had emphasized over and over again how important trust is for this training.

Now wasn’t the time to start having doubts in her.

If she’s gonna start putting faith in me, the least I can do is trust her idea and give it a shot, he decided.

As soon as he came to this conclusion, the whispers resounded from the cliff.

The transparent, colorless figures of his parents, Aunt Ergi, and Uncle Adon appeared. Savannah followed, fading in much more slowly in her faded yellow dress.

She always comes in last…Deon realized.

“You really wanted to do something special,” began his father yet again, “but you were—”

“Special enough to us. Yeah, yeah, I know, Dad,” interjected Deon.

“Was home not enough for you?” asked his mother.

Deon sighed and waited impatiently as the rest recited their lines for what felt like the millionth time. If anything, this portion of the vision had become more annoying than frightening.

But he made another observation: Savannah was the only one who didn’t have her own statement to tell him.

Then, it came time for the eerie group question:

“Why do you think we didn’t want you to leave Tailpiece?”

Instead of focusing on the contents of their words, Deon listened for anything else odd. His eyes widened once he caught it: Savannah’s voice wasn’t among the rest. He’d noticed before that she spent most of the vision looking off in the distance, but now, he found she never took part in the question at all.

Skrili really is on to something, he thought.

As always, the other four figures turned their heads to Savannah. She looked back and shrugged apathetically, before crossing her arms and beginning to look away again.

But she paused in place when Deon spoke up.

“Hey wait a second! Savannah!”

Her ghostly gray eyes rolled, and then fell to him reluctantly.

To his surprise, the rest of the vision paused: his family didn’t continue on to recite their next phrase.

He’d successfully disrupted the vision.

“Why aren’t you playing along?” Deon asked Savannah. “Everyone’s over here guilting me for leaving Tailpiece, but you don’t even look like you want to be here.”

Savannah stared at him unwaveringly. It brought back unwanted memories of when he’d done something stupid back home: she used to give the same disappointed glare. After too long of this, he realized his attempt was likely unfruitful.

“You know why,” came her clear voice.

For a moment, he felt like he was in Tailpiece again, alone with her in the woods where they weren’t allowed. It had been so long since they last spoke—almost months, now. Her voice tugged at his heart and flooded him with nostalgia, despite her current aloofness.

It sent his mind back to sneaking out of the schoolhouse together during lunch break, and disappearing together after school whenever there was time before a fight session in the field. They’d explore the forbidden trees, laugh, and long for a bigger world together.

It was the first time he actually had to try to win over a girl’s heart. It was the first time he felt love during a kiss.

Savannah was the only one who knew his secret. His family knew him. Lammy looked up to him. But Savannah—she was the only one who knew everything about him…

…about his desire to leave Tailpiece behind.

“Wait…why would you be against this?” Deon asked the apparition of his former lover. “For as long as you knew, you encouraged me to run away and see what’s out here!”

Savannah’s focus was unyielding.

“Heck, you wanted to come with me! We were supposed do this together, remember?” he continued.

“Yes, I remember.”

“You always said if anyone could make it out here, it would be me!”

“Yes, I said that.”

“You believed in me.”

“Yes, I do.”

“So what are you doing here? It doesn’t make any sense for you to be in this vision,” Deon concluded. “I told you how deep down, I feel like my family will hate me for running away, but you believed that would never happen. You always said I need to do what’s right for me—which is what I did. I know I have what it takes…I know this is where I’m meant to be…because of you.”

Savannah listened quietly as his words poured out.

“So it doesn’t make sense for you to be in a vision where everyone’s telling me the opposite. And you know what? You said it a million times, and I always brushed it off. But you’re probably right: my family would never really reject me, would they? They love me as much as you did, and my leaving wouldn’t change that. So none of this makes any sense! So…so…”

He paused and caught his breath.

“So…what am I so afraid of, then?” he finally uttered.

The ghostly beings all stared at him in complete silence.

Then, all together, they faded into the fog. Soon these colorless, lifeless, utterly fake versions of his father, his mother, Aunt Ergi, and Uncle Adon were gone.

But for a moment, Savannah remained. She hovered there alone in her faded yellow dress.

She smiled at Deon. Then she, too, vanished.

Deon’s body felt much lighter as he automatically jogged along. No: he quickly realized the weight hadn’t been lifted from his body, but from his mind. He’d casted aside baggage he was hardly aware had been weighing him down all this time.

He’d overcome this fear.

Skrili was right.

~

Deon and Skrili flopped down into Skip’s grassy yard, grateful their daily fear-jog was behind them. While they reached for hydration, Skip made his sprightly way over to his cabin’s door—not a sweat on his forehead or a gasp in his breathing.

“Lunch will be ready soon!” he declared before closing the door.

Deon turned to Skrili, catching his breath. It was debriefing time again, but unlike previous mornings, he had a lot to share this time. “Okay—”

The door swung open again.

“You know the drill! Share your experiences from the cliff!” Skip called over. He slammed the door shut once more.

Deon rolled his eyes.

“Okay,” he restarted, “are you some kind of genius or something?! How did you know?”

“What are you talking about?”

“My vision! You were right: Savannah was the key to it all!” Deon elaborated. “Talking to her brought up all kinds of thoughts and memories, and…it really just helped me see why I had nothing to be afraid of. How did you know?”

Skrili’s eyes lifted in thought, and then she simply shrugged. “I’m a good guesser,” she supposed.

Deon smiled. “Well, I’m glad you are. Thank you,” he said. “I wish I could be more useful helping with your fears.”

“You were,” Skrili uttered.

“Huh?”

“My first vision didn’t even happen this time,” she explained. “I never saw myself standing there, or you, Pang, and Phillip leaving me behind in tears. The fog just skipped it entirely.”

“That’s good! Why, though?”

“Skip said the cliff shows us our worst fears. I guess that’s not one of my worst fears anymore,” Skrili said.

Deon shifted his posture as his energy replenished from their run. “Wait…why did I have anything to do with that?” he wondered.

“Well…because…” Skrili stiffened, suddenly fidgeting with her hands. “Do I really have to spell it out for you…?” she grumbled. “The—the Caves of Insecurity. They showed me you don’t have any problems with me—or any doubts in our partnership—or whatever…”

Deon listened closely as Skrili’s face reddened.

“So…like…I guess who I am doesn’t chase everyone away,” she admitted. “I guess…some people are different—you’re different, I mean. So…maybe I shouldn’t be so afraid that opening up to you will scare you away. I should give some people—give you—a chance.”

She abruptly dug her face into her hands.

“Ugh…I hate vocalizing all of this. It’s making me nauseous…”

Deon chuckled. “Well today’s another huge win. For both of us.”

Skrili eventually nodded, and mustered the courage to lift her face. “But thanks to me, we’ll probably keep having to do these jogs for a while. Sorry.”

Initially, Deon didn’t follow. But he quickly realized what she meant: there was still that second vision—the even more nightmarish one.

The one he still hadn’t found the strength to admit he also experienced.

It appeared again this morning, too. He may have conquered the first vision, this one was always far worse. It hadn’t stopped flashing into his mind since their first jog.

“I feel like this is mostly my problem,” said Skrili, “but we’re a team. So if you have any ideas on how to shake it, I’ll try them…well, unless they’re awful.”

Deon’s heart pounded. They’d spent all this time, shared all these words, and practiced all these drills about trust and openness. The transparency was already transforming them both.

Yet here he was, keeping the truth from her.

“Skrili,” Deon said suddenly. “I um…I haven’t been totally honest with you.”

A breeze hissed between them.

“I have that second vision, too. The exact same one,” he admitted. “I see you holding your brother after he passed. I see his body turn into Lammy’s. It…it just…I don’t know, Skip said the cliff interprets our future too, so it freaked me out. I didn’t want you to get even more scared. I didn’t want to be scared, either…I…I…”

“You saw it too?” Skrili asked hollowly, her face going pale.

Deon gathered himself, and nodded.

“…What does that mean…?”

The silence that followed her question was deafening.

After another breeze passed them by, Skrili stirred.

“Tonight,” she said.

“T—tonight?” replied Deon.

“You should know. So tonight, I’ll tell you,” came Skrili’s sober, careful words, “how Akri died.”