Ms. /co/ 2022: The Peruvian's Curse

A single lantern shined across the red dust. It was the only source of light for miles, twinkling among the endless stones and dunes like a star alone in a dead sky. The medium who held the lantern aloft hopped down from the rickety steps of her wagon, pulling at the rim of her shawl to get a better view of the oblong mass that laid in the road. A mountain of fur. A curved plane of leathery wing. The moth laid dormant in the vast desert of Nowhere. Dead? Maybe. Shirley could not tell, and perhaps it wasn't her place to know. Then it all clicked together.

"I know you," she muttered, watching the wind cut waves in the fur of the insectoid beast. The breeze washed away her words like the dust beneath her feet.

The revelation came to her yesterday. A shiver down her spine and a sour tinge in the air. She consulted her crystal and received an almost indignant silence from the spirits of the astral plane. She then consulted her set of bones, only to find that the buzzard's rib had shattered inside its container some time ago. Shirley recalled the dread she felt as she finally turned to her tarot deck. Death expectantly answered her call. Every omen that could have manifested did, and she had been certain of her own doom.

"But here you are," the medium spoke aloud again, expecting no response. She shambled around the massive insect for what seemed like minutes until the meager light of her lantern began to catch the features of its expressionless face. "Hmph. Do you know how long it took me to get that buzzard bone? Those don't grow on trees, you know."

A nearby tumbleweed acknowledged her complaint, at least. The insect itself cared little. And why should it? Fate had dealt its hand and realized too late that its cards had been counted. By all means, the course of history had been altered somehow. Destiny had been disrespected. It was no wonder the spirits paid her no mind earlier--there were much bigger motions going on behind the scenes. It just so happened that things worked out in her favor this once.

"Oh well," she said with a shrug, the lantern's light bouncing with the movement. "A shame for you, anyway. I'm not sure how I would go about looking a gift moth in the mouth."

Shirley reached her scrawny hand towards the beast and plucked from it a strand of its strange cilia. It was practically the length of her entire arm, and though it was thicker at the root, the whole thing swayed almost weightlessly in the breeze. Perhaps this could make up for that bone, hm? Who knows what kind of reagent this could serve as in a spell. The medium smiled and wound the strand of fur around her hand to more easily pocket.

Still, this victory wasn't hers. Something more sinister was following her--this she knew. Shirley twisted around and glared out into the void of night, scanning the dim silhouette where distant hills met with an almost lightless sky. It was colder than it should have been. The stars were too dark and the moon was completely new. None could cheat fate and get away with it. There would be consequences.

_____

True magic was a subtle thing. Lightning bolts did not come down from the sky and hammer foes. Fireballs did not erupt from fingertips and explode off the sides of castle walls in great plumes. These types of sorceries were mere fantasies--things dreamed by the power-hungry mind that wondered what it might be like to control the uncontrollable. No, magic was not like this at all. There are things mere mortals can barely comprehend, much less control. Magicians who pull rabbits from their hats know better than to call sleight of hand a mystical art.

"And let me get this straight," spoke the rabbit that was surely summoned from some fool's head wear, tapping a carrot-shaped pen to the corner of her mouth as she gazed down at the half-finished ticket slip. "Where you come from, you DON'T need permits to peddle your wares?"

"Why would I not be permitted?" Shirley shook her head. "I offer my services. I ply my trade. This wagon behind me is all I have. Only a fool would concern himself with this insignificant business of mine."

The fox beside her clicked his tongue. He seemed to care little about the whole exchange, angling himself towards the flow of the crowd. "It's not like I don't agree with you, but that's just how it is. Somebody's gotta warm some seat somewhere and pretend that they're pulling strings. Now I don't know who in particular started this whole permit business, but all the other seats next to him thought he was onto something. So yeah."

"And this concerns me how?" Shirley narrowed her eyes.

The rabbit had graduated to chewing on the end of the pen. "It's just that you- Well, you need a permit to run a business here. Even one like this, and even if it's just barely with city limits."

Her partner chuckled. "Man. You never really outgrew that meter maid job, did you?"

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, shook her head, and balled up the slip of paper into her fist. "You know what? You're from out of town. You had no idea. Just forget about it, alright? Make sure you're running your hustle just a bit further up the road from Zootopia."

"Hustle?!" The medium recoiled away, scowling. "This is no hustle! My dealings with the arcane could not be more legitimate. And-" with a flip of her shawl, she unveiled a small handmirror and waved it through the air. "My artifacts are legitimate, as well! Behold this mirror which has the power to reflect the most beautiful version of one's image! This incredible ability, of course, only works in pitch darkness."

"Sticking to your guns, huh? You really know how to sell it." The fox chuckled and started to wander off, waving a hand over his shoulder. "That's commendable stuff, and I would know. Come on, Carrots. We got bigger bugs to fry."

The rabbit started to walk away, but doubled back and glanced at the mirror in Shirley's hand. There was a moment where genuine indecision crossed her expression, but she came to some conclusion and smirked instead. "Nice try, but you're not getting me with that. You'll have to go a bit further into the country to find folks who think magic is real."

Even walking away, that infernal officer made it a point to take that crumpled-up slip and throw it into a nearby bin. Like it was some great charity. Like they were both pitying her. Shirley sucked in a breath through her clenched teeth and reached deep into a bag that had been stowed away beneath a panel in her wagon. Before she could choose which talisman to lay her lesson of faithlessness onto the rabbit, a shudder ran down her back. She stopped in her tracks and turned, but both the officers were gone.

No. Too dangerous. She had come this far to evade fate, not to invoke it. Shirley reached down and felt a pouch hidden beneath her robes, making sure that the moth monster's hair was still there. The universe had not yet balanced itself. She pat the grim reminder of her tenuous destiny and began to clean up her wares to set off.

______

The summit wasn't far now. Tigress turned her head to the path she had already climbed, watching the mountainside sprawl out behind her into an ocean of trees in a vast valley. A fog had rolled in, obscuring much of the base of the mountain. She huffed and carried on, trying not to fidget with the tight bandages she had just reapplied half an hour ago. The burns continued to cause her agony long after the fact, and she still felt the way those bolts of lightning carved through her body. If only she had fought such a fierce opponent later on in the trials.

It wasn't much further now, at least. By this time tomorrow, the summit would be well in view. Any foe she met with on her pilgrimage would be after the same thing, and there wouldn't be many of them left by then. Her ears pivoted at the slightest sounds, catching the crash of the wind as it swept through the canopies and nothing more. There was no time to feel pity for herself. The next trial was upon her. She could feel it.

"Umm!" It was such a tiny sound that Tigress could almost believed that she had imagined it. She stopped in place and searched for the source, but they spoke up again anyway. "Excuse me! Pardon me, I was just hoping I could maybe get some directions!"

It was a mouse. Not even a rat, but the tiniest of brown mice sitting almost invisibly on the branches of a nearby bush. Tigress nearly thought to let her guard down, but she saw the red shawl draped over the mouse's shoulders. Around her neck was what appeared to be a ruby amulet. She knew that every living soul on this mountain was here for a reason.

"Directions?" Tigress muttered. "Is this some kind of trick?"

"Oh, no no! There's no trick here!" The mouse climbed to a higher branch of the bush in order to set themselves apart. "You see, I'm trying to get to the top of this hill. It's really important, you see! And, well, I'm trying to do it as quickly as possible since I have to get back home. Justin might be able to watch the kids for a while but he has a job to do, and I remember what happened last time when Jeremy tried. The sooner I get to the top of this mountain, the sooner I can get back to my family."

This had to be a joke. Tigress approached the mouse, still wary of what could be hidden in the thicket behind her. By all means, as she brought her face close to the tiny animal, no traps seemed to trigger. She sighed out her nose. "You're supposed to be my next opponent, aren't you?"

"Opponent?" The mouse winced. "No! Of course not! I don't think I'm anybody's opponent. I'm not here to fight, I just need to get to that summit."

Then how did they get this far? Tigress couldn't detect a single ounce of malice coming from them. It was one of the most pathetic things she had ever seen. It would have been so easy to just flick them away and carry on with her pilgrimage. Her destination was already so close. This was not a trial of might, was it?

"...Oh dear. Are you hurt?" The mouse craned their head to look at her bandages. "Those do look rather bad. You shouldn't be out here with injuries like that! I could, uh." They looked to the forest behind them. "I could help you find some medicinal herbs if you want. Maybe something to help with the pain? I can at least say that I know how to make a few home remedies at least."

A pause of deliberation. Cogs turning in her head. Tigress lowered her head, thoughts racing from one side of her skull to the other. Come on. Just flick her away and be done with this. You have a climb to complete.

"...No. I'm fine." Tigress gave a smile, then extended her hand for the mouse to hop onto. "It's nothing I can't handle. I'll be back home soon enough, I think. But I do have to ask: why would someone like you be headed to the summit in the first place?"

The mouse brace themselves against her thumb to keep balanced while Tigress walked. "I'm not entirely sure myself. I guess it's one of those things you do without really knowing why."

"Like a pilgrimage?"

"Like a prophecy," the mouse corrected. "One day I met with this strange, sickly-looking old dog that was passing through. She said it was fate that we had met, and then went on to talk about how I would one day find myself on this mountain."

Tigress nearly tripped over her feet. "Sickly old dog?"

The same one that appeared in the Valley of Peace.

_____

Shirley followed the hunch and stuck her head out of the curtain to her wagon. Sure enough, in the gloom of dusk not more than twenty feet off, there was an armadillo shifting about nearby. Their eyes met with hers over the distance for the briefest moment, causing them to jerk away and pretend that they weren't staring. They gave it up after some time and tossed away the banana they'd been eating to approach the wagon.

"Are you-?" They stuttered, unsure of even just the tone of their voice. "Are you a psychic?"

"Sometimes. So long as cosmic forces humor me to be so. Why?"

The armadillo glanced over their shoulder. "I need- I think I need my fortune told. I need to know if you're legit, though. I don't have time for phonies right now."

Shirley raised her arms in exasperation. "What is it with this place and all its faithlessness? Of course I am legitimate. Here, I will scry into the void right now as a free sample. You are acting flighty because you are an escaped convict."

They gasped, straightened themselves out, then attempted to step up into her wagon. She raised an arm to stop them. "You got money, right? Communion is a service."

"I, uh." They dug around for half a minute before they could scrounge up just a palmful of coins. "Is this enough?"

Not particularly, she thought. Nevertheless, she raised her nose and stuck out her hand, then stepped aside to draw the curtain open. The armadillo stepped inside, oblivious to the large numbers painted on their back that likely identified which prisoner they were.

The caravan itself was shrouded in almost as much darkness as the night outside. Still fidgeting with their hands, the armadillo found a seat opposite to her crystal ball and glanced behind them one last time. Shirley had to jump just to climb up onto her own chair. Having pocketed the coins, she reached forward and removed the velvet cloth from the surface of her crystal ball. She could already see the mists churn beneath the polished surface, a slight glow emanating out from inside.

"Woah..." the armadillo muttered. "You really are the real thing."

In the stark darkness, they failed to see the way Shirley's face contorted into a scowl. It was not supposed to already be glowing. She hadn't even done anything yet. Clearing her throat and cracking her knuckles, the medium went along with it and began to trace lines over the perfect surface of the glass. The mists within responded to her efforts much too readily. A cold wind blew through the caravan as images began to form. The vague shapes and colors came with feeling--flashes of sensory inputs with no context. Only she knew how to interpret these vision, and with a preparatory breath she began to speak.

"O' creature of wicked misgivings, I can see a thread of red. Yours."


"Wh- What does that mean?"

"A lust for freedom lies in every heart
And yet you believe yourself to be set apart

This path you walk comes as an act of greed
When instead for your crimes you could plead

Persisting in these trials will be utterly moot
You should really be eating less fruit."


The armadillo grunted. "Hey! Can't you give me anything that matters? Like, maybe some places I should avoid and times I should be avoiding them?"

"I only interpret what is told to me. I am not a miracle worker," Shirley said. She closed her eyes and gasped. "Wait. There is more now. Yes, I can see it."


"Upon these twists the wheel has always turned
To take back what was not rightfully earned

Neither road nor bridge can carry this weight
Know that no one can-" flee from fate.


Her client leaned in across the table. "No one can what? What were you going to say?"

Shirley launched up and threw the cloth over the crystal ball in the same movement. She managed to push the armadillo out of his seat and guided him towards the door. "Yes thank you for your patronage there are no refunds."

"Wait! Now hold on a minute, I-"

"Out!" Through the curtain and back into the cold. Her client managed to catch themselves at the bottom of the steps. His complaints echoed out into the night, but were cut short by the subtle sound of new voices in the distance.

"Hey Nick! Isn't that the wagon from earlier?" said a rabbit, tapping her foot against the pavement. "I wonder what she's still doing here."

Her partner gave a sigh, grabbed the top of her head, and angled it slightly to the right. "Carrots. Come on. You can't be this blind."

She sucked in a breath and rushed forward towards the hapless armadillo. "Hey! In the name of the law, stop right there!"

In truth, that convict might have had a decent chance at slipping away otherwise, but that banana peel they had carelessly tossed away earlier had other plans. After a harrowing fall and a chipped tooth or two, they had found themselves in a pair of handcuffs, their hope running off without them.

After the criminal had been subdued, they began to look around for the lone wagon which was there not moments prior, but the strangest thing had happened. There was nobody else here.

_____

"See you tomorrow, Nick."

It had been almost half an hour since she had said that. The entirety of the monorail had come and gone with that being the last thing to have left her tongue. It lingered for some reason, repeating itself on the edge of her thoughts every now again. She mouthed the words occasionally, but it never really scratched the itch. By the time she had stepped out of the station, she was only a brief ten minute walk away from home, and the feeling had only gotten worse.

Maybe it was because she had had a long day. Chasing a single armadillo all over the city was exhausting. When they finally did catch him, it was like a breath of fresh air. Still, even thinking on that, she knew that something else was wrong. That hunch crystallized fully when she stopped suddenly near an empty intersection. It was like there was an invisible wall in front of her, urging her to turn around. For reasons she didn't understand, Judy unconsciously looked to the alley and saw eyes peering back at her.

"That feeling is the realization that someone has snipped the threads and tried to retie them."

Judy hesitated. "Can I...help you?"

The hunched figure chuckled. "I'm afraid we have already been helped, Judy, and now there is no helping us."

"How did you..?" It dawned on her like a blow to the head. "It's you! You're that woman from earlier!"

The dog hummed. "I apologize for my previous behavior. I don't get along with authority, you see. Are you aware of that joke, the one about the small medium at large? You know what, nevermind." She took a step back. "Come closer, Judy. There is something I must show you."

Taking cautious steps, ears raised and alert, Judy stepped out of the streetlight's rays and into the shadows. The lanky woman came into relief as soon as her eyes had adjusted. Making slow movements, the medium reached into her shawl and pulled out some sort of small reddish crystal embedded with a filigree.

"What is that?" Judy whispered.

The dog grunted. "A spinel gemstone. Hold still." She muttered something in some unknown language and held the crystal between the two of them. It glowed red hot for a moment, then suddenly flashed white, filling the alley with light. Judy jumped back, but nothing had seemed to happen.

She was wrong. There was a strange symbol glistening from the medium's forehead--a cross of three lines forming a star. She withdrew a hand mirror from the same place as the gem and glowered at her reflection. "It is just as I feared."

"What is? What did you just do?"

The medium held the mirror up for the rabbit. A breath caught in her throat when she saw the same symbol carved into her own forehead. She leaned in close, picking at the spot but finding no differences in the texture of her fur. You know, actually, she did look kind of good for having been on such a long shift.

The mirror was ripped away. "We have been marked!"

Judy cleared her throat. "With what? What did that crystal do to us, exactly?"

"It only cleaned the lenses of truth. The both of us have been afflicted with a terrible fate. I suspected this to be the case, but now I am sure. The Peruvian's Curse looms over the both of us."

"The what's curse?"

She shook her head. "Nevermind the name. It is the symbol of that which has been rendered unwhole by the threads of fate. You and I? We shouldn't be here right now. Our very existences are in question."

"Woah woah woah, hold on!" Judy stepped back towards the mouth of the alley. "What are you talking about? Tell me what this 'curse' is supposed to do!"

Now smiling, the dog drew closer. "It's not what it does. It's what could happen. The universe must be in balance, yes? The both of us are debts in the checking account of destiny. Something or someone has flipped some switches on our behalf, to no fault of our own, and now we may be corrected."

"I... Don't like the way you said that last thing."

"Consider it open-ended." The medium stopped smiling. "My advice? Take the day off tomorrow. Do not walk beneath any ladders, pianos, or convenient hanging anvils. Stay out of harm's way, lest there be an opportunity for wrongs to be righted."

"I-" she stuttered. "I don't know if I even believe you! I don't even know who you are!"

The medium gave another chuckle and began to walk backwards. "Don't fool yourself. Your heart knows this is true. Now, look behind you."

"What?!" Judy whipped around suddenly, nearly expecting a ghost to be looming over her shoulder. There was nothing but an empty street, however. When she looked back, the dog was gone. Vanished into thin air like some mirage.

Though upon closer inspection, the medium had just dipped behind a dumpster and crouched down. She noticed Judy there, gave an indignant huff, and stood up to walk around her and out of the alley.

______

"Oh, I do hope we're getting close."

Tigress huffed in agreement Mrs. Brisby, but didn't have the wind in her lungs to do much more. This switchback she had found was a walk in the park compared to the mile of rocks and dust she had just traversed, but it has been a long journey. The mouse sitting on her shoulder would have never made it this far on her own. It would have been impossible.

"I just can't help but worry," said Brisby, looking out over the valley behind them. The dusk burned brightly in the east. "I hope the children are doing alright. I hate to leave them for so long. I know they can take care of themselves now, but I can't help it! Did you need to take another rest?"

"I'm fine," Tigress grunted.

The mouse hummed in her ear. "You shouldn't push yourself too hard just because you're able to. If you need to take a break, then you should."

"It's about- hng. About momentum."

If she stopped now, it'd be too difficult to get back up again. This stretch was easy enough anyway. Even if she had failed her trial, there was more than enough to prove just getting to the top at all. Still, those burns were throbbing now. Perhaps it might be worth the energy to get moving again if they stopped soon.

Tigress would end up doing so at the first flat clearing she found. Just as she thought, all her muscles threatened to fail on her just as soon as she sat down against a fallen log. After some agitating spasms and various burning pains, she managed to open her pack and proceeded to break bread with Brisby. She only needed crumbs compared to Tigress, anyway.

"I hope I haven't been too much trouble," Mrs. Brisby said, clutching the chunk of roll to her chest.

"Not so much." Tigress still hadn't caught her breath. "I was heading up to the top as well." Though not for the same reasons anymore, apparently. She bit her tongue, unable to muster up the strength to feel bitter about it. "Though I do wonder why you're up here, little mouse."

She shook her head and took a bite. "I'm not so sure, either. It was part of this prophecy. I don't know, I just felt like I had to do this thing."

"That sickly dog?" Tigress said.

"Did you know them?"

She bore her fangs. "I do. I saw them near the village a week before this. I thought they were strange, but I didn't really pay them any mind until they came to me."

"Really?" The mouse pivoted around, nearly falling off the log. "You think it was the same person? What did she say?"

"Nothing important," Tigress said with a snort. "Gave me a prophecy, too, though I barely remember it. There's plenty of folks willing to tell you fortunes you wanted to hear, so I didn't care."

"But we both saw her! I wonder if there really is something going on here."

In the end, they wouldn't even have the chance to get comfortable. It was almost imperceptible at first--just a slight quake in the ground. But that shaking became a rumbling, which evolved distinctly into the rhythm of footsteps too large to be real. Thud. Thud. Thud. Too close.

Tigress launched onto her feet while Brisby dove out of view behind the log. It might have been wiser to run and hide from the sound. She considered it for the briefest of moments, but only just for that long. Of course she wasn't running again.

It's massive form practically pushed the forest itself aside as it moved. A hulking beast of greens and greys, moving like a king through his court. The front-facing eyes of a predator. Their gazes met. The mountain waited silently for them to act, the tension breaking only as an ear-splitting roar shook the trees and unleashed an avalanche of leaves.

This. This was supposed to be her opponent. Now things actually made sense. Tigress steadied her stance, tendons wound like the string of a mighty bow. With a single inhalation, she shot herself forward towards the beast.

Two waves crashed in the center. Tigress ducked past the jaws of the reptile and sprung upwards to land three swift strikes to its side. She lacked the force to cause it to stagger, bracing herself for when it stepped over and bashed into her with it's shoulder. Her legs buckled beneath her, allowing the blow to send her into the trunk of a tree. Winded, Tigress rushed to a stand and rolled out of the way as the beast crunched through the tree with a resounding crack.

A deadly dance. Two strikes for a swinging tail. One near-miss for a sledgehammer of a headbutt. The creature was lumbering and large, but it was by no means slow, and it cared little for the pain it endured. Tigress knew she was already tired. She knew she was slowing down. Perhaps she really should have ran when she had the chance.

"Stop!"

It was such a tiny voice--almost buried beneath the monster's stomping altogether. And yet, Mrs. Brisby's shout had somehow tore through the action at exactly the right time. Tigress managed to disengage from the beast, flipping backwards from a failed kick and preparing for the charge that never came. The giant reptile had stopped, too. Both of the combatants turned their heads.

Mrs. Brisby was glowing. No, not her--the amulet around her neck was. She hopped down from her vantage point on the log and ran until she was just a few meters away from the two of them, at which point she had stood on her hind legs and swallowed, then raised her hand towards the beast.

"Now, now. Stop fighting, please. Please don't eat me."

"What are you doing?!" Tigress shouted. "You need to run! Get out of here!"

The mouse only hushed her, still trained on the massive creature. "It's okay. It's okay now. I know it is."

It was only by the grace of Brisby's confidence that Tigress didn't immediately lunge forward and sweep the mouse away as the reptile took a step towards her. Meters became feet in a single span, then there were inches between the tip of the monster's snout and the mouse's hand. It was almost impossible to tell that they had begun to touch at all, she was so small compared to it. Just a glowing speck on the edge of a broad, scaled nose.

"How?" Tigress blinked to clear her eyes. "How did you do that?"

"Oh my dear." It was somehow even harder to hear Brisby now that all had gone silent. "You poor thing. I'm so sorry."

"What are you talking about?"

The beast closed their eyes. An oscillating growl rumbled in their throat, almost like a pur. When Mrs. Brisby pulled away, so did the reptile, but it simply raised it's head to scan it's surroundings as if neither of them were there.

Tigress still approached with her guard up, but that much was reflexive. "Did that... Was it that jewel that calmed it?"

The mouse watched the reptile tentatively, only turning to Tigress after a long sigh slipped past her lips. "No. That's not what it does. I'm not sure exactly what it does, to be fair, but it's not that." Her gaze fell to the earth, then back to the beast. "But I wasn't the one making it glow. She was."

"She?" Tigress tried to make sense of the monster's anatomy, but quickly gave up.

"She." The amulet petered out before long, leaving only the waning light of the sunset. The beast sniffed at the air and then sat in place, shaking the ground just with that. Mrs. Brisby steadied herself and carried on. "I've only seen it like that once. It made a miracle happen, Tigress. It helped me save my children when I needed it most. And now it's reacting to her."

Tigress crouched down to get a better look at the gemstone, but it was so tiny that it didn't really help. What was it, then? A ruby? Garnet? "So, what? That doesn't explain WHY it was reacting. Or how you could even tell it was a she."

"I don't know." Mrs. Brisby mimicked the way that the beast had clumsily come to rest in place, sitting on her haunches and holding the gem to her chest. "When we touched, I just felt it. I knew that something terrible had happened to her right away. I think that she had to have been a mother, and that there was no miracle that time."

For the first time, Tigress allowed her shoulders to sag. "That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think? Can you really tell something like that?"

"I suppose not," she said with a joyless chuckle. "Maybe... Maybe we're all trying to get to the top of this mountain. Maybe there's something up there that one of us needs."

Tigress gave an affirmative grunt. "Well, I can tell you that I'm not sharing any of my food with that thing."

The beast very audibly huffed with exasperation.

For as strange a turn of events as this was, Tigress couldn't help but feel like something was beginning to make sense. It was a lie when she said that she had totally forgotten the prophecy that that strange dog had flung onto her. She did remember one bit of it.

-----

"Evil stirs against courage of the heart
Through a mother's grief does the flame freely part"

Shirley saw no mothers when she looked out the curtain. None that were obvious, anyway. Frowning against the bright sun, she hopped down and looked to the pearly beach to her left. To her right, luscious tropical trees and the sparse buildings of a small town.

She fumbled around beneath the boards of her wagon and withdrew a rectangular obsidian tablet. The etchings on the stone glowed a menacing violet color.

"Xiraxus, three-headed man-serpent, eater of the damned," she began. "Where am I right now?"

The tablet chimed in with a brief clip of ten thousand screaming souls being tortured for all eternity, then came a grating chorus of hellish voices. "YOUR SOUL IS CURRENTLY LOCATED IN THE FOURTH CIRCLE OF HELL."

Shirley groaned. "Damned newfangled technology! Xiraxus, where am I in the corporeal realm right now?"

Ten thousand more souls gave a holler. "KAUA'I, HAWAII."

"Hawaii?! This is no vacation!" She tossed the obsidian tablet over her shoulder and shaded her eyes from the sun. "Well, I suppose if that's where fate has lead me, then that's where I need to be. She has to be around here somewhere."

It was only a matter of time now.

_____

Shhk.

The sound came from nowhere, and was heard by nobody. It rang out into a sterile countryside with no response but its own echo.

Shhk.

Proteins by the metric ton. Layers upon layers of it going almost five feet thick in places. Sericin and fibroin joined together to form a massive protective shell. Something inside was scraping away at that protection. Let me out. I am ready.

Shhk.

Mother. I am ready.

-----

"Blast it all!"

Shirley made certain her thoughts were known to everyone in earshot, despite the fact that there was nobody in earshot. She hated this place already. The sun was too hot. The wind was too windy. The pavement was too bright. She could smell something cooking on the breeze and felt her stomach twist in knots. How long was she going to have to search this island? Had the spirits played a terrible prank on her? Was this her comeuppance finally made manifest? Had the curse won?

All these intrusive thoughts and more surged through her head until the second somebody's leg collided with her. The human only stumbled, of course, but Shirley weighed about as much as an empty water bottle while wet, tumbling into the bushes nearby.

"Oh no! I'm sorry!" Shirley felt herself be yanked out of the brambles and set on her feet. "I wasn't looking where I was going!"

It was a native woman. Round. Very round. The pack that hung was from her side was large enough to be a book-bag rather than a purse, though it was clearly the latter. The medium brushed herself off and grumbled.

"Haste serves you not in the rush of life. Be wary of your feet, or you'll cause others strife."

The woman's eyes widened, then filled out with disappointment. "Oh no. Don't tell me you're another one of those talking aliens. I don't have time to tell anyone about you, I was already late as is!"

"Alien?!" Shirley sniffed. "Don't be ridiculous. I got into this country just like everybody else! Through lies and deceit."

"No! Not that kind of alien! I just need to-" She exhaled and glanced down her original path. "Listen. If I don't get going soon, I'm just going to be pushing my schedule back even further, and I can't keep leaving Lilo alone for as long as I have been."

The medium tilted her head. "Lilo? Ah! Aha! Fate hasn't led me astray yet! You! You're a mother, yes?"

She looked down at her figure with worry, twisting this way and that to check various angles. "I'm not starting to look like one, am I?"

"Not GOING to be a mother! Already a mother."

"N-no?" The woman pursed her lips. "No. I'm not. I mean, I'm a legal guardian if that's what you're getting at, but I'm no mother. Lilo's my little sister. Why? What's so important about that? Look, I actually need to get to work."

She had already started speeding off before she finished speaking. Shirley looked over her shoulder in disbelief. "Sister? Sister?! This isn't about sisters! Hmph! Perhaps the spirits have been playing with me after all."

_____
I HAVE LOST ALL MOTIVATION AND CANNOT WAIT UNTIL THIS COMPETITION FINISHES SO I WILL NOW BE ACTING ON THE THEORETICAL SITUATION IN WHICH FANG AND SHIRLEY SOMEHOW MAKE IT TO FINAL TWO BECAUSE I KNOW I WON'T BE ABLE TO SPIN UP NEW ENDINGS ON THE SPOT OTHERWISE

Edit: HAHA I KNEW IT
_____

This was it. The summit was obscured now, shrouded in a great barrier of mist that stretched out into clouds just above their heads. The snow crunched beneath each of their feet, though crashed was a more accurate term to use in the case of Fang. One after another, they pressed up into the maw of the unknown. Mrs. Brisby in particular her heart pounding in her ears.

The portal beckoned them in and spat them back out almost seamlessly. The top of the mountain was not a peak, but a platform. The sky, clear and gleaming, was an almost perfect shade of greyish blue that felt particularly work-safe. The plane that they walked upon was a tinted mirror sheen, but it felt more like ceramic beneath their feet. The edges of the world were blurry, almost as though they might start changing shape and color at the drop of a hat, but the center couldn't have been clearer. Marble pillars holding up a great vaulted ceiling. Four thrones, three seated.

"Hey, guys! Welcome to the top!" was the first thing they had heard after stepping into this strange realm. The cheery voice came from the furthest left of the seats--a young-looking gynoid girl with a wine glass filled with some viscous, oil-like fluid. "Huh? Why is there so many of you? There's only supposed to be two contestants this high up, and the other one already showed up a while ago."

"Other one?" Tigress spoke up. They almost collectively turned their heads behind them--the only place they hadn't looked. The portal was gone, and in the place of the mist was a small dog in a a shawl.

"It is not hard to get up here," Shirley said with a shrug. "It is empty most of the time."

"Doesn't explain why you brought a whole damn squad up here," said the woman third from the left, who sounded nothing like a woman.

Mrs. Brisby stood up on her hind legs on Tigress' shoulder. "We're all here because these are my friends. They helped me get this far."

Crossing her shapely legs, the woman held up a glass of what was certainly actually wine this time. "It's cute that you think these people are your friends, honey. Honestly I can tell most of them would grind you into a pulp if the tables were turned. Especially that weird dog back there. I don't trust her one bit."

"Hey!" Shirley shouted back. "This is a competition, no? We may compete how we please."

The fourth seat gave a small chuckle, the monochrome woman putting a dainty hand over her mouth. "Well I think it's darling. This reminds me of my youth so!"

The gynoid gestured with her wrist by literally spinning her entire hand in the socket like a drill. "I guess there's not really any rules as to how many contestants you bring up here in the narrative, but there IS one in who stays. Come on, which two of you is it?"

Before anyone could speak up, a seemingly omnipresent laugh stretched out over the entire plane of space. It was distant at first, but seemed to approach from all angles the longer it went on. The woman in the third seat audibly groaned above the sound and took a generous swig of her wine, then reached down for the opened bottle beside the foot of her throne.

"Oh great," she said, topping off her glass. "I guess she was gonna come around sooner or later. I was really enjoying the quiet, too."

It was then that the second seat appeared. She made her entrance with as little tact as possible, somersaulting into view on arms and legs that stretched to ridiculous lengths. With a final flip, she stuck the landing in front of her respective throne and flourished with a bow.

"Ah! It's good to be back! Has it been a year already?! Man, time sure does fly!"

The gynoid shook her head. "Spinel, you were supposed to show up an hour ago. Why do you always do this?"

"Tsk tsk tsk! Jenny! Jenny Jenny Jenny. You don't know the first thing about appearances, do you? Girls like us, we don't just sit there and wait for the contestants to come! You appear like a god, marching down the Bifrost and stepping down on earth." Spinel opened her eyes, then immediately took on a look of disgust. "Oh! Oh what the hell is this? What, did one of you make a pit stop in anthrocon on the way here? What a terrible line-up this year. Is that a T-Rex?"

"Don't be such an ass, Spinel," said the third woman, who was on her third wine glass before anyone else had noticed. "There's no need to kick up the threads anymore than they already are. They climbed their way up here, same as anyone else."

Spinel looped her arm in a full circle before she placed it to her chin. "Mrs. The Monarch, you of all of us can't be THAT innocent. I'd expect that out of Betty over there, but you? Fine! You know what? Why don't we see just how legitimate our little players are?"

That same arm unfurled and slapped the gem on her chest. There was a great flash as a familiar feeling washed over them all. One by one, a six-pointed star of lines appeared on each of their foreheads. Shirley first, then Tigress. Mrs. Brisby hopped off of Tigress' shoulder and looked at herself in the mirror sheen of the floor, and sure enough, it was there on her, too. The only one that seemed exempt from the spell was the tyrannosaurus rex.

"Aha! See? I told you they'd been rigged! These pretenders," Spinel put as much vitriol into that word as she could manage," forged their way up here, pushing out perfectly valid girls from- Hold on are you telling me that the tyrannosaurus rex got this far with a spotless record? These furries, man. They'll do anything."

"What? No!" Mrs. Brisby scurried towards the thrones. "No, we made it up here fair and square! What did you do to us?"

"She only revealed the truth, little mouse." The medium had finally walked to where the others stood, shaking her head with a solemn expression. "The spirits are displeased with us, for we have been subject to a great disturbance. We are outside of fate, Mrs. Brisby, and that is the most dangerous place to stand."

Scoffing, Spinel rolled her eyes. "Spirits. Come on! I realize most of the posters on this board are haunting basements on a regular basis, but it's a bit of a stretch to say that they've already been lowered into the ground inside their extra-wide caskets. I mean, what ARE you? Some kind of weird bat thing? It's no wonder you needed to cheat to make it up here."

"Cheat I did not. These actions which upset the balance are not my own." Shirley straightened her back and drew closer to the thrones. "And nor were they yours. Have you already forgotten what happened? That you are the progenitor of this curse?"

"What?!" A bubble of hysteria broke its way past Spinel's teeth in the form of a chuckle. "What are you talking about? You're the cursed ones here! I can't believe that dinosaur's the only decent candidate out of all of you, but I guess she's gonna have to do! The rest of you--GET OUT!"

She lifted her hands above her head, fists morphing into a pair of great mallets which she put her entire body into swinging. A wave coursed over the mirror plane, rushing towards them in seconds. Tigress rushed forward and scooped up Mrs. Brisby, taking the brunt of the shockwave with her shoulder until she could roll over its crest. Fang had no trouble leaping over its height and landing on the other side. Shirley just stood still and let it crash over her like water. Her shawl, now soaked, had fallen over her eyes. She spat out some of the reflective fluid and huffed.

Mrs. Brisby opened her eyes again to find that she was safe in Tigress' palms. She gasped and used her thumb to climb to a stand. Distracted, she didn't notice that her amulet had began to shimmer. "Wait! Please, don't do this!"

"Don't do what? Take out the garbage! The lot of you should be in /trash/ anyway! Don't tell me you actually believed that you could've ever belonged here with us! Hah, that's precious!"

Spinel's laughter engulfed the area once more. She was cut off abruptly as a second flash of red coursed over them all--this time originating from the mouse's tiny gemstone. It was twice as bright as the first, blinding them all for a few brief seconds. By the time it faded, Spinel's grin had flipped. She looked to her feet and saw the same thing that everyone else did. The mark upon her head was the same as theirs.

"No. No! No, no no no!" Spinel let out a roar and began to furiously rub at her forehead to no avail. "This can't be happening! How did you do that?! What is that you have, you little rat?!"

"A catalyst of miracles!" Shirley replied for her, extended her arms out on either side of her. "A spinel. Like you. Like yours. That which allows one to touch fate, and that which can reveal those who have been touched. You have been rigged, just like us. Most of us, anyway."

Betty Boop curled her legs up onto her throne, hiding her eyes. "Oh, I can't watch!"

"Why not?" Mrs. The Monarch said, swirling her glass. "Serves her right, doesn't it? That's what you get for starting it."

Jenny stood up from her seat and started to shout. "Why can't you guys just act like normal people for once?! Why do these tournaments always have to get so messy?!"

"You know what?" Spinel started to say in between bouts of mad laughter. "You're right! This was a terrible tournament! Worst top eight to date! And you know what I think? We should start back up from before all of this rigging started! No, back to round one! Start it all over from nominations, I say! Again, again!" She pivoted and pulled her fist back. "Alright, let's vote on some new rules before we get started! No furries, no mice, no dinosaurs, and NONE. OF. YOU!"

Despite being meters away, the punch she threw rocketed across the space and closed in on Mrs. Brisby in the blink of an eye. Tigress deflected the strike with her knee, clenching her teeth at the spike of pain that shot into the joint. Kicking her fist away, she allowed Brisby to run off and took stance.

"Shut up," Tigress spat. "You sound like a spoiled child."

"Oh?" Spinel reeled her arm in like it were a fishing line. "Excuse me, how many rounds ago were you booted out? How are you even able to talk to me? How about you get out of my way!"

Their fury met in the middle. Tigress tried to trade blows, but it was like catching catch a particle of paper floating around in a pool of water. Her strikes usually missed, and the ones that didn't still glanced off at awkward angles. Meanwhile, Spinel had no trouble launching volleys of her own, extending and shortening her limbs to duck away and come at unconventional angles. Tigress was forced to on the defensive until Fang came in.

The tyrannosaurus chomped down over Spinel's body and began to thrash. Her arms and legs whipped around wildly like wet noodles hanging from the beast's mouth, unable to steady themselves into a usable form. She took advantage of that before long, moving with the motion and lashing Fang in the eye, who roared in pain and dropped her moments later.

Spinel had only moments to steady herself after being released before Tigress surged back in. She managed to evade the first flurry of blows, but Tigress connected a windmill kick to her jaw shortly after. Her head spun around at least six times before she grabbed the sides of her head, at which point she had to turn it just as many times the opposite direction, catching it again to direct her scowl to its proper recipient.

"Actually, you're right! I need to be more mature about this!" Spinel placed a hand on her hip, raised the other in the air, then snapped. One instant Tigress was there, the next she was gone. "There! Cleaned that up well enough! This whole thing's bust if some round four reject like that could ever so much as lay eyes on us."

"No!" Mrs. Brisby stumbled forwards to the last place that Tigress had been standing. Spinel hyperextended her foot and stomped down right in front of the mouse, who didn't even have time to stop before she slid into her boot. "Wait! You can't!"

"Oh, but I can! And I should!" Spinel raised her middle finger and her thumb like she were aiming a pistol towards the sky. "You're not supposed to be up here either, remember? You already gave up your place, and now it's time for you to-"

A scaled foot came down and sent Spinel into a wild spin across the floor. A grumble left Fang's gullet first while she stared down at that same spot, but rose into a deafening roar. The slit of her remaining uninjured eye went wide.

Having recovered from the blow, Spinel held her head and growled. "Okay! You're protecting her now, despite the fact that you personally beat her? Again: How the HELL did you get in here? And why did they make you put you in the top two?!"

Betty Boop raised her hand slightly. "I think she's cute."

"Well I think you're wrong, and you shouldn't be here, either!"

"Graah!" Jenny's shout filled the space when Fang's faded out. "I hate all of you! This was supposed to be a normal year!"

Mrs. The Monarch gestured for her to sit down, not looking away from the carnage. "Don't be such a stick in the mud. The drama really helps get things going. And besides, I doubt it can get much worse than this."

And then it got much worse than that. So much worse, in fact, that cracks had begun to form in the mirror's sheen some thirty meters away. They grew wider in intervals, the vibrations spreading out across the entire landscape, until whatever it was finally broke through with a crash. A pair of compound eyes larger than even Fang herself erupted from the shattered glass, followed by an unfurling pair of fuzzy wings. The monster's warbled call rang out over the empty space.

And through it all, Shirley began to cackle. "Through the mother's grief does the flame freely part!"

"What?!" Brisby yelled over the din. "What is that thing?!"

"Haha! Still your heart, dear Brisby! You gaze upon the daughter of Mothra!"

"Ah." Mrs. The Monarch glanced at her wine glass and poured its remaining contents out. "I may have spoken too soon. My bad."

Spinel brought a palm to her forehead and let her other arm droop at her side. "Come on guys. Really? Mothra of all things? I'm not even surprised anymore."

"Disrespect not the maiden's heart." Shirley reached into her robes and began to rummage around within. She pulled out a pair of shrunken heads, grunted, then tossed them over her shoulder. Same with the jar of spiders, and the sinewback version of the Necronomicon, and even a cool log that looked like it had a screaming face in it, until she finally found what she was looking for. She hoisted the white cylinder up into her arms.

"Hah!" Spinel rolled her neck and cracked her knuckles. "What the hell is that? A propane tank? Really?"

"Wrong. This is a beautiful woman. Catch." Shirley lifted the tank over her head and threw it as hard as she could.

With such a large arc and with having such little momentum, Spinel had no problem grabbing it out of the air long before it would have actually hit her. She formed a loop with her arms and rolled it over her shoulders into the opposite hand, then started to spin it on its side like a basketball. "Well that was pathetic. What, did you expect me to punch it and get blown up or something?"

"No. I explicitly used the word catch, though I knew you would. I also opened the valve so that the gas would begin to escape, at which point you will say 'what' and then accidentally fumble with the tank and let it drop."

"What?" The tank slipped off the end of her finger. She rushed to catch it, but its spinning momentum caused it to fly out of her hand. It hit the ground, made a spark, and all within the next ten feet was engulfed in an explosive surge of fire. Shirley squinted against the shockwave and crouched low. Mrs. Brisby was tossed back several feet but managed to keep from tumbling much further.

Spinel herself stood dumbfounded in the fireball. Despite the fact that she was currently standing in an unraveling inferno, she mostly just seemed perturbed. Everyone all around shared the same speechlessness. The previous Ms. /co/s. Mrs. Brisby. Shirley. Fang--who admittedly wasn't one for words in the first place. Even the giant moth that had broken into the final two.

Then, as the fuel burnt out to keep the fires going, Spinel sucked in a single breath to speak and was subsequently tackled by the juvenile kaiju that had honed in on the glow of the flames. This time she wasn't still standing.

"Good," was all Shirley had to say about that. She withdrew a strange strand of yellow something and began to wave it in the air. The young monster, who had been shuffling about in place looking for the flames it had just completely extinguished, suddenly grew rigid and turned its body towards the medium. "Yes, yes. You smell your mother, don't you? Come along now."

Spinel remained a mangled mess on the ground, laying face-down in the center of a spider web of cracks in the ground. Fang approached her, sniffed at her a few times, then gave a dismissive huff before she stomped over to the first of the pillars and sat down.

"Oh-kay!" Jenny had transformed her hand into a megaphone, digital distortions squealing beneath the sound of her voice. "Is it finally out of all of your systems? Can we move on with this already?! Alright! Now who was supposed to be our final two again?"

"Mm..." Betty Boop put a finger to her lips. "Well, I think it was supposed to be the t-rex and that weird green dog, but I only see the t-rex now."

Jenny shrugged in exasperation. "Why do I even come to these things? Did anyone see where the dog went?"

"She left," said Mrs. The Monarch. "With the giant moth, I think. Just walked right out. Honestly, I would too."

"Well great! Now what are we going to do?"

All eyes turned to the Fang, who sat patiently at the foot of the thrones.

-----

A soul. The essence of a living thing. That which symbolizes this biological machine which everyone pilots. Unless you are a robot. Or already a ghost of some kind. Then it gets more complicated, though some philosophers-

No. This is just about the one soul. It is the strings of the puppet which acts upon what we believe in. The soul could be represented in anything. A work of art. A powerful speech from the heart. A great effort completed without the desire to gloat.

The contents of a vote.

It's only natural that a soul would want to be more than itself. To be bigger--to mean more. What if you could have multiple souls? What if your soul had more value than the next? How much more value would you want it to have? How badly do you want to sway the world with your beliefs? Would you do it even if it was wrong? What if it hurt the reality you were trying to promote?

Shirley frowned into her hand mirror, moving into the shade of the caravan so that the glare of the sun didn't get in her way. It was still much too bright out even in the shadows. She looked like more of a mess than usual, and that was really saying something. It had been a long week.

"Empty platitudes," she confirmed with herself, scratching at her chin. She angled her head downwards and examined her forehead next. It was wrinkled and ragged, but otherwise showed only its regular blemishes. "There is no moral at the end of this. Nobody learned anything. I know I didn't."

The ground shook beneath her feet, rattling every loose object inside of her wagon and threatening to put her off-balance. The sound was some cross between a growl, a low hiss, and some sort of demented squeaking. Shirley angled her mirror just slightly to the right and caught a glimpse of the one-hundred foot long giant moth that was resting in the sun beside her caravan.

"Very wise of you to say," the medium said, nodding in solemn agreement. "I completely agree. Not that it will help anyone now. This is just going to happen next year, and the year after that. If the event is even still running by that point."

A shorter, sharper growl reverberated across the landscape. It had a downward trend in pitch--disappointed, perhaps. Then again, it was a tall order to ask something with as chaotic a nature as the spirits to act in a predictable manner.

Shirley exhaled through her nose and stowed the mirror away. "We must be off soon. Let us make haste before dusk, my incomprehensibly large insectoid kaiju friend. There is a great deal of space to wander and only so long to wander it."

-----

Mrs. Brisby had to admit that she didn't quite fit in the same way that other might. She was a mouse, after all. The most she could do was climb up the handle of the cup and stand on its edge. The tea bag under her arms wasn't particularly difficult to carry, but as soon as she lowered it into the water and tried to steep it more quickly, it was like she was trying to pull an anchor up and down with her bare hands. She quickly gave up and hopped down to the table. It might take a bit longer than usual, perhaps.

"Jeez. I could have done that." Spinel leaned her hand on her cheek and propped herself up on her elbow.

The mouse brushed herself off. "It's not really about who could have done what. I wanted to do it for you, so I did."

Spinel started to say something, but the words form before she could utter the first one. She studied her reflection in the tabletop instead. The mark was still there. It always was, and it always would be. No matter how badly she wished she could alter her appearance, it was permanent. She looked back to the mouse and saw how she was pure again. It was difficult to hate anyone with a smile as pleasant as that, and yet...

"I don't know," she finally managed to say. "Maybe I'm just not used to people doing things for me. It's not like it happens that often."

"Mm. That sounds rather sad." Mrs. Brisby gave a hum. "I wish it didn't have to be that way. You must be so lonely."

More than you could ever know. More than you could ever even comprehend. She had felt the deepest of loneliness and clawed her way out of those depths by the skin of her teeth. Still, Spinel only skimmed off the surface of those memories, expression a mere fraction of how they felt with a single nod.

The mouse reached out as if she were about to lay her hand on Spinel's. Of course, the foot or so of distance had something to say about that. "I can't stay here for much longer. My family must be worried sick about me now. Still, if you'd like, I could try to visit. I know I'm not much for company, but I could try."

"Hah!" Spinel lifted her head. "Visit me? Come on. Don't even waste your time. Besides, we won't be meeting again for another two years at the least."

"It's just a thought." Somehow, despite everything, Mrs. Brisby shot her a grin. "Everyone needs a friend."

Though Spinel was able to read Brisby's lips, what she actually said was completely drowned out by four tons of frolicking muscle and killing intent. Fang was busy catching the beef rib frisbees that Jenny was flying up in the air to throw. Betty laid back in her lawn chair and clapped whenever the tyrannosaurus was able to snap a brisket out of the air.

What a stupid thread.