Chapter 5
"Robe?"
"Check."
"Dagger?"
"Check!" Rio was on her way to the first job she would be doing on her own. Since the first one went so well,her dad had decided to give her another job quickly. Rio slipped on her silky green robe,which was messily stitched together,and stuck her dagger in her pocket. She could barely stand still from the excitement that she felt,she was hopping around,twiddling her fingers,and even played around with her dagger a bit.
Her dad pulled the bright green hood over her head with a smile. "Now,if you sense any other souls ready to be taken to the afterlife,you can either come back and call me over,or collect them yourself if it's an animal." Rio nodded,"Got it."
She pulled her dagger out of her robe with an excited grin. She then looked at it with a confused expression, "Wait,how do I open a portal to the land of the living?" Her dad gave her a small smile and guided her dagger. "Alright,so you see how I twirl my cane? You make up your own way to open up a portal to the land of the living."
"I'm open for suggestions!" Rio showed a toothy grin and waited for her dad to answer. "Nope. You are your own soul,and do you really want what I pick to be how you open a portal forever?" Rio had been surprised by her dad's response,usually he wanted things his way or wanted Rio to follow some kind of rules,but now Rio could make her own choices. "I guess not. But I have no idea how to make one up."
Rio looked down at her dagger for a second,could my green powers pass through it? She pointed the pointed tip of the dagger towards the ground,shutting her eyes to focus her power into the dagger and out onto the soil below her bare feet.
She felt a sudden tug from the ground and something thin and prickly wrap around her legs. Rio opened her eyes to long,dark green vines slowly hugging her into the moist dirt. First,her ankles went below,then the rest of her legs,and in the span of a few seconds,only her head was above the dirt. Rio shut her eyes again,afraid to get dirt in them. Before the dirt completely swallowed her,she could hear her dad yell, "Good luck! I'll see you in a bit!"
When Rio had opened her eyes again,she had popped up beside a raging body of water. Thick amounts of vegetation surrounded her,from ferns as green as the robe she wore to giant trees that had vines hanging from them. She could hear all kinds assortments of animals in the rainforest,tigers roaring,parrots squawking,all kinds of sounds. She could hear the winding river rushing beside her,some water had even splashed into the soil beneath her and onto her.
Rio searched the place with her eyes,her eyebrows eventually furrowed in confusion. By now,she would've found the body,or that's what she thought. Maybe she could try to find the way she did earlier,by using her plant powers,whatever they were. Instead of focusing her dagger to the ground,she lowered one of her hands to the moist soil that squelched beneath her fingers and let out a burst of green magic.
Strange. No path that would lead Rio to the body had grown like she had expected,she hadn't even been pulled back down into the soil by vines again.All that had grown was a bush that towered over her and hung sharp red and green flowers that cupped like vases. Rio titled her head,glancing at her dagger for a moment. Was that the reason why I could come here?
Rio had only credited her green magic for getting her to the land of the living,but it seemed like the dagger should've gotten the credit. She had to admit,her power seemed different when it passed through the dagger,more powerful and focused. Focused on the task of delivering or finding the location of a body.
Rio put the tip of her dagger to the ground,focusing her magic into the ground once again. She slowly lifted the blade from the ground,watching as ferns slowly lifted from the ground and formed a line that led deeper into the rainforest. Rio quickly got up from her crouching position,walking along the path of ferns into the humid rainforest.
Rio walked at a normal pace,strolling through the rainforest and taking in the sights. The place was filled with color,from the bright green frogs with orange flippers and giant red eyes to the hungry, orange eyes that stalked throughout the forest,watching Rio like a vulture waiting to strike.
Halfway through the walk,she could hear the tall plants that covered the forest floor rustling,which caused her to stop in her tracks to search the vibrant forest with her eyes. She let out a whistle,hopeful that she could lure the creature out and meet it or at least hear it come closer. Silence. The whole rainforest was silent,for a moment,Rio even thought that she heard the river stop flowing and crashing against the land. Why was it so quiet?
In an instant,Rio felt something heavy crash against her and push her to the dirt. She exhaled unsteadily,looking up to see a black mass on all four of its legs above her. It's giant,jet back paws pinned her to the forest floor and it's claws sunk into her robe. It looked down at her with a vicious look in it's big,orange eyes and licked it's lips and whiskers. Rio had expected the claws the penetrate her robe and her skin,delivering a blow that would kill her if she had ever been living,but it never came.
The black panther looked down at its claws,picking up on the fact that it had failed to hurt Rio. The robe had stopped it. She took it as a chance to try to maneuver her way out of the panther's claws. First,she popped her arm out from under the panther,making sure to poke its defined ribs teasingly with a small smirk. "Got you. You gotta take my-"
The panther let out an angry roar,sinking it's fangs into Rio's robe and shaking its head violently to try to tear at the robe. She tried to pull herself out from under the panther,but one thing had kept her there,a corner of the robe that the panther got it's claws stuck in. Rio let out a burst of magic from her hands and into the ground. She felt a violent shake from the ground for a moment,unsure of what would happen next.
Her life flashed before her eyes when a giant bundle of vines whizzed past her and latched onto the neck of the panther that had trapped her. It thrashed around,letting go of the robe to run around and try escaping from the grasp of the vengeful vines. Rio heard the panther's paws this against the ground for a few moments,then a strained breath and a final thud to the ground.
She looked down at the panther's lifeless body,once hungry were eyes wide open and panicked,and shut the eyes of it. She gave it's fur a gentle pet and stabbed her dagger into the ground to draw a circle around the body. Rio could feel the presence of another soul standing beside her, it's bristled fur pressed against her for a moment and flattened. She turned her head to see the panther's orange eyes staring back at her,this time,she could see a calmness pass over those eyes.
Rio felt a need to speak gently to the soul,although it had tried to kill her,she could understand why it needed to. It was just a starving animal trying to survive. "You can go,now. You don't need to hunt anymore." She pointed her dagger at the ground below the panther,passing a bit of magic through it to grow a bush of flowers for its soul to pass through.
Rio looked back at the path of ferns,letting out a laugh,"Oh right."
She followed the path to one of the trees,fungi and leaves overgrown on the bark. She knocked on the wood,the sound echoing throughout it's hollow insides. Rio walked around the tree until she found a small hole in the wood which she peered into to see a few cobwebs weaved into a spiral shape. She could see the outline of something bigger than her hand,something that was certainly fuzzier than her hand as well.
From what Rio could see, it's eight legs were covering its own body,as if it needed protection from something. When she took a look closer,she could see that it wasn't protecting itself,it was protecting a hundred circular eggs that were as small as it's own eyes. She could see hundreds of crushed eggs around the body of the tarantula. Had it gotten bored and tried to eat it's babies? Or had something else gotten it? Rio would never know. All she knew is that the tarantula died in a fetal position that just so happened to protect the eggs
Rio brushed her fingers against the tarantula's fuzzy legs and gently scooped it up into her hand. She put the tip of her knife against the skin on her skin and gently traced a circle around the tarantula. Rio felt something crawling up her arm,tickling her skin with the tiny hairs on each of it's legs. She looked down at her shoulder where a lively 8 legged creature sat, it's many beady black eyes staring at her.
Rio stared back at the tarantula,asking,"What? You know you can leave whenever you want. Just say the word." It sat still. She gently picked up the tarantula and placed it on the forest floor. Just as soon as she was about to get back up,the tarantula skittered up her hand. "I thought you'd like to go with your shattered eggs." It blinked at her for a few moments.
"Too soon?"
Rio sighed,picking up the tarantula and placing it in her hood. "I guess you could come with me. Forever." She smiled and started to skip back down the path of ferns that she had followed to the tarantula's web. There were no interruptions this time,no panthers trying to eat her,just the bliss of walking through a rainforest with a tarantula in her hood.
Rio had reach the river where the vines were waiting for her return so they could pull her back down under the dirt. She braced herself for the pull,grabbing the tarantula and cupping her hands with it inside,"You're going to want to close your eyes for this one."
When Rio was pulled through she let out a cough and checked her cupped hands. The tarantula was still in her hands and it crawled up her arm again,pricking her skin with its hairs,and made it's way up to her shoulder. She made her way into her house and opened the front door,"I'm back! You miss me?"
Rio opened the door to her dad,who took one look at the floor and shook his head with a laugh. "I did miss you,but I think you need a bath. And a cleaning cloth." She looked down at her feet to see tracks of mud following her own footsteps to the door. She gave her dad an apologetic look and headed towards the bathroom. "At least get your shoes on instead of tracking more mud!"
Rio had taken a nice warm bath after a weird day in the moist rainforest and gotten on her pajamas. She turned the corner in the hall to go to the living room where she found her dad reading a book wearing his thin lenses connected by a line that curved over his nose. He looked up for a moment,flashing a smile before patting a spot on their orange couch next to him. Rio happily took the spot next to her dad. She looked over at him again,his expression complex,mostly sad and worried. "Why are you sad again,dad?"
"I'm not sad about anything. Just proud of you for your work today." Rio shrugged,"It might've taken getting mauled by a big black cat,but I got it done." Her dad let out a chuckle. "You're learning fast and it's not like I didn't expect that. You've always been smart and somewhat mature. I guess it's time that I... I stopped slowing time in this realm, we'll be in sinc with the living."
Rio's eyebrows raised in surprise,"Wait,why are you changing how fast time goes? What changed?" Her father smiled softly at her,"You have a friend there. Agatha,right?"
"What's a friend?"
"Someone you enjoy being around and someone that enjoys you. That's the best way I can describe it." Rio understood how she felt about Agatha a bit more. Although it didn't fully describe the feeling of her stomach fluttering,Rio could understand it now. A look flashed across her father's face for moment,as if he had just remembered something. "Can you promise me something Rio?"
"Yeah of course!"
"Just don't- Don't fall in love with anyone. Not a living boy,and even if it's unlikely,Agatha."
" I promise." Although Rio had heard those words in the vow,she promised again. She couldn't see herself "falling in love",whatever that was. "I have to ask about something really quick."
"Go on." Her dad had readjusted himself in his seat,seeming uncomfortable. "When we were at the Calderus house,the living girl said that I had a scar. And a panther tried to attack me today,but it couldn't hurt me. I guess I was just wondering if Death could be hurt?"
"Death can't be hurt by anything. But you aren't Death yet,so I have you that robe." Her dad confirmed her suspicions,Rio couldn't be hurt. That just left her stumped,her dad said that the coven specialized in seeing the future,or divination,as her dad called it. Had the witch seen a future where Rio was hurt by a job and it left a mark? "Then what did the witch mean?"
"Not all scars are physical,Rio. Nothing hurts as much as human emotion."