Chapter 19: The Ogittra Horn

“Thisss isss where the oracle iss?” Gander questioned, quite filled with doubts.

Before Olice and her entourage of spirits was a churning sea of crushed crystal, raging floes of the very stuff of the Red Crystal Realm. They stood upon a cliff that this sea ate away at, or more exactly had eaten away. Most of what remained of the cliff was a spur hanging in the air, if it wasn’t magical there was no way it would have stayed there.

At this lip along with Olice and the others, was a simple crystal pole, hanging from this pole was a horn. A horn that wasn’t made of crystal, no amazingly this horn was made of wood, not even red wood, quite possibly it was just regular ash. This raised quite a few questions, as ash trees aren’t even native to Awarth, which the Red Crystal Realm was made from.

The crystal sea was filled with aquatic beasts, monsters and spirits, the volatile nature of it was in part due to this mass of beings fighting tooth, nail, claw, spur and flipper to survive. Gander could sense the presence of powerful spirits deep within, ones far more powerful than the kitir they had fled from.

-This is an extremely dangerous place mistress- Susasov said, he too could easily sense the power contained beneath the crystal waves.

“This isn’t where we need to be” Olice said smugly.

She was glad to have Gander at a loss, gratefulness towards Ka filled her being. In Olice’s mind making Ka into a familiar had already paid off.

“No, just way to oracle, cross Sharder Sea” Ka said.

Gander looked down at the churning crystal, something vaguely duck-like was floating on the surface, abruptly a mouth with far too many teeth slammed around it, before slipping back under the waves.

“I may regret asssking thisss, but how exactly do we crossss that?” Gander asked.

“We blow the horn!” Olice announced.

“We blow the horn” Gander restated.

-That is what she said, yes did you really need to repeat yourself?- Susasov asked.

“What exactly does blowing the horn do?” Gander asked.

“Surprise” Ka said.

“Yes, a surprise” Olice giggled.

“Ssssurprisssess are only good when it isss me doing them” Gander muttered.

-What was that? You have to speak up, this senior here can’t hear you- Susasov said, knowing full well what Gander said.

“Whatever! Blow the horn!” Gander said, quite flustered at this stage.

Olice stepped up the horn, she didn’t take it from its pole, as it was quite a bit bigger than her, she took a big breath and…

*farp*

A small depressed farp noise issued from the horn, it wasn’t very loud.

Gander couldn’t help but laugh.

Olice frowned, that wasn’t at all how it was supposed to work.

“Ooooh, Gander you blow it then, since you think it is so funny”

Gander made blowing faces at Olice while chuckling, but all the same when over to the horn for his try.

He put his mouth to the horn and…

*farp*

Another small depressed farp noise went forth, though this one was possibly more depressed than the previous one.

Olice smiled at Gander and Ka spoke.

“Oh, just testing? Another try?” Ka asked Gander.

Gander did not try again.

-May I Mistress?- Susasov asked.

“Yes, of course Susasov” Olice said.

Olice still wasn’t sure what to make of Susasov. She felt a connection with Ka, indeed she felt like she had finally gained a friend, a playmate. Susasov though? He wasn’t a mentor/taunter like Gander was, or a friend. He just seemed to mostly watch.

The mousecat amulet shone and Susasov’s humanoid form appeared. His robe was no longer quite as worn, though all the embroidery was gone from it. Instead it was a slightly faded silvery robe.

He put his lips to the horn and blew…

*farp*

“Ka, there wasn’t anything special that the person you saw blowing did was there?” Olice asked.

Ka had once travelled this way before, shadowing a group of spirits out of curiosity.

“No” Ka said dejectedly.

“I’ll try one of my other bodies, Mistress” Susasov said.

“Worth trying isn’t it?” Olice said.

The next moment, Susasov’s housecat body appeared. Susasov lifted himself up as so as he could blow the horn…

*farp*

“Well, that wasss a failure, wasssn’t it? What now?” Gander questioned.

Gander twisted around Olice and Ka.

“Bet you didn’t even consssider the posssssibility that sssomething would go wrong” he said.

He looked out over the sea and sniffed.

“Crosssssing a sssea filled with those things, there isss limitss you know, the horn probably hasssn’t worked in ages, what iss it even sssupposssed to…”

*BUHRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH*

Susasov stood there sheepishly smiling, cat body on head and mouse body on cat head. He had tried blowing the horn with his mouse body, not really expecting anything would happen.

“Blowing gently works?” Ka wondered.

However, though the horn was blown, nothing happened.

Gander shook his head in disgust.

“Thisss wass all a wasssste of time, the horn doesssn’t even…”

The cliff began to shake and rumble, shuddering, Gander quickly coiled around Olice, in case she slipped. Olice and Ka though were laughing.

Gander looked around trying to figure what was going on. It didn’t take long for him to notice that the cliff they were on was moving. A bit longer and it was clear that the cliff was actually just the prow of a massive ship.

“You can let go Gander. We need to meet the movers of the ship” Olice said.

Gander unceremoniously released Olice in such a fashion as to send her rolling into the ship, away from the prow.

Before Olice could come to a stop, something scooped her up.

It was a humanoid form, one with pointed ears, but its whole body was encrusted with crystal, its eyes were also crystal. Its flesh was desiccated, on the whole it looked like some kind of odd mummy, but with crystal instead of bandages.

“Welcome travellers, to the penitent ship Ogittra, where is it that you wish to go? We are bound to obey”