[spookies] Statues in the Dark

“…A cart. A cart with a giant crab pulling it. That was why the house was moving.” Azimuth intoned flatly.

“Yes, but don’t knock crabs like that. I thought I’d already told you that, Azi.” Ambedo nodded pragmatically.

“My name is Azimuth, mother.” Azimuth rolled her eyes at the pet name. “And the Sipzips mauled you because of the sticky red stuff, which was…?”

“Jam, and it was jam in the cauldron, too. Good grief, did I really not tell you anything about the background of that story?” Ambedo sighed. “That’s on me, kid, I guess it slipped my mind since we were pretty busy that week.”

“Mother, I’ve been having nightmares about that for years.” Azimuth responded condescendingly.

“Sorry. Shouldn’t have asked for a story if you didn’t want the chance to get personally scarred by a story.” Ambedo shrugged again. It was one of those mannerisms that Azimuth would have laughed at as a bappy. She was an adult Symprite now, though, and not as easily humored.

“They weren’t even a witch, were they.” Azimuth claimed accusatorially.

“I mean… if you consider the fact that jam is quite a mystical substance, maybe they were a witch. I dunno.” Ambedo dodged the question. “Why is this important?”

“Mother, you were the one who brought it up in the first place.” Azimuth retorted drily.

“All I’m saying is that this is just like that first really big outing you did… even the same time of year, heck I think it might even be the same day.” Ambedo looked up at what little of the sky the two of them could see, and pointed to the vague red glow of the moons.

“And, do you know what else that means?” Azimuth inquired. Azimuth did; it meant it was her birthday again. Her birthday always came around when the eclipses did. It was like her life was bathed in red, from beginning to end.

“Uhh…” Ambedo drawled, “It’s Lunisolar? I’m not sure exactly what you’re getting at.”

“Never mind.” Azimuth sighed, crossing her arms crossly. Still, despite everything, she had to admit that she was pretty curious about the reason they were here. They were right outside of The Vault. It loomed above them like the sense of despondent dread one considered when they realized it had been built by other sentient life. That was not the weird thing, though. The weird thing was…

“Mother, why are we here? You hate The Vault.” Azimuth inquired, attempting to hide the curiosity in her voice. And, in fact, the circumstances had been pretty bizarre, as well.

Azimuth had been visiting a few stalls at the Elysium Lunisolar Festival, looking for some things to take with her as a gift to herself. She lived on her own now. She did not need her mother’s permission to purchase things at the shops. She did not rely on Ambedo, nor did Ambedo rely on Azimuth. They were separate, ships on a sea far apart. The only thing that could reunite two such souls was a storm great and foul, reunited in shipwreck.

And yet beyond that simile, all of a sudden, Ambedo had been at Azimuth’s armside, and from there it had been the journey to The Vault. Neither of them had talked much until now. It was simply not in either of their natures any longer to have pointless chitchat. And here they were, outside of The Vault. Something inside her itched to go in… but, for the sake of her mother, she did not leave the fireside.

“The reason we’re here? It’s a secret for now.” Ambedo looked at the sky ponderously; Azimuth knew this was a sure sign that she was hiding something. One did not live with a Symprite for two decades and not realize that.

“You’re hiding something, mother.” Azimuth accused her mother softly.

“Of course, I am. I literally just told you it’s a secret.” Ambedo responded lightly, bringing her gaze from the stars above back to her daughter. It was funny to think about all those years ago. Back on their first adventure, Azimuth was half of Ambedo’s height. Now, Azimuth was about two feet taller than Ambedo. How times changed.

“How about a story, to pass the time until we fall asleep?” Ambedo suggested, stretching on her loose pile of grass she had decided for whatever reason was a bed.

“I’m not a kid anymore, mother. I don’t need bedtime stories.” Azimuth scoffed.

“In that case, it’s not a bedtime story. This is a story shared amongst adventurers. I had something pretty intriguing happen to me recently, and I suppose… well, maybe I’d like your take on it, is the thing.” Ambedo looked at Azimuth, and Azimuth did the same; Ambedo’s gaze was sharp and piercing. “I’m not lying, you can tell by the fact that I’m looking directly at you.”

“What?” Azimuth furrowed her brow—but before she could say another word, the story had already begun.

“This just happened. Just, as in… maybe a few months ago. Basically, back where we were when I told you the last story, actually.” Ambedo began, looking lazily up at the sky.

“You never told me why you keep going back to that place, mother. It’s not really because it fascinates you, is it?” Azimuth objected.

“Who knows?” Ambedo intoned distantly. “The important thing was, I was there. Wasn’t night, though, and don’t worry there were no moving houses. In fact, it felt like I was completely alone.”

“Stop calling a cart a ‘moving house’.” Azimuth sighed.

“Not on your life. Anyways, I was setting up camp in the area. Something that I’ve noticed on my years going to and from there is that, well… my exact path through the region has changed. Not- not my path, as it were. The path itself has changed.”

“Okay, changed how?” Azimuth asked, biting the hook of the story.

“Well, for starters, it seems like there’s a lot of activity in the area, I never see anyone running around, but there’s a bunch of new trails through the grasses.” Ambedo scratched at her left ear as she continued. “And, also, I’ve noticed piles of stones have started to appear all over the place.”

“Okay, sounds like there’s little critters that’ve moved into the area. So what?” Azimuth inquired drily.

“I don’t think you’re picturing them right, Azi. I’m not saying piles of little stones in random configurations… I’m talking large piles of stones that look like… I dunno, Symprites? Aramelles?” Ambedo gestured to the sky, as though inquiring of it why this could be happening.

“Okay… some cultists in the area, or something.” Azimuth snorted. Still, despite her rough treatment of the story, she did see where the intrigue was coming from. Stone statues appearing in the grassland?

“I guess I thought the same at first. But then, this thing happened a few months ago… I was setting up camp, and I’d decided to go get some water from a nearby stream. While I was drawing the water, though, I thought I heard scuttling behind me. I turned around, expecting to find a little critter to spook or help, and what I saw instead was—another pile of stones, tiny, right behind me in the low grasses. It hadn’t been there when I’d walked down the path. I turned back to the water, and drew a little more, and it scuttled again—when I turned back again, it had scuttled closer.” Azimuth’s expression was empty of humor.

“…Huh. Go on.” More moving things, Azimuth supposed. What was it with her mother and things that were not supposed to be moving that now were?

“Well, I supposed that it was only moving when I wasn’t looking at it. So, I walked back to camp staring at the place I knew it was. It didn’t follow me… at first.” Ambedo continued.

“At first?” Azimuth asked.

“Yeah. Well, maybe it didn’t follow me at all. But then, when I went to make myself some food, I heard scuttling again- and more of it. I turned around, and now there were two tiny stone statues staring at me from the low grasses. Kinda unnerved me to be watched like that, but what was I going to do? I looked away- sure enough, more scuttling. Turned around, now there were five. And there was even more scuttling to the side. Before I knew it, I was completely surrounded by tiny statues in the grass.”

“Tiny how…? How tiny?” Azimuth asked.

“Basically, hand size.” Ambedo held her webbed hand out to demonstrate. “But tall enough to show through the grass. The grass was up to maybe halfway up my lower legs? But all I could see of them was the hand-sized part.”

“So, it’s basically the height of this grass here.” Azimuth pointed to the grass surrounding the two Symprites.

“Yeah, I guess.” Ambedo took a quick glance at the grass and nodded slightly.

“What next?” Azimuth prompted.

“I tried to ignore them, but they kept creeping closer and closer to camp, making tiny skittering and crunching noises whenever I’d stop looking at them. They didn’t seem friendly, but at the same time they seemed bent on not getting too close to me. I ended up actually deciding it wasn’t worth the hassle of the little guys. Before they could do anything to me, I had packed up my camp and was leaving.”

“What did they do when you tried to leave?” Azimuth asked.

“At first, let me pass, even splitting in ranks to let me walk past them. But then, they started following me, to wherever I was going next. It was like they were trying to corral me away from where I was going, or something?” she shrugged. “In the end, it got to nighttime, and I couldn’t see them anymore. But I could still hear them, scuttling behind me whenever I wasn’t looking. And then? I heard a new noise.”

“New noise?” Azimuth inquired.

“Yeah. A bigger noise, like something else was following me. It caused me to stop, and puff myself up a bit. I told it, ‘I’m not afraid of you. Let me pass.’ and I kid you not, I saw a pair of beady eyes in the darkness, glowing because of the moonlight… and then, without even a word, the skittering got louder as dozens of tiny statues rushed past my legs—they felt very hard, but they didn’t hurt me or anything. They just ran past, they and their leader, whoever it was.”

“Huh. And then?” Azimuth asked.

“And then… they were gone. And I was alone. No more tiny statues, no more glowing eyes. From then on, I decided to try and take a different path to the ruins.”

“Okay. What do you want my input on about it?” Azimuth rolled her eyes and inquired.

“What do you think they were? Have you heard much about tiny rock people and their feral leader on your travels?”

“No.” Azimuth shook her head pretty certainly at that notion. She would have remembered something as silly as ‘little statues in the grass’, she was sure.

“Ah well. In that case, let’s get some rest before it gets too late.” Ambedo hummed, stamped out the campfire, and put her hat over her head.

“And what makes you think I’m tired?” Azimuth retorted softly; she was tired, but that was private information.

“A mother knows these things, Azi.” Ambedo responded, hat still over her face. Azimuth grunted in annoyance—but, what was there to do? Think about tiny statue people, she supposed, as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

In the far distance, a figure watched the two Symprites fall asleep. Now was finally the time. Time to finally confront that demon once and for all. He had seen them come into Elysium several days ago, and had taken the time to follow them to wherever they were headed… here, he supposed. Wherever here was. Here was perfect.

Azimuth was awoken by the slight sound of scuffling nearby. She grunted annoyedly, and rose up from her sleeping bag to startle whatever rodent was around—only to see a tiny statue, peeking just out from the grasses. It was not just a pile of stones, indeed; it had little carved blank eyeholes, a gaping maw, even tiny etches for nostrils. It shook Azimuth to her core, seeing it just as she awakened from sleep.

“Mama- uh, m, uh, mother—” Azimuth reached over and shook Ambedo. One boon being taller gave her was that she also had much longer arms now. She gripped her mother’s arm and shook it lightly.

“Gosh, you still have a good grip, Azi… what’s up?” Ambedo drawled as she woke up and shifted her hat back to her head—instantly sobering from her sleep the moment she saw the statue. “Yeah. It looked just like that.”

“But- but you said that you’d seen the statues all the way past Mizuno, what’s it doing here?” Azimuth’s voice was serious; in response, Ambedo shrugged nonchalantly.

“It won’t get closer if we keep looking at it.” Ambedo stated as a second scuffling noise came from the grasses. “…They won’t get closer if we keep looking at them.” She fixed her statement.

It did not take long for them to be completely surrounded. The chittering was maddening, like one million windchimes in a hurricane. Like one million chalkpieces striking a chalkboard. And Azimuth’s ears were pretty large. She gritted her teeth, and grunted to Ambedo, “What, do we do.”

“Wait to see if whoever’s behind this shows up.” Ambedo hummed.

And so, they did. A large shape emerged from the sea of statues, beady glistening eyes, a feral stance. Was it a creature, a cryptid, a…?

“Leave this place…!” the creature intoned, and the chitters seemed to agree. “Leave it, and never return. And never return to the grasslands, either. Never return to either place. Never… never return…”

“All right, that’s it.” Azimuth almost barked the words out, Before Ambedo or the shape could do anything, Azimuth had lunged forward, grabbed the creature by its scruffy neck, and held it up to the moonlight, revealing it to be… an Aramelle?

“…Oh, gosh, I know this guy.” Ambedo blinked twice, and sighed, standing up from her grass patch. “They set up shop in Fisk pretty regularly. I don’t know why, but they don’t like me.”

The little green Aramelle struggled and writhed in Azimuth’s iron-clad grip. “Lemme go lemme go lemme go lemme go!!!” he squeaked like an upset cat. The statues crowded against Azimuth’s legs to attempt to get her to stop, but they could do nothing to her rough scaled legs.

Ambedo scrunched up her nose, and picked up one of the statues—it made a small popping sound as she did so, as though something had been glued lightly to its back. Picking this second thing up, she revealed it to be… a Tomato Crab. In fact, now that they were out of the grass, it was clear: every single Tomato Crab had a little stone statue glued onto it, giving it the illusion of a moving statue.

“Well, Azi, seems like it was crabs again.” Ambedo sighed, carefully placing the crab down onto the ground. “Kid, if you wanted me to stay off your… I dunno, land, or whatever, you can actually just ask me. We’re both sentient.”

The Aramelle did not respond with words, but instead with one final great shake—and Azimuth letting go—he plummeted to the ground, landed like a cat, and squeaked, “Retreat!!!”

And with that, all of the little crabs were gone. Skittering off into the darkness, leaving nothing but the statue Ambedo had stolen from the crab’s back as a memento of the encounter.

“…Mother. Must you always steal from the crab people.” Azimuth joked. She usually would not stoop to such lows, but in this moment, she needed to calm herself down.

“Okay, how was I supposed to know that it was attached to a crab? It’s not my fault that it seemed to be glued on with…” Ambedo sniffed the base of the statue, “…honey. You want it?” Ambedo held it out to Azimuth, who shook her head, “Well I’m keeping it. Might give it back to see if I can appease the Aramelle or whatever.” She shrugged as she slipped it into her backpack.

At that very moment, the sun slid over the horizon. They had spent their last few minutes of moonlight battling an army of crabs disguised as horrific statues. It was a statement, to say the least.

“Oh, perfect timing. Azi?” Ambedo rummaged through her bag, pulled out a new lantern, and turned to her daughter. “Happy birthday.”

“I… what?” Azimuth was taken aback.

“It’s your birthday, gosh I hope you didn’t forget. Your birthday always hits when the lunar eclipses hit, remember?” Ambedo sighed, and explained.

“No, I know that, it’s literally my birthday—you remembered?” Azimuth asked, incredulous.

Ambedo did not respond immediately. “Azi,” she began slowly, “you may be a full grown Symprite now, but I’m still your mother. I’m not going to forget your birthday, just like I’m not going to forget how much you love The Vault. I saw you eyeing it before bed, I know you’re itching to explore it.”

“But I—” Azimuth was cut off again.

“Well? This is your birthday gift. What say you and I make like the olden days, where we would wander around together, finding paths, exploring, encountering stuff and stuff all over again, just this once this year. Then you can go back to being a solitary woman. I believe in you either way.” Ambedo looked directly at Azimuth; it meant she was being serious.

“Mother, I… mom…” Azimuth’s eyes misted over a bit; it all made sense. Ambedo had been waiting for exactly her birthday to go adventuring with her, just like that first time all those years ago. Ambedo always seemed like an airhead, but in reality she was probably the most there Symprite Azimuth had ever met. She crouched down, and hugged her mother.

“You’ve got a good grip, Azi. Good for gripping little guys who get in the way, too.” Ambedo reciprocated the hug.

“M-my name’s Azimuth, mother, I don’t need a kid name anymore.” Azimuth let herself laugh a bit as she sniffled.

“It’s not a kid name, Azi, I didn’t call you Azi as a kid to say you were a kid either. Sorry.” Ambedo nodded. “You’re the strong adventurer Azi, and some Symprites also call you Azimuth, but today, we’re adventurers.”

“Whatever you say, mother.” Azimuth stopped the hug, and turned towards the entrance to The Vault, suddenly far more excited for the journey ahead.

“And you can call me Amby.” Ambedo turned to the entrance as well, and, not waiting for Azimuth, began to walk through it.

“Not on your life.” Azimuth laughed, and followed her mother into the dark and gaping maw of The Vault’s entrance as well.