Remnants

Qihui gritted her teeth as she clung to the sheer rock surface. Accidentally jabbing her knee onto a particularly sharp stone, she hissed with pain and dug her fingers into the crevices, forcing her weary body upwards.

Since the raiding of Qihui’s village, she had decided that her home, once peaceful and forested, was now unsafe.

Gazing towards the sky, where stars were starting to twinkle, she spotted the top, more than fifty feet from her. Qihui slumped down in desperation. There was no way she was going to reach the mysterious, legendary land before she would collapse.

A sudden movement above startled Qihui out of her thoughts. She slipped her knife out of her sleeve, raising her eyes, and Qihui bit back a yelp of surprise. She was staring directly into two brilliantly blue lakes. Blinking, Qihui realized that the “lakes” were actually the eyes of a small creature with razor-sharp fangs and huge ears.

“CHEE!” it screeched in Qihui’s ear. “Titi!”

“Get away from me!” she screamed, slashing at it with her knife.

The creature bounded upwards, dodging the blade.

It turned back after a few steps, however, shrieking again, “Titi! Titi!” One of its ears twitched towards the top of the cliff.

Startled, Qihui looked at the top, then at the creature. “You want me to… do what?”

“TITI!”

Sighing with fatigue and exasperation, Qihui pulled herself onto a tiny, one-foot-wide ledge in the rock face, while the strange animal climbed to the top with the agility of a cheetah.

Five minutes later, the little creature hopped back to the ledge with a drawstring bag slung over its neck.

It shook the pouch off as two other creatures appeared by its side, and the biggest of them squawked, “YNN, TITI!”

Qihui stretched out a hand to take the bag, but the ferocious creatures snapped at her fingers.

Finally, she gave up and watched the three nudge objects out of the pouch. Qihui squinted through the darkness; she could just barely make out the outlines of bottles.

She drew back as the creature she had met first scurried to her, carrying an opened bottle. The animal poured the contents onto Qihui’s hands; a moment later she felt a curious sensation – tingling in her fingers, and, quite suddenly, up her arms.

Qihui put her hands closer to her face and noticed that the scrapes on them were gone.

A second creature dragged another bottle, but it left the container capped and dropped it on Qihui’s lap.

Water, something said in her head, and Qihui became aware of the fact that the thought was not coming from her own mind, but from someone else’s.

Jerky, piped up another. The third creature pushed something into her hands.

“Thanks,” Qihui whispered, bewilderment clearly showing across her face. “Uh… who are you?”

Meclicers, said the creatures. We are the meclicers who rule this cliff and the mysterious lands on the top of it. If you seek the top, miss, beware. We are always ready to attack, so leave after you rest. Go back down.

Even though Qihui was yearning to hear more about the top of the cliff, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Qihui blearily straightened up and spotted a meclicer. It was the smallest and cutest of the creatures, so she was sure that the animal was the one she had tried to attack with her knife.

“Titi!” it squeaked. My name is Titi. I want to help you. You want to reach the top, right?

“Yes,” Qihui murmured. “I’m running away from the village down there. There was a raid.” She pointed towards the destruction below her, and a dizzying swoop of nausea enveloped her.

My family. My friends. My home.

Swaying on the ledge, she could have fallen the two hundred feet to her death if it weren’t for the nip Titi gave her.

Don’t look down. Please.

Qihui nodded. “I’m Qihui, by the way. Sorry about the incident when I first saw you… I was terrified.”

Follow me. Choose the widest cracks to step on.

As she followed Titi towards the top of the cliff, Qihui started to feel less afraid with him by her side.

In only two hours, Qihui had reached the top. She crawled onto firm land and was about to lie down, but Titi latched his claws onto her shirt and pulled her with amazing strength to a lonely door floating in the air.

“Wha –”

Titi released his grasp and pressed his paw to a carving in the weather-worn wood.

The door opened in a fluid motion, swinging outwards. Titi dragged Qihui through the opening, and she found herself in a colorful, bright world filled with meclicers.

All of a sudden, the two other meclicers she had recently met jumped in front of her. The bigger one sneered at her. We warned you, but you did not heed us. Now, you shall pay!

They leaped at Qihui, but Titi roared, “CHITATA LETI SCRIETEKA!”

A burst of light exploded from him. All the meclicers around Titi backed away respectfully, and it was obvious to Qihui that he was their leader.

The two meclicers who were about to pounce on Qihui were on the ground. They were unconscious.

Titi squealed, “TA QIHUI LIKAKEI TITI! PATI KELAKU QIHUI! CHEE!”

I was saying to them that I know you and that they shouldn’t harm you, Titi translated. Don’t worry, the others won’t dare to hurt you now.

“Thank you, Titi,” Qihui said, marveling at the wonderful world of meclicers. She lived alongside the creatures until the end of her days.

Now, the cliff is gone, eroded away by wind and storm, but the remnants of a wooden door lie buried beneath the ground, the only proof that the mysterious land at the top of the cliff had ever existed.