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This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.
Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.
And the demon's gaining on her.
She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.
And Holly's not fast enough.
The mouth catches her.
But it doesn't hurt.
Where are we?
inourhead
eversomuchfun
They are in a grassy area, near a small stone building with a low peaked roof. All around them, upright stones are set into the ground, in uniform rows; most of them are shaped sort of like tiny doors, but some are larger and more elaborate. Occasionally the pattern is interrupted further by a tree or another stone building like the one next to them. A tall iron fence is visible in a few places, enclosing this mystifying arrangement.
The sky is dark, not a proper sun in sight, and speckled with a small number of tiny white dots. The most sun-like object visible is a mottled silver circle that casts dim bluish light on their surroundings.
There is a person nearby. He looks at them and says something that might be a question, in friendlyish tones, in a completely unfamiliar and indecipherable language.
The sky is dark, not a proper sun in sight, and speckled with a small number of tiny white dots. The most sun-like object visible is a mottled silver circle that casts dim bluish light on their surroundings.
There is a person nearby. He looks at them and says something that might be a question, in friendlyish tones, in a completely unfamiliar and indecipherable language.
inourhead
This is weird this is weird this is weird. The circle - is that the sky, is she in the sinkhole and that's the decorated ceiling of Hell and that silver shape the window to the surface? She doesn't have enough mice to get from the sinkhole proper to civilization even if she figures out how to fly up there to begin with -
She yelps when the person speaks to her, but he looks human, not demonic at all. She still takes a step back. And, to illustrate that she can't understand him and ask a useful question in the event that he knows Nlaaki: "Srenpuumhikuefamuilgi glu?"
She yelps when the person speaks to her, but he looks human, not demonic at all. She still takes a step back. And, to illustrate that she can't understand him and ask a useful question in the event that he knows Nlaaki: "Srenpuumhikuefamuilgi glu?"
eversomuchfun
He shrugs and says something else in his incomprehensible language. Mutual unintelligibility having been established, he regards her thoughtfully for a few moments, then beckons, indicating by gesture that he would like her to accompany him out of the stone-garden.
inourhead
She looks around. There's nothing else obvious to do. If there are humans in the sinkhole - or if this isn't the sinkhole - she'd rather be at civilization than not. She follows him.
eversomuchfun
He leads her past a succession of other mystifying sights. There don't seem to be many people out and about; either they are all tucked away in buildings at this time, or the buildings are abandoned or built for some inexplicable hellish purpose and her pale companion is the only other person around.
After a short walk, they arrive at a somewhat larger and more isolated building than most of the ones they have passed so far. He leads her up to a small side door, opens it, and goes in. The interior is lit mostly by circle-light coming in the windows, but the pale boy doesn't seem to have any trouble navigating by it. Off they traipse, through bizarrely decorated corridors, to fetch up at last in a room containing a lot of shelves with books on them.
There is a table in the middle of the curve formed by the steps that lead up to the shelves, and a lamp on the table with a green glass shade; the boy turns on the lamp and then ducks behind a counter to rummage in the piles of books there. Shortly, he returns with a massive leather-bound volume, plonks it on the table under the light of the lamp, and opens it. All of the pages seem to be blank. He pulls up a chair and sits with his hand touching one edge of the book's cover, then gestures between Holly, the chair beside him, and the opposite edge.
After a short walk, they arrive at a somewhat larger and more isolated building than most of the ones they have passed so far. He leads her up to a small side door, opens it, and goes in. The interior is lit mostly by circle-light coming in the windows, but the pale boy doesn't seem to have any trouble navigating by it. Off they traipse, through bizarrely decorated corridors, to fetch up at last in a room containing a lot of shelves with books on them.
There is a table in the middle of the curve formed by the steps that lead up to the shelves, and a lamp on the table with a green glass shade; the boy turns on the lamp and then ducks behind a counter to rummage in the piles of books there. Shortly, he returns with a massive leather-bound volume, plonks it on the table under the light of the lamp, and opens it. All of the pages seem to be blank. He pulls up a chair and sits with his hand touching one edge of the book's cover, then gestures between Holly, the chair beside him, and the opposite edge.
inourhead
Holly is surprised and confused by the lamp, but seems to recognize books. And chairs. She sits. And peers at the book.
eversomuchfun
The boy says something. Words appear along the top of the left page, in an unfamiliar incomprehensible language. He takes his hand away from the left edge of the book. The words vanish. He puts his hand back, and points to it, and points to Holly's hand, and points to the right edge of the book.
eversomuchfun
He speaks again. The book transcribes him - and adds a phonetic transcription in Nlaaki, and a deconstruction of the meanings of the words he used, and a summary translation into Nlaaki:
"And now that we've got the translation thing sorted, where did you come from, and how did you get from there to here?"
"And now that we've got the translation thing sorted, where did you come from, and how did you get from there to here?"
inourhead
"A weird demon ate us. I don't know what kind it was. Or if it's going to get our brother and his cohabitor next or what will happen if it does. Next thing we knew we were where you found us. How does this book work? Where are we?"
eversomuchfun
"The book works by magic. You're in Sunnydale. In a library largely devoted to the study of weird demons, in fact, although I've never heard of one that eats people from one place to another. What's a cohabitor?"
inourhead
"I've never heard of one that does it either but our brother's the one who studies things like that. Why wouldn't the book translate 'cohabitor'? Cohabitor is the person who lives with you."
eversomuchfun
"The book is translating the word you're using into a word in English," he points this out in the transcriptions, "but that doesn't tell me what you mean by it. I don't think it's a concept I'm familiar with. If I heard the word 'cohabitor' from someone who hadn't just appeared out of nowhere by magic, I would expect it to mean 'roommate'."
inourhead
"No. Less than usual people, even. I'm Holly and my cohabitor is Crystal and we are never quite totally asleep like other people, just faded back. How do you sleep?"
Both words are translated as "sleep" in the summary, but they're different in Nlaaki; the footnotes indicate that the first means something more like "unconscious" and the second is more like "dreaming".
Both words are translated as "sleep" in the summary, but they're different in Nlaaki; the footnotes indicate that the first means something more like "unconscious" and the second is more like "dreaming".
eversomuchfun
"Once a day or so, when I am tired, I become unconscious and dream for several hours. I can't say I've ever encountered any significant problems with this approach. How do you sleep?"
inourhead
"We don't anymore. Aaaand your soul hasn't been eaten by a klaon?"
(Klaon, footnotes the book helpfully, is an insubstantial soul-eating demon that preys on the sleeping.)
(Klaon, footnotes the book helpfully, is an insubstantial soul-eating demon that preys on the sleeping.)
eversomuchfun
"My soul has not been eaten by a klaon. Other unpleasant things have happened to it, but they didn't have anything to do with sleeping, and more importantly there are six or seven billion people living on this planet and sleeping regularly and as far as I know none of their souls have ever been eaten by a klaon."
inourhead
Holly scrutinizes the footnote for "planet".
"I have," she says, "no idea whatsoever where I am."
eversomuchfun
"Well, I could say 'on Earth', but I don't think that would clarify much."
inourhead
"Where I'm from there isn't a 'planet', it's just flat, and in the middle of all the flat, a hole opened up to Hell and demons came out of it. Klaonso and other kinds."
eversomuchfun
"I see. That sounds oddly familiar," he says. "But in the local case, the hole to Hell spends most of its time closed and not emitting any demons. And there are a vast number of other sources of demons, none of which could accurately be described as a 'sinkhole' as far as I know."