Chapter 2 – Confusion

(Romanian)

Foxy looked much more prominent than she was. She now looked almost the size of a wolf.

And she walked away from her, stopping now and then, as if to invite her to follow her.

“Where?” Ana found herself asking.

But she followed it, without a doubt. Irresistibly drawn by a kind of curiosity. To what?

Only then did Ana perceive the huge corridor she was moving through, the path paved with stone or marble slabs of different, surprisingly vivid colors.

And she wasn’t walking. She was just moving, as if she were being transported by some kind of conveyor belt.

“Hey, Foxy, where are we going?” came her question, confusing her because of her “pointlessness.”

But Foxy turned her head towards her and, “winking at her”, encouraged her again to follow her.

Ana was inclined to refuse it. But, curiosity…

Sensing a strange fatigue in her legs, she sat down.

The conveyor belt was moving it anyway. What’s the point of putting in extra, unnecessary effort?

And an indefinite amount of time passed, but with certainty, he had fallen asleep a few times… From fatigue, sleep, or boredom. Did it matter?

She woke up in an intense light.

“Hey, where am I?” she asked herself, jumping to her feet on the same conveyor belt…

“We’re almost there!” a voice came from in front of him, probably from Foxy.

– Wow, Foxy, you haven’t talked to me in a long time.

“Yeah, since you were about nine,” Foxy said, oddly mocking.

“What’s wrong with you?” Ana asks in surprise. “Are you mad at me again? What else did I do wrong?”

– No, I’m not, we’re just in a hurry. Derzelas doesn’t have much at his disposal, and before we get to Kotys, we’d better…

– Derzelas? Kotys? Ana intervened.

– Derzelas is the “Great Sorcerer”, Kotys is the “Great Mother!” described Vulpi boredly. Look, we’re here!

Ana was in front of a kind of Greek temple, but different… It just seemed similar… The columns were much thicker, the walls seemed very loaded with bas-reliefs representing scenes of daily life in antiquity, the spaces between them being strangely small…

But they entered the temple hall, guided by a kind of knight in armor. Without wanting to, he remembered the paladins from many games that he had enjoyed over time…

– „Welcome, Bendis! Or Ana?” the knight said, obliquely aligning his bushy eyebrows in ironic wonder.

– Ana! she said in surprise, pointing with the index finger of her right hand.

“Derzelas!” the knight completed, extending his palm towards her, as if he wanted to shake her hand.

A bright, high-intensity flash effectively blinded her, regardless of Ana’s gesture of protectively covering her eyes with her palms…

She couldn’t see anything in all that light. She didn’t even have any other reaction. She just closed her eyes tightly.

After a while, she just raised her palms and began to search, to feel for something through the sea of ​​light that didn’t allow anything to be glimpsed.

Yes, he couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t see anything… Except for the light… He didn’t even seem to be able to speak. A muteness of confusion.

So he sat down again, hugging his knees with his arms. What else could he do?

She even hid her eyes by pressing them against her arms…

And time passed… Boring. She even fell asleep several times…

From time to time, his retina transformed the perception of intense light into flashes, like spots that seemed to be gray or black… There was too much light…

At some point, she felt the soft, soothing caress of Foxy’s plush fur on the back of her hand. And, instinctively, she opened her palm and began to caress her head and neck without seeing her.

She could only perceive the light, but she knew it was Foxy. And that calmed her, anchored her to something in the nothingness of light, in the immobility of time…

Suddenly, the flash disappeared as instantly as it had appeared.

She was sitting on a kind of marble bench, like a curved board, quite comfortable, with her legs wrapped around Foxy’s body, which seemed to be purring like a cat.

– Although foxes are a kind of dog, Ana thought, strangely pleasantly affected.

“Bendis, we don’t have much time!” Derzelas intervened.

Bendis? Why would he contradict him? Ana thought amused.

– I have temporarily repaired Ana’s body. It will take more such sessions, supplementing your efforts, to overcome the trials you will face in her near future. But your mission is the same, unbroken!

– Well, I don’t see how I could get out of the mechanisms of the matter in which I manifest myself! Bendis says quickly.

– Typical behavior for you in representing Ana! Always blaming people or events! We’ve discussed this before. And, anyway, I did my job!

And Derzelas made a kind of gesture of removal with the back of his hand that Ana felt like a new flash of light. And, after the sensation of light passed, she found herself in front of another kind of temple, something more different, difficult to recognize as belonging to a specific civilization.

“Well, we’re back, Bendis!” a woman’s voice was heard from inside the temple.

Ana stepped into the temple, feeling a strange mixture of fear and curiosity.

– Come on, Bendis, dare! Ana, the woman, corrected herself, inviting her with a broad gesture of her hand.

“Kotys?” Bendis asked fearfully.

What a stupid question, as if it wasn’t obvious, Ana-Bendis scolded herself.

– Yes, my dear, it’s me! I notice that Derzelas has done his job, and your state of confusion has diminished enough for us to have a serious discussion.

– Anyway, you were sending me this energetically, she found herself saying, as a kind of admonition, Bendis-Ana.

“How did I know that?” Ana thought, quite stunned.

– My dear, we don’t have time for all sorts of clarifications right now. You’ll understand why! I just need your approval for a future meeting with Zamoksha.

– Why don’t you grab me by the lapel, like that weirdo Zelas did, or whatever he said his name was, so I can wake up straight to that Zealot, or whatever you called him? Ana replied quite arrogantly.

– Yes, yes, Kotys said to herself as if to herself. The state of confusion seems quite pronounced, she said in the same tone. But, hey! she called Ana’s attention. I am not only the initiator of the female majority through these areas of matter but also the one who punishes, even sacrifices, those who behave like you! she said in a determined, effectively threatening tone.

“Sorry, sorry!” Ana-Bendis mumbled.

– Pull yourself together and get out of this state of confusion as quickly as possible! Maybe next time you won’t find me in a bad mood, let’s say goodbye. I need your approval! Zamoksha or not?

– I think so, I think so…

Ana grabbed her to say more before the Kotys woman used the same gesture with the back of her hand that Derzelas used.

And, yes, she knew that a bright flash was coming and that she would wake up somewhere else…

Merticaru Dorin Nicolae