Now the river was pink and the sky was orange. Light shades of green pastel palm leaves blocked out half of it, while the blazing sky shone through the many openings between trunks lining the river. Maracaibo was the first to hear the sound of roaring water, coming from about a half mile downstream. When asking the others if they could hear it, nobody was able to for another hundred yards. He thought he must have had the finest pair of ears on board, and we must admit how impressive that is for an old man.
Panic set in as they came closer to the falls. Everyone frantically tried to paddle the raft to shore, but they couldn't get it moving fast enough against the strong current. When Maracaibo saw that the inevitable was upon them, he dived into the water, planted his feet on a rock straddling the ledge, and pushed backward against the raft with all his might, willing himself to give them the last foot they needed to secure a landing. However the rock was too slippery and his feet came out from under him, causing him to fall over the ledge, with the raft and everyone else behind him shortly after.
In mid air Managua saw a spinning kaleidoscope of land and sky. He straightened his legs and saw what appeared to be a cloud of illuminated dust rising from below. An orb of light zoomed past, releasing the same dusty particles from above. Feeling himself buoyed up by the strange dust, he kicked his arms and legs in the air, running for a place in the sky that was nowhere. His companions were all doing the same- all but Maracaibo, who was nowhere to be seen.
The dust brought them over the shore, safely landing them on the ground.
"What the guano just happened to us!?", cried Jingo.
"Pixie dust, a levitation spell", said Ojaca, like it was common knowledge.
Jingo looked around but was unable to see a pixie. He'd heard fables of them during Marduk's fireside yarns. "You mean they're real?"
"As real as the sky is blue... Er, orange. Anyway, never thought I'd live to see one."
"You still haven't," said Managua. "Where is it?"
"They're elusive as ghosts. Only seen when they want to be seen."
"Just like Maracaibo."
"That old tattler's gone", Jingo pointed out. "Anyone going to miss him?"
"Not the best choice of words for someone who tried to save your life," said Ojaca sternly.
"I see him!", said Nautica. "Over there, in the water."
Managua dived in to retrieve the body, hoping he was still alive despite all the trouble he'd caused. Once he got there, he found a head submerged and blue skin. The fall had been too great for his frail body to endure. Managua swam him to shore, and everyone gathered the obvious: that the body wasn't moving, the shock of death absent thanks to the high amount of it they'd already seen.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save him," came a timid voice from behind. "There wasn't enough dust, and I had to choose between him and the rest of you."
They all turned around and saw a small, glowing bug that vaguely resembled a girl. Her skin was a peachy cream color, and she wore a blue paisley dress that looked diaphanous in the glow of her light. Particles of dust sparkled from the crown of her sandy blonde hair, which fell straight to her shoulders in streaks of glitter. A pair of beady, big green eyes dilated when they landed on Managua. On introducing herself, Managua was pleased to find she had a peppy voice that was full of enthusiasm, much less a spellbinding image.
"Are you real?", asked Jingo, trying to touch her. She flew away faster than a scat bug.
"No touchy! The old man told you, of course I'm real."
She flew in circles, dazzling them with her acrobatics. "I've been following you for days down the river. You're following the fire people, aren't you?"
"You saw them?", asked Managua.
"Heavens yes. Smelled them, actually. They are worse than rhino dung."
Jingo laughed.
They decided to pitch camp and call it a day. Maracaibo's body was buried under a nearby tree. Ojaca said a long prayer, as he'd done for all the other men who'd died at the battle of Inana.
Any sadness was short lived, for truth be told, the boys weren't entirely persuaded by Maracaibo's honorable effort. He'd failed to save them after all; the pixie had done all the work. It would take some time for either of them to acknowledge Maracaibo's sacrifice, that if he'd stayed in the boat instead of trying to save them he'd probably still be alive. But things like this seldom enter the mind of a youth. Managua joked that the fool was so evil that he couldn't do the right thing properly, even when he tried, and Jingo laughed with him. They made fun of his botched effort at being a hero, as if he deserved the shame for getting Managua banished.
Twinkie grew fond of the boys instantly. She laughed at all their jokes and liked to sleep inside Jingo’s skull-bone necklace. The girl was a mystery though; she wondered why Nautica made her own bed and spent her evening away from the others. Other than being a girl, there was no obvious explanation.
Next day, they built a new boat and had a dinner of stew and fruit salad outside the bungalow. Jingo built the fire while Twinkie played with Mango’s tail. Together they sat around the campfire, telling stories about the world outside. Twinkie was surprised to learn that Nautica was the first female Jingo had ever seen. Managua’s story with Naya was even more compelling, making her dreamy and envious. She told then all that she’d been a girl too, before being turned into a pixie. Nautica asked her how it had happened. She told them about the Star Dancer- a magic wand that can only be destroyed when she’s turned back into a human.
Star Dancer. Jingo and Managua looked at each other in confusion, not knowing if she was talking about the same thing they'd found. Before the voyage, Jingo had searched high and low for its whereabouts, but it was nowhere to be found. When Managua found out it was missing, he looked almost as upset as he had when he found out his village had been burned.
Twinkie read their thoughts. “I can feel it. It’s in Marlana, the Paradise City. That’s where I think Drake is taking Naya. Rumor has it Naxis has it now, he’s the Panther King. What it does is channel energy from the stars and turns people into anything they wish. To get there we’ll have to ride the Night Train. I’ll take you there.”
She never mentioned why she’d been turned into a pixie of all things.
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