"Something is missing," Eliza observed with a curious frown, while looking around them at what she'd accomplished. It was something more than the fact, that in spite of transforming a gray scale, three dimensional world into a more vibrant and colorful one, it was still for all intents and purposes, no more alive than it had been before. Then she smiled, reached out her hand, and in it appeared her sketchpad and a box of oil based crayons. She sat down on a small outcropping nearby, and began drawing.
It had occurred to her before, or she'd simply, somehow known, that somewhere along the way she'd been granted another domain to add to the three that she'd already possessed. Ironically, now, she was back to three after she'd sacrificed her gift for hindsight. "Self-serving twit," she muttered under her breath. In response to her strong choice of words, at least for Eliza, the impressionable Eberhardt's eyes grew wide and she clapped tiny hands over her mouth in response. It was clear who the mortalborn was referring to anyway. The one who in one single act had destroyed all that the others had worked for, and had rendered their sacrifices largely pointless.
Creativity was her new domain, heartwork the ability that went with it. But here in Emea, she didn't necessarily need to call on that ability. The nature of dreams, as they ordinarily were, was all that she needed. And what she needed, or rather wanted, was to populate this landscape with life. The drawing technique that Eliza used in this instance, could be considered a surreal one. It suited the surroundings, and Emea at large, the mortalborn thought. And why fill a dream with the expected and ordinary? So, instead, she sketched a vibrant blue bird with marigold tips on it's wings. Then gently blowing a puff of air across the surface of her paper, she set the bird free. Up it flew, where it circled the sun once, twice...and then, it froze in place and became part of a work of art that still had no real life in it.
Eliza gazed at the bird, frowned, sighed, but resolved not to give up. Eberhardt meanwhile was growing bored. "You never told me the story about Eberhardt and Valentina," the little monkey reminded the daughter of Ymiden. "You promised you would, but you didn't." Eliza grinned a little but didn't look up. Instead, she worked on a drawing, more a caricature really, of a desert going, bright orange elephant with verdant bands round its trunk and feet. "Are you sure you want to hear? You might not like the ending," she warned. Eberhardt was unconvinced.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," Eliza said, and then told her the story. She'd heard it herself from Poppy, or maybe it was her uncle Littleberry Perch, over a century ago. And they'd heard it themselves from their own grandfathers or uncles. "Eberhardt and Valentina were explorers. Two women, unmarried and unattached, who set off together to search for a mythical world filled with all sorts of fantastical beasts, rivers running with molten gold, diamonds in the places of stars in the sky...And there were dragons there, so they were told," she added as she sat back to admire yet another drawing, this time a large pink creature with the sleek upper body of a prowling cat, but the legs of a ostrich. She blew a puff of air across the page, and set it free. Eventually it froze in place like the others.
"They traveled on foot, all across Idalos just the two of them, in search of that place. From Scalvoris to Rharne, from Desnind to Viden...."
"So did they find it? Were there really rivers full of gold there?" Eberhardt asked, always eager to get to the best part. Eliza grinned again, remembering that her little friend might not like how it ended. "Valentina and Eberhardt had a lot of grand adventures along the way. They hunted beasts in the high mountains in the north, half man half beast, covered in white hair from head to toe," she said, and Eberhardt scoffed. "There's no such thing!" the little creature insisted. "Whose story is this anyway?" Eliza said before she continued. "They rode the rapids through deep canyons, they dined with kings and wore fine gowns while dancing with dukes and princes"
But then one trial, after traveling for no less than two arcs, they were sure they were close to finding that which they'd set out to find, Eliza explained. It might only have been a break's walk away. They were walking together near the edge of a deep ravine. "More of a crevice or canyon really, with a deep slow moving river running through it. Eberhardt, as usual, was walking so close to the edge, that Valentina feared she would fall into the canyon. She called her back, and Eberhardt scoffed at her. Said she was always too careful and too fearful."...."And then what?"[/b] the monkey asked.
"And then," Eliza said, "just as Valentina had thought might happen, a stone twisted out from under Eberhardt's foot. The edge of the cliff crumbled and Eberhardt fell and landed with a loud splash in the river down below. Valentina cried out, rushed to the edge and looked over in search of her friend." Eberhardt's grip on Eliza's shoulder had grown a little too tight for her liking, "and then what!? She was alright, wasn't she?" Eliza paused, setting her catbird free and then she sat back. "The last thing she heard was a surprised yelp from Eberhardt, and the last she saw was a great beast snatching her up and dragging her under. She was never seen again."
She left out the bit about the water turning blood red and rushing away with the tide. It was a step too far, she'd thought, even when she'd first heard the story. If Eberhardt would have let her, Eliza would have added that Valentina was so grieved by the loss of her friend that she'd given up the search for that mythical world, no matter how close it was, and had returned home alone. She'd died decades later. Alone with a houseful of cats, as a lonely and bitter old spinster.
"What kind of story is that?!" Eberhardt protested and wailed. "You named me after the one that died?" Eliza shook her head. "Eberhardt was the bolder, more adventurous one. She died having no regrets, and history remembered her better. Valentina had plenty, and she was mostly forgotten." Eberhardt was only mildly appeased. In fact, maybe a little bit flattered after all. "But what was the point then?" she asked. "The point," Eliza said, "is that it's the adventure along the way, and not the prize at the end that matters. Not all big adventures end with grand rewards, discoveries and wealth. Sometimes," she added, setting her last drawing free...which was a great gold and silver spiny lizard with a toothy grin, which resided in a canyon at the water's edge, "you just trip over a rock, fall into a river and get eaten by a giant crocodile."
