"Stop! That tickles!"
The little cat, licking Hichy's face, flicked his tail when he finally saw his master wake up. His fur was even shinier than usual, throwing off tiny sparks. The boy sat up and gently shook his sister.
"We're not dead?!" she exclaimed as she woke as well.
"Apparently not," her brother said, thumping his chest and checking that all his limbs still worked properly.
"Do you think it worked?"
No sooner had they stepped out of their tipi than they saw a fat field mouse being dragged toward Melio's mouth, struggling desperately. The poor creature scrabbled frantically with its paws, but it could not resist the force pulling it inexorably toward the belly waiting for it. The cat prolonged the pleasure with sadistic relish, batting it a few times before crunching down. Then he leapt ten metres into the air to enjoy it a little farther away.
"For him, there's no doubt," Inata said. "Try a little, you'll see."
Hichy jumped, though he could not reach the same height as before. His powers had noticeably weakened. He raised his arm toward a tree branch, and it landed in his hand as if yanked by an overpowered elastic band.
"Ouch! That hurts!"
"That's because you don't control your power, you triple idiot," his sister laughed.
"This is awesome. With this, I'm going to craft a ton of cool stuff."
"You're going to what?"
"Craft. It's an English verb. To craft. It means to make things with your hands."
"Yeah, I know that, thanks. I'm not completely stupid and completely hopeless at English. But are you sure it isn't an old-fashioned verb you're using wrong? Like, I craft, thou craftest, he crafteth, we craft'd and I wouldst have craften."
"Ha-ha, very funny. Did I ever tell you your humour is completely messed up?"
When Inata launched herself into the air in turn, she managed to reach a more than respectable height. But like her brother, her own powers had faded.
"It's a matter of training," she said.
"In any case, it doesn't seem to scare Melio, and I'm worried for the birds and mice he's going to catch. Do you think he gave us a bit of his cat powers?"
"We already have the answer to that."
"How so?"
"Look around you! Don't you notice anything, triple idiot?"
"Well… no. Why?"
"You can be so dense! Don't you see the stars in the sky?"
"Yes, I see them."
"And you didn't realise we can see as if it were broad daylight? And there isn't even a crescent moon."
Hichy stood there with his mouth open. He hadn't even noticed they could now see as well as a nocturnal feline.
"That's not going to be convenient for sleeping."
Despite the exhaustion of a brutal day, they struggled to fall asleep while Melio stuffed himself with rodents. The excitement was too strong. Tired of tossing and turning, they got up and continued on through the night. After all, what did it matter, since there was no difference for their eyes anymore? And the stars were handy for navigation. Hichy whistled for his cat, which landed on his head like a plane after a long flight.
Even though their progress was infinitely faster, the forest still seemed to stretch to infinity. The speed they had gained only increased the sense of oppression, a bit like when a scientist becomes more aware of his ignorance the more discoveries he makes. Each time they rose into the air, they lost a little more hope of finding an exit from that immense open-air prison.
"Over here!" a small voice suddenly said. "No, rather over there. You're wrong. That's not the right way. No, it's this way. This way is better. Turn around. Keep going straight and take the second left. Up is down and down is up. Right is left and left is the middle of the centre, which is also next to the inside when it isn't outside."
"What kind of lunatic is that?" the twin asked. "Can't he leave us alone? And none of that gibberish even means anything."
"It must be some sort of hobbit or a dwarf. Also, I've noticed it smells weird for a while—like a mix of sweat and rotten cheese."
"Yeah, but I hear him like he's right next to us. Sure, our hearing has become insanely sharp, but we should've left him far behind at the speed we're moving. Even a cat can't hear sounds from more than a kilometre away."
"The faster I run, the slower I go, and the less I move, the quicker I advance," the voice went on. "If you search, you'll find nothing but a void filled with a minuscule immensity."
The two children increased their speed to try to leave the intruder behind, but no matter how fast they went, his absurd words always seemed just as close. Seeing it was useless and the sun was beginning to rise, they decided to stop.
"I don't understand," Hichy said. "Where is he?"
"If you don't understand, it's because you're completely stupid," the little voice replied.
"Oh, come on!" the boy snapped.
"The explanation is very simple. If you don't see me, it's because I'm not visible. But enough playing—here I am."
The parrot that materialised before their eyes was a brilliant red, with a beak black as ebony. Its talons were firmly hooked into Hichy's backpack, where it had been the whole time. The boy barely managed to stop the little ginger cat from throwing himself at the bird to devour it.
"What do you want from us, exactly?" Inata asked as if it were a person.
"To understand why you run like that. It's pointless," the parrot replied.
"We're looking for the direction of the great city. Maybe you can help us?"
"I have never heard of anything called the great city."
"Something with lots of people like us, and houses."
"Houses?"
"Here we go again," Hichy snapped. "Is everyone out here totally nuts or what?"
"What does out here mean? There is no here and no elsewhere. All is one, and one is the whole of the universe."
"He's driving me crazy!" Inata exclaimed. "How do we get out of this cursed place?"
"You don't get out of the universe!" the bird objected.
"You mean this is the universe to you?" the boy asked, gesturing at the forest.
"Of course. How could it be otherwise?"
"You've never seen anyone enter or leave this forest?"
"Of course not. It's infinite. What you're saying makes no sense."
The two children looked at each other, completely dejected. Even if the parrot was wrong, it meant the forest's dimensions were beyond the perception of a bird that was used to flying vast distances. It was not merely immense, but titanic—gigantic. It was so vast they could spend their entire lives trying to escape and never find a way out.
Inata burst into sobs while her brother tried to comfort her. That cursed bird was more dangerous with simple words than the most fearsome predator. Words can sometimes be sharper than knives, and the parrot's words would kill them if they let themselves be carried away by his madness.
Hichy whistled three short notes several times in a row. At once, Melio sprang with claws out at that ridiculous parakeet, which vanished just before the cat's sharp teeth could close on its red feathers. They were finally alone—but the damage was done, and Inata remained curled in on herself. The parrot had planted doubt in her mind and struck her to the core.
"We're exhausted. We need to rest," Hichy said to his sister. "Lie down while I prepare our shelter."
With his new powers, Hichy began to craft a spacious, comfortable cabin. He moved blocks of stone to build walls, used clay for mortar, and added a roof of thick branches. Never had they had a shelter of such quality, and his sister was grateful for the effort he made for her.
Then he lit a fire and roasted many small rodents, which were now easy to flush out, since they were loud and pungent to someone whose senses were as sharp as a cat's. He devoured the grilled meat with appetite while his sister barely touched it. Then they lay down in their almost-house and slept through the day and the following night. Night vision or not, they were still humans, used to a biological rhythm aligned with the sun's cycles.
When Inata finally woke, her brother was making sabres from the Odilphin's claws. He had crafted wooden handles for each one, carved with his knife. All that remained was to assemble them into formidable weapons. The translucent blades lay beside him, gleaming with a kind of light they had never seen elsewhere.
"I've been thinking about what the parrot said yesterday," Inata began.
"You should think about something else. He was only there to break our morale. We have to act as if he never existed."
"And yet I can't help thinking he was probably right—and that we may have been wrong from the start."
"What do you mean?"
"We tried to get out of the disc by leaving it."
"Yes, that seems logical. You're starting to talk as twisted as he does."
"I mean by moving as far from the centre as possible, getting closer and closer to the edge until we were ejected. We always thought we had to move away to get out, when maybe we should have done the opposite—moved closer."