by Rori Bleu
“It is kinda sad you can’t see my house from here, though,” Lexi said. “Maybe, one day.”
Even though Ajei hadn’t been in the mood to meet new people, it didn’t stop Lexi. She would stop along the way and introduce Ajei to every new group of girls they would come across, it didn’t matter to Lexi if she knew them or not.
After an awkward moment of saying hello, Ajei would fall silent and just listened as her new friend continued carrying on the conversation. She watched as Lexi came up with some sort of wild clandestine arrangements for everybody to sneak off somewhere to do something they probably would get in trouble for. It amazed Ajei how readily the other girls willingly agreed.
“It’s one of the gifts from my realm,” Lexi smiled, seeing the amazement in Ajei’s eyes. “We call it Enthralling. My people are really hard to say no to. How else do you think I was able to so easily get you to spend the day with me?”
“Well,” Ajei simply said, “kidnapping came to mind.”
Both girls laughed.
“So, you look pretty ordinary, what can you do?” Lexi finally asked Ajei.
“Is this ordinary to you?” Ajei bristled, her ego slightly bruised at the comment. Without a second thought, Ajei slipped into a grizzly bear and let loose a loud roar into Lexi’s face.
Satisfied, Ajei smugly slipped back into her human form. A slight frown tugged at the edges of her lips as she saw Lexi shrug, “Skin-walker, cool. Some of my people have learned how to shift. But nothing as grand as a bear.”
Corralling Ajei once more, Lexi led her toward the cabin she and the rest of the girls Ajei would come to call family were staying. Stopping Ajei before they entered, Lexi leaned over to whisper in her ear, “I’ll promise to only nibble on you a little if you teach me how to shift.”
“How about you promise to keep your teeth to yourself and you might have yourself a deal.”
Chapter 5
Toward the end of Summer
Surprisingly for Ajei, summer camp was not as terrible as she had originally imagined. She had Lexi to thank for that. But she could never directly tell Lexi because the girl had a gigantic ego, and the truth would likely make her head explode.
Lexi had seen to it Ajei had successfully integrated into the group of campers they shared the cabin with. Never allowing Ajei to give her no for an answer, Lexi refused to let Ajei hang back in the cabin any time the girls decided to sneak out in the middle of the night to follow Lexi’s lead into trouble. She made sure none of them had a dull moment. According to Lexi, summer camp was the time for misbehaving, and mischief was meant to be shared.
There was the night the camp counselors caught the girls skinny dipping in the lake. The entire group found themselves being lectured to by the head counselor about how disrespectful to both the camp and their families for proper, young women to do something so reckless.
Lexi had stepped forward to point out, “But, Ma’am, not all of them were actually naked. In fact, most of the girls have fur or some sort of scales covering them.”
“And in my tribe,” Ajei chimed in, “the body is sacred so nudity is not frowned upon.”
None of the excuses saved them from kitchen duty for the next week. The punishment, though, did not stop them from doing it again either.
And then there was the night Lexi talked them into attempting to transport to one of the other girl’s realms. It was something strictly forbidden by the camp due to the dangers cross teleportation might cause not only to the person trying to do so but to the very fabric holding the realms together.
“I’m sure they say that just because they don’t want us sneaking away from camp,” Lexi told the girls.
“But what if it is true?” Catarina, the tigress girl, nervously asked.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?” Lexi smiled, causally enthralling the girl.
They soon found themselves joining hands in the middle of the woods, their eyes tightly shut. Lexi had them picturing the tigress’ home realm. Setting the group swaying back and forth, Lexi had the girl call out, “Home!”
Suddenly, the group rose upwards. All eyes opened wide as they did. Rising higher, squeals of excitement echoed throughout the darkness.
Their success was short-lived. Having reached about ten feet off the ground, the girls suddenly hit something which caused them all to tumble back to the forest floor.
Laying on her back, staring up at the night sky, Ajei tried to picture the barrier magic the camp must be engulfed in. Being tugged up to her feet by Lexi made her forget about it.
“We’ll do it next time!” Lexi reassured her. It was her outlook on everything.
Likewise, Lexi held Ajei to her promise to teach her how to transform. It took Ajei every bit of persuasion she could muster to convince Lexi she needed to start out with something small. Lexi had immediately wanted to change into a wolf. It reminded Ajei of the patience her father had been forced to bear when he was training her. Ajei promised herself to thank her father for not killing her in the process.
Finally convincing Lexi to try something easier, like a mouse or a bird, the two spent the better part of a week deciding on which. Ajei had spent all summer listening to Lexi describe her stone castle, with its network of caves located beneath it. Lexi told Ajei about the bats which freely flew in and out of the mouth of the caves at dusk and would only return just before sunrise. Ajei suggested maybe Lexi should try one of those, after all it was kind of a combination of both.
Her recommendation was immediately rejected. Lexi was sure she would end up looking like her grandmother if she did. “And besides,” she told her friend, “a vampire transforming into a bat is nothing fabulous.”
However, Lexi did decide to be a raven. She loved how ominous they looked when they grouped together and, in her culture, they were harbingers of the future.
As the two climbed up into the branches of a high tree, Lexi could not stop talking. “Just you wait, Ajei, I’m gonna so impress you! I’ll swoop down from the sky and peck you on the head!”
“Yeah, yeah,” was all Ajei said. She could not help remembering the times she and Atsa would play games like that.
Once they reached the top branch, both girls straddle the limb. It swayed a bit under their weight, which did not settle well with either of them. Ajei was sure it was about to break, but Lexi was not about to stop now.
“Ok, so what am I supposed to do now? Jump?” Lexi asked as her gaze turned up to the stars, instead of the ground below. She could already picture herself flying among them.
“Oh, gods no!” Ajei scolded her. “Do not even think you are ready yet!”
“Fine, then what?” Lexi huffed.
“First,” Ajei instructed Lexi, “you need to focus on everything you know about ravens: their shape, their wing size, and how they look in flight.”
Lexi closed her eyes and pictured how the ravens circled the castle towers. They paused to land on its roof long enough to finish devouring whatever scrap they had managed to scoop up from the ground. With a terrible squawk, they would launch themselves skyward once more. With the image firmly embedded in her mind’s eye, Lexi nodded she was ready to take flight.
With a hard shove, Ajei pushed her friend from the branch. She watched as Lexi began flapping her arms wildly, while praying to her gods somehow Lexi would succeed.
Unfortunately for Lexi, the moment never came. She hit the soft dirt below with a sickening thud, followed by a painful howl.
Fearing the worst, Ajei transformed into a squirrel and scampered down the tree to check on her friend. Shifting back as she reached the base of the tree, Ajei found Lexi rolled in a ball, clutching her arm, and writhing in pain. “Are you alright?” It was a stupid question to ask, but she was trying to make sure there was nothing else wrong with Lexi.
“Does it look like it? You are a terrible teacher!” Lexi yelled.
Finally managing to get Lexi to release the death grip she had on her arm, Ajei car
efully examined the fracture. It was bad. A piece of the bone was jutting through Lexi’s flesh. “We need to get you to the camp clinic.”
“I told you I should have tried a wolf first!”
“Why? You obviously weren’t concentrating hard enough to turn into a bird!” Ajei shot back. Snidely adding, “Besides, knowing you, you would have probably found the only wolf trap in this entire woods.”
While Ajei was probably right about the trap, Lexi would never admit it. Instead, all she said was, “I’ll do it next time. Just you wait! And if that did happen, I would have shifted into a bear and attacked whoever tried to capture me!” Lexi scoffed. “If you can do it I’m sure I would have no problem!”
“And ended up in a circus!” Ajei replied, trying to maintain a serious look on her face. “I can just see you now in a clown outfit and balancing on—” Pausing to picture it, Ajei added, “You are right! We definitely need to teach you to turn into a bear.”
Near tragedy turned into ridiculous joking between the two. Lexi told Ajei, “Well, the next time I catch you changing into anything, I’ll make sure to sell you to a zoo.”
“Would mean you would have to catch me first and I have seen you run!”
Laughter echoed throughout the forest as they headed back.
With the lights of the camp coming into view, Lexi stopped Ajei. “Promise if anybody asks what happened, I was defending you from a three-headed dragon. If it came out I fell out of a tree, my reputation would be irreparably damaged. I would have to wither away.”
“Deal,” Ajei readily agreed, rolling her eyes as an added effect. In truth, she was happy Lexi was not going to tell on her. Ajei was sure the camp would not look too kindly on her for teaching another camper magic from her own realm.
By the time the pair had reached the clinic, Lexi’s arm had already begun to mend. Regeneration was another gift, the powers-that-be, had bestowed to her people. By the third day after, her arm was as good as new.
+++++++++++
Highlighting the season was the mandatory survival training. All of the campers were summoned for an early assembly. Everyone watched in anticipation while the head counselor paced back and forth across the wooden platform she also used to mete out the girls’ morning calisthenics.
Satisfied all the cabins were present, she began, “This morning, each camper is required to venture out into the woods...alone...for three days. You will only be allowed to bring a sleeping bag, a knife, and a match with you. As far as food and shelter, that’s up to you to figure out.”
While the older campers were well aware of what was about to happen, a murmur still ran through the younger ones. Most had never been required to be totally self-reliant.
“Isn’t that what servants are for?” Somebody called out from the back, causing a hesitant laugh to spread through the ranks.
The head counselor was not amused. “Quiet!” An instant hush fell over them. “Now, if you are able to complete the task and demonstrate your ability to not starve or freeze to death, you will receive a plaque of honor for demonstrating your ability at being self-sufficient. It also means you are a step closer to assuming rule over your realms.”
Once more, whispers broke out amongst the campers.
“However,” the head counselor went on, “if any of you fail and decide to return to camp early, you will be separated from your campmates next summer and will not be allowed to continue with your next level of training.”
In most cases, though, those who failed never returned to the camp, ever.
While camping in the wilderness was something Ajei had been doing since the day she was born, the pressure of what this moment in her life meant was almost overwhelming. As she gathered her bedroll up, she tried to remember everything her parents had ever taught her about camping. Lexi’s bumping into her broke her train of thought.
“You ready yet?” Lexi smugly asked. It was her third year doing this, so it was nothing to her.
“If you’d stop running into me, clumsy, I would be!” Ajei replied. Her dark brown eyes playfully glared Lexi. “I suppose you’re gonna make me carry you, as well, so you do not fall on your face on the trail, too?”
Lexi gave her a toothy smile, “I thought about doing so, but you’re too lumpy.”
With their gear in tow, the two fell in line with the rest of the campers. It did not take long before the counselors took the lead into the woods. The path they followed led through a thicket of gnarled old trees.
Ajei watched as, one by one, the campers at the head of the line began to disappear. It was as if the trees were swallowing them whole.
By mid-day, the trail took a steep grade. Ajei could hear the campers behind her grumbling. She could not help but shake her head as she glanced back at Lexi and saw the usually cool and composed vampire huffing and puffing. She swore she saw beads of sweat on her friend’s forehead. Ajei wondered how vampires could sweat.
Once the trail leveled off at the top of this hill, it was Ajei’s turn to separate from the rest of the campers. A voice in the distance called back to her, “Enjoy the next three days.”
Even as her muscles screamed for rest, Ajei spent the remainder of the afternoon setting up her camp. Sweat rolled down her forward, stinging her eyes whenever she stooped to gather branches. Growing up in a desert, it surprised her how the heat differed from her home.
By late afternoon, Ajei had finished construction of her sturdy lean-to. Laying out a ground covering of straw, she fashioned a mattress of soft leaves and grass to spread her roll out on.
Satisfied with her shelter, she proceeded to set up a fire pit to cook her dinner in. Ajei thought about starting the fire before she went hunting but did not want to leave it unattended. “You are right, Father, safety first!”
Taking a step back, she gave her campsite the once over. She had no doubt her parents would have been proud of how well it looked. For Ajei, the next couple of days would be a piece of cake.
Once she was done with the menial tasks, it was time for fun. Taking a running start, she stretched out and transformed into a sleek, silver wolf. Her muscles rippled in strength as each of her paws dug into the soft dirt and propelled her into the woods. Her senses picked up the scents and sounds of everything around her. A smell in the air caused her to stop in her tracks. Sniffing carefully, she caught the welcoming scent of a rabbit dinner just waiting for her. Silently following the invisible trail, she came upon the small, furry creature nibbling on its meal.
Ajei crept closer to her unsuspecting prey, only freezing when the rabbit’s ears shot up. Holding her breath, she waited for the rabbit to slowly return to its meal. Sinewed muscles launched Ajei forward, pouncing fully on her own meal. Fangs sank into the rabbit’s throat only hard enough to snap its neck. There was no need for being cruel to this poor creature. Ajei was proud of the restraint her father had taught over the past year.
Maybe, I am getting closer to the day where I can accept responsibility for the tribe, she thought to herself as she gingerly carried the rabbit in her maw.
The evening’s dinner roasted over the fire Ajei had expertly started without having to use the match. The reason she had not used it was a secret she would never reveal to anyone ever. It was too embarrassing to admit she had lost it on her way to her campsite. “They can just be impressed I did it by rubbing two sticks together!” She could not wait until camp ended to show her father how she had paid attention to his teachings and how much she had changed.
Settling back against a log Ajei had dragged up to her campsite, she quietly watched as dusk began to color the sky. Ajei loved how the night would run through the spectrums of pinks, oranges, and reds, before bringing on the blues and violets. And then, finally the last of the day would die away to the stillness of the night, speckled with the twinkling stars.
Looking down from her hillside, Ajei could see the flickering of fires from some of the other campers spread across the valley floor. She wondered where Lexi ended up and
if she was enjoying herself. From how Lexi had described her home, Ajei doubted the night cold would bother her. Lexi had probably not even started a fire.
All felt right in this realm. Ajei frowned a bit at the thought of owing her mother an apology for the argument they had about coming here. Her mother had been right. Ajei had learned to be a better person. She had come to accept the differences of the other realms and the creatures from each. While she had missed her family and friends, especially Atsa, Ajei would never want to lose the ones she made in camp.
The warmth of the fire, blended with the peace of the night, brought Ajei to the edge of sleep. Not wanting to let her hard work put her shelter to waste, she slowly rose to her feet, stretching.