Ajei's Destiny

by Rori Bleu

  The thick scent of smoke caused her to turn toward camp. Her eyes widened in horror.

  Where once a fragrant green forest stood, now charred, smoldering stumps and trunks remained. Death lingered around her. The heat of the fire which had claimed her beautiful woods could still be felt. Ajei’s lungs burned with each breath. All the same, Ajei could not tell how long ago this happened.

  The loss of her sanctuary was the final straw. Standing shell-shocked, Ajei slipped back into human form. Not only did she no longer have a home to return to, but she was now naked and stranded in a barren land.

  A voice somewhere began to scream for Ajei. She was not sure where it came from, or if it had just been imagination. In anu case, Ajei began running across the camp, looking for any signs of life. The pounding of her bare feet against the charred grass and dirt echoed through the scorched frames of what had been the cheery cabins. Destruction laid strewn along Ajei’s path.

  Suddenly, she came across a sight which left her breathless and horrified. Her lungs ached too much from the smoke to cry out in terror. Instead, Ajei only stood there and wept over the smoldering bodies, still clinging to each other. Ajei could only imagine the terror that must have consumed them as they faced their end.

  Her eyes shot up the path to where her own cabin had stood. A cry slipped from her, echoing in the silence, as a cross between a wail and a howl. “Lexi!!”

  The sight of the bodies spread across the floor of the burned-out shell pumped more adrenaline into her already panic-stricken body. Trembling, she sank to her knees, burying her face in her hands. Ajei was ready to give up. She wanted the end to come. Maybe Hashkeh Naabah was right, maybe I should die. It would be best for everybody if I just killed myself.

  “Dammit, Ajei!” A voice coughed behind her.

  Ajei looked over her shoulder to see who was there. From the corner of her eye, Ajei caught sight of Lexi standing behind her. Streaks of soot covered Lexi’s face; her knees were scraped up. Overcome with relief, Ajei sprang to her feet and wrapped her arms tightly around Lexi. The two clung to each other.

  “I-I thought y-you were dead,” Ajei whispered.

  Slipping from her friend, Lexi unfastened her cloak and wrapped it around Ajei. Stifling her own tears, Lexi cried, “Dammit, where were you? I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

  “H-how did y—”

  “We don’t have time to talk about it right now. We need to get out of here, now!” Lexi tugged on Ajei’s arm to get her to move.

  “But I have nowhere else to go!” Ajei whimpered. “My home…my family…are…”

  “I’m not leaving you here,” Lexi told her friend in no uncertain terms. “I saw enough of our friends die here already. I’m not going to lose you too!”

  “But where—” Ajei began to stupidly ask.

  “You’re coming to my realm!”

  “I cannot! It's impossible!” Ajei cried. “You need to save yourself! That’s all that matters!”

  “No!” Lexi snapped back. “We were all lied to. It was nothing more than a spell cast around the camp itself stopping us. When it collapsed with the fire, a bunch of us were able to escape. I have no idea where we ended up, but I don’t ever want to go there again.”

  “Why did you come back?”

  “To look for you, Dummy!” Lexi said, scooping Ajei from her feet.

  Ajei was surprised at Lexi’s strength. Having no other choice than to trust her last remaining friend. Exhaustion finally overtaking Aje, she curled against Lexi.

  Lexi shouted to the darkness, “Home!” A light consumed them, lifting the pair up from the embers.

  Chapter 8

  Lexi’s Realm

  Ajei and Lexi materialized with an unceremonious thud. Sprawled across each other, the pair tried to gather their wits. While Lexi had been right about trans-realm travel being possible, it still did not mean it had been easy.

  “For the love of the gods, Ajei,” Lexi moaned, “please get off me. You’re heavy!” With a shove, Lexi finally managed to untangle herself.

  The landing was bone-jarring, causing them both immense physical pain. As if Ajei had not suffered enough tonight, there was now something awry with her body. Struggling to stand up, she couldn’t help but notice her movements were more sluggish in this realm than in either the camp’s or her own.

  “For the love of the gods, Ajei,” Lexi moaned, “please get off me. You’re heavy!” With a shove, Lexi finally managed to untangle herself.

  Confusion overwhelmed her. She had never experienced this before. Every movement of her body required extra effort, sending sweat trickling down the sides of her head. Managing to get to her feet, Ajei’s knees buckled and threatened to send her back to the ground.

  Watching her friend struggle to move, Lexi worried Ajei had injured herself either in the fire or hitting the ground so hard just now. Realizing what was really happening, Lexi slipped an arm around Ajei to steady her. “It's the atmosphere here,” Lexi explained, with a small smile. “It's a lot different than your realm. Sorry for that.”

  Lexi wanted to get them home as quickly as she could but attempting to help Ajei hobble down the road would make the a lot longer. Left with only one alternative, Lexi huffed and hoisted Ajei back up into her arms and carried her toward the manor.

  “Where are we headed?” Ajei finally managed to ask. Each breath she took labored in lungs trying to adjust to their new environment.

  Lexi just said, “My house.”

  The two traveled for a while without speaking. The day had taken its toll on each of them.

  For Ajei, the loss was crushing. She had never considered taking her own life before, even with the failures she had faced before her father during training. The thought of it now still terrified her. In her culture, the taking of a life unjustly was a banishable offense. To take your own life was a crime not even the gods deemed forgivable. Punishment was eternal.

  Even Lexi had been shaken by tonight’s events. Her normally unflappable demeanor was gone. While death was part of her DNA, watching her friends die in such agony had been overwhelming. Lexi tried to shake those memories from her head. They needed to be buried deep. Unfortunately, she feared, they would be nightmares she would never get rid of.

  Softly, Ajei broke the silence, “Lexi...what happened at camp?”

  It took a bit for Lexi to answer, finally saying, “The screams woke me. By that time, the fire had already spread throughout the bottom of the ridge toward camp.” Pausing, she sniffed back the tear which was about to fall. “I ran back down the path to your site, but the fire had already swept through. I couldn’t find you anywhere, so I started running back to camp, but the fire and the sight of so many burned…” Her voice quivered. Unable to hold back the tears any longer, it fell on Ajei’s cheek.

  Ajei hugged Lexi the best she could. “It’s ok. You don’t…”

  Trying to gather herself, Lexi painted on a brave face before she went on. “Anyway...the fire was too intense to get any closer, so I ran back to my campsite. I met a bunch of the other campers from farther up the trail. We huddled together and waited for somebody to come. One of the campers started to cry about wanting to go home and poof. Before anybody figured out what had happened, we ended up in some realm I even found creepy.”

  For the first time in what felt like ages for each, they shared a smile.

  “I had to come back to look for you,” Lexi said. “I couldn’t let you go wandering blindly about. I still need lunch.” Being safely back in her realm helped the old Lexi come to light.

  Ajei rolled her eyes at Lexi. For as much chaos as they had been through, to know there was one more person in the realms willing to risk her life for Ajei relieved the pain in her heart, if only slightly.

  Her back ached by the time Lexi came to the foot of her front steps. Somebody is going to hear about the inefficiencies of inter-realm travel, she mused to herself. When she had commanded ‘Home’, she had meant preferably being deliv
ered to her front porch and not outside the gated drive leading up to the manor house. Do the forces-that-be have no idea just how large my family’s estate is?

  Setting Ajei in a chair on the porch, she made sure her cloak was still wrapped around Ajei before she had to face her next challenge...dealing with her parents. Taking a deep breath, she stepped to the door and twisted the knob. Instead of the door swinging free, as it usually would, Lexi ran face-first into the glass. Rubbing her bruised nose, she furiously pounded on the weathered-aged wood, demanding somebody open the damn door.

  One of the scullery maids passing by the door, peeked from behind the laced curtain to see who was causing such an uproar outside. Shock spread across the poor girl’s face as she realized who was on the other side.

  “Miss Alexandra! Thank the gods! Word just reached the house—,” the girl started babbling.

  “Trudy, stop! Just tell me where my parents are and why the front door is locked?” Lexi demanded.

  “Your parents, are in the study, Miss Alexandra,” Trudy informed her, moving out of Lexi’s way. “And as for the door, well...while you were gone there was a terrible hullabaloo with the Council.”

  Trudy grew silent for a moment as Lexi barged by her, apparently not paying any attention to what the maid was saying. It did not deter Trudy from continuing to fill the young mistress in on what was happening in the house. “With the Mistress stepping down from the Council, some of the manor staff have refused to show up for their duties. They are fearing reprisals from the other members. There should be no danger here...should there?”

  Lexi just threw her hands up in hopes of making the girl shut up, though a minor miracle would have been required to get Trudy to stop. The last thing Lexi heard from the maid was, “Miss Alexandra...the creature on the porch—”

  Without looking back, Lexi ordered, “Just make sure she stays covered up and comfortable or it’s your head!”

  Footsteps echoed down the dark hallway as Lexi made her way to the study. The deep mahogany paneling, which lined the walls she passed, always tended to depress her. It absorbed any stray rays of light which accidentally made its way into the manor house.

  Stopping by the closed door leading into the study, she pressed her ear against it to see if she was interrupting an important conversation. But this didn't sound like her parents' normal drama. No, this was more like her mother lecturing her father about staying out of the council elders’ matters.

  From the start, her mother’s position on the Council was only meant to be ceremonial and not carry any actual responsibilities. She was just supposed to fill the seat her husband refused to take. He detested the backstabbing that occurred there. But their standing in the elite’s society required one of them to serve.

  But once she took her place, she immediately refused to simply vote the Council’s wishes and began expressing her own opinions. Some of the members became concerned about how easily she could sway decisions. Under her management though, the Council was able to maintain functional control of their realm.

  Lexi, too, secretly admired her mother’s skill as a politician and diplomat when it came to dealing with the corrupt and decrepit power brokers on the Council of Elders. While her sudden decision to resign from the Council took some by surprise, others celebrated it.

  For Lexi, it was just another of her mother’s carefully orchestrated moves. She had taught her daughter when to press the attack in politics and how to recognize when it was time to tactically retreat.

  When they thought Lexi wasn’t paying attention, her parents would talk in hushed tones about the crumbling hierarchy within the realm. But Lexi was listening closely to everything her mother said. From her, Lexi learned the value of discovering the skeletons lurking in your opponent’s closet.

  What she gleaned from the conversation were things her realm had was even worse than Trudy had babbled on about. She frowned hearing her mother confess, “This is exactly why I decided to step down. We need to make sure the bloodshed doesn’t come to our door.”

  Foregoing her usual grand entrance, Lexi politely knocked on the door. Waiting for the conversation to subside, Lexi solemnly entered, “Mother...Father...I never thought I’d see you again!”

  Rising from his chair by the fireplace, Carlos Hidalgo crossed the study and wrapped his arms around his daughter. “My loving daughter!” Expressing emotions was something he was not afraid to display. “We had just heard what happened!” His voice shook in concern for Lexi. “Are you well? Do you need a doctor?”

  Lexi’s mother, Nicolette, looked up from the pile of paperwork on her desk at her dirt smeared daughter. Joining her husband in hugging their daughter, it took both Carlos and Lexi by surprise. As with any mother, having her daughter home from such a harrowing experience made her both relieved and happy. Unlike most, Nicolette was not one to show it.

  No sooner had the family reunion commenced, it abruptly ended. Returning to her desk, Nicolette addressed her daughter, “My sweet Alexandra, please reassure me you weren’t responsible.” Nicolette was well aware of her daughter’s wild and reckless nature.

  As long as Lexi could remember, the two tended to hurl endearments at each other like daggers. It was their way of loving each other. “Responsible, my dear Mother?” she asked, not sure why her mother had the need to pose such a ridiculous question. “I just get home from a traumatic event…how could you ask me that?”

  “Well, my darling Daughter, you do have a history. We are still paying reparations for the little incident at your last school.”

  “I told you before, what happened there was not my fault!” Lexi defended herself.

  “Not your fault?” Nicolette could not believe what she was hearing from her daughter. “You led a riot against the faculty and set the place ablaze. I hear two teachers are still recovering from their injuries.”

  “Ah, Nicolette,” Carlos interrupted, an arm still wrapped around his daughter. “That was just a childish prank which got out of hand. Surely, you could not possibly think our angelic child would have anything to do with something so tragic?”

  Lexi hugged her father. While there could be validity in her mother’s question, to hear her voice it stung Lexi. She was happy her father always came to her defense.

  To Nicolette’s continual dismay, her daughter had her father wrapped around her finger, and that would never change. With a flick of her hand, Nicolette warned her husband, “If I get any bills from there for damages, Carlos, it’s coming out of your stipend!”

  While he had been the one who had inherited all of the lands and wealth surrounding the family, he had no sense of financial responsibility. That was another matter which had fallen to Nicolette. It was also an irritating personal trait he had passed on to his daughter, much to his wife's dismay. “My Love, do not let worrying about money put unnecessary lines in your beautiful face,” he smiled sweetly at his wife. “If the need arises, I am sure we can cover any costs.”

  “I should just cut both of you off,” Nicolette tossed the usual threat at the pair, “and make you get jobs! Though it would probably cost us more in breakage if either of you did!”

  Exasperated neither of her parents seemed to believe her, Lexi yelled at them, “You don’t have to worry about your precious gold! It was NOT my fault!”

  Nicolette’s eyes instinctively narrowed on her daughter. “Alexandra, you will not use tone with—”

  “Yes, Mother, I will!” Lexi proclaimed “After all, it was you who taught me to stand up for myself and anybody who needs protection. Well, that’s exactly what I did.”

  Nicolette cocked her head, not wanting to hear what Lexi had done. “What exactly did you do, Alexandra?”

  “I saved a life and brought her—”

  “Do not tell me you brought somebody over the barrier!”

  ++++++++++++

  Even from her chair on the front porch, Ajei could hear the furious words flying between mother and daughter. They was quickly followed b
y a slamming door and the sound of boots storming down the hall.

  Lexi approached her, anger burning in her ice-blue eyes. Jamming her hands on her hips, Lexi took a couple of deep breaths to quiet her inner rage.

  “If it’s too much trouble, Lexi—” Ajei started.

  But Lexi cut her off, “No, it’s fine. Mother always hates when I bring stray pets home. The mess of feeding and all.”

  “Stray pets!!” Ajei blustered. “What does she think I am? A village dog?”

  Lexi smiled down at Ajei, “Well, it might actually be helpful! Better yet, do you think you could shift into one of the Manor Wolves? She so loves them. I forgot to ask, are you housebroken?”