Catching Epics

by Halie Fewkes

  - Halie Fewkes -

  Copyright © 2017 by Halie Fewkes

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Second Printing, 2018

  Tally Ink Publishing

  All Rights Reserved.

  Cover Art by Ginger Anne London

  ISBN 978-0-9961699-2-9

  www.secretsofthetally.com

  This book is dedicated to Bennett.

  Chapter One

  Ebby

  Ratuan-Day came but once a year, and Ebby’s wild grin was beginning to hurt her face as Tabriel Vale finally came into sight through the thick cedars. An ancient wooden cart creaked beneath her as she stood on a hay bale to get a better view, grasping the splintering rails as the wheels lurched over a few fallen branches.

  “Sit down, Ebby,” Sembla warned. “What are we supposed to tell Ratuan if you fall out and break your neck?”

  Ebby planted herself on the bale of hay and clasped her hands tightly in her lap, nervous to finally be on her way to see Ratuan. Strange things were happening, and she needed to confide in him just how many whispered conversations she’d interrupted in the past month.

  “I can’t believe you’re so eager to get away from us,” said Sembla’s aging husband, Reso. Reso had a surprisingly young face when he chose to shave the grey away, but he was already beginning to look wild after two days on the trail.

  Ebby switched between four sets of pseudo-parents every year, and Reso and Sembla were always her second-favorites. Sembla knew why, and told Reso, “You know she gets this way every year we take her to live with Margaret and Jelk. That’s where Ratuan is.”

  Ebby tried to keep her excitement under wraps by biting her lips together and squeezing the life out of her own hands. Reso laughed, “Ohhhhh, that’s right. Ebby, we’ve warned you about boys, haven’t we?”

  “He’s not that kind of a boy,” Ebby said, frowning at Reso to make the point clear. Ratuan was her best friend. The kind good for climbing trees, and catching lizards, and building animal traps that never worked. Ebby didn’t need to admit that she had noticed the color of his eyes during their staring contests — a cross between green and brown — or how often she thought about the time he grabbed her hand to keep her from falling into the creek behind his house.

  “They’re only eleven,” Sembla said, setting a hand on her husband’s arm.

  Ebby couldn’t help but clarify, “Ratuan’s twelve.”

  “See? An older man,” Reso said to his wife. He leaned toward Ebby and tilted his head to the left, and then to the right before a giant grin broke through his scruffy beard. “Did you… run a comb through your hair?”

  Ebby tried to resist blushing, not wanting to give away how much time she’d spent combing out her wispy blonde locks. Her hair hadn’t even reached her shoulders in its previous knotted state, but it now cascaded past them, spilling onto the painted tunic she had toiled over for days. What had once been a shapeless piece of linen that sagged to her knees was now a colorful sunset that gained her compliments everywhere she went. Ratuan hadn’t seen it yet.

  “Alright, we’re here!” she exclaimed, jumping from the back of the moving cart and dashing to the front of the caravan before Reso or Sembla could say hold it, young lady! Another year older, another step faster!

  Since everybody was travelling in anticipation of the upcoming Eclipsival, Tabriel Vale had a lively group of merchants and entertainers brightening the already sunny afternoon.

  Ebby looked everywhere, finally concluding that Ratuan hadn’t reached town yet. The cottage he called home, which Ebby would call home for the next three months, lay miles away. Usually such a distance was frowned upon because of the Escali danger, but Ratuan’s family got away with living in the woods because his father was an incredible mage — at least, he had been until very recently.

  Ebby lost herself in a moment of sorrow before joyous sounds from the world renowned Travelling Baking Show snapped her out of it. Ebby had seen the troupe of hilarious bakers once before in Dincara, and she edged her way over as they tossed ingredients and clinked their cookware to the tune of a fiddle. The enticing aroma of fresh breads and meats wafted through the crowd, and if Ebby had ever owned a coin in her life, she would be pulling it out of her pocket right now to buy something.

  The cook with the curliest hair twirled a plate, a beautiful and breakable plate, on the tip of her smallest finger, and another baker set a roasted rodent on its wobbling surface. Miss curly-hair held it out to the nearest watcher, a tall teenager whose tied back hair reached to her waist, a darker version of blonde than Ebby’s and not so thin or wispy.

  Ebby froze, thinking for one second that she recognized the girl before she inconveniently turned her head away, laughing at the plate in front of her. “Really, I’m fine,” the girl insisted. It had been years since Ebby had heard this voice, and she walked thoughtlessly forward, wondering why this girl kept appearing in her life at significant times. And what would be significant about today?

  The Baking Show was teasing the older girl while an ancient looking man stepped from the tent to tell her, “We accept many forms of payment! If you don’t have coin, we’ll take indentured servitude, firstborn children—”

  “Come on, Allie,” said the curly-haired troupe-member, waving the plate in an enticing circle. “You know we could use you around here.”

  The girl, Allie, reached sturdy arms out to take the plate. “Alright, sign me up for indentured servitude,” she said, grinning until she looked up at just the right angle for her dark eyes to meet Ebby’s gaze of blue. Allie froze immediately, wind blowing stray wisps of hair across her face but not breaking their eye contact. This was her.

  “Ebby!”

  Startled, Ebby whipped around and saw Sembla, finally catching up to her. “You can’t run away from us like that. Ever.”

  “I’m sorry,” Ebby said quickly, turning back to the girl — who had vanished.

  Ebby darted to look around the tent’s corner and found nothing. Nobody. She scanned through every nearby face and ran back to the table where bits of sandwich were landing in a perfect pile, thrown by a cook across the tent.

  “Where did she go?” Ebby asked the curly-haired girl, frustrated nearly to the point of tears.

  “Who?” The baker replied, eyes on Ebby while she caught a ceramic plate thrown at the back of her head.

  “The girl who was just here! You called her Allie.”

  “Oh, that one… She went… Um, I’m not really sure where she went.” Curly-hair leaned over the table to look each way and frowned. “She was just here.”

  Exasperated, Ebby flipped around to search the crowd one more time.

  Gone. Ebby had lost her again.

  “Ebbs!” Ratuan called from across the market, and she quickly spotted him with his mother and Reso by the caravan. Ebby glanced around one last time, but that Allie girl had vanished like she always did, so Ebby took off toward Ratuan, nervous energy putting an extra spring in each step.

  Ratuan threw his hands out to catch her as she crashed into him with a happy squeal, hugging him as tightly as her thin arms could manage while having her own lungs crushed happily in return.

  “I missed you,” Ebby groaned, her voice flattened.

  Ratuan tightened his hold and spun them both in a clumsy circle. “I missed you too.”

  Aware that Reso and Margaret were watching them, Ebby held back all the things she wanted to say and show him, and instead exclaimed. “You’re taller than me now! Not fair.”

  “I thin
k I’m the tallest of anyone our age,” he replied, beaming. His acorn colored hair had also darkened, just a shade since she’d seen him last.

  Ratuan’s mother turned away and whispered to Reso, “She’s really getting fast.”

  Their voices were close to silence, but Ebby still heard Reso reply, “You should have seen her earlier when one of our wheels got stuck in the mud. She just about picked up the entire wagon and threw it back onto the trail.”

  “Shouldn’t we… I mean, are you sure you want her staying with us? Now that Jelk…”

  Ebby caught a glimpse of Reso’s comforting smile as words failed Margaret. “It’s fine, I saw our old friend about a month ago and explained the situation to him,” Reso said. “And honestly, we had to bring Ebby or she would have run off to find you. It may be time to start keeping an eye on her and Ratuan.”

  Ebby looked at the sky, ready to die of embarrassment, hoping Ratuan hadn’t heard the exchange. But she did want to know if Ratuan could provide any insight about their conversation, now that his mother had apparently joined the secret whisper club.

  Ratuan pulled playfully at her painted tunic as she released him and said, “I’ll bet you made this yourself?”

  “I did,” Ebby replied, feeling a smile tug at the nervous knots in her stomach. She stepped between two of the carts and pulled Ratuan with her, not wanting Reso and Margaret to watch them, but not wanting to step into the woods either. Tabriel Vale was practically surrounded by the protection of mages, but sometimes people still went missing.

  “Something weird is happening,” she told him, grateful that she could finally put the situation into words. “Reso and Sembla are scaring me.”

  Ratuan frowned and flicked his eyes toward the pair. “What do you mean?”

  “I just... They’re whispering all the time, and I know it’s about me... And they keep giving me things and taking me places like they never think they’re going to see me again. I mean, don’t you think they would tell me if I was dying or something?”

  “You’re not dying.”

  “Well something’s happening, and I think your mother knows about it too. And remember that girl, the one I told you about when we were breaking rocks in the creek? I saw her today.”

  Ratuan blinked and studied her face, knowing this was important. “The one who saved you from that Escali raid—”

  “Shhhhhhhhhh!” Ebby glanced around to make sure nobody was near them. She whispered, “Yes. I never catch more than a glimpse of her before she disappears, but she’s here today.”

  She caught Ratuan wondering to himself if the girl might be imagined, and Ebby shook her head to clear it. She had thought for a second she could hear his thoughts.

  “We should go look for her,” Ratuan said, trying to please Ebby even though he didn’t expect to find the girl.

  “I don’t think we’ll find her either,” Ebby said. “Let’s look though.”

  Ratuan led the way toward the commotion of Tabriel Vale’s marketplace, and turned back around to ask, “Do you still have your friendship rock?”

  “Of course,” Ebby said, pulling half of an unremarkable grey stone from her pocket. Ratuan withdrew his half to show he still had it, and Ebby smiled, knowing they would always have each other.

  Well…

  “I… have to show you something,” Ebby said, knowing she shouldn’t feel guilty, but feeling guilt anyway. She stepped between a stand of knives and a stand of glass figurines, then picked up a pinecone.

  Ebby concentrated thousand-degree thoughts on the cone until it began smoking. Ratuan understood what she was doing even if she didn’t have it quite right, and even though he smiled, she could feel a wave of sadness hit him. “You have a power?”

  “Yes,” she replied, looking at the ground. “I was hoping you might have found one too?”

  Ratuan only shook his head. “I don’t think I’m gifted.”

  “You’re gifted, just… in a different way.”

  Ebby and Ratuan jumped when his mother, Margaret, found them and asked if they were ready to go. “We’re ready,” Ebby said, sorry to see creases of exhaustion across Margaret’s face. She could remember Margaret’s curly hair springing from beneath three headbands back before Jelk died, but now it held less life than her saddened eyes.

  “Can we walk ahead if we stay in sight?” Ratuan asked, grabbing Ebby’s hand as he shot a pleading look to his mother.

  “Alright,” Margaret said with a tired smile, “just don’t get too far.”

  Ratuan pulled Ebby toward the wooded trail he knew so well. A hundred thousand tree needles shaded the forest floor making it a paradise for ferns and delicate wildflowers, and their dirt trail wound around both fallen and standing trees to take them home.

  Something about Ratuan was strange too. Ebby could feel that he was happy for her, but she could also feel a conflicting jealousy because she would soon leave him for the Dragona. She glanced at their linked hands and wondered if all hand-holders felt this sensation.

  “I don’t have to tell anybody,” she said.

  Her hand grew instantly warmer as Ratuan clarified, “About your power?”

  “Well, I don’t have to tell them right away,” Ebby said, smiling as she felt Ratuan’s hopeful joy. “We can still have our three months together, and I can tell them I have a power before I leave.”

  “You would put off going to the Dragona, just for me?” he asked.

  A sharp scream cut through the forest ahead of them, followed by the earsplitting shriek of somebody being murdered, and Ebby’s reply died in the hush of panic that hit them both.

  It had come from that girl, Allie. Ebby could feel it.

  Chapter Two

  Ebby

  Margaret caught up and frantically grabbed their shoulders as Ratuan said, “That’s her, isn’t it?”

  Ebby nodded while Margaret hissed, “Back to town. Now!”

  Ratuan was as afraid as Ebby, but he knew how much this girl meant to her. So instead of fleeing back to town, he ran straight toward the next hideous shriek.

  Stunned, Margaret cried, “Ratuan! No, come back!” and Ebby ran after him. Margaret took off at a dead sprint after the kids, but Ebby was ridiculously fast and Ratuan had a head start. Ebby and Ratuan reached Allie in a patch of white ground flowers, writhing and coughing with tears streaming down her face.

  “Can we get her back to town?” Ratuan asked as Allie tried to prop herself onto a shaking elbow and speak. Ebby knelt to listen, terrified out of her wits, but needing to know what she would say.

  “You!” Allie rasped, pointing at Ebby as she collapsed into more coughing and rolled onto her back again. Grimacing against the pain, she cried, “You’ve got to run.”

  Margaret grabbed the kids and yanked them to their feet. “Out of here! Now!”

  “But I think she’s a mage. We have to help her,” Ebby said, sensing strength and power from this girl, now violently thrashing and shuddering.

  Margaret threw Ebby and Ratuan behind her, then turned and shoved them both toward town. “Run now,” she said, “and we’ll send her help from town.”

  Margaret’s forceful push suddenly became a restraint to pull them back to her as an Escali dropped down from a tree limb — a monster with wickedly black hair and spikes of bone jutting from his elbows, now crouched aggressively with his teeth bared at them.

  “Oh no,” Ebby felt the words tumble from her mouth, “No no no no no no no.”

  Everything that had ever existed, everything that had ever mattered, was about to end, and fear absolutely shut Ebby down. She couldn’t move, speak, cry, run, or do anything but throw her hands over her face and lean closer to Margaret and Ratuan.

  Margaret fumbled to lift a heavy rock from the ground as their best hope of a defense, and told the kids, “Both of you run, and stay together!”

  Ebby wanted to cry and protest, but the Escali darted forward before anybody could act. Ebby squeezed her eyes as an arm wrapped around h
er shoulders and jerked her off the ground.

  She opened them again as the monster stopped to growl at Margaret and Ratuan, their shocked stupor paralyzing them as Ebby’s had. Ebby gasped for a few breaths before she realized that the arm spikes from horror stories were a hairs-breadth from her body, and she let loose a terrified shriek, flailing her legs into the air, trying to squirm away. Ratuan launched himself at the Escali, biting and clawing in an attempt to free Ebby as she focused intense amounts of heat into her hands and wrapped them around the Escali’s incredibly strong arm.

  When Ebby looked to Margaret for help, she saw that a second monster with horribly black hair had grabbed Ratuan’s mother from behind and was just about to lock his jaws around her throat.

  “NO!” Ebby screamed, pulling her chin tight against her body and clamping her eyes shut.

  “Gataan!” Ebby’s Escali shouted as she heard a faint gurgle and a body drop to the ground. “Not necessary!”

  The second monster didn’t respond to him, and the first was beginning to notice Ebby’s scorching hands searing his flesh. “What the—”

  The arm around her shoulders became two hands around her ribs, and then the Escali threw her through the air to the one with blood on his teeth. Ebby managed to conjure a wave of flame that scorched both the monster and surrounding foliage, but when he crushed her hands together in one of his, she could no longer burn anything except herself.

  Ebby screamed again and tried to pull her arms free from the brawny Escali with the tied back hair while the spiky-haired brute slammed Ratuan into the dirt. His body only rolled once before settling beneath a massive sword fern, and Ebby gulped down a sob before she used a sudden burst of strength to wrench her hands free from the bigger monster.

  Ebby ran straight to her best friend and dropped to her knees beside him with her jaw falling open, unable to express her horror and unable to muster a will to get up and run. Ratuan wasn’t moving, neither was Margaret, and so neither was Ebby. If she was going to die, she was going to do it right here.