“And we only need Keira alive at this point,” Paul added with an evil grin. “Lumen is expendable.”
“Do you even know what that word means?” Lumen asked.
“Oh, yes, Lumen. I do. It means I won’t have to listen to your annoying voice ever again.”
Keira and Lumen sat, stunned into silence.
“Let the experiment begin,” Dr. Albion said dramatically. “Paul, come with me to the observation booth.” Paul followed the doctor to a pressurized door. She punched a code into the glowing keypad, and the door opened with a sucking hiss. The two of them left the room as the door resealed itself behind them.
“James!” Lumen shouted. “Zap your way out of there! We don’t care what she does to us.”
James couldn’t speak, the gag holding his tongue firmly in place, but shook his head.
“Just do it,” Keira said. “Lumen’s right.”
James shook his head again, no.
The lights dimmed in the white-tiled room. A generator switched on in the far corner with a low, throbbing hum. The Faraday cage began to react to the energy building up in the atmosphere and sent out a spray of purple sparks.
“James, do it now before it’s too late!” Lumen yelled over the generator noise.
Before James could shake his head again, a surge of electricity shot into him from the cables that encircled his body. The pain felt like nothing he had ever experienced before. Every cell in his body turned inside out, burning. His eyes rolled back into his skull, and his fists and feet clenched and began to smolder. A loud cracking sound broke through the air as white sparks showered out of James’s body. The circle of golden hairs on the back of his right hand stood up. It began to smoke and burn. The flame stung as it singed his flesh.
A bellowing howl echoed outside the laboratory. Suddenly the hallway door exploded off its hinges and landed on the floor twenty feet away with an earsplitting bang. Falling Star ran into the lab, spotted James, and rushed over to the Faraday cage. James writhed in agony, his limbs smoking. Falling Star pulled the cage apart with his bare hands like it was made of pipe cleaners and aluminum foil. He grabbed the bundle of wires attached to James. It scorched his hand from the shock of contact. The yeti howled again and yanked the wires out of the generator. James collapsed forward, his face, neck, and arms blackened with burns. Falling Star tore off James’s restraints and bundled him into his massive arms and then ran out of the room again into the hallway.
“Security!” Dr. Albion’s voice rang out over the loud speakers. “Security! Stop them! Do not let them get out of this sector! Do not let them outside the dome!”
Lumen looked at Keira. “I hope they get away!”
“Paul and Dr. Albion better hope my arms stay strapped to this chair because I’m going to kill them both as soon as I can,” Keira said through gritted teeth.
The pressurized door hissed open, and Dr. Albion and Paul emerged.
“What is that yeti up to?” Dr. Albion asked rhetorically.
“He’s in love,” Lumen answered with a wry grin.
“What?” Paul asked and stared back blankly. “In love?”
“You heard her,” Keira said. “See how quickly you were replaced? James has already forgotten you.”
“Yeah, right.” Paul reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver fob and pressed it.
Keira and Lumen both felt the punishing jab of pain from their cuffs and watched Paul’s evil face smiling down at them as they lost consciousness.
FALLING STAR dodged the first patrol he encountered on the way to the dome’s entrance. He ran like a quarterback with James’s limp body tucked under his left arm. The MPs didn’t shoot for fear of hitting James. The guardhouse was fifty feet away now. James moaned softly, barely conscious, as the yeti, his bare feet slapping on the pavement ran faster. Falling Star brushed his hand across James’s forehead and smoothed down his hair. “We’re almost out of here.”
“I want them captured uninjured, especially the human,” Dr. Albion’s voice cracked from a speaker in the guardhouse as Falling Star approached. “Use less-than-lethal force, and once subdued, full restraint on both.”
Falling Star continued right up to the gate. The three MPs came out and stood side by side, blocking the way with their strong bodies. Falling Star knocked them down like bowling pins and then jumped over the turnstile. With all his brute strength, he forced his way into the electrified plasma of the dome, pulling James through behind him. The plasma zapped and burned over them. On the other side, Falling Star repositioned James over his shoulder, looked around for any other guards, and then hurried off into the ancient sequoia forest, branches snapping loudly after him as he ran deeper and deeper inside.
6.
JAMES LOOKED up from the sandy shoreline. Falling Star swam toward him from a moss-and-fern covered island in the middle of a lake. It was sometime in the afternoon. The sun slanted to the right a tiny bit as it shone through the huge redwoods that surrounded the crystal-clear lake. Old Man’s beard hung down from the boughs all around him. Sunlight bathed everything in a golden glow. Leaves glinted emerald green with sparkling dew. The rest of the world receded into the deep shadows beneath the overhanging trees. James lay on his side on a sandy spit, his legs and arms aching.
Where in the world am I? What happened?
He sat up and examined the charred skin along his wrists and his burned jumpsuit. James realized he wasn’t wearing the power-deadening cuffs. He was free. It barely registered in his brain over the pain in his limbs. The past few hours blurred. James smelled the mixed aromas of burned skin and cloth all over his body. He could hear water running somewhere nearby too, maybe a small stream that fed into the lake.
I remember the Faraday cage, the wires wrapping around my body, and then fire and burning. Where am I? Why is Falling Star here? What happened to Keira and Lumen?
Falling Star reached the shallows and stood up, the lake water flowing off him in glittering rivulets. His hair clung to his body. James could see that under all of it, Falling Star had a tight, muscular body. Falling Star shook himself off like a wet dog right before he approached James.
“Hey, watch it! I already had one shower today!” James shouted as he covered his face with his hands.
“I’m glad you’re awake,” Falling Star said and smiled his handsomest smile. “I was worried about bringing you over to the island while you were unconscious.”
James tried to get up, but the electric jolt of pain was too much. He slumped back onto the sand.
“Take it easy,” Falling Star said. “You’ve been through a lot today.”
“Where are we? What happened?”
“Don’t you remember?” Falling Star asked, his voice full of concern as he sat down next to James.
“Not really. How did I get burned? Was it those wires?”
“It was Dr. Albion. She was doing some kind of electrical experiment on you. My sunahara gaanth came in handy.” Falling Star indicated the burned patch of golden hair. “I could feel your pain, and I came running to save you.”
James looked up at Falling Star and didn’t know what to say. He never thought of himself as someone in need of being saved, like a damsel in distress from a Disney movie. In fact, he’d never known any person like that. Certainly, not his mother, Paul, Lumen, or even Keira. They all could kick some serious ass when they needed to. James had always saved himself too, but he was glad to be out of Fort Bragg, just the same.
I guess it’s cool that he rescued me. I know he’s serious about wanting to be with me; although that is still kind of weird.
“Thanks,” James said.
“You saved me once too,” Falling Star added.
“I guess we’re even now,” James said shyly. It seemed strange having this intimate moment with Falling Star. “Ouch!” James grabbed his left wrist after he leaned on it.
“Let’s take care of that,” Falling Star said standing up and brushing down his damp, glossy hair. He he
ld out his hand for James to take. James hesitated. “It’s all right. I won’t hurt you.”
“I know. I’ve never been a fan of having someone fuss over me. My mother drove me crazy with her constant interfering.”
Falling Star frowned.
“Don’t get me wrong,” James added quickly. “I’m grateful. I appreciate what you did for me. Really, I do.” James took Falling Star’s hand and stood up, but before he had a chance to get his balance, the yeti hoisted James up over his left shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“Wait! Put me down! What are you doing?”
“I don’t want you to get wet when we go over to the island.”
“You’re taking me over there?” James asked and turned his head to see.
“That’s where the chikitsa angoothee is,” Falling Star said and gestured across the glittering water.
“The what?”
“The healing ring where the bichchhoo pariyon live,” Falling Star said, further confusing James. “Don’t you want to get better?”
“But what does that mean?”
“This is an island sacred to my people. At the very center is a healing ring,” Falling Star explained. “I’m taking you over to the island so you can lay down in the healing ring. I have some healing powers, but your injuries are beyond me.”
“Healing ring? I don’t understand.”
“Do you trust me?” Falling Star asked as he looked up at James as he wiggled on his shoulder.
“Yes.”
“Okay, let’s go to the island.”
Falling Star strode into the water. It rose quickly around his burly form, his hair trailing behind him like summer pondweed. He lifted James above his head with two hands as he entered deeper and deeper. Feeling his way along the bottom with his heavily callused feet, Falling Star made his way quickly to the shore of the moss-covered island and placed James carefully down.
“Thanks,” James said. “I really didn’t want to get wet.”
“Are you okay to walk?” Falling Star asked as he moved up the shore and onto the island and began to part the fiddlehead ferns. “Or is the pain too much?”
“I’m fine. I can keep up.”
James watched the yeti’s muscular back as he pushed the waist-high fronds back, bending them gently as he cleared a trail to the center of the island. Alder saplings, their trunks young and purple, sprouted all around them in delicate groves. Their lacy branches shimmered in the slight breeze. The cold dew felt good on James’s burns as he brushed against the ferns. He trudged steadily behind Falling Star. The trail went mostly uphill. After ten minutes of walking, the ground began to level out, and the plants disappeared, leaving only a layer of velvet moss creeping over the earth and stones. Falling Star stopped and pointed ahead of them.
“There it is,” Falling Star said and brushed his golden bangs out of his eyes.
James saw a perfect circle of red and white spotted mushrooms sprouting from the loam, about eight feet in diameter.
“Magic mushrooms!” James said.
“You know of their power?” Falling Star asked, truly surprised.
“Of course. My mother told me that one time she and her hipster buddies took them and went to Burning Man.”
“What’s Burning Man?” Falling Star asked.
“It’s an art and music festival in the desert.”
“And they burn… men… there?” Falling Star looked intently at James.
“Well, not a real man, a wooden man. It’s part of a ceremony,” James explained. “How is it that you have a Morrissey tattoo but you’ve never heard of Burning Man?”
“I’ve only been in contact with your culture on and off over the years, but mostly through Fort Bragg,” Falling Star said and then twisted up the ends of his mustache with his fingers. “Your mother must be a very powerful witch if she can get the bichchhoo pariyon to leave their circle.”
“What?” James asked, clearly confused again.
“They do not leave their sacred space easily.”
James furrowed his brows. “Wait—what are we talking about?”
“You said your mother took them to Burning Man.”
“I meant she ate them before they went there.”
“She… ate them? She ate bichchhoo pariyon?” Falling Star asked in a shocked whisper. “We must be careful they don’t hear you say that or they may not help us.”
“What are beechchoo parry-on anyway?” James asked.
“Aha, you are about to find out.”
Falling Star put his arm around James and guided him to the edge of the mushroom circle. “Only you may enter this circle because you are injured. It is not safe for me in there.”
“Not safe? Then why do you want me to go in there?”
“The bichchhoo pariyon will heal you.”
James looked up at Falling Star.
“You said you trusted me.”
“I do.”
“All right, then, lie down in the middle of the circle.”
James felt incredibly silly. I suppose it can’t hurt, and I am really tired. A nice nap on this moss might be just the thing I need. He looked up at Falling Star again, who smiled his handsome smile. James took one step into the mushroom circle. And then another step, and another. He was surrounded by the ring of red and white mushrooms.
“Now you must lie down so they know what you want them to do.”
“Okay,” James said as he knelt and then carefully rolled onto his bottom, stretched out his legs and arms, and reclined onto the soft cushion of moss. He could hear another stream gurgling somewhere beyond the island on the far shore. The moss was cool and damp on the back of his arms and neck. It was very comfortable. Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement on top of one of the mushroom caps. A tiny flash of blue light. And then another down near his feet. James lifted his head and then sat up.
“No! You must stay lying down,” Falling Star said sharply. “Otherwise they won’t help you.”
“Okay, I’m lying down again.”
The blue flashes of light began flickering all around James. He turned his head slightly to the right and watched the glowing ball of light coming into focus on top of the nearest mushroom. Something blueish-white moved in the center. It had two pinchers, like crab claws, and a long tail with a stinger attached, six legs, and a female, almost-human face.
Scorpions! James’s thoughts raced. Terror and revulsion filled him. He was about to sit bolt upright again, but before he could, the scorpion-beings were all over him. Hundreds of legs tapped along his skin. James couldn’t move. He couldn’t scream. His natural electric defenses didn’t kick in. What have they done to me? Dozens of glowing blue-white scorpion-beings crawled over and under his jumpsuit. They gathered in pairs around his burns, now scabbed over and very sore. James could feel their energy encircling him. And then they started singing to each other as they worked on him. Their lilting song, along with the sound of hundreds of pinchers busily clicking, filled the air. The otherworldly music wrapped around him, haunting and eerie.
James couldn’t feel a thing.
“They’re eating your dead flesh, cleaning out your wounds,” Falling Star said as he walked around the ring. “In return for feeding them, they will heal you.”
James listened carefully and tried to keep down his panic.
“They are almost done,” Falling Star observed.
A scorpion-being crawled up onto James’s right cheek and then stared down into his blue eye. For such a fiercely armored creature, she was weirdly beautiful, sort of delicate and, at the same time, deadly. He could see that she was considering him. Her tail unfurled, and her poisonous barb hesitated above him, a clear drop of venom emerging from its tip. James couldn’t move as his fear pulsed in his chest. The barb came down quickly and caught James in the corner of his eye. James’s fear melted into ecstasy as the scorpion-being emptied her healing potion into him. It felt wonderful. His whole body relaxed as the creatures began to fade out and disappea
r back into their mushroom homes.
As the pleasant feeling wore off, James found he could sit up without experiencing any pain at all. Falling Star waited patiently at the edge of the mushroom circle. James stepped outside of it.
“Why didn’t you tell me what those things were?”
“Because you wouldn’t have believed me about the Scorpion Faeries, and even if you did, you wouldn’t have let them near you.”
“That’s completely true!” James said with a laugh. “They looked so scary but also beautiful. I would never guess that they were good.”
“Bad faeries eat joy and happiness and they love the taste of human teeth.”
“Teeth?”
“They extract them and grind them to make their food.”
“I’m glad you know so much about faeries.”
“I know all the creatures that live in the forest. But it doesn’t matter right now because you are healed,” Falling Star said and lifted James’s right arm into the air like a prize-winning boxer. “Hey, look at that, true love’s kiss is healed too.”
James looked at the back of his right hand. The golden circle of hair was regrowing. “What are we going to do now?” James asked as he craned his neck to look up at Falling Star.
“We need to build our so ghonsala—”
“Our what?” James asked cutting Falling Star off, exasperated. “English for me, please. I can’t understand a word of Yeti.”
“Our sleeping nest,” Falling Star continued and winked at him. “I’ll gather up some branches and leaves and build one. It will be getting dark soon.”
“Why did you just do that?”
“Because I said our sleeping nest.”
James stared at Falling Star and said nothing.
“You and me. Our nest.”
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