The Forsaken Call

by Jamie Murray

  "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

  "If you wouldn't mind, you could help Johanna get to fixing the fence in the back of the inn," said Baloric. "The buyers won't be too pleased to see it broken."

  "Why do I have to fix it all of a sudden?" Johanna demanded angrily. "You're the one who broke it in the first place!"

  "It will help pass the time," Louisa pointed out. "It shouldn't be much longer until Daigh finishes, anyway."

  "I don't mind helping," Cyrus said. "If you don't want to help, Johanna, you can just sit by."

  "No, it's all right," said Johanna, throwing a glare at Baloric and Louisa. "I'll help."

  Cyrus and Johanna went outside and around the back of the yard. Cyrus was astonished to see the damage that had been created by the sudden appearance of the Forces, and Johanna gave him a brief summary of the fight.

  "And you can call me Jo," Johanna finished. "You always used to."

  Cyrus didn't initially comment as he examined more of the damage.

  "So, I see Baloric has improved even more as a fighter," Cyrus said, lightly kicking a few of the broken wooden planks of the fence. "He is a hero in this city?"

  "And other cities," Johanna nodded. "Most people have heard his name."

  "He's changed a lot."

  "Yes, he became different after you left," Johanna said. "A few months went by and you and Tina didn't come back, so he went out searching for you. He was gone nearly an entire year before he came back."

  "An entire year!" Cyrus exclaimed. "Where did he go?"

  "First, looking for you. Then he said he saw all the Forces in the world and how people were living in shambles, so he stayed to help them. Since then, he travels all the time to different places to destroy the Forces."

  "So that's why everyone knows him," Cyrus concluded.

  "You're not jealous, are you?"

  "Of course not," said Cyrus. "Never jealous. I'm just disappointed."

  "Why?" Johanna asked.

  "Did you see the way he spoke to me?"

  "He was just awkward about seeing you again after all these years. What did you expect him to do?"

  "I don't know. It's just that I presume he will always see me as a child."

  Johanna nodded knowingly. "I think he will always see me as one as well."

  All the while, inside the inn, Louisa and Baloric went back into the room where Erestina was still sitting beside Jameson. She kept her eyes focused solely on him, and barely reacted when Louisa and Baloric entered.

  "How much longer before it's all finished, do you suppose?" she asked quietly.

  "Another hour," said Baloric. "Perhaps less."

  "Would you mind if I stay here with you?" Erestina requested.

  "You may," said Baloric.

  "But you have to be still and quiet," Louisa warned.

  "I can be," Erestina said.

  "Good," said Baloric with a nod. "So we can begin again, at last."

  Baloric raised his hands and sat on the floor, ready to finish the work.

  14. I'm Here

  Chapter 14

  Jameson awoke naturally from his induced sleep and, at first, wasn't sure what was real and what had just been a dream. He remembered meeting Meg on Market Field and then he remembered talking to Baloric, following him back to Miner Town and everything which happened up until he went to sleep.

  Oddly, the things after that memory happened before he woke up in Market Field. All at once, the memories of his past rushed back to him: Rayran Forest, his best friend Luke, his parents, gardening, and hours of childhood shenanigans in the Rain Shrine just outside his village.

  The Rain Shrine. His parents were murdered by Gislan travelers and he had to learn how to be an orphan and an adult all in one day. The Louisa showed up one day, breaking the monotony of the quiet life, and took him to the Rain Shrine after so many years of forgetting about it: "I meant, why aren't you inquiring as to why I'm here, and what the grand plan of the universe is?" Louisa had spoken those words to him on the day they met. He fought a giant monster with her help and met a little boy, no, it was the Rain Spirit, who charged him with a destiny and a quest: "Know this; the Princess will tell you of your destiny. She knows of what I speak."

  He went to his home and convinced Louisa to come along. Through his packing, Luke came into his house and seemed oddly prophetic that day, acting out of character, speaking of things Jameson did not understand, "I think I knew that you would leave someday, I think." At the time, Jameson dismissed these words as Luke messing around with him but now it all seemed to be falling together in a neat package.

  Unconcerned for his surroundings or where he was currently lying, Jameson flung himself up out of bed and trampled down the stairs. He could hear other people moving slightly elsewhere in the building, but he wasn't thinking about them. He stepped outside the door and took a moment to orient himself, though he knew he was in Miner Town.

  He remembered saying, "I'll be back before that happens, I promise." Be back before what happens? He grabbed his hair and tried to pull it out. All the memories in his head were intertwined with the rest so none of them made sense. His grandfather—Luke's grandfather. He made that promise to Luke that he would return to the Forest before his grandfather passed away. But how much time had passed?

  He ran back inside the place and looked around for a mirror. Most of the walls had been stripped bare, but the reflection in the window was enough. He stared at himself looking back; older, taller, whiter. Time had past. He didn't know how much time it had been or why he couldn't remember the time in between his new memories and his old ones.

  "Jameson?" came a voice from behind the counter. He looked over at the person as Johanna, the girl he had met before, showed herself. "What are you doing?"

  "I don't know," Jameson answered. "I remember it…all of it… but I'm confused. I mean, which memories go in which places?"

  "Just calm down," Johanna urged quietly. "You'll figure it out."

  "I'm trying," said Jameson, taking a deep breath. "But I want to go back to the Forest."

  "You're talking a little crazy right now," Johanna said. "Maybe you should wait until Baloric gets back."

  "Where has he gone?" Jameson said, stepping outside the door again.

  "To fight a Forces coming from the mine," Johanna said.

  Jameson firmly grabbed the reins of the closest horse to him, then pulled himself up top with absolute expertise. "I'm going to the Forest," he announced. "Tell them that if you like."

  "Jameson, you're not just going to leave!" Johanna exclaimed.

  Her shouting was ignored as Jameson grabbed the reins and pushed the horse forward. He dove out of the gates and towards the exit of Miner Town, where the doors opened for him and he sped out into the night of Market Field.

  Hesitating at first, Jameson confidentially pointed in the direction of the Rayran Forest and commanded the horse to follow his orders. The horse obediently began galloping off in that direction as more and more moments from his childhood bombarded him from behind.

  Yes, he met Princess Erestina and she read him the Prophecy. She called him the Prophesized One. Before that, even, he encountered a traveler on the Market Field, and his name was Aaron and he had two daughters; Meg and Aimee. All that time he had spent at Meg's house… he had been there years before. Meg was such a little girl back then, though….

  Princess Erestina handed over a stone and advice, "You have your Guide and your Protector to keep you safe, along with the Power. I know you will succeed."

  That's when Walden interjected and brought everything together in such a way which might have made it possible for their silly little group to get together and make this kind of quest.

  He stopped briefly to look over Miner Town and then pulled the horses reins away from it. He was going home. "I promised him I'd be there for that." He had promised Luke he would be back for his grandfather's death.

  He pulled the reins as tightly as he could, trying to
get the horse to just move faster while his mind continued to overlay the adventures which had gotten him to collect the stones.

  "Can we ask one of them what's happening? I'm too curious to just ride by." The Ivilia marching from their lake. Then, of course, meeting the Ivilian Princess, Iris. In the end, obtaining that stone really did turn out to be difficult, but not in a way we thought he expected.

  Jameson stopped riding for a few moments and sat up straight, touching his side where he remembered being attacked that day. "I don't think I can kill it."

  "Princess Iris…" he stuttered out loud. "We met that day, and I never saw you again after that."

  He turned the horse around, and he thought of others he met and then dismissed almost moments later. Roth, the Angel came to kidnap them and they succeeded. They took Louisa away for a few days, but in that time, they found Baloric, and he was possessed by those Forces: "Not being in control of my own body and being violated like that…it was worse than death. I would rather die than let it happen again."

  They went to Cyanyanka. They fought a monster who called itself Timmel. They defeated Timmel at the cost of almost all of their lives. Natalie saved them and returned the stones to them.

  So you think we're all just going to separate and go back to our lives where we left off.

  Wouldn't you regret it? Never seeing us again?

  Who says we can never see each other again?

  Well, we'd all be so far away. We couldn't just go visit any time.

  What are you suggesting?

  I don't know.

  I just don't think we should be so ready to put everything behind us

  now that we're almost finished.

  It's that…well, I've never really had friends, or anyone who trusts me,

  so it's just…

  I don't know. I think it would be a waste.

  "Stop it!" Jameson shouted as his memories seemed to attack him while he was feeling weakest. However, he would not stop his riding again. Making such time was getting him closer and closer to the Rayran Forest, right up to the point where he could actually see it in front of him. It had to have taken him hours to get where he was, but time felt so empty and meaningless.

  He pulled the horse to a stop and dismounted. At first, he stood there, staring the entrance of trees down, expecting a plausible answer for what had happened. But, in the end, he was lost.

  At a loss of anything else to do, he lamented loudly and then tore off down the road, jumping over low branches and tearing through anything which might get in his path. The Forest seemed denser than he remembered and the usual light which shone through the trees did not seem as bright or welcoming. This was his home; a place which should feel welcoming and all around the place he should understand.

  That's when it all became apparent. He slid into his home village and looked around hastily at all the abandoned homes with their neglected patches of dirt in the front yard. These gardens had not been tended to in seasons, or even years. He deliberately walked over to his own home, stomped through his own garden and into the small house; empty desolate and completely void of all life. It still looked the same, but that was the problem. If time had passed, then things should have changed. Even the Rayran Forest cannot stop the flow of time. Their ever unchanging way of life certainly did not endorse skipping out on time all together, did it?

  He fell down onto his own bed, made up in the exact same way it had been since he left that place, when he said hello to Louisa and goodbye to Luke. I've got a date with a princess right now, were the immortal words that said he would be back in time to be with his best friend during the death of the Village Elder.

  He had not been there. He had not been anywhere. He sprung up out of the bed and stormed outside. "I'm here!" he shouted so everyone in the village could hear him. "I'm here! I'm here!" He continued shouting over and over again, but his desired result was not produced. He was left alone. There was no one in the entire village but himself.

  Dejected and defeated, Jameson slid down the inside of his house and landed next to an old trunk; his father's trunk. He laid his head down on it and thought, trying to remember everything while also trying to think up a reason why he had even forgotten it in the first place.

  15. Sometimes It Feels Longer

  Chapter 15

  "Jameson."

  When he heard his name, Jameson wished he was still dreaming. He tried to hide from the voice, but he knew the person was not going to go away and it's not as though he was particularly well hidden. His front door creaked open a familiar creak, and so he rolled over to see who had come in.

  It was Louisa, looking strangely soft and delicate, an appearance she would have pulled off well if Jameson didn't know her better. At first, he detested her mere presence, but those feelings naturally shifted when he realized he was not justified in hating her and, instead, should be relieved by her. In turn, she was relieved to see him as well and immediately went to where he was lying and sat at the foot of the bed.

  Jameson finally sat up, but decided to avoid eye contact with her. He figured he would have to explain his behavior and, honestly, he didn't have anything to offer her. He thought she would be rightfully angry with him for just running off.

  "How did you know I'd be here?" he said once he realized she had silently refused to be the first to talk.

  "You told Jo you were going to the Forest," Louisa replied. "It wasn't too hard to figure it out from there."

  She raised her eyes and looked around the small room. Even though it was morning, the sun was not shining through the leaves of the trees outside, though Jameson doubted there would be much sunlight at all.

  "Why did you leave?" Louisa asked suddenly.

  "I don't know," Jameson said. "I just couldn't handle it. I woke up and I was overwhelmed. I just—"

  "That's not what I was talking about," Louisa interrupted.

  Jameson stared at her and waited for her to elaborate.

  "I'm talking about ten years ago," she explained. "What happened?"

  Jameson swung his legs over the side of the bed and leaned over, still considerably far away from Louisa. He had racked his brain all the night long trying to come up with an answer to the question himself but, in the end, he was unsuccessful.

  "I wish I knew," he answered truthfully. "The last thing I remember…we were in that place under Market City. You touched an orb, Baloric touched an orb and then… the Forces were there. Quinn, her name was. And…" He sighed heavily. "That's it. Then I was waking up in that place and apparently…" For another moment, he paused. "Ten years have passed."

  "You don't know where you've been all these years?" Louisa questioned.

  "No," Jameson confirmed. "It doesn't even feel like that much time has passed. I still feel…you know, like it was that time. That time…when we were going around and getting the stones. I feel like we just fought Timmel a few days ago. I see my reflection and I don't know why I look like this. Honestly, none of it makes sense. None of it at all."

  It was Louisa's turn to sit quietly. Following his explanation, she wasn't sure if there was anything she could say.

  "What happened?" Jameson said finally. "I mean, have ten years really passed?"

  "Ten years have really passed," Louisa said, nodding her head. "Sometimes it feels longer."

  "Johanna—that's Walden's daughter?"

  "Yeah!" Louisa exclaimed, laughing a bit. "It doesn't seem strange to me because I see her all the time. But, I guess the last time you saw her, she was just a child. A little girl."

  "You look the same," Jameson offered. "Baloric still looks pretty young, but he does look older."

  "Baloric will always have a child's face," Louisa agreed. "I agree, he does look very childish, doesn't he?"

  Jameson smiled, but it quickly faded. "Tell me about the Forest," he said.

  "Is that an order?"

  "Yeah."

  At first, Louisa was quiet, but she nodded and stood up, offering her hand to
him. He took it and she pulled him to his feet, then led him to the door. When they got there, Cyrus was leaning against the outside of the house, waiting for them to exit.

  Initially, Jameson wasn't certain if he was expecting anyone to be there and, once he assessed that Cyrus was not a threat, his next challenge was finding out who he was.

  "My name is Felix Cyrus," he said, lowering his head. "We met. Twice."

  "You were the princess's attendant," Jameson said.

  "I worked in the stables," he clarified.