“He’s not breathing, Carrie.”
“He’s still there, Jerrek. I feel his thoughts…he’s scared.” Nyrobie’s proclamation sent tears streaming down Carrie’s cheeks.
“I’m here, my love. Please stay with me.” Lowering to him, she kissed him, their first shared kiss in seventy years.
“Why isn’t he breathing, Nyrobie?”
“I’m unsure, Jerrek.”
Carrie rested her face to his frail chest as she cried. “You will live forever in my heart, my love. Please don’t be frightened…go peacefully if you must go…and know I’m here with you.”
“This makes no sense.” Jerrek stepped forward, producing his own gem of Restoration from around his neck. Opening it while standing above, he delivered a single drop—a brilliant streaming blue into Charlie’s mouth.
Instantly Charlie’s chest expanded, his lungs filling with air.
“Charlie!” Carrie scurried backward as the three watched the human, writhing on the ground before them.
“Can’t breathe!” he worked rigorously to tear free of his dingy night gown as Carrie arose to look down upon him. The hair on his head was rapidly darkening—thickening. The muscle tone of his exposed chest and arms developed to that of a healthy eighteen-year-old man…not a geriatric human. As he thrashed about on the ground, tossing leaves and rubbish, he suddenly ceased—belly-down on the ground, breathing rapidly.
Wide-eyed and sporting the same face she’d dreamt of for seventy years, he looked to her from the ground, completely nude with the exception of the dirt and leaves.
“Ch…Charlie?”
Instantly he was grinning…not a small smile, the largest smile she’d ever seen on his face. He sprang from the ground, examining his hands and touching his body. He then looked all around him. “I can see! I can see! And look at me!” He jumped around happily displaying his agility.
“You are beautiful, my love.”
“He certainly is.”
“Nyrobie!” Jerrek laughed as he approached Charlie. “This is the Charlie I remember. With less clothing but—”
“Jerrek!” Charlie threw his arms around Jerrek.
“It is fantastic to see you as well, my friend. And this is my beautiful bride, Nyrobie.”
Charlie smiled as he walked to her. I’m real sorry I’m naked but this has got to be the best night of my damn life. You’re getting a hug too, Ny…?
Nyrobie instantly raised her arms, welcoming his embrace. “It’s Nyrobie…and I’m pleased to meet your acquaintance. You and I will be friends until the end of time, I’m certain.”
“Oh, Charlie…” Carrie walked to him, placing her hand on his face. “I have dreamt of this night since the day they took you from me. I’ll never let you go again.”
Their passionate kiss was completed by Charlie hoisting Carrie and twirling her. He set her down—staring at her face.
“I’m really going to get to wake up to this face forever? How is this not a dream?”
“I’m not a dream, my love. We’ve both lived through nightmares to get here. Now…I see your breath, we must clothe you for the journey home.”
“I’ve never felt more alive, Carrie. I’m a damn whippersnapper again!”
“Charlie,” Jerrek’s tone was stern. “Until you are within Evrastill you are at risk of the elements of your world. You must find clothing.”
“I have some hooded sweatshirts and sweatpants in my dresser. I’ll just—”
“I’ve got it.” Jerrek dashed to the open window, leaping inside.
“I forgot how fast y’all get around.”
With Charlie dressed, the four walked deeper into the woods as they awaited the cardinals to reunite in number and guide them back.
Once they were a comfortable distance from the nursing home—the glow of the lights no longer visible, the four sat on the forest floor, Charlie appeared in either shock or awe—his thick brown hair was incredibly messy atop his head.
“Are you okay, Charlie?” Carrie took his hand, kissing the back of it as she sat beside him.
“I’m still waiting to wake up…I know you say I’m not dreaming…but…I’m still waiting to wake up.”
“You’re silly. This is only the beginning.”
“And I’ll stay just like how I am right here…forever?”
“Yes…the second you enter Evrastill…you will become immortal, as I am.”
“And if I leave?”
“You can’t. You will never be able to leave once you’ve entered, Charlie…none of the humans there are allowed to.”
Charlie looked to the earth beneath his shoes—so many textures and colors he’d forgotten. “There’s nothing here that I need anyway. I say that’s a pretty good tradeoff…this shithole for forever with you.”
Still waiting on the birds, Jerrek stood and lifted an enormous rock—it looked as though it could easily double his weight. Bringing it above his head he tossed it directly upward. It sored impressively, and as it came down—directly in line with Jerrek’s head, it suddenly stopped—suspended in the air a few feet above him. Jerrek was manipulating it with his mind.
“That’s incredible!” Charlie jumped to his feet.
“Of everything you’ve borne witness to tonight, you find my Jerrek’s boastful showmanship to be incredible? Only moments ago you were breathless, dear Charlie.” Nyrobie rolled her eyes as the rock was gently placed at her feet.
Charlie retook his seat near Carrie. “Will I be able to do that?”
“To do what?”
“To lift monstrous rocks with my nothin’ but my thoughts.”
“Of course not, Charlie.”
“Never?”
“No. You are human. Nothing has changed in that regard. And when we enter Evrastill, you will still be human…and that’s okay.”
He offered a boyish smirk—one with years of wisdom backing it. “I can see perfectly. And did you see how quickly I was able to stand up just then? And I can sit down on the ground without assistance…that’s all the super skill this man needs. Jerrek can keep his rocks.”
“The cardinals look to be ready.” Nyrobie held her hand out as several of the red birds flocked to the surrounding trees and to them.
“That’s outstanding. They’re not afraid of you.”
Carrie chuckled as she hugged Charlie around the waist. “Of course not. We’re not human.”
“You look human to me…how the hell do they know the difference?”
“We share a deeper connection with the living things of this earth.”
“There’s so much I don’t know…how is it that I have loved you for this long and there’s so much that’s unanswered?”
“There was so much I could not tell you then…I can now. We are bonded, Charlie. You felt me with you always…did you not?”
He laughed, shaking his head slightly. “Yea…or I just thought I was completely crazy.”
“Your parent’s home…is it not still near here?”
“No. I heard it finally caved. I haven’t been there since the night I lost my eyesight.”
“Tell me what happened, Charlie.”
Leaning over, he kissed her cheek and stood. “After your people found me, one of them fellas put his thumbs on my eyes…didn’t really hurt…but I couldn’t move a lick. Next thing ya know I’m feeling around for the matches…no matter how many I struck, I couldn’t see a damn thing.”
“Do no human harm…treacherous Council!” Nyrobie shook her head, visibly angered by Charlie’s story.
“I went to hollering. When my folks found me…I told them, Carrie. I told them everything. That I’d met a girl who’d live forever…that she was gonna convince her people to let me marry her…and that I was gonna leave for her land. I told them that we were caught before we could plead our case…and one of your people touched my eyes…blinded me. I’m so sorry.”
“Charlie…you needn’t apologize…we were young and frightened.”
“My folks didn
’t believe a damn bit of it. Doctor had ’em convinced I’d got a hold of a bad batch of gut-rot moonshine, and that’s what took my sight. I wouldn’t let up so they took me to a damn head doctor. Once I told them my story…I had me a new address in the State Institution. Never saw my folks again. I thought you knew I told…I thought that’s why you left me all these years—”
“We need to go…something dark lingers on the air. The birds are restless.” Nyrobie lifted one of the cardinals from her shoulder, cupping it in her hands to calm it.
“Yes…I feel it as well. Let us go. Charlie, climb aboard my back.” Carrie motioned Charlie to climb up.
“What? Why?”
“We need to get to Evrastill tonight and at our pace, Charlie.”
“I can’t let you carry me like a dang—”
Jerrek moved to Charlie, swooping him up in his arms like a sack of feathers. “We need to go, my friend. There is darkness here…it is creeping now around us.”
“Silence…” Nyrobie lifted her hand while looking toward the starlit sky through the autumn-thinned branches.
Carrie watched helplessly as one of her feathered friends fell from above—crashing to the earth in the clutches of a grackle. The birds screeched and squabbled about the ground. No sooner had Nyrobie separated the winged creatures and the night was thick with the calls of hundreds of descending grackles. The black birds fell heavy on the dumbstruck cardinals as pairs of battling birds fell from the atmosphere and braches, littering the ground at Carrie’s feet. Jerrek sat Charlie down, standing over him in a protective manner.
“Nyrobie! Jerrek! They’re slaughtering them!” Carrie’s screech was a whisper in comparison to the deafening noise around them. The ground was rolling with black and red rivals, scratching and pecking to the death. “We must do something!”
Placing her hands on either side of her head, Nyrobie closed her eyes, attempting to connect—almost instantly she was shaking her head, rushing to Jerrek. She threw her hands skyward—the cardinals capable of fleeing, did so—disappearing swiftly into the darkness around them.
Carrie, Jerrek, and Nyrobie went to work, prying the creatures from one another, freeing their red-feathered companions. Hastily they decoupled the birds until all that was left were those badly injured or no longer breathing. The ground was a battlefield of tiny victims. Some clutching to life, but most of those remaining below had lost their battle completely. The majority of the birds were red, only a few grackles among them.
“Nyrobie! Why? Why would they turn on them? This is unnatural.” Carrie cried out as she collected the dead birds.
“Carrie…what I saw…those birds were of an evil agenda. Something extraordinarily sinister.”
“What? No…Nyrobie the grackles have assisted me many times above Evrastill. They aren’t the kindest of birds, but they are not this.”
“They were led by a dark hand. There is a force against us.”
“We must get back.” Jerrek’s panic riddled his face and widened his eyes as he looked about the forest floor. “We can’t be out here like this.”
“We will my love…but without the guidance of the cardinals we’ll have to find another way.”
“Nyrobie…if grackles are attacking us…who is to say humans won’t as well?”
“Calm yourself, Jerrek. We will find our way home…that is not what brings me concern.”
Placing the bodies of the birds beneath a tall tree in a respectful manner, Carrie quickly approached Nyrobie. “What then concerns you, Nyrobie?”
Kneeling down to retrieve a dying grackle, Nyrobie presented it in her hand. “This…this evil was born of our own kind. I fear it awaits us upon our return.”
“No…the Council supports us, Nyrobie.”
“Indeed, Carrie. This darkness is ancient…it’s reach far more resilient and powerful than any current Councilman’s.”
“Brennus?”
“Perhaps he and the other dismissed Council members are at the helm of this barbarism.”
“No, Nyrobie. Brennus is unswayable…but he is not evil.”
“He imprisoned you for your love of Charlie. Is that not evil?”
“I cannot see his hand in this, Nyrobie.”
“Then who, Carrie? One of the former Council members is to blame for this ghastly assault and the deaths of our small friends. Who, if not Brennus, who could it possibly be? There are few members of the Society with magic this powerful. Who might turn against us?”
“I’m unsure, Nyrobie. Can you not read them?”
“Of course not. We’re much too far from home and this is much too dark. One thing is certain…we must carry onward.”
“They’re all gone.” Jerrek stepped forward holding several red birds. “The ones that didn’t escape have perished.”
“I fear that attempting to utilize the cardinals once more will only produce the same result.”
“I agree, Nyrobie. How shall we find our way home now that we’ve sent them all away?”
“Not all of them, Carrie.” A disheveled-looking Charlie appeared from near the thicket, a cardinal perched on his index finger. “I have this little guy. His wing is hurt, but I don’t think he’s about to check out or anything.”
“You saved him, Charlie?”
“Of course, Carrie. I haven’t seen colors in decades…red this beautiful should fill the sky…not the ground.”
“That is kind. And perhaps useful. The bird can be our guide from our shoulder rather than the air.”
“Can’t you just fix it like you did me?”
Jerrek produced a hardy laugh—it bellowed through the woods. “Charlie, as much as we love the woodland creatures, we must remain strategic when dispersing such magic. We’re only granted this small amount for all eternity. I can’t be entirely certain that eternity is inclusive of battles, accidents and mishaps…but I’m willing to bet it is.”
“But Jerrek…you wasted some of yours on me.”
“Wasted?” Jerrek stepped to Charlie, placing his hand firmly on his shoulder. “You are my friend, Charlie. You are one of us. It was anything but wasted.”
“We must go now. I feel the night is saturated in an awful dread.” Nyrobie cautiously glanced through the branches and into the ongoing darkness. “I fear our mission to be the reason for this peculiar happening.”
Chapter 5
With an hours’ time and a brisk, human-paced hike behind them, Charlie found himself less affected by the chaotic battle scene, and more so by the countless questions coursing through his mind. Each step brought with it the realization that his body was no-longer aged and aching. His posture was no longer slumped and painful, but sturdy and strong. The sights around him—even in the nightly hours—were nearly overwhelming. It’d been so long since he’d visually associated the bark of a tree to the way it felt beneath his fingers…let alone the brilliant-red bird, perched on his shoulder.
Each object in his path, a recollection of a memory from long ago—a life long ago. Even with his sight regained, he maintained his hands in front of him, as if invisible objects would obstruct his path.
As they came to a clearing in the woods, the sound of rushing water was heard in the distance. “I’m so thirsty, Carrie.”
She smiled sweetly, resting her hand on his face. “I understand. I hear fresh water just there.”
“Carrie…when you say…deep connection…and talk about dark reaching power…I don’t understand. Can you read this damn bird’s mind or something?”
She chuckled, petting the small animal as it sat comfortably on his shoulder. “It’s nearly impossible to describe, Charlie. Mostly because we rarely find ourselves verbalizing it. I feel this creature’s turmoil, its longing to leave your shoulder and take flight…but I also feel its sense of security while sitting atop your shoulder. Likewise, he knows my heart’s intentions, that I have his best interests in mind, and that I am dependent and grateful for his guidance.”
“So…is that mind reading?”
Again, his comment had her giggling. “No, my love, it’s something else. It’s an overwhelming awareness…but no, I cannot read this bird’s exact thoughts…nor yours for that matter. That is a skill Nyrobie possesses.”
“Nyrobie can tell what I’m thinking right now?”
“If that was something she desired, yes. I’m assuming you needn’t worry.”
“Why?”
“She has no reason to.”
“And Jerrek can move stuff with his head?”
“Any object Jerrek can lift with his brawn, he can lift with his brain. It’s an extraordinary skill and makes him quite useful among my people.”
“Do all of your people have special skills?”
“To a degree…some are younger than others and are fine-tuning. We all possess some level of healing magic; it’s most powerful when used against the effects of dark magic. Nyrobie and Jerrek’s skills are quite rare within the Society.”
“I’ll never have these things…and you’re fine marrying a man that will never have a special skill?”
She paused, her glance anchored him. “You’re a human man, Charlie…and skilled at humanly things…and I wish nothing more than to be unified for all eternity to you and only you.”
No sooner did something start making sense, and then it didn’t. Each time the chaos reached a certain level of unmanageability, he focused on her perfect face.
“Charlie…close your eyes.”
He did as Carrie asked.
“Do you feel that, Charlie?”
A warm sensation—completely euphoric—mounted in his core and continued outward to the tips of his fingers and toes—his earlobes and even his scalp. It curled his lips into an uncontrollable smile as he inhaled the autumn air. “I…do.”
“That is our bond, my love. We are bonded.”
“I felt this…in my dreams…I was never crazy.”
“No, Charlie. I need nothing else from you but this. This for all eternity and nothing else.”
“O…okay.” Opening his eyes, he immediately embraced her and their lips locked. He pulled away excitedly, “I wanna get home with you. I want to spend forever with you.”
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