The Reconciling [Part 1]

by April Lynn Newell

  Phil stops when he realizes Chrissi isn’t with them. He looks back to see Chrissi struggling on the ground with the roots. They are as thick as her legs and move like sneaky snakes. He traces the roots back to the edge of the clearing. The towering trees sway and bend, as if in a torrential storm.

  “They’re moving them,” he whispers.

  “What?” Kesil asks, realizing he does not have followers anymore. Though, stopped the three have to continue moving in one way or another to avoid the roots grabbing at their ankles and knees.

  “The trees!” Phil yells to them. “Hit the trees!” Without waiting he runs towards the closest edge meeting a tall dark tree. He punches and kicks at it.

  “What are you doing?” Kesil stands flabbergasted. Save a crazy Phil or a struggling Chrissi?

  “The trees are controlling the roots!” Phil explains, still kicking a tree. “Distract them so Chrissi can get free.”

  Lesia’s tears continue streaming down her face. She stares at a tired and waning Chrissi. She won’t last much longer. Suddenly, Lesia is taken down by the roots at her feet, and she doesn’t have much fight in her. She is pulled towards Chrissi, who holds a hand out attempting to catch Lesia.

  Finally, Kesil runs to another portion of the clearing, and kicks at a couple trees. He punches them and head butts them, he throws his whole body into them. The trees hover eerily and seem to bend towards the boys, annoyed, but distracted. Their roots loosen on the girls and slither towards Kesil and Phil.

  Chrissi stands quickly and urgently forces Lesia to her feet. The boys run away joining the girls. They drag Lesia to the center, and tired Chrissi lagging slightly behind. As she runs she feels cool air on the palm of her right hand. To her horror, she looks down to discover a hole in her crimson glove revealing almost her entire palm. Phil glances back to check on her and sees the hole at which she gapes. His eyes widen. Chrissi catches his gaze with tears in her eyes. He starts to say something but Lesia trips in front of him and Chrissi, distracted, does not have time to stop herself before piling onto their heaped bodies. She screeches, holding up her right hand. Briefly, she feels something hard and rough brush her hand. She closes her eyes, hoping, praying, the tiny bit of protruding skin doesn’t touch anything or, worse, anyone. Her stomach churns and she becomes frigid.

  Slowly, fearfully, Chrissi opens her eyes, her hand still held up high. Kesil stands a few yards across from her, Phil to her right, and Lesia to her left, the clearing separating each of them. Everyone is staring aghast at the center, as Chrissi’s eyes fall upon the Book, her jaw drops with her arm.

  “He brought us to it!” Phil jumps up and down excitedly.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” says Lesia, heaving and sobbing, wiping her face and smudging more mascara on her cheeks.

  “However we got here, we’re here!” Kesil snaps, tired of their bickering. “So? Who wants to try?” he looks right at Chrissi. She is suddenly painfully aware of her torn glove again. She feels vulnerable, terrified, and even…embarrassed. Avoiding his gaze, she looks down. There at her feet is a slightly rotting piece of tree branch. Obviously what she touched. It must have already been dead and dry on the ground. Her touch set it further into decay.

  “Oh, I will!” says Lesia with sudden fury and overwhelming desire to just be home. She takes one careful step forward and freezes. When nothing happens everyone lets out the fearful breath they were holding. Lesia continues forward, three steps, sniffle, five steps, seven, sniffle, ten, fifteen; she reaches her hands out to the Book. She is within arm’s length when she feels a slight tap on her shoulder and a low, whispering voice.

  “You’re not worthy,” it croaks.

  She reaches for the book again and a shiver runs through her limbs. She glances up across the clearing to meet a close pair of yellow eyes behind Chrissi. She screams as cold, slender hands grab her by the knees and drag her away from the pedestal. Everyone is suddenly being drug out of the clearing by their arms or legs. Each one attempts to fight off the cryptic, yellow-eyed creatures.

  “Help!” Phil yells to the sky as he is drug by his feet. Suddenly his captor makes a sound of beastlike disgust and throws Phil into the air away from it. He flies about five feet high and lands on his chest on the ground. He gasps for air.

  Lesia screams for a full second and Phil looks up to find himself in front of her, a grotesque creature with no skin and gangly but strong arms restricting her. The creature looks slightly human but definitely a creature more than man. Its muscles and tendons show through thin, translucent skin. Its hands and feet are more like claws with long yellowing nails. Its oversized head holds large, oozing, yellow eyes and sharp grey teeth. It hunches over with an abnormally curved spine.

  After quickly assessing the creature’s threatening extremities, Phil grabs the creature from behind and yanks to pull him off of Lesia but that just chokes her, causing her to gasp desperately. She struggles for a moment more and goes limp.

  “No!” Phil releases the creature to catch Lesia but it grabs him instead with lightening speed. Phil knees it in the stomach and punches it in the face. The wailing being shrinks away at the fight and disappears. Phil kneels down to Lesia as she stirs back to consciousness. “You Ok?” he asks, wiping his ooze covered hand on his pants.

  “Yeah,” she says standing up with his help. They look around and walk cautiously back to the edge of the clearing where they can see Kesil and Chrissi fighting off five creatures in the center, near the Book.

  Kesil dives for the Book but a creature jumps abnormally fast in front of him, sending Kesil crashing to the ground face first. He grapples with it, blood dripping from his face. Lesia squeals in terror and shields her eyes. Phil rushes in to help. Chrissi kicks and scratches and gets free from two creatures. She runs to Kesil too and together she and Phil get the creature off of him with frantic and random beating.

  With just a second to spare Phil lunges towards the Book but two creatures grab his waist and pull him down and away from it. All three are in a mass of flailing arms and legs trying to get free from the creatures. They are stronger than they appear and there seems to be no end as Kesil, Phil, and Chrissi grow tired and weak from the constant fighting.

  Chrissi’s arms feel limp and her exposed skin doesn’t seem to affect these infernal things. They’re already dead, she surmises.

  Phil fights back angry tears for letting Chrissi down. Maybe searching for the Book was a bad idea that led them astray. This could be all his fault.

  Kesil fights hard willing to die in this clearing if it means everyone else gets out alive. If it means Chrissi survives. He manages to glance over at her. She’s obviously tired as she kicks a creature off of her.

  An ear-piercing screech rings in the air. All five of the creatures run out of the clearing back into the forest, their yellow eyes float in the darkness, staring, watching, but keeping their distance. The exhausted fighters look to the center at Lesia, hair disheveled and dirt on her face, breathing heavily, with the Book in her hands.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Kesil stands up, “Let’s move. Fast.” They all start running not knowing where the creatures disappeared to or if they will come back. A beacon of light appears before them and Phil grins appreciatively, certain that they are all well taken care of by Roi himself. Despite the grappling pandemic that just took place.

  Once they reach the light they all clap and shout joyously. They hug and laugh and plop to the ground. Chrissi digs through the purse she stuffed into her backpack and quickly finds another pair of gloves, turquoise, and shoves her torn crimson ones into her bag.

  “Hey!” Lesia says pointing upwards, “The sun!”

  “That’s not all,” Phil says, pointing to the Book securely to her side, beneath her arm.

  “Chazaq,” Chrissi mumbles looking ahead. The others follow her gaze out across a bright-green field and see the familiar village. They jump up and start to jog triumphantly towards it.

  “Maybe that was t
he journey!” Lesia remarks hopefully, handing the Book to an overexcited Phil. But dread fills Chrissi.

  “I don’t think so,” she says as Nahal appears outside the village, a look of mixed desperation and disappointment on her face. As they approach her Phil is the only one left smiling, grinning really, from ear to ear.

  “We got it!” he says proudly to Nahal and a few townswomen who gather around her.

  “I see that,” she says stoically taking in the cuts, bruises, and grime that prove their struggle. Phil’s pride falls to chagrin.

  “That’s it right?” says Lesia, panicked. “We can go home now! We can go home!” she demands grabbing the Book from Phil and flinging it open. “Home!” she yells at it, tears forming in her deep brown eyes.

  “I told you,” Nahal continues in her distant, stoic tone, “it does not work like that.” She clasps her hands in front of her and stands strong.

  Chrissi observes the love in her disciplinary stance, “We can’t stay here.”

  “Well of course not!” Lesia yells desperately. “We’re going home!”

  The townswoman from earlier rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, “You’re disappointing! Lesia, an encourager,” she scoffs, “You are nothing but a pestilent, weak child! Hope for the natural plane is gone.”

  Lesia glares at the woman as all her anger, fear, frustration, and confusion surface, “Who are YOU to be disappointed in ME? I don’t even KNOW YOU LADY!” As she speaks she draws closer and closer to the woman and the rest of the gathering crowd, her fists balled up at her sides, hot tears now streaming down her cheeks. “STAY OUT OF THIS!” She turns back to Nahal and marches up close, “Take. Us. Home. Now.”

  “Lesia,” Kesil says with gentility normally unlike him, “I don’t think our journey is over just yet.”

  She stares at him for a moment, then slowly looks at each person around her. As realization strikes, her eyes widen and fill with new tears that fall easily down her face. She wipes them away brashly.

  “What are we supposed to do now?” Kesil feels a renewed determination and anger to end this nonsense as quickly as it began.

  “You must go on; take the path through the Narrow Forest. Some journeymen,” says Nahal, directing scolding eyes at Kesil, “take this path only. You chose a detour, possibly prolonging and complicating your journey, and now you must continue.” Lesia sniffles and crosses her arms, feeling hopelessness and exhaustion wash over her. She leans against Phil, the closest person to her and allows the tears to progress. Phil is surprised and doesn’t know quite what to do. He glances at Chrissi who motions a light embrace. His eyes widen but he does it anyway when Chrissi narrows her eyes at him in rebuke.

  Kesil feels a twinge of jealousy. Although he cannot stand Lesia and knows she would probably even let Chrissi, her sworn enemy, comfort her right now, it was only a couple days ago she was swooning over him. Now he has become an extra on this little trip. He chuckles to himself, thinking how they will soon realize they are on a new plane where he has become the intellectual. With all his uncle has told him, he is certain his knowledge will surpass even Phil’s when it comes to the rest of the journey.

  “Why didn’t you tell us we went the wrong way?” Lesia pouts.

  “Child, I could not,” Nahal says with more sympathy than she means to show. “You must make your own choices. Take your own path.”

  “OK,” Chrissi resolves, “let’s go.” She feels more confident than she ever has, especially since transporting everyone to Chazaq. The others do not protest and follow her when she turns back towards the forest.

  A familiar tune plays in Chrissi’s mind, almost a song though she cannot quite make out words. Power, strength, and peace spread through her in a slight, warm tingly feeling, like the light pins and needles that come from momentarily losing circulation in a limb. She glances back and sees Nahal, still standing at the edge of the village, watching them leave again. Chrissi has a strange but clear thought that it will be a long time before she sees the caring woman again and at that very moment Nahal nods slightly, encouragingly. Chrissi feels her new strength and leads the way to the next portion of their journey.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  After a couple hours of traveling it seems Chrissi’s newfound attitude is rubbing off on everyone else. Lesia smiles as she lightly touches the pink, purple, and yellow flowers lining this new narrow path. Their stems are thick allowing them to stand at about four-feet high. The group has to walk single-file on this dirt path but they make due speaking louder and laughing together.

  The Narrow Forest is full of bright greens. Butterflies and hummingbirds flutter around the blooming flowers as squirrels, rabbits, and other small animals hop across the path in front of them. Phil is able to pet a small brown rabbit before it frightfully darts into a nearby bush.

  “How is it that these two forests are so different yet share a border? They are literally right next to each other. Ecologically, it doesn’t make sense, what would make all the animals desert the Boundless Forest? Simply because it is always night?” Phil muses lengthily.

  Everyone glances at each other then proclaims at once, “Science face!” They laugh together and in this moment the journey and the uncanny company do not seem so terrible.

  “My mom would love this,” Chrissi says feeling homesick.

  “Mine too!” Lesia skips happily closer to Chrissi. “Though,” she continues mournfully, “she would probably be too busy on her cell phone with client after client to notice it at all.”

  “I hear ya,” Kesil chimes in, “except whenever an opportunity came for her to enjoy it, between calls of course, my dad would chastise her for not working enough or giving into frills we ‘just don’t have time for’.” He shakes his head in dissention at his father’s ever-repeated words.

  “Yeah, forget the beauty of nature, don’t you have biology homework?” Phil mimicks his parents’ incessant concern over his studies.

  “At least your parents notice you,” Lesia tries to console him. “I do everything on my own.”

  Chrissi is taken aback, she assumed since Lesia is always surrounded by people that she was never lonely, “Don’t you have a sister?”

  “Well, yeah but she’s like 12 or 13…maybe 10, anyway she’s annoying.”

  “Wish I had a brother,” Kesil confesses. “Aside from my parents, the only other family I have is an uncle who is really just a family friend. And he only stops by to ‘teach’ me something boring.”

  The Lamborghini and other fancy cars that sometimes sit in the Pikes’ driveway come to Chrissi’s mind, must be his uncle.

  “You’ve talked a lot about your uncle,” Lesia says. “You must like him a little.”

  “Not really. He has all this knowledge about random things and it seriously consumes him. Whenever he is in the room I just feel…scared.” Kesil suddenly finds himself looking at three apprehensive faces. “It’s not a big deal, he’s just weird, eccentric I guess.” He tries to calm everyone, but he feels very uncomfortable. Since when do they care so much? He didn’t mean “scared”, it just slipped out, to even his own surprise. He pushes passed them and continues walking. Eventually they follow.

  Chrissi decides to change the subject, recognizing their dismay that Kesil was not going to say more, “Well, my feet are killing me. Anyone mind taking a break right now?” Everyone concedes and sits down in the path. It doesn’t seem like they will be in anyone’s way. Chrissi slips off her knee-high boots.

  “Those are…great,” says Lesia with a forced smile. Chrissi ignores the forced part of Lesia’s attempt at a genuine compliment, “Not really in season, but to each her own…I guess.”

  “My mom bought them for me for my sixteenth birthday a few weeks ago. She’s so creative, she actually designed them online!” Chrissi points out the feminine tribal imprints along the side of the leather boot she holds.

  “Your mom and you are close, huh?”

  “Yeah, we’re pretty good together,” Chrissi
smiles at Lesia. “It’s just the two of us, you know. I mean, my Granny and aunt are nearby in the ‘burbs but mostly it’s just my mom and me.”

  “Where’s your dad?” Kesil asks. Phil and Lesia glance at each other with slight pity, but Chrissi answers him with pride.

  “I was adopted. Left in the park in town and found by my mom. She had to work the system for awhile but she always knew we were meant to be together and she would do anything to keep me.”

  “Roi brought you to her,” Phil says absentmindedly.

  Chrissi grimaces, “Yes, well, that’s what Granny says.”

  “So you don’t know who your biological parents are?” Kesil asks hesitantly.

  “Nope, nobody does. Sometimes I wonder, but it always comes down to that one act, leaving me. I don’t know if they knew someone would find me or if they just left me in a random place, if they couldn’t take care of me or didn’t want to.” Phil notices Chrissi look down at her turquoise-gloved hands and Kesil picks up on the exchange, dread filling him at the sight causing him to recall his prophecy dream. “But all that matters is the mom I do have, a mom who chose to love me even despite…” she pauses, “any difficulties.”

  “Difficulties?” Lesia scrunches her nose like she smells something rancid.

  “You know,” Chrissi falters for an explanation other than the truth as she becomes aware of the weight of her secret once more, “not knowing any health or physical handicaps of your average babe abandoned in the park!” Phil gives her a reproving look for the word “handicap”.

  “Lucky,” Lesia whispers under her breath. She looks at Phil, “I suppose your parents are perfect too?”

  “Well…” Phil pauses to think. To him his parents are ordinary, boring even. They have pleasant family dinners every evening, they do activities together on the weekend, and, aside from their high academic expectations, they get along the majority of the time. In fact, Phil enjoys his parents. As he reminisces over their regular outings and family vacations, compared to what he just discovered about Kesil and Lesia’s families, he is thankful for his boring parents. “Yeah,” he beams. When he looks up, Chrissi is smiling at him too. Lesia, however, makes gagging sounds and gestures.