by Tracey Tobin
“In a way,” Tori agreed with a chuckle. She spied the flashing red battery in the corner of the screen and added, “But it does have its limitations.” Jacob frowned as she powered down the device, so she explained: “It runs on power that disappears over time, and so far it doesn’t seem like I’m going to have access to that kind of power in this world, so I won’t be able to use it anymore for a while.”
“Too bad,” Jacob sulked. “That was truly amazing. I’ve never seen magic like that before.”
Tori smiled at his pout. For a moment she’d completely forgotten her troubles, forgotten her predicament, and forgotten about the horrible Shadow monsters that could be lurking anywhere in the forest around them. In that unusual moment of comfort and relaxation, she didn’t notice that, as she leaned to stick her phone back in her pocket, her hair fell to the side, leaving the side of her neck exposed. She heard Jacob’s sharp intake of breath, however, and quickly pulled the hair back into place in front of the red, ugly scar.
To his credit, Jacob seemed to be filled with immediate regret. “I’m so sorry,” he told her. “I didn’t mean to make you feel… I was just surprised.” He pulled himself to the ground and kneeled down in front of her. “I apologize profusely,” he professed, his eyes turned down to the ground.
“It’s okay,” Tori insisted, though she felt her jaw tense and she couldn’t bring herself to look Jacob in the eye when he raised his head again. “It just reminds me of things I’d rather not think about.” And now she couldn’t not think about it, and about all the things that had been plaguing her life, day and night.
For a while it seemed that Jacob was going to ask about the scar, but after a few quiet moments he instead added some more small pieces of wood to the fire and suggested, “Perhaps we should get some sleep.”
Tori nodded, but kept her lips pursed. Ignoring that small remnant of teenage girl vanity that yelled at her not to lay in the dirt, she moved closer to the fire, wrapped herself in one of Jacob’s blankets, and squeezed her eyes shut. Under the blanket she fiddled with the top of the prescription bottle for a moment before eventually shoving it, unopened, back in her sweater pocket.
“Sweet dreams, Victoria,” Jacob offered from the opposite side of the fire.
“Not likely,” Tori whispered back.
She had nightmares.
Tori’s mind had developed a number of recurring nightmares since her parents’ deaths, and this one began the same way as they almost always did. She was in the back seat of her father’s car, and there was blood running down her legs. Her mother sat in the back with her, holding her hand tight, running her hands through Tori’s hair, trying to soothe her. Her father drove like a maniac, trying to get them to the hospital as fast as possible. Tori was crying, and her father was cursing. He swore that he was “going to kill that little-”
It was right here every time, before her father could finish his furious sentence, that the giant shadow of the 18-wheeler came down on top of them. It was right here that Tori usually woke up screaming, but this time, this one time, it was different. This time the shadow that enveloped the car had mass. This time the shadow had hands that reached out for her and claws that twitched to cut her eyes out. This time the shadow opened a wide, gaping mouth and leaned forward to devour her whole.
“Who are you?” it growled.
She still woke up screaming, perhaps louder than ever before.
Before she could fully wake and come back to herself two warm hands appeared on her shoulders and pulled her close. “Hey, it’s okay,” said a soft, soothing voice. “Victoria, wake up, it’s okay. It’s just a nightmare.”
Her vision began to clear, and there was Jacob, looking down at her, his warm hands still holding her. She must have given him a strange look because he immediately released her and pushed himself back.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered, her mind still partially in the dream. “I should have mentioned that I sometimes have trouble sleeping.” She bit her lip and tried not to show how mortified she felt.
“It’s perfectly fine,” Jacob assured her. He shrugged and smiled and turned back to where he had been dousing the fire. “You are far from the first person to have bad dreams about a bad experience.”
His sympathetic dismissal of the event seemed completely foreign to Tori. She thought about all the doctors she’d talked to before she’d been released from the hospital, about how they’d wanted to know every detail about what she was feeling or thinking at any given second. She thought about how her friends would press her to share in their desire to do something, to help somehow. “You don’t want to know what the dream was about?” she asked. “You’re not going to grill me at all?”
“That’s entirely your business,” Jacob replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “I have absolutely no right to try and force it out of you. But, for the record,” he said with a meaningful smile, “if you actually want to talk about it I would be more than happy to listen.” And with that the conversation was over, with Tori wondering why everyone in her world couldn’t have the same attitude.
They rode in silence for most of the second day, stopping only to eat and stretch their legs and drink from a small, rocky stream. The nightmare - and it’s unusual ending - eventually faded away in Tori’s mind, though it had made her wary of any strange sounds in the forest. For a while she tried to let her mind close off, to simply ride and listen to the sounds of nature. There were moments when she actually managed to feel peaceful, although these were marred by the fact that her body was aching more and more by the minute.
“We’re almost there,” Jacob announced just as the sun was beginning to set. “Kaima will probably be greeting us soon.”
“Who’s Kaima?” Tori asked. She rubbed her inner thighs and thanked the stars that the journey was almost over.
“A friend from the village,” Jacob explained. “She can smell me coming from a mile away.”
For a moment Tori didn’t really register what Jacob had said, but then she did a double-take. “Wait, what? She can do what-now?”
Jacob didn’t get an opportunity to respond. Without any more warning than a high-pitched squeal and a rustle of leaves, a figure came streaking down from the trees, heading right for them. It flew straight at Jacob, tackled him, and sent him flying backwards off his horse with a yelp. The horses cried out in alarm, and Tori went into fight-or-flight mode.
It’s the Shadows! Oh god, it’s the Shadows! She nearly killed herself trying to dismount from Ashes with a foot stuck in the stirrups, and then she ran to Strider to snatch Jacob’s sword from his pack. Oh god, oh god, oh god. The sword was much heavier than she’d expected it to be, but she clutched it tight with shaking arms and whirled around to thrust it at Jacob’s attacker.
“Get off him!” she shouted. Her voice cracked under the pressure, but she shouted again. “Get off him!” She almost swung out before noticing that the furry creature on top of Jacob was giggling and he was good-naturedly accusing it of trying to kill him.
Jacob pushed his attacker away with a half-smile, half-scowl and waved his hands at Tori. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he insisted. “It’s just Kaima.”
And then Tori fainted.
She felt woozy as she began to come to. There were two voices speaking, but she heard them as though they were coming to her from the other end of a very long tunnel.
“Mishna-ka. What’s wrong with her?”
“Umm… This never occurred to me until just now, but it’s entirely possible that she’s never seen a Maelekanai before.”
“Greshni. Where’d you find her? Living under a rock?”
“What would you say if I told you that she comes from another world all together?”
“I’d call you a frehgya, but then I’ve never known you to make up stupid stories.”
Something soft and ticklish hit Tori’s face then, and the female-sounding voice called out, too loud, “Hey! Wake up, foreigner! Let me have a look at you!”
&
nbsp; Tori opened her eyes and saw two fuzzy silhouettes standing over her. As the haze began to clear she first saw Jacob’s concerned face looking down. Then her gaze drifted to the thing standing next to him, to the bemused face of a creature from a fairy tale. She almost shrieked, but she just managed to clap her hands over her mouth quick enough that it came out as more of a muffled squeal. She kept her hands firmly wrapped around her face as she stumbled to her feet and pressed her back up against the nearest tree.
The creature standing beside Jacob was roughly the size and shape of a petite human girl, but was hardly human. Her body was thin and sleek, and every inch was covered in shiny, silky black fur. The fingers and toes at the end of her limbs were shorter than human digits, but the tips of claws could be glimpsed beneath the fur, laying in wait for when they might be needed. A long, thin tail twitched back and forth behind her, sweeping the grass as it moved. Her nose was small and her mouth was delicate, but when she spoke Tori could see that she had many sharp teeth. The only colors to stand out against the black of her body were the bright yellow of her oval-shaped eyes, and a length of silvery-gray hair that fell down her neck from between two twitchy, pointed ears. Her body was delicate and graceful, but gave the impression that she would put up quite a fight in the right situation.
“Are you okay, Victoria?” Jacob asked slowly.
Tori’s eyes were beginning to burn. She realized that she hadn’t blinked at all since opening her eyes and forced herself to do so. Then she pulled her hands from her face just long enough to squeak out one inaudible hiss: “Cat!”
Jacob and the creature glanced at each other. “What was that?” Jacob prodded.
It took a monumental effort, but Tori managed to peel her hands from her face. She pointed a shaking finger at the creature that was staring at her with such curiosity. “Cat!” she repeated, loudly this time. “Big, talking cat-girl!”
Jacob snorted to hide his laugh, but the creature did not look the slightest bit amused. “Mishna-ka!” she growled. “I am no cat!” Then she stuck out her tongue like a petulant child, which Tori had to admit made her look a lot less threatening.
“I must apologize again,” Jacob worked in between snickers. “It never occurred to me that there might not be Maelekanai in the world you came from.” He gestured to the feline creature. “This is Kaima. She’s a friend.”
Kaima looked positively disgusted. “No Maelekanai,” she huffed. “What kind of world would have no Maelekanai?”
“Come to think of it,” Jacob said thoughtfully, “what kinds of people are there in your world, Victoria? I only saw humans while I was there.” He and Kaima looked at Tori expectantly.
She floundered. Her mind was still screaming, Cat! Big, goddamn talking cat! She discretely pinched herself, hard, and was finally able to spit out, “None! There are no other people! Just humans!”
Jacob’s eyebrows just about rose off his head and Kaima looked about as horrified as a cat-person could look.
“None?” Jacob gasped. “Humans are the only people in your entire world?”
Tori nodded enthusiastically.
Kaima made a clicking noise that sounded exceptionally rude. “What, did the humans go power-mad there too and just wipe everyone else out?”
Jacob shot Kaima a nasty glare and seemed about to say something, but Tori shook her head and interrupted him. “No!” she insisted. “It’s just that, it’s just the way it happened, I guess! Humans were the only intelligent creatures who evolved!”
Kaima clicked again and looked Tori up and down, taking special note of the dumbfounded look still plastered on her face. “I’d say the ‘intelligent’ part is still up for debate.”
“Kaima!” Jacob exclaimed. “Don’t be so rude! Victoria is a visitor, and she’s lost, and she-”
“She’s none of my concern, that’s what she is,” Kaima shot back. “Especially if she’s going to be an ignorant mishna-fregh!” With a huff she whirled on the balls of her feet, flicked her tail in Tori’s direction, and took off at a tear up a tree and out of sight.
Jacob glowered after her. “Don’t mind her,” he told Tori. “She isn’t a big fan of most humans on a good day.”
Tori was still busy pinching herself. Living shadows, and now talking cat-people, she was thinking. The asylum theory is starting to make more and more sense by the minute. They must have a good chunk of my brain scrambled by now. “She seems to like you well enough,” she eventually coughed out.
Jacob retrieved his sword from where Tori had dropped it during her fainting spell. “Yeah, well, we’ve known each other since we were both kids,” he explained. “I think most of the time she just completely forgets that I’m human.” He returned his sword to its sheath and seemed to think for a moment before turning back to her. “There are other non-human races in our world, Victoria, and you must understand that some of them have a great disdain for humans.” With that he took Strider’s reins and, instead of remounting, began to lead the horse down the path. Before he’d managed to wander out of sight Tori gathered herself and followed behind with Ashes. “Why?” she asked, though in the pit of her stomach she thought she already knew. “Why do they hate humans?”
“Because it was humans who drove them from their homes, persecuted them, and set the Shadows on them,” Jacob admitted. “Though, to hear my father tell it most humans are just as persecuted, but of course, most people only acknowledge their own suffering.” The way he said it, it sounded like a lesson that had been repeated to him many, many times. When she thought about it Tori found herself nodding in agreement. Some things were the same no matter where you went, she supposed.
“Hey, bibrulska!” Kaima’s voice shouted down from somewhere high above. “Hurry up! Eden has been waiting for you!”
Jacob’s shock was physical.
“Who’s Eden?” Tori inquired.
Jacob couldn’t shake the surprise. “Someone very important,” he explained. “Someone who should have absolutely no reason to be looking for me, of all people. I only ever met her once before, when I was very young and she came to speak with my father.” He looked extremely nervous all of a sudden, but a moment later his face lit up and he turned to Tori with shining eyes. “Actually, this is perfect!” he exclaimed. “If anyone would know how to get you back to your own world it would be Eden!”
The sudden wave of relief almost caused Tori’s knees to buckle. “Really?” she asked, hardly daring to hope.
Jacob nodded. “I’m sure of it,” he assured her. “Let’s hurry!”
Despite her nasty introduction to the second alien species in as many days, Tori felt lighter than she’d felt since this mess began. She trotted after Jacob, pulling Ashes along beside her, and wondered how this ‘Eden’ could possibly go about sending her home. What luck that she would happen to be at this Maelekanai village!
That thought stopped her for a second. When Jacob had first said where they were headed, she’d assumed that “Maelekanai” was some kind of native word, but now she knew that she was about to walk into an entire village of creatures like Kaima. Cat-people, as far as she was concerned. Cat-people who were not big fans of humans.
“Will they even let me in?” she had to ask.
Jacob understood her concern from the look on her face and gave her a reassuring grin. “Don’t worry,” he told her. “You’re with me!”
Tori held on to that and hoped that he was right.
“We’re here!” Jacob announced.
Tori stopped in her tracks, frowned, and lowered her eyebrows at Jacob. “What are you saying?” she asked. She strained her eyes, but in front of them was nothing more than seemingly-endless forest. “There’s nothing here.”
“There is,” Jacob insisted. He raised a hand and pointed up. Tori squinted against the coming twilight, but she saw nothing more than lots and lots of trees. Jacob chuckled as her lips turned down. “It’s cloaked,” he explained. “Eden travels the land, using her magic to help protect and hide
refugees from the royal armies.”
Tori had to close her eyes for a moment. She remembered something that Jacob had said when he was looking at her phone: “I’ve never seen this kind of magic before.”
“Hold on,” she said, with a hand to her forehead. Don’t be so surprised; how did you think you got here? By spaceship? “Are you telling me that this world has magic too?”
Jacob nodded and gestured her forward. “But that shouldn’t really be a shock to you,” he said. “After all, your world has magic as well.”
“Yeah, but, see,” Tori argued. “Our ‘magic’ isn’t really magic becau-” She was cut off as she almost walked into a rope ladder that had appeared, quite suddenly, directly in front of her face. “What the-” she muttered.
Jacob was grinning, and he was pointing up.
With a hand that refused to stay steady, Tori touched the mysterious rope ladder, slowly looked up, and felt her head swoon for the second time that day.
Chapter Five
Tori gaped like a beached fish struggling for air. Jacob watched and chuckled as she stepped back several feet, stepped forward again, and then repeated the process twice more for good measure. Less than three feet backward there was naught but trees and growing darkness to be seen for as far as her gaze could stretch. But take those three steps forward again and the rope ladder that appeared out of midair lead up to an enormous tree-house village ringed with burning white fires.
“The fires are another gift from Eden,” Jacob leaned close to tell her. “They will burn anything except wood. In case you were wondering.”
Tori stared up the rope ladder with her mouth hanging unattractively agape. “It’s an invisible tree-town for cat-people,” she choked out.
Jacob nearly fell over himself with laughter, though it was not an unkind reaction. “You may want to strike the word ‘cat’ from your vocabulary before we head up there, Victoria,” he instructed. With an enormous, boyish grin on his face he took the rope ladder in one hand and gestured toward the village with the other. “Shall we, m’lady?”