by Tracey Tobin
Tori felt like they ran and roared together for hours, time passing in a strange way that she couldn’t quite follow, until she found herself standing alone beside a small river, looking down into the crystal clear water. The reflection that stared back at her was something strange, yet amazing. Her face and body shape were mostly the same, but the skin that covered it all, as well as the hair that fell around her shoulders, was as black as a starless night sky. Her bones had contorted in places, forcing her up onto the balls of her feet, pressing her shoulders back further than would have been comfortable for a human. Her ears stretched back, elongated and partially wrapped around her head as though attempting to collect sound-waves from all three-hundred-and-sixty degrees. Shiny white claws on her fingertips and toes matched the fangs that now filled a large portion of her mouth, and a long tail wrapped around her legs, twitching for another run.
She was Maelekanai…but not. Something new, Eden had said. A mixture of the two. Jiki’s blood, combined with Tori’s to create a new being.
“Is it strange?” Jacob asked from beside her. She had no idea how long he’d been there, but was glad that he was.
“It is, and isn’t,” she told him. “I don’t really know how to describe it. Part of me is wondering when I’m going to wake up from the longest dream of my life, but the other part is nodding, totally acceptant, like I somehow always knew that this was going to happen.”
“You’re amazing,” said another voice, and suddenly Kaima stood on her other side, staring down into the reflection as well. Tori thought the effect was interesting; a human on one side, a Maelekanai on the other, and the combination of the two standing in the middle. “I… I have to apologize…” the Maelekanai was stuttering, scrounging for the right words, her tail swishing back and forth between her legs. “You saved my sister, and-”
Tori didn’t look at Kaima, but she held up a hand and allowed the other a small smile. “I understand. There’s no sense in dwelling on it.”
Still, Kaima looked like there was something within her that was bursting to come out, and a moment later it did: “As Jiki’s only living female relative, I owe you a blood debt, and I would come with you on your journey in order to repay it.” The words came out in a jumble and trailed off as something seemed to cross her mind for the first time. “That is…if you’re planning to make the journey?”
Tori stared at her reflection, the reflection of something new, something different, something that was much more than what she’d been before, and thought very hard about her answer.
Epilogue
“We’re almost there, princess.”
“I’m going to be telling you not to call me ‘princess’ for the entire journey, aren’t I?”
“It’s a lot better than some of the things I called you.”
“And I’m going to be yelling at you to forget about all that for the entire journey, too, I guess.”
Tori pushed aside a branch that was hanging in front of her face and through the trees was able to glance the very edge of Jacob’s meadow. A few of the horses were chasing each other playfully, blissfully unaware of what their owner had gone through while he’d been away.
“It’s getting pretty dark,” Jacob observed. “Would you rather wait until tomorrow to do this? Just in case they’re asleep?”
Tori shook her head, her mouth in a firm line. “No, I have to do it now while I’ve got the nerve. Besides, tomorrow is a school day, so doing it during the day would be a very bad idea.”
Jacob and Kaima glanced at each other, but neither argued with her. They knew that Tori had made her mind up anyway.
They broke through the trees, startling one of the nearest horses, and Tori let her gaze roam across the meadow. This is the spot, she thought. This is the spot where they brought me, and whisked me away. This is the spot where my entire life changed, twice. She strode out into the middle of the field, letting her eyes flutter closed, her fingers gently reaching toward the earth, feeling for the exact spot. She hadn’t had any idea how she would know it, but as her feet made contact with the little section of dirt and grass she just knew for sure. Here, right here…
“Do you know what to do?” Kaima barely whispered.
Tori moved her head easily from side to side. “I’ll make it up as I go along,” she figured aloud.
From the leather belt on her hip, she drew a short dagger made of a shiny, silver metal, sharpened to perfection. The handle was an ebony wood, delicately carved to appear as though roses were winding their way toward the blade. Jacob had presented it to her after the ceremony, reminding her that she had requested a weapon, and she’d been awed to learn that he’d carved the handle himself, specially for her. “Just like the royal insignia of your pendant,” he’d told her, and she’d accepted it graciously, knowing that she’d never, ever let it go.
Now she took the dagger in her hand, took a long, deep breath, and pressed the tip of the blade into her index finger. There was a sharp pinch that made her jaw twitch, and then a bead of blood formed on the surface of the skin.
“Stand back,” she told her companions. They complied without hesitation, moving several feet behind her, wary of whatever was going to happen next.
Tori pressed the blood-tipped finger to the crystal pendant and then wrapped her hand around it, squeezing it tight. For a moment her heart skipped and she worried that the blood wouldn’t understand her intention, that it would open a portal and pull her in, dragging her back to the other world. Part of her wished for that to happen, wished to go back “home” and pretend that none of this had ever happened. But the other part, the slightly stronger part, prompted her to clench her jaw, squeeze her eyes shut, and concentrate on a different outcome.
A gasp and a startled sob let her know that her intention had been properly conveyed. She opened her eyes to the sound of her name being whispered and a second sob echoing in her ears.
It was like looking through the mirror from her dream, though there was no physical frame holding the images of her friends in place. Jared and Krista stared back at Tori from a familiar locale - her own back yard, she thought - with shock in his eyes and tears in hers.
“You’re alive…” Jared’s voice cracked.
Tori found herself reaching out toward them, strangely detached, like she was watching a pre-recorded video rather than truly interacting with her friends. She felt as though they were right there and yet an infinity away at the same time. “Yes…” was all she could think to say.
Another sob escaped from Krista’s mouth as she too reached toward her friend, as though hoping to touch her fingers. Tori expected a million questions… Where was she? What had happened? Where had she been all this time? Instead, the question that eventually came was, “Are you coming home?”
Home… Tori thought, and felt like her heart was breaking. “No,” she finally replied. “Not yet.”
Jared’s mouth opened and closed and opened again. He clearly didn’t know what to ask, didn’t know what to say to get her to change her mind. His eyes wandered and landed on Jacob, standing behind Tori, looking grave. When he spoke, his voice was a warning: “You better be taking care of her.”
Jacob didn’t step forward, didn’t speak, but he nodded, and held Jared’s gaze for a long time.
“I’m so sorry,” Tori found herself finally saying. “I wish I could come home and tell you about everything that’s happened, everything I’ve seen…but for now I have to stay here. I have…something very important that I have to do. I just wanted to… I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m okay, so that you don’t think I’ve been lost, so you don’t waste your lives looking for me.”
A thousand different emotions crossed Jared’s face, while Krista looked mostly scared and miserable.
“Do you understand?” Tori whispered.
After a long moment Krista shook her head and Jared whispered back, “No, we don’t. But thank you for letting us know. And we’ll… We’ll see you whenever you finish
what you have to do, okay?”
Tori felt hot tears running down her face. “Of course,” she told him. “When I get home…”
The image faded slowly, and yet somehow quite suddenly, and Tori found herself standing there, arm outreached, desperate for just a few more moments but unwilling to torture her friends in that manner. Instead, she swiped the tears from her face, took a deep breath, and turned around with what she hoped was a determined smile on her face.
“Alright,” she told her traveling companions. “I guess it’s time to go.”