The Return To Erda Box Set

by Beca Lewis

  Each step sideways revealed yet another huge open mouth to point our weapon at and fire into. I was grateful that there were no other creatures behind them that we could hurt in the process.

  Then I noticed two things I almost wished I couldn’t see. Right before the Shrieks appeared, I had pushed the star. It seemed as if it was the best time possible to do such a thing. It was why Liza gave it to me, to keep us safe.

  That shift in the way I could see around me showed me something terrible. With every shot we took the trees took the hit too. The sound was wounding the trees. Ferns that grew at their base had already withered. At that moment we were killing the innocent. I didn’t know what to do but keep firing and praying when it was over we could heal them.

  I pushed the sorrow away because what I could also see was another wave of Shrieks behind the first one. Their mouths open, they were shrieking too.

  No wonder it was getting louder. There were more!

  I sent the image of the outside circles of Shrieks to everyone. I kept the picture of the dying trees and plants to myself. For now. Because if we didn’t stop these Shrieks here, Shatterskin would be right behind and destroy everything anyway. Forever. Then there would be nothing to heal. It would be gone.

  Teddy had shown us how we could widen our firing beam if we needed to. It was a dangerous move because there was even more of a possibility that people or other creatures would be killed if we missed.

  But in this case, the Shrieks had done us a favor by circling us, obviously not caring anymore if they killed each other, and we had applied one of Niko’s lessons of standing together as one. There was no chance of us hitting each other while we were in a circle together. It gave us a huge advantage.

  We widened our shooting beams, and that made a difference. The lessening of the shrieking told us that it was working. Although still standing, if being a green blob can qualify as standing, what was coming out of their mouths was at an increasingly lower decibel.

  Finally, there was silence. We had stunned the Shrieks with their own sounds. I sent a huge thank you to Teddy and his crew out into the universe. That part had worked. But now what? How long would they stay stunned?

  Then there was the next phase. Would it work? We knew even less about the effect of what we were going to do next because there had been no way to test it. Teddy and his crew had to guess what made up the Shrieks.

  They had taken the little information that they had about how the Shrieks moved through the country and made a few educated guesses. We were ready to try out a few of them. Hopefully, at least one would work before they recovered.

  We left the earmuffs on, just in case. Shields were turned off and slung over our backs. We didn’t need them for the next stage, but no one wanted to be without them.

  Each of us was wearing a backpack, but instead of clothes inside of them, we had bags of salt. Big bags. And containers of water. Since the Shrieks appeared to bypass areas of increased salt, like around what in Earth is known as Salt Lake City, we were hoping they did that because salt was not good for them.

  They also stayed away from bodies of water. Could it be like the Wicked Witch of the West and they could also be dissolved by water? That seemed too simplistic, but we were all ready to try anything.

  We stayed in our circle, backs to each other in case we needed to fire again. But we expanded our circle until each of us was standing directly in front of a green blob.

  Close up that blob was even scarier. I thought that all its sounds came from the large open hole that we called a mouth. It wasn’t really a mouth. These blobs didn’t eat. They only shrieked.

  However, what we found as we looked at them up close was that their entire body was covered with little openings. Their whole being was made to project sound.

  Niko was staring closely at his Shriek. So close it was terrifying. If it started shrieking, Niko was probably dead.

  “Okay. Salt first. Then add the water if nothing happens,” Niko said. “I don’t need to tell you that we don’t have that much with us, so don’t run out. There are more Shrieks here than we thought there would be.”

  My expanded vision had faded. The star seemed only to be able to hold me there for short periods of time. But I didn’t need it to see the Shrieks. Perhaps because they were stunned, they were all visible now. To everyone. At least a hundred Shrieks surrounded us. Not just the few that we thought we were chasing. How they managed to fool us was a question we would have to face, but this was not the time.

  It was the time to get rid of them. I took a deep breath, praying we were getting ready to kill the Shrieks and not wake them up.

  In one hand we each held a container of salt, and in the other, a bottle of water. I looked at Zeid. His azure eyes flared, and we turned together and poured.

  Shatterskin Forty-Four

  The Shrieks started moving. We kept pouring, working only with the inner circle. The outer ring of Shrieks remained frozen.

  “Don’t stop,” Professor Link commanded. “If they are not making a sound, it might be working.”

  I wanted to be a smart ass and say, “You aren’t here. You don’t see these things moving around.”

  It finally dawned on me that they were swelling, not moving. The Shrieks were getting bigger and bigger. What if it opened its mouth? Could we survive it?

  And then one of the Shrieks burst. Totally, totally gross. Green stuff everywhere. After the first Shriek burst, we stepped away and let the rest of the first ring of Shrieks burst without green goo hitting anyone.

  Now that we knew it worked, we moved to the second ring and started pouring. Pour. Swell. Step away. Burst.

  What seemed like hours later, but must have been only a few minutes, we were out of salt. But there were still five Shrieks left.

  “Try the water,” Link said.

  Aki poured the last bit of water on them while the rest of us prepared for explosions of green blobs. Nothing happened. Well, something happened. The Shrieks started moving again. Not swelling this time. Instead, their mouths began opening. Most of us had taken our earmuffs off, and they were hanging around our necks. We slapped them back on, and Aki fired her shield at all five of the Shrieks as fast as she could.

  After what seemed an eternity they were frozen once more. Mouths open. Ready to scream.

  “Now what? We are out of salt and water. Plus green blobs are lying all over the ground. What’s to say that they won’t rise again? We need to get rid of it all,” I said.

  “Time to try the other thing we talked about,” I heard Link say.

  “What other thing?” Zeid asked. Well everyone asked as they turned to me expecting me to do something. Zeid was just the one who said it out loud.

  They thought it was me who knew? It wasn’t. I had no idea what Link was talking about.

  I had no other thing to do. Whatever magic I had was still hidden from me. Other than the time I fired lightning bolts from my hands, and I didn’t have the foggiest idea of how I did that.

  Besides, like everyone else I was exhausted. Even if I knew where my magic was keeping itself, I didn’t know how I would dredge up enough energy to carry it out.

  “Spit on them?” I asked.

  When everyone looked at me blankly, I said, “Spit is water and some salt right? It’s stupid but worth a try.”

  Shrugging, Zeid stepped forward and spat on the nearest Shriek. Everyone laughed. It was totally stupid.

  “Okay, it’s stupid, but it feels great. Give it a try.”

  We spread out and started spitting on the still standing Shrieks. Zeid was right. It felt awesome, but nothing happened. Probably not enough salt.

  Good thing it was only us watching what we were doing.

  “Listen,” James said. Once again we paused and listened. Rustling. And laug
hing. Priscillas!

  Flying straight for me were Pris, Cil, and La, laughing so hard they were wavering as they flew.

  “Oh ziffer and zut!” Pris said. “That’s the silliest thing I ever saw. Spitting on green blobs. Had to be your idea, Hannah.”

  As happy as I was to see Pris, I wanted to tug her pigtails extra hard. Instead, I said, “Try it, you’ll like it.”

  The three fairies hovered over one Shriek and spat. Well, if a tiny drop of water could be called spitting.

  “You’re right, Kara,” La said. “That feels great, but we have something we think you will like better.”

  The rustling noise increased, and the Priscilla’s gestured to what looked like a moving mass of earth.

  “What the ziffer is that?” John yelled.

  “The next thing to try,” Cil said. “But, you might want to get off the ground. They might not know the difference between your feet and a green blob.”

  Everyone took a look at the brown mass moving towards them and started running to the nearest tree. I swear the branches had lowered themselves, so we all were able to grab a limb and swing up off the ground. Except for Aki who simply levitated herself up into the tree. I am going to have to get her to teach me how to do that, I thought.

  We watched from the safety of the trees as the mass came closer. Now we could see it was thousands and thousands of insects—not any I had seen before though.

  “What are those?” I asked alternately horrified and thrilled as they swarmed over every green blob and started eating it. A large group split off and took the remaining five blobs, swarming over them until we couldn’t see them anymore.

  Within minutes the blobs were gone, and the ground was cleaned of every bit of green. However, the insects appeared to be thoroughly searching for every molecule that was left, so we all stayed in the trees.

  Lady had flown down and watched the insects and was perched in a tree with us. I thought she was looking a little hungry. Insects, yum, good. The Priscillas were swinging off a twig looking as casual as if it was merely another beautiful fall day.

  “These are our friends,” La said.

  “Your friends?”

  “Yes. Excellent friends!”

  “Where did they come from?” I asked.

  The Priscillas didn’t answer. It was Link who filled us in as we sat on tree branches watching our new brown insect friends make sure there was nothing left of the Shrieks.

  “This is where the Priscillas have been going at night,” Link said. “These insect friends don’t live in this region. They had to be convinced to be brought here to fight the Shrieks. It was the Priscillas who did all the work.

  “We knew we couldn’t bring them in until the Shrieks were stopped, and we still weren’t sure it would work. But Pris had heard of these little buggers, excuse the pun, who could eat anything, digest it, and not get sick. It was worth a try, and it seems to have been very effective.”

  We all looked at the newly cleaned forest floor and agreed that it was a brilliant idea. I had a lot of apologizing to do.

  “How did you get them here,” Aki asked, always the practical one.

  “In Sound Bubbles,” Link answered.

  Complete silence reigned as we all contemplated what bubbles filled with crawling brown insects must have looked like flying over Erda.

  Once again, Aki asked the practical question.

  “Where will they be living?”

  Link’s laughter was not all that reassuring.

  Shatterskin Forty-Five

  Just as I thought, the Whistle Pigs and Ginete had been there all along. Teddy and Pita popped up again out of nowhere, strolling through the woods as if they didn’t have a care in the world. They took in the picture of all of us sitting in trees, and a mat of brown insects on the ground as if it was a regular, everyday occurrence.

  At Teddy and Pita’s arrival, the insects all moved over to another part of the forest and stayed there. Seeing that it was safe, we came down out of the trees to meet them. It was only then that I realized that I had not seen Ruta hop into a tree. I spun around looking for him.

  “Looking for Ruta?” Niko asked me. Niko looked as if nothing had happened in the last few hours. He was alert and unrumpled.

  Unlike me. I hoped that I didn’t look as bad as I felt, but at the narrowing of Niko’s eyes, I had a feeling that I looked, and smelled, fairly bad.

  Niko flicked his gaze over to one of the bigger trees outside the clearing where we had fought the Shrieks and said, “He probably went that way.”

  I had no idea what Niko was talking about. “What way? Is he still walking?”

  “No, he left by tree,” Niko said.

  “Are we doing that kind of riddle, like ‘who’s on first?’” I asked. “He left by tree? And while we are talking about where and how people come and go, where did the two of you come from, Teddy and Pita?”

  Teddy grinned, probably thinking it was friendly, but his grins were always slightly terrifying with those two big teeth in the front meeting the equally large teeth from the bottom. I tried not to think about what would happen if he decided to nibble my hand.

  “Well, if we’re saying it Niko’s way, we came by ground,” Teddy said pointing into the woods where I saw more Whistle Pigs arriving carrying something that reminded me of a pet carrier, but much bigger.

  “So if you arrived by ground and Ruta left by tree, where is he now?”

  “Probably already at the meeting room we have prepared for you. We brought water for bathing too.” Teddy said, not so subtly.

  “And food?” I asked.

  When Teddy nodded yes I didn’t waste any time getting to the area where the circles appeared to be, but once I got there, I had no idea how to make it work. Everyone else seemed to know how. They stepped on one, and swoosh they were gone.

  I caught Pita and Teddy laughing. Standing on the circle, hands on my hips trying to look commanding, I said, “Are you messing with me?”

  Before I could get the words me out of my mouth, I was already underground, and Pita and Teddy were still laughing at me. But now we were all standing in another vast room that seemed to be just like the one we had left. I wondered if it was the same one, and this was all an illusion.

  “Well,” Pris said, “Yes, in many ways all of this that we are experiencing is an illusion, but not the kind you mean. So no, this is not the same room. And no, you can’t apologize right now. We have to go make sure our insect friends are being taken care of.”

  With a haughty flick of her head, Pris flew off. Cil and La looked as if they would have liked to stay, but Pris gave them one of her famous “get over here before I tear your head off” looks and with an apologetic glance at me, followed their big sister.

  “Go get cleaned up everyone,” Niko said. “We’ll meet in the food hall in an hour.”

  Niko didn’t have to add that we had a problem, or two, or three. But at that moment we were safe, and dirty, tired, and hungry.

  Once the Ginete explained to us that the tunnels and rooms where we were now were patterned exactly like the ones we left, none of us had trouble figuring out which way to go to get to our rooms.

  Pita walked with me to my room and waited for me to say what was on my mind before opening the door for me.

  “Where were you?” I asked Pita.

  “We traveled beneath you. We are not fighters in the same way that you are. We provide what you need. Partnering with our cousins, the Whistle Pigs, we can do things we could never do on our own, and of course, a little magic never hurts. Think of us as the Red Cross in Erda. Well, not exactly, but close. Maybe a cross between them and your ministers. No, not that …”

  Pita stopped as I laid my hand on his arm. “Thank you. That’s not what I meant, Pita. My wo
rds don’t come out right some of the time. No, most of the time. Your being here is the best thing I could think of. What would we do if you didn’t have this space for us? I was just worried for you and Teddy, and all of your families.”

  Pita’s golden eyes sparkled with tears as he opened the door for me. I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I pretended not to notice.

  As I walked in the door, I thought of something else. “If the Ginete and the Whistle Pigs are sorta like the Red Cross and Faith ministers, does that mean you have healers, too?”

  This time Pita laughed. At least I think it was a laugh.

  “Of course we do. What do you think happened in that ceremony we did for you back at the Castle?”

  “A healing?”

  “A healing of sorts and it’s still in process. But to answer the rest of your question, yes, there are healers that work on physical injuries, if they are not too serious. Sometimes, no one can help.”

  Pita took another look at me and said, “Oh. You’re asking about the trees and plants that were injured today, aren’t you?

  “That is something that will be on the agenda at the meeting. Go ahead, get cleaned up, I’ll wait here for you.”

  After Pita closed the door on me, I looked at the closed door for a long time. I thought about how Beru would shut the door at the Castle, lock it, and then stand guard. Here, Pita did the same.

  What was there to guard against? What were they protecting me from here in this safe space? Or, since I heard the door lock, perhaps they were protecting themselves from me?

  I shook my head. That was ridiculous. I was not dangerous at all, except for the way I looked and smelled. But that was easy to take care of. I decided to worry about the rest later.