The Return To Erda Box Set

by Beca Lewis

  My favorite were the chickadees that followed us as we walked, chattering to themselves about the strangers in their woods. However, social creatures that they are, within minutes the chickadees were flying down in front of us to check us out and say hello.

  Hawks, squirrels, deer, all were present. As long as we kept our energy field as invisible as possible, they showed no fear, just curiosity. Although there were more evergreens than in our eastern forests, it was almost like being in our woods back home and in our time.

  After a while the trees got into the act, lifting their branches to let us pass, or opening a view for us to see. When they revealed one particularly stunning view of the distant mountains, we took a moment to rest and admire the beauty of where we were.

  Of course, rocks were right where we needed them to be for us to have a place to sit. It was so lovely I could have stayed there forever, but the knowledge that in our time all of this beauty would be shattered and destroyed reminded me that we had a job to do.

  Not long after that, we found the place where Anne and Garth had observed King’s Watch before entering it. We settled in to do the same thing. I could tell Anne was upset, which made perfect sense, but I thought maybe talking about it would help. Besides, I was supposed to gather information from her. We were hidden from view, and there was no one else to hear us, so I spoke up.

  “How hard is this for you?”

  Anne sighed. “I knew this would be hard—all of it. We knew we would have to tell you all the truth about what happened. I hoped it wouldn’t make everyone hate me.”

  She smiled at me when I shook my head no at her.

  “You have no idea how much it means to my brother and me that you all understood. It’s been painful keeping it a secret for all these years and seeing the destruction that Abbadon is doing and thinking perhaps it was my fault. Yes, I do have my hair short now so that I won’t always be seen as a woman. I know you figured that out. It’s just too painful.

  “We escaped the pain as much as possible when we traveled to other dimensions. Some were more messed up than this one, and in some there wasn’t much life there yet. But Earth and Erda were manipulated, and that I think has been both a blessing and a curse.”

  Zeid and I looked at her in shock. “Are you talking about Aki’s Once-Upon-A-Time story about the two bored brothers in the spaceship?”

  “Do you still think that was a fairy tale because of the way she told it?”

  “I hoped it was,” I answered.

  “No,” Anne said, shaking her head. “Sadly, it’s true. In Earth and Erda it’s the Cain and Abel story. In the Earth dimension, the killing happens almost immediately and from then on Earth has struggled with war and misunderstandings. People against people. People against nature. People who have lost their awareness of their true identity.

  “In Erda, they separated Darius and Abbadon. They put them on opposite ends of the Continent. There was no need to interact. They both had everything that they wanted.

  “Also, the brothers instilled in the beings of Erda a greater sense of the wonderment of magic, an appreciation for diversity, a knowledge that everything is alive and aware. They fostered respect, appreciation, and partnership with nature.

  “You know how that went. Erda, at least in the Kingdom of Zerenity, has lived in peace and harmony for thousands of years. Then something happened, and Abbadon was no longer satisfied. No longer happy.”

  “What happened?” Zeid and I asked at the same time.

  “That’s what we don’t know. Yes, I blamed myself for Abbadon’s increased anger and destruction, but something happened before then. When we were here last time, we were not aware of it. The townspeople seemed to be happy. Everything was still beautiful. I had only the smallest feeling that all was not right with Abbadon when I was with him.

  “Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t fall completely in love with him. Something was off. He was kind and caring, and yet distant. I know that I put it down to the fact that he was a King and perhaps he thought it gave him a right to be more self-important. It was only when he couldn’t get what he wanted that he became violent, and revealed the monster that lived underneath that pretty exterior.”

  While Anne was talking something occurred to me. I should have thought of it before, but with so much going on I had missed it. Anne was a dimension traveler. She knew the Earth and Erda story.

  Anne giggled and patted my hand. “Yes, we have been to the Earth dimension. And before you jump out of your skin with questions, I’ll tell you that yes, we observed you as Hannah. You didn’t think that your parents had only Suzanne checking on you, did you?”

  I stared at her in amazement. “You knew me then? Did I know you?”

  Anne didn’t have time to answer because Zeid whispered and pointed down to the village of King’s Watch and asked, “Is that you and Abbadon?”

  Abbadon Twenty-Eight

  The three of us turned our eyes toward the town. In their infinite wisdom and creative abilities, the Whistle Pigs had given us all a pair of glasses that did multiple things. They helped us see in the dark, acted as sunglasses, and could be switched to be either a microscope or telescope. They had even made them stylish and fit each of us perfectly.

  Anne and I switched to the telescope view and watched as a woman with long flowing red hair walked down the street holding the hand of a very handsome man. The same man that I had seen in the drawings of the man who had been living at the Castle.

  Unconsciously I hissed at him. But even from a distance, I could see how Anne might have been attracted to him. Abbadon and Anne had turned to look at each other, holding hands as they stared in each other’s face. If I could read lips, I might have been able to tell what they were saying.

  When I glanced at Anne, tears were running down her face.

  “He was telling me how beautiful I was, and how much he loved spending time with me. When he was with me, he didn’t dress or act like a King. He was kind and attentive, with sad eyes. But even then I knew something was off because the townspeople were polite to him, but stayed away.

  “You can see that there is no one close to us. They stayed inside or on the other side of the street. Once again, I thought it was because he was the King and they were being respectful. I was so young and naive.”

  We both waited for Anne to collect herself before Zeid asked, “How many days later did you tell him you were leaving. Can you remember?”

  “Yes, it was three days from now. Garth and I woke with the same thought. We had to return home. And to answer your next question, no, I can’t think of anything that happened that made that so evident. But maybe something did.

  She turned to look at us and added, “Maybe it was someone from this team.”

  We all looked at each other wondering if that could be true. Zeid said what we all knew, “Whichever way it happened, it looks as if we have three days to stop him.”

  *******

  On the way back to the cave we were silent again. My thoughts were going around and around in circles. Was it possible that somehow our team from the past interacted with Anne and Garth while they were in the past? And if that was true, how did that happen, and who was it?

  I knew there would be more questions that needed answers once we got back to the cave. However, I had a personal one, so I asked the question that had been lingering in the back of my mind driving me crazy. I was getting used to being Kara Beth. Princess Kara Beth. The young woman with magic skills, and a fiancé who had waited for me in Erda while I lived in the Earth Realm.

  But the memory of Hannah, the young girl who had lived in Earth through two short life times, remained with me. I knew I could never return, but I did dream about Earth from time to time.

  Professor Link had been right. Being an Earth child has helped me in Erda, when I let
it. Besides the magic that I had remembered how to do, I had a little part of me that was wiser than I would ever have been if I had never traveled to another dimension.

  People in the Earth Realm talk about how travel opens the mind to more possibilities and makes them a little bit wiser, if they are willing. Imagine what someone who has traveled to a multitude of dimensions must know. Anne might appear about the same age as me, but she knew things I would never understand.

  And the one thing I had to know before we returned to the cave and the current problem was how she had known me in the Earth dimension.

  Anne dropped back to walk beside me, and said, “Go ahead. Ask your questions.”

  I smiled at her, grateful for her ability to read my mind. I figured she already knew what I was going to ask, but for the sake of clarity and for Zeid who I knew was curious too, I asked it out loud.

  “When I saw Suzanne in the Earth dimension she was never substantial. I know when she was living there she was appeared as a solid, person, like everyone else. But once she stopped living there, and began to travel between Earth and Erda, she was more like a translucent mist.

  “Now that I know you have been to Earth, were you like a mist, or like a solid person who lived there? And did Garth come with you?”

  Zeid had only heard some of my Earth story. I’m not sure why I haven’t told him more, maybe because there was Johnny. Or perhaps because I knew I wouldn’t be returning so what difference would it make. Either way, he knew very little about my time in the Earth dimension, so when Anne turned to me with a smile and answered me, he didn’t understand why I had to stop and sit down.

  “Say it again, please,” I begged. “I need to hear it again.”

  Anne took a deep breath and said, “Garth and I were there as two people that you knew. We didn’t look like this, but we were there watching over you. Yes, you knew us both. We both worked at the Diner and your coffee shop, Your Second Home.

  “After you returned to Erda we left too. To the people of Doveland, we moved away.

  “While we were in the Earth dimension, we continued to travel to Erda to report back to your parents. But then your Erda mother was killed, and Suzanne brought you home, so we left too.”

  I could barely take it in, but I had to table all of what that meant to me and deal with it later because we were back at the cave and Teddy and Pita were waiting with smiles on their faces.

  Abbadon Twenty-Nine

  Pita looked so happy that I actually ran up to him and hugged him. He resisted, struggling a little, and then relaxed a tiny bit, so I knew he liked it in spite of himself.

  “What happened? Did you find your family? You did, didn’t you?” I would have kept on questioning him forever without waiting for a response if Teddy hadn’t said, “Tulip Toes, let him answer!”

  When Pita still didn’t say anything, perhaps because he was still getting over the shock of me hugging him, Teddy told what happened.

  “Not surprisingly, they were waiting for us. That storytelling tradition that the Ginete have sure is handy. Plus the ability to see multiple timelines without making themselves crazy. Well, that is quite astonishing. Anyway, we were walking towards the mountains because Pita said that given a choice, they prefer to live inside a mountain instead of under the ground. Well, I knew that already you see.

  “But Pita and his brothers have been graciously staying in the tunnels in order to do their part in defeating Abbadon. I guess this is part of the story. They knew that was what they were supposed to do before they did it. Once Abbadon is stopped, they can go back to the mountains.”

  Teddy stopped and looked at Pita, and we could almost see his heart swell with love.

  “Of course that will mean that I will have to come to visit. Anyway, a group of Ginete were waiting for us not far from here. They walked us into a clearing and dropped us down into the tunnels built there.

  “Yes, I know what you are thinking. There are tunnels here too? The Whistle Pigs and Ginete work together in this time frame too. Isn’t that amazing?”

  I wanted to make the hurry-up-and-tell-me sign to Teddy but he was obviously enjoying his story so much I restrained myself.

  “I met relatives of mine too! They aren’t like the Ginete. I mean knowing the future and stuff, but the Ginete had told them all about me, so I got lots of hugs. It was fantastic. I can’t wait to tell everyone about this when we get back.”

  By then Niko, Garth, and Aki had returned to the cave and were listening. Teddy hadn’t seen them yet, having his back to them, so when Niko said, “Get on with it Teddy. What happened?” Teddy was startled. Then he laughed.

  “Okay. Sorry. They used the same circles that we do to move from the tunnels to the surface. And the tunnels and rooms look very similar. Not exactly the same, I mean time has passed, and things have improved …”

  Catching Niko’s eyes, he hurried on.

  “Anyway, besides meeting past family, some of whom were expecting us, we found out that they had already prepared a place for us to stay if we need to, and built tunnels that lead directly under the Castle.

  “Besides that, they gave us a little history into what Abbadon has been doing. It’s going to be harder than we thought to stop him. He’s been waiting for us. The same way the Ginete have been waiting for us. But obviously not for the same reasons.”

  “And you’re still smiling?” I asked.

  “Well, heck, Miss Worry Wart, why not? After all, we are here together. I met past family. We’ve done the impossible before. Why not now?”

  I didn’t much appreciate being called Miss Worry Wart. I liked Tulip Toes much better, but Teddy was right, up to a point. Maybe he didn’t know we had only three days to stop Abbadon who knew we were coming. Then it struck me, and I turned to Teddy, “If he knows we’re coming, does he know where we are?”

  Suddenly Ruta was there. I swear he stepped out of the tree trunk. Then again, I shouldn’t have been surprised. That’s what he does. He travels by tree.

  He was shaking his head. What did he mean by that? Did he hear the question? Did he have the answer?

  Ruta continued to shake his head as he walked into the cave. We all followed him as if he was the Pied Piper. I guess we expected him to say something once we got inside, but instead, he just stood there. I remembered him taunting me when I first came through the portal. I was beginning to think that it was better than the stoic blank look he was giving us now.

  “What do you have to tell us, Ruta?” Niko finally asked, as gently as he could.

  It was as if Niko’s question popped him out of some kind of state and Ruta plopped down on the ground. Not all that easy, and definitely not graceful, being built like a block of wood. It was the first time I realized that Ruta was like a penguin. They look silly out of the water, but in the water they are graceful and flowing. I thought that Ruta within the tree system was entirely different than when he wasn’t. I wondered if it was hard for him.

  When Ruta said, “Yes,” I thought he was answering me, but he was answering the question about Abbadon. “And no,” he continued. “Somehow Abbadon knows that we are here, but no he doesn’t know where we are. And he is not expecting us specifically. He only knows that someone from the future is coming to stop him.”

  “How could he know that? And what is he planning to do to keep us from coming after him? And since I am in the mode of asking questions,” I began, ignoring the laughter from Zeid because I am always asking questions, “what exactly is he doing right now that we have to stop? And finally, and really, not all that small of a question, how were we going to do that anyway?”

  It was Aki that answered me. “First we are rescuing our mother so that she is no longer in danger. After that, we let our child selves get captured and taken to the Castle. Except some of the Raiders will not be Abbadon’s m
en. They will be Niko and Zeid.”

  “You are sending them into the Castle? Are you crazy? He will recognize them.” I paused. “Oh, maybe not, he hasn’t met them yet. At least the way Niko looks now. But then you will be yourself in two different timelines. What will that do to the future?”

  “Nothing,” Niko answered. “I remember meeting myself, but I didn’t know it was me until we came back here and it clicked in.”

  I slapped my forehead and leaned against the cave wall. This was getting crazier and crazier. How were we ever going to keep all of this straight and not make a mistake with all these crossing timelines?

  Abbadon Thirty

  The moon was hanging low in the sky, a big orange ball throwing strange shadows into the woods. An owl hooted nearby and a second one answered. When a third returned their call, I knew it was Ruta letting us know that he was in place. He was stationed high in the trees, watching.

  If the Priscillas had returned, they would have been up there with him, but they hadn’t. I couldn’t let myself worry about them. They knew how to take care of themselves, and if they hadn’t come back yet, it was for a good reason.

  Our plan to rescue Niko and Aki’s mother, and then plant Zeid and Niko in the Castle as spies, was simple in the telling. We had gone over it over and over again until we all knew the details and could have repeated them in our sleep. What worried me was there were so many variables, and as always I had questions.

  What if Abbadon knew what we were planning? What if he was sending the Raiders to capture Niko and Aki as children because he knew we were there now and the raid was really to catch us? What if Aki and Niko’s mother didn’t recognize her grown-up daughter and wouldn’t follow her into the woods where we would be waiting?