by Oxford, Rain
“So if he’s the one who teaches you magic, where is he?”
“He’s missing. He went on mission a few weeks ago and I haven’t seen him since.”
“Are you worried?”
“Of course I am. He’s so much more powerful than I am, but I want to be there to back him up. Then there’s Divina, the first person I met on Duran. She was just amazing off the bat. I mean, the epitome of hotness, for both Earth and Duran.”
“Excuse me!” She threw a couch pillow at me. “You used to think I was hot!”
“Yeah, well, you’re a mother now,” I laughed. She grabbed the pillow off the floor and tried to smother me, but quickly relented when I tickled her. “No, you’re really great, but Divina is perfect for me. Her personality is… difficult for some people to handle. She will openly use her looks to get her way. She’s cunning and stubborn, but she’s loving and just fantastic all around. She calls me stupid, she takes me to dangerous places, and she bribes me like a dog… but she doesn’t whine and argue for the sake of arguing. She does the right thing for the right reason, every time.”
“You’ve been with her so long and you love her so much, why haven’t you two had kids? I mean, you love kids. I remember one night you asked me if we ever got married, if we could have four kids.”
“You said not a chance in Hell.”
“So when are you gonna have them? Is she making you wait?”
“It’s complicated.” We were quiet for a few minutes. “Anyway, you asked about my job. I live on a continent called Shomodii. It’s a pretty wild place. We have territories, like huge properties. I live in a little cabin in the woods with Edward and we have no electricity or plumbing. I mean, there’s an outhouse. On Shomodii, it could be completely sunny and warm one day, then a blizzard the next day. I have house chores. Edward and I have to wash clothes, bathe in a hot springs, and even hunt our food. Well… Edward hunts… and does all the skinning. I hate that part, so I normally clean up afterwards. There are fruits and vegetables, and bark to snack on, but both of us primarily eat meat.”
“Bark?” she asked with a look.
I pulled out a piece of Wigknot bark and handed it to her. She stared at it like I gave her a cricket, so, with a sigh, I took it from her hand. “Open,” I said. She opened her mouth and I put the bark inside. “Chew it like gum.”
She chewed carefully until the taste sunk in and her eyes widened. “It’s peppermint.”
“It’s also really good for you. Sometimes we have to go to Anoshii to buy stuff, but Edward is very wealthy. We hardly ever need money. I have a cute little pet that seems to be a cross between a cat and a squirrel and defends me like a guard dog. Edward has a really creepy crow that stares at me like he wants to eat me,” I said. She gave me a bit of a sour frown. “What?”
“You are having such an awesome life. All I have is Sammy, and I work so much I hardly ever see him. He’s amazing, really, but I miss his dad. I miss my friends from Texas. All I do every day is work. I want to go with you.”
“You’re probably going to get that chance. We have to get Sammy to safety, but I didn’t leave you in danger the first time and I’m not leaving you in danger this time. You two can stay with me and Edward on Duran until Sammy’s father finds you. Only… it’s a one-bedroom cabin.”
“Do you have holidays on Duran?”
“Yes, but most of them are a little religious. Each land has different holidays based on their religion before the reformation. It’s a long story. Edward has really interesting accounts on how all the little holiday traditions began, like setting our boots out on the winter and summer solstice. Actually, it turns out he was just teasing me about that one; Edward loves pranks.”
“Yeah, like you didn’t try to prank me every damn Halloween.”
“I was good at it, too. Except our last Halloween. Remember?”
“You mean, when you found out I was going to be Red Riding Hood and you dressed as a ‘hot’ werewolf.”
I laughed. “Let me in, Little Red, I have a package for you.” I had a basket of her favorite cookies at the time.
“Don’t huff and puff, wolf, I’ll let you in,” she blushed as she quoted herself. “We made out on the couch for an hour before my dad got home. I thought you were going to die of embarrassment when he glared at you, still standing at the door, and said you were to join us for dinner.”
“He was reaching for his gun.”
“It wasn’t loaded.”
“He was going to bludgeon me to death with it, then.” The man had glared at me all through spaghetti, and it didn’t help that Vivian hadn’t changed out of her costume. Then he took all the cookies and sat between us on the couch until it was a suitable hour for me to escape.
“You can’t kill someone for dating your daughter,” she argued.
“It was Texas. The state gives you a shovel the day your daughter is born.”
A few minutes later, Mordon came in with a towel wrapped around himself, still soaking wet. He had a pathetic expression on his face, but Vivian wasn’t looking at his face.
“The water got cold. Please fix it. Please, please, please!” He looked so desperate. At least his pleas distracted Vivian from checking him out.
“That’s a forty gallon tank!”
When she said that, I couldn’t blame him for running out of hot water; Vivian didn’t realize just how hot he liked it. “You’ll have to wait until more water heats up,” I said.
Vivian ordered pizza and Mountain Dew for dinner, but I drew the line at beer. I was responsible for my younger friend and I wasn’t going to let him drink. While Vivian puréed some vegetable-infused mac and cheese for Sammy, Mordon sat down next to me on the couch.
“Can we bring pizza back to Duran?” Mordon asked.
“I wish. I know how to make it, though.”
“I get it now. I get why you didn’t take Vivian with you,” he said. “I have seen the way you interact with Divina and everything about you betrays your love for her. With Vivian, you act friendly and a bit protective, but it isn’t love. Your personalities don’t fit.”
“We were great together.”
“How long were you together?”
“We met in high school, so I was fourteen. Unlike on Duran, humans can date in school. In fact, parents usually can’t stop their kids from dating, and they can’t force their kids to marry in this country. The first thing she ever said to me was that smiles are contagious. I told her I was vaccinated.”
“So you knew quickly that you wanted to be with her?”
I laughed. “Oh, no. We hated each other. I thought she was totally superficial. She talks that way and hung out with those people. I was no better, all sarcastic and solitary; I never found a group I fit into and was put back into boarding school twice. I returned in the middle of my senior year and she had just broken up with a guy. When he started stalking her, I told her she could stay at my house after school, since my mother was never home, but it turned out she had to take care of her family, so I walked her home every afternoon and to school every morning. The guy got the message and I started hanging out at her place longer and longer.”
“So you became really good friends?”
“Yes. Then we went on dates and went to college together and everything was perfect.”
“I see. That’s why you left her.”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Of course it doesn’t. You make no sense most of the time, but I do understand the need for adventure. You hate perfect. If things are going perfect, you get bored.”
Instead of arguing with him, I decided to change the subject. “What’s your nose telling you?” I asked. I knew he had a phenomenal sense of smell; he could smell intentions, power, moods…
“The mother is innocent, human, and powerless. Her scent is a little off, but that’s because of Sammy. That baby… he isn’t human or sago. He has a little bit of human in him, like you do. Your scent is like sago with a little
human, because Ronez was sago. Sammy’s mother is definitely human, but his father is something not human or sago. I have smelled it before.”
“From where?” I asked.
“From you. You once came in contact with either the father or someone else from the same world.”
I let that sink in for a moment. “Well, that might narrow things down. Vivian said he was a friend of mine. I really don’t know many people that are not sago or human, but I might have been in contact with one of Edward or Divina’s informants. When did you smell this?”
“I don’t remember; it was a very long time ago. I never forget a scent, though. Anyway, that’s not what is important. The baby is powerful. I wouldn’t get too close to him if I were you.”
“Is he dangerous?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, but I don’t mean he will attack you. He’s nearly as powerful as you were when I met you. You’re even more so now. I remember how you were when we met.”
“Like a bull in a China shop.”
“Like a what? Never mind. You told me what happened when your powerful father was around you as a baby. I think you should be careful around him.”
Chapter 3
Mordon
I was woken by a scream. I sat up in the bed and listened, but there was no sound of danger or panic. When I breathed deeply, I scented no threat. The sound of a door opening broke the silence a moment before Dylan knocked on my door gently.
“I’m awake.”
Dylan and I were both given guest rooms upstairs with a connecting bathroom. Vivian’s room was down the hall, directly across from Sammy’s room, so my first thought was that it was Vivian who screamed… but it sounded like it had been a little girl.
Dylan came in and shut the door quietly behind him. “Did you hear the scream?” he asked.
“I did, but I didn’t hear anything after it. I don’t smell fear.”
“I thought I dreamed it, but if you heard it, too…”
“It wasn’t Vivian then? It sounded like a little girl. Maybe a neighbor.”
“No. I’ve heard her voice before, but it wasn’t Vivian. It had to have been a dream.”
“I think every little girl’s scream sounds the same and it makes more sense that a little girl nearby had a nightmare than for us both to been dreaming the same thing at the same time.”
“I don’t think we would hear a neighbor screaming. Besides, I don’t have normal dreams; I only ever have Guardian warnings. I’m going to look around downstairs, just because. You check the second floor.”
He left the room quietly and I heard his steps on the stairs. I knew he would call me if he needed me, so I searched the upstairs floor. There was nothing suspicious in either guest room, the bathroom, or the small storage room, but when I got to Sammy’s room, there was a strange sound. I opened the door softly so I wouldn’t scare him, but the baby wasn’t asleep.
The first thing that struck me was how cold it was, and I quickly realize why; the window was wide open and the white curtains were blowing with the cold wind. The second mystery was that Sammy was sitting near a small light attached to the wall by his crib, cuddling a stuffed toy. When he heard me, he turned to me and held his arms up to be held.
“How did you get out of your cradle? And who left the window open?” I asked as I picked him up. He didn’t appear injured, but I couldn’t see how he got out of his crib without falling.
Now, I honestly couldn’t smell danger as much as I could the intention of a person or creature, but nothing about this was right. Because I used my sense of smell more than anything else to guide me, it took me a minute to realize what was wrong; the energy. The nominal energy in the room felt off.
“Wheel his crib into your room. We’ll all sleep in there and nail the window shut if it gets creepy,” Dylan said from the doorway.
“Is there anything odd downstairs?” I handed Sammy to him.
“No. But I put Sammy to bed and I know the window was closed when I did so. God, he’s cold.”
I crossed the room to shut the window and it slammed a little too hard, which caused the light to flicker out. It seemed reasonable for there to be electric lights in a child’s room instead of fire, so I really didn’t think much of it, but to my surprise, it became cooler, as if the dim, small light generated heat.
Sammy started crying and buried his face against Dylan’s arm. “Shhh,” he whispered to Sammy. “Jiggle the nightlight and press it harder into the wall.” Dylan rocked him gently and took him out of the room into the lit hallway.
I moved the crib towards the door and reached for the light, expecting it to be hot. It wasn’t even warm. I pushed it back into the socket and it turned back on with no problem, then I made sure to shut the door behind me before wheeling the crib into the guest room. When Dylan laid Sammy down, the baby didn’t fuss at all.
Dylan and I lay staring at the ceiling, listening to every sound for ten minutes before Dylan got up and left without a word, only to return a few minutes later with a can of salt. He spread the salt on the floor in the doorways and on the windowsill.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m paranoid, okay? This will keep witches, ghosts, and poltergeists out.”
“How does it do that?”
“Shut up. It’s human magic. Just go to sleep.”
I had trouble finding sleep.
* * *
The next morning, Vivian was out the door bright and early, leaving us to be stared at by a quite pompous nanny. I knew exactly how to deal with these creatures; fire. The first time she raised her voice to the child, within the first hour and over something trivial as him throwing a toy, I set her hat on fire. A freak accident, I insisted. Dylan didn’t help matters by rolling on the floor with laughter.
Sammy cried and struggled as the nanny tried to get him dressed, as if she were being too rough with him. We didn’t interfere even as he reached out to us, begging us to save him from the torture.
“Does she smell safe?” Dylan whispered.
“I wouldn’t have let her in the house if she didn’t.” I took another sniff just for good measure. “The nanny is rude and arrogant, but otherwise harmless.”
“Hey, did she tell us her name?” Dylan asked. I shrugged.
Vivian’s house was larger than most houses of Duran, but quite a bit smaller than the castle I lived at. While my father’s was full of antique and delicate works of art, from the paintings on the wall to the furniture we used, it was like living in a museum. I could spend days without seeing my father, yet he would know instantly if I escaped.
Vivian’s house had scuff marks on furniture and color strewn about carelessly. The beds were huge and soft and the bathrooms each had an array of bath salts, bubbles, and oils. Her house had a bit of an elegant touch with the black leather couch and the glass tables, but I could see that comfort came first here.
By the front door, I found a bowl of small, edible objects wrapped in plastic. When I asked Dylan what they were, he said that they were Halloween Candy. What a long name for such a tiny bite of food. I tried one and immediately spit it out. It was overwhelmingly sweet, but not with the natural sweetness found in fruit, and it was gummy. Dylan laughed and explained that most children loved to eat it more than anything else.
He described the tradition of Halloween as a night when children dressed up as monsters and went to people’s houses. People at those houses gave them candy, because otherwise the children would throw eggs or toilet paper at their house. When I asked if people were afraid of the children, he laughed at me as if I were an idiot.
He explained Christmas to me, which I decided he had made up. If he had not, children were treated as royalty here, receiving gifts and candy at every turn. This made sense, because Sammy’s toys were everywhere and there was Halloween Candy in the house. When I grew up, I didn’t have any toys. I told Dylan my thoughts and he nodded sadly.
“I know. I didn’t either. It’s called neglect when your parent is rich and
you have nothing to play with as a baby. My mother had enough money to send me to private school, just to get rid of me. I grew up in a quiet house. Noise irritated my mother and she would usually have the boyfriend of the week punish me if I made any noise. At least Sammy’s life will be a happier one. That is, if we can keep the beast from possessing him. Hey, check this out.” He pulled me into the kitchen and faced me toward a huge white box, taller and wider than me.
“A fridge,” I said. He gaped at me. “I don’t always tune you out. It is in the kitchen and we have nothing like it on Duran. You said there was a dishwasher and oven, but I think they would be smaller. So this must be a fridge.”
He sighed dramatically. “I wanted you to be amazed.” He reached for the handles in the middle of the box and pulled it open. I was amazed, but I hid it. The insides were full of light and glass shelf upon glass shelf of colorful packages of food.
“Your Earth uses a lot of glass as furniture. You never told me that.”
“Well, this is plastic. Acrylic is much lighter than glass and is less dangerous when it breaks.”
Duran didn’t use a lot of plastic because it was deemed environmentally unfriendly. It was regulated and extremely expensive. Mostly it was used for construction and indoor water plumbing.
To distract me, he turned the television on to what he called the Animal Planet. After he assured me that the show really was talking about Earth, not a planet of animals, I was happy to be distracted and spent several hours learning all about wild animals. Ten minutes in, Dylan sat down next to me with Sammy and the baby climbed into my lap. Dylan had all kinds of interesting information on the animals we were seeing, which both Sammy and I listened to eagerly. The jaguar was my favorite.
At lunch time, the nanny got out a jar of baby cream-of-meat. The stuff looked disgusting. I knew babies couldn’t eat solid food, but meat should not come in that texture or color. The fact that Sammy kept trying to play with his food told me he definitely should have been on solid food.