Carnelian

by B. Kristin McMichael

  “Some people have more trouble than others on the following bit, but yes, that’s how it works. Seth has a mind for these things, just like his dad,” Ty replied, pausing to check if the yelling was done. Seth hit the door hard as he walked back into the room and smiled at me. It was strained, but it was a smile. I smiled back.

  “Ready to walk back?” Seth asked.

  “Yep,” I replied and waved to Ty. “See you this afternoon, when we finally beat you guys.”

  “Good luck on that,” Ty replied as we left the house.

  “Trouble in the ranks?” I asked as we began our walk back to the dorms.

  Seth shook his head and let out a sigh. “There’s always trouble where Dee is concerned. You’d think after twenty years we could find a way to get along, but it always comes to this.”

  “He doesn’t follow orders well?” I asked. I bet general-minded Seth didn’t appreciate that much. I really wondered what his father was like if Seth was that intense when someone disagreed with his orders.

  “No, he’ll follow physical orders, but he always feels the need to tell me what he thinks of my plan. He has to make sure I know his plan is better.” Seth led the way back, but I could find my way by now. After we had been out to his house the first time, I looked it up on a map. I might have been mad at him, but I was still curious.

  “What is his plan? Involving me, I guess?” Seth paused mid-step. I got that guess right, it seemed. Seth didn’t answer right away. He continued to lead us back without answering. As we made it to the woods beside campus, I stopped walking. Two nights ago, that woods was the goal when I was running from the two men. Seth continued a few more feet before turning around.

  “It’s nothing really,” Seth replied to my question. He noticed my hesitation about entering the trail and held out his hand for me to take. “You’re always safe with me around. Remember, I can protect you,” Seth reassured me.

  I took a deep breath and took his hand. I couldn’t be afraid of the woods forever, and he was my knight in shining armor. Or would that now be my knight in barely-there kilt? From all the pictures I had seen of ancient Egyptian men, they didn’t wear much.

  “Just forget about Dee and his rambling,” Seth suggested, turning us back from my fears and into our conversation.

  “Come on Seth, I just want to know. It can’t be that bad, and I’d like to know all the possibilities as to why you were sent to find me. I don’t know anything about your time beyond what we learn in school. I don’t know who you are or why you’d be here. Heck, I guess I don’t even know who I am at this point since I don’t even have a father present in the same time period. Dee can’t be suggesting something too strange if he has an idea,” I ranted, slowing down until I stopped walking.

  Seth huffed and pulled me closer so that I couldn’t study him as we walked. “Fine,” he replied. We were walking again. “Dee agrees with everything you say. He said that much this morning. His suggestion was that maybe we didn’t need to know more about each other. Maybe your help was more a physical help,” Seth cryptically replied.

  “Which means?” I asked, trying to get Seth to spit it out.

  “He thinks I’m to get you pregnant, and then the three of us guys can go back to our time and our lives there,” Seth spit out. I tripped on my step at his words, and he easily caught me, despite his and my embarrassment. He set me down on the log we had to jump over to continue on the path.

  “Please don’t take Dee seriously. I’d never do that to you. I tried to explain that to him, and he just doesn’t get it,” Seth explained, sitting beside me and taking my hand again. Seth looked expectantly to me, and I realized he was waiting for me to say something. I was a bit speechless. It wasn’t every day that I had a gorgeous guy talking about making babies with me. It was quite a bit of shock. Babies were not on my radar for at least another ten years.

  “Um, do you think that’s really the reason?” I replied. I was curious what Seth thought.

  “No,” Seth replied quickly. “People traveling through time normally don’t have feelings for someone out of their time. That’s why someone like you is rare. Children born from people falling in love are even rarer. Maybe that’s because Dee thinks it’s a possibility. But trust me, it isn’t. If I was just to get you pregnant and leave, why would I feel this,” Seth asked as his free hand traced a line from my ear down my neck, leaving tingles in his wake. “What we feel is different. Dee could never imagine what this feels like. I know it means something more.” His hand now held my face. The tingles didn’t go away, but I was used to them after the initial shock. “Dee just wants to go home, but I don’t plan on going anywhere without you.”

  My breath caught. Things changed rapidly between us. I was getting the feeling any relationship with Seth would always be full of change. We were from two different times. That alone was enough for us to have to build bridges between everything we did. There was something about what he said struck me. He wasn’t going to go anywhere without me.

  Seth was guiding my face to his as he kissed me. Tingles rolled over my face as our lips met. My heart picked up pace as I wrapped my arms around his neck while he pulled me closer.

  “I don’t know why the goddess sent me to you,” Seth said, pulling back just a breath away. “But I’ll be forever grateful. My eyes were never truly open until I met you. Even if she decides to pull me away from you tomorrow, I’ll do everything I can to get back. I can’t imagine a world without you, and I’ll find a way for us to be together.”

  I think I melted into a puddle of goop right there on that spot. I didn’t like the idea that Seth had to go back to his home someday, but since he didn’t want to be there and would fight to get back to me, took away some of the sting of reality. It was hard to imagine how he would just disappear, but right now he was here with me. This time was ours.

  My phone rang, ruining the moment. Sim was calling. Seth took my phone and smiled.

  “I’ll have her back in five minutes,” Seth said and hung up right away without waiting for a response. Seth kissed the top of my nose and stood. He really meant to have me back in five minutes. I was a bit disappointed. I reluctantly joined him. I would have rather spent the rest of the day sitting there together, but we had to get back.

  “She has great timing, doesn’t she?” Seth asked rhetorically. I shook my head. It wasn’t great if you asked me.

  “Do you and Dee go way back?” I asked, changing the subject as we walked.

  “Yes. Our families have always been together. We both grew up learning how to take over for our fathers in the military.” Seth took my hand as we walked.

  “And you’re a chariot fighter person?” I asked. If Dee was the driver, there was only one spot left on the chariot.

  Seth laughed at my description. “Yes, that was my job.”

  “Isn’t that a dangerous job?” I hated to think of his real life in the past. Unlike his life here where he couldn’t be killed, there he could. It seemed likely he was not going to live a long life in that reality.

  “Ahh, but the rush,” Seth exclaimed. “Can you imagine being behind horses galloping at full speed toward the enemy when you have the advantage? Hard to hit a moving target?” His eyes twinkled. I couldn’t imagine it, but he was. “Dangerous? Yes, but any military position is dangerous. It goes with the job. If you’re good at it, then you don’t need to worry.”

  “And you are good at it?” I asked. I couldn’t help but worry. Someday he would be back there.

  “The best,” Seth replied. We had made it to the dorms. “That’s the reason I was promoted right before we left. I lead the chariots brigade now.” Seth shook his head. “It sounds strange to say that. I know the moment I leave here, I’ll go right back to that life, but still it sounds strange.” It was strange to think that the goddess would send him back to that dangerous life, no matter how safe Seth made it sound. I wanted to keep him here in the now.

  “Any advice for today, oh great military lea
der?” I asked. Seth walked me up the stairs to my room. I paused at my room door and turned to face him.

  “The key to capture the flag is a well-placed flag,” Seth answered, leaning down until we were nose to nose.

  “Thanks, genius,” I replied with a huff. His lips met mine, pressing me against the door and causing my heart to race again. I sighed as he pulled back.

  Seth chuckled and bent down to be by my ear as he spoke. “Good luck today,” he said softly, tickling my neck with kisses before he pulled away.

  Seth walked down the hallway before I went into my room. Sim was standing just inside the doorway as I passed her. She pretended to be mad, tapping her foot, but she was excited.

  “I have no idea what he did to make you forgive him, but I want to know. How is lover boy? Did he finely win you over with his well-defined muscles?” Sim asked. “Decided hotness was a good reason for forgiveness?” I forgot that Sim believed I was still mad at Seth. Forty-eight hours was not much time, yet my whole world was different now.

  “Or maybe his rescuing me from some rapists/possible murders was a good reason?” I answered, sitting on my bed and throwing my stuff on the floor. Sim instantly dropped to the bed across from me in shock, and I told her about the past two days, leaving out the stuff about time travel and the goddess. She had lots of questions, and we kept talking for hours. We talked through lunch and right up to meeting for CRUSH, which we were late to.

  When we got to CRUSH, everyone was already broken up into their groups. Our group was by far the smallest as most of our players chose not to show up, expecting to forfeit again this year. Our team leader Chris was in the middle of the group, discussing the strategy with someone else. I reached for the rules from someone and looked them over quickly. Each team was allowed up to eighteen players. We had only ten with Sim and me included.

  “Did we decide on something?” I asked Chris as the group broke up a bit and people were in conversations with their neighbors.

  “No. Will still wants to use the library even though we were told we can’t go in buildings,” Chris complained. “We probably should just save ourselves the time and hand the flag over to someone else. They’re all going to target us first.”

  “I have a plan,” I said quietly for only him and Sim to hear. “But you’re just going to have to trust me.”

  “Like a good plan with the races?” Sim asked.

  “Read the rules again,” I said. Sim took the sheet from me. She read it over and handed it back confused. “As long as you understand them too, we should be fine.”

  “And the plan is?” Chris asked.

  “I don’t want to tell everyone as they might accidentally give it away. Only Sim will know, and then we will each go different ways. That way she can’t accidentally give it away.” Chris shook his head. I was using the only way I knew how to get away with my plan. I wouldn’t tell them. “The base part is that we’re going to pretend to use your plan. Sim is going to climb up and put the flag in the tree for us. You have one picked out, right?”

  “Yes, but how is that a plan?” Chris asked.

  Sim rolled her eyes. “Just trust her. She has all sorts of creative plans. Did you see her time in the races? She even beat most of the guys, and you can’t tell me it was due to strength.” I made a sad face like her comment hurt my feelings. Sim held up my arm to show Chris the lack of muscle. She was true about that.

  “Fine, I’ll give you that much,” Chris replied. He handed us the wadded-up flag. “Do your crazy plan and maybe this year we won’t come in last place.”

  “Can we get the equipment too?” I asked. Chris handed us the bag of left over red bandanas that matched our flag color, and he gave each of us a water gun filled with something red. “Sim, let’s get these bandanas on first, and I’ll let you both in a little on our plan.”

  Sim and I walked a little away from our group and sat down with the bag of bandanas and the flag. Sim set the flag aside and reached in the bag. I reached over and shook the bag of bandanas out over the flag.

  “Mari,” Sim began to complain, but stopped when I smiled and nodded at her. “Part of the plan?” she whispered, and I nodded again.

  “Just follow along,” I replied back even quieter than her.

  I reached to the bottom of the pile and tucked the flag into a bandana. I rolled it discreetly and Sim took a bandana before following suit. After the flag was mostly wrapped, I turned to Sim.

  “Can you tie mine on, and I’ll get yours?” No one around us even paid attention, but I had to keep going as normal as possible. Sim reached over and took mine. She began to tie it on my arm like everyone else’s.

  “Now the rules stated that the flag must show, right?” I asked, hinting that she had to leave part of the flag out. It wouldn’t matter since the flag color matched perfectly with the bandanas. With it wrapped inside the bandana, you couldn’t even notice it was two pieces, and they didn’t match on the edge.

  “Yep, correct,” Sim replied, tugging on the flag’s corner a bit. “We can’t completely hide it.”

  “Here, let me get yours,” I added after Sim was done. “Chris?” I waved him over to the ground after we had our bandanas on. Sim grabbed a bandana and wadded it up in her hands to cover the bandana print in the middle of it.

  “Do we have any more people showing up?” I asked, pointing to the left over bandanas.

  “No, this is it. So little faith in our team after last year.” Chris sat down beside us. “Then what do you need me to do?”

  “Once we get out to the real tree, Sim will climb up and place the flag,” I said, pointing to Sim. She shook her fake flag. “After that, we will use these in other trees near-by to throw off the seekers. We place guards around all the fake trees, but not the real one.” Chris raised his eyebrows. “The key is we can’t tell people they are guarding the fake ones or they will give it away.”

  “That just might work,” he said.

  “And the secret is, we need to keep the real tree unknown to everyone. Only you, me, and Sim can know where it is. Once we get the fakes up also, we tell each group to guard them. You’ll be left with the real flag, and Sim and I’ll do our best to get the other teams flags before you lose ours.” Chris nodded along. He liked my fake plan. I knew that even that way we were still too far outnumbered to win, but Chris wasn’t looking for a win. He just didn’t want to be in last place.

  Teams around us began to move off to their spots. Chris stood and nodded to us.

  “Everyone, follow us,” Chris said, leading us to the trees behind the dorms. “Group one go with Mari and Sim,” Chris ordered.

  The two called out followed us. We walked not more than a hundred feet away from the group and found a tree Sim could climb. She was up it in not time, hiding a fake flag.

  “We’re going on the offensive. You are to stay here and guard the flag. Find a good hiding spot. When we take prisoners, it will be right where the group is now. That way they can’t see you guys and the flag,” I told them before Sim and I hurried back to the main group.

  “Group two, Ken and Alex, you can go with them now and they will tell you what to do once you’re in there,” Chris added as two guys that could pass as twins with their dark hard and perfectly wrinkle free t-shirts followed us.

  This time we went off to the other direction. We placed the flag in a lower bush. The red flag actually fit nice in the red fall foliage.

  “You two are to guard this flag while we go on the offensive,” I told the guys my lie again. “We will put captured people back out where we first met. Tell everyone you hit to go back out to the benches,” I explained for a second time.

  “Good luck,” one of the guys called to us as we hurried away.

  “I’ll need it,” I added. I saw the flag sticking out of my bandana each time I saw my arm, but kept my eyes elsewhere. Sim giggled at the guy as we walked.

  “Next group, Sam and Jen,” Chris called, and they ran over to meet us.

  We
hurried back into the wooded area for a third time. We were going to run out of time this way. We found another tree and Sim didn’t even have to climb since Sam was tall enough to reach up and pull a branch down. Sim tied the bandana on the tree perfectly, keeping the pattern hidden before Sam let the branch go.

  “Stay here, guard it, and send people out to the benches if you hit them while we are hunting,” Sim said before grabbing my arm.

  Chris and Will were walking toward us.

  “This way,” Chris led the way back further into the woods. After getting not too far, He stopped in front of a tree. “This is the perfect tree. I’ll give Sim a boost,” Chris told us. He helped get her to the first branch, and she began to climb. Sim was just like a monkey as she got further into the branches. Finding the perfect limb, Sim tied the bandana on.

  “Can you still see it?” Sim asked.

  “Yes,” the guys called, and Sim hurried back down.

  “Now I’ll stay here alone,” Chris said to us, as planned.

  “Shouldn’t we keep more people on the real flag?” Will asked.

  I looked to Chris and he mouthed ‘not me.’

  “Actually, it would work best to have no one here,” I answered. “If no one is here, they why would they stop to look at this exact spot?” I asked. Will nodded, liking my reasoning. It was nice to be on the studious team. Reasoning was actually more effective than power in their arguments.

  “But I refuse to leave,” Chris added, playing along.

  “It’s up to us three to not tell where this spot is. No matter what they try to bribe you with,” I added. Will looked like the type that would immediately cave to the pretty girls.

  Several booms sounded around campus.