Realmwalker

by Jonathan Franks

  Gen loved running this early in the morning. She got to see the sunrise, and that made her happy. It made her miss Greg and George, though, and that made her sad. She couldn’t wait until Thanksgiving, when George and Greg would both be home and the three of them could all go running together.

  When the run was over, she felt good. She showered and changed into her school clothes, then went into the school and this time she shoved the bag with her track clothes and her backpack into her locker. It was still early, so she went into Mrs. Gates’ room to sit down for a bit. She was hoping to see Jim before the bell rang.

  Mrs. Gates saw Gen come into the classroom. “Good morning, Miss Summers. It’s a little early for you, isn’t it?”

  “I’m going out for track,” Gen said.

  Mrs. Gates nodded and went back to whatever she was doing. Gen never knew exactly what teachers were doing at their desks when they weren’t teaching. Grading? Were they really constantly grading? Teaching seemed like it was a lot of paperwork, but Gen was curious. “What are you doing, Mrs. Gates?”

  The teacher looked up again and smiled patiently. “I’m entering quiz and homework scores into the grade book.”

  “Oh.”

  Mrs. Gates smiled. “It’s not even as much fun as it sounds.”

  Gen laughed. Mrs. Gates never talked down to her, her classes were interesting, and she talked to Gen like an adult. Plus she had helped Gen get Jimmy out of his shell by sponsoring their computer club. Mrs. Gates was Gen’s favorite teacher.

  Mrs. Gates closed the grade book and stood up. She walked around to the front of her desk and leaned against it, sipping her coffee from a pink, “#1 Mommy” mug. “How’s the computer club coming?”

  “It’s great!” Gen said. “Did you see how many kids we had last time? We had like sixteen people! And Jim was great! He’s really taking to it. He’s very patient when he explains computery stuff. He’s even taught me some things. I didn’t know I would ever be able to program a computer, but he showed me how and I made it do a thing. It was really cool. I do kinda zone out while they’re playing games, though.”

  “Boring to watch?”

  “Totally.”

  “Maybe you should try playing one, instead.”

  “You think?” Gen asked. “I guess I never really asked. Maybe I’ll ask --”

  Mrs. Gates dropped her mug, which shattered on the floor, flinging coffee and mug shards everywhere. She stared blankly at Gen.

  Mrs. Gates tried to say something but it was slurred and it didn’t sound like real words. The side of her mouth drooped open.

  She clutched at her head and fell to her knees. She twitched her shoulder and looked down at her hand, confused, then brought her other hand to her nose. Her fingers came away bloody.

  Gen screamed. “Help! Help, somebody!” She didn’t know what to do. She ran into the hall and screamed as loud as she could, “Somebody help! Please!” Then she ran back into the room to Mrs. Gates’ side.

  Mrs. Gates collapsed onto her side.

  “Mrs. Gates? Mrs. Gates!” She turned around toward the door and screamed again, “Help! Help us, please!”

  Mrs. Gates mumbled something again. Gen couldn’t understand it all, but it sounded like, “I tried to save you.”

  “Save me from what, Mrs. Gates? What do I do? Help!” She was crying and panicking. She held Mrs. Gates’ hand but she had no idea what she should do.

  “Don’t cry, Genny-with-a-G,” Mrs. Gates said softly.

  Mr. Parks, the vice principal, rushed into the room. “Step back, please.” He kneeled next to Mrs. Gates, then winced and looked down. He had kneeled directly on a broken shard of coffee mug. “Go to the office, quick, and call 911. She’s having a stroke.”

  Gen ran to the office, but by the time the ambulance came, Mrs. Gates was gone.

  -

  Ivy, Hope, and Herron flew as quickly as they could. Ivy could tell that Herron’s wing was straining him, but he pushed himself. For the first time this trip, Ivy thought, I’m not the slowest one.

  The Mer Oracle was right - they weren’t going to make it. It was the sixth day of their travels and they had made it to The Rainforest. Even going as fast as they could go, they wouldn’t arrive in The Meadows for another twelve hours, minimum. Ivy was in a constant state of anxiety and more than once she volunteered to go on ahead.

  They stopped for food, water, and a brief rest in The Rainforest. They were skirting around Choon to make up time.

  “You know what lies in this Realm,” Herron said, winded. “You know how dangerous it would be for you to go on alone. If you get caught in a spider web and you’re by yourself, you’re done for.”

  Ivy knew he was right, but she felt like she needed to do something more. She knew they were too late. She felt it in her bones. She knew that Herron was maintaining a fast pace even with his injury, and she knew that Hope was concerned for her. More than once, Hope had commented that she was being “unusually quiet,” and “not chatty.” She didn’t have much to say. She just wanted to get home.

  “Ivy, eat,” Hope told her.

  Ivy mechanically put food into her mouth. She didn’t feel at all like eating. Her stomach was in knots.

  “You’ll fly better if you’re well nourished,” Hope said. “I know that you’re worried and that you’re scared and it’s okay. We all are. But you can’t skip the necessities to try to take shortcuts! You’re putting yourself at risk and you’ll just end up slowing yourself down.”

  Ivy sighed heavily. She felt hopeless. She knew Hope was right, though. Herron had told her something similar a couple of days ago. She wasn’t trying to ignore their advice. She just didn’t feel like eating. She felt like flying as fast as she could for as long as she could. But they were both right, she needed to eat, so she did, trying to muster some enthusiasm for it. She nearly did.

  A few minutes later, everyone had finished food and water, and they got moving again. After about half an hour of flying, Herron called to Ivy to change course to avoid a large spider web. Sure enough, Ivy thought, I hate it when he’s always right.

  They avoided the web and Ivy spied the spider, sitting absolutely still at the top corner of the web. It didn’t move when they went around, but Ivy felt its many eyes following her.

  Hours later, they were still trying to fly quickly through The Rainforest in the dark. There was no moonlight so it was especially difficult to see. Herron gave each of them a lightstone to carry, but it wasn’t enough for them to keep their pace up. Ivy felt her last bits of hope crumbling, but finally they reached the border.

  “We’re here!” Ivy cried, almost sobbing in relief.

  “We made it to The Meadows,” Herron said, “but we still have to make it all the way through the Realm and get to the village. The Chamber is just over the hill from your farm!”

  They crossed through the border and sped onward. The countryside blurred past them, a much different experience this time, at this speed, in the dark, than it had been when they had set out. Then they had traveled by day, making what Ivy now understood to be a normal and reasonable pace, but at the time felt was horribly unreasonable.

  They flew over the gently rolling hills and the flat, rich, grassy plains, and gained altitude to fly over the woods. Even at this rate, Ivy knew they still had a few hours to go and they would need to rest again soon. She was exhausted, flying on adrenaline.

  They set down in the middle of a large expanse of prairie grass. They ate and drank quietly. Ivy saw the concerned look on Hope’s face and Ivy wanted to run into her arms. She didn’t think she’d have the strength to continue if she did.

  As they finished eating, Hope looked up suddenly and glanced around them. Then she looked at the ground.

  Herron looked at the ground, too. “I felt it, too,” he said.

  “I didn’t feel anything,” said Ivy. “What are you talking about?”

  Then the ground shook noticeably. Ivy recalled a small earthquake many years a
go, and this felt much like that only much, much stronger. The earth shook again, strong enough to leave Ivy struggling to regain her balance.

  “He has the Heart,” Herron said and leaped into the air. Hope was immediately behind him. Ivy dropped the rest of the sandwich she was trying to eat and darted off after them.

  “Do you smell that?” Ivy asked.

  “Yeah,” Herron said. “I’m not sure what that is, though. It’s not smoke. It’s...”

  “The air feels different,” Ivy said. “Thinner. Not as fresh.”

  “You’re right,” Herron said. “It’s stale, like the air in a tomb.”

  Eventually, Ivy noticed that the sky didn’t seem so dark. It wasn’t because the sun was coming up. The color of the sky itself was very slowly changing from the dark, inky, rich blue, littered with countless stars, to a clammy, misty, flat gray color.

  “We should think about turning back,” Herron said, “and getting to The Caves.”

  “No!” Ivy yelled. “We have to help! We have to do whatever we can!”

  Herron’s face was grave, but he nodded.

  By the time they reached the village, they had heard several more earthquakes, each progressively louder and stronger. The small trees in the woods they flew over started to fall over as the ground beneath them split apart.

  In the village square, Ivy saw a few fairies fighting with short, ugly creatures with bumpy, purplish skin. The bodies of the fairies who had fallen were strewn on the ground. Ivy saw one of the fairies deal a killing stroke to one of the creatures. It sank to its knees, then dissolved into smoke, the same dark, bruised color of its skin.

  She saw Nai hovering over the plaza, calling out instructions to the fairies below.

  “Nai!”

  “Ivy! Wait!” Herron called.

  Ivy ignored him and zipped toward the Sovereign.

  “Ivy!” Nai twirled to face her. She was drenched in sweat, her hair matted and unkempt. Ivy had never seen Nai look anything but completely composed. “You shouldn’t have come back!”

  “That’s what The Oracle said. What can we do?”

  “You can get out of here!” Nai yelled.

  There was another violent tremor and the cobblestone plaza split apart. Chasms of gray nothingness spread between the areas of solid ground. Several of the buildings in the village collapsed and sent plumes of dust and debris into the air.

  “We have to get some of the fairies out of here!” Ivy shouted to Nai.

  A cold drizzle began to fall. It felt greasy on Ivy’s skin. Another quake ripped more of the ground apart beneath her. The fissure opened directly under some of the fairies who were fighting on the ground. They tried to fly out, but the creatures leaped on them and dragged them in.

  Nai flew next to Ivy and put her hands on her shoulders. “Ivy, I wish you hadn’t have come. You weren’t supposed to be here.”

  “How could you?” Ivy screamed at Nai. “You knew this was coming and you didn’t try to save anyone! You didn’t warn us! You tried to get rid of me!”

  “I tried to save you.”

  “What about everyone else?” Ivy yelled. “Why didn’t you try to save them?”

  “I did. Look around you. We few are the only fairies left in the Realm. I sent the rest in three groups to The Rainforest, The Marsh, and The Foothills.”

  Ivy looked around. The more of the village was being pulled apart, but Nai was right. The only fairies in sight were those few she had seen earlier. “And what about them?”

  “Not all of us could get out.” Nai shouted back at her. “We had to try to stop this! This assault has been going on for days. We tried to guard the Chamber but every time we beat them back, we just get the chance to regroup and another wave rushes in. They corralled us back to the city.”

  “Just fly away!”

  “No good! They have --” Nai suddenly screamed pain. A fiery arrow tore through her wing and she plunged away from Ivy toward the ground. More flaming arrows flew through the air around her. Ivy dodged and dived down to try to catch Nai before she hit the ground, but she couldn’t catch up to her in time. Ivy could hear Nai’s bones shattering as she crumpled into the ground, feet first. She lay sprawled on the ground, limbs at unthinkable angles, when Ivy landed next to her.

  “Nai!” Ivy screamed. She kneeled next to Nai. She saw compound fractures, boned ripped through the skin, and both of Nai’s wings were broken, but the spine of her left wing was snapped completely apart, attached only by the fragile membrane. Blood was spilling from the spine of the wing and trickling from Nai’s mouth.

  Nai was trying to say something, but Ivy couldn’t understand her.

  “No!” Ivy screamed. “No! Nai!”

  “Don’t cry, Genny-with-a-G,” Nai said weakly. Blood bubbled from her nose and mouth when she spoke.

  “No, ssh,” Ivy said. “Don’t try to say anything.” Ivy didn’t understand the nonsensical words Nai was saying.

  “I’ll be...” Nai’s voice trailed off.

  She heard a noise behind her, a chittering, growling noise. She turned around at saw one of the creatures advancing on her. It opened its wide mouth, which stretched across more than half of its hideous face, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Saliva was hanging in strings between its jaws.

  It ran at her and then abruptly stopped and was jerked backward. When it landed on its back, it dissolved into purple smoke and an arrow clacked to the ground. She turned around and saw that Hope was shooting arrows and the hordes of creatures.

  “We have to go!” Hope yelled to Ivy.

  There was another massive earthquake. Hope staggered, then regained her balance and fired off several more arrows. She rushed to Ivy’s side. “Come on, Ivy. She’s gone.”

  “No!”

  “Ivy!” Hope yelled. “She’s dead! She’s gone! And she wanted you to get out of here! She wants you to be safe! We have to move!”

  Ivy didn’t respond, so Hope grabbed her elbow and yanked her to her feet. “Now!”

  Ivy nodded and they both took off. Ivy saw Herron engaged with two of the creatures on a rooftop. Hope took careful aim and took out one of them, then Herron swung sharply at its midsection and cleaved through it. Both creatures dissolved into smoke. Herron jumped after them and yelled, “The sun is coming up soon! We have to get to the border!”

  Ivy took a last look at her shattered home and the body of her mentor beneath her and flew, wordlessly, in the direction of the Chamber and the border to The Foothills beyond.

  When they reached the entrance to the Chamber, they saw that the entrance was still open.

  “Look!” Ivy cried. “We can still get down there!”

  “It’s too late, Ivy,” Herron shouted back. “Look around you! Pepper already has the Heart. There’s nothing more we can do.”

  Hope nodded agreement. “He’s right. We have to go. Look.” She pointed back the way they had come. They couldn’t even see the village plaza anymore. It was a featureless wall of gray. “We don’t have much time.” She took Ivy’s hand and Ivy let herself be led away.

  They passed over Ivy’s farm. The house had split apart. One of the rear walls had torn clean off and the horseshoe crab tub was visible, tilted at a steep angle, and water was pouring out of it onto the ground. They kept flying.

  They flew through the border and immediately, the air was still and calm. The feeling of wrongness that had been all around them vanished the instant they crossed into The Foothills. They set down on the ground and turned to look back at The Meadows, but all they saw was misty gray nothingness.

  Ivy stared at blankly. She felt numb. She’d cried so much in fear, in preparation of this loss, before she’d arrived that now that her home was gone, she didn’t feel like she had anything left. “Everything I had is gone,” she said flatly.

  “Not everything,” Hope said, squeezing Ivy’s hand. Ivy didn’t squeeze back. She just let her hand fall to her side. Hope walked behind Ivy, slipped her arms under Ivy’s wings, and put
her arms around her, holding her close from behind.

  She held Ivy for as long as Ivy could stare at the gray Void.

  “I just went on a trip. But I can’t ever go home.”

  “We’ll make a new home,” Hope whispered into her ear.

  “Does that mean the trip never ends? Does it just keep going forever?”

  Hope tried to think of something to say to comfort Ivy but she couldn’t come up with anything.

  “Skies above,” Herron swore.

  Ivy and Hope turned to look at him and saw that he was staring, agape, across the horizon. Ivy didn’t understand what affected him so much. All she saw was The Void.

  “What is it?” Hope asked.

  “It’s gone, that’s what,” said Ivy, still quiet and monotone.

  “That’s not the border to The Meadows,” Herron said. “That’s the border to The Marsh.”

  “Oh, no,” Hope said.

  “They’re both gone,” said Herron.

  chapter 28

  Herron led Hope and Ivy through The Foothills and into Vera’s Ravine. He slowed as they approached a rocky outcropping. Ivy started toward it.

  “Stop,” Herron said.

  “Hmm?”

  “That’s where The Caverns were,” explained Herron.

  Ivy stopped to look at the ledge. “I don’t see…”

  “It’s back through the tunnels. They go for a ways before you hit The Void,” he said.

  Hope said, “Come on, let’s keep going.”

  They flew on and after a while Herron led them up the side of a large stony mountain. “We’re going to The Peak, at the top of the mountain. We’ll be able to get faster transport to the base of the mountain in The Bayou.”

  The three of them flew up to The Peak, emotional and tired and quiet. They reached The Peak and saw the settlement spread out before them.