“So,” she began slowly, “you walked through the wall…Jade says you can help get me home, and…you are so pale. Excuse me for asking, and this might sound dumb but, are you a ghost?” Lara felt silly hearing the words herself but she remembered how Jade said ghosts knew everything and he had walked through a wall and he did look like a ghost, but still she wondered how he was able to touch things. She had seen him hug Jade, he had carried the mug to her, and he even braided her hair.
“Oh,” he laughed quietly, “no I’m not a ghost. I’m very much alive,” he reached for her hand and flipped over his wrist for her to check his pulse. Tentatively she pressed against his skin with two of her fingers, feeling a strange beat underneath. It was more of a thrumming sensation. Lara looked up at him again.
“If you’re not a ghost then how did you walk through the wall?” She was starting to doubt having ever seen him do it in the first place.
“Well that part’s simple,” he told her casually with a shrug, “all demons can do that.” When she heard him say ‘demons’ alarms went off in her skull and her eyes locked on his face waiting for some sign that he was joking. Quickly he tried to recover their earlier composure. “It’s not a bad thing, being a demon, we have souls too, or at least…uh…I do.” He tried to soothe her but his voice grew weaker toward the end of his sentence.
Unexpectedly his rainbow eyes began to swim in pools of salty tears, the source of which Lara couldn’t fathom, threatening to spill out. Before he let that happen in front of her Zeftx got up and walked away.
CHAPTER 3
Lara felt guilty for revealing her anxiety and stereotyping against demons. It seemed such a strange thing to even think about. Stereotyping against demons, had anyone ever even considered the potential of that one? Probably not, but then again Zeftx didn’t appear to be a stereotypical demon with horns, wings, or a wicked face. She shrugged off those thoughts and followed some more appealing ones. She still couldn’t believe she had failed to see how handsome he was from the very beginning. More than handsome, Zeftx was gorgeous!
She couldn’t resist picturing his creamy smooth moon lit skin, strong and lean youthful figure, and hypnotizing candid eyes. Lara was sure he could just barely pass for twenty, maybe twenty-one if he wanted too. That wiped the smile right off her face. What was she thinking? She was only fifteen years and seven months old exactly. Remembering that she had to ask herself what an attractive older guy like him could ever see in a silly underclassman like her, one who still had to wait another five months before she could even drive?
Lara sat there belittling herself and taking gulps of water until the next person entered the room. Jade entered the same door that Zeftx had entered and exited through. Nothing about her looked any different except for the addition of a small tray which she carried in both hands.
On the tray was an assortment of snack foods. Flat bread (looking more like pie shells than your typical store bought loaf) seemed like it was covered in a thin spread of yellow jam. She was inclined to think it was honey, but not really willing to taste it to find out. Her mother would just die if she ever found out that Lara had accepted sweets from strangers.
Jade sat the tray down in front of Lara in the center of the circular rug. She then took a seat opposite of her house guest and broke off a piece of the thin bread to eat. Lara smiled politely but ignored the tray. There was another question burning in her brain that needed answered.
“Sorry, but I don’t get it. What is it that separates me as a mortal from you as a gypsy?”
“Oh,” Jade smiled at her as if she were a toddler who just said her first words. “Well it is true enough we both will grow old and die. But gypsies have incomparably stronger senses…seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling, hearing, then of course, there’s our sixth sense,” she added with a wiggle of her eyebrows. Sixth sense? Lara wondered curiously as Jade continued.
“Mortals are fragile, suffering more than just duller senses and weaker skills. Despite all that, in their delicate bodies and too short lives mortals have a truly exquisite gift. As legend tells us, mortals can create unnatural things using their minds!” Jade exclaimed with a flourish fitting for gypsy campfire stories, but Lara wasn’t impressed. What was all of that supposed to mean? That they all lived to be more than one-hundred years old and she could die before sixty?
“For example,” Jade pressed on, wanting to prove her point and hear Lara’s confirmation. “Although you cannot fly, with your mind you…build? Yes, build a great bird that carries you! I also heard stories that, although you cannot speak the witches’ language, you created a box which speaks it for you.” Jade waited for Lara to acknowledge these claims but instead she just looked more confused.
Zeftx walked in again from the same door. In one hand he carried a small collection of mismatched candles burnt to different lengths, and in the other he held the handles of three mugs gripped tightly together.
Jade took the candles from him to light and place around the room while he distributed the mugs where each of them sat. Lara glanced curiously inside her mug at the mystery drink. Again she was given water and drank it placidly as they continued to talk.
“You want to go home to Barley Bale, don’t you dear?” Jade asked Lara as she looked pointedly at Zeftx. Shifting her gaze excitedly to look at Lara, she couldn’t resist adding, “may I come too?”
“Um, It’s Darby Dale,” Lara corrected with a slight frown. She looked at Zeftx, wanting to add him to the conversation. “I know you’re not a ghost,” she began. Jade for once looked curiously at Lara as if questioning her sanity. “Even still, Zeftx do you think you can help me?” Lara asked. He didn’t answer her question, he just sat there dreamily while his rainbow eyes were swirling their wild colors around, setting her mind to a kaleidoscope. “Zeftx,” she repeated once again for his benefit, “can you help me?”
“What?” He asked, snapping out of his trance. Lara sighed and Jade repeated the question once more to him, but instead of asking if he could, it came out rather if he would. After a long puzzled stare, he shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose so, but right now it’s getting dark. Jade will you handle the door; I’ll lock the windows and close the shutters.” Confused, Lara sat in place and watched as Jade and Zeftx locked and secured the hut. They rejoined her on the rug and Zeftx blew out the candles. The room fell into complete darkness and Jade grabbed Lara’s hand tightly.
“Hey!” Lara exclaimed, but was immediately shushed. “What’s going on?” She lowered her voice to a whisper. Jade and Zeftx both retreated into silence. A sense of foreboding crept down her spine that had nothing to do with her companions in the room.
They sat in expectant silence for a while and fear continued to rise in Lara’s mind. What were they doing? Hiding? What were they hiding from and what was going to happen? Lara didn’t have to wait much longer for answers. A deafening roar was growing in the distance and coming closer. Jade squeezed Lara’s hand tighter and leaned over in the darkness to whisper to her, “I told you, when the gargoyles come to do their kidnapping…” her words trail off as the sound of the gargoyles approach overcame all other noises.
It was overpowering to listen to, Lara felt like her ears would start bleeding and she knew they were surrounded but not in the logical way. When the noise had started from a distance she feared an army of gargoyles running through the forest like an unstoppable force, but now that they were upon them, she realized her one misinterpretation. They weren’t running, they were flying! Overhead the frightening voices of hundreds of gargoyles bellowed in haughty tones.
A heart-sinking thud sounded on the roof of the old hut as one of the beasts landed. Lara sucked in a lung full of air to scream but Zeftx’s hand covered her mouth and restrained her. Eyes wide in the dark; Lara could feel her own frantic pulse and in the back corner of her mind it reminded her very much of what Zeftx’s pulse felt like. She tried to focus on that stray thought instead of their impending demise.
The secon
ds ticked by in slow motion until eventually the gargoyles seemed convinced that the old hut was abandoned and moved on. Jade relit the candles and silently ushered everyone to bed. All of the time Lara had spent indoors she’d stayed in the entrance room with the vintage rug, so as she was led through the hut Lara discovered the door Zeftx and Jade kept entering from led to a small kitchen.
In the kitchen herbs were hanging from a central beam along the ceiling rafters. Running parallel beneath the beam was a rectangular center island countertop. Pushed back against the far wall under the singular window was a small square table with two place settings of simple wooden dishes and clay mugs accompanied by matching chairs. In the very corner of the room was a sink and spout. Attached to the spout was a lever to pump water from the well bellow.
Branching off each side of the cozy little kitchen was a small and simple bedroom. Jade nodded to Zeftx and he took his candle and walked to the bedroom on the right. Jade led Lara to the one on the left. Inside the bedroom door Lara could see an inviting canopy bed with roses carved into the four posts. At the end of the bed was a small waist high dresser with three drawers on the left and right. In the corner of the little bedroom was a small arched doorway leading to another room barely large enough for the claw foot bathtub and toilet that it housed.
Jade placed the candle on top of the dresser and pulled back the homemade quilt that lay on the bed. She motioned for Lara to get in. Lara happily obeyed, being extremely tired from a very strange and very long day. Jade blew out the candle, walked around to the other side of the bed, climbed in next to Lara and they both were asleep within minutes.
CHAPTER 4
Zeftx had woke early before sunrise, and at dawn crept into the girls’ room to wake Jade. After slipping into the dark room without making a sound, he started tiptoeing toward Jade’s side of the bed. However, before he could successfully wake her he became helplessly mesmerized by Lara’s sleeping form.
Being a demon, he could see as clearly in the dark as Jade could during the day. He stared at Lara, seeing how her petite figure made the slightest impression in the quilts. Her long shiny mahogany hair laid tumbling around her shoulders and against her pillow like a halo. He was froze in place by her smooth rose-gold complexion, thin pouty lips turned up at the corners in a secret smile, and long eyelashes hiding the most vibrant green eyes he had ever seen.
Before he could pull himself together, Jade had already become aware of his aura and awakened on her own. She cleared her throat and his eyes snapped in her direction. After a few blinks, Zeftx whispered for Jade to join him in the kitchen. Lara continued sleeping undisturbed in the canopy bed as he turned away from the room.
“Where did you find her?” Zeftx asked Jade in the kitchen.
“On my way back from gathering, Lara found me. She was lost in the middle of nowhere,” Jade answered following a sip of tea. Jade had made tea for the three of them after boiling water in her Zuni style outdoor oven, made from clay and stone and located around the back of the hut. Lara wasn’t up to enjoy hers yet.
“So odd, that I didn’t see her until she surprised me with a tap on the shoulder. Then she said excuse me ma’am, but where are we? Flying Frogs! I nearly jumped out of my skin.” Jade chuckled quietly. “What are you? I asked her. I’m Lara, she told me, and so I said; what’s a Lara?” Jade went on. Zeftx stared into his tea, deep in thought.
“How far from here?” He wanted to know.
Jade squinted one eye shut as if trying to recount the time in her head. “Let me think,” she answered. “The next thing she said was, my name is Lara. I was really confused, Zeftx. This Lara just popped out of nowhere. I couldn’t tell up from down or remember which direction I was headed. I think we passed the same fork in the path…I don’t know how many times. She’s something special. I’ve never met a mortal before and very few creatures believe they exist. I believed, and just look who found me!” She chuckled again and sipped her tea some more.
Zeftx was content for the moment with her answers and drained his mug completely. He wanted to know more about the fork in the path, but before he could ask, Jade held up her hand and he held his silence.
After a second of concentrating, she smiled and dropped her hand. “She’s awake,” Jade stated and finished off her own mug of tea. Zeftx was glad Jade could read and sense aura’s so well. He would have been deeply embarrassed if Lara had come in on them talking about her.
Almost as embarrassed as I’d been last night telling her about my species, he thought. There was a certain stigma that came with being a demon, though it was justified by the typical behavior of his species, he wasn’t at all comfortable with it. He took Jade’s mug from her and carried hers and his own to the sink in the corner under the pump to wash.
Slowly Lara entered the kitchen with her eyes squinting from the morning sun pouring through the jungle trees and entering the single window. Jade smiled and handed her a mug of tea.
Lara smelled the tea, breathing in the fresh scent, and stared at it hard. Would her mother totally freak out if she decided to drink it? If she didn’t know what was in the drink, could she be sure it was safe? She hadn’t shown much trust the night before when she refused the food and only accepted the two mugs full of water.
Lara looked at the basket of flat bread on the island counter next to where she stood. A tiny jar with a hand written label on the cap reading honey was placed next to it. Her stomach twisted in on itself, knotted and empty. Jade and Zeftx had both eaten the night before so it was safe to say the food wasn’t tampered with. Considering that, and the fact that they had brought her into their home without knowing her any better than she knew them, Lara realized they had trusted her. They weren’t obligated to help her but they were doing it anyway. She felt grateful.
Having made up her mind, Lara drank the tea happily and felt instantly relaxed from head to toe. Looking up from her mug she caught the gypsy and demon trading glances. Don’t think of them like that, Lara scolded herself, they have names. Both sets of eyes turned her way and she smiled her appreciation.
“Good morning Jade, Zeftx,” she greeted them, making sure to use their names and felt better when she did. Jade gave her a warm smile before excusing herself politely to wash up. Lara watched her as she slipped through the bedroom door.
“Good morning Lara, I hope you slept well,” came Zeftx belated reply. Lara refocused her gaze on her present company and suddenly her breath caught in her throat.
Zeftx’s tall and lean figure was outlined by the sunshine that poured in the window as he stood in front of it. His eyes were deep and full of gentle tones and his smile was just so warm and stunning. Wow, Lara thought in awe, how could one guy be so unbelievably attractive?
He was like the hot senior in high school and right now Lara was feeling a lot like the moonstruck little freshman gaping at him. He had the most captivating eyes she had ever seen. They shimmered in an array of colors that seemed to expose a depth of thoughts within him. It was almost impossible to look at a guy this beautiful and believe he is a demon.
“How, um… late is it? Did I sleep in?” She forced herself to form words. She didn’t want to stare like a complete dimwit so she had to think of something to say but that also made sense and wasn’t totally random either. He shook his head slightly to indicate that she had not as he pulled out a chair for her. She took it while he sat on the other side.
Seated, he handed her a baby papaya. Lara wondered how she’d failed to notice where he got it from or how long he’d been holding it but rather than question him about it she gladly accepted the small fruit and ate it hungrily.
CHAPTER 5
“So how did you and Jade meet?” Lara asked after eating the fruit. Like a magician finding a quarter behind someone’s ear, Zeftx produced another baby papaya and handed it to her. She smiled and bit into it, savoring the peach tasting flavor.
“Well, seven years ago the demons went to war with the witches,” Zeftx began, watching clos
ely for her reaction to the word demon. This time she didn’t even blink and so he continued. “I was young, only twelve years old and my parents didn’t want me involved but the demonic populous would have forced me into battle anyway.”
“As it were, my parents didn’t want anything to do with the war but demonic decree was forcing them and there was no way they could avoid it. So, for my sake they wandered around the vast forest of Emmitaenu until they found a traveling gypsy woman to watch over me and keep me hidden and safe.”
“The gypsy was Jade, only thirty-five years in age and still at her prime enjoying her freedom but she had a kind heart and was willing to help. She took me in and cared for me like I was family. She taught me many new things which probably make me the only demon who can name hundreds of herbs and spices, tell you their symbolic properties, and use them to their best advantages. The tea you are drinking now is made with herbs to calm and comfort,” Zeftx explained. “Jade made it for us. She and I already had ours.”
Lara stared into her mug and nodded. Yes, she had felt immediately comforted as soon as she had sipped the brew. It was amazing how Jade used the herbs to their advantage. Zeftx’s story was also amazing but sad at the same time. Lara wanted to ask so many questions but she was afraid they were too personal. She wondered where his parents were now, who won the war, and what started it in the first place?
Discovery the Forest of Emmitaenu Page 2