by M. Street
“How did you do that?” My curiosity remained lit despite the hours of grueling training. Generating a defensive shell was the easy part. Holding and manipulating it was more challenging than playing spicy, soulful saxophone. I could deflect and scatter a fully charged fast-pitched bolt from Safe, but it always resulted in my shield collapsing. We practiced until the sun began to rain, marking the end of another day at otherworldly university.
The tall trees quieted for the night, exposing our secluded arena to the tuneful concerts in the star-filled sky. Dev had been sitting on the edge of the bamboo forest waiting and watching for us for the last hour. His whiskers twitched like thick needle antennas, thirsty for signals.
I followed Safe to the ground. “One more exercise for today.” He spoke like a coach.
“Dev,” Safe called out. The huge black-and-white sabertooth adorned in sparkling silver sprang forward, blurring into fast-strutting Dev. “Did you pick up any activity?”
“All clear,” Dev answered while watching me.
“No place is secure until your mask is complete and the traitor has been neutralized. Multiple leaps could be required to make a clean getaway. Leaping is like a muscle. The stamina can be built. I pack five back-to-back before the leap lag grounds me. Esther could do seven. The record—held by Eli, of course—is eleven.” The importance of ranks and limits sadly carried over to the mature world.
Dev came and stood next me. His silver ran fast after the absence. Our auras interlaced, causing us to briefly blush. It didn’t matter the shortness of our separation—I always missed him.
“Every day we will work on your stamina until you are able to successively leap at least twice without being winded. Pick a remote location that you have leapt to before,” Safe directed.
The redwoods instantly popped into my head. Like a nest to a homing pigeon, the giant conifers called out to me. “The California highway one redwoods,” I said. The baobabs were no doubt under patrol. “Or Norfolk Island.” The funky trees with bubbling teal auras had made a notable impression.
“Very good,” Safe said, showing more eyes and teeth. Speckles of light ponged back and forth around his head and halo. “Are you up for leaping to Norfolk Island and returning after sixty seconds? You’ve had a long day and have spent much light.”
“You need downtime,” Dev said.
“Let’s see what I can do,” I said, taking a story-sized step backward into the air. Dev stained red while Safe dressed in a cheerful yellow. I expanded my ribcage, taking in a monster breath for the airless travel. Swirling rivers of light spun around me, growing dense. My amplitude multiplied under Safe’s training, but I was still green.
Flexing my focus for landing, I raised my left arm. Opening a portal behind time, I flew up into a blistering fall. Splashing into total whiteness, I held my light, passing through the realm of no time. The island in the Tasman Sea came at me fast from below. I broke perfectly, striking down in a grassy valley near the ocean. Huffing, I dusted away the leap mists.
A ring of Norfolk pines auras curved around me. Just like I remembered, they gurgled blankets of green-blue shadows into the sky from their spiky fingers. The orange spirit of the ocean crashing on the sandy shore in the late evening sun shower was indeed reverent. Drinking in energy from the giving trees and sea roused my soul in a wonderful way. Like a maestro, I conducted a symphony of light.
Adhering to Safe’s instructions, I launched into the air opening a leap point. I held my light tight, racing faster than light back to the islands of Japan. I set down with seismic force to show off. My breath matched that of a champion sprinter. Although leap lag was settling throughout my body, I was chomping at the bit to do it again. No one had to tell me to push myself. Survival instincts pressed me into the extra rep. I snapped my fingers, vaporizing the leap mists. Dev and Safe hailed good, bright tidings of relief.
I stepped back into air, formulating thoughts of giant redwoods with minty green auras spiraling to the sky.
“Piper, wait,” Dev said taking swift strides toward me. “Once is enough.”
I wrapped him in swaddling light, hoisting him off the ground. Besides wanting to push my limits, leaping with Dev needed to be second nature anyway. Safe’s eyes opened wide enough to expose white all the way around his dark key-lime-lit irises. Before opposition could be magnified, I slung Dev close, opening a leap point. We zoomed up into the cascading pink tunnel of time.
The intense day combined with the extra concentration to ferry Dev strained my proficiency more than I could have expected. Like a failed last push, the surprising weight of my instant fatigue shutdown my precise navigation. I lost the capability to piolet the roaring auras just shy of the slinking California coastline. Not being able to process the terrain in time, I diverted our nanosecond descent, preparing to abort.
16
Having a Breakdown
W
ithout having the quickness to disseminate a clear landing amidst the smoldering mint and strawberry auras of the redwoods, I diverted us to the wiggly line where the water and land held hands. I slammed into the surf, punching a seven-foot-deep crater into the shore. My impact melted the sand, transforming the surface of the pit into smooth rivers of glass. Shoots of steam billowed far into the sky. Faster than a cat’s reflex, I cast a pool of sky blue light catching Dev’s hypersonic dive.
Although I was drained, my heart pounded. I alternated hiccupping and gasping, looking up at Dev draped in spectrums of red.
“I might …” My uncontrolled attempt to catch my breath made it impossible to talk or not feel stupid. “… have …” I swallowed, attempting to lose my hiccups. “…overextended myself.”
My aura drank in the Pacific’s spirit in pace with my pulse, causing vortexes of orange spirals all around me. Seeing the giant redwoods’ minty green auras streaming into the sky kept my spirit from sinking.
“Piper you promised to not act impulsively!” Dev’s color saturated further, absorbing light from all around him. He was really mad.
“I’m sorry. I was feeling really strong and then wham, I wasn’t,” I tried to explain. My wanting to be better had clouded my judgment.
“Stay put,” Dev said. The high tide waves crashed in, parting around our legs and feet. He reached into his vest, pulling out his crystal communicator, briefly turning it on. Before I could cough out more of my justification, Safe walloped down, pitting the water and sand. He evaporated the leap mists revealing his angst-ridden face and sunburned platinum. His scorching disappointment further sank my fast-standing heart.
“My lady,” Safe said formally, laboring from the leap. “Are you alright?” The foamy surf swirled into the massive glass bowl in the sand.
“Yeah …” The joint disapproval from Dev and Safe lit my defiant side. “I pushed myself to become stronger. I didn’t know my banks would empty all at once.” My sheen weakly frayed to shades of roasted orange under the starry early morning as I prepared to defend myself.
“See you in Japan,” Dev said, knocking me off balance.
“What?” I blurted out, lowering my gloves.
“What?” Dev repeated with an uncomfortable force. My once pet cat copped real attitude. “Because it’s not safe here and you are not capable of even leaping yourself back. If Olo leaps us both he will be too spent to protect you.” He stated forcefully. The legitimate reasons tied me in knots, quieting my formulating rebuttals. Dev hopped over the first couple of waves, walking away on the water.
“Wait!” I yelled, already pitted by thoughts of emptiness. Ignoring my plea, Dev launched forward, blasting into the black-and-white sabertooth. He screamed out to sea, creating a sonic boom. The resulting rumble bounced off my face, rippling the orange tide. It didn’t take long for my twinkling silver star to sink beneath the watery horizon.
“We need to leave,” Safe said rising into the sky, holstering me in light. Like riding shotgun after getting my driver’s license, it was strange to be carried after leapi
ng myself. The feeling of being ferried coupled with the towering redwood auras reminded me of Mom. Like gravity, her life force and a subsequent missing were always with me. Before I lost myself in all that was wrong, we blurred upward into a leap.
We landed hard in Japan, shielded by the aqua auras of the bamboo forest. “Please mask, my lady,” Safe said rhythmically, taking a quick breath between every word. He put in his diamond earring. He dampened into a sun-filled cloud, extinguishing his colorful agitation. I put on my makeshift necklace without word. As soon as the gems touched my skin, my pearl burst into a turquoise shade, matching the ceiling of wobbling light. The bamboo camouflaged me better than a tulip-tree beauty moth on an oak trunk.
Touching the coarse-wound leather Dev had crafted plunged me into moping. If anything happened to him, it would be my fault. My stomach soured and my head hurt. The emeralds and pearls fought my building woe, but my heart was stronger. The air around us charged, protruding the blue bamboo auras into a marmalade evening sky. Snapping out of my rapid descent, I centered myself, submitting to the resonances of my mask.
“The gems alone are not capable of shadowing your light. More than ever, we need the ivory to complete your mask,” Safe said with uncharacteristic urgency. “Your capacity is outpacing your wisdom.” The tone in his comment stuck like a spitball. If not for my heart churning over Dev, my pestering feelings of insufficiency would have spurned a heated debate. My little red fox friend, Merlin, trotted out of a quartet of bamboo trees. His ears pointed back, beaming happy sunshine to see me.
Safe slouched, recovering from leaping with my extra load. Preoccupied, I slowly spun up in the air. The only thing on my mind was Dev. I dilated my eyes, making the world go bright and fuzzy. I reached west over the Pacific for his life force. I focused all my senses, scrutinizing for his silver. Grasping nothing felt like a missed step, slipping off a steep sill. Only the shrouded murmur of his distant heart in sync with mine kept me together.
“I can’t feel Dev,” I said to Safe, coming to a skittish rest on the ground. Merlin yipped, jumping around on his hind legs. The little guy picked up my angst.
“He must be masked,” Safe huffed, sitting on the ground. He looked up at me, shaking his head. “Morton’s fork,” he said, putting his hand on his chin like a toiled thinker.
The uncommon description caught my attention. “Morton’s fork?” I asked in a higher pitch, happy to sit down.
“Like a rock and a hard place,” Safe clarified. He maintained sharp posture. “The rock being Eli and his forces hunting us.” He grimaced, focusing his attention on me. “The hard place being you, an immature Guardian princess far too young for the crown.”
The second unflattering remark tipped and loaded my moody scale. I didn’t wait for a third. “Is this about the leap?” I asked cuttingly. Despite the gnawing of the gems, red bled through my blue. “Do you think I ran out of steam on purpose?”
Safe’s empty expression to my question added fire.
“I’m doing the best I can. I have no clue what to do! I don’t even know what to ask.” My words flew with force. Any attempt to do what I thought was right always came with scarlet disapproval from everyone.
“I didn’t wake up asking for any of this. It just happened.” Everything familiar was so far away. There was no chance for routine or reason. Playing tennis, practicing my bass, and waitressing seemed like lightyears ago. “I lost another mom. Charlie is off-limits and alone with Rob. The more time I spend apart from him the more I think it’s impossible for me to stay away.”
Safe tightened his lips into lines, holding back his objection.
“I can’t do what you want me to do. I’m not that girl.” Worked up, I oscillated between crying and screaming. “I can’t pick up the phone and call Lisa. She would freak out because none of this is believable. Plus, it would probably get her killed!”
More of my cultivated hurt churned out without resistance. “There is no direction when right eventually becomes left and up keeps flipping with down. My love is looked upon like some kind of freak show. I have no predecessors. There is no book to read. No one, including myself, knows what I am capable of. Meanwhile, I keep breaking rules without trying.”
I didn’t know if it was the tenor in my tone or my amplified feelings coasting over the gems, but Safe caught my heart, which knocked him into neutral. Despite unloading my troubles, I still felt weighted.
“People are trying hard to kill me. I’m forced to mortally defend myself and the ones that I love. Taking life makes me physically ill for days, regardless of the reason. Nothing is easy, and I don’t know who to trust.” I paused with my eyes fixed into his. The leather around my neck smoked.
“I don’t know how to fully control myself yet. I have strange sensations all the time. My body is in a constant flux, aging back and forth like a yo-yo. New ears and eyes open on a daily basis. Everyone has opinions on what I should do and who I should love, but they are not me,” I said softer.
“I’m trying to figure this out too. I have to follow my heart. My intuition tells me what is right from wrong,” I said humbly, knowing I was responsible for way more than myself. “Mom told me that. I love this new world but it’s not home.” I looked around at my beautiful surroundings worthy of a folklore fairy tale. “This parallel, illuminated realm is filled with endless marvels, but is aggressive, hostile, and cold.”
I calmed, petting Merlin the fox huddled next to me. He lay on his back with belly exposed, closing his eyes. His simple and sweet energy floated me down.
“My apologies, my lady,” Safe said respectfully, but I could sense he was holding back disapproval.
The distant sounds of movement rapidly closing in mothballed the intense moment. Survival sure had a way of prioritizing problems. Safe armed, rising into the air. He arced in front of me, placing himself between me and the approaching pitter-patter. The air around us began to heat and whirl with charge.
“It’s not Dev,” I said quietly. The fast heartbeat was not in tune with mine. My red fox friend snarled, staying by my side. He yipped wildly, showing protection.
Safe turned his back toward me, taking out his earring mask. He absorbed an excessive charge from the bamboo, chambering his light.
“Prepare to leap,” he whispered, gearing up for battle.
17
The Glorious Results of a Broken Rule
S
pokes of sparks swirled around Safe, crackling the air as though it were filled with shorting fuses. The unannounced pussyfooting cautiously approaching had shifted gears into a pounding and thunderous stampede. I slipped off the gems, skipping into the air, preparing to leap. My uncloaked sense went off like high noon in a cuckoo clock store. A sweet cinnamon mulch scent carried in the wind, voicing through the bamboo reeds. The identity of the masked mature who had somehow found out where we were hiding conducted like electricity riding over water.
“Hold up!” The words left my mouth at the same time Safe concocted a lethal charge. Nebulas of light exploded like TNT around his right hand, building unstable potential. I felt his torrential, fearless protection. He kicked the trigger, taking no chances. I dove, not concerned about slamming into the earth. Twisting, I slid below Safe, plowing through the ground. Thick bamboo roots snapped with the force and fury of lightning strikes. As fast as my neurons could fire, I slammed to a stop, blasting a dense shield of globous light between the not-so-friendly fire discharged from Safe and the creaking bamboo parting behind me.
The fatal bolt of light impacted my firewall. Clenching my teeth, I diverted the entire charge into the surroundings. Unlike in training, real life focused my attentiveness, bolstering the pearl shield beautiful and solid. The aqua auras of the bamboos overflowed from the charge, flashing like swerving shooting stars.
Raven, the fearless triple-sized black wolf, sailed through the parted stalks. The masked midnight color of the Canite princess’s fur matched the velvet backdrop of deep space above, rendering he
r invisible. The beast slid next to me, unfazed by the near-death experience. She positioned her muzzle over my head in a protective posture. An expansive growl rattled her teeth sounding like a full-throttled diesel chainsaw. My soul jumped all over her closeness.
I dropped the white-hot shield filling the air with an ominous hum. The thick barricade of light fizzed into the air. The ever-snarling wolf wearing her sapphire necklace stood upright, formulating into a sleek, long-legged Raven. Her cloaked copper accentuated her lovely physicality. Like drapes of corn silk, her long black hair glided down her back. She sculpted her smart face beautifully, complementing her curvy, athletic form. I sprang to my feet, leaning on gravity to stay off the ground. Safe jumped down. Although he wore no diamond in his ear, he was completely devoid of color and his light was flaccid. His otherwise animated face was still and Vampacoti-like. The closeness of Raven propped up my toiling heart.
“I could have birthed you,” Safe said to Raven, vibrating with fright.
Safe turned to me, briskly blinking his parched eyes. His color slowly returned as though it had been scared out of him. “Thank you. You saved her,” he said, echoing the seriousness of the close call.
“How did you find us?” Safe asked Raven steely, getting down to business.
Jacking a smile, Raven shifted her weight, wholly unafraid of the near miss. Her eyes scoped mine. “My lady called me.”
“What?” Once again, completely unaware, I did something I wasn’t supposed to do. I didn’t know when, what, or how I sent our location to Raven. I sighed.
Raven caught my mottled mood. Her militant eyes softened as she took my wrist, conveying her cords of sisterhood. The coarse touch was worn, but easy and warm. “The last time you thought about me, your intensity created a wave.” She turned to Safe. “No crystal needed. I felt her soul and position as clear as my father’s. I don’t know how, but we share light.” Raven towered over me. “You have the ability to hear outside your race and speak native vibrations.”