“So, what about your parents?” she asked at length, spinning away from a particularly quick attack.
“Huh?” asked Andrew, too busy concentrating on fighting to comprehend the concept of questions.
“Your parents,” she repeated. “I told you about mine, so I think it’s only fair that you return the favor. Since I appear to be stuck with you, I think I ought to know where you come from, after all.”
“Oh,” said Andrew, barely blocking a blow that would have sliced through his leg. “My dad’s a scientist.”
“Makes sense,” said she. “I had a feeling he wasn’t going to be a soldier. What’s his field?”
“He – doesn’t have one,” Andrew admitted, between blows. “He makes interesting discoveries wherever he studies, but doesn’t like to be constrained.” He nearly lost an arm this time, but again managed to block her blow. Was she trying to kill him with distraction?
No, she was trying to teach him how to fight despite distraction.
“His name is Dr. Theodore Stevenson if you’ve ever heard of him,” Andrew finished.
Her sword actually paused mid-swing (thus proving how much control she had over her blade at all times). “Who?”
“Dr. Theodore Stevenson,” Andrew repeated. “I know not many people have heard of him, but…”
“You wouldn’t happen to have a cousin named Rhoda Allens?” she asked.
It was Andrew’s turn to be surprised. “Well, yes, how’d you know?”
“Because she’s my other best friend.” Her face was unreadable, but her voice was thicker. She was clearly upset by this revelation. “Her parents are the other co-owners. They teach track and swimming. Our parents use your dad’s website as our science curriculum.”
Andrew swallowed. “So, you mean…”
“We aren’t two random strangers,” she spat out, her sword suddenly flying towards him. He barely blocked the blow. “We’re two strangers with connections.” Her eyes narrowed even further as she sent another blow his direction. “And, crazy thing is, had it not been for our impromptu trip here, we would have met that very day.”
Andrew nearly missed that blow as he processed the implications of that. Now that she mentioned it, he had thought her somewhat familiar. He and Rhoda kept in contact, so he knew about her friends. So, this was Clara. The dynamite in a tiny package. How hadn’t he already guessed?
At that moment, his sword was knocked from his hand and he again found himself on his back on the ground.
He put up both hands. “Ah, let me guess,” he said, “I need to work harder on paying attention.”
“Perhaps. No more talking and fighting at the same time for you,” she said. She was quiet for several seconds more, her sword against his throat, a look in her eye that made him almost fear for his life. At length, she withdrew the sword and sheathed it. “That’s enough for now,” she decided. “I wonder what those people are fixing for lunch.”
Andrew climbed to his feet. “You want to know something weird?”
She spun back around, one eyebrow raised. “I’m not sure how much weirder we can get, but feel free.”
Noting that she probably didn’t want him to beat around the bush, he jumped right to it. “About a year ago, I received an email from Rhoda, where she told me that I’d better get into shape or else my girlfriend would kill me in a swordfight.”
The eyebrow flickered a moment, then both pulled down in a frown. “I’ll raise it one weirder since I happen to know about that email. It wasn’t Rhoda’s idea, it was Kath’s. Rhoda was showing us pictures of you and your brothers – Parker’s cute, by the way – and Kath told her to tell you that.”
“Oh,” said Andrew, not sure how, exactly, it made things weirder, though he might as well take her word for it.
“Kath has been teasing me about redheads in general for the past year,” she continued, folding her arms over her chest. “I have no idea what brought it on, because I can assure you it was nothing I said. However, whenever she picks someone specific to tease me about, nine times out of ten, it’s you.”
And with that, she spun around and marched off.
Andrew almost followed her, but first of all, she was upset and very dangerous, and secondly, she had pretty much told him that cleaning up the arrows scattered about the tree line was his job. Further conversation with her would have to, and had better, wait. Perhaps after she’d had time to think about it overnight, she’d be willing to be nice again.
But it was rather weird, her friend having paired them together for no apparent reason.
Chapter 4
It hadn’t been enough for the Fire Prince to be a redhead – he had to go and be Rhoda’s cousin. Clara had to admit, to herself, that it was kinda nice that he wasn’t a total stranger after all, but there was the Kath issue. She hated the idea of Kath being right about this sort of thing. She wanted to be able to make her own choices about her love life, down to when she was going to start it, but it seemed with every day that went by, she had less and less control.
The Fire Prince kept his distance. She was truly grateful that he respected her desire to keep their relationship to a minimum. If he had been a pushy kind of guy, well, she honestly had no idea what she would have done, beyond the fact that it would have involved some level of fit-throwing.
He couldn’t find a way into the mountain, any more than she could, so the two of them spent a lot of time improving his skill with weapons. He actually wasn’t half-bad, and he got better every day. She was a good teacher, after all, even when she didn’t like her student.
The fact that the mountain was still impenetrable even though he was finally here annoyed her more than anything else. She understood that it wasn’t an easy thing – that it had only been accomplished once in the entire thousand years of Klarand’s history – but she still didn’t like being stuck waiting for things to happen.
One morning, she woke up at her normal time, got dressed in one of the dress and legging sets that Jill Anna had made for her, and headed outside for her morning run.
As she passed the campfire, she found the Fire Prince already awake, dressed, and drinking something out of a Pikes Peak mug. She frowned. While he wasn’t the sort of guy to sleep in, he didn’t wake up as early as she did.
So, she did the only logical thing. She stalked over and plopped herself down on the other side of the fire.
“Beautiful morning, isn’t it?” she asked.
He started in surprise and looked up at her, blinking slowly. “I guess so,” he admitted.
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the mug.
He glanced down and stared at the brown liquid as he swirled it around inside. “Hot chocolate,” he said, at length.
“Hot Chocolate?” she repeated.
He nodded. “Want some?”
“If you’re offering, sure. I haven’t had anything except tea and hot pomella cider since I came to Klarand,” said Clara. “The stuff may be good, but there are days when only chocolate will do.”
Something akin to a grin pulled at one corner of his mouth as he set his mug to the side and dug into his backpack to find another mug and a package of chocolate powder. He poured in some water from the kettle hanging over the fire.
“Oh, no marshmallows,” she interrupted, as he pulled out a bag of white lumps.
He blinked again, then put them back and pulled out a plastic spoon instead. Sliding that inside, he handed it over to Clara.
“They’re made out of fake sugar,” she explained, as she stirred. “I don’t have any arguments with sugar itself, but when they fake it, I don’t like it.”
Andrew snorted, and a grin pulled at one corner of his mouth. “Ever heard of Dihydrogen Monoxide?”
Clara blinked and shook her head. “No, can’t say that I have,” she admitted. “Not off the top of my head, at least. Car exhaust fumes are Carbon Monoxide.”
“Dihydrogen Monoxide is found in almost everything,” he continued. “In our
world, at least, I’m not sure I can say the same thing about Rizkaland since this world seems to work differently. However, it’s some pretty dangerous stuff.”
She raised an eyebrow. He had a habit of coming up with strange science facts at the oddest times. It was amusing. “How so?” she asked.
“Well, for one, in its liquid state, you can find it in all cancerous cells,” he began. “In its gaseous state, it can cause some pretty serious burns – I’ve done it to myself several times. When solid, it’s been known to make even grown men lose their sense of balance and fall.”
Clara flickered an eyebrow, curious despite herself. “All right, what’s the catch? You said that it’s in everything, so why isn’t anyone doing anything about it? Or is it the secret behind why humans don’t live forever? Government conspiracy and all that.”
“No, actually it’s quite necessary to survival,” the Fire Prince contradicted. “You didn’t ask its common name.”
“Shoot.”
“Water.”
She laughed and shook her head. “You nearly had me that time, Andrew. Water indeed.” She squinted at the kettle boiling over the fire. “I wonder how similar their water is to ours. I mean, blue water seems to function mostly the same as our own, but with the other colors, it starts going crazy.”
He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know,” he admitted. “I found a book that said why the leaves weren’t green in Abraham’s library, but I never found a molecular dissertation on the water. Uses, yes, but not the make-up.”
“Interesting,” said Clara, taking a sip of the hot chocolate. “You know, Klarand may be able to lay claim to some delicious flavors, but chocolate is one it certainly lacks.” She gave it a long sniff. “I won’t be the last to admit to a woman’s fascination with it.”
He laughed. “One of the hazards of traveling between worlds. You lose access to your favorite foods.”
“So, what are you doing awake at this hour?” she asked, deciding it was time to get back onto topic. “Because I’m used to being the only one up.”
His gaze became distant again as he took another sip of his hot chocolate. “I had a strange dream last night,” he admitted.
“Was it a nightmare?” she asked, leaning forward and resting her chin on her fist.
He shook his head. “No, not a nightmare, it was … well, it’s hard to explain. I was standing at the top of the Mountain … no, not the top, but I was pretty high up. And it was all glowing and sparkly, and then a, well, I’m not sure how to describe him. He was a bit like a griffon, but all four legs were those of a lion, though his head and wings were eagle’s. And he was solid white, save for rainbow flight feathers on his wings, and I think it was a lamb’s wool covering his body.”
“Alphego,” Clara breathed. She’d read enough of the legends to have seen a few descriptions of Him.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I think it was Him. Anyways, He looked at me long and hard, and finally, He spoke … no. I don’t think he actually said anything, but I heard the words just the same.”
“What’d he say?” asked Clara.
“A riddle, I think,” said the Fire Prince. “Wake early in the morning bright//And see the mountain glow with light.”
“You’ve certainly done the wake early part,” Clara pointed out. “But I’ve been up at this hour every morning and have never seen the mountain glow.”
He shrugged. “It was a dream,” he pointed out. “I’m not sure that it necessarily has to mean something.”
Clara sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Still, it might be something to go on, and I can’t say that I stare at the mountain the whole morning so…” She glanced up towards the mountain, and her eyes went wide. “But soft! What light on yonder mountain breaks?”
He spun around towards the mountain, where a small ledge, about a hundred feet above them, sparkled and shown in the morning sun. “Yeah,” he said, slowly standing up. “Exactly like that.”
Clara set down her own now-empty mug and skirted around the fire to see the mountain better. “So, what do we do now? The mountain glows, but what are we going to do with it?”
“I think we need to get up there,” said the Fire Prince. “I have no idea what it is, but we need to get up there.”
Here, at last, were answers, a way into the Mountain. A thrill of excitement ran through Clara, and without thinking, she threw her arms around the Fire Prince’s chest.
He drew back, raising both hands uncomfortably. Realizing whom she was hugging, she drew back as well, folding her arms over her chest. “That was an ‘I’m glad we’re finally headed somewhere,’ hug, not an ‘I like you’ hug, by the way,” she pointed out.
“Ah. Thanks for the … clarification.”
Andrew watched the Water Princess scamper off to tell everyone about the new development. He debated following her, but after that outburst of hers he wasn’t sure it was safe, so instead, he headed towards the cliff itself to get a better look. The glimmer died barely a minute after it started, and Andrew was very curious as to what caused it.
The others soon joined him, and he had to relate his dream again and get confirmation that it was, indeed, Alphego who had visited him. Then the Water Princess excitedly recounted how they’d seen the mountain light up, and that their way through just had to be up there.
“I see only one problem with your discovery,” said Abraham, at length. “While I have no doubt that our answer lies at the top of this mountain, there is no man alive who could climb this sheer cliff.”
“I could,” the Water Princess spoke up, without hesitation.
Abraham turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “Truly? How so? I fear the only reason that Klora and Lina penetrated the mountain in their legend was the fact that they had the Doorkeeper with them.”
“Well, we’d need the proper equipment,” Andrew put in. “But it just so happens that my brothers and I had gone rock climbing a few days before I fell through the Firefall, and I still have the equipment in my backpack.”
“I have some equipment that I found in that room where they stashed all the stuff that comes from other worlds,” the Water Princess added. “I’ve done it plenty of times.” She glanced towards Andrew. “But I’m glad to hear that you have some as well. It’s just not safe to go alone.”
“Well, that covers the two of you,” said Jakob, “but what about the rest of us?”
This actually rendered the Water Princess silent for a moment.
“I’m not exactly certain that the rest of you are necessary for this trip,” Andrew admitted. “I mean, I’d like for you to come with us, but I don’t know. Clara and I will climb up there and see what the flashy light is, but if we’re not down by tomorrow night, return to the Upper Kastle and wait for whatever happens next.”
“Fair enough,” said Abraham.
“There’s no time like the present,” said Clara. “Andrew, we might as well pack food and water and whatever else we might need for however long we might be in that mountain.”
“Good idea,” Andrew agreed. The crowd broke up as the pair headed off to get their things. Good-byes were said in case Andrew and the Water Princess did not come back down, and then they met back at the base of the mountain.
“Nothing for it,” Andrew announced.
She turned to him with an arched eyebrow. “What, are you scared, Fire Prince?”
“No, just more used to going down than up,” Andrew returned.
She snorted. “The trick is to not look down.”
It was nearly nightfall before they made it to the ledge Andrew had seen in his dream. The Water Princess, who had always been a step ahead of him the whole climb, hauled herself up and then held out a hand to help Andrew.
“Thank you,” he said, as he joined her.
“I didn’t want you to fall,” she informed him.
“Ah, well, I appreciate the sentiment.”
“Now what?” she demanded, getting away from the edge. “We’
re up here, and there doesn’t appear to be any new sort of way in. No caves or anything, just rocks.”
“I honestly don’t know,” Andrew admitted. “I just know that the mountain glows in the morning and that we needed to be up here for it. Maybe we’ll have to spend the night up here.”
“Oh, that’s lovely, just lovely,” she spat, clearly not happy with the idea. “Sleep up here? Have you any idea how dangerous that is?”
“Would you have rather climbed this mountain in the dark?” Andrew pointed out. “Somehow, I think that would have been even worse. At least we don’t have to worry about enemies from up here.”
“How about birds?” she pointed out. “And may I point out that Amber can turn herself into a dragon – one with wings.”
Andrew sighed. “Look…”
“Shut up.”
Chapter 5
Clara wasn’t sure how she managed to sleep that night, with the proper ground a hundred feet below her, but she did, somehow. It wasn’t the most restful sleep she had ever had, however, and she woke up with the sun.
Usually, here in Klarand, she was slightly behind the sun.
The mountain wall behind her wasn’t glowing yet. She wanted nothing more than to be back down on the ground – or actually inside the mountain. Picking up the nearest rock at hand, she was about to throw it as hard as she could, until she realized that she was holding a diamond, cut as though it had come from a jewelry store.
She turned towards the wall behind her and saw it for the first time in the light. It was a gorgeous pattern of more diamonds embedded into the rock, and about half of them were missing, though their holes remained.
Clara glanced at the one she still held, then on a whim and because she had nothing else to do, decided to see if she could figure out where it had come from. It was one of the larger diamonds, so she tried to squeeze it into any hole of similar size.
She gasped as she held it up to one hole and it literally jumped out of her hand and into it. Not believing her own eyes, she bent down and grabbed another diamond. Like the first, it leaped out of her hand as soon as it touched the hole it belonged to.
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