by N. I. Rojas
The noise was coming closer. To play it safe, Kyra ran as fast as she could.
“What’s that? What’s happening? Something is crushing the whole forest…” -Kyra said while running a few feet behind Mackenzie. Fear was something contagious and poisonous as a sickness.
“You tell me… What you wrote?” -Mackenzie asked in high voice, trying to be heard over the thunderous noises.
“I wrote a wolf.” -She said proudly.
“A wolf? You really wanted me dead!” -He looked at her incredulous. This Fairy Girl was no white pigeon after all! - “Write golden dagger. Fast…!” -He commanded. Kyra looked at him doubtfully.
“No way. Save yourself, bighead.” -She protested back. A sticky white substance felt over Kyra’s hair and she looked up. She screamed when she saw a huge slobbering mouth with hundreds of rotten teeth, sharpened, spiky pointed, and razor-sharp as ninja shuriken.
“Write golden dagger… now! Unless you want to be the main dish of that beast.” -Mackenzie repeated his command with more desperation. He really wanted to feed the giant aberration Kyra created with nothing other than her, but he couldn’t. Simply that way. - “Faster… Write it with my name together…”
Kyra did as she was told. She opened her notebook fast. Although it was about to fall from her hands a few times, she managed to write what she thought it was right. A sword appeared in Mackenzie’s hand. A sword so big it was hard to visualize him carrying such a huge and heavy thing. The weapon was bigger than Mackenzie; and Kyra startled when noticed the difference about what she wrote and what was created. It was excessive and pretentious. And very disobedient.
Trying to look back at the huge wolfish creature, Kyra tripped and fell to the floor. Her hands were scraped with the thorns growing at the tree roots. She tried to stand up, but she fell again, the thorns burying themselves deeper into Kyra’s sore flesh. She stumbled a few times but managed to get up, clutching the Graphylux firmly in her stinging hand. A knock took her breath away while she flew backwards. The moment passed by in slow motion.
Kyra saw Mackenzie jumping from branch to branch while the trees kept falling. His feet raised the floor as he flew high in the air trying to protect himself from the giant wolf’s attack. Kyra saw Mackenzie bravely brandishing the sword against the animal. Begging to wake up, Kyra found out that nothing favorable was going to happen. When tears started to escape her eyes, the Graphylux started to laugh insanely, proud of achieving its first goal. Mackenzie yelled when the animal scraped his clothes with its huge claws, and with a single knock sent Mackenzie flying over the top of the trees.
This time, Mackenzie ricocheted back, falling with the sword held down, and sinking it deep into the skin of the wolf. The animal grunted and a black splash shot out from the animal’s body, staining with black everything it touched. The stain started spreading out as a virus until it wasn’t enough to spread any further.
Mackenzie got off the beast’s back being careful not to walk over its teeth or claws, but he chose to do it fast, as speed has always been his best ally.
Standing in front of Kyra, he threw the sword close to her, looking at her with bitterness, thinking she deserved the pain devouring her feeble body. He started walking away from the beast… away from Kyra… away from everything.
Maybe it was time to go back home. His tree trunk should be close. Although Mackenzie couldn’t recognize this side of the forest, he didn’t felt worry, as Alter Land keeps changing, improving or just surprising him each time he travels to human’s world and returns.
Mackenzie kept walking without looking back. Full of pain all over, Kyra didn’t manage to sit up or even mutter a word of appreciation. She just stood there, lying in the floor, her mouth covered in mud and dirty leaves. The pain running all through her body was the worst thing she’d ever felt. Her head ached, and she rested there, eyes wide open, body shaking with fear, her hand holding the Graphylux tightly as it was her only link to her mother and maybe the clue to solve all this mystery.
Yes, mystery and fantasy both entangled together, just as indivisible as books and dusts, or moths and flames.
Chapter 13: The Enchanted Graphylux
Still Sunday
By the time Kyra opened her eyes again she was dangling from her unicorn's back. At that altitude, she could see everything in her path. The devastation caused by the giant wolf was perceptible from that height. Kyra looked forward as there was no reason to get caught in the painful scenery of a devastated forest. Excepting that it was her fault.
She found herself marveled, enthralled with the unicorn’s beauty. The horn was almost three feet long, and tightly twisted as a screw. Its shape reminded Kyra of a Turritella shell she found once with her father. Its magnificent white color contrasted with the unicorn's ink black body. It was a pretty thing because, even though its whiteness, it showed an inner bright, as an opal gemstone, with a playful display of colors, an ever-changing bright that was something mesmerizing to the senses. This light crystal opal-like horn was beyond Kyra's imagination. In her silly thoughts, Kyra had always seen it white, just like the teeth her father displayed all over his medical office, but she had never wandered in dreamland enough to let this exhibition of colors take life.
It was a sophisticated work of art only nature could create. Not nature, Kyra reminded herself, as she was captured in a world created with ink and dreams and human imagination. The worst thing of creation was fantasy, she thought, because it opens a path for abnormal stuff to happen. Like this world.
Kyra was angry with herself. She had lost her notebook, and her backpack was left in the small camp she made, close to the bonfire. The only thing she kept was that Graphylux, and until now it had only brought her a lot of destruction and losses. She blamed herself for all this; but what else she can do? This was all new to her, a new world, new abilities, new feelings, new losses. New worthless things.
The unicorn kept riding at rapid pace. Kyra noticed that all the pain she felt after crashing against the trees and bouncing in the floor afterwards, was just a soft discomfort. How that had happened, she didn’t know, but she was grateful for the lack of wounds in her small body. She laughed thinking that maybe all those scrapes would result in new freckle-free skin.
The lush forest was left behind, the landscape changing considerably. Now, a soft pasture was all over. Rivers with soft waves and translucent foam, trees with beautiful flowers and fruits together. Animals living in harmony. That was something amazing. Kyra’s father would have wanted to be there, to see with own eyes how magnificent this place was. He had only known of it for what Kyra’s mother had said, stories full of magic and mystery. Stories full of fantasy. All her father’s stories spoke about that. Fantasy. Kyra wanted to throw the pen deep into a cannon or give it to another beast to break it and make it a toothpick after a yummy lunch. It was that easy, just forget everything, her mother included, as she had grown without her and her father had always proven to be enough.
“I wouldn’t do it if I were you.” -Kyra looked around just in time to see a woman kneeled between flowers. Her hair was auburn, more like reddish brown, with wild curls running to below the knees. It was a soft cascade that shone under the soft daylight peering furtively between the treetops. - “That will prove you’re not smart enough, not as smart as your father thinks you are.”
Kyra patted her unicorn, which laid in the soft green grass, making way for Kyra to dismount. The animal shook gently, its silky mane caressing Kyra's face, ticking her until forcing her to sneeze a few times.
“Who are you?” -Kyra asked the woman, thinking if the unicorn was her truly dreamt pet, or just a traitor created of ink to give her in. Another traitor… like Mackenzie.
“That’s not important now. You... That’s what really matters. You’re here, in Alter Land, a mission in your hands and another plan being held behind your back. What you intend to do now?” -The woman walked to Kyra.
“I don’t know.” -Kyra answered with hone
sty. Retreating a few steps, Kyra wondered if this woman could herp her finish this mission and go back to her father.
“Let’s begin with something. You saw that huge animal you created? What was exactly what you wrote? With capital letters and everything.” -The woman asked while took a lock of Kyra’s hair and compared it to her own hair. Shooing a thought away, the woman returned to where she was kneeling.
“I wrote: Wolf chase Mackenzie- just that. Wolf and Mackenzie with capital letters, I think.” -Kyra said without understanding which was the importance on how she had written it.
“You’re making too many mistakes. You need to remember how to write correctly. You've always been a perfectionist. I'm surprised you commit such terrible mistakes.” -The woman said as if she had known Kyra for long. Kyra felt offended. What mistakes was she committing? She had just set foot in this strange place, and she’d been at risk of been killed or eaten on several occasions.
“I think she don’t know how to write correctly, if I may say…” -The Graphylux interrupted.
It talks! Kyra was not crazy after all. She could have sworn this piece of wood was as chatterbox as Mackenzie, but she swore it was just her conscience yelling back at her.
“It’s not that, wise Graphylux. It’s just that she’s not following the rules.” -The woman said convinced. She smiled with sympathy while filled her hands with flower buds and big leaves.
“What rules? Nobody gave me your instruction manual…” -With disdain, Kyra answered back at the pen.
“The writing rules! Orthography, the art of writing correctly. The rules that are taught at schools… those contained in books. It’s something obvious to end a sentence with period point, everybody does, but you didn’t.” -The Graphylux snapped back.
“The problem is if you keep making mistakes then bad things will continue happening.” -The woman’s face showed true concern.
“Yes…” -The Graphylux hissed. - “Learning is the key, creature.”
“Why you call me creature? I am a teenager and I have a name. You can use it.” -Kyra protested.
“I have a name too. Graphylux it is! But you keep calling me pen.”
“Because that’s what you are!” -Kyra said as if that was obvious.
“And you are a creature! I’m right as well.” -The Graphylux assured. The woman gave the pen a stern look, and this stood silent as if recognizing it was in trouble.
“Sorry I didn’t introduce myself before. I’m Incantatrix.” -The woman said, bowing at Kyra. - “I’ve been waiting for the day when the girl living among humans finally come to this world. I see you received the Graphylux and it took you willingly.”
“Willingly you say? It's been fooling me all this time!” -Kyra complained, almost choking with those words.
“Fooling you? Her friend was the one fooled.” -With a sick laughter the Graphylux enlightened about what happened to Mackenzie.
“A friend you say?” -Incantatrix asked with truly fascination; the question came accompanied with a nervous twitch in the neck. - “You mean another human, Graphylux?”
“A native. The un-aging boy.”
Incantatrix paced up and down. Her hands, previously full of flowers were soon empty, although at her feet there was just grass, not even a single petal.
“That’s really a surprise!” -She managed to say, but her face expressed otherwise. Incantatrix stopped right in front of Kyra. - “I’ll make this easy. You want to be free of that boy, I know, he’s such a plague! This is what you have to do.”
Incantatrix gave Kyra some instructions. She would have written it, but she chose not to, as she had lost her notebook, and obviously she’ll avoid using the Graphylux as she’ll avoid the plague. But she had good memory, so she made mental notes of what she had to do to fulfill this work fast and rescue her father in the way.
Without having to die trying.
******
Mackenzie went to his tree trunk. He needed to be one hundred percent sure that the Ink bottle was still there, in the exact place he had hidden it. So sure it was a great hideout, he never returned to check. He hadn’t even trusted enough in Sirina to tell her about what he had done. He was starting to consider that the Wizard had played fool on him, making him go away from home to steal his precious -invaluable- keepsake. If he had been smart enough, his hiding place would remain a secret.
When he first thought of hiding it was long before having roommates in his tree trunk, long before it had any value for Mackenzie or someone else apart from the old man who gave it to him. But it was a weird treasure nobody else had in Alter Land and he found himself rich just because the secret of having it.
He flew across the sky so fast and careless that he created holes in each rainbow he passed by. He needed to know what to do. He needed a plan. No. He needed a big plan! Sirina couldn’t find out Kyra was there in Alter Land. Sirina would be really mad at him for having brought another human girl, as he did with the Bird Girl. He needed Kyra to free himself from this spell that prevented him from having a normal life.
The entrance of his tree trunk was covered in wilted leaves. Mackenzie was worried. This has never happened before. The leaves of his tree had never whiter or even fall since he remember. He blinked more than usual, uncertain of what was happening, not knowing what to do. Without giving it much thoughts, he jumped inside his home just to find a mess everywhere. He was almost sure he hadn’t made a turmoil this big just on his own. Someone had been inside his home, checking everything. But looking for what?
He went to the garden, finding his Dulcè almost dead, agonizing, waiting to be watered as any other day. The sophisticated irrigation system he had designed long time ago to make sure his preferred plant wouldn’t suffer from hunger was broken.
With his baby hands, Mackenzie dug in the soil close to his plants, in the triangular spot, right under the recumbent lettuces, just in front of the single line of pink tomatoes and the Dulcè. Looking everywhere fearing that the Wizard or one of the witches were watching him, Mackenzie kept digging until he touched the cold bottle. Only after hiding it inside his leather bag, Mackenzie could breathe relieved again.
But as he was turning to leave, the Wizard appeared right behind him, coming out of nowhere, watching him bemused. Perplexed, Mackenzie felt on his back, scared of what this strange man was planning now that he was back in Alter Land.
“I see you managed to enter the portal. It’s funny though I bet you won’t make it.” -The Wizard looked at Mackenzie, puzzled. - “Were you hiding something just a second ago?”
“No…” -Mackenzie stammered, trying not to move his hand to protectively clutch the Ink. - “Nothing.”
“Let me see.” -The Wizard said and waving a single finger the bottle of Ink went flying straight to his hand. Mackenzie tried to catch the bottle in midair, but the Wizard was too experienced to be tricked by such an ignorant boy. - “Oh, look at this! I suppose this must be very valuable if you risked it under such nasty soil. Thanks to its creator, that the bottle is solid crystal, impossible to be eaten by the maggots you grow down there.”
“Give it back, dirty worm! You’re more thief than the pirates.” -Mackenzie demanded after seconds under the Wizard’s controlling vision. - “That Stainer belongs to me.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know all about this. The Stainer, as you call it, is Ink. I also know about the one that wrote you inside this lonely world. I know all about your family… and about your mother.” -With the last two words Mackenzie’s world turned upside down. He had always questioned what had happened to him, why he ended lost, if that was what truly happened to him. He always thought about his mother and how she had been so cruel to abandon him… if she had done so.
A tear escaped Mackenzie’s eye, running all the way down his face, softly caressing his baby skin, leaving a glittery trail until falling free to the floor. Funny was that this single tear wasn’t absorbed by the dehydrated soil beneath his feet but crystallized as a precious stone.
“Yes, I know about that too. If I don’t remember wrong, the story that brought you here says something like:
“Tears precious as diamonds the boy will shed…
in exchange of the pain his mother has bled.
A bargain of life the boy won instead...
though the real rules of games he misread...”
Mackenzie was confused. More than ever. The Wizard took what Mackenzie was entrusted to protect, that useless Ink he never thought important. After all the events taking place in the last few hours, keeping that Ink safe was the only wise thing to do. But now, this Wizard had mentioned his mother, bringing back to life all his doubts about a past he doesn’t remember having. A link in a chain Mackenzie needed to bind together if he wanted to grow freely and reconnect with his past. Leveraging that the boy was hurt and troubled, the Wizard confronted him with his last blow.
“Haven’t you noticed that the breeze is not bringing any mermaid song today?” -Mackenzie listened mystified. It was true. Any other day, Sirina’s songs would serve as melodious background to every corner in Alter Land. But not today.