Shatterskin

by Beca Lewis

  I had no intention of forgetting. I would get back to the Earth dimension someday. Not just to see my parents, but also to see Johnny. I reached over and felt my left wrist. The day before I left, Johnny had given me a friendship bracelet. One of those bracelets that you make yourself with yarn. He thought it would stay with me just like my clothes would and he was right. It was a promise that we would find each other again.

  Perhaps Johnny thought of it just as friends, but I knew it was more. Or at least it could be someday.

  Everyone was staring at me. Hopefully, they didn’t know what I was thinking. Besides, I needed to concentrate on learning about the world I was living in now.

  “What about you?” I asked Suzanne. “So if you aren’t an illusion in either dimension, are there two of you? Or do you only look different here?”

  “I look different here because here I look like myself. But there is only one of me, just as there is only one of you. At least in the two dimensions we are talking about, Earth and Erda, and a few other ones that I have visited. We do have people living in Erda who have traveled more widely than I have, and I’ve been told that it is true wherever they have been.”

  “Wait, are you telling me that people here know who I am, and look for other versions of me when they travel to different dimensions? What does that mean? What dimension do I belong in then?”

  “That’s something you’ll be discovering soon,” Suzanne said. “For now it’s enough to know that sometimes people move to a dimension which is not their home and...”

  Suzanne was ready to tell me more when the shriek we heard earlier sounded again. It not only shook the earth, it felt as if it sucked air up and away if just for a moment. Whatever it was, it knew exactly how to scare the ziffer out of me. Apparently, everyone else was afraid too, because within seconds Suzanne, Ruta, and Beru were on their feet.

  Beru swept out her hand, and all traces of the fire vanished. Another swipe and all the trees were back in place. I gasped at what I had seen but had no time to process it. I was pushed forward by Suzanne, her hand feeling like a claw on my back. Once again, I heard her whisper, “Go, go, go.” This time, I knew that pausing to decide was not a good idea. I ran, and once again Suzanne disappeared. I had no time to wonder where she went. I just hoped she was safe.

  Seven

  “Open up, Hannah,” Beru urged me as we ran. “Accept the help that is being offered to you. Breathe it in.”

  I was panting so hard I had no breath to ask her what she meant by help. I was nearing my last ounce of energy, and neither Beru nor Ruta seemed tired at all. They definitely knew something I didn’t know.

  “You don’t know what I am talking about?” Beru asked.

  Up ahead I heard Ruta snort in derision. He was right. I was more than useless. I shook my head. No, I didn’t know what they were talking about.

  “Feel it, Hannah, just as you did before you came here. Feel the forest. Feel the ground beneath your feet. Feel what they have to give you. Reach out. Let them in.” Then Beru, sweet little Beru with the beautiful face, yelled at me, “Do it. Do it now!”

  I gasped in surprise and felt a bolt of energy rush in. I was no longer running on my own. I was moving with the forest, not through it.

  I don’t know how long we ran. I lost all sense of time and surroundings. The forest around me blurred into a tunnel of green that flowed back the way we had come. In front of me, I could see Ruta moving, no, gliding, almost as if he wasn’t moving his legs at all. Behind me, I could feel Beru’s eyes effortlessly pushing me forward. There was no need for her to run forward and back to check on me. The three of us moved as one. It was glorious. I wanted it to last forever.

  How much time passed I don’t know, and although I had no idea where we were, I could tell that we were moving upward.

  Eventually, the world slowed down as we stopped running and began to walk instead. We were on a path. Not one created by Ruta moving through the woods, clearing the way. This path was like many of the trails my dad and I used to hike together in the mountains near our home. If I wasn’t walking with Ruta and Beru, I might have thought I was home again.

  That notion was blasted from my mind as we crested a hill, and I saw what appeared to be a castle. Not what I expected at all. On the other hand, what was I expecting? If I was truthful with myself, I was hoping we were going to see Suzanne’s people, the Forest Circle, and I said as much to Ruta and Beru.

  “Shh…,” hissed Ruta. “Are you crazy?”

  At first, I was dumbstruck to hear Ruta say more than one word. Maybe he didn’t often talk because his voice did not match his appearance. Unless he was hollow, because that’s what he sounded like: a hollow stump.

  When his block face darkened, I realized he could probably read my mind, and I was in trouble. What had happened to me? I didn’t usually think things like that about people. Or did I and I hadn’t noticed? My whole world was flipping upside down.

  “Ziffer it,” Ruta said.

  “Ziffer it? Are you swearing? Do you mean zipper it? Well, that I can understand, I think,” I babbled. “After all we were running from something, and maybe you want me to be quiet?”

  “No,” Ruta rumbled. “I meant ziffer it. Zonk you. Zounds, how did we get the assignment anyway?”

  It was horrible. I started laughing again. “Seriously, what’s with the z words?”

  Ruta just stared at me as if he wanted to take his whole body and club me with it. I tried arranging my face to look like his when Beru stepped in.

  “Stop it you two. Especially you, Hannah. Didn’t you learn any manners? Did you treat people that didn’t look like you differently in your realm? Ruta is protecting you, and you are rude and ungrateful. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

  Yes, I was ashamed of myself. But it was because when the magic I had experienced while running stopped, I felt so much fear I wanted to crawl inside the nearest hole and never come out again.

  It wasn’t just fear for what I didn’t know or for myself. It was a weight of fear that fell on me like a blanket. Smothering me. I have been afraid before, but nothing like what I was feeling then. I was covering it up with rudeness.

  Beru looked at me with such sadness in her eyes I thought that perhaps she understood. But Lady’s arrival halted all conversation. She swooped over our heads and headed in the direction of the castle. The meaning was clear. Follow.

  We didn’t run. We ambled. I didn’t think we would ever get there. Ruta and Beru took turns switching us in and out of the trees. We’d stop, and Beru would put her finger to her lips to tell me not to talk. That was okay. I had nothing more to say. The stopping was driving me crazy, though.

  After perhaps the tenth stop, Beru must have sensed my frustration and whispered in my ear, “We’re listening.”

  Her finger on my mouth told me not to ask what they were listening for, so I thought I would try listening too. I heard nothing. Nothing? How could there be no sounds in the forest? Where were the bird songs, the rustling of leaves in the wind, the millions of insects that thrived in forests?

  It was impossible for them not to be here. I know that every creature in the forest makes it thrive. Eliminate one, and everyone suffers. If the forest wasn’t working, then the trees would be dying, and they weren’t. The only explanation I had was that everything was being quiet on purpose. Either that or I had gone deaf.

  After another million stops to listen, I heard something. At first, it was far away. Then it started to move closer. Like a train whistle heard in the distance and becoming louder as the train moves forward.

  But this sound moved by itself. If it were music, it would sound like a hundred notes harmonizing together. As it got louder and louder, Beru and Ruta looked at each other before each of them reached for one of my hands. By then they had to pry them off my ears the sou
nd was so loud.

  As our hands touched, the note landed directly on top of us. It wrapped itself around us and picked us up into the air so that we were hovering over the treetops. It was as if the note had created a clear bubble and put us inside of it. Inside, it was quieter than anything I had ever experienced before.

  The bubble paused and then began to move back in the direction the note had come. I was glad we were moving so quickly because it meant I couldn’t see anything. Heights had not been my favorite thing, but this ride was so peaceful I started to enjoy it.

  Ruta and Beru continued to hold my hand. Ruta did not appear to be enjoying the ride, while Beru looked as if she was in seventh heaven.

  I had only had time to think it felt like an elevator going sideways before the sound bubble descended, and dissolved, leaving us standing on the ground in front of the Castle I had seen in the distance.

  A wall of beings of all sizes and shapes stood in front of the Castle. I hoped that they were friendly because they all held what appeared to be a variety of strange weapons. I guessed they were weapons even though I only recognized a few of the shapes. No one looked happy to see us. Except one. Suzanne.

  Zounds, I was I glad to see her. She bowed to Ruta and Beru and motioned me forward. Holding my hand, she presented me to the crowd. Reluctantly they bowed. To me. With Suzanne’s arm around my waist, she pushed me to bow back. I had no idea what was going on. The world had gone mad. Or I had. That was almost easier to accept.

  Eight

  “Be still,” Suzanne whispered. “Do what I tell you to do, and don’t act so confused. And for zound’s sake, don’t look around like a tourist.”

  I did what Suzanne told me to do. I bowed in all four directions. I tried not to look anywhere. All I could see anyway was that we were in an open courtyard in front of the Castle. As I bowed, I tried to look at our surroundings, but a blue haze blocked from my view whatever was past the Castle.

  After all the bowing, Suzanne walked towards two doors leading into the Castle. Black and huge, they seemed too tall and much too heavy to open. She kept poking me with her finger to let me know that I was supposed to be walking side by side with her towards those doors.

  Ruta and Beru trailed behind us. I barely knew the two of them, and Ruta had been a big grouch, but still, I felt embarrassed for them that they had to walk behind us.

  “Hold your head up, Hannah. Up, up,” Suzanne hissed at me.

  I lifted my head, looking straight ahead as I was told to do. I couldn’t believe Suzanne was having such a hissy fit. I had never seen her behave that way. Maybe on Earth she pretended to be polite, and now she was showing her true colors? I tried not to roll my eyes at her behavior.

  As much as I didn’t like being told what to do, I had to believe that she was trying to protect me from something. Maybe from all those beings that didn’t look all that happy to see me.

  I didn’t have much time to look at the crowd, but most of them didn’t look human, at least Earth human. The only thing they seemed to have in common was the look they gave me. What was everyone so angry about, anyway? Why did they bow to me? What had I done to deserve either treatment?

  Moments later we reached the doors which silently slide sideways, and we stepped into the Castle.

  Some people like the idea of castles, kings and queens and luxury. Not me. In all the pictures I have ever seen of them they looked cold and damp. I imagined musty smells and spiders in corners. Plus all those rules and regulations that royalty had to put up with didn’t appeal to me at all.

  So it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the inside of this castle didn’t match my predetermined idea of what castles looked like.

  We were standing in a beautiful garden. On either side of us, the walls rose up at least four stories high. Clear glass encased each floor making it possible to look at the stone hallways as they traveled around each level.

  The atrium was as big as a football field, planted with flowers, bushes, and trees that reached almost to the fourth floor. A glass roof let in the daylight. I could see the blue sky and white clouds floating across it.

  It was lovely and peaceful. But most wonderful of all, it felt familiar. The air was warm and sweet smelling just like Sarah’s garden back home.

  Suzanne led us down a pathway to the center of the garden. I could see a table set with five place settings. Did that mean we were going to eat? I was starving. The mushroom wrap was delicious, but that could have been days ago. I had lost all track of time.

  Five places? There were only four of us. That’s when I saw him.

  *******

  For all I knew, he had been there all along because as he started towards us, he made not one sound. His face gave me no clue if he was friendly or not. That is, until Suzanne rushed forward and fell into his arms.

  He stepped back holding her at arm’s length. His face that a moment before looked like a constipated storm cloud, was beaming at her.

  Suzanne turned to me and said, “Dad, this is …”

  “I know who she is,” he boomed. “Hannah, welcome home. I hope you have enjoyed your journey because it is only going to get harder after this.”

  Dad? Home? What the zonk?

  The only dad I knew Suzanne had was someone named Earl. The giver of the stones, the head of the Forest Circle. Could this be Earl? No one told me he was a giant that moved like the wind.

  “Well, I wasn’t that on Earth was I, little one? And my name’s not Earl here, just as yours is not Hannah.”

  “Not now, dad,” Suzanne said laying her hand on his arm. The man I knew as Earl smiled at her and then at me and said, “Okay, it’s Hannah and Earl for now.”

  Suzanne hooked her arm around Earl’s as they walked to the table and I followed obediently. Inside I was screaming to know what was going on.

  It took a lot of effort to push aside my impatience and choose to watch and wait. Someone would tell me what was happening at some point. At first, I hoped it would be soon, and then changed my mind. Maybe this was another time that not knowing was better than knowing.

  My wish to be ignorant wasn’t granted though, because Beru decided to tell me. Not then. Later. Much later. First, we ate.

  Beru and Ruta sat on chairs which reminded me of baby high chairs. At least I was wise enough not to mention it, although that could have been not so much me being wise as being distracted by the things that brought in our food.

  Our table was situated beside a transparent wall that within seconds contained what looked like metal toadstools carrying platters of food attached to their heads. When another toadstool popped up seconds later, I saw that the wall was an elevator. The doors slid open, and the five toadstools slid forward.

  “Dad, I thought we talked about this.”

  “They’re not on the grid, daughter. Each one operates separately, and they only do this one function. There is nothing to worry about.”

  Suzanne gave her dad a look of impatience, but then sighed and let it go.

  The metal toadstools arranged themselves by each of our chairs so we could serve ourselves what we wanted from the tray on their head.

  Most of the food looked familiar, but I tasted everything even if I didn’t know what I was eating. It was all delicious. No one spoke.

  The only sound was the clinking of our silverware and the various forms of chewing. Chewing is not my favorite sound, but there was no way I was going to break the silence by talking.

  By the time we had finished eating, the familiar stars were becoming visible in the sky. It was my second night in Erda, and I still knew nothing.

  “No questions, Hannah?” Earl asked.

  “Other than everything? What is this place, who are you really, what am I doing here? You mean other than those questions?”

  Ear
l laughed, and a breeze danced around the table.

  “You’re here to train.”

  “Train? For what?”

  Earl looked at Suzanne and said, “She doesn’t know?”

  “Know what?” I demanded.

  “This world, our kingdom, is in trouble. You are here to help save it,” Earl answered.

  “Save it?” I squeaked. “Me?”

  “You. Training begins tomorrow. Better get some rest. You are going to need it.” Earl said.

  He pushed back from the table, stood, and pointed to a door that I hadn’t noticed before. “Through that door, your future awaits. Don’t disappoint me.”

  I stared at him as he left as silently as he arrived. First, he was there, and then he wasn’t, and he never answered the question: How was I going to save a kingdom?

  Nine

  I decided that Earl must have actually been present. I had seen him eat the food. Obviously this effortless coming and going was different than remote viewing, or astral projection in my world.

  Earl was actually present rather than a projection. Was this ability something I would learn? Did I want to? What did they mean by training? I kept staring where Earl had gone, expecting him to reappear, and tell me more. Someone had to explain to me what was happening.

  “Why didn’t you tell me what I am supposed to do here?” I demanded of Suzanne. “You know I can’t save a kingdom.”

  Suzanne stood and looked down at me. I swear her tunic blazed red as she answered through clenched teeth. “You can, and you will. Even if it kills all of us, including you, this world must survive. Do what my father told you to do. Get rest.”

  She looked at Beru. “Take her to her room and make sure she stays there. You know where to bring her tomorrow. Ruta, you’re with me.”