The Pirates of Moonlit Bay

by Samaire Provost

  I wondered what she meant.

  She explained, “Mama had been here for tens of thousands of years, and in her middle age, she was determined to see the world. She left the oasis. I never saw her again. This was hundreds of years ago.” She looked sad.

  “I don’t even know if she’s still alive.” A tear rolled down the side of the chimera’s face.

  “Wait,” I said. I pointed to the still sleeping giant basilisk in the corner. “You are very powerful and have magic. You rule the oasis. Aren’t all chimeras as powerful as you? How would your mother not still be alive?”

  “Oh, goodness, I forgot about him.” She got to her feet and padded over to the basilisk. She petted his back for a while, then whispered in his ear.

  The basilisk opened his eyes and blinked. Then sleepily licked the chimera’s face with a forked, flitting tongue and slowly slithered away from us and disappeared into the forest.

  My jaw dropped open in surprise.

  “He gives me rides through the canyon sometimes, we play all the time,” she explained, sounding happy. “I’m quite fond of Lissy.”

  “Lissy?” I had to ask.

  “That’s his nickname. He’s been my playmate since he was hatched,” she said.

  I just stared at the chimera and shook my head in wonder. The huge snake had been a monster chasing us just an hour or so ago. Out for our blood, we’d thought.

  “But, but … he was roaring and chasing us.” I sputtered.

  “Yes, he does that,” the chimera looked fondly at the forest where Lissy had disappeared into. She turned back to us. “You were never in any danger, I was with you.”

  Yes, back to that. “Uh, so that was you the whole time, in the form of Caroline?” I asked.

  “Yes,” the chimera answered.

  “And where is the real Caroline?” I asked.

  “She’s at the edge of the oasis, in a camp, waiting for you.”

  “Waiting for us? How?? What?!” I felt I was constantly sputtering by now.

  “I told her to wait, that you would return soon,” the chimera answered.

  I blinked in surprise.

  “And was Caroline surprised by the sight of you?” I asked.

  “No, because I appeared to her in human form.”

  “You can do that?!” I was amazed. I don’t know why, but I was amazed.

  As an answer, the chimera stood up and shivered, shrinking down into the form of a small girl, and grinned up at us.

  She looked about 6, and her skin was black as night, almost a blue tint to it, her hair braided into a swirled pattern, and her dress a bright blue. Her eyes sparkled with laughter.

  “Oh my god,” I exclaimed.

  Khepri gasped next to me. I turned to her, eyebrows raised in amazement.

  She nodded in agreement.

  The chimera was amazing.

  “Listen,” I looked down at the girl, trying to remember she was actually a huge chimera. “I want Caroline back.”

  “I understand,” the chimera-in-human-girl-form answered back, sounding sad. She hung her head.

  I thought for a moment. Something was off, but I could not put my finger on it.

  “Charlotte,” Khepri said quietly. I turned to her.

  “I think, … I believe the chimera is … she is a child,” Khepri finished awkwardly.

  Oh my god. My eyes widened.

  I turned back to the girl. Thought for a moment. It was very hard to wrap my mind around the fact that this little girl was the huge chimera, the beast that ruled this massive oasis. Then I thought, she’s been here for a thousand years, and her mother’s been gone for part of that time.

  I looked down at the girl, who looked back at me with wide eyes.

  How would I treat a child? I thought.

  I kneeled down on one knee and spoke quietly.

  “Sweetheart, I know you’re a huge, impressive chimera,” she nodded fiercely. I continued. “But I need to know: are you a child?”

  The chimera-human’s eyes welled up with tears, then her jaw shifted and set. She nodded.

  Oh, lordie. Lord help us. I’d been screaming at a child.

  I took a deep breath. Then another. Hmmm.

  “Do you have a nickname, too?” I asked.

  “No,” she answered.

  “Charlotte,” Khepri said. “The chimera,” pronouncing it ‘kymra’, with a hard k and a short i sound, like in whim, “is a magnificent beast, but this little girl here, seems just a little girl. Perhaps we can give her a nickname.”

  I looked back at the girl. “Kymra,” I pronounced. Then… “Kym.”

  Her eyes sparkled with happiness.

  “Is ‘Kym’ okay?” I asked.

  She smiled. “Yes.”

  “Well alright then. ‘Kym’ it is,” I declared.

  “Kym, where is Caroline?” I asked.

  “I told you, Charlotte, she’s on the edge of the oasis,” Kym answered.

  “Yes, but what I mean is, can we go to her?”

  “Ohhh. Yes, I can lead you to her.” Kym sounded sad again. Her emotions were an open book, the opposite of how they’d been in her chimera form.

  As walked, I asked her about this.

  “I like being in human form, I like this face, it helps me feel things more, I think,” she answered.

  Hmmm …

  “Can you appear as any other human form?” I asked.

  “I can,” she answered. “Watch.”

  The air shimmered, and I was facing a duplicate of Caroline again. I blinked.

  “All right, but no, I meant, can you change into another form than Caroline?”

  She shimmered again and changed into Khepri.

  Khepri gasped beside me.

  “Ohhh no, do NOT do me,” she said shakily. “No no no.”

  Kym shimmered back into her child form.

  I asked again, “Kym, can you change into anyone else?”

  Wait …

  I had not thought this out. Oh, no.

  Kym shimmered and suddenly I was faced with an exact replica of me.

  Ohhh … I felt nauseated.

  “Change back, Kym,” I said.

  She shimmered back into her little girl form.

  I thought I understood.

  “Kym, is it … can you only change into someone you’ve seen?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “So you’re copying what you see?” I asked.

  She nodded again.

  “But … I thought you hadn’t been out of the oasis?” She nodded again. “So how is it you’re able to morph into this form here,” I gestured at the little girl in front of me.

  “This is what I change into when I think, ‘human’, instead of thinking of the person I want to change into,” Kym said.

  “So this is what you look like as a human, in other words?” Khepri said beside me.

  “Yes.” Kym smiled at her.

  Hmmm, I thought. A shapeshifter chimera, who mattered into a child form when she did ‘human,’ who could change into any person she’d seen. This could come in handy, I thought. Really handy. Darn useful, I thought.

  “Charlotte,” Khepri said. “She’s incredible.”

  I gave Khepri a knowing look. Very incredible.

  But …

  “Kym, you said you can’t leave the oasis?”

  “Oh, I can leave the oasis, I just won’t have much power,” Kym answered. “I left it once, it was really bad.”

  “Define ‘bad’,” I prompted.

  “I wasn’t strong anymore. I could barely break rocks. I couldn’t even snap a tree anymore,” Kym said sadly.

  I looked at Khepri. She raised her eyebrows and smiled.

  “Kym, we’re traveling to rescue our friend Christianne from a sheikh and his slavers,” I said.

  Kym looked interested.

  “Would you like to come with us?” I asked.

  “But …” she said, trailing off.

  “We protect each other here, our li
ttle group has grown close,” I looked at Khepri. She nodded in agreement. I turned back to Kym, “We would help you, guard you, protect you.” I stood a little taller. “I would protect you with my life,” I finished.

  Kym smiled in excitement. “I’ve been so bored, this sounds exciting.” Her smile fell slightly. “Maybe I could try to find out what happened to Mama?” She looked up at me.

  “Definitely.”

  Half an hour later, we emerged from the trees and my feet were in the sand. I saw Caroline off to the side, gathering water from a small spring that poured out of the rock at the edge of the trees.

  “MISS!!!” Caroline ran and nearly bowled me over in exuberance. “OH, MISS!!!”

  I laughed and hugged her back. “It’s good to see you, my friend.”

  We patted each other on the back as she led us to her camp. She told us all about how she’d fallen to the back of the caravan …

  “I found I had to relieve myself and couldn’t wait any longer. The oasis looked like an exciting adventure, and I figured I’d better take care of business before I entered, or suffer in silence while the exploration took hours.” She paused here to take a deep breath and a drink of water. She’d been talking so fast in her excitement that she didn’t want to stop.

  “And so, I pulled my horse to the side and back and dismounted. I was crouching, and watching you all enter the oasis, when my view was blocked by her,” at this point you pointed to Kym.

  Kym smiled slyly. I rolled my eyes.

  “She explained to me that I would be staying here and going no further. I protested, but she disappeared into thin air, along with my horse. All I had left with me was my pack.”

  “I did disappear,” Kym admitted, chuckling.

  “Every time I tried to walk into the oasis, I’d get maybe ten feet and then emerge back here, at my campsite. After a dozen times trying, I decided to make a fire and wait. It’s been days!” She reached forward and hugged me again, squeezing my neck hard.

  I felt tears in my eyes. I had missed her, but I had only known she was missing for the last several hours. She had been missing me for nearly half a week.

  “You must’ve been so worried,” I said, my voice thick with unshed tears.

  Caroline choked back a sob and nodded, unable to speak through the lump in her throat. I just held her tight and tried to breath.

  Oh, Carrie!

  I saw Khepri smiling at the scene and I smiled back at her, so happy everything seemed to be falling back into place.

  Since it was late in the day, we settled down for the night on the edge of the oasis, shared a meal, and brought each other up to speed on what had been happening to each of us. Kym seemed happiest at all the new friends.

  As I fell asleep that night, my head spun at everything that had transpired, and I smiled at the stars as my eyes slowly closed.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Heart and Soul

  We cleared camp and set off early the next morning, eager to find Christianne. Kym was able to conjure an extra horse and saddle before we left the oasis, and rode atop the dappled mare like a pro, smiling and eager for adventure. She also refilled our food and water stores and replenished Khepri’s medicinal supplies while still on the edge of Aoudaghost. We were set.

  Our caravan is growing, I thought as we plodded along. I glanced at the camel, which walked slowly behind me, Khepri in the basket on its back. Don’t even try to tell me you can only walk slow, camel, I saw you moving mighty fast when that rogue manticore was after us, I thought as I smiled at the camel’s long-lashed face. Its jaw moved almost constantly, chewing cud.

  As we traveled, Caroline and I told Khepri and Kym about Christianne. Khepri had known her for a very short while but hadn’t remembered her very well.

  “She’s about thirteen summers old, and she was captured in a slaver raid when she was at a well on the edge of her family’s farm,” I said, remembering. She is a good friend. We need to stick together, so we decided we’re going to rescue her from the sheikh.”

  “She sounds very nice but,” asked Kym, “how do you plan on getting her from the sheikh?”

  “I’m not sure at all, but I feel we have to try,” I said. I looked at Caroline for confirmation.

  “We have to get her back. She’s just a child.” She looked at Kym. “You’re a child, too, but to help you understand better, Christianne is just thirteen years old. Just thirteen,” Caroline said thickly and blew her nose.

  I felt myself tearing up just thinking about Christianne. Then I felt an anger rising in my heart.

  “We are getting her out of there, period,” I said determinedly.

  Caroline nodded resolutely. “Without question,” she said in a steely voice.

  “Then let’s do this,” said Kym, smiling.

  By noon we had traveled maybe ten miles and had stopped for a few minutes rest on a rise overlooking a large valley. From our vantage point, we could see to the coastline in the far distance, maybe a hundred miles away on our left. Closer, we could just make out a settlement toward the south, on our right.

  “Do you think we should head into town? Maybe there’s news of your friend,” Kym suggested.

  “I think that would be an excellent way to get snatched by the slavers,” I answered grimly.

  Kym looked alarmed.

  She is fearless because of how she ruled over the oasis, I thought. “We must be cautious at all times,” I said. “Danger lurks everywhere in this land.”

  Caroline piped up, “Kym, just as you look like a vulnerable little girl, even though you’re a much stronger creature, so do we look like easy prey to outsiders.”

  Kym thought a minute. “So where will we find this sheikh?” she asked.

  “I think we should go east. Let the horses lead us,” I patted my steed’s neck.

  “Miss?”

  I turned to Caroline.

  “I think we should try letting the camel lead,” she said.

  “Oh! That is an excellent idea,” said Khepri, popping up from her basket. “Camels are not as adventurous as horses. She will want to return home to her stable.”

  And so that is how we found ourselves trailing the camel as it walked east into the growing night. Leaving the sun behind, our caravan made long shadows in front of us as we traveled.

  We rode well past dusk, following the camel, which didn’t seem to want to stop for the night. It was nearly midnight when we finally bedded down, made a modest fire, and ate. We picked a small valley in the dunes, and the depression in the sand obscured us, for the most part, from the desert beyond. But that was not enough to ease my anxiety. I stayed awake for an hour while the others slept, staring into the fire for a long time. I remembered feeling odd when we were in the oasis, and I finally realized why: The forest all around us had made me feel protected. I think I’d been feeling the chimera’s powered presence, although I hadn’t known it at the time.

  Looking up at the stars now, I felt exposed. In the oasis, the heavy mist that hung over the place had made me feel sheltered. Hidden. Out here in the desert, the vast night sky and the exposed desert combined to leave me feeling vulnerable. Very ill at ease. A knot wrapped itself around the inside of my stomach for a long time, until I finally grew tired enough to lie down on my bedroll. But sleep still proved elusive as I focused on what lay ahead at the sheikh’s compound. Khepri snored softly beside me beneath a million stars twinkling in the inky black sky, and I lay on my bedroll awake, thinking of strategies to rescue Christianne.

  Each of us can use our own unique skills, I thought, and Kym would be a huge help. We just need to remember to be confident. I finally dozed off, my mind still swimming with ideas.

  I hadn’t slept long before I felt a rough kick in my side.

  “Get up, girly,” a voice growled, and I felt a dull, rusty blade at my throat. My eyes opened. It was still nighttime.

  Beside me, Kym shivered in the grasp of a rough-looking man. He had his hand around her throat, and she wa
s gasping for air.

  “Hey! HEY!!” I scrambled up and grabbed the man’s arm. “She can’t breathe, let her GO!”

  The man smirked and released Kym’s throat, grabbing onto her arms instead. She massaged her throat with her hand, looking shocked.

  It wasn’t just one man. It was a group of ruffians that numbered about fifteen, armed with scimitars and ropes. They tied our hands behind our backs and wrestled us on our horses, all the while jeering at us.

  “How long do you think you’d last out here in the desert, northerner?” One man laughed.

  “You’re lucky we found you; you’d have died after a while,” the guard closest to me said.

  Not likely.

  I saw Khepri a distance away from us, speaking to the guard who was apparently in charge. He nodded and she took something from him, then climbed into the camel’s basket and we set off.

  I almost forgot Khepri was part of the enemy, I thought, feeling troubled.

  I glanced up at Khepri as we started out, the sun’s glow just starting to appear on the horizon ahead of us. She met my eye, and I thought I saw a very subtle nod of her head, and a knowing look. I felt relieved. She was on our side; the guards just didn’t know it yet.

  It took us three more days to reach the sheikh’s compound. We traveled first toward the east, but then, on the third day, we veered southeast. The camel was nearly running the last few hours, she could sense we were very close to her home.

  I saw the compound long before we arrived: It was on a hill overlooking the last valley we crossed, and it was huge. Tents, barns, even a few permanent buildings, all surrounded by a sturdy wall at least ten feet high.

  That wall is going to be hard to get over, once we’ve got Christianne, I thought. I studied it as we passed through the gate. It looked to be made of some unknown rock, whiter than polished ivory. It all but blinded me as I passed by it at the angle to the sun. I made a mental note of it.

  Khepri had gone off with the lead guard to who knows where. I hoped she could help us soon.

  The guards laughed and shoved us repeatedly in front of them as they walked along the main pathway. Other servants shied away from us, probably recognizing what we were going through, but many of the other people, who were likely just residents of the sheikh’s compound, sneered at us and tried to kick us as we passed them.