Authors: Rain Oxford
“In the fire tribe. Usually, Madus lands me exactly
where I want to be, but for some reason, we arrived in the mountains instead.”
I hated when things happened “for some reason.” I
suddenly knew the entity inside me was really alive, for I felt the confidence
it had in its own strength. This was a challenge the beast in me wanted to
face.
“Dylan, something’s wrong with me,”
I said in
Dylan’s mind.
He nodded.
“I can sense it; something as old as
Edward, and possibly as powerful. It’s not the demon, though.”
“Are you sure?”
I questioned. I felt its
disapproval at my doubt.
“I think the demon would possess you if it could,
but this doesn’t want to.”
“It’s alive, and growing stronger.”
“Maybe it’s not the one growing stronger; you are,
and that is why you feel it more.”
“How could I have this inside me forever and I’m
only now learning about it?”
“You have always been searching for something.
Maybe it was that a part of you was missing.”
“I don’t like this.”
There was a definite
rumble of disapproval. We turned the corner in the cave and saw the narrow
opening. Sunlight poured welcomingly. The entity felt disappointment.
Get over
it, Sammy is too hot
, I thought. Before we could reach the mouth of the
cave, the mountain started to shake and rumble, knocking loose rock into the
narrow gap. In one moment, our exit was blocked.
Sammy started to cry.
“Do not fear, children, I can push the stone aside,”
Emrys said. I bristled at being called a child, and Sammy continued to cry.
The creature inside me started to rise again in
annoyance, and I could do nothing to stop it. It could easily push me aside and
take control, but instead, it gave me strength. My fire roared to obey, but
waited for my command. My eyes and claws shifted and I saw the problem. The
real
problem was not the heat in the mountain or the danger of suffocating, or even
the incredible anger I felt from the creature. The space around us was torn,
like a jagged wound that was healed wrong and re-torn so many times there was
no semblance of what it was before. It wasn’t the mountain about to collapse
around me but part of the universe itself.
“What do you see?” Dylan asked me.
I tried to speak, but somehow my mouth only filled
with smoke. It wasn’t in the air, but coming from in my chest. I grabbed him,
unable to actually see him, and my power flowed between us. His gasp was
strangled.
I saw the green energy build faster than ever inside
him as it spread out to heal. At first, I thought the magic was doing no good,
but then I realized there was just so much to heal. The scars and wounds
started to look more normal, less violent. After what felt like hours, they
were completely healed and the cave was flooded with god energy.
The creature was pleased and settled back down in
peace. Dylan slumped against me, still conscious, but only just. Emrys moved
the rocks away to reopen the mouth of the cave and both Dylan and Sammy breathed
easier. I hadn’t realized that we were running out of oxygen.
We were high in a mountain overlooking a desert
canyon. Surrounding the valley were more mountains, some of which emitted
smoke. As the sun burned high overhead and there was not a soul in sight, it
felt very desolate. “I am afraid the open desert is the most comfortable place
you will find to rest in the fire tribe. The people of this tribe prefer the
dark and scorching to the open air,” Emrys said.
“Where’s the water?” Dylan asked, sitting down on a
large boulder. He was sweating and clearly needed to rest. I split the rest of
the water between him and Sammy. I was not suffering at the hands of the heat.
Even after several minutes of rest, he was still very
flush and looked even less responsive than before. Sammy was also sweating and
wiggled with discomfort in the harness. “We need to get out of the sun. Flash
us to another tribe.”
“Are you sure? It can be very draining on everyone’s
energy.”
“Do it before Dylan gets heat stroke.”
This time the flash revealed cool, clean air. I
nearly cringed. When Dylan’s seat disappeared, he hit polished white stone and
did not get back up. We were in what looked like an exemplarily cleaned castle.
I did cringe this time.
Dylan’s pulse was strong, but he needed rest too much
to wake. I quickly got Sammy out of the harness to cool off. Surrounding us
were people dressed in draping clothing of all different colors and styles, and
the women glittered with jewels in their long hair and clothes. All of them had
an elegance about them to prove their snobbery. Behind them, their castle
gleamed with white stone and painted glass and I had seen enough. As soon as
Dylan woke, I would demand we leave. The creature inside me agreed, and I would
count that in the vote, because the creature would gladly eat people if his
wishes were ignored.
Emrys spoke the foreign words that unfroze the
startled people. Immediately, I had water presented to me by three young girls.
While the water appeared pure to me, I made sure to check it with both my magic
and by smelling it. It smelled alright, so I tasted it, finding it more pure
than the bottled water Dylan had before. I gave some of the water to Sammy and
made Dylan drink the rest of it. Luckily, he didn’t choke on the water as he
slept through it.
“They are preparing quarters for you to sleep in that
will be ready in a short while,” Emrys said.
“Where are we?” I asked. “This looks different from
the other tribes.”
“We are in the mend tribe. These are the people who
control healing and balance. They are healers of body, mind, and spirit.” A
woman went to his side. She had long, dark brown hair, dark green eyes, and a
friendly face. Green jewels sparkled in her hair and in her long black dress.
“This is my mate, Madia.”
“Is that like your wife?” I asked.
“Yes, she is my wife. Guardians call our companions
our mates when we plan to spend our entire immortal lives with them. Madia was
gifted by Madus to link her life with her chosen companion. As that is me, she
will live as long as me.”
“What about that woman in the water tribe?”
He shrugged. “I chose Madia as my mate, I cannot
control what other women do. I can refuse them, but I cannot make them leave me
alone. Madia understands that my power attracts women in most tribes. Here, in
the mend tribe, at least I get some peace. Madia is what you would call a
queen, and can banish people who try to steal her spouse. Unfortunately, my
love is not fluent in any foreign languages, so I must translate to you.”
She seemed to be waiting for the moment, because she
started speaking in her language. Too late, I went to block Sammy’s ears. As
his eyes glowed, I only had hope that he would keep quiet about it. All I
needed was for Dylan to be mad at me that I allowed Sammy to learn a seventh
language.
Maybe Dylan wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from the water
tribe’s language.
“She says that she knows the healing you both have
done to our world and is thankful. Our daughters prepared a room for you to use
for as long as you would like. Dinner will be served shortly, but food will be
saved for you if you cannot attend. She also said she hoped you did attend,
because others would like to thank you and ask you about your adventures.”
“I will see if Dylan is up to it when he wakes.”
Dylan woke just enough that he refused to be carried,
but not enough to walk without help. When we were introduced to our room, he
tumbled straight into the bed and stopped moving.
The room looked like the rest of the castle, with
tall white walls, painted windows, and layers of furs blanketing the stone
floor. The bed, which consisted of a large cushion on a wooden platform that
was covered in fur blankets, was the center of the room. Other features
included delicate wooden furniture with intricate carvings or jewels embedded.
To the far side of the room was a large window overlooking the ocean, which
would slide open like a door to a balcony. The wall to my left consisted mostly
of a large fireplace. To the other side was a door that slid open like most of
Duran’s, as opposed to the ones on Earth that pushed or pulled open.
We were left alone. Sammy was ecstatic when I gave
him his stuffed dragon and let him run around; the poor child was probably so
sore from the papoose. I really didn’t realize I was tired, and I hadn’t meant
to take a nap, but when I laid down for just a short break, I fell asleep.
* * *
I woke to Sammy laughing and rolled over to see Dylan
and Sammy playing with small blocks.
“Four plus two,” Dylan said.
Sammy grabbed one of the blocks and put it in front
of himself. “One…” he said. He took another one and another until he counted
out four. Then he took two more while starting his counting over. Then he
counted the blocks he had in front of him to get six.
“Are you teaching him math?”
They both looked at me. “Aren’t children supposed to
learn addition and subtraction before they’re in school?” he asked.
“Not before they’re two years old.”
“He can count, why shouldn’t he be able to add and
subtract? Three plus three,” he said to Sammy. This time, the baby didn’t grab
blocks or count, just look at them.
“Six,” he declared with confidence.
Dylan grinned proudly. “Vi’s gonna have the smartest
kid in pre-K of all time.” I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but
Dylan had other plans. “I’m hungry.”
“Get over it,” I said. I felt a block hit me in the
head and turned. Dylan had a startled look on his face.
“No hitting, Dada!” Sammy said, but I knew by Dylan’s
face that it was Sammy who had thrown it.
Sneaky little brat.
We followed the sounds and smells of food to the
dinner hall, where the feast was well underway. A variety of meats, vegetables,
fruits, and drinks were laid across the table. We were given a warm welcome,
plates, and cups. The eating utensils were similar to Earths; metal with little
prongs on one end. Dylan had taught me to use them on Duran, but Sammy just
played with his. He ate his food with his hands, but he was not the only young
child there.
People were excited to ask us about Duran and what it
was like to do more than one kind of magic. Dylan explained that he grew up on
a world that feared magic and didn’t know he could even do it. I saw several
young hearts break as he told the enthralled girls about Divina. When he said
that she was a very powerful in magic, they all gave up hope.
If Sammy didn’t yell at every woman who even looked
in my direction, I may have had a better night. Luckily, no one understood what
he meant when he called me “mama.” That would have been too difficult to
explain when I myself couldn’t figure it out. Hopefully, he just couldn’t
pronounce “Mordon,” but that seemed less likely the case with every word he
said.
“So how are you related to dragons?” a young woman
asked me. She hadn’t spoken a word before, but her Sudo was fair. “Are you a
shifter?”
“No, I cannot shift into a dragon. I am sago. My only
relation to dragons is my strong ability to control fire,” I said. Dylan
snorted in disbelief. Disturbingly enough, so did the entity.
“But your eyes… they are shifter eyes,” she said.
I started to look away, but I needed to know more.
“What do you mean? Shifters are not native to my world.” I hated having two
different eye colors, but at least when I shifted them they were both matching
black.
“It is our belief that people who are born of two
different bloods are born with two different eye colors. Everyone’s eye color
on Malta reveals what magic-user they are. If someone is born from a land-user
and a water-user, they would have one blue eye, one green, until their own
magic becomes dominant.”
“Both my parents were pure sago. I was told by
doctors that it is caused by a traumatic childbirth. In my case, it was just a
simple imbalance of chemicals.”
“That makes since, I suppose. That color does not
even occur as an eye color on Malta.” She went back to eating.
After we ate, we went to bed. I was woken up some
time in the night as Dylan went to sleep on the floor. He explained that
sleeping anywhere near me was like sleeping in front of a fireplace; you got
roasted on one side and frost-bitten on the other. Sammy did not seem to mind,
and didn’t even wake up during the commotion.
* * *
I was woken up for the second time, but at least it
was proper morning. Unfortunately, it was by the sense that someone was
approaching. I opened my eyes as a woman I vaguely recalled meeting shut the
door. She looked like a slightly younger version of Emrys’s wife, but so did
three other girls.
She leaned against it and smiled. “Good morning,” she
said.
“There are no locks on the doors, then?”
“I can get around any lock. Your friends are eating
breakfast and I had heard once that the Duran people greeted each other by
praising the morning, so I thought I should find you to do so,” she said as she
approached the bed. I started to sit up, but she climbed onto the bed and
settled on my lap. “I can make it a very good morning.”
“I believe you can, but I will pass.” I sat up,
forcing her to scoot back.
If this had deterred her at all, if she had even
hesitated, I might have reconsidered, but she became insistent. She put her
arms around my neck and settled herself more firmly against me. The entity
inside me snarled with irritation. “Every magic-user of the mend tribe make
exceptional companions, because we can all feel what our lovers want,” she
said, smiling… then she frowned. “Oh, I see. You want a submissive woman, a
docile girl…” I was almost shaking my head before she finished. “No, you want a
woman to be submissive only when you want to be dominant.”