Out of Time the Grand Quest

by Christopher Douglass

  “Make a wall to shlow enemiesh right? That’sh what you shaid.”

  “Yeah but it won’t last forever. You did good. That was quick thinking. Think you could cover over this cave mouth?”

  “Yesh. But it won’t fool them long. Goblinsh are shemi-intelligent. They will come back eventually.”

  “That’s fine. After they leave we can run the other way. Whatever they are after, as long as we keep them from accomplishing it, our Due Date gets extended right? “

  “If we need to keep them from encountering humansh yesh. But we can’t defeat them! If that ish what we need to do, we will fail.”

  “Don’t give up before you even try! If all else fails, I’ll make a real contract with you. Then I will have access to my powers right?”

  “You’d really do that? But I’m shtill jusht a kid!”

  “Of course. I don’t like the idea of dying any more than the next person. If I need to partner with you to keep myself alive, I will. Now hurry and conceal us and then keep quiet.”

  Jordon nodded his head, mumbling under his breath as Kimi nibbled her thumbnail while trying to think. As vines grew out of the ground, enclosing them in near darkness, Kimi felt her brain might explode. She had never thought so hard in her life. She had all this information, but she was still scared. That wasn’t right. The more you knew about something, the less scared you were supposed to be of it. That had always worked before, so why wasn’t it working now?

  As the ground thundered with the stomping of hundreds of goblins, and loose dirt rained down on their heads, Kimberly and Jordon clutched each other for dear life. Kimi held her breath, afraid even that sound would alert those little green creatures to her presence. Jordon’s mouth was pressed against her shirt, biting the fabric as his entire body trembled in her grip. When the rumbling finally died down and faded away, she whispered for him to let them out of the cave. He shook his head no, saying he wanted to just stay there. Kimberly reminded him that they would come back and the two of them needed to keep moving. Reluctantly the boy nodded and sent the vines back into the ground.

  Backtracking the way they had come, Kimi saw the wall of grass had been completely uprooted, the tall stalks thrown to the side to create a path. The two rushed through the green gates, jumping over the small ravine where the ground was missing. They didn’t make it far before they saw another horde of goblin rushing towards them. The first wave must have been just that, a wave. A set of advanced scouts, with these ones destined to pick up stragglers. One of them opened its mouth, letting out a wailing horn blast as it grinned in anticipation. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the first wave was already closing in as they doubled back.

  “Kimi what do we do now!”

  For the first time, Kimi didn’t have an answer for Jordon, even a lie. Her mind went blank and her body froze. All she could think of right now was the fact that they were going to die and she had been the one to kill them both by making the wrong decisions.

  Chapter 6: Kimi the Blade

  The ground rose, sending Kimi and Jordon rocketing towards the sky on a plateau of stone moments before both waves of goblins reached them. With a wild yell, a meteor of ice fell from the sky, Grell riding it like a surfboard, her skin all gray and her hair sparkling silver. She gave Kimi a thumbs up, jumping off the magical rocket and kicking it to the side so it crashed amid the first wave. Tucking her body, she spun in the air twice herself before dropkicking a goblin in the head. The impact of her landing caused all the green creatures in a circle around her to fly skyward from the shockwave.

  Showing off moves Kimi found hard to credit to a woman her age, Grell punched and kicked the monsters while they were still in mid-air, doing back flips and pirouettes as she waded into the enemy forces. Joel was close behind, showing off his powers as a great magician. He stepped out of the woods like some storybook character come to life, clad in robes of bright sky blue, with a pointed hat tilted to the side. He wielded a gnarled staff in his left hand, and a ball of flame in the other. Wind whipped his robes around him while he walked deliberately forward. With each beat of the stick against the ground, rocks rained onto goblin heads. He threw flames one second and ice the next. Lightning struck from his fingertips, and magical creatures were sent flying by a wave of his hand.

  “As much fun as this is, and me and Grell would love to do this all day, do you think you could give us a hand down here? We hate to admit, but we aren’t as young as we used to be.”

  “Speak for yourself you old fart! I haven’t felt this young in ages! I could do this all night!”

  “But how did--”

  “I find you? Please I am Grand Wizard! Such a thing is a paltry task for one such as I.”

  “The hiccup window is still wide open and he traced you with his connection to the pouch I gave you. Don’t let him fool you into believing it was anything special.”

  “Silence woman! I will not have my powers made sound like some simple parlor trick!”

  “Aye, Aye, whatever you say dear. Why don’t you use those powers of yours to duck.”

  Joel did so, using that moment to sweep his staff around and spew water from the tip that hit a dozen charging goblins. A broken goblin body flew over his head to knock down a dozen more that were out of range of the front row Joel was fighting. With a snap of his fingers, Joel froze the water, creating goblin ice statues which he swept his staff through in a backhand to shatter.

  “Seriously though, get down here and help.”

  “But I don’t have any powers!”

  “Well hurry up and make a contract with the boy!”

  “How? I don’t want to make a permanent one if I don’t have to!”

  “Kiss him!”

  “What!”

  “Bind in blood is contract true, bound with spit the shortest hue! It’s all about fluid exchange! Blood binds the strongest. Spit breaks down and fades. You need just a drop of him inside of you for you to have a connection back to our world. Drink his sweat if you want, but saliva is always in the mouth!”

  “He’s being a bit short with the explanation, but he’s right dear. If you don’t want to bind yourself with blood, get a small part of him inside of you.”

  “It’sh okay, do it. We will die if we don’t right?”

  “Feeling the heat would burn a hole through her face, Kimi nodded, bending down to quickly kiss the boy. It was her first kiss, and she knew it wasn’t as smooth as what she had read about. But the moment their lips touched, it felt like she had been struck by a bolt of lightning. Her entire body vibrated with barely contained energy.

  Pulling away, the two of them brought their arms around to grasp at the elbow. It was as if she knew exactly what to say and what to do. As one, both Kimberly and Jordon spoke the incantation.

  “I bind myself to thee. I vow myself to thee. My power is your power. To defend and use. We are two, yet are one. We are one, yet two. Until the contract ends. Ishtal Mal kezanda Rekt torgo mev sechierie.”

  The moment passed as light shot into the sky from the top of both their heads, intertwining then falling back to the ground and bursting apart.

  “Now get down here!”

  Kimberly closed her eyes as she went into the special room in her mind where all her characters and their outfits were lined up in a neat row. Time stood still while she found the quiet center. This was different from when she had changed before, as if her mind were more ordered and she felt the world around her as a living thing. A knight was no good. These goblins were fast and a knight was more for defense, unable to be used to full effect in this situation. A mage was promising, but spells took energy and would wear her down faster. She wasn’t like Joel who had years of practice under his belt pacing himself, honing his skills and mastering his abilities. She needed something with speed and a decent amount of endurance. Something physical that used weapons.

  The costumes in her mind faded back as she discarded different characters, until one stood alone before her. Yes, this
would work. She was a phantom of the night, trained as an assassin from the day she could crawl. Daughter of an assassin, grand-daughter of an assassin. This was her family business since her family had existed. Skilled in dagger and hand-to-hand combat, able to slip from shadow to shadow and break even the hardest security systems.

  She was& Kimi the Blade.

  Opening her eyes, she found herself garbed all in black, looking like a movie ninja. With hidden pockets holding the tools of her trade. At her side were two six inch daggers, her trademark. Jordon looked on in amazement as Kimi gave him a thumbs up.

  “Help out Grell, I’ll help Joel. Understand?”

  “Yesh!”

  Kimberly dove off the side of the plateau, her hands reaching out to grab the heads of two goblin. The moment she made contact, she clutched and twisted, snapping both necks as she flung herself feet first towards her next victim. His face slammed into her crotch as her legs wrapped around his neck. He didn’t live long to enjoy the feeling or even react as she spun, breaking his neck as well. Kimberly fell backwards, planting her hands on the ground and heaving the dead body between her legs overtop her body, fouling four of his comrades.

  Kimi the Blade flicked out her daggers as she got her feet under her, laying about at anything nearby. Steel met throat or eyes, slid between ribcages to seek out hearts, was shoved under chins or down through skulls. She was a dancer, and these green men were her partners. But she was also a black widow, a mistress of death and destruction. Her partners could not live after seeing the beauty of her dance.

  “Joel! Give me air!”

  Spinning the blades in her hands, she reseated them without looking just as Joel pounded the ground with his staff. A small pillar of earth hit her feet, sending her skyward like a bullet. Opening her pouches, she spun, releasing the bombs and throwing knives throughout the dwindling hordes. Green, blue, orange, and red gas wafted skywards. So did body parts as detonations rocked the land, leaving gaping craters where goblins had once stood.

  Snagging a special knife at her back attached to strong piano wire, Kimi flung the blade at the plateau of rock slightly below her. It sunk into the dirt as she reeled herself in, momentum swinging her around to the other side and into the thick of the battle going on there. A flick of her wrist dislodged the dagger, the line retracting into her belt so she could grab the blade midair. She landed at a run, slicing open a throat with her blade before she put it away.

  A goblin threw a punch, but she stepped out of the way, using an open palm to deflect the massive knuckles. Her other fist came up into the joint, breaking the arm seconds before backhanding another nearby goblin. Her blow sending broken cartilage from its nose up into its brain. Grass shot from the ground to tangle up arms and legs, making it easy for Kimi to dispatch foes. Grell was ahead of Kimberly, laughing as she picked up a goblin in each hand, smashing their heads together and dropping the corpses. When a goblin threw a punch in her direction, Grell punched back. Meeting green skin with a grey fist head on. Kimi saw the hand shatter, blood and bone ripping from lime colored flesh as the arm crumpled. Her other fist came around to end the creatures life by caving in its skull.

  Tall grass picked up dead sticks and hurled them at the backs of goblins who had begun to retreat, impaling them like spears. A massive fireball fell from the sky to engulf the group in front of her. Kimi turned, looking for her next victim, finding only dead bodies that were already melting into puddles of goo. The outcropping of rock Jordon was standing on slowly lowered back into the ground, allowing the boy to join Kimi and the others. Now that the battle was over, Kimi felt tired, her clothes reverting to normal as the world spun in her sight. She didn’t fall over, but Grell still reached out to support her as Jordon ran up, wrapping his arms around Kimi’s waist with a grin that made even the sun seem dull.

  “That wash awshome! Did you shee me! It wash like controlling the plantsh wash eashy! I didn’t have try sho hard! And it wash like, like I knew all the thingsh I could do with my limited ability! And I wasn’t shcared at all! I felt like I could do anything! And you were amazing too!”

  “That my boy, is the power of the contract. Some of Kimberly’s knowledge and experience was fed back into you. You were feeling what she felt. And all the things she might have thought she could do with the power to manipulate plant life was sent over to you and became your knowledge. Just as you allowed her to use her Other power to transform, she allowed you to easily cast your magic.”

  “Cool!”

  Kimberly looked from Joel to Grell then down at the boy still wrapped around her waist like a burr. “So how do we get back?”

  “We need to heal the destruction first.”

  “How do we do that?”

  Grell smiled, slipping what looked like a wallet from her pants pocket. Unfolding it, Kimberly could see there was nothing but blank pages, but Grell’s eyes moved back and forth as if she was reading something. Understanding came at that moment.

  “That’s your Map!”

  “Aye. Fixing the land is the mediators job. Our Map tells us how things were and how they are supposed to be. So after we win, we need to read the words inscribed on our Map out loud. Then, magic takes care of the rest.”

  “How?”

  “Don’t ask me. I just know how it works. Even Joel hasn’t been able to figure it out.”

  As Grell began to speak out loud words only she saw, Kimberly watched as the land healed itself, the craters her explosives had made getting filled in and leveling out. Curious, she opened the pouch still around her neck, this time the artifact expanding to allow her to retrieve the white book. Sure enough, there was a black circle on the front, reminding her of a compass with no arrow. When she opened the book, she saw words fading away, but she also saw the same words Grell was reading out loud. Those letters also faded as Grell spoke them, as if some invisible hand was wiping them away with an eraser. Finally the book was devoid of ink once more, and the circle on the front faded to a featureless snow field while Grell put her Map away.

  Around them, the world shimmered. The same way it had when the hiccup had pulled Kimberly and Jordon into it. Between one blink and the next, they were back in the park they had started from. Not two feet from the tree they had first settled under.

  “Is that what a quest is like?”

  “Sometimes. But other times you need to interact with the natives. The grand quest that teams go on is not just a one shot deal. It is a series of challenges that must be overcome. How they are overcome is up to the teams in question, there is no set way to do it. Even if the natives learn of the existence of our powers, as long as the requirements are met, the mediator can set it all right by reading their Map.”

  “You got to be careful about showing your power haphazardly though. Sometimes the natives will make your life even more difficult than the actual challenge if they find out. Some may want to kill you as a demon spawn, others may want to worship you as a holy being. And some may just pester you in an attempt to learn your secrets. Whatever the case, no good usually comes from it.”

  Grell grinned, holding her hand up to her mouth as she mock whispered, pointing at Joel with one finger. “He speaks from experience. He reveled in the fact they revered him as a god-- until they wanted to cut him up and eat him in order to get a portion of his power.”

  “Ah, those were the days when I was young and foolish. I kind of miss them.”

  Grell raised her eyebrow at that comment. “Why? The only thing that has changed since those days is you’ve grown older. You’re still as foolish and foolhardy as ever.”

  “Keep testing me woman! I’ve had just about enough of your backtalk and snide remarks today!”

  “You want a piece of this old man! Come on! Those goblins just warmed me up. I’m ready for a real challenge. Lacking that, you’ll have to do.”

  Joel swung his staff at Grell’s head as she did a split. Her leg swept out to knock her husband down but he flung himself into the air on a pillar
of stone. Grell’s leg turned grey in a split second, breaking the rock to dust. Even though they were both giving it their all, they were also both grinning like children. Kimberly realized this was all just a big game to them. A massive round of role-play. Turning away, she wrapped her arm around Jordon’s shoulder.

  “Come on, I’m hungry. Lets get something to eat. We can leave these two alone for now.”

  “Yeah.”

  As the two of them headed off to find some food, Jordon looked up at Kimi with a smile that just wouldn’t go away. He had an air of confidence about him that hadn’t been there before.

  “Hey Kimi, I know why the old man wash turned into a tree.”

  “Oh? Why’s that?”

  “Becaush he losht a fight with hish wife who wash a magichian.”

  Kimberly began to chuckle, Jordon joined in after a few heartbeats.

  Chapter 7: To Contract, or Not To Contract

  “You didn’t make a permanent pact with him right? It was only a temporary one right? You can only contract with me! I summoned you. So it’s only fair. Now that you see how much better you can be with a contract you want to contract with me right?”

  “Maria! Enough already! Give it a rest! You’re worse than a yapping dog.”

  “But the Grand Quest is going to be announced soon! I just know it! If hiccups are getting past the magic shields surrounding the town, it means a large Quest is right around the corner! I need you to contract with me so I can make my power grow! And then I can have time to train before we go out to save the world!”

  “You know what? I’ve decided. There is no way in hell I will ever contract with you.”

  “What! Why?”

  “Just listen to yourself. You, you, you. I need, I need, I want. That’s all you ever say. You don’t want a partner, you just want a tool you can use. I’m not going to be a tool.”