The other knight barely had time to draw his sword before the bear swatted the man down and flung him as well. At this point the three of us deemed it safe to travel outside of the passage.
“So what’s the plan now?” I asked, again hoping for anything positive.
“I arranged for a boat to come pick up King. We were supposed to go along but I don’t see it, Sire,” Mal responded.
“Let’s head upriver to see if it’s just a little late,” I suggested.
“King, I recommend not going that way. The enemy’s camp is set up right over the hill around the river. They also have the boat we are supposed to be on,” Lyrica said, disappointment tingeing her voice.
“Is the way down the river clear?” King’s definitive voice was completely gone from horror.
“We should be clear for a while. We must make haste; they have found the passage behind us and have started through the tunnels.”
Walking downriver I tried to comfort Lyrica. She had always been able to see what was just up ahead. Today, her sight wasn’t working as well as usual and I could tell it was troubling her. “How are you holding up through all of this?”
“I just can’t tell what’s going to happen.”
“It’ll all be fine. Just like you and me.” I was trying to console her.
“You were the one thing I couldn’t see the future of, yet you could see ours together.”
“Exactly, I knew we would be together, just as I know we will make it out of this.” I felt confident that she would be alright.
“Quiet down back there! I can’t—” Mal exclaimed, falling down mid-sentence.
“Hit the deck!” King whispered the command causing all of us to drop straight to the ground.
We lay in the leaves next to the river, waiting for the next shot. We could see Mal breathing but were too afraid to say anything. The arrow protruding from Mal’s shoulder frightened us all. Lyrica whispered to Mal, “They’re up in the tree on the other side of the river.”
Mal disappeared yet again, only stopping to dislodge the still visible arrow to complete the disguise. Surprisingly not yelling in pain, we could hear the superhumanly quick footsteps across the water and up the tree as that same arrow that went into Mal came out the other side of the archer.
“Coast is clear,” Lyrica yelled to Mal. Only it was too late before everyone realized that we were not clear. As Mal reached the bottom of the tree, another arrow struck the valiant man, followed by another and another. The three of us ran as fast as we could following the river to get away, while behind us we heard the furious yell of a grizzly and loud thumps being dealt to the soldiers.
“There’s the boat!” King yelled, much too happily.
“What about Mal?” Lyrica and I joined in agreement.
“He can take care of himself, the man is trained to.”
The three of us climbed onto the boat where Lyrica’s younger sister Lilac waited. She had a sight similar to Lyrica’s, only less trained. Moments after we began moving away from the shore, we heard the familiar pounding of a bear sprinting. In the most graceful display I’ve ever seen, Mal jumped full force as a bear toward the boat, changing only seconds after leaving the ground and landing smoothly into the boat.
“Where are we headed?” Mal casually asked.
“We can’t tell yet but we can feel that it will be better,” the sisters replied together.
“As long as we’re together, we can handle anything.” I softly spoke to Lyrica. “As long as we have each other, we have the world.”
A little down the river we stopped to take account of what had happened. “What were they attacking for?” I asked King.
“They were just savages. They had no reason for attacking,” he replied, shrugging it off.
“It didn’t seem like they were just savages to me. They had smart tactics and large weapons. It seemed to me like they had a purpose, especially since they were waiting for you outside of your secret tunnel.” I sounded as if I was accusing King.
“Maybe they were waiting for you. Did you ever consider that?” King rudely replied.
“Why would they be waiting for him?” Lyrica asked, a slight uneasy tone in her voice.
Mal looked at me with disgust when he said, “Yes, why don’t you tell them?”
“The only thing I’ve done is left a place that was filled with scoundrels and mercenaries. There’s no reason that they would have been coming after me,” I angrily refuted.
“Do you not know?” Mal asked me quietly.
“Know what?” I replied, very confused.
“When you came to the kingdom and appeared before me, Mal was speaking to me while you were showing your worth.” King was now comfortably speaking in his booming voice again. “You have a special gift. Just like these three do, you have a talent as well.”
“What is it?” Lyrica, Lilac and I all questioned at the same time.
“You can traverse time. Mal could see into your mind and found this fantastic ability, sitting there dormant,” King told everyone.
“I’ve never done anything remotely close to that!” I replied, confused.
“It’s there; you’ve just never used it before. Those barbarians attacking are actually from the past, as are you. They followed you here so that you couldn’t use the weapons from their culture against them. That tribe of ‘scoundrels and mercenaries’ are all part of a special group that could use that skill. They thought you had figured it out, when really you just stumbled through time without knowing it.” King was a storyteller by this point.
“The reason that you can’t see his past or future,” Mal said, speaking to Lyrica, “is because it can change at any moment. Your ability isn’t that well defined yet.” He added the last remark with a lip snare and a whole helping of vanity.
Just as he finished speaking those words, our comfortable rest was interrupted. The savages were now upon us once more. They started firing arrows and sprinting towards us. We began paddling even harder down the river, picking up speed.
“It’s no use! They are catching up and will not stop following us,” King roared at us, trying to make us paddle faster.
Lyrica whispered to me, “Try to use your power to get you, me, and my sister out of here.”
“Hold on to me as tightly as you can,” I told Lyrica and Lilac as quick as I could, as the barbarians were almost upon us.
“Take us away. Try as hard as you can,” Lyrica replied with much haste.
“Here we go,” I yelled as I thought as hard as I could about the future.
It seemed like we hadn’t even moved, yet all the yelling and noise was gone. We could no longer see King or Mal. We looked around and found that we weren’t in the forest anymore. All around us were tall brick and reflective buildings.
“We had come to today. Well, about 15 years ago to be exact. Now that, kids, is the story of how I met your mother and how we fell in love.” Looking at all the little faces of my children, I knew I was amusing them.
My littlest child started speaking, “That’s not real, you made all that up!”
“Then why does your mother always know when you’re going to do something bad?” My response was giving them a look of fear, much like the look Lyrica had when I first met her.
“Well, what happened to King and Mal?” my oldest asked me.
“That’s a bedtime story for another night. Now sleep well, children, I’ll see you in the morning.”
One by one, they all said, “Goodnight!”
The End
About the Author
I am a 19-year-old student, currently attending the University of Utah. My current major is Computer Science, with an emphasis in entertainment art and engineering (I plan to go into video games). I wrote this short story for my girlfriend, Lindsay Bennett, as a birthday present. I’ve always wanted to write stories and I finally got the chance to do that in this anthology.
Find out more about Calvin Kern at:
http://it
salovethingthebook.blogspot.com/p/calvin-kern.html
Return to Table of Contents
In the Beginning
Pre-Earth
Alashon hurried down the white corridor. She could barely contain her excitement. Vindar waited for her in the gardens. Every moment she was filled with gratitude for him. Few spirits were lucky enough to find their soul mate during their pre-earth time.
Just outside the garden wall she stopped. She smoothed her silvery dress down though there was no chance for it to be anything but perfect. She ran her fingers through her long, snowy-white, silky hair. Then, unable to wait one moment longer, she pushed the gate open.
An explosion of color greeted her. Flowers, shrubbery, and trees of every kind ever created by Father filled the garden, where they grew spontaneously. The scents combined into a heady concoction that always made her think of Vindar. This is where they’d first seen one another.
He stood at the end of the path and a rush of feeling overcame her entire being. His white hair glowed above smiling eyes that reflected the colors of the universe as did hers. He moved toward her as soon as he spotted her. They came together in the garden’s middle, placing their hands flat against the other’s hands. They didn’t need an exchange of words to communicate the depth of their feeling. Emotion flowed between their touch.
Shouting reached them, shattering the peace. They both startled at the sound, glancing around uncertainly. Shouting was very unusual. “What’s going on?” she asked Vindar. Her words danced like the clear tinkle of a bell.
“I don’t know,” he answered worriedly. His words also came out as dulcet bells. She thought it was the most beautiful sound ever created. Even in her feeling of unrest, she could recognize the pull toward the beauty of his voice.
He took her hand and together they exited the garden. A ping of disappointment that they wouldn’t be able to spend more time in the garden stung her belly. But, she supposed, they had plenty of time to do so later. For now, they needed to know the cause and source of the shouts.
They soon came across a scene of chaos. Spirits hurried to and fro, some with deep worry reflecting from their glowing countenances. “Frindo,” Vindar said, seeing one of their brothers. “What is happening?”
“I’m unsure,” Frindo said. “Though I do believe that it involves Lucifer once again.”
Vindar glanced at Alashon. They both loved their brother Lucifer dearly, but he was a restless soul. He had many grand ideas, and was frustrated that Father couldn’t see the attractiveness of them. He had been speaking to all of their brothers and sisters, trying to convince them of the purity of his plan. Many had already accepted Lucifer’s view, they knew.
Alashon felt it unfair of Lucifer to try to sway them so. He was in direct opposition with their brother Emmanuel who was as beloved as Lucifer himself. It was the first time there had been a division between them all. Alashon didn’t think Lucifer tried to divide them purposely. He just felt very strongly about his plan and wanted eternal happiness for all his brothers and sisters. Still, Alashon couldn’t agree with him. Emmanuel’s plan was much sounder in the eternal scheme.
As if her thoughts had conjured him, Emmanuel passed them. He smiled, reaching a hand to brush theirs as he passed. A few spirits walked behind him and Alashon and Vindar followed. They came to the great room, the only room large enough to gather all of the Father’s children. Lucifer already stood in the center.
“Father has spoken,” Lucifer said. He did not need to raise his voice above the melodic tones of normal speaking. All could hear him clearly. “He has rejected my plan.” He turned his gaze on Emmanuel, and Alashon stepped back in fear. She had never seen such a look in anyone’s eyes in all her centuries here. The feeling that came from his look washed over her with cold ferocity. She could not even name the look that she saw. “I shall destroy you and your followers, Emmanuel,” he said, his voice reverberating with an undertone that Alashon hadn’t heard before.
She noticed the clear division between her brothers and sisters, some moving to stand behind Lucifer, others behind Emmanuel, some undecided. Without thought, only a deep knowledge that what she did was right, she moved to firmly support Emmanuel. With great relief, she saw that Vindar had made the same choice. She didn’t know what she would have done had he gone with the opposition. Would she have wavered for Vindar’s sake?
“If you do this, brother,” Emmanuel said, his words chiming with peace and love in spite of his words, “You shall begin a great and terrible war that shall tear our family apart. You know you will lose, and you will be cast out of heaven, never to gain a body.”
“So you say,” Lucifer answered. Alashon shivered at the double timbre that shook the foundation upon which they stood. “As for me and my true brothers and sisters,” he said, his sweeping hands indicating those who had gathered to support him, “we shall fight valiantly until we have received our victory. Then it shall be you, brother, who will find himself cast out.”
“We shall see.” Emmanuel’s answer was firm and full of confidence. She glanced fearfully at Vindar. Suddenly, Lucifer gave a loud command, the bells of his voice buried beneath the heaviness of it and a sure knowledge swept over them that the war had begun.
Alashon stepped forward, but Vindar took her hand and pulled her away, back to the garden.
“What are you about, Vindar?” she asked, anxious to get back to aid her family.
“It may be a very long time before we can be together again,” he said, pressing his palms to hers. His words stopped her short and her desire to join the battle that now raged nearby faded. Sorrow engulfed her.
“You know what this battle means, Vindar?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “The time has come. Soon the earth shall be formed and we shall be sent to gain our bodies.”
Distress filled her soul. “That can’t happen. Not now. Not yet. We aren’t prepared.”
“Nonetheless, it will happen.”
Alashon pressed her palms even more tightly to his. “I can’t lose you,” she said. “What if either of us are swayed to the opposite side? You know as well as I that Lucifer can be very persuasive.”
“It won’t happen,” he assured her.
“What if we remain firm, but once we are upon the Earth he is able to sway us to follow him?” Another thought struck her and she gasped. “What if we are sent in times separate enough that we miss one another?”
“Have faith, Alashon. We shall go together, and I will find you. And neither of us shall fall prey to Lucifer or his minions.”
She shook her head sadly. “You are much stronger than me. I shall be the one to fall. How will you find me amongst the many? I’ll not look the same, nor will you. We won’t have any memory of this time or of each other.”
Vindar stepped closer. “My heart will not ever forget you, Alashon. You are as vital to me as my own soul. When I find you, I will know you.”
Alashon smiled sadly. “Vindar, I should like to believe that. But we both know the chances are slim. You shall find another, beautiful spirit to love while you are in your human form, and I will not even be a memory.”
“Please, my love, don’t think that way. You have to believe. We both have to believe.”
“Vindar,” she smiled, “You called me love.” To call another spirit love was to commit oneself to that spirit in an unbreakable binding. While she had long considered Vindar her love, she hadn’t spoken the words, not wanting to be the one to commit him to a life without an eternal companion if they didn’t find one another on earth.
“Because you are my love,” he said. “There can be no other for me. Do you accept?”
“You have been my love since the day our spirits came together,” she answered without hesitation. “And now, Father will have to send us together so that we have the chance to find one another.”
Vindar’s answering smile glowed brighter than the orb of fire that would give life to the Earth. “I’m almost tempted to help Luci
fer,” he teased. “At least if we have no free will, we will undoubtedly find one another without any temptations to cause us to stray.”
“If only it was the right thing,” she said. They did not need to express their shared knowledge that Emmanuel had the right in this battle, no matter what it might mean for their earthly beings.
“I will find you,” Vindar vowed. “My heart will remember you and we will be together.”
Tears like kaleidoscope glass dropped from Alashon’s eyes. “And I shall search for you, as well. I will only have to look into your eyes to see the beauty of your soul.”
“I vow,” Vindar said.
“I vow,” Alashon repeated. There was no undoing the promise made now. They would be sent to Earth in roughly the same time period, but they would be doomed to live forever alone if they could not find one another. They did not know where their free will would lead them, but they both swore to use their will to complete their vows.
As a binding seal, they threaded their fingers together above the pressed palms. The invisible binding wrapped around them, cocooning them in its warmth and possibility. They could have stood there for unlimited moments, but the sound of the conflict finally penetrated their fascination with one another. As one, they turned and hurried to join in the battle that would forever render their family.
Earth
Drake Black raced down the highway, his bike rumbling beneath him with a reassuring growl that reflected his inner . . . well, he wouldn’t call it a soul. To call it a soul meant to admit the possibility of a God, and he had spent his life being assured that God did not exist.
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