by Logan Jacobs
“Yes, yes, that’s who I mean,” I replied hurriedly and pulled my pants up. “Our Dryad friend is going to help us with our Hands.”
“Please,” Kalista joked as she sat up in bed, “the last thing you need is help with your hands.”
Storm bolted up from her spot on the dog bed at my rush and leapt onto the bed. One head was still pretty sleepy, and its eyes closed lazily before they popped open in surprise, and then repeated the cycle. The Cerberus watched us intently as she prepared herself for us to leave. She was adorable when she knew I was about to take off, with her big puppy dog eyes and sad whimper. It almost made me want to stay here with her, but I figured my duty to the world was a bit more important. Besides, Sal had agreed to watch her while I was gone, no questions asked, and I knew the puppy would have a blast with the dwarf’s huge family.
“Milton, are you going to explain to me why we’re going to see Professor Limmer?” Kalista demanded as she rolled out of bed and found her pants.
“There was this essay I read when I was there,” I explained when I pulled on my second boot. “It was all about using plants to enhance a Fae’s Hand of Power. We’ll need something like this if we want to stop the Phobos.”
“And you think Limmer can help us do that?” she asked with a hint of disbelief still present in her voice.
“I do,” I replied honestly. The dwarf pursed her pink lips as she thought before she finally gave a slow nod.
“You’re the boss,” Kalista said with a shrug.
“Oh, I am now?” I teased. “Well, then--”
“Save it, Milton.” The dwarf stifled an amused laugh and tried to maintain an air of authority. “You know what I meant.”
“I’m the boss, that’s what you meant,” I quipped back as I sidestepped around her and ignored her frustrated sigh. “Let’s go get the others. We have a dryad to visit.”
“Let’s just hope he actually remembers who we are,” she grumbled as she stepped through the door I held open for her.
“Who?” Maaren’s husky voice asked, and I stepped through the door to see the hunter as she walked down the hallway toward us. She was already fully dressed with her double-headed axe in hand, and her green eyes surveyed us carefully.
“Professor Limmer,” Kalista groaned.
“The dryad from the University?” Maaren questioned and cocked her head in thought.
“Milton thinks he might be able to help us.” Kalista motioned toward me with her hand.
Storm came up behind me and licked at my heels until I bent down to stroke her soft grey heads. Her three pairs of wise brown eyes watched me carefully, and she gave my face a good lick with her center head as if she knew what I was about to do.
“Sal’s going to take good care of you, okay?” I whispered as I gave her a scratch on each of her heads. “He’ll come to get you in a little bit, and I’ll be back before you know it.”
The Cerberus gave a soft whine as if to ask me to take her with us, but she was still far too young and untrained to come on a dangerous mission like this. I couldn’t risk it.
“Stay, Storm,” I commanded as I rose and shut the door.
“Do you want to tell me why you want to see that crazy old dryad?” Maaren prompted.
“No!” Ariette hollered as she stuck her head out from the doorway to her room directly across the hall from mine. Her blonde hair quivered violently as she shook her head.
“Well, good morning to you, too!” I exclaimed as the elf stepped out of her room.
She stopped directly in front of me, planted her feet a hips width apart, crossed her arms, and shook her head some more. “I do not want to go see some crazy dryad,” she stated dramatically. “That office is so messy, the neat freak in me feels like I’m about to have an aneurysm every time I’m in it.”
“Okayyyyy,” I said in exasperation and took a moment to stare up at the ceiling. “Look, can we just get Danira up before I explain everything? I promise I have a good reason.”
“A good reason for what?” the commander asked gruffly as she came around the corner and strode down the hallway.
“Did we make a decision to meet at seven in the freaking morning?” Kalista muttered under her breath. “Because I don’t remember that.”
“No, Kalista,” Danira replied. “I think we’re all just running on nerves. Now, a good reason for what?”
“I want to go see Professor Limmer at the University.” I turned to the commander as I replied. “I read an essay he had written about plants from the Nahul Plains. Limmer claimed he had unlocked a code within the genes of certain plants that could be used to create a serum that will enhance the Hands of Power of Fae. We need it.”
“That would help immensely,” Danira murmured as she mulled over what I said. Her lone black eye narrowed in thought as she drew her fingertips along her prominent collarbone.
“Is this a proven theory?” Ariette piped up. She still had her hands on her hips.
“Not yet,” I replied, “but every scientific theory starts out as a simple hypothesis. There’s only one way to find out if it’s true or not.”
“I don’t know about this,” Maaren butted in. Her face was drawn as she looked at me. “I know you don’t have much experience with this kind of thing, but as a hunter--”
“This is Milton’s mission,” Danira cut Maaren off with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “We aren’t going as a Special Ops team from the guild. We’re going as a group of badass warriors who want to stop these evil terrorists and help the Racmoth fulfill a prophecy. If Milton thinks we need to go talk to Limmer, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Danira shot me a wink, and my heart swelled for a moment. The brusque commander had just willingly handed me the reins, and while it surprised me, I was also proud of myself. I knew just how much trust she must have had in me in order to do that, and I gave her a soft smile and a nod of thanks. Something told me I would know all the right steps to take and all the right places to go.
Maybe it was some weird Racmoth thing I didn’t know about, or maybe it was just the trust I had gained for myself in the last few weeks, since that fateful day Oragon had asked me to take his hand. Whatever it was, I straightened my spine and looked at the beautiful faces of the four women in front of me.
Danira’s black eye danced with anticipation. Kal’s violet ones glowed with barely contained excitement. Both Maaren and Ariette looked at me with complete trust.
One thing was clear in all of their expressions: I was in charge now.
“Okay,” I said finally. “Let’s go talk to a dryad.”
The guild was silent as we marched through the corridors and down the stairs to the front hall. A few interns bustled about, but other than the young Fae, everything was unusually quiet. The whispers about the Phobos and the prophecy had started to circulate a few days ago, and it seemed the rumors had everyone on edge. Just before we stepped through the huge doors at the exit to the guild, my alert Fae hearing picked up a set of distinct whispers.
“Have you seen Jenon recently?” a younger voice asked curiously.
I turned around and honed in on where the voices were coming from. There were two young elven interns huddled in a corner, just off the foyer. They both looked ridiculously tense as they conversed.
“No,” the girl replied as she flicked a few black curls back over her shoulder. “She must be out sick, too. That’s what? Five people not showing up for work? Makes our job so much harder.”
“Don’t you think that’s a lot of people to be out?” the first elf asked, his eyes wide.
“What’s your point?” his companion questioned.
“Do you think that they might not be sick?” he questioned grimly. “There’s been a lot of talk about the you-know-what group recently. What if they’re being kidnapped?”
“Kidnapped?” she repeated dubiously. “Don’t be ridiculous, Argen. Nobody’s being kidnapped. They’re just sick, for God’s sake.”
“Milton, are you
coming?” Maaren asked as she held the door open for me. Everyone else had already strode outside.
The two young elves looked at me when they heard her voice, and they quickly scurried off to continue their conversation somewhere else.
“What’s the matter?” Maaren asked. Her breath was hot on the outer tip of my ear as I walked past her and stared at the spot where the two young elves had been.
“Have you heard of anyone going missing?” I asked the four of them once the door banged shut behind me.
“No,” Danira said slowly. “Why?”
“Just something those two interns were talking about,” I replied as I kicked at a light grey rock. “A lot of people have been out sick recently. One of them thinks they’re being kidnapped.”
“I’m sure they’re just rumors,” Maaren said rather unconvincingly. “They’re interns, Milton. They’re afraid of their own shadows, for crying out loud.”
“We should look into it,” I stated, but Danira put a hand on my shoulder.
“Milton,” the commander started darkly, “if that’s true, and it’s a big if, stopping the Phobos will put an end to it. In a way, we are looking into it.”
“Right,” I replied sadly. “Let’s go make ourselves even more badass, then.”
Our team walked out of the guild, piled into the Van of Death, and then made our way toward the University. Thankfully, we arrived without any serious injury from Kal’s slightly reckless driving, and Danira stretched luxuriously when she stepped onto the lawn of the courtyard. Students already rushed about with their bulky backpacks and nearly identical expressions of stress and worry.
“Ah, college,” Danira sighed out as one young human girl dashed by us with a particularly agonized expression. “Reminds me of my youth.”
“You went to college?” Maaren asked in surprise as she stepped out of the van.
“Well, don’t be so surprised, hunter,” Danira grunted. “I had a life before the guild, you know. There was a time when you needed an actual education to get into the training program.”
“I have a hard time picturing you on a college campus,” I chuckled as I led the way toward the location of the professor’s office. “Were you a keg stand or a body shot kind of girl?”
“Boy, there are a lot of other things to enjoy about college besides the studies and parties,” the commander replied with a quick wink. “Many, many other things.” Her black eye fixated on a fairly handsome young elf with overly bulked up arm muscles. I caught the way she bit her bottom lip as she watched him walk away and bit back a laugh of surprise and appreciation.
I leaned over to Ariette. “So a sorority sister, I see,” I whispered, and the elf was caught up in a fit of giggles.
“Come on, guys. Eye up front, Danira! Stop ogling the students,” Kalista grumbled as she stomped past us. “I don’t want to spend too long with the crazy. It might seep into us by osmosis.”
“That’s not how that works.” I chuckled as I followed her to the back corridor of the campus, where the professor’s dingy classroom was tucked into a corner with the other, less popular classrooms.
I took a deep breath as I raised my hand to knock on the heavy metal door and sent up a silent prayer that he actually remembered us. Then, I rapped three times next to the tiny black plaque that read “Professor Limmer, Herbology.”
To my surprise, the door swung open almost immediately. Last time, we’d had to go in search of the ancient dryad, but he now stood before me with his coal black eyes and rough skin, and a look of utter annoyance on his face.
“What do you want?” he spat as the door opened before he could get a good look at me. “Office hours are on--oh, wait, it’s you!”
“You remember me?” I asked with uncertainty. The last time we had been here, the dryad forgot who we were multiple times in the span of a few minutes.
“Well, of course, I remember you, Milton. I’m not demented!” he protested, completely aghast at the thought of forgetting anything.
“Suuurreee,” Kalista snorted under her breath behind me, but the dryad heard her and shot her a dark look from under his heavily wrinkled eyelids.
“And the dwarf is back too,” the dryad sighed.
“Listen, Professor, we’re actually here for a little more than a social call,” I started before the old dryad gasped and spun around to dash back inside his office. The five of us shared confused looks before we hurriedly followed him.
“They’re not stealing my flowers again, are they?” His voice warbled through the stacks of messy shelves as we searched for him in the disarray.
“Oh, my,” Danira breathed when a vine smacked her on the side of her head. “This is quite the place.”
“No, Professor,” I assured him when I finally found him. He was huddled over the bright yellow Moly Flower and had pulled out the small notebook where he kept count of all of the flowers. He desperately flipped through the pages and scanned the numbers.
“Because I haven’t noticed anything,” he assured me from his spot on this ground. “Or have I? I don’t know!”
“Professor,” I said softly as I crouched down next to him and put a hand over the page, “no one is stealing your flowers. I didn’t mean to startle you. I actually came to inquire about an essay I read the last time I was here. It was called something like Plants of the Nahul Plains and Unlimited Mana? I’m not sure that’s totally right.”
“Oh, my magnum opus?” he exclaimed and quickly tossed the small notebook aside. “Well, why didn’t you say so before?”
“Because you ran off like a lunatic,” Kalista grumbled as she stared at a tiny bonsai tree in front of her. She reached a hand out to touch its leaves, but the ancient dryad leapt in front of her and smacked her hand away with a loud crack.
“Don’t touch that, youngling!” he exclaimed. “You’ll disturb its growth cycle!”
“Okay, sorry,” Kalista muttered, but the dryad had already taken off through the stacks of shelves.
“It’s a wonder he finds anything in here,” Danira said as she eyed a stack of papers that teetered perilously on a shelf two feet above us.
“Organized chaos,” I chuckled to the commander, who just rolled her black eye.
“No such thing, Milton,” she grunted.
We turned the corner, and a yellowed old notebook flew straight toward my head. I ducked to avoid it just in time and heard a surprised “ouch!” as it hit Kalista instead.
Limmer was huddled in the back corner where I’d sat during our stakeout, and he frantically hunted through crates and bins full of papers and notebooks. He glanced briefly at each thing he pulled out before he tossed it carelessly over his shoulder. Suddenly, he paused and rocked back on his heels with an expression of befuddlement on his face.
“What am I looking for?” he muttered to himself.
“The paper, Professor, on the plants of the Nahul Plains,” I prompted.
The tiny dryad jumped at my voice and turned to me with a reddish hand dramatically placed over his heart as if he’d just been told shocking news.
“Milton!” he exclaimed. “When did you get here?”
“I’ve been here, Professor,” I sighed as I rubbed my temple. I didn’t have time for him to forget what was going on every five minutes.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” Maaren interrupted as she handed me a stapled stack of wrinkled white papers. I saw the title typed at the head: The Link Between Plant Species of the Nahul Plains and Unlimited Mana.
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “Thank you.”
“What is that?” Limmer demanded as he bumbled over to us and brushed a wayward sprout out of his eyes.
“I read this the last time I was here,” I explained as I handed him the papers. “It’s quite brilliant, you know.”
“Oh, thank you,” the old dryad said, and if his skin was already reddish, I would’ve sworn he blushed. “But, Milton, you know I haven’t proven this yet, right? In fact, the scientific community finds my ide
as rather preposterous.”
“I don’t care what the scientific community thinks,” I replied. “I care what you think, and this theory could be a serious asset.”
“In fighting the Phobos, you mean?” Limmer all but whispered as he glanced over the papers.
I didn’t say anything and looked at Ariette with wide eyes. This had spread a lot farther than we initially thought.
“Your destiny with the Phobos is not the secret you think it is,” the dryad interrupted our glance, and I turned back to see his honest eyes. “There have been whisperings for a very long time, and when you showed up … a human with a blood Hand? It’s pretty hard to deny a prophecy then.”
“So does that mean you’ll help us?” Maaren asked hopefully.
The dryad looked at all of us for a long, hard moment. It almost seemed like he had an inner debate with himself, like maybe there was something more he wanted to tell us. If that were true though, he said nothing and instead sighed heavily as he turned back to the wrinkled papers in his gnarled hands.
“I need a plant,” he said as he started to walk back through the shelves and head toward his desk.
“Which one?” I asked as I glanced around his room full of plants.
“It’s not here,” he replied. “When I came up with this theory, I had just gotten back from a trip to the Nahul Plains, and I had observed something rather odd in the way some of the plants vibrated. It was rather like the way a Hand vibrates when it is in use. It’s a good thing I’m a nature dryad, or this may have gone unnoticed for many more centuries.”
“So you’re saying you don’t have any plants that you can use?” Danira grunted. The commander stood with her arms crossed and her legs apart as she observed the dryad closely.
“No, I’m afraid not,” he responded sadly. “Have we met?”
“I’m the team commander,” she replied, not in the mood for introductions. “Where is it?”
“The Nahul Plains, of course!” he cried out as if he had just won a prize.
“We have to go to the Nahul Plains to get this plant?” Ariette said. “HC, are you sure this is worth it?”
