Out of This World

by Maggie Morton

  After walking in the sun for a few minutes, steadily heading away from the stupid, enchanted lake, the cold she’d been feeling had lessened a fair amount, and she told Anandra they could begin to move faster once more. Nearly drowning might have weakened her some, but she refused to let that stop her from keeping up their usual traveling pace. Nor would she let it stop her from getting the monster-filled part of their trip over and done with as quickly as they could. No, she would use her fear to power her on, she decided. Although anything that Anandra was afraid of was probably not good, and perhaps a little more threatening than what they’d come across so far.

  But she didn’t whine when Anandra suggested, after a few hours of walking, that they stop for lunch. Because while she did want to get past the monsters as soon as possible, and while she still was scared, she hadn’t managed to lose her appetite.

  “Our breakfast was so light that I think stopping early is a good idea.”

  “No complaints here,” Iris said with some fake cheer. Well, it was partially real, but mostly her overly cheery tone was there to cover the tremor that was bound to come out at some point. They’d been getting closer and closer to the mysterious monsters with each step, Iris knew, and though Anandra might have been very brave, something about this particular threat had shaken her more than anything else had on their travels so far. And if someone wasn’t afraid of a hungry, gigantic alligator, what would they be afraid of?

  Iris dropped down into a cross-legged seated posture and placed her bag off to her side. They’d stopped by the road, about half a mile away from a forest that looked like a fire had traveled through it at some point. Its trees were burned black, but they still blocked whatever hid within them from their current vantage point. Iris hoped the forest didn’t turn out to be as creepy as it looked from where she now sat.

  “How much do you know about these monsters, anyway?” she asked Anandra as she tore off a piece of some proffered bread. She also took some sharp-smelling cheese that had been stored in a small wooden box, letting its equally sharp taste mingle with the full, yeasty goodness of the hard-crusted bread. She was momentarily distracted by the quality of the food while she waited for Anandra to answer.

  “My village’s Eye of the Future foretold various things about our travels. They advised me of what I might come across, including that on my third day away from home, I would encounter some very dangerous monsters. They didn’t say anything else about them, hence my nerves being pulled a mite tighter than usual. I apologize that I don’t have more information, but of course, our Eye is not all-seeing.”

  “The…Eye of the Future, or whatever, it didn’t warn you about me?” Iris took another bite of bread and a swig of the juice that Anandra had pulled out of her bag when they’d sat down.

  “No.” Anandra turned her head away from Iris and took a large bite of bread. “No, it didn’t,” she mumbled through her full mouth.

  Something told Iris she was lying, because although she’d known Anandra for only a few days, she still felt she’d picked up on a few of her cues. Hints of her thoughts and intents were usually obvious on her face, at least when she was talking to Iris. It was almost like she let her guard down around her, and Iris wasn’t really sure what to make of that realization. Anandra didn’t seem like the type to ever let her guard down, so Iris decided that, just like her guess that Anandra was lying, it couldn’t possibly be true. Besides, she needed to trust Anandra, because she was the only thing that stood between her and these monsters in their path. She was possibly the only thing that stood between her surviving the monsters or becoming the monsters’ supper.

  “I would like to tell you a story, one that my mother told me when I was young. Are you game?” Anandra sliced off a sliver of cheese with her knife and ate it off the blade.

  “Sure you aren’t just procrastinating?”

  It almost seemed that Anandra was blushing, but she wouldn’t want it pointed out, so Iris just ignored the fact that she might have been embarrassed, instead settling into a more comfortable position and getting ready to hear whatever this story might be.

  “Once, about fifty sun-cycles ago, our land’s good Queen gave the King a child. But King Eurus was not happy to have a new member of his family, because the child was a girl. Over time, as sun-cycles passed and the Queen didn’t give him a son, he grew cold toward her, becoming cruel and distant, more and more so with each passing month. In her child’s fifth sun-cycle, a thief made her way into the castle and stole the King’s golden lion.”

  “Golden lion?” Iris asked. “Was it made out of gold or just gold-colored?”

  “It was made out of gold, but it was also alive. May I continue?”

  “Sure, of course. Sorry.”

  “The golden lion was of more value to Eurus at this point than his wife, so when, strangely, the thief offered the lion in trade for his wife, the King said yes. But he didn’t know that the thief had previously been in his employ, as one of the Queen’s maids, and Queen Selehn and the maid had fallen in love. Before the King could change his mind, though, the Queen ran off and was never seen again. Until the Great War, that is. The war where I lost both my parents,” she told Iris, and she stabbed her knife into the ground with a quick thrust as she burst into tears.

  Iris couldn’t have been more shocked if Anandra had exploded instead. “I’m so, so sorry. Can I do something?”

  “A hug might be acceptable,” Anandra said in a gruff voice, sounding almost angry. So Iris wrapped her arms around her, holding her to her breast for a few moments until Anandra pushed her away. She seemed to have stopped crying as quickly as she’d started, and she wiped her eyes on the backs of her hands, taking her knife and placing it back in its sheath. She dug a hole in the ground and buried the box that had held the cheese and the bag that the bread had come from, and put the juice bottle back in her bag. Each thing she did with a stoic, empty expression on her face, and Iris didn’t know how to react, either to the sudden tears or the equally sudden cessation of them. “Are you all right, Anandra?”

  “I am fine. Let’s get this over with, so we may continue on our way with no further interruptions.”

  Iris rose from the ground and picked up her bag. Time for some monsters, she thought to herself, fighting to stop from freezing where she stood. She also had to struggle to keep herself from turning tail and running back the way they’d come. She had almost never been this scared, and of all the times for Anandra to fall apart! But she had to be honest: it had touched her deeply that Anandra had felt comfortable enough to share this part of her past. It had touched her very deeply indeed.

  So, she decided, she would stay by Anandra’s side for the time being, because although she’d seemed shaken a few moments ago—very shaken—Anandra seemed as if she was back to her usual stoic, brave self once more. Or at least as close as she was going to get in the time it would take them to reach the grove of burnt trees, the trees where the monsters they were to face just might be hiding.

  Chapter Seven

  They reached the trees in what seemed like no time at all. It might have taken them twenty minutes, but it felt like only one or two. My, how time flies when you’re approaching something terrifying, Iris thought as Anandra placed a finger on her lips to hush her. Right, like she was going to start belting out show tunes to let whoever or whatever was hiding in these trees know she was there. Something was off-seeming about them, something creepy, almost like the trees were still alive, alive and watching them. But that was a silly thought, she chided herself. Very silly, although she’d seen plenty of things in this world weirder than sentient trees.

  “Walk as softly as you can,” Anandra said in an almost inaudible voice, close to Iris’s ear. Normally, a whisper in her ear from a hot woman would have sent shivers down her back. This time, though, it wasn’t the whisper that made her shiver—this time the shivers came from fear instead of arousal. Oh, how she wished it were the latter!

  She’d already made up he
r mind to keep going, even with the threat of the terrifying monsters. So she followed Anandra into the trees as quietly as she could, hoping she wouldn’t bungle their silent approach by stepping on a twig or sneezing. After about fifty as-silent-as-possible steps, she heard voices slightly in front of them. She and Anandra took about ten more steps in the voices’ direction, and then they both hid behind the trees, at the edge of a clearing in the woods.

  Within the clearing, three hideous creatures sat on large boulders, their voices almost more like hisses than normally spoken words. All of them were dark brown, and they looked like they’d been fashioned out of mud. Each had a mouth of oversized, long, sharp teeth, two completely black eyes, and two nostrils set in their face like you’d see in a skull. Iris had thought she was scared as they’d approached the woods, but the shakiness she’d felt throughout her body then had nothing, absolutely nothing, on how scared she was now. If she hadn’t been smart enough to stop herself, she would have started running out of the woods as fast as her legs could carry her. But these beings also had large ears, the better to hear her with, most likely. Hopefully they didn’t like how humans tasted, and hopefully, if they spotted her and Anandra before Anandra could take them down, Iris’s death would be quick and merciful. But now the words the monsters spoke seemed to imply it would be anything but.

  “We mussst do more damage than lassst time, Frud.”

  “I know, Gar. Ssshe told usss that ssshe wantsss thisss to go quicker. Kuk, you did not kill enough in the lassst village, either.”

  “Be quiet, Frud.”

  “But it isss true, you idiot. Kuk only killed twenty or twenty-five. I killed at leassst—”

  “Be quiet!” The one he’d called Gar rose from his boulder, showing that he was much too tall for his own good. Or for Iris and Anandra’s. “I heard sssomething in the treesss.” Gar turned his head from left to right and made a loud sniffing sound. Oh, great, could he smell them?

  “I knew it!” He started to walk right in the direction of their hiding spot, and then Iris saw a stone go whizzing through the air and hit him squarely in the forehead, clearly Anandra’s doing. Maybe they’d make it out alive after all!

  Gar fell to the ground with a loud thud, but before Anandra could throw another stone, and quicker than Iris could blink, the other two monsters were upon them, grabbing the backs of their necks and lifting them off the ground. Iris saw Anandra sneak something into the back of her pants. She did this right before the two terrifying creatures started carrying them toward a cave. Either it had come out of nowhere, or she’d been so scared she hadn’t noticed it. Whichever it happened to be didn’t matter, because as they entered the cave, Iris saw a pile of bones to their left about a foot high. Apparently, the monsters were just as deadly as their words had implied. Apparently, this would be their final resting place. No one would even be able to send flowers if they were to die here. And no one Iris knew on Earth would even know what had happened to her.

  The taller of the two remaining monsters bound their wrists behind their backs and then bound their hands together, taking Anandra’s magic stones and placing them on the ground, out of reach. The shorter of the two monsters sat down in front of them, apparently to keep watch, or to start marinating them in sauce and spices, because the pile of bones probably hadn’t been emptied of flesh on their own.

  And here came her answer. “I am hungry,” said the tall one, who she thought was named Frud. He started lumbering toward the cave’s opening. “We will dine and then we will go to the nexssst village. I will go and make sssure Gar is dead.”

  “Yesss. We did not like him, though. It will be no losss if he isss.”

  “I agree,” said Frud. “It is sssad that we cannot eat him.”

  “We have enough food now, though.” A thin stream of drool ran down Kuk’s chin, and if these creatures were capable of smiling, that’s what he was doing now, although he wasn’t really doing it right, Iris decided. “Tonight we will feast as ssshe doesss.”

  Who was this “she” they were talking about? But before she could ask (yeah, like that was a good idea!) she felt a slight movement in each of Anandra’s arms, almost like she was taking something out of her back pocket. Iris came close to asking her what she was doing, a clear sign that being scared out of her mind made her faculties perform at less than their usual speed and skill. The monster guarding them didn’t seem to notice Anandra’s stealthy movements, and instead of stopping Anandra from doing whatever she was trying to do, the imposing monster turned to face Iris and said, “I want to tell you a ssstory.”

  Iris figured her shock at Kuk’s words was plain to see. These creatures hadn’t seemed like they cared much for her and Anandra so far, so the fact that this creepy fellow wanted to play “story time” with her and Anandra would have seemed very unlikely if it hadn’t just happened. “O…okay. Go ahead.”

  “I don’t need your permisssion, woman. I only need you to lisssten.” The creature glanced at the opening to the cave, then lowered its voice and turned back to Iris, looking straight at her and making her flinch from his powerful and hungry stare. “Onssse, our Queen made usss. Ssshe made usss from clay and from dark magic; ssshe made usss to help her rule thisss world. But the last Queen, Ssselehn, ssstopped her. Ssshe lowered our numbersss, killing usss off one by one. It hurt usss, each time a brother fell. We felt each one. But we loved our Queen, becaussse ssshe made usss, and ssso we continued to ssserve her.

  “Then a few of my brothersss and I made plansss to essscape her rule—we did not like killing, and we wanted a life of peassse. Ssso I and a few othersss broke with the mob of our kin, and we went off into the woodsss, to have our own livesss. Sssometimesss, I would sssee sssome of my brothersss, and sssometimesss they would be evil. Not all of usss were, not I, nor my friendsss. But Frud will gladly eat you both, given the chanssse, so hurry up and ussse that knife I sssaw you sssneak into your pantsss, sky-being, and I will help you kill Frud with your magic ssstones. But only if you promissse to leave me be.”

  “And why should we do that?” Anandra said, just as Iris felt the ropes around their wrists begin to give. She’d been so scared and then so captivated by the monster’s tale she hadn’t even noticed Anandra sawing through their ropes with her dagger. Anandra was up on her feet in no time, and she got Iris to stand behind her, seemingly ready to protect her if need be. “Why should we trust you, Kuk?”

  “Becaussse, I would have killed you by now if I’d wanted to. It would have been easssy. Now, take thisss,” he told Anandra, tossing her the bag that held her magic stones. Anandra caught it smoothly with her empty hand. “Frud will be back in here sssoon enough, and you ssshould be ready for him.” He rose to his feet with a surprising grace, and it was then that he really seemed different from the other two monsters. Iris wasn’t even sure if she could call him a monster any longer, considering how helpful and kind he seemed. Seemed. Because all they had were his words, and they had no true proof of his supposed honesty yet. “Here he comesss! Get ready!”

  Anandra took out a stone and prepared to throw it. Seconds later, Frud came through the cave’s opening. A dumbfounded expression appeared on his face when he saw Anandra and Iris standing there, untied and armed. “Why are they—”

  But just then a well-placed stone hit him right in the middle of his forehead. He fell as quickly as the first monster, Gar, had, and as gracelessly.

  “Now go, and be careful,” Kuk said to them. “I have a feeling that thisss land will not be sssafe for much longer. There isss word that evil is in the land, and I can feel it in my very bonesss. I can alssso feel that you two may be able to ssstop it, or I would not have ressscued you. I wasss pretty hungry, after all.” And then a dry, raspy cackle rose from his thick throat. Was he laughing?

  But before Iris could figure out if this so-called monster had a sense of humor—a somewhat sick one—he bowed to them and left the cave.

  “Well, that was unexpected,” Iris exclaimed, retrieving
her bag from the edge of the cave. “Now, which way?”

  “We have only one option, I think. We shall go deeper into the cave.” Anandra reached into her bag and drew out a torch. One that was already lit! Would wonders never cease, Iris asked herself with a grin, and she followed Anandra away from the entrance of the cave and the deceased monster.

  She almost wished they could have brought Kuk with them. He seemed kind, and with his apparent strength, he might have proved to be useful. But it looked like he didn’t think so, and he probably had his own life to live. It really was intriguing, though, what he’d had to say about her and Anandra. Did they pose a threat to this evil he sensed in the land? And were his sensors even slightly accurate? She couldn’t ask him, as they were now going in opposite directions, and so Iris just followed Anandra and her torch’s light deeper and deeper into the cave.

  After a while, Iris came to believe that they might be lost. Anandra had been pausing for a few minutes each time the path split, and by the time they reached a large, dimly lit room, Anandra let out a large sigh and announced that they were, indeed, lost.

  “It must be close to nightfall, now. Let us make camp here, and hopefully I’ll be more clearheaded, and therefore able to find our way out of here, come morning.” Anandra took a large blanket out of her bag and spread it out on the ground in the cave, which was quite a beautiful one, as caves went. Similar to most such places, it had the usual stalactites and stalagmites, but they were anything but common, shining and shimmering in the light from Anandra’s torch, glimmering like opals, and they almost were more beautiful than Anandra was, Iris thought. Almost…

  “Would you like to eat now, or should I try my luck at seducing you first?” Anandra walked over to Iris and ran her fingernails down her arm, sending slight tingles down her back.