by A F Kay
After two days, the group thanked Willow and continued their journey south and west toward the mountains. The group’s pace reflected their excitement to leave this realm, and they moved quickly. In less than a day, they’d found the river and the mountain valley that Rami believed led to the Iris.
Kaylin warned them again about how dangerous the mountains were, but as they slowly and carefully moved deeper into the valley, they encountered nothing. After almost two days of navigating the maze of canyons and passes that branched outward from the valley, they were deep in the Desolate Range. Everyone worried about the lack of creatures, but nothing could completely dampen their enthusiasm.
And when Rami told them they had found the final valley, even the worry disappeared. Because in just hours, they would be back home.
Chapter 38
Ruwen studied the giant flowers that filled the valley and surrounded the distant lake. The ones closest to the water stood thirty feet tall. Most of the flower tops were closed, the six petals on each forming a teardrop. The few blossoming flowers had dazzling blue petals, made even more vibrant by the realm’s lack of color.
The stems, wide as tree trunks, had clumps of leaves sticking out, and the flowers’ roots had tendrils crisscrossing under the soil. Spears of new plants poked through the ground, and Ruwen had dug up a few of the tiny flowers along with their root clumps, sticking them in a cloak pocket. Flowers this large might be rare, and maybe Fractal could reproduce them.
Half an hour earlier, Sift, Lylan, and Kaylin had moved deeper into the valley to scout for danger. Everyone else waited next to the quickly moving stream that flowed through the middle of the valley. The sound of the tumbling water relaxed Ruwen and mingled with the excitement of almost being home.
“Hey,” Sift said.
Ruwen jerked in surprise but managed not to yelp. “Stop doing that.”
“Stop letting your guard down.”
Ruwen gritted his teeth, frustrated with himself as he turned around. “You’re right.”
Sift pointed at the stream. “Flowing water is double dangerous. The sound relaxes you while masking the noise of approaching danger.”
Lylan emerged from the forest of flowers, her face and arms slashed. As she walked up to them, she frowned. “The petals and leaves are razor sharp.”
Sift took off his bird helmet and grinned at her. “If you need pointers on how to avoid them, let me know.”
Lylan narrowed her eyes. “Take that armor off and try. You move like a pregnant appah.”
Ruwen stepped up to her. “Please don’t encourage nakedness. He has issues.” He touched Lylan’s shoulder while casting level ten Blooming Branch, and all her cuts disappeared.
“Thanks,” Lylan said, and then raised her eyebrows at Sift.
Sift waved his free hand. “He’s exaggerating. It was just a run of bad luck. Level two had a Spitter, and then Ruwen burned my clothes fighting Clappers on three.”
“You were naked before I burned them,” Ruwen said.
Lylan looked from Ruwen to Sift.
“I was sifting the light to sneak up on their chief. Genius here ignited an entire jar of Spitter Snot–”
“Fire Mucus,” Ruwen said. “And technically, the Clapper Mage ignited it.”
“Whatever. Ruwen basically torched the entire level,” Sift said, doing his best to look innocent.
Lylan turned to Hamma, who had joined them. “Are they ever going to stop this?”
Hamma shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Kaylin arrived, and Ruwen noticed she only had a couple of scratches. She must have had better luck than Lylan navigating the sword flowers. Or maybe Kaylin just had a lot more experience. Everyone grouped to hear what they’d found.
Ruwen spoke first. “Please tell me one of you found a tower or a building or something with doors.”
Lylan responded, her back to the group as she scanned the area for an ambush. “Flowers and water. Not even a bird.” Behind her back, she flashed in Shade Speak, Except. Big. Dumb. One.
Ruwen laughed and Sift glared at him.
Kaylin stood next to Mica, who kept the opposite watch from Lylan. Juva studied the mountains, and Slib looked around nervously.
“I didn’t find anything either,” Kaylin said. “I’m concerned we haven’t seen any other creatures. In my experience, that means something has scared them away or killed them.”
“Neither is good,” Jagen said as he scanned the sky.
Sift sighed. “I didn’t see anything either. Maybe Rami got mixed up.”
I didn’t. Rami said.
Ruwen shook his head. “This is the place.”
Kaylin bit her lip. “I didn’t see any caves, and all the waterfalls are too small to hide one.”
“It might be underwater,” Juva said. “Like last time.”
Nobody looked happy at that suggestion.
“Could these plants be dangerous?” Slib asked. “Some of them are big enough to swallow us whole.”
“I don’t think so,” Lylan said. “I tried different things to get a response, but none of them reacted to me.”
“That lake looks like a decent size from here,” Una said. “It will take some time to search it.”
“Let me talk to Rami,” Ruwen said.
What do you think, Rami? Ruwen asked. I don’t have enough chalk to make a door. There must be something like the Blood Gate under that lake. A structure containing doorways we can use to get home.
I’m not sure.
Io didn’t have any details in his memory?
No, Io can’t see when he’s sheathed, only hear, so he didn’t see any travel.
Ruwen frowned. I think I need to check the lake.
Before you start, what do we know about the Iris?
Just what you told me, that the Portal Chalk should work there, it’s near water, and that it’s hard to find. That makes me think it's hidden under the lake even more.
What if it's not a building?
What else could it be?
What if the references are literal?
Ruwen’s thoughts stuttered as he tried to comprehend Rami’s words. What?
What if we aren’t looking for a structure at all, but an actual iris.
And Ruwen finally understood what Rami meant. The petals.
Yes.
How can that work?
Rami’s words flooded out. How does any of it work? If anything, the idea of a living thing connecting this realm to others like a bridge makes sense. These flowers have color, and they’re huge. The petals are so big…
Ruwen finished her sentence. They could be doors. Let’s go check.
Ruwen didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, so he said nothing about Rami’s theory. With a thought, he created a clone next to the lake edge a thousand feet away. He walked toward the giant flowers.
Most of the flowers near the water stood straight, with their petals closed. The iris he approached had blossomed though, and the stalk leaned over, causing one of the brilliant blue petals to touch the ground.
Ruwen saw nothing obvious on the petal. He stepped closer, cast a level one Light Orb, and willed it into the clone’s hand. The area brightened, and the petal shimmered except for five clumps of dullness down the petal’s middle, like someone had rubbed it with dirt. He leaned closer to confirm they were gate runes, his thoughts filling with excitement.
Movement caught Ruwen’s eye, but his clone didn’t move in time. He felt the clone’s body compress as something wrapped around it and squeezed. The clone dissolved, and Ruwen’s focus returned to his body.
“I knew something big lived here,” Kaylin said. “Ruwen, are you still talking to Rami? We have a guest.”
“I’m back,” Ruwen said. “If it moves this way, we retreat down the valley.”
A squid, forty feet tall and made of what looked like watery jelly, slammed a tentacle into the ground where Ruwen’s clone had just stood. The bluish arm had coiled around his clone,
and the squid slammed it into the ground again. It hadn’t figured out yet that the clone had disappeared.
“I wonder what triggered Tickles?” Sift asked. “None of us did.”
“Tickles?” Ruwen asked. “What is wrong with you?”
Tickles smashed the ground two more times, the ground shuddering with the mighty blows.
Sift put his helmet on and pointed. “It has a bunch of arms.”
Ruwen waited a moment to see if anything resembling sense would emerge from Sift. It didn’t. Ruwen shook his head. “I had a clone there, and I funneled a light spell to it. So either the Spirit or the light attracted it.”
“I’m glad we discovered that while standing here,” Lylan said.
“I agree, Tickles doesn’t look like an easy fight,” Hamma added.
“Stop encouraging him,” Ruwen said, and then sighed loudly. “I have some good news and some bad news.”
“Oh, no,” Sift said. “You better start with the good.”
Ruwen stood up straight. “I know where to draw the gate runes to get us home.”
Everyone spoke at once, excited and happy.
Tickles had sunk back into the water, but thirty feet of the creature remained visible, and it continued to slam its tentacle into the ground. Multiple other arms pounded the water as if encouraging the one that grabbed the clone, and the water churned.
“And the bad news?” Sift asked.
Ruwen pointed at Tickles. “We need to use one of those flowers by the lake.”
Chapter 39
“The flowers are the portals?” Kaylin asked.
Ruwen nodded.
“It seems really angry,” Juva said.
Mica squinted his eyes. “Judging by the distortion, it’s a Gem level.”
“Is it made of water?” Lylan asked. “How do you fight water?”
“Let me get a closer look,” Ruwen said.
Ruwen formed a clone on the lake’s edge two hundred feet from Tickles. Waves from the water squid’s thrashing splashed over his feet, and the noise this close to the creature deafened him. Seven of the tentacles were dark, four had a faint glow, and one was so bright it made him squint. Spirit cycled through the appendages from the bright Core in the squid’s bulbous head. Tickles was Refining even as it guarded these flowers.
The brightest arm had to be the Water Meridian. If they could sever that tentacle, the fight should go from hard to doable. Ruwen had seen enough and wanted to test the theory that Spirit drew the creature. This time, instead of light, he channeled a level one Blooming Leaf to the clone’s hand.
Tickles pointed the Water Meridian tentacle at Ruwen, and a stream of water shot toward him. It traveled with such force that it looked like a line between them, and the water struck with such power it blew the clone apart.
Ruwen, back in his body, watched Tickles propel itself through the water, covering the two hundred feet to the now dissipated clone in two seconds. He whistled in awe and then winced when Sift turned and glared at him.
“Sorry,” Ruwen muttered.
Slib cleared his throat. “That thing moves fast.”
Everyone nodded, their expressions ranged from scared on Slib to determined on Lylan. Ruwen studied the distant beast and wondered what to do. He needed to find a petal to draw his gate runes on without being destroyed by Tickles. Then get the entire group through without dying.
The lake looked a thousand feet wide. Assuming Tickles had shown them its top speed, the creature would take ten seconds to travel across the whole thing.
The flowers were another problem. It would be impossible to hurry through them. If someone as careful as Lylan got sliced, many in the group would receive terrible wounds if they had to rush through the plant forest.
That left Ruwen with only one idea. And as his plans went, he thought it was pretty good.
Ruwen looked at Sift. “Before you groan, hear me out. I have a plan.”
Sift groaned.
Ruwen pointed at Sift. “You’re going to feel bad for that when you hear it. It’s good.”
“You always think they’re good,” Sift said.
Ruwen looked at Hamma, who immediately stopped nodding.
Lylan, still studying Tickles, whispered. “Shade’s first rule: wishes are goals disguised as plans.”
That made Ruwen’s head hurt. “I need to get to the big flowers. Tickles is fast. The leaves are razor-sharp and quick movement is only possible with armor.”
“I don’t like where this is going,” Sift said.
Ruwen looked around at the group. “My plan is this. Everyone but Sift and I backs away from these plants and this water. They’re both unknown dangers. For all we know, Tickles could travel down this stream.”
“What are you and Sift doing?” Kaylin asked.
“Our Aspects will protect us from the leaves,” Ruwen said. “If we have to run, we’ll stay safe. My plan is this. I’ll create clones on the opposite shore and attract Tickles to them. When the squid takes the bait, I’ll release the clone and then figure out how to use the flowers as portals. Sift will watch Tickles. When it gets bored with smashing, Sift will tell me, and we do it again.”
“And if it doesn’t take the bait?” Hamma asked.
“We hide and keep trying,” Ruwen said. “If the plan fails, we come back here and make a new one.”
“If it sees the non-clone you?” Lylan asked.
“We run,” Ruwen said. “But, if the plan does work, Sift will signal you. Everyone carefully meets us, and we all go home.”
Everyone remained silent, with only the distant pounding of Tickles as he smashed the ground.
Kaylin nodded. “I don’t like splitting the group, but your logic is solid. It’s a good plan.”
“I agree,” Lylan said.
Hamma sighed. “Why do you always go off by yourself?”
“Hey! What am I? Bendie poop?” Sift asked.
They all laughed, and some of the tension disappeared.
Ruwen faced Hamma. “In the future, I’ll work harder to put you in danger.”
Hamma smiled, but her eyes remained worried. “No more hero stuff. If it doesn’t work, come back. We’re stronger together.”
Ruwen nodded. “I promise.” He turned to Sift. “Let’s go, Bird Brain.”
Sift tapped his bird helmet. “Ha ha. Leave the naming to me. You’re terrible.”
Ruwen and Sift strode away as everyone wished them good luck. Lylan flashed them Shade Speak. No. Stupid. Risks. Sift nodded at her.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Ruwen looked at Sift. “Are you done thinking about what Blapy told me? You’re about out of time.”
“Are you sure we can trust Blapy?”
“No. But I don’t think she lied to me. And now we know what to stick in your body.”
“I don’t like that.”
Ruwen waved his hands. “You don’t like any of it!”
“I know. Calm down.”
“Well, it’s frustrating. I’m trying to help you.”
“I know that, too,” Sift said. After a few seconds, he continued. “I’ll wear this stupid armor through the portal, but only if you wear yours. That’s only fair. If this is one of Blapy’s jokes and it smooshes this beak onto my face, you should suffer too.”
Ruwen definitely didn’t want to walk around with the Scarecrow face his whole life, but he really believed Blapy meant well. He doubted there would be any side effects from wearing it. “Fine, you baby. What about Shelly?”
Sift put a hand on his chest, covering the tiny turtle that lay nestled in an inner pocket. He whispered to Ruwen. “I was hoping to bond to something…larger.”
“Why are you whispering?”
“I don’t want to hurt her feelings,” Sift whispered. “She’s not the powerful companion I dreamed of as a kid.”
“Ever since I met you, all you wanted to do is fly. Why are you making this so difficult?”
Sift looked down and shrugged. In a soft voice,
he finally answered. “I guess it just feels like another disappointment. I love Shelly, but she’s just another example of how worthless I am. I’ve never heard of a Cultivator with a companion so small.”
Ruwen stopped and grabbed Sift’s shoulder. “Hey. You’re not worthless. So knock that off.” Ruwen touched the mask that covered his right ear. “I’ve learned lately that power and size are not related. Who knows what Shelly can do?”
Ruwen’s entire upper body warmed. Sometimes you actually make sense when you talk.
Thanks, Rami.
“Okay,” Sift said and walked to the stream.
Ruwen followed Sift. In the distance, Tickles had stopped pounding on the beach but still thrashed in the water. Sift removed Shelly from his pocket and kneeled. He dipped the tiny turtle in the water and then brought her up to his face as he rubbed her shell.
In a soft voice, Sift spoke to Shelly. “Before I could even read, my parents told me stories of famous Cultivators and the companions who made them great. My entire life, I’ve looked forward to bonding with an equal. Someone I can adventure with and see the world.” Sift paused. “I want that to be you. But in all honesty, we aren’t equals. My center is dark, and my paths are twisted. The truth is, you are superior to me and could do better. I’m not telling you this for pity, but to be brutally honest. With you and with myself.”
And Ruwen finally understood Sift’s reluctance. Sift already felt terrible about himself. Baring his soul to this tiny creature, offering himself to her, only to get rejected would take a terrible toll. Sift’s resistance had been a reaction to protecting his own feelings.
Sift sat Shelly on a rock next to the stream. “I have to help my friend. Before we leave here, I’ll come back. If you want to be my companion, stay here. If not,” Sift paused and cleared his throat. “If not, then good luck, Shelly.”
Sift quickly stood and strode away. Ruwen jogged to catch up but knew better than to talk. Sift had revealed his greatest vulnerability and opened himself to an almost certain rejection. It was the bravest thing Ruwen had seen Sift do.
