The pool was nearly seventy feet across and was being fed by four springs of water emerging from within a spider web of cracks running across the rock face directly behind it. There was lush foliage located on both the east and west sides of the pool which included bright colorful flowers, thick green shrubbery, and a small evergreen tree. It reminded Sarah of a miniature oasis.
Just as the thundercloud that had made their life a living hell broke up, revealing clear skies once more, the sun finally made contact with the horizon. The blue azure of the sky slowly began to bleed away, being replaced by a variety of burnt orange and cinnamon colors.
Sarah sniffed loudly. They were now out of time. However, that didn’t concern her any more. There, sitting on the western side of the pool, was a flower so beautiful that she had instantly begun to weep. A slender, graceful stalk nearly two feet long was capped with a large golden multi-petal flower. Sarah thought it looked like a huge golden rose. A ‘cabbage rose’, she heard her grandmother’s voice say. She nodded. She could see the resemblance. Thanks to her grandmother, and her fondness for all things floral, she knew any rose that had so many petals that they started to resemble rambunctious cabbages would qualify it as a ‘cabbage rose’. This flower, Sarah decided, looked like a sparkling gold version.
She blinked away her tears. It could only be the orbsceia flower. Ria had been right. Anyone who laid eyes on that flower was instantly reduced to tears. She glanced over at her husband and was pleased to see him quickly wipe the corners of his eyes.
“You didn’t see anything,” he accused. “I have allergies.”
Sarah shook her head and waved her hands dismissively. She pointed at the exotic golden flower.
“Honey, we made it!”
Chapter 11 – Will You Accept This Flower?
“Usually I wouldn’t say something like this,” Steve announced from his perch on Loryss’ back, “but I have to admit that flower has got to be the prettiest one I think I have ever seen.”
“And yet we have to pick it,” Sarah reminded him, frowning. “It seems a shame to pick something that lovely.”
Steve twisted around to inspect the plants growing nearby.
“I only see one of those flowers. Isn’t there supposed to be two?”
“It must have been destroyed, too,” Thinian observed, slowly emerging from Sarah’s pocket. He caught sight of the blooming flower and fell silent.
“I thought you said you only found the remains of one of the flowers,” Steve asked as he glanced over at the tiny Fae.
Thinian could only nod.
“The third must have been elsewhere,” Sarah decided, “and as Thinian suggested, it must have been destroyed, or harvested, or eaten, or whatever.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Steve happily exclaimed. “That’s what we need, right there. Let’s go get it.”
Sarah held up a hand, “Hang on. How do we harvest it? If this is the last plant then we need to make certain we don’t damage it. I don’t think I could stand it if I knew I was responsible for destroying the last orbsceia flower. Not when it’s that pretty. There must be a proper way to harvest it.”
“It’s a flower,” Steve pointed out. “You harvest it like any other, right?”
“Not so fast,” Sarah warned. “How do we know which part the queen needs? What if we don’t harvest it correctly?”
“I thought she said she needed the nectar,” Steve said, looking down at Thinian for confirmation. “Wouldn’t that suggest we just need the head of the flower?”
“She said she needed the pollen,” Sarah corrected.
The sun finally dipped below the horizon and the daylight began to fade. Both griffins seemed unconcerned by the growing darkness – being naturally able to see in the dark – but Sarah couldn’t say the same. The last thing she wanted to do was to blindly fumble around on a mountaintop. Not to mention she didn’t want to be anywhere near this particular mountain since she and her husband had managed to piss off its creator.
“How do you want to do this?” Steve asked her.
“I think we should… do you feel that? I can feel it this time. The mountain is shaking!”
“Usol is angry,” Loryss reminded her. “And you have just announced your intentions. I would not have done that.”
Both griffins carefully picked their way over to the western bank of the small pool. Sarah gazed down at the flower and contemplated the best way to harvest it. Should she just reach down and pluck it, like she would do with any other flower? Or should she find something to try and snip the flower off its stalk, thus minimizing potential damage to the plant?
She blinked her eyes as she stared at the flower. It was growing darker much faster than it should. What was going on?
A quick check of the sky revealed the answer: a new thundercloud was forming directly over their heads. At the rate it was expanding the mountaintop would be completely enveloped in less than a minute. Nyx, sensing her distress, moved as close as she dared to the edge of the pool. The orbsceia was growing just under the lip of the ‘bowl’ located less than two feet from a vertical drop-off of thousands of feet. No matter how Nyx tried to position herself, the flower still ended up being just out of reach.
Sarah leaned out as far as she was able without losing her balance, but it wasn’t enough. Her arms were simply not long enough. She pulled herself upright and gave her husband an imploring look.
“Come on, Loryss,” Steve said, giving the griffin a friendly pat on the back. “Looks like it’s up to us.”
The larger griffin nodded, “Agreed. Nyx, fall back. Let us try.”
“I might be able to get the flower in my beak,” Nyx suggested.
Sarah shook her head, “I’m sorry, Nyx. We can’t run the risk of damaging the flower. We need it intact.”
The smaller griffin shrugged, “I understand. I offer it only as a suggestion.”
Nyx and Sarah moved back to the point in which the water was emerging from the rock. There was barely enough ground space for two adult griffins to move around. Loryss carefully edged as close as she dared. Her avian front legs gripped the lip of the bowl and dug in. The griffin stretched her neck out, narrowing the distance to the flower to just under two feet.
“If I hook an arm around your neck then I should be able to reach it,” Steve decided, as he slid forward. “Sarah, as soon as I grab the flower then you need to get us the hell out of here, agreed?”
Sarah nodded, “Got it. I’ve got my safe zone already lined up. As soon as I see that flower in your hand then I’ll teleport us back to the ground.” She gave both griffins a feeble smile. “I just wish I could teleport the two of you back to the base of the mountain, too. I don’t want either of you to come to any harm. The base of the mountain. That’s where I’d put you if I could.”
“We’re already deceased,” Loryss reminded her. “Nyx and I will be fine. Please remember our arrangement.”
“Absolutely,” Steve agreed. “We’ll make sure your mate knows what happened to you.”
“And you, Nyx,” Sarah added, looking over at the smaller griffin. “I promise you we’ll find your cub.”
Nyx bowed, “Thank you. That is all I ask.”
Sarah looked back at her husband, “Ready?”
Steve nodded, “Yep. Let’s do this. Loryss, Nyx, it’s been a blast. Here we go.”
Sarah watched as her husband looped an arm around Loryss’ neck, leaned forward, and closed his hand around the orbsceia flower. A quick pinch from his fingers released the flower from its stalk. He quickly held his arm up to show Sarah he had the golden flower.
Almost immediately the mountain shook with rage. Jagged bolts of lightning shot out of the rapidly expanding cloud above their heads. Nyx and Loryss suddenly vanished, resulting in both husband and wife dropping straight down on their butts.
Sarah didn’t wait to see what the mountain had in store for them. She instantly ordered her jhorun to move the two of them to the safe zone she had sele
cted, which was their secluded cabin back near Greenquill Falls. Both of them appeared, sitting on the floor, in the cabin’s living room.
“Man alive, did that hurt,” Steve exclaimed, as he painfully regained his feet. “Usol dropped us right on our asses. How uncool was that? I didn’t know he could have done that. In fact, why didn’t he do that before? Kick us off the griffins, that is. You would have thought… wait. Was that you?”
Sarah nodded and gave him a sly smile, “Yes.”
“You could have warned me that you were teleporting them out of there. Seriously. I think I bruised my tail bone.”
“Usol was clearly listening to us,” Sarah explained. She grasped one of Steve’s outstretched arms and allowed him to pull her to her feet. Her own rear was stinging. “I had to create a distraction. I didn’t know what Usol was going to do to us once you picked that flower. I think I surprised him.”
“Well, I can’t speak for Usol,” Steve said, glancing down at the glittering gold flower sitting in his hand, “but you certainly surprised me. I thought you couldn’t teleport there?”
“That’s what I thought, too,” Sarah admitted. “Then it dawned on me. What if I was only restricted to moving myself on the island? Clearly I couldn’t teleport anywhere on Ranal. But again, that was only about me. You as well. I wondered if I could teleport something already on Ranal to another part of the island. Turns out I could. I thought about the two griffins and how I wished I could put them back at the base of the mountain, right where we first started climbing up. For the first time since arriving on Ranal I received a vision. That was when I knew my jhorun would be able to do it. I just had to be careful to never once think about teleporting either one of us.”
“Nicely done,” Steve told her. He looked down at the golden flower. “Come on. We’re not done yet. We need to get this to the Fae.”
“Where’s Thinian?” Sarah suddenly asked as she gently patted her pockets. “Omigod! Don’t tell me I left him up there!”
Steve went into the cabin’s only bedroom, pulled one of his tee shirts from the dresser, and carefully set the flower down on it. He then approached Sarah and gently began prying her pockets open to peer inside. Sarah shook her head.
“He was in my left inside jacket pocket,” Sarah whispered, still horrified at the notion she might have left the Fae back on the mountaintop.
Steve opened the jacket and peered inside the pocket. He reached inside, carefully scooped up what he found, and then opened his hand to see what was there. Sarah leaned forward.
It was Thinian, but he was unconscious. Also in Steve’s hand was a tube of Sarah’s favorite lip balm. Sarah hurried over to the sink, poured some water from the pitcher, grabbed a nearby hand towel, and dipped the corner into the water. She gently ran the damp cloth over the Fae’s head.
Thinian began sputtering.
“What in the name of all that’s good happened?” the Fae demanded, gaining his feet. He rubbed at a welt that was forming on his forehead. Thinian noticed the lip balm and angrily pointed at it. “And what is that?”
“The lip balm must have hit him when Sarah teleported the griffins,” Steve guessed, looking back at her. “We landed hard on the ground. We’ve got the bruises to prove it.”
Thinian looked puzzled and held up a hand, “Wait. You were able to teleport the griffins? That’s why you two fell? I thought you couldn’t teleport on Ranal?”
“Turns out I can teleport things that are supposed to be on Ranal from one place to the other. Provided I leave myself out of it.”
“And how would Usol know that?” the Fae asked. He noticed the towel Sarah was still holding and motioned for her to bring it closer, to which she did.
“As Steve pointed out earlier, if you’re a being who’s capable of creating Ranal by… how did you put it? ‘Squishing islands together’? If you can make a mountain that can spin around then telepathic tendencies don’t seem too radical a notion, wouldn’t you agree?”
Steve gathered up the shirt with the orbsceia flower. He took Sarah’s hand with his left and then lowered his right hand down for Thinian to hop on.
“Come on, buddy. We have work to do.”
Thinian nodded appreciatively.
“Agreed. We must save the Tree.”
Thinian jumped onto Steve’s hand and then nimbly ran up his arm to perch on his right shoulder. Sarah smiled at each of them, closed her eyes, and just like that they were standing before the Tree. Sarah gasped with shock. Even in the fading light she could see that the Tree had turned completely brown, like one would expect a pine tree to look like had it been unlucky enough to have been planted in the middle of a desert.
Sarah glanced over at Thinian. The tiny Fae looked absolutely crestfallen. All the color had drained from his face and he looked as though he was going to be sick. Thinian turned to her and opened his mouth to say something only nothing came out.
“Thinian, hush,” Sarah told him. “We’re going to save the tree. Think positive. Hurry, this way.”
“But it looks dead,” Steve whispered in her ear.
“Don’t you start, too,” Sarah scolded.
They hurried through the open amethyst doors. Even the sparkling gemstone doors appeared lackluster to her eyes. Sarah valiantly fought a growing sense of despair. Were they too late? Had the Tree already died? Had all of their efforts been in vain? It couldn’t be. There must still be time. They had to save the Tree!
Not bothering to see if she was being followed, Sarah hurried to the Throne Room. She found the King and Queen there, both sitting on their thrones. Both unconscious, unfortunately.
Sarah was about ready to rush to their aid when a hand fell on her right shoulder, drawing her to a stop. Her eyes widened. She knew Steve was standing on her left, too far away to be able to touch her. Then who... Realization dawned. It had to be Thinian. He must have increased in size the same way the king and queen had done!
“Allow me,” their Fae companion said. She had been right. Thinian had increased his mass. Or else they had decreased theirs. She still wasn’t certain.
The Fae hurried to Tivan’s side and gently touched his arm. When the king didn’t respond the soft touch turned into a firm poke. Not even a solid shaking on both shoulders could rouse the sleeping king. Worried, Thinian moved to the queen. He took her hand and brought it to his lips.
“That only works in the movies,” Steve quipped.
Sarah stared at him as though he had suddenly sprouted horns.
“Not helping,” she snapped.
The queen’s eyes fluttered open. Her eyes widened in surprise as she recognized the person standing in front of her.
“Thinian! You’ve returned! Does that mean…”
Ria trailed off as she noticed Thinian wasn’t alone. She held out a hand to Sarah, who unfortunately noticed that the queen’s arm was shaking. Ria’s strength, like her husband’s, was waning. Sarah took the queen’s hand and tried not to shudder at how cold it felt.
“Sarah! Steve! You’ve returned! That could only mean… could it be? Do you have it? Do you have the flower?”
Sarah motioned to her husband, who gently held up the bundled shirt for the queen to see. Steve gently unwrapped the flower and held it up for Ria’s perusal.
“We have it right here,” Sarah told the queen. “Is there still time?”
Ria’s eyes filled as she gazed upon the flower. A few moments later she shook her head, as if awakening from a trance. The corners of Ria’s mouth turned upward in the beginning of a smile.
“I’m still here, aren’t I? There is still hope, but we must hurry.” The queen held her other hand out to Thinian and allowed herself to be lifted to her feet. “There’s a workshop we can use. Thinian, do you remember where Slilyn keeps her equipment?”
Thinian nodded, “Aye.”
“Slilyn?” Steve asked, curious.
“She and her apprentices led the efforts to revive the tree,” Ria explained, leaning heavily on Thinian
as she was escorted out of the Throne Room.
“Where is she now?” Sarah asked.
“I do not know,” Ria sadly admitted. “She may be in hiding. She may have collapsed. She may even be dead. I can only hope neither is the case.”
Thinian led them through a maze of dimly lit corridors until they approached a large arched doorway. The door, Sarah noted, was similar to the Tree’s main doorway. It was another gemstone door, and it was pale green. Not emerald but perhaps something different?
“Apatite,” Sarah guessed, lowering her voice as she ran her hands over the glass-like surface of the door.
Steve glanced over at her, curious.
“You’re hungry?”
Sarah held the door open and allowed Thinian and the queen to enter.
“Huh?”
“I asked if you’re hungry,” Steve repeated.
Sarah cocked her head at him, “Why would you ask me that?”
“Hey, you’re the one who mentioned you had an appetite, not me.”
“A-pa-tite,” Sarah slowly repeated as she tapped the smaller gemstone door. “It’s another type of jewel. I think it’s a lighter green than emeralds. They… never mind. I’m talking about this door.”
Steve looked at the open door she was holding and grinned.
“Right. I knew that. I was just testing you.”
“Uh huh. Let’s go.”
Husband and wife moved inside the darkened chamber and saw that Thinian was busy setting things out on a large counter running the entire length of the room. Sarah watched as the Fae set out what looked like a large marble cookie sheet on the counter. She could also see that Thinian had something tucked under his arm, something that looked white and very fragile. To Sarah it looked like it was a rolled up tube of sheer gauze.
“Done,” Thinian reported as he carefully unrolled the delicate white fabric across the marble tray. “What do I do now?”
“Retrieve the large pestle you see there,” Ria instructed, pointing at something neither of them could see.
Close Encounters of the Magical Kind Page 24
