by Porter, Jack
I’m probably going to regret this, I thought, a wry grimace stamped across my face. But what choice did I have? I couldn’t bring Piper here to do it herself.
This was entirely up to me.
Rolling my shoulders, I swung my arms across myself and padded carefully from foot to foot so I wouldn’t slip in before I was ready. The pacing helped warm my blood, delaying the effects of any hypothermia that attempted to settle in. The main thing would be to get the crystal, get out, and haul ass back to Yua and Megan.
Nothing was ever so easy in the magical world though, so I needed to be ready for anything. I shrugged out of my cloak and moccasins, but kept my pants on, and sheathed the sword over my back.
Then I jumped in.
It was icy cold, but not so much that I went into shock. I’d been in colder water during my years training among the world’s finest naval rescue teams. And that was before gaining the advantages I had now, like the golden mist that helped keep me warm.
Once I was fully submerged, I flipped face down and swam the few feet needed to reach the pulsing light of the crystal. My own blue-white crystal thrummed in a way that made me think it was actually happy as I approached.
My fingers and toes grew numb just as I touched the lake bed. Not too much longer and my arms and legs would follow.
Time to get out of here, I thought.
Digging my fingers in the gunky mud, I clutched the crystal in one quickly numbing fist. Surprise stopped me from darting back up right away. This crystal was oddly shaped. It was double headed on one side, almost in the form of a pointy heart.
While I gazed at it, I sensed a shadow swim past me at the far reaches of the crystal’s white light. A gigantic shadow with glimmering sharp teeth.
It wasn’t a shark. This shape was longer, leaner, with an extended snout and needle-like teeth intersecting one another. Something prehistoric, if I had to guess.
Well, fuck, I thought.
The island wasn’t making this easy.
Feeling fading fast in my extremities, I reached back for my sword and tugged it free, less gracefully than I had on dry land, and circled to find this guardian. Thrusting my arm out with the crystal in front of me, I waved it in the water like a flashlight.
Using every ounce of strength I had, I kicked toward the surface. It wasn’t far, and I just needed to be faster than this creature. I figured there was a good chance it couldn’t follow me on land.
But that was just a guess.
My hands were almost completely numb. My lungs were starting to feel the effects of holding my breath in this cold water.
And something sharp struck my left side.
It was a bite, coming out of nowhere, that wrapped fully around my shoulder blade and chest.
I coughed up half a lungful of air and clamped down hard on the rest. Blood muddied the otherwise clear water, and I twisted about, skin and sinew ripping even as I swung my sword, hacking at the monster that was biting me again and again, doing my best to cut its head clean off.
The thing gave an underwater cry and let go, even as its blood gushed to join my own in the water.
I had no way of knowing how badly I was injured. I really couldn’t feel it much. But I could keep going. Kicking my legs a few more times, keeping an eye out for the monster, I reached the hole I’d created in the ice.
My sword felt extra heavy as I tossed it out on the ice where it skidded a few feet and stopped. For good measure, I threw the crystal as well, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it if the monster came back and dragged me down.
Lucky for me, this didn’t happen. I got out with considerably more effort than I’d gotten in, and once I inspected my wounds, I realized I’d been lucky. The creature could have bitten me in two. Instead, it was like it was testing me first.
And because of that, the damage was nowhere near as bad as it could have been.
As I climbed back into my clothes and moccasins, I let my mist do its work, healing the deep gashes around my chest.
I had to admit, I was happy enough with how it had all turned out.
One crystal down. Two to go.
Sheathing my sword first, I snatched the crystal from the ice, winding it securely around my own crystal’s necklace.
Then I slipped and slid the rest of the way across the lake.
Fourteen
Yua was right. The mountain rounded down into some grassy foothills, with not a tree in sight. Beyond that, it looked remarkably like the long grasses and wheat of Kansas or Nebraska.
Prairie land. That’s where we were headed.
Thank Kain, because I’m so done with high places after this.
In the distance and to the right, I saw a small campfire.
“Yua, Megan,” I breathed. “At last.”
Tired and cold, I stumbled a bit when my vision went unfocused again. Come on, I said to myself. Just a little farther. I urged my legs to keep moving, forcing them to propel me forward.
This was only the first part of our journey.
More challenges will come, soldier, so you have to be ready.
The ghost of a commanding officer’s voice I’d once known well filtered through my head. This wasn’t the navy, but if it got me there, to the campfire, then I’d pretend it was.
In service, you didn’t have a choice to lie down in the grass and take a nap just because you were tired, or sick, or close to blacking out.
In the navy, you kept going.
So I straightened my shoulders and carried on.
As I walked, the midafternoon heat had done more to warm and dry me than any blanket or swarm of mist could hope to achieve. In fact, I’d swear the mist that still lingered about me was also soaking up the golden rays of the sun as well.
My blood felt cakey and dry on my skin, but by the time I found Megan and Yua huddled around a fire, my scabs had completely healed.
“Dex!” Megan cried, and the both of them launched themselves into my arms.
The first thing I noticed once we had all reassured ourselves that I was back was how pale Yua looked. Had something happened between last night and this morning? She hadn’t mentioned that her physical body was sick while we were in the spirit realm.
When I glanced at Megan, she spoke first, cutting off my question with the answer she knew I wanted.
“Yua’s run out of food and refuses to eat what I make.”
My eyes widened. I glanced at the roasted mountain hens she had prepared, but knew the vegetarian would not be satisfied with these.
“But she brought three bags full. That should last another week or so. Did one fall down the canyon?”
Megan shook her head, “Dexter, you’ve been gone for two weeks.”
“What? No, I can’t have been!”
Yua shivered a little despite the warm heat of the day. “Time moves differently in the spirit realm. You should know this by now. But you don’t have to worry about me. A few days with a low-calorie count wasn’t uncommon in my era.”
Flabbergasted, I thought back to how the sun’s position had changed every time I stepped out of the yellow pathway and realized I probably could have been in there months if Yua hadn’t found me and dragged me back.
No wonder she had seemed so angry. And that I’d felt so sick and lightheaded upon waking. Lucky for me, my guardian abilities kept me sustained for much longer than a human would have been able to.
A grim line settled over my mouth. “Yua, just how little food are we talking here?”
Yua turned her gaze from the holes in my guardian cape toward the fire. I noticed her hair was beginning to grow out, the same midnight black color that I’d seen in our shared spirit realm experience. She must not have brought her blade to shave it as she did back at home.
“Enough to keep me moving,” she replied. Her tone was almost a laugh, like we could all look back on this later and view it as a small hardship.
But Megan was having none of it. “Basically, she’s been surviving on water and a few edible
roots we’ve found in the area.”
My jaw dropped. “That’s it? For an entire week?”
“I’m fi—”
“No, you’re not fine. You’re starving,” Megan snapped, but there were tears in her eyes. “Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to survive, Yua. And if you don’t eat something more substantial than quarter sized roots in the next few days, you’re not going to survive.”
Megan didn’t like to fight. She didn’t relish being the one who had to put her foot down. However, I was willing to bet she enjoyed watching her friend fade away to nothing even less.
I closed my eyes, stomach roiling as I thought of the hundreds of bugs I’d consumed down in the canyon.
“I agree with Megan. Yua, I am sorry that this goes against your code, but if you don’t eat enough to satisfy Megan within the next hour, we’re taking you back home.” She was in no condition to travel by herself.
She looked at me fully for the first time, but there was not enough energy in her to be angry. That was not good at all.
“No. If we don’t find the crystals or the other goddesses, your headaches will get worse. We have to continue.” She hesitated. “Nor will I leave you to complete this quest by yourself. It is my job to train you. I have to stay with you.”
“Then how do you expect to do that if you continue not eating? Can you reach the spirit realm if you pass out during the day from hunger?”
She frowned, her eyebrows scrunching together. “Well, no, I can’t. But—”
I cut her off, not wanting to be rude, but needing to get my point across. “And what happens when you run a fever, or grow delirious from hunger, or black out and never wake up again? How will you be helping your White Guardian then?”
Yua was silent for a long time. Then she sat down by the fire and brought her knees to her chest. “Fine. I’ll eat.”
Megan rushed to hug the lady monk in a chorus of choked up thank-yous and sniffles. Yua broke out in a watery grin but looked rather nauseous at what she’d have to do.
“Thanks for watching out for me.”
This probably had been a fight between them for days now. I was glad I could help Yua see reason. I hated that this went against her ideals, but I would do what I had to in order to keep her alive and healthy.
I sat down beside the lady monk as Megan leapt up to pick out the fattest of the roasted hens.
“Sorry, Yua,” I said.
Her elegant frame turned toward me, and I became aware of our connection once more. I swallowed, putting the raging questions from my mind while I took care of this first. Yua forced a wry laugh, and I was pleased to see her mirth brought some color back to her cheeks.
“You’re just getting me back for me being angry with you in the spirit realm, eh?” she joked.
Taking her hands in my own, I brought them to my lips, noting how they were trembling and cold.
“Never. I’m doing this only because I don’t want to have to dig your grave on this trip. I hate it just as much as you do.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she leaned her head against my shoulder. Megan had walked back over and was holding out several large chunks of tender hen thigh. Despite myself, my mouth watered at the savory scent that wafted over to me.
“I think I’ll get some too if you don’t mind.”
“There’s plenty,” Megan grinned and popped back to get me a whole hen for myself. “Bet you’re awful hungry after your extended stay in the canyon.”
“Famished,” I admitted. “Although I did eat a bunch of bugs to get through the first few nights—ah, thanks,” I added, taking the hen from Megan and promptly dug in.
The redhead’s freckled nose wrinkled in a way I found cute. “Gross, you mean like grasshoppers?”
“Yeah. And other things. Earth worms as well, as they were easier to catch,” I replied around a mouthful of sage and thyme flavored poultry. “Goddess, it’s good to eat something that isn’t still squirming as it goes down.”
Megan made a gagging noise and Yua’s eyes rounded, eyebrows raised high as she looked at her meal with fresh eyes.
I smiled when the lady monk gave her chicken a sniff and then took a test nibble, and then a whole mouthful.
“Not bad,” she said. “Probably still going to get knocked down a few species next time around, though.”
I could tell she was trying really hard to keep either of us from noticing the way her tears hadn’t stopped sliding down her cheeks. This meant a lot to her, and I was proud of her for being so brave in the face of giving up a discipline she’d lived by her entire life.
Truly, I wanted to give her a break. It was a bad day for the lady monk, and I wanted to respect her privacy and right to grieve.
But my patience had plumb run out. That pull I felt to her was so much stronger now that she was near me again. It was driving me crazy and planting inappropriate thoughts in my head every time she looked my way.
As if sensing my need to speak with Yua, Megan announced she was going hunting, and refused all offers of help.
So as soon as she departed, leaving us alone to pack up camp, I pounced.
“Alright Yua, I found you two as promised. Time to answer all my questions.”
To my great surprise, the lady monk didn’t dodge my gaze. Instead, she walked in close enough that I could smell the lingering perfume of her herb garden on her clothes. My heart sped up for a fraction of a second. I swore she was about to kiss me. I leaned in, gazing down at her with all the heat she inspired in my body.
Instead, she blushed and leaned past me and grabbed her staff. Nimble fingers twisted off the largest gold ring in the middle. Yua popped the cap off an apparently secret compartment that the ring had locked into place and tipped the staff upside down.
A small object fell into her waiting palm.
She held it out as if an offering, and I sucked in my breath.
It was a crystal.
Fifteen
It would be a lie to say I shrugged this bomb off.
“You told me you didn’t have one,” I accused.
No wonder she was always looking away from me. I’d assumed it was just because of how we made one another feel. Now I realized it was also because she was full of guilt.
That knowledge didn’t make me feel any less betrayed. But damn me if my crystal didn’t light up like a fucking beacon as it reacted with Yua’s. Her staff must have kept the crystal’s magical connection to me contained.
I found myself looking about for the guardian of this crystal, but realized she must have faced that when she first found it. Which might have been decades, even centuries ago.
I also thought I had a good idea now why I was salivating after Yua like a wolf after a lamb.
“I can’t be one of your goddesses. I’m a monk. I can’t…” Yua paused mid-sentence. Her voice held a slight tremor and a flush of color rushed across her face and neck as she finished it. “Can’t have sex.”
“I wouldn’t have forced you to,” I answered.
“I know that now, but when I first met you, I was unsure of what kind of person you were. And as soon as I found out, I felt you’d hate me if you knew I’d lied.”
Zavier take me, she’s so innocent.
A sigh escaped my gritted teeth as I ran a hand down my face. “I don’t hate you, Yua. I’m just a little shocked. I respect your decision.”
She squared her shoulders. “I don’t want you to think it’s because I don’t actually want to be with you in that way,” Yua said. “Given different circumstances, I’d accept the role of goddess with welcome arms. I just—” she huffed. “Being a monk is who I am.”
“But the shrine burned down. Are you still a monk if you have no shrine to serve?”
Yua’s jaw opened like she was about to spit out an of course. But she paused, narrowing her eyes as she thought about the question, then snapped her mouth shut again.
“You don’t understand, Dexter. I took a vow, and it’s not that easy for m
e to break it.”
I chose not to remind her that she’d just broken her vow not to eat meat. Yua could read that statement all over my face. However, my goal wasn’t to coerce her into becoming a goddess, but to present her with options.
“Being a monk is who you have been for hundreds of years. But that’s your choice. And your life has changed since then,” I said gently.
I closed her palm with the crystal still inside and finished packing our things, leaving the lady monk to her thoughts.
If Megan noticed Yua’s new silence as we set off down the gradual slope of the grassy landscape, she didn’t say anything. Maybe she thought it was just Yua coming to terms with breaking one of her disciplines.
For all I knew, that could very well have been the case. Either way, I put that out of my mind for a while and worried more about where to find Megan’s crystal and the sleeping goddesses.
The truth was, I had no idea. “Past the mountains to the north,” was all Hannah had said.
I kept myself open to the sensations that might come to me as I walked in a leisurely zig-zag motion, attempting to feel the six goddesses’ presence through my crystal.
But I didn’t feel a single thing all day long.
During the day, with the girls once more riding on my shoulders, I also filled them both in on my adventures after my drop down the canyon. Megan was a bundle of nervous energy after I’d told her about the almost fight between Layla and Hannah.
“Should I be worried that I’ll turn into a territorial animal too?” she asked, running her hands through my hair. Her tiny human fingers along my scalp and neck felt nice and reminded me of our promise of later. Goddess knew I needed some relief.
Megan’s need for her own release wasn’t as frequent as Hannah’s, but I was sure she was hitting her limit too. We needed some alone time away from Yua, I decided. She was muddling my feelings for Megan with the power of her crystal.
But how to sneak away? This flat area doesn’t really have anything in the way of cover.
“Dexter?” Megan asked, and I realized I hadn’t answered her question.
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll need to fret about the instinct. When we get back, I’ll be building separate cabins for each goddess and assigning them a specific territory. That seemed to go over well with the girls back home. At least, I thought it did. Yua, will you take me back there one night to check in on them again? It will give me an excellent opportunity to get a feel for the island lines without getting myself lost.”
