by S. S. Segran
Seeing a perfect swell approaching, he paddled out to meet it and sprang upright to ride it. Suddenly, there was a resounding crunch. The surfer let out a spine-chilling scream as he fell off his board and disappeared under the water. Tegan shot to her feet, blood running cold.
Jag, who’d been dozing, bolted upright, as did the others. “What was—”
Before the rest of his question slipped past his lips, the surfer’s head broke surface and his cry rang out. “Help me!”
Several people on the beach heard the scream and caught sight of the young man struggling amidst the waves. A dark shape slowly rose from the water about twenty feet behind him, moving in the direction of the fallen surfer. Gasps and shrieks came from the beach-goers. Some started sprinting toward a lifeguard post some distance away, kicking up sand and yelling for help.
Tegan stared in helpless horror as the fin sliced through the subsiding waves toward the boy. There was a brush of wind against her cheek and the next thing she saw was Jag sprinting toward the water as he removed and tossed his t-shirt aside.
“What are you doing?” Mariah screamed.
As he drew closer to the shoreline at blurred speed, Jag leapt with the full force of the momentum he’d built and traversed nearly a hundred feet over the waves before plunging near the surfer. Tegan’s mouth fell open.
The approaching shark, startled by Jag’s sudden appearance, quickly maneuvered away and turned back toward the open ocean, its dorsal fin slowly vanishing under water.
There was stunned silence as those on the beach watched Jag hook one arm around the surfer and use the other to swim to safety. As they got closer, there were a few murmurs that broke into a cheer from the onlookers. Tegan, Mariah, Aari and Kody ran into the water until they were nearly waist-deep, urging Jag and the surfer on.
Kody, standing beside Tegan, suddenly stiffened. “No!”
“What?” she asked.
“The shark . . . it’s coming back.”
“What are you talking about? It swam away.”
Kody’s eyes narrowed. “No, Tegan. It’s coming back.” His voice dropped, and the color drained from her face at his next words. “I can smell blood in the water.”
The cheering from the onlookers faded into the background as Tegan slowly looked back at Jag and the surfer. The surfer, eyes shut and face contorted in pain, rolled his head to the side while Jag dragged him along. Tegan saw the injured boy’s eyelids lift slightly before both she and he caught sight of a fin—so dark in color that it looked black—resurfacing.
“Jag!” Aari boomed. “Shark!”
Jag didn’t have to look back to believe him. He redoubled his efforts but struggled to drag the injured surfer along. Aari and Kody, despite knowing the danger, waded further out to try to help.
Tegan stood frozen as water lapped around her waist, soaking her shorts and t-shirt. Fine ocean mist lightly sprayed her face and she could taste the salt in the air as she stared at the rushing shark. Her mind reeled in frustration. She wanted to do something, anything, but she felt so powerless.
Time seemed to slow before there was a sudden flash in her mind. It blinded her momentarily before quickly disappearing. She stumbled back a step, then the flash exploded again. There was an image this time. She could barely make out a flurry of feet underwater before the vision disappeared. “What the—” she began before the vision returned.
She could see it clearly now, two humans in the water, moving away from her as frantically-kicking feet churned the water behind them. The strong scent of something metallic hit her nose and she could see a trail of dark liquid under the salty waves. A part of her wanted to gag at the smell but another part seemed hungered by it. The realization of what she was witnessing hit her like a hammer to the chest.
She was seeing Jag as he swam surfer to shore . . . through the eyes of the shark.
Unable to grasp what was happening, panic set in. Just as it began to strangle her consciousness, an inexplicable calm descended on her and quelled her terror; it was as though someone had placed a cool hand on her fevered mind. The sensation brought a reprieve but it was short-lived. As she felt the shark open its jaws to snap at the injured surfer, she let her mind spring completely into the beast and turned its head away from the boys just as the jaws filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth came crashing together. Then, with some effort, she took control over the rest of its body and forced the shark as far away from the scene as she could until her connection with it faded.
She blinked once, and when her eyes opened, she saw Kody and Aari helping Jag and the other boy onto the beach.
The crowd converged upon them. Tegan ran over, pushing her way through the throng with Mariah close behind. Aari had already helped Jag to his feet. Kody crouched beside the surfer, gently talking to him.
Tegan’s eyes traveled down to the wound on the boy’s left leg but she had to quickly avert her gaze from the sight. The surfer, shivering and in near shock, raised a shaky hand to Jag. Jag looked down at it for a second, then knelt and held it firmly. He gave a reassuring nod and the surfer just barely nodded back.
A lifeguard broke up the crowd from behind, advising them to give the injured boy some space. They obliged, but eyes started to turn to Jag with a mixture of confused awe and intense questioning. Jag hurriedly picked up his t-shirt and joined Tegan and the others as they moved away from the beachgoers.
An ambulance and police cruiser arrived shortly and paramedics loaded the surfer onto a stretcher. Tegan watched it all in silence. Once the vehicles were gone, the friends turned to one another, saying nothing, until Aari pointed at Jag. “Dude, I swear I saw you fly.”
Jag looked uncomfortable and busied himself with dusting the sand of his t-shirt. “I didn’t fly, knucklehead,” he muttered. “I just . . . leapt.”
“A great distance,” Mariah said matter-of-factly.
“I smelled the guy’s blood in the water,” Kody cut in, voice cracking. He looked ill as he spoke.
Jag eyed him. “Come again?”
“You heard me.” Kody lowered himself to the sand and sat down heavily.
Tegan wanted to tell them about her own experience but feared that they would find it absurd. Still, she could not keep it to herself. “I don’t know how, but I controlled the shark,” she blurted, then turned red when the others faced her. “I . . . I mean, I was able to make it turn away from you. Somehow I was able to jump into it and take control.”
To her surprise, the others regarded her without much disbelief. Jag quietly slipped his t-shirt back on. “We should—”
He was cut short when Tegan let out an earsplitting cry and fell to her knees, digging her fingernails into her head as a torrent of images exploded behind her eyes. The visualizations—hundreds of them—passed by with dizzying speed. Fragments of different voices filled her mind, growing riotously louder in her ears. Letting loose another cry, she curled up on the sand and pushed the heels of her palms against her temples as the images sped by faster and faster.
She didn’t know how long it took for the surge of visions to pass but when it did, she continued to lay on the beach, numb. It wasn’t until she saw Jag come over that she made the painful effort to sit up. With his help, she stood and leaned against him for support.
The first thing she saw when she regained her senses was Kody coiled into a ball at her feet. Not too far from him, Aari was unsteadily helping Mariah up from where she was kneeling on the ground, holding her head and whimpering, “Why is this happening?”
Together, Jag and Tegan pulled Kody to his feet, each draping one of his arms over their shoulders. “What happened?” Tegan croaked.
Jag pursed his lips, jaw tight. He urgently patted Kody’s cheeks to get him to open his eyes but the other boy seemed to be unconscious. “Come on, brother, come on . . . ”
As Mariah and Aari joined them, Kody’s eyes slowly cracked open. Relieved, Tegan looked at Jag. He was glancing over the beachgoers. People were walking towa
rd them, looking worried and even a little frightened. Jag started moving in the direction of the parking lot, away from the crowd, aiding Kody along. “We need to get out of here. The media will probably arrive to cover the shark attack soon and that’s the last thing we need.”
“People might have already taken videos on their phones,” Aari said softly.
“All the more reason to leave.”
The others hastily grabbed their beach towels and bags and followed him. Tegan helped Jag guide Kody. “Jag, I saw—I saw things. I—”
“I know,” he said, ignoring the stares that the group was getting. “I did too. We all did. I think . . . ” He exhaled slowly. “ . . . I think the pieces are finally falling into place.”
13
After a quiet drive, the group returned to their hotel and converged in the girls’ room. Aari scrubbed his face with the hands, weary, then flopped back on one of the beds and stared at the ceiling, legs dangling over the side. Mariah, next to him, gently patted his knee, then the two of them glanced backward to where Jag stood staring out the window.
“So what exactly is falling into place?” Tegan asked, curled up like a cat on the opposite bed.
Jag remained statue-like.
Aari grunted. “It’s like he completely zones out when he goes into his head to puzzle things over. Jag, come on.”
Still no response. Aari turned over so he was on his stomach and stared at his friend, unease now replacing gentle mockery. “Hey, you’re starting to worry us.”
Jag abruptly wheeled around. “Tegan, do you have that bouncy ball you bought from the souvenir store yesterday?”
“It’s in my knapsack,” she said, waving her hand to signal permission to rummage through her belongings. He did so, then lobbed the small ball with California’s flag printed on it to Mariah, who caught it just as it sailed over Aari’s face.
From where he lay on the floor between the beds, Kody stretched his arms noisily. “I fail to see what this has to do with anything.”
Jag took a seat beside Tegan and nodded at Mariah. “Try to move it. With your mind.”
She stared at him like he was crazy. “Excuse me?”
“Just try. Please.”
Aari pushed himself up on his elbows, swapping bewildered looks with Mariah. Even Kody sat upright, forehead crinkling. Then he laughed. “Right, okay. Seriously though, what’s going on?”
“I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you,” Jag said. “So I want Mariah to prove it.”
“Prove what?” Mariah squeaked before catching herself and clearing her throat. “That I have powers? That I have telekinesis? Please.”
Jag responded by jerking his chin at her hand. She rolled her eyes but stared at the ball anyway. The others watched, skeptical, but a pinprick of anticipation started to grow somewhere deep in Aari’s chest. His pulse quickened.
No way, he thought. There’s just no way.
Then his mind spooled back to the beach and he saw again what Jag had done, the way his friend had traversed leapt an impossible distance. He froze, feeling like he was on the cusp of an awakening, the kind that would jar him to his bones.
It took him a minute to realize he’d been caught up in his thoughts for too long. When he returned to the moment, something was hovering inches from his face. His eyes stretched wide.
The red ball hung in the air over Mariah’s open palm. Her face was slack with shock, her mouth parted slightly. The only thing she managed to utter was a whispered “I remember.”
No one else spoke a word.
Then Tegan slowly leaned forward, careful not to step on a frozen Kody, and swiped her hand above and below the ball as though checking to see if invisible strings were tethered to it.
“What in the world?” she breathed.
Aari wasn’t sure why, but something compelled him to pluck the ball out of the air. As he stared at it, his mind calmed and focused as if of its own accord. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then one side of the ball began to shimmer slightly and vanished before reappearing. He tried again. This time, the other side of the ball faded from view. He tried a third time, and both sides of the small sphere shimmered toward the middle before the ball vanished completely
“Gah!” Kody pressed himself back against the nightstand. “What is this?!”
Aari couldn’t answer. Something had sucked him back into his mind and all he saw was images zipping by like they had on the beach. Except this time, no matter how fast the memories flew, he was able to grasp it all.
And then he remembered everything—the village nestled in a hidden valley they’d stayed in after their plane crash the previous summer; the Elders who trained them and helped develop their individual abilities, and who spoke of a prophecy depicting darker times on the horizon; and of the mountain-top where a battle had taken place between the villagers and a mining operation that had poisoned the inhabitants of the valley.
“Saplings of Aegis,” he wheezed, coming back to himself again. He clenched the ball tightly and pressed the back of his wrist against his lips in disbelief. “That’s what we are. We’re . . . holy smokes, we’re supposed to save the world.”
Light seeped into Jag’s eyes. “Yes.”
Tegan, who’d been silent the longest, had a clouded, faraway gaze. Jag rubbed the back of her neck as though to ground her. “Teegs?”
“Yeah.” She released a long breath and tilted her head back. “Yeah. It feels like someone just pulled a cloth off the missing parts of my memories. Like everything just clicked into place.”
“It feels weird is what it feels” Mariah mumbled. “Everything’s off its axis because now I see things and they fit, but the emptiness from before, the void—its memory is still there and . . . and I don’t know how to explain it.”
Aari looked down at Kody, who had his eyes screwed shut. He lightly tapped the other boy’s shoe with his foot. “If it’s all coming back to you, don’t fight it,” he advised.
To his surprise, a grin formed on Kody’s face as though relief had set in, and his eyes opened. “Dema-Ki. That was where we were last summer.” He looked down at his hands as if seeing them for the first time. “And . . . we . . . have . . . powers!”
“Guess that explains how you could smell blood in the water,” Aari said. “Hypersensory abilities. And Tegan with the shark—mindlink with animals.”
Jag raised his hand. “Extreme speed, agility and strength over here.”
“Okay, okay,” Tegan said, spreading her arms to quiet everyone. “Timeline. Quick rundown. Plane crash, taken to Dema-Ki, trained by the Elders—”
“Don’t forget nearly getting killed by an egotistical lunatic,” Mariah snorted.
“Right. Then the Battle of Ayen’et—”
“Where Jag pretty much took down a plane alone and nearly got himself killed in the process,” Kody said. Jag shot him a look.
Tegan smirked. “Yup. Then back to training. What I’m still missing is how our memories were taken away.”
“Same here,” Aari said, rubbing his chin. “Maybe they’ll return later? The bigger question is, what now? What are we supposed to do? We have almost everything back in place but we’re on our own. How do we even contact the Elders?”
Jag cleared his throat. “Actually, I don’t think we’re completely on our own.”
Aari and the others frowned at him. He continued. “The Elders told us that we wouldn't be alone when we returned to the outside world. You remember that?”
Tegan suddenly sat up straighter. “They said that there would be people . . . Sentries . . . looking out for us.”
“So that we’re protected while trying to fulfill the prophecy,” Aari added slowly as the memory surfaced.
“And who’s been with us almost every step of the way since we started this trip?” Jag prompted.
Aari and the others came to the same conclusion simultaneously, and they looked at each other in amazement.
“I mean, that would explain a l
ot,” Mariah said, hugging her knees to her chest.
“Are we sure it’s not just coincidence? Tegan countered.
“No, but the signs don’t really point to anything else,” Jag said. “We should make sure, though. I’ll make the call.”
Once the meeting was scheduled, the friends just stared at each other, still trying to come to terms with everything. The hum of the air conditioning unit kept the room from being plunged into complete silence.
“We have the world on our shoulders,” Aari said at last, and the notion finally sunk in. His insides churned, making it hard to breathe. “How did this happen?”
Kody seemed markedly less enthusiastic about his abilities, even a little sick. “You know this means bad things can happen to us? We could get seriously hurt, or even—”
“We are not talking about this,” Jag interrupted. He swept over them with a firm look. “One thing at a time. That’s how we dealt with Dema-Ki last year, that’s how we’ll keep doing it.”
“We just need some time to adjust,” Tegan said, nodding. “Or readjust, I guess. But Jag’s right. We have to accept that this is our reality, and we’ll just . . . continue as we always do.”
Kody raised his hand, palm down. Jag and Tegan placed their hands over his, Aari doing the same. Mariah bit her lip, then followed suit.
“We’ll work through this,” Jag said. “Together. Always.”
14
The morning after the shark attack, the friends sat at the end of Stearns Wharf, feet dangling over the edge of the pier as they enjoyed the spectacular views of Santa Barbara and the surrounding coast. Dark blue water frothed twenty feet below them. A few anglers along the sides of the wharf had their fishing lines cast, and every few minutes someone would call out gleefully, signaling a catch.
The five had talked long into the previous night, each emerging memory triggering another along with visions of familiar faces and conversations.
