by Paula Lester
Cas jogged to catch up with Desi.
“This place is going to be up for sale soon.” His mop of hair bounced this way and that as he hiked over the uneven ground. “You could turn it into a first-class wilderness retreat. Or a spa resort! A few minor upgrades would be necessary but nothing outrageous. You’d be close to Crystal Springs, and the supernatural community would absolutely adore coming here to experience a magical, pampered getaway. What do you think?”
Cas watched the dust in front of her, kicked up by the kids’ bicycles, rise and form a cloud. She coughed and then held her breath, hoping to avoid triggering some wacky magical event. But nothing happened and she released the breath in a sigh of relief. Percy must have siphoned off enough of her excess power to calm things down for the moment. “I’m not sure this is up my alley,” she said. “A spa getaway sounds nice, though. I might like to run one of those. But this is a little too rustic for me.”
Desi waved a hand as though pushing away her objection. “It’s perfect! You can have this road paved if you don’t like the dust.”
The looping drive approached a big log building with a wraparound porch. Neon signs in the front windows said Register Here and Camping Supplies. Cas figured it must be the campground’s main office.
Desi didn’t make any move to walk toward the lodge, but as they approached it, Cas glanced up and caught sight of a raven-haired woman on the porch. She appeared to be watching them pass, and Cas gave her a polite smile of acknowledgement. The woman grinned back and waved.
“Yoga!” Desi cried, jolting Cas’ attention back to him. “This would be a fantastic yoga retreat. You could have classes in the main lodge and folks could stay in the cabins. If I were you, I’d get rid of the tent and RV sites and build more cabins.”
“What are you up to, Dewman? This place isn’t yours yet, you know.”
Cas and Desi stopped, turning to face the owner of the gruff voice as he descended from the lodge’s porch.
Desi cocked his head. “Raydiant. Good to see you. This is Cascade Lorne.” Waving a hand toward the man, he said, “Ray Feldspar, the current owner of this fine establishment.”
"Nice to meet you," the jet-black haired man mumbled, his eyes darting to Cas for a moment. He issued a curt nod in her general direction. Then his attention swung to Desi. "You’re right. I am still the owner. Like I said, this place isn’t yours yet, so what are you doing here?"
Des's brow wrinkled, and he stammered, "Well, you know, I'm not here because of the potential sale. We’re passing through on the way to Mudtown.” He flicked a hand at Cas. “I’m doing a favor for my new friend, here. She needs a mentor, so I’m taking her to see Primo."
Ray crossed his arms and stuck his chin out. "I think you need to get off my land. You aren’t welcome here." As he turned to climb the stairs back onto the porch, he glanced at Cas. "Sorry about the unpleasantness, ma'am. But he and I don't have any business with each other right now."
"Come along, then," Desi said, guiding Cas past the lodge with a hand on her elbow. "Ray’s a little bit preoccupied these days, and he sure forgets his manners sometimes."
"He owns this place?" Cas watched her feet as they crossed the gravel driveway and started down a path surrounded by trees.
Desi nodded. "He does for a little while yet. Watch your step on this trail — the mud makes it quite slippery."
Cas couldn't remember it raining enough to cause the amount of mud they now trudged through. But Desi was right—the trail they were on was slick with wet dirt and rocks. The realtor dropped her elbow to take the lead as the path wound into a thin forest. They'd gone a few hundred yards when sparse spruce trees gave way to a clearing. Desi waited for her to catch up and waved a hand in front of himself. "Welcome to Mudtown."
Multiple buildings were arranged in a rough circle around an expanse of muddy earth. Most of the structures topped out at about two stories. But all of them were constructed from some type of smooth red clay or terra-cotta, much like the ancient adobe homes built by indigenous people of the American Southwest. Ivory curtains billowed out from between square-paned windows while turquoise, chili-red, and chartreuse doors decorated the entrance of each dwelling.
Desi continued, "That over there is the Fountain. It’s a huge mud flat, and it's where these witches do their earth element ceremonies."
"Earth element?" Cas wondered.
"Yep. Mudtown is home to witches for whom the earth strengthens their magic and helps them do spells. They like to congregate here and use the Fountain for various ceremonies.” Above the area Desi had designated as the fountain hung gold, orange, and pink triangular flags on poles with festive white fairy lights strung between them.
There were more houses and adobe buildings dotting the landscape past the main circle. It looked like a tiny town secreted away in the woods.
A man with tawny skin and mussed hair passed by, and Desi stopped him with a question. "Pardon, where can we find Primo?"
The man, whose feet were bare, peered at them through half-lidded eyes. Though he had stopped at Desi's words, he swayed in place. When the stranger answered, his voice had an unexpected lilt, though the words were slurred. "He's in his pit." The man lifted a flannel-clad arm and pointed toward the edge of the circle of adobe huts.
Desi glanced at Cas. "Primo is the leader here. Let's go introduce the two of you."
They picked their way through rutted earth, forced to scoot around mud ponds and peculiar vertical rock formations. The air smelled like petrichor, just like there had been a good hard rain to end a long dry spell. After ten minutes of traipsing through varying levels of mire and slush, they arrived at what Cas guessed must be Primo's pit. About ten by twenty feet, the area appeared to be a simple hole in the ground filled with thick umber-black mud. It was the size of a rectangular pool, but its depth was tricky to guess.
Cas wondered why anybody would be inside such a thing. The drunk guy must’ve given them the wrong directions. She glanced at Desi, expecting him to turn back the way they’d come, but instead, the realtor walked up to the edge of the pit and stomped on the ground four times.
The opaque surface of the mud began to roil. It looked like a murky, simmering cauldron. Cas took a quick half step back, afraid of getting splattered with muck.
Then, something sat up in the mud.
Cas gasped. It wasn’t clear what the thing was. Yes, it had the general form of a person. But dripping clumps of gunk hid any features. She couldn’t tell how many appendages it possessed, if any.
The being shook its top-most part like a dog after a much-dreaded bath. Dirt clods flung everywhere. Desi got nailed in the shins. He sputtered and scooted back to stand next to Cas, brushing at his pants.
Two holes popped open —and blinked. Hidden in the depths of the muck, the orbs scanned the surroundings like small searchlights. They settled on Cas and she could see they were indeed ordinary eyes with irises the shade of burned cocoa.
She still couldn’t tell if they belonged to a man or woman. But the person smiled to reveal a row of straight, bright teeth appearing in sharp contrast to the grime covered face. The person stood up in the pit, shedding a good portion of its camouflage in falling muddy bits.
They watched as the being gave itself a good shake. Now most of the mud fell away. A head of long hair revealed itself, a narrow chest, slim hips and—
“Oh. Oh dear.” Cas said and shielded her eyes. “Why doesn’t he have any clothes on?” She peeked through her fingers. A wide smile broke out over the man’s face and a matching look appeared on Desi’s, though he didn’t move forward to shake hands.
The mud guy threw his arms wide. “Ah! Friends have arrived to welcome. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen one of you, and I don’t know the other.” He waved a hand as though it didn’t matter. “But everyone within the boundaries of Mudtown is a friend.”
“Primo! It’s good to see you. I’m sorry I haven’t visited in a while—business matters have kept
me hopping, and I haven’t had time to come by to share a whiskey.” Desi lifted a hand to indicate Cas. “But I came upon this new witch who needs a mentor and immediately thought of you. This is Cascade Lorne. Cascade, this is Primo Granite.”
Cas inclined her head at the mud man, making an effort to focus only on his face. He beamed in return, unabashed by his nakedness. Then his smile faded a notch and he narrowed his eyes. “Did you say new witch?”
Sighing, Cas cut in. “I’m well aware that I’m not sixteen. But, yes, I’ve only recently gotten my powers, and they seem to be significant. I need a mentor to help me control them because right now, I . . . well . . . I can’t at all.”
“Recently gotten your powers?” He leaned against the edge of mud pool, and Cas fought to keep her eyes on his face, terrified even more mud may slip off the slim man’s body.
His features smoothed out. “Ah,” he breathed. “I’ve heard of you. The witch who got her powers at fifty.” He crossed his arms and bobbed his head. “Intriguing.”
“She’s interested in meeting more people and learning about the supernatural community,” Desi interjected. “But mostly, she needs someone to help her get a handle on the magic before she blows someone’s house up or turns them into a goose or something.”
Cas wanted to say something snarky, but she had to admit he wasn’t really wrong.
Primo brushed a hand through his hair and flicked off some excess mud. “I’m happy to mentor you. Helping the next generation of witches is a way to embrace immortality for myself.” He leaned forward and studied her face. “But first, I have to find out if you’re an earth elemental. And, oh, you should hope you are one. The earth was the beginning of life. Mud is life. To be an earth elemental is to be one with life.”
Cas fought the urge to raise her eyebrows. She wanted to be respectful, but Primo sounded kind of woo-woo. “What does it mean to be an earth elemental?”
Straightening back up, the mud man’s facial expression, or what she could see of it under the coating on his face, became full of self-importance. He looked like a professor getting ready to give a weighty philosophy lesson. “Each witch has an affinity for one of the four elements: earth, air, fire, or water. Their element helps them—bolsters them—while they do their magic. Sort of infuses their spells with extra power, if you will.”
Extra power? Cas shifted her feet. More power seemed like the very last thing she needed in her life. She needed a way to tone down what she had, not add to it.
Primo continued, “Let’s find out if you’re one of the rare breed of folks who gets to dance with the earth, feel her power, and love like no one else can in life.” Smiling, he extended a hand. “If you’d like to strip down and climb in, you can get the beautiful mud in all the right spots to test whether it’s your element.”
She couldn’t control her eyebrows anymore and shot an alarmed expression at Desi. He grinned but was careful not to look at her. Turning back to Primo, she saw that a smile danced on his muddy lips too, and she crossed her arms. “I’m not taking my clothes off and climbing in there. I’m sure there’s a . . . cleaner . . . way for you to test me.”
The mud man sighed and ducked his head. “Very well. But if you are an earth elemental, this will be the last time you’ll desire to turn down a chance to be completely embraced by her.” He jerked his head backward. “Come on over to the edge of the pool and put both hands, palms down and fingers splayed, into the mud until they’re completely enveloped.”
Dropping her arms, Cas moved around until she was on the opposite side of the pit as Primo, still worried she might get an eyeful of more than she’d bargained for. She pushed up her sleeves. As she knelt on the ground next to the pit, she noticed that Desi began to back away. Cas wondered about it for a second before plunging her hands into the cool, slimy mud. “Now what?”
Primo smiled, his teeth once again contrasting against his soiled, covered face. “Now concentrate on the feeling of the mud on your skin. If the earth embraces you as one of her own, we’ll soon know.”
She did what he said. Her hands were covered up to the wrists. It was comforting in a way, the coolness of the mud. She liked the feeling of her fingers being submerged in the thick stuff. To be honest, it felt kind of good. Cas could see herself climbing into the pool—in a swimsuit, of course, and letting it settle around her body like a heavy comforter.
But nothing happened. After a while, Cas felt a little silly with her hands pushed into mud like a four-year-old. Plus, her knees were starting to hurt—kneeling on the ground was more difficult than it used to be. She made a mental note to sign up for those yoga classes she’d always intended to try. Some extra flexibility never killed anybody when they were over fifty.
Desi looked around, whistling a little tune, but Primo kept an unwavering fixed stare on Cas.
Just when she was ready to call it a wrap, something happened. Her heart flipped and she wiggled her fingers in the mud. Was she indeed an earth elemental?
The coolness of the mud was changing. Altering. Underneath the surface, tiny bursts like soda bubbles popped again her skin. It wasn’t painful, just odd. Cas pushed her hands in deeper, letting the mud ooze up her arms. In the next second, though, the sensation took a turn as the spaces between her fingers began to heat. The feel of the small pleasant bubbles changed into the mild sear of tiny explosives going off one at a time.
She looked at Primo, whose face mirrored her own alarm. “Does this mean I’m an earth elemental?” she asked. Maybe it made sense. She’d always loved puttering around with the flowers in her backyard, and people said she had a knack with plants.
But Primo shook his head with increasing speed and urgency. “I don’t think—” he began, but before he could finish, the mud pit erupted.
An expulsion of viscous goo tossed Cas backward. She landed on her bum, screwed her eyes shut, and threw up a defensive arm. Pellets of mud smacked the ground for a full ten seconds.
When the worst seemed over, Cas peeled her eyes open. Primo remained where she’d last seen him. But now, he stood, jaw open, covered in a green, gelatinous goop that oozed off his body in chunks.
Cas was drenched with the stuff too. It coated the ground in suspicious looking jiggling blobs. And the pit. Where one had been before, now there were two. One contained the green goop while another appeared to hold only a clear liquid. Perhaps it was water. But as she flicked off a globule, Cas wasn’t so sure.
She flipped over onto her knees and hoisted herself up. Cas swiped at the goo in attempt to get it off. It was sticky and didn’t smell that great. The slime in the pit belched. Cas spun around. A foul odor, like burned popcorn and mildew, reached her nose, and she gagged, covering her mouth. She beat a fast retreat toward Desi.
The realtor stepped out from behind a white poplar tree. He brushed at invisible specks on his suit. “That was certainly a show, wasn’t it?”
The shocked look on Primo’s face gave way and he sputtered, “My pit!” “It’s completely befouled.” He spun to face them, fists balled and face a mask of fury. The chocolate colored eyes now looked hard, like a desert’s cracked surface. “It could take me months to get my beloved pit back in shape, if the earth will even accept this spot at all.”
Cas winced. “I’m sorry,” she said, but it sounded hollow. It wasn’t her fault the man’s pit had exploded and turned to goop. She’d done exactly what Primo had told her to do.
“You’re not an earth elemental,” the mud man said through clenched teeth. “I don’t know what you are, but I know that much!” He waved a hand at them, turning back toward the now double-pit and sinking to his knees.
Desi touched Cas’ arm and gestured with his head for her to follow him. They crept away, hoping to avoid irritating Primo further.
As Cas glanced one last time over her shoulder at the area and sighed. There went another shot at gaining a mentor.
Chapter 4
“Let’s get you to the Dirty Birdie. There are shower
s there.” Desi took off on a dirt path that skirted around several adobe structures and past the giant mud flat in the center of Mudtown.
“What’s Dirty Birdie?” She looked down at her soaking, slimy clothes, wondering what good a shower would do if she had to get back into the stinky shirt and pants. At least she’d worn rubber gardening boots that could be hosed off.
“It’s Mudtown’s bar—right over here behind this big dirt hill.” He glanced at her. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out for Primo to mentor you. He really is a gem. I’ve never seen him get angry like that before.”
“I guess I’d get ticked off too if someone came and made green slime come out of the favorite room in my house.” Cas pouted but tried to shake off the disappointment. The whole incident with Primo had been just another thing in her new world that hadn’t worked out. She was tiring of that recurring theme. “I don’t know what I did to cause it, though. All I did was stick my hands in the mud.”
Desi shrugged. “I’m not real up on elemental theory. I didn’t pay too much attention in that class. But I guess the pit just rejected you. Strongly.”
“What else is new?” Cas muttered.
“Ah, here we are.” Desi opened the door of an adobe structure that was bigger than the homes they’d seen, and Cas walked past him to enter.
It was dim in the room, but she could see several raised mud pits that resembled hot tubs scattered around. A few patrons sipped drinks at the bar made from a huge, rough-hewn stone slab. It dominated one side of the room.
“The showers are through that door and down the hall.” Desi pointed past the bar. “There should be a change of clothes in there. I think they keep a few just in case an accident happens. Life tends to get messy in these parts.”
“Thanks. I’ll try to hurry.” As Cas crossed the room in the direction Desi had indicated, she glanced at the various hot tub-like structures. Some were on raised platforms. Each one could probably hold six or eight people. But others seemed to be fit for a solo bather or a cozy couple.
