The Return To Erda Box Set

by Beca Lewis

  I spun around the atrium and yelled at the top of my lungs. I knew they were out there somewhere. “Okay, you good for nothing friends of mine. I am going to be ready to remember.”

  Sounded stupid even as I said it, and I swear I heard them laughing. It was hard to miss Beru’s laughter that sounded like bells and Ruta’s that sometimes sounded like a frog choking.

  As I stomped off as dignified as I could with my belly jiggling with too much food, it occurred to me that I didn’t know where to find the library. I listened and heard, “Door ten.” So metal toadstool hadn’t gone after all. “Thanks, big guy,” I said. Its laugh was as weird as Ruta’s. Think of a metal lid on a trash can vibrating. That would be close.

  Shatterskin Twenty

  The library was exactly how I expected it to be. It looked like the library back home with rows of book and tables for working or reading. The only difference that I could see straight away was, once again, there was no one there. Not even a metal toadstool.

  How was I supposed to find anything? The word “listen” popped into my head again. It must have been the word of the day like the old Groucho Marx show my parents told me about. “How about a new word, people?” I asked in my head.

  I knew I was irritable because I was afraid, so I told myself to shut up and listen. I thought that maybe I was being punished for my rudeness because I didn’t hear anything.

  Then I remembered what Beru kept telling me. Feel. It was the same as listen but didn’t always have words. Listen to the feeling. It wasn’t as hard to do as the first time when I was trying to feel doors. My practice was paying off because within a few seconds I knew, no, I felt, what to do.

  I sat down at a table and asked for information about the Shrieks and Shatterskin. A screen popped up in front of me with options. Did I want pictures or information? I chose information. After reading for a few minutes, I almost wished that I hadn’t. Too graphic. So I asked for pictures. That was even worse.

  But I made myself stare at them until I could look without shaking the table. Then I went back to the written information which consisted mostly of descriptions of the destruction.

  I learned enough to be even more terrified than I thought was possible. The Shrieks did what their name implied. They shrieked with a decimal level that made it impossible to think. The pain was intense, and the disorientation made everyone incapable of doing anything other than curling up in a ball, holding their ears. The Shrieks cleared the way for Shatterskin.

  After I read what Shatterskin could do, I thought that he probably didn’t need those little bastards given what he could do by himself. Maybe he liked the company.

  Although Shatterskin also used sound, he used a decimal level that shattered everything in his path. The vibrations went deep into the earth and shattered tree roots, rocks, whatever was there. Earthquakes and volcanoes often followed him.

  When Shatterskin directed his sound into the air, it instantly shattered anything flying within range. Usually, only bits of feathers and tiny bones were found after his passing. That’s if anyone was brave enough to follow after him. On the surface of the earth trees shattered, and all beings blew apart. He literally shattered every kind of skin that was within reach of his sound. No wonder we ran.

  The writer conjectured that Shatterskin’s sound range was not far since to make that sound required an enormous amount of energy. Survivors guessed that his range was not more than perhaps one-hundred feet around him. That didn’t mean much considering how quickly he moved and shattered as he went. I thought that the Shrieks must make up for his lack of range, since they traveled ahead of him and laid open a space where there was no one to oppose him.

  The images of the Shrieks and Shatterskin were hand drawn. They weren’t photographs. The artist said some of his pictures were conjectures based on seeing these beings from miles away. Anyone close enough to see details was dead.

  Abbadon had built an utterly effective means of destruction with the Shrieks and Shatterskin. Was his quest for power so great that he was willing to destroy the land and the people? Didn’t he know that destroying nature would ultimately destroy him?

  I looked at the pictures one more time. The Shrieks literally looked like big mouths within blobs of green goo that slithered. I couldn’t see any features other than a hole that changed shapes. I had to assume that it made different kinds of shrieks depending on the size of the opening.

  Shatterskin looked like my picture of an evil metal robot. A terminator made of metal. What kind of metal, I didn’t know and neither did the writer. Maybe it had to be metal so the sound the Shrieks were making wouldn’t shatter it? Could we make something out of the same metal to protect us?

  I looked up one more thing. I figured I was so terrified that learning about the Riff would not increase my terror and I might as well get it over with.

  In that, as in so many things, I was wrong.

  *******

  I must have fallen asleep after reading all that information and scaring myself to death because I woke up with my head on the library table. Maybe it was a defense mechanism. Only so much terror allowed into one person before the brain shuts down. Memories of what I had read about the Riff started to filter back in, and I shut them down with a “no, not now” command. I thought of Niko and the defense moves he had taught me, and I used a few of them on the images in my head. That helped. They backed off, at least for a time.

  The high slitted windows in the walls of the library showed me a darkening sky. Was it possible I had slept all afternoon on a library table? I was hungry enough to think that it was possible. I rose to go, thinking that my friendly metal toadstool would be waiting with some food in the atrium, when I heard one of my favorite sounds, Beru laughing.

  “Zut,” Beru said, “You look a fright.”

  I had to restrain myself from practically leaping over my chair to hug her. But as sweet as Beru looked, hugging was only allowed if she initiated it, so I held back and wiggled my fingers at her instead.

  “Where have you been? I am so happy to see you. Yes I probably do look terrible. Not used to no mirrors and then no friends to make sure that I am put together correctly,” I rattled on without thinking.

  Beru just stood there and smiled.

  “Hungry?” she asked.

  She didn’t even wait for me to say anything before she was out the door and heading towards the atrium. I followed as fast as I could, but let me tell you when Beru starts moving, she moves. She was way ahead of me by the time I reached the atrium. I could smell food, and I was happy as could be. I had almost convinced myself that the idea of a ceremony and then off to defeat undefeatable monsters and a gods-forsaken Riff in the earth was never going to happen. Until I rounded the corner and saw them.

  Them. Everyone. Everyone I knew and people I didn’t know. People I had seen around the castle but who had never spoken to me were there. Food was piled high on the tables. The five metal guys—or were they girls, too—were there serving.

  I stepped into the room, and they all yelled, “Surprise.” Yes, I was excited to see them all. But at the same time, I knew what it was. A last supper.

  For a moment, just a teeny tiny moment, I thought about running. Where I would go didn’t matter. I just needed to run. But the urge to run didn’t last. These people were here for me. I would be there for them. If this was the last supper, I might as well enjoy it.

  Shatterskin Twenty-One

  Erda doesn’t count the time the same way that I learned to do in the Earth dimension, so I wasn’t sure what month it was back home. But the full moon looked like a harvest moon to me, so I chose to believe that it was the middle of October, which meant that I had been in Erda for over a month. It had been the fastest, the slowest, the scariest, the loneliest, and the most exciting month of my life. All of those feelings wrapped up
into one package.

  As Beru and I walked through the forest outside the Castle to where the ceremony was to be held, I thought through all that I had learned. The month was the fastest because as soon as Suzanne and I stepped through the portal, I was a young woman and no longer a little girl. At least my body was a young woman’s body. During my time in Erda, I was trying to grow up to match it.

  I had a feeling that the ceremony was going to force even more growth. I decided not to think about what I was going to remember. It was a dark rabbit hole to go down, so I tried to avoid tripping and falling into it.

  Dinner was spectacular in every sense. I had never seen Ruta have a good time, but after drinking something that looked like syrup, he got very animated. He even danced on top of one of the tables. I think it was dancing. Whatever it was, it was wonderful to watch. He rarely said a word to me, but I knew he had come to like me just a little bit even though he still mumbled under his breath when I was an idiot. Not his fault. I was often an idiot. Nevertheless, I certainly had come to like him, and the dancing topped it off.

  Beru held my hand as she introduced me to every person who worked in the Castle. These were the mystery people who had taken care of everything for me while I was there. They cooked, cleaned, and ran the business of the Castle without me needing to do anything at all. I thanked each one the best that I could. They thanked me for being so brave. I smiled as if I knew what they were talking about because brave was not the feeling that I was having.

  In fact, the more they thanked me, the scarier it got. By the time we were done, I understood why Beru had held my hand. I could feel her encouragement flowing through me, and that helped me smile, bow, and say, “Thank you. I’ll do my best,” to each person I met. It was apparent that they all knew a secret that I didn’t know, because there was no way that I would be able to fight the Shrieks and Shatterskin, even with all the help in the world. The thought came that perhaps they were really saying goodbye to me. It wasn’t inconceivable. I had no idea how I would survive the Riff.

  After the introducing, the amazing food, and the dancing, Beru took me back to my room. I had come to love that room. I was no longer locked in at night, but instead had been taught how to weave an illusion around the door so that no one could see it except the people I trusted.

  I had taught Zeid how to high-five, which everyone thought was silly but fun, so the day I hid something from Professor Link, Zeid high-fived me. I wasn’t sure which part was the best—the learning of the skill or that I was learning it with Zeid.

  Even Link had nodded at me in approval. My magic making skills were improving. But I didn’t believe they were even close to what I would need at the Riff.

  As I gazed longingly at my bed, Beru dressed me for the ceremony. Since arriving at the castle, I had been provided clean clothes every day. Although the colors changed, the style stayed pretty much the same. Soft and very durable leggings and a top that draped enough to be comfortable but tight enough not to catch on anything. My clothes had survived multiple falls and slides across the training floor without tearing or ripping. My top had even snagged a knife blade when Niko was showing me how to use a knife, and it didn’t tear. Instead, the knife slid off. Very handy for a fairly clumsy and a not very talented fighter like me. I could see Niko shake his head sometimes after another spectacular failure on my part in a sparring match with Zeid.

  Once I heard Niko tell Professor Link that he hoped what I was learning in Link’s class would save me because my fighting skills sucked. Yes. He used that word. I held no grudges. He was correct.

  For the ceremony, Beru gave me a fresh set of clothes and then went to the closet and pulled out a coat I had never seen before. “You’ll be needing this,” she said. I slipped it on. Like the leggings and top, it was lightweight and fit perfectly.

  Then she handed me a backpack filled with who knew what. “You’ll need this too, Hannah,” she said. After she and I walked out the door, she turned and locked the door. This time I was on the outside.

  “Will I ever be back here, Beru?” I asked.

  “And you think I know the future, Hannah? I don’t. So my answer is, perhaps yes, perhaps no. What I do know is that after tonight you might not want to return.”

  It was those words that kept running through my head as we walked through the forest. I could see a fire burning in the distance. The moon lay low on the horizon, lighting our paths. The trees rustled in a breeze that I couldn’t feel, their leaves nearing the end of this year’s cycle.

  Although the path should have been littered with fall leaves, it was as smooth and clear as a walk down the aisle of a church. Who cleared the path? I wondered.

  When I heard the words, “We did,” I had no idea who had spoken. Just as I had no idea what lay before me. But a sense of purpose had infused me from the moment Beru slipped the coat over my shoulder. I was ready.

  Shatterskin Twenty-Two

  Five minutes later, Beru and I broke through the forest into the clearing. A fire was roaring in the center of a ring of stones. There were five Ginete that I could see standing in the shadows outside of the clearing.

  Beru whispered to me, “They have prepared the space for the ceremony and will keep the doors open for you to remember.”

  I nodded as if I understood. But it was a sense of comfort to see the Ginete in the shadows, arms folded, all-seeing eyes taking in everything. It looked as if they weren’t doing anything, but I knew that this ceremony was happening because they agreed to it.

  I nodded in their direction, hoping to say thank you, but they avoided my gaze.

  I could see Niko, Aki, Suzanne, Zeid, and Ruta seated around the fire. Shadowy figures were sitting in the circle too, but I couldn’t make out their faces, and I had no idea who they were. There was an open space in the ring where Beru and I settled in. Nothing was said.

  One of the shadows rose, and I saw that it was Professor Link. He walked around the circle putting a small bowl in each of our hands. It was only when he was halfway around the circle that I realized he wasn’t carrying the bowls. They appeared in his hands as he gave them to each person, including the shadows.

  I was last. The bowl was empty. Professor Link turned and walked the circle again placing something in each bowl. Once again there was nothing in his hands until right before he put it in each bowl. I tried to see what he was doing, but Beru did her famous pinch me in the leg, and I got the message to stop looking.

  Everyone was silent, staring into the fire, except for Ruta who was staring at me. When I looked back at him, he gave me one of his stern looks that I had come to fear. Don’t cross Ruta. The effects from whatever he had been drinking seemed to have worn off. He was back to his grumpy self.

  But now I knew that there was the heart of a dancer beating inside that stump body. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be looking at him, but I still gave him the best smile I could muster and I swear I saw his eyebrow rise in recognition and a twinkle in his eye.

  By then Link was almost to my bowl, so I turned my attention back to the fire. I stilled my thoughts as best I could. I knew Link would know what was going on inside of me, so I did my best to match what he might be expecting.

  Professor Link dropped what looked like shredded tobacco into my bowl and stepped into the fire. Not kidding. Into the fire. No one seemed surprised. I wanted to run and grab him to safety, but when I looked again, I realized that he was untouched. Instead, he looked surprisingly at peace.

  He reached out and picked a single flame from the fire, mumbled something and a flame appeared in the center of all our bowls. Luckily I was frozen in place watching Link, so I didn’t flinch. Like everyone else I held the bowl steady and didn’t put it down until I saw everyone else put their bowl on the ground in front of them.

  A sweet, pungent smell was coming from whatever was burning in the bo
wls, and within a few minutes, the entire campsite was wreathed in smoke.

  Still standing in the fire, the professor raised his arms and began to chant. I could feel the heat rising within me. Within seconds I was drenched in sweat. Everything around me faded away.

  I closed my eyes and was somewhere else. There were voices all around me. I thought I recognized them, but couldn’t remember their names. There was laughter and sobbing. Thunder boomed, and a lightning flash lit up the room where I was standing. I looked out a window at the coming storm. Trees filled in all that I could see. I heard someone say, “But she isn’t safe here,” then sobbing. Was it me crying?

  A soft voice assured me that I would be fine. I wouldn’t remember much so I could be happy where I was going. “But what about you?” I heard myself ask. There was no answer. I waited in the silence.

  One of the shadows rose and stood before me. “You have returned. We will be waiting for you. Gather your strength. Trust your heritage and the friends that have come to be with you.”

  Another shadow rose and stood beside the first one. They held hands, bowed, and were gone. I heard sobbing again, and this time I knew it was me. I opened my eyes. The fire had died down to embers. Professor Link was no longer there. The shadows that had been in the circle were gone.

  Beru rose and stood in front of me. “Shall I speak your name now?”

  Mutely, I nodded.

  Beru bowed and said, “Welcome home, Princess Kara Beth.”