by Jana LaPelle
Chuckling, he pulls me closer still and continues to nuzzle my neck, “Like I could belong to anyone else. I have been yours since the moment our eyes met, and I held you in my arms. You were so tiny then, but you captured my heart and soul at that very moment. Little did I know that our bond was two-fold,” He pauses, looking thoughtful, “I just realized how creepy that must have sounded. You were just a babe.”
Laughing, I pull up to turn and look at him fully, “Not creepy at all. It was written in the stars that we were meant to be,” my mood sobering a little, “Besides we make beautiful babies together, I know it’s only been a few hours, but I miss them so much. You would have thought that I would have enjoyed the break, but I don’t. Let’s get this done and get back to Lillie and Lachlan.”
“You got it. We’ll do what needs to be done posthaste and get back to our little ones and make our family whole again.”
Turning to look ahead, I see something on the horizon. Leaning forward, I squint trying to determine precisely what it is that I’m seeing, and then the clouds on the horizon light up. The lightning streaks across the dark, turbulent sky in the distance and is like nothing that I have ever seen before. The lightning display is magnificent. No wonder the stone forest is considered a no-fly zone. The storm churning in the distance is massive.
“By the looks of that, I’d say that we’re just about there, love.” Alaric holds on tight as Dray begins our descent.
The clouds below obstruct the view for several moments, and then we break through the cloud deck, and my breath hitches when I see the sight before me. The stone forest is immense. It appears to hedge the Badlands like a privacy fence that goes on for as far as I can see. For the love of all that is holy, how are we supposed to get through that maze? The stone giants jut up out of the ground in no particular pattern. The one thing that I do realize is that most of the stone pillars are jagged, none of them are smooth, and the forest appears to be denser on the outer edges than further in. The stone perimeter around the Badlands is at least a mile or more deep before opening to what looks like a desert in the distance. I can’t help but say, “Are you freakin’ kidding me?”
“Mo grá, it’s not as bad as you think. There are tales of elves and others that have traversed the stone forest.”
“Not as bad as I think… Seriously? There’s no way that the horses can navigate that maze. So there’s no point in tracing back to the Keep to get them. We’re on our own. How do you think we’re going to be able to navigate that monstrosity? Did we bring any climbing gear? Do you think we’re going to need it?”
“We planned for just about every possible obstacle that we could think of, so yes we packed climbing gear.” Alaric tenses just as Drayiel lands us in a clearing, hind legs touching down first before lowering down to all fours. We land between the stone giants and the wide river that provides yet another barrier to the Badlands. Beyond that is what looks to be a normal forest. In one quick motion, Alaric moves from behind me to slide gracefully from his perch to the ground and turns to hold his hands up motioning for me to follow suit. I quickly slide off of Dray’s back and into Alaric’s waiting arms. My legs are unsteady and feel like jelly from being in the air so long, how he is able to stand there so steadfast is beyond me, but I welcome his strength as I allow my legs to adjust to being back on land once more.
Dray waits patiently while we quickly remove the bags that we secured to his back and powerful legs. Once that’s done his large dragon steps away so that he can shift back to his human form, with his back to us, he quickly dresses and walks back our way. He too has adopted the signature leather pants and matching vest. I wish he would shave his full, scruffy beard. I would really like to see what lies beneath all that facial hair. For an ancient being, he doesn’t look a day over twenty-five or so, but I think the beard makes him look older.
Catching Dray's attention, I lean in toward him in a conspiratorial gesture and say, “You know Dray if you want to catch a female’s eye, you might consider shaving all that scruff off your face. Don’t get me wrong, a little stubble goes a long way,” I say with a sly smile and a wink.
“My lady, I will take it under advisement.” He says curtly and inclines his head with the briefest of grins.
Alaric laughs and claps him on the back, “Dray, one of these days we will get you to lighten up.”
“Don’t you worry, my oh so serious Guardian of the Realms, you will one day find your mate. I will see to it that she is a spitfire and then life will never be boring.” I can’t help but tease.
“See that you do so, Ashlinn. I have waited an eternity to find my mate.” His tone is teasing, but the sincerity of his words ring true. Dray’s focus shifts and he is all business at this point, so I move my attention to my companions while I contemplate the longing in his voice. I’ll have to see if I can do something about that.
Everyone, those that volunteered and were hand-picked to go on this trek, quickly gathers around us. Dray is the only dragon shifter that will be accompanying us on the rest of our journey. The rest of the dragon shifters patiently wait for our gear to be removed from their backs and legs. Once that task is complete, they quickly take to the skies again, and for a moment we watch the four of them head south. They are regal and beautiful and their beasts are massive, I really hate to see them go.
Sighing, I turn to look at our remaining group. Our traveling companions include Jasmine and Cam, Tolin, Nemus, Lorcan, and Dray. Addressing the group, I say, “Why don’t we get a bite to eat before we continue. We can discuss our plan moving forward on how we’re going to tackle that monstrosity before us,” and I gesture to the stone forest that bars our entrance to the Badlands.
We make a quick camp and dig through our bags to find the food that has been packed for our consumption on this trip. Millie and Maith have had the kitchen help whip up what they call marthanais briosca which literally translates to survival biscuit along with lamb, beef, and chicken jerky, seasoned dried vegetables, and some fresh fruits along with dried fruit and nuts. Everything that has been packed, food-wise, with the exception of the fresh fruit, can last for weeks. Not that we will be gone that long, our creator willing. The food is wrapped up and sealed in a cloth that has been infused with beeswax, they really need to try this method back in The Mortal Realm, this cloth works better than any plastic wrap I’ve ever used, and it’s reusable.
We make quick work of our early lunch and pack everything away into our backpacks. The marthanais briosca is actually really tasty and surprisingly filling. It only took two of them to tide me over until our evening meal and with my ferocious appetite, that’s saying something. Dray, Alaric, and Lorcan have determined that once we enter the forest, from there, we will need to continue a course of northwest and not deviate from that path. Dray shifts and takes to the sky to see if there is a possibility of him flying us over two at a time but he returns fairly quickly to confirm that the air currents and lightning is unpredictable, he figures that the width of the forest is about a mile and a half and without any further delays or problems we should be able to navigate the rocky terrain.
Jasmine looks concerned, and I turn to her as she studies the towering forest in front of us before turning back to me, “How are we going to know which direction to go once we get in there? I mean, what if we get turned around? What happens then? It’s not like we’re going to have the sun to go by, it’s overcast, and even if we had the sun, I’m not sure we would be able to see it in there.”
“That’s easy, I have my compass.” Tolin smiles and winks at us girls, always the charmer.
“Alright then T, you’ve got the lead.” Alaric smiles and claps him on the back.
I can’t help the grin that lights up my face before becoming serious, “Well then, I guess we need to get to it, before it gets too much later, I want to get through this creepy looking stone forest before the sun sets. Our only problem is that it looks like we
are going to have to scale twenty feet of rock wall to even enter this maze,” I assess. “That should be no problem for Jasmine and me, once we get up there, we can lower a rope for you guys to scale the wall. Where’s the rope?”
Tolin anticipates my request and hands over a lightweight line that I can hardly call a rope, but who am I to judge. I call the air element to me, then Jasmine and I ascend the mossy, rock face wall. Once we get up there, we go about securing the rope and tossing it back down for the guys to scale the obstacle, which they do very quickly. Our little group of eight stares into the cool dark forest, the pillars of stone are staggered just as if they were real trees. I find the formation itself rather odd and unnatural before we proceed into its darkened depths.
We’re not twenty feet in when I hear Tolin up front say, “This doesn’t make sense, the compass needle is… Well crap, the compass can’t be used in here. Evidently, the stones are laced with either iron or lead. The magnetic pull to the stones is wreaking havoc on the compass.”
“So how do we gage our way?” I ask.
“We have to head in the same direction. No matter what, we can’t get off course. So no distractions, from here on out, it’s follow the leader. We follow one after the other in a straight line. If we have to go around something in our path, we do it slowly and with precision. We work as a team.” Alaric says to the group.
I move to the back of the group feeling responsible for everyone as Tolin, and Alaric gets us organized and leads the group. We begin to pick our way through the towering rocks in our path. For a time, we seem to make progress, and to my estimation, we are a little more than halfway through this towering maze without any mishaps. I know that we are only about an hour or so in when the sky overhead begins to darken reducing the light even that much more bringing about the need to light some torches to light our way. The guys quickly go to work gathering what they need from their packs to bring us some much-needed illumination.
That’s when I feel a prickling sensation crawl over my skin, as if I’m being watched. Turning my attention away from our group I search the shadowy depths behind us. In the distance, I faintly hear something. Cocking my head to the side, I tune everything else out. It sounds like a child crying. I’m shocked by the sound, and my unease grows as I listen for where the noise is coming from, my maternal instincts urging me on. Why would a child be in here alone? That makes no sense. Taking several steps back into the darkness I see a flickering blue-green light that looks like a flame in the gloomy distance which draws my attention. Squinting into the darkness, I try to make out what it is that I’m seeing. That’s when the sound of a child’s whimpering cries begin again, growing louder. The louder and more incessant the cries become the more frantic my need to get to them. Suddenly, I have this overwhelming urge to find them to make sure that they are safe. I don’t stop to think about my actions, I just break into a run, straight for the sound of the children’s crying. Before long, I’m racing through the rock formations, zig-zagging this way and that, chasing after the sound of children. One moment I hear them ahead of me and the next moment the sound seems to be coming from my right. Every time I correct my course, the sound seems to shift directions. One minute I hear a child’s whimpering cry and the next moment tinkling laughter. I pull up, turning in a circle the sounds echo around me in this darkened maze of stone, taunting me. Stopping, I clutch my head in my hands and close my eyes trying desperately to gain clarity, something is not right.
I hear the cries again, and I know deep within my soul that I’m acting irrationally, but I can’t seem to override my desperate need to get to them. Picking up my pace I continue to race through the stone giants turning this way and then that. Suddenly, I pull up short, spinning around in a circle I realize that I’m now hopelessly lost. All the stones that rise up in front of me look the same. My heart is racing with a renewed fear, the fear of being separated from the group and from Alaric and my panic begins to set in. Breathing heavily, my lucidity returns and I realize that I must get back to everyone else. That’s when I hear the child’s cry again, and I see the blueish green flame that entices me to once more race through the maze, but this time it’s my need to understand what is tormenting me. That fact alone is what drives me forward. At some point, the ground begins to slope downward, and I find that the earth beneath my feet has become squishy and wet and I stumble forward clumsily. I can just barely make out in the dim light of this unusual forest, that I’ve entered a marsh of sorts. My heart is now jackhammering within my ribcage, and my breaths are labored as I fight the fear that has latched on to my soul, I realize that I’m being played but by whom and to what end. “Who are you?” I call out, “What do you want with me? Show yourselves!” I demand, my voice echoing through the stones around me in this dark, sinister place.
In the distance, I hear Alaric, calling my name as he races toward me. He reaches out to me through our bond, and I send him reassuring thoughts as to my wellbeing as well as my distress and I open our link.
“What do you want with me?” I ask quietly.
I hear whispers before I hear a high pitched child-like voice say, “Just one more step, me lady, just one more. Pleassse… pretty, pretty please.” The voice sounds of English and an Irish blend, “Yous almost there, pretty lady, pleassse me lady.”
That fascinating blue-green flame beacons me to walk forward, the flame dancing mid-air several feet in front of me and that is when I balk. Whoever may be behind this perverse persuasion really wants me to walk another few steps, my instincts are screaming don’t do it, so I rebel.
“No, not one more step! Not until I know what it is that you want with me!” I demand.
Suddenly, I hear a screeching that has me dropping to my knees, clutching my ringing ears, then one by one, six or more tiny figures steps out from the shadows, all holding the eerie blue-green flames in their hands. “Why do ye rebel? Just a few more steps me, lady!” The pixie-like creatures demand in a wailing cry as one.
Getting to my feet, I strengthen my resolve. “No, I will not bend to your will! Who are you and what do you want with me?”
Alaric is near, and I take comfort in the thought and send him a mental image of what stands before me. I take a moment to study the pixie-like creatures. Their faces are very pointed, their nose and mouths jutting forward, much like that of a cat, their noses are tiny and slope, tilting upward. Their ears are fascinating, like that of the dark elves, their ears are long, but point up and outward on either side of their head and appear to be covered in fur like a deer or a donkey. The creature’s height is that of about three feet tall, and it’s then that I notice that they have tails that are twitching in agitation that are fur tufted at the ends. It’s at that moment that one of them hisses in agitation at me and as its lips pull back in a sneer of displeasure, I see its very pointy little teeth, and I step back into the rock hard solid chest of my kindred.
Through our link, he says, “Don’t move, Ashlinn. You are their prey.”
One of the little hybrid creatures steps forward, cocking her head to assess us. She squints her overly large doe eyes, blinking rapidly at the both of us before saying, “Me thinks ye brought a friend with ye, yer friend be welcome to come too, pleassse. Just a couple of more steps me lady. Ye can help the wee child if ye just take a couple of more steps. Ye would not want harm to come to the lass, now would ye? Ye do want to help that wee little lass, don’t ye?” She cocks her head as she studies me, her posture aggressive and her solid brown, black eyes are disconcerting. On the surface, they appear to be harmless and a bit enchanting, but if their teeth are any indication of the menace that lurks beneath the surface, they are anything but.
Involuntarily, I move to step forward, but Alaric holds me tightly in his arms. It’s then that Jasmine suddenly appears beside us in her sprite form her tiny wings fluttering rapidly. The creatures before us all hiss and then snarl at her appearance baring their pointy little teeth.
Their spokesperson directs her attention to Jasmine, “This be none of yer concern water sprite, be on yer way. This be púca business.”
Púca? What the hell is a púca?
Jasmine inclines her head in acknowledgment before saying, “I’m afraid cousin, that I cannot allow my lady to become hopelessly lost in your mist.”
“That be not our intent, water sprite. Be gone with ye! Ye spill our secrets!” The púca female demands, her voice hissing.
“Then what is your intent? This female is off limits to your kind!” Jasmine counters.
“Ye interfere. Ye trouble yerself where ye should not. She belongs to us now. The will-o’-the-wisp demands it,” The púca snaps at Jasmine clicking her razor-sharp teeth together not once but twice.
Jasmine jumps to my defense, “Did she not stop? Did she step forward into your circle when you urged her to continue? She did not. You have no claim to her, she does not belong to you, and you cannot have her. Ashlinn is a goddess and Mother Keeper of Souls, you preyed on her instincts as a mother to lure her into your trap, but it didn’t work. She does not belong to you!” She repeats forcefully. “Tis our way, and ye know it tis, water sprite,” She bites out, “Tis a matter that we intend to take up with our new king, tis a matter that we will file a grievance against ye and yer clan. The Horde King will see reason.” She spits out proudly squaring her tiny shoulders.
