Dog deposited Billy on the bed, the boy was burning up. He went to the corner of the small room and rummaged through a worn, metal studded leather bag.
“Ah.” He said as he pulled out a small black plant sprig. He pulled a striker out as well and put some wood on the small stove started a fire and hid the striker back in the bag, it was alien to this world.
The boy moaned quietly.
Brother Dog hurriedly placed a small pot of water on the fire. He put the sprig in his mouth and crunched it between his teeth. A wave of well-being washed over his tired body. The feeling of relief was so strong he was tempted to swallow the plant material, but instead, he quickly spat it into the water.
While he waited for it to boil, he wiped the boy down with a wet cloth. The scar on the boy’s side was an evil looking thing green puss ran from it freely. He hadn’t dared touch it. The water was boiling and there was a pleasant aroma in the air from the now boiling sprig. After a moment he dipped a relatively clean rag into the concoction and then carried the dripping rag over to the boy.
He had no idea what medicine from his world would do for a human, but it was almost certain the boy would die if he did nothing. He slowly removed the rough bandage from the boys wound.
"Where is Uncle?" He thought as he looked at the green pus that was oozing from the now blackened wound.
“Gods!” He thought as the boy breathed a ragged breath.
Brother Dog slowly squeezed the liquid from the rag onto the wound.
He didn’t know what else to do. There was an agonized scream from the boy, so loud Brother Dog fell back in shock. The boy writhed on the bed in contortions that looked like his small body would tear itself apart.
"What have you done?" a voice shouted from the door. Uncle Xu stood in the doorway a surprised look on his old face.
“He was dying!” Brother Dog retorted. “And where in Assus name have you been?”
“What did you do?” Uncle asked again, ignoring the others accusatory question.
The boy screamed again.
“I used some medicine from my own world. I knew not what else to do,” Brother Dog said, as he pointed at the now simmering pot.
But Uncle was no longer listening. He was staring at the boy in horror
“Oh my god!” he whispered
Brother Dog looked and saw the most frightening thing he had ever seen. The wounds on the boys back were moving as if they were trying to dig themselves deeper into the boy’s body like some evil living thing.
The boy screamed in agony, his eyes were opened in terror. Blood was oozing from the growing lacerations. Brother Dog stood there not knowing what to do, then he realized Uncle was shouting at him
“Hold the boy! Hold him down tight!”
Brother Dog did what he was told in a daze, wanting to retch at the sight, but unable to pull his eyes away. He was surprised as Uncle grabbed the pot, and deftly flipped it upside down on the frightening wounds. There was a strange hissing sound and the pot was knocked out of Uncles’ hand as the strange wound seemed to try to rip itself free from the screaming boys’ body.
The hiss turned into a strange high pitched screaming that seemed to enter his very soul. Then it stopped. All was silent! The strange green-black wound slid from the boy's body and fell to the floorboards with a strange sound, like pudding being dropped on a marble floor.
The silence was deafening. They stared at it.
“What is that? Was it alive?” Uncle said to Brother Dog, who was staring at the same thing.
Uncle poked at it with his stick.
“Wolver magic,” Brother Dog said.
The boy moaned under him and he realized he was still holding him down. He stepped back till his back hit the wall, he slowly slid down exhausted. He sat there totally spent.
"Is he dead?" A voice said from the doorway, as Zhoulin stepped quietly into the small room.
Uncle laid his hand on the boys back, forgetting about the greenish blob for a moment. There was a long pink scar on the boys back and side, other than that the boy was whole and breathing.
“I think he will survive,” He said quietly.
“What was that?” she asked in a shaky voice.
Uncle just stood there looking at the pink skin. There should be an awful scar there.
“Uncle?”
He shook himself for a second. “Oh, I know not,” He said, what has been happening how was he wounded? I think you have a story to tell me, my Canine friend. He looked at Brother Dog questioningly.
Brother Dog sat there for a moment and gave a great sigh shaking his head.
“I need to rest, but remember what I told you before about Wolver Magic? Do you understand now?” he said to Uncle.
Uncle blinked at him, finally, he said, "yes, I see."
“See what?” she said.
"Yes, now I see," Uncle said again, almost to himself.
Brother Dog got up and walked over to the bed.
“We should get a sample of that material and test it perhaps we can find out some way of stopping them.”
They looked on the floor there wasn’t even a wet spot where the strange thing had fallen. It was gone. They looked at each other.
7 A Foreign Land
B
illy woke up with the sun on his face. He slowly opened one eye, then the other. He lazily stretched on the bed and smacked his lips while looking around the room. His mouth was really dry and he was hungry and it was uncomfortably warm, the blanket was soaked in sweat, it was also quite itchy, like the old ones Gary’s mom had, he thought, trying to orient himself. Also, he was realizing the bed was oddly hard like it was made of wood. His bed was nice and soft since the mattress was held up by wires and springs.
"Oh, I must be at Gary's house," he concluded, which made sense because his bedroom was on the second floor of his parent's house. And his house was much cleaner than Gary's one story home. He saw the familiar sight of old Duke lying on the old rug by the door but somehow different. His coat no longer looked matted and dirty. He looked like he had been brushed and trimmed and he looked almost like a younger dog "Hey Duke," He said uncertainly. "Come here, boy."
Brother Dog looked up in surprise.
Just then a strange old man stepped through the open front door of the little house. He was dressed in clothing like Billy had only seen in the movies. More like some kind of robes and the old man had a long gray beard. The robe was long and flowing to the ground covered in odd pictographs that reminded Billy of a magician’s outfit he had seen in the movies. He had some sort of little round pillbox hat on top of his head tied with string and his hair was tied in the back in a ponytail like a girls.
Billy scrambled back in the bed, pulling the blankets up to his chin. He was wide awake now.
“W-where am I?” he said, suddenly realizing that this might not be Gary’s house after all.
It dawned on him that he had always slept in Gary's room at the back of the house and certainly not in the kitchen or whatever this was.
“And who the heck are you?” he said to the strange man.
“Gary!” He yelled, in the dim hope that maybe he was in Gary’s house and maybe this was some kind of a weird dream.
Just then the beautiful girl from another dream stepped through the door. She said something to the old man that he couldn’t quite make out. It was almost as if she was talking another language.
Billy gulped as she stepped quietly across the room toward him. She said something that sounded like “Ni Hao beery?” He looked at her confused, he really wanted to understand her.
“Hero’ berry?” She tried, again in a soft questioning voice.
“Hero’?" Beeryy?’ He repeated, trying to figure out what she was trying to say and trying not to laugh. She was so beautiful, and she made him very nervous in a giggly kind of way.
“Hello Billy?” he said experimentally.
“Dui! Dui!!” she said excitedly. “Hero Biiillyy!”
Realizat
ion clicked in Billy’s’ brain.
“You’re Chinese!” He said “It’s Hellllo, heavy on the ell. You’re saying’ Rs for Els”
The old man said something, the dog pattered over to him and they both stepped out the door.
"Hey, Duke!" Billy yelled. "Duke. You're not gonna just leave me here, are you?" but duke only glanced back and continued out with the old man.
Billy wanted to jump up and run after the familiar dog, perhaps his only friend here, but he realized he was naked under the thin blanket and the pretty girl standing right there.
“Heh. heh. Hi.” He said nervously.
“Ni Hao,” Zhoulin repeated.
Billy was trying to look around the room, but she was blocking his view.
“Umm, where am I?” he said, with false bravado. “Like, are you some relative of Gary’s?” He asked.
Gary had always had darker skin than most of the kids in Billy’s predominantly white school. So the question was valid, as he saw it anyway. She gave him a great big smile that melted his young heart and made him feel even more bashful.
“Look.” he said a little shakily “I really am getting a little freaked out here like where am I and who are you? Who is that old guy and hell, where are my clothes?"
“Please,” Zhoulin said, in very poor English, as she reached out to him. Brother Dog had been trying to teach her a little English saying perhaps it would be handy someday, but she knew very few words
Billy cringed back a bit in the bed. "Look." he said, "at least give a guy his pants, wouldja?"
She looked blankly at him not understanding a word. “Pants!” he said, frustrated making the motion of trying to put on a pair.
“Kuzi?” she responded automatically.
“Kudzu!?” he responded back to her, “What the heck is a Coodza? Oh my god you ain’t retarded or nothing’ are you? Where’s Gary? Come on, this ain’t funny no more.”
Brother Dog had followed Uncle outside obediently on all fours, as he stepped away from the door he stood up straight and looked at the old man.
“What is this all about?”
“We have to protect the boy until we figure out what to do.” said Uncle “And I must ask a great favor of you.”
“And what might that favor be?” Brother Dog said.
"You must continue your role as his pet Brother Dog, at least for a time."
"What?" Brother Dog protested. "Surely you joke! Please, Uncle, it is too much to ask. Here I can walk upright as I am supposed to, as long as I wear a cloak, no one sees me. It is easier here, in his world no one wears a cloak or even a hood. So I had to remain on four legs the entire time I was there! Walking on four feet is tedious, to say the least, and painful and embarrassing. You can't really expect me to continue like this."
Uncle did not respond.
Getting a little desperate Brother Dog said, "After all, I am the only one here who speaks the boy's language. You need me to communicate with him.”
Uncle looked at him, puzzled for a moment “And what has one to do with the other? Are you well brother? And how many talking dogs are there in this boy’s country, might I ask?” he said, raising an eyebrow at Brother Dog. “And even then, how many upright dogs are there in his country? The boy will think he has gone mad. And from what you tell me there is no magic where he is from. He is from a cold country I assume the climate and vegetation are totally different, even he must realize that he is no longer in his own land.”
“Yes,” Brother Dog said, “but we can explain all this to him. And you can use a language spell we used to communicate it is easy.”
"The language spell must be administered to someone who is willing, and your own abilities played as much a part in that as any magic I did. You already know many languages I merely opened a portal in your mind to allow you to learn my language more readily," Uncle said. "Someone who is fully aware of what is about to happen and is already gifted in language. You know yourself how difficult it was to assimilate at first. I seem to remember you talking to a pair of wayward bunnies when you first arrived. No, he comes from a place of no magic. A different climate, a different world, perhaps, we have no idea what effect it would all have on him. You must remain in character for even a little while longer."
Just then Zhoulin came out she looked a little worried.
"Please Uncle, you must come in, the boy he is being terribly brave, but I can see in his eyes he is becoming afraid. We must do something. I think if he finds his clothes he will run. And what will become of him? I think he thinks he is somewhere in his own land, not far from his home. But he is still confused, I think."
Uncle looked at them both for a moment.
“We can try the herb spell I suppose, but as I said, it merely aids understanding, but I have none here. Even if I find it, it will not give him complete understanding, but it might help until we can teach him.”
“But I caution you, we must be careful; evil will be working to capture him.”
“I am frightened for him now!” she said. “He is alone and has no idea he has lost everything.”
“Duke.” Billy’s voice came from within the house.
Uncle looked at Brother Dog.
“Very well,” Brother Dog said, relenting.
He dropped on all fours gave a wag of his tail and bounced through the door like a happy puppy.
“Hey! There you are fellah!” they heard Billy say with a certain amount of glee, from within. “Man, am I glad to see you. We gotta find our clothes and then you can help me get home. Ok big guy?”
They heard a woof from inside the house.
Uncle stood there for a moment.
He shook his head.
“Are you all right, Uncle,” said Zhoulin.
He looked very pale now and she realized he seemed different somehow.
He hesitated before he spoke.
“You know I had thought to use this boy to fight the battle for us. To turn the future in our favor and perhaps bring back things that have long been lost. I fear however, I have made things worse. There was a prophecy of a young warrior who will save the world.”
“Of course,” she said, “aren’t there always such stories.”
“Yes, but now we fight a battle against we know not what,” he sighed. “All is lost I fear.”
He related to her his encounter with Lijiang.
“When Brother Dog came here I fear I might have created a, a window if you will in the air. I’m not sure. I interfered with the natural order and now we will all pay the price. I think it was my interfering that brought these foul creatures to our land. I am a foolish old man.”
“Uncle,” Zhoulin said, with some despair. “Do not say such things. Truly, I do not understand half of what you say, but if you are defeated what will the rest of us do? Can it be so hopeless?”
“But you don’t understand,” he said miserably. “I am not a wizard I am a fraud.”
She laughed, “But Uncle, look at the magic you do, and you have taught me so much. If it hadn’t been for your teaching, I could never have defeated those Wolver in the glade. I combined the fire spell with a sword and it lanced through them like they were...” she thought for a moment “like they were water. You should have seen it you would have been so proud of me.”
“But I taught you no such spell,” He said. He sighed and walked over to an old warn bag that he often carried. He reached in and pulled out a scroll of split bamboo shoots which he carefully unrolled onto a table.
“She had never seen this before, but as he laid it out she recognized some arcane characters in the writings and realized it was a spell book.
“Oh,” She said, “it is so old. How did you come by this if you are not a wizard?”
"Many years ago I worked for an old man that everyone thought was insane, but I was hungry and he paid me well. He was always about such strange doings and I became curious about him. One night I followed him and to make it short found out he was a wizard. He was a private man
and seemed to use his knowledge for good, but I was young and was unaware of the politics of the world. I followed him many times trying to learn his secrets. I watched him perform many spells. I listened to his incantations and tried to learn and memorize. I wanted to ask him to teach me, but I was afraid he would turn me out and I could lose the opportunity of learning all I could. So I said nothing, then one night Lijiang came for a visit shortly after that my master died a horrible death. Lijiang came and tore the Wizards' home apart looking for something."
“This?” she said. “But it was so long ago. How could it be Lijiang? How is this possible?”
“I think he was looking for that yes,” Uncle said.
“But you said you were young. I have seen Lijiang he is not old. How can this be? You are many years older than he.
“Yes,” Said Uncle.
She looked at the scroll for a moment. “But there is so little here. And how did you come by it did the old man entrust you with it?”
“I wish it were so, youngling,” he said, “but alas I am but a thief. I saw where the old man hid it. After Lijiang had gone I went in and stole it.”
“Really?” she said. “But you said the old man was a powerful wizard.”
“Yes.”
“And he had no apprentice?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you think a powerful wizard would have known he was being watched? Wouldn’t such a powerful man have an apprentice to help him and guard his secrets?”
Uncle thought for a moment and said: "Of course, but I don't see your point."
"Well." she said "It may be you were his apprentice, and he didn't tell you. Perhaps to guard you against an equal fate. How is it that you defeated Lijiang yet your master couldn't?
Sometimes it is better not to know what is going on. Haven’t you told me this at least a hundred times?”
Uncle looked at her in shock. He couldn’t answer for a moment.
“That sounds like a reasonable assumption,” Brother Dog said who had come out and heard some of the conversation. He leaned over the table. “But it is not much of a spellbook,” he mused. “Aren’t spell books supposed to be huge tomes that it takes two men to carry? This is just a bunch of sticks can’t be more than one or 2 spells on it If you ask me.”
The Jewel of Nirune (The Sword of Time Book 1) Page 8
