Ben climbed the steps, grateful to be back on solid ground. He waited for directions. Charla swam towards the steps with two flicks of her tail. She placed her hands on the first step above the water line. Then she curled her tail up under her body and pushed up with her hands. Rising up out of the water was not the tail of a mermaid, but two very human legs. The only thing that remained of Charla’s tail was a very short skirt made of fish scales. It matched the tight- fitting top she wore.
Ben stood there with his mouth hanging open. “How can you…?” Ben began and then decided it was no stranger than anything else that had happened.
Charla climbed the steps and moved past Ben towards a cave and said, “Are you coming?” Ben followed until they were just about to enter the mouth of the cave.
He froze when a large snake emerged from the cave. Its head rose higher and higher until it towered over Charla and Ben. Ben saw himself and Charla mirrored in the snake’s lidless eyes as it stared down at them. Its tail was hidden inside the recesses of the cave. The snake’s head reared back and sped forward. Ben took hold of Charla’s waist and threw her sideways. He fell on top of Charla. The ground sizzled close to where Ben and Charla had been standing. Ben rolled off Charla and scrambled up. Smoke rose from where the venom had hit the ground.
Ben reached down and lifted Charla to her feet. The snake’s head followed their every movement and another volley of acid hit the ground just in front of them. Charla seemed frozen by fear. Ben struggled to drag the mermaid back to the water with him. Ben wondered if she had even seen the snake. Ben yelled, “Snake, big snake, acid!” Charla still hung back. Another gob of acid hit off to the right. A fern growing where the acid hit burned. Still Charla was not moving. Ben continued dragging her toward the water. But he let go of the girl's hand when he realized that Charla was laughing. He looked back to where the snake had been, but it had disappeared.
Ben scanned the area and asked, “What was that?”
Charla responded, “It’s an illusion. The Watcher created it to keep out any human that might wander in looking for a dry spot to make camp. Pretty effective, huh?”
“Very!”
The ground still smoldered. Smoke still hung in the air. But on the ground where the acid hit nothing was changed. The fern Ben saw burn was untouched.
Charla walked back towards the cave. It took all the courage Ben possessed to follow her. He closed his eyes and kept walking when the snake reappeared. He opened his eyes in time to see the snake’s head hurtling towards them. Ben jumped aside. Charla snickered and kept walking. The snake’s head went right through her and broke apart. Ben hurried after Charla and walked through the dissolving illusion into the mouth of the cave. The body of the snake still lay on the floor. As Ben walked his feet broke the illusion apart.
The rock wall at the back of the cave was covered in what looked like drawings done by a primitive people. Charla reached out and traced one of the many patterns. Her fingers lightly touched the rock as they traced the outline of a roughly drawn fish. She went around the outside of the fish three times, changing direction each time. When Charla completed the third circuit a low rumbling sound began and grew stronger. The rock wall in front of them split in two and slid back into the walls on either side. They walked through the opening and the doors closed behind them. They had no light, but the cave was not completely dark. On the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling there were pinpricks of light that came from small rocks. It was enough so that Ben could see his feet on the path. He could also see Charla’s smirking face.
5 To Be or Not to Be
As they walked into the heart of the island the light-bearing rocks became more numerous and it became easier to see. They walked until they came to a place where the tunnel opened up into a large bright cavern. On one side of the cavern was a pool. On the other side, the cavern floor was flat rock. In the pool there were a dozen mer and the two Orcas. Outside of the pool, there were mer in their human form involved in the kind of martial arts training that Ben was getting at Fairhaven. Circular steps went around a flat-topped pillar in the center of the cavern. From the flat top of the pillar rope ladders suspended from the ceiling led in four directions to a ledge that circled the upper walls of the cavern. Behind the ledge were cave openings, some of which were fitted with doors.
Charla led Ben towards the pool. Akca and Osch were talking to a mer woman who sat with her tail in the water. The mer woman’s green-tinged blond hair was done in dreadlocks and pulled back and tied in a ponytail at the back of her head.
“How did they get here?” Ben asked, pointing to the Orcas.
“There is an underwater passageway, which is how we usually bring in visitors.”
Charla and Ben stopped and stood waiting while the mer woman continued to talk with the Orcas. One of the woman’s hands rested lightly on each of their heads, gently stroking them. The woman looked inquiringly at Ben. Her eyes, like Charla’s, were large and dark with no white at all. The woman stared at Ben for a moment, then turned and spoke to the Orcas. They disappeared. The mer woman brought her tail out of the water and laid it on the ground in front of her. Ben watched the tail transform into two legs, beginning with the feet and moving up. When the transformation was complete she stood. The older woman was dressed in a similar manner to Charla. She wore a simple fish scale top and short skirt. Around the mer woman’s neck hung a pendant identical to the one that Miss Templeton had.
For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence. Then the woman said, “Charla please introduce our guest.”
Charla flushed with embarrassment, “Uh, I forgot to ask his name, but he’s not the one.”
The mer woman stared at Charla for a moment then finally said, “How can you be so sure of that?”
“He can’t breathe in water. He can’t even swim.”
“That is odd; however, it would be odder for a human Lushakan not to be able to swim than it would be for someone from off-world.”
The woman turned her attention to Ben. “I am Lea Waterborn, the Watcher of Lushaka.”
“Lushaka?”
“The name of our world,” Lea Waterborn replied, clearly surprised that he did not know where he was. “Normally a chosen would know what world they were going to before they went. They would prepare for their journey by spending time in the library that is part of the school on each world”.
“If he was a Chosen, he should know what world the Guardian was sending him to, and if he is Lushakan he should know the name of his own world. Maybe all we have here is a Jellybrain!” Charla exclaimed.
Lea Waterborn gave Charla a stern look before asking Ben a question. “What is your name and where are you from?
“My name is Benjamin Taylor.” Ben paused and then added, “and I’m from Earth.”
Lea Waterborn’s eyes widened slightly.
“Charla,” said Lea Waterborn, “please ask housekeeping to find Benjamin some dry clothes and ask the kitchen to send food to my office.”
At the mention of dry clothes and food, Ben realized how very hungry he was. “Dry clothes and food would be very welcome,” Ben said gratefully. Whether what he was experiencing was real or a dream he still felt a need to eat.
“And Charla,” the Watcher continued, “please find Brina and ask him to come to my office.”
Charla’s face fell, but she said nothing. The watcher saw her disappointment and said, “All right, you can join us as well, since Ben arrived during your watch.”
Charla’s face lit up and she hurried off to order food and find Brina.
Turning to Ben, Lea Waterborn said, “Please come with me Benjamin Taylor.”
“Ben, people usually call me Ben.”
“Ben it is.”
Ben fell into step beside Lea Waterborn as they walked to the stairs and up to the second level. The students in the practice field and the pool had stopped their exercises to watch them. On the stone and rope walkways, people stopped where they were and stared. Male and f
emale mer alike all had green-tinged blond hair and dark eyes. They all wore similar fish scale garments.
The first thing Ben noticed when he entered Lea Waterborn’s office, was that it had a chair much like the one that Ben had sat on in Mariah Templeton’s office. It sat by itself at one end of the room. At the other end sat six chairs in a semi-circle. Each chair had a footstool in front of it. Between every two chairs there was a small table. Lea Waterborn led Ben to the circle of chairs. “Please sit,” she instructed.
“I’ll wait until I have dry clothes on,” Ben said.
The Watcher sat down in one of the chairs and placed her feet on the footstool. As Ben watched, her legs turned back into the tail of a mer woman.
“What is the name of your Watcher?” Lea Waterborn asked.
“Miss Mariah Templeton.”
“And the name of your school?”
“Fairhaven.”
“Clearly you are from Earth and I assume you are the right one.”
“I’m not sure about that,” Ben said. “I think someone has made a big mistake. If this is not a dream, I shouldn’t be here. I was sent to Miss Templeton to talk about my fear of water, and somehow ended up in a world that has more water than I ever imagined in my worst nightmares. Someone has made a huge mistake. I’d say...” Whatever else Ben was going to say was cut off by a knock at the door.
A male student entered and brought dry clothes, which he handed to Ben. The boy was introduced as Brina. Ben took the dry clothes and changed behind a screen. Afterwards he sat in the chair the Watcher offered him earlier.
Charla arrived with a tray of food and cups of juice. The only things Ben recognized were eggs. Charla identified the unknown food as pickled sea slugs, sea cucumbers, and a sea weed and snail salad. Ben ate some eggs and a little of the cucumber.
After they had eaten, Charla looked back and forth between the Watcher and Ben, her fingers drumming on the arm of her chair. Finally unable to contain herself, Charla asked, “Is he or is he not the one?”
“He is the one…but this day has been a challenging one for Ben because he knew nothing of the Guardian, the six worlds or the portals before today.”
Charla seemed stunned, “But…but…”
And while Ben tended to agree with Charla, he felt somehow vindicated by the Watcher’s words.
The Watcher turned her attention to Ben. “You seem to have some doubts as to whether this world is real. Please act as if it is in spite of your doubts. Your life might depend on doing that.” This sounded like good advice to Ben.
“You have the gift of holding fast.” Lea Waterborn continued. “I saw the marks on Akca’s back. He was not happy, but I assured him that they would disappear. What other gifts do you have?”
Ben remembered the strange experience in Miss Templeton’s office. “I think I have the gift of invisibility.”
“That gift can be very useful,” Lea Waterborn said, “although you must remember that if a creature depends largely on its sense of smell it will be able to find you anyway. What is your third gift?”
“There is no third gift,” said Ben. “Not that I know of anyway.”
“Are you sure?” asked the Watcher clearly puzzled.
“Miss Templeton said that a third gift may come later. She hoped it would be the ability to breathe under water.”
“And that did not happen?”
“No. Are there always three gifts? Ben asked.
“Yes and no,” said the Watcher. “There are actually four gifts. One is always given. The ability to understand the language of the people to whom you are sent is always given. There are certain groups who receive only two other gifts because they already have a third gift that came to them at birth. For example, the Mer chosen by the Guardian always have the gift of transforming their tail fin into legs. When we travel from our world we are given two additional gifts besides the ability to walk and understand the speech of others. The two additional gifts are ours to use when we are away from our world, but once we return to Lushaka the gifts return to the giver.”
“Who is?”
“The Guardian of the Six Worlds, of course,” exclaimed Charla. “Don’t you know anything?”
The Watcher gave Charla a sharp look before continuing on, “On a world called Zargon there are a people who can transform into dragons. As far as I know only mer and the dragonborn have an inborn ability to transform. Not every mer on our world can transform into human form. Not every human on Zargon can assume a dragon form. On Lushaka there is a great distrust of those who can transform and so we find it better to hide our ability from other mer and Lushakan humans.”
Ben thought of the picture in Miss Templeton’s office. The picture of a dragon looking into a mirror with the image of a beautiful woman reflected back. It seemed quite unbelievable that such a being could exist. But here he was having a conversation with two mer females and a mer man on a world that was not his own. Who knew what was possible on another of the six worlds? Unless, of course, he had fallen asleep and was dreaming, and none of this was real.
The Watcher continued, “People from earth normally are given three gifts besides the gift of understanding other tongues. I do not understand why you would only have two. It is a mystery to ponder. But now it is time to speak of the purpose for your being sent here. Not far from here there is a problem. Mer and humans are coming close to war. It all began when one of the giant birds, which we call Tregs, took the crown from the head of the King of the Silverfish clan. The Mer King has decreed that the humans cannot fish or gather food from the sea until the crown is returned. The King feels humans should get it back because he allows them to harvest food from the sea. He will not listen to reason. The humans have tried. Some of our mer elders have tried. The humans have sent their strongest and best to retrieve the crown. So far, none have returned. The humans grow desperate. Almost all their food comes from the sea. If the situation continues they will have no choice but to go to war.”
“I don’t understand what I’m expected to do!” Ben said with conviction. “If people who know this world and its dangers can’t get the crown back, what am I supposed to do - even with these two gifts?”
“I don’t know, but it will be revealed to you when the time is right. The Guardian chose you because you have the best possible chance of success with the gifts you have been given.”
“Does the Guardian ever make mistakes?” Ben asked.
“The Guardian does not make a mistake in who is chosen.” When Lea Waterborn said this, Charla snorted, which let everyone know that she thought a mistake had been made this time.
“As I said,” Lea Waterborn continued, “the Guardian does not make a mistake in who is chosen, but those who are chosen go into ever changing situations and there are no guarantees of success.”
“Why don't you send someone from here? I saw lots of…”
“Yeah! Why not? Charla interrupted. “We don’t need this jelly fish. We can get that crown back on our own.”
Lea Waterborn ignored Charla. “The Guardian prefers that we not interfere with the affairs of our own world. There are dangers in doing so. Power is so easily misused. It is easy to convince yourself that what benefits you and yours is good for all the peoples of your world. The Guardian gives gifts that we are to use to help other worlds, who will in turn help us. Lushakans have risked their lives many times on earth. They do it with gratitude for the help that has come to us in our time of trouble from the other five worlds. Most Chosen would know of these things, but you do not because it came as a surprise to Mariah Templeton that you should be chosen without time to prepare.”
“As to whether you decide to help or not,” Lea Waterborn continued, “the choice is yours to make. The Guardian never forces us to do what we do not want to do. If you choose not to go, the Guardian of the Six Worlds will find someone else to send. It will take time, and the person sent will have less chance of success than you do. Your refusal may mean the death of Lushakans as we
wait for another to come, but if you wish I will send you through the portal back to earth. The magic given to your Watcher will ensure that you forget you have ever traveled to another world. But know this Benjamin Taylor, you will never be chosen again. The loss is yours as well as ours. You will miss living the life you have been chosen for. Your life will forever feel the loss, but you will never know just what it is you have lost. If you do accept this challenge there is good reason to believe that you will be successful because you are the one the Guardian has chosen, but know that there are no guarantees. Some have fought the good fight and not won the day. Some battles are lost, but the fight continues on. I suggest you sleep on it, and tell me in the morning. It grows late.”
The Watcher addressed Brina and said, “Brina, please take Ben to our guest quarters." Lea Waterborn’s tone became stern. "Charla, please stay as I would speak with you alone.”
Brina transformed and stood. Ben followed Brina out of the office. They walked across the cavern on one of the rope walkways. Brina took Ben on a tour of Fairwaters before taking him to the sleeping quarters. When they reached the guestroom, Brina pointed out a cord Ben could pull if he needed anything during the night.
The guest quarters consisted of a small room with a table, two chairs and two single beds. Ben undressed, and climbed into one of the beds. He pulled the one light blanket over him.
Although he was tired, Ben could not sleep. He kept thinking about the choice before him. When Ben did fall asleep the nightmare that had plagued him for many months visited him, more vivid than ever before. However, there was something new this time. As he fell from the sky Ben looked up and saw a moon high in the sky. Flying in front of the moon was a large scaly creature. It gave the piercing cry that had been part of Ben’s dreams for several months. Ben woke up and lay awake thinking about what his answer would be in the morning. How could he possibly stay in a world where there was so much water? How could he stay in such a world, surrounded by the one thing that he was most terrified of? If this was a normal world, where there was land under his feet he would stay and do what he could to help, but how could he stay here? After much thought, Ben decided that he was going to return to earth in the morning.
Ben the Dragonborn Page 4
