by Caleb Monroe
“Shadow, something is not right.” I grab onto his mane and close my eyes, because my body feels like it is falling apart and being reorganized. “Get us down.” This time Shadow does not torture me by flying any longer than it takes to descend. We hit the ground, and I immediately slide off his back which is when my body begins to properly orientate to the laws that this universe prescribes to.
The second my feet contact the ground, my ears show me what is around me. I am not sure how to describe it, but the sound created by my feet hitting the ground is painting a picture of what is around me even though my eyes remain shut.
It is like I can see the sound waves spreading out all around me as lines begin to spread in all directions. As the waves move across this world, a picture begins to form in my mind as the sound waves craft a perfect image of everything they contact. The sound waves allow me to see images of stones to my right, Shadow behind me, and a little waterfall not too far north of me appears as the sound of the water cascading down a fifty-foot drop hits my ears.
“This is crazy.” As my words collide with things around me, they, too, send back a clear image of whatever they contact. “It’s as if I possess Technicolor echolocation instead of real sight.” When my ears show me a tree filled with fruit to my right, I turn to see what they look like, but when I open my eyes out of instinct, I am hit with a tart aroma that tickles my eyes but then turns to a sweet after-taste that leaves me wanting more.
“My eyes let me smell, Shadow. I thought the world that made us glow was the oddest one out there.” I see, or hear, Shadow starting to move around. “Did you find something interesting?” I turn around and look at Shadow only to be hit with a powerful smell that must be him. “Man, you need a bath,” I say while reaching up to cover my nose, but then move my hands to my eyes as they are the ones responsible for catching the aroma.
I let Shadow do his thing as he spreads out around the area giving off roars to see if he gets a response. I lose track of time when I come across a flower that peaks my curiosity.
The flower has some water pooled inside of its bell-shaped petals that are beginning to overflow. As the water moves inside the flower, my ears paint me a beautiful picture of shades of blue and red warring over who will determine the shade of the water. I lean in close to watch as the water slowly drops off the edge of the petals.
I can hear each drop as it tears through the air after falling from the petal and is sent on a downward path colliding with a small pond below it. The sound it makes sends splashes of brilliant colors and waves as the pond reacts to each drop. The blue and red water drops collide with the yellow and purple water beneath to create a tornado of colors my eyes have never seen before. I am even greeted with a wonderful earthy smell as I watch the flower with my eyes.
Hours could have passed for all I know, but I am brought out of this magical trance when Shadow lands near me. “I could see your wings coming from about a mile away. It was the craziest thing. Each flap sent sound waves crashing into tons of things that mapped out most of the area for me. We are on an island, Shadow.”
Shadow makes his way to my side and puts his head against my hand. I pet his soft feathers and tell him, “I know, buddy, but we knew this would be a long shot. Why don’t we try a few more and then we can just go back to Liferné.”
Shadow helps me onto his back, and my ears are bombarded with waves of color as Shadow opens our next portal with his cry. I literally just witnessed a rainbow rip a hole into the fabric of the universe. I will miss this world.
My senses return to normal the moment we cross into the new universe, and I am instantly greeted with a mouthful of salt the moment I open my mouth to take in a deep breath. “A water world. Or at least a very large ocean,” I say as we look out to what seems to be an endless blue. “Take us up higher. I want to see if there is any land in sight.”
We search for nearly thirty minutes, but no matter how far we fly, there is no land to be found. “I guess we should get started.” Shadow comes to a stop midflight, releasing a roar that seems to travel even farther than usual. “With nothing around to impede the sound waves, your call really travels well.”
Shadow’s ears suddenly face to his left and his head follows closely behind them.
“Go!”
We have done this enough times that I know when he has found something. We fly for about ten minutes with Shadow going at top speed, and that is when we see them. “There they are!” I point to my right, but Shadow has already locked onto them. About a hundred yards away from us is not just a griffin, like I expected to find, but instead is another rider.
“Think that is the same one we saw on the Aurameni’s world?”
As we get closer, I can see that the rider is just flying around aimlessly, and our presence on this world seems to go unnoticed by him so far.
When we finally get close enough for them to hear me, I shout, “Hey! Can we talk?!”
That gets the other rider’s attention, and now that we are close enough, I can see that this rider is a woman on a white griffin.
“Go away!” She yells to me.
“We only want to talk. I have some questions for you.”
“Get us out of here, Dia.” The woman kicks her heels into the side of the white griffin, and they take off, trying to get away from us just like last time.
“Not this time! Catch them, Shadow!” Shadow launches us in the direction of the other rider with one powerful push of his wings. In a matter of seconds, we are right on the tail of the other rider’s griffin.
I do not have a lot of experience with riders, but this rider is good. She and her griffin perform all kinds of maneuvers trying to lose us, and if not for Shadow’s speed, she probably would have. “They are good, buddy.”
“Good? I’m the best!” The woman says while laughing. “Time to lose them, Dia. Do it.”
I see the white griffin’s mane stand up telegraphing their move. “Stay right behind her,” I tell Shadow. The white griffin opens a portal, but Shadow is able to follow her through just before the portal collapses.
“Very good, but now you are on one of my home turfs.” The woman holds her hands out wide to show off this world that she believes will give her home-field advantage.
This whole world appears to be covered in mountains that would dwarf even Everest. The bases of these mountains are the size of entire states, and many of the clouds barely even reach halfway up them.
This is the kind of place I could call home. Somewhere I could fly around for hours and never see the same thing twice.
“Who said that? Shadow, I think the woman rider has friends here. Be careful, but don’t lose her.”
I won’t lose her, Jacob. I’m much faster than she is.
“Good. Now let’s show her what we can… Wait. I can hear you in my head. That is you, right?”
You can hear me? You can finally hear me?!
“It must be this universe. It must allow me to hear your thoughts. I have dreamed of finally being able to talk with you. I have so many things…”
We can chat later, Jacob. She is trying to hide in those clouds, but I won’t let her get away from us.
“I can’t believe we can finally talk to each other. This is amazing!”
Shadow races onward as he tries to catch up to the woman rider who is heading for a large cloud hovering near a mountain capped in snow.
I can’t see anything in here.
“Be careful. This could be a trap.”
Like we haven’t survived enough of those already.
“Try to find the scent of her griffin. That should get us in the right direction.” Shadow begins to hover in place, and I watch his ears move. He steadies himself before beginning to bring in a deep breath.
The moisture in the cloud makes it hard to find her scent, and the wind is masking her movements.
“Concentrate, buddy. You can do this. I know you can.” I close my eyes and steady my breathing in an effort not to throw him off.
Found her!
Shadow rockets to our right before quickly flinging his wings in front of him to push the cloud away.
“You two are better than I expected. I didn’t think they could find anyone who could keep up with us in that castle.” The woman and the griffin take off flying straight for the face of a mountain in front of us.
Did she say castle?
“Yea. Something is not right here.”
Shadow gives chase again, and now we are both heading directly for the side of the mountain.
Is she crazy? At this speed, she will never be able to pull up in time.
“We have to stay with them. Can you pull this off?”
I thought you would have learned to never doubt me by now, Jacob.
Shadow gets only inches from the white griffin’s tail, and just before he can grab on to the griffin, Dia takes a sharp turn upward that sends her flying inches away from the mountain surface.
Hold on!!!
I grab on with everything I have, but when Shadow pulls the same maneuver, he is not nearly as elegant about it. He does get us going up the face of the mountain, but his legs drag against the ground, slowing us down.
“Faster! She is opening another portal.”
We are not going to lose them again!
Shadow uses his feet and begins to run up the side of the mountain while using his wings to propel each step. He is moving at such a high speed that he overtakes the female rider and crashes into her griffin as we cross through the portal.
The four of us go spiraling down to the ground in this new universe. My head is ringing from the fall, but I can hear the woman laughing as she rolls onto her back.
“You okay, Shadow?” Shadow chirps at me, but I can no longer hear his voice in my head. “I guess it only works in that universe.” Even though it was only for a few minutes, being able to talk to Shadow was amazing. I can tell he is also upset by how he hangs his head down while walking over to me.
“It works in three others as well,” the woman tells me as she gets up to check on her griffin. Now that we are only a few feet away from each other, I see that this woman is much older than I thought she was.
“Who are you?” I ask as Shadow stands by my side.
The woman brushes some dirt from her pants, and then tells me, “You mean Cecilia didn’t send you to find me?”
“You know Cecilia?”
With a big smile, she says, “Of course I do. She is my daughter.”
Chapter 11
“Did you say Cecilia was your daughter?” The befuddled look on my face does nothing to hide the confusion I am feeling.
The woman brushes off the dust that is caked on her pants, and when she bends down, I can see past her into a clearing that reveals the type of world we have entered. It appears that this is a jungle-type world.
Cecilia’s mother stands back up and makes her way to a large root that is sticking out of the ground, and she eases herself down to sit. As the sun breaks through the dense tree line above us, I can see that she is probably in her late fifties. She is a little woman, but there is clearly something fierce hidden underneath.
“Yes, Cecilia is my wonderful baby girl. The real question is how do you know her if she didn’t send you to find me?” I can hear a faint semblance of the accent of her world, but it has nearly faded away. She talks as someone who has seen a lot in her lifetime. She almost sounds tired.
“It’s kind of a long story.”
“Everyone is part of a long story. What’s your name? That is always the best place to start.”
“Jacob.” I take a chance, slowly moving to sit by Cecilia’s mother, but I keep my guard up with every step I take.
She looks at me with a smirk saying, “Are you afraid little ol’ me is going to hurt you? Trust me, if someone is going to hurt you, it will be Dia here.” Cecilia’s mother motions for her white griffin to come sit by her, which prompts Shadow to quickly come to my side as I sit down. “Although I am not sure that Dia would be able to deal with your friend.” She brushes the gray hair out of her eyes as the warm wind blows by us, disheveling it.
The two griffins sit calmly by our sides, but neither of them dares to take their eyes off each other. Shadow may be much larger than Dia, but she is not intimidated in the slightest.
“This is Shadow; he’s my partner.” Shadow lets out a low growl, yielding a small pop on the head from me.
“Well, with your mannerisms and a name like Jacob, I can only assume that you aren’t from Liferné, which really makes me wonder where you got that griffin and, what is even more surprising, how you came to know my daughter.”
I can see the skepticism in her deep brown eyes as she examines Shadow and me. “I’m originally from a planet called Earth, and that is where I met Shadow.” Shadow looks at me as I tell her, “I found him one night when he was baby, and we have been together ever since. It has been quite the crazy ride.”
Cecilia’s mother pets her griffin’s head before bluntly saying, “Are you with the Beast Riders or Heaven Walkers?”
“The what?”
She looks me dead in the eyes as she says, “I need to know which group of riders you associate with.” I see her reach for something behind her, and I instinctively reach for my Sica. “I need to know how this seemingly random encounter of ours is going to end.” She has taken on a very serious tone, and I see that Dia is now readying for a fight by the way her mane has risen and her talons are beginning to extend. Shadow notices as well, and he is now beginning to rise to his feet to accept her challenge. I snap my fingers, and he quickly returns to my side. “That was pretty impressive. I’m guessing you are with The Heaven Walkers.”
She reaches for my left arm sleeve causing me to pull back some. “What are you doing?”
“Checking for your brand,” she tells me.
“I honestly have no idea what you are talking about. I’m from planet Earth, not planet Heaven Walker.”
“Heaven Walkers is not the name of a planet. The Heaven Walkers, along with The Beast Riders, are two groups of griffin riders who employ completely different methodologies of how to use their griffins. Both of them are comprised of riders from different universes, but they handle their business in very different ways.”
I am taken aback for a second, and I have to shake my head to clear my thoughts. “You mean there are other people out there who ride griffins like the people of Liferné?”
She laughs at me before saying, “Of course there are other riders out there. The whole multiverse is full of people riding around on griffins. They each operate a little differently, and some of them really need to lose the privilege with the way they handle themselves.
“When you have explored as many universes as I have, you will understand that anything is possible. Especially everything that you believe is impossible. I could fill up whole libraries with the things I have seen.” Cecilia’s mother stands up and makes her way to a clearing to look out into the dense jungle surrounding us. “I think it’s time you tell me how you know my daughter.”
“Like I said, it is a really long story.”
“Then give me the short version.” She says in an authoritative tone.
The way she is standing right now, with so much power and force, mimics Cecilia, or I guess it should be the other way around.
“Alright,” I say holding my hands up to calm down the situation. “I actually met her not long after I met Shadow.”
“You mean on your planet, not Liferné?”
“I’m getting there, but yes, we met on Earth. Shadow and I ran into your daughter after she had been stranded on our planet for a few years.” A memory of falling asleep while holding her hand runs through my head, and I cannot stop smiling. “She was trying to change her kingdom by showing the people that they must work together with the griffins if they ever want their kingdom to reach its true potential and rise to become something special. Unfortunately, her attempt ended up getting her stranded on
my world with no way of getting home.”
Cecilia’s mother laughs a little while saying, “That’s my daughter, alright. Thinking with her heart over her head.”
“But we got her home. It wasn’t easy, but we did get her back to Liferné. Of course, Pontis is in charge now, and he is the reason we are out here.”
She begins to rub her eyes saying, “My nephew was always trouble, just like his father.”
“That’s the nice way of putting of it. I would call him a monster or a demon, and you would, too, if you could see what he has done to your world, and he has Cecilia locked up as his prisoner.” I begin to run my right hand through Shadow’s mane.
Cecilia’s mother takes a few quick steps toward me. “What?! Is she alright?”
I can see the worried look on Cecilia’s mother’s face, so I try to calm her down saying, “She’s alright, for now, but Pontis is trying to force her into giving up her rights to the throne. He wants the crown, and he wants it to be unchallenged.”
“My baby girl is too strong to ever be bullied by Pontis into giving up her throne. I would never have left the kingdom to her if I did not believe she could handle that side of our family.” Cecilia’s mother makes her way back to the root and sits down again. “Leaving my daughter like that was the hardest thing I have ever done, and I have fought in many wars killing many people.”
She sighs while beginning to look out into the jungle. Her eyes dart back to mine, and as if trying to justify herself, she says, “I never wanted to. I know it paints me as the unloving mother who just wanted to take the easy route, but it was the right thing to do for both the kingdom and myself.”
“She is an amazing queen.” I tell her.
“Really?”
“She loves her people and would do anything for them. She had a chance to escape Pontis, but she chose to stay behind and become Pontis’ prisoner, because she knew it was the only way to ensure her people would remain safe from Pontis’ wrath.”
