by Gavin Green
Chapter 24
Humming to herself as she straightened up around the house, Jane was in fine spirits. On this, her first day of Christmas vacation, her parents were out shopping for the morning and her chore list was short. Her new fella Donal was busy helping his family move their herd of sheep, so she soon had time for herself.
In the midst of dusting, Jane's new friend Sara called. She'd been dropped off in the village and asked to come round. Happy to have company, she gave Sara directions. While Jane finished her cleaning, she at first thought it was too bad that Sara wasn't going to be in the Christmas play with her the following evening, but then dismissed it. The new girl wasn't really the theatre type, although she was quirky and had a flare for the dramatic.
In some ways, Jane's new friend was like a child, reveling in simple items that everyone else took for granted. Conversely, she also came off as worldly, wise about history and geography, and knew more languages than Jane had ever heard of anyone knowing. Sara was a constant surprise.
A light knock on the McCarthy's front door came soon after the call. Jane opened it for Sara, who stood with a hooded dark green raincoat surrounding her pale features. The low, dark and ominous clouds had just begun releasing a downpour, so Jane swung open the glass door and said, "Just in time, from the looks. Hurry up."
Sara remained where she was, and formally asked, "Am I welcome in your home?"
The question caught Jane off-guard. It was true that Sara hadn't been inside before, but there was no reason to make an issue of it. Jane thought that maybe the girl's family was taught to be prim and proper, like posh Dubliners used to be. It was Sara again being her strange, puzzling self. "Of course you are, ya daft girl," Jane answered with a grin. "Now hop in before it starts to lash."
A short time later, Sara sat at the small kitchen table with a cup of tea and a plate of scones. Jane finished putting plates and cookware away, her coppery-brown ponytail bobbing and swaying as she finished up. Jane was idly mentioning how she wished she could snap her fingers and the cleaning would be done, and Sara took that topic to the silly notion of superpowers. Jane half-heartedly went along with the chat for a bit, if only to indulge her friend.
When the chance came, Jane switched the topic to boys, and possibly finding Sara a fella of her own. She went on to explain how she and Donal might be attending the same university in Galway, but slowly came to notice that Sara wasn't listening, and seemed quite distracted.
After finishing a scone, Jane took a long look at her friend and said, "So what's got you wandering through the fields?"
Sara was quiet for a few long moments before she looked at Jane. "I - I have a secret." She looked down again. "I'd like to share it with you. I think that you'd understand. I've been too afraid to let anyone else know… They might think I'm a freak or some such. My da doesn't even know." She looked back to Jane with pleading eyes. "I'm just scared of how you'd react. We've become such good friends in a short time, and I don't want you thinking less of me."
Jane was more curious than concerned. "Sara, don't go mental about it. I can't imagine anything that'd change my mind." After a moment's pause, she quietly asked, "It's nothing foul, is it?"
Sara smiled back demurely. "No, not in the least, I promise." She looked out the back door. "The rain's let off. I could show you now, while my courage is up. If you want, that is."
"What, like outside?"
Sara got up and went to the front to get their coats, giving Jane a moment to think about Sara's big secret. It couldn't be as big as her own, so she wasn't too worried. It would probably turn out to be a trifle anyway.
Handing Jane her coat, Sara said, "If what I show you puts you off, then we don't ever have to speak of it again, okay?"
Jane nodded with an agreeable grin. They made their way out into the back lawn, walking on the wet, spongy grass to the rear of the bush-lined property. Sara walked up to a large sun rose shrub, dormant and bare. She looked back to Jane and asked nervously, "Watch close, okay?"
After Jane nodded once with a confused look on her face, Sara turned back to the dormant plant. She reached in and pressed her fingers to one of the main branches as she closed her eyes. She eased her lids open to watch Jane's face turn from dubious curiosity to stunned disbelief as all of the latent buds on that branch came fully back into bloom.
The pods formed, opened, and blossomed; their large white flowers sprung into full form, all in the space of a few seconds, like watching a time-lapse camera. The bright green foliage and summer flowers of that lone branch stood in sharp contrast to the rest of the shrub. Sara released it and looked back expectantly at Jane.
"How did - What - I mean, like, what did you..." Jane, shocked and at first unable to form a coherent question, finally looked at her peculiar friend with wide eyes and cried, "That was fucking savage!"
Sara looked sheepish. "You don't think I'm a freak?"
"Are you mental?!" Jane answered excitedly. "That's like a miracle or something! You know, like, that healer on the telly, or the fishes and loaves parable! Sara, you have a true gift, like a blessing." They smiled at each other for a minute before Jane added, "I bet your garden is amazing!"
"No, no, it doesn't work that way," Sara said. "If I do it too much to a plant, I'll kill it. I learned that a long time ago."
"Okay, that makes sense, I guess." Jane looked at her friend for a second before she asked, "Are you like real religious or something? I've never seen you at mass."
"No, not really; I suppose it's more of just a nature type thing, like."
"Wait; are you like a Wiccan druid woman or something? I mean, I don't care if you are. I've just never heard of them being able to do, em, anything - especially anything like that!"
Sara giggled. "Now who's being daft?" Her expression became somber. "I just hope you don't think I'm strange or abnormal now or anything. I've never shown anyone before, and it's... scary."
Jane put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I've always thought you were a bit strange, Sara, but that's why I like you so much! But abnormal?" Jane took a deep breath and slowly released it. She looked around at the empty expanses surrounding the back lawn, and then back to her dark-haired friend. "If you're abnormal, then I am too."
Where Jane failed to look - where they both never thought to look - was up on the roof ridge of the McCarthy house; a large eagle owl with luminous orange eyes sat unmoving and watched them.
Frowning, Sara asked, "You can do something like I can?"
"Nothing like what you can do, sure. I have a secret myself, but it only works for me. No one's ever been able to see it but me."
Sara's frown deepened. "You don't have to play that with me, you know. You're just saying that so I won't feel like so much of a freak." Looking angry and upset, she stared at Jane before she turned and began walking back across the lawn toward the driveway on the side of the house.
Jane jogged to catch up with her, saying, "Sara, wait! It's not like that at all! Honest!" Sara stopped and turn back around, looking hurt. Hoping to repair any damage, Jane went on quickly. "I swear I'm as weird as you are." Trying to make light of it didn't have immediate results, so she pressed on. "I have a sort of trick of my own, but it never works with people around. I'd love to show it to you, but if it didn't work then I'm the one who'd look mental. So, see, I'm just as nervous as you were." Jane's breath came out in nervous fogs while she waited for a response.
"Well, perhaps I'm weird enough to see your 'trick'." Sara's face softened.
"I hope so," Jane smiled. "Let's go to my room, and I can try."
Sara's face scowled with suspicion. "Are you sure you're not trying to fool me? You could have a prop up there, or have the room rigged, like."
"No, really, I'm being straight. I just need something to draw on, is all."
Pointing to the glass patio sliding door, which had fogged after the rain, Sara said, "Then just use that; you'll only need your finger."
Jane went to the glass door and lifted a f
inger. She turned back to Sara, who had followed her. "No laughing at me, right? Just because it may not work doesn't mean that I'm not weird as well."
Sara crossed her arms. "We'll see. Go ahead."
With a slow, steady finger, Jane drew an outline of a door into the misted glass. Nearing completion, she began to concentrate, vaguely envisioning her play-room beyond. Just after she drew two single lines on one side where hinges would be, all of the fog on the glass was inexplicably drawn into her door outline, creating a bare gray rectangle on the clear surface.
Sara gasped, and Jane spun to her with wild eyes. "You can see it?! Tell me you can!"
"I - I see something..."
Jane elatedly said, "Watch - watch this." She turned back to the door, placed her hand on the right side, and pushed. The door swung open into an otherworldly darkness, as it always did before she entered. Jane turned once more to her astonished friend and held out her hand. "Trust me." She wiggled her fingers for Sara to take them. Together, they entered the play-room.
After the door shut, the big dormer-style room lit and revealed itself. Jane was beside herself with happiness; finally she could share her special place with someone. Well, someone real. Gideon was grand company but it wasn't the same as a real person, especially a friend that understood her… That was like her. She began pointing out all of the details of the room while Sara stood in place and stared around in awe.
For Saraid, her amazement was the first true emotion she'd displayed during the entire visit. She'd heard that Jane McCarthy could make space into the ether, and so it was. But the girl wasn't making spaces per se. If Saraid was correct, Jane could make fae-bridges, and with a mere thought! What a spectacular find! The human only needed to make another door at the far end of the room and think of a destination.
Saraid knew that other fae would beg or kill for this silly girl's gift, or for ownership of her. If Jane became known, wars might be fought over claiming her. That unearthly voice of Jane's had just become a distant second for the desires of Saraid's court. And there was no better time to claim her prize than right then.
"Jane..." Sara finally spoke, stopping the girl from her rambling. "What if you drew another door on a wall in here? Where would it go? Have you ever tried?"
"I - I don't know," Jane said, surprised but with a growing grin on her cute face. "I suppose I could -"
"Jane, we're home, love," Liam's voice carried through the house.
With an alarmed look, Jane quickly took Sara's hand and hurried to the door they'd come through.
"No, wait, I -"
"There's no time," Jane whispered as she pulled Sara back out onto the patio. "We can't be in there when my folks are looking for me. They wouldn't be able to find me, and then they'd worry sick." Jane pulled the door shut behind them and was dragging her fingers through the drawing on the glass just as her parents came into view within the house.
Liam walked into the kitchen, set down some bags on the small table, and then went over to the patio door. He looked at his daughter and asked with a smirk, "Bored, are ye?"
Jane began drawing a doodle into the dewy glass and shrugged. "Sara and I are just dossing about."
"Who?"
"You know, my new friend Sara," Jane explained and gestured behind her. She saw her da's eyes scan the back lawn, and then came back to her questioningly. Jane turned and looked, but her friend had apparently run off somewhere.
'Damn the elements!' Saraid thought after she was pulled back through the door. She could have easily restrained Jane from leaving, but wanted a willing subject… at least initially. Afterwards, what the human wanted wouldn't matter.
But Saraid's thoughts weren't allowed to wander long. As soon as she was back on the patio, the sound of a Lore beast roared with rage. Unknown and unheard by human ears, Jane and her father continued talking through the patio door. Saraid, however, knew she was more vulnerable in her human manifestation, and immediately removed herself from Verden sight.
Just as Saraid resumed her normal visage, a huge boar charged from the side of the house. She instantly knew who it was: Kazimir of the Callous Ruin. There was no time to contemplate why he was there or his reason for aggression. He charged at her with alarming speed; Saraid only had time to form a simple defense, hoping it would be enough.
She barely had time to transform before the huge, ugly beast reached her, taking the form of a tall hardwood tree stump. Had she more time, the tree could have been given more girth and density. The oak she transformed into had no time to expand before the boar made impact.
Kazimir had thrown himself into the charge with abandon, unconcerned with and unthinking of what defenses the dryad elder might present. He needed to strike before she could use her feminine wiles on him, or call nature to her aid.
The attack was retribution; both for her insulting behavior after Saraid had bedded the proud warrior morpher, and now also for the cruel treatment of gentle Gideon. Elder on not, she would pay.
Kazimir saw her transform at the last moment, but was committed to his charge and did not veer. With power borne of brawn and wrath, and that of momentum, he smashed through the tree stump head-first, his fury blunting any sound of impact. Only momentarily stunned, he stumbled on the wet grass and slid a ways further on his haunches. As fast as he could, the shifted morpher turned in his hulking boar form and looked back.
Chunks and splinters of wood were still in flight from the collision. Kazimir watched the larger pieces dissipate as they continued their arcs, disappearing before they ever hit the earth. The last to remain, the dryad's broken trunk, soon faded out of the Verden realm.
Saraid of the Moon Glade had been banished.
Kazimir stayed hidden, but resumed his barbaric bipedal shape. He quickly made his way back to the patio, where young Jane was inspecting the back lawn with a confounded look. The brawny morpher quickly regained an inner calm, and then glamoured the girl to forget her friend Sara entirely. For good measure, he went inside the McCarthy house and did the same for her parents. He waited a few minutes afterwards to make sure they all continued with normal dialogue or activities.
Satisfied, Kazimir left the house and looked up at the honking flock of geese flying overhead. The big morpher grinned with the idea that some hunting was in order to celebrate his quick victory. He shifted into his huge avian form and took flight.
