by Renee Greene
“What language is he speaking?” Gail asked.
“Elvish,” Alex answered. “If it wasn’t Elvish or Vilary, I couldn’t understand it.”
Gail stared at Bryan. He was speaking without a stutter, without pauses, just talking. She didn’t know what he was saying to Nea, but he seemed very sincere.
Everyone stood, worrying about Nea. Well, everyone except Trina. She excitedly climbed up her father and started telling him about all the things she’d done since he had been gone. After all, there was a new park that had been finished nearby. They had homemade pizza the night before, and she got a new princess nightgown.
Alex took her and Gail out to the family room with Agent White. Of course, Agent White wanted a full report, so Alex gave it to him, but with his arm around Gail and Trina on his lap.
After listening to Alex’s story, Agent White asked if they could speak in private because he had top secret information to talk about. Really, Alex didn’t want to leave Gail and Trina, and he really thought Bryan, Vanessa, and Dylan needed any information he gave, but Agent White was his boss.
Alex didn’t make the decision because Gail told Trina, “Let’s go upstairs and make daddy some food. He looks hungry after his trip.” They went upstairs.
Agent White assured Alex that he had agents he could trust upstairs to guard them, but Alex suggested that they go up to the living room to talk so he could see them himself.
Vanessa, Dylan, Nea, and Bryan didn’t follow, as Nea had been hurt badly enough that it was taking some time to heal.
When Vanessa finally did heal her, Nea leaned up on her elbows and Bryan gave her a kiss. He then said something and she replied.
“What was that?” Vanessa asked.
“Um… we need to go on a double date,” Bryan answered.
Vanessa’s eyebrows furrowed curiously. “What? We could have agents or eccentrics coming after us,” she pointed out. “It could be dangerous. Why would we want to go on a date?”
“Well…” he began. “Well… it could… She needs to see our world.”
He helped her up. She was a little stiff as she stood, but Bryan held her, thanked her for saving his life, and gave her a kiss.
As they were kissing, Vanessa looked over at Dylan. He had been beside her while she healed Nea, but she only saw the left side of his face. When she saw the right side, she saw it was scratched up and bloody.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Ogre’s club,” he answered. “They are rough and tend to cut as they strike.”
She put her hand on his cheek. Then, she gave him his healing kiss. The kiss was more than needed to heal the bloody scratches, but Dylan didn’t complain.
After the kiss, she noticed that Nea was excitedly looking at everything in the room. Sure, in Elliad they had bookcases, and much of the room looked as if it should have come from a fantasy world. Still, Nea was excited.
She became even more excited when Bryan took her out and showed her the rest of the house. She bounced on the couches, flipped the light-switch up and down, and wrapped up in fuzzy blanket, as they didn’t have blankets like that in Elliad.
When they went upstairs, she was fascinated by the television. Bryan helped her work the remote, and she flipped through the channels.
After that, she ran into the kitchen. She was amazed that there wasn’t a fire under the stove or in the oven, and that the blender liquefied foods put into it.
She talked incessantly, and Bryan answered many questions, all with a huge smile on his face.
Gail walked up to him. “Nea is beautiful,” she noted. “I love the red hair and pointed ears.”
“So do I,” Bryan added.
His mother then pointed out, “You speak so fluidly in Elvish. I haven’t heard you ever talk so much without hesitation.”
“Umm… Elvish is easier,” he explained. “I think in fairy languages.”
He thought in fairy languages. That was a thought his mother really hadn’t thought of before, but it made sense. She leaned over and whispered, “I approve of her.”
“Um… you don’t have to whisper, mom,” Bryan informed her. “She doesn’t speak English.”
His mother thought for a moment and asked, “Didn’t you say that all of you can understand each other in Elliad? How do you do it there?”
“The land is magic,” Bryan answered as if it should be obvious.
“Then how does Dylan understand?” his mom asked.
“I, um.. cast a spell on him to connect him to the land,” Bryan explained. Then he added, “Even though he isn’t a fairy.”
Gail’s eyes went wide as she more exclaimed than asked, “You can do that?”
“I am a wizard,” Bryan reminded her.
“And a good one,” Vanessa added as she and Dylan came over. “You should see the spells he did in Elliad. He is powerful.”
Gail hugged Bryan tightly. “I am so amazed at you, Bryan.” She then hugged Nea, who turned and eyed Bryan curiously.
Bryan said something to her in Elvish and she nodded to him. He then took both of her hands and the two talked for a few minutes.
“What are they saying?” Gail asked Vanessa.
“I have no idea,” Vanessa admitted. “I only understand Elvish in Elliad.”
Gail stared at Bryan and Nea talking. She didn’t understand a word of it, but it was so odd to see Bryan talking without a hint of hesitation. It was even odder to see him holding Nea’s hands as he did.
Gail leaned over to Vanessa and asked, “Could he put a spell on her so she can understand and speak English? Is he that powerful?”
“I don’t know,” Vanessa answered. “He is very powerful, but the land here doesn’t have magic.”
They were all surprised when Bryan turned to them and said, “We’re talking about that. I can… sort of.”
Although there were many questions, Bryan told them he was busy.
They watched as Bryan and Nea talked. He then told everyone to be quiet and he put his hand on the side of her head, and she put her hand on the side of his. The two looked deeply into each others eyes, and people couldn’t quite tell if they were excited or nervous, perhaps a little of each.
After a few moments, Bryan commanded, “Jazek mysel spoc!” The others watching couldn’t really tell what was happening, but Nea smiled really big. A much more curious expression came to Bryan’s face.
“What just happened?” Vanessa asked when they dropped their hands.
“Umm…” Bryan stammered. “She needs to speak English, so… um… It’s complicated.”
To everyone’s surprise, Nea explained, “I can translate through him.”
“Through him?” Vanessa asked. “Like a mind link?”
“Sort of, but…” Nea thought for a moment. “No, not at all. We can… It’s complicated.”
“You are sounding like Bryan,” Dylan noted.
“I am translating through his thoughts,” Nea explained. “Where he translates English to Elvish very well, his translation from Elvish to English… well…”
Vanessa chuckled, “I get it. He takes in the English and puts it into Elvish in his head. You get that clearly, but when you think in Elvish, his translation to English is Bryan talk.”
“Yes,” Nea answered. “Exactly.”
“So, you’ll understand us really well, but your English back will not be as good,” Vanessa confirmed.
“Yes,” Nea answered. “Shall we go?”
“Where to?” Vanessa asked.
Bryan answered, “I want to show Nea around. We’re going on a date. Come with us.”
“Shall we?” Dylan asked.
“Is it safe?” Vanessa asked back. “You know how our first date went.”
“Let’s hope this one goes better,” he responded. “But you don’t have to worry. I will protect you, and if push comes to shove, we are just starting to see the power Bryan has.”
Vanessa was holding Dylan’s hand and grabbed it tighter as
she pointed out, “He can only do magic if he can speak. I’m afraid he’s far to easy to stop.”
Chapter 23: Nea Learns She Like Mexican Food
Bryan’s first date wasn’t awkward, as everyone would have imagined. After all, he’d become pretty comfortable with Nea, and she’d kissed him enough that he really felt like it was bad that he hadn’t taken her on a formal date.
They first went to the park. Nea had never seen a human playground, so she was amazed at all the things to climb on and the slides.
Seriously, Bryan had no idea why she was so excited about it. No, there weren’t plastic playgrounds in Elliad, but there were natural water-slides, vines to swing on, and plenty of trees to climb. He would have thought that the human playground would have been very disappointing to Nea, but she excitedly climbed all over it. He climbed on the playground and played with her.
Vanessa and Dylan played on the playground for a while too.
Nea thought it odd that everything was green and brown, but she thought it was interesting, kind of like a black and white photo.
They next took her into a store and let her look around. It was nothing like market in Elfland.
They didn’t stay there long, as they were headed to dinner and then a movie.
They went to a Mexican restaurant. Nea talked up a storm to Bryan in Elvish and the two seemed to have a lot of laughs. When Vanessa asked what they were laughing about, Nea answered, “I like these,” holding up a corn chip.
“She wants to show them to the people in Elliad,” Bryan added. “The ironic part would be that… well… It doesn’t translate.”
Nea really freaked out the waitress when she decided to heat her enchilada up a little hotter and did it by making fire in her hand.
The waitress startled and dropped the basket of chips she was holding, but Dylan caught them. “Sorry,” he told the waitress. “She’s a magician and just loves surprising people.”
The waitress believed the excuse and went back to the kitchen.
After the dinner, they went to a movie, a nice swashbuckler.
Nea was in awe. She looked over at Dylan with his arm around Vanessa and then put Bryan’s arm around her.
After the show, when they went into the parking lot, trouble came.
Two dozen men from the department of Eccentrics were waiting in front of Dylan’s car.
“We don’t want any trouble,” Dylan told them, holding his hands to chest level to show he didn’t want a fight.
The fight came anyway, and the first move the agents made was to grab Bryan from behind and put a hand over his mouth so he couldn’t use magic.
Dylan immediately engaged with the thugs to try to free Bryan, and Nea blasted fire at the others around her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t blast Bryan free because she would burn him, so Dylan had to take that fight on.
Vanessa felt so helpless, and after Dylan took a really hard hit jumping in front of her to protect her, she released her wings and flew in the air so they couldn’t reach her. If only she had some weapon she could shoot at them with, but she didn’t.
Fortunately, the fight didn’t last long. As soon as Dylan was able to pull the hand off Bryan’s mouth, Bryan called out, “Adsent bruth!” and all the agents went flying backward. Unfortunately, Dylan did too.
Dylan jumped up, but the other agents did too. There was a fight to get to the car, but Nea was able to blast agents with fire and hold them back while she, Bryan, Dylan, and Vanessa hurried into the car.
When they did, the agents jumped on it, and Dylan started slowly driving off to not run over any of them. It did shake the agents off though. After all, holding onto a driving car is really only something that can be done in the movies.
Unfortunately, as he drove off, one of the agents pulled a gun and shot out his tire. Likely, they had been ordered not to kill because they were wanted alive, or they would have pulled them before.
It was hard to control the car with a flat tire, but Dylan kept driving. Surely, the agents would follow.
Dylan called his dad for back-up, and his father told him that he had back-up near because he was worried something would go wrong on the date.
When the back up came, Dylan pulled off the road, as he was riding on the rim of the wheel. The eccentrics and fairy sides of the department all got out of their cars with shields and started shooting at each other.
“What do we do?” Vanessa panicked. “People are going to die!”
“Hide!” Dylan warned her. “Shrink and hide! You are easier to protect that way.”
She did shrink and stayed hiding behind the car with the others.
“Do something,” Nea urged Bryan. “If I blast, I could hit both sides, and I could kill or severely injure with the force I’d have to strike with.”
“What do I do?” Bryan panicked. “How do I stop one side and not the other?”
“You don’t,” she answered.
That gave Bryan an idea, so he peeked over the hood of the car so he could direct his spell with his hands and called out, “Armachs Odmor!”
Suddenly all the guns would not work. The tasers wouldn’t. No weapons did.
The agents on both sides charged at each other and a fist fight began. The fight was tough, but at least no one would be shot, so there likely wouldn’t be deaths. Dylan joined in the fight to protect his fellow agents, but he seemed in pain as he did.
As they fought, Agent White drove up in his car with Alex.
Both Agent White and Alex pulled their guns and called for the fighting to stop.
Everyone immediately stopped the fight, and Agent White had his men cuff the agents from Eccentrics.
He then told Alex to take their children home, so Alex handed his gun to another agent and got Dylan, Vanessa, Bryan and Nea in a car and took off.
They reached the house very late that night, but none of them were tired enough to go to sleep. They decided that Dylan would sleep on the couch, and Nea would sleep in Vanessa’s room.
Bryan did warn Vanessa that Nea would not be able to translate English without him around, which would make rooming with her more difficult.
Vanessa would worry about that when they went to bed. They were all too wired from the excitement of the night to go to sleep.
Their mother ran down the stairs rather hysterical, knowing they’d been shot at, but they assured her that they were fine.
They calmed her down, and she offered them ice cream. That sounded good, but Alex told them that he needed a report from Dylan and needed to question all of them.
They all sat around the living room and explained what happened. Alex wrote it all down, as he’d have to fill out a report for the police.
They all reported. When they did, Alex shook his head and turned on the TV. As he expected, the news channels were all showing videos that people from the theater had taken. The reporters were all amazed and speculating how Nea had thrown fire from her hands, Vanessa had suddenly grown wings, and Bryan had pushed all the men back without touching them.
There was talk of who Nea, Vanessa, Bryan, and Dylan were, and how they did what they did. Various reporters made different guesses at how they did it. Some thought they had some type of technology. Some thought they had genetic mutations. Some suggested that super heroes really did exist.
Various reporters interviewed different people. Doctors wanted to study them, as did scientists. The military was interested in them. It seemed like everyone was interested in getting to them.
“You’re in trouble,” Alex admitted. “Once you get on the radar of some of these people, they will hunt you down to study you.”
“What?” Nea asked. “Why?”
Bryan took her hands, looked in her eyes, and explained in Elvish, but even with him speaking her language, she didn’t seem to understand why anyone would want to study them, particularly when he explained what some of that studying might entail.
She hugged Bryan tightly, and he assured her that he’d take care of he
r.
“You need to go back to Elliad,” Bryan suggested. “You will be safer there.”
“Come with me,” she pleaded.
Alex had no idea what they were saying as they were speaking Nymph, but his phone went off. He picked it up and looked at it. “Crud!” he exclaimed. “Stay inside. We have trouble coming.” He put a taser in his jacket and walked outside.
There were various vans driving up. Several were reporters, and several were different science organizations.
Alex told them to get off his property, insisting that his children were not going to answer questions or be part of any science experiments.
While he was talking to them the police came, wanting to investigate the fight. Alex pulled his badge and told them that his division would take care of it.
The police conceded to his authority, but while he was talking to them, the reporters tried to get in the front door. Dylan ran over and pushed against it to hold it shut.
“I assume this isn’t normal,” Nea noted.
“It’s not,” Bryan confirmed.
The people were knocking the door open, and Dylan was having a hard time keeping it shut.
“Close it!” Bryan called to him. “Close it, and I can help.”
He, Vanessa, and Nea came over to help Dylan. When the door shut for a moment, Bryan called out, “Zamok Sgaith,” and the door locked solidly. Bryan then went to the window to watch how his father was doing outside.
Agent White and several of his men pulled up and started dispersing the crowd. That was helpful.
Still, as many of the reporters and scientists left, they insisted that they would be back.
Vanessa started shaking. “What do we do?” she cried. “People are after us in either world.”
“That is the price of power,” Nea noted. “We all have the power to do great good, but that also means we will have enemies, those trying to stop us. Fardoragh is not the first man I have spied on and helped to stop.”
“You are speaking really well for having Bryan translate your English,” Vanessa noted.
“I have listened to your language for hours now,” Nea explained. “Isn’t that enough time to learn to translate it well from Bryan speak to fluent English?”
