Flash Fiction #732 -- Doom/4

 

Riding Gold lured me to sleep.  Or maybe Adon used magic.  I didn't care as long as I was comfortable.  I would have to thank my cousin for taking such good care of me...

 I woke with the sun low behind us, and the three of us casting an odd shadow on the rock and sand below and in front of us.  I watched for a while until it occurred to me that we were close to home. I had not been this way for many, many years, and I felt an odd chill as I looked ahead to the craggy hills that I knew hid the last magical nation in the world.

"Maybe we should just fly in like this," I suggested. "There are a lot of people will not be happy to see me back."

Adon shifted slightly as he considered those words. I wished I could see his face at that moment because I had always been good at reading his emotions.

"Going in on foot would only give them more time to get ready," my cousin said with a bit of a laugh that I had not expected. "Neither of us has been very popular over the last few years. I have advocated were moving to another realm entirely in getting away from these humans that are still set on destroying us, even though we had no direct connection to them for eons. Tell me why we should stay."

I wasn't really ready for this kind of conversation, but Adon deserved an answer after all he'd gone through to save me.

"And another time I might have told you that this is our place and we deserve it just as much as they do. But that just sounds silly now. The humans are spreading everywhere in their technology is winning them the war they don't even know they're fighting. You realize that most of them don't believe in magic, right?"

"How can they not believe in something that exists?"

"They can't create magic," I answered. "And that is the one blind spot with humans that we can never get past. We could show them Nerian, and all the magic that has created a beautiful city, but they still believe it was some sort of trick.  They can't help that reaction. It is inherent in their nature.  So that brings us back to why someone attacked me and what they really want from the humans."

"We're about to find out," Adon replied and leaned forward to point out something on the ground. "Those are your sand buses, aren't they?"

"Yes. Let's go down and check them out."

Golden Mane made a half-circle around the haphazardly abandoned buses.  I could tell there was no one around, human or fae. I could see signs of a confrontation, but the fae had made a quick end to that trouble. The humans had dropped their weapons, which were mostly sticks and rocks.  The Fae magic had faded.

Neither fae nor humans remained at the site.

The fae appeared to have disappeared.  The humans had walked away, heading toward the northern hills. There was no reason for them to go that direction.  It was a dangerous path that led to a labyrinth of water-washed stones, with no easy way out.

"I have to go after them," I said as I looked toward those hills.  "You should get back to Nerian and find out what the fae know."

"I should stay with you so no one hits you on the head again.  Besides, we can fly on Golden Mane if I am with you. I can't believe you really want to go hiking in the hills."

I wanted to argue.

I didn't want to walk.

We flew. This was going to be all kinds of interesting if we caught up with the humans.

Flash Fiction # 731 -- Doom/3

 

 

We rode Golden Mane for the rest of the day.  The dust storm only gradually lessened near sunset, and we finally settled in the empty, bleak desert without a sign of storm, buildings, or humans anywhere nearby.

Neither of us complained.  Even Gold flopped down in the sand with a sound of relief.

"Maybe we overflew them," Adon said. "I wasn't paying much attention to the ground."

"Neither was I." I slid off our lovely winged mount and dropped to my knees.  "We can look for them again tomorrow."

"Kero, we really should get you back to our people."

"Quiet.  Rest."

Gold dropped his chin down onto the soft ground.  He snored.  Adon stopped arguing. I settled in beside the lion and went to sleep, content to think the two of them would protect me.  There were few people besides Adon I would have trusted so much.

Did I trust anyone on the sand buses?  Well, not now.

I had odd dreams, each interrupted by coming suddenly awake in the dark night.  Adon urged me back to sleep each time, and I didn't argue.  My head hurt. 

And I didn't understand what was going on. The more my thoughts cleared, the less sense the attack made. If someone had wanted to kill me, he'd had the perfect chance once I was down.  Hitting me on the head and leaving me behind only meant that before long someone would come looking for me.

I stared at Adon who was brushing sand from Gold.

"You have had a thought," he said.  "I can tell by that blank stare."

"Someone has probably missed me by now.  I was never late for food."

"Huh. That so surprises me."  He handed over an apple.  "What difference does it make?"

"Tell me where they are now."

Adon gave a leisurely lift of his hand.Then he stood and waved his hands in all directions, winning an amused sound from Golden Mane.

"Where are they!"

"I asked you first."

Adon threw himself down on the sand and stared at his cousin.  "Do you have any ideas?"

"Plenty of them. None that will help."

Adon didn't complain. He sat down and stared at the sand.  "They are either all dead or they have protection."

"Magical protection."

"Was the attack against you a chance, or was someone waiting for you?"

I had to think about that for a moment, and a sudden spike of pain 

through my head did not help. For a moment, everything seemed to go black and red -- but my memory of the attack came with clarity at last.

 

I focused on Adon.  "Waiting for me, and worse -- they were hiding, and I didn't even sense them."

 

The news bothered Adon who stood and scanned the area again.  "We need to go."

 

"Where?" I asked and didn't attempt to stand yet.  "We can't find my wayward sheep, and I fear going home to Nerian without them. There could be someone who wants me to do so, you know, and make it look as though I brought the humans there.  I have enemies still."

 

We both sat in the sand.  Adon spread a fine net of magic around us, something hardly noticeable.

 

"We are going to Nerian," Adon said.  There was no question in his statement and I knew I was not in any shape to argue with him. 

 

I was not ready to go home.

 

Worse than that were the people who would not be happy to see me there.

 

I might not survive after all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flash Fiction #730 -- Doom/2

 

I watched the light for a short time and then laid down to sleep.  It was too hot to worry about anything else right now.  And if I faced my doom, better to nap and not be cranky.

Not surprisingly, I dreamed about home -- about a city of rainbow colors and delicate towers.  A magical shield had kept it hidden for a thousand years, protected both by the magic and by this inhospitable desert. The fair city of Nerian would not be easy for humans to find, unless they had a guide.  To them, Nerian was a near-mythical ruin that most didn't believe really existed.

For me, it was home.

I forgot about the dust storm -- right until the first gale crashed over me.  Dust filled my mouth, and I surged to my feet, coughing and gagging.  I couldn't get a good breath, and I had trouble pulling a cloth from my pocket so I could cover my nose and mouth.

And then I ran into the lion with wings.

As days go, this had not been my best.  I looked into the huge golden eyes that blinked and narrowed.

"Odd place to meet you, cousin," a disembodied voice spoke from above the lion's head and mane.

Glowing mane.  Magic.

"Cousin," I repeated, testing out the word.

Someone slid off the lion and rushed toward me.  I took a step back, confused for reasons I couldn't name.  Then the stranger caught my arm just as I fell.

"Kero!"

He shook me, and my head rolled back and forth as though I had no muscles.  That finally annoyed me.

"I have a knife in my boot.  Kindly pull it out for me so I can slit your throat before you shake me again, Adon."

"There you are!" Adon shouted and missed my wince at the loudness.  Then he pulled me into a tight embrace.  "What in the name of the stars is going on, Kero!"

"I sent messages.  Told the elders.  Others looking too hard for the city --"

"You were taking them to the ruins of The City of Sunrise to distract them from Nerian." We both sat down in the shadow of Golden Mane, who shifted slightly to give us more room.  I scratched under his chin and won a cheerful sound.  "I had a sense of you nearby, and then of a problem.  What --"

"Untrustworthy, gold-hungry human."

Adon made a hissing sound of anger and then grabbed me so that he could look at my head.  I protested.  As usual, that did no good.  Adon rarely listened to me.

"That is a dangerous wound," he pronounced.  "I will take care of it --"

"Until, sure no humans," I began and then fought for better control.  "Leave the outer wound.  Painful, but not dangerous, and easier to deal with than suddenly healed."

"You are not going anywhere near the humans again."

I caught his hand and looked into his worried face.  "I have to make certain they get somewhere safely.  I am their guide, Adon.  And I can't abandon them all for the sake of one or two."

Adon fought me for a moment and then nodded.  "Guide.  You made that a pledge, not just a job description. And now you have to make sure they reach safety, if not the ruins of the City of Sunrise.  You do make things difficult, cousin."

"Thank you for finding me."

"I worry every time you leave home."

"You would think that I always have trouble."

"Shall I list the events of the last ten years?"

I moved slightly, intending to stand, but changed my mind.  Adon gave me water.  The storm grew worse, but my cousin kept us safe.  I could feel my own magic returning in small waves of power.

"We should ride Golden Mane back to Nerian," Adon said.  "I want someone with better training to check your wound."

"I can't.  You know that."

He sighed, barely heard over the sand whispering in the wind. "We should ride Gold for a few miles and go on foot when the storm eases."

"You can't come with me."

"Of course I can.  You were left at a cache.  I came across you there.  Their caravan is the closest help we might find since they ruined the cache."

I wanted to argue.  I didn't.

We followed the sand buses.

 

Flash Fiction #729 -- Doom/1

 

I had not intended to walk in the desert.  The team had special vehicles for this sort of travel. Being the head of Sun Team 1 should have guaranteed me a front-row seat in a sand bus and a lemonade.

How long would it be before someone realized that I wasn't on any of the buses? Quite a while, actually.  We had six sand buses crammed full of equipment and people -- well, full of overly excited archaeologists, anyway. It is almost the same thing. 

A lot of them didn't care for me.  We hadn't grown up in the same circles. That was going to make it difficult to learn who had hit me on the back of the head and dropped me in the sand behind a line of boulders that marked the location of a cache.

I gently touched the spot on the back of my head and started the healing process. It took a while for me to get back on my feet, and the height didn't improve the view. I felt far too annoyed to wait there for a ride, although I kept in mind that another sand bus would be through in three days. I was at a spot with a cache of food and drink, although the sand buses had mostly cleared the supplies out. A few packets of emergency supplies remained. I could probably survive here without too much trouble. At least as long as that dust storm they were predicting didn't come through. 

This was not a trip to count on luck. 

I looked around and took into consideration several things I had been ignoring until my thoughts were clearer.  The cache had been small, meant for emergencies if someone had trouble traversing the desert. That my team had robbed it angered me, and not just for my own sake. Caches like this saved lives.

A slight breeze shifted the sand at my feet. I had to decide what to do before the storm trapped me here with no way out. Remaining at the site might be the best answer, but only if I were prepared for it.

And as long as no one came to see if I had died yet.

I didn't think three packets of trail mix and half a bottle of water were preparation for staying or going. My inclination was to stay and rest until the others came back for me. Then I realized how suicidal that might be. I had not taken the attack seriously until now, and maybe that was just because my headache surged forward again. 

This had not been a practical joke.  My companions didn't know that I could survive the desert.  The others knew I had grown up here, but they didn't know what that meant. They certainly didn't appreciate that I could lead them to a fabled lost city. They certainly wouldn't find it without my help, which I was increasingly less likely to give.

That still left me in a bad spot with three difficult choices.

Stay and hope someone who was not trying to kill me showed up.

Head in the direction the sand buses should have gone – I thought they were still on track – and hope they didn't get lost before they found the ruins.  (And then what?  Let someone try to kill me again?)

Head for home, which was a place I would not lead the others to.  I don't know about human families, but I wasn't eager to lead a would-be killer to my parents and siblings.

Though they were the only hope of help I had.

Or so I thought.

I had been walking for a few hours when a bright dot moved across the clear blue sky.  I blinked several times, but it was still there and growing larger.

I stopped and sat down.  There was no use rushing to my doom.

Flash Fiction # 728 -- Story clip

 

 

(This is a drabble clip from the current manuscript I am editing.  The one 'lecturing' is a young rat.  The other is McKittery, a cat detective.)

"I was working on a theory. You know that all our Teddy Bears originally came from humans, right?" the rat said.
"Yes, but --" I began.
"You don't realize how important the Teddy Bear is to human culture. Of all the places I visited, only eleven had no Bears, while some others sometimes had entire pantheons of them. Among the first gifts to a newborn human, there is almost always a Teddy Bear. As they grow older, they often have a Teddy Bear guardian to sleep with them."
I wanted to say something. I opened my mouth and shut it again.