Eight Years later
My husband, John, and I were at the beach with our little girl, Lauren, playing around. Yes, that's right. John. Hey, he couldn't keep the name Temrash, okay?
Suddenly, there came from the sky a horrible flash of red. It hit a patch of trees a little off the beach, and they exploded. People started to panic suddenly. I tried to find Lauren before she got trampled.
Somehow John and I got separated. The red flashes started to come more and more quickly.
I was the only one on the beach except for Lauren. She was about twenty yards away. I started to run towards her, and as I was just a few feet away, another blinding flash of red.
When I could see again, in Lauren's place was just a little skeleton.
"No," I whispered. "No!" I grabbed up the little skeleton and held it close to me.
"NOOO!!!" I yelled into the wind that was whipping my hair around my face.
I woke up and looked around frantically. My husband stirred and woke as well.
I got up, opened the door to our bedroom, and ran to Lauren's door. I opened it and looked at her, sleeping peacefully and unharmed.
"Another nightmare?" John asked as I came back to the room. I nodded then came back to bed.
As I was snuggling close to him, he told me, "Try and remember and describe it to me. I think it'll help."
"Well, there was Dracon fire. We were on the beach, just like we were earlier today. And...And Lauren..."
"Got hit by a Dracon beam. Oh, God, I'm sorry, Ariel. But it's okay now. And that will never, ever happen while I'm here."
"You know, your getting pretty good at being a father," I told him as I looked into his eyes.
He laughed his deep, throaty, wonderful laugh. "Go back to sleep." I snuggled closer to him and tried to go back to sleep.
The next morning when I woke up I felt terribly ill. But I got up and got ready for the day, anyway. I've felt worse, I kept telling myself.
But after breakfast I ran to the bathroom and puked my guts out. John insisted that I stay in bed for the rest of the day.
"It's nothing, you ninny! Especially compared to that arrow I once had lodged in my arm! Come on, I have to go to work."
"No, you don't. We own the place! You can take off sick any day."
"But I'm not sick! I feel fine! Fit as a fiddle!"
"A fiddle that's turned green in the face and has a fever of at least a hundred and one."
"I've been greener."
"Yeah. When we took Lauren out on her first Holloween and you were a dragon."
"I looked nothing like a dragon."
John laughed and told me, "Only you would know. Now go back to sleep."
"But I'm not tired," I whined.
"You sound like Lauren."
"She does not!" I heard Lauren's high-pitched voice from the kitchen.
He laughed again. "Now, go back to sleep, or I won't speak to you for a week," He said self-righteously.
"Yes, sir," I said meekly.
I heard Lauren giggle in the kitchen as John left for work down the street at the little building we bought.
"Mom, you can't be so submissive," Lauren told me, using the big word proudly. "You have to stand up for yourself."
"Oh, really?" I asked, humoring her.
"Yeah. You can't just say 'yes, sir' every time he threatens to not talk to you." I felt proud. She was only six and a half, but she was already acting like an adult. No, not acting. That's the wrong word for it. She was actually being a playful adult.
"And why not? I like him talking to me! And this time I know he's right," I grinned mischievously.
"Then why'd you put up such a fuss?"
"Because I can't stand the thought of him being right, that's why! And I hate lying down all day when I could be at work, or being with you, or anything! Besides, I'm not that sick."
"Yes you are. I've never seen anyone puke like that, Mom! You were like the Niagara Falls in there! It was pure disgusting." She started to look a little green herself.
"Oh, no you don't! You are going to school today, no matter what." I tried to make a stern mother voice, but it didn't work. We both laughed.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. No calling unless I'm spitting up blood. Okay. Bye, and love you, Mom."
"Bye, honey."
And she left. And I went back to sleep.
For the next few days I felt terrible. And scared. My temperature skyrocketed and fell randomly, and sometimes I had delusions.
Some were scary, some nice. In one, my nightmare came true, and Lauren was incinerated by a Dracon beam. In one it was John, my dear Temrash, who got shot.
But one makes me think that this world isn't all that un-magical.
There was a blinding flash. I passed out. When I woke up, I was lying under a tree. John was next to me, just stirring, and Lauren was next to him, still unconscious.
I looked around, and gasped. I was home! I was sure of it. I saw the light of the twin moons make double shadows of everything. Half tinged blood red by Lunitari, half surrounded by silver from Solinari.
We were surrounded on three sides by a pine forest, and one by slightly swaying grass plains. Far along the plains I saw a village.
I looked up into the sky and watched the constellations. I found the one of the goddess closest to my heart, Chislev.
I sighed in contentment, and looked over at John. But instead of John lying against a pine, I saw Lauren looking wide-eyed at me from the bedside.
I think I slept all day the next day, but I can't really be sure. I didn't dream that I could remember. My fever broke while I slept, though, and when I woke up I could walk on my own without being helped by my husband.
I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and cringed. I looked terrible. I was pale, thin, gaunt, and my hair was everywhere.
"Hey, Lauren? I didn't have any visitors while I was sick, did I?" I yelled as I walked to her room.
"Uh...yeah. Some people came about dinner time." She giggled. "One was so funny. He kept on playing with sounds and asking if we had anything else to eat."
I sighed in relief. She would be talking about the Animorphs. And Ax probably ate us out of house and home.
I went into the kitchen and found that he thankfully hadn't eaten everything. I was starved. I made myself a sandwich that was almost two feet tall and gobbled it down. I sighed and went back to the bathroom and took a nice, long, hot bath.
After I'd gotten dressed, I brushed my hair and got something else to eat. Then I drove over to Cassie's home, and just went right over to the barn.
Hey, Ariel! Tobias called.
"Hi, Tobias," I said as I walked in. "Uh, is this a rather bad time?" I asked when I realized that they were having a meeting.
"Except for the fact that we're actually seriously thinking about going off into a total deathtrap, no, it isn't," Marco said. He looked much older. They all did. They had lines under their eyes, around their mouth, and on their foreheads. And they were starting to actually get gray hairs.
"Deathtrap?" I asked eagerly. Adventure! Finally I might be able to help. I'd led a rather boring life for eight years now. I needed something to do!
"Well, the Yeerks have definitely set a trap for us. Once again, they know someone's giving us info we aren't supposed to know. We've been at the right place at the right time too often. So now they're opening up a new Yeerk pool. Erek's told us that if we don't destroy it, they'll keep on opening it so that they can infest hundreds of more people, and if we do try to destroy it that we'll more than likely get captured."
"And we definitely don't want to get captured," Marco said with a shudder.
"Well, neither do I, but I'll go with you. I'll be a huge help to you," I told them.
"No way. Nuh-uh. Absolutely no. Your still to sick," Jake said.
"Who are you to tell me how sick I am? See this scar right here?" I asked, showing off the jagged white line on my neck. "I was so weak with this one that I nearly died. I think I was dead for a few heartbeats! But in three days I was up and fighting. I can do this," I argued. I need to do this, I said silently.
"Yadda, yadda. No." Jake had his stern parental look on that I just had to laugh at.
Marco grinned and said, "See, Jake? Even Ariel here doesn't take you seriously."
"Oh, I take him seriously, but it was just so funny seeing this little twenty-one year old kid acting like my father."
"Yeah, well, anyway. What about your family? If you get killed, what will they do?" Jake asked seriously.
I smirked. "They'll cry awhile, then laugh at the good old days. They can get along fine without me. One less paycheck, yeah, but also one less mouth to feed. And if I do make it out alive, I'll probably be a much better person to live with."
"Really? And why is that?" He sounded like he was just humoring a senile old lady.
"Because I get in a really bad mood when I'm bored out of my wits," I growled at him. "Hey, if you don't bring me with you, I'll just follow you, no matter what animal shape you take. I was a tracker for a whole freaking army for ten years. I can track a flea's progress on the rump of a deer I can't even get close to."
Jake glowered a little, not liking that his orders weren't being followed. Then his expression turned thoughtful, then he said, "Fine. You can come. If, and I mean if it's okay with everyone else. So, is it okay?" This he directed at the rest of the group. They were all there, including the Andalite. It amazed me a little that their numbers hadn't lost any in this secretive war.
Definitely. We can always use an extra, Tobias said from his perch in the rafters.
"I say we just do it," Rachel said.
Cassie sighed. "I don't like the idea of you going, Ariel. But I have to admit you can help."
I go where Prince Jake goes, the Andalite said predictably.
"Ax, on your homeworld, wouldn't you be a prince yourself by now? I mean, if you did all these courageous things there," Jake asked, exasperated.
It depends greatly upon who my sponsors are, Prince Jake.
Jake sighed and shook his head.
"I know I'm nuts in saying this, especially since you've been completely delirious the last few days, but I have to say you go with us," Marco said.
I grinned happily and said, "Good, then. I'd better be getting home and sharpen my sword."
When I got home, I grabbed my sword down off the mantle. I ran into the kitchen and looked at the whetstone we used on the kitchen knives a little sadly.
"I guess this will have to do," I muttered to myself. I grabbed it and also got a rag. I went into the living room, sat down and started sharpening my sword.
"What are you doing?" Lauren asked as she walked into the living room.
"Sharpening my sword. Wanna learn how?" I asked her.
"Sure," she said, shrugging. I scooted over on the chair and she sat beside me. After I'd shown her how, I let her sharpen it herself while I searched through the dining room closet for my cloak.
"Ah-hah! Here it is," I said, tugging the cloak free. It had been used as a wrapper for some Yule ornaments. I went into the bedroom to where the full-length mirror was. I looked at myself in the mirror. I was still pale and still thin, but I had a little color back in my cheeks. I put on the cloak and looked to see how I looked in it. I sighed in disgust and went over to the closet I shared with my husband.
I rummaged through my side and finally came out grasping the tunic and breeches I'd been wearing when I first came here. I put them on with the cloak and laughed to see that I looked just as I did the day I left my home on my first adventure. (Except, of course, longer, just slightly grayer hair...)
Still laughing, I took off the outer clothes, put on the tight- fitting long underwear type of undergarments you need to wear under armor so you skin doesn't chafe. Then I tried on my supple chain mail to make sure I hadn't grown plumper in thirty years.
I sighed in relief. It fit perfectly. I slipped into my tunic and breeches, fitted my cloak around my neck, and fastened by weapons belt about my waist.
When I came back into the living room and walked up to Lauren, she looked up at me and gasped. She stood up suddenly, forgetting the sword in her lap. As it tumbled to the ground, I caught hold of the hilt before it sliced off her foot.
"Wow, Mom! You look awesome!" she informed me.
I grinned. "Yeah, I know. I always do. But you have to be careful around this thing! I haven't taught you how to use it properly, have I? I need to."
She nodded her head enthusiastically. "So, where are you going, dressed like that? You look just like the adventurers from my storybooks! And when can you start teaching me?"
"When your strong enough to hold this sword like this," I held the sword in the palms of my out-stretched hands, arms locked strait, "for ten minutes. If you can do that, I'll start training you. Got it?"
She nodded and reached out for the blade.
"No, I can't let you try it now. I have to get this thing all polished up and ready to use for tonight." I grinned like a little girl caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "I got an adventure tonight. Don't tell your father! He'll never let me go if he knew."
She looked at me wide-eyed and asked eagerly, "An adventure? With swords and dragons and magic?"
I laughed. "Not with dragons or magic, but with one sword, yes. But I can't tell you where, okay? It's secret. Got it? A secret. So do not, I repeat, do not tell your father."
She nodded a little sorrowfully. "Okay, good. Could you help me real quick? I can't find my old boots, and I'm in a hurry and I still have to polish this thing"
"Okay, Mom. Where should I look?"
"Probably in the dining room closet, covered up by something on the floor."
She ran to the dining room and I could here her rooting though the stuff on the floor. I sighed, sat down, and started to rub roughly at the scratches left by the whetstone with the rag.
Only when all but the worse of the scratches were polished away did I look to see if Lauren had found my boots. There she was, standing in front of me, a boot in each hand, staring at them in wonder.
They were well crafted. They had intricate designs scrolled on the heel and from the toe up in a straight line, all the way to the top. They were knee-high.
I sheathed my sword and my daughter watched in wonderment my easy motion with it. I smiled at her and told her, "One day you'll be doing the same in front of your children." I slipped on my boots, kissed her on the cheek, a kiss which she promptly wiped away, and walked to the door.
I stopped before I opened the door, turned to my daughter, and said, "Tell your father, if I don't return by morning, not to look for me, okay?"
She nodded and I stepped outside. I don't think she knew that she just possibly passed my death sentence.
My cloak fluttered behind me as I drove to Cassie's barn. When I got there, they were all waiting for me. They all looked at me and released a collective gasp.
"Sorry I'm late. Lauren couldn't find my boots." I grinned in spite of myself. I knew I looked like a legend just stepping out of a myth.
"So come on! Lets go!" Rachel said, breaking the spell my startling appearance had cast.
"Rachel's right. We need to get going," Jake said, taking sudden command.
When we got to the edge of the woods, they all morphed wolves to get through the underbrush better.
Hey, wait a second. Will you be able to keep up? Marco asked.
I shrugged. "I've done it before," I said. "Of course, it was just a pair of cougars I hunted, not wolves..."
They stared at me for a second, then must have decided I was telling the truth, because they started running.
I kept up to them well, even prompting Rachel to race me. I won.
We stopped only once, and that was so we all could get a drink and they could demorph and remorph before time ran out. They rested a few moments between morphs and I got a quick, three-minute nap before we had to start again.
How'd you do that? I heard Jake's voice ask in my head.
I gave him a questioning glance, saving my breath for running.
That little catnap back there, he verified.
I shrugged then gave my full concentration on keeping up with the wolves' slightly greater stamina.
When we got near the place we were going, hey stopped and sniffed the air. So did I. Though their sense of smell was much superior to mine, I could still smell it: The smell of sweating, unwashed humans, and an alien scent I immediately labeled Hork-Bajir. (While I was a Controler I didn't pay attention to their scent, just their appearance.)
Erek told us that they have heavy security around this place, but we didn't plan on how we were going to get in, Jake told me.
"Just on ground level and in the sky?" I asked, thinking I had a rather good plan.
He nodded his sleek wolf head, looking at me questioningly.
"Yeah, I got a plan," I told them while reaching into my breeches pocket for the bits of charcoal I always kept there.
I proceeded in telling them my plan as I put charcoal dust under my eyes and highlighted the lines of my cheekbones. When they agreed to it I started pulling back my hair into a braid. We rested for about ten minutes. Then I scrabbled into a nearby tree and disappeared from their sight.
I went the rest of the way to the new Yeerk pool in the branches of the trees. When I got into sight of the clearing I looked around. Yes, there on an island in the middle of the pool was a huge tree, a forest patriarch. It hid the pool from view by helicopter and plane because its outermost branches mingled with those of the surrounding trees.
Perfect, I thought in satisfaction. They were idiots. I leapt into the branches of the giant patriarch and scrambled to the center of the tree. There I looked around again, noticed that my friends were in position as various animals, and found a branch higher up in the tree that looked sturdy enough to hold my weight and with a clear path to the ground surrounding the smaller-than-average Yeerk pool. I climbed up to it, crouched down and got ready to jump. I made a sound like an owl hooting in the night, then leapt out from the branch, screeching a war cry.
I don't know how those poor Hork-Bajir thought of a demon-elf wielding a flashing sword flying through the air, but I know I drew a lot of startled looks. And those looks allowed my friends to breach security without being ripped to shreds. I saw some humans screaming and running from the sudden appearance of this half-elf from hell, and I pursued them until I saw them turn on me with Dracon beams in their hands. I glanced behind me in search of an escape, but just found another line of humans aiming at me with more Dracon beams.
"Shit," I said as I ducked to get away from the red beams of death. They all met right in the middle, where my chest had been just a second before, with a blinding flash..
When I could see again I was lying in the center of a meadow, bathed in silver and red moonlight.
I stared upward and couldn't believe my eyes. There, in perfect arrangement, were the eighteen star constellations of the various gods of something's, and the two visible moons of the god of good magic and the goddess of neutral magic.
My home sky.
"Oh, man!" I muttered knowing that I was missing all the fighting.
But I was home!
My husband, John, and I were at the beach with our little girl, Lauren, playing around. Yes, that's right. John. Hey, he couldn't keep the name Temrash, okay?
Suddenly, there came from the sky a horrible flash of red. It hit a patch of trees a little off the beach, and they exploded. People started to panic suddenly. I tried to find Lauren before she got trampled.
Somehow John and I got separated. The red flashes started to come more and more quickly.
I was the only one on the beach except for Lauren. She was about twenty yards away. I started to run towards her, and as I was just a few feet away, another blinding flash of red.
When I could see again, in Lauren's place was just a little skeleton.
"No," I whispered. "No!" I grabbed up the little skeleton and held it close to me.
"NOOO!!!" I yelled into the wind that was whipping my hair around my face.
I woke up and looked around frantically. My husband stirred and woke as well.
I got up, opened the door to our bedroom, and ran to Lauren's door. I opened it and looked at her, sleeping peacefully and unharmed.
"Another nightmare?" John asked as I came back to the room. I nodded then came back to bed.
As I was snuggling close to him, he told me, "Try and remember and describe it to me. I think it'll help."
"Well, there was Dracon fire. We were on the beach, just like we were earlier today. And...And Lauren..."
"Got hit by a Dracon beam. Oh, God, I'm sorry, Ariel. But it's okay now. And that will never, ever happen while I'm here."
"You know, your getting pretty good at being a father," I told him as I looked into his eyes.
He laughed his deep, throaty, wonderful laugh. "Go back to sleep." I snuggled closer to him and tried to go back to sleep.
The next morning when I woke up I felt terribly ill. But I got up and got ready for the day, anyway. I've felt worse, I kept telling myself.
But after breakfast I ran to the bathroom and puked my guts out. John insisted that I stay in bed for the rest of the day.
"It's nothing, you ninny! Especially compared to that arrow I once had lodged in my arm! Come on, I have to go to work."
"No, you don't. We own the place! You can take off sick any day."
"But I'm not sick! I feel fine! Fit as a fiddle!"
"A fiddle that's turned green in the face and has a fever of at least a hundred and one."
"I've been greener."
"Yeah. When we took Lauren out on her first Holloween and you were a dragon."
"I looked nothing like a dragon."
John laughed and told me, "Only you would know. Now go back to sleep."
"But I'm not tired," I whined.
"You sound like Lauren."
"She does not!" I heard Lauren's high-pitched voice from the kitchen.
He laughed again. "Now, go back to sleep, or I won't speak to you for a week," He said self-righteously.
"Yes, sir," I said meekly.
I heard Lauren giggle in the kitchen as John left for work down the street at the little building we bought.
"Mom, you can't be so submissive," Lauren told me, using the big word proudly. "You have to stand up for yourself."
"Oh, really?" I asked, humoring her.
"Yeah. You can't just say 'yes, sir' every time he threatens to not talk to you." I felt proud. She was only six and a half, but she was already acting like an adult. No, not acting. That's the wrong word for it. She was actually being a playful adult.
"And why not? I like him talking to me! And this time I know he's right," I grinned mischievously.
"Then why'd you put up such a fuss?"
"Because I can't stand the thought of him being right, that's why! And I hate lying down all day when I could be at work, or being with you, or anything! Besides, I'm not that sick."
"Yes you are. I've never seen anyone puke like that, Mom! You were like the Niagara Falls in there! It was pure disgusting." She started to look a little green herself.
"Oh, no you don't! You are going to school today, no matter what." I tried to make a stern mother voice, but it didn't work. We both laughed.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. No calling unless I'm spitting up blood. Okay. Bye, and love you, Mom."
"Bye, honey."
And she left. And I went back to sleep.
For the next few days I felt terrible. And scared. My temperature skyrocketed and fell randomly, and sometimes I had delusions.
Some were scary, some nice. In one, my nightmare came true, and Lauren was incinerated by a Dracon beam. In one it was John, my dear Temrash, who got shot.
But one makes me think that this world isn't all that un-magical.
There was a blinding flash. I passed out. When I woke up, I was lying under a tree. John was next to me, just stirring, and Lauren was next to him, still unconscious.
I looked around, and gasped. I was home! I was sure of it. I saw the light of the twin moons make double shadows of everything. Half tinged blood red by Lunitari, half surrounded by silver from Solinari.
We were surrounded on three sides by a pine forest, and one by slightly swaying grass plains. Far along the plains I saw a village.
I looked up into the sky and watched the constellations. I found the one of the goddess closest to my heart, Chislev.
I sighed in contentment, and looked over at John. But instead of John lying against a pine, I saw Lauren looking wide-eyed at me from the bedside.
I think I slept all day the next day, but I can't really be sure. I didn't dream that I could remember. My fever broke while I slept, though, and when I woke up I could walk on my own without being helped by my husband.
I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and cringed. I looked terrible. I was pale, thin, gaunt, and my hair was everywhere.
"Hey, Lauren? I didn't have any visitors while I was sick, did I?" I yelled as I walked to her room.
"Uh...yeah. Some people came about dinner time." She giggled. "One was so funny. He kept on playing with sounds and asking if we had anything else to eat."
I sighed in relief. She would be talking about the Animorphs. And Ax probably ate us out of house and home.
I went into the kitchen and found that he thankfully hadn't eaten everything. I was starved. I made myself a sandwich that was almost two feet tall and gobbled it down. I sighed and went back to the bathroom and took a nice, long, hot bath.
After I'd gotten dressed, I brushed my hair and got something else to eat. Then I drove over to Cassie's home, and just went right over to the barn.
Hey, Ariel! Tobias called.
"Hi, Tobias," I said as I walked in. "Uh, is this a rather bad time?" I asked when I realized that they were having a meeting.
"Except for the fact that we're actually seriously thinking about going off into a total deathtrap, no, it isn't," Marco said. He looked much older. They all did. They had lines under their eyes, around their mouth, and on their foreheads. And they were starting to actually get gray hairs.
"Deathtrap?" I asked eagerly. Adventure! Finally I might be able to help. I'd led a rather boring life for eight years now. I needed something to do!
"Well, the Yeerks have definitely set a trap for us. Once again, they know someone's giving us info we aren't supposed to know. We've been at the right place at the right time too often. So now they're opening up a new Yeerk pool. Erek's told us that if we don't destroy it, they'll keep on opening it so that they can infest hundreds of more people, and if we do try to destroy it that we'll more than likely get captured."
"And we definitely don't want to get captured," Marco said with a shudder.
"Well, neither do I, but I'll go with you. I'll be a huge help to you," I told them.
"No way. Nuh-uh. Absolutely no. Your still to sick," Jake said.
"Who are you to tell me how sick I am? See this scar right here?" I asked, showing off the jagged white line on my neck. "I was so weak with this one that I nearly died. I think I was dead for a few heartbeats! But in three days I was up and fighting. I can do this," I argued. I need to do this, I said silently.
"Yadda, yadda. No." Jake had his stern parental look on that I just had to laugh at.
Marco grinned and said, "See, Jake? Even Ariel here doesn't take you seriously."
"Oh, I take him seriously, but it was just so funny seeing this little twenty-one year old kid acting like my father."
"Yeah, well, anyway. What about your family? If you get killed, what will they do?" Jake asked seriously.
I smirked. "They'll cry awhile, then laugh at the good old days. They can get along fine without me. One less paycheck, yeah, but also one less mouth to feed. And if I do make it out alive, I'll probably be a much better person to live with."
"Really? And why is that?" He sounded like he was just humoring a senile old lady.
"Because I get in a really bad mood when I'm bored out of my wits," I growled at him. "Hey, if you don't bring me with you, I'll just follow you, no matter what animal shape you take. I was a tracker for a whole freaking army for ten years. I can track a flea's progress on the rump of a deer I can't even get close to."
Jake glowered a little, not liking that his orders weren't being followed. Then his expression turned thoughtful, then he said, "Fine. You can come. If, and I mean if it's okay with everyone else. So, is it okay?" This he directed at the rest of the group. They were all there, including the Andalite. It amazed me a little that their numbers hadn't lost any in this secretive war.
Definitely. We can always use an extra, Tobias said from his perch in the rafters.
"I say we just do it," Rachel said.
Cassie sighed. "I don't like the idea of you going, Ariel. But I have to admit you can help."
I go where Prince Jake goes, the Andalite said predictably.
"Ax, on your homeworld, wouldn't you be a prince yourself by now? I mean, if you did all these courageous things there," Jake asked, exasperated.
It depends greatly upon who my sponsors are, Prince Jake.
Jake sighed and shook his head.
"I know I'm nuts in saying this, especially since you've been completely delirious the last few days, but I have to say you go with us," Marco said.
I grinned happily and said, "Good, then. I'd better be getting home and sharpen my sword."
When I got home, I grabbed my sword down off the mantle. I ran into the kitchen and looked at the whetstone we used on the kitchen knives a little sadly.
"I guess this will have to do," I muttered to myself. I grabbed it and also got a rag. I went into the living room, sat down and started sharpening my sword.
"What are you doing?" Lauren asked as she walked into the living room.
"Sharpening my sword. Wanna learn how?" I asked her.
"Sure," she said, shrugging. I scooted over on the chair and she sat beside me. After I'd shown her how, I let her sharpen it herself while I searched through the dining room closet for my cloak.
"Ah-hah! Here it is," I said, tugging the cloak free. It had been used as a wrapper for some Yule ornaments. I went into the bedroom to where the full-length mirror was. I looked at myself in the mirror. I was still pale and still thin, but I had a little color back in my cheeks. I put on the cloak and looked to see how I looked in it. I sighed in disgust and went over to the closet I shared with my husband.
I rummaged through my side and finally came out grasping the tunic and breeches I'd been wearing when I first came here. I put them on with the cloak and laughed to see that I looked just as I did the day I left my home on my first adventure. (Except, of course, longer, just slightly grayer hair...)
Still laughing, I took off the outer clothes, put on the tight- fitting long underwear type of undergarments you need to wear under armor so you skin doesn't chafe. Then I tried on my supple chain mail to make sure I hadn't grown plumper in thirty years.
I sighed in relief. It fit perfectly. I slipped into my tunic and breeches, fitted my cloak around my neck, and fastened by weapons belt about my waist.
When I came back into the living room and walked up to Lauren, she looked up at me and gasped. She stood up suddenly, forgetting the sword in her lap. As it tumbled to the ground, I caught hold of the hilt before it sliced off her foot.
"Wow, Mom! You look awesome!" she informed me.
I grinned. "Yeah, I know. I always do. But you have to be careful around this thing! I haven't taught you how to use it properly, have I? I need to."
She nodded her head enthusiastically. "So, where are you going, dressed like that? You look just like the adventurers from my storybooks! And when can you start teaching me?"
"When your strong enough to hold this sword like this," I held the sword in the palms of my out-stretched hands, arms locked strait, "for ten minutes. If you can do that, I'll start training you. Got it?"
She nodded and reached out for the blade.
"No, I can't let you try it now. I have to get this thing all polished up and ready to use for tonight." I grinned like a little girl caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "I got an adventure tonight. Don't tell your father! He'll never let me go if he knew."
She looked at me wide-eyed and asked eagerly, "An adventure? With swords and dragons and magic?"
I laughed. "Not with dragons or magic, but with one sword, yes. But I can't tell you where, okay? It's secret. Got it? A secret. So do not, I repeat, do not tell your father."
She nodded a little sorrowfully. "Okay, good. Could you help me real quick? I can't find my old boots, and I'm in a hurry and I still have to polish this thing"
"Okay, Mom. Where should I look?"
"Probably in the dining room closet, covered up by something on the floor."
She ran to the dining room and I could here her rooting though the stuff on the floor. I sighed, sat down, and started to rub roughly at the scratches left by the whetstone with the rag.
Only when all but the worse of the scratches were polished away did I look to see if Lauren had found my boots. There she was, standing in front of me, a boot in each hand, staring at them in wonder.
They were well crafted. They had intricate designs scrolled on the heel and from the toe up in a straight line, all the way to the top. They were knee-high.
I sheathed my sword and my daughter watched in wonderment my easy motion with it. I smiled at her and told her, "One day you'll be doing the same in front of your children." I slipped on my boots, kissed her on the cheek, a kiss which she promptly wiped away, and walked to the door.
I stopped before I opened the door, turned to my daughter, and said, "Tell your father, if I don't return by morning, not to look for me, okay?"
She nodded and I stepped outside. I don't think she knew that she just possibly passed my death sentence.
My cloak fluttered behind me as I drove to Cassie's barn. When I got there, they were all waiting for me. They all looked at me and released a collective gasp.
"Sorry I'm late. Lauren couldn't find my boots." I grinned in spite of myself. I knew I looked like a legend just stepping out of a myth.
"So come on! Lets go!" Rachel said, breaking the spell my startling appearance had cast.
"Rachel's right. We need to get going," Jake said, taking sudden command.
When we got to the edge of the woods, they all morphed wolves to get through the underbrush better.
Hey, wait a second. Will you be able to keep up? Marco asked.
I shrugged. "I've done it before," I said. "Of course, it was just a pair of cougars I hunted, not wolves..."
They stared at me for a second, then must have decided I was telling the truth, because they started running.
I kept up to them well, even prompting Rachel to race me. I won.
We stopped only once, and that was so we all could get a drink and they could demorph and remorph before time ran out. They rested a few moments between morphs and I got a quick, three-minute nap before we had to start again.
How'd you do that? I heard Jake's voice ask in my head.
I gave him a questioning glance, saving my breath for running.
That little catnap back there, he verified.
I shrugged then gave my full concentration on keeping up with the wolves' slightly greater stamina.
When we got near the place we were going, hey stopped and sniffed the air. So did I. Though their sense of smell was much superior to mine, I could still smell it: The smell of sweating, unwashed humans, and an alien scent I immediately labeled Hork-Bajir. (While I was a Controler I didn't pay attention to their scent, just their appearance.)
Erek told us that they have heavy security around this place, but we didn't plan on how we were going to get in, Jake told me.
"Just on ground level and in the sky?" I asked, thinking I had a rather good plan.
He nodded his sleek wolf head, looking at me questioningly.
"Yeah, I got a plan," I told them while reaching into my breeches pocket for the bits of charcoal I always kept there.
I proceeded in telling them my plan as I put charcoal dust under my eyes and highlighted the lines of my cheekbones. When they agreed to it I started pulling back my hair into a braid. We rested for about ten minutes. Then I scrabbled into a nearby tree and disappeared from their sight.
I went the rest of the way to the new Yeerk pool in the branches of the trees. When I got into sight of the clearing I looked around. Yes, there on an island in the middle of the pool was a huge tree, a forest patriarch. It hid the pool from view by helicopter and plane because its outermost branches mingled with those of the surrounding trees.
Perfect, I thought in satisfaction. They were idiots. I leapt into the branches of the giant patriarch and scrambled to the center of the tree. There I looked around again, noticed that my friends were in position as various animals, and found a branch higher up in the tree that looked sturdy enough to hold my weight and with a clear path to the ground surrounding the smaller-than-average Yeerk pool. I climbed up to it, crouched down and got ready to jump. I made a sound like an owl hooting in the night, then leapt out from the branch, screeching a war cry.
I don't know how those poor Hork-Bajir thought of a demon-elf wielding a flashing sword flying through the air, but I know I drew a lot of startled looks. And those looks allowed my friends to breach security without being ripped to shreds. I saw some humans screaming and running from the sudden appearance of this half-elf from hell, and I pursued them until I saw them turn on me with Dracon beams in their hands. I glanced behind me in search of an escape, but just found another line of humans aiming at me with more Dracon beams.
"Shit," I said as I ducked to get away from the red beams of death. They all met right in the middle, where my chest had been just a second before, with a blinding flash..
When I could see again I was lying in the center of a meadow, bathed in silver and red moonlight.
I stared upward and couldn't believe my eyes. There, in perfect arrangement, were the eighteen star constellations of the various gods of something's, and the two visible moons of the god of good magic and the goddess of neutral magic.
My home sky.
"Oh, man!" I muttered knowing that I was missing all the fighting.
But I was home!