(Author's Note: Well, I thought it was necessary, and one of my favorite reviewers pretty much summed it up in one comment: "Something's brewing between those two!")
CHAPTER EIGHT--The One
Tobias felt Iris come closer to him in the darkness, whispering quietly, "Tobias, I've wrenched and pulled at the door for hours, but there's no breaking that lock, trust me."
But Tobias merely smiled, saying, "I've discovered my secret gift, Iris. I can make holes through the worlds." He heard the girl give a little intake of breath from the surprise, not knowing what to say.
"You can . . . what? What are you talking about?"
But Tobias gave no reply, only a quiet "Shh" as he lapsed into deep concentration, bringing his hands up in front of his face and sending the deepest parts of his Forthsight down to the tips of his fingers. He felt tingles in his hands like tiny currents of electricity, searching, questing for the minute nicks in the fabric of space-time.
At last his fingertips felt something tug in the air, finding a snag and pulling on it. He felt cool air waft through as he gently pulled the opening wider and wider until it was large enough for one to stick their hand through it.
Iris gasped in shock. Before her, hanging in midair, was a small, irregular patch of blue sky, a rather chilly breeze blowing through and tousling her hair. "What on Earth . . . " she began but found it impossible to continue. She slowly raised her hand and brought it near the window, then plunged it through.
Tobias chuckled appreciatively. "It works, see? I don't know how I have this gift, but it's a blessing beyond anything I could possibly have imagined. Now, we can go through to another world, Iris, and bring back others to help to fight Dune."
Iris still hadn't responded, too awestruck to speak. Tobias saw her take her hand back by the light of the blue sky of beyond. Finally, she spoke, in a hushed, awe-filled voice. "That is amazing, Tobias . . . I've never heard of anyone with a gift like this . . . incredible, simply incredible. Almost too good to be true."
Tobias concentrated again and made the window large enough so that they could travel through. Of course, he had made the window into the same world that he had traveled in the previous night, simply because he didn't know how to create a window into any other world.
Iris proceeded with caution, but she tentatively went through the window all the same. It was a foot or so above the ground, and after Iris had secured herself on the patched-snow hill, Tobias saw her dæmon pass through after her. Tobias hadn't seen Iris's face, but from the way she had moved through the window, Tobias knew that this dæmon was a perfect representation of his human: a long-legged, graceful, elegant cat, which leapt with great agility through the window after Iris.
Tobias smiled to himself and followed her out, Aerotsierma leaping through at his side. For some reason unbeknownst to him, Tobias felt his heart beating fast as he emerged into the sunlight and quickly sealed up the window.
He quickly scanned the surrounded area with his mind for any sign of life, sentient or dangerous, but found none other than Iris and her dæmon, of course. He recognized the hillside that they stood on from the episode on the previous night.
Iris laughed in delight at the clear blue sky and the sunlight playing on the snow and grass of the hillsides. "This is beautiful! Oh Tobias, this is amazing . . . "
But Tobias wasn't looking at the scenery; he was looking at his best friend whom he hadn't seen since they were both eleven. She looked much like she had in the picture that Tobias still carried in his bag, but years older, of course, and more pretty than he could've imagined. She had the raven-black hair and sparkling green eyes from the picture, but there was something about her eyes that were far different as well. They had completely lost the joyous, innocent look of childhood, but the dark look that replaced it was not simply from growing up: Tobias knew that it was from the horrors that she, like himself, had been through.
While Tobias gazed at Iris, Aerotsierma was examining her dæmon. He was, in fact, a caracal: a lithe, sinewy cat about the same size as the fox, with reddish-tawny fur and black juts of fur from the ear tips. He was gorgeous and graceful just like his human, Tobias thought dreamily.
Tobias was distantly aware that Iris was sizing him up, as well. He wondered, still distantly, if she was pleased with what she saw: the tall boy that stood before her, his light blonde hair tousled by the wind, revealing the scar that still showed, having never bothered to replace his headband. His intense dark brown eyes bored into Iris's, and for a moment they merely stared at one another.
Tobias's mind was in such a whirl. She looked so different, and yet so familiar, than what he had remembered. And there was so much catching up to do . . . he found it amazing and wonderful, too good to be true, that he had found his best friend alive, years after having last seen her, believing her to be dead.
But . . . there was no time for that. He broke the gaze that they held and turned around quickly, feeling redness spread across his face. "We need to get moving, then I can cut a hole back through, and we can get moving from there."
He heard Iris walk up behind him, and felt the hand she placed on his shoulder. "Why can't you just make a window into another world from this one?"
Tobias sighed. "I don't know how, actually. I only discovered this gift last night . . . I don't have very much experience. This world was the one that opened up before me, therefore it is the only one that I know how to open."
Iris was about to reply, but her dæmon spoke at that moment. "Iris?" Tobias had rarely heard other people's dæmons speaking before. "Iris, I can hear something coming."
Aerotsierma heard it too. She cocked her ears and sniffed the air, and then turned to her human. "I can smell him, Tobias, it's that beast that we just barely escaped from last night."
Tobias felt panic rise inside him again. Iris and her caracal dæmon were walking to the top of the hill to try and get a look at the approaching creature. Tobias was about to make another window, but Iris was too far away . . . "Iris!" he shouted up at her, panic rising slightly in his voice. "Get down here! Quick!"
The girl turned and shaded her eyes against the sun as she looked down at Tobias, and at that moment the ferocious white beast appeared over the hill, directly behind Iris.
Time stood still for an instant. Rage and grief rose at once within Tobias's heart, for there was no time to get her to safety. They stood at least thirty yards apart, and Tobias knew that before he was halfway there, the white beast would've devoured his best friend.
So he stood still, looking on in horror, wishing and praying that something would save her, but he knew it was impossible. She turned at the noise behind her, and screamed in terror at the beast that loomed over her, salivating, lowering its colossal jaws upon the quaking girl was too scared to run. Even if she did, however, she knew that it wouldn't make any difference. The beast had her.
Tobias roared, "No!" And charged forward; the beast lowered its jaws over Iris's head and clamped them shut around her shoulders. She was screaming and sobbing and shaking, and Tobias screamed at the beast, but it ignored him. Iris's dæmon writhed in pathetic agony on the ground beneath.
Tobias knew at that moment that he would give anything to save her. His mind went suddenly delirious, and a strange sort of light seemed to dance before his eyes. He was wishing, in some far off, distant sense, that he had the power to stop the beast from the distance he was in. He was wishing and praying for it with all his heart, and then, quite suddenly, everything went dark.
The great white beast's was suddenly flung backwards as if from some bizarre, unseen force; at the same time, its huge jaws were forced apart, and Iris dropped from them, wet and bloody. The creature leapt up, snarling at the force that had attacked him, and suddenly was beat down again, and again, until it ran fearfully away from its invisible assailant.
Iris was bleeding from a long gash on her shoulder, but hobbled down to the unconscious Tobias without worrying about her injury. "Tobias!" She shouted while shaking him. "Wake up!"
He finally slipped from his darkness and sat up, uncrossing his eyes and rubbing his head. "What . . . what happened, Iris? You're . . . you're okay?"
He was very dazed and out of it, but seemingly uninjured. "The beast let me go, like something attacked it, but nothing did." Tobias looked confused for a moment, and then said, "Oh . . . no, something did attack it . . . I think, anyway."
Iris glared at him. "Talk sense! What the hell do you mean?"
Tobias didn't know how to explain to her any other way, so he just put it the way that it was. "I am not entirely sure, Iris, but I think that . . . somehow, I made that happen."
Iris stared at him, bemused. "You mean that YOU knocked it away like that, and opened up its jaws?" He nodded, still somewhat dazed. "Yeah . . . I think so . . ."
She rolled her eyes at him. "You are a nutter, aren't you? How do you expect me to believe that you really made that happen?"
He sighed, and said, "I'm not sure what happened, Iris, but it's my gift. It's . . . it's not just opening up windows like that. It's . . . if I really want it to happen . . . somehow, it does . . .
Iris gawked at him for a moment, the wheels in her brain turning at this bit of information, but before she could say anything else, Tobias propped himself up on his elbows and said, "Iris, you're bleeding."
She looked down at the long gash on her shoulder, dripping blood down her arm and side. "Oh, it's . . . it's nothing, really," she mumbled, but Tobias slowly reached his hand up to her arm, hovering it over her shoulder. Iris felt the strangest sensation, and when she looked down, the gash was gone, and had taken the pain along with it.
"What the . . . " she started, but couldn't finish. Apparently, the vast exertion from using his gift again had increased the fatigue, thus rendering him unconscious again.
Iris was shaking when she stood up. If all this was true, and not a bizarre figment of her imagination, then that meant the following: she had, through some incredible turn of fate and luck, stumbled upon her best friend whom she thought was dead for three years. Not only that, but he was really cute, and was one of two people left on the planet with the ability of Forthsight. And in addition to this, they were both safe, out of harm's way, and HE had the ability to make windows through the world.
But there was something else, too, Iris knew. The fact that he could close up a wound . . . fight a creature from thirty yards . . . and open windows through worlds, this could only mean one thing . . .
He was The One.
(Another Author's Note: Yeah, I guess this chapter was a little off, but it was really late when I wrote it, okay? *Sigh…* I love Iris's dæmon, though . . . I wish I could put a picture of him up, but stupid FF.net, I'd have to freakin' PAY for it *mumbles*. Sorry, anyway, please review, and I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can!)
