Came back to it, just like I said I would. Now, let's see if we can't get Kazzer out of the OverWorld and back home where he belongs…


The Files of Kazdan Kalinkas

Book Two: After the Storm

Chapter Twelve: Beside the Lake


"You can bury a lot of troubles by digging in the dirt." –Anonymous


I refused to stay in bed after the whole incident with H'earring. Garv allowed me to get out of bed and move about on my own but he made sure to keep a close eye on me. In fact, when he was too busy with his work, he went as far as to send a little bird-thingy to watch me. I don't really know what it was—Creature or Battle Gear, I wasn't sure—but it was about the size of a coffee mug, bright yellow and blue, and made these obnoxious squeaking noises whenever I got out of its sight.

I called it Mich.

No particular reason.

It just seemed like something I should call Mich.

Especially because of it's color scene.

Garv didn't let me go anywhere near his work stuff, he kept me far away from those rooms, but he did let me go outside. As long as he or Mich was there. Being outside was good, I decided. Garv let me help out in his garden, at least, and when I wasn't doing that I would be swimming in the lake or exploring the surrounding wood. Mich never let me stray too far into the forest, though.

I was still weak and got tired easily but I was absolutely determined to not let it get to me. Most of the time, I knew when to quit but there were the odd moments or so when I would suddenly wake up in my bed without any idea how I'd gotten there only to find that I had collapsed doing something and Garv had had to drag me away to put me in bed.

Tom and the others showed up occasionally. They couldn't visit me as often as they—and, let's face it, myself—would have liked but they always hung around as long as they could. The only things they would not tell me were H'earring's fate and what was going on in Perim. It couldn't have been too catastrophic, I reasoned, because then I surely would have heard about it. But whatever it was, my friends avoided talking about it like it was a disease or something. It got on my nerves that no one was telling me what was happening, like I was stupid or would have a complete mental breakdown if they did.

I wasn't delicate, I wasn't going to go completely emo if they told me something terrible. Hell, I reasoned, If I'm not emo already then some bad news sure isn't going to make me!

Stabbing myself in the side of the head didn't count.


It wasn't a particularly bad day but it wasn't exactly a good day either. Actually, I found myself hard pressed to find anything that defined a "good day" anymore.

In any case, I was digging up plants in Garv's garden and getting myself utterly covered in dirt. They were these really deep bulbs that grew, like, three feet under ground or something like that and, as childish as it may sound, I liked getting filthy.

For once, I wasn't getting covered in sweat or blood or tears but dirt. Plain old, regular, uninteresting dirt.

Mich had situated itself on the rim of the basket I was attempting to fill up with the bulbs and was staring at me with its silver eyes.

"Hey Mich!' I looked over my shoulder at it and it cocked its head, dropping one ear in curiosity, "Catch!" And I threw a handful of dirt in its face. Mich squeaked at me as it fluttered up, dodging the missile, and I laughed at it, turning back to my digging.

"Well, nice to see you're in a good mood today!" Said a voice and I jumped up, swayed on my feet a bit, and ran to the speaker.

"Saraaaahhhhhhh!" I flung my arms out, "Wanna hug!?"

"Uuuhhhh…" Sarah looked me up and down with an expression of distaste, "No thanks, Kaz." I grinned, "Why are you covered in dirt anyway?"

"Digging for plants." I pointed to partially filled basket, "But I think I could use a break. Can you run inside and get me some clean clothes so I don't track dirt all over the place? They should be sitting on the bed in the room I'm using." I refused to call it my room. My room was back on Earth, at home, safe, warm, waiting for me.

"Sure, whatever." Sarah turned away and headed for Garv's home. I waited until she had gone inside and then pulled my shirt over my head, dropping it beside the basket. As I headed towards the edge of the lake, I pulled my hair from the tuft at the back of my neck and snapped the band at Mich. It squealed at me and snapped at my ear. I brushed my hand at it and stepped into the water.

"Oh geez this is cold!" Kneeling down in the waist deep water, I splashed it up over my face, trying to get most of the dirt off. Mich squeaked at me and I looked around, glaring at it, "Shut up and mind your own business." The stupid bird thing clicked its beak, one ear tilted down, "I told you to shut up."

I stood up and splashed a handful of water at it and then waded in deeper. My pants clung to my legs but there was no way I was taking them off. Taking a deep breath, I sank below the surface of the crystal clear water. Silence fell, with only the sound of my own movement in the water. The problem with silence was that there was nothing to distract me and my mind often wanted to dig into the dark and bloody and not-so-distant past. I pushed off the bottom of the lake and breached the surface, shaking my head back and forth and sending water droplets everywhere.

"Hey Water Boy," Sarah called from the shoreline, "I got your clothes."

"Uh, thanks." I waded towards her, dripping wet but clean of the mud and dirt. I took the folded bundle from her and set it somewhere it wouldn't get wet or dirty. As I began wringing out my pants, I noticed Sarah staring at me.

"What?"

She looked away quickly, "Nothing."

"Not nothing." I said in response, sitting down in the grass just off the edge of the lake, "What's wrong with you guys? You all look at me like I'm gonna fall apart, you won't tell me what's going on in Perim, and no one's told me anything about what happened to H'earring." I frowned at the ground and tugged absently at the grass, "What's going on out there that's so terrible that you can't tell me?"

"It's nothing."

"Bull crap!" I snapped angrily, "If I wasn't so weak because of that stupid armor, I'd be out there finding H'earring right now!"

"Kaz, we're not telling you because we don't know!" Sarah responded sharply, "All we know is that the UnderWorld is in chaos and no one has any idea what's going on! The Codemaster's sent out a general warning to stay out of UnderWorld territory! Whatever's going on, it's way bigger than we thought! So stop yelling at us! We're just as clueless as you!"

"I'm sorry." I said quickly, pulling up a handful of grass and letting it fall from my fingers, "I just…there's so many things that I'm worrying about. You guys, H'earring, home…and what Chaor's doing."

"Do you think he's looking for you?"

"I don't know. Probably. I hope not. Maybe that's why the UnderWorld's so messed up right now; he's probably tearing it apart, looking for me. And when he finds out I'm not there, he'll tear up every other spot in Perim until he finds me."

"What do you want to do?"

"Go home."

"I mean right now."

"Right now…" I unconsciously rubbed a hand up and down the scar on my chest, the one Chaor had given me when he'd chucked the sword through my sternum, "Right now I just wanna hang out and act like I'm not stuck in the OverWorld and all of Perim isn't looking for me and I don't have an annoying bird-thing following me around twenty-four-seven."

"Okay then." Sarah got to her feet and dusted herself off, "Come on, let's go do something."

"Like what, there's nothing to do here. Why do you think I spend all day sleeping or pulling plants out of the ground?"

Sarah laughed at that but grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet, "Let's ask Garv if he knows how to make a love potion."

"A…a what!?" I sputtered, suddenly aware of how close she was.

"I was kidding! Come on, Kaz, you are not going to mope around all day!"

"But Sarah—!"

"Don't you "but Sarah" me!"

"Squeeennn!"

"SHUT UP, MICH!"


I woke up in my bed.

I must have fallen asleep when Garv was pointing out what a bunch of different plants did. Not that I'd remembered any of them. I yawned and rolled over onto my side, facing the door, but I didn't get up. I was still in a half-sleep daze.

What do I do when I get home? They'll probably think I was kidnapped. Which isn't that far from the truth, come to think of it.

I raised a hand to the side of my neck and felt the scar of where Varris had cut my throat. That seemed ages ago now.

But what about the scars? How will explain those? Torture? That might work. Heh, I can see it now; Mom would go into hysterics and Dad would get so angry he'd go all quiet like he does when he's royally pissed off.

I was beginning to wonder what I had liked about Perim in the first place. It had seemed so wonderful and mysterious and like it was the best thing in the world. Now it just seemed dark and dangerous and out for blood. I would probably never come back to this place.

No.

I definitely wouldn't come back here.

I sat up, pushing the blanket aside, and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. A dizzy spell smacked me in face and I fell to the floor. I wasn't as recovered as I'd led myself to believe.

Well that just plain sucked.

I wanted to get out, I wanted to go home. I was tired of being stuck in Perim, helpless to do anything, having to rely on other people to do everything for me. It infuriated me. But at the same time I was glad I'd had someone willing to save my life. And just one person, four people.

Four awesome people.

Tom.

Sarah.

Peyton.

H'earring.

I grabbed a handful of the blanket hanging down beside me and hauled myself up to my feet, shaking off the dizziness that had sent me down to the floor. Standing upright didn't last very long, however, because Peyton exploded through my door and shouted at the top of his voice,

"KAZ! YOU GOTTA RUN! NOW!"


Ach, I know it was short for a comeback chapter but that's because there's awesomeness in the next one.

I swear it.

Well, terrifying awesomeness.

Uuuuhhhhhmmmm…

Yeah.