The Call of the Beachwick

Chapter 23: Skuttle

When Aurelia and Kesi landed it was with a hard crack. Unceremoniously, their bodies were dumped on a wooden floor and her bottom completely fractured its surface falling right through. The shock of hitting the floor sent a jolt of pain up her spine and she was doing her best not to throw Kesi off of her. Somehow, in the transfer process, the two had managed to switch places.

"No!" Kesi frantically screamed, making her way to her hoofs. Aurelia tried to hold her back disoriented by the journey, but Kesi threw her hand off as if it was nothing more than a discarded cloth. Instead, she tried to get up, but the minute she pushed herself off the floor for leverage, it collapsed through the wooden planks to almost immediately hit an entirely different surface a few inches in. Once more she was confused. She felt a slight grainy texture that was supple to the touch. Unsure of what it was, she thought it had a familiar feeling about it that reminded her of the natural characteristics of leather.

"Take me back!" Kesi demanded.

"Kesi, please calm down. I need you to—," Aurelia stopped suddenly realizing where she was.

It was her room. The same room she had grown up in and lived her whole life. Still half-hazardly tidied up from her nightmarish tumble only two nights ago, Aurelia could see nothing had changed except for the towel that Darby had set out for her, now thrown across a chair. She remembered tossing it to its current resting place after she got changed to join Darby, then leaving as she closed the door behind her. Just to be sure, she checked the door and found that it remained shut.

"How..." she stammered turning back to Kesi who was pouting like a youngling not getting a treat. Thepa's spirit had done a lot for her, but something told Aurelia it couldn't have transported the two of them across space. Briefly, she wondered if it was even the same time of day and found her eyes instantly drawn to the window. However, the sun did little to quell her suspicions. The best she could figure was it was mid-morning.

"Kesi, can you please calm down? Maybe we can discuss things with a cup of tea."

"Calm down? Mother, do you know what you've done to me? YOU'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME!"

"Hey, that isn't—"

"My life is gone! My brothers and sisters are scattered. Eliza she..." Kesi tried to say, but at the mention of Eliza, she started to choke up once more. Tenderly, Aurelia went up to her, arms outstretched, but Kesi weakly refused by trying to push her away. Embolden by her weak action, Aurelia tried to wrap her in a hug, but a slap to the face grinded her to a halt.

"KESI WARBOL!"

"Leave me alone mother. If you can't take me back to the Goddess's temple than leave me here for death. I welcome it with open arms. Only she knows what it's like to be loved. Only she can bring back Eliza."

Aurelia's jaw dropped in surprise as her eyes widened in disbelief. Kesi had gone too far. This wasn't her daughter, not by a long shot. Something drastic had changed in the last two days they had been apart. If she didn't know any better, she might have thought the young woman in front of her was more Eliza than Kesi.

"I understand you're angry Badger, but bad manners are not—"

"You and your silly notions of manners. You have made my life nothing more than a sea of death and destruction and all you care about are manners? Eliza was right. You never loved me."

"I have never stopp—"

"You never could. Only true love comes from the Goddess."

Aurelia took a deep breath, fighting to quell the rising tide of anger within her. Despite Kesi's hurtful words, she knew that responding in kind would only escalate the situation further. Instead, she focused on maintaining her composure, her mind racing to find a way to break through the wall of resentment that had built up between the two of them. As Kesi's blue eyes bore into hers with an intensity that matched her own, Aurelia searched for a glimmer of understanding that could bridge the divide between their two hearts. Just as she was about to ask Esha for strength, a single word echoed in her mind.