The Assembly of Thirteen: The First Two Companions

CHAPTER 3

Blue and Light

Late spring, Quetza Year 798

Lady Starr remembered clearly when June and her dog of light and stone emerged from the womb of the Queen Blue Tree. That was an eventful night. Nightly, from the moment June started her change, the Headmistress had her most trusted guards protecting the tree. They sat by the tree looking at everything. A member of Lord Randall and Headmistress van Ryland's inner circle kept watch over the trio of the High Blue Trees from dusk till dawn. The trees disappeared during the day and created their own protection, so only the night hours were truly perilous. Lord Randall would take the last watch of the evening almost every night.

On that occasion, however, Lady Starr took the last watch of the night's vigil, and on that cold, early morning, June emerged from her encasement. The dog was born first. A green moss completely covered the hound. Only his silhouette was visible. His form was growing with the passage of time, but the shape of the dog could not be mistaken. As his cocoon slowly cracked opened, one huge paw came out first, just like when every pup was born. He pushed on his home, made of stone and bark, pushing until his paws were completely out. His claws made a hole large enough, and then he got his head and body out, leaving his cocoon behind. His shape was unmistakable. He was a gigantic wolf-like animal. No longer a dog; not a simple wolf either. He was now a chimera of some sort. His body was all muscle. His short fur changed color like the skin of a chameleon. Any light made him transition and blend with his surroundings.

One moment he was there, the next he was gone—altered, fused, healthy, a new being, transformed by the tree and stone. He went from being a dog to something resembling an in-between animal: a wolf and a chameleon. The animal cleaned himself. He shook several times, paced and stretched, then started to lick and softly kick the cocoon of his mistress. Lady Starr was fascinated by what she had just witnessed. The birth of a Companion to a Companion Judge.

As the hound continued to scratch, lick, and push on his mistress's encasement from the bottom, the bark on top started to give way. The clear, hard outer bark of the shell dropped little by little, showing a transparent membrane in its wake. The Judge inside opened her eyes briefly. She moved slowly, and each delicate movement broke more of the outer bark. The clear membrane placenta encasing June for almost a year became thin as it was exposed to the air. She moved, and the membrane stretched. June lifted an arm and pushed open the membrane by her neck. Several transparent sheets of gel covered her body.

Her head and shoulders moved, and were pushed out through the hole she made with her nails. Like a newborn baby, her first breath came with a deep inhalation. Another exhalation came next, and a soft scream. She was all wet and covered in the watery, gel-like tree sap. Lady Starr approached her and talked ever so softly. Cleaning June's face, she said, "My lady, breathe slowly. I'll wipe the sap from your face. You are safe. Take your time." As Starr kept cleaning her face, June kept blinking and waking little by little.

June tried to assess her body. She started with her head. Her hands were moving, and the gel covering most of her body was leaking out of her tree-made placenta as she moved her legs.

June's head lifted. She opened her eyes and tried to see who was talking. The Voice came out of the confines of the tree. A familiar voice, a voice that spoke and sang. An imprinted memory in her head keeping her at peace. As she regained her bearings and remembered the who, what, where, and how, the one thing left was the why. She remembered the Blue Tree had tricked her with its light and her traitor of a dog pushed her.

Could this be a prank? To be forced inside of a locker for an afternoon was a prank; to be encased in a tree for what appeared to be a year was not a prank. Time had passed, that much she knew. She remembered seeing the beautiful colors of autumn and feeling the dryness of the winter air. June knew the song of the funky-looking birds with black bodies, red tails, and yellow feet. Birds sang to her in the spring and made nests in her tree in the warmth of the sun in the summer.