Saturday 1:00 p.m.
All of us screamed at the same time. It briefly flittered through my mind that I would get to tease Hector that he screamed at a higher pitch than either Jess or I, but then the thought withered up and flew away in the face of our imminent demise. Before me, stood what could only be described as a giant talking lion. Giant. Talking. Lion. His muscular shoulders were momentarily scrunched as he slunk the way only a cat could through the doorway. I backpedaled quickly. There was no other exit. My heart thudded and my breathing was accelerating fast. Little pants escaping me, like a small animal that knows it's about to die.
"Don't be afraid, little ones," the cat monster said. His giant teeth glinted in the light. His reassurances did nothing for me. Jess and Hector were beside me. We were all slowly backing up into the corner of the room. I bumped into Hector, and that's when I decided to give up all hope. I felt completely trapped. My legs crumpled beneath me. I didn't expect to be caught, but somehow Hector caught me and slowly lowered me to the ground for a safe landing. He sank beside me, slowly. I was going to die beside my greatest tormentor. Jess was still on her feet, and she leaned over to squeeze my shoulder. My friend was going down fighting. Good for her.
"You are absurd." The cat said, and he lay down where he was and just looked at us. I blinked at him. He blinked back. From my angle, he looked more like an orange house cat, stretched out on a windowsill in the sun. Except for the feathers and the wings. In my initial terror at his enormous size and the fact that, well, he was a talking cat, I had missed them entirely. Under his fur on the back of his shoulders was a kind of downy fluff sticking out at odd places, and he had full-on feathered wings that matched the colors in his fur, oranges, and whites. I let out a breath.
"I don't eat children." The big cat offered.
"What are you?" Jess was the one who finally spoke.
"Me?" The big cat almost grinned at us, showing his giant teeth again. "I am a very old thing. You may call me Fryral."
"Fyral," Jess repeated. The sound was like part purr, part growl.
"Yes," replied the cat.
There was a long awkward silence before the cat looked around at us again, then focused on me, "You are Raina, David's child. He has shown me your photographs."
I let courage bubble up from somewhere inside of me and spoke to the cat. To Fryral. "You know my Dad?"
"Oh yes, for many years." He made a rumbling purr for emphasis, "I knew your father from before the great fall, back when magic was everywhere."
The three of us looked at each other. What was the cat-bird talking about?
"Certainly he told you the stories about the old times?" The cat rumbled, "About the time before the fall?"
The others looked at me, and I shook my head, "I... I mean, my dad told me lots of fairy tales at night. He told me one story he called 'The Great Fall,' but it was just a bedtime story."
"If your father told you a story, kitten, then it would be real." the cat nodded his orange head.
"What did your dad tell you, Raina?" Jess asked
"Tell us too," Hector demanded softly.
"You should tell them." the cat encouraged, "the old truth should never die."
I still did not trust that cat not to gobble us up, nor did I feel that bedtime stories mattered at this exact moment. But what else could I have done at the moment? A giant feathered cat was looking at me expectantly. I released a breath. Why not? Let's go for absolute absurdity.
"My dad was the storyteller." I shook my head, which was starting to buzz and vibrate with a thousand unwelcome thoughts. If the cat was a very old creature', what did that make my dad? And I still hadn't processed what it meant about the bracelet. I shook my head again and ran a hand through my hair. One thing at a time. "But I can try and tell you what I remember."
"Yeah, Ok. Some answers are better than none." Jess slowly joined me on the floor, keeping a wary eye on the cat. Good. I wasn't the only one still freaked the frack out.
"Once upon a time, magic was everywhere, surrounding everybody like water surrounds fish...or light surrounds a flame. Nobody thought about where it came from. Magic just was. It was around everything and in everything. Magic connected everything to everything else like a... web. Like the light within you to the light within me, and the light within him to the light within Fryral and back and forth and so on and so on. Light everywhere. My father always got really poetic here and talked about all kinds of stuff, but I'll skip it." I sighed and looked at my audience. They were listening pretty attentively to what I assumed only moments before to be a children's story I hadn't heard in years.
I continued, "Anyway, one day, something happened, something terrible. It happened in an instant. A fraction of a second. Magic, the web of light, connecting all things— shattered. And the whole world went crazy because they were so dependent on that connection, that magic. Nobody knew what to do. Some species were hit hardest. Any dragon flying fell from the sky. Dragons were like bumblebees; they aren't supposed to be aerodynamically capable of flight, so it was magic that let them fly."
"So, then are bees magic?" It was Jess, scrunching up her nose, trying to logic all this out.
I only shrugged since I didn't know as much, "Maaaaybe?"
"Mmmm." She settled back into deep thought, "Continue." she waved me forward.
"Like I was saying, hundreds of dragons fell from the sky and died. The ones that weren't flying couldn't breathe fire anymore either."
"Like dinosaurs, then?" The question came from Hector this time.
"Wha?" I just gawped at him.
"They couldn't fly, couldn't breathe fire. Just big lizards, right?"
"Look. I don't know, man. I'm not a paleontologist or a bug-ologist, or a dragon-ologist. Just let me finish the story."
"Fine. Geez."
We both huffed, but I continued, "Other species didn't do so well either. Dwarves had enhanced sight and sense of direction but, without magic, got lost in their underground mountain homes and mines. Many mine shafts that were reinforced with magic collapsed, killing and cutting off escape for thousands. The elves didn't die right away, but because they were so closely tied into the magic web, it was like they were sensory deprived, like when humans go into those sensory deprivation chamber thingies. The elves felt like they lost gravity, sight, hearing, so much all at once. I mean, of course, they still had all those things. It just wasn't the same. Over time, they kind of went out of their minds. Some walked over cliffs or tried to fly off trees. They forgot to eat or drink. Some wandered into human villages and were cared for by humans. But most died off. Many other magical species died as well because their food sources died off. If part of the food chain, like a magical plant or something that was the primary food source for a creature died, then the creature died. It was an ecological disaster... for years, the world was upside down, until humans were able to tame it without using magic." I sighed and got quiet.
"The end? That's the end?" It was Hector again.
"I've got to agree with Hector, here. Kind of anticlimactic." Jess cut me eyes like I was holding something back.
I threw my hands in the air. "I don't know what you want me to say."
"Like how it got lost to start with and why it might be back?" Jess was quick on the take.
"I don't know that." I massaged my head a bit. "That's the whole story."
"Hardly." chuckled the cat.
"Well, what do you know?" Asked Hector.
"Why should I tell you?" Asked Fryral.
"Typical cat!" Hector scoffed, "knows all, says nothing." Then he turned to me, "You know, if I could read his mind, I'd tell you what he knew, right?"
I opened my mouth to ask him why he'd help me out instead of keeping the info for himself but thought better of it. I closed my mouth with a pop.
The old cat laughed and looked at me. "Got yourself a thrall already, I see."
Those words made no sense. "What?"
The cat kept chuckling good-naturedly. "It's just that you looked at me when I walked in like I was the most dangerous creature you'd ever seen. Almost as though you'd never looked into a mirror, little kitten."
"What?" I asked again, just as Jess added,
"Now, hold on just a second!"
"I mean no disrespect, offspring of my friend. I simply find it amusing that he never told you what you were." His eyes rolled to the side, leisurely. "Then, given his past... how could he?"
"What?" I shook my head. Was this cat speaking English?
The cat-bird looked vaguely bored and sniffed. "A word weaver. A siren if you please. The most dangerous of powers in the hands of a human. The magic of words. The power to command others to do your bidding. If people spend a lot of time around you, they begin to fall in love or develop the deepest of affection. They become your thrall. They would do anything for you."
Shivers ran up my spine and arms at his words. I shook my head again, vigorously this time. This cat was bonkers.
"It's true small one. The sound of your voice itself breeds loyalty and affection. That is beyond your commands. You cannot help it." Here he turned over a massive paw, "which is why you should put the bracelet back on." In the pads of his paw, glimmered my bracelet. He turned his foot over and nudged it forward to me.
I did not move to retrieve it.
"Suit yourself." The cat stood, and Hector gasped an involuntary sound of surprise at the sudden movement, "but don't say I didn't warn you. Few of your kind can control your tongue."
I stared at the bracelet on the floor, my mind spinning and my stomach doing somersaults. The cat walked back out the door with feline agility and was gone.
"What. The. Hell?" Jess whispered
I shrugged, absently, still trying to process what he'd revealed about the powers I might possess.
Hector picked up my bracelet and held it out to me. I didn't want it. My dad had given it to me as a lie. It wasn't just some ordinary gift. It was a shiny cage for a monster. I mean, it sure as hell sounded like I was a monster. The way the cat had graciously described the matter. But whatever I was, my own father would have rather held me back than just tell me I was dangerous. He didn't trust me. Which meant I couldn't trust him. Hell, I didn't even know the man like I thought I did. If I was some dangerous magical freak, he'd made me, hadn't he? He'd been the one to lie to me about everything I am. I felt a shiver run through my body.
"I don't want it." I was adamant. I wouldn't be chained.
Hector shrugged and put it in his pocket.
My darker thoughts about my dad and my whole life were interrupted by a buzzing from my pocket. Then another and another in rapid succession. What the heck? I also heard multiple chimes from Jess's phone. Why were we both getting notifications all at once?
I watched as Jess pulled out her phone. I was slower to pull mine out, assuming my texts were from my dad and I didn't much care what he had to say. I heaved a deep sigh. My life as I knew it, seemed ruined. Here I stood in a room of precious jewels and I was hollow inside, worthless, because the one person who I thought loved me most, apparently hated me enough to chain me up like an animal. Maybe I was an animal. Who even knew?
Jess was reading over her messages and her face scrunched up then I heard her chuckle. That was a good sign.
"I got a text from Sarah telling me to stay put at your place since... and this is a direct quote... things have gone "crazy outside". She said there was a mini riot downtown."
"Dang." Was the only thing I could think to offer by way of comment.
"I also got a text from my gran. She also says for me to take shelter but she says it's the end of times and the Lord is gonna be comin' back any minute and I need to get right and say my prayers and all. She also reminded me to not forget to eat my lunch. The Lord wouldn't want to meet me on an empty stomach." I took it that was what made her giggle.
"Nobody would want to meet you on an empty stomach." I shrugged. "You get hangry." Jess's gran was a practical woman. Very thoughtful.
"I wonder if there's food down here?" Hector asked. "It is past lunch time and I'm starved."
"I dunno," I answered offhand. I let myself reach into my pocket and pull out my own phone. My damnable curiosity had won again. What if it wasn't dad? I was not expecting what met my eyes.
SY: Where are you?
SY: Thought you were stopping by after you dropped off Jess.
SY: I'm worried I can't reach you.
SY: Call or txt me as soon as you get this.
SY: Some shit gone down. Txt me.
SY: hyhskiyyhllllllllll
What the heck was all that? I kept reading and my breath caught in my throat.
SY: Rain, they killed my dad.
SY: He's dead.
SY: You gotta help me. They say you have this heart rock, and if you don't bring it to 5679 Field Ave. I'm next.
What the hell??? I was hyperventilating now, and I barely heard Jess ask me what was wrong. I kept glancing at the phone. There was more. How was there more?
SY: WE HAVE YOUR FRIEND. DO AS WE SAY. YOU HAVE 8 HOURS TO COMPLY.
I dropped the phone like it was a snake that bit me.
"What's your problem?" Hector looked at me like I'd gone insane, which maybe I had.
Who could tell crazy from sane these days?
He picked up the phone and turned it over in his giant hand. I supposed checking to see if it had actually had teeth to bite me.
"Sy!" I panted out. "They kidnapped Sy!"
"Just calm down a minute." Jess tried to keep me rational, but that bird had flown the coop.
"I need to find my parents. They can help."
Jess, who had snatched the phone from Hector and read the messages suddenly concurred with me. She may not care too much for Sy, but she knew trouble when she saw it. "Yeah. For sure. We need to find your parents," Jess concurred.
"No argument from me!" Hector chimed in.
We all walked back to the entrance, but Jess beat me to the stairs, and trotted gracefully up them. I huffed a sigh and followed at my typical stair-snail pace. I heard a whispered curse from above me.
"What is it?" I groaned.
"The door's jammed!" Jess called down to me.
I repeated her earlier swear in my mind. "Great," I added out loud.
"Outta the way." Hector pushed me aside, and I had to hug the wall and the stair rail tightly as he headed up too. I suppose to check the situation for himself.
"You're not pulling hard enough."
"Move over, dork. I'm pulling just fine."
"Why's it not opening, then?"
I listened to Jess and Hector bicker, all while holding on to the rail for dear life. I was worried their scuffle would result in them falling, which would mean I'd end up tumbling down myself. Breaking my leg was not how I wanted to end this shit-tastic day.
"It's magicked shut." The rumbling voice of Fryral from the bottom of the stairs made me jump. Drat that cat.
"Ahhh!" I screamed when my foot nearly slipped off the stair. Luckily, I caught myself.
"You are very jumpy for a dragon-child," The cat told me.
"I'm not a dragon," I barked.
"You have a dragon's stubbornness." He said and turned to go.
"Wait!" I called and, against my better judgment, began to climb down the stairs, "Don't disappear again!" The cat paused and looked over his shoulder at me. "How do you know it's magicked shut?"
"I can see spectrums of light your eyes cannot. Your father must have magicked it shut."
And with that, Fryral began to slink off once more.
"Oh my God! For heaven's sake! Wait!" I called out again. My father had trapped us all down here. Why? Certainly not to be cat food. I hoped. At any rate, this cat knew things. "Please!"
Just as I scrambled to the bottom of the stairs, Jess and Hector at my back, Fryral turned. He walked back to me. His head was nearly as tall as my own. My heart was hammering in my chest when he spoke again. "What do you want? Daughter of Dragons?"
"Help." I sputtered, "I want help."
The cat bird chortled, "Well, you would, wouldn't you. But you'll need to be more specific. There is only so much an old thing such as I can do, little one."
"I need to get out of here. I don't know why my dad locked us up, but I want out. I want to find him. I need to help my friend."
"Well, there is another door down here to the outside world, but you will not want to use it." The cat warned.
"Oh! I think we do." Hector intoned dryly behind me. "We want outta this magic cage."
"Yep." Jess popped the p of her assent. Clearly not caring for the idea of being locked up like a trio of criminals.
"Very well." The cat led us down the hall to a door which opened for him, though he did not touch it. "Here you are."
We all peeked through and were met with a blast of hot air. Before us stretched sands as far as we could see.
"What the shit is this?" Asked Hector, peering back at the cat.
"My flying grounds," the cat replied. "I don't stay here all day."
"It's the desert," deadpanned Jess.
"Yes." affirmed the cat, "you call it the Sahara."
"So... the only way out takes us to Africa?"
"I told you—you would not want to go that way." The cat sighed and rolled his eyes. The door shut with a bang. We all jumped as one, though Hector tried to play it off.
"You don't have to get all huffy about it," he said to the cat.
As big as he was, I figured Fryral could get as huffy as he wanted about whatever he wanted.
"You children really know nothing of the ways of magic, or you would know you were not trapped here. Everything you need is in the artifact room."
"Artifact... you mean the room with the magic stuff?" I asked stupidly, "Something in there can get us out?"
The cat sighed dramatically, "Dear girl. It can help you. But she can get you out." The cat inclined his head toward Jess.
Jess glanced around the space. "You mean, when I disappeared before?" her eyebrows rose. "I can just... do that again?" I could almost feel the lightbulb go on over both our heads. Pop!
"Carefully," replied the cat, "since you are new, you risk getting stuck in that place between places, but yes. If you have done it before, you can do it again." The cat surveyed my friend from head to toe. "I see the traveler's magic all over you. It's strong." Her eyes flipped to Hector for a fraction of a second. "Just as the mentalist magic is strong with him." The cat turned away from Jess and headed toward me. Slowly and all too carefully. "And her siren's magic is the strongest... and brightest I have ever seen."
I gulped. In my all but four hours experience with it, magic caused nothing but trouble. I bit my lip. But I sure as hell didn't want to be stuck here for God knew how long. Still, I hated to rely on magic, something I knew nothing about, to get us out. I certainly did not want to hear about it being all over me. I felt dirty all of a sudden. But before I could get lost in my own thoughts, Jess's voice pulled me back.
"How do I?" Jess faltered, "I mean, I don't know how I did it before."
"I am no teacher." The cat shook his great head, "I was a warrior in my youth, but for you, I will try." He began to walk to the artifact room once again. "Come," He urged us.
I followed him as if in a stupor. What in the world is going to happen now?
"What do you know of light?" the cat asked.
"It's a particle and a wave?" Jess offered.
"It moves at 300,000 km per second," Hector added.
I gave Hector an astounded look. Who knew he paid attention in physics last year? He just shrugged at me. My mind was blank beyond what the two of them had stated. Light was weird. We didn't know much about it. I mean, they were still experimenting with it at a molecular level. The old cat only chuffed.
"Human understanding has weakened." He shook his head, his whiskers brushing past me, tickling my arms. I shivered. "Light is magic, little cubs." His voice rumbled, "To have one is to have the other."
"So in Dad's story..." I began, "when he called magic 'the light within us', that wasn't just some kind of metaphor?"
"Not at all." The cat bird smiled broadly, pleased I suppose, that I understood something. "Light connected everything in the old times. It has since become... how would I put this... untethered."
The big cat continued his journey into the treasure room, where he walked into the center of the floor and flopped down bonelessly. "Well, gather round!" he ordered. Impatience in his voice again. Of course, we complied, scurrying like mice behind him. "What did your father tell you of an artifact called the Dragon's heart?"
"That's what the people in the text asked about!" Jess practically hollered." What they wanted us to find and bring to them." In the confined space, it echoed and grated on both my ears and nerves. I scowled at her.
"My dad told me the story." I rolled my eyes. More with the bedtime stories. This was such horseshit. I was sitting in a room full of treasure. Beside a giant cat who might eat me, talking about fairy tales that might be real. Again. What was this, even?
"So you knew what the artifact the guy in the Walmart parking lot was talking about and didn't think to tell me?" Jess barked at me.
I looked at her like she grew another head. "What did it matter?" I threw up my hands, "he was clearly out of his gourd."
"Clearly not," Hector spoke up.
Jess just reached out and shoved me.
"Be polite." the cat said in a lazy voice, "I'll not tolerate roughhousing cubs. I'm old and tired." His voice was gruff, and we all straightened up and looked at him warily. When something with teeth that big gives you orders, you tend to obey.
"Yeah. Yeah. Sure." Jess nodded emphatically to Fryral, "I just want to know what she knows."
"Tell her then." The cat looked at me and inclined his enormous head toward Jess.
I swallowed. Another story? But I wasn't about to say boo to Fryral one way or another. I nodded. "Ok. Um, sure. Let me see what I remember." I took a moment, pacing the space around me, trying to bring back old memories of story time with Dad. "It's another Once Upon A time..." I took a deep breath and began, trying to tell it exactly like my father did when I was little. "There was a Dwarven King who was taking samples of dwarven armor and weapons to a human noble for trade. On the way there, something happened, and one of their people was injured and one of their wagons was damaged. Because of this, the small caravan was forced to stop their journey just outside of a small farm belonging to a human man and his family. It was the farmer's oldest daughter, a shepherd girl, who was out tending the herd, who saw the traveling party and invited them to stay the night. She had a little healing magic and did her best to help the injured dwarf, saving his life.
The girl's name was Aithne, and her hair was the color of molten copper in the sun. The dwarven King found her beautiful beyond anything he had seen under the mountain. No jewel could compare to her fiery hair, her emerald eyes, her brilliant smile. But her beauty was only a flicker compared to her soul fire. Her pure heart, her care of those in her charge, be they animal or human, the way she worked hard at all she did. The King kept making excuses to extend his stay at the little farmhouse, and by the time he left a week later, he was smitten with her.
"So the dwarf kind had the hots for a human. Got it," Hector interrupted. "What does this have to do with an artifact?"
"I'm getting there," I said through gritted teeth. "What are you? Five? I'm telling the story the way it was told to me, alright? Just chill."
Hector crossed his arms and huffed like a scolded child. I continued.
"Aaaanyway...all the way to the capital city, the King dreamed of Aithene walking through the tall grass, chatting with her siblings, laughing at a joke he told. Just ordinary things seemed to shine when she was involved. He began to have ideas about sending his brother back on his behalf to negotiate with her father for her hand in marriage because that was how these things were done. Women and men did not talk directly about dating or marriage in those days. And Young King Boudewine, knew of no other way to make Aithene his wife.
When at last he arrived for his meeting with the nobility, he was greeted with great ceremony. The humans he was trading with were warring with their neighbors and were desperate for dwarven-forged armor and weapons to give themselves an advantage. His people were offered large amounts of grain and trade goods in return for outfitting the human Duke's army. The final offering was brought before him during the feast, and it was the Duke's own daughter. The Duke was so earnest in his effort to forge an alliance with the mountain folk, he was proposing his own child be wed to the King to solidify the arrangement. The Dwarven King froze. He did not want to insult this human noble, and his daughter was fair, but his heart had already been stolen away. Thankfully, before the novice King could open his mouth and say something to damn himself, his younger brother, who always knew his mind, spoke for him. 'Good Duke, if I might say, your offer is most generous. Most generous indeed. But my brother has his eye on a woman he means to wed... but he has not yet brokered the deal. Perhaps if you could help us arrange this matter...'And before his eyes, his brother and the human Duke struck an accord. When he returned with the weapons and armor in two months' time, the grain and linens and other items his people needed would be waiting, and so would his queen."
Hector stared at me; his mouth hung slightly open. "Wow...and he's told you this story how many times?"
I shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "It was my favorite."
"Well, that sucks." It was Jess who commented this time. "Nobody asked Aithene."
"I guess it sucked to be a woman in general during those times. You just sort of got stuck with who you got stuck with. Like... whoever your dad married you off to. That's what makes the second part of the story kind of sweet." I shrugged and continued with the story.
"Upon hearing the news, the King's heart dropped to his stomach, then fluttered back up to his throat. He would be a proper wedded monarch, starting his own lineage. All the way back, he thought of her until he reached the mountains and entered the dark halls. It then dawned on him that among other problems that his people might have with his bringing in a human queen, her human eyes would not see so well in the dark. He began to work to create a solution because Dwarves are nothing if not craftsmen. All through the mountains, dwarves store light in specialized crystal shards that give off a small glow, enabling Dwarven sight to work in what, to a human, would be virtual blackness. The King gathered many of these crystals, and he forged them with magical dwarven means. He gathered more than had ever been forged together before, he cut them and shaped them with facets inside of facets. He then took another type of stone, precious in its rarity, a stone similar to opal in appearance but harder than a diamond, and brought all he had to the Great Dragon Priestess, for only dragon flame could melt this stone. He told her what he wanted to do with this crystal he was forging, and she commended him. She helped him by blowing flame into her melting pot, and he dropped in the basket of stones; they melted, and he placed the forged crystal inside. The stones were absorbed by the crystal, increasing their ability to hold and store light. The dragon breathed again, and the crystal was complete. When the King hung it in the great chamber, it glowed like a tiny sun. And became a symbol of what you do when you care for somebody. You think of their needs first. And over the years, it became known as the Dragon Heart because of the way the Great Dragon Priestess helped the Drwaven King forge it. Also because the crystal itself was red like the color of a dragon's flame. And yes, before you ask, they did live happily ever after. The Queen fell in love with her mountain home and the King, who devoted himself to her happiness. They ruled the kingdom together with love, wisdom and devotion. They had five children, all with their mother's red hair, and each child went on to have successful lives and many children of their own. So much so, that red-haired dwarves became common in modern fairy tales, but no dwarf ever had red hair before Queen Aithene."
I finally took a breath, since I sped that last part up and looked at the people around me. Jess had her head tilted, while Hector's brow was scrunched.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Hector asked, seeming mildly outraged. "All these stories have no point!"
Before I could yell at him not to blame me, the big cat chuckled, "you are a thick-headed cub. That crystal stores light. When the magic web shattered, nothing was at its center anymore, holding it together. This small artifact—which holds more light than anything on this earth—can temporarily be a hub for a web. When it stores enough light and the crystal discharges that light, magic is restored in a small radius around it. It has been this way since the fall. But it is an unpredictable thing. Sometimes it goes decades between activation. Sometimes one hundred years. Sometimes only five. It never lasts longer than a week. But during that time, magic is returned to mankind. Magical artifacts, like the ones in this room, may be recharged. This is the secret of your father's continued youth. Artifacts to extend his life. I, myself have done the same." The big cat huffed a breathy sigh, "though my time on this earth is finally coming to a close. This is the last time I will see the Dragon's Heart discharge her spark into the world."
I reached my hand out to the great cat then pulled it back. There was a sadness there I did not understand how to comfort, though I wanted to. He was a creature beyond me. He was alone, and I could feel his ache. In the end, I threw caution to the wind and touched his massive furry paw. He looked at me, and he chuffed out a sigh. His breath was hot on my face, but I was no longer scared. That fear was replaced by a wide and deep emptiness I couldn't shake. The world was not what I thought it was, and it never would be again. I would have shed a tear, but I felt too tired. The cat looked into my eyes, and I looked back at him. He saw me in that moment. I felt he saw my whole life stretch out before him. Past, present, and future. I felt dizzy with the vulnerability of all my flaws being laid bare like that, but whatever he saw, the cat only nodded.
"What you need to leave is in one of those locked drawers. On the bottom row, fifth from the left. It is an amulet travelers use, helping them concentrate their power. It is especially useful to those new to their craft. It will make it easier for the young one to take you along when she travels. The heart you seek is in the top row to the far left."
Hector stood and walked over to the wall, counted upwards to reach the correct drawer, and then looked back dumbfounded. "You say it's locked, but there isn't even a place for a key!"
The cat chuckled again. "You have a key." The cat looked at me, "let your siren open the box. In magic, you must learn to use what you have. The three of you are incredibly powerful. Never forget that but never overestimate it either. Confidence mixed with caution is key to survival."
I opened my mouth because that was just a lot. He wanted me to what, speak the box open?
"Tell it to open sesame," Jess suggested with a hand on one jutted out hip, "I wanna get out of here."
I sighed, "Open up," I commanded pitifully.
"You have to mean it," said the cat, "especially when speaking to spell an inanimate object,"
My jaw locked and I gritted my teeth. Alright. Let's try this again. I closed my eyes and began to focus, tuning out everything around me except for the sound of my breathing, thinking of nothing but the stone. I blinked under closed eyes, Something prickled along the back of my neck like icy fingers. I shuddered but stayed focused. "Open. UP!" I said once more —loudly this time, in case the drawer was deaf. All of a sudden, every drawer along the wall began to shudder. The icy fingers that prickled at my neck now seemed to be surrounding my body like a billion teeny cold needles. I wrapped my arms around myself. What was happening? Then BANG! All the doors to all the drawers flew open. Once they did, the temperature of the room seemed to return to normal.
"That was a powerful spell," the cat bird remarked, "and you broke the whole thing, not just the one you were aiming for."
"Perhaps, I didn't properly aim."
"Always properly aim." Admonished the cat. "Still, problem solved. You have the traveler's talisman."
Jess picked it up and said, "So how do I use this again?"
"I am not a traveler, but I am told you simply hold it and think of where you want to go. Picture it clearly in your mind. Those who wish to travel with you should be holding onto you."
"Thank you," said Jess.
"Yes. Thank you Fryral." I wanted to hug him, but one never knew with cats if that was welcome.
"Yeah, thanks! For everything." Hector surprised me by being polite.
"You are welcome, cubs. I am going to take a nap before my night flight. Please be careful and do not die."
"Um. OK." I waved to him, and he slunk through the door and was gone once more.
"So, where to?" Jess asked, holding the talisman and flipping it over and over in her palm.
"My dad probably took the car and went wherever when he ditched us here," I said, thinking out loud.
"Well, I have several cars at my house," Hector offered, "cause don't even suggest we go back to yours to get your car. Your house was all broken into and busted up. Who knows if it's safe? No dragons or whatever are after me. My house and my cars are the safest option."
I scowled. He wasn't wrong.
"I've never been to your place," Jess pointed out, "How am I gonna zap us there?"
Hector thought for a moment. "I have a picture of my living room on my phone from the last party I had. Would that help?"
"Couldn't hurt," Jess sighed, then added, "this is so bizarre."
"Hey, wait!" Hector called out, let's not forget the Heart!" Hector pulled out a large crystal from one of the now open drawers. It was sitting about eye level with himself. He grabbed it and tossed it in both his hands. It was blood red and about the size of a basketball, though not perfectly round. There were facets deep inside and I had an irrational fear that looking directly in it would somehow suck out my very soul. It hummed in my head, and I felt that strong minty tingle again.
"We should put that in a bag, as soon as possible." I shuddered a bit.
Jess gave us both a questioning look then she began to concentrate on the picture of Hector's living room. We each grabbed hold of Jess's shoulder, and she clasped the talisman in her hands. The next thing I knew, my stomach had that feeling like I was in an elevator but everything around me was pitch black. Then, there was a jolt, and the lights came back on. I squinted to see an unfamiliar place.
"You did it!" Hector crowed.
"Yay!" Jess said weakly before flopping onto the plush white carpet.