Destiny calls, p.12
Destiny Calls, page 12
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Two moons peered up at us from the water in the lagoon, and a mist floated into shore ahead.
“I have to rethink my future, given my prophecy and all of what has happened on this trip. My parents want me to take over the Mikula Inn when they are too old to manage it.
Futures and prophecies—it's all so confusing,” I said, noticing how thick the fog was setting in.
“What is your prophecy?”
“This will be a shock to you, perhaps, but I am predestined to be the caretaker of the temple.”
“I don't think that is so shocking.”
“That worries Henry. He thinks it means that he will be assigned somewhere else or that he will die. He doesn't know. I suppose he'd had planned to be in the temple for all his life. The temple has boundless power. Incredible power.
To be the caretaker of such a place, it’s just magnificent.”
“Sounds magical. Where does the power come from?” I snuggled closer to him as we walked.
“I asked my father that question when I was younger. The crystals that form the heart of the Tree of Life that is at the center of the temple came from the center of the planet. It's said that 188
the core of the planet is the hub of the universe's power because this is where the physical world and spiritual world meet. It is as if the entire universe connects with the eternal down there.
At least, that's how it was explained to me.
Those who built the temple also mined the crystals. They claim that Ur's core is beautiful beyond description. Some of the miners wanted to stay there. Still, eventually the Parcae compelled them to go back to the surface to be with their families. Around the time we started noticing problems on the continent, an earthquake shook the entire mountain.”
“Fascinating. I never heard any of this before,” I said. “Was your father one of those who wanted to stay down there?”
“He wanted us all to live down there, but there was no water or food. It's not a place to live. Let's stand here and watch the sea.” Wesu pulled be closer to him. “There's something I want to tell you.”
The
moonlight
accentuated
Wesu's
cheekbones and made his green eyes shimmer.
His manner was happy, but I could tell he was preoccupied.
I draped the cloak around my shoulders as the mist drew closer. He put his hands on my 189
shoulders and turned me toward him, then wrapped his arms around my waist. My heart pounded, and a dreamlike joy swept over me.
He looked directly into my eyes. “I can't help how I feel about you. It’s something that either happens or doesn't happen. Since the moment I met you, I knew that I wanted you to stay with me at the temple. My house behind the temple isn't much, but it's enough for the two of us.
When I take over the temple, I will stay in the master's quarters.
“Elise, you are brave and beautiful. I’ve been wanting to kiss you since the moment I saw you.” He gently pressed closer to me. He kissed my lips. Excitement shot through me. Feelings that I had never pulsated through each sinew of my body.
He was strong, smart and gorgeous. What more could a girl want? And now, on this trip upending my life, love.
He pulled me closer. Wesu seemed to face me for another kiss. Instead, he traced his finger down my chin to my clavicle. “That insignia. I've seen it before—the four arrows. Henry has that on his chest too.”
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“This was on a chain that was given to my parents by the elf who sold them my seed. I put on the chain on my fourteenth birthday, then it disappeared. It melded with my skin.”
Wesu pushed a tuft of hair out of his eyes. “It must be your family emblem.”
“I'd bet that Undine and Noma have one too.”
I opened his shirt. Seeing his chest caused a bit of thrill, but I noticed that there was no emblem on him.
He chuckled. “Our family doesn't have one of those.”
He looked squarely into my eyes. “I want to get back to what we were talking about before.
Let's sit down under this tree,” he said. “There's another reason I brought you out here tonight.
I never gave you your birthday present.” We sat down under a red tree and Wesu reached into his pocket. Out came a gold bracelet with small bulbs at each end.
“I wore this when I was younger. My father gave it to me, and I want you to have it.” I opened the bracelet and snapped it on my wrist.
“My father said that it had magic, but it never did anything for me. Maybe you can get it to work.”
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An encompassing warmth spread from my chest to my feet. An infinity knot decorated the center of the bracelet. Looking at it, I was silenced by my intense feelings.
“Happy Birthday, Elise.” Wesu kissed me on each cheek and then a sweet kiss on my mouth.
The excitement from his kiss and warm affection caused my heart to flutter and my insides to melt into a happy, sweet pool of butter.
We stayed with each other on soft grass until the mist overcame us. A chill settled in the air, and we decided to head back to Thema and Millie. The mist had become a fog so thick that it seemed that I could reach out and grab a chunk.
I jumped back. “I heard something out there.
Stop.”
Wesu leaned forward, listening. The mist cleared slightly.
Several hulking masses stood in front of us.
Their gooey purple leaves covered with barnacles. Water dripped from their faces.
“Run, let’s run!” I screamed. “Those weren't there before! Wesu, what are we going to do?”
My legs grew weak.
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“Those are Esurian seaweed!” He stepped in behind me.
I turned around. “Wesu? Where are you?” I backed up, shuddering.
Behind the large mass of seaweed stood four more masses, gooey and hissing. The fog, thick around them made it impossible to tell if there were any more behind them.
My feet froze to the ground. Terrified, I wanted to run but couldn't.
The closest Esurian stiffened before letting out a blood-curdling screech. Slime covered vines crawled toward me, encircling my ankles.
Before I knew it, I had fallen to the ground. The seaweed pulled me toward the water; more seaweed wrapped around my shoulders. I thought of the mother and the children who'd been dragged into the water. “Wesu!” Where had he gone? I tried to break free from the creature’s grip. The Esurian, smelling like rotten fish, wrapped a purple vine over my mouth to suffocate any speech. Trying to create a whirlwind to blast the weed was pointless, for I couldn't move my hands or legs. The other Esurians’ weedy arms and legs wrapped around me until I became a cocoon of seaweed. Slowly, they hissed as they lugged me along the sand 193
behind them. I couldn't see the jungle, Wesu, or the sea through the thick curtain of fog. My body cramped under their clenching grip.
Behind strands of slimy, draping seaweed, I spotted a red eye staring at me. I flashed on Thema and Millie, wondering if they were already dead.
The Esurians hissed and screeched as they pulled me closer to the water. I tried to kick and squirm, but their grip only became tighter.
Panicking when the salty water touched my feet, my mind flooded with thoughts of suffocating in the chilly water.
I took in a breath and held it. Suddenly a tentacle whacked the water to my right. Another tentacle with large suction cups hit the sand hard in front of the Esurians. A deep growl bellowed forth—the beast was an eight-legged Kraken sea monster. White fur around its eyes gave it a frightening appearance. The Kraken grew in size and I wasn't sure if it was friend or foe. I shivered and gasped for air. Esurians screeched a warning to the new creature. A tentacle ripped through one of the Esurians, cutting its weedy arm right off. Another slice and the Kraken cut through the weedy vine that had been dragging me toward the water. The 194
Kraken’s yellow beak, appearing under one eye, snapped at the Esurians and then growled. The lead Esurian let out another hiss. A tentacle slammed the ground causing a thunderous boom.
The lead Esurian bent over toward the ground, whimpering. Then it crawled back into the water. The others whimpered as they retreated with it.
The eight-legged beast stood above me until there was no sign of any Esurian. Slowly, its tentacles retracted into its center. The beak turned into a mouth. The shape became a blob, and then it was Wesu kneeling beside me. Due to shock, I passed in and out of consciousness.
He unraveled me from the seaweed, wrapped me in my cloak, and carried me back. The next thing I remembered was waking and seeing Thema and Millie huddled together under flap leaves fast asleep and Wesu lying next to me.
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CHAPTER 11
In the morning, I woke up Thema and Millie to tell them about the fight with the seaweed. Millie pulled the flap tree leaves around her as she listened, but at the end of the story, she seemed to have a new admiration for Wesu. Thema had an “I told you so” expression on her face. If the others felt like I did, we wouldn't be traipsing into the jungle today.
The sash Thema had wrapped around her waist had become a handy blanket as she slept.
She sat up, unwrapped her long hair, and rewrapped it tight again. Her skin was smooth and delicate, like a Mosika flower petal. I had never looked so closely at her before. She had all the makings of a fine queen. Smart, concerned about others, and kind. In the right light, she seemed just like a sleek cat.
I had resigned to the fact that I still had a long trek ahead. One that would need tenacity not just to get through the jungle, but also to fight this being, Morgoto. The worst was yet to come with Morgoto, so I figured that I had better enjoy the happier times. I grabbed some lang fruit that 196
had been lying next to me and opened a can of biscuits from the tin box. “Anyone ready for breakfast?”
Wesu buttoned his shirt. “You’ll need to eat up because we’re heading into the jungle today.
We can’t stay here.”
Those words wallowed in my head, leaving me feeling hollow. I wanted a few days of peace and calm where nothing happened.
Thema wrapped her sash back around her waist. “That trail that we spoke of--we're going to take it. We have the compass still, and if we travel northeast, we will find the bastets.”
Millie took a cup of clamor pudding out of the metal box. “Aren’t there lots of strange beasts in the jungle? Ravenous insects, engulfing plants, and swinging biters?”
“You’ll be safe, Millie. I grew up in the jungle,”
Thema said.
Millie grabbed her fork and dug into the brown pudding. “I just have to remind myself that we have Elise.”
Thema raised her eyebrows and shot me a knowing grin. Perhaps I could take on a horned scorpion, but there were many other creatures 197
in the jungle that could get us when we weren’t looking.
Wesu grabbed and opened the canvas. He unloaded most of the contents of the food boxes, took the first aid kit, and a fishing pole that he used to catch the Smergle and laid them out on the canvas. He set some old rope from the lifeboat next to it. “This will make a handy backpack. Drink and eat because we need to go while the day is still young,” he said.
I finished some red melon, stood up, and brushed the sand off my shorts. I shook my hair out and tied it with a twisty I had in my pocket and double-checked to see that the tin of Fulan’s leaves was safe. Millie gobbled up the pudding and lang fruit. After we finished eating, Wesu and I loaded the jug, cups, and whatever else would be useful on the canvas. He wrapped it in the rope and slung it over his shoulder.
Thema tossed sand on the remaining embers of the fire, and we were off. I was both excited and scared about going into the jungle because I’d never been close to one before. I’d read about researchers being sucked into the ground or eaten by plants. It was hard to tell what was a myth and what was real from the stories.
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Vibrancy and life filled the green canopy, and the breathtaking symphony of animal sounds exhilarated me and gave me a renewed vigor for the trip. The hardwood trees loomed above us alive with the chatter of birds and creatures of all sorts. I thought of the Sonic trees at home and the lovely songs I used to hear.
Wesu, in front, spotted a long stick, which he picked up and used to swipe away branches and leaves hanging in our way. Thema kept a watchful eye on the surroundings as she followed him.
“Thema and I were talking yesterday about a path that could lead to a village,” said Wesu.
As we walked, Millie picked up a small dagger, which had a white handle with the carving of an angry face.
“Let me see it,” said Thema holding out her hand. “This is carved from bone. Maybe it’s Aerican, Benu, or Nihlutu. This path could lead to a village.”
“That’s good news,” said Millie, who suddenly became hopeful.
“It’s good if they are Nihlutu, but if we run into the Benu tribe, then we need to be cautious.”
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Thema squinted as she scanned the nearby jungle for any movement.
“Elise can blast them to smithereens if need be," Millie said.
Thema handed the knife back to Millie. “This is serious. If we meet with the Benu tribe, all our lives will be in danger. The Benu have no alliances with the bastets or the other friendly tribes in the jungle. They’re a shiftless group of thieves and murderers.”
Millie quietly put the knife in her pocket.
“Just wonderful. Bugs, Esurian seaweed, thieves, and murderers. So, aren't you sure we shouldn't be waiting on shore for a search party?”
“Very sure. Shall we continue?” We had a battle to fight at every stage of this trip. The only thing that would get me through this was that I had to muster up the strength and determination to defeat all the obstacles that would be set before me. Inside, I was a frail, insecure child. I knew that I could no longer be a child and defeat Morgoto.
We followed the path until it led to a dead end. It was time to break trail. I took out the compass that Wesu had given me earlier.
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“Northeast is this way,” I pointed.
“Let’s continue in the same order. I want Thema near me,” said Wesu.
The jungle flora was breathtaking to behold.
The bushes and trees displayed a rich array of vivacious colors: green, violet, blue, and white.
Occasionally what I thought was a plant turned out to be a camouflaged insect or animal. The thick, humid air weighed on me, and I had to take deeper breaths to get the same oxygen. We stepped through hanging vines and pushed our way past clusters of branches and weeds.
“Some path," said Wesu. "I don’t think anyone has been around here for a long time."
Thema kept a keen eye out for predators—
tribal and bestial.
A rare furry beast scurried by. In the distance, puff flowers moved gracefully in all different directions, stretching like the slow arms of an early morning riser. I thought of a plant at the bottom of the sea dancing to the moving current.
In front and to our right, a green and red metallic sap bug stood next to a flowering spider bush with rolling pink and white petals. It 201
sucked nectar out of the willing flower with its thick, black labium.
“Be careful not to look in any of the eyes of the sap bug,” said Thema. “The sap bug becomes afraid when you stare. It’ll attack.”
The bug was as tall as Wesu and three times as wide. Its metallic armor shone brightly, reflecting rays under the bits of sunlight that percolated through the green canopy.
Watching from the corner of my eye, the sap bug’s black pupil traced our every step. As we passed, it raised two large flaps on the top of its head and hissed as if to warn us not to come any closer.
“Don’t make any noise,” whispered Thema.
Far up high, I spotted a network of vines crisscrossing between trees and creating terraces for several gallivanting long-tailed monkeys. The monkeys jumped from branch to branch, clucking at each other. Occasionally, one caught a branch with his tail and swung to another tree.
The farther into the jungle we went, the more it was a bustling metropolis; frantic and busy with birds squawking, insects buzzing.
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“Be careful. I cannot control what tribes we accidentally encounter,” Thema said. “We must be as careful as possible, of course.”
“Shouldn’t we be ready to hide?” I asked as we forged along. "In case we hear something?"
Thema pushed a branch away from her face.
“You cannot hide from these people. If you are in the jungle and they are nearby, they will know it. They know who is in the jungle and who does not belong,” said Thema. “We just have to hope for a lot of luck.”
“Luck is not something I seem to have,” I muttered. This trip had been one catastrophe after another. Miss Zusa, the horned scorpion, the Esurians, and now we are in the middle of a jungle. I imagined what it would be like facing Morgoto with my siblings. There’s no such thing as luck, I concluded. The joy I felt before at being in the jungle turned sour as I thought of these trials. I was capable of dramatic mood swings, and this seemed like one.
“What are you talking about?” said Wesu. “We survived the scorpion because of you.”
“The scorpion wouldn’t have attacked if it wasn’t for me,” I said.
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I fell into a mood the longer we trudged through the humid jungle, sweating through my clothes. Nevertheless, we pushed on until the sun sat high in the sky. Serendipitously, the path led to a clearing with a pond of fresh water.
As we approached the pond, two white gazelles with small horns leaped over some brush before disappearing into the trees. Next to the pond, a large swarm of large, fat flies flew through the dripping goo of a choke plant.
