The Crystal Bridge (The Lost Shards Book 1) (12 page)

Evandrel reached out with his mind and found no evidence of death while he verified that the female remained. The other had gone as he had appeared, no movement, just gone.
Why would he leave his female?
Evandrel picked up speed once more, his face a death-grimace of concentration as the air whipped past.

Aren whirled, looking for Kaden, though deep down she knew exactly where he was.
He left me. Will he come back? Can he come back?
A million thoughts raced through her head as she realized she was all alone on some distant world. That thought brought her back to the present.
No, I’m not alone.

She turned to see the furry man walking toward her, his face lit up with excitement and enthusiasm as he glanced all around the clearing. His eyes flitted from trees to grass to sky and back to trees. The large, dark eyes watered in the sunlight, blinking tears of pain and obvious joy.

Aren had looked in those eager eyes and seen that this was the first time he’d seen the sun. She’d also seen the strength, wisdom, and friendship he was capable of.
He’s a good little person, even if he barely resembles a person
.

His eyes were much larger than normal and almost all pupil. She could barely see a thin line of yellow-green at the edge, just before being covered by the eyelids. Thick, furry hair buried his face, covering everything except his eyes and large, round nose. As he drew closer, Aren could see that a thin layer of fur covered even that. Longer hair sprouted from where the eyebrows would be and curled down around his face to meet up with his beard.

His clothes surprised her with their simplicity and exoticness. He wore a practical blue shirt or tunic that looked spotless and a dull brown kilt that shimmered with dazzling color when the light caught it right.

He held a hand out to one side as though steadying himself. The arm swirled with furry designs and writing she didn’t know. His palm, dark brown with pink splotches, remained the only part of him that she could see free from fur. Each finger ended in a black claw, slightly rounded from use, but completely clean despite his rise from the dirt below.

His short, stocky body rippled with strength and solidarity that she’d only seen in olympic athletes back home. He also carried a small sword, the hilt sticking out above his left shoulder.
This thing is half my size, but much stronger. Look at the way it walks.

Aren’s emotions warred inside her. Her gift told her she could stay and this creature wouldn’t harm her, but all her regular human instincts told her to run.

The furry man drew ever closer with his eager expression while Aren thought of all the horror stories her mom had used to scare her away from men. The result of instinct, gift, and her mother’s fear mongering, a paralyzing dread that kept her from reacting. His eyes flickered toward her and her heart froze, but then he focused behind her.

Aren pushed her fear aside and tried to speak, her voice shaking, “Uhh…umm, hello?”

The man creature swept past without even acknowledging her. He came to the desk and ran his clawed hands over the smooth top. A hum filled the silent clearing. The sound reminded Aren of a television left on in another room, just perceptible, constant, and impossible to ignore once noticed. Then the creature opened his mouth and sang.

The song filled the clearing with sweet otherworldly music. For some reason it felt like rain to Aren. She swore she could smell the subtle scent of damp earth and feel roots gathering up the water. She could taste the minerals and hear the drumbeat of raindrops. The melody danced inside her, warm, damp, and alive.

Aren closed her eyes and basked in the images and sensations created in her head. Her fear dissolved away. She felt certain she was dreaming as the song’s warmth enveloped her like a blanket.
I’m still in bed. Kaden, the trip down the rabbit hole, the furry little man, all of it will be gone when I open my eyes.

As her eyelids parted, she found the small man staring at her with one huge eyebrow lifted. Her dream had not ended and the man still sang, though very softly. Aren smiled and tried to hum along. The furry eyebrow lifted higher and the song ended, crashing reality back down on Aren.

This is no dream
.
Don’t let yourself think that again.
She stared at the little man who still ran one hand absent-mindedly over the desk. She looked in his eyes and whispered all she could think to say, “That was beautiful.”

He stepped back as though surprised. He opened his mouth and spoke in a sing song of words she couldn’t understand while pointing emphatically at the desk. Aren shrugged and raised her hands to express she didn’t know what he wanted. He frowned, though it was difficult to read much behind all his facial hair. His huge eyebrows sank down lower and Aren thought this could only be a frown.

He rubbed his temple with one claw, matting the neat hair there horribly, and then attempted again. The sound that followed sounded painful and hollow after the beautiful songlike language. “Me kinga engarish net goud. I asking whet theesss?”

Aren stared at him for several moments. He repeated the same words again and again until realization dawned on her. The man was trying to speak English. It was somewhat distinguishable as the language she knew, though with the thickest accent she’d ever heard. The “k” sounded hard and guttural. He held the “s” too long. The “g” had a throaty coughing sound to it. She pieced each word together bit by bit.

“Oh, what is that? Yeah I suppose you’ve probably never seen a school desk before.” She smiled at the man creature, hoping to calm him down as well as herself. Her gift told her she had nothing to fear, and she’d listen to her gift until Kaden returned.
If he returns…

The man stared at her with the same blank look she’d so recently given him. She tried to speak slower, using fewer words, and attempted to mimic his accent as best she could. “That desk…desk.”

He repeated the word several times and looked back and forth times between her and the desk. He pointed at it again. “Whet desk fur?”

Her fear hadn’t returned since the song had banished it, so she walked toward the man and sat down in the desk. “For sit. Learn. Write.” She grabbed a notebook from the ground and found a pencil. She wrote a couple lines.
This is crazy. I’m talking to a rodent man.

“See?” Aren wondered for a moment if this man used chairs or even had a written language.
I’m making a lot of assumptions
.

He looked at her and then nodded like he understood. He tapped the top of the desk and ran a finger along the groove where a pencil could sit. “Whet desk meke?”

His voice pleaded with some note of sincerity that Aren couldn’t ignore, but she didn’t understand his question. She shrugged again. “Not understand. Desk not make anything.”

He walked away from the desk, scouring the ground. He bent down and picked something up and then returned with his find. He held up a twig. “Wooda.” Then he held up a small pebble. “Stoone.” He gestured toward the desk again. “Whet meke?”

Aren nodded. “Ah, what is the desk made of?” She put her finger on the top of the desk where she still sat. “Plastic…I think. Yeah, pretty sure it’s some form of plastic. Plastic.”

The man repeated this word to himself over and over again, interjecting bits of his own musical language. He seemed to be arguing with himself over the word. Aren sat still and continued to smile at the man. He wouldn’t hurt her; she had knowledge about things he wanted to know.

She felt calm, peaceful even.
Kaden will come back. I’ll be fine here with my new friend
. She looked up as another figure flew out of the trees and into the clearing. Tall, slim, ghostly, with long green hair flowing as it raced toward them. Aren thought for a moment it was a woman, but then caught his eyes.

Power, strength, inhuman patience, and more hate than Aren had ever felt emanated in waves from his almond eyes. Memories flowed into her.

Stories told to Evandrel as he lay in his bed, silk fluttering all around him as a yellow globe bobbed above a woman’s head, his mother. She told him of the wars. Humans and their fellstone weapons pushed the Keitane into hiding, butchering them by the thousands. So much lost knowledge as Keitane men and women never came home and their great cities burned. Aren could almost taste the fear and hatred in the memory as the young Evandrel clenched his fists and vowed vengeance.

Aren’s peace dissipated and her heart grew tight and cold. This man was not her friend. She saw death in his eyes, death for any human who stood in his path.

Kaden arrived back in the classroom he and Aren had left, without her. He didn’t have much chance to contemplate the lack of a feminine hand in his though.

He stood in the middle of a small crater where his desk had been, filled with chunks of ceiling tiles and loose papers. A group of kids huddled in a corner while others were screaming and running out of the room. A girl ran past him with blood running down her cheek from a deep gash.

The fluorescent lights flickered and a pop from sparking electrical brought his attention to the gaping hole above him, perfectly circular. He could smell smoke.
What did we do? It looks like a bomb went off in here.

Kaden realized he and Aren must have created a vacuum, left behind when he’d dragged Aren, his desk, a chunk of the floor, and pieces of ceiling tiles, along with all the air within the area of his Egg into another universe.

The room had imploded where they’d been, pulling desks, people, and everything else toward the crater. The teacher stood by the doorway, helping usher the victims of Kaden’s implosion bomb out.
At least no one looks seriously hurt. No time to make sure though. Need to go get Aren before anything else happens.

Kaden closed his eyes and prepared to open his Egg when a tearing sound made him open them again. The ceiling collapsed, crumbling down on him. He heard screams, pain blossomed in his head, and then all went black.
Not again
.