The Key of Kilenya (14 page)

“Oh my gosh, am I in a coffin?”

Trying not to panic, he pushed with his might
against the surface in front of him. Light rushed into the box,
momentarily blinding him, and he let the top fall shut again.

At least it wasn’t sealed. Jacob waited for
what felt like several minutes before trying to open the box again,
this time much more slowly so his eyes could adjust. Finally, after
several seconds of short movements, his eyes grew accustomed to the
light, and he pushed the lid all the way open.

An
extremely
large Akeno stared down
at him with a big grin on his face.

Jacob yelled and backed into a corner as fast
as he could.

“Calm down, Jacob,” Akeno said. “Oh, wait,
sorry. Let me explain what happened.”

“What did you do? Did you shrink me?”

“It was the only thing we
could
do.”

“‘We’? ‘We’ who?” Jacob looked around
frantically, still trying to get away from Akeno’s large face, but
not wanting to fall out of the box.

“Us, of course!” a voice said.

Jacob flinched when Early appeared out of
nowhere to stand right next to him. She was enormous! Well, by
comparison to how she looked before, anyway. He realized that she
was still smaller than he, but not by a whole lot.

“Oh, wow . . .”

She was exquisite. Every minute detail was
perfect. Her skin was the color of a pale pink flower, as delicate
and fragile-looking as a petal. There were patterns on the skin of
her upper arms that were like green vine tendrils. Her hair, also
green, fell to her shoulders, and had a pretty, soft wave to it.
Her eyes were green too, but very sparkly.

Her beauty caught him off guard, and he had
to remind himself to close his mouth and stop staring. She laughed
at him, making him feel self-conscious.

September flew up behind Early, and Jacob,
looking at him, wondered why he’d paid so little attention to
either of them before. September had the same vine tendril designs
on his arms, but his were darker than Early’s. His hair was dark
green—so dark that it looked almost black—and his eyes were the
same shade as his hair.

“Wow,” Jacob said. “You guys are
amazing.”

“Thank you!” Early said, curtsying.

“Wait a second. How big am I?”

“About two and a half inches tall,” Akeno
said. “Only half an inch taller than the Minyas.”

“That's so cool!” He stood up and faced
Akeno. “Didn't you break a whole ton of rules?”

Akeno nodded. “Here, let's put you back to
normal. I want to make sure I didn’t do any more damage when I
shrank you than what had happened when you fell, and we won’t know
until you’re bigger again.”

Jacob thought for a minute, weighing the
options of asking Akeno to let him stay small for a while longer so
he could explore the world as a two-and-a-half inch person, or
getting back on task. He decided he could have Akeno shrink him
again later. Getting the Key as fast as possible was more
important.

“Okay,” he said. “Tell me what to do.”

“Nothing. Just don’t panic. I have to pick
you up. I’ll try to be careful, but it’s difficult to tell if I’m
squeezing too hard or not.” Akeno reached his hand toward Jacob,
but stopped. “Oh, wait, I’d better check to make sure everything is
clear outside.”

Jacob hadn’t noticed they weren’t under the
sky. It had been so bright when he first opened the box, he’d just
assumed they were out in the open. He looked up, recognizing tree
branches forming a light shelter around them. Akeno put his hand on
one of the bigger branches, and a few seconds later the branches
folded away, letting Akeno step out of the shade and into the
sun.

The sky was deep blue, and the sun was
overhead, making Jacob squint. He noticed that at this size,
everything was so out of proportion that he couldn’t distinguish
anything around them, except for the tree right behind him and the
mountain in the distance.

Akeno came back and reached to pick Jacob up.
Jacob braced himself, closing his eyes. He felt a tight pinch
around his waist and ribs, nearly knocking the air out of him, and
opened his eyes again. Akeno held him out at arm’s length. There
was a whoosh of wind and then solid earth under Jacob’s feet. He
looked around—he stood at least thirty or forty feet away from
Akeno. His body felt normal again, and he could tell he was back to
his right size.

“That was so cool!” Jacob yelled, jogging
back to Akeno. “And I'm surprised it didn't hurt me more. But, you
know, after having fallen so far, I don’t think being shrunk would
have been the worst of the damage done to me.”

“Yeah. You should have died from that
fall.”

Jacob picked up the box he'd been in. It was
solid silver with flower imprints on it, and the inside was lined
with soft material.

“That's September's,” Akeno said. “It's
saturated in Kaede Sap and heals Minyas if they ever get hurt—which
almost never happens. I wasn't sure it would work on you, but thank
goodness it did.”

Akeno grabbed his bag and tossed it to Jacob.
“Here, eat. It’s been too long since you had food.”

They both sat down.

“While you were unconscious,” Akeno said, “we
ran out of food, and Brojan and my father shrank more and sent it
to us with the Minyas.”

Jacob examined his chunk of beef jerky. It
looked the way jerky always looked. “And you made it big again.” He
popped the piece in his mouth and glanced at Akeno. “You can both
shrink and enlarge things. Isn't that rare?”

“A little, yeah. Normally, a Makalo can only
either shrink or make something big again. I think one of the main
reasons they had me come with you is that I’m able to do both.”

“After we get the Key, you should shrink me
again,” Jacob said, then smiled. “I’m going to pull some amazing
pranks on Matt!”

Akeno laughed. “That would be fun, but we
don’t really know what happens to the actual cells of things that
have shrunk. That’s why we have rules.”

“Well, I’m glad it worked.”

“I thought you were dead when I looked over
the edge, Jacob. You had fallen so far down—I can’t believe it
didn’t kill you. It was September's idea to put you in the box.
After I did, I grabbed your bag and ran over the bubbles as fast as
I could.”

“And no other problems?”

“None—I'm lighter than you. The wolves did
catch up after I made camp, though. They sat and watched me. I
finally yelled that we wouldn’t be going anywhere until you were
better. I think they understood me because they got up and left,
following the path.”

Jacob ate a handful of carrots. “I really
can’t believe I’m healed now. I’m sure I broke several bones. Did
you get a good look at me?”

“I didn’t look at anything. I was trying to
put you in the box without killing you in the process.”

“Oh, too bad. It would have been cool to know
how many broken bones there were.”

“That’s really weird, Jacob.” Akeno began
putting things back into his bag.

“Nah, it would have been cool.”

“Being healed so quickly is cool enough. You
should be happy with that.” He sighed. “Do you have any other
questions? We should probably get on our way.”

“How long was I out of it?”

Akeno paused, then focused on the dirt.
“Well, the healing isn’t instantaneous.”

“Yeah, I figure it was several hours at
least, based on how long it took for Jaegar to be healed.”

“And you were a lot more wounded than he was,
so naturally it took a few more hours for you.” Akeno glanced at
Jacob, looking quickly away.

Jacob frowned—why was Akeno avoiding his
question? “How many hours?”

Akeno rubbed his nose, then fidgeted with the
strap on his bag. “You were unconscious for four days.”

It took a second for that to register in
Jacob’s mind. “Holy cow! Four days? What about getting the Key?
What about the Lorkon and the wolves? Is everything ruined
now?”

“I’m not sure, actually.”

“You should've gone ahead with me in the
box.”

Akeno shook his head. “Not a good idea.”

Jacob sighed and rolled his eyes at himself.
Obviously Akeno couldn’t go on without his help—they worked as a
team, and if Akeno had come across another diseased forest, he
wouldn’t have been able to get through it on his own.

“Brojan and my father want us to get to the
nearest city, where we’ll be able to hide. Then they want me to
shrink you again and have one of the Minyas take you back to Taga
so they can talk to you.”

“The Minyas can carry me?”

“They’ve been carrying food for us, and if
you’ve been shrunk, they won’t have any problem with your size.
It’s faster than having you run back to the village.”

Jacob thought about this for a moment.
“Should I be nervous they want to talk to me?” He couldn’t imagine
anything they’d say that would surprise him more than what he’d
already learned since coming to Eklaron. He could be wrong, but he
hoped not.

“I don’t think so . . . but I’m not
sure.”

“All right, let’s do it.”

They packed up what was left of camp and
started down the trail. It led them through an outcropping of
massive granite rocks that had fallen from the mountain above and
into a beautiful little valley with rolling, flower-covered
hills.

Jacob heard a sigh behind him and figured
Akeno was enjoying the serenity. With the mountains looming up to
the right of them and the pretty valley on the left, Jacob could
understand why.

They continued walking in silence. The Minyas
rode on Akeno’s shoulder, sitting in one spot, for once, and not
talking or goofing off.

As they neared a turn in the path, Jacob was
startled as a negative feeling passed over him. A few steps later,
he felt it again. He looked around, sure it hadn’t come from inside
him. What was bothering him? Was it the valley? That didn’t make
sense. Akeno seemed unaffected, but the feeling intensified until
Jacob stopped walking, not sure if it was a warning to stop, or a
warning to get off the path. Akeno ran into Jacob, apparently
caught off guard by the sudden stop.

“Sorry, I need to figure something out,”
Jacob said. “Do you feel that?”

“What?”

“The—the negative stuff.”

“No . . . I don’t.”

After standing still for a moment or two
longer, the discomfort increased. A gross feeling now came with it,
making Jacob want to wash his hands, and all he could think about
was getting out of the valley. He walked briskly along the trail
and heard Akeno follow.

The path entered a little canyon, and Jacob
felt the negativity leave him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he
slowed down again.

“That was weird.” It reminded him of the way
he felt whenever he did something wrong. Guilt, almost, as though
he’d just finished swearing up a storm at his mom or Amberly. Not
good to experience.

“It affected you this time, and not me,”
Akeno said.

“Yeah, and I wonder why.” Jacob sighed—he
didn’t feel like discussing it.

Several feet later, the trail took them right
and down into a difficult section. Jacob had to pick his way over
the rocks and boulders that jutted up through the earth.

The silence was refreshing, being one of the
only times on the trip when they hadn’t talked while walking. Jacob
recognized, however, that for Akeno it might not have been so easy,
since he'd been unconscious four days in a row. The Minyas really
weren’t a good form of companionship, and chances that Akeno had an
intelligent conversation with them were pretty slim. Jacob felt a
pang of regret when he realized he just didn’t want to talk.

He looked up from the trail and gasped.
“Wow,” he said.

The trail sloped downward. It had just exited
the short canyon and led them around the mountains, opening up to a
huge valley almost completely framed by large mountains, including
those by which Jacob and Akeno had been hiking. Near the middle was
one of the largest lakes Jacob had ever seen, and the mountains on
its left rose sharply with no gradual incline, making the scenery
even more dramatic. He remembered seeing pictures of the fjords in
Norway, but they didn’t compare to this.

There were three cities visible: one on this
end of the lake, one to the right, and one—difficult to see—on the
far side.

Jacob studied that far city, noticing it had
a weird look to it. It was dirty and smudged, as though there was a
cloud hanging over it, even though the sky was cloudless. The
outline of a large, dark castle was visible. A nervous feeling hit
Jacob in the pit of the stomach when he realized he was probably
looking at the castle where the Lorkon lived. His palms started
sweating when he thought about what could happen. How was he going
to find the Key and get out of the castle?

He looked back at the city closest to them.
It also had a castle, but it seemed desolate and war-ravaged. So
did the whole city, actually. He frowned as he started walking
again, wondering what it had been like in its prime.

Akeno interrupted his thoughts. “We should
set up camp.”

Jacob was surprised that the sun was nearly
down. It was later than he’d realized. “Yeah, I think you’re
right.”

“We’ll probably head into the city first
thing in the morning.”

Together they set up camp; then Akeno cooked
dinner.

“So, how’d you end up as cook for our trip?”
Jacob asked.

“You’re the guest, so I just felt like I
should do it.”

“Well, if you show me how to make those
potatoes you made yesterday, I’ll do it next time.”

“Yesterday?” Akeno said, smiling. “You mean
five days ago?”

Jacob laughed. “Oh, yeah.”

Back to Top

T
oday a most entertaining thing occurred. As we were
traveling, Kelson, Kenji, and I overheard a very heated Minya
argument—the first I’d ever heard. Kenji informed me that it
happens rather frequently, and so we ignored it. However, moments
later it became impossible to ignore when a Minya was hurled
through the air and hit me smack dab on the side of the face. It
was difficult not to laugh as this little Minya indignantly shook
his fist toward the forest from whence he’d come, then latched onto
my collar, refusing to leave. He calls himself September.