Xander vol.1 Transmutation (12 page)

“
What are the other
children?” she asked. Xander raised a silent brow at the question.
“Of Mother Nature,” she added.

“
Oh, well there’s Avani.
Then there’s Ardea, the Mistress of Fire. There’s Mizuko, the
Master of Water. Then there’s Zephyr, the Master of
Wind.”

“
Do they have Guardians
too?”

“
They do,” Xander nodded.
“In fact … It was Hydra, the guardian of Mizuko that came to bring
Saphora back to Athena.”

“
Wow … What’s
Hydra?”

“
A water
drakon.”

“
What about the
others?”

“
Avani’s is a giant
tortoise. Ardea’s is a tiger. And Zephyr’s is a hawk.”

“
Wow … Are all animals on
your planet Guardians?”

“
No,” Xander chuckled.
“They are their own species, though related to others.”

“
Oh … Wait,” Nora said,
shaking her head as a thought occurred to her. Xander tilted his
head, calmly waiting for the calamity of thoughts. “Avani’s the
Mistress of Earth?” she asked. Xander nodded. “So then … Isn’t that
like having two Mother Natures?”

Xander smiled, surprised
to have her catch such a detail.

“
In theory, but Avani does
not possess all the elements, as Mother does.”

“
Then how is it in
theory?”

“
If anything were to
happen to Mother, Avani would take her place.”

“
But isn’t she
immortal?”

“
But not indestructible,”
Xander reminded.

“
So … What if something
happens to Avani?”

“
Mother will call forth a
new Mistress. In essence, she will have another child.”

“
What if something
happened to them both?”

Xander frowned.

“
Then Athena might
just
need
a
“God”.”

Nora fell silent at the
sudden grief Xander expressed. Her expression fell as they made eye
contact. Noticing, Xander covered with a grin, gesturing with his
hands.

“
Another reason their
whereabouts are unknown to the masses.”

“
I guess it
is
a good reason,” Nora
nodded. “Have they ever been attacked before?”

“
No,” Xander answered
gratefully. “And we intend on keeping it that way.”

He scratched the back of
his head before stretching his arms across the back of the sofa. He
looked out through one of the windows in the living room. He caught
himself yawning at the sight of the sun setting over the houses on
the street. But Nora was still raring to go.

“
Can I meet her?” she
asked. Xander sighed.

“
Who?” he asked, thinking
that it was Mother Nature she was speaking of. But her answer
surprised him, though not by much.

“
Avani.”

“
Avani? Why Avani and not
Mother Nature?”

“
She’s like me,” she
answered bluntly. “Just earth,” she added.

There was a slight pause
in their conversation, before Xander melted down into a smile as he
nodded. “I will arrange for you two to meet one day.” Xander
stretched again, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Now, I don’t know
about your species, but mine requires sleep when the sun goes
down,” Xander teased.

“
What?” Nora said, her
eyes widening some, taking the joke a little too seriously after
the brief discussion of anomalies. “You’re not like, going to shut
down, are you?”

Xander scoffed, glancing
up at the clock that hung over a wall shelf, which held various
framed photographs of Fran and Saphora.

“
In about 38
seconds.”

“
What?!” she squawked,
scrambling to her knees and reaching for Xander.

Xander laughed outright,
playfully swatting her hands away and standing up to showcase his
heath. Nora watched him with anxious eyes, worry and fear written
clear across her gullible features. He rolled his shoulders and
stepped away from the sofa, stretching his arms backwards as he
looked up the staircase.

“
You,” he said, glancing
at her with a pointed index finger. “Are fooled
entirely
too easily.” He pointed
back up towards the stairs, making a gesture with his head. “You
can sleep in Saphora’s room. I’ll take the woman’s.”

Nora frowned. Not because
she had been tricked, but because he had said that they would be
sleeping in separate rooms. They had spent nearly every minute
together since Xander had saved her from the clutches of Richard’s
wrath – Xander keeping an appreciated watchful eye, even though
they had not left the comfort of the house.

And during that time, Nora
had felt safe – secure. Even in the presence of the enraged and
temperamental Loni. She hadn’t realized just how safe she felt
until the abrupt mention of separation. Her body language and
facial expression changed almost immediately, a chill running
through her. She made a quick glance towards the front door, before
returning to Xander’s calm violet eyes.

“
But …” she
whined.

Xander’s brows rose, in
what was quite obviously amusement.

“
What? Did you want to lay
together after such a short time?” Xander chuckled, turning fully
to face her again as he leaned his arm against the railing of the
staircase. “I wasn’t aware that your species –“

Xander was cut off by the
sudden collision of Nora’s shoe with his face. Xander flinched,
throwing his arm up a moment too late, and seemingly cowering
behind it as he looked at Nora with alarm, the amusement gone from
his features from the sudden assault. Nora’s face, on the other
hand, was burning in colour from the embarrassment of the
assumption.

“
I wasn’t going to say
that, you pervert!” she screeched.

Xander’s arms inched down,
leveling with his shoulders, his eyes still holding a certain level
of uncertainty. Nora hesitated a bit, now embarrassed by her sudden
fear of being left alone. Xander sighed, thinking that she wanted
to keep talking about Athena, his arms dropping to his
side.

“
Look,” he sighed “We can
keep talking tomorrow. Right now –“

“
No, it’s not that, either
…” Nora mumbled. Xander’s brows furrowed, looking over her body
momentarily.

“
What is it, then? Are you
hurt? In pain?”

“
What if Richard finds
this house?” she finally asked after another moment of hesitant
silence.

She averted her eyes to
the door, almost ashamed of her paranoia. Xander paused, looking at
her blatant fear, and sighed. One hand found his hip as the other
raked briskly through his hair.

“
You’re afraid,” he
somewhat laughed. Nora frowned, her eyes snapping back to his and
threatening to water from the mockery.

“
It’s not funny. If he
finds me, he’ll –“

“
Have to go through me,”
Xander finished, crossing his arms. “No one’s going to get you. And
if it makes you feel any better, I’ll stay down here, and keep an
eye on the door. If he does manage to break in, I’ll be here
waiting.”

Nora gnawed at the inside
of her lower lip at the offer. While it was true she was scared,
she didn’t want to endanger Xander’s life just so that she could
feel at ease. That would be doing the opposite, if
anything.

“
Hey,” Xander called,
seeing the look of hesitation and the beginnings of guilt on her
face. “I beat him before, hardly even trying. I’ll be fine.” Xander
walked over to the seemingly paralyzed Nora and pushed at her back,
guiding her to the staircase. “Now come on. We go to your
authorities tomorrow. You need to sleep.”

Chapter 11

“Why is she still here?”
Loni asked, coming into the living room of the house with a
half-eaten powdered pastry in her hand.

Xander was sitting in the
middle of the sofa. Nora was to his right, staring up at her with
an expression that was half distaste, and the other half shock.
Xander had his elbows perched on his knees, hands folded, with his
chin resting on their intersection. He stared ahead at the
television that Nora had shown him how to use.

Gradually, Xander turned
to look at Loni. Loni looked back and forth between them, her
pastry stopping inches away from her mouth before lowering. She
frowned.

“
What?”

Xander gestured to the
television, which was broadcasting the latest in breaking
news.

“
The special must have
been catnip yesterday at local Clemming café as an overgrown
lioness decided to stop in for a treat,” one male reporter said to
the camera man.

The footage then showed a
shaky recording from someone’s phone of Loni entering the café,
followed by the immediate departure of several customers inside.
The footage then panned back to the reporter, who was standing in
front of the now famous café.

“
Many customers fled the
scene, fearing for their lives, while others stayed to record, take
pictures, and call animal control.”

The footage then switched
to another shaky recording of Loni inside the café, sniffing and
slowly walking about. Stopping after what seemed to be a few
minutes, after she had searched the entire building, Loni came up
to stand in front of the counter, where Liz and Jared stood
petrified in their uniform aprons. Loni sniffed at the glass on the
side of the counter, protecting the pastry treats
inside.

She gently pawed at the
glass, before smacking it and roaring up at the two employees. They
both flinched, shuffling some before Jared hurriedly knelt down,
took out a small cake from the glass and placed it on the counter.
Loni stood on her hind legs, her front paws resting on either side
of the counter. She sniffed at the delicacy before biting into it,
picking it up, and heading towards the entrance of the
café.

The footage then shook as
the crowded people hurriedly tied to get out of the way. The camera
then moved back to the reporter.

“
Clemming zoo was
contacted about the loose lioness shortly after the sighting. The
owner had this to say.”

The footage then switched
over to the owner of the Clemming zoo, who was standing with a grim
expression. The beginning of his speech was muted as the camera
switched, his hand signing feverously to compliment what he was
saying.

“
- Wasn’t ours. All of our
animals are tagged. The exhibits have undergone a new safety
regulation after the loss of our latest edition …” Old footage of
dragon Arol escaping from his exhibit played while he spoke. “… and
I can assure you that no other animals have escaped,” he ranted.
The camera switched back to the reporter.

“
Be that as it may,
citizens are still skeptical that the zoo can properly contain
their animals, and it’s got many people spooked.”

The camera switched to a
local citizen. A Hispanic woman in her late thirties.

“
I mean this is
ridiculous. I can’t go out to get a cup of coffee now without
worrying if I’m going to be mauled? What are they doing over there?
This is crazy,” she complained.

The camera switched to
Jared, still wearing his café uniform, and still sporting his pale
expression.

“
I … I don’t know,” he
shrugged. “I’m just glad it didn’t hurt anyone.”

The reporter held the
microphone back to him.

“
Don’t you think it was
strange that it took the cake?” he asked, trying to lighten the
mood. Jared gave half a laugh and another shrug of his shoulders.
“Is catnip your new secret ingredient?” Jared laughed again, this
time a little more whole heartedly.

“
If it is, we’re
definitely removing it.”

The footage then came back
to the real-time shot of the reporter, who lagged slightly before
speaking again.

“
The lioness fled the
scene when animal control came onto the property, and was lost when
entering the thick of the woods just outside of town. It has yet to
be captured, and an advisory is currently in effect until the
lioness is found.” The reporter nodded. “This is Stanley Green,
reporting for channel 17, eye-witness news. Back to you,
Mike.”

Back in the living room,
Loni’s face captured her astonishment and slight appall. She’s
nearly dropped what was left of the cake she had taken from the
café. She glanced back at Xander, whose face held both annoyance
and disappointment. Her hand slowly lowered the pastry onto the
back of the sofa.

“
Oh,” she
mumbled.

Chapter 12

“
Professor, can you tell
me what happened here?” came the accent-coated voice of Officer
Glover.

He and Officer Roland had
been called in to investigate a crime scene. One that had happened
at Clemming Community College just a few hours prior. The
Professor, Professor Hughes, was still pretty shaken up. He had
come in to the lab to find two of his colleagues dead, and almost
all of the equipment being stolen. For whatever reason, his life
was spared, and he was left to report the tragedy to the
police.