Chapter 7
2126 Words
7
My sleep was uneasy. Even my optimistic self couldn’t shake off some worry about being dropped into a new world, and my second adventure had been as harrowing as the first, though in a different way.
Maybe that was why I felt a presence in my room. A hulking shadow loomed over me. I could feel their warm breath waft over my face. Then it was gone. Perhaps it was a dream.
What wasn’t a dream was what woke me up.
Something tickled my forehead. I brushed it away, but it came back and stronger. I opened my eyes and stared right into a pair of bright blue ones, only they didn’t belong to Asher. I yelped and sat up, sending the intruder tumbling out of sight. I heard a hard thump as they landed on the floor.
I clutched my bed covers and leaned over to catch a glimpse of that strange white thing that had lain on top of me. A tall brown rabbit ear with a white tip popped up, startling me back. Then another tall, fuzzy ear appeared near the side of the bed. Then there came a third ear.
I stared in bewilderment at the triplets as the owner of the appendages hopped onto the bed near my feet. All three ears belonged to the same rabbit. The extra ear stood short and limp between the normal two. The rabbit was immense enough that the third ear hardly looked out of place. The creature sat on its haunches and stood some two feet tall. It wore a green vest about its chest and spectacles were perched atop its fuzzy nose, but otherwise the rabbit was naked.
“Will you kindly hold still for me?” it insisted in a feminine voice.
My jaw hit the bedsheets. “Y-you talk!”
The rabbit wrinkled its nose. “Of course I talk. What else would an aware-hare do? Stomp its foot and communicate like a horse?”
I shook my head. “I-I don’t know. I’ve never met a were-rabbit.”
The rabbit rolled its eyes. “Not were. Aware. Now hold still so I can finish this.” The creature leaned toward me and its little nose furiously twitched. The middle ear draped forward and nearly touched the top of my head. After a moment the rabbit dropped back onto its haunches and shrugged. “I don’t know what he sees in you. I certainly can’t smell anything strange about you.”
I blinked at the female rabbit. “Should there be?”
“You have passed between two worlds twice,” a voice spoke up. I looked to the door and saw Asher enter the room.
“Not with magic,” the rabbit told him as he reached the side of the bed.
Asher looked at me as he gestured to the rabbit. “May I introduce Sybil. Sybil, Miss Caitlin Miller, lately of another world and now a visitor in ours.”
I stiffly bowed my head. “It’s-um, a pleasure to meet you.”
Sybil twitched her nose. “You humans and your strange greetings. Just give a twitch of your nose and be done with it.”
Asher chuckled. “I fear most of us humans don’t have the gift of the twitch as you aware-hares do.”
“And that’s why you haven’t evolved as far as we have,” Sybil scolded him.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but what’s an aware-hare?” I spoke up.
“A creature who’s unique sense of smell and hearing allows them sense whether someone is gifted in magic,” Asher explained.
“And this aware-hare smells nothing from this very normal human woman,” Sybil spoke up.
Asher furrowed his brow. “Perhaps she is attuned to storm magic?”
Sybil stomped one foot on the bed and glared at him. “If she had an ounce of magic in her I would have smelled it, and most especially storm magic. That stuff is hard to miss.”
Asher cupped his chin in his hand and nodded. “Yes. I have heard it described as a fresh rain mixed with a sharp burn. Though perhaps our search is misdirected. The storm itself may offer more clues as to how she came to be here.”
A memory from yesterday sprang into my mind and a few whispered words passed my lips. “Dark Walk. . .”
Sybil’s ears perked up. “What was that?”
I shook myself and smiled. “It’s nothing, just something a friend mentioned.”
Sybil eyed me with a sharp look. “I know what you said. ‘Dark Walk.’”
Asher arched an eyebrow. “Does that mean something to you?”
Sybil continued to stare at me as she gave a nod. “Yes. My grand-sire mentioned it when I was a young bunny.”
“Sargon the Storyteller?” Asher guessed. “What had he to say about this Dark Walk?”
“Only that it’s a special storm that comes around whenever it wants and causes magic mischief,” Sybil explained as she hopped up to my side and sniffed at me. Her third ear twitched and twanged in a mesmerizing rhythm. “It wrecks our senses and distorts the aura of magic around all living things influenced by its presence.”
“Then you’re saying Miss Miller here may possess magic?” Asher wondered.
“It’s not because she has any magic in her,” Sybil insisted as the rabbit pinched my arm with her fuzzy fingers. I winced and jerked back as she continued to examine me. “Perhaps it just took a liking to her.”
A crooked smile slipped onto Asher’s lips. “That hardly sounds like the magical method of which the aware-hare boast.”
Sybil glared at him over her shoulder. “There are more things on earth and in your heavens than are known to even we aware-hare. Now if you’ll excuse me-” She hopped off the bed and stalked toward the door in a very human gait. “I have other clients to deal with. You’ll get my bill.” Asher winced at both the threat and the rabbit as she slammed the door shut behind her.
The noise of the stomping footsteps faded, and I looked down at myself and my hands that I held upright in my lap. “So I’m a bit of a mystery?”
“I have never heard of a visitor from another world, though I’m not completely learned in all of the myths and legends of magic,” he admitted as he took a seat at the foot of the bed.
“So are there other talking rabbits?” I asked him as I nodded at the door through which our hare friend had left.
He chuckled. “More rabbits, and many other creatures. Have you none in your world that they’re strange to you?”
I shrugged. “Mostly just parrots, and I once heard a dolphin answer questions in clicks, but I don’t think that really counts.”
His eyes had that strange look from last night in them as he studied me. “There are many wondrous things in my world, but I fear you won’t have time to enjoy many of them.”
“You mean like last time?” I guessed.
He stared ahead at the dark hearth and his face fell. His voice was so soft that I could barely catch the words. “Yes, and truth be told I thought the curse had taken you as it had taken. . .” He didn’t finish, but he didn’t have to.
“I remember fainting and then I woke up in my own bed,” I told him as a small smile graced my lips at the remembrance. “My mom told me to forget the whole thing, but I never could.” My heart tightened as I pressed my balled hands against my chest. “Porky, Davy, and Leon needed to be remembered.”
A bitter smile slipped onto Asher’s lips. “Those are names I have not heard in many years.”
“What. . .what happened after I left?” I whispered.
He sighed. “I tried to look for Davy and Leon, but found nothing, so I returned in the boat. I told anyone who would listen what had happened and a search was made, but nothing came of it.” He looked down at his gloved hands as they lay open-palmed in his lap. “I have worked every day trying to make amends for that night.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” I insisted.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “No. The fault lay with all of us, but I was the only one who made it out of there.” He looked up and smiled at me. “That is, that’s what I believed until last night when you returned, Miss Miller.”
I grinned. “Call me Cait. All my friends do, and you’re one of my oldest.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad I made a good impression.”
I laughed. “You were a saint compared to me. I was a big handful back then.”
His eyes twinkled with that boyish mischief again. “I suspect things haven’t changed much.”
“Just the height,” I teased as I looked around at the spacious interior and fancy furniture. “But I’m guessing things have changed with you. The last time I saw you your clothes were more patch than cloth.”
“I have my trade,” he confessed as he stood.
“Then you became a doctor?” I guessed.
His face twisted in a mixture of sadness and doubt. “You might say that, but we should be going.”
I blinked at him. “Going where?”
“Back to the island.”
My heart skipped a beat. “The island?”
Asher gave a nod. “Yes. Your entrance into my world may be different, but I wonder if we might be able to find a way for you to return to your world by retracing your steps during your first visit and back to where you last reentered your own world.”
I couldn’t explain it when my heart fell. “So I’d be going back?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what you want?”
I looked around myself again at the comfortable room. “I. . .I guess that’s what I should want.”
There was a brief pause before he asked a question. “Were you not happy in your world?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I always wondered if I’d come back here and see more than just the island. That is, if I hadn’t dreamed up the whole thing.”
Asher stood and offered me a smile as he gave me a flourishing bow. “Then allow me to show you the sights on the way to the island.”
I grinned and threw off the covers. “I’d like-” I noticed his eyes dropped to my lower half. I followed his gaze and blushed. The long shirt wasn’t long enough and a good portion of my thighs were revealed to his curious gaze. I flung the covers back on and sheepishly smiled at him. “After I get my clothes back.”
His eyes twinkled as he gestured to a nearby dresser where my clothes were draped over the top. A pair of black shoes sat below them. “I’ll wait for you out in the hall.”
He exited, leaving me a little breathless and red as I leapt out of bed and jumped into my clothes. They were clean and soft, softer than I remembered. I brushed my hand down the sides of my jeans and blushed at the memory of his interested gaze at the sight of my body. It was flattering.
I frowned and shook my head. “Cut it out, Cait. You’re supposed to be trying to figure out how to get home, remember?”
With my scolding over, I stepped out into the hall and found myself standing in the middle of a long passage that stretched a hundred feet in both directions. The curved staircase stood directly in front of me, and a balcony looked out over an expansive entrance hall. I leaned over the banister and looked in curiosity at all the curiosities. There were tapestries with scenes of battle, love, and adventure, heavy furniture aged and some even scorched by fire. Weapons of all kinds adorned the walls between the tapestries and vases were placed here and there. The floor of the entrance hall, unlike the wood of the passage, was made of stones. They had been placed in a circular pattern with a huge, flat boulder in the center. I could see some writing on the rock, but I didn’t recognize the letters.
“What do you think?”
I gasped and spun around to find Asher standing beside me at the railing and also staring down at the entrance hall. I grasped my chest over my quickly beating heart and held back my desire to give him a push forward. “It’s very nice.”
“And dangerous,” he added as he looked me straight in the eyes. “Be mindful not to touch anything without me by your side.”
My smile became a little shakier. “That bad?” He gave a nod. I cleared my throat. “Yes, well, you were going to show me Tras?”
He smiled and offered his arm to me. “It would be my pleasure.”
I took his arm and he escorted me down the stairs to the large front door. Asher grasped the handle and opened the portal.
A man leapt out at us. I could hardly notice his stiff, formal attire, so terrified was his red face and so messy was his disheveled hair.
“Please, Lord Nilogh! You must come at once to the house of my master!”
- Writer
