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“Danger? From whom?” she asked, surprised.

Cyrus took another puff on his pipe and blew the smoke out in small rings. When she was a child, she used to chase the puffy, delicate clouds of smoke. There were no rocking chairs or porches back then. No cabins with soft beds or artificial lights to guide their way. There had definitely been no shifters sitting side-by-side with members of her clan, telling stories and laughing.

“It’s said that King Or’Ang sent a few select members of his private guard on a quest. The quest was to find any humans that survived and guide them back to the safety of the hidden kingdom he and his queen had built. The danger lay in keeping the kingdom hidden from those that wanted to finish what the war had started… the final annihilation of the human species. Because of that, the shifters and humans who were chosen were sworn to secrecy. Until we know for sure that shifters won’t kill us, we must protect the box and the secret it contains,” he explained.

“What is in the box?” she asked.

“The box, and the contents inside it, hold clues to the location of King Or’Ang and Queen Elizabeth’s hidden kingdom. The only place on Earth where humans and shifters co-exist.”

She stopped rocking and sat forward. “Are you saying… that there are more humans? That we aren’t the only ones?”

“It’s possible,” he admitted.

Cyrus sighed and lifted his hand. Smoke from his pipe danced on a light breeze. She absorbed what he was saying.

More humans! There may be a place where more humans exist.

“Why didn’t our clan ever try to find them? Why didn’t we? We were dying. There aren’t enough of us to carry on. How do you know if the story is even real? Our ancestors could have made it up to keep our hope alive,” she growled.

She pushed out of the rocker and walked to the railing of the porch. Gripping it, she stared at the group across from them. She had more questions than answers.

“It’s true. I know in my heart that it is true. The story that my father told me was that the knight, our ancestor, found a group of humans living in hiding. He had been badly injured and was barely alive. A young human woman found him and nursed him back to health, but his leg never healed right. Unable to continue his quest, he settled into the village. His orders were to guide the group back to the kingdom. The villagers refused. They didn’t believe his stories. Even if they did, he could no longer guide them and it was too risky to entrust the quest to anyone else. He made the decision that only when humans and shifters live in harmony would the location be revealed. He carved the box, hiding clues within the images. Inside the box, he placed a cryptex containing the map to the kingdom inside it,” he said.

“What’s a cryptex?”

Cyrus chuckled. “I asked my father that same question. A cryptex is a cylindrical, hand-held vault with five concentric, rotating dials labeled with letters. My father warned me that if anyone ever tried to open the cryptex without deciphering the key, that the map would be destroyed,” he added.

She turned and studied his face. “Did you open it?”

He shook his head. “No. Alas, knowledge of the key was lost and I never could figure out the code on the box. It is one reason I’ve kept it hidden. I was afraid someone would find the cryptex, try to unlock it, and destroy the map. It was better to wait until someone far smarter than I am would figure out the code. Besides, by the time I came along, the shifters had built up their cities around us. Going on a quest to find a mythical kingdom was no longer possible.”

She looked across to the firepit where several shifters had joined her clan members. Her eyes flickered over Tracy and Mitchell, and she thought of Ella and Ty before she instinctively searched for Van and Peterson.

“Until now,” she murmured.

“Perhaps now is the time when humans and shifters can live in harmony.”

“Will you—will you tell me the story?”

“Have a seat.”

She returned to the rocking chair and sat down. Tucking her hands under her thighs, she listened to the creak of her grandfather’s rocker against the wood boards and the warm tenor of his voice as he began.

“Long, long ago, there was a kingdom where a very proud and powerful shifter king named Or’Ang fell in love with a beautiful human woman named Elizabeth. Even though it was forbidden by both the humans and shifters, their love was too great to be denied. The people of the Kingdom of Or’Ang loved their king and queen and vowed to stand beside them. Even as tension between our species spread throughout other kingdoms, the shifters and humans in this kingdom lived and worked side-by-side in harmony.”

Wonder filled Jayden as her grandfather shared the story passed down to him. Vivid images of gallant knights, both human and shifter, standing to defend their king and queen filled her mind. Despair for what she had done by crossing paths with the shifters slowly turned to unanswered questions. Her attention drifted toward the group sitting around the fire, sharing stories, songs, and food together and she couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps her mistake hadn’t been a mistake at all, but foreordained history righting itself.

“I’ll go. I’ll find the box,” she softly promised as her grandfather’s voice faded.

Chapter 10

It was a little past midnight when Jayden tiptoed back into the kitchen, the darkness wrapping around her like a comforting blanket. This time she was searching for food. The canned foods were out. They would be too heavy and make too much noise. She meticulously packed her bag with packages of dried soup, crackers, dried milk, cereal, and as many freeze-dried meals as she could fit into her bag.

Her bag would be bulky and would slow her down. She had brought everything she deemed necessary, pushing the limits of what she could carry. Her wardrobe consisted of three brand new shirts, two pairs of dark gray hiking pants, one of which she was wearing, a forest green puffy jacket, a light-weight forest green hat with a brim that she could fold if she needed to and that would protect her when it rained, a pair of black insulated gloves, and an emerald green hand-knit wool scarf her mother had made. She had the assortment of medicine and bandages she had scrounged earlier wrapped in the clothing. The bundle was placed inside a waterproof bag she had taken from the supply tent where she had gotten the hat, coat, and clothing. She had also taken a lighter, matches, and a new hunting knife that had a fine edge on one side and a serrated side for cutting through wood. Her lance was a necessity which would also serve as a hiking pole.

Jayden’s desire to put as much distance between herself and the compound made it necessary to take more food than she wanted. She wouldn’t have the time or the luxury to hunt or even forage much. The cave was a good hundred miles or more from her current location, as well as across difficult and dangerous terrain.

Testing the weight of her pack, she decided she couldn’t afford to add any more. She glanced around the storeroom with regret. There was so much food here, more than she had seen in a lifetime. Tears burned her eyes at the memories of her stomach twisting with pain from hunger.