Page 18

EIGHTEEN

Wren

“Sam?” I call her name before my vision is fully focused. I’m lying on my back and the first things I see when my eyes clear are the clusters of sparkling crystals hanging from the ceiling of the cave.

The cave. It’s the earth test.

I sit up, expecting Ruby, Lily, and Viento to be nearby, probably stressing because I’ve been asleep, but I see no one. The cave is still filled with gorgeous plants and flowers, a mossy floor and the solitary tree, but I’m alone. I stand, still feeling a little wobbly. “Lily? Ruby? Viento?” No one responds, and I start to worry.

I remember that Ruby and Lily were behind me and a little to the right and I walk in that direction. “Lily? Ruby?” Still nothing. I wonder if maybe they woke up and went outside the cave, back through the waterfall veil, though I can’t imagine they’d leave me.

I trip over something and almost fall on my face. I look down and see them. Panic makes my legs feel like noodles. “Lily! Ruby! No, no no no no! Wake up—wake up!” I reach for them and then can’t make myself touch them.

They’re asleep, or unconscious, wrapped in each other’s arms. Plants grow into and from their bodies. Mushrooms sprout from Lily’s closed eyes, and snaking from between Ruby’s open lips is a creeping vine. Its roots bore into their skin as it grows around their neck and down their chest, disappearing under their shirt. A white flower blooms from Lily’s ears; its roots pick through her skin and reach like grasping fingers into her cheek and neck.

“Lily, Ruby!” I shout at them. The plants growing on them, from them, into them shiver in response, but my friends don’t show any sign of hearing me.

I drop to my knees beside them. This close I see they’re covered in glistening, weblike threads. Under my horrified gaze, they grow and twist, and I realize that they’re roots, tunneling into my friends’ skin.

“No! You have to wake up!” I grit my teeth against the grossness of it and refuse to think of the fungus people from The Last of Us . I grab the vine growing out of Ruby’s mouth and pull. It barely moves, even though I yank on it hard.

Instantly Ruby makes choking sounds. They’re not conscious but gag violently. I let go of the vine and focus instead on the roots that have wrapped around their neck and chest. I use my fingernail to dig under part of a root and then pull.

Blood flows as I jerk a little of the root from their body. Again, they don’t wake, though Ruby whimpers.

“Okay, okay. Sorry.” I quickly turn my attention to Lily. Maybe if I can break her free of this, she can help me with Ruby.

I follow the roots of the flower blooming from her ear, pinch part of the root that’s embedding itself into her cheek, and pull. Blood spurts from Lily’s cheek and she moans.

“Lily, can you hear me? Just move your finger if you can.” I look down at her hands. Moss covers them, identical to the moss that carpets the cave floor. Her hands do not move.

Think think think! This is a test. Figure out how to save them! But I can’t think. I can’t concentrate because of the pain that’s spreading through my feet and calves and knees. I glance down. A dark brown, scaly-looking fungus, the kind I’ve often seen on trees in the Pacific Northwest, spreads like a rash across my legs where they’re touching the moss I kneel in. It bores under my skin. Pushing up my pant leg, I see its roots like veins spreading against my muscle.

“No! No, stop!” I try to stand, to get to my feet, but I’m rooted to the ground. “Viento!” I shout. He doesn’t appear.

I’m getting lethargic, like when the flower mist put me to sleep. I struggle against it. I know with terrifying certainty if I give in, if I lie down here, none of us will ever leave this cave, but what can I do? I don’t have any power of my own. I need Ruby to wake up so I can boost theirs and they can rip us out of this trap.

I grit my teeth and force myself to reach out and rest my hand on Ruby’s arm. They’re slimy and unnaturally warm. It’s like we’re incubating the plants, being their living greenhouses. The thought makes me shudder, but I keep pressing my hand into their shoulder.

“Ruby, you have to wake up. Just enough to call your power to you. I’ll boost you; then you can get us out of this mess.”

Nothing. The plants claiming Ruby don’t even flinch at my voice.

I take my hand from Ruby’s arm and sit back on my scaly fungus-covered feet. I wipe sweat from my forehead and push my hair back behind my ears. As I do, my fingers brush a rough spot against my scalp. I pick at it with my fingernail and yelp in pain. I pull my hand back. My fingers are scarlet with fresh blood. My blood. Something is growing into my scalp, growing through my hair.

I want to scream and flail, but my body isn’t listening to me. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I sob and, as I brush tears from my cheeks, I feel it—scaled fungus growing in the tracks of my tears.

Bile floods the back of my throat and I almost puke. I can’t stand this. I can’t fight this. I’ve failed. My quest is over and I’ve killed my friends.

Defeated, I close my eyes, and as my body begins to sink into the mossy ground, Sam’s words lift from my memory. The answers you need are inside you already.… Trust yourself.

I open my eyes. I’m lying on my side, staring at the flower blooming from Lily’s ear. Instead of a pistil and stamen I see two little eyes, a pointed nose, and a mouth.

“Hello?” I whisper.

Its mouth lifts in a tentative smile. My gaze goes to my hands and arms, covered with fungus scales—and within the spreading brown stuff there are bright, curious gazes blinking up at me.

They’re Earth Elementals! “Hi, I see you, little Elementals.” I try to pitch my voice soothingly, but it’s difficult not to scream at them to get out of me and my friends! They’re silent, though their little eyes are focused on me. “I’m on a quest, which you probably already know,” I continue. “Ask Air, Water, and Fire. Ruby, Lily, and I have become allies with them.” The movement is painful, but I point at my two silent friends. “We don’t want to hurt any of you. So, could you please let us go?”

Their strange little faces are all turned in my direction, but instead of releasing me they spread across my body even faster as they make soft, shushing sounds.

They don’t understand. I can’t communicate with them. What am I supposed to do?

“Somebody please help me! Help us!” I yell, but no one’s coming.

The answers you need are inside you already.… Trust yourself! This time it’s like Sam’s there beside me, shouting at me. But I don’t know what to do! My friends are unconscious and my Elemental is somewhere outside the cave waiting until this test is over and he can safely rejoin us because of the spell that—

And suddenly I know what I must do. Viento is bespelled, but none of the wild Elementals are!

I struggle, ignore the sharp pain each movement causes, and manage to sit up. I clear my throat. It feels thick and wrong, like something is growing there—and I shut off that thought, draw in a deep breath, force my arms to lift and my hands to cup around my mouth, then I yell as loud as I can, “Lily’s loyal firebird! Help! Lily needs you! Ruby’s beautiful Water Elemental! Help! Ruby needs you! And my amazing luna moth, help help help! I need you! Please help us!”

Panting, I’m struggling not to sink back into the grasping moss when the waterfall veil sizzles and parts and Lily’s firebird blazes into the cave, followed by my beautiful pink moth. As they soar to me, the whalelike Water Elemental surfaces from the middle of the cave lagoon.

The firebird’s eyes blaze with anger when she sees Lily and she dives down, beak opening as fire builds within her.

“No!” I shout, and the firebird pulls up to hover before me. “Can you free us without killing the Earth Elementals?” The firebird cocks her head, listening to me. “I don’t think they’re being malicious. They just don’t understand that they’re hurting us.”

The moth lands beside me and the Water Elemental floats to the edge of the lagoon, watching with eyes the size of saucers.

“Please, don’t hurt them. We’ve come into their realm, your realm. We’ve trespassed, so it’s our responsibility to do as little damage as possible while we’re here. Please,” I beg the Elementals. “Help us without harming them.”

The firebird trills. Her eyes calm from blazing flames to warm coals. She parts her golden beak and when she breathes on us it’s not flames that lick our skin, but heat that is uncomfortable, though not quite scalding.

The plants respond instantly, retracting their roots from under our skin as they cringe away from the firebird’s breath, leaving trails of slime and little reddened dots that quickly clot as they detach from our bodies.

Instantly my mind clears and my body is my own again. “Thank you! Oh, thank you, firebird!”

The Water Elemental dives and then reappears a moment later, breaching so high that her head brushes against the crystals on the ceiling. When she belly flops into the water we’re soaked with sprays of cool water that wash the slimy yuck and blood from our bodies.

“Thank you so much!” I smile at her and push my wet hair back from my face, loving that I don’t feel anything growing from my scalp.

I can move again and I kneel beside Ruby and Lily. They’re free of the plants, but they’re not moving, and not waking; I don’t even think they’re breathing. I open my mouth to shout at them, but before I can speak or start administering CPR, the lovely moth approaches us. She chatters at me, using two of her legs to motion me back. Hastily, I scoot away. She stands over Ruby and Lily, lifts her spectacular wings, which are decorated in the phases of the moon, and begins to flap them, flooding my friends with pure, fresh air.

Ruby wakes first. They open their eyes and turn their head, looking for Lily, who yawns, stretches, and opens her eyes. She blinks several times and then grins. “It’s so nice to see you again, Miss Luna Moth.” Lily reaches up to pet the moth’s fuzzy underbelly, which she tolerates for a few breaths before taking flight.

As Ruby and Lily sit I pull them into my arms. “Are you okay? I was so worried!”

Lily hugs me. “I’m great! You wouldn’t believe the dream I had. My grandma was there! She died two years ago, but we talked and talked. It was wonderful.”

Ruby gently extracts themself from my hug. “I dreamed, too. I was with my cat, Pita. He’s been dead for five years, but I still miss him every day.” They wipe a tear from their cheek. “It was really good to see him again.”

The two of them look at me. “Who did you see?” Lily asks.

“Sam.”

“Was she well?” Ruby asks hesitantly.

I nod. “Very. And she had a lot to say.”

Lily laughs. “Sounds like Sam.”

My gaze meets Lily’s. “When this is over I’m going to take you up on your offer to help me deal with my grief.”

“Oh, Wren! That’s awesome!” She hugs me again.

Ruby helps us up and each of us goes to our Elemental. We’re thanking them and telling them how amazing they are when a sound from the center of the cave has us turning to face the huge tree. As our Elementals quietly leave the cave, a being steps from the center of the tree. She’s tall and slender. Her skin is the rich color of fertile earth. Her hair is long, waving willow branches and her large almond-shaped eyes are moss green. She has no mouth but is somehow indescribably beautiful.

I approach her, and my friends follow. We halt in front of her. I bow my head to her. “Hello, Earth Elemental. I hope the Air, Water, and Fire didn’t hurt any of your plants. We didn’t mean to cause them harm.”

She knows. Viento’s voice is inside my mind and I look up to see him hovering above us.

“Can you tell her how beautiful I think she is and how much Ruby, Lily, and I appreciate her amazing cave?”

You may speak to her. She understands you perfectly. It is only her children who did not understand that they were harming you.

“What? What’s Viento saying?” Lily asks.

I meet the gaze of the Earth Elemental. “Her children, the plants around us, were absorbing us.” Ruby makes a strangled sound, but I don’t look away from the Elemental. “But they didn’t understand that they were harming us, even when I asked them to stop.” The Elemental nods and her eyes sparkle. “ She does understand us, though.”

“Your realm, all of this, is breathtaking. Thank you for letting us pass through it,” Lily says.

“It’s amazing,” Ruby adds. “We appreciate your realm and you.”

“Did you send us the dreams?” I ask the Elemental.

There is a pause and then Viento tells me, She wants you to know they weren’t dreams. They were real—for each of you.

I blink quickly to keep from crying. “Thank you,” I say to the Earth Elemental. “Talking with Sam helped me. A lot. More than I can tell you.” I glance from the Elemental to my friends and explain, “They weren’t dreams. We were actually with those we love.”

Ruby bows deeply. Lily and then I mimic her. When we straighten, the Elemental is stepping back into the tree, and as it absorbs her, its branches shiver and then the sweet scent of ripe peaches fills the cave as the tree bursts into fruit.

The three of us look up at Viento. Before we can ask he says, Yes, they’re for you. You may eat them.

“Peaches for dinner!” I shout happily.

Lily claps and laughs and Ruby begins picking the succulent fruit.

Viento descends so he’s hovering beside me, just off the mossy floor of the cave. You did it, Little Bird. You passed the test of each Elemental, and gained them as allies.

“I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry,” I say.

Perhaps you should look at the map while you decide which to do.

“I will as soon as it’s dark,” I tell him.

The sun has just set.

I shake my head. “Seriously? We’ve been in here that long?”

Arms filled with succulent fruit, Lily and Ruby join us. “Please don’t tell me we’ve been in this cave for years,” Ruby says.

I look at Viento. He snorts. “Viento says it’s barely past sunset the same day we entered the cave.”

“Whew, that’s not so bad.” Lily takes a bite of a peach and has to lean forward as juice drips from her chin. Through a full mouth she says, “I have never tasted anything so delicious.”

“If it’s sunset we can look at the map,” Ruby says, grinning at Lily.

I take the map from my pocket and open it. The page is completely filled. From our cave the scarlet path follows the stream around, away from the opening and the waterfall, heading straight into the forest behind the cave until it stops at a clearing where a full silver moon is drawn.

“That’s it!” I’m laughing and tears track down my cheeks—happy tears. “We did it. All we have to do is follow this to the clearing. We’re almost there!”

Ruby tosses a peach to me. I catch it and she lifts one of her own. “Cheers to us!”

Lily lifts her partially eaten peach. “Cheers!”

I lift my peach and am interrupted by a sound behind me. I turn and see the Earth Elemental. She has stepped from the tree and her large, expressive eyes are narrowed with anger. But she’s not looking at us. Her gaze is focused at the waterfall veil that cloaks the entrance to the cave.

“What’s happening?” Ruby drops the peaches and takes a wide-legged stance that says she’s ready for a fight.

A terrible rumbling builds to a deafening roar. The ground beneath our feet shudders and the crystals overhead sway together, clanging like wind chimes in a hurricane.

“Earthquake?” Ruby shouts above the noise.

No. Much worse, Viento says as dust fills the cave.