Sapphire

Shawna wanted so badly to talk to this new appealing protector of hers, but she was too nervous. She watched Orin from behind striding up ahead with Antares. He had not revealed much about himself, where he was from, or how he knew Capella, but Mira had the power to tell a lying heart from a true one. She glanced at Mira striding behind them and almost decided to walk up and demand answers from the secretive unicorn when Lula flew over.

  “Go talk to him,” Lula whispered, flying alongside her. “I can tell you want to. You’re going to be bald if you keep pulling at your hair like that.”

  Shawna normally felt shy around boys in her other life, and found she still was, despite staring down a thirty foot tall electric tiger-monster.

  “No, I don’t care who he is.”

  Orin turned around, smiled, and she nearly swallowed her own tongue. He slowed his pace, and she had no choice but to catch up to him. She tried to look nonchalant, but her hand went unconsciously to fiddle with her necklace.

  “So, you’re the powerful enchantress we’ve been waiting for?” His voice was husky and deep. She liked that and couldn’t help but grin like a silly little girl. “You’ve been sent to change our world, so I’ve been told.” He opened his hands like he was waiting to catch her answer.

  She didn’t look at him. She tried in vain to focus on the rocky path. “I guess, if that’s what you’ve heard,” she mumbled.

  He laughed. She almost stumbled and fell flat on her face.

  “What I’ve heard? Well, I hope it’s what you’ve heard since you’re the one this dragon has been talking about.”

  He smiled and this time she did trip.

  “Oh!” she cried, right before her knee and forehead made contact with a disobliging rock.

  Immediately his hands grabbed her shoulders, too late to thwart gravity, but the sudden touch numbed any pain she was feeling. Her heart was racing and she hoped Mira couldn’t hear that at least.

  “I don’t see how you will be able to help us if rocks can defeat you so easily,” he said, helping her up. “They don’t even move.”

  She tried to laugh and smile with him, feeling confident and unabashed, but of course she felt just the opposite. Instead she brushed herself off and gave an awkward giggle. Lula flew over.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “No, you’re not, look.” She pointed at Shawna’s forehead. “You’re bleeding. Let me help.”

  Before Shawna could raise her hands and yell ‘no’ in her own defense, her face sprouted a magnificent bushy pink beard. Orin cleared his throat and looked like he was either straining not to laugh or choke. She’d rather Kryos had eaten her than suffer this life-ending embarrassment.

  “At least it matches your hair now,” he said.

  “My hair?”

  Shawna turned a brighter pink than either her hair or her beard.

  “I’ll fix it! I’ll fix it!” stuttered Lula, waving her hands around like she was trying to ward off Shawna’s evil eye.

  She glared at Lula, at a loss for words, and vowed to squash her friend like a bug as soon as she fluttered close enough. In a moment the beard was gone, her hair changed back, and her bleeding had stopped, but she stalked away ahead of everyone too mortified to speak. Orin jogged up to her, and she wished him away as much as she wished him to touch her again.

  “Hey,” he said. “Tell me about the other world where you came from.” She was grateful he didn’t mention the fall or the beard.

  She looked at him now, his angular face, his muscular arms, the way his dark brows framed his dark eyes, and a black leather strap around his neck. She noticed all these details in a matter of seconds, but the strap, obviously a necklace tucked under his leather vest, made her pause before answering.

  “Did I say something wrong?” he asked.

  “Yeah, no, no.” She began talking about herself, her family, her troubles at home and school. She had never talked to anyone about such things besides Tara. It was so easy to talk to him, and he seemed genuinely fascinated by her other life.

  They had been talking for hours, and neither realized that everyone else had stopped until Antares growled, “quiet!”

  She almost strangled Antares. Orin had been in the middle of a story about a giant Agonian bear that had become drunk off his father’s fermented grains. It took ten men to drag the slumbering bear off their farm. She laughed with him and didn’t really care what he was saying, she just liked his voice and watching his lips move. He fell silent, and she finally heard why everyone else had stopped. Mira stood with head held high, listening intently to the faint noises behind them. Shawna suddenly noticed she hadn’t seen Sparkle since early that morning. He must have either flown ahead or fallen asleep again. She bet on the latter.

  “I’ll go see what it is,” said Lula, who shot away before anyone could protest.

  Everyone waited. The noise of many hoof beats grew louder. Lula zipped back through the mossy canyon, eyes shining with excitement.

  “Well?” growled Antares, flicking his tail.

  “It’s a herd of Kayi-Elk,” she said breathlessly. “They’re so…beautiful.” She could hardly contain herself as glitter surrounded her like a golden cloud. Her eyes sparkled, then she lapsed into a fit of sneezing.

  “Kayi-Elk,” said Mira. “Then we have found it.” She glanced at Antares.

  “Yes,” he said, but he didn’t sound relieved. “Or they have come to find us.”

  Around the bend came at least twenty of the strangest but truly most beautiful creatures Shawna had ever seen. At first she thought they were centaurs but they were not half human and half horse, they were half elk. They were as large as horses, entirely snow white including their human torsos, with giant white antlers that curved back from their heads. Some had gold-tips on their antlers, others had gold spiraling around them, but all were adorned in some way with gold, silver, or bronze. A few wore gold bracers or intricate chest pieces. They looked like living snow-sculptures as the sun shone on their skin and plumes of white, blue, or black hair that ran from their foreheads down their backs. Their skin was also tattooed with red, blue, and black designs.

  They cantered gracefully towards them, almost like a synchronized dance, then fanned out and halted a few feet away. The males had very strong features and larger jaws while the females were finely featured and delicate, but it was their eyes that captivated Shawna. Severe dark eyebrows, framing intense light blue eyes, made them transform from delicately beautiful to fearfully intimidating. There was silence as both parties stared at one another until one of the male Kayi-Elk, with entirely silver antlers, spoke.

  “Guardian,” he said to Antares, hurriedly waving a hand out from his chest as he bowed from the waist. “We have come on Karuna’s behalf. She is in urgent need of your help. There is very little time. We must bring the humans immediately!”

  “What has happened?” said Mira.

  “A sorcerer,” he said, looking around at their gasps and exclamations. “He’s breeched the gateway.”

  Shawna knew exactly what he was going to say, and unconsciously touched the hilt of her crystal sword with one hand and the sapphire with the other.

  “We do not know how, but he has discovered the entrance. We sensed your presence, soleon and unicorn, and we came to find you as quickly as possible.” The Kayi-Elk reared up a little on his slender legs. “He is destroying the realm as we speak. Now hurry!”

  Antares roared and raced after the Kayi-Elk as they all turned and shot away up a steep slope.

  “Get on!” Mira knelt and Shawna leapt onto her back.

  Mira didn’t move. “Get on,” she said to Orin.

  Shawna thought she was about to have a heart attack as he leapt up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

  Stop. She mentally shook herself. It doesn’t matter. Don’t be ridiculous. She tried to look at him out of the corner of her eye just as Mira bolted away up the hill. The
force pushed her back into Orin’s chest, and his arms held her tighter as he leaned forward for the both of them.

  Don’t fall, was all her mind could think as she resisted the urge to look at him.

  She was so large and powerful that Mira quickly caught up to their guides and Antares. All the hooves on hard earth rumbled like an earthquake as they came upon a clearing where two enormous vine-covered pillars dominated the landscape. The Kayi-Elk raced straight between the pillars and vanished. Antares vanished, and then Mira galloped through the magical barrier.

  “No!” Mira cried out and reared as soon as they entered the realm.

  Shawna felt Orin drop to the ground, and she threw an arm back to catch him before she realized he had slid off on purpose. He glanced at her outstretched hand, and she immediately grabbed onto Mira’s mane again. She turned away to hide her flushing cheeks, then held her breath as she saw what lay before them. They were too late.