Asharielle and the Hidden Realm, page 4
She cupped water in her hands and held it to his mouth. “Here, drink,” she urged.
He brought his hands up to steady hers and sipped. She repeated the process several times before he pushed her hand away.
“I’m sorry, we don’t seem to have any food,” she said.
“Food?” he queried.
“Yes, it’s just that you look hungry, but we don’t have any. Sorry.”
A smile creased his mouth as his eyes drifted closed. She thought he’d fallen asleep, but then he said, “Ash, don’t let the fire go out. The egg must stay warm. Keep it burning hot, okay?”
She nodded, then realised he couldn’t see her. “Okay, Ryder,” she said. As his breathing evened out, she turned her attention back to his injuries. What could she do? She could use her school shirt…but that would mean taking it off. What if he woke up and she was just in her bra—the one with the strawberries on? It would be awkward and embarrassing.
But what if he dies because I’m too prissy to clean his wounds?
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t ever gone running in a sports bra before. This should be no different. Slipping around behind him, she took off her shirt and tried to tear strips off like she had seen people do in movies, but it proved futile. In the end, she just dipped the whole thing into the bucket and laid it across his back, ignoring the nasty gashes on his front for now. While she waited, she allowed herself another small sip of water. She longed for more, but she didn’t know how much it would take to clean his wounds. At least her mouth was now wet, and thankfully, she could feel saliva beginning to pool on her tongue.
It didn’t take long for the crusted blood to moisten. She did her best to wipe it away. The movement against his skin must have been painful but Ryder didn’t stir. The claw marks on his back seemed deeper than the other cuts. She cleaned them as best she could, picking out tufts of hair and one claw tip that had embedded itself in his muscle.
Feeling more confident, she moved to his front. At this stage, she could see no tracking in any of his wounds. She knew what tracking was because once, her mum had a cut on her knee, and it had gotten infected. Mum had taken her along to the doctors, and he had explained to them that sometimes, when infection was present, it spread beneath the flesh, creating what looked like red track marks over the skin. He had given her antibiotics and made her go back the next day to see if it was getting better.
The water in the bucket was now a sickly shade of red and her school shirt looked like a tie-dyed nightmare. The rich coppery scent was overpowering, but she ignored it and began cleaning his shoulder. She fought the nausea that hit her when his skin parted easily between her fingers. It needed stitches, but without supplies, she could do little to help him. Peering inside the swollen cut, she checked for foreign bodies and sighed in relief when it was clear. She wondered which of the Kryak had sliced him there.
“Strawberries are food,” he said.
Startled, she glanced at his face to find him staring at her bra. She should have been embarrassed but his voice sounded so weak that she felt only concern. She reached across and closed his eyes, whispering for him to rest. If her cheeks were a little bit flushed, well, there was no one around to notice.
She checked the fire and added more branches. The moon had risen, and she estimated that it had taken about an hour to clean his wounds. Though she had done her best with limited resources, she still felt helpless. Ryder needed medical attention, but he would not get it tonight. Unsure what to do next, she sat by Ryder’s side, tracking the moon’s path across the sky, and stoking the fire to keep the flames burning strong. It was the least she could do for him. It was well after midnight when her eyes drifted shut.
Chapter 4
It was Ryder who shook her awake. Asharielle opened her eyes in the pre-dawn light to find that she was tucked into the crook of his arm. Her head rested on his chest and her stomach was pressed into his warm side. It was peaceful lying there and she didn’t want to move. Still half asleep, she ran her hand up and over his chest, feeling smooth skin and taught muscles.
Something didn’t sit right in her mind. She tried to puzzle out what was different, and her gaze took in the egg, which was still glowing in the dull embers of the fire.
“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry; I almost let the fire go out.” She sat up, prepared to put some more wood on the fire, but he stopped her.
“It’s okay, Ash. It’s almost sunrise and the fire is just fine. It has banked, just as it should, and it is the perfect temperature for what is about to occur.”
“Are you sure? Because it’s a little chilly right now and that breeze is cool.”
Ryder must have thought so too because he looked at her, coughed, then looked away.
“Are you alright, Ryder? You’re not sick, are you?”
He coughed again and looked across to the shirt that she had put on the woodpile to dry by the fire. It was no longer white. She had taken it off to clean his wounds and it had ended up soaked in his blood. Something in her foggy morning brain clicked and she glanced down at her chest. She was still clad only in her bra.
“Oh my god, I’m half-naked,” she muttered in embarrassment. Her eyes flicked back to Ryder and her cheeks coloured. “For goodness’ sake, don’t look at me.”
She snatched her shirt from the woodpile. It was still a little damp and it smelled of copper, but she put it on anyway. Then she realised that she might need it again to wash his wounds so when she got to the buttons she hesitated. She looked across at his bare chest, just to confirm that he was really healed, and her brain reminded her that she had used that chest as a pillow. Shaking the image from her mind, she buttoned up and came to kneel in front of him. His skin was perfect. How was that even possible? Inspecting him, she ran her hands over his chest then shifted to check his shoulder and the scrapes on his back. They were all gone. He didn’t even have a scar.
“How?” she asked him. “I thought you had run out of hue?”
“I had, Ash. It’s like when you run all day and you don’t eat anything to replace your energy. You get tired and run down. Two days ago, I used a lot of my energy to fight Kyron in the girls’ bathroom and then I used more later that night when I had to heal your shattered wrist. Then, before I had a chance to regain my full strength, I fought the Kryak…and I called Dragon to save you. I used so much hue yesterday that I did not even have enough to heal myself.”
She sat back, one brow raised questioningly. “Then how did you regenerate so quickly? You’ve healed perfectly.”
He stared deep into her eyes, as if he were debating what to say. He opened his mouth to speak but she beat him to it.
“Could the unicorn have healed you? I mean, he’s inside me and he is full of the blue hue, right? So could he have reached out when I was sleeping on you and healed you somehow?”
“I guess that is a possibility, Asharielle, but it’s not the only one.”
“Yeah, but it’s the one that makes the most sense to me,” she shot back. “I’m just glad you’re okay. And look, it’s almost dawn,” she said, pointing to the treetops where the skyline had begun to brighten. Suddenly, she couldn’t wait anymore. “Ryder, there is something I’ve wanted to ask you all night, but you were injured and tired…”
“I bet I can guess what it is too,” he said. His smile softened his face as he waited.
She took a deep breath and pointed to the egg. “What is that?”
“Shush!” he whispered. “Just watch. I’ve seen this over a thousand times, and even now, it still takes my breath away.”
As sunrise dusted the horizon, golden rays spread through the canopy and bathed the dome in light. It reacted as a prism would, for as the light transposed through the shield, it split into a spray of colours. Asharielle held out her hands, fascinated by the rainbow that dappled across her skin as she moved.
As the sun rose, the light intensified. The rainbow tinting her body began to swirl in a clockwise pattern around the dome, slowly at first but then faster and faster. It spiralled into a tornado of colour that converged over the top of the egg. Asharielle had no idea that a rainbow could look so threatening, and as the colour began to funnel down toward the top of the shell, she feared it might break.
But this was no ordinary egg. It drew the torrent of colour inside it. The shell looked as if someone had thrown a rainbow at it from the inside. For a moment, it shone like a disco ball before it faded to a milky transparency. Asharielle thought she saw something move on the inside.
“Ryder, did you see that?” she said, wriggling closer to the egg. “Ooh, is it a dragon?”
“Keep watching, Ash. You’ll see soon enough.”
She heard a loud cracking sound at the same moment that the sun broke free of the canopy. She searched for the fracture. It cracked again, and she spotted white light radiating from a thin fissure across the top. Everything was happening so fast that she dared not blink. The upper half of the egg shattered, and several large pieces fell on the ground. She held her breath and leaned forward, but it was still too bright to see inside.
She saw Ryder shuffling on his knees toward the egg. The look of wonder on his face made her desperate to see what lay hidden within the half shell. They both peered over at the same time.
She squealed with excitement. “That’s not a dragon,” she whispered in awe. “Ryder… That’s a baby!”
Nestled inside, blinking up at them with fierce blue eyes, was a shiny, pink, tiny newborn. She was speechless.
The baby boy looked at Ryder and smiled.
“Good to see you again too, old friend,” he said, gentling his tone. He reached in and scooped the infant out then, before she could ask what was going on, he thrust the baby toward her. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around him.
“Asharielle, I would like you to meet Phoenix, Watcher and Protector of The Guardian of the Ancients, otherwise known to you as Nick.”
She looked down at the baby and he smiled back at her. “No way,” she said, the disbelief evident in her breathy voice.
“True!” Ryder replied.
“This is Nick?” She couldn’t drag her eyes away from the blond-haired urchin. Little Nick began to coo and gurgle as though he were laughing at her. She felt something poking into the tender skin of her forearm and ever so gently, she lifted him to peer at his back.
“No way,” she said again. Little wings protruded from the shoulder blades on his back. They were covered in soft yellow down and, unable to resist, she ran her fingertips across them. They felt like fluffy silk. The baby gurgled again, and she tucked him back into the crook of her arm to keep him warm.
Intense joy washed through her as she realised that she had just witnessed something incredible. She felt her spirits lift as she reflected that life was not just fear and loss. It could be beautiful as well and it was full of constant surprises. She wasn’t sure if she would ever get used to this strange life that she was now part of, but she hoped there would be more wonderful moments like this.
She looked across at Ryder and found him grinning at her. “I like it when you smile, Asharielle.”
A little embarrassed by his intensity, she looked down in wonder at baby Nick.
“Ryder?”
“Yes?”
“I think it’s time you told me exactly how something like this is possible.”
“I’d like to, Ash, but we don’t have a lot of time and we must get moving.”
He looked quite serious, but then she looked down at the baby. No! She had to know. Planting her bottom on the ground, Asharielle crossed her legs as close to the embers as she could. She didn’t want Nick to get cold. From the crook of her arm, the baby watched on as she tried to school her face into what she hoped was a look of stubborn determination. When she felt she had it, she looked over at Ryder, who was still kneeling by the broken eggshell, and simply said, “Then you’d better hurry.”
With a sense of resignation, Ryder sat opposite her. She watched his face flicker through several different expressions, and she knew he was trying to work out what to say—and what to leave out. She frowned. For someone who professed to be in a hurry, he sure was taking his time to speak.
“Okay, Ash, so you now know about Kyron and, of course, the unicorn—”
“Yes, yes, yes…” she interrupted, frustration getting the better of her. “I know. A man not of your timeline confronted Kyron and became the unicorn and by some freak twist of fate, he is inside me, which, I can tell you right now, is weird and kind of scary, by the way, and hard to believe and I know all that and I’m working hard on coming to terms with my now freakish life, but…” She paused as she realised she was babbling. “But I want to know about Nick, and you. And dragons and phoenixes, of course. These creatures are pure myth. How is it possible that you two are the walking embodiment of a fantasy made real?”
Ryder shook his head. “You say fantasy, Asharielle, because you believe such things are not real, yet where I come from…when I come from, all things were possible.”
“What do you mean, 'when you come from’? I’ve heard you and Nick both allude to a different time but I’m guessing you don’t mean the recent past.”
“Not even the distant past,” he affirmed. “We come from the beginning. We come from a time when life was new and wondrous, where all life was celebrated, and we were all connected to one another.”
“And yet here you are, now, in this future, trying to protect the unicorn from Kyron,” she said.
The baby gurgled and she stared down at him. Nick was an amazing being, but a phoenix was meant to be a bird of some sort, wasn’t it? She studied him carefully. Though he had wings, he looked more like a human baby than a chick. And yesterday, before he had been cast into the fire, he looked just like an old man. So what exactly was he?
She cast a critical eye over Ryder. He also looked like a normal human but earlier today he had been a fire-breathing dragon. She could not see any dragon-like features to suggest he was not human either. But then again, she was learning that the world was a far different place from the one she had been born into. Ryder had magic; she had seen it with her own eyes. In ancient stories, many dragons were said to have magic. Part of her had to find out who he was…what he was.
“So, are you a dragon in disguise then?”
“No, Ash, I’m not a dragon.”
“So, you can just change into one anytime you like then?”
“I’ve never summoned Dragon before. I’d never needed to until today. I am a hue-man, and so is Nick.”
“But Nick is a phoenix? Again, I’m not sure how that’s even possible, but that’s what you said when you introduced him.”
“Okay, you need to stop asking questions. If you can hold your tongue, I will tell you the story of us, as much as I know of it anyway. Hopefully, it will clear up some of your confusion.” He stared at her with raised eyebrows, as if he doubted her ability to keep quiet. Admittedly, her head was bursting with thousands of questions. There were so many things she needed to know to help her make sense of everything, but for Ryder, she would try to shut up…for now. Asharielle mimed zipping her lips then gave him a thumbs up.
Nick gurgled, and before she could protest, Ryder scooped the baby out of her arms. She frowned. Her arms already felt empty without him. He held the infant against his chest, seeming to draw comfort from his young friend.
“Some of us suspected how dangerous Kyron was becoming, but our ruler—let’s call her Gaia—was at first blind to the destruction he was causing—”
“Hey,” she interrupted, “that’s the Greek name for Mother Ear—” She looked down guiltily before looking back at Ryder. “Sorry,” she whispered. “Please continue.”
“By the time she found out, it was already too late, and she became gravely ill. As far as I know, I became the first Watcher. That’s what we call ourselves, you know—Watchers. We protect that which Gaia holds most dear.”
He paused in his tale, and Asharielle made sure she kept quiet.
“I was not there when the unicorn defeated Kyron. I had already been sent ahead to the future, assigned to watch over The Key until the time was right. But young Nick here, well, his story is vastly different to my own. Most of what I know is what he has told me. You see, Asharielle, I am immortal. By chance or twist of fate, it was I who was chosen to live throughout time, my cells suspended yet constantly regenerating to maintain this visage you see before you.
“Nick, however, was not so lucky. While I am unaware of the exact details of the transaction, it appears that he, in a bid to protect his friend, made a deal with one of our most unusual visitors. The phoenix granted him immortality, but at a price. In exchange for the favour he asked, Nick would pass down through time the hard way. He was gifted the longevity of his years, but at the end of every lifespan he would burn to achieve rebirth.”
Ryder paused again, contemplating the baby in his arms.
“I have seen Nick burn more times than I would like. Sometimes, when he gets drunk, he talks about how intense the pain of rebirth is. He weeps, full of sorrow…and sometimes fear, for what he knows will come. But each time he weeps, he also catches himself, and a light comes into his eyes. It is that courage and determination that allows him to keep going. For as long as I have known him, Nick has always protected the unicorn, who was once his best friend.”
Asharielle swallowed and, following Ryder’s earlier move, she scooped the baby out of his arms and hugged the little fellow fiercely. She held his face against her cheek, cupping his soft head with her hand to support him. She wasn’t sure whether she was giving comfort or seeking it but part of her wanted to convey to Nick how much she wished she could take all his pain away.
“That’s incredible,” she whispered. Then, holding Nick in front of her, she looked into his big blue eyes, searching to see the same light that Ryder had just spoken of. These were not the innocent eyes of a newborn but the eyes of a man who had lived many lifetimes and remembered every single one. When she spoke next, it was directly to the baby. “I don’t know if you can understand me, Nick, but I’m taking the chance that you can. You are amazing and I promise that while you are growing up, I will try to protect the unicorn within me to the best of my ability.”
