It's a Love Thing (42 page)

“
Coast is clear,” Lyrica
yelled to Mal. Only it was too late before everyone realized that
we were not clear. As Mal reached the bottom of the tree, another
arrow struck the valiant man, followed by another and another. The
three of us ran as fast as we could following the river to get
away, while behind us we heard the furious yell of a grizzly and
loud thumps being dealt to the soldiers.

“
There’s the boat!” King
yelled, much too happily.

“
What about Mal?” Lyrica
and I joined in agreement.

“
He can take care of
himself, the man is trained to.”

The three of us climbed onto the boat
where Lyrica’s younger sister Lilac waited. She had a sight similar
to Lyrica’s, only less trained. Moments after we began moving away
from the shore, we heard the familiar pounding of a bear sprinting.
In the most graceful display I’ve ever seen, Mal jumped full force
as a bear toward the boat, changing only seconds after leaving the
ground and landing smoothly into the boat.

“
Where are we headed?” Mal
casually asked.

“
We can’t tell yet but we
can feel that it will be better,” the sisters replied
together.

“
As long as we’re together,
we can handle anything.” I softly spoke to Lyrica. “As long as we
have each other, we have the world.”

A little down the river we stopped to
take account of what had happened. “What were they attacking for?”
I asked King.

“
They were just savages.
They had no reason for attacking,” he replied, shrugging it
off.

“
It didn’t seem like they
were just savages to me. They had smart tactics and large weapons.
It seemed to me like they had a purpose, especially since they were
waiting for you outside of your secret tunnel.” I sounded as if I
was accusing King.

“
Maybe they were waiting
for you. Did you ever consider that?” King rudely
replied.

“
Why would they be waiting
for him?” Lyrica asked, a slight uneasy tone in her
voice.

Mal looked at me with disgust when he
said, “Yes, why don’t you tell them?”

“
The only thing I’ve done
is left a place that was filled with scoundrels and mercenaries.
There’s no reason that they would have been coming after me,” I
angrily refuted.

“
Do you not know?” Mal
asked me quietly.

“
Know what?” I replied,
very confused.

“
When you came to the
kingdom and appeared before me, Mal was speaking to me while you
were showing your worth.” King was now comfortably speaking in his
booming voice again. “You have a special gift. Just like these
three do, you have a talent as well.”

“
What is it?” Lyrica, Lilac
and I all questioned at the same time.

“
You can traverse time. Mal
could see into your mind and found this fantastic ability, sitting
there dormant,” King told everyone.

“
I’ve never done anything
remotely close to that!” I replied, confused.

“
It’s there; you’ve just
never used it before. Those barbarians attacking are actually from
the past, as are you. They followed you here so that you couldn’t
use the weapons from their culture against them. That tribe of
‘scoundrels and mercenaries’ are all part of a special group that
could use that skill. They thought you had figured it out, when
really you just stumbled through time without knowing it.” King was
a storyteller by this point.

“
The reason that you can’t
see his past or future,” Mal said, speaking to Lyrica, “is because
it can change at any moment. Your ability isn’t that well defined
yet.” He added the last remark with a lip snare and a whole helping
of vanity.

Just as he finished speaking those
words, our comfortable rest was interrupted. The savages were now
upon us once more. They started firing arrows and sprinting towards
us. We began paddling even harder down the river, picking up
speed.

“
It’s no use! They are
catching up and will not stop following us,” King roared at us,
trying to make us paddle faster.

Lyrica whispered to me, “Try to use
your power to get you, me, and my sister out of here.”

“
Hold on to me as tightly
as you can,” I told Lyrica and Lilac as quick as I could, as the
barbarians were almost upon us.

“
Take us away. Try as hard
as you can,” Lyrica replied with much haste.

“
Here we
go
,” I yelled as I thought as hard as I
could about the future.

It seemed like we hadn’t even moved,
yet all the yelling and noise was gone. We could no longer see King
or Mal. We looked around and found that we weren’t in the forest
anymore. All around us were tall brick and reflective
buildings.

“
We had come to today.
Well, about 15 years ago to be exact. Now that, kids, is the story
of how I met your mother and how we fell in love.” Looking at all
the little faces of my children, I knew I was amusing
them.

My littlest child started speaking,
“That’s not real, you made all that up!”

“
Then why does your mother
always know when you’re going to do something bad?” My response was
giving them a look of fear, much like the look Lyrica had when I
first met her.

“
Well, what happened to
King and Mal?” my oldest asked me.

“
That’s a bedtime story for
another night. Now sleep well, children, I’ll see you in the
morning.”

One by one, they all said,
“Goodnight!”

The End

About the Author

I am a 19-year-old student, currently
attending the University of Utah. My current major is Computer
Science, with an emphasis in entertainment art and engineering (I
plan to go into video games). I wrote this short story for my
girlfriend, Lindsay Bennett, as a birthday present. I’ve always
wanted to write stories and I finally got the chance to do that in
this anthology.

Find out more about Calvin
Kern at:

http://itsalovethingthebook.blogspot.com/p/calvin-kern.html

Return to Table of
Contents

In the Beginning

Pre-Earth

Alashon hurried down the white
corridor. She could barely contain her excitement. Vindar waited
for her in the gardens. Every moment she was filled with gratitude
for him. Few spirits were lucky enough to find their soul mate
during their pre-earth time.

Just outside the garden wall she
stopped. She smoothed her silvery dress down though there was no
chance for it to be anything but perfect. She ran her fingers
through her long, snowy-white, silky hair. Then, unable to wait one
moment longer, she pushed the gate open.

An explosion of color greeted her.
Flowers, shrubbery, and trees of every kind ever created by Father
filled the garden, where they grew spontaneously. The scents
combined into a heady concoction that always made her think of
Vindar. This is where they’d first seen one another.

He stood at the end of the path and a
rush of feeling overcame her entire being. His white hair glowed
above smiling eyes that reflected the colors of the universe as did
hers. He moved toward her as soon as he spotted her. They came
together in the garden’s middle, placing their hands flat against
the other’s hands. They didn’t need an exchange of words to
communicate the depth of their feeling. Emotion flowed between
their touch.

Shouting reached them, shattering the
peace. They both startled at the sound, glancing around
uncertainly. Shouting was very unusual. “What’s going on?” she
asked Vindar. Her words danced like the clear tinkle of a
bell.

“
I don’t know,” he answered
worriedly. His words also came out as dulcet bells. She thought it
was the most beautiful sound ever created. Even in her feeling of
unrest, she could recognize the pull toward the beauty of his
voice.

He took her hand and together they
exited the garden. A ping of disappointment that they wouldn’t be
able to spend more time in the garden stung her belly. But, she
supposed, they had plenty of time to do so later. For now, they
needed to know the cause and source of the shouts.

They soon came across a scene of
chaos. Spirits hurried to and fro, some with deep worry reflecting
from their glowing countenances. “Frindo,” Vindar said, seeing one
of their brothers. “What is happening?”

“
I’m unsure,” Frindo said.
“Though I do believe that it involves Lucifer once
again.”

Vindar glanced at Alashon. They both
loved their brother Lucifer dearly, but he was a restless soul. He
had many grand ideas, and was frustrated that Father couldn’t see
the attractiveness of them. He had been speaking to all of their
brothers and sisters, trying to convince them of the purity of his
plan. Many had already accepted Lucifer’s view, they
knew.

Alashon felt it unfair of
Lucifer to try to sway them so. He was in direct opposition with
their brother Emmanuel who was as beloved as Lucifer himself. It
was the first time there had been a division between them all.
Alashon didn’t think Lucifer tried to divide them purposely. He
just felt very strongly about his plan and wanted eternal happiness
for
all
his
brothers and sisters. Still, Alashon couldn’t agree with him.
Emmanuel’s plan was much sounder in the eternal scheme.

As if her thoughts had conjured him,
Emmanuel passed them. He smiled, reaching a hand to brush theirs as
he passed. A few spirits walked behind him and Alashon and Vindar
followed. They came to the great room, the only room large enough
to gather all of the Father’s children. Lucifer already stood in
the center.

“
Father has spoken,”
Lucifer said. He did not need to raise his voice above the melodic
tones of normal speaking. All could hear him clearly. “He has
rejected my plan.” He turned his gaze on Emmanuel, and Alashon
stepped back in fear. She had never seen such a look in anyone’s
eyes in all her centuries here. The feeling that came from his look
washed over her with cold ferocity. She could not even name the
look that she saw. “I shall destroy you and your followers,
Emmanuel,” he said, his voice reverberating with an undertone that
Alashon hadn’t heard before.