7-Wake Up

7

Wake Up.

Her eyes exploded open and she sat up like a bolt of lightning on a rainy night.  She did so at such speed, Mel actually jumped backward from his small fire in surprise.

“What happened?” She asked quickly, seeing the dwarf.

“Give it a second,” Mel said.  “It will come back to you.  You just passed out from over-use.”

The druid took a second as her brain began to move again.  The memories flowed back into her head.  She looked around and saw the dead rock troll on the shore line, a distance away.  Then she started to become panicked.

“Where is he?” She asked.

“The guy in the stupid shirt?” Mel asked.  “He went to grab some more wood for the fire.”

The druid stood.  “He can’t be alone.  I’m his protection.”

Mel smirked.  “You sure about that?  I mean, you did such a great job with the troll.”

The druid turned and fire burned in her eyes.  “Are you getting at something?”

Mel nodded, undaunted.  “You’re a terrible body guard.”

The druid frowned and gritted her teeth.  “I don’t need this.  I need to find the Rognaithe.”

Mel smiled.  “Ha!  So I was right.  He is the Rognaithe!”

The druid began to walk down the beach, hoping to leave Mel behind.

She was not so lucky.

“I don’t get it,” Mel began to ask.  “Why, out of all the people on the planet, did you pick that idiot?”

“That is not my decision.”  The druid replied.

Mel nodded.  “Yeah, yeah.  I know all that, but why him?  I mean, do you guys really think he is going to defeat Zersch?”

The druid stopped in place.  “Look Nex.  You’re making me angry, and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”

Mel raised an eyebrow.  “The Incredible Hulk?”

The druid looked confused.  “What?”

Mel cocked his head to the side.  “You just quoted The Incredible Hulk.”

“Umber Hulk’s can’t talk.”  The druid said, looking very lost.

Mel shook his head.  “No, No.  Not an Umber Hulk.  I mean, The Incredible Hulk.  Big green guy.  Bruce Banner gets angry and becomes a deaf body builder.”

The Celtic woman just stared at Mel.

Mel became frustrated.  “Oh, come on!”

****

Zachariah’s eyes slowly began to open.

His hand instinctively moved to his head, which was throbbing.  “Anyone get the name of that truck?”

“There was no truck.”  The ninja woman’s voice suddenly reminded Zachariah of what had happened.  “But if you mean this as the standard American metaphor, I believe you are referring to Kyo’s foot.”

Zachariah picked his head off the ground and looked over his chest.  The female ninja who had been chasing him and Kathleen, sat samurai style, in front of him on the earth floor of a cave.  She had taken off her mask.  She was thin and pretty with a cute face of obvious Japanese decent.  She had long black hair in a pony tail down her back.

The cave they were in was large and earth covered, unlike the shale alcove they had fallen into with the troll.  As Zachariah pulled himself upright, he looked around.  The place was amazing.  A giant open cave with trees and clearing everywhere.  The weird blue light from the crystals in the walls illuminated the place like before.

Even more amazing was that along the ceiling, trees grew as well.  It was as if the ceiling of the cave was also a floor.  It gave Zachariah a feeling of vertigo, which made him look away.

“So he kicked me in the face?” Zachariah asked.

“Side of the head.”  She answered in perfect English.  “In the interest of fairness, you were asking for it.”

Zachariah shrugged.  “It’s okay.  I remember that you people think kicking someone means you’re saving them.”

She sighed.  “We are trying to save you.”

Zachariah frowned.  “You’re doing a bang up job, so far.”

Her eyes narrowed.  “You are a very hard person to save, Mr. Van Sluyters.”

He shook his head.  “Screw you, lady.  I didn’t ask to be saved.  Hell, I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“We have been following you for some time,” she said.  “We were attempting not to let you know we were there, but the presence of the druid made that impossible.  We were forced to step in.”

Zachariah stood up.  “Sure, so you have been following me?”

She nodded.  “We have had people on you for three years.”

Zachariah was shocked.  “Three years?!”

She nodded and stood.  “Yes, and might I say, it was never going to work out with Lilly.”

“Fuck you, ninja Oprah!” Zachariah responded with anger.

She put up her hand.  “I apologize.  I over-stepped.”

“I don’t get it.  Aren’t ninja’s assassins?” Zachariah asked, changing the subject.

She nodded.  “We do kill, but we can protect.  We were hired by an anonymous benefactor.”

Zachariah laughed.  “Hired?  Lady, there are, maybe, two people on this planet who don’t want me dead and they defiantly don’t have enough to hire ninjas.”

She shrugged.  “Think what you wish.  We are here to protect you.”

“What about the wyvern?  Zersch?” He asked.  “Are you going to help me fight it?”

The woman raised her eyebrow.  “Fight it?  Is that what you believe you are here for?”

Zachariah became confused.  “Yeah, that’s what the Rognaithe does, right?”

The ninja shook her head.  “Mr. Van Sluyters, you are not here to fight the wyvern.  You are here to be fed to it.”

****

She stared at the shale on the ground.  “They have him.  The damned ninjas have him.”

“Ninja.” Mel said.

Cathleen spun. “What?”

“Ninja is its own pluralization.  Like moose.” He replied.

Cathleen sighed in anger.  She had traded up one annoying prick for another.  “I believe you’re missing the point.”

Mel shook his head.  “I don’t think so, what do you want Zach for?  It’s not fighting.”

She frowned.  “I thought I told you to stop asking about that.”

“What can I say, I’m a rebel.  So, what’s the deal?  How’s an idiot in a Hawaiian shirt with no knowledge of magic or the magical world, going to take down Zersch.”

“He’s not!”  Cathleen yelled back out of irritation and then quickly realized that she had said too much.  “Just stop asking!”

Mel’s eyes narrowed as he began to figure it out.  “Holy shit, he’s a sacrifice.”

Cathleen’s shoulders shrugged and Mel knew he had it.  “He’s not going to fight the monster.  Hell, you need a chosen one to fight a monster once, not every hundred years when it wakes up.  You have some deal with the beast, don’t you?”

Cathleen didn’t turn.  “It was too strong.  It is too strong.  It feeds on the sorrow and fear of humans.  Long ago, we made a deal that, on the day the creature awakes, we would feed it one human that encompassed the sadness and fear of the world.”

Mel shook his head.  “So you guys find the most depressed pathetic asshole on the planet and feed him to Zersch to keep him happy and sleeping?”

Cathleen nodded.

“That is just, plain, fucked up.” Mel said.

“I have a mission.”  Cathleen said, her voice turning back into the steel it had been before.  “I have to get the Rognaithe to Zersch to keep the world from catastrophe.  You have stumbled into this and can leave now or you can come with me, but I will not be judged by you, Nex.”

She turned and began to move in a direction, having found the ninja’s trail.

Mel shook his head and stood there for a second.  Although he had only just met Zachariah, the guy didn’t seem that bad.  He didn’t deserve what was coming, but at the same time, wasn’t it worth it if it kept the wyvern at bay?

Mel knew he was going to see this whole thing through, but he had no idea why.

Some vacation.

Next week:  The Rognaithe is a lie!  Zachariah will have to choose between his own life and the lives of thousands.  That is, if the ninja will let him.  What will Zachariah and Mel do with this information?

Find out next week.  Same stranger place, same stranger time! (couldn’t resist.)

Stranger things

TO BE CONTINUED….