Falcon glanced over his shoulder to find Ikoris standing in front of an empty cupboard, talking to himself quietly. “This guy’s crazy,” he whispered to Julia.
She giggled softly. “I think he’s accidentally drunk too many potions.”
He looked back at her with a smirk. “Probably.”
“You aren’t the first to come looking for the orb, you know.”
They both jumped as Ikoris spoke suddenly from behind them.
“Really? Who came before?” Falcon asked, turning to face him.
“A woman.” Ikoris shrugged and wondered off.
“Do you remember who she was?”
Just then, a tan chipmunk jumped down from the open cupboard and scurried across the room. It had brown and white stripes down its back and a little white mask around its beady black eyes. The tiny animal climbed up Ikoris’ robes and onto his shoulder before beginning to chatter away.
Ikoris listened for a while, nodding occasionally, before responding. “Yes, yes, you’re quite right―Oh.” He looked at the others. “This is Rufus, my familiar. He’s been with me for almost sixty-three years now.”
“Chipmunks don’t live that long,” Julia pointed out.
“They can,” Falcon told her. “If it’s a familiar, then it’s magically linked so it lives as long as its mage does.”
“A familiar?”
“Yeah. It’s an animal that’s connected to a mage and can communicate with them.”
“Oh, so that’s why all the mage pictures had animals in them,” she said, more to herself than to him.
Rufus started chattering again, and Ikoris translated, “He’s saying that we should be leaving. We will travel to Oraunt, to the Arcane Library. We should find more information about the orb there.” He thought a moment, then sighed. “Well, no time like the present.”
“Wait,” Falcon said, stopping him from walking away. “Why are you going to find out more about the orb?”
Ikoris looked at him oddly. “Don’t you need to know how to use it?”
“Well, yes, but you don’t even know us.”
Rufus chattered something in Ikoris ear, and the mage nodded. “Nissa sent us a message saying that you would be coming.”
“Oh, that was nice of her,” Julia murmured. “But how could a message get here before us?”
“Sent by a bird or familiar, probably,” Falcon answered before turning back to Ikoris. “Do you remember who was here before? The woman who was looking for the orb?” he asked, taking advantage of the mage’s momentary sanity.
“What orb?” Rufus made a couple clicking sounds. “Oh. She never said who she was,” Ikoris answered while Rufus climbed down and ran off across the room.
“But you let her have the information on it?” Falcon asked.
“Yes, I wonder,” Ikoris said, his eyes held a faraway look now. “Maybe the Snow Peaks would be a good summer vacation spot.”
Rufus came back into view a moment later, dragging a scroll behind him. Ikoris scooped him up and put the scroll, with the chipmunk, into a deep pocket in his robe. Rufus chattered angrily and climbed up onto the mage’s shoulder.
“Are you really leaving? It’s most likely dark out by now,” Falcon told him.
“When you’re as old as I am, my boy, time is not something you waste. Oh, and stay as long as you like, there are plenty of raisins,” he assured them.
Rufus shook his tiny head, and Falcon could have sworn the animal looked exasperated. After a moment of pondering something, Ikoris finally gave them a wave and left.
Taking his offer, Falcon and Julia took seats at the cluttered table and browsed through things. Some time later, as they were finishing some sandwiches for dinner―using items from their bags rather than chance anything Ikoris might have here―Falcon realized something. “You know, I bet he’s your familiar.”
Julia glanced down at the cat sleeping in her lap. “I don’t think so. Ikoris can speak to Rufus, and I don’t understand Jade any more than you do. I think he’s just a normal pet.”
Falcon still had his suspicions, but he let it go for now.
They looked through some books for a while longer before Julia yawned. “I’m going to get some sleep,” she said, rubbing her face.
Falcon stood automatically and went to lay out the bedrolls. When he was done, he found her standing there, watching him with a frown. “What?”
“Why do you always do that?”
“Do what?” he asked, sitting down on his bedroll.
She came to sit on her own, next to his, and set Jade down. He immediately curled up at the foot of her bedroll. “Everything―the cooking, the beds, the packing up in the morning.”
“The cooking is because you’re horrible at it.” He smiled when she stuck her tongue out at him. “Also, I’m just used to doing everything.”
“Why?” she asked, an edge in her voice. “Am I really that useless?”
“It’s not you at all. I just took care of my mom for a long time.” He shrugged. “I do it automatically.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, quietly now. “Cancer, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry,” came her predictable response.
It was what everyone said. He had seriously gotten tired of hearing it after a while. He didn’t usually like to mention it, but for some reason he felt like talking to her. “Took up most of my teen years. I ended up dropping out of high school when I was sixteen.” He sighed. “She died a year later.” He looked up to see Julia playing with the end of her braid. “It’s okay,” he reassured her. “It was six years ago.”
She nodded, focusing on her hair. “What was her name?”
“Tessa.”
“Pretty,” she murmured. “So… what about your dad? How come you never knew him?”
“Some wild fling―or so I was told. I never really cared who he was. My mom was great. I never felt I needed more than her. Or maybe I just didn’t want to share her with anyone.” He smiled, remembering. “She was my best friend, actually my only friend for awhile. I spent every minute I could with her, since we knew our time together was more than likely going to be cut short. But she wasn’t the promiscuous sort,” he told Julia, getting back to the subject of his father. “She was just very sweet and gullible, which made her easy prey for those kind of men. She remembered him fondly anyway―but then, she always thought well of people, no matter who they were.”
Julia smiled. “She sounds nice.”
He nodded. “She was. She was one of those people that just couldn’t do wrong. I’m not sure she even understood what bad was.” He laughed. “Everything was beautiful and good in her eyes. Whether it was the grumpy old man next door or the ugliest, mangiest mutt you’ve ever seen.” He sighed then. “She was always so worried that people and animals weren’t getting enough love. She hated the idea of someone feeling unwanted or anything. So she was always giving too much of her energy trying to love all of them. No matter how little she had.” When he looked up and saw Julia’s tears, he reached over and wiped them away. “Maybe we should talk about something else.”
“I’m sorry,” she said and sniffed. “It’s just so sad that she had to die.”
“Yeah,” he agreed and lay down on his bedroll. After several minutes of silence, he rolled onto his side and propped himself up on an elbow. “So how about you? What’s your family like?”
She lay there, staring at the ceiling and shrugged a little. “Manipulating, uncaring mother, who divorced my alcoholic father when I was ten, and two younger brothers who turned out to be just like her.” Somehow, she said it with no bitterness. She said it as if it was just some casual fact, as if she were commenting on the weather. “When I was eighteen, I got in my car and drove out of Washington. I just kept going, all the way to southern California. I figured that’d be far enough away.”
“Do you talk to them?”
“Not since I left… that was four years ago. I probably seem kind of cold, but it’s like a quote I read once that said: be careful who you chose to be friends with, because you’ll become like them. I didn’t think my family was any exception.”
“You seem to have turned out all right.”
“Yeah, in spite of my mother, I think.” She chuckled quietly. “She did shape me, but not in the way she intended. I promised myself when I was young that I would never be like her. Luckily, I succeeded.”
Falcon gazed at her for a long time. She was an interesting mixture. Every time he learned something about her, it wasn’t what he expected. She didn’t seem like the kind of person to have come from parents like that. There was so much about Julia that was childlike―she was soft, not closed off at all.
He realized, then, why he liked her so much. In some ways, she reminded him of his mother; they had similar temperaments, and the same kind of openness and vulnerability. In her own way, Julia also needed someone to take care of her, and for some reason he felt compelled to be that person. He just had to be there to protect her, to keep her from getting hurt in any way… at least while she was here. He smiled to himself. Perhaps it was fitting that he was on this quest, trying to be the hero―he was already trying to help the damsel in distress.
__________
“I got it!” He didn’t think he had said it so loudly, but it sounded like a gunshot in the silent cave.
Julia, who had still been sound asleep, scrambled to her knees. “Oh my god!” she said, glaring at him. “Don’t do that! As if there aren’t enough things to scare me in this world!”
“Sorry.” He smiled apologetically as he came to sit by her, Ikoris journal in hand. “I figured out one of the clues.”
“What time is it?”
“Morning.”
“How do you know? There aren’t any windows in here.”
“Because I do,” he told her impatiently. “Now shut up and listen.”
She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Okay.”
He pointed to one of the riddles on the page, reading it to her. “I protect the plants as they are mine, in the south it is found in my shrine.” He jumped back up and grabbed the map off the table before returning to her side. “Here.” He pointed to the Savage Jungle at the bottom. “I found a book about Kelstone gods, and Nathora is the goddess of nature. Her true temple is in the jungle. I don’t know where exactly, but I’m sure it can’t be that hard to find, and we can ask around on the way.”
“Good,” she said, getting up and immediately packing up the bedding before he could. “Let’s get going.”
“So…” he said casually a few minutes later. “I found a sack of money.”
She gasped as she turned to look at him. “And you want to take it?”
“We need to get our own horses if we’re going to be traveling all over, and we don’t have enough money right now.”
“Some police officer you’ll be,” she said disapprovingly.
“Guard,” he corrected. “It’s not like I’d do it under normal circumstances. But we’re trying to save the world from dark times, as Nissa said. So…”
“But we know him… sort of. He’s helping us,” she argued. “We can’t steal from a friend… or whatever he is.”
“What does it matter? I thought this was just a game to you.”
She exhaled noisily. “How much?”
He shrugged. “Haven’t counted it yet.”
“Let me see.”
Finding the bag in his pack, he tossed it to her.
She caught the heavy bulk with wide eyes. Sitting down, she untied the sack and turned it over, dumping its contents onto the floor. Mixed in with the money were two emeralds and a coarse, fist-sized rock with some dark pink stones sticking out of it. She picked up the latter and held it out to Falcon. “What’s this?”
He took it and looked at it curiously. “I’m not sure. But it must be worth something if it’s in there.”
“Yes, because Ikoris is very sensible and wouldn’t put things in strange places.”
He chuckled. “Good point.”
She set the green stones aside and began counting the money. It took her a while to sort through it; it would have gone much faster if Jade hadn’t wanted to bat at the stacks of coins she was making. Finally she announced, “779 gold, 22 silver and 83 copper.” She sighed. “I hope it doesn’t hurt him… I mean… what if this is all he has?”
“I doubt it.”
She struggled internally for a few minutes, then closed her eyes and let out a soft moan. “Fine,” she said grudgingly. “Maybe we can pay him back later.”
He chuckled again. “Whatever makes you happy, Jules.”
In the end, she decided they would only take the gold pieces and leave the rest behind for him, so at least they weren’t taking everything.
