RIDERS OF TUATHA by Bert McKenzie Copyright 2010
Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any real person alive or dead is coincidental and unintentional.
CHAPTER XII
Scott woke to the smell of bacon frying. He got up, found his old bathrobe and headed across the hall. The bathroom door stood open, but as he went in he was surprised to find Caseldra drying off from the shower. "Excuse me," he quickly apologized and turned to leave. Then he thought again and turned back. "If you're here, who's cooking breakfast?" he asked.
"Jennifer," came the reply. "She is feeling much better. How feel you, my lord?" she asked as she stepped close to him.
"Fine, I'm just fine," he said, blushing and backing away from the nude woman.
"I am sorry," she said and quickly wrapped a towel around her body. "I forgot you are a natural reversal. My body must repulse and embarrass you."
"It's not that," he corrected her. "In our world we have a greater sense of modesty than you do in Tuatha."
"Should I not feel proud of my body? It is a very good one," she said innocently. Obviously, the translation of the word 'modesty' did not have the same connotative meanings in the Faerie language.
"What I mean is, in this world people rarely show their entire bodies to anyone, except during sex," he tried to explain.
"That is sad," Caseldra said as she reflected on what he told her. "Your body is the physical counterpart to your spirit. It seems wrong to be embarrassed by this."
"Yeah. Well, we still have a lot to learn," Scott admitted. Caseldra took another towel to dry her hair and walked out of the room and down the hall. Scott quickly shut the door and set about cleaning up.
A short time later, dressed in comfortable old clothes, he headed downstairs and into the big kitchen. Jennifer was standing at the stove, dishing out food, her back to him. "Hi, Jen. How you feeling?" he asked pleasantly. She turned to look at him and he had to stifle a gasp. Her right eye was deeply discolored, the purplish bruise spreading out across her cheek where the man had struck her.
"I'll be okay," she said and smiled a little crookedly at him. She then handed him two plates and instructed him to take them into the dining room.
As he passed through the swinging door into the room he had almost never used, he was amazed. The table was set with silver on a white linen table cloth. A vase of flowers, pink and white carnations, decorated it as a center piece. Jennifer followed him in, carrying a third plate and pitcher of orange juice. "Caseldra," she called through the door to the foyer. "Breakfast is ready."
"She won't understand you," Scott started to say when Caseldra appeared at the door.
"Thank you," the fairy said in halting English.
"You were saying?" Jennifer asked him as they all sat down to the food she had prepared.
"Did you teach her that?" Scott asked.
"Yes," Jennifer answered. "We have to be able to communicate. Wait till you hear this." She thought a minute and then spoke to him in Tuathan. "Good morning, my lady." Scott and Caseldra both broke into hysterical laughter. "Didn't I get it right?" Jennifer asked in hurt tones.
"'My lord' would be more appropriate," he explained. "'My lady' is the female address of respect."
Jennifer joined in their laughter. "Well, I always thought of you as just one of the girls," she added. They continued to eat while Scott and Caseldra taught her a few more Tuathan phrases.
After breakfast Jennifer fixed coffee and they went out to sit on the back porch and enjoy the morning. Once they had relaxed a bit, Jennifer began to ask questions. "I know it wasn't just a dream, was it?"
"I saw it happening in a magic vision," Scott said. "That was why I came back. I thought I could warn you and maybe stop it."
"Well, it's over now. The shop's gone and everything," she said sadly.
"I just wish we had found Troy," he added.
"Troy!" Jennifer exclaimed. "I felt so sorry for myself that I forgot all about him. Some awful woman took him."
"He was with you then?" Scott asked.
"Yes, but this woman came and took him away at gun point."
"When?" he asked.
"About noon yesterday I guess," she answered him. "Can't we do something?"
"I don't know what," Scott told her. "Our only lead took us to the place where we found you. If they took Troy somewhere else I can't even imagine where to begin looking."
"So that's it? We just give up on him?" she asked.
"I don't know what else to say."
They lapsed into silence for a time. "When you found me and we were in that burning house," Jennifer finally began. "All of the sudden we were here. I don't understand how we got here."
"The homing crystal," Scott explained. "It's kind of a magic way to travel."
"Caseldra can really work magic?" Jennifer asked, wide eyed. "Can't she just zap Troy here from wherever he is?"
Scott tried to translate most of this to the girl sitting beside him. She sadly shook her head and said, "It works not that way."
"It doesn't work that way," he repeated in English.
"So how are you getting back?" Jennifer finally asked after they had again sat in silence for a while.
"I'll go with Caseldra when she uses the homing crystal," he answered.
"Can I go with you?" she asked. "There's nothing for me to live for here any more."
"Jen, I don't think that's such a good idea," he began.
"Why not?" she demanded.
"What is it?" Caseldra asked. Scott began by telling her of the request. "I think that is a wonderful idea," she said.
"Not you too," Scott said.
"What did she say?" Jennifer asked.
"This is too much," Scott replied and went inside to refill his coffee. As he did so he heard the front doorbell ring, and headed on through the house to answer it.
A short little man in grubby overalls stood on the porch. "'Scuse me. Are you the man of the house?" he asked, looking about nervously.
"Well . . . I guess," Scott said, not really sure how to respond.
"Oh, your wife called me a couple of days ago and asked me to mow your yard."
"Great," Scott replied.
"Well, then I'll just start on the back." He turned and walked back out toward the street where he had parked a red pickup truck. Scott went back to the kitchen for the coffee and then rejoined his friends on the porch.
"Some man just showed up to mow the yard," he told Jennifer as he came back out and sat down.
Rood walked slowly forward until he felt the cave wall just ahead. He pushed on it and it seemed to give way. His arm sank in up to the elbow. The wall felt cold and thick, gelatinous, but it definitely allowed him through. "This must be the barrier," he thought and took a tentative step forward. His foot went through the same sort of obstruction, but it felt as if it were falling down into the thick fluid. There was no cave floor on which to step. He took a deep breath as he lost his balance and fell forward into the icy cold of the space between worlds. He could feel his body slowing down as he tried his best to move forward like Elnar had instructed. He could no longer tell which way was forward, or which way was up or down for that matter. Desperately holding his breath, he tried to swim through the utter darkness in which he was trapped. It was like swimming through jet black molasses. He kept moving, but there seemed to be no other side to this barrier. Rood could not even tell if he was moving, and he was rapidly running out of air. Uncertain as to how much longer he could hold his breath, he struggled even more valiantly, kicking his legs against the viscousness of the gleekah. That was it. He had no air left. He only hoped that his friends would eventually pull his dead body back out of this cold jelly. Unable to stop the reflex, he opened his mouth and took a gasp.
Light streamed in on him as his lungs filled with dusty air. Not prepared for the shock of such a transition he lost his balance and fell forward, knocking over a cardboard box full of metal pots and pans. They spilled across the cement floor with a loud, crashing clatter. He quickly clambered out of the mess and took a quick look around. The room where he stood had a cement slab floor, stained in part with dark, oily spots. The walls and ceiling were a wood frame structure, unfinished, revealing beams and braces of the building. To one side was a steep and narrow wooden stairway leading to a floor above him. The space in which he stood was evidently used for storage, holding several big cartons filled with various household items. At one end of the building, large, loose fitting, double doors closed off the room from outside, allowing sunlight to peak in through cracks between them.
This certainly was a peculiar place for Robin to have entered this world of humans, in what appeared to be a storage shed of some sort. "Another of Elnar's mistakes," he thought to himself. As he looked about he noticed the rope tied around his waist dropping down to the floor and trailing off to the back of the room behind the boxes and cartons. Rood quickly untied it and stepped over to one wall where he had noticed a large metal hook. The hook was securely screwed into a two by four stud and was designed to hold something, he had no idea what. Rood quickly retied the rope to the hook completing the anchor on this side of the barrier. He turned around and proceeded to trip on a small metal pot from the spilled contents of the box he had upset earlier. This sent him crashing again amongst the scattered cookware.
His sensitive ears picked up a sound just outside the doors. A shadow crossed the crack, momentarily eclipsing the sunlight. Someone was just outside, and it looked as though he or she were about to enter the building. Rood tried to quietly disentangle himself from the mess he had made, and creep toward the double doors. He drew his silver long sword and waited at the entrance.
The little man had unloaded his mower and pushed it around to the back yard in preparation. He checked the oil and reattached the spark plug wire. He was just about the pull on the rope to start the small gas engine when he heard a load metallic crash come from inside the garage. It was a small, two story carriage house with large double doors on the front. The little man looked up at it, and then glanced over at the three people sitting in the shade on the back porch. They were deep in conversation and apparently didn't notice the unusual noise. He stopped what he was doing and walked over to stand beside the building. He listened intently and again heard a metallic crash come from inside. He could not imagine what it could possibly be.
The little man walked slowly over to the double doors that closed off the garage section of the little building. He listened intently as he stood before them, hand poised on the latch. No further sound emanated from the building. It was very peculiar. The little man thought perhaps it had all been in his imagination. But no, he had heard the two crashing noises. He again glanced toward the back porch, just barely in view, but the three people there were still locked in animated conversation, paying him no attention whatsoever. "Well," he thought, "it won't hurt to take a look." Gripping the latch he pulled and swung one of the big double doors open widely.
What he saw made his blood run cold. There before him stood a knight in tunic and chain mail, the sun flashing reflections from a golden breast plate. The tall thin man held aloft a gleaming silver sword and was poised to strike. He took an ominous step toward the little man. That was all it took to break the spell that held the gardener frozen to the spot. He screamed a blood curdling cry and turned, running as fast has his short, stubby legs would carry him, back to his truck. Once inside the cab he quickly rolled up the windows, locked the doors, and turned the key in the ignition. The moment the engine roared to life he stomped on the accelerator and peeled out as fast as he could.
Rood stood, watching the little man screaming and running around the building. This strange little character had startled him almost as much as he had startled the human. However, unlike the little man, he was prepared to fight the unknown if necessary. He stood his ground, his heart hammering in his chest.
Scott, Jennifer and Caseldra all jumped at the scream. They could see the open garage door and heard the little man's cries of fright as he ran around to the front of the house. "What now?" Jennifer asked in alarm as Caseldra rapidly pulled her dagger from where she had hidden it in the pocket of Jennifer's bathrobe that she now wore. Scott stood and headed down the three steps into the yard and off toward the carriage house. Caseldra, dagger at readiness, quickly headed after him. Jennifer was torn between her curiosity and desire to be with her friends, and her fear of yet another attack on her. She sat, rooted to her chair, trembling in fright.
The door had swung back partially closed, hiding the interior of the garage. Scott looked toward the front of the house where the man had gone. He realized that whatever frightened the little man must still be in the garage. Slowly, Scott stepped to the half closed door and reached for it. Caseldra grabbed his free hand pulling him back. She wind whispered to him, "I can hear movement inside. I fear a surprise attack awaits."
Scott turned to answer her when suddenly the door was flung wide from inside and a tall warrior leaped out with raised sword. Relying on reflexes that had been sharpened by his brief life in the land of Faerie, Scott fell to the ground and rolled out of the way of the slicing blade. At the same time, Caseldra dived forward, trying to parry the move with her hand held dagger. But the slashing sword struck with such force that it sent the small blade flying across the yard. The sword raised again before all three parties recognized each other.
"Rood!" Scott exclaimed as he looked up into the face of his friend from the other world.
"My lord, are you well?" the tall fairy asked as he quickly sheathed his blade. "I apologize for the attack, lady, but I thought you were planning a surprise assault on the other side of this door," he told Caseldra. He reached down to help Scott to his feet while she crossed the yard to retrieve her blade.
Scott looked up at his friend, examining his dress with a questioning eye. "How did you get here? And what are you doing dressed like you're going off to war?"
Rood seemed surprised at the questions, and a little chagrined. "Then have you no need of us?" he asked.
"Us?" Scott repeated in surprise. "Who else is hiding in my garage?"
"My lords," Caseldra called to them from the back porch where she had gone to reassure Jennifer. "Let us confer within."
"Good advice, my lady," Rood replied. He and Scott walked across the yard to the porch. Scott introduced his friend to Jennifer who stood, wide eyed in amazement at the tall fairy guard dressed in gold chain mail with the shining armor breast plate. Rood bowed in a courtly manner and greeted her with the one Tuathan phrase she had already learned. Jennifer smiled widely and led them into the house.
Once inside, Rood looked around as he pulled the mail hood back from his head. "Where is Robin?" he asked.
"Robin? Why he's back in Tuatha," Scott replied, an odd feeling creeping into his stomach.
"No, my lord. He is not. Shortly after you left our world he was taken ill. He then vanished before our very eyes. Elnar said that he was pulled from the land."
"Pulled from it? To where?" Scott asked in alarm.
"Here, my lord. Elnar said it was your bond that pulled him to your world. I expected to find the two of you together."
"I haven't seen him since I left Tuatha," Scott replied. The cold feeling in his stomach began to creep up his spine.
"Elnar was not certain about the time difference between our worlds," Rood said. "The king may not have arrived yet." This did not make Scott feel any better. "But we have at least established a bridge between our worlds." Rood went on to explain the connection they had made.
"Then my father can travel to this place?" Caseldra asked. Rood nodded at this suggestion. She turned to Jennifer who sat nearby listening to the strange and unintelligible conversation. "My lady, we may yet find your missing friend." Realizing that there was no comprehension she turned instead to Scott. "Please tell her. My father can come here and his magic will find her friend."