Author's note: Kudos to djkauf for betaing this for me. There is some minor content from source SRD included in this chapter. I think you'll be able to figure it out from the way it's presented. Copyright: Wizards of the Coast.

I moved us over a little and then dropped us at speed until we were about twenty feet from the ground. When we landed, I released the spell and swayed a little. Zach braced me.

Remember what I said about high level spells taking a lot of juice? Wind Walk is a seventh level spell. There are only nine known levels, so I felt a little drained. It wasn’t too bad though. If I had held the spell for the full duration, which would be around fourteen hours for me, I’d be tired. Five minutes worth was like walking on a treadmill and then stopping abruptly. It throws the equilibrium off until you adjust.

“I’m fine.”

Looking around, I memorized everything with a critical eye. Nothing was out of the ordinary, except that it was a magical grove.

My next idea was already being implemented by Zach. He had his cell out and was frowning.

“No signal. But Dad and I had signals when we were here last.”

I pulled my cell out; same thing. Powering it down, I stowed it in my pack. “Turn yours off. Save the battery.”

“But…”

He stopped second-guessing me and followed instructions, looking lost without the ability to surf the internet randomly.

Without a second thought, I dropped to my butt and crossed my legs in a single motion, laying my staff across my legs and closing my eyes. I heard Zach follow suit.

It was a Druid thing. Sorry if you don’t approve, but I had to commune with whatever was out there, God or whatever. I call it the entity since it was more tangible than the white-haired flowing bearded guy in the Bible. I considered the entity a deity if nothing else. If it was powerful enough to do the zappy on me and I could use it to power up Zach then it was a heck of a lot more powerful than I was.

I didn’t commune often, mostly when I was troubled, or was trying to figure out what to do next. There wasn’t a time when it ever answered me directly, but it allowed me to meditate on a problem and usually solve it.

This was one of the major pluses of having a Sacred Grove; being in a place of power made the whole process much easier. That’s the reason I slipped right in after clearing my mind.

When I entered the mild trance, I usually wound up returning to the jungle since it was the only other place on Earth I could go that was juiced up. Zach’s Grove would have been another. This time I wound up flying — spiritually, I mean — up into the air and east, over the Atlantic. I was high enough to discern the landscape well enough. It was northern Europe, specifically England and Ireland. To the southeast, in the distance, was France, but nothing was how it should have been. Instead of the bright lights of London, I saw only darkness.

There were sprinkles of lights here and there, but nothing that would indicate any major city like there should have been.

What I did notice were dozens of places where magic shone brightly. I was immensely puzzled. There weren’t supposed to be any other Groves anywhere. I’d planned to travel to England and wake up some of the old places of power, but that was for later.

One place in specific shined brighter than all the rest. I closed in on it, only enough to identify a few tree types and a semi-major structure that even I recognized.

Returning to my body was much faster since I knew where it was. When I opened my eyes, I saw Zach watching me, or more to the point, my breasts. Clearing my throat brought him around and he looked anywhere but there. Leave it to a teenage boy to be lost in the wilderness, with no sign of humanity anywhere, setting his priorities on a pair of barely exposed breasts.

“I’ve found some life.” I got his attention with that announcement. “It might not be the kind we’re looking for, but we’re going to investigate it nonetheless.”

He nodded, stood, and held his hand out to help me up.

“We need to find a juniper tree.”

Zach pointed to the west. “There’s a couple over that way.”

Following his line of sight, I spotted the pair he indicated. Moments later we were holding hands again as I incanted the Transportation through Plants spell and we stepped through to Wiltshire, England.

The temperature was slightly colder by a few degrees. Since it was night time, I figured we’d lost a few hours somewhere. England was only five hours ahead of Tennessee, or at least the portion we were at anyway. The air was very humid as if we’d just missed the rainfall, but it was cleaner than anything I’d ever breathed.

Wildlife skittered at our abrupt presence.

Zach looked around. “Where are we?”

“Southwest England, Wiltshire to be specific.”

“Oh, cool…” Then he thought about it. “Uh, this is the closest life you could find?”

I shrugged. “Sort of. Reach out, can you feel something?”

He closed his eyes and concentrated. It didn’t take long at all, nor should it have. “There’s a Sacred Grove nearby.” Snapping open his eyes, he looked at me with curiosity. “I thought there weren’t any left?”

“That’s what I thought. There are dozens in England, Ireland, and Scotland. I didn’t get as far as France, but this one is by far the biggest of them all. If there’s a connection to what’s happened then I’m betting we’ll find it here.”

There wasn’t much of a forest, more of a cluster of trees, but when we made it to the edge, I heard Zach suck in a mouthful of air.

A few hundred yards in the distance, stood a few thatched-roof structures that might have been homes or simply temporary living areas. Beyond that was a multi-stone structure that even the most ignorant of school-children was familiar with.

“Please tell me that’s not Stonehenge,” he said.

That wasn’t what I was concerned about. It was the condition it was in. By the early twenty-first century, Stonehenge was a hodgepodge of giant standing stones with the occasional horizontal stone connecting the vertical ones. It was in ruin from thousands of years before. However, the one we were looking at appeared to be whole and by the activity inside and around the structure, currently in full use.

“That’s Stonehenge.”

I caught him rolling his tongue around his mouth in thought. “Is there a reason that it looks a whole lot nicer than the one I’ve seen in pictures?”

“Probably.” Before he could ask, I went ahead with my conclusions. “Judging from the thatched roof buildings… if you can call them that, and the clothes those people are wearing, plus the condition of the stones, I’m guessing we’re somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve hundred B.C to four hundred A.D. sometime during England’s Iron Age. The highway in Tennessee isn’t missing; it just hasn’t been built yet.”

~O~

Zach had a pair of mini-binoculars that I was using in an attempt to garner some more information. There were a few people that were coming and going through all hours of the night, virtually all of which were cloaked men.

Some sat in the inner circle of stones looking like they were praying. I felt pulses of magical energy right before each of them got up and retreated to a hut or their bedroll outside of the main area. Once dawn came, there was much more activity.

Zach and I snacked on jerky and granola bars, and drank from canteens conserving what we had. There was no way of knowing when our next real meal would be. We would have to make our move soon. With the sun rising higher in the east, our position was bound to be noticed sooner or later.

“What are we waiting for?” Zach asked.

“Him.” I pointed in the direction of the largest of the huts.

Passing the binoculars to Zach, he took a look at who garnered my interest. A middle-age looking man in dark robes, carrying a wide staff with very familiar looking runes etched into the wood, made his way from the hut to the circle of stones.

“He looks powerful.”

I nodded. “I’m guessing an Archdruid or maybe even a Great Druid, by the look of his staff. That puts us on equal footing. If he’s higher than that, then we’re screwed.”

You have to understand the Druid hierarchy. There are only a select few high level Druids. There are the initiates through various levels; hundreds of them could exist at any one time. Most don’t aspire any higher. At the top of the heap are regular Druids; there are only nine of them, each in charge of certain portions of the known world. Archdruids amount to three people who have fought their way up the ranks.

Then a single Great Druid sits at the top, in charge, answering only to the political position of Grand Druid.

The positions can only be attained though combat or if someone dies naturally; mostly it’s through combat.

I had no desire to fight anyone, but it would be readily apparent that I was powerful enough to challenge anyone short of the Grand Druid himself. But since that position was only acquired through appointment, he wasn’t going to be threatened by me. However technically, he could order me around.

Zach nodded with immediate understanding.

I zipped up my neoprene top and then closed the jacket. The only women I’d seen were heavily cloaked, which either meant that they were cold or the others didn’t like the casual revealing of skin. With the coat closed, I looked like I was dressed neck to toe in tight black leather. That alone might be enough to ruffle some feathers, but I didn’t have a handy robe to cover up with.

“Ready?”

Zach gripped his staff and tried to put on a serious face.

“Just remain calm. Remember, you’re my Acolyte. Stay no closer than a step behind me, but no further than three. I want them concentrating on me.”

“Right,” he answered.

From the relative safety of the trees I stepped out and confidently strode across the empty grassland. We were noticed almost immediately. Several of the men whom I internally labeled as initiates of lower circles adjusted their posture to appear threatening, yet welcoming at the same time. Their message was clear: approach, but if you’re going to start some shit then we’re going to hand your ass to you.

The first Druid took note of my staff and I sent a pulse of magic through it letting him know that it wasn’t a fake. It’s a simple way to answer questions of status among those that are too low to recognize a person’s power at a glance. It also told those around that I thought they were inferior to me.

I know, normally that’s probably a bad idea in normal society, but that’s the Druidic way. Given their druthers, they’re a somewhat snobby bunch. In response to that pulse, all of the ruins on my staff cycled quickly from top to bottom. After seeing the final few runes flash, two of the rear echelon turned and ran off to the circle of stones. My guess was they needed to inform the great poobah that he wasn’t the only power around.

Zach and I stopped at the edge of the outermost circle where the first initiates were waiting for me. I noticed most of them were surprised that a woman was a higher rank than they were. Either that or there was something on my coat that attracted their attention to my breasts.

From what I knew about Druids, they had nothing against women entering their circles, but they rarely rose above the most basic of levels, content to help out with minor magic for crops or as a healer. I was most definitely an oddity in that respect.

Their leader emerged from the stone circle and eyed me suspiciously. He spent a few moments speaking with the two that alerted him, I suspect to tell him what they witnessed, before he started our way. The man walked with power. It was obvious to me that he’d been in charge for a while. I couldn’t tell you why; it was just a feeling.

As he approached, I saw his magic pulse through his staff. I followed suit. It was kind of like two animals posturing, both alphas in their own right. Since I held my staff tilted in front of my body, it indicated that I was in a defensive posture and wasn’t challenging his rule. If I was holding it vertically to the side then a fight was going to start, and considering how many others were there, that would be pretty freaking stupid on my part.

He came to a stop about ten feet in front of me. Oh, by the way, please excuse the flowery talk. The Druidic language isn’t really meant for twenty-first century slang.

I nodded my head a single time as a minor show of respect. “I bring greetings from the western lands across the vast sea. May my Acolyte and I share the comfort of your Sacred Grove?”

If there was any question as to my validity then it was tossed to the wayside by my words. Druids have their own secret language that is known only to them. If anyone blabs the secret, they don’t live to tell about it and usually wind up being used as a sacrifice of some sort. It’s not all that pretty.

He eyed me up and down then once again for Zach. A nod followed. “Come.”

Simple and to the point.

Maybe it was my imagination, but I could swear my butt was burning as I walked past the majority of the men present. The jacket only came down just to the top of the pants so it left a lot to see.

There is dual purpose for allowing Zach and me access to the Grove. Like I said before, it was the brightest Grove in all of England, Ireland and Scotland. That meant it was most likely a Greater Grove possessing a large amount of magical protections and inherent powers blowing away the little Grove that Zach and I made in Tennessee. Kind of like a one story two bedroom house compared to the Empire State Building.

I felt the majesty of Stonehenge as we passed through the inner circle. A rush of contentment filled me, my weariness left me, and I could feel the presence of the entity, stronger than I’d ever felt before. A cool, but pleasant wave pressed over every inch of my body eliciting a small gasp when it entered me seeking the reason for my presence. I knew what it tasted within me: an older, wiser, and may I truthfully say a much bitterer version of itself.

The Great Druid stood by the entrance stone, leaning his staff up against the large face as he held his other hand to the opposite side. I copied him and rested my staff there to mirror his.

Looking at Zach, I held up a hand. “Wait here, rest.”

I knew he didn’t want to leave my side, but he would follow instructions. It wasn’t like I was going to be out of his sight. The place wasn’t that big. The big boss led me to a relatively clean mat that was laid across from the one he was starting to sit down on, so I followed suit. He looked toward the entrance and a girl was rushing in holding a kettle of steaming something or other and two really ugly mug type things. She sat them on the ground in front of us and poured hot water over dried leaves. I was guessing it was some sort of tea, but the condition the leaves were in prevented me from identifying what they were from sight alone.

She handed me a single mug and then the boss the other. Since poisoning someone within the Sacred Grove was frowned upon I felt pretty safe and sipped at the steeping liquid.

“The lands to the west across the great sea? We know of no such lands.”

Considering who he was, I decided not to bullshit him. Personally, I could spot a lie a mile off. “They have yet to be discovered and won’t be for another…” I paused for a moment remembering that they didn’t measure time the way I did. “Another thousand summers.”

The Great Druid paused in mid sip and really concentrated on me. He looked over at Zach and then back at me again. “This explains much.”

Color me somewhat surprised that he wasn’t freaking out.

“Tell me,” he said. “Is it customary for women to hold our rank in summers to come?”

I relaxed when I knew he recognized my position in the grand scheme of things and didn’t feel threatened by me.

“Customary, no. What you see, my Acolyte and I are all that is left of the Druids. I have been tasked by the being I call the Entity, to awaken the power that is held in the Earth.”

God, I hated talking this way. I had to pause at every other word to figure out what he would understand in the translation.

The Great Druid set his mug aside and I followed suit. Frankly the stuff that was served was seriously rank. “You are welcome within the Sacred Grove to complete your quest. You must do this with haste. The Romans approach.” Pausing for a moment he looked at me with hope in his eyes and then turned away. “You must speak to no one concerning your true reasons for being here. I will instruct them to not question you.”

I rose and I know he felt my gaze upon him. “I’m sorry for what is to come.”

He turned his head and looked at me with contentment. “There is no need. The Druids will continue on. You will see to this.”

Quicker than I thought possible, he grabbed his staff and left the Grove.

Who would have thought that someone from the ancient past would understand the complexity of temporal paradoxes? Perhaps he was much wiser than I was.

“Zach, come on.”

He scrambled up from the ground while I watched the Great Druid gather his followers. I took off my backpack and then took a swig of water to rid my mouth of the nasty taste of the tea.

“What’s up?”

“Get comfortable. We need to commune with the entity of this time period, ASAP.”

He looked at me with concern. “What’s the rush?”

“Romans. Remember them?”

The look on his face told me he didn’t really pay much attention in history class, but then again not many people did. “They invaded England in force around forty-three A.D. That was the beginning of the end for the Druids. I know when we are at and it makes perfect sense now.”

Zach paused in taking his coat off. “Care to tell the rest of the class, because I’m stumped.”

I motioned to the mat across from me and then sat down. “When the Romans invaded, they pretty much crushed any opposition. The Druids were considered barbaric and summarily killed. Every human has to sleep, even us.”

“Oh.”

“The entity chose to punish the world and withdraw itself, or it retreated to unpopulated areas to preserve itself; the reason doesn’t really matter. The point is that it left and took magic with it. My guess is that the future entity knows the reason and chose to return us to this time for a specific purpose. I don’t know enough to make a decent attempt at guessing why, but there is a reason, hence the communing.”

I unzipped the neoprene a little to relax and then crossed my legs before closing my eyes.

~O~

When I did this before, in the future, it took me a little while to slip into a proper state of mind. Not too long, but I did have to concentrate. Within the Sacred Grove that was Stonehenge, all I had to do was close my eyes before I was whisked away into the magic.

Zach was right behind me as I soared into the sky, above the spattering of clouds. In moments he’d caught up and we both paused in the air and Zach reached out to grab me so he wouldn’t overshoot the spot. We twirled around and I burst out with a laugh. His grin distracted me for a few moments, before I felt my face heating up at being in his arms. I pulled away and laced our fingers together.

Stonehenge was well below us. I could still make out the structure, but the white light that shined around it was making even that more difficult.

“Concentrate on the entity and why we are here. It’s never actually talked to me, so don’t expect anything in return. Just let it do its thing and hopefully we’ll get an answer in some way.”

Putting everything I had into the effort, I pictured the world as it was in my time. The pure mundaneness of everything, then I mixed in our experience in the jungle and the reawakening of magic. Zach butted in with my making him my Acolyte and his experiences. Then we both thought of today’s events. When we came to the end, we stopped.

The entity was listening and it wasn’t pleased. I could feel its rage within me, filling me with hate and vitriol at what the Romans were doing, but then it calmed and I felt its nature reasserting itself. I had no doubt that it was what I considered True Neutral. The Romans were the natural order of things. Magic had its chance and now it was time for the mundane world to emerge, for good or for bad, it could not judge.

I frowned. It was difficult to tell whether it was going to do anything about the situation or just let us be stuck there in the past with no way home.

Images of a library came into my head. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. A single man sat, hunched over a desk, occasionally dipping a feathered quill into an inkpot and then scratching out something in a very large book. I looked around to see some of the titles on the unending amount of shelves, but just looking at the spines sent pain through my head to the point that I thought my brain was going to melt.

When I reopened my eyes, the man was looking up at me as if I’d appeared out of nowhere. He focused on me and then looked a little annoyed.

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

I made to say something in return, but I was silenced before a word came out of my mouth.

“Yes, yes, I know why you’ve come, but the fact of the matter is the answer is already within your grasp. You have but to open your eyes, and you shall see.” He gave me a shooing motion and looked back down in his book. “Now go and do not return, young Druid. I will not be pleased if you do.”

A sledgehammer hit me square in the face and I dropped backward onto the ground of the Grove. My equilibrium was totally thrown off and fireworks were blowing behind my eyelids.

“Chase!”

Apparently my ears worked just fine. I felt a pair of strong hands lift me into a sitting position and the wash of magic race over me a few seconds later. The pain centered between my eyebrows, lessened and then disappeared. My eyes fluttered open and I saw Zach leaning in, wiping my upper lip with a cloth of some sort.

“Are you okay?” he asked in a very concerned voice.

“I’m fine.” It was embarrassing, for some reason, having him fretting over me. It made me feel weak, which I’ve always hated. I didn’t smack his hand away, but I pushed it down lightly. “Really, I’m cool. Relax.”

The sign at the corners of his lips told me he was frustrated that I wouldn’t let him help me, but he relented and backed away. That’s when I saw the Great Druid at the entranceway to the Grove. When he saw me regain my composure, he entered.

“We do not see many injuries within the Sacred Grove.”

His voice was expectant of an answer to why my nose was bleeding. Pushing myself up, I stood and faced him.

“I encountered someone during my communion.”

Zach stood and watched the byplay.

The Great Druid gripped his staff. “This is not uncommon.”

I shook my head. “It is for me. I’ve only ever interacted with the entity.” Before he had a chance to ask, I elaborated. “This man was a… scribe, and I was in a room full of tomes.”

It was annoying that I could say it was a library since he’d have no idea what I was talking about.

The Druids brows furrowed. “Was this man, writing with a feather?”

I nodded. “He told me I should not be there, told me something about the answers I seek, and then I was banished very hard.”

Understanding relaxed the Druids brow. “You’ve met the Keeper of Lore. No Druid I have met knows his true name. His ways are different from our own.”

That was obvious. Druidic history is an oral tradition. Taking time to make paper and actually write things down is against our nature; well, against most Druids nature. I’m perfectly happy with a nice laptop to transcribe my daily journal.

“Did you find the answers you seek?”

I looked down in mild frustration. “Not really. I do know that I’m on the correct path to finding them.”

Zach didn’t look pleased. “The entity sent us two thousand years in the past for nothing? Are we stuck here?”

I didn’t get a chance to answer before the Great Druid butted in. “All things in our lives happen for a reason, Initiate. It is not our place to question those above our station, only to see their will is done. This is a basic lesson that you should have learned in your first circle.” His attention moved to me. “Have our ways changed so much?”

“We have only been learning for a little over three moons,” I said. That finally got a reaction from him that was out of the ordinary. He looked over at my staff again.

“How have you progressed so far in so little time?”

I gave him a playful smirk. “Magic.”

He didn’t seem that satisfied with my answer.

“The entity took a lifetime of learning and put it in my head. I did the same for Zachery.”

Looking past him I saw several of his initiates out in the field to the south east like they were planting things. “What are they doing?”

He looked back. “Preparing for the enemy. Our lives may be ending tonight, but the Romans will know true pain by the sun’s rising.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I wish I could help wasn’t exactly a true statement. Instead, I bent down and retrieved my jacket. “We better go and leave you to more important duties.”

Zach took my cue and retreated to his jacket and pack. The look on the Great Druid’s face was somber. He knew we couldn’t get involved in the upcoming battle even if having another Great Druid there could prove the turning point.

He seemed to be mulling something over in his head and by the time I was securing my pack he’d come to a decision. “Come with me.”

I shrugged at Zach and grabbed my staff on the way out. Pausing at the entrance to Stonehenge, I memorized the stones and the surrounding area. I didn’t want to forget what it looked like in its true glory.

We followed the Druid to his hut and waited outside as he entered and spent a minute or two inside before coming back out. In his hands was something that I wasn’t expecting: a book. Don’t get the wrong idea, Druids aren’t anti-books or anything. They can read just as well as any other person during the time period. That usually means only those that are in religious sects. They just never write anything of their own because they’re secretive.

“It is the duty of the Great Druid, above all others to guard this writing. If I am to go on to my next life tonight, I would rest easier knowing that it is safe and out of the Roman’s hands. Ease the burden on my heart by accepting the duty unto yourself.”

Instinctually, I wanted to reach out and take it, but I paused for a moment. “What is it?”

He undid the crude cloth that it was concealed in and showed the cover to me. Stitched into the simple brown cover was the shape of an hourglass, and in the upper left hand corner was the Druidic symbol for Tree. I’m not telling you what that is because it’s a secret.

“Do not try to read the contents. Many have already tried and each has died in different ways, mostly by becoming the Unclean.”

Unclean was an old term that meant zombie, undead, wraith, any number of horrible creatures.

I seriously didn’t know if I wanted to take that with me. Bringing something to the future that could start some zombie apocalypse wasn’t high on my priority list.

“Why not destroy it?” I asked.

“The most powerful spells have no effect.”

Oh hell… it’s an artifact.

I knew exactly why we’d been send to the past, and it wasn’t to chat with some earlier version of the entity or to get whacked in the head by an irate librarian.

~O~

I’d accepted the book and stored it in my backpack before Zach and I made tracks to the juniper we’d traveled through. With a brief incantation we entered the tree and exited the one that was near our Grove in Tennessee. I spent all of three seconds looking around and knew we were back in our proper time period.

The first thing I did was turn on my cell. While I waited for it to boot up, Zach watched patiently, well, as calmly as he could to see if my suspicions were true.

I had a signal and the time was roughly the same as when we left. We hadn’t even lost the day we’d accumulated in England.

“We’re home.”

His eyes rolled up into his head and I heard a sigh of relief from him. He chuckled right afterward. “It’s always an adventure with you, Chase.”

I shrugged downhill. “Come on, I seriously need a bath.”

~O~

Zach dropped me off at the hotel and I immediately stripped out of the leather pants and neoprene top before soaking for a good hour in bath salts and washing the grime of the Iron Age out of my skin.

Room service was next. I didn’t want to wear anything but my bathrobe that night. Even through it was only mid-afternoon, I was tired, and after I ate, I spent the rest of the day and night dreaming of the battle that took place on the grounds of Wiltshire that evening.

If only that Great Druid had a little more experience, the Romans would have had an entirely different welcome waiting for them. But if that were the case, Rome would have never conquered the north and history might have turned out entirely different.

The next morning, I found the second outfit my mother packed for me. No, apparently I can’t be trusted yet to pack my own clothes, not this early in the girl-game.

I blame Hollywood, the ones that made Under Armor a high commodity for the elite to wear, even when they weren’t working out. While I’m sure it’s a wonderful product for those that like to go out and show off every conceivable inch of their well worked-out bodies, it’s just not made for all day wear. I’m talking about the compression-wear. That’s the type that, when you put it on, squishes everything.

That’s what I got to wear. Oh, it wasn’t all simply compression-wear. I got a decent fleece coat to cover my top a little, so I wasn’t flashing everything outright. At least the top was something other than black, not that pink was any better, but it was different. The bottoms were still black. The running shoes had little pink highlights throughout.

How in the world this outfit was supposed to make people think that I was powerful and not to taken lightly was beyond me. Maybe it was simply a ploy to stupefy them into incoherence so I’d appear to actually sound smarter than I really was. I freely admit, once I was dressed, as a male, I would have been struck dumb at the sight of me.

Let’s just say that I received the best service at breakfast and leave it at that, shall we? I don’t really want to go into how many times the server came by the table to see if I needed anything else… and it was a girl.

The first thing I did that Sunday morning was go shopping for two leather belts. Nice, huh? Once I’d trimmed them down and punched new holes in them so they’d buckle properly, I wrapped them around the book, actually around the cloth and the book. Through the third punched hole, I slipped a nice padlock that held both of them in place.

It wouldn’t stop a determined person from gaining access, but then again, nothing would. This was strictly so nobody that I cared about would accidentally flip through the pages and turn into a zombie moments after.

I should explain about artifacts a little. They’re magical, obviously. The Holy Grail, Excalibur, The Darkhold, all of these are artifacts. These items are imbued with so much magical power that in the wrong hands can be more dangerous than giving an armed tactical nuke to a five year old.

Oh sure, Excalibur was King Arthur’s sword, it had to be safe. That particular sword, if held in the hands of a warrior, could defeat any opponent. The scabbard, in which it was held, if worn by a warrior, will ensure that he cannot be killed by mortal means. So if you had the sword and the scabbard, you were pretty much unbeatable.

In case you’re wondering, Arthur wasn’t wearing his scabbard when he fought Mordred, and that little bastard of a son/nephew was the child of a very powerful sorceress.

One thing to keep in mind when messing around with artifacts: while they may grant you untold power, they can also mess up your day for years afterward.

I had no doubt that the entity wanted me to open that book up and just read away with no thought as to the consequences. I’m not a big fan of eating brains, thanks anyway. As soon as I could, I was dropping that puppy in some wet cement, wait for it to dry, and then dropping it in the deepest hole I could find. Maybe the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean would suffice. That’s over six miles deep. Maybe an active volcano would be better. Until then, it was staying with me wherever I went.

However, that didn’t stop me from doing research on the little bugger. Perhaps if I found out why it was so important, I’d be able to reproduce the effect in a smaller, less lethal way.

There would be no record to find about its origin with the Druids, but considering how I got changed into a magical being in the first place, I caught a cab to the best place for research in the city, the local gaming store.

Yes, I have a photographic memory. That doesn’t mean I’ve read everything that there was to read.

Sunday’s are hit or miss with gaming stores, sometimes they opened late or not at all, but I’d lucked out. There was gaming in progress. I spotted them through a minute amount of space between the billions of posters they’d wallpapered the front windows with. Light kills in these types of stores.

At first they were reluctant to open the door, but it’s amazing how annoying someone can be if they take a minor thing like a quarter and tap on the glass; the sound carriers forever. It’s even more annoying if you’re inconsistent with the tapping. Tap-tap, tap-tap-tap, tap, tap, tap-tap-tap.

“What!”

It took less than two minutes for the guy wearing the wookie shirt to open the door in a huff, and that huff lasted all of about two seconds before the hyperventilation began.

“Uh… the nail salon is next door. They open up in thirty minutes,” he said.

I smiled wide. “Well, it’s a good thing I need some D&D books while I wait then, isn’t it?”

I don’t think the words were processing in his brain quite yet. Okay, I’ll give Mom props for being right about the outfit. Very few males could resist a pretty girl in tight clothing, and even then they’re mostly gay.

He started looking a little sick to his stomach. “The manager’s not here to open the till. I don’t have any money to give you change.”

Shoving down my own nausea, I used the time-honored tradition that virtually every girl has used at one time or another to get what she wants. I stuck my hand in my jacket and pulled out a twenty. “Here, just let me look and it’s yours.

He didn’t have to think twice, when he snagged the bill and opened the door wider so I could slip through.

Once he locked it back up he turned around. “What are you looking for?”

“D&D, any reference to artifacts, specifically books with hourglass symbols on the cover.”

He looked thoughtful for a minute. “Might be something from one of the older editions. I’m pretty up on current items and that doesn’t sound familiar.”

Leading me over to the portion of the store that had some older source books that I guess they never sold, he said, “Look through these and I’ll ask one of the guys that I game with. He’s old, he might know.”

“Thanks,” I said as I pulled out a copy of Tome of Magic.

No joy. Unearthed Arcana had squat as well. I was about to search through the second edition Dungeon Masters Guide when a guy, about thirty years old that wasn’t in too bad of shape and wearing a “My staff is bigger than your staff” tee shirt came over. My body got the once over, and then a twice over before his eyes finally found mine.

“Toby said you were looking for book artifacts with hourglass symbols?”

I nodded. “You know what it is?”

That’s when I notice he was carrying a laptop which he set on the counter. The page I was looking for was already displayed. I leaned over the computer and started reading.

History
The Books of Lore where first conceived by the great lord of the book Gillean. He brought them into being for his own use, not anticipating that one day mortals might exist on the world.

Soon after the world was created Gillean lost track of his books, dropped upon humanity he decided to leave them be for now. Watching what mortals did with these books.

The books were scattered across the world, hidden by location and appearance. None have surfaced since, but many have come across them. None are willing to share their miraculous find; none are brave enough to use the books power. They are slowly being forgotten by the world.

Description

The physical attributes of these books will vary from book to book. All books will look like ordinary books until opened. Once opened, not many live to tell of what then occurs.

Each book still had a slightly different appearance due to mainly the title and the area of the book. The books are simple books really. They have a pattern making hourglass shapes on each side with a box in the corners. All books have some kind of rune on the cover marking which book it is. They also have a symbol surrounding the rune marking which type of the ten books it is.

The books when open look strange indeed. At first you will not be able to see the runes, even if you look directly at them. There will be a feeling inside of you, if you are strong enough this will simply be a strange tingling. If you are not strong enough however, the feeling will be of the ultimate pain, your soul will be getting slowly devoured. Once and if this is overcome the inside of the book is written in the language of Soul Song.

Each book contains the most beautiful story you have ever heard in your life, but you can never remember it afterword.
The rest was purely Dungeon Master information about saving throws and the different types of books that were available. Considering the symbol on the corner of the book I held was a tree, I narrowed it to two specific categories: Nature or Life. That left a lot of latitude that could be open to interpretation.

There were a number of powers for the lucky winner, but considering what I’d already experienced of the real life stuff, I didn’t bother with the game’s version. Remember the scrying spell that didn’t do what it was supposed to? Plus, I’ve already bunked up some of the fallacies put forth by regular gameplay. I didn’t need spell components to do my magic; I simply spoke the incantations. I didn’t need to practice magic in the Sacred Grove for decades; I simply spoke the incantation to bring it to life. Most noticeably, I didn’t have to prepare my spells beforehand; if I knew the spell and had the power, then I could cast it, several times if I wanted to.

D&D was limited. That led me to believe that the rewards the book might have could be equally as wrong. However, I memorized it all anyway, just to be on the safe side.

“Who’s Gillean?” I asked the guy who was distracted staring at my butt.

“Huh? Oh, uh, he’s the ultimate god of neutrality. The story goes; he sits in his library and writes twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, since the beginning of time. His library is supposed to contain everything that’s ever happened, in book format.”

Ah, well that makes sense I suppose. I got whacked in the head by a god. Not many people can say that and still be alive.

“Excellent. Thank you for your help.”

He smiled rather goofily. “No problem. Look, um, if you’re not doing anything tonight…”

I held up my hand. “Sorry, I have a boyfriend, and I prefer small staffs, but thanks.”

He looked a tad confused until I tapped his shirt.

~O~

When I was let out of the store, my cell tweeted at me. It was an email from Brett letting me know that Pete was on the mend. I forwarded it to Zach just to keep him in the loop since I knew he was worried about our mutual friend.

While I waited for my cab, there were a few honks from passing idiot rednecks in their trucks that I had to ignore. A side note: if you give people like this any attention whatsoever, then they take advantage of it in one form or another. It’s best to just ignore them and move on like they didn’t exist. Of course this advice can be used by regular girls as well as those males that are magically transformed to females on deserted jungle islands in the pacific. You know who you are.

I was beginning to think that Clarksville was a one taxi town.

Finding a relatively clean bench in front of a barber shop that didn’t open until noon, I started scanning through the internet to catch up on any news that I’d missed.

That’s when I received an email from Mom.

Chase-

The following people have called for you: Janie Book, Stewart Farris, Dale Peters, and Sylvia Hernandez. They mentioned that they were on the island with you and that it was very important that you call them back as soon as possible.

It was very odd that they all called one after the other and they sounded quite stressed over the phone, especially the Janie girl.

I’ve included their numbers at the bottom of the email.

Let me know if you are going to be any later than tomorrow. If you are then I need to change our appointment at the salon.

Love, Mother

I hadn’t had a chance to send out my new email or number to anyone but Ev and Zach. Truthfully, I really had no desire to chat about old times with the other survivors, and I was still too embarrassed to even think about calling Janie. I can just imagine that awkward conversation.

I still thought about her and it took me a couple of months to get over the resentment of losing her as a possible girlfriend. Due to my previous personality traits that some people found offensive, I never really dated for long periods of time.

Once the girls got what they wanted, then they pretty much dumped me. Remember, I was a lifeguard. I looked good, and no I’m not being egotistical when I say this.

Getting dates was easy enough. It was keeping the girls after they experienced my exacting standards that I had trouble with.

Looking to get this over with, I decided to deal with the most difficult of my calls first. That way I knew the rest were bound to be better.

“Hello?”

I recognized her voice as soon as she answered the phone and it brought back the times we were in the hot spa, just talking between bouts of teenage sex.

“Janie? It’s Chase. My mom said you called?”

“I need to see you.”

No hi, how are you, what have you been up to, how about those Dodgers. Just straight to the point. “Okay. Where are you at?”

“Santa Barbara. Do you have a pencil?”

“Yeah, hold on a second.” I put her on speaker and pulled up my Post-it app in my iPhone. “Go ahead.”

“11363 Los Alamos Place.”

“Is everything alright, Janie?” The tone in her voice led me to believe that it wasn’t.

“No. Look, how soon can you get here?”

I rubbed my forehead for a moment. “I need to check out of my hotel first. Is this a house or an apartment?”

“House.”

“Do you have any trees in your back yard?”

“What?”

“Tree’s. Tall things with leaves.”

I heard her huff. “I know what a tree is. It’s just a weird question to ask. Yes, there’s an old Sycamore in the yard.”

“Okay, I know it’s going to sound strange, but be in your back yard in exactly one hour. Make sure nobody else is there. I need to check out and drop off some stuff at my house then I’ll be right there.”

She sounded somewhat disbelieving. “In my back yard?”

“Yeah, remember that magic stuff? I’m really good at it now.”

“Oh.”

We hung up. The cab finally arrived and I had to rush to make sure I made it on time. A quick call to Zach let him know that I had to bolt earlier than expected, but I promised him I’d be back soon, not to mention the dance I’d promised to go to. What was I thinking?

By the time I’d made it to back to the school and through the tree, back to my house, I had about fifteen minutes to find a Sycamore tree. Luckily they were fairly prevalent in California.

I dropped off my suitcase and received a look from my mother that told me she disapproved of me running around, even if it was in a running outfit that she chose for me.

“Sorry, Mother, but this is important. The girl I met, Janie. She’s in trouble and thinks I can help. I didn’t think it would take this long to get back.”

She gave me a placating nod. “I understand. We’ll just have to work on your planning issues. Things take longer for women to accomplish properly and with grace…”

“Sorry, Mom, I have to go.”

She followed me to the door. “That’s another thirty minutes tonight with your lessons.”

I cringed again. “Sorry.”

“You keep saying that. Try to be home for supper, dear.”

I nodded and closed the door behind me. It took a good five minute run to make it to the park at the end of the block, but by the time I got there I had three minutes to spare.

During the interim, I checked my backpack and made sure the Book of Lore was secure. I had to maybe buy a safe or rent a safety deposit box to store the thing in so I didn’t have to lug it around everywhere. It wasn’t a gigantic tome like some I’ve seen described in D&D, but it was enough to be annoying.

Checking around the area I saw that I was relatively, there was nobody looking my way anyhow. So, I uttered the incantation and entered the Sycamore and exited through the one in Janie’s backyard.

Growing up, you make certain assumptions about certain neighborhoods and cities. When you think of Beverly Hills, you associate those that live there to be uber-rich. When you think of East L.A. you think low income high Hispanic population. Me, I lived in Brentwood. For the most part, it was an older rich neighborhood, but nothing like the vast estates you’d see on some Rich & Famous show on TV.

When I thought of Santa Barbara, I associated it with the same kind of neighborhood I lived in. It was anything but.

Janie’s house was seriously old and not kept very well. The surrounding houses and conditions of the yard I was in, made me think seriously lower income.

“Wow, you really can do that stuff good.”

Following Janie’s voice, I turned around and saw her at the back door of her house. She was holding a TV tray in her hands, in front of her with a couple of glasses and a bowl of chips.

Her hair was down and she was wearing a dress that looked a little loose on her. Frankly, from what I remembered about her clothing back on the island, it didn’t appear to be something that she would normally wear, but who was I to judge. I was wearing things all the time that I would have freaked out over on four months ago.

“Hey.”

She looked me up and down, and then frowned before moving to the aged patio table and chairs.

“I made some lemonade. It’s Country Time.”

I wasn’t really thirsty, but nodded and followed her lead. We sat and I tried to figure out what the problem was from just looking at her face, but that was a lost cause. The only thing I could tell was that she didn’t look very well rested. In fact she looked a little pale.

After she filled the glasses, her eyes flicked to me. “Looks like being a girl took to you pretty well.”

I shrugged slightly with my head. “I knew what was happening. I dealt with it.” There was a momentary pause and I added, “I’m not really one to fall down and cry over something that I have no control over.”

Janie smiled wistfully. “Yeah, I remember that about you. You do what has to be done. Still, you’re gorgeous.”

“So are you.”

She chuckled sardonically. “I’m not sleeping well, I’m anemic, and… anyway, I don’t look gorgeous.”

Reaching my hand halfway across the table, I tried to look as compassionate as I could. “Janie, what can I do to help?”

She licked her lips and looked at me. “I have a doctor’s appointment in an hour and a half. Would you go with me?”

A doctor’s appointment?

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Janie appeared even more nervous and kind of pulled in on herself. “Nothing bad like that. It’s my first trimester ultrasound.”

My brain must have went on lockdown at that last word, because I had to actually see her lean back and pull her dress tight across her belly, her distended belly.

A short breath shot out of my mouth and I swear a slight breeze could have blown me off the chair.

“You’re pre… pre…”

“Yeah. I guess the hot water/low sperm count theory didn’t really work.”

The look on her face was telling me that she expected me to yell, or scold her or something like that, so I just waited until I could get my brain to reengage.

“Before you ask, I hadn’t had sex for two months before the flight and I haven’t had sex since you. You’re definitely the fath… uh… well, it’s our child.”

I swallowed. Mom was going to kill me, slowly, maybe with a spoon or some other blunt instrument.

“I’m keeping it,” she said.

My eyes finally pulled away from her belly and saw the resolution and fear on her face.

“I’m not going to freak out, Janie.” I managed to spit that much out. “And yes, I’ll go with you. I’ll help you out however I can.”

Her chest shuddered as she exhaled and I saw the signs of a small smile. “Thank you. Now I have to go pee. I’ll be right back.”

Bringing the glass of lemonade to my lips, I sipped at the rim. It was awful. She was back in a little over a minute.

“Sorry, they told me to drink a lot of water and not to pee, but I’d never make it to the office.”

I suppose that would make sense. A full bladder would mean the uterus would lift and they would be able to see the baby better.

“How far along are you?”

My brain was farther gone than I realized, because I couldn’t remember how long it had been since the rescue, and for someone that very rarely forgets anything, that’s saying something.

“Yesterday begins my fifteenth week.”

Fifteen, yeah, that sounds right. Fifteen.

Something didn’t sit well. Janie looked a lot further along than just fifteen weeks. That’s technically in the second trimester, but still she should just have a little swelling, but I suppose each person was different in the way they developed. Then I started clicking on other things.

“You’re not sleeping, and you’re anemic?”

She nodded and sipped at her drink. “Yeah, it’s not really uncommon in my family when the women are expecting twins.”

My stomach dropped.

~O~

I called a cab, since her car didn’t look all that safe. It made me wonder how she could afford to fly to Hawaii in the first place. The doctor’s office was semi busy with a lot of lower income pregnant teen moms in attendance. That led me to believe that Janie was on some sort of assistance program which didn’t really sit well with me.

In low whispers, we spoke in the corner of the waiting room.

“Janie, are you really attached to this doctor or anything?”

She shrugged. “It’s what I can afford. My church is helping out a little. They found this clinic for me.”

“Afford? Are you working, with the anemia and everything?”

“I have to help pay the bills, Chase. I was saving up to move out, but that…” she motioned to her belly.

I nodded. “Look, if you want, we have extra rooms at my house or even a pool house if you want your privacy. I’ll take care of the bills.”

“Chase… I’m not… that’s not exactly why I called you. Yeah, a little money would really help out and I’m not going to turn it down, but you don’t have to go this far.”

That brought a smile from me for the first time since I saw her again. “I’m not trying to buy you off. I come from a very well off family. I have the money and you’re carrying our babies. Would you like a doctor that can look at you and see you as a person instead of a patient? Would you like not to work and be healthy and not worry about anything but yourself and them?”

Janie looked down at her lap like she was thinking things over.

“Just think about it okay. You don’t have to give me an answer right away.”

A door opened and a lady in flowery scrubs stepped out. “Janie Book?”

I stood immediately and gave her a hand up. She wasn’t that far along yet, but it made me feel like I was doing something useful. We were escorted to a room with a raised back bed and a monitor on a cart to the side. I recognized the ultrasound machine since it was pretty much the only other thing in the room.

The tech came in and covered Janie’s legs with a light blanket before asking her to raise her dress up. Even though I’d seen Janie more than nude before, I averted my eyes to let her get situated before the tech squirted some gel on her lower abdomen and flicked on the machine.

I was watching the display when I felt my hand being taken by hers. Looking back, she gave me a brief smile which I returned.

My knowledge didn’t extend so far as to being able to read the images on the screen, but the tech pointed out a head and I could finally make out what he was talking about.

He took several measurements before moving to the second and taking even more measurements. I didn’t know what they were for, but I made a promise to myself to make damn sure to read up on everything I could find on the subject.

“Do you want to know any of the details,” he asked Janie who didn’t spare a second before nodding her head.

I never understood why certain people didn’t want to know, but I figured that they probably couldn’t understand why people would want the opposite.

“For fifteen weeks, they’re right where they need to be in size and health. They’re going to be identical twins.” He smiled back at Janie’s big grin. “Do you want to know the sex?”

Janie’s eyes widened a little. “You can tell this early?”

“Normally we would have a hard time of it until twenty weeks, but I know. They aren’t bashful.”

She looked at me and I nodded. “Tell us.”

“They’re going to be boys.” He pointed to a certain place on the screen. “This one here has his legs open and you pretty much can’t get a better shot than that one.”

I’m going to have two sons.

My throat felt thick as Janie’s hand gripped tighter to mine.

The tech handed her a tissue and then gave one to me as well. I dabbed at the trails on my face and sniffed afterward. Who would have thought that I could get so choked up over something like this so quickly?

~O~

When the cab dropped us off at her house again, she took the little copies of the ultrasound that they printed off for us and tore them in half to give me five while she took five.

“Let me talk to my mom about your offer, Chase.”

I nodded. “Yeah, okay. I need to talk to mine too.”

Leaning in, she kissed my cheek. “Even if it doesn’t work out right, this means a lot to me, that you’re willing to offer.”

Shaking my head, I tried to look determined. “It’s not an offer, Janie. I’m committed to helping whatever that means. Can I go get you something? You’re supposed to have cravings right?”

She giggled. “That’s not until later, like the third trimester. I thought you knew everything.”

My cheeks heated up and I felt my ears burning. “Give me a week and I will. I’ll probably annoy the hell out of you with how much I’ll know.”

TBC...