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School was weird. Medusa, like most of the creatures before her, hadn’t followed me to school. But I knew that when I got home, she would have answers. I couldn’t concentrate, earning several scoldings from several teachers. I finally, finally made it home at the end of school. I didn’t stop to hang out with Calise, Gary, or Ray either. I guess that might’ve made them a little suspicious, since I was supposed to meet them for band practice, but oh well. When I shoved open the door to my house, I glanced around. Well, she hadn’t come downstairs at least. Neither of my parents were home, so I didn’t have to worry about him. I dashed upstairs and flung open the door to my room. There, coiled on the floor, not having moved an inch since I left, was Medusa. I sighed in relief and tossed my bag onto my bed, then flopped down next to it and rolled over so I was on my stomach facing her.
“So, are you part stone?” I asked her. “‘Cause I didn’t know anyone could stay so still.”
This got another small smile out of her. Did this lady ever smile for real? “Sometimes I wonder.” She admitted. “Now, what would you like to know?”
I grinned. Finally, a creature that doesn’t care about formalities. “First off, why can I do this?” I asked, holding up my index finger. Almost immediately, a small, glowy-white sphere the size of the head of a pin appeared. Medusa visibly tensed as it started to grow. When it reached the size of a golf ball, I closed my other hand around it and it disappeared back under my skin. When it was gone, Medusa relaxed again.
“That,” She told me, “Is your energy. Have you ever let it get really big, and then shot it off? Didn’t you feel tired afterwards? It’s simply a physical manifestation of your energy. As you grow and use it more, you’ll feel less and less tired.”
I blinked. That explained a whole lot. “But what does it do? Why do creatures disappear when I hit them with it?”
This time the snake-lady paused before answering. Maybe she thought I would shoot her. “Well, all right, let me start from the beginning. All the creatures you’ve been seeing so far aren’t from this world.”
I snorted. “No, ya think?”
“They come from another world, another plain of reality really, that’s parallel to your’s. For years and years, centuries even, the two worlds stayed separate. A thin, invisible veil kept each side to themselves. But now, or rather in the last fifteen years or so, that veil’s started to rip and open portals between the two worlds. The creatures in my world have started spilling through. No one really knows why, as few can survive your atmosphere.”
“Hang on,” I interrupted, “I know we’ve been polluting and all, but our atmosphere’s not that bad.”
Medusa shook her head and suddenly I understood why she hadn’t moved before. The movement sent her snakes into a hissing frenzy. Raising her voice slightly above the noise, she replied, “It isn’t. But in our world, we don’t have all the gases that you have here. They’re very harmful to us. Most of us, anyway. The ones that are more human, like myself, are able to survive both here and there without much of a problem. But for the ones that aren’t, it can kill them. But not in the way you think of. They tend to start looking sick and start kind of fading around the edges.” She held up her hand when I opened my mouth to interrupt again. “Let me finish, please.
“You are the only one who can see us, the only one who can talk to us, that we know of. Unless we choose to let others be able to see or hear us, of course. People tend to… freak out when they see us, so it isn’t likely that we’ll let them see us. There is one thing we can’t hide, though. If we’re hurt, we can’t hide our blood. And if we get too weak, we can’t hide at all.”
I nodded. That would explain why no one else was surprised at these weird creatures wandering around.
“Also, for some reason, you magic calls us. I hate to use an animal analogy, but think of it like a dog whistle. You can’t hear it, but we can. Some hate it, and know that it will send them back to their home. Others slipped through a portal accidentally, or out of curiosity, and want to get back. They come willingly and want you to send them back. It’s not… pleasant, though. It hurts when your energy hits us.
“Now, what you need to do is find those who might damage this world, or themselves by being in it, and send them back. And seal up the portals as well. You can see them, they look like pinkish shimmers in the air. If not all are sealed in time, this world and the other world will be ripped apart. Life, civilization, the world, everything that we know will be torn into oblivion.
“So, Aminta Strongwood, in short, you are to save both worlds.”
I groaned. Like I didn’t have enough to do already.
 Faith-Hoping-Love · Sun Oct 14, 2007 @ 07:25pm · 0 Comments |
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