Fire and Rain E-Book

Dauna Grey

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: A Rain's quest novel
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 473

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The world is on fire.

During the Great Warming, billions of the Earth’s beings died from the heat, starvation, disease and desperation. This devastation peaked when aliens seeded the scorched soil with magic. As it seeped towards the Earth’s core, it changed everything.

Rain Dare is born on an island in the Pacific fifty-eight years later. 99% human and 1% alien Rain is the alien’s parting gift. She is designed to help mankind transition from a technologically based world to a magical one.

Unfortunately, her birth came later than anticipated. Now, at seventeen, she must leave her island home to learn all she can about Earth’s changed landscape and inhabitants.

Suspicious shapeshifters.

Inexperienced mages.

Magically created monsters.

Danger lurks all around in this hostile world.

Rain hopes to teach others how to use their magic, yet with each passing day, she fears she’s already too late. Will she be dismissed and ignored as too young to know anything valuable? Will she be hunted and destroyed as just another threat in the deadly landscape? Or will her alien nature make her the hope the world needs?

Leseprobe

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

Fire and Rain. Copyright ©2024 by Donna Gray-Williams

979-8-9903026-0-0 (pbk.)

979-8-9903026-1-7 (ebook)Cover illustration: Hampton Lamoureux

To

VALERIE

Never forgotten

&

SHERYL

For your encouragement

&

DARA

A continuing inspiration

Contents

Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23AcknowledgementsAbout the author

Chapter 1

“Begin at the beginning,” the king said very gravely,“and go on til you come to the end: then stop.”

Ilanded hard, falling to my already sore knees. “Thanks a lot,” I grumbled sarcastically, not for the first time that morning.

At the beginning of my journey, I’d faced hundreds of miles to travel, but I didn’t have a horse or a donkey. I had to travel on foot, but I didn’t want to take weeks or months to get to my destination. To make my traveling faster, if not exactly easier, I’d developed a magical charm, taking inspiration from an old fairy tale about seven-league boots. A league was roughly defined as three miles. Twenty-one miles was too much at one time, but I could easily do three miles per step.

I tested this theory by beginning with short distances, steadily increasing until I had to stop completely and reconfigure the charm. It wasn’t just the landings magic couldn’t seem to get right. Magic tried to thrust me through any object in my way. As a person with a solid body, I couldn’t go through anything more solid than I was. I had the bruises to prove it.

I’d finally had to add instructions to move or raise me around obstacles like old ruins, trees, and bodies of water. I was actually flying over treetops to avoid stationary objects, but I had no real control over the movement. It was up and down and sideways, depending on what was in the way. It was fast and literally breathtaking and had often been scary and disorienting, but I got sort of used to hurtling into and through the air covering three miles in about three minutes. I found three miles at one time was the maximum magic could handle without slamming me flat into the ground at the end of a step, no matter how much I emphasized a gentle landing. The landings were still a bit rough, but I was satisfied with three miles of hurtling instead of walking. It saved my feet if not my knees.

I’d gone the distance of about fourteen hundred miles in less than a week, but it was still exhausting. The hurtling through the air adrenaline rush was more physically grueling than I expected—or maybe it was the landings that were taking their toll. Whatever the reason, three hundred miles was my limit for a night’s travel, and that’s when I stopped.

I only traveled this exciting way after midnight until the wee hours of the morning, so I had the least chance of being seen. After that last harrowing step, I scooted over to the nearest tree and rested for a while, waiting for the sun to come up completely before continuing my travels on foot. I put a temporary ward of protection around myself, then I took a canteen and tasty banana-blueberry-walnut muffin out of my backpack for breakfast.

After eating, I centered myself to meditate. I did this for a few hours every day. Magic was in every living thing, but it was new to this world: young, wild, and contrary. It took ability and effort to use it. I had to tell it in detail what I wanted. The more complex the charm, the less likely magic would follow it completely, like a kid only half listening to instructions. With my consciousness, I touched the magic reserve within myself for it to become familiar with me. I needed that connection to work charms. And leaving out anything was a loophole for evasion. Misunderstandings were rampant. My meditation ritual was my “making friends with magic” time.

Magic had been saturating the Earth for almost a hundred years. That’s pretty young for an entity on a planet billions of years old. It wasn’t native to this planet, but it had been the catalyst to halting and reversing the effects of global warming. During the peak of the Great Warming, the ice caps had melted, and the Earth had heated to uninhabitable levels over eighty percent of its surface. Only the far north and south areas were still habitable, but with high temperatures even in winter and less than optimal rain. It took decades for the first seeding of magic to infiltrate the Earth’s crust and inhabit the DNA of every living thing. It was still working its way to the center of the planet. Magic had forced many changes in the surviving people, animals, and plants. It was a few decades into the third millennia, and the human population was only a small fraction of the pre-severe-warming world of eight billion.

I don’t know if there would have been any people left if magic hadn’t caused the Great Warming to peak and begin to reverse. It was still too hot in the center of the world, but the temperatures had begun to creep downward from about seventy years ago. People were slowly migrating south, but not too far yet. The towns I was interested in were only forty to fifty years old and still north of the old Canadian border.

The sun was up and bright by the time I finished meditating. I stood up, stretched, dispersed my ward, then began to walk through the woods without a clear path to follow. The main road was at least twenty miles north of me. Traveling alone, I avoided main roads whenever possible to limit the opportunity for robbery, assault, or any other unpleasant occurrences that could happen to a person traveling alone. I’d been told extensively about all the hazards of travel. Duly warned, I limited my exposure to danger, because I might not be risk averse, but I wasn’t stupid.

I had a charm that expanded my awareness for a few hundred yards. It was my version of radar. With that charm I could sense heat signatures, so I knew when a large animal or person was nearby. I couldn’t tell by heat if they were dangerous, but for something big, I wrapped myself in a ward and waited it out. I could also create noises in the distance with another charm to move it on.

Before starting my journey, I’d practiced a variety of defensive and evasive charms to avoid dangerous confrontations—enough to sort of satisfy my Jardvari (guardians / teachers / babysitters) that I could travel safely. They thought I would be traveling to towns on the west coast, not the center of the habitable continent. Those were the towns they were most familiar with, having visited them periodically to keep me up-to-date on any significant challenges. I was heading into territory they had never vetted. I didn’t know if they’d praise me for the ingenuity of my new travel method or exclaim in horror that I had ventured so far from home base. Probably both. I’m glad they weren’t here to guilt me, chide me, or try to stop me. I had made promises to be careful, but I never promised to stay within a specific boundary.

After about thirty minutes, the direction I followed opened up to a very wide clearing. I was leery of clearings. They were often manmade and contained traps. I stopped still outside the clearing to look, listen, and taste the air for immediate danger.

As I listened to the quiet forest, expecting to hear insects, birds, and branches moving in the light breeze, I became aware of another small sound. I heard a faint human voice. I quietly skirted the clearing, moving toward it. I was nearly halfway around when I saw a large hole at the far end. The voice was coming from inside the hole.

“Help me. Please. Somebody help me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Don’t leave me here,” the small, childish voice pleaded repeatedly. “I’m afraid,” it added in a piteous mew.

I slowly approached the hole. I kneeled down and peered over the edge, not knowing what to expect. Would I find a real child, or a creature created by magic?

A small female child, maybe nine or ten years old, sat at the bottom of the hole. It was at least ten feet deep, with steep, smooth sides. No merely human child could climb out of this hole. It was wide and rectangular, almost twice as big as a grave.

I sat down facing her, crossed my legs, and leaned over the opening. I watched and listened to her for another minute. She was sitting protectively with her knees to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them. I didn’t see anything threatening in the hole. It seemed to be just an inescapable prison with no food or water.

It was early fall. The leaves on the trees were just beginning to turn colors because the days were shorter, not because the temperature was appreciably cooler. It was around ninety-five degrees and despite the shade from the trees, it must have been very hot in that hole. Judging by her condition, and with no water, she couldn’t last longer than a few days.

“How did you get down there?” I finally asked, projecting my voice into the hole.

The child scrambled to her feet. “Help me! Get me out of here!” she demanded and stomped her foot.

“How did you get down there?” I asked again. I was in no hurry to free her until I completely understood why she was there.

She looked around, then looked up again. “I—I fell in.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. You would have broken or sprained something in that long a fall. Without food, you wouldn’t have healed yet. You don’t look especially hurt, just dirty, hungry, and thirsty. Try again.”

Her shoulders slumped, and she dropped back to the ground. She didn’t speak again for a full minute. “They put me here,” she said disconsolately.

“Who did?”

She just shook her head.

“What did you do?”

She shook her head again and said nothing.

I studied her some more and sniffed the air around the hole again. I think I could guess why she was there, despite the dominant smell of urine in one corner. Sitting back in her woebegone huddle, she wasn’t going to verify this without some prompting. “You’re a shapeshifter—aren’t you?”

She shook her head vehemently. “Girls can’t shapeshift. Everyone knows that.”

“It appears everyone was wrong. Apparently, they can—or at least one can. What animal are you?” I’d already guessed the Clan. My sense of smell was very good for a human.

She shook her head again.

“You might as well tell me. I’m not going to let you out until I know what you are.” That was a lie. Of course I wouldn’t leave a child to die alone in a hole just for being different. But it was what my Jardvari expected for this journey. They’d been insistent that I limit my risks.

“Ocelot. They said I’m an Ocelot,” she whispered, but I could hear her.

“Clan Cat,” I said as I studied her. The human half of a shifter only by coincidence resembled their animal counterpart, or she’d have large black spots and streaks like an ocelot. Her hair wasn’t even especially streaky. It was a human short, curly brown. Her eyes were a pansy brown. Her skin was a reddish brown under the darker dirt. “So they put you in a hole when they found out.”

She nodded her head. “I’m an abomination. I shouldn’t exist. I must be evil.”

“Someone doesn’t know their history. I would expect Clan Cat to have a better education system.” I studied her a long moment. My Jardvari would tell me to leave her here. In fact, they had a rule for that. Rule number thirteen: Do not collect anomalies. They hadn’t anticipated that I would find my first anomaly in a helpless, vulnerable child. Surely they’d excuse this one rule violation.

I stood up. “Hold on, I’m going to get you out.”

She scrambled to her feet as well and looked up at me with such raw hope on her face, I would have moved heaven and earth to get her out of that hole. Luckily, I wouldn’t have to work that hard.

I scanned the woods surrounding us. I couldn’t make this look too easy. Even my new acquaintance couldn’t know exactly what I was capable of. She had to win my trust as I did hers. Just because she was a child didn’t mean she wouldn’t take advantage of my secrets to benefit herself or inadvertently reveal them. Rule number one was Trust no one. I’d heard that often enough in my childhood that they could have left it off the list of rules and I would have followed it instinctively.

I would use what nature provided to release this child. I’d need at least a sturdy, somewhat over ten-foot-long tree or branch to lower into the hole. It didn’t have to be huge, just big enough to support a magical Ocelot of about sixty to seventy pounds. Ocelots were one of the smallest of the cat species, but she would shift to bigger than a real ocelot.

All shifters often shifted much larger than their animal counterparts, magic giving them more mass and weight. Magic also gave the two most dominant Clans, Wolf and Cat, some equality. While real and shifted jaguars could weigh as much as two hundred and fifty pounds and therefore dominate any Felidae or Canidae species on this continent, magic had given a boost to Wolf shifters, who now weighed as much as shifted Jaguars. Those were the two dominate shifters from Clans Wolf and Cat.

“I’ll be right back,” I told the girl and headed into the woods.

I entered the surrounding woods, looking at the trees until I found some likely candidates. I picked a tree and shook it, checking its sturdiness. I shifted the earth beneath the tree using an Earth charm, shaking it free. If it had been a larger tree, the root system would have been massive and probably would have affected the other trees around, pulling them free from the earth as well. I only needed a younger tree. It still had a healthy root system to reach water, but not massive.

The tree fell with a loud whoosh and thump, with me directing its fall to a space between the other trees. Using an Air charm to support most of the weight, I dragged it out into the clearing by its roots, then pulled it to the hole. I was stronger than I looked but needed to appear just as average as I seemed. Hide what you can do was rule number two.

I remembered to breathe heavily from my exertion and sweat a bit as I peered down over the edge of the hole again, because I didn’t look strong enough to drag a heavy, dense tree far over rough ground without appearing exerted. I didn’t know how observant children were, so I had to allow appearances to be deceiving.

“Stand out of the way against that far side of the hole.” I pointed to where I wanted her to go for safety. “I found a small fallen tree in the woods. I’m going to push it into the hole. Don’t try to climb out as a human. You’ll need your claws to climb up the tree. Take your clothes off and wrap them in a bundle.” I didn’t think at her age she’d have enough magic to change her clothes when she shifted. She wouldn’t be able to do that successfully until she was on the other side of puberty. “You’ll need them when you get out. I don’t have anything suitable for you to wear. I want you to shift, carry your bundle of clothes in your mouth, then climb up the tree.”

I pushed the tree roots first over the hole until I was sure I could drop it at an angle. I looked down once more to make sure I wasn’t dropping it on the child. She’d moved but hadn’t changed yet. Instead, she just watched me as I lowered the tree.

“Go on. Change,” I ordered her and stood back, waiting for her to shift and climb out. Shifting forms twice in a row with no nourishment in who knew how many days would be tiring. I didn’t want her to fall asleep as a Cat afterward, so I pushed a little magic into her shift with some to spare for shifting back. I had a large magic reserve, but I gave her just enough to shift without question.

After she reached the top and sprang from the hole, I told her to change back and get dressed. While she did that, I pulled the tree back out of the hole and dragged it back into the woods. I used an Air charm to straighten it up and place it back in its hole while I used an Earth magic charm to return the dirt I’d displaced and pack it around the tree. I stood back to be certain it could stand on its own, then I used a Water charm to pull water up to feed the roots. Using basic elemental magic didn’t require as much instruction to magic. It was things that didn’t neatly categorize elementally that required an essay to get magic moving in the right direction.

When I returned to the hole, clapping bits of loose bark off my hands, the child was sitting down and waiting for me. She was a sorry-looking little thing, all dirty, tired, skinny, and smelly. I needed to get her something to eat and drink before she passed out.

“Why did you hide it back there?” she gestured to the woods I’d returned from. Thankfully, she couldn’t see what I’d done with it from where she sat. I’d chosen one well away from her underground oubliette.

“When Clan Cat comes back, I don’t want them to figure out how you got out of the hole.”

“Why? Why would they come back?” Her voice betrayed her hope.

I shrugged. “If they should come back, I don’t want them looking for you or your allies. Let them puzzle it out. Come on, we better get out of here before someone comes to check on you.” I didn’t tell her bluntly to be sure you’re dead. She’d have to figure that out on her own.

I’d found the mound of dirt in the woods that had once filled the hole. I don’t know why they moved it, but if the girl had mage magic besides shifting magic, maybe they thought she’d be able to move dirt back into the hole to give her herself a way of climbing out. If she had a lot of magic, she could have done it even if she couldn’t see it or know where it was.

I decided I would charm the dirt and plants to return to their previous home once we’d left the clearing. It would hopefully look as if it had never been dug up. That should be an easy fix. The magic in the soil and plants would want to be back home and readily spring back to their former place. It would look as if the ground had never been disturbed—I hoped. I’d send a breeze through the area to mix up the scents so whoever put a child in this hole would have doubts they’d even remembered the right area.

“I can come with you?” she asked in a small, hesitant voice.

I smiled at her, then hesitated. I certainly couldn’t send her back home, and she couldn’t manage on her own. With this one rescue, I was breaking so many rules (at least six); my Jardvari would have a conniption fit if they knew. Of course, what they didn’t know couldn’t hurt them. “Sure you can. I don’t have a traveling companion yet. That can be you.” I started toward the opposite end of the clearing from where I’d entered, then stopped. “Which way is your village?”

She pointed ahead toward the right. Of course we couldn’t go to the village that had doomed her because she was a female shifter.

“Okay. Follow me.” My destination was decided. Clan Wolf it would be. I led the way out of the clearing. We walked at her slower pace. I set my charm to fill the hole as we walked farther away.

Once we entered fully into the woods, I reached into my backpack and took out my canteen and handed it to her. She gulped the water thirstily. If she was too dehydrated, she might vomit it all up again. I didn’t stop her from drinking her fill. Instead, I tried a calming charm on her stomach as she drank, which seemed to work. Meeting her was a good test of my abilities. I needed real-life practice and experience.

Once she stopped drinking to breathe, I asked, “How long were you in that hole?”

“I saw two moons.”

I reached into my backpack again and this time pulled out the huge hunk of bread and cheese I had wrapped up in a cloth. I handed them to her.

She started eating hungrily but paused and asked with her mouth full, “Is this all your food?”

“No. You can eat it all.”

She continued eating, then stopped again. “We can’t go this way. That way’s Wolf Trap.”

“Why not?”

“They’ll smell me. They’re my town’s enemies. They’ll kill us,” she warned. “There’s no safe place for me to go.”

“We’ll be fine. You’re too dirty to smell like anything but dirt. Just promise me not to shift unless I give you permission.”

“I don’t know if I can. I never meant to shift. I just had to.”

I needed to find a magical way to prevent her from shifting. Her need to shift would overwhelm her eventually. “Don’t worry. We’ll find opportunities for you to shift so you won’t feel a compulsion to do it even in Wolf Trap.” I was making a lot of promises and decisions, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of a traveling companion. My Jardvari had never made a rule about traveling companions. It would cause complications, but it would make the journey more interesting. I’d known no children before; I’d been the only child at home. This could be fun.

“What’s your name?”

“Tara Jansen.”

“I’m Rain Dare. Nice to meet you, Tara Jansen.”

“Reindeer?” she asked, puzzled.

“It does sound like that, doesn’t it?” My first name was given to me, but I’d chosen my last name. It was a name from history that had interested me. “It’s Rain, like precipitation from the sky, and Dare, like I challenge you to do something.”

She made a grunting noise in response since her mouth was full.

We walked on. I listened to her eat and drink. I wouldn’t make her talk anymore with her mouth full. She might choke.

When she finished eating, she handed me back the cloth that had been wrapped around the food. Of course, she’d eaten it all. I stuffed it into my backpack and pulled out a couple of apples. What was dinner without dessert? I handed her one and kept one to eat myself. They were big, red, juicy apples.

Her eyes widened. “I’ve never seen an apple this big before.”

I took a crunchy bite from mine. It was sweet and very juicy. “I was surprised myself. Most of the apples I’ve seen hereabouts are really puny.”

She took a big bite of her own apple. “Mmmm,” she said.

We walked and ate for a few minutes. I finished mine before she did hers. I stopped, took a small spade from my backpack and dug a hole, dropped my apple core inside, then covered it back up. I didn’t need the spade to dig the hole, but it was a rule to hide my abilities.

“Why did you do that?”

“Maybe an apple tree will grow here one day.”

“Can I bury mine?”

“Sure.” I handed her the spade as she finished off her apple. “Give the trees some space. Dig your hole a few yards away.”

Tara wiped her hands on her dirty pants and dug the hole where I showed her. She dropped in her apple core and closed it up. She didn’t try to use magic to dig her hole. Since shapeshifting was magic, maybe most of her magic went to that. I would find out the more time we spent together.

We started walking again.

“Am I really going to be your companion?” She looked up at me with a sideways glance.

“Sure. Why not? How old are you, Tara?”

“Ten.”

We were at least three generations into the changes brought on by magic. Ten/eleven was around the age when boys usually shifted the first time. Boys were born shifters and girls were born mages with the ability to manipulate magic. It had been that way as far as most people’s memories, with no crossover of abilities—until now. No wonder Clan Cat freaked and put this child in a hole. It must have seemed completely sinister for a girl to shapeshift. It had never happened before, so it must be evil. Instead of embracing a new ability for girls, they decided to bury it. That wouldn’t have been an easy decision to make. Shifters were very family oriented. Birth rates were much lower than in the past, and children were precious. It would have been difficult for anyone to cold-bloodedly kill a child. Leaving her out of sight to die was the easier choice.

“Do you have a family?”

“Not anymore,” she said disconsolately.

“What family did you have?”

“Mom, dad, grandparents, aunt, and cousin.”

“Was your family angry when you shifted?”

“They were afraid.”

“Of you or for you?”

“I think mostly of me. Mom and Dad wouldn’t touch me or look at me. They just let the soldiers take me away.”

That was the reaction I would have expected from the unenlightened. Education should still be important, but the Clans could also be very xenophobic and reactionary. They only trusted their own kind. Tara was an anomaly—at least in her village. Magic wasn’t finished with the changes it was making in the world. I was looking for anomalies and higher-level magic use on my fact-finding jaunt—as my Jardvari liked to call my venture into the world. But I was supposed to record them, not engage them (rules number eight and eleven). That would come much later when I had better control of my magic.

“Can you do magic as well as shapeshift?”

“Some. I can light a candle. I can move small objects. I can find water. I haven’t been taught many charms yet.”

Those were the three easiest tasks for a mage, and the ones they were born knowing when they were old enough to try. Everything else had to be practiced and learned over years. Mostly, domestic skills were encouraged.

I’d planned to find a place to stay for the winter among people. I was raised in fairly isolated conditions. Most of my learning and experience had come from books. In today’s world, at sixteen, I would be considered an adult. I’d given my Jardvari one more year to get used to the idea, then a few months after my seventeenth birthday I set out to discover the world while I was still young enough to take risks. I couldn’t wait until some undefinable time in the future when I was more powerful and magic had completed its saturation of the Earth. That could be decades from now. I needed to witness the changes, find them, and foster them. Tara was an example of people’s fear and loathing of change. A lot of boys had died when the shifting ability first appeared. That shouldn’t happen again.

My decision hadn’t gone over very well. To appease my Jardvari, I’d taken the chains of their limiting rules and promised endlessly to be careful and to enlist their help if needed. I wasn’t nearly as powerful as I would be twenty years from now, but I was tired of learning everything secondhand. I wanted to know myself what was going on in the world now.

I left home excited and hopeful. Scared and apprehensive came later, but this was what I had been born to do.

Now I had to find the perfect place to start gaining experiences. One ten-year-old wouldn’t be enough. I needed a village, and it looked like a Clan Wolf village was the place for me to start.

Chapter 2

“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,“And your hair has become very white;And yet you incessantly stand on your head—Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

We didn't talk much after Tara finished eating. I could tell she was tired and needed to sleep as her shoulders drooped and her feet shuffled rather than cleared the ground with each step. I pushed magic energy into her whenever she flagged. After an hour or so, I began to scan for a good campsite. I wanted to arrive in the village during the day, not after sunset.

I scanned the area with a charm, sensing heat and water sources. I found a good campsite more west than north, where a small stream trickled from a small, shallow pond supplied by an underground river. There were no ruins especially close by. I preferred that. Ruins could be dangerous areas of broken glass, sharp metal, deceptive flooring, animal dens, and traps caused by the decay of long-unused buildings. I avoided them when I could.

I guided Tara in that direction. I called a halt when I could smell the water.

The foliage was thick around the small pond. It wasn’t exactly stagnant, but there was a dense algae bloom. I removed the algae with a charm won easily from magic and removed the other contaminants that made the water iffy for humans to drink. Magic had no aversion to charms improving the quality of natural things. That was almost effortless magic, and after we left, this would become a safer watering hole for all kinds of wildlife.

Tara had plopped down next to the pond and stared down at it instead of splashing the cooling waters on her flushed, dirty face. I didn’t think she noticed my charms working.

“Go on. It’s safe to drink,” I assured her.

“How do you know?” she asked suspiciously.

“I can tell by look and smell.” I didn’t confess to having cleaned it. I was strong in all four elemental magics while most mages were strong in only two, and I wasn’t sure which two magics I wanted to claim in Tara’s presence. This was more hide what you can do, and I didn’t want to limit myself yet.

She bent over the water and scooped many times, splashing as much on herself as inside.

I reached into my backpack and pulled out two canteens. I filled them and handed one to her. “Here. You can have your own canteen.”

“Thank you.” She took the canteen and hugged it to her chest. It had a strap that she could wear around her neck or over her shoulder. The design was based on canteens of the past, and it was made of recycled stainless steel.

I drank my fill of the water, then reached into my backpack again and pulled out a washcloth. “You can wash up. I don’t have any soap with me. Just rubbing off the dirt should be good enough. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to contaminate the water with soap. You can have a better wash when we reach town. I’ll get you a change of clothes there, too.” I gave the washcloth a little magical boost to charm away much of the grime and sweat. I’d do a more thorough cleaning charm in the morning.

As she washed, I thought about dinner. I didn’t eat sentient beings, but Tara, as a predator, would benefit from some meat. Fortunately, I didn’t need to hunt for dinner. I could pull almost anything out of my backpack because it was connected to my home base. But I wasn’t making something out of nothing. The food and everything else I pulled out was real. It just traveled a very long distance in the blink of an eye. If one day I couldn’t pull whatever I wanted out of my backpack, I’d know something was wrong at home. Eventually Tara would catch on that it wasn’t an ordinary backpack, but since its extraordinary abilities only worked for me, she’d have to puzzle on it.

“We’ll camp over there,” I announced. I pointed to a small glade nearby.

“So soon? There’s still a lot of daylight left.” Her words held disagreement, but her impassive voice and general lethargy suggested otherwise.

“You’re too tired to travel farther today.”

I instructed Tara to relieve herself away from the camp and the water and to watch out for snakes, and did the same myself.

When Tara returned, I was seated in the center of the glade, and she came to sit next to me.

I pulled a reusable bag of beef stew out of my backpack and handed it to Tara. Her eyes lit up when she accepted it. She wouldn’t mind eating it cold, but I warmed it with a Fire charm. I didn’t have to produce fire to warm food. My charm could heat without burning if I was explicit in what I required. I pulled out another bag for myself of vegetables, tofu, rice, and mushroom stew. I’d have to remember to keep rice out of her meals or I’d have some explaining to do. In these times of heat and lesser quantities of rain, rice was scarce here, but it was plentiful at home.

After dinner, I handed Tara a blanket from my backpack and told her to make her bed where we sat. Then I walked a circular path around the outside perimeter. I placed stones strategically around the area to activate as a ward. I carried the stones with me. Each had a drop of my blood stored inside. Any bodily fluid would do, but blood was the best catalyst because it carried more of my essence. By infusing the stones, I could reuse them for years without having to recharge them with more blood. I’d prepared these stones before my journey. I had enough stones to ward a large building if necessary. I always used them for my unconscious nighttime protection. They lasted longer than any other type of ward.

I placed thirteen stones around us. Magic liked prime numbers. They were harder to break through because they didn’t fit a pattern. I liked the number thirteen because it was still considered unlucky even today. I was contrary that way.

“What are you doing?”

She couldn’t see exactly what I was doing through the foliage. “Walking the perimeter of our camp. I’m placing a ward of protection.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s something new I learned recently. It will keep us safe while we sleep.” New to her and new in the sense that I only started using it when I began my travels. If she were a human lie detector, she might detect the evasions. Luckily for me, that was a higher-level magic that no one possessed yet—not even me. When I finished laying out the stones, I charmed them with a complex protection charm, warding our camp to hide us completely to all senses. We could see and hear anyone or thing outside the circle, but they couldn’t see or hear us. The air we breathed in and out would come from the top of the ward and disperse our scent far above us. Made with my blood, I would feel if it failed. So far, this type of ward lasted from setup to takedown. I could make wards of just water, fire, air, or earth, but with no anchors like the stones, they didn’t last as long.

“You can go to sleep now. I’ll know if someone or something comes near. Remember, if you need to pee in the night, do it in the farthest corner. Don’t leave this clearing for any reason.”

“I’ll just rest my eyes a little,” she muttered and closed her eyes. She dropped into a deep sleep, as I’d hoped she would.

I pulled another blanket from my backpack and sat down near Tara. It was too early for me to sleep. The sun was low in the sky but hadn’t yet set. My own sleep would be lighter with short bursts of deep sleep, and I would be completely refreshed after four uninterrupted hours, meditating when I awoke. I only needed a longer sleep every few days.

I thought about my day’s adventures and then my immediate plans for the future.

I didn’t want to just hibernate on my own all winter. I wanted to stay around people. And I needed to find some kind of work so I could appear to afford shelter in town. I had access to money, but producing too much money without work would draw attention. I didn’t know what kind of job opportunities Wolf Trap held, but there must be something I could do. Although inexperienced, I had book knowledge and was a fast learner. I should be able to find employment to support us. My Jardvari would prefer I didn’t stay in any one place for long, but I couldn’t learn enough if I didn’t hang around. Rule number eight (Interact without engaging) was a stupid rule I always planned to disregard. Weren’t interact and engage synonyms? How could I do one without the other? I could surely do both, revealing nothing vital.

That was the plan for now. I couldn’t anticipate everything. I was making it up as I went along. I finally stilled my mind and went to sleep when dark fully descended.

I heard some animals approach our little camp during the night, but they steered around it and headed for the newly improved watering hole.

After gifting myself five hours of sleep, I sat up, crossed my legs, placed my hands face up on my knees, and began my morning meditations. I had hours until Tara awoke, considering how exhausted she’d been. Clearing my mind and reaching deep within myself was the only way to communicate successfully with magic. It was more approachable when I wasn’t reaching out trying to use it. Eventually, when I needed it, it would recognize me and come easily.

A couple hours after dawn, I stopped my meditation when I sensed Tara stir. I felt energized and rejuvenated. I always did after a long session. The magic felt closer to me, eager to be used. If I needed to do something huge with magic, I’d definitely do it right after a meditation session.

Once Tara was fully awake, I pulled two large blueberry and walnut muffins from my backpack. Many fruits were making a comeback. I had to be sure to choose fruit with which she was familiar.

“This is so good,” she mumbled around a mouthful of moist, sweet muffin.

“Muffins. Haven’t you had them before?”

“Not like this.”

“It’s an old recipe—modernized, of course. It’s sweetened with honey.”

“Honey. I love honey.” Of course she did. It was the only sweetener available these days besides the syrup from ripe fruit.

We finished our breakfast, drank more water from the pond, made sure our canteens were topped off, and left.

I’d already gathered my stones when Tara was finding a place to pee and then wash her face. I stowed the blankets, too. I’d also swept her clothes and person with a gentle cleaning charm before she awoke. She probably wouldn’t even realize her hair was cleaner now than when she went to bed. That had been a tricky charm to perfect. I had to work on making it gentle and remove only dirt, sweat, stains, and dead skin cells without taking other things—important things like living skin, hair, and nails, or the dye of the material. But it was worth it. I could manage without enough water to clean myself for a long time.

We headed northwest toward Wolf Trap. We carefully crossed the main road after two miles of walking. There were no significant heat signatures nearby. I estimated we had about ten miles to go. We should reach Wolf Trap in the afternoon at yesterday’s pace. That would give me time to look around and get the lay of the land before finding a place to sleep for the night.

I’d allowed the awareness charm to relax, except for our immediate surroundings, as I fought the jungle, the downside of not taking the main road. At some points, I could have used a machete, but instead used magic to hold back branches and make a path. It was still intense work.

I was as startled as Tara when we heard a voice calling for help.

Sending my awareness out with a charm, I sensed one human adult-sized stationary heat source. They were close enough that it was curious I hadn’t sensed them before. A weak, sick, sleeping, or hurt person gave off fainter heat signatures, but they were lively now. This could be my second rescue in two days. I wondered who or what I would find this time.

“It doesn’t sound like a kid,” Tara whispered.

“No. It sounds like a grown man,” I agreed.

“Is it a trick?”

“Good question. I don’t know. Follow me quietly and we’ll find out.”

I used my quiet charm for us both, though it wasn’t as necessary for Tara. Being a shifter and predator, Tara was naturally a quiet walker.

The call was intermittent. We stopped and started reflexively whenever we heard it. My senses were on high alert now, and the only person I sensed was ahead of us. When at last I thought we were almost on top of the sound, we’d come to an enormous tree with a wide canopy. Fallen leaves were layered beneath its branches. I scanned the ground but saw no traps.

We crept around to the other side and there he was. We came fully around when I thought it was safe, giving the tree a wide berth, and stood to see a man hanging by one ankle about eight feet off the ground.

He had his other leg resting across the caught leg. His arms were crossed over his chest. His long silver hair hung straight down. His silver beard was braided and fell over his left ear. His eyes were closed. On the ground below him were a bedroll, a backpack, and a knife. He looked like the picture of the hanged man on the old tarot card of the same name.

As we silently approached, he inhaled a breath and called in a long, loud voice, “Help!”

“How did you get caught in that trap?” I asked when he closed his mouth once more.

His eyes flew open. They were an unusual silvery-blue shade. He looked around sharply for a clear view of who was standing around him. He seemed to relax a little when his eyes returned to just the two of us. “Mornin’, ladies. I hope you can help me.” His upside-down smile looked benign, not angry. His teeth looked clean and very white. I would have expected bad teeth from an old man in old, rough clothes. From this angle, I assumed he was old by the color of his hair and wrinkles around his eyes.

“Shifters don’t need snares like that for prey. How and why did you get caught?”

“It’s a trap for a human right enough. I don’t know what it’s doin’ here. There ain’t nothin’ here to protect. I was travelin’ last night. I do a lot of my travelin’ after dark. It’s cooler. I got pretty good eyesight, but not good enough to see a well-set trap like this in the dark. It’s hard talkin’ upside down. Would you mind gettin’ me down now?”

I looked at the tree. There weren’t any low-hanging branches, but I could see that someone had carved hand- and footholds in the bark. I could shimmy up there and release him without using obvious magic. I went over, picked up his knife, and put it in the sheath with my own.

“Tara, open that bedroll and place it under him. That might help soften his fall. I’ll go up and cut the rope.”

I chanted a charm that would make my climb sure and successful. The climb was easy and probably would have been even without a charm, but I liked hedging my bets. I quickly reached the branch where the rope holding the man’s ankle was tied. I took out his knife and sawed the rope.

“Better protect your head. This won’t take long, but you could break your neck in the fall,” I called down.

He wrapped his arms tightly around his neck and head.

“Any second now,” I called down as I began to saw the last half. I didn’t have to cut it completely before the rope gave under the man’s weight and dropped him solidly on the bedroll Tara had spread beneath him.

He rolled onto his side and kicked his legs out and in again and again. “Ow! Ow!” he groaned.

“Pins and needles?” Tara asked.

“More like knives and more knives,” he groaned, continuing to move his legs to bring back the circulation.

I quickly climbed back down the tree. I went to Tara and put my arm in front of her to back us up even more from the man. Just because he’d been unwittingly caught in a trap didn’t mean he didn’t deserve to be. I wouldn’t take any chances that he wouldn’t suddenly jump up and attack us. I had the knife he’d dropped, but he could have other weapons, or he could shift.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“The name’s Qzyx. I’m what you might call a scavenger. I sell the stuff I find in abandoned old towns to new towns. I don’t steal from folks. I just scavenge in the forgotten places. I won’t hurt you. I don’t hurt people lessin’ they hurt me first.”

“Qzyx? That’s an unusual name. Is it a nickname or your real name?”

“Mebbe. That was a long time ago. I don’t remember that far back.” He sat up and tentatively stretched his legs fully out, continuing to move them back and forth while he freed himself from the rope still tied to his ankle.

I breathed in the air around him. I couldn’t smell anything but sweat and urine.

“What kind of shifter are you?”

“Same answer. It’s been a long time. I don’t rightly remember.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, but he just looked innocently at me with those strangely silverish eyes.

“How can you not remember?”

“Mebbe I ain’t shifted in so long the memory don’t come so easy anymore.”

That was an excellent nonanswer. This old man was slippery. I moved on.

“What are you doing out here? You’re too close to a settlement to scavenge.”

“Yessum. That’s right. I’ve got a few things to trade.”

“What do you trade for?”

“Room and board for some days. Clothes. Campin’ supplies. I stay ’til my money’s gone, then head back out.”

“That’s not much of a life—and it’s probably dangerous.”

“I’m careful. Don’t usually fall for this kind of trap. I must be gettin’ old.”

“How old are you?”

He scratched his head. His silver hair looked clean, even if the rest of him appeared a little grungy.

“That there is another thing I don’t right remember. When the days get shorter, I come into town. I can see my hair’s turned gray by its color, but I don’t look in mirrors. I don’t shave when I’m travelin’. I don’t use any count of days when I work. Just notice the change in weather.”

“It looks silver, not gray,” Tara said admiringly. “It’s a pretty color.”

“Is that so? That’s still an old color. Say, since you two saved me, you deserve a reward. I’ve got just the thing.” He scooted over and reached for his backpack.

I backed Tara and me up a few more feet, just in case. “I don’t need anything. I would have done it for anyone.” Maybe.

He rifled through his bag. “I found some good stuff this last time. Mebbe the little lady would like a reward. What would you like? A ring? A bracelet? A necklace?” He pulled out two handfuls of jewelry. “Ladies like a bit of sparkle. I’ll be able to rest for weeks on this stuff.”

He sorted through his booty and pulled out a thin gold chain. At the end was a gold filigree butterfly.

“How did you get it so polished? It must have been considerably tarnished after more than a hundred years of neglect.” I held on to Tara. The shine mesmerized her.

“I have my ways. I been doin’ this a long time. When I get this kinda stuff, I take it to the Wolves. The Wolves are more generous than the Cats. Here, you can have this one. It ain’t got a stone. The Wolves like the pretty stones.” He held out the butterfly necklace.

When we didn’t rush over to take it, he tossed it toward us. Tara reached forward and grabbed it before it hit the ground.

“Are you sure you don’t want somethin’, too? I got a pretty little bracelet you might like,” he offered. He sounded very much like a salesman trying to make a deal. I didn’t understand why it would be important to him for us to take something.

“Why would you give us something of value you could sell for more supplies?”

“You did save my life. I like to pay my debts.”

“There’s no debt involved. You are free to go where you will.” As I said that, I helped Tara put on the necklace and watched her admire it around her neck. It was long enough that she could hold it out and still get a glimpse. She might never have seen any jewelry in her life. It wasn’t made anymore, just found. There weren’t enough people in the world to need jewelers yet. Only practical skills were needed today. There wasn’t enough leisure time for the arts.

“Keep that under your shirt, Tara. We don’t want to attract thieves,” I warned.

She gave a disappointed sigh and hid the necklace.

I picked up my backpack prepared to leave.

“Where are you two ladies headed?”

“To the nearest Wolf town.” There was no point in hiding it. It was the only settlement in the direction we were headed.

“Wolf Trap. I’ll come with you if you don’t mind.” He stood up and began gathering his possessions.

“Are you sure you can walk?”

He wiggled one leg, then the other. “They’re good to go.”

“We have nothing to steal.”

He turned his silvery eyes on me, made a sad face, and sighed. “I told you I don’t steal. I scavenge. I also don’t murder, kidnap, rape, or torture. I can be a good friend or a better enemy. I just thought you wouldn’t mind a little company. I can tell you stories of my adventures.”

“Stories?” Tara looked at me hopefully.

It was my turn to sigh. “Fine. But I’m watching you.”

“Who could mind bein’ watched by a pretty girl?” He grinned and fell into step with Tara while I walked behind.

He was an odd mixture. He seemed to be just what he appeared—a scrappy old man—but I thought he’d already lied to me. Who couldn’t remember their real name? Who couldn’t remember the animal they used to shift to? I didn’t realize you could lose the ability to shift.

Were some people losing their magic? That shouldn’t happen. Was he another anomaly? If he’d lost his shifting ability, did he know other magic?

He was amusing Tara. He was an excellent storyteller. She was talking to him, asking questions and responding happily to his over-the-top tales, and forgetting her own sad story.

I continued to watch him but relaxed my pondering about him and his motivations. He was just a temporary companion. Nothing more. I wasn’t collecting him. And we’d be shed of him once we reached Wolf Trap.

Chapter 3

Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

Iestimated we were about an hour away from Wolf Trap when I called a halt to our leisurely pace. It was a little after noon. I didn’t want to arrive tired and hungry. I wanted my wits about me when I faced a town full of Wolves and other Canidae shifters.

“Why’re we stoppin’? Wolf Trap’s not far now,” Qzyx asked, puzzled.

“Let’s rest a little and eat. We can finish the supplies I’m carrying.” I reached into my backpack and pulled out bread and cheese. I had plenty to go around. Tara still didn’t question the way I pulled whatever I needed out of my backpack. The questions would come once she felt more secure.

There wasn’t a convenient stream nearby, but we had our canteens. Qzyx had a waterskin. Primitive ones were usually made of animal skin or bladders. I must have made a grimace of distaste because he immediately defended himself.

“It’s not animal skin. It’s some kind of old-world material. I found it in one of the old-world towns,” he explained.

“I’m surprised you find anything intact. I would think time, weather, and bacteria ate most things up.”

“Not so. You’d be surprised what I can find that’s still useful. A lotta people didn’t just leave their homes willy-nilly. They stored their stuff with care. It’s just a matter of findin’ it.”

“Interesting.” I would have thought everything would have been scavenged a long time ago before the heat drove people to the Poles. The towns existing now were of fairly recent vintage. Ruined, abandoned cities were a better source of reusable resources than the far northern or southern areas, which had previously been covered in ice. The Great Warming didn’t happen overnight. It took centuries. But during the last few decades before it peaked, it accelerated and ravaged the most populous areas with heat, drought, and rising oceans. Heat, hunger, stubbornness, and fear killed off much of the population. Survival at all costs killed off more. It was a terrible time for all living creatures.

He grinned. “Yeah, and lucky for me.”

After a few minutes filled mostly with the sounds of chewing, Qzyx asked, “Tara told me her name. What’s yours?”

“Rain.”

“No last name like me?”

“Dare. Rain Dare.”

“That sounds like reindeer,” he remarked thoughtfully, with an arch of one eyebrow.

Tara giggled.

I sighed. “So, I’ve been told. I didn’t expect anyone to know about reindeer when I chose it.”

“You made fun of my name, but yours ain’t real neither?”

“I chose my last name, not my first. I picked a last name from history that I liked.”

He nodded his head. “Virginia Dare and the lost colony.”

“How do you know that?”