Half a month later, my sentiment had only gotten stronger. I would fight the world if it meant keeping Maya safe, and not think twice about it. The girl was precious as a gem, quiet and more patient than I imagined a five-year-old could be. A patience that Ren seemed determined to find the limits of, based on how often he messed with her.
But beyond the playful teasing, I couldn’t help but notice over the course of the weeks that he was very good at handling her. Much better than I was, much to my annoyance. Not that the girl needed much handling, but he was much quicker at catching and dealing with changes in her mood, and the few times she did cry – thanks to a minor fall and once because her legs hurt from walking – he was the one that managed to settle her down.
The way he dealt with her made my gut think he had experience with it, which I extrapolated to mean he must have had a younger sister at some point. Obviously, I mentioned none of my musings to the man himself since it wasn’t important, and I didn’t want to accidentally bring up something that he didn’t want to talk about. After all, he hadn’t mentioned a sister when he gave me a rough summary of his past, and I figured if he wanted to talk about her, he would.
And when I wasn’t busy trying to deduce Ren’s past, I was busy thinking of my own. Maya’s presence in my heart made me wonder if the way I felt was the way Ocean had felt about me.
And, as sweet as it would be to think that, I hoped it wasn’t. I’d only known Maya for a few weeks, and I was already as protective as I was. Ocean had known me at least since I was five, if not since I was born. Even though Ocean and I weren’t bound by blood, if she felt even half as strongly about me as I did about Maya, then the years we’d spent together would have been torture of the worst kind for her. After all, at least I had the strength and the freedom to protect Maya. Ocean had been as helpless as I was back then.
I realized at that point in my thinking that I did not like where I was going, and I did not want to think on it any further. So I stopped, locking away the idea in a box in my head, shelving it away for a future, stronger me to revisit.
Instead, I focused on the journey I was on, the product of the gift Ocean had given her life for. I focused on making sure Maya had as comfortable and fun of a trip as she could possibly have. I fought with a newfound intensity against the animals of the forest, making sure that not one could even get near the little girl.
And not one did. The trip was as smooth as escorting a five-year-old through a beast-filled forest could be. We spent our days walking and talking, Ren and I taking turns carrying Maya when she could no longer walk with us. We ate every meal properly, with a bonfire to sit around and cuts of meat in our hands. Ren and I were in no hurry to get to our destination, so we took as many detours as Maya wanted, indulging in her surprisingly deep thirst for exploration.
We had about half a month still, till we got to the first proper city – the furthest bastion of civilization in the forest we were in. From there, it was only a few weeks of travel to get to the city that housed Karmore. And since the entrance exam wasn’t until at least four months still, we were plenty ahead of schedule.
However, our detours with Maya ended up actually saving us time in the long run.
It happened about three weeks after we'd adopted Maya. We’d happened across a small little stream running across our path, and we’d stopped to take a little drink and refill our water flasks. The water was exceptionally clear, like liquid crystal cutting through the dirt of the ground, which was what had attracted us – or more specifically, Maya – to it in the first place. As I was busy filling up my flask, Maya, who was sat atop Ren’s shoulders at the time, spotted the distant sparkles of sunlight glinting through a waterfall.
Since waterfalls were always a pleasant sight to come across, one that even I hadn’t tired, despite having been in the forest for months at that point, we decided to go find the source. We walked upstream for a few minutes before we found a clearing that seemed to have stepped directly out of a painting.
The stream we’d been following originated from an absolutely stunning pool of bluer-than-blue water. The pool glittered in the sunlight, shining with a color that was beautiful beyond the limits of language. At the edge of the pool that we came out from was a small field of grass ringed by the verdant trees of the forest. At the other end was a four-meter-tall face of bluish stone, from which fell gently the waterfall the Maya had spotted.
The waterfall wasn’t very wide, only about a few meters across, and was very tame. It fell more like a curtain of water than anything else, an almost translucent veil that covered the cliff face.
Maya gasped loudly when we saw the waterfall, which was a strangely strong reaction from the usually quiet Maya. Though it made sense, I thought – the sight was truly one of the most beautiful I’d ever come across. But Maya quickly revealed why she reacted so strongly, and it had nothing to do with the beauty of the scene.
“This is it!” she exclaimed loudly from Ren’s shoulders, her little voice pitched higher than usual with excitement. “This is the Life-Elixir Pool!”
Ren and I looked at her in confusion. “The Life-Elixir Pool?” Ren asked. “What’s that?”
“This is the holy pool of my clan,” Maya explained, her tiny hands grabbing fistfuls of Ren’s hair as she stared at the water, her eyes glittering with reverie. “I’m not even allowed to be here. I can only come here once I’m old enough.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“This place is the Forest God’s gift to my people,” Maya said, her voice hushed with awe. “When we come of age, we go through a special holy ritual at this pool. My clan has guarded and worshiped this land for gender rations.”
A flash of confusion crossed over mine and Ren’s face at her last words, before we simultaneously decoded it to be her pronunciation for ‘generations.’
“It was given to my clan’s ant-cestor who settled down here,” she continued, her tone as if reciting from an oft-repeated legend. “It was given to repay the favor the Forest God owed him, because he healed her when she was poisoned in a great war. The forest was withering away when he first came here, the animals and plants dying as the poison spread everywhere. But my ant-cestor was a great healer, and he knew lots of stuff about medicine. He saved the forest using his medicines, and before long, the forest became healthy and alive again. And so, to thank him for his effort, the Forest God gave him a home hidden away within the forest, to protect him from the enemies he was running away from. And she also gifted him this pool, so that he and his people could grow strong and continue to protect the forest forever.”
A smile stretched over my face as the legend concluded. “That was a beautiful story, Maya,” I said.
Maya nodded, her face taking on a severe tint again. “It is. This place is very important to me and my clan. But something is wrong with it. Something happened – they didn’t tell me what – but something bad happened last year, when they took the kids for their ceremony. And I heard my mom and dad worrying that the ceremony might not happen this year.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound good,” Ren said.
Maya nodded again. “It’s terrible. The coming of age ceremony has happened every year since my ant-cestor settled down here. Who knows what will happen if we break the tradition.” Maya’s voice was heavy with warning, as if even mentioning the breaking of the tradition might bring upon us divine wrath.
“Wait!” Maya said suddenly, her eyes lightening up as an idea struck her. “You guys are strong, right? I bet you guys can fix the problem!” Her excitement dimmed then as she looked at the both of us again. “You guys will help, right?” she asked, her voice quieter.
Ren and I smiled wryly at her hopeful look. “We’d love to,” I answered the little girl, “but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to. We aren’t all that strong, to be honest.”
Maya shook her head seriously at that. “No, no, you guys are strong. Much stronger than the kids your age in my village. I think only the Clan Elders would be able to match you in a fight.”
“Oh? Well, if it’s anything we can help out with,” I said, “we’ll do our best to do so.”
“But we have to find your village first,” Ren cut in, “before we can help anybody, don’t we?”
Maya smiled at that. “Well, that’s fine too. Because I know the way home from here.”
Both Ren and I were shocked at that. “Really? But I thought you’d never been here?” Ren asked.
Maya grinned sheepishly at that. “Well, I said I’m not allowed to be here. That doesn’t mean I’ve never been here.”
Ren gasped in mock disappointment. “Maya! You little rebel!”
Maya giggled from atop Ren’s shoulders. “It’s fiiine…probably. Everyone goes to the pool at least once before they’re supposed to.” She thought for a moment then, rethinking her statement. “Well, that’s what the older kids who took me said, anyway.”
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Ren tut-tutted at the little girl, and I had to stifle a laugh at her reaction.
“Anyway,” I cut in then, “it’s actually good that you’ve been here before. Are you sure that you can remember the way back, though?”
Maya nodded with confidence. “Yes. Definitely. You just have to follow the right stream, and it’ll take you right to the cave.”
“Alright! That’ll save us a whole buncha time.” I looked up then, gauging the time we had left till sundown. “We’ve still got a solid few hours of daylight left, so we might even be able to make it today.” After all, if it was a trip Maya could make with a bunch of kids, there was little chance for it to be more distance than we could cover in a day.
Maya and Ren nodded in agreement, but when I made to leave, Ren gently dropped Maya from his shoulders and handed her to me. “I just wanna check something really quick,” he said. “You guys go on; I’ll find you in a minute.”
I looked at him for a brief second before shrugging and taking the little girl off his hands. I’d learnt by that point not to be too curious when it came to Ren, so I simply sat Maya on top of my shoulder and asked her with a smile, “You wanna see if we can make it to the village before Ren catches up to us?”
Maya matched my grin with her own and nodded her head. In response, I darted back into the forest, holding onto Maya’s hands tightly as I followed the little stream she’d pointed out for me. The wind whipped against our clothes and hair as I dashed through the woods, dodging branches and leaping over roots and rocks on the ground. With the many months of forest-living experience I had under my belt, I’d become quite good at navigating the woods, even at a full-throttle run.
Maya screamed in delight at the sudden speed, and the sound warmed my heart. I kept up the run for a good while, my stamina and speed both far beyond what the average human would have been capable of. And it felt good to pump my legs without restraint for once, pushing my Flux-enhanced muscles to their limits.
But even with my enhancements, I eventually had to stop as my legs burned with exertion, my breathing ragged as I slowed myself to a walk. I’d covered a good distance, and by Maya’s estimation, we weren’t far from her home. So I dropped my speed down to a leisurely pace, wanting to give Ren time to catch up before we found the village.
Maya and I chatted casually in the meanwhile, and I could see the change in her demeanor as we neared her village. She became much more talkative than before, regaining more of the childlike qualities I’d have expected from a girl her age. It made sense, I supposed, when I thought about it. She’d almost certainly have died, after all, if Ren hadn’t happened across her in the forest when he had. And a girl as smart as her would know that. Even after we’d taken her in, she was still in a terrifying place for a little girl to be in. She’d admitted herself that the time she'd spent with us had been the longest she’d ever been away from her family.
It was strangely healing, in a way I hadn’t expected and couldn’t quite explain, being able to return this girl to her rightful childhood.
Ren caught up to us not long after I’d stopped running. He was a little haggard and out of breath, though he covered it up well. At first glance, he looked perfectly fine, as if he’d only taken a little stroll to get to us, but knowing him as well as I did, it was impossible for him to hide it from me.
I gave him a knowing grin as he appeared, one that he pointedly ignored by turning to Maya and asking, “By the way, should there be blood in your guys’ holy pool?”
Maya seemed shocked that he would ask that. She shook her head vehemently. “No no, not at all.” Putting her pointer finger up, she closed her eyes and recited, “The blood of no being, be it human, beast, or plant, shall be spilt upon the land of the Life-Elixir Pool.” Opening her eyes again, she looked at Ren. “That’s one of our rules, and no one from our village would ever break that.”
Ren nodded as if he’d more or less expected that answer. “Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but somebody’s broken that rule. Someone’s been dumping blood into the pool. There’s a bunch of it gathering at the bottom.”
Maya gasped in shock. “Oh no! That’s horrible! It’s definitely not anyone from our village, which means someone else must have found our pool! We have to let the Elders know right away! Let’s go!”
Ren and I nodded before continuing on our way, kicking up the pace into a higher gear. Before long, we broke out of the tree line into another clearing, not unlike the one where the holy pool sat. Except the pool that the stream fed into wasn’t nearly as mystical in appearance, and instead of a waterfall on the opposite end, there was a dark cave burrowing into the rock face.
The cave entrance was quite big, easily twice my height and almost the same in width. The inside of it was dark, so I couldn’t see far into it, but Maya gasped in delight when she saw the place.
“This is it!” she exclaimed. “We’re home!”
I smiled at her excitement, glad that we’d made it without any hitches for once. That seemed to be a rare occurrence in my life.
“Wait, you guys live in a cave?” Ren asked when he saw Maya directing me to the cave.
Maya nodded. “Well…kind of. You’ll see.”
“Ooh,” Ren said, “mysterious.”
Maya smiled at that, but didn’t say anything else.
There was no way to get into the cave without crossing the water, and I was hesitant to do that at first, but Maya assured me that the water was in no way special to them. With her assurance, Ren and I waded through the shallow pool and stepped into the dark, damp cave. I lit a fireball in my hand to light our way, and we walked for quite a while into the surprisingly deep cave. I wasn’t totally sure, given the overwhelming darkness and the strange, disorienting air of the tunnel, but I had a feeling that we were descending – though if we were, the slant was so subtle I couldn’t be certain. Aside from that, the tunnel was entirely unchanging, almost unnaturally so – at least, until we came up on a sudden dead end.
The jumble of boulders, dirt, and debris told me that it was likely a cave-in, and it had jammed the cave tight. I let Maya down from my shoulders and approached the wall, waving my fireball around to see if there was any other way around, but there was nothing. It was sealed tight, and there were no other turns we could use.
“Oh no,” I said finally as I completed my search. “I’m so sorry, Maya.”
But, surprisingly, Maya did not seem nearly as crestfallen as I’d expected her to be. Instead, she was grinning ear to ear in delight and anticipation, and Ren seemed utterly confused by the entire situation, which I found almost even more strange. I’d imagined he’d show some kind of pity for the little girl.
Not that she needed it, though. “Oh, you guys are gonna love this part,” Maya said with a knowing smile, not seeming dismayed at the blockage in the least.
With the confidence and swagger only a five-year-old could display, Maya walked right up to the rock and dirt wall of the cave-in and, with a grin thrown back our way, stepped forward into what should have been solid matter.
Instead, the rock gave in without the slightest resistance, only rippling slightly as Maya’s foot was swallowed into it. The rest of her body followed immediately after, and within the second, the little girl had completely vanished into the rock, as if she’d never been there at all.
I spent a long moment in shell-shocked silence, my composure shaken, even after having been tempered by things far stranger than a little girl vanishing into a wall. I kept staring at the wall, while Ren simply studied me curiously from the side, until Maya’s face popped back out. “Are you guys gonna follow me or not?” she asked, a mischievous grin on her face.
It made a truly strange sight, the image of an adorable face seemingly growing out of a lump of rock and dirt, but I eventually shrugged it off and stepped forward. There was a surreal moment as I stepped into what my brain assured me with complete confidence was a solid wall, only to find my foot meeting no resistance. The disconnect between what my eyes were seeing and reality was a strange thing to process.
Still, ultimately, I made my way through the wall and found myself on the other side, standing in an identical cave hallway as the one I’d just been standing in. Just a bit further, only about a hundred meters or so, I could make out the light of an exit to the dark tunnel.
Turning around, I found myself facing a slightly distorted image of Ren, who seemed to have taken the situation with an astonishing amount of composure. He seemed far too relaxed for how strange the situation was, even for someone of his laidback character.
As Maya and I watched him from the shimmering, transparent barrier that separated us, he seemed to be studying the step before him with only the mildest of curiosities, as if it really wasn’t something special that his two companions had vanished into rock right in front of him. Even Maya seemed disappointed with his lacklustre reaction to the experience.
However, his shocking composure and utter lack of reaction were explained the second he opened his mouth. “What are you guys seeing?” he asked finally, his voice only slightly distorted by the barrier.
After a moment of confused hesitation, I answered, “From here, I can see you through some kind of weird, transparent barrier.”
“And on the other side?” he asked.
“It’s a cave-in,” I answered. “Is that not what you see?”
Ren shook his head, an intrigued smile stretching on his face. “Interesting. That's not what I see.”
“Really?” I asked. “What are you seeing?”
“All I can sense is a weird, thin film of Flux in front of me. But it’s odd, because I can’t sense anything behind it. It’s blocking my Flux Sense somehow. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like it. ”
“Uh,” I said. “Interesting indeed. I guess it's some kind of visual trick only, then.”
“Wow,” Maya said, “I didn’t even know that.”
“Speaking of which, what even is this, Maya? And how does it work?” I asked.
Maya shrugged. “I don’t really know. I just know that it’s here to protect us, and that it's been here since we started living in this forest. They say it was placed by the Forest God herself. It’s meant to stop our enemies from finding our camp, and I’ve heard, in an emergency, we can even harden the illusion into a solid thing that can block off the entrance.”
“Wow,” Ren and I said in unison as Maya explained a little about the illusion. “Guess there really is a lot more about Flux that we still don't know, huh,” Ren said as he made his way over to the other side of the barrier, seemingly done with his inspection.
“It’s one thing to hear people say that, and it’s another to actually see a super real illusion that can, apparently, even turn real,” I agreed.
“Anyway,” Maya cut in, already bored of our amazement with the phenomenon, “let’s get going. I can almost smell home, and I don’t want to wait another second.” With a huff of impatience, the moody little girl began to make her way down the hall.
Ren and I chuckled at each other for a moment before jogging up to the girl. “Alright, alright, let’s get you home, huh?” I asked the girl with a smile. “I’m sure your family’s been worried sick about you.”