The boat rocked as I moved over a little.

Krift watched me, but didn’t complain as I peered over the side of the boat.

I only saw the bottom of the river we floated down. Just barely I could make out the clear water’s surface. And only because of how it reflected the dark red wood of the boat.

Running my hand along the edge of the red wood, I wondered why it felt so…

“Is it really wood?” I asked.

“You watched me pull this off the tree,” Krift said, annoyed I still doubted it.

Sitting across from me, I gently smiled at his glare. He himself wasn’t sure this was wood. But he didn’t care to call it anything else.

Although it was acting as our boat… it had just been something wrapped around a large tree. Very similar to bark.

Krift had chipped away at the bark, straight down the large trunk, and then had pulled it off the tree. The result was… well…

Glancing to the edges of the river we floated upon, I studied the trees we were passing. Many of them had the same bark wrapped around them. But it was hard to find one as… covered, as the one Krift had got our boat from. Most looked too small, or thin, to work as good as one would need for a boat.

Oddly, even though it been right next to the river… almost as if it had been waiting for us, when we came upon the river. This fit perfectly for our needs.

As if Krift had known which tree had the bark necessary for his task. To use as a boat… or…

“It’s more of a canoe than a boat,” I said honestly.

The shape worked, in all honesty. The ends were tilted upward just enough to not let water in. And the sides were rounded well enough to allow one to rock a little without listing into the water. The thing floated fine, and didn’t leak. Plus it didn’t rock much, even when I moved around.

We were floating down the river swiftly. Faster than we had been walking, but not too fast that it was making me worried.

Only real problem was there wasn’t much room for us to sit. Krift had put our packs in the center of the floating bark boat, and we sat on opposite sides of them. Across from one another.

The packs took up more room than we did.

“Feels like leather. Tanned leather,” I added.

“Wood. Not wood. Boat. Not a boat. Make up your mind,” Krift said.

“Fine. I’ll ask about the water. Why’s it so clear?” I asked, retuning my attention to it.

There were… odd things on the bottom of the river. Wiggly things. Insect looking creatures. Grass that didn’t sway with the water, even though everything else did.

Things I didn’t want to really touch.

“It just is. It’s clean water, however. We could drink it even,” Krift said. He sounded glad I had changed my focus.

“Oh. Good. I actually like the sound of that,” I said. If we could drink it, then maybe it wasn’t as dangerous as I had feared.

“It is safe, Mint. At least outside of storms,” Krift said.

With his comment, I looked away from a… snake, which had swum past.

“Storms. What are those, exactly?” I asked.

“Just as they sound. Storms. Wild winds, heavy rain, thunder and lightning,” Krift said.

“Lena said people die in them.”

“They do. Even I can, in the wrong one,” Krift said.

“You mean the bad ones.”

“I mean the bad ones.” He nodded.

Tapping the edge of the boat, I glanced down the river. To where we were headed.

The river looked as if it was growing… larger. Wider. Deeper. But not too far from us, was a bend. The river turned to the left.

“How long will we… ride this river?” I asked.

“Most the day,” Krift said.

“What if we run into one of those… storms, you talk of?” I asked. Krift hadn’t made a paddle, or had anything he could use to guide this boat. As far as I could tell, the only way we’d be able to get off the boat was for Krift and I to actually get out of it and swim to shore.

“We won’t. I can smell them, if we draw close to one. Though there is a good chance we’ll encounter one before our journey is over. It’s rare for me to cross the Rift and not run into at least a small storm,” he said.

“Oh… they’re that common?” I asked.

He nodded. “The smaller ones are. The larger… more dangerous ones, luckily, are not. But I’ll keep you clear of those. At least, I’ll try,” he said.

“Do they stink? The storms? Or do they smell like the storms I know of? Of rain?” I asked another question.

“Similar. Some of them, at least. Most to me smell… well, odd. One smells like burnt hair. Another’s smell reminds me of a certain fish, found in the Lands of Power. It stinks when cooked in steam. There’s also a bad one that smells like a woman’s perfume,” he said.

For a few moments I soaked up his information. As always, not just detailed… but…

“Will I be able to smell them? Being not a riftborn, and all?”

“No. You might notice an odd smell, but won’t smell something as unique as I. Or well, maybe? I shouldn’t say that until it happens,” he said.

“Hm.”

Something splashed behind me, so I turned to look at it.

A small fish emerged from the water, flapping little shinny… wings wildly.

It fell back into the water, swimming away.

Watching it jump again, a ways down the river, I wondered if it was… trying to fly.

It sure did look like it.

Yet it wasn’t able. It fell back into the river, without any obvious success. Not even in gliding.

Still…

Not too long later, even though it was now just a small speck in the distance, I saw it jump out into the air again. Its shiny wings glimmering as they tried their best.

The sight was… astonishing. Mystifying.

A small fish.

Trying to fly.

Krift shifted. Ever so slightly. All he did was lean back a tad, putting his right arm up onto the side of the boat.

He looked relaxed. Comfortable.

Safe.

Rather, he looked as if he owned this river.

Maybe in a certain way, he did.

Looking back to the river, I found nothing within it. The plants and creatures that had been on the bottom, were now gone.

We seemed to have floated to a dead area.

Which made it a little boring. The water was impossibly clear, so I couldn’t watch the water itself… and the bottom of the river was just grimy looking rocks…

I couldn’t even see my reflection, thanks to how the water was.

The world around us wasn’t that interesting either. The trees had been neat, at first, with their weird… bark, but I had been looking at them since not long after waking this morning.

We hadn’t walked too far from where we had rested last night, before reaching this river. Maybe an hour at most.

The sky was clear… a large sun loomed in the center. Moving unnoticeably slow.

“What’s wrong?” Krift asked.

“I just… feel like there should be something else. Something odd, or weird, yet… it all seems normal. Calm and normal,” I said honestly.

“What do you want to happen?” he asked, amused.

“Nothing dangerous, of course. I just… I don’t know… expected to see something weird in the water. Or maybe around us. Why are we floating down the river, instead of just walking? Sure it’s not as tiresome, but…” I shrugged, unsure of what else to say.

“Because it’s faster. Here soon we’ll reach a large lake. It’s a lot faster to cross it this way, than walk around it,” he said.

“Uh… Eh?” I started to ask a question, but Krift shook his head in annoyance. “Sorry,” I said, realizing I had done it again. I was trying so hard not to.

“There usually isn’t anything too dangerous in these waters, too. But that’s because of something you’ll see soon. Those will interest you. Just wait until then,” Krift said, ignoring both my tic and the apology of it.

I liked the sound of that, and nodded.

“Also, after this… well… I guess we could take the caves. You’d probably like those,” Krift said, going into thought.

“Caves?”

He nodded, raising his left hand and twirling a finger. “A labyrinth really. Probably for the best. It’s very safe, although cold,” he said.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I’ve noticed the Rift is a little cold…”

“It’s not. But you’ll grow colder and weaker as time goes on, all the same,” Krift said.

“Oh… wait what?”

He nodded, his right finger tapping the edge of the boat. “Humans and powers both. Over time in the Rift you’ll get… sickly. It’s why you feel cold, even though it isn’t. Not that the Rift doesn’t, or cant, get cold.”

“You’re kidding…”

“You’ll be fine. We’ll be out of the Rift, and into the Lands of Power, long before it becomes an issue. You’d have to spend months in here, to really get sick. And that sickness would fade immediately once you left,” Krift explained.

“Why… why would we get sick? And you mean to say you don’t, do you?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed at me, but I refused to look away. Since after all this now concerned me too.

“I don’t know why. And you’re right, I don’t. I can stay here forever, if I wished,” he said.

We floated silently for a moment, and I wondered if I should… if I could ask.

“Go ahead,” Krift said firmly.

I gulped, sitting up straighter. His eyes dug into mine, somehow it was those dark pools that made me more unsure than even his cold words… and…

Wait…

“Your eyes are lighter,” I said, surprised.

He blinked twice.

“I could have sworn they were dark. Dark brown, or black,” I said.

“They are. Here in the Rift they’ll slowly change, until they become a light blue,” Krift said, still blinking a little more often than usual.

I smiled, and wondered just how that…

“Do my eyes change too? Or did they?”

“Yes. They’re the same color, but they now shine a little. Faintly. It’s not very apparent in the day, but at night it’s obvious,” Krift said.

“Wow… wish I could see,” I said, closing my eyes and touching them.

“There’s a small mirror in my pack. I’ll let you look later tonight,” he said.

“Really? Thank you!”

Excited, I remembered the mirror that had been in that store in RiftCliff.

That had been the first time I had ever seen such a clear reflection of myself.

Before that I had only seen my own reflection from that of water.

It’d be interesting to see not just my own eyes glow… but what I looked like now. Between the cut hair, and my recent experiences…

“And for your information, yes. If I spend too long outside the Rift… I do get sick,” Krift then said.

All of the excitement I just had died. And I was just barely able to look Krift in the eyes again.

He nodded, affirming what he said.

“Really…?” I asked.

“Really. It takes about two months, before I start to feel any different. Then I’ll progressively grow weaker. The longest I’ve gone is a year. I felt as if I was broken. Weak, cold, shivers, hard to breathe and sweating badly… I also couldn’t sleep,” he softly told me, and…

“I wish you hadn’t told me,” I whispered.

“You had thought of it,” he said.

“I also wish I didn’t think it,” I admitted.

He shrugged, and I wondered why he had told me such a thing.

It had obviously bothered him. He was now looking to his left, with a glare. As if there was suddenly something to glare at.

There wasn’t. Just the same trees were passing us by.

I’ve grown able to recognize that look upon him.

He had it when he revealed something he hadn’t wanted to.

He had it when I said or did something he hadn’t expected, or wanted.

But…

Was it really anger?

“Krift… I’m harmless,” I said gently.

His eyes slowly moved. Sliding away from the forest, to me. His head hadn’t moved.

I smiled, and was glad I was able to do so. Especially since I had started to shiver.

“No, Mintmorency. You are not,” he then said.

My smile faltered, but only a little. “Do you really think I could hurt you? Or that I’d even wish to?” I asked.

Krift sighed as his eyes left me… looking instead to his right hand. His thumb fidgeted a little, scraping the bark.

“There are more ways to harm someone, than just hurting them. Knowledge is more lethal to me than anything physical. Especially so, here in the Rift,” Krift said.

It didn’t take too long for me to understand what he meant. “You fear I’ll tell someone else. Someone who could use the knowledge against you,” I said.

He nodded.

“And nothing I say will ever comfort or change that fear. Since you can’t trust me,” I added.

“Do you trust me, Mint?” he asked.

I nodded. “I do.”

“Really?”

Another nod.

I wasn’t lying. I was relying on him with my life at stake. Literally.

And it wasn’t just blind trust either. He had proven himself already.

He had killed.

He had bled...

Staring at the still healing wound on his knuckle, I nodded again. “I really do, Krift.”

“Funny,” Krift said, smirking.

I didn’t like the way he smirked, or the tone he had used. As if he was accusing me… or…

“Your diary,” he then said.

My eyes blurred a little at the sudden change in conversation. Especially since it had gone so… drastically different, in topics.

“My diary?” I asked, wondering what he was saying.

He slowly nodded, sighing. “Your diary. Very plain. Rather small too,” he said.

“I’ve made it clear I was poor, I think,” I said.

“Yes. Poor. And yet, not stupid. Uneducated maybe. Unskilled, and unworldly… but not stupid,” he said.

For a long moment, as our little boat bobbed up and down in the water… I tried to understand what he was trying to say.

Was he implying something? Accusing? Threatening?

Asking…?

What did my diary have to do with my trust in him, or his in me?

I hadn’t written in it since my second to last night in RiftWarren. The night after me and my uncle had… our differences.

As much as I wanted to write in it, since then, I was scared to. For so much had happened, so drastically fast, that I was scared to admit that I was doing what I was doing.

“The leather. That your diary is made of. Do you know what it is?” he asked.

“The leather? No. Not at all,” I said.

Mother had helped me make it. When I was very young.

I barely remembered making it, at all.

Krift stared. And I could see he was… searching. Reading my expression. Which was a little rude, since if he’d just ask for what he wanted, I’d give it to him.

If I could.

“Did your mother give you your diary?” the Riftborn then asked.

“She helped me make it. We did it when I was young,” I said.

“Young. It isn’t large enough to hold decades,” he accused me.

“I don’t write in it often. I only do so when something… momentous happens. Like my mother’s death. Or the plague. Selling my home, and the night before we left for the Rift, for example,” I said.

“Hm…”

“What is it Krift? What are you trying to say? I don’t think you’ve read my diary, as far as I’m aware, but if you wish to you may do so. There’s nothing in it that’s strange,” I said.

I actually didn’t want him to, but if it’d get him to stop glaring at me like this whenever we spoke of a touchy subject…

“I don’t need to. The moment I felt that diary, was all I needed to understand,” Krift said.

“Felt?”

“The leather. It’s something you can only find in the Lands of Power,” he said.

“Is it?” I asked.

I hadn’t known. It hadn’t seemed too special. Nor felt odd…

“It’s skin, Mintmorency. The skin of a power, dried and tanned,” Krift then said.

A long moment passed as I absorbed his words… and before it fully set in, I shook my head.

“Impossible. My mother wouldn’t have done that,” I said sternly.

“Maybe, maybe not. But I know what it is, Mint.”

I took a few deep breaths before shaking my head again. “That’s… sickening. I don’t want to believe you,” I said.

“Before you get too angry, or upset, know that it’s not that strange in the Lands of Power,” Krift said.

“Not that strange…?” I didn’t like the sound of that at all. What did he mean not that strange?

“Although our kind cannot use magic, we make up for it in other ways. One of those ways is rather tough skin. Tough hide. When properly prepared. The leather made of our skin, can last a very… very long time. Far longer than normal leather,” Krift said.

“So… so what? Are you trying to tell me we farm and slaughter our own people, just to make leather?” I asked.

“What? No. Of course not. When a family member dies, occasionally, someone will take a small piece of their skin. Usually from the back. To make into something like what you have. It’s seen as a memento. Something to carry through the generations, that will last as long as the House or Family,” Krift explained.

A lot of his earlier anger, and glare, had disappeared. And I wondered if they were gone because he had bottled it up, or if he had found whatever he had been looking for.

Yet still, the lack of his anger hadn’t made my own disgust and sadness disappear. If anything, the topic of this conversation had only made me more upset.

“So… what are you saying? That my mother already had the book? Or carried skin with her?” I asked.

“Possibly.”

“Even… even if she did, I don’t see what that has to do with our conversation of trust. I hadn’t known anything about the diary. Or its meaning. My mother never taught me anything about our kind. She made it a point… The little I know came from bits and pieces she sometimes accidentally let me hear,” I said.

“There. Exactly,” Krift said, leaning forward.

The boat shook a little at his sudden movement, and some of the clear water splashed around us. Yet none got in the boat.

“What? That I didn’t know anything?” I asked.

My eyes were getting watery, and I was doing everything I could to not start crying.

“No… or well, that’s a part of it, yes… But the problem I have, is that you were taught nothing,” he said.

“And… that makes me untrustworthy?” I asked, saddened by the idea.

I had no control over what I knew or didn’t. No one had taught me. I never had the chance.

Was he going to hate me, or not trust me, over that?

“She didn’t break your horns,” Krift then said.

I blinked, and a small tear slid out of my right eye. Yet I didn’t let any more fall, as he lowered his eyes.

“She let you know that you were a power, in the first place,” Krift continued.

My fists clenched on my lap… and I hated how quickly I understood where he was going.

“Gave you a book. A diary, of all things, made of skin. An object that any power would recognize as a family heirloom, of any social level.”

With a wave, he gestured at me. “And to top it off, she instills in you the desire to go home? To return from whence you came? Why? Why send you, alone, into such danger? When you had been safe. Far enough away from the chaos that is magic, that you could have lived a long… simple, yes, but long life? Yet also gave you no guidance. No Crest. No name. No House. Not even a town to search. It makes no sense,” he nearly spat, shaking his head.

Krift sat back, once again rocking the boat. “You have two shadows, Mintmorency. One is a power, prideful and full of desire. Another is a human, hiding under the covers during a storm. You have too many contradictions. And not enough sense, for one with so much of it,” he said.

I had gained control over my emotions as he spoke, and was glad for it. I didn’t want to break in front of him.

Since I might not ever be able to get him to trust me again, if I did.

With a deep breath, I nodded. “You’re right.”

“Am I?”

My fingers trembled, as if cold. “You are. My… my mother did not want me to come. In fact she begged me, even as she died, to never try,” I said.

Krift’s eyes didn’t narrow, but they did seem to grow colder. Harsher.

He hadn’t liked what I had said.

And I could tell that wasn’t all he was upset about.

“Then why say otherwise?” he asked.

I opened my mouth to say, but couldn’t.

The words wouldn’t come… even though I wanted them to.

I had to.

If anyone deserved to know…

If anyone had a right to…

It was this man sitting across from me.

A man who was only asking such questions because he was concerned. Because he wanted to trust me, but couldn’t.

And he didn’t understand why.

Another tear suddenly slid down my face, but I didn’t reach to wipe it away.

I couldn’t say it.

Couldn’t even think it.

I’d break if I did.

My whole world would shatter.

After a moment, Krift nodded.

“And that, Mintmorency… Is why I cannot trust you.”