Hector woke to the noon sun in his face. He sat up on the park bench, working his mouth in an attempt to scare up some moisture. Sweat glistened over his skin, drawn forth by the heat of the day. His uncomfortable sleep had left him with a headache and he was without a doubt dehydrated by the hike and sleeping exposed to the elements.
Knowing it would be a two hour hike back to his car, Hector swore at himself for being an idiot and began making his return trip. It took less than two hours since his path back took him downhill more often than not, but the constant steps down caused both knees to grow achy. Hector scowled at the reminder of his age. As much as he defied the aging process through his lifestyle, his joints were always ready to expose the lie he told himself. They worked perfectly well until he did slightly more than they could handle, then it felt like someone had embedded shards of glass under his kneecaps.
The trip also exacerbated his thirst to insane levels. Hector found himself pondering the water of a nearby stream and it took a considerable act of will to resist the urge to sake his thirst. So his mood was at a low when he emerged into the parking lot to discover another car parked next to his own, a pale woman wearing black lipstick sitting in between the vehicles on a folding camp seat with an umbrella shading her from the sun.
As he approached, the woman looked up from a book in her lap. “It’s about time, Hector. I’ve been waiting over an hour for you.” She pulled her feet off of a cooler that he hadn’t noticed before. “Help yourself to a bottle of ice cold water.”
Hector blinked at her. “Do I know you?”
“I was at your father’s funeral yesterday.”
Hector considered that. “And how is it you are waiting for me today?”
The girl tapped her temple. “It’s an Arahant thing. I knew you would be thirsty when you came out of the woods.”
Which did not answer his question. Hector decided to check the interior of the cooler before commenting on that fact. It was full of bottles of water submerged in ice. Hector seized one, twisted off the cap, and gulped down the entire contents without taking a breath. When he lowered it from his mouth, he saw the girl holding another out to him. “One isn’t enough if you don’t want to go to the hospital for dehydration.”
Hector took the offered bottle and repeated his chugging demonstration. “How did you know I would need water?”
“I’m an Arahant. My dream girl gave me a true insight into possibility and I built a realm based on that. The idea was to use glimpses of the future to win at gambling, but that hasn’t worked out the way I expected. The way the ability works is I get brief flashes of experiences from potential future versions of myself. It takes a while to get myself in the right frame of mind for the technique and then I don’t even know if the potential futures I see are actually going to happen or not.”
Hector picked up another water and held it to the back of his neck to help cool down his body. “Who are you?”
“Evelyn. Not really my style,” she gestured to her goth attire, “but it’s a family name so can’t change it without giving the middle finger to dear old grandma. My friends from school called me Elfie because I’m skinny and tall and pale as fuck. In the all girl metal band I play with I go by the stage name Evie Tricks.”
Hector stared at the girl in confusion as she rambled. “You’re in a metal band?”
“Founding member and lead guitar. We’re terrible, but it’s a lot of fun, so why not?”
“I don’t see how any of this relates to you being here.”
Evelyn winked at him. “No need to rush, big man. I’m getting there. See, my Arahant power isn’t very strong yet and it is useless for a lot of things. The further I look into the future, the less reliable things become generally. There are too many variables and things just randomly change from one glimpse to the next. Except for one thing.” Evelyn leaned forward. “Monsters. There are going to be monster invasions happening on Earth, Hector.”
Hector stared at the girl. “Like in the dreams?”
“Exactly like what happened to the world of Aes that made the Orisha and Titans extinct.”
He had wondered on occasion if armies of Xian would descend upon Earth, but Hector had never thought about the monsters. “Like dragons?”
“Dragons are a different category of creature. Monsters are amorphous blobs of chaos that use resonance to take on the forms of different things from the real world. Usually animals. Think giant scorpions or snakes. They’re bad news for humans anywhere. In my visions, Earth does not do a very good job defending itself.”
“I’m sorry, but how does any of this lead to you being here?”
Evelyn sat up straighter. “Because I’ve been searching the future for signs of hope. I’ve seen some people who are effective at fighting the monsters. There’s the one I call Drone Lady. She drops bombs on monsters with machines. Then there’s Boxing Idiot. He wrecks monsters with punches like something straight out of anime before he gets killed – because you don’t run up and punch spiders taller than you. A few others. But I only see flashes, so I have no idea how to find these people.
“Except you. I heard someone say ‘Hector Thoreaux’. At first I thought it was like ‘Hector is thorough’, but then I looked up the name Hector online. It’s not that common, so the first page of results had Hector Thoreaux listed as the surviving son in an obituary. I was going to meet up with you at the funeral, but my future vision told me that would be a bad idea.
“Then I saw that you would be here. Except that when I tried to talk to you after you came out of the woods, you yelled at me for a while, then threw up and passed out. Paramedics had to come get your dehydrated ass. Cold water seems to have opened the door to an actual conversation.
“So my question for you, Hector Thoreaux, is why your name came up when I searched the future for ways to beat the monsters?”
Hector opened the third bottle and took a sip. In spite of his determination to progress, he had no delusions of becoming a great warrior. The life of Volithur did not provide a blueprint to become one of the Xian elites and Hector himself wasn’t young anymore. “Are you sure you can trust your visions?”
“I trust that they are glimpses of possible futures.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“And what was the context that someone used my name?”
Evelyn gave a lopsided smirk. “Context isn’t a strong point of future vision.”
“I don’t imagine I would be an outstanding asset in the fight.”
“You’re a Xian. I can feel the tingly cosmic energy in you.”
“I’m a level one Xian. That’s basically an unempowered human.”
“Hmm…. Let me ask a different question. Why did you go hiking?”
Hector glanced back towards the trail. “I was looking for higher densities of cosmic energy.”
Evelyn cocked an eyebrow. “In there? With all the trees?”
“I wanted to get to a higher elevation.”
“It’s all euphoric life energy in the forest.” Evelyn stood. “Do you want me to help you find good spots for your realization process?”
“Realization process?”
“That would be cultivation, to use the Xian term. I can sniff out a good spot for you.”
Hector unlocked his car and placed the three empty plastic bottles onto the passenger seat. “Are you still expecting me to fight monsters?”
“If I do, that’s my problem. You never promised me anything or tried to mislead me.” Evelyn nodded towards the road. “Grab dinner and plan our search?”
Hector considered the thin goth girl for a moment. He couldn’t deny her presence had been as helpful as it had been unexpected. If she could help him find an ideal spot to cultivate, it could save him a lot of time. And, like she’d said, he hadn’t misrepresented himself in any way. The memory of Volithur’s mind enhancement reading came to him. “Are you doing any Arahant mental manipulation to persuade me right now?”
“No Arahant shenanigans. Just the normal hot girl manipulation thing.” Evelyn struck a pose with one hand on a cocked hip and batted her eyelashes. “You are paying, right?”
A snort of laughter burst free. “I’m twice your age.”
Evelyn shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me. Just don’t expect me to call you ‘daddy’. Oh, look! I made you blush!”
Hector cleared his throat. “Where are we going?”
“A taco truck is parked in the plaza down the street.”
“And here I was expecting you to insist on somewhere expensive,” Hector said.
“In full disclosure, it is a meatless food truck.”
“Oh… what does a meatless taco have in it? Vegetables?”
Evelyn’s smile grew wider. “Have you ever heard of beans? Tofu? Mushrooms? Curried cauliflower? Jackfruit?”
Hector sighed. “Well, I guess I like curry.”
“That’s the spirit! Follow my car.”
After Evelyn put away the cooler, camp chair, and umbrella, she drove down the road for about two miles before pulling into a shopping plaza. Hector parked next to her and they walked over to stand in line together. The food truck was garishly painted with tacos in every hue imaginable, none of which approached the coloration of a real world food.
“This looks more popular than I was expecting a meatless taco place,” he commented.
“A meal that didn’t require an animal to die? How shameful.”
Hector gave Evelyn a skeptical look from the corner of his eye. “You certainly don’t hold back from giving your opinions.”
“Talking too much is just one of my many flaws,” Evelyn assured him. “Once we save the world, I am going to have to insist my parents stop asking me to pay rent.”
“I’m just looking for a good place to cultivate,” Hector reminded her.
“For starters. I’m sure I will catch glimpses of your potential futures now that we’re friends.”
The line had advanced quickly and Evelyn placed a large order for what Hector assumed was two of everything, then gestured to him and announced he would be paying for it. Hector handed over his credit card while ignoring the presumptuous glances directed his way. They moved to the side to wait for their order to be completed. Sensing the general mood Evelyn spent the interlude playing with her hair and glancing up at him flirtatiously, much to the consternation of the other patrons.
“You like making things awkward, don’t you?”
“Absolutely love it,” she answered. “People go out of their way looking for reasons to be upset. Why not give them what they want? It doesn’t hurt my feelings if some stiff doesn’t like me.”
Hector glanced at her. “You would hate to have my dreams if you aren’t a fan of decorum.”
“Decorum. That sounds dreadful. What, is your dream guy a snotty noble or something?”
“I wish. He’s the mistreated servant of snotty nobles.”
That seemed to give Evelyn pause. She dropped her flirty act to stare directly at him. “Your dream guy is a servant?”
“Well, technically he is a ward. But it amounts to the same thing.”
Their order was called, so Evelyn moved to collect their cardboard takeout box. They walked back to set out the food on the hood of her car while she thought.
“Some advice on what to try here? I don’t really eat this type of food.”
She eyed him. “What do you normally eat? Are you a meat and potatoes guy?”
“Chicken and broccoli, actually.”
Evelyn winced. “Who hurt you, big man? I will heal your broken palate with all the flavors.”
Before he could think of a response, she shoved the first of many tacos into his hands. He took a hesitant bite, chewed for a bit, and nodded. “This is the curry cauliflower?”
“I bet all the curry gave it away.”
“It’s good,” he admitted before taking a second bite. The taco was small, so it disappeared quickly, leaving him looking for more. Evelyn handed him a different kind of taco. Hector tried it out and was surprised to discover it tasted like smokey barbecue sauce. “Jackfruit,” Evelyn announced when he shot a curious glance her way.
The mushrooms were next, and they tasted surprisingly meaty. Then came a bean taco, which had more flavor than he would have expected. Next up was the tofu taco, which more closely approached the experience of a traditional taco than anything else he’d had. Finally, Evelyn presented him with a dessert taco that held cinnamon apples with a dollop of some non-dairy cream on top.
As Hector was busy looking for more tacos, Evelyn finished up her own dessert. “You seem to have enjoyed meatless tacos.”
“They weren’t big enough,” he complained.
“Not at five dollars each,” she agreed.
Hector reached into his pocket and pulled out the credit card receipt he hadn’t bothered to read. Sure enough, the bill came out to nearly seventy dollars. “Well played, Evelyn. I thought we were eating on the cheap.”
“Your dream guy… he’s not someone important?”