Creation Dreamer: A Heroine Fantasy Adventure (Calpso Goddess Series: Book One 1) Page 7

  I stalked my way back to the cliff’s edge with the wind doing her best to blow me back. Either the Earth was trying to stop me, or the goddess was refusing to let me go. Perhaps neither understood they didn’t own me and never would. Standing on the edge and feeling the full winds on my face, I looked out over the expanse of the world below. I felt invincible. Whatever the cave was, it nourished and filled me in a way I’d never known before. My first taste of real power, so sweet in the realm of utter freedom. My fingers traced the edges of the bird skull down to its sharp beak. It looked alive as it grabbed a drop of blood and deposited it into the ground.

  Blood-tied to the cave. What lies do you hold little hex bird? What lies?

  It all sunk in. The Four Powers. The deliberate binding of my gifting. The Eris seed that made me. My father. My mother. An overwhelming darkness chilled me as a lifetime of lies knocked on the door of truths I’d always held. The very thing the Regys did—polluting every media stream with lies—making sure no one knew what was really happening to our disintegrating world—was the very thing my own parents did to me. If the Regys abused their power, then my parents did, too. The hollowness dug its daggers into me. I was a stranger to myself. Glancing back to the glow of the goddess in the cave, I chose to ground into the knowingness that my life belonged to something bigger than I ever imagined. If nothing else, I would know the truth, and I would know my power.

  Power moved into determination and determination set me on fire. The quake was long over; it was time to find the Record Keeper and the damned coyote.

  The smell of burning wood led me to the mountain peak where I found a meadow and tiny path leading to an even tinier building. A shed perhaps, with no doors or windows. Just a chimney.

  “Hello? Anyone here?”

  Another bark came from behind me. My blade was in my fist with one swift motion. The pain was just a nuisance.

  “Fucking coyote. What the hell do you want from me?” I tripped over a root.

  Hero!

  There was rustling. Low to the ground, like feet shuffling and then a grunt and a phlegmy cough. It had to be the Record Keeper. No one else would be living up that high.

  “Hello?” I crawled, hoping to see feet. “I’m not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t hurt you. Show yourself to me. I’m—”

  Someone darted ahead of me from one trunk to another trunk. “Please, if you are the Record Keeper, I’m not here to hurt you. I need your help.”

  Whoever it was ran back toward the wooden box, but my legs were no match for something so small. I had her pinned to the ground in one leap. She pulled and kicked, and I’d have to say, let out some odd little cries. “I am not here to hurt you. See?” I put the blade away. “I just need to speak to you. Please.”

  “Despicables.”

  “What?”

  “Let me go.” Another grunt released a mouth vapor into my face that made my eyes water.

  “No problem. Fuck.” I couldn’t get my face away fast enough.

  She started to run as soon as I pushed back. “No. That’s not going to happen.” I pinned her again. “Look. I need to talk to you. Just don’t breathe on me, okay?”

  She grabbed my chin, shaking my face side to side. “Oh. You.”

  “You know me?” Her hair fell away from her face. “Gods, you’re—”

  “Beautiful?”

  “Old.” I wanted to be nice. Her face was covered in hard, crusty craters as if something had eaten her alive quite viciously, but then left her to die writhing in her own misery. Someone tortured her.

  She slapped my cheek. “Magpie Turnley, so observant.”

  “You know who I am?”

  “Knew it was you when you waltzed right through my protection hoop. No one has done that since—ever. Now let me go.”

  “You promise to stay put this time? If you know who I am, then you know we have a lot to talk about.”

  Her hand grabbed my medicine pouch around my neck.

  “Your mother and I put this bird skull over your medicine. Did you know?”

  “No. She never told me about you.”

  She let go and rolled on the grass laughing. “Kept a good secret! Not sure she could do it. But here you are.”

  The coyote sounded off again. Instinct made me turn around, and when I looked back, the Record Keeper was gone.

  “Dammit.” A thick veil of fog dropped down on top of me. “That won’t stop me, you know?” There was no response. “Root to water,” I said drawing a circle in the air and looking in-between the droplets. Fog was, after all, water in air. I got a clear picture of her. She was down below me. Down a path and near a waterfall. Not far at all. But something had stopped her.

  “Go. Get away, you slimy pest. You varmint, just get away.”

  I took off—my feet grappling the ground as best I could to find my way. A long set of growls and barks were close and then I heard one of the Record Keeper’s screams.

  “Going to help me or not?” she yelled out.

  “I’m coming.” I tripped over a ridge of stones. “Shit.”

  “Not takin’ me down, you four-legged thing. I’ve fought worse than this! And what do you think will happen to you if you hurt me? Thought about that one? You know what I mean. Don’t you pretend to not know. Those girls will take you down if you touch a hair on my head.”

  “Where the fuck are you? I can’t see you through the fog.”

  “Magpie Turnley,” her voice crackled. “Show me what you’re made of.”

  I closed my eyes and heard her breathing. Somehow she was behind me. The bark of the coyote was in front of me, and I was in-between. The Record Keeper reached out of the white veil with her skinny, pointy little fingers and grabbed my wrist. Her nails scratched me.

  “Well, go get her,” she commanded. “Coyote’s here for you, not me.”

  I caught a blur of something coming toward me, but before I could move, the coyote lunged at me, claws first. Foolishly, I thought I could push her back with sheer force. She tore across my left breast and down to my left hip bone. The pain buckled me as I watched blood pour onto the ground. Even the fog was stained red. There was so much screaming, I grabbed my ears. It took a moment before I realized it was me.

  The coyote in the veil laughed. I grabbed my blade just as the warmth of the old woman’s body wrapped against mine.

  “I always have your back.” She grunted, wholly amusing herself. “No matter what. You are protected.” She slobbered.

  “Get off me.” I shoved her. She didn’t move. I shoved her again. Nothing.

  Through the fog, the warm gassy breath of the coyote reached my face. It smelled like rotten flesh. We faced each other on all fours. The old woman pressed in against my ass. The coyote was as big as I was. Her black eyes peered through the veil into my eyes, as she sniffed me with one long, focused breath. I froze.

  This was the snapshot. Stay in your belly. Feel. Listen. She is not going to kill you. This time.

  Her heartbeat matched the deep one from the climb—slow and rhythmic. The fog lightened just enough for me to see a woman standing where the coyote had been.

  Shifter?

  I saw the fangs in her mouth and just a flash of her green glowing light form.

  They are the same.

  “You’re a Calypso?” I whispered under my breath staring in astonishment.

  The Record Keeper hissed. The coyote clawed. I wanted to piss all over myself. Then with eyes shining and what appeared to be calculated thought, the coyote backed up. One paw. The snap of a twig. A rustle of leaves. Muddy ground making suction sounds as the other paws moved back. One after another until I heard no more and the trance lifted.

  “Now,” I turned to the Record Keeper, “would you please, fucking back up. My ass was not made for you.”

  Aldon shifted back as I fell to the ground. She snatched my chin and pulled my face up to hers.

  You smell like death.

  “I am a tired old—woman. Too tired. But now I
see you, and I know it was all worth it.” I started to speak, but she raised her hand. “You just need to shut up and listen to me.” She dropped with a thud onto a log.

  She lifted my shirt and grunted. Our hands fought for a moment until she smacked me and then blew hard against my skin. She balled up some dirt and leaves. Pulled something from her pocket—some kind of dried plant—spit into it and began shoving it into my wound. I flinched, expecting it to hurt like a bitch, of course, and because it was disgusting. It did not, in fact, hurt. The medicine of it—the magic—wove into me, stitching me back together. She was a healer. An Earth healer.

  “Leave it,” she growled, forcing my curious hand away. “Trust, missy, that is your problem. You think this ground has forsaken you? Despicable.” She stroked the dirt like a lover, laughing again and moving closer to me. “Well, she has. She left you and all of us, well—” She clenched her jaw for a moment. “Now listen. Time’s almost out.” She hacked and coughed and spit something large and horrible out of her mouth. I could not stop the grimace.

  “Stop all that pity—thinking I am so old and horrible. I pulled in a lot of the magic on this side, and I had a lot of prices to pay. You hear me? I paid the price. For you, Magpie.”

  The Earth rumbled. Shook. Time was out. A storm was coming in again.

  The Record Keeper sighed and sat up tall, cracking every bone in her back to do it. Her body perfectly straight like royalty.

  “I am Aldon. And yes, I am the Earth’s. Kind of. I am her Record Keeper now. Kind of a crap job, but the one I was given nonetheless.”

  I was almost deafened by her voice. The fierceness of her power. Lightning.

  “That pendant you wear. That bird skull. Your mom put that around your neck when you were young. It holds the deep magics.”

  Her words starting spinning in the air.

  “I know because I gave that pendant to her. Your dreams started showing through in this world when you were a baby. Dream it. Make it. That’s what you did. Acts of divine creation. A very unique vessel between Earth and Celestial. That is what you are.”

  “I’m a Creation Dreamer.” It helped me to say it out loud, even though I had to try not to laugh.

  “Let me tell it! Those Four Powers were not supposed to tell you anything. That is my job. They breaky the rules. The girls will breaky them.” Aldon paused, squeezing her face together. “You see, the Earth asked the Powers for one last chance to start all over again. The Powers and the Celestial, well, after a lot of deliberating, said yes, because they were so angry over the Separation deception. Despicable deceiving the gods. Anyway, birth was the agreement, and your mother agreed to be the vessel. The Creation Dreamer with pure Celestial magics.” She winced. “You are the one who must light the sacred fires…the Dream Lodge fire.” The Earth shook again, harder than before.

  “Dream Lodge. I’ve heard that before. A man while I was feeding—”

  “What man?” Suddenly this little old woman was a giant, and I was but a grain of sand. “Don’t make me ask again.”

  “I was feeding. He came through a tan veil. It was hard to hear him, but he said Dream Lodge and that I needed to come. Like now.”

  “Blond?”

  “Yes.”

  “Beautiful, like me?”

  “Quite sexy actually.”

  She started muttering something about, “It had to be him…the only one who could have crossed the veils…had no right…”

  She flung her fingers around and continued muttering. We were getting nowhere.

  “Okay, look, I’m beyond tired here. So let me get to the point. I came to you to get my powers unbound. Then I’ll light this fire everyone’s talking about and shift the Earth. If we could just get on with that—”

  Aldon looked at me like I had a fire-breathing dragon coming out of my forehead. She pulled back. Then she started to grunt and laugh so hard she fell over, rolling and holding her side. Finally she climbed back up on the log wiping a tear from her eye.

  “Been a long time since I had such a good laugh, Magpie. Ah, thank you.” She chuckled again. “The only way to unbind your powers is to light that Dream Lodge. On the other side of the veil. That pendant was forged in the Dream Lodge fire. A very special fire. And only from that fire will you be released into your power. The Dream Lodge fire unites the Dreamer and the Earth magics.”

  There was a sudden shake below us, and a cracking sound I hadn’t heard before. I jumped to the edge of the rocks. It was the Basin Village; we were so close. The smell of smoke and heat slammed me. That’s when I saw it—down deep in the valley, lava spewing up in bursts. The Earth, she was cracking open.

  Fisher. Where are you?

  “Look, I have to go.”

  “Can’t go. There is more you must know.” Aldon confronted my sudden pacing.

  “There is no more time. I should’ve never come up here. Don’t you see? It’s all started. What we have feared all of my life. The Earth. The end. I have to go. This whole Dreamer thing, well, it just has to wait. After I get my family. ”

  “It all started long ago, Maggie. This is just the beginning of the great finale. And it will be great. Regardless of how any of this goes down. And I get a front-row seat to the show.”

  “Why aren’t you listening to me? We have to go. You have to come, too. It isn’t safe here either.” I pulled at her arms. I couldn’t move her. “The Calys, we can try to do something. You must have a record of where the other Calypsos are. You can tell me and I can—”

  Her laughter pissed me off. “There is nothing for you down there anymore,” she sneered. “Not at the Basin Village, not at Dragon Flies, and not with the Calypsos. The only way for you now is to go to the other side of the veil and light that Dream Lodge fire.”

  Smoke broke into the air with hints of the toxicity of the Lava Pits. Coughing, my eyes blurred and watered. “I don’t have time for all this. I’m going to find Fisher, my family, and get the fuck out of here.”

  Aldon’s eyes mauled me. “Yes, Maggie, there is always a price to move forward. Don’t be a baby. The question is, are you willing to pay the price for what that might be? Thought you wanted the truth, fickle girl. Head bobbing one way then the next.” She turned away, her head and shoulders rolled forward into smallness.

  The cracking sounds amplified. “Do you hear that? That’s at the Village. I need to get there.”

  “One Dream, Magpie Turnley. Just one Dream—the best, highest option Dream—and you could reset all of this.”

  I stopped. “What do you mean?”

  “One Dream resets the whole existence of our Earth world. The Powers told you. A whole new trajectory.”

  There was no way to take in her words, and even if I did, they could be lies, too. How could I navigate when I had no idea what the truth was anymore? So, I did what any dysfunctional protagonist would do. I deflected. “Thanks for thinking I could hold that kind of power. You’re all full of shit!” As I turned back, she was gone.

  “Aldon?”

  I heard her raspy laughter in the wind. “If you choose to go back, use the path. It is much easier. Don’t go down the way you came up.” She snapped her fingers and laughed even harder.

  The wind blew a harsh gust, clearing the fog along a path. Down off the ledge, it went through the hills and into the Basin Village. I knew the Regys would be there in full company, but I had to risk it. Even with my powers bound, there had to be a way to successfully sneak in and out.

  Snapshot of Fisher. Calling me. No Chama. Lots of smoke.

  My feet hit the ground running. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Left. Down. I paused on a slight ledge to glance below as everything started spinning.

  “Fisher!” I called out. It echoed back unanswered. “I am coming for you!”

  A small round pebble rolled under my foot just as I turned to go. The rest was in slow motion. My ankle twisting as I lost my balance. Aldon. I smelled her in the wind as her finger, that pointy thing, shoved into
my shoulder and my entire body fell forward. A sting at my neck as my heels touched the back of the landing. I dropped. The lightning filled the sky. The wind blasted me as I passed down by the first set of boulders. Surreal.

  Aldon was looking down at me getting smaller as her laughter grew louder.

  “So Creation Dreamer, Magpie Turnley. I declare your name into the winds! And now your name is written in the Book. Once hidden, now the winds see you. Now the Earth knows you are here. Now choose.”

  My pendant. It was gone.

  6

  The Birthright

  Held only by the currents of air, I laid back into the power of the fall. The rain planted good-bye kisses on my cheeks.

  “Hold on, Maggs, we’ve got you, child.”

  “Rebekah? You’re still here?”

  “We won’t leave you. I see you. And now—”

  Something pierced me and drilled through my skin, grabbing my spine. My back arched forward forcing my feet to flip down.

  “Like landing gear without the gear grind. I remember planes.”

  “Like birds.” Rebekah corrected me. We Calypsos hated the beforetime—the modern world of mechanization and pollution. Luckily, as the world ruptured, so did all of the fossil fuel transportations.

  “What’s happening?”

  Rapid visuals started firing in my head. Aldon. Fisher. Our Commitment day. The Regys. George and Rosie. The virus. The round-up. The droughts. The floods. The earthquakes. The border walls. The News of Lies. The day the last animal was declared extinct. The day living at 10,000 feet in altitude became sea level. My cat. My dad. Sixth grade. Smoking a cigarette around the corner of the barn with Fisher when I was ten. Snapdragons blooming. My training wheels. Me in a crib. The crib walls. Mom looking down and saying no. Lights in the room as I looked up. Me pointing and clapping as objects appeared. Toys dancing in the room and up and over my bed. Little eyes looking back at me.

  The entire room was filled with translucent lights.