Contributed by Charles Dean Walker
The moon was a crescent in a sky painted a deep blue. Bert’s story took hours as always, never did Marilyn imagine it would eat up the day. Bird opened the door, her surprise with visitors was written on her face. “Hi!”, Marilyn said. Jackson ran to his mom, Bagels followed along always happy to see Bird.
Bagels reached his forepaws up to Bird’s leg, trying to kiss her. “Bert, who’s this?”, she asked. She moved the dog and Jack from her so she could walk further in. “This is Marilyn.She’s a friend of Nathan’s.” Bert said. Bird walked towards Marilyn, seeing her pleasant smile.
“Nice to meet you, and nice to see you, Nathan. How are you?”, She said hiding her true thoughts of sudden guests. “I’m doing great Bird, thanks for asking.”, Nathan said. “Bert, come talk to me in our room a moment.”, Bird said passively. “I’ll be a moment guys, please keep an eye on Jackson and Bagels.” Bert said to Nathan and Marilyn. He knew by her tone, he was in
trouble.
Moments later, they came back out. Bert’s face visible upset with his wife’s lecture. He hated being treated like a child. However, Bird kept a pleasant look, she hated when she had to lecture her husband. “Bert and I would love to have you over for the night.”, Bird said.
“Bird, that’s sweet, but we really shouldn’t burden you. After all, we came here today without warning.”, Nathan said apologetically. “No, it’s my treat, Nathan, really!”, Bird said. Into the night, Jackson and the rest of the family had gone to bed. Nathan lied on the couch while Marilyn was on the floor. It was a courtesy from her. Nathan was thankful, but felt bad still.
Marilyn was still awake, with a black blanket to cover her and a white pillow for her head.
“Nathan?”, she whispered. She let some time pass. “Okay, never mind.”, she said to herself. She lifted her arm up to see her left hand. A rash irritated her skin. It was from a split she’d gotten earlier today.
“Damn it!”, she thought. “Why is this happening to me?”, she wondered. Yet, deep down she had an idea why. “D’wellric why?”, she thought in pain.
The noise of skin ripping from the middle of her palm, was heard in her ears. Marilyn beat her head down on the pillow, to hide her sounds. “Damn the Gods!”, she screamed silently. Tears well water falling on to her pillow. A moment of flesh-tearing time passed, before she sat up to look.
Her right hand grasped her left making a slapping noise. The skin had stopped opening, and in its place was a new layer, but not of skin, it was bark. A stem protruded up at her with a leaf. Slowly the pain began to numb. With each passing second a segment of bark fell, the stem shortened, and new skin in place of the fallen bark.
“What the hell?”, Nathan said. “What?! I thought you were asleep!”, she said back in a quiet yell. “How? You’re making too much noise for to!”, Nathan said. “How good is your hearing?!”, Marilyn said.
“Very!”, Nathan answered. Marilyn stopped saying anything to look back at her hand. All the pain now left her, along with the mystery stem and bark. Nathan got up from the couch to turn a small light on. Has he did, the pitch-black bark was on top of Marilyn’s blanket.
“Now, let’s slow down a bit here.”, Nathan said. He walked back to the couch to sit again. “First off, who is D’wellric?”, Nathan asked tiredly. Marilyn now looking at Nathan had let go of her arm. “He’s a god known in my kingdom. He gives prophets prophecy, and the chosen their power.”, Marilyn explained.
“That’s how I got my power.”, Nathan thought. Marilyn looked at him thinking. She didn’t care to ask, she’d rather move on now. “Why were you crying?”, Nathan asked. “Because my skin was ripping open!”, she said.
“I assume the bark was from the power you possess then, but how do you think you got yours?”, Nathan asked. “Earlier in the woods, a tree gave me a splinter, I didn’t say anything, because it wasn’t a big deal. At least that’s what I thought”, she explained. “Interesting.”, Nathan thought.
“There was a stem that formed, then slowly got shorter as the healing began.”, Marilyn continued. “I wonder what else you’ll be able to do, to be frank.”, Nathan said.
“Nathan! This is hardly the time to say something so outright!”, she said in an angry whisper. It made her wonder how he could be so stupid, to say something like this now. The fear of everything that has just transpired, had flooded her head, as it would anyone. Nathan put his head down, burying his face in his hands. “Marilyn, I know everything is happening so fast, but we can’t do anything about this. We need to see what time has to show of this power.”, Nathan said tiredly. Marilyn thought about what he meant.
Obviously, he was right, and it was very late in the night. There wasn’t time to be arguing amongst one another anymore. Despite only knowing this man for such a short time, she felt he was a new friend. Marilyn never having a friendship was, at the very least welcoming to this idea. “Okay, I understand. It’ll be hard for me, but, let’s rest up.”, she said.
“I’m sorry.”, Nathan said. They looked at one another. “I know, it’s okay. Goodnight.”, she said. They got back into their beddings, then fell asleep.
The sun held a nice red, in the clear blue skies above, the grass was the greenest Marilyn had seen thus far. A gentle breeze was cool on both her, and Nathan’s skin. “Are you ready to head into town?”, Nathan asked. “Absolutely!”, she said. Without another word they waved goodbye to Bert.
“Take care!”, Bert yelled. Bagels ran out the door to follow, Jackson chased after him. This was their chance to leave. “Hey, get back here!”, Bert yelled. Jackson stopped in his tracks while the dog kept running.
“Oh come on, Dad.”, Jackson said. Bert thought a second whether to let him go. “Alright fine, but stay with Nathan.”, he said. Jackson then continued running. Bagels jumped up to Marilyn’s leg.
“Get down Bagels!”, she said. Then the continued into town. Nymirria’s layout was two infinities. Each with many buildings, some of simple cookie cutter cube designs. Some were the famed Doghouse structures.
“Wow, this place is weird to see.”, Marilyn said. “Shh, don’t say that out loud.”, Nathan said. “Oh, come on Nathan!”, she shot back. “Look you can’t be so rude, this place is a second home to me.”, he said. “Alright, fine!”, she said.
They walked to a doghouse shaped restaurant. It was a bright red, mixed with white. A grey roof, a giant glassless window. All the tables were in five rows of four. In the third row of the fourth table was a young man and an owl.
He wore a light grey hoodie, the hood up, the owl asleep on his right shoulder. His hands were clasped together. His skin was a light ebony. The owl was a different story.
To Nathan, he was a white owl, while for Marilyn he was a brown and white barn owl, while Jackson saw him as a grey and white owl. None of them brought this up. He was just a random person with a bird, and Jack had seen him before. Bagels ran towards them, which made the three of them to run after. Bagels put his forepaws on the man’s side. Baying at him. This hurt the man’s ears, so he lightly pushed Bagels, all the while the owl had awoken.
The owl starred down at Bagels, rightfully angry at his rudeness. And the horribly loud noise, and sudden movements. The owl soon looked back up to see the man, who in turn saw Nathan and Marilyn. Jackson was grabbing his dog. Bagels yelped, again adding annoyance.
“Hey! Quiet over there! Just because you’re the only ones here, doesn’t mean you can be loud as you like!”, the owner called.
“Sorry!”, they all said in unison. Jackson stood beside the man holding Bagels. “Hi, Chase”, he said. “Morning.”, Chase said. His voice was slightly deep, with a hint of sadness. Nathan went over to the owner.
The owner was skinny, had olive toned skin, and slightly tall. They wore a red shirt, tan pants and a tag with blue ink, their name was written in bold: [MIKE]. His equipment was visible, nothing not seen in a typical kitchen, except for a television. It was a jet-black flat of 10 inches, there was a small AC conductor to power it.
“Hey Mike, again sorry to cause all that noise. What’s that rectangular device?”, Nathan said. “It’s what they call in Spark a teslavision.”, Mike said. He had his arm on a honey mustard yellow serving table. His back hunched with his scared face looking at Nathan. “Huh, ha, that’s amazing.”, Nathan said.
Back to Marilyn, Jackson, and Bagels, Marilyn was sat on the other side of the table. “You know Jack?”, she said. “Yes…”, Chase said in a standoffish tone. He was hesitant to meet new people. “Hoot!”the owl injected. “Huh, well, I’m Marilyn, I just met Jack yesterday.”, she said. The man said nothing. Marilyn didn’t like this. “Who may you and the owl be?”, she asked. “Why do you want to know?”, he asked back, wishing he’d just stayed quiet. “Because I like meeting new people.”, she said. “Well, I don’t!”, he said back. Things went quiet again. The owl shut his eyes.
Jackson and Bagels left to go play near Nathan and Mike.
Marilyn felt bad for trying to talk to this man now, clearly he didn’t want to be bothered. “Sorry for bothering you.”, she said. The man felt the owl move it’s wing to his ear. A hoot was then let out. Then there was a sigh.
“I’m Chase the Second, and this is Nite, my owl.”, he said against his personal wishes. The owl was still as stone after this. “I like your names, Chase the Second and Nite, the owl.”, she said. “You can just call me Chase.”, he said. “Why are you here Chase?”, she asked.
“I’m just here specially to sit and rest, why I’m here in this town is a long story.”, he said. “Would you like to join us later to look around?”, she asked knowing the obvious.
”No thank you, I just need to be alone.”, he said.
Nathan, Jackson and Bagels came back. Bagels barked at Chase and Nite. Which made Nite open an eye at him, angry at his dog “friend”. When the rest looked at the two animals, there was a feeling a message was given to one, and received by the other. “Be quiet or leave already!”, Mike hollered.
Jackson lightly bopped his dog. Bagels didn’t like that. “Alright, well, you ready?”, Nathan asked. “Yeah, let’s go. See ya, Chase.”, Marilyn said. Chase lightly waved goodbye as they left.
“You know, you shouldn’t be so standoffish!,” Nite said. Only Chase and Bagels could actually understand him. “It’s not easy with this cursed blessing.”, Chase said. “Is that what you call your abilities?”, Nite said. “What else do I call this? Every time I breath from my nose, I smell burning bodies and feel guilt for almost every action!”, he said.
“Well, that’s why you shouldn’t run from your problems in one world to hide in another.”, Nite said. “Just be quiet, Nite! Go to sleep!”, Chase said. “Fine, but remember what Bagels told me. Soon we fight the bear.”, Nite said. “Of course I won’t forget.”, Chase said. The day went on.