Wondrous, page 31
He pushed himself up off the ground, putting all of his weight on the uninjured leg. The vibration in his body was flooding his senses now and everything was turning to white.
He saw in his mother’s eyes her anger, her sadness, her fear, her guilt, and he told her, “I love you too.”
Everything popped back into color as the world behind the Veratt ripped away in a bright blue and green void. The colors shimmered like they had when they hovered around Clint’s leg, around Io’s wings.
Miles held out both hands and shot one bolt of lightning from each, shoving the Veratt back with each impact. The monster screamed with fury and fear.
After a third strike, the creature’s tail dipped into the swirling void, and in a blink the Veratt was torn away. Its howl was nothing more than an echo in the Violet Woods.
For several excruciatingly long moments, the colorful void continued to swirl rapidly, sucking up ash and dirt and leaves before it shrunk in size and disappeared.
Miles sunk back to the ground, casting a sideways glance at his bleeding leg. The skin was almost completely covered in red. Fire raged around him. The strange vibration had left his body and was replaced with unbelievable soreness. His mother kissed him on the cheek and the tension left his body. He felt like he could finally rest. He could finally stop.
He closed his eyes and was consumed by sleep.
CHAPTER THIRTY
EVERYTHING BLURRED TOGETHER
A light knock on the door woke him. Miles readjusted and found himself tightly tucked in a stiff bed with thin, cream-white sheets. The room itself was the same color, with generic paintings of oceans and sailboats adorning the walls.
The door slowly opened and Mortimer’s large green face filled the crack between it and the frame. When he saw Miles was awake, he opened it the rest of the way and proclaimed, “Hey, kid!”
The Rompun jolted to the bedside and grinned the widest grin Miles had ever seen. It was contagious.
“How you feelin’?” Mortimer asked, unable to contain the joy in his voice.
“Fine,” Miles answered. “Pretty sore.”
Mortimer nodded. “Yeah, doctors said you prob’ly would be. You took a pretty good beating the other night, kid. We weren’t sure you’d made it.”
“Where am I?” Miles asked, looking around. The room was unfamiliar. It smelled like the sea, and he thought he could hear the distant sound of waves lapping against a shore.
“The hospital in Merrikar,” Mortimer replied, taking a seat in a nearby chair.
“Merrikar?” Miles parroted. He chuckled, thinking back to the first day he met Mortimer and the Rompun had asked him if he was from here.
“Yep,” Mortimer said. “Closest town to where we found you in the woods. Had to get you to a doctor fast.”
“How’d you even find me?” Miles asked.
“Followed the lightning, just like when we tracked you to the king’s camp. Was a little harder to pinpoint exactly where you were, though. The Violet Woods are pretty huge. The enormous forest fire you started helped, though.”
Miles tried sitting up, but the effort was more than he could handle. His body practically screamed at him to stop, so he obeyed.
“Oh, hold on,” Mortimer said, getting up. He shuffled out of the room and returned a minute later with Jaselle and Clint.
The maylan tried hopping onto the bed but Mortimer caught him in midair. “Nah, nah, nah,” he told Clint. “Don’t imagine him pouncing on your leg woulda felt too nice,” he said to Miles. The boy definitely agreed. Mortimer set Clint down farther up, where he could cheerily lick Miles’ face.
“Hi, Jaselle,” Miles greeted her, scratching Clint’s neck.
“Hey,” she smiled back.
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
“I’m glad you are too,” she said, sitting down in the chair Mortimer had procured. “Though I am very upset that you didn’t listen to me.”
“Sorry,” Miles said sheepishly.
Jaselle chuckled and waved off the apology. “I think it all worked out in the end.”
As Clint gave him another lick, Miles asked, “Where’s Kricket?”
Mortimer wasn’t sure how to respond. “Dunno,” he said. His large yellow eyes blinked.
“I gave Clint to him,” Miles said. “They were heading for the Claire River.”
Mortimer gave the boy a pitying look. “Sorry, kid,” he said. “I didn’t see no Omnes at the river. When I got there, I was checking to see who made it out and I saw Clint runnin’ around like a maniac.”
Miles said nothing. He rubbed Clint’s head and gave the maylan a kiss on his furry cheek. He wanted to know what else had happened in Trafier, but he didn’t have the strength to be told such a stressful tale. Right now he just wanted to relax and bask in the happiness of his friends, thankful that they at least had made it through the ordeal. Thankful that it was all over.
“So the Veratt is gone?” he finally asked Mortimer.
The Rompun chuckled. “That’s the question on everyone’s tongues,” he said.
“Oh, right,” Jaselle muttered, standing. “Alys wanted to talk to him.”
“Right,” Mortimer nodded. The two of them headed for the door. Mortimer looked back and asked, “You wanna keep Clint in here?”
Miles nodded. The maylan’s warmth was comforting.
Mortimer gave him another smile and closed the door.
It was almost an hour before the queen finally entered Miles’ room. She had spent every waking hour the past two days working to reconstruct Trafier as well as all the other towns the Veratt had ravaged.
By that time, Miles had managed to focus his energy long enough to mend his aches and wounds. The recovery didn’t stop him from enjoying some relaxation in bed, though.
“I apologize for the delay,” Queen Alys said as she took a seat in the chair at his bedside. She smiled warmly at him. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yep,” he answered.
The wrinkles on her face seemed deeper than before. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, considering how to broach the next subject. “So,” she started, “there’s something I need to ask you about.”
“The Veratt.”
“The Veratt, yes.”
He let out a sigh. “I was in the woods, I was fighting it, it cut my leg, then...” Memories of that night were foggy. Only bits and pieces were able to fight through the haze. It was like someone had erased writing on a white board, only leaving behind random stray marks.
“We haven’t found a trace of it anywhere,” Queen Alys informed him. “Did you kill it? I’d think a body would have been left behind if so.”
Miles shook his head. “A rift opened up,” he said. “And then it was just gone. Then I woke up here.”
A smile flashed across the queen’s face. “Really?” she asked. “A rift? Pink and yellow, swirling together like ice cream mixing?”
“I guess,” Miles murmured. “No,” he then said. “Not pink or yellow. Blue and green.”
“Well, that still sounds almost exactly like the rift that opened when the creature was summoned. I believe you’ve done it, Miles. I don’t know how, but you did.”
A rift. He had opened up a rift somehow.
“I don’t know how I did it,” he admitted.
“That doesn’t matter,” Alys waved him off. “What matters is that the Veratt is gone now.” She planted a sloppy kiss on his forehead and thanked him. “This is glorious news for Rompu, Miles. We are in your debt.”
Miles wondered if the king had been cured when the Veratt was sent away or if he was still suffering for what he had done to the kingdom. He asked, “Is King Mykael okay?”
The queen’s smile faded. “He’s…he will be, I think,” she said.
“So you found him?”
“Yes, he’s back in Trafier. On their way here to retrieve you, some scouts found him lying unconscious in the hills.”
“Have you talked to him?” Miles asked. “Is he back to normal?”
Queen Alys shrugged. “It’s hard to say,” she answered. “I briefly spoke with him before I came here, yes. It was not a long conversation—he was exhausted and quickly fell asleep again—so I’m not sure, but he seems better. Not fully himself, but I hope he will continue to recover.”
Miles’ face brightened. He then asked, “What now?”
“Now we rebuild,” the queen said, her tone light and melancholy. “The Veratt inflicted a lot of damage on our kingdom. The countryside was torn apart and towns were flattened, including Trafier—frankly, it’s almost inconceivable, the amount of destruction.
“But we’ll push on; we’ll make things better again. They might not be quite the same as they were before, but they will be wondrous again, in a new way. Trafier will be re-established. Roads will be repaired and several new ones will be built to better connect all of our villages. Seeds will be planted in the Violet Woods. The Skyr outposts will be torn down. I’ve not yet decided what will happen to those who betrayed the kingdom in favor of the king, but they will be integrated back into society. It might be slow progress, but it will be progress.”
Miles looked out the window and saw nothing but sky. It was a cloudless day and all that filled the pane was a light blue.
“I hope things get better soon,” he said.
Queen Alys smiled again. “They will,” she said confidently. “Soon Rompu will be beautiful again. All of those silly Ruhigans up north will finally want to come down here on vacation,” she laughed. “And some might even stick around.” She rose, then said, “You don’t need to worry. We’ll be perfectly fine.”
As she left the room, she turned to Miles and thanked him. He smiled.
The next day, the doctor instructed Miles to get out of bed and start walking around. His leg was incredibly stiff at first, but he soon got the hang of bending it again.
One of the queen’s Skyr guards brought him to the local inn where Mortimer and Jaselle were staying. He found the two of them in the lobby, sitting in puffy armchairs by the fireplace. Jaselle was reading a book while Mortimer watched Clint chase his own tail.
“Hey!” Mortimer greeted the boy as he stepped inside. “Up and about!”
“Yep,” Miles grinned. He kneeled down, which was quite a feat, to pet Clint. The animal bounded toward the kid the moment he saw him.
The three sat and talked the morning, eating some sandwiches for lunch. Miles still didn’t have much of an appetite, so he only had three or four bites before setting his plate on the floor for Clint to munch on. The maylan had a taste for provolone. By the time afternoon rolled around, Miles had mustered up the courage to tell the Moutons he was planning on going home soon.
“When?” Mortimer asked, visibly upset by the news.
“This evening, if I can,” Miles said. “I miss home.”
The Rompun and his wife smiled, though a tear marred her cheek.
“Of course,” Mortimer said. “Back to Texas and your westerns, right?”
Miles grinned. “Right,” he said.
“We’ll miss you,” said Jaselle.
“I’ll miss you too,” Miles said, unable to help himself from crying a little. “Will you take good care of Clint for me?”
“Agh!” Mortimer grimaced, jokingly disgusted. “I didn’t even wanna take the mutt with us at all, and now you saddlin’ me with him?” He grinned again. “Sure I will, kid.”
“Thanks.” Miles gave him another hug.
They spent the rest of the afternoon talking, joking, telling stories about Austin and Rompu. They took Clint on a walk and played fetch with him. They ate tartlets and drank endalain tea and consumed countless other treats.
As the day neared its end, they gathered outside the inn to say their goodbyes. Mortimer wrapped his arms around Miles, enveloping the boy in his blubbery mass. Jaselle followed suit.
As Miles pulled away, Mortimer gave him a pat on the back. “I’m glad to have met you, kid,” he said, his large yellow eyes welling up.
“I’m glad too,” Miles told him.
“Even though you lost my favorite sandals.”
Miles punched the Rompun on the arm and Mortimer guffawed.
It was a pleasant day.
Miles walked twenty minutes east of Merrikar into the Violet Woods. The sun was setting behind the trees and the forest was already shrouded in the faint light of dusk.
He found a tree stump that was more or less free of bugs and took a seat on it. Blades of grass tickled his ankles as he adjusted himself, taking in the beauty of the woods.
It felt like a lifetime had passed since he’d woken up here, confused and afraid. The old version of himself would be amazed and baffled by his ability to sit on a dirty tree stump without shifting about anxiously. He remembered Mortimer telling him that first night that in the Violet Woods, everything’s dirty. He realized he would miss the dazzling purple leaves that gave the Violet Woods their name. And that despite all the bad that had happened here, a lot of good had too. He had grown to love Rompu. He wished Mortimer, Jaselle, and Clint could come back home with him. Maybe Kricket could come too, if he felt so inclined.
Miles stared straight ahead, unsure of how to summon a portal back to Austin. When it had happened with the Veratt, it had been a complete accident. An extraordinarily lucky one, but an accident all the same. That was also true of his arrival in Rompu in the first place.
He thought back to his mother, looking into her eyes, seeing she shared the same trepidations he felt. Telling her he loved her. And he knew that what the queen said was true: everything would be wondrous again.
With his mind clear, a void opened ten feet in front of him. Blue streaked with lime green. He took deep breaths. In. Out. Then he stood and walked forward.
Nothing could be seen on the other end of the rift, if you could call it an end at all. Yet somehow Miles knew that it would take him home. He felt his mother’s embrace. He knew it was safe.
He stepped into it and everything blurred together, blue into green into orange into yellow into brown into red into black.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TRAVIS M. RIDDLE lives with his pooch in Austin, TX, where he studied Creative Writing at St. Edward’s University. His work has been published in award-winning literary journal the Sorin Oak Review. He can be found online at www.travismriddle.com or on twitter @traviswanteat.
Travis M. Riddle, Wondrous
