The Cloud Roost (Jekua Book 5), page 38
Enough was enough. It was time to talk about this.
Makénu cleared his throat, stepping around the kitchen counter and striding nonchalantly into the living room. His hands were buried deep in his pockets in his best impression of a casual person. Having any sort of semi-serious or uncomfortable talk with Tano always made him nervous; Adam was much more adept when it came to such discussions. That was definitely his wheelhouse.
“I heard what you’ve been training to do,” Makénu began, sitting down on the arm of the sofa and facing Tano. He knew his husband would have figured out some smooth way to ease into the conversation, but he was not Adam.
Tano glanced at him over the linkpad screen. “Oh, yeah?” Lo-fi music blared from the device’s tinny speakers.
“Yeah,” said Makénu. “Can you put the game down for a minute?”
“Ugh,” Tano groaned. He tapped a thumb to the linkpad’s screen and the obnoxious music paused, but he did not set it down. “What?” he grumbled. Makénu said nothing, only giving him a stern look, and he put the linkpad by his side before sitting up. “What?” he repeated.
“First, lose the attitude,” Makénu told him. That felt like another trait he could have picked up from Madelaine.
“Sorry.”
“I know you’re tired and want to relax. I promise this’ll only take a minute.” Tano just stared at him, waiting for him to stop babbling and continue so he could get back to his precious game. Makénu cleared his throat again, as if that would also dispel the tension between them. He said, “I’m told you’re working on using a Warp ability.”
Tano nodded, and his expression brightened. As Makénu had hoped, talking about what he was doing would excite him. “Ms. San told me not to tell,” he said, “but if you already know…”
“Ms. Bloom told me,” Makénu explained. “She’s very proud of what you’ve accomplished already.”
The boy beamed. He was well aware of how important Madelaine was within the organization. He knew she was Dad’s boss; if she was proud of him, then he must be doing something right. “Did she really say that?” he asked dubiously.
“She did.”
“Wow!”
His enthusiasm was infectious. A smile crept along Makénu’s face. He asked, “How are you feeling about the training? Is everything going okay?”
Tano nodded. “It’s really fun,” he said. A dark streak on his kaylackt coiled around his neck momentarily before sliding across his chest.
“Ms. San isn’t pushing you too hard?”
A fervent shake of the head. “No, she’s nice,” Tano said. “We don’t do much of the Warping yet anyway. She says I need to get my mana tolerance up or something. We do little tests to make sure I can do the power, but nothing big. She says we have to wait for the big thing for when it’s really important to do it.”
Makénu couldn’t pretend to fully understand the reasoning, but he was not the person in charge of training people to hone their kaylackt skills. He assumed San knew what she was doing, especially since she was likely receiving direct orders from Madelaine.
The same thought that had been gnawing at him for weeks was still present, even though both Marissa and Tano had done a lot to assuage his fears. He felt he still needed to express himself to Tano, just in case. “You know, you don’t have to do this,” he said. “If it’s too hard, or if you just don’t want to do it, no one is forcing you.” He actually wasn’t sure if that was strictly true in Madelaine’s case, but he would go to bat for his son if necessary.
Tano looked appalled. “No!” he yelped. “I want to! I do!”
“Okay, okay,” Makénu said.
Though he backed down, words continued spilling from Tano’s mouth. “It’s so cool summoning it, and I got to pick it out myself! It’s my very own Jekua. No one else has one like it. I get to be big and strong when I use it. It’s so cool.”
Makénu smiled. “Yeah, I bet,” he said. “Hey, did you know I tried out summoning once?”
“Really?”
“A few times, when I was younger. Older than you, though. I was nineteen and decided to give it a shot. My buddy Nomu had already been a Summoner for a year, and he convinced me that I should be one too. He said we could go on tons of adventures together, which sounded a lot more fun to me than working a regular job. So I bought a kayet, loaded up a memory card, and went out into the forest to find a Juntoo. For some reason, I really wanted to imprint a Juntoo.”
“Did you ever find one?” Tano asked with rapt attention.
“I did,” Makénu nodded. “But it was too clever for me. You know how your old man is—I’m none too nimble.” Tano giggled. “It kept swinging from tree to tree, making the branches all rubbery so it could fling itself farther and farther away from me. I was never able to imprint it.”
“So what did you imprint?”
“Well, it’s kind of embarrassing, but…” He paused for dramatic effect. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Tano gasped, incredulous.
“Nothing. I tried finding another Juntoo, but I failed again. And then when I finally found something that couldn’t run away from me that fast, I was never able to complete the imprinting spell. I just couldn’t crack it.”
“So you never had any Jekuas?”
“I did not. Buying a kayet and the memory cards and all really was a big waste of money.”
Tano giggled at his misfortune, and Makénu joined him.
“Did your friend become a famous Summoner, though?” Tano then asked.
Makénu shook his head. “No, unfortunately not. It was always more of just a hobby for him.” He was not compelled to mention that Nomu had died due to complications from his strihova infection many, many years ago.
“I bet he was sad he couldn’t go on any Jekua adventures with you.”
“I’m sure he was,” said Makénu. “I was too.”
Tano’s amused expression turned serious. It was a very adult look, plastered on such a small face, and the juxtaposition nearly made Makénu laugh. He held it in, though, and waited to hear what his son was gearing himself up to say.
“It’s not just a hobby for me,” Tano said, which was honestly not what Makénu was expecting at all. Once more, he had to stifle a laugh. He did not want Tano to feel belittled. “Ms. Bloom told me how important what I’m doing is. She says everyone is relying on me to do it good. I wanna do it good. I want to help everybody.”
Despite everything, Makénu’s heart swelled with pride. If even at the age of ten his son was already yearning to help others, then maybe he and Adam had done something right after all.
“You will,” he told Tano, smiling bright. “I know you will.”
Tano smiled back, all graveness wiped from his face. “Really?”
“Of course. I have the utmost faith in you.” He took a beat, then said, “You know, your dad thought you might become a vet when you grew up.”
Tano’s face screwed up in confusion. “Why?” he asked.
Makénu sighed and shrugged. “I guess he just knew the type of person you are,” he said. “He knew that you wanted to help others. He always knew that you’d go on to bring something positive to the world.” Tears were welling up in his eyes, but he kept a lid on things for the moment. “He really loved you.”
“I love him too,” said Tano.
He couldn’t hold it in any longer. A tear slid down Makénu’s cheek, which he hastily wiped away, playing it off like he was scratching an itch. He hoped Tano hadn’t noticed the truth. “Hey, you know what?” he said.
“What?” asked Tano eagerly.
“I bet you’ll even be a greater Summoner than Nomu ever was.”
“You think so?”
“I’m sure of it,” said Makénu. “Hell, you’re already a better Summoner than I ever was. You’ve already got yourself a Jekua, and look how strong it is!”
“I didn’t have to try imprinting it, though,” Tano pointed out.
“Still, I’m proud of you. And I’m glad you’ve found something you enjoy doing so much.”
Those jagged black lines raced across Tano’s body violently, contrasting with how joyful the boy looked. He said, “Can I play my game again now?”
“Sure,” Makénu said. “Have fun.” He got up off the sofa arm and retreated to his bedroom, listening to the linkpad game’s shrill music bouncing off the walls.
40
The Twisting Tree
Alani awoke the next morning feeling light and refreshed. Their sleeping conditions weren’t any better than usual, yet she had more restful sleep than the previous two nights. Even though they were all still in the middle of the wilderness, there came a comfort from being enmeshed with her friends. She felt corny thinking it, but being near Aeiko really did bring her relief.
They started the day with breakfast and some light Jekua sparring. Niona nagged Wasaaru for more lessons on what Balt had dubbed the Shadow Clutch, while Balt was more concerned with simply deepening his mana reserves. If he had to be Niona’s punching bag in the process, then so be it. While the Summoners trained, warming themselves up for another long day of hiking, Alani and Aeiko were off to the side stretching. They hadn’t done it any other day, and Aeiko swore it would make them feel less worn out. Alani trusted their judgment.
The pair was stretching out their hamstrings while Brine mimicked their actions. Aeiko had jokingly invited him to join in on their exercising, and he had silently accepted. The coral golem contorting his rocky body into the various poses looked beyond ridiculous, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. As far as Alani could tell given his blank face, anyway.
Brine bent over, reaching desperately for his toes. Aeiko called out to him, “You’re not using the proper form there, bud.”
Alani giggled. “Do you even know what the proper form is?” she asked them.
“I do not.”
She turned from them to the golem and said, “You’re doing great, Brine.”
He stood up straight and waved.
Everyone wrapped up their early morning exercise sessions around the same time. As the Summoners withdrew their trio of Jekuas, Balt clapped his hands together and a big, goofy grin stretched across his face. “Y’all ready?” he asked enthusiastically.
Alani affirmed. Last night, he had explained to them his theory on the Warp Points that his grandmother may or may not have left behind. She didn’t recall the tree he mentioned that was back down the path, so to her it was not much of a landmark, but she believed he knew what he was talking about.
He also showed them all the drawing on Wasaaru’s card and the smattering of dots in the bestiary. Aeiko did not understand any of it until the cousins dove into an explanation of how their grandmother had discovered Sawarestao, a story that Alani had heard during their time camping in the VWC. After observing the two sets of drawings for a couple minutes, she could buy that Remisti Vana had set up a series of Warp Points along the trail. She couldn’t understand why she created a bunch of them rather than just placing one at the top of the mountain that teleported you straight there, but maybe there was some magical explanation as to why she couldn’t. At this juncture, Alani did not feel the need to question any of this Jekua stuff.
They trundled down the trail in the alleged direction of the big, twisty tree. Balt had been using Dipper during their training, but now he summoned the new (and improved?) Prince to walk alongside them. He’d shown off his new Hybrid last night as well, and Alani hated it. Absolutely hated it. The mud-made crab gave her the creeps as it scuttled between her and Balt, opening and closing its claws with a wet snap!
“Why are all of your Jekuas so gross?” she asked him, side-eyeing Prince.
“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” said Balt sourly.
“Is that a real question?”
He huffed. “Just wait. Once I’ve got Sawarestao in my crew, her majestic ass will offset all the gross ones.”
“I hope your math checks out,” she told him, dubious.
This part of the trail was relatively wide, able to accommodate all six of them astride if they wanted to, so there was far less risk of tumbling over the side than there was when they faced the Rot-Wren. Because of that, Balt decided it was the perfect time to screw with his cousin, and he continually used Prince to lob mudballs in front of Wasaaru’s feet to make him slip. It only worked a handful of times, but Wasaaru was always furious when it did. Balt and Niona got a good kick out of it, and honestly Alani had to stop herself from laughing at Wasaaru’s misfortune. Balt received more than a few punches to the arm for his trouble.
About an hour later, Prince had retreated back into Balt’s kayet and the group came upon the tree in question. Now that she was really looking at it, Alani could see the similarities to Remisti’s drawing. The tree loomed high above them, situated at the edge of the mountain and surrounded by a patch of pastel blue flowers. Its trunk was thick enough to squeeze at least three of them inside. About midway up, the trunk separated into three meaty sections, which all twisted and curled around each other as they reached into the sky and curved over the edge of the mountain, leaves dangling in the open air.
Balt stared wide-eyed at the tree, his mouth hanging open in a proud smile. He turned to the others and cocked a thumb at it, saying, “That’s just like the drawing, right?”
“It does look like it,” said Wasaaru, pulling the card from his pocket and holding it in front of the tree. “So where’s the Warp Point, then?”
Balt’s head swung back and forth so quickly, Alani prepared for him to snap his neck. He said, “I don’t know.”
“It’s purposefully hard to spot, right?” said Alani, taking a step toward the tree. “In your story, you said that your grandma thought she was imagining it at first. Nothing more than a shimmer in the sunlight.”
“Yeah,” said Balt. “It’s gotta be pretty well-hidden if we strolled right past it yesterday. Hell, we mighta strolled right past a ton of Warp Points.”
Balt, Niona, and Wasaaru started ambling around the base of the tree, seeking out the faint shimmer Remisti had described all those years ago. Alani peered at the blue flowers, expecting to find that shimmer among their pretty, rustling petals. She grew closer, crouching low to run her hands through the soft sea of petals. A part of her was worried some animal or insect might leap out and bite or sting her, but the area was peaceful. She walked apprehensively through the flower patch, wondering if she was about to be abruptly sucked through a mystical portal.
But there was nothing.
Everybody scrounged around for a couple minutes, but there was no Warp Point in sight. Aeiko seemed unsure of what they were supposed to be looking for, but they joined the effort too, running their hands along the nearby mountain wall and carefully treading through the grass.
Balt let out a loud, obnoxious groan as he plopped himself in the grass beside the flowers, not too far from where Alani stood. “Well,” he sighed defeatedly, “I dunno.”
Wasaaru was still looking around, but the rest of them had ceased their search. Aeiko stood several feet away next to Brine, and Niona was positioned in the middle of the trail with her arms firmly crossed.
“There goes that theory,” said Niona.
Balt said, “I just…I don’t understand what the point of the drawing is, then.”
“Maybe she was just bored,” said Wasaaru, giving up his search. He was trying to play it nonchalant, but Alani could tell by his body language that he was disappointed too.
Alani jumped to Balt’s defense. “I don’t think so,” she said. “That’s either a lot of effort or a very strange coincidence for someone just doodling while they’re bored.” She thought for a moment, then asked, “Is it possible that the Warp Points…I don’t know, expired? Does that happen? Do they only last a certain amount of time and then dissolve?”
She looked from one Summoner to the next, but each of them merely offered a shrug in response.
“I don’t know shit about Warp magic,” said Niona.
“Me neither,” said Wasaaru.
“It’s really uncommon,” Balt said, loosing another halfhearted sigh. “I haven’t read all that much about it either. Most of what I know is from what our grandma told us, and that wasn’t really much.”
Alani considered the story Balt had told her, as well as the supposed map of Warp Points. There had to be something they were missing.
“The shimmer was so faint, she almost missed it,” she murmured, mostly to herself, but loud enough that the others could hear it.
“You already said that,” Balt reminded her.
She shot him a glare, then said, “If the Warp Points are truly that hard to spot, then it’d be super easy to stumble right into them.”
“Sure,” Wasaaru nodded.
“What I’m getting at is that Remisti probably wouldn’t put them anywhere on the main path right here, or even right next to the tree, where a random hiker might accidentally step into it and be thrust onto some other part of the mountain.”
“…sure,” Wasaaru said again. Not in a disbelieving tone, but more like he simply didn’t understand what point she was making.
Aeiko was the first to connect the dots. “The other side of the tree,” they said.
Alani smiled. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
The cousins watched her with intense curiosity as she stepped through the flower patch—apologizing under her breath to the flowers she had to crush—and leaned over the edge of the trail’s railing to catch a glimpse of the tree’s backside.
A crooked smile broke out across her face.
There it was. The most subtle wavering in the brown bark, its jagged edges and shallow creases shifting and bending unnaturally. If she looked close enough, she could just barely make out the border of the Warp Point, where the tree’s bark was no longer altered. It was a tall, ovular shape positioned roughly a quarter of the way up the trunk.
