Through the Portal

“Did you ever notice what great singers mushrooms are?” Henry started to hum along to something only he could hear.

Tristan walked closer to Katherine and spoke softly. “Are you sure we can’t just leave him here?”

She smiled and shook her head. “You wouldn’t do that and we both know it.” She looked back at Henry who was staring up at the rainbow sky, still humming. “We all make mistakes. Let’s just be glad it wasn’t a deadly one he ate.”

“I would rather it was,” Tristan replied, watching the dazed child.

Henry reached out and touched Valda’s hair. She swiftly drew her sword and pointed it at him, but he just smiled at it. “So shiny!”

The she-elf sighed and sheathed her weapon, again. “Hands to yourself, mushroom boy.” She put some distance between herself and him as they continued walking.

Jake walked beside his brother, hoping to keep him out of trouble. “How are you doing?”

“The elf lady seems mad,” Henry replied. “Why is she so mad?”

“Oh, you know, she’s just temperamental,” Jake told him. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Maybe it’s her time of the month,” Henry suggested in a loud whisper. “Do elves get that?”

Jake covered his brother’s mouth, doing his best not to laugh at the comment, for fear Valda may kill them both. “Please, stop licking my hand.”

Henry obeyed and, after another minute, Jake dropped his hand, silently praying that his brother wouldn’t say anything else to get himself in trouble.

Late in the afternoon, the silver grass gave way to light blue sand. They continued following the stream until they came to a beach. The stream connected to an ocean, in which the water was completely clear. William wondered how that was possible, but he was fairly certain the answer would be “magic”. Fish of every color, shape and size could be seen swimming around in the water. They walked a little further and came to a large tunnel, made of what appeared to be glass. It dipped below the water, but, in the dim light, they couldn’t see much more.

Meredith remembered their water bottles and stared at it. “Is this diamond, as well?” She touched one of the cave walls.

Katherine nodded. “It used to be one long, solid strip that dipped down and passed under the ocean, but some wizards wanted to build a path from this shore to the next, so they made the strip into a tunnel. It’s the fastest and safest way to cross the ocean.”

Meredith nodded her understanding, still marveling at how little concern they had for the value of diamond. It seemed that no one in Mirra considered it to be anything more than some hard rock.

“We’ll rest at the entrance, tonight,” Katherine told them, glancing at Henry, who was poking the wall, repeatedly. “We’ll want to get up early and continue our journey at first light, though.”

They nodded and settled in for the night, each person pulling out a mushroom and a bottle of water for their dinner. Katherine had picked as many mushrooms as she could find before they left the fields. She’d made sure each person packed what they could and refilled their bottles. It would be a while before they were able to restock.

Jake got his brother to sleep and lay down beside him, thoroughly exhausted. The ground was cold and hard, but they couldn’t do much about that. Nobody fancied the idea of sleeping in the soft sand and waking with it in uncomfortable places.

Katherine sang a lullaby for them, helping most of the group to fall asleep. Only Tristan and Valda were unaffected and the latter elected to feign sleep until it came.

“You shouldn’t waste energy just to help them sleep,” Tristan scolded Katherine, softly. “You should conserve your power for more important things.”

She smiled at him. “You’re always so worried about me. It’s sweet.” He didn’t respond and her gaze shifted to the sleeping children. “It takes very little energy to make children fall asleep, so there’s no need for concern. You should lie down, as well. We don’t want you oversleeping again.”

He frowned, but obeyed, covering himself with a blanket to help him get to sleep. It didn’t take long. He had travelled quite a bit and was used to such uncomfortable beds.

Katherine stayed up awhile longer, wanting to make sure everyone else was settled before she lay down and closed her eyes, knowing she would only need an hour or two of sleep.

Henry was the last to wake up the next morning. By the time he stirred, the others had already eaten and were ready to go. He sat up and put a hand to his head with a groan.

“Serves you right,” Jake told him. “Do you know how much trouble you were, yesterday? You’re lucky we didn’t just leave you to die.”

His brother looked at him and winced, remembering the events of the previous day. “Sorry.”

“You’d better be.” Jake tossed him a mushroom. “We’re waiting for you, so you’ll have to walk and eat if you don’t want to slow us down any more than you already have.” Everyone else had woken up with aches from sleeping on the diamond floor, so nobody was particularly friendly that morning. Valda hadn’t even been in a mood to train William much, so he had just done some push-ups before breakfast.

Henry nodded and forced himself to stand up, despite his throbbing head. He grabbed the mushroom, but didn’t bite in, immediately. The way he felt, he didn’t think he would ever be able to eat another mushroom, again. He shouldered his satchel and nodded to the group, who had already stood and prepared to leave. “Alright. Let’s go.”

Before long, the tunnel began to slowly decline and, soon, they were in a transparent, under-water tunnel, looking around at the fish, swimming beside and over them. They seemed oblivious to the presence of the group and Meredith wondered how often people travelled through the tunnel.

Josie was the most fascinated. She kept running from side to side, wanting to see every creature that passed by. None of them looked quite like the fishes they were familiar with. Most of them were brightly colored, but some were silver or gold and reflected the light, which streamed all the way down from the bright sky. William kept an eye on the child, making sure she never strayed from the group. He tried to hold her hand for a while, but her excitement made it nearly impossible to hold onto her, so he gave up. He smiled as he watched Josie, her eyes bright and enthusiastic.

When they stopped for lunch, William expected to spar with Valda, but she declined, explaining that he would be badly hurt on the hard ground. Instead, she had him doing exercises to improve his strength and mobility. He was relieved and went through them with relative ease before eating his own lunch. They didn’t rest as long as usual because everyone was eager to get out of the tunnels. No one wanted to spend more nights on the hard ground than was absolutely necessary.

Meredith expected everything to get much darker as they went further down. However, the water was so clear, it hardly dampened the light. It didn’t start getting dark until the evening. Even then, the fish became bioluminescent and their different colors lit up, making the water around them glow and casting various colors of light on the tunnel floor. It took a while for Josie to settle down, despite her being tired. When William finally got her to lie down, he had trouble sleeping. He stared up at the colorful lights above him, thinking how lucky he was to have come to Mirra. This view was worth the sleeping on rock and running from monsters. He closed his eyes, eventually, and drifted off, listening to Katherine humming, as she often did.

Valda lay down, as well, closing her eyes and willing herself to sleep on the uncomfortable surface. She put herself into a deep meditation, helping her to relax and drift off.

Tristan had little interest in sleeping on the hard ground, so he stayed up a little longer and stared out at the brightly-lit creatures swimming around them.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Katherine moved to sit beside him. “I don’t travel this way very often and I sometimes forget just how amazing it is.”

He nodded. “Yes, my lady, it is quite lovely down here.”

She frowned, looking at him. “You’re always so cold, dear Tristan. I remember we used to be friends.”

He stared out at the fish for a few more minutes. “I should get some sleep. Good night, my lady.” He lay down on the hard surface and covered himself up, closing his eyes to block out any distractions.

Katherine sighed at her failed attempt to talk to him. There had been a time when they talked and laughed, together, but he had grown distant, at some point, after she became the guardian. Katherine knew that was probably it. Most people seemed to think she was too special to come near, but it troubled her most when Tristan acted that way. No matter what she did, Katherine just didn’t seem to be able to bridge the gap. She lay down and closed her eyes, trying not to let those thoughts trouble her too much as she fell asleep.

Once again, they all woke up sore and a little grumpy. Only Katherine seemed to feel alright, but she’d only needed to sleep for a couple of hours, so the hard ground didn’t affect her as much. However, she didn’t think it would be wise to comment on that fact to the irritable group.

Valda had William run through some morning drills before breakfast, which helped to ease the pain. She did the same while Tristan meditated to deal with the aches.

Meredith watched the group, wondering if she would be able to copy the movements. She had become stronger since she’d taken up working with the bow, but it seemed like William was light-years ahead of her, physically, even after just over a week of training with Valda.

“She must be a very skilled warrior.” Her comment was directed to Katherine, who sat beside her.

The guardian nodded. “She is one of the best fighters, I know.” She smiled at Meredith. “I suppose you already know that she and Tristan are tied for that title.”

Meredith couldn’t help but smile a little. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but does he get along with anybody?” She kept her voice low and her gaze on the meditating elf.

Katherine looked at him, thinking the question over. “He is very serious, most of the time. He has a great sense of duty and pride. I suppose that can make him a bit difficult, but he is a good person, when you get to know him. He has always been very kind to me.”

“But he even seems to keep you at a distance.” Meredith looked at her. “I can tell he cares about you, so why does he treat you like a stranger most of the time?”

Katherine gave her a sad smile. “The curse of the guardians, I suppose.” She stood to address the group. “Sorry to cut training short, but we should probably get going, soon. I’m sure we would all like to cover as much ground as possible. With any luck, we may reach the other shore by tomorrow night.”

That was good news to the group, even though it meant spending one more night on the diamond floor. William caught up with Katherine as they walked. “You really seem to know this place.”

She looked at him, a little confused. “It’s a straight shot from one side to the other. I don’t need much in the way of directions.”

He smiled and shook his head. “I mean Mirra, in general. I don’t know how you navigate it like you do and you always seem to know the exact distance from one place to the next. You must have travelled it a lot. I don’t think I could ever remember it so well.”

She frowned and looked ahead. “Meretricious.”

He stared at her, blankly. “What?”

“It was my favorite word when I was younger,” she explained. “It means something that looks impressive, but isn’t. I have travelled a lot, but knowing my way is part of being the guardian. I am bound to Mirra and the knowledge of its geography is part of me, not because I have been to all the places, but because I am the guardian. Therefore, my knowledge is meretricious.”

He nodded his understanding. “Well, just because you didn’t work for it, doesn’t mean it’s not impressive. You should give yourself more credit. I mean, surely, there is a reason you became guardian out of all the girls in Mirra. Everything happens for a reason, right?”

She paused and looked at him. “You think so?”

William shrugged. “I prefer to believe that. I can’t just think that bad things happen without leading to good or what is the point of living?”

She smiled and continued walking. “Yes. I would like to believe that, as well.” They fell into companionable silence as they walked side-by-side.

He couldn’t help but look around as they made their way through the tunnel. Josie had calmed down and stayed with the group better, but all the children were still fascinated by the fishes surrounding them. William had gone to the aquarium on a school trip, once, but it could never compare to what he saw, now. These fishes were so much more beautiful and free than those. He was even more caught off guard when a mermaid suddenly swam up and smiled at them. She had long, golden hair which flowed around her, and bright eyes that couldn’t seem to decide on a color. Her tail was silver with a blue swirl.

“Look!” Josie squealed, in excitement, and pointed at her.

Katherine waved to the mermaid, who smiled and waved back. She started following along as they walked, seeming interested in the group.

“That’s the first mermaid we’ve seen,” William commented to Katherine. “Are they uncommon or just shy?”

Katherine looked at the girl swimming outside the glass. “A little of both, I guess. They have their cities under the sea, but this tunnel isn’t near them. They would have to make an effort to come here. There is generally little reason to do that, but some of them get curious.”

William nodded and watched the mermaid for a moment. “She is very beautiful.”

“They’re all beautiful,” Valda commented, hearing the conversation. “Many a man has made himself a fool, chasing a mermaid who only saw him as a curiosity.” She looked at William. “I trust my student would not be so foolish as to chase a girl who is so clearly out of his reach.”

“I will do my best not to run into the sea after a mermaid.”

Valda nodded, but didn’t seem entirely satisfied by the answer. “I think it is about time we took a break for lunch. Don’t you agree, my lady?” She looked to Katherine, who nodded.

“This will be as good a time as any.” She set down her bag and pulled out a mushroom, along with a half-empty bottle of water. She frowned at it, hoping they would be able to keep to her timeline and make it out of the tunnel the next day, since all their rations were running low and nothing grew on diamond, even in Mirra.

William did his exercises, as usual. He noticed the mermaid seemed interested in his movements, but he managed to ignore her until he was finished and able to sit down for his lunch. He looked up at the girl, who was hovering above them, now. He waved and she waved back with a smile.

She was still there when they settled in for the night and Meredith wondered if she would follow them all the way out of the tunnel. She shrugged, not really concerned. The twins laid one of their blankets under them and shared the other, which didn’t quite cover them both. It didn’t seem like the worst idea, so Meredith convinced Josie to lie next to her that night. She laid her blanket down and they shared the one from Josie’s bag. It didn’t help, much, but it was something. She comforted herself with the thought that they would likely be sleeping on softer ground the following night.

Once the rest of the group was asleep, Tristan took a seat beside Katherine, who was watching the mermaid. He lowered his voice, so he wouldn’t be overheard if anyone was awake. “She’s still there.”

Katherine nodded. The mermaid was in the sand outside the tunnel, sleeping. “She doesn’t seem to have any immediate plans of leaving.”

“I may not be terribly familiar with the ways of mermaids, but this seems rather unusual. Am I wrong?” He looked at the guardian.

She sighed and shook her head. “It would appear she wants something, but we won’t know for certain until we make it out of the tunnel, tomorrow. If she has something to say, she will be able to say it then. If not, she will likely leave. It could just be that she is curious.”

“You don’t believe that.” It was a statement, not a question.

Katherine smiled at him. “I guess we will see, tomorrow. Best not to let it worry you, I think.”

He paused, but nodded. “Very well, my lady.” He lay down, not wanting to argue with her. There was a time when he would have said what was on his mind, but things were not that simple, anymore. He closed his eyes, doing his best to fall asleep, quickly.

Katherine sat up, for a while longer, contemplating the mermaid. Eventually, she, too, had to get some rest, so she lay down, deciding that staying awake would not change whether the mermaid was there or not in the morning.