Page 7 of The Void

“I need rest,” Lucas called out. “I need water, food, and rest.” He yanked on the chains.

“Soon,” the voice said back.

“You don’t talk in riddles,” he pointed out as they started walking. To Lucas’s relief, this being walked more slowly and with much smaller steps. Thankfully, it appeared he wasn’t going to be dragged during this portion of his trip.

“My brother likes theatrics,” the creature answered.

“I’m Lucas,” he said, trying to get some information as they went.

“Jain. My brother Proteus found you for Aynah. Word was sent for all creatures to be on alert for a mortal such as yourself,” Jain answered.

They had moved beyond the first lower hills of the mountain and with each step she made further into the green forest, a brightly colored bloom appeared on her outer skin, as if the closer to the center of the mountains she got, the more she came alive. Or maybe the flowers came out because it was growing dark in the evening hours. Either way, he estimated they had less than an hour before it would be full dark.

“Aynah?” he asked.

“Yes, we have been asked to bring all outsiders directly to the city,” Jain answered.

They walked for almost an hour, and he tried to gain as much knowledge from Jain as he could. Either the creature was cunning and knew how to keep her answers vague, or she really didn’t know much beyond what she’d told him.

He had just repeated the same question for the third time when she stilled.

“I grow tired of your questions.” She tugged on his chain and he fell face-first into the soft grass directly next to a small brook. “We rest here until light.” Jain sat down next to him, shaking the ground when she did so. She rolled over and immediately fell asleep between two large trees.

When he realized that Jain still held tight to his chains, he put all thoughts of escape out of his mind.

Leaning forward, Lucas sipped from the cool clear water then relieved himself against the farthest tree that his chains would allow him to go to.

While he did so, he scanned his extensive knowledge of mythology for what he knew about an Aynah.

From what he could remember, an Aynah was a being that had six levels of incarnation, which he assumed meant she could take six different forms. Said to be the queen of all djinns. Could this be Mia?

Since this world was beyond the myths of Earth, he doubted the history he’d spent his entire life studying would be of much help.

He pulled out his phone and wasn’t surprised to see there was no connection. But he snapped a few photos of Jain as she slept. Thankfully, he’d charged his phone before leaving and had some battery life left.

If they ever got out of this place, he’d enjoy showing his sisters the images.

As he settled into the soft mossy grass for the night, he scanned through the photos he’d taken over the past few weeks.

Looking down at the smiling faces of his two sisters, Selene and Tara, along with Scott and Colt, he realized just how happy the two couples were together. How well they fit together. Then he scrolled to a photo of him and Mia that Selene had taken at Mia’s family’s place just outside of Atlanta.

Mia’s arm was thrown over Lucas’s shoulder. Her tongue was out, shoved in the corner of her mouth as she stared at Lucas with a goofy look.

The image made him chuckle. Since the moment he’d met her, Mia had pulled out the humor Lucas had seemed to lack his entire life.

It wasn’t as if he was always serious. Well, okay, he was. After all, he’d been around six years old when he’d found out that the fate of the world rested on his shoulders.

That was a heavy burden to bear. He’d spent his entire life, after that day, learning how to possibly stop its destruction. He’d studied every myth ever written in any history book in the hopes that it would help.

After all, he knew that the old gods were real, which meant that other myths might be true as well.

When he’d been old enough, he’d started to condition his body to aid in the fight that was to come. The day he’d learned of his other special skills, he hadn’t been all that surprised.

The ability to fly, the extra strength, never being able to be hurt, those had just been an extra benefit. But the day he’d shifted into a large black wolf, that was the day everything had been made very clear to him.

That was the day he’d stopped being a kid. All laughter, all fun had fled from him. Until he’d met Selene and Mia.

Somehow, his sister and the djinn brought out something he’d buried deep inside himself long ago. Something that he hadn’t known he’d been missing. Laughter.