‹ Prequel: Avenging Death
Healing the Broken
Chapter One: Returning Home
Zey
The sun barely peaked above the surface. It would be setting, soon. I usually didn’t come this late to the forest but it was time to return home, and I wanted to bring Kye a treat. I plucked golden pea shaped fruits from a brush and put them in my pouch. Tadicka, what I called the fruit, was not only delicious, but it had the ability to increase strength and energy.
I passed the sacred fruit tree, it produced hand sized, red fruits. It was one of the dangerous fruits here in the forest. It could make me a prisoner here if I ate it, and I would only be able to leave if I was willing to die. That is what happen to Bahara who became a nymph by eating the sacred fruit. Kye had told me that Danj said Bahara had left the forest to save and protect Danj and I from the rogues who kidnapped us. She saved Danj, but she disintegrated as a result. Bahara had taught me about the forest with the little time I had spent with her. It pained me that Bahara and Danj had lost their lives.
I heard the snapping of a branch behind me, and swiftly turned around. I breathe in relief, as I glimpsed a gloshi scurrying behind me. Gloshies were small furry green miniature bears with large fluffy tails. I had actually given them a name since there was no one else in the forest to identify them. I used to be not as fearful of the forest that was until one day in the forest, I heard a gloshi scream out. I followed the screams to witness a large yellow scaly creature sinking its long flesh into the gloshi. Blood dripped down its mouth as the gloshi was ripped apart.
From then on, I was cautious in the forest. I should have known, Bahara had said the forest was a threshold to another world. I just wonder how they were able to cross the threshold to the forest if I had to use the queron to enter the barrier of the forest. The queron was a stone that I wore around my neck. Kye had it polished and made into a necklace for me. It was time for me to go, the sun was beginning to sink beneath the earth. It took me a while to remember what entrance to take back home. While visiting this place, I had found out there were hundreds of different pathways outside the portal that led to different places. Bahara never told me this, but it was possible she didn’t know herself since she couldn’t leave the forest.
I securely stored the pouches in my bag and passed the boulder that I remember as a marker to the threshold of my home. I walked through the invisible wall crossing the barrier. I looked at the mystical forest before leaving it. It looked like an island floating on a dry grassland. If I had not had the queron, I wouldn’t have been able to see it. The atmosphere in Bylon was surprisingly cooler, today. It was usually warm, but a gentle cool breeze blew through my hair. I was twenty miles away, but I enjoyed my evening walks back home. My small white house appeared in sight, and I knew I was home. Kye was walking into the entrance, carrying in his only hand a pile of wood.
He saw me and smiled. “Is that Precious Melody?”
I laughed and ran to him. He gave me all types of nick names but precious melody became his favorite, when he found out I could sing. He rarely called me Tronzey. In fact, no one called me by my real name, they just called me Zey.
I smash into his chest, and kissed him on the cheek. He embraced me in his arm. I hadn’t seen him in three months and missed him so much.
“How was it?” He asked and looked at me concerned. “And why are you walking out so late?”
Kye was very protective. Before I began my training, Kye would go with me to the forest. He didn’t know how dangerous it was and didn’t want to take chances in letting me go alone.
“I lost more track of time than I thought and really wanted to come home,” I said.
He didn’t look satisfied with my answer. “I’ll let it slide this time but you need to be careful especially at night.”
“It was interesting some days and boring other days but I brought you a present.” I quickly tried to change the subject.
“I know you’re avoiding my criticism,” He said. “I need you to understand it’s dangerous.”
I sighed. “I know, you’re right. I will be more careful.”
He was right, of course. I just hated the fact that I needed to be so cautious. Sometimes I wish I was a boy, they could travel the world and not worry about being raped.
“Thank-you,” he said. “let’s get inside so you can tell me about your travels and studies.”
Kye lit the wood under the stove. He gathered some fresh vegetables and placed them on a pan on the stove. I watched him struggle as he tried to steady the pan and stir the vegetables with his one hand.
“Kye, let me cook. I brought your favorite vegetables,” I said, trying not to seem more suggestive than sympathetic.
He usually wouldn’t let me help. He said he had to learn for himself how to manage with his amputated arm.
“Hmmm, that does sound good,“ he said, delighted. “alright.”
He sat down and I caught him smiling sadly. He knew I was pitying him, but he didn’t want to reject my kindness to treat him. When my murderous father cut off his arm and murdered Danj, his true love and my courageous savior, he was release from the army unit. He had taken me in as an orphan and tried not to seem incapacitated around me. He had become my father, my older brother, and best friend. I was grateful to him.
“How was it,” he asked, sitting at the table.
“It feels like the training is going really slow,” I said, retrieving the pouch of tadicka from my backpack and poured it into the pan. “We’ve only failed to combine ordinary plants and enchanted fruits in our world.
When I first discovered the different enchanted fruits in the forest could be used to cure people from sicknesses and heal injuries, I began mixing them to formulate remedies. Of course, it didn’t go as I planned. For some strange reason, if I didn’t combined them perfectly, the magic power ceased. It was as if the enchanting fruits canceled one another out. I had only once, on my own succeeded at making an enhanced remedy out of hundreds of experiments. I wanted desperately to be a medicine alchemist so I asked a medicine woman to train me. She agreed to teach me her formulas in exchange for the enchanted fruit. We had traveled many lands and experimented with the mystical forest’s plants and our world’s plants. We were working on combining our plants with the mystical forest fruit since enchanted plants didn’t thrive long after being planted in our world. Our world lacked the nutrition for the enchanted plants. During the long training, I felt like we were wasting time experimenting instead of helping people and animals too.
“It will get better,” Kye assured me. “It will be worth it in the end because you won’t have to travel to the unknowns of the mystical forest and will be able to grow the plants at home.”
I smiled at him. He always knew what to say. Another reason why I was determined to be a medicine alchemist is that I wanted to restore Kye’s arm. He had become disabled too young at seventeen. He was now twenty-six, and I didn’t want him to have live the rest of his life disabled. If some lizards could regenerate limbs in our word, there had to be a way to use the enchanted fruit from the mystical forest to do it as well.
“It’s starting to smell good,” He said. ”if you don’t hurry, I might become compulsively starved and devour you.”
I laughed. He used to tell me stories of people who would turn into monsters on a full moon, and madly search for animals or humans to devour. They never scared me just interested me. There were more than enough dangers in the world than to have to worry about myths.
“I wouldn’t taste good,” I said. “humans are not appetizing.”
“I think they are,” He said.
I turned to him, he had a stern expression on his face.
“What,” I looked at him, concerned
“During a drought, when I was in the unit, we had to eat the fallen,” he said.
I looked at him, horrified. His mouth began to swell, and he burst out laughing. Still chuckling, he saw that the food was almost done, he took the plates and utensils from the cabinet and place them on the table.
“That’s not funny,” I said, “I really thought—“
A piercing scream broke the air. Someone outside was in trouble.
The sun barely peaked above the surface. It would be setting, soon. I usually didn’t come this late to the forest but it was time to return home, and I wanted to bring Kye a treat. I plucked golden pea shaped fruits from a brush and put them in my pouch. Tadicka, what I called the fruit, was not only delicious, but it had the ability to increase strength and energy.
I passed the sacred fruit tree, it produced hand sized, red fruits. It was one of the dangerous fruits here in the forest. It could make me a prisoner here if I ate it, and I would only be able to leave if I was willing to die. That is what happen to Bahara who became a nymph by eating the sacred fruit. Kye had told me that Danj said Bahara had left the forest to save and protect Danj and I from the rogues who kidnapped us. She saved Danj, but she disintegrated as a result. Bahara had taught me about the forest with the little time I had spent with her. It pained me that Bahara and Danj had lost their lives.
I heard the snapping of a branch behind me, and swiftly turned around. I breathe in relief, as I glimpsed a gloshi scurrying behind me. Gloshies were small furry green miniature bears with large fluffy tails. I had actually given them a name since there was no one else in the forest to identify them. I used to be not as fearful of the forest that was until one day in the forest, I heard a gloshi scream out. I followed the screams to witness a large yellow scaly creature sinking its long flesh into the gloshi. Blood dripped down its mouth as the gloshi was ripped apart.
From then on, I was cautious in the forest. I should have known, Bahara had said the forest was a threshold to another world. I just wonder how they were able to cross the threshold to the forest if I had to use the queron to enter the barrier of the forest. The queron was a stone that I wore around my neck. Kye had it polished and made into a necklace for me. It was time for me to go, the sun was beginning to sink beneath the earth. It took me a while to remember what entrance to take back home. While visiting this place, I had found out there were hundreds of different pathways outside the portal that led to different places. Bahara never told me this, but it was possible she didn’t know herself since she couldn’t leave the forest.
I securely stored the pouches in my bag and passed the boulder that I remember as a marker to the threshold of my home. I walked through the invisible wall crossing the barrier. I looked at the mystical forest before leaving it. It looked like an island floating on a dry grassland. If I had not had the queron, I wouldn’t have been able to see it. The atmosphere in Bylon was surprisingly cooler, today. It was usually warm, but a gentle cool breeze blew through my hair. I was twenty miles away, but I enjoyed my evening walks back home. My small white house appeared in sight, and I knew I was home. Kye was walking into the entrance, carrying in his only hand a pile of wood.
He saw me and smiled. “Is that Precious Melody?”
I laughed and ran to him. He gave me all types of nick names but precious melody became his favorite, when he found out I could sing. He rarely called me Tronzey. In fact, no one called me by my real name, they just called me Zey.
I smash into his chest, and kissed him on the cheek. He embraced me in his arm. I hadn’t seen him in three months and missed him so much.
“How was it?” He asked and looked at me concerned. “And why are you walking out so late?”
Kye was very protective. Before I began my training, Kye would go with me to the forest. He didn’t know how dangerous it was and didn’t want to take chances in letting me go alone.
“I lost more track of time than I thought and really wanted to come home,” I said.
He didn’t look satisfied with my answer. “I’ll let it slide this time but you need to be careful especially at night.”
“It was interesting some days and boring other days but I brought you a present.” I quickly tried to change the subject.
“I know you’re avoiding my criticism,” He said. “I need you to understand it’s dangerous.”
I sighed. “I know, you’re right. I will be more careful.”
He was right, of course. I just hated the fact that I needed to be so cautious. Sometimes I wish I was a boy, they could travel the world and not worry about being raped.
“Thank-you,” he said. “let’s get inside so you can tell me about your travels and studies.”
Kye lit the wood under the stove. He gathered some fresh vegetables and placed them on a pan on the stove. I watched him struggle as he tried to steady the pan and stir the vegetables with his one hand.
“Kye, let me cook. I brought your favorite vegetables,” I said, trying not to seem more suggestive than sympathetic.
He usually wouldn’t let me help. He said he had to learn for himself how to manage with his amputated arm.
“Hmmm, that does sound good,“ he said, delighted. “alright.”
He sat down and I caught him smiling sadly. He knew I was pitying him, but he didn’t want to reject my kindness to treat him. When my murderous father cut off his arm and murdered Danj, his true love and my courageous savior, he was release from the army unit. He had taken me in as an orphan and tried not to seem incapacitated around me. He had become my father, my older brother, and best friend. I was grateful to him.
“How was it,” he asked, sitting at the table.
“It feels like the training is going really slow,” I said, retrieving the pouch of tadicka from my backpack and poured it into the pan. “We’ve only failed to combine ordinary plants and enchanted fruits in our world.
When I first discovered the different enchanted fruits in the forest could be used to cure people from sicknesses and heal injuries, I began mixing them to formulate remedies. Of course, it didn’t go as I planned. For some strange reason, if I didn’t combined them perfectly, the magic power ceased. It was as if the enchanting fruits canceled one another out. I had only once, on my own succeeded at making an enhanced remedy out of hundreds of experiments. I wanted desperately to be a medicine alchemist so I asked a medicine woman to train me. She agreed to teach me her formulas in exchange for the enchanted fruit. We had traveled many lands and experimented with the mystical forest’s plants and our world’s plants. We were working on combining our plants with the mystical forest fruit since enchanted plants didn’t thrive long after being planted in our world. Our world lacked the nutrition for the enchanted plants. During the long training, I felt like we were wasting time experimenting instead of helping people and animals too.
“It will get better,” Kye assured me. “It will be worth it in the end because you won’t have to travel to the unknowns of the mystical forest and will be able to grow the plants at home.”
I smiled at him. He always knew what to say. Another reason why I was determined to be a medicine alchemist is that I wanted to restore Kye’s arm. He had become disabled too young at seventeen. He was now twenty-six, and I didn’t want him to have live the rest of his life disabled. If some lizards could regenerate limbs in our word, there had to be a way to use the enchanted fruit from the mystical forest to do it as well.
“It’s starting to smell good,” He said. ”if you don’t hurry, I might become compulsively starved and devour you.”
I laughed. He used to tell me stories of people who would turn into monsters on a full moon, and madly search for animals or humans to devour. They never scared me just interested me. There were more than enough dangers in the world than to have to worry about myths.
“I wouldn’t taste good,” I said. “humans are not appetizing.”
“I think they are,” He said.
I turned to him, he had a stern expression on his face.
“What,” I looked at him, concerned
“During a drought, when I was in the unit, we had to eat the fallen,” he said.
I looked at him, horrified. His mouth began to swell, and he burst out laughing. Still chuckling, he saw that the food was almost done, he took the plates and utensils from the cabinet and place them on the table.
“That’s not funny,” I said, “I really thought—“
A piercing scream broke the air. Someone outside was in trouble.