“Wait! Don’t go! We mean you no harm.”
He backed toward the water.
Liv pulled away from Rise, and he felt the loss of her immediately. He wanted to keep touching her. Yet, she seemed to know what to do.
She stepped forward with just the slightest movement, stooping slightly as she did. “Hi! My name’s Liverity. What’s yours?”
The boy just stared, and with one quick shake of his head, gave an indication he wasn’t going to share any information with them.
Liv tried again. “We really aren’t going to hurt you. We just have a few questions for you. We’re curious. How did you get here?”
Instead of answering her, he gave a loud whistle and looked back toward the water. Rise had a feeling they’d already met Spot once, and he wasn’t in a hurry to do so again. He needed to get control of this situation, and he needed to do it now.
“Are you hungry? I have a little food in my bag. I’m happy to share with you, but we need to move away from the water.”
This seemed to be the right tactic as the boy’s stomach growled loudly, and he gave a hesitant nod.
Liv motioned for him to follow as she turned back around, watching for his compliance. “We have a cave just up the way where we can all sit, eat, and chat. You look like you could use a friend, and we are as friendly as they come.”
Now was probably not the time to bring up each of their past lives as mercenaries or his ever-evolving plot of revenge that he’d devoted his life to. Neither were going to support the idea that they could be a friend, even though, just looking at the two of them, any sane person would know Liv and he weren’t the most trustworthy of companions.
Fortunately, they were dealing with a kid, probably no more than ten years old. So, without more than a few more moments of hesitant and light blue-eyed, longing looks toward the water, the kid took a step in their direction. Rise was just a little surprised at the ease at which they were able to get back to the cave. No water monsters and no fiery beasts emerged, and somehow, nothing else appeared either.
Once they were settled on the boulders that served as seats inside the small cave, Rise pulled out a few bits of bread and dried meat he had wrapped for today’s meals and handed it over to the kid. He only stared at it for a second before sniffing it and promptly devouring every last bite, leaving no crumb to fall to the cave floor. He must have been starving.
Once he’d put the wrapping down beside him, Rise asked, “Would you like something to drink?”
The boy nodded enthusiastically, but before Rise handed the flask over he asked, “How did you get here?”
Chewing his lip a few moments, he seemed to be deciding whether he should confide in them or not. Yet, as Rise handed over the flask, the kid said, “My name’s Atta. I don’t really knowhow I got here. I just…just needed somewhere to hide and gather my friends to help me.”
Liv scooted to the edge of her rock and asked, “Who are you hiding from?”
“The bad man who took my mom.”
Liv reacted with a quick intake of air. “Someone took your mom?”
The kid nodded enthusiastically. “She helped me get away, but he still has her.”
“Who is this bad man?”
“I don’t know. He’s so old and big and scary. He has cold eyes and an angry mouth. But my friends and I are going to get my mom back. I just have to get them bigger and stronger. They’ll fight the bad man and free her.”
Rise was still confused. The kid’s answers were uninformative at best. Every bad guy had cold eyes and an angry mouth. That didn’t tell them anything. “Tell me, Atta. How did you actually get here? This is a world that should be locked to everyone except for me. Are you telling me your mother opened this world for you?”
“No. I did it. My friends are too big to hide anywhere else. We came here until we are ready to attack the castle and get my mom back.”
“You opened a portal to this world? You did it?”
The kid nodded, and Rise didn’t know what to think.
Liv stepped forward and placed a hand softly on Rise’s arm. He swung his gaze to hers, hoping she had some sort of insight to calm his racing mind. How had a kid figured out portal-walking, especially through locked ones?
“Look at the bumps under his vest. He has wings, Rise.”
His focus zeroed in on the two lumps pushing the boy’s vest outward. They were small, but it was clear the child had wings…or something that looked very much like them. All the soundsand scenery seemed to disappear around Rise. The only thing he could hear was the rushing of the blood in his ears, and nothing but the wings mattered. If the water creature or the fire beast themselves had returned for another round, Rise couldn’t have lifted a hand to defend himself in that moment.
Were there others like Rise? Never having come across another like him in all of his life, he hadn’t considered the possibility. Of course, since mostly staying inside dimensions he’d created himself, the truth was, he’d avoided other beings for most of his free existence. But he’d never thought there might be others like him who could weave a new world with the mere thought. Or, that someone could slip inside his locked dimension like they were passing through air.
