Chapter 11

James quickly rose from his sleep to find himself lying in the corner of the room. The sun was shining in from his bedroom window; he figured it must be getting close to noon. His breathing was heavy and his head was aching. The bottle was still sitting next to him on the floor. Neither Alchem nor the beast was present in the room and there was no sign he had thrown anything up. He couldn’t say how much of what he saw was real, if any. His legs were being warmed by the sun seeping through the shutters. He grabbed the bottle next to him and wondered down the stairs. His parents weren’t anywhere nearby and he couldn’t see them in the fields out the window. James popped the cork and took a swig. It may have been a bit early to be drinking, but he felt the circumstances called for it. Outside James did a slow lap around the house. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for but he figured he’d know it if he saw it. Nothing was out of the ordinary so he cautiously made his way towards the back of the fields to the stable. The doors were already open so James assumed he would find his parents inside, which he did, but he also found two people he did not expect to see.

His parents were laughing and talking to Shernine and the tall green man. He wanted to tackle him to prevent him from running off again, but restrained himself in front of his parents. James stood in the doorway confused for a few moments before his mother noticed and beckoned him over. She pulled James in close to introduce him. “James, this is Shernine and Drule. They are renting some horses and need you to escort them to north to Bornatville. You’ll be leaving tomorrow.” She then leaned in and whispered in his ear “They are paying us a lot of money, you’re going.” James turned to Shernine and Drule. Drule was paying absolutely no attention and just petting the mane of one of the horses. Shernine was smiling proudly at James. It was clever, to his credit. James was surprised his parents were so quick to jump on board with the idea.

“Can I bring along Bart? I may need some help on the way back and you know I’m awful with directions.”

“I don’t see why not, we’ll give him some of the payment for the help.” His mother leaned into him again. “Part of your payment, obviously.” She whispered. Shernine grinned again at James.

“We’ll be heading out tomorrow morning. Don’t have a lot of extra time.” James looked around at everyone again. His parents both seemed excited about having James help. Drule just seeded happy to be around the horses. If Shernine was able to work this out, maybe he wasn’t as clueless as James originally thought. For the first time in a few weeks James felt excited again; he might really get some answers.

“I’ll be ready.”

James parents finished arranging the transaction with Shernine while James ran back to the house to start packing up his things. He couldn’t believe he may actually find out what had happened to Alchem and Malcolm. His heart was thumping with excitement as he hurriedly threw his cloak and extra clothing into a bag. A million thoughts were racing through his head as he watched Shernine and Drule through his window as they wandered back up the road. He realized this Drule character must have been looking for him over the past weeks, maybe realizing who he was? It didn’t matter much to him at this point.

A few hours later James was knocking on Bart’s door. He could hear Bart’s footsteps thumping towards him before opening the latch and revealing himself in the entrance. “You still up for heading north?” Bart raised an eyebrow at him.

“When?”

“Tomorrow.” Bart took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He turned over his shoulder to the empty looking home. He could hear both his parents snoring from their room.

“Yeah.”

That night the boys all met at the pub in town to say goodbye to Michael before the trip. Michael was clearly in no condition to travel, or drink for that matter, but wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to drink with his friends for the last time for a couple weeks. Bart and James had mostly packed over the course of the day and had to be up early for travel. They were going to meet at James’ ranch, pick up the horses and go from there. James never had a chance to talk to Drule. He wanted to find out why he kept popping up and how he disappeared so quickly but didn’t get the chance while he was at the ranch. James’ parents were too busy chatting away with the two strangers.

The boys all sat at a table with beers chatting away in the mostly empty bar. Michael tried to convince them once they made it to a real city they would quickly realize how much more interesting it was and never come back. James said he wouldn’t mind if he never came back; Vorren wasn’t offering much for him at this point. Bart seemed determined to become a sailor and get on with a somewhat normal life and make a living doing what he knew well. James was much more determined to see the world. He was happy to have grown up in a small town away from the hustle and bustle of city life, but as he grew older he started to get bored with the same old day to day life his parents were so fond of. If he never had to clean out another stable again he’d jump at the chance. The biggest barrier standing in James’ way was that he did not want to disappoint his parents. It wasn’t so much that they loved the idea of James raising horses as it was they’d be saddened to see the ranch abandoned. His parents loved the horses almost as much as they loved James.

As much as Michael wanted to move back into a big city he seemed like the least likely to end up leaving Vorren. He had become good friends with the carpenter he had been apprenticing with and would have been happy to take a full time position with him had it not been for his recent health problems. The furniture he was making was of high value and was mostly shipped out to rich homes far outside of Vorren. Michael felt proud of his work. It also paid fairly well.

After a few laughs James quieted down for a minute and stared at the foam in his beer. Bart and Michael both took notice. When he looked back up James could tell they were concerned. “I saw its eyes last night.” He whispered, as if the information was too sensitive to speak openly about in public. Michael slumped back in his seat.

“It’s terrifying, isn’t it?” James just shook his head. He couldn’t describe it. He had never been so scared in a dream before, if it was even really a dream. He had never actually fallen asleep before finding the creature in his room.

“It said something to me. It said ‘he will fall’ and then... Alchem was there, and it went after Alchem” Bart cocked his head to the side and squinted but looked away when James made eye contact with him. Despite having had the dream himself he wasn’t sure he still completely believed there was much meaning to it.

“It only smiles at me. When it smiles I feel like puking. I feel like puking just thinking about it. Sometimes I swear I can see it off in the distance. Just staring at me…” Michael seemed genuinely shaken just talking about it.

“I tried talking to it.” Both of the boys turned to Bart. They couldn’t get over how non-chalant he was about the experience. Neither of them could imagine remaining so calm in its presence. The beast was clearly some form of evil.  They seemed confused as to why he would make his presence known to the thing. “He can’t hear me. They can only hear certain people.”

“They?”

“My dad told me once that spells can have a mind of their own.” Michael and James were confused by what he meant. Bart was convinced every story his dad had ever heard from some crazy sailor was an absolute fact. He was certainly more superstitious about it than he had been letting on. James and Michael weren’t sure they believe what he was saying. At the same time, neither of them would have believed that some dream they were consistently having was supposed to mean something unless it had happened to them as it did. For whatever reason, Michael bit.

“What do you mean?”

“Spells can sometimes become a little more powerful than originally intended. Too powerful…”

“As in?” James prodded.

“As in taking a corporeal form, messing with dreams and having adverse health effects on people.”

“I doubt a stomach infection is a result of some magic nonsense.” James wasn’t buying it at all, but Michael was listening carefully.

“A stomach infection just seems like something they told me to make me feel better, to convince me it could be fixed.” Bart agreed and gestured towards James that maybe something more serious was going on. Michael was not the sort of person to complain about a health issue but whatever his problem was it was utterly debilitating… and it wasn’t getting any better. James feared Michael was looking for answers in the wrong places solely out of desperation. “If you saw Alchem in your dream, that’s got to mean something, right?” James wasn’t sure how to answer. He wasn’t ready to board the magical sickness conclusion, but at the same time he felt very sure that Alchem had to be involved somehow. The beast clearly referred to his presence in the dream.

“I can ask him about it whenever we find him.”

“Sure…” Michael muttered while grabbing for his beer, “sure.”

The next morning James slowly cracked his eyes opened to an early, glowing red sun seeping in through his shutters. His head was pounding slightly and he wasn’t exactly sure when he went to bed. Luckily he hadn’t had any dreams at all. His bag sat on the floor next to his bed in the same spot he had left it before going to the pub. He threw a few more essentials together before strapping on his boots and heading downstairs. His parents were both asleep. He knew they would be which is why he made the point to say goodbye to both of them before heading out the night before. Outside his front door no one was to be seen so he headed back to the stable to pick up the horses. The doors to the stable were already open much to James’ surprise. Inside Bart, Shernine, Drule, and even Michael were all waiting for him. The horses were already packed and ready to go, except for James’ bag.

James rubbed his eyes and stared at them all. It was if they had been waiting for him all through the night. Michael in particular seemed concerned. Shernine, the least worried looking of the bunch, standing in front of the rest gestured to the single empty horse. “Ready to go?” James looked at them all standing, waiting for him to answer as if the entire journey depended on a simple yes or no. Michael was dressed in his riding gear with his bag strapped to one of the horses.

“Michael’s coming?” He didn’t think it was wise to have someone so sick come along on such a long journey. Michael simply looked down at his hand and pulled back his sleeve to reveal dark veins that faded up his arm, as if his blood had been turning black in his extremities. James rushed over to get a closer look but Michael pulled his sleeve back down.

“Started a few days ago, I gotta believe Alchem might have some kind of answer.”

James turned back and looked at the humble house he grew up in. He had spent his entire life living here. It was comfortable to him. It wasn’t necessarily what he wanted to do most, but it worked. His family and friends were here. His greatest memories lived in the home. He thought about his parents. They wouldn’t ever leave the place, it had been their home since before he was born. They meant more to him than anyone ever could, leaving the village was like leaving them behind. In fact, leaving this home was leaving everything behind. James slowly turned around and looked at the unlikely group waiting before him. “Let’s go.”