And I thought the last chapter took awhile to finish...

Chapter Five - The Next Day

I swept up some glass and dumped it into the waste basket that Sharena had brought over to me. The glass replacement workers were busy putting in the new window. I sighed. Me a couple days ago, those guys yesterday, what would happen next? The only good thing about this whole thing was that nobody seemed to care about ‘that dragon that Kineas was hiding’ anymore. Nobody was really paying any attention to me, anyway, but at least some people might not connect ‘Riley the dragon’ to ‘Riley the teenage girl’ now.

Those Royal Escorts (as Kenny had called them) had left with their prisoner shortly after they lost the other guy. I was just happy that they didn’t ask me any questions. I wouldn’t even be able to answer the questions I’d heard them ask Sharena. For whatever reason, they seemed to believe that Sharena might know who the three suspects were.

“Riley,” Sharena called from the checkout counter. I propped my broom up against the wall by the front door and picked up the waste basket. I wanted to dump it into the trash can out back. “How’s your reading coming?”

“It’s been two days.”

“And?”

I grabbed a pill bottle from the shelf closest to me. “I can read hydro, and the rest is gibberish.”

“Has Kineas taught you how to spell your name yet?”

I nodded. “I’m doing pretty good with the alphabet, yeah.”

“Good. There’s a man out back with a shipment of medicine, can you go sign for it?”

I nodded again. “Yeah.”

“You’re doing pretty good after two days.”

I smiled. “Thanks.” I walked to the back door and reached into my pocket for the keys. The short one was the house key, the long one was the prescription cabinet key, the medium one was the back door key. I was grateful Sharena only gave me three keys to deal with. I set the waste basket down beside me and noticed - almost stupidly - that there actually was a ladder to the roof. I guess if I’d known that the night before, things would have happened differently with that one guy.

I sighed. He looked so familiar. I couldn’t figure out where I recognized him from. I shook my head and tried to focus on something else. I needed to sign for some medicine. That was all I needed to focus on.

I unlocked and opened the door, and Kenny was standing there, talking to the guy who had brought in the medicine. Kenny looked like he was having a great time talking. “Oh, here she is,” he said, turning his attention from the medicine guy to me. “Ortzi, here’s my sister, Riley.”

“Your mom adopt her, or something?” Ortzi asked. He looked a little older than Kenny, though somewhat thinner. He was taller than Kenny, most definitely. “Nice to meet you,” he said to me, slightly bowing. Sharena had told me that some men bow to women, whether they’re royalty or not. I hadn’t met any yet, save for this guy.

“Nice to meet you, too,” I said, trying my best not to sound surprised or anything. “I’m supposed to sign something?”

He shook his head. “Kenny took care of that. Don’t worry.” He picked up a box sitting on the ground beside him and passed it over to me. “Don’t drop it, it’s kinda heavy.”

“I can tell,” I said, after nearly dropping the box. “What’s in here, anyway?”

“Lots and lots of breast enhancement cream.”

I wanted to ask why anyone would want to have bigger breasts, but something told me this was a human culture thing that I’d just have to learn as time went by. Another question I wanted to ask is why a pharmacy would carry breast enhancement cream, but we had so many different kinds of potato chips that it was easy to understand somebody wanting it. I wondered if there was breast reduction cream, because that would help me in every way.

“Where are you from, Riley?” Ortzi asked.

“Oh, uh… Eberson. It’s out in the neutral territories. Kenny’s dad was there, dragon hunting, and he adopted me and put me on a train here. I was gonna get kicked out on my own a couple days later, because the orphanage doesn’t keep most people past their seventeenth birthday.” That was starting to become second nature, and I’d only told three people before Ortzi.

“How long ago was that?”

“I got into town a couple days ago.”

“Huh. Cool. How do you like it?”

I smiled. “It’s nice having a family, even if it’s an adopted one.”

Kenny walked over to the door and opened it for me. “Sharena’s probably waiting to stock that stuff. Tell her I’ll be back inside in a few minutes.”

It almost felt like he was trying to force me away from him and Ortzi. “Um, okay. Nice to meet you, Ortzi,” I said, smiling a little.

I walked back inside and set the box down by the door to the store floor, where Sharena had made a square out of tape for me to know where the ‘stock check area’ was. She was being extremely patient with me, considering she was used to Kenny helping her out, and he knew where everything was.

I walked out onto the store floor and saw that the store was empty. No customers, no Sharena, not even the guys replacing the window up front. I sat down at the chair beside the door to the back room and grabbed the one of the books that I was using to practice reading. They were children's’ books, but I didn’t mind. If I didn’t start somewhere, I’d never know how to read. I was getting to the point where I could read about half of the words on the page, and the pictures sort of helped me figure out the rest.

“Excuse me,” a voice said from in front of me. They surprised me, whoever they were, and I nearly dropped my book. I set the book down and saw a man who looked vaguely familiar. “I’m here to pick up my prescription.”

It took me a second, but it was his voice I recognized. This was the man who had stabbed me in the hand the other day. I made sure my scarred hand wasn’t visible to him, for fear that he might connect me to, well, me. “Hello, sir,” I said, hoping my nervousness didn’t shine through. “Um… There’s a slight problem there.”

“What’s that, is my prescription not in?”

“That’s kinda the problem. I don’t know. I’m new here, and I only just started learning how to read.”

“And Sharena put you in charge of watching over the pharmacy? Is Kineas here?”

“He was out back, talking to a friend.”

“Well. We’re in a bit of a bind young, um… I never got your name.”

“Riley.”

“That’s an interesting name for a girl. Pretty name. Kineas has a cousin by that name, are you her?”

“No, Kenny’s cousin was a boy, and he died. I’m his sister, his - our - dad just adopted me last week, and I just got here a couple days ago.”

“Hrm,” he mumbled. “Well, I’ll check back later today to see if Sharena’s back in. Thanks, Riley.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding in. I couldn’t tell if he was suspicious of me or not, but I was glad he was gone. I nearly collapsed back into my chair and felt the relief wash over me. I had to get used to him, though, otherwise he might figure me out later, if he hadn’t yet.

I was about to grab my book again, but I nearly fell out of my chair when Kenny said, “I don’t think Ortzi believed you.” He looked down at me and asked, “What?”

“Don’t just sneak up on me like that!”

He chuckled. “Sorry. I didn’t know it was possible to sneak up on a dragon.”

“For one, I’m not a dragon at the moment, I’m no different from any other human. Two, you’re not supposed to say that out loud. And three, dragons get snuck up on all the time, or at least I did.”

He nodded. “Oh. Why are you so jumpy right now, anyway?”

“You remember the guy who stabbed me in the hand?”

“Torkel?”

“His name is Torkel?”

“From what Sharena tells me, he was mocked when he was younger.”

“Well, he was here to pick up a prescription.”

“It’s not due in until tomorrow.”

“He seemed to think it was due today.”

“Huh. Sharena told him last week it’d be in tomorrow.”

“You’re not putting me at ease.”

“Whaddya mean?”

“I couldn’t tell if he recognized me or not.”

“You mean if he somehow connected the awkward and cute five foot seven girl to the roughly seven foot tall dragon that he stabbed in the hand?” When he said it, it sounded stupid that I’d even be nervous about the guy recognizing me, but I still couldn’t help it. “Did he see your scar?”

I shook my head. “I kept my hand under the counter.”

“Even so, Sharena’s potion made it look old, so even if he does connect you to you, he’s gonna havta come up with some reason to justify that scar looking like it does.”

“It’s already common enough that people think dragons heal faster than humans, so I don’t think it’d be too much of a stretch for him.”

Kenny hopped over the counter and walked over to the door. “I don’t think you’re in any trouble. When Dad gets back, he’ll back your story, and then everybody will believe it, it’s that simple.”

“You say that like you expect him any day.”

“I do, actually. Dad pops in randomly, runs the inn for a couple days, then hands it right back to me.” He flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED and locked the door. “Now, c’mon, let’s get home.”

I was confused. “Doesn’t the sign say we’re open from eight to six?”

“You mean you still can’t read it?”

I shook my head. “No, I mean, why are we closing early?”

“Oh, because it’s dinner time and Sharena wants us back home.”

I sighed. Being a human was still gonna take getting used to.

---

“Nobody thinks Sharena’s weird for living in the woods?” I asked, trying to ignore the creature that was doing its best to annoy me. It was… Odd. About the size of a house cat, with a similar face, but instead of fur, it was covered in feathers.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot that we haven’t told you that yet.”

The feather cat was rubbing up against my leg. “What?”

“Technically, we don’t live in the woods.”

“Then why are walking home in the woods?” That cat was desperately trying to make me pick it up.

“I like the walk. You mean you’ve never noticed that there’s a house just down the road from Dad’s inn?”

“Not really.”

“That’s the house.”

“We walk home in the woods when we live a block and a half away from the pharmacy?”

“I told you, I like the walk.” It looked as if he noticed the cat-thing following me. “What is that and why does it seem to like you so much?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before.” I knelt down and the cat stopped rubbing up against me, and instead just looked up at me. I reached out to pat it on the head, but it swatted my hand away. I tried again, slower, and this time it let me touch it before putting its paw on my arm. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

And to my surprise, it said, “I know.”

I fell backwards, landing roughly on a pile of sticks. “Did you just talk?!” I screamed.

It glared at me. “That’s a cheeky thing for a dragon to say.”

Fear gripped me. “You know what I am?!”

It nodded. “Of course I do. I wouldn’t be much use to you if I didn’t.”

“What… What are you?”

“I suggest we continue this conversation elsewhere.” It licked its paw for a second. “It’s dirty out here.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You can’t even tell me what you are?”

“I’ll tell you when we’re inside.”

I looked up at Kenny, who shrugged. “It wants to go inside, I guess we go inside.”

I sighed. “Fine. We’ll go inside.”

---

“You two are a little late,” Sharena said, pulling an apron off. She looked like she’d just finished cooking something, so despite my concern over the feather cat that I was carrying into the house, I was a ready for food. Sharena was a very good cook. “You didn’t get lost on your way home, did you?”

“No, Riley just found a talking cat,” Kenny answered.

She looked at the cat in my arms and looked about as confused as I felt about it. “That’s… Do you even know what you’re holding onto there?”

I asked, “You mean, other than a feathered cat that talks?”

“A creature like this hasn’t been seen - Did you say ‘talks’?”

The cat answered for me. “She did.”

“You’re not actually the creature that you look like, are you?”

It shook its head. “No. I’m one of the conduits.”

“Riley, set it down.” I did as I was asked and set it on the counter. It sat there, cleaning itself like a cat would do. “Who are you here for?”

It stopped cleaning itself for a moment to look over its shoulder at me, then turned back to Sharena. “Your daughter.”

I pointed at myself, like an idiot. “Me?”

“She’s powerful, even more so than most.”

I repeated, “Me?”

Sharena ignored me. “You’re aware that she’s a dragon, correct? Dragons are on the lowest end of the magic spectrum.”

I asked, “Didn’t you tell me I had a lot of mana in me?”

Again, I was ignored. “There’s something special about her,” the cat said, “hence why I was sent to this plane of existence.”

“Do you have a name?” Sharena asked.

It shook its head. “No. Name me if you wish.”

She looked over at me. “Riley, since he’s your conduit, do you want to name him?”

I practically shouted. “Why isn’t anybody paying attention to me?!” Everyone - the cat included - was looking at me like I was nuts. Kenny looked like he was about to burst into laughter, and I really couldn’t blame him. “Now, when I got here, you - “ I pointed at Sharena, “ - told me that everybody has mana, but not everybody has enough for it to matter. You explicitly told me that I had a lot of mana. Now it’s like only certain people have mana at all, and that it’s even rarer to find a dragon that has mana.” I paused to take a short breath, then once again shouted, “Explain this stuff to me! This time, Kenny did burst into laughter.

---

Sharena sat down on the couch, and I sat down beside her. The cat jumped up on my lap and curled up. It felt weird, but I’d never had another animal sit in my lap when I was a dragon.

“I understand your confusion,” she said, starting the conversation, “yes, everyone on the planet has mana, and yes it’s mostly related to whether or not your body houses enough mana that makes you a true magic user. The difference is that most of the magic users out there aren’t mages. A mage can conjure the dead, summon forth mythical beasts and everything a simple sorceress like me can’t do. I deal mostly with potions and common spells, like making the house seem like it’s in the forest rather than a block and a half away from Irvine’s inn.”

I asked, “How come nobody mentioned that to me earlier?”

“You never asked, sweetie.” She put on a warm smile. “Dragons are similar to sorcerers and sorceresses, and even before the white dragon appeared, there weren’t too many who actually practiced magic. It’s a little difficult for some dragons to mix potions, y’know, and so they mainly stick to common spells.” She pointed to the cat. “He is the difference between sorcerer and mage. And only one dragon has had a conduit, an ancient dragon that was rumored not to have any descendants. Since the ability to become a mage is passed on from one generation to the next, then that would mean you are a descendant of that dragon.”

“Okay, so I’m descendant of the only mage dragon, and I’m powerful enough in magic that I can do… What, exactly?”

“Pretty much anything,” the cat answered. “And I’m the proof of that.”

I turned back to Sharena. “So, why does a mage need a conduit?”

She patted the cat on the head. “A conduit is your connection to pure mana. Mana that common people have access to is filtered through the world’s conduit, and intentionally made weaker.”

“The world has a conduit?”

“The world is a living being as well, Riley. Mana is what keeps it together and what gives life to all of its beings. That’s why everyone and everything has mana within it. Pure mana, on the other hand, can kill someone who tries to access it without a conduit.”

“So, there are ways?”

“Dangerous ways. Deadly ways. To tap into pure mana without a conduit, you’d need to use a spell that few have ever been able to find, let alone wield appropriately.”

I looked down at the cat. “If you hadn’t shown up, how would I have known I could tap into pure mana?”

It licked at its paw. “Perhaps you would have destroyed a city, or a country. The world’s conduit creates beings like me when it feels a creature capable of pure mana manipulation has been born.”

“I’m seventeen. So, shouldn’t you have shown up seventeen years ago?”

“Humans need to come of age before their conduit is born. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same with dragons.” It curled up again. “But so few dragons have been capable of mage power, so I don’t know.”

“The question,” Sharena said as she stood up, “is this: Is Riley capable of dragon level power or human level power?”

“Is there a difference?” I asked.

“That dragon that you’re potentially a descendant of? Rumors exist that it shaped the continents. If your mana is decided by your being a dragon, there might not be a limit to what you can do.”

I gulped. Loudly.

---

I laid on my bed, the cat sleeping by my head. He was a quiet sleeper, unlike Kenny, who I often heard snoring through the walls. I sighed. So, I was a mage, or, I could be a mage. And a very powerful one, too. That concerned me. What if I couldn’t control my own magical power? What if I ended up hurting the people I cared about?

“Who do you care about?” the cat asked. I looked over at him, and he looked as if he hadn’t been sleeping beside me.

“What?”

“I’m asking the question. Who do you care about? Until a few days ago, you were a dragon that flew place to place and hadn’t even seen your first adoptive family for years.”

“Sharena and Kenny are my family now, so I care about them.”

“Why?”

“Whaddya mean why? Kenny gave me shelter when I needed to sleep, and Sharena’s hiding me and treating me like her daughter, why wouldn’t I care about them?”

“If it wasn’t for Kenny, you wouldn’t have been found the other day.”

“If it wasn’t for Kenny, I’d have died the other day. I would have flown until I couldn’t fly anymore, and I would have fallen unconscious - not to mention out of the sky - and some people would have killed me.” I sat up. “I’m just in hiding, I’m not dead. I don’t care if I have to be a human to survive, I’m happy I’m alive and because of that, I care about Kenny and Sharena.” I leaned closer to him. “Is it really that hard to understand?”

He just sat there, staring at me, then said, “Mithra.”

“What?”

He nodded toward the comic book that was sitting on the night stand. “That character there. According to the cover, his name is Mithra. I like it.”

I sighed. “I still don’t have reading one hundred percent down, y’know?”

“You can’t read?”

“I’m getting better, every few words is okay.” I laid back down. “Wait a second.” I turned to look at him again. “You knew I was a dragon but ya didn’t know I couldn’t read?”

“Just because I know everything about you doesn’t mean I know everything about you.”

~o~O~o~

Chapter Six - The Beach

Water. All I saw. All I heard. All I smelled. All I felt. All I tasted. It filled my mouth, my nostrils, my ears. If not for the fact that I knew I still had a mouth, nostrils and ears, I would have sworn I’d died and been reincarnated as water.

I surfaced and spat out some water, then tried to orient myself to swim. The current was almost stronger here than it had been when I’d jumped off the cliff. I looked around and tried to find Sari, but she wasn’t anywhere near me. I tried to swim again, but it was difficult. It was like the water was… Guiding me. I stopped trying to swim and concentrated solely on keeping my head above water, and it was almost as if the current slowed.

No, it wasn’t my imagination, the current had slowed. I was able to wade through the water now, and made my way toward what looked like the beach. It was deserted, but I needed land. I made it to the beach, crawled out of the water and collapsed. Every part of me ached.

I stared up at the sun above me, and watched as it arched across the sky. The moon replaced it, then there was someone standing over me.

“Sari!” I coughed out, my mouth drier than it should have been, considering I’d crawled out of the ocean. I grabbed at her, and then realized it wasn’t Sari at all, it was a completely different girl, somewhat taller, with scruffy green hair.

“What are you sorry about?” the girl asked.

I let go of her and backed away. “No,” I said, feeling like sand was falling out of my mouth. “Sari is my friend, we jumped into the ocean to get away from people trying to kill us. Is she around here?”

The girl shook her head. “I haven’t seen her.”

“Who are… Who are you?”

She shook her head again. “I don’t really have a name. I live here, I grew up here.”

“Here?” I looked around at the beach. It seemed to go on as far as the eye could see. “There’s nothing here.”

She nodded. “I know. It gets pretty lonely here. I don’t get to talk to anybody.” She rubbed at her arm. “How long are you gonna stay here?”

“I don’t know. I don’t see any way to go. And Sari might wash up here, like I did. I don’t want to leave her.”

“You like her?”

Suddenly, I felt slightly embarrassed. “Not… Not in the romantic sense, if ya get what I mean.”

“Do you hate her?”

“What? No. What? She’s my friend. She’s looking to kill the white dragon, and I want to do the same.”

“What’s the white dragon?”

“You’ve never heard of the white dragon?”

She shook her head. “I’ve lived here my whole life, surviving on salt water and dead fish.”

I sighed. This wasn’t gonna get me anywhere. A sheltered life didn’t even begin to explain this girl. I sat down on the beach and looked out at the ocean. “So you’ve never met anyone who mentioned the white dragon?”

She shook her head again. “No. I haven’t seen anybody in a few years. Nobody comes to the beach anymore.”

“How do you stand it?”

She sat down beside me and rested her head on my shoulder. It felt weird, but not entirely unpleasant. “I always knew somebody would show up again. So I’ve just kept waiting.” She put her arm around my waist. “I’m glad I was right.”

---

I had gone at least seven miles along the beach, and it didn’t seem to end. Sari was nowhere to be found, but I had so much more of the beach to travel, I could only hope I found her before she decided to leave without me. The beach seemed unnatural, like there was someone beside me at all times, despite the fact that the girl had fallen asleep a little while ago.

I was starting to get weak. I fell forward, then rolled over onto my back. The night sky was clear enough to see most of the constellations. It looked peaceful, quiet. I heard the ocean crashing into the beach, and I almost wanted to fall asleep. I felt my eyelids slowly closing, and relief began to wash over me.

I forced myself to open my eyes. I couldn’t sleep. Had to find Sari. I threw her into the water while she was barely conscious, if she died, it’d be on me. I got back to my feet and continued on my path toward the opposite end of the beach. The place had to end somewhere.

I continued to walk, and walk, and walk. For hours, I walked, and still I found nothing. No sign of anyone or anything, not even a shack somewhere. The only things on the beach were me and the girl who claimed she lived here. I turned around and made my way back to where I’d come from. Maybe if the beach didn’t end one direction, it would end the other.

“Where are you going?” the girl asked. When had she come up behind me? I’d never heard or seen her. I turned and saw she didn’t look happy, but actually looked concerned. “Weren’t you at least gonna say goodbye before you left?”

I shook my head. “I’m not leaving. I’m looking for my friend, she should have washed up here by now.”

“Oh, you mean that Sari girl you were talking about? I know where she is.”

“You do? But before you said - “

She cut me off. “That was before. She washed up while you were sleeping before.” She giggled. “You don’t expect me to just spend time around you, do you?”

I sighed. It was no use asking her anything else, she’d just give me more vague answers. “Is she okay?”

The girl nodded. “She’s a little weak from all her wounds and can’t get up, but otherwise, she’s okay.”

---

Sari was groaning a little when the girl led me to her, obviously in some serious pain. At some point in time, the girl had set up a tent, with some small cot that looked like it had just been bought somewhere. “Why’d ya havta drop me like that?” she asked, then coughed. “Swimming doesn’t come easy to me, y’know.”

“Actually, I didn’t drop you and I didn’t know you couldn’t swim.” I sat down beside her. The other girl was busy picking up seashells on the beach. “How you doing?”

“I’m sore,” it was an obvious lie, but I was glad that she could at least pretend to be okay, “but that’s it. You?”

“I’ve had a splitting headache since I washed up, but that’s about it.” I sat down beside her. “Sorry about what happened in that town.”

She shook her head. “It’s not your fault, Cres. So, where we go now?”

“I’m not sure. We need to rest up, first, especially you. After that, maybe that girl can give us directions to the next town, or something.”

Sari sat up, winced, and then laid back down again. The current must have screwed her up worse than I thought. “Does she seem kinda odd to you?”

“She grew up here, she said. Doesn’t even have a name.”

“Huh? Yeah she does, her name’s Kalena.”

“She told me she didn’t have a name.”

Sari shrugged. “Well, she grew a name sometime between when you washed up and when I did.” She coughed a little. “It’s not like I named her, or anything. Maybe she heard it somewhere before we showed up and decided she liked it.”

I rubbed at my chin. The girl had had plenty of time to tell me she had a name now, and she still hadn’t. Something was just weird about her. I stood up and left the tent to find Kalena, wherever she was.

She was sitting at the edge of the beach, her legs in the water and her arms keeping her from falling back. The sun was starting to set on the horizon, and the water looked an almost mind-entrancing shade of orange. I walked over to her and sat down beside her, but I couldn’t tell if she even noticed me. Her eyes were closed, and she sounded like she was humming.

“Kalena?” I asked. She didn’t respond, which made me wonder if she even heard me in the first place. “Kalena?” I repeated, just a little louder.

“Shh.” She raised her index finger. “Can you hear it?”

“What?”

“The water.”

“It’s just water, it’s not a living creature.”

She looked at me as if she’d just been told the sun will never shine again. “How can you say that? Water grants life, Cres. If it weren’t for water, none of us would be here.”

“Yeah, I get that, but my point is that the only sound it makes is that of ocean hitting the - “ Why it hadn’t hit me sooner, I didn’t know. “I never told you my name.”

“Huh?”

“You just called me Cres, but I never told you that was my name. And Sari only said my name after you were out of the tent.”

Kalena looked nervous, frightened even. She stood up and backed away from me. “I… I’m sorry…” She turned and ran, faster than she should have been able to on the beach.

I stood and watched as she retreated into the horizon, then sighed. This was getting weirder than I wanted it to be. I turned back toward the sunset and saw that the sun had been completely replaced by a moon far larger than it should have appeared. That was when it hit me that it had been nightfall when Kalena told me Sari was here, and the sun was beginning to rise when we’d gotten to the tent.

Whatever was going on here, Kalena was the center of it.

---

“So what do you think is going on?” Sari asked as I checked the bandage on her leg. Kalena may have been a little strange, but at least she knew how to bandage a wound. “I’ve met magic users with potions that create illusions, y’know.”

I finished my inspection. “I imagine you stole said potions from said magic users?”

“No. That was how they got away from me without losing a single coin.”

I coughed out a laugh. “Right.” I stood up and walked over to the edge of the tent. “You didn’t tell her my name, did you?”

Sari shook her head. “No, I washed up, she brought me to this tent, wrapped my leg, told me her name and then said she was gonna go get someone. I didn’t know it’d be you.”

“I’ve never heard of an actual mind reader before, though I’ve heard stories. Maybe that’s what she is.”

“Be careful, if she is. We’re partners, y’know, so I don’t want you getting hurt or anything.”

I nodded. “Yeah, right.”

---

I wandered the length of the beach, hoping to find Kalena somewhere nearby. Just as I’d noticed before, there seemed to be no end to it, and that made me consider the possibility that this was all an illusion even more. Miles upon miles upon miles of beach, as far as the eye could see, and I didn’t think I saw anywhere near this much beach before I passed out in the water. Was Kalena doing this on purpose, or was something else going on?

I kept my blade ready, on the off chance that I’d have to fight someone or something. I didn’t want to hurt or scare Kalena, but if this wasn’t her doing and something worse was hiding somewhere, I needed to be on my guard.

I watched the sun pass again, just another day or night or whenever it really was. Had the time truly passed at all while I was here? It felt like I’d been here for days, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like I’d experienced full days here.

I heard something, I couldn’t quite tell what it was. I stopped and looked around, then listened for a moment. Crying? Was I hearing crying? “Kalena?” I called. If she was the one crying, then I could get answers. My hand drifted to the hilt of my sword. “Kalena, I need to talk to you.”

“Go away!” she shouted from wherever she was. I still couldn’t see her.

“Please, I need to know what’s going on here. How did you know my name?”

“I said leave!”

“Can we leave? Where even are we, Kalena?”

“This isn’t want I wanted…” she said, her angered tone replaced by depression. “I just wanted…”

I knelt down and closed my eyes. Maybe if she thought I wasn’t looking, she’d show herself. “What did you want?”

Something gripped my neck. I opened my eyes and saw Kalena, her eyes bloodshot and full of hate. Her hands were around my neck, but that wasn’t what it felt like, it felt like sand was grabbing me. I struggled to grab my sword, but something blocked me, something that felt like more sand. I struggled to take my eyes off her face, but I had to see what was stopping me from pulling out my sword. There was nothing there! I felt the sand, but there was nothing but air.

My vision was starting to double, and it was getting hard to breathe. I grabbed Kalena’s arms and tried to pull her off of me. Even her skin felt like sand, and I kept losing my grip on her. My eyes started to cloud over a little bit, everything blurred into pure white.

---

I had no concept of waking up, suddenly my eyes were open and I was sitting up. I just added it among the many weird things that were happening on this stupid beach and took in my surroundings. I was sitting in a cave that looked out on the beach, probably a quarter mile above it. I stood up and walked to the edge and looked down on the beach, but I recognized no landmarks.

There was a sound behind me, a fire. I turned around and saw Sari and Kalena, Sari asleep and Kalena just sitting there, looking depressed. Both of them were wrapped up in blankets, but Kalena was reaching out to the small campfire she had going. Sari looked like she’d been brought there and set down, then covered with the blanket.

I drew my blade and cautiously walked toward them. Kalena’s eyes flicked toward me, then returned to looking at the fire. “You’re not really holding that,” she said, a sombre tone to her voice.

“What?”

“You and Sari both already figured out that none of this is real, it’s not like it’s hard to figure out.”

I lifted the sword and looked at it in my hands. It felt real, it looked real, but according to her, I wasn’t holding it at all. That couldn’t be right, even if none of this was real.

“Your mind fills those details in,” she said, and that cemented my belief that she was a mind reader. “You know what holding your sword feels like, so your mind tells your hand that you feel your sword.”

“What am I actually holding?”

She stood up and drew the blanket tight around her. “Your dick, for all I care, it doesn’t really matter.”

“What are you talking about?”

She sighed. “Why are the cute ones so dumb? I’m not real, this cave isn’t real, the beach isn’t real.”

“So I’m hallucinating?”

She shook her head. “No. You’re experiencing this, but it’s not real. Same with Sari. You’re both laying on the real beach, completely unconscious, just like you have been for the last few hours.”

“Hours? That’s all this has been?”

“Time passes differently in your head than it does in my world.”

“And what is your world? Why is it nothing but a beach?”

“My world is all I know. I wasn’t lying when I said I’d never left the beach. I am the beach.”

---

Kalena slept against the cave wall. It was the first time I’d seen her sleep in the days - hours - that I’d been there. After dropping her bombshell, she’d sat down next to Sari and went right to sleep, leaving me alone with my thoughts - which I guess was all that this place really was anyway.

I held my hand out toward the fire. I felt warmth, real warmth. Could some mystical beach cause that? And if it could, how would we leave? Everything looked and felt real, so how would I know whether or not I’d left this weird beach world?

I stood up and walked over to the entrance to the cave. There were some natural steps leading from the cave to the beach, which made it easier to go back there. I wandered the sandy shore for some time, or no time, depending on which perspective I was thinking of at any given time. This place was weirder than it had any reason to be.

I found a rock on the ground, the first one I’d ever seen on the beach. I picked it up, felt its weight. It was only the size of a small fist, but it weighed significantly more. I turned it over in my hands, then positioned myself to throw it, but then I felt sand grip my hand.

“Don’t,” Kalena said, taking the rock from my hand and playing with it, almost as if it had no weight at all to her. Then again, considering she was supposedly the whole beach, that shouldn’t surprise me. Everything about this place surprised me, though. “Throw this out there, and I’ll never remember you.”

“What are you talking about?”

She touched my forehead. “You keep all your memories here.” She touched the rock. “I keep all of mine here.”

“That’s the only rock I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”

“That’s because I can choose what I want to keep and what I want to remain vague.” She waved her hand and the sand shot upward, taking the shape of an abnormally large sand castle, complete with giant yellow flag sticking out of the top of each tower. “Somebody used to live in one of these. I don’t know who, and if I did, the odds are good they haven’t been here recently.”

“They used to live in a sand castle?” I asked.

She scowled at me. “No, stupidhead. They used to live in a real castle, and that’s my point.” She waved her hand and the castle disintegrated, every grain of sand dropping to the ground in an instant. She waved her hand again after touching the rock, and the sand once again raised upward, this time in the form of my house. Unlike the sand castle, the house wasn’t just some poor construct that looked like it was made of sand. If I hadn’t seen it created myself, I’d think somebody transplanted my house to the beach. “If I didn’t have this rock, your house would just be sand in the shape of a house, like that castle was.”

I walked up to the house and touched it, felt it under my hand. “It feels real…”

Kalena walked up to me and put her own hand on the house. “Because you remember how it feels. It feels real to me, too, but only because you remember how it feels.” She held up the rock again.

“You mean all of my memories are in that rock?”

“Every last one. From the day you were born to the day the white dragon destroyed your home to just a few days ago when you met that girl.” Suddenly, Kalena morphed, into the spitting image of the girl from the drugstore. “Something in your mind connected her to another memory, but I can’t tell which one or why.”

“How do you do all this?”

She changed back to her ‘normal’ form, or at least the form that I was used to. “Near as I can remember, I was born at least seven centuries ago, from the memories of a young girl named Kalena.”

“So that name didn’t come from nowhere?”

She shook her head. “No, it can just take me awhile to remember it. She died here, on the beach, when her father beat her to death. As her body deteriorated over time, her soul sank deeper and deeper into the stand, and made me.” She sat down against the wall of my house. “All I remember is the pain, the horror that Kalena felt. I don’t remember her mother, or any bright parts of her life, and every time I try, it just makes the pain hurt more.”

I held out my hand for the rock, and she gave it to me. “Why is mine the only one here?”

“Because of your sister. Your memories of Circi are so pleasant, and so pure. They’re the happiest things you hold on to.”

I knelt down beside her. “And you want memories like that, too.”

“I do. It would make this place a little more bearable.” She slipped her hand through the sand. “There haven’t been people here in over a hundred years, all because of the reputation the beach… that I’ve garnered. If I remember you and Sari, then I won’t be alone anymore.”

I finally sat down. “Kalena, the only way you can have happy memories is if you try and make them yourself.”

She shook her head. “It’s not that easy for me. The only way I can meet people is by knocking them out and invading their minds. I can’t leave the beach when I am the beach.”

“You can’t make a physical form outside in the real world?”

“No. I’ve tried. Do you know how fast people run from a girl made of sand who looks like a long dead person?” She let out a dry, sad laugh. “Can you imagine how many memories would be here if people stumbled upon me the way you guys did?”

I leaned my head back against the house. “I understand, but at the same time, they’re just memories of people’s memories.”

She nodded. “I know. But when that’s all I can have, I’m not gonna complain.”

I had nothing to say to that. She was right. “I’m sorry,” was about the only words that my mouth could form.

“It’s not your fault.” She took the rock from me again. “When you guys are in here, in here,” she pointed at her head, “that helps me feel more like me instead of just the lonely girl on the beach.” She hugged the rock to her chest. “You two and all the people you know are my friends.” She looked at me. “And long after you die out there, you’ll be alive in here.”

“That’s kinda creepy.”

She giggled. “I said that to be creepy.”

I laughed now. She reminded me of Circi in a way. Maybe it was intentional, maybe she was using my memories of Circi to make me feel better. Either way, I didn’t care. I felt better, that was all that mattered.

---

“Your wounds should be healed by now,” Kalena said, helping Sari to her feet. “One of the people who happened upon the beach a couple centuries ago was a healer, and he passed his touch onto me when he died, so I’ve been healing you since you washed up.”

“Wow, that’s nice,” Sari said, with a slight sarcastic twinge to her voice, “I don’t suppose you put some gold in my bag, too?”

“When you wake up, go twenty paces straight ahead of the way you’re facing. Some pirates left that there long before I was born, and never came back to claim it.”

I patted her on the shoulder. “Thanks, Kalena. I’m not gonna lie, it’s been a little weird.”

She smiled at me. “I’m sorry for leading you on as long as I did. It’s been so long since I collected any memories that I forgot how long it took to do it.” She held out a piece of paper. “Here, take this. When you wake up, it’ll be in your bag.”

“What is it?”

“A letter, from me. I don’t want you to read it yet.”

“Why not?”

“Wait until a moment when you feel really down, and really defeated. If you guys are going up against that big dragon I saw in your memories, I bet you’ll feel that way at least once. No offense.”

“None taken,” Sari said, “we know it’s practically a suicide mission, but we’re still gonna kill that piece of shit.”

“I hope you do. I’ve seen what it did to Cres’s family, and it was horrible. And I saw what it did to yours, too.”

Sari looked slightly nervous. “Um… What else did you see?”

“I saw everything, but don’t worry. Cres has things he’s hiding from you, too.”

I wasn’t too sure I liked that Kalena knew our entire life stories, but she wasn’t lying. There were things I didn’t want to tell Sari, and the idea that there were things Sari didn’t want to tell me wasn’t a surprise.

Sari hugged Kalena, which surprised her as much as it did me. “You’ve got friends, Kalena, don’t worry. We’ll always be your friends.”

“Um… Thanks, Sari. That means more to me than you realize.”

“Just don’t forget us, y’know?”

“Never.”

I slipped the paper in my pocket and pulled Sari back. “Okay, Kalena, we’re ready to go.”

She nodded. “Don’t miss me too much, because I won’t have a reason to miss you. Hopefully, I’ll see you both again some day.”

“If we survive our mission, this’ll be our first stop,” I said, smiling at her.

“I’m gonna havta admit, it’ll be tough for me to realize that you’re the real you guys when that happens.”

Sari took Kalena’s hand. “I’m gonna do something now.” She touched Kalena’s arm at the joint, then traced down her arm and made a small circle in the palm of her hand, then capped it off with a poke. “That’s a sign of sisterhood in the Plains Tribe. You’ll know it’s the real us when I do this to you again, because your memories of us would know that’s the only reason I’ll have to do it.”

“Okay, I’ll remember that.”

“We’ll be back, Kalena,” I said, “I know we will.”

She smiled. “Okay, guys, you ready?”

“I am,” Sari said.

“Me too.”

“Then as soon as I’m done talking, you’re going to wake up in the real world - “

---

My eyes shot open, and I sat straight up in less than a second. Sari was already up, away from me a little ways, digging into the sand. “Hey! There is treasure here!”

I coughed out a slightly sand-filled laugh. I must have ended up with sand in my mouth at some point. “I think she’d know if there was treasure here.”

“I know, I’m just sayin’, is all.”

I stood and brushed sand off of me. It almost seemed as if the sand shifted when it hit the beach, like Kalena was accepting part of herself back. In a way, I guess that was true. I picked up my sword and walked past Sari, pulling her to her feet. She was almost like a kid in a candy store, counting all the gold she’d stuffed in her bag. I whispered, “Thank you, Kalena,” just before we left the beach.

And I just barely heard, “Thank you,” as a response.