The End of the Fantasy (Book #6 of the Sage Saga) (2 page)

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, pursing her lips. He swallowed.

“You’re trying to flirt with me,” he said flatly. “And I don’t appreciate it.”

“Well, that sounded formal,” she said, turning over to sit up. She pulled her shoulders up and puffed out her chest. “I don’t appreciate it,” she said in her best gruff voice imitation. “I’m a man. A formal man that wants everything to be all serious like.”

Bastion just blinked at her.

“Are you done?” he asked her. “Did that make you feel good?”

“It did actually,” she said in her sweet voice, then she puffed her chest out again. “Arr, I’m Bastion. I like to hunt imaginary creatures in the Quietus forest. I get mad when I’m hungry.”

“That’s pretty good,” he said, sitting up himself. “But I like this imitation better.” He began batting his eyes and he reached out and brushed his fingertips against her bare shoulder. “I’m Lily. I ooze sexuality and I want tons of attention because I’m pretty and no one’s here to tell me so.”

“Well, that was rude,” she pouted. “Geez, would you eat something already? I hate it when you’re cranky.”

“You’ve known me for like two days,” he replied, and she chuckled to herself.

“I’m just joking,” she said. “That was a pretty good imitation. Except for the whole full of myself thing. I don’t really need the attention.”

“Then why are you trying to flirt with me?”

“Because I like you, Terrface.”

“Okay, that’s why I can’t take you seriously,” Bastion scoffed, shaking his head. “One moment, you’re flirting with me, and in the next, you’re making fun of me. I don’t get you.”

“Maybe it’s because I’m nervous, okay?” she said, rubbing her shoulders. She bowed her head. “Isn’t that so hard to understand?”

“I don’t get it. Nervous about what?”

“How could you not know?” she said low, and he turned away from her, sighing and looking at the forest below. There were no leaves. No grass. Everything was dead and barren. Not a sign of life. He wondered if he had seen the fluffy hopping creature yesterday at all, or if it was just his hungry body casting mirages. He looked back at Lily, and she was sitting upright, cross-legged. She was staring out over the canopy of the forest—a checkered floor that was made out of the interlocking branches and vines. Under the slivers of moonlight, casting beams upon the splashes of purple and green, it was eerily beautiful and tranquil. He could see how the Quietus might like hunting in the treetops. There was a strangeness about the ambience that cast a spell over them, as if they were sleeping while still being awake.

“I don’t know how to feel,” Lily said finally, still facing forward. “I’m not sure of myself, and maybe…just having fun with you is the only way I can cope. I just like laughing…” she paused to look at him. “It’s the only thing that keeps my mind off of what I am. What my existence means.”

“You don’t have to explain that to me,” Bastion replied. “Matter of fact, I’m probably the only person in this world who truly understands what you’re saying.”

“I
do
like you,” she whispered. Bastion reached out and took her hand into his, unsure of whether he did it because he wanted to touch her, or if it was to console her. When it came to his feelings for Lily, his mind was like a tornado. A mix of alarms, desire, fear, hope and caution. He thought about ditching her somewhere, but she hadn’t shown him any real signs of danger. That didn’t mean he was dumb. He knew where she probably came from. They both knew.

“But,” she continued. “I don’t know if I like you because I’m programmed to, or if that’s really me. I don’t know,” she said, placing her head into her hands. “All I know is that I came here to be with you. Because I knew that you would understand me. When they were making me…my masters…they allowed me to see the world. I was able to observe the land, all at once, with this…I don’t know what it was. I don’t even know how I could see. I was just a stone. Or stones. Or…I’m so confused.”

Bastion gave her hand a squeeze. “Take your time,” he said.

“I saw you,” she said. “And you were the only one that I was drawn to. And I’m not sure if they wanted me to go to you or not. But I…but I had to come here. If there was one person that I knew that wouldn’t just…
use me
, it was you.”

“Is that why you like me?” he asked, afraid of the answer. “Because I won’t treat you like an object?” Wait, why was he afraid? No matter how beautiful and funny she was, she was still a product of the Yama. He was sure of it. She didn’t say the word,
Yama
, but who else could it be? Unless it was the Delilah—the Yama’s supposed enemy—sending the stones his way to help him. But then why wouldn’t they give Lily a message to relate to him? So that he was sure she was an ally? No. No matter how Lily made him feel, he couldn’t get close. He would have to treat her like the very thing she didn’t want to be treated as.

A
thing.

“No, that’s not why I like you,” she said, her eyes twinkling under a Luna ray. “That’s the reason I came to you in the first place, but that’s not why I like you. That’s different. You’re…um, you’re sweet. Like, you have all this strength, so much strength that even I’m a little afraid of what you can do, but you’re so gentle and caring. You don’t want to hurt anyone, and you would rather live alone than put others in danger. I like that about you.”

“Hmm,” Bastion said, not really giving her any indication to how he thought about her answers.

“And, uh,” she paused. “I think you’re kind of cute.”

“Wow,” he snickered. “It’s like we’re two little kids about to kiss in the meadow.”

“I don’t understand the analogy,” she said, growing serious.

Damn,
Bastion thought.
I messed up the moment.

“Little boys and girls would see their parents act lovey-dovey with each other at home, so when they’re out playing in the meadow, sometimes, a couple would get together and play house. There would be a mommy and daddy, a boy and girl for the son and daughter. Occasionally, someone might pretend to be a ruffle and—”

“What’s a ruffle?” she giggled at the word.

“A ruffle is like this little furry ball with eyes and a mouth,” he said, cupping his hands together with about a half a foot between them. “It’s really cute. They’re harder to find in the forest now because the Terr will eat them if they’re really, really hungry, but when people come across them, they’ll take them home and keep them. As long as you keep them fed, they can live for a hundred years. Your great grandchildren will be taking care of them. They eat like twelve times a day though, so sometimes it’s hard for a village to have that much food to throw away.”

“I would love a ruffle,” she giggled again.

“So yeah, someone might pretend to be a ruffle. They do this little yipping sound, so small and petite that it’s like you didn’t even hear it. It’s really funny. But anyways, the mommy and daddy would always hit a point in which they would kiss each other, and it was a big deal. Even those that were playing house would fall out of character to watch the moment because it would be awkward and the two getting ready to kiss would be so nervous.”

“Did you ever play house?”

“Oh, no,” he laughed. “I usually had chores to do in real life. I would take a stroll through the meadow when I was on break from work, that’s all. I didn’t have time to participate.”

“Even as a little kid?”

“You don’t know where I was as a little kid?”

“No,” she said.

“I was here,” he said, his eyes falling away from hers for a moment. “Right here in Quietus, being experimented on.”

“So how about kissing?” she said suddenly, trying to change the subject. “Have you ever been kissed?”

“I have,” he said, keeping his gaze away from her. She was shocked to see that the memory of being kissed had the same effect on him as thinking about Quietus. In her mind, she thought that maybe Bastion had a bad experience involving his first kiss, but he wasn’t even thinking about that. His thoughts had wandered to Daisy, and of how he had cut off her legs in Languor. How he had murdered James. Shanelle, Krave. Kent, and countless other…

“I don’t have many good memories,” Bastion said suddenly, darting his eyes to hers. “The ones that don’t make me cringe in some way are usually of when I used to read. But even then, reading reminded me of just how alone I really was. It’s one thing to read for pleasure, but it’s an entirely different thing to do it because it’s the only way you can escape the horrible life you were placed in. When ink and paper have a better life than you do, that’s sad.”

“I can say the same,” she said, wincing. “Most of it is either hazy, or it’s being prodded and poked. The crazy thing is that I think my masters know when me and the other stones are active and aware. They just don’t care. They keep on poking around inside us, not caring if it hurts or how traumatizing it is for us. That was my childhood in a nutshell.”

“Guess we’re made for each other,” Bastion chuckled. Lily didn’t.

“But, with you, I feel like my future doesn’t have to be that way. I feel like we can make some memories that I’ll want to relive over and over.”

“I do too,” he said with a smile. “But that’s going to be hard if we don’t catch some dinner. We won’t have the energy to have fun if we’re starving.”

“Not true,” she said, suddenly grabbing the back of his head and pulling him to her. Their lips pressed against each other, and they both held them there awkwardly for a moment. Bastion pulled away first and just stared back at her. She was scared. He could see it in her eyes. She was afraid that she had pushed him away, and it was apparent in her trembling fingers and her tense shoulders. How Bastion felt, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

He clutched the side of her face and leaned in quickly, kissing her over and over until she wrapped her arms around his neck. Their lips parted and they became more voracious and hungry, desiring one another more and more with each passing second. He couldn’t get enough of her. She was intoxicating with every breath that graced his skin, every soft touch of her fingers. He pushed her back onto the blanket of branches, and she allowed herself to fall. He bent down and began kissing her again.

She didn’t stop him.

By the time they reached Old Prattle, they were far more exhausted than they thought they would be. Catherine scowled as she thought about the Quietus they had faced in the forest. They hadn’t been much of a threat. Staying in the forest between Allay and Languor may have kept the Quietus on edge, but it did little to hone their skills. While they had once been formidable enemies, they were easily dispatched now, especially once the Sages had learned transformation.

So why were they tired then?

Catherine sighed as she remembered the events
before
the Quietus in the forest. The battle in Languor. Orchid’s illusions. The death of their fellow warriors. Since that ordeal had concluded, they had barely slept, deciding to head for Old Prattle before they were hunted by Seeker even further. They hadn’t had time to properly recover from it all.

Arimus poked her in the back. The flesh of his finger was soft and weak. Catherine glanced behind her and saw his arm just lowering to his side. He had lost one arm long ago in Quietus, and the other in the battle of Languor, but he had begun the healing process immediately, so that he wouldn’t be totally useless. It had yet to completely form though; it was obvious that he was exhausted too.

“I know,” Arimus chuckled, noticing what Catherine was looking at. “If this is what it will look like when it’s all done, I might as well have no arm at all. I barely have any strength to move it.”

“A simple hello would have sufficed,” Catherine laughed, looking down at the pink flesh around Arimus’ thin arm. She was sure it would be worthless in battle.

“I didn’t want to startle you.”

“You just wanted to put disgusting new arm flesh on my cloak, didn’t you?”

“Something like that,” he said with a wide grin. Catherine leapt into his arms and hugged him tight. Though he could not hug her back, he still bent his head down and laid it to rest on the crown of hers. His scraggly beard draped over her forehead and began to tickle her skin, but she didn’t care. She needed her father’s embrace, as much as he was able to do so.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, and Catherine glanced behind her father to see the others. Daisy, Marie, Sway, Ashalynn, Zhou and Talia…they all had their heads down as they made the trek up the mountain. Their feet crunching loudly in the hard snow as they allowed the soft snowflakes to get into their hair and brush up against their faces. Even when the wind picked up, no one made a move to shield it. They were all lost in their own thoughts, whatever they might be. Catherine swallowed and turned back to her father. She made a motion with her head for them to keep moving while they talked.

Side by side, they held the front of the line.

“I’m more concerned with how they’re feeling,” Catherine said. Arimus shook his head.

“That’s not what I’ve asked,” he said, using his fatherly tone. She didn’t mind. He had done it for years, long before she found out he actually
was
her father.

“I’m coping the best I can,” she said. “I don’t think of James often, if that’s what you’re wondering. I miss him…but he can’t help us now.”

“And that’s it?”

“No,” Catherine sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. “I’m terrified. I don’t know how I’m going to live without him. He was…my happiness. Don’t misunderstand, I love Allay, with all my heart, but even I understood at a young age that my love for them had to be kept at a distance, so that I would be able to make the appropriate decisions as they arose. With James though, I could let go. I could take all the love within me and project it onto him. I could laugh without offending him or coming across as too playful. I could reveal my innermost thoughts without judgment. I feared nothing when I was around him because he was so strong. He gave me peace, Arimus. Something that we have now lost in more ways than one.”

“You will be happy again,” Arimus said. “I am sure of it. When I thought I had lost Ashalynn long ago, I feared that I would never see her again, and that my world was over. I figured that life would be nothing more than a daze from that moment on. But then you and Kyran, you two, even above the others, saved me from the darkness. It was a different kind of happiness, but I smiled, laughed, and enjoyed things again. The same will happen for you.”

“But Mom was found to be alive. I saw James die in my arms.”

“It doesn’t mean you will never see him again. You saw what happened to Lakrymos and Orchid. They were dead once too.” Arimus paused to scoff. “Ever since I saw James transform and fight Jester, I thought to myself that nothing is out of the realm of possibility. To be quite honest, I’m very interested to see what happens next.”

“Excitement is overrated,” Catherine said, sticking a tongue out at him. Arimus laughed.

As they came upon the entrance of Old Prattle, Catherine couldn’t help but think of Thorn and his attack on the Prattlian people. Now they were facing a new threat, and they weren’t sure who it was exactly. The stone within her—before it had been destroyed—had told her that the Yama existed, yet Orchid had used manifestations of the Yama to combat and trick them. So who truly was the enemy? Were the Yama in real life as bad as Lakyrmos and Orchid claimed? It’s not like they were reliable sources.

“Where exactly are we going to stay?” Marie asked, rubbing her arms. “It feels like I just walked into a hollow block of ice.”

“If Scarlet was alive, she could create fire,” Arimus said. “But since she’s not, maybe we can replicate her ability.”

“Maybe,” Talia said. “But the reason she was able to use fire was because it was a part of her personality, which in turn, was a part of her soul. You can create manifestations, but in order to dig into abilities that aren’t inherently a part of us, it will take a lot of time. Maker knows how long it took Thorn to create manifestations that could actually hurt others. The energy output must have been ridiculous.”

“It was just a suggestion,” Arimus muttered. Catherine patted him on the shoulder in consolation.

“We’re going to be living in the tunnels, like the Quietus did before. We’ll keep a guard on the outside as a lookout. We’ll do shift changes and maybe rebuild this place a little. Not too much though, because I’m thinking that our primary focus is on honing our abilities. A training ground, in other words.”

“That will be hard to do without supplies,” Marie said. “As it stands, it’s been an entire day since we’ve eaten. Considering the lack of wildlife and foliage in the area, where do we plan on going for food?”

“We’ll have parties go out and retrieve food.”

“But where exactly?” Marie pushed, her lips pursed in concern. Catherine could see it all over her face. Marie was debating within herself, wondering if it was a good idea that she followed the Sage party after all. Zhou and the others were used to following orders, regardless of whether it was a good idea or not, but Marie
needed
understanding.

“What are your thoughts?” Catherine asked, swallowing her pride. As she waited for Marie to devise a plan, she looked around her and saw just how desolate the area was. There were broken houses barely visible under the large mounds of snow. The snow in the courtyard was up to their ankles, and the air was so still that it was as if nothing was alive for miles.

She looked back to Marie as they all waited for the Prattlian’s answer. It was why she was recruited after all. To be an advisor. Catherine cast her eyes to her feet as she realized that she wasn’t using Marie enough. What was the point of having counsel if you never got their advice?

“This is the land of my people,” Marie said, projecting her voice enough for all of them to hear. “So I know about the secrets this land holds. There should be a storehouse in a tunnel under the rubble to my left. It will take a lot of digging though. And even then, it may have already been raided. The Quietus had been here for a while. Also, it would only be temporary relief. The produce would have rotted by now, but some of the meat might be okay as long as it was frozen enough. After we eat, we should have a hunting party get started right away so that we aren’t in a position in which we have nothing. The hunting party can also scout the areas and keep an eye out for the natural habitats of the local wildlife and see how close they are to us. If we find enough sustainable resources, then we can stay. Otherwise, I strongly advise that we leave.”

She said the last sentence to Catherine.

Catherine nodded and looked at each of them one by one for further suggestions. She received none.

“Sounds good to me,” she said finally. “Talia, you and Sway go on the scouting party, after we all eat of course. The rest of us will stay here and see what other things we can salvage.”

Catherine glanced out of the corner of her eye at Marie and the Prattlian nodded.

“Alright then,” Catherine said with a grin. “Let’s try to make this place home.”

*              *              *

“I’m still hungry,” Lily whispered in Bastion’s ear and he couldn’t help but laugh. She drove him so crazy. He stretched his arms over his head as Lily laid on her back and yawned. When had they fallen asleep? Bastion sucked his teeth in disbelief. “Oh, calm down. All we did was make out.”

“Make out?”

“Yeah. Um, it’s like…excessive kissing…I guess?”

“Why are you telling me to calm down? I’m tired,” she stopped to yawn. “You calm down. We didn’t do anything.”

“What do you mean?” Bastion asked, sitting up to attention.

“I’m hungry,” Lily said, rubbing her stomach as she changed the subject.

“Hey, you should tell me. I’m curious what else we could have done that’s—oh, that.” Lily laughed and shook her head.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” she said. “I like you. But I’m not ready to start a life with you or anything.”

“And why’s that?” he asked. He then decided to alter his line of questioning once he saw her eyebrow raise in the morning sunlight. “I mean, I’m just curious as to why. I’m not asking for that or anything.”

“Because we don’t know each other.”

“Right,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He felt like he had made the situation awkward.

“So…food?” she said.

“Do you even eat?” he asked, then he covered his mouth with both hands. Lily scowled at him.

“Excuse me?”

“Never mind.”

“No, I want to hear what you said again.”

“I’m not going to say it.”

“How dare you say something like that to me?” she said. Bastion sighed.
Why was she so beautiful, even when she was upset? Her face is all scrunched up and she’s obviously mad, but all I can think about is how cute her nose is, or her lips, those—

“Are you listening to me?” she shouted, and this time, he nearly fell off the branches.

“Alright, I’m sorry,” he said, reaching out and grabbing both of her forearms. He stared into her watery eyes. “I’m sorry. I am. I shouldn’t have said that. I wouldn’t like it if you had said certain things about me.”

“Like what?” she asked, in a genuinely innocent tone.

“Like if I feel,” he said, releasing her arms. “Or if you treated me as nothing more than a weapon to further your goals. I would be pissed.”

“Then let’s stay away from those topics,” she said with a gleam in her eye. “And on to more pressing ones. LIKE FOOD!” She shouted so loudly that they heard a quick rustling down below. A twig cracked beneath them, and before Bastion could say anything, Lily had already leapt off the branches and to the ground below.

Hitting the surface hard, she nearly fell over at the bend of her knees, but she stuck a hand out behind her to catch her fall, and then she propelled herself forward, sprinting toward the source of the noise. Bastion stayed in the treetops, leaping from one clump of branches to the other as he kept an aerial view of the forest. He kept to the more open areas of the forest canopy.

A toss of leaves caught his attention from the left.

“OVER TO YOUR LEFT!” Bastion shouted, and Lily grunted in irritation. She had already been running fast, and now she needed to change direction. She leapt to the right, kicked off the middle of a tree, and then used the momentum to push herself onto the proper path. Bastion leapt down to the ground and began running with Lily, trying to trap the animal between them. From the quick sightings they got whenever they got close, it was definitely furry, but it was never beyond a second. The animal, as if sensing their proximity, would kick it into overdrive, going even faster than before.

Bastion and Lily smiled respectively as they kept up the chase, pumping more energy into their legs, but not too much, just in case they had to change course again.

They were coming upon the forest edge, and soon they would hit the Quietus walls. The animal was sure to change direction then. Bastion turned to Lily and she was already nodding toward him. She had the same idea.

They split up, Lily to the right and Bastion to the left, deciding to slow down and not make as much noise in their approach. Out of the corner of his eye, the animal slowed down a little bit, as if thinking that it had lost them. It was a fatal mistake. As it came upon the Kingdom walls, it decided to go left toward Bastion. Bastion ditched stealth and sprinted forward with hands outstretched. The fat ball of fur turned and began speeding off to its right, but Lily was already on it. She scooped it up in her hands and kept it tight in her grip.