Taming the Queen of Beasts

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*****

ELRETH

As Rika began to talk, Elreth both grew in sympathy for the female, and had to battle chittering terror.

Rika described a world that was so massive, so full of people and resources… it was unfathomable. They'd all warned her, of course, that it was big. But as Rika described living in cities that were days travel apart, being surrounded by thousands of people—her university alone out populated the Anima!—and then the job that she'd received. A secret group of men and women who had learned about the existence of the Anima and were working to replicate the Creator's design.

Elreth was nauseous.

"They believe there is something almost magical about your blood," Rika said reluctantly. "I was never told how they had discovered that Anima existed. It was something passed down within a family, I believe. But this group of scientists and adventurers has known for almost a hundred years. And they've been actively working to uncover what is in your systems that is so different to ours.

"They'd been working on trying to… to create Anima. But they weren't having success. Then a few months ago, one of the researchers found the gateway to this world. It was different to the others they had travelled. But they made it through and they found a group of Anima.

"When I was chosen for this work, I was given vague directions to find those Anima and observe them, but it included following the river at the base of the canyon. And when I arrived it was swollen and flooded. I could cross near the gateway, but I couldn't follow it.

"I took a risk and crossed the desert because I could see the forest and I hoped to find others. And… I did.

"Desert?" Elreth asked, confused. "What desert? The only desert is…" she trailed off, staring between Rika and Gar. A very real fear speared through her. She couldn't be right. It couldn't be... could it? "Please," she said faintly, "Tell me, how were you crossing the traverse without our knowledge? Did you use this machine you mention to hide yourself from the guards? We've had patrols in that wood for weeks and you say your friends just arrived a few days ago. How did they get around our guards—even the birds didn't see them!"

Strangely, Rika looked at Gar, whose throat bobbed, like he was nervous. Elreth's stomach plummeted. "What is it?"

"Apparently there's a second portal," Gar said quietly. "I'm sorry, El, even I didn't know that. I just assumed… We never discussed it until I asked her that very question."

Elreth had gone very still, gaping at Gar and Rika, as behind her the elders murmured and gasped, all of them thinking, as Elreth was, that this not only meant they'd been completely unprotected to this point, but that they now had two fronts on which to fight a war.

"Where is it?" she asked faintly, her stomach churning with fear and an increasing sense of being buried under impossible problems.

"North," Rika said without hesitation. "The other side of the desert

Gar nodded, wincing. "I promise I didn't know this part until today, El," he said. "I didn't get her story in chronological order, when she talked about the desert… Just believe me, I didn't know."

"There's a second portal?" Elreth dropped her face into her hands. She felt Aaryn shifting next to her, wanting to offer comfort, but aware of her desire to be seen not to lean on him in public. She lifted her head and turned to look at him, knowing her eyes pinched with unshed tears. "Everything we've done to try and keep the world safe… they've just been walking in."

"Not many of them," Rika offered. "Only five. And the occasional assistant who came through to pick up notes and samples. But they never stayed."

Elreth looked at her. "You're certain? And they're only aware of the portal that you used?" Rika nodded. "That's what I gather. Gar thought I was talking about a different location. I've never been as far as the Tree City. I've only been to the north and west. I was never told that there was another way in or out. In fact, I was warned not to lose my bearings, that it was the only way to return home in an emergency. Of course, back then, they didn't know I was going to be crossing the desert…"

Elreth's heart thumped in her ear. "Okay," she said faintly. Aaryn's hand appeared on hers and she clung to his fingers, the elder be damned. "Okay. I need to… think about that. But we need to hear the rest of this. It's even more important now… Tarkyn, get a patrol together. We need to get a team out there to take any humans that arrive at that portal… from either side of it."

Tarkyn, paling, was on his feet, nodding, already striding for the door.

"You don't leave yet!" Elreth called after him. "Just prepare. You don't leave until we know exactly what we're dealing with and… and how."

Tarkyn nodded again, then practically ran for the door.

Elreth turned back to Rika, forcing herself to focus. But all she could think about was that there was another, distant, unguarded portal. And the humans now knew they'd been discovered. If even one of them had lived through that fight with Gar…

She was glad for the scribe, because as her head spun possibilities before her, she knew she wasn't taking everything in.

Her mind was washed with images—human beings, armed to the teeth, bristling with weapons and prowling through the WildWood, all armed with those little machines that showed them where the Anima were and how they approached, before the Anima even knew they were there.

Suddenly, the entire world flipped and looked different.

What good were the disformed as Protectors if the war were here on Anima soil? What benefit of having spies who could work within the humans if the humans brought the war to her on this side of the portal—

Aaryn nudged her and when she glanced, he signed, 'I can smell your fear.'

Elreth took a deep breath and forced her heart to slow. Forced her body to stop producing adrenalin.

This was it. This was the moment she'd been born for—or at least, this was the moment that would lead her to victory or defeat. The choices she made today would determine the rest of her life, and the lives of everyone who lived in the WildWood.

She couldn't afford to get lost in fear or self pity.

She nodded and Aaryn gave her a sympathetic smile, then she turned back to Rika and motioned for the woman to keep going.

She was going to learn every single thing she could.. Then she was going to put these humans on their asses. 

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