3. The Clearing
My head was swimming. I didn’t know what was happening, but I knew something wasn’t right. Someone wasn’t telling me something. I didn’t like it. At all. Why should everyone but me know what was going on?
I pushed the annoyed thoughts from my head and picked up one of the rings that had clattered onto the floor in my rush to open the box. It was silver, a simple beauty. I absentmindedly took it and placed it on the ring finger of my left hand. When it was on securely, heat pushed at me from all sides until it was nearly smothering. Gasping for any semblance of cool air, I felt the heat push closer with every beat of my heart. Soon it was inside of me, poking, prodding, and pulling at my heart. The tendrils of warmth wrapped around it and stuck there. It burned slightly, but in an oddly pleasant way. The oppressive heat disappeared as quickly as it came.
Somehow, the ring’s essence had come into my body and infiltrated every part of me. I didn’t want to take the ring off and take away that all-consuming, beautiful burn. If the letter was true, there was no way I would test it out by taking off the ring and risking the punishment.
I found the long forgotten sweatshirt harmlessly tucked under my cover. I slid it over my head, grabbed the box and its contents from the floor, and shoved it in my pocket. When I pulled my hand out, I noticed that the ring had changed. In the middle, there was a diamond just large enough to fit in the silver band. There were small pieces of onyx fanning out on each side. I spun it around and found an engraving. It said ‘Asha-Our Guardian.’ I knew that me and the ring had connected. There was no other way to explain it.
“Are you ready yet?” Dad’s whiny tone broke my bubble of curiosity and pleasure. I scrambled to my feet, quickly hid my hand behind my back, and smiled, the look of pure innocence.
“Yup.” I gulped and tried to hide the wild emotions in my eyes. He had to be in on this whole thing. There was no way that he hadn’t seen the box before. It’d been in the house he’d lived in for eternity as far as I knew. “But Dad, there’s something I’ve gotta ask you.”
“What?”
I pulled the box out of my pocket and his eyes widened slightly. He fixed his expression back to neutral instantly; I wasn’t sure if his expression had changed after all. “Where did this come from? It was in my closet and I’m positive it wasn’t in there before. I mean, I would’ve noticed it if it was.”
He took the box from my hand and knocked my ring slightly forward. It stung slightly until I moved it back into its original position. “It’s nothing, Asha. We’ll deal with this later.”
“No. I want answers now.” Why is he avoiding it? With Dad, avoidance or lashing out meant that he was guilty. What’s he guilty of this time? I asked myself, sighing. Before it was lying about his age and now this box. From his reaction, I knew that it was more than just a box. “I know it’s something, so just tell me.”
“Dammit, Asha. Not right now, alright?”
“Yeah, we are doing this right now. Just give me something Dad. Otherwise, I don’t want to go wherever you’re trying to take me.”
“There are two rings and a letter in the box,” he said, opening the car door for me. It didn’t seem like he would continue, so I threw my luggage onto the lawn in aggravation. I stepped away from the car and sat on the curb. I could be just as stubborn as he was. “Remember the story I told you about your mom?” I gave him an annoyed look; I’d just had the nightmare. He knew I knew the story word for word. “This is the box she left with your brother. It’s for the both of you. I’ll explain more later.” I opened my mouth to protest. “Don’t start with me, Asha. Just get in the car.”
I grabbed my suitcases and threw them in the trunk of the sedan. If he wasn’t going to talk about the box and Mom, then I wouldn’t talk to him on the ride. “I thought you might want to go camping before you leave. The forest is beautiful this time of year,” he said after a few minutes of awkward silence in the car.
My mouth fell open in shock. He never wanted to go camping with me. “Who are you, and what have you done with my father?”
“Don’t be that way, Asha.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Dad,” I said. He could delude himself as long as he wanted. We were complete opposites; we never did anything together.
He stopped the car at the edge of the forest. It wasn’t uncommon on Luna to find yourself lost in the forest after stepping only a few feet away from any street. It surrounded everything but the coastline. We stepped out of the car, and I just looked around.
“So, Dad. Are we gonna just stand on the edge of the road? Panhandle, maybe?”
“This way,” he said, pointing into the forest. I smirked and dodged all of the fallen trees, but tripped over a fern and fell into a clearing.
“Shit.” My hands were scraped but were only bleeding a little. The denim of my worn jeans rubbed up against my shin. Pain crawled up and down my leg like a spider coated with poison. Gingerly, I lifted my pant leg and saw a huge scrape. My stomach lurched at the sight of so much blood. A thick, jagged stick seemed to be the culprit.
“Watch your language.”
“Fine then. You come here, so I can cut you with a stick. If you don’t swear, you can wash my mouth out with soap,” I said.
“Will you please stop being so dramatic?”
“Whatever do you mean, Father?”
He snorted. His firm hands grabbed me beneath my knees and shoulders. We were sitting in the clearing’s long grass before the blood-induced nausea could subside. Dad groaned when he inspected the wound. “Let me clean this for you.” Instead of waiting for an answer, he whipped a first-aid kit out of his pack and began working on me. His trembling hands made him fumble with the wipes.
“Are you nervous or something? I thought you did this kinda stuff for a living.”
“I-I thought I heard something back there. The forest is just making me edgy.”
“Stop being so paranoid. I’m in this forest nearly every weekend, so I know for a fact that there’s nothing back there.”
“So we’re nothing then? I’m hurt.” Two black robed figures emerged from the darkness.
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