Young Writers Society

Elias's mind was hazy and dark. He had a death grip on Jerica when it felt like his soul was jumping out of his body, and then the acceleration suddenly stopped, and he could feel the heaviness of the air and gravity around him again.

He crashed on the ground when Jerica pulled away, and his legs buckled as he laid there like a rag doll, his limbs feeling like jelly.

"Uggghhhh," he moaned, not having the energy to do more than lay there through half-lidded eyes as he tried to swim through the creeping aches on his body and the headache that split his skull.

Jerica groaned, taking the rag and wiping her mouth before throwing it on the ground. Aerik left his arm down by her shoulder, so she grabbed it and let him haul her to her feet.

She stumbled slightly, falling into him. He caught her, then his eyes went wide. "What happened?"

"I'm fine." She trembled. Transports were rough on her any time. She had the grave misfortune of throwing up after them. Every. Single. Time. And she was in a sorry state before this one.

"You don't look fine." He wrapped his arm the rest of the way around her back, supporting her. She let her head tip over and rest against his chest, pretending that this was a hug, rather than him being the only thing keeping her from falling over.

"Well, I am."

Aerik looked at her for another moment, then turned his gaze on Elias. "Hello again, Elias."

Elias moaned as he let his eyes get accustomed to the the bright light and his hearing seemed to recover from the garbled noises as if underwater. He continued writhing on the ground as he fully opened his eyes and saw Aerik standing over him.

"...Aerik?" he grunted as he squinted up at him and slowly started to sit up. His own voice felt foreign to him. "What are you... doing here?"

"I've always been here." Aerik smirked and gestured vaguely around them, showing that they were next to his gardens. "Welcome back."

Jayk was standing nearby. He hopped twice and shook himself, but otherwise seemed entirely unphased by the Transport. Jerica narrowed her eyes at him. Men like that were so annoying -- able to shake it off, when she vomited.

Jerica looked past him. Her eyes went wide when she saw Kaidren standing in the distance. She stepped around Aerik, now standing squarely in front of him, so that his body was between her and the dragon. He looked down in confusion, then glanced over his shoulder, and then laughed when he understood what was happening.

"Let's get you inside." Aerik bent and scooped her off her feet.

"I don't need--" she protested, but hooked her arm around his neck anyway and curled into his grasp.

He started down the stairs and called over his shoulder. "Help him inside, would ya?"

So apparently they were at Aerik's now. At this point, Elias was not surprised, just confused. But that wasn't anything new.

He tried to get up on his feet, but then yelped when he lost balance and landed on all fours. He squinted and looked up to see Jayk standing next to him.

"What are we..." he began, but then trailed off, brain turning off and unable to finish his sentence.

"C'mon, kid." Jayk bent down and hooked a hand under Elias's armpit, then hauled him to his feet. He wrapped Elias's right arm over his own shoulder, then wrapped his left arm around Elias's back, supporting his weight. "Walk with me. You don't get the Princess-carry."

Elias was about to protest that he didn't need help, but Jayk swooped down and picked him up before he could, supporting him so he could walk. Thankfully his legs started to work and not buckle under his weight, and they took several strides before Elias felt more confident that he could keep his composure.

"I don't need help walking," he mumbled, but didn't let go of Jayk.

"Yeah, well, we'll see how the stairs go, won't we?" Jayk answered dryly, walking after Aerik.

Elias scoffed, but he lightly smiled and kept up the pressure on holding on to Jayk as they continued ahead. His head had stopped spinning and the body aches were slowly creeping away.

"What was that?" he asked him, deciding to use this opportunity to at least get some questions. That was, if Jayk would even answer them. "How did we get here?"

"It's called a Transport, and it's done using the R'hyk," Jayk said, deciding to answer him since he couldn't talk to Aerik right now anyway. And, now that the initial panic was starting to wear off. "Basically, you harness the energy of the universe and manipulate it to do what you want. Which can include Transporting from Swaltou to Aerik's house, for example."

Harness the energy of the universe... Jerica had talked about this. Yeah, she had talked about the R'hyk before. It was basically magic, or powers, or whatever. Just different names.

One question burned in Elias's mind.

"Can the R'hyk cause metal to heat up?" he asked.

Jayk was silent a moment, considering the question. "I mean, not spontaneously, no... but I guess you could make it do that if you wanted to? I use it to start fires, so I don't see why you couldn't use it to heat up metal too... why?"

Elias scrunched his brows in thought, considering the implication. Jayk's question of "why" whizzed right over his head.

"So, theoretically, someone with R'hyk could bring in heat to, say, their dagger? And make it really hot? If they wanted to?" he asked again.

Jayk gave him a side-eye, pushing open the door to the house as they got to the bottom. The puzzle pieces were falling into line perfectly. R'hyk, dagger, heat. "Are you asking me if Jerica can use the R'hyk?"

"I don't know," Elias answered bluntly and honestly, keeping up the pace. "Can she?"