“How did I get tricked into this?” I wonder aloud. “No, seriously. How did I ever think this was a good idea?”789Please respect copyright.PENANA2ADQMvqgwn
Klef shushes me. “You’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAfWqu1iSVH7
The Crusader’s base is in sight, and I’m having more than a few second thoughts about this whole experience. “Have you ever seen me try to speak in public?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAf0LoqOWOOW
“Yes. But this isn’t in public,” Klef reasons.789Please respect copyright.PENANA1viFE5scbO
“I’m with Klef on this one, Reese, have some self confidence!” Geo adds.789Please respect copyright.PENANABGK2CjnJTR
As we’re walking toward the Crusader’s base, Flo walks out with a werewolf who I’m assuming is her mate. They have flowers in their short cropped hair but despite the typically “feminine” accessory has a somewhat-masculine build. Both of them walk out to greet us. “Oh, so nice to see you three! Geo, Iri, and...sorry, was it Klept?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAFpgQ4s3zq1
“Klef, nice to meet you,” Klef says, shaking Flo’s hand. “I understand you’re the one who helped me when I had food poisoning 5 years ago. Thank you for that.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAthuwvvww58
Flo smiles, bashful. “I really wasn’t that good at finding anything to help you, but you’re welcome regardless.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA3U89MNkzZn
The other werewolf clears their throat. “Am I invisible, or something?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAn6uqbiRPx2
“Oh! Sorry, Rythe! Everyone, this is Rythe, my mate,” Flo says with a blush.789Please respect copyright.PENANAip0j8oIPa1
Rythe shakes Klef and Geo’s hands, and then comes to me, examining my eyes. “And you must be the Oracle I’m hearing so much about!”789Please respect copyright.PENANAEcyzWIF8qY
I nod. “I’m Rides. Nice to meet you.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAGI4hs13muG
Rythe bows. “It’s an honor, my lady.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAapjUe3N1C6
I blush and Flo whacks Rythe upside the head. “Stop, you, you’re embarrassing her!”789Please respect copyright.PENANAFKVJxN2gcE
Rythe grins. “But that’s what you love about me! And clearly she doesn’t see herself as some sort of royalty!”789Please respect copyright.PENANAl43MwCD85c
Flo mutters in a low voice, “She’s the Alpha’s daughter.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAsUUKEKufLk
Rythe straightens. “You mean the Alpha of a rival pack or The Alpha?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAKyGZBvUQ2o
“Try the second one,” Flo mutters, embarrassed on his behalf.789Please respect copyright.PENANAFeOoO4lQnf
“Oh.” Rythe salutes me. “Terribly sorry, ma’am.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA9og2yeUJ1x
“That’s not necessary, Rythe,” I laugh. “I’m perfectly fine with being called Rides, or even Iri, if my dad insists on calling me that all the time.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA1fdmaddp57
Rythe nods stiffly, setting the flower crown close to the brink of desruction, and leads us inside.789Please respect copyright.PENANA3KARs6mgfE
“Guy or girl?” Klef whispers to Geo.789Please respect copyright.PENANAAN3xBPgeT0
“I...don’t know? Guy, I think?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAdRAffOOhK9
“No, I’d say girl,” Klef muses.789Please respect copyright.PENANA1w5X9XmD98
“What are you guys talking about?” I mutter.789Please respect copyright.PENANAdnG4n25MUZ
“Rythe. Guy or girl, do you think?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAOlaKstFk4O
“Um…” I have to think about my answer. “Maybe they’re neither…”789Please respect copyright.PENANAvvFaR6i1hQ
“Neither? Is that possible?” Klef asks.789Please respect copyright.PENANAvNGx1yUgDC
“It would make sense,” Geo reasons.789Please respect copyright.PENANAMg6dpeGygo
“I’m going to stick to using first names around those two,” I say, holding to the werewolf couple holding hands. “Just to stay in the clear.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAw0A6M37MeB
“Right, because the natural neutral pronouns are it/its, but that can be seen as degrading nowadays,” Geo says.789Please respect copyright.PENANAdLPIbTV5pi
“It is grammatically correct, though,” Klef points out.789Please respect copyright.PENANAPyS10WgYlV
“I guess you have a point, but would you be okay with being called an ‘it’?” I counter.789Please respect copyright.PENANAY96Sp7t4CJ
“What are you guys talking about?” Flo asks.789Please respect copyright.PENANAB5GHAYalVZ
“Nothing much,” Geo says. “Just things back at our branch, you know?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAsJVEUsyEvC
Rythe coughs and mutters, “They/them,” and I grin at Klef and Geo.789Please respect copyright.PENANAfnl4l0XZC6
Flo ushers us into a giant room filled with desks where people are talking on phones, documenting things with pictures and surrounding a map, adjusting plastic pieces and discussing strategy. There are many species I recognize and some I don’t. This speech is not going to be easy.789Please respect copyright.PENANAOUoPnEAKNB
Rythe clears their throat. “Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else, allow me to present Rides, the Oracle who will be informing us on her dreams!”789Please respect copyright.PENANALJ0tgMEyYo
The room goes silent and every eye is on me as I take a deep breath. “Well...first of all, thanks for paying attention, I know a large room full of people who wouldn’t be willing to do that. Second of all,” I look around the room. “Why are you guys paying attention?! I have no clue what I’m doing, and I’m willing to bet every other person in this room has a better idea about how to handle this problem than I do. I am young, inexperienced, and I have recurring nightmares, so I don’t get a lot of sleep to think clearly.” Everyone looks at one another, shifting and murmuring. “My point being,” I yell over the murmuring, and everything goes dead silent again, “That no matter what you think of me, I’m like anyone else. I have my strengths and my weaknesses, just as everyone else in this room has to deal with. I’m not some super-impressive goddess who can do anything I want. I’m weak at almost everything here. I’m just Rides, the girl who dunked her boyfriend in ice cold water to try and help speed up his molting. But you need information, and fortunately, that’s one of my strengths.789Please respect copyright.PENANAyrqlmkytvi
“All of my dreams are pretty much the same. I’m being led to some machine of mass destruction by someone--I don’t know who. I’m on some island, or place surrounded by water, at least. There’s mermaids, fairies, zombies, ghosts, you name a species, it’s probably there, except there are never any humans. When I’m strapped to it something happens and it takes my Sight. It revs up and Klef is asking whoever the leader is why they’re doing this. To summarize, they say it’s to ‘destroy all humans’.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA9l1iENn3Yu
Everyone shifts around, suddenly on edge. “And?!” a wizard with pitch black hair shouts.789Please respect copyright.PENANANOHEoSlyxR
“And that’s it. I can say it’s more likely that we’re on an island than a continent, and there aren’t as many islands in this world to check out…” I say.789Please respect copyright.PENANA8z9YonrODX
“That we know of!” a gorgon yells. “We could be on a wild goose chase, lass!”789Please respect copyright.PENANAFGI8B1kmVd
Klef bristles next to me and I hold him back with a hand. “You called me here,” I explain, “You wanted to know what I knew. There you have it.”789Please respect copyright.PENANASrDTruLIdW
The wizard who yelled out comes up to me. “Yeah, but we were expecting…”789Please respect copyright.PENANAXLnyWuGryQ
“More?” I supply. “Yeah, a lot of people do. Be glad I have that much, though. This is coming from 5 years of dreams.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA95PlhlA1hW
“Okay. I’m Ama. A necromancer,” she introduces. “I’m going to be guarding you three for your stay.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAITX8lTQoLg
“Make that the two of them,” Geo corrects. “I’m no one.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAbb4WPUcgvW
I start to protest but Ama cuts me off. “He has a good point, Oracle. You and your partner are the highest priority here. The less people to protect, the safer you’ll be.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAf7c0f2Cv3t
The room is still silent, everyone anticipating my reply. “Excuse me,” I gasp, making a beeline for the room’s exit.789Please respect copyright.PENANAA9lPkPDJm4
I wander the halls, looking for a restroom. I know I’m about to be sick. I heave in the middle of the hallway and shudder as nothing comes up but a little bile. I was too nervous to eat lunch earlier, but now I’m glad I insisted that I wasn’t hungry. After a few more dry heaves, I slide down the colorless wall to the right of me to the ground. Now that I’ve stopped puking, all I really want to do is cry. I’m really not important. They just need my gift, and anyone could get that. To say others’ lives, their family and friends, my family and friends, are nothing next to me...it has to be utterly ridiculous. There’s no way. I no more important than anyone else. No one should die on my behalf.789Please respect copyright.PENANAKfEZCMykjP
Footsteps come up to my back. Two pairs. “Ride?” Klef asks. “You okay?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAhSRWcYN0LR
I shake my head and close my eyes, resting my side against the wall. “Sick,” I mutter.789Please respect copyright.PENANAMmdPoXn7zQ
“I’m sorry if I upset you, but you need to get it into your head that you’re special,” Ama states.789Please respect copyright.PENANAcATqp8y6ZN
“You don’t seem to be the type to be a necromancer,” I say. “Since you seem to care about people and their health so much.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAwUUdk6QM7J
Ama laughs. “You haven’t seen me mad.” I turn to get a good look at her. She does have a black air about her, but it’s small and watery at the moment. She has black ringlets that go below her shoulders and clear, milky skin. She also has one green and one blue eye. She notices me looking at her eyes and grins. “Yeah, I have the Sight too. It makes my magic strong enough to animate corpses. Wanna see?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAfqYqwLlL19
“S-sure.” I stumble on the word, because what is the correct response to someone volunteering to reanimate a corpse for you?789Please respect copyright.PENANAxLfHf6fzbg
Ama mutters something and a tiny skeleton of a rabbit forms out of bones in a pocket Ama has on her clothes. “I like bunnies,” Ama explains. “Once I made an entire fluffle of skeleton bunnies follow me.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAJOVIndXNHP
“Definitely not someone I’d call a necromancer,” Klef mutters.789Please respect copyright.PENANAYvIgpYDdZg
I still don’t turn enough to see him properly. Ama shifts so she can face me fully. “Pet the bun,” she instructs.789Please respect copyright.PENANAP34jPhlAKQ
My hand reaches for the bunny with hesitation and it lifts its head up to meet my fingers, relishing every single stroke. I smile, and Ama smiles at me. The bunny falls into a pile of bones and Ama shakily returns the bones to her pockets. “Always drains me,” she admits.789Please respect copyright.PENANAKOZmCuQWVK
I put a hand on her shoulder. “But you’re great at it.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAguGSmR7DHx
Ama grins, a blush creeping over her from ear to ear as she stands up. “Come on. Everyone is waiting for you, to make sure you’re all right.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAR8HQVlR0OQ
I stand up, my muscles screaming at me every inch. My legs shake and my head is spinning as I finally look at Klef. His face is etched in concern and he takes the few slow steps to me as if he’s walking across a minefield. He wraps an arm around my shoulder and says, “You look like you’re about to keel over. Let me help.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAFBUYDaRRS2
“I’m fine,” I mutter as I lean against his shoulder.789Please respect copyright.PENANAj8tjMibvoa
“Of course you are, you’re great,” he snarks as he leads me back the way we came. “That’s why you puked and collapsed.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA52mheGwTOP
I scoff. “Shut up, bird brain.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAsCrwuQ5Ub2
“Make me, pointy ears!” Klef challenged.789Please respect copyright.PENANAVGNs6goqaS
Ama looked between us. “You two are so dating.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA1ZFjNkuXNK
“No we’re not!” we deny at the same time.789Please respect copyright.PENANAVrUAJBMpg5
Ama laughs. “So dating.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA3k5k3WvJDR
“Well don’t say anything. We want to keep it on the DL, if it’s possible,” Klef requested.789Please respect copyright.PENANAS8JQEVtgXO
“Seriously? I’m willing to bet half the people here have started a pool on your relationship status!”789Please respect copyright.PENANAtGS9wBUkw9
I groan. “Great. Just what I need. First I’m more important than others, and now I’m going to be seen as a desperate lovestruck teenager.”789Please respect copyright.PENANADf8lllIwBX
Klef raises an eyebrow at me. “Is that how you see yourself?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAfwn91dCLge
I shrug. “Well, people mix up you and I a lot.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA6j7ruYfisR
Klef lightly punches me. “There’s the Ride I know and love.”789Please respect copyright.PENANANQdcboI7vG
Ama sighs. “I ship it,” she murmurs.789Please respect copyright.PENANA7GPaqxL2mO
“There’s that word again!” I exclaim. “Why would people ‘ship’ us?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAm5aQPe2Ek1
“It’s cute!” Ama defends.789Please respect copyright.PENANApnrii3lp3f
“It’s weird!”789Please respect copyright.PENANA3M0HFSv1fT
“It’s true!”789Please respect copyright.PENANAsgZcoQ3Zky
“It’s really really funny,” Klef interjects.789Please respect copyright.PENANAc8rlsxWDF7
I elbow him. “It is not,” I sigh.789Please respect copyright.PENANAFEbJy4fsRn
Klef grins.789Please respect copyright.PENANAcoHOBHQQ6t
“It’s not funny!” I exclaim.789Please respect copyright.PENANAB1JuvNUzyh
“Whatever you say, Ride. Whatever you say,” Klef laughs.789Please respect copyright.PENANA0qhEj8snwR
Rythe and Flo come into view outside the conference room. “You okay?” Rythe asks.789Please respect copyright.PENANASoXHojX6pY
I nod. Klef lets go of me and I nearly topple over. “Do you mind?” I growl.789Please respect copyright.PENANANjhI3osSjc
He grins. “We’ll get you something to sit on until you feel better,” he assures.789Please respect copyright.PENANAgf3UjjHpHz
I mimic him. He punches me, nearly sending me careening into a wall. Rythe picks me up. “I can take you to a wheelchair, don’t worry,” they say.789Please respect copyright.PENANA9J2QldZgw0
I’m carried to a wheelchair next to a table with a globe on it. Little red flags litter the globe. “What are those flags for?” I ask.789Please respect copyright.PENANAPxwy0nXlsa
“Those are possible places your dreams could have taken place. Now, the list has decreased significantly with your information,” Rythe pulled out land-based flags. “Because you said you were on a peninsula or an island. Now, in addition to the Islands of the Mermaids, there are a bunch of unmapped islands all around the globe. And there’s on in the middle of a lake in the Untamed Lands that’s suspicious.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA39NZ7hE7BC
I nod. “Are we sending people to check out the most probable places?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAundpHCAsou
“Yeah, and we’re sending you and Klef to some of the less likely ones, to deal with the messages somewhere safe.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAmL7YcQOh7r
“Okay, I guess…I’d rather be out looking, though.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAVGGzKM0XEO
“It’s for the best you don’t,” a pale human with freckles says. “Hibiscus A, they/them. Has a mild obsession with dragons.”789Please respect copyright.PENANAoUCV8vAkX8
I smile. “Rides. My dad wants me to go by Iri. I’m old fashioned, I don’t like using my full name.”789Please respect copyright.PENANApYFBSX8XNF
Hibiscus A nodded. “I got you. Completely got you. Nice to make your acquaintance, Rides.”789Please respect copyright.PENANABI6xUbWvwT
“Likewise.”789Please respect copyright.PENANARGFVxmjdjr
Klef walks in, followed by my dad. “Still hanging around this scum, Iri?”789Please respect copyright.PENANANedhn8VhRv
I laugh. “Hi, dad.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA9RWdLKUqdQ
Klef looks offended. “What am I?”789Please respect copyright.PENANAKVXRIcRHFd
“Chopped liver,” I respond.789Please respect copyright.PENANAjEZxp2A6h6
Dad laughs. “Nice one!”789Please respect copyright.PENANABmq5zVk1bL
Klef holds a hand to his heart. “You wound me, Ride. You wound me.”789Please respect copyright.PENANA4Vr79tZ3eF
“Good. I was trying to.”789Please respect copyright.PENANABBn8RdMR8q
Hibiscus A coughed. “Ship it,” they mutter.789Please respect copyright.PENANAdoele6bF5a
I throw my hands up. “I’m done with this!” I sigh.789Please respect copyright.PENANABWlTeJExve
Everyone laughs. “You think I’m joking?” I ask, standing up shakily. “I’ll see you all tomorrow,” I exclaim, waving.789Please respect copyright.PENANALZiIRD4B2l