Page 21 of Avelina

I looked over at Aaron excitedly. He had the look, but I didn’t care. “It’s a toothbrush,” I said, holding it up for him to see. “It cleans your teeth.”

He raised one eyebrow, unimpressed. “We have those here too,” he said.

“Oh.” Well, that was anticlimactic. “Do you have any toothpaste?”

For the next hour, I talked Aaron’s ear off, and he asked questions. The awkwardness from earlier had lessened, and he wanted to see what else was in my bag. He tried a granola bar, which he said he liked but didn’t finish. I showed him a steel water bottle, which he thought was ingenious and then spent five minutes screwing and unscrewing the top. I had two of them, both orange with a Giants logo, so I gave him one, and it seemed to make him happy, though it was hard to tell.

We got about halfway through the pack when he noticed that my watch had a photo on it. He had never seen a photo before and stared at it for several minutes, taking my hand to hold the watch up to his face. I showed him how to scroll, and though his face gave away very little, the contact showed me new emotions from him, like wonder and excitement.

He looked at pictures of my life. My friends, my car, the places I had traveled over there. England, Scotland, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and so on. He saw a picture of my parents, which made him frown. I let him look for a moment, feeling his longing.

“When we find your parents, I’ll take a picture of you with them, just like this,” I said. He nodded but didn’t say anything.

Then, I showed him pictures of Fantasma. “That’s a horse,” I said. “They’re beautiful animals, about the size of that ‘small’ dragon.” I made air quotes around the word “small” like a nerd. “Which makes sense because Fantasma also tried to kill me.” The memory gave me a chill. “I should have eaten her afterward.” Aaron nodded again, not realizing it was a joke.

“Anyway,” I continued, suppressing a giggle, “we ride them all over the forest. My favorite thing in the world is to grab my pack and go ride for hours and be alone with the trees. Alone except for Rogue, that is. There are a lot of similarities to here, actually,” I said. “The trees are the same.” I thought about that for a moment.

Why are the trees the same? In fact, why are the people the same? Almost the same, except for the eyes. The language is nearly identical, with a slightly different accent. That can’t be a coincidence. I thought about the white wolf that had appeared in our forest. I stopped speaking for a minute, lost in thought.

“Aaron, do bridges occur spontaneously?” I looked up to see him staring at me with those reflective blue eyes. He still held my hand.

In that brief moment, I realized something. You know how they say that women decide quickly whether or not they would sleep with someone? Well, I can’t speak for my entire gender since I’m far from average in my tastes and behaviors, but I can tell you that, for me, it’s pretty much true. I was attracted to Aaron from the beginning, but the uniquely bizarre circumstances caused me to be wary and act like a frightened doe. Now that I had calmed down and Aaron was so close, holding my hand, gazing at me with those incredible eyes, and smelling like a goddamn pheromone factory, it was undeniable. This gorgeous man was a big fat hell yeah.

You’ve been here one day, idiot. Stay focused.

Aaron looked back down, letting go of my hand. Right before he let go, I registered something like the shame I’d sensed in him earlier. It was muffled, as if buried.

“Bridges do spontaneously appear,” he said, “but it’s rare.”

I had forgotten what we were talking about and had to snap my attention back. Bridges, right. Maybe the worlds were more closely linked than I thought. If I just stood by that X, would I eventually be sucked up into a portal? Would it hurt like it had before or was that a one-time deal?

I gave Aaron a sideways glance, then looked over at Rogue. He lounged by the door, staring at us. I opened the first aid kit, found the antibiotic ointment, and took it over to Rogue. I crouched next to the smelly furball to dab his burns. They were still visible, and he winced but let me apply the ointment. When I was finished, I walked back over to the table and slumped down in the chair.

“I’m exhausted,” I said honestly.

He nodded. “We should sleep. We’ll walk to the farm tomorrow.”

“The farm?” I asked, sticking the little toothbrush head into a side pocket so I could easily retrieve it. The rest of the bag was a mess that something that small could get lost in.

“Yes, the O’Feld farm. Jorin O’Feld is my uncle by marriage but was sort of a second father to me after my parents . . . Anyway, he might know something useful. And I need to resupply. I’m out of bolts, and I’m almost out of oil. Jorin and Terik, my cousin, resupply me from the farm two or three times per year.”

“Okay,” I said, absorbing the flustering knowledge that I would soon meet multiple members of Aaron’s family. “Can I ask one last thing?”

He nodded.

“How come I don’t have access to the Protection fragment if I’m from Earth?”

“Not everyone does,” he said, pausing, “but you might have it and not know since you’re from over there.” He looked at my face again, his eyes searching where my burns had been, and got a look on his face that I couldn’t decipher.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well, there is a way to find out,” he said. He couldn’t meet my eyes.

“How?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.

“Well, the Protection fragment has two sides to it. Shielding and . . . healing.” His eyes quickly flicked over my body. It was unclear if he was checking for signs of healing or if he was just plain checking me out.

“Uh-huh. Where are you going with this, Bear Guy?” I asked, parking my fists on my hips, and narrowing my eyes exaggeratedly.

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