Page 12 of Their World

“Would you be able to take me outside?” I asked him. “Or somewhere that has soil?”

He stopped, spun, and frowned down at me. “Why?”

“I wanted to test a theory I had. You said I couldn’t leave the castle with Dhun and Zoman, but couldn’t you take me? I wouldn’t need much time, just a few minutes.”

Jol thought about it, his eyes narrowed as if I was trying to trick him. After a long moment, he sighed and nodded. “Fine, but you must stay close to me.”

Walking so we were almost touching, I asked, “Is this close enough?”

His lips twitched up into a smile. “Yes, that will do.”

He took me out a back door that opened to a little courtyard.

“This isn’t part of the castle?” I asked.

“It used to be a garden,” he said. “It used to be full of flowers and plant life,” he answered.

So, why couldn’t Dhun have taken me here then?

Almost immediately to answer my question, one of the bat-like demons flew overhead. When it spotted Jol, it flew in the opposite direction.

Walking out into the blackened dirt, I felt a deep sadness at all of the death. It hurt my soul to see so much nature devastated by whatever plague or curse had caused it.

There was a draw to a spot that felt like it used to be a flower bush, similar to a rose bush back home. Getting down onto my knees, I pressed my hands into the soil, cringing at the acrid scent that filled my nostrils as I stirred it up. Closing my eyes, I tapped into my elven powers, my connection to nature, and reached down deep beneath the top layer, searching for signs of life. For any sign that it could be nurtured or grow.

The faintest pulse at least six feet down responded.

It was weak, but it was there!

“Can you pour some of my water that is in Dhun’s pack onto the backs of my hands?” I requested, keeping my eyes closed to keep my connection.

“What are you hoping to do?” Zoman asked.

“Shush, don’t interrupt her,” Jol ordered. I felt him kneel beside me and the next moment the water dripped onto my hands.

Moving the water, I forced it down to the pulse I had felt. I surrounded that little bud of life with the water and sent some of my magic to it, nurturing it, coaxing, and begging it to grow.

It responded, but barely.

Darkness, it was surrounded by darkness. Light, it needed light!

“I need a shovel,” I said urgently.

“What?” Jol asked.

“I need you to dig six feet below my hands,” I ordered. “I can’t move or I might lose it.”

Dhun barked and started digging with his claws, flinging dirt so hard I heard it hitting the walls of the courtyard and the castle.

Jol squatted on my other side and dug with his hands as well. I was glad my eyes were closed, because watching the king dig with his bare hands would have caused me to cry.

“Your Majesty,” Zoman gasped.

Jol didn’t respond, just kept digging.

Another set of hands started digging in front of me, which meant Zoman was helping as well.

The pulse of life shifted as the dirt was dug and then it was in the light.

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