Redwoods - A Short Story
“how you love yourself is
how you teach others
to love you”
―
Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey
I’m pretty
sure I turned eighteen recently since the last troll attack; I’ve lost track of
time. And the days have seemed longer than usual traveling by myself for this
long. All I remember from recent days is a lot of running, carnage, and sweat.
To be fair, I expected my senior year of high school to be the most exciting but didn’t have “the world ends with magic-wielding trolls attacking humanity” on
my bingo card of what things would happen to me. Just my luck as always, I
suppose.
What I do remember from the last attack is Sebastian
yelling for me to keep going and throwing me a handgun and his pack. (As it
turns out, they may be magical trolls, but they are still very much able to get
hurt and killed by very human weapons). We had set up camp for a couple of days
since Los Angeles fell to a fissure opening and swallowing most of the city.
Earth magic works best when large amounts of weight press upon the ground, so the
first places to fall to the trolls were large cities. Sebastian explained most
of how troll magic works in the years we spent together (this all began during
my freshman year). Their magic is elemental, and it’s strongest near the
element their magic uses. That’s why their earth magic is strongest. We’re
surrounded by the stuff. Then it’s wind, followed by water, and finally fire;
he would remind me.
We grew close
in recent months. We were around the same age, but being the more athletic
between the two of us, he was recruited to be part of the quasi-army humanity
was trying to use against the trolls. I was left as a civilian since my
heavier-set body didn’t look like much of a warrior’s body, I guess. I’ve
always been a little… big-boned, but not in an unhealthy way. It was difficult
for me to lose weight, so I was always packing a few pounds. I don’t think
Sebastian cared too much about what anybody thought because he was always trying to
teach me how to shoot his guns. Then the trolls attacked. Unfortunately for our
group, we were settled near a river (at the north end of the San Joaquin) by
what would have been Modesto. Trolls pointed their grubby forefinger at the
water and waved it towards the encampment. The tips of their fingers lit up in
a flurry of colors. Water slithered from the river and trolls sent it at high
velocity towards tents and people. It easily penetrated both. Red-tinted water
sprayed into a mist over the group. Everyone scattered.
Trolls waved
their glowing fingers towards the sky and created whirlwinds that lifted light
crates and children into the air and dropped them suddenly onto the ground with
a thump. Others pointed their glowing fingers at the ground and created
fractures that swallowed people and trees. And always muttering their little
spells. As soon as the first of the trolls attacked, Sebastian was on his feet.
He shot off three rounds, killing three trolls, before turning to me and
yelling, “Get this to the Redwoods! Be careful and don’t miss!” as he tossed
his pack and spare SIG Sauer P220 Combat pistol at me (I’m a quick study, so I
could name his guns from memory now). His eyes pleaded with me to keep my word. Then
he turned and ran towards the biggest of the trolls.
“I won’t,” I
responded shaking. Won’t what? Miss? Or won’t get it to the redwoods. I’m not
the hero type I repeat to myself. I ran off as fast as I could, slipping on red
water…or rather my friend’s blood. The hero stuff is meant for people like Sebastian.
I’m just the sidekick with crazy curly hair and funny one-liners. I had gotten
good with a gun, but after a nearly seven-hundred-thirty-mile journey from Los
Angeles to the redwood forest, I had contributed very little to the fight
against the trolls. I was so useless; trolls didn’t even bother sending their
spells at me. It’s the only reason I was able to escape in the first place.
What threat can I be except a threat to myself?
Stop
talking so much shit about yourself, Xavier.
Sebastian’s voice echoed in my head. Words of encouragement I remember him
telling me once. I’m lying on a bunch of old papers under some yellow tarps as
shelter from the cold nights. I would sleep in one of the buildings, but trolls
have a tendency to use some earth magic to destroy buildings if they think any
humans might use them for shelter. I didn’t want to take any risks.
The only
things I dream of have been of that day. It keeps replaying in my head like a
horror movie with no ending. I haven’t run into any other people since that day
too. I’m confused. Sebastian didn’t explain the contents of the pack
(understandably, considering the circumstances). But when I had run as far as I
could, I opened it to see what was so important I had to take to the redwoods.
It was a pair of rocks. Marble. Each had a symbol etched onto its surface one was a light pink color and the other a bluish-black color. They were about
eight inches long and four inches all around.
“What the hell
am I supposed to do with two rod-shaped rocks with an Instagram aesthetic,” I
huffed to myself. They were wrapped in a shipping label from a company in Inyo,
and someone scribbled the words REDWOODS, LIGHTNING CREEK. A hero would have a
plan. I had damp paper and two rocks with no idea about where exactly I was
going. Lightning Creek, I assume, but where that was in the redwood forests was
a mystery to me. Not Sebastian though…
Stop
talking so much shit about yourself, Xavier.
His voice echoed in my head again. As it always does. How could I stop talking
shit? Every story I read as a kid growing up was about a tall, blonde,
blue-eyed white man with more muscle than I thought possible. Here I stood at
five feet ten inches with no hint at musculature, with a full belly, and my
brown skin, and I was expected to deliver who knows what to God knows where. Until
Sebastian kissed me a few days before the attack at the river, I wondered if I
was even supposed to be touched. I wondered if I would find a person who would
lovingly smell my neck and breathe me in and make me kiss his face and run his
hands through my hair. Now the trolls have derailed that part of my life again!
It just seems like God released me into the wild and now he’s hunting me for
sport. I didn’t have a chance before the trolls, and I have no chance now.
The midday sun
doesn’t fall so warm anymore. A crisp breeze blows from the west. I haven’t
much to walk. I entered the woods about an hour ago and, if the map I found at
an abandoned trailer is correct, I have a few more miles until I reach
Lightning Creek. Thankfully, I have also found some more supplies for what’s
left of my trip: food, water, and a change of clothes (A blue Riley!
band shirt and cargo shorts. Not the most fashion forward, but it’ll do). The
clothes were a godsend. I couldn’t find any good-fitting clothes for a while
and I was still in the clothes from the river. Splotches of blood dried across
the off-white shirt I was wearing. I was lucky enough not to run into any
trolls so far. Or they were ignoring me like I assume they always do—a lonely
guy with no way of fighting back.
The trees
above creaked and swayed in the breeze. Nearly at my destination, I take some
time to rest and recharge before I spend all day trying to figure out what it
is I’m supposed to do with two pieces of marble in the middle of the forest.
“Well, human,” the voice slithers from my left, “what do you think
you’re doing here?”
I stand up and
spill the last of my water over myself. A troll steps out from behind a tree,
his grayish skin glistening in the little sun that trickled from above (oh
yeah, they can speak English…go figure). He’s tall, much taller than me, and
has long flowing hair that reaches past his waist that he has pinned back away
from his face. I hadn’t heard him cast a spell yet, but his forefinger was
already glowing, awaiting its next instruction. Was it an earth spell?
Water? Air? My mind raced as I tried to figure out where to run to. “I
don’t want any trouble,” I shake out.
Pathetic.
He smirks
revealing his sharp canines and steps forward wiggling his glowing finger in
small circles. “We wouldn’t normally, no, but as it turns out you’re getting
rather close to a place of importance for us, and I can’t have that happening.”
“Lightning
Creek,” I say. He seems to take offense to a human saying its name because
disgust fills his once toothy smirk. All his fingers wiggle away as he thinks
about what to do with me. Before he can make his mind up, I speak up, “I’ll
leave. I’ll go back the way I came and never return here.” Coward. Sebastian
would have taken out the gun in the holster hidden in my pants and popped a
bullet between the troll’s eyes before he could even begin to wiggle his
fingers in our direction.
Something I
say makes his smirk return because now he steps closer and I hear steps coming
from around me. Out from behind other trees I see eight trolls step out. They’d
look so human if it wasn’t for their jet-black hair, gray skin, sharp teeth,
and pointed ears. And the magic E.T. finger they were all wiggling away as they
stepped closer to me. And the muscular bodies they all sported too (heroes of
their story, I guess). “We can’t let you go just yet,” he states coyly.
Or at all. I think to myself.
“You have
something that belongs to us, and we want it back,” he says through his teeth.
“I don’t have
much, but I will give you everything I have,” I answer. Coward. Idiot! I forgot
about the marble stones in the pack. They’re sitting on the ground next to a
pool of the remaining water I spilled when I stood up. I try to step back towards
them. Idiot!
“I’m sure you
have plenty,” he cuts in as I try to step back. His fingers wiggling away. “I
think I’ll start with what’s in there,” he says as he lifts his glowing finger
at the pack on the floor. He tilts his head to the left and concentrates. The
ground beneath the pack shoots up in a column of earth diagonally as it
catapults the pack towards the troll. I jump and grab the strap of the pack as
it flies in the air over my head. I bring it towards my body as I land on the
ground with a thump.
POP! POP! POP!
Bullets wiz overhead and I hear the other trolls cast their magic past me and
at whoever is shooting at them. I feel the gusts of wind and the rocky debris
fly past me at their target. I roll over and behind the nearest tree. Coward. I
look over at all the rocks and wind the trolls hurl in the direction of their
attacks. POP! POP! POP! Sebastian! “Sebastian!” I yell audibly. How the
hell did he get here! Who cares, he’s about to save the day! The hero of my
story returns.
“Get him!” the
troll that had been talking to me roars. Five of the troll’s bodies were strewn
across the forest floor. Their amber blood pooled around their mouths and
spilled from the bullet holes on their face. I had a snowball’s chance in hell
to finish off the rest of them. The popping had stopped. I looked over at
Sebastian and saw he was hiding behind a tree. He was out of bullets. I’m such
an idiot! I reached behind me and grabbed the gun in my holster. I yelled after
Sebastian again and he looked in my direction. I tossed the gun back at him and
it landed just short of where he was crouching. (That’s my contribution to this
fight, I nearly handed a life-saving gun to the only guy to have taken an
interest in me).
“Teneht, the
boy with the stones is within your reach,” one of the trolls sending rocks at
Sebastian calls back. Teneht stops walking towards them and snaps his head
back in my direction and bares his teeth. His fingers wiggling away. He mutters
a spell underneath his breath (bastard I can’t figure out how he’ll attack),
and his forefinger begins to glow again. I reach into the pack and pick out the
stones; they are warm to the touch, in fact, too warm for the weather we’re
having. Idiot. How am I supposed to fight against Teneht with no weapon? I step
out from behind the tree.
Teneht points
his glowing finger at me and the ground splits open. I close my eyes wincing at
the incoming pain I’ll feel once I fall through the hole in the ground Teneht
created. But I remain on my feet. I open my eyes and see that Teneht is just as
dumbfounded as I am cocking his head. The fissure stops just before it reaches
me. They weren’t ignoring me when I escaped earlier at the river, their
magic couldn’t hit me.
Great, now
what the hell do I do? I think to myself.
I can hear the pops from the gun, and the subsequent thuds of the troll’s
bodies behind me. Sebastian is making his way toward me; I can feel him. I
can feel him? The stones grow warmer in my hands and Teneht’s stupor
changes to malice. The air feels electric, and it’s not until now that I
realize the little sun that made Teneht’s skin shimmer earlier is now covered
in gray clouds.
“GIVE ME THOSE
STONES!” Teneht lunges at me, Sebastian raises his gun, and I explode in a
flash of white light.
None of us saw
the lighting strike me, but the rolling thunder boomed in our ears. The clothes
I wear are charred, but I’m unscathed. I can see Sebastian checking his gun and
tossing it to the side. No more bullets, I think. He looks up at me and
nods in agreement, but he realizes I haven’t said anything out loud. Then, he
just looks as puzzled as Teneht and I did a few moments ago. Teneht!
Sebastian and I dart our heads around for the troll. We stand up to look for
him. I can’t see the stones either, but the symbols from the stones are now
burned into the palms of my hand and each shimmers pink and blue when I move my
palms around. Permanent scars in the shape of what looks like an old-timey
square key with two slanted teeth and a square turned ninety degrees bisected
diagonally by a straight line, great.
“Better than
being dead,” Sebastian chimes in as he pats my back.
“Where…are…they,”
Teneht says through gritted teeth as he steps from behind a boulder. “Earth…I
call upon you…crush.” His finger glows and the rest wiggle away. He steps
closer to me and Sebastian tries to step in front of me as protection. “Where are
the stones fat boy!”
I tense up and
step back. Coward! Even now when I know I can feel the power surge through me I
cower in fear. This was supposed to be Sebastian’s journey, not mine. He’s
suited to be the hero with his sharp jaw, honey-brown eyes, and athletic build.
His strong arms and flat stomach are better suited to save humanity, not me.
He’s the type of person they should tell stories about not me. I step back
again but Sebastian stops me and squeezes my shoulder. Stop talking so
much shit about yourself, Xavier. This wasn’t a memory, he said it just now
in my head. Go kick some ass. I look back as he gives me a reassuring
smile. I turn to Teneht.
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