Chapter 33

Before everything went black, a pair of green eyes without a face stared at Winnie. The eyes dissolved into her lake dream. She sat on a rocking chair next to her mom on the deck that overlooked the water. Mom wore her honey-colored hair pulled into a ponytail. Her nose and cheeks glowed reddish pink from too much sun, and her eyes sparkled with a vibrant glow, just like the photo in Winnie’s locket.

“This is a dream, right? I mean, I didn’t die from hitting the ground, did I?”

Mom turned her head toward Winnie and smiled. “You’re alive and well.”

“Good.” Except when she woke from this dream, she’d ache all over again from missing her mom.

“Just enjoy the now, Windy,” Mom said, her voice warm with love.

Naturally, a dream mom would say that. Or was it just Winnie’s brain saying it? She shook her head. Maybe it didn’t matter. “I feel like you’re really here. Like when I dreamed Dad was on a Ferris wheel with me.”

“Don’t overthink it, sweetie. How did you like Frama-12?”

Winnie let her dream mind go with the flow. “I had a kind of stepmom there.”

“Did you two get along?”

Winnie grinned. “Not at first. And she was a queen.”

Mom smiled too. “Windemere Ellen Harris, warrior princess.”

Winnie laughed. “I really was. I even helped win a war.”

“I knew you could.” Mom kissed Winnie’s forehead. Then everything went dark.

****

The hushed sound of rolling waves reached Winnie’s ears. She sensed brightness through her closed eyelids. Sand scratched the backs of her legs the way it had when she landed in Frama-12, except this time the granules felt cool. She didn’t dare open her eyes in case she found herself in another weird world. A seagull cried overhead. A gentle breeze carried the sweet smell of coconut sun lotion. It smelled like home.

A shadow fell over her face. She blinked several times to clear her vision. A pair of wide brown eyes and a tan face peered down.

“Mikey?” she said in a hoarse whisper. “Am I dreaming again?”

“Nope.” He smiled, revealing the gap where baby teeth used to be.

She slowly propped herself onto her elbows. Her canteens and binoculars clanked into each other.

“Something weird happened,” she said, still feeling her mom’s kiss on her forehead.

“We know,” said another familiar voice. Kip, dressed in green plaid shorty pajamas, sat beside her. “I came through a full five minutes before you did. We worried you landed in the wrong place.”

“Just Kip worried,” Mikey said. “I told him a watcher kept you back.”

“A what?” She sat up all the way.

“Guardians of the veil,” Mikey said matter-of-factly.

Kip rolled his eyes. “You’ve said that twice already, mate, but I still don’t know what any of that means.”

“Cyann mentioned that.” She turned to Mikey. “Can watchers make themselves look like other people, like my mom?”

The little boy shrugged. “I just know they guard the space between worlds. Did the watcher tell you anything?”

She lowered her eyes so the boys wouldn’t see her sadness from missing her mom. “Said she was proud of me.”

“I’m proud of you too,” Mikey said. “You saved two worlds.”

She sighed, trying to let her mother go. “I don’t know how big the threat was. The lurk in ended up being little dudes inside mechanical spiders.”

Kip gaped at her. “They were? Let’s hear it all. Start to finish.” He squatted in the sand beside her.

Mikey squeezed between them. “Me too. Tell me too.”

Winnie gave them a condensed version of the battle. Mikey laughed and applauded.

“That was brill!” Kip said with a wide smile.

“I don’t know how brilliant I was. The palm did most of the work, and the harris did the rest.”

Kip shook his head, eyes wide. “Maybe it was a good thing I was in the dungeon after all. If I’d known you were planning to use the palum, I might’ve used magic to stop you. I agreed with everybody else. The palm are too peaceful for battle.”

“Then I guess they needed my wily ways after all,” she joked.

Mikey grinned. “Told ya.”

She stopped smiling. Mikey wasn’t just her little brother. He was a voga. She still remembered Takka’s frozen vessel in Cyann’s cave. Would he keep his promise and stay as Mikey? Her heart pounded in her throat. “So…Takka. What happens now?” She held her breath, afraid of the answer.

“We’ll celebrate with chocolate chip pancakes.”

Her heart pulsed to a hopeful beat. “Does that mean you’re staying?”

He rolled his eyes. “Windy. Chocolate chip pancakes.”

She laughed and gave him a big hug. She kissed his smooth cheeks until he giggled and squirmed away.

“Thanks, bud.”

Except for the three of them sitting together on the beach, the day started like so many others. A female jogger ran past. A white-haired man carried a bucket and fishing pole to the water’s edge. Nobody knew what Winnie had just done to keep their world safe. The only ones who would ever believe her story were a little boy who used to be a toad and a guy in shorty pajamas who thought he was a wizard. Imagining those two like that made her giggle.

“What?” Kip asked, smiling along.

“Everything,” she said, cracking up.

Kip and Mikey joined in. At the height of their hilarity, a woman’s worried voice called from farther down the beach, “Michael, where are you?”

Mikey jumped up and down, waving his arms. “Here, Mommy!”

“Crap,” Winnie muttered. “Here she comes.”

Maria, dressed in her pink bathrobe, stormed across the sand toward them.

“She does not look at all pleased.”

“It’s okay,” Mikey said and skipped to his mother.

Maria crouched to hug him. “We worried about you, buddy.” She kissed the top of his head. She straightened and glared down at Winnie. “You took him for a run? In his pajamas no less and didn’t tell us?”

“Um.”

“When Mikey’s room was empty, I thought he wandered off and was alone out here. Anything could’ve happened.”

Winnie opened her mouth to apologize but didn’t get a chance.

“He could’ve been swept out to sea. He could’ve been kidnapped. And what’s all that?” Maria jabbed a finger at the canteens and binoculars around Winnie’s neck. “Going on a safari? You didn’t even ask to use them.”

“Mom, it’s okay,” Mikey said. “Windy just saved the world!”

Maria took a deep breath and gently rested her hand on Mikey’s shoulder. “See how he looks up to you? That’s why you have to be the mature one.”

The way Maria’s lips pressed into a grim line reminded Winnie of Queen Bogen.

Winnie had recently admitted to a watcher that she’d finally learned to accept the queen, toad warts and all. Maybe it was time to do the same with Maria.

Her gaze fell on Maria’s hand, lovingly resting on Mikey’s shoulder. The three of them might be different, but Winnie, Maria, and the voga queen had one thing in common. They all cherished the same prince.

“You’re right. I should’ve left a note. I’m sorry.”

“That’s all I ask,” Maria said in a calmer tone. “And who are you?” Her guarded gaze fell on Kip. “Do I know you?”

“That’s Kip,” Mikey said. “He’s a wizard.”

Kip waved.

Maria frowned at him. “Are you also out here in pajamas?”

“Loungewear,” he said sweetly.

Maria shook her head. “Breakfast is ready. You’re welcome to join us, Mr. Loungewear.”

“Can we talk to Kip for one more minute?” asked Mikey.

Maria sighed. “One minute only. Then it’s time to come home.” She faced Winnie. “Your dad wants to talk to you.”

Winnie nodded.

Maria turned and headed toward their cottage.

“I am so grounded,” Winnie mumbled.

Kip snorted in amusement. “What do you think me dad’ll say when I go back without our new tent?”

“Won’t he understand we had to leave it on Frama-12?”

He laughed. “Not even a little.”

“At least I have some souvenirs.” Her fingers touched a thin strap around her neck. She pulled on it, revealing the wig get whistle she’d tucked inside her T-shirt. “And this.” She tugged on the ribbon that held her reward. “The queen gave this to me.”

A miniature gold telescope hung from the ribbon.

“Frama-scope!” Mikey and Kip said in eager voices.

She gaped at it. It looked the same as the one she’d used at Cyann’s cave.

“I’ve read about these,” Kip said. “They’re extremely rare.”

“Really?” She held the lens to her eye and aimed at the ocean. All she saw were whitecaps and heaving waves. “Probably doesn’t even work here.”

“It should,” said Kip.

She pointed it toward the sky. Still nothing. She turned it toward the beach. A fist-sized orb, in robin’s-egg blue, hovered a foot above the sand. “I got one. Not very big.”

Kip nudged her. “Told you it’d work. Bigger ones are sure to follow.”

She lowered the Frama-scope and looked to Kip. “Think so?”

His grin widened. “Oh yeah. Big enough to walk straight through. I’m ready for another adventure.”

“Ya know what, guys?” Mikey said. “So am I.”

“Except we’re about to get grounded.”

Kip leaned so close his soft lips tickled her ear. “I wouldn’t let that stop us.”

“Oh. Okay,” she said, her cheeks pulsing with heat.

“Guys, listen,” Mikey insisted. “This time I’m coming too.”

She hugged her little brother. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. What do you know about Frama-10? Isn’t that the world on the other side of us?”

“I think it has mountains,” said Mikey.

“I like mountains,” said Kip.

Winnie nodded and shoved her whistle and Frama-scope back under her collar. She didn’t say it out loud, but more travels with Kip might be fun. And who knew? Maybe another trip through a time tear would bring her close to her mom again, or at least the watcher who looked and acted like her.

“But first, brecky,” Kip announced. “I’m ruddy famished.”

“Me too,” she said. “I can’t wait to eat real eggs again.”

He laughed. “Agreed!”

The trio held hands and marched toward home, swinging their arms.

Inside her shirt, cold metal bumped against Winnie’s skin. An eager flutter tickled its way up her spine. She owned an actual Frama-scope. Oh yeah. They were going places. Definitely.

THE END

A word about the author…

Aud Supplee, a reformed reluctant reader, gained a love of words thanks to a juvenile literature class in college. She also has a passion for creating alternate worlds full of characters who face a lot of trouble and a little romance. Her other loves are music and horses. She lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with her husband, a drum set, and an imaginary pony named Buster. For more information about Aud and her books, visit her website: AudSupplee.com.