Erick Rashak paused for a moment, and then reluctantly withdrew his arms from Mira's body. She slid off, shaking with adrenaline.
The feeling of his warmth began to dissipate, and she felt the chill as she sat on the floor, desperately trying to control her breathing. She looked up and saw Zander reaching down to help her up.
"Are you ok? He didn't hurt you anywhere?" Zander looked her up and down, his silver-blue eyes full of worry, tinged with something that seemed like barely repressed rage.
"No, no. I"m fine." Mira shook her head as she allowed him to lead her over to a chair, away from Erick's reach.
Zander turned back to Erick with barely veiled threat in his steely blue eyes. "Mira is our gracious hostess. She is also your healer. Treat her with respect, or I will make you regret it."
"Oh relax, Zander. I did not hurt her."
"You nearly killed her before."
"Well that was before." He blinked and passed a hand over his face. "I'm more aware now. But I still don't know exactly where we are. Did we actually make it?"
"Yes. We're in Azure."
Erick Rashak stared at Zander Tamien. "So we actually made it here in one piece with just with your hastily scribbled calculations!."
"Yeah." Zander confirmed, but did not elaborate. His eyes looked troubled.
"Is something wrong?" Mira asked, sensing something not quite right with the way Zander looked.
"No. At least not anything urgent."
"Then what is it?" Erick Rashak asked impatiently.
Zander stared at Erick with something akin to desolation in his eyes. "I don't know how to get us back."
For a moment, the room was silent.
Mira instinctively reached out to touch his arm. "You've only been here for half a day, I'm sure you can figure something out if you give it a little bit more time. Besides, Erick Rashak is still not fully healed yet. It will take awhile before he is back to normal."
At her touch, Zander Tamein tensed and blushed to the roots of his slate blue hair, but he did not pull away.
Erick Rashak gazed with barely concealed irritation at Mira's casual touch of Zander's arm.
"I'm not in any hurry to get back." He then turned to Mira. "And didn't I tell you that men and women aren't supposed to touch in such a casual manner?"
Mira rolled her eyes, ignoring him. That was rich, coming from a man who had just accosted her.
"If you don't return in a timely manner, the Emperor will think you're dead and will appoint someone else as the next crown prince." Zander's voice broke through her thoughts.
"Let him do as he pleases. I don't give a damn." Erick Rashak's aquamarine eyes sparkled with barely repressed fury.
"But I do." Zander flicked his hand and threw a tiny blue current at Erick's chest, causing him to grunt at the unexpected golf-sized energy sphere hitting his chest. "You are the optimum choice. The alternatives are unacceptable."
Erick rubbed at the spot where the energy current hit and grimaced. "My brothers are rabid dogs. All of them." He then grinned unexpectedly at Zander. "Hey, I have a good idea. Why don't you take over the blasted crown prince mantle? I can't think of anyone who can do a better job than you--other than me, that is."
"No thanks. I'm not even in the line of succession for the Jade Kingdom, but even if I were, I wouldn't want the job. I have my own set of obligations to have to shoulder." Zander shook his head. "This sticky messy Jade crown is all yours, I'm afraid."
Erick cursed. "I almost lost my life because of that freaking mantle. It's not something I want either, but what choice do I have." He sighed, pinching the nerves between his eyes. "It's unfortunate that none of my brothers are capable of taking up the crown, or I'd dump it on one of them. They are all too stupid, too greedy, and too weak."
"It matters little, if we cannot get back to Ashrya." Zander sighed.
🌺🌺🌺
The afternoon turned into evening, and the evening turned into night. Pizza was the dinner of choice that night, so Mira placed an order with the local pizzeria. In order to accommodate each man's individual taste buds, she split the large thick crust pizza into halves, with vegetarian on one side and meat lovers on the other.
The men had never eaten pizza before and seemed to enjoy it greatly, especially the sticky mozzarella cheese.
As for Quill, Mira plucked out several pieces of pepperoni and sausage and placed them before him, and he happy feasted on them until he fell over, holding his large stomach and snoring up a storm, right on the dinning table.
Zander and Quill ate their fair share of the pizza, and Erick got more bland rice soup. He still slept much of the time, and only woke up to take care of physical needs, which Zander or Daran assisted with.
That night, as Mira snuggled under the sheets, she actually felt safe for the first time since her parents died. Although there were four men of varying sizes and varying races, they were extraordinarily kind to her, and she felt comfortable in their presence.
Morning brought with it, a fresh May rain. The weather had warmed up quite a bit, and so the rain was also a fairly warm rain.
By the time Mira came down the stairs to check on her patient, the others had awakened and were out 'recharging' again.
The blue-haired Ashryan and the dwarf sat on wicker deck chairs under the canvas awning as the garden turned into a misty watercolor, while the tiny batman rummaged among the flowers in the rain, like a huge ugly dark butterfly, doing whatever it was that tiny batmen do.
She wasn't sure how long these men were going to stay with her, but it was becoming more and more apparent that she needed to wash the robes they were wearing. Although they bathed every day, they desperately needed clean clothes to change into, so that morning, she left them to their devices and went clothes shopping.
The first thing Mira realized was that she did not know their sizes, so anything like fitted jeans or tailored shirts was out of the question. She ended up grabbing some tee shirts and slouch jeans from the tall men's section for the blue-haired guys, and some similar pieces for the dwarf from the short men's section.
After thinking briefly, she also bought them briefs. They were difficult purchases, but necessary ones.
For the tiny batman, Mira had the momentary thought of buying some Ken doll clothes, but then came to her senses. He was going to have to stay in his skinsuit, because there was nowhere on Earth that would cater to clothing for the 6-inch man.
That afternoon, she made them change into their new clothes, and confiscated their extremely dirty clothing to be washed.
Zander threw on the clothes and came out looking like a surfer model. His blue hair did not look strange, and in fact, looked as if he dyed it that way on purpose. The dwarf ogre looked a bit strange, with his bald head and large bulbous nose, but he seemed pleased with the baggy pants and loose-fitting tee-shirt. Erick changed into his clothes and promptly fell back asleep again, not caring what he wore.
🌺🌺🌺
By the seventh day, after consistent drug treatment, Erick began to recover. He was able to stay up for most of the day, and even began joining at meal times.
It was at lunch that afternoon when Erick and Zander touched upon the subject of trying to find a way to return to Ashrya.
"This is not the same as setting up a simple portal to get from one city to another on Ashrya." Zander rubbed his forehead tiredly. "I've been trying all week long but I can't get through."
Erick shoved a french fry into his mouth. "What frequencies did you use?"
"Everything." Zander threw up his hands. "I've filtered through and refined the world frequencies in all combinations, but nothing is lining up. I can't get the rupture to reappear."
Daran bit into his hamburger with gusto. "Maybe you need to try it with the Lady Mira present. She was there when you broke through the first time."
"Wait a moment, Zander," Mira tapped his hand with excitement. "He's right. You need to try to recreate the scene at the time you broke through as closely as you can, to see if we can make it happen again."
Zander sighed. "I've been sitting out there at that exact spot, next to the willows, trying everything in my power, but nothing has worked."
Mira narrowed her eyes in thought. "But like Daran said, it could be that conditions are not exactly as it was originally. I remember a mist coming out of that area. There was also a buzzing sound, and I had a seriously bad headache."
"And then what happened?" Zander asked.
"And then I saw Quill, and he began dive bombing me, and then I fainted." She grinned. "And then I woke up, and I saw your pretty blue eyes."
Zander's silver blue eyes softened and he gave Mira a misty smile.
Mira could feel strong waves of anger emanating from Erick. It certainly seemed to Mira as if Erick didn't like it when Zander showed her any tiny amount of kindness. Well, in that case, she was going to tease the bear a little.
Turning on the charm, she returned Zander's smile with a suggestive wink.
He immediately turned away, blushing furiously.
Mira could barely keep her laughter in check. As predicted, Erick was also turning a shade of angry red.
Egging Erick's petulance on, Mira tugged on Zander's sleeve. "I was thinking, Zander, that maybe we need to target the right time of day. The mists appeared pre-dawn, so maybe you should try piercing through at that time."
"Why wait till morning? Why not try it this evening?" Erick grumbled.
"What does this evening have to do with this morning?" Mira scratched her head.
"It has to do with scattered rays." Erick suddenly smiled, as if he figured something out.
"What?"
"He is referring to twilight, the point of time between daylight and darkness, Mira," Zander explained with sudden excitement. "When we are manipulating world sequences, we are also working within certain precepts and boundaries. One of the best times to effect magik changes is either after sunset or before sunrise, when the light from the sky is most diffused and often pinkish grey. The sun is below the horizon, but its rays are scattered by the world's atmosphere, and that creates the colors of twilight."
"The colors of twilight?"
"Yes. The haze you saw this morning was due to my active manipulation of the rays of energy that hit the atmosphere. If what Erick says is true, I might have a chance again this evening."
Mira scratched her nose in thought. "So you will try again at twilight?"
Zander nodded. "Yes. I will be preparing for sunset soon. I want to catch as much of the sun's energies as possible so I have enough power to break through the veils between worlds."
"Will you be taking him with you?" She pointed in Erick's direction.
"No. I am going to leave Erick, Quill, and Daran with you. I need to figure out how to manipulate the scattered rays so I can fix a static portal between our worlds. This will allow us to come and go with a bit more consistency."
Mira clutched at his arm. "What if you can't find your way back here?"
Zander Tamein fixed his silver blue eyes on her face, and for a moment, said nothing. Then he reached out and touched her lips. "Trust me. I will find my way back to you."
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be saying something like that to me?" Erick threw a french fry at Zander.
Not taking his eyes off Mira, Zander responded off-handedly. "You can use your own magik and find your way back to Ashryan--you lazy-assed wizard."