The Changeling Princess (32 page)

CHAPTER 57

We flew out to the countryside where the cattle were grazing. When the fighting had begun in the arena, one Demon had remained behind to watch the cattle. We startled the Demon when we landed directly in front of him and his horse.

“
Who are you?” the Demon bellowed.

“
We’re just passing through,” I said, as I released the power I had stored from Gorbra’s crystal. The Demon looked like he was in a trance when his entire body became engulfed in the bright green light. I concentrated on removing all evil the thoughts from the Demon’s mind, watching with interest as his body slowly changed back to a Tork.

The Demon fell off his horse and lay still on the ground. The transformation continued until all traces of the Demon were gone from his body.
“Where am I?” said the Tork as he sat upright.

“
Do you remember being turned into a Demon?” I asked.

The Tork took a deep breath.
“It all come back to me. I win contest and Gorbra change me to Demon. Was bad experience.”

“
All the Demons are dead now. You are a Tork again.”

“
Are there any other Demons around here?” Wade asked.

“
No, they go away.”

The Tork jumped on his horse and rode quickly away.
“Well, Wade, should we head off to the next town?”

“
That’s a good idea. You know, Janis, life is never boring when I’m with you.”

“
I’ll take that as a compliment.”

* * *

We left Castle Town, feeling we had accomplished a lot. I could still sense the presence of a crystal, so I knew we still had a lot of work to do. We both felt like stretching our legs, so we decided to walk instead of morphing into Mists.

“
Don’t you love the air in this place?” Wade asked.

“
I sure do. Maybe it’s because there’s no pollution here.”

“
I was thinking the same thing. Civilization certainly has its drawbacks.”

“
That’s true, but who wants to go back to driving horses and buggies. I like modern indoor plumbing, too.”

“
You got me on that one.”

“
I’ve been thinking,” said Wade. “Do you think there’s such a thing as a peaceful Demon?”

“
I don’t know, but anything’s possible in this reality. I don’t see why you couldn’t have a race of people who look like Demons, but are peace loving instead of evil.”

“
That’s really far out.”

“
Not really, Wade. The Neanderthals from Earth’s past look pretty rough by today’s standards and they weren’t Demons. Who’s to say there isn’t a peaceful species on this planet that resembles Demons? We’ve only sampled a tiny portion of the life forms.”

“
With my imagination, I’ll probably be seeing monsters around every bend in the road. 

I stopped Wade.
“That may be, but you’re not the type to run and hide when faced with danger. You’ll fight to the death if you feel it’s necessary. You’re a warrior first and a worrier second.

“
That’s about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

We were a mile from Castle Town when I had a vision. Wade looked concerned when my eyes went blank and I didn
’t appear to be breathing. The vision lasted about forth-five seconds and I was back to normal.

“
What just happened?” Wade asked.

“
I had a vision from the Supreme Being. I now know the story behind the crystals in this parallel universe.”

“
Tell me what you saw.”

“
I saw a huge crystal traveling through space. When it got close to this planet, it struck a meteorite. Are you familiar with the accuracy it takes to cut a diamond?”

“
Yes, the cut has to be perfect or it will destroy the diamond. The diamond cutter spends weeks, even months studying the exact angles to cut the diamond.”

“
My vision showed me that the meteor had a long sharp edge on its surface. What happened was a freak collision because the crystal stuck the meteor at the exact angle, causing a small portion of the crystal to break away. The small portion shattered in several pieces before it struck the planet. The crystal we discovered at Castle Town was one of those pieces.”

“
Wow! What a story. Do you know how many of these pieces exist?”

“
No, but I’ll guess somewhere around five to ten.”

“
Finding all of them could take a lifetime.”

“
That’s stretching it a little. Our main concern is finding the large portion of the crystal.”

“
We’re looking for the mother lode, right?” asked Wade.

“
I couldn’t have put it better.”

We were five miles from Castle Town we came upon a wagon parked on the side of the road. Off in the distance, I saw Drog and Zanza walking out of the woods and heading our way. They looked downhearted, but they managed a smile when they saw us standing near their wagon.

“Janis and Wade, nice to see you,” said Zanza.

“
I glad also,” said Drog.

I sensed the two kind Rens were unhappy. I also sensed it had something to do with the woods.
“Is something wrong?” I asked. “You both look very sad.”

The Rens looked at each other and then Zanza spoke.
“We visit Zelda in woods. Bring her food she likes.”

“
Did Gorbra fuse Zelda with a beast?” Wade asked.

“
Yes. Demon say Zelda was thief. She punished, turned into bat.”

“
How long ago was that?” I asked.

“
Zelda was ten. Now she is twelve.”

Drog and Zanza got into their cart, turned the horse around and headed for home. I had the power to return Zelda back to normal and it was the only thing on my mind.

“I’ve seen that look on your face before,” said Wade. “I bet we’re going into the woods and do a little shape shifting.”

“
You know me like a book. Are you ready?”

“
I can’t wait. I sure hope your new power can help these poor unfortunate souls.”

I morphed into the Changeling Princess for maximum power. Wade was all smiles as we headed for the woods.
“Like I said before, Janis, life with you is never boring.”

We were deep into the woods when we came across a small settlement. There were several huts which had been constructed out of branches and sticks. We were challenged by four Werewolves who were growling fiercely. They were pretty scary looking, but I didn
’t sense they were vicious. They reminded me of wild animals protecting their territory.

“
We mean you no harm,” I said. “We are friends of Drog and Zanza and we want to help you.”

A smallish female Vampire stepped forward.
“You know parents? You are ones that kill Demons?”

“
Yes on both counts,” I replied. “My name is Janis and this is Wade. We are not from here and we have the power to defeat the Demons.”

I looked around and saw that we were drawing a crowd. I counted thirty creatures that had come out of hiding. Some of the creatures were hurt and they were supporting themselves with makeshift crutches.
“Is this all of you,” I asked.

“
Yes,” answered Zelda. “Some creatures cruel and we run them off. We live in peace and bother no one.”

“
Did your parents explain to you that all the Demons have been killed?”

“
Yes, she say two young ones from far away kill Demons, then kill Gorbra. I am honored meeting you.”

“
Thank you,” I replied. “I also have Gorbra’s power. I can change you back to Rens and Torks.”

I sensed the excitement in the crowd as I had Zelda step forward. I focused the power from the crystal and covered Zelda
’s entire body with a bright green light. The transformation was fairly quick. Zelda sled her Vampire shape and returned to a normal teenage Ren.

Zelda was jumping up and down with excitement.
“Please help friends,” she pleaded.

“
I’m not sure how many I can handle at one time,” I said. “Let’s start off with five.”

I lined up five creatures and covered them with the power of the crystal. As before, the process the process was quick. I had the remaining creature huddle in a circle and expanded the light. I was surprised to see that all of the Rens and Torks were very young.

“Look, me walk without crutch,” yelled a young Tork.

“
Me, too,” yelled another young Tork who had thrown his crutch to the ground.

“
It appears the crystal also has healing powers,” I said to Wade.

“
So it does. That makes senses because the crystal wasn’t originally designed to be used for evil.”

Watching the excitement between the transformed youngsters was enough to bring tears to my eyes. Everyone was laughing and twirling each other around in circles. Wade and I were laughing for the sheer joy of it.

“
You know Janis; I think you’re a cross between a saint and an angel.”

“
Wade, that’s a wonderful thing for you to say. I think you’re an angel too.”

“
What about the saint?”

“
You’ve still got a ways to go.” Wade winked at me and we both laughed.

“
All right everyone,” I said. “We’re five miles from Castle Town and I’m going to fly us there.”

“
You fly?” asked Zelda.

“
That’s right. Now I want everyone to join hands and don’t let go. I’ll have you back to Castle Town in less than a minute.”

Everyone joined hands and we turned into Mists. We rose into the air and landed at the entrance to Castle Town.
“That was fun,” one of the girls said after we materialized. “Are you magic fairy?”

“
No, I’m just someone who was granted a lot of special powers.” I turned to Zelda. “Hold on to my hand. Wade and I going take you home.”

When we materialized in Zelda
’s front yard, she yelled as loud as she could. “Mommy, Daddy, Zelda home.”

Zanza and Drog rushed onto the front porch. They stared in disbelief as Zelda went running toward them. All three of them were crying as they took turned hugging each other.

I put my arm around Wade, squeezing him gently as we watched the joyous reunion. “Scenes like this tug on your heartstrings,” I said to Wade.

“
They sure do. Kind of makes life worth living doesn’t it?”

Zelda and her parents approached us were wearing the largest smiles I
’d ever seen. “You stay. You eat with us,” said Zanza. “I fix best dinner you ever eat.”

I paused.
“We really should get going, Zanza.”

“
No, no,” Drog said with authority. “Look at Wade. He look starved.”

I giggled.
“Wade is always starved.”

We stayed for dinner and stuffed ourselves to the gills. I love good home cooking and Zanza was a fantastic cook.

CHAPTER 58

We decided the best way to travel was to fly as Mists. Walking w
ould be too slow, so we decided to travel as Mists. We wouldn’t draw attention to ourselves and could always turn invisible if it became necessary. I had the scent of another crystal, so we headed in that direction.

I estimated we
’d traveled about seven hundred miles. The weather had turned warmer and the vegetation reminded me of Florida. That meant more rain and more humidity. We saw a lot of snakes, lizards and insects, but the area was void of Rens or Torks. The scent of the crystal was getting stronger with each passing mile.

We
’d traveled another fifty miles when the road completely disappeared. We eventually found ourselves traveling over an area that looked like a swamp. We materialized over a patch of wild berries and helped ourselves to something to eat. I sensed something behind me and turned to see a beautiful giant butterfly hovering close by. The butterfly had a six foot wingspan, but I didn’t feel any hostility.

The butte
rfly hovered closer and spoke.
What kind of creatures are you?

I had never been able to communicate with insects, but the butterfly
’s huge size must have increased its intelligence.
We are creatures from another land, I replied. We are in search of the green crystal. I sense it is close by.

The rock of life is all powerful, but you are intruders. There are those that will stop you from entering our land.

I noticed what appeared to be a rat bearing down on the butterfly. The rat was the size of a large pit bull and he looked extremely vicious. Without hesitation, I hit the rat with an energy beam and knocked it unconscious.

You do not know me, but you prevented a Ganze from attacking me,
the butterfly said.
You are my friend, so how can I help you?

I want to know what will try to stop me from finding rock of life.
             

The eight leggers and the thousands leggers. They rule this land.

I assumed the butterfly was talking about spiders and centipedes. Insects with an aggressive nature would have been influenced by the power of the crystal.

The overgrown rat was regaining consciousness. I employed the power of the crystal and reduced the creature to its original size. It scurried away as fast as its four little feet would carry it.
You have great powers
, said the butterfly.

Yes, and I will use it to destroy the rock of life. The creatures that live here were not intended to be giants.

I do not know what a giant is
, said the butterfly.
I have always worshiped the rock of life to keep up my strength.
Before I could ask another question, the butterfly flapped its wings and flew away.

Wade chimed in
“I assume the insects go through the same procedure as the Demons. They need to continually soak up the power of the crystal to retain their size and strength.”

We
’ve also learned that aggressive creatures can absorb energy from the crystal just by being near it. It doesn’t take an evil ruler like Gorbra to pass on the power. “So where do we go from here?” Wade asked.

“
Straight ahead, my senses are telling me the crystal is not too far away.”

We
were traveling in our Mist form when we came across a spider and a centipede facing off against each other. The centipede was about twenty-five long and the spider had a leg span of about twenty feet. It was a close contest, but the centipede eventually wrapped his body around the spider and ate it alive.

That was sickening,
said Wade.
I don’t think I’ll eat for another week.

I
’ll believe that when I see it.

I had never seen so much violence. The old saying,
“It’s a dog eat dog world” really applies in this swamp. It didn’t matter what direction we looked, we could always find something eating something else. The effect of the crystal had done more than make the creatures larger. The insects now had a much larger appetite.

Wade was bitten by a small mosquito like insect, but I didn
’t think he was in any danger. I gave him a dose of the rejuvenation beam just to play it safe. I was proud of Wade because he hadn’t shown any fear. I knew he had a real dislike for large bugs. I wasn’t crazy about them either.

The only animals we came across were the overgrown rats, some weird bats and a strange looking cat with horns like a deer. I doubted that any of these creatures were a match for the larger insects.

The crystal was extremely close, so we flew high into the air. What we saw next was truly amazing. Directly in front of us was the crystal lying in the middle of a large clearing. Surrounding the crystal were thousands of giant insects, basking in the green glow. This was regeneration on a grand scale.

I have an idea
, said Wade.
We’ll land on the ground next to the crystal and I’ll throw a force field around us. You can disarm the crystal and the insects can’t interfere.

Good Idea. I
’m going to triple my height to make sure I can disarm the crystal quickly
.

We morphed into our human form and landed next to the crystal. I increased my height and Wade threw up a force field. I went right to work on the crystal, but I was surprised the insects weren
’t paying any attention to me. I assumed they were in some kind of a trance and didn’t notice me.

I concentrated on drilling a tiny hole in the crystal. The shell of the crystal was quite thick, but I was making rapid progress. When I reached the part of the crystal where the power was contained, I began drawing its life force into my energy beam. When the task was completed, I signaled to Wade and he dissolved the force field.

Wade and I watched as the insects became active and began crawling around. With my additional power from the swamp crystal, I flew up into the air and threw out a wide beam that covered the open area. I concentrated on reversing the power of the crystal and we watched as the insects began shrinking back to their natural size. You would have thought that a bomb had exploded as the insects scurried into the swamp and took cover in the vast vegetation.

“
That was really something,” said Wade. “I’d love to have had that scene on film. Are we going to search for more giant insects?”

“
No. Without the crystal, they’ll all lose their power and die a normal death. It’s the way nature intended it to be.”

“
You’re right about that. So what’s next?”

“
We’ll continue to look for the crystals.” I pointed south and Wade smiled.

“
If we keep going in that direction, we’ll eventually work our way out of this swamp. What an adventure this is turning out to be.”

I smiled.
“I’m glad you’re not bored.”