Chapter 22
1499 Words
22
I paused at the entry of the door, hesitant to approach the dark man sat behind his desk. His green robes were just like the ones I remembered and he had the same kind eyes. Still… There was no guarantee that this Dagwood was the one I met in the Forest.
I knocked sharply, disturbing the man from his thoughts.
He looked up from his reading. “Yes?”
“Professor Dagwood?”
“Come in. What can I do?”
That was a good question. I wasn’t entirely sure why I came. I might know him, but he certainly didn’t know me. That was impossible. So what did I want from him?
I stepped into his office, surprised by the excessive amounts of trinkets and knick-knacks filling the shelves and cabinets. Oddly-shaped cups, shimmering pearls, rocks and fossils, the shelves were exploding with things.
“That’s a lot of things.” I stared at his collection, gesturing to a strange necklace with teeth. “What’s that?”
“For luck,” Dagwood replied. He waddled over to me, his dark eyes narrowed. “Why you here?”
“I wanted to ask you something… Do you believe in the Forest of Illusions?” Instinctively, I touched the leaf mark on my hip. Whenever I thought about the Keeper or the Forest, it tingled.
The professor’s face turned pale. He turned around, presenting his back to me. “Forest is myth of Elves. Not Wind Children.”
“I know… But it’s more than a myth, isn’t it?” I stepped around his desk, trying to get him to look at me again.
I wasn’t sure why it mattered that we talked, especially since he hadn’t actually been there during my test. But even so, I knew him. There was a connection between me and this old man, whether he was aware of it or not.
He masked his face with a frown. “I know nothing. We talk not about Keeper.”
“Ah! But I didn’t say anything about the Keeper.”
“You should go.”
“But—”
“I have nothing to say.” He waved me away, pushing me out. “Go! You not talk about myths.”
“It’s not a myth. I know it’s not,” I protested, but Professor Dagwood didn’t listen. He ushered me out, his shoves getting progressively more aggressive as we reached the door. I tugged on the hem of my shirt, ready to take a risk. Maybe it was stupid to show him this, but if he was who I thought he was, he’d have a mark to match. “Look.”
Dagwood quickly covered his eyes. “You can not tempt me.”
“What?”
“I will not be tempted.”
“No, that’s not it. Look at the mark.”
“Mark?” Slowly, he opened his fingers so he could peak through the slot. “Keeper’s mark. Where you get this?”
“Where do you think?” I yanked my shirt back down. “I told you, I know it’s not a myth.”
“What do you want?” Dagwood’s deep voice sent shivers down my spine. This wasn’t a question, it was a threat.
What did I want? Help? An explanation about the Forest? Validation?
I slunk back. “Never mind, I shouldn’t have come.”
Stupid. Coming here was a mistake, especially since I didn’t know what I wanted from it. My curiosity had just been too strong. I wanted to know whether this was the same Dagwood that I met in the woods, but if he was… So what?
Just as I stepped over the threshold, Dagwood called after me. “Wait.”
“What?”
He sighed deeply. “Close door.”
“Close the door? Why?”
“Just do it.”
Carefully, I pushed the door shut. I trusted the Dagwood from the forest, but I didn’t know the man standing in front of me. He was a professor, but that didn’t mean anything. Not after Master Ryuga’s obsession with stealing my Shadow wings.
Dagwood tugged on his sleeve and showed me his bicep. White lines carved in his dark skin, a twirl of lines and patterns of that shaped an elegant leaf.
The Keeper’s mark.
“You are the man I met in the woods,” I muttered.
The professor frowneds. “We never met.”
“I know that’s true, but we did. When I was in there… The Forest… You were there too. Well, it wasn’t you, it was an illusion made by—”
“Keeper. He showed me?” He sounded genuinely surprised.
“He did. You helped me, that’s why...” With a sigh, I sat down in one of his guest chairs. “I’m not sure why I came to talk to you.”
“You said I helped you?”
“You did. You were…” I chuckled. “You told me I was slow and hurried me along the entire time, but you were kind to me. When you got hurt, I didn’t think about Elves or Wind Children or any of that. I just knew I had to help you, even if that meant losing my test. Of course, —”
“It meant you succeeded,” Dagwood said. He reached across his desk and pulled one of the picture frames closer. “Look.”
In the frame, a young man stood proudly with a man and a woman that could be his parents. Their skins were dark like bark, their smiles broad and white. They looked proud of him as he held a small girl on his arm. She was staring up at him with the same adoring eyes as the man and woman.
“Your family?” I asked.
He nodded. “Mother, father, sister. This was day before she got lost.”
“In the Forest of Illusions… You went after her, didn’t you?”
The man’s face wrinkled into a deep frown. “I searched ten days. I slept on leaves, I drank dew, I bathe in rain. I do everything to find her.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Did you find her?”
Dagwood turned his head away. “No. She was lost and so was I.”
“So how did you get out?”
“I met woman. She was hurt and I helped. Then Keeper appeared. He gave me chance to leave, but without sister.”
“You said no,” I finished.
Dagwood nodded wryly. “I said I would not leave without her.”
That story sounded familiar.
I looked up at him, making a guess. “You passed his test.”
“I did. He blessed me.” He gingerly touched the mark on his arm. “I found sister and we returned home.”
He mentioned his sister when I met him in the Forest and from the way he was talking about her now, it was clear he loved her. My stomach warmed from knowing that they made it home safely. Both of them. It would’ve been terrible if a girl that young had to dwell through the trees for eternity.
With that question answered, there was only one more thing I needed to know. “Why does the Keeper do this?”
“Forest is his home. He keeps bad men and women away.”
“That’s why he does his tests?”
“Yes. He deemed you worthy.”
A small smile made it to my lips. I passed the Keeper’s test, but I wasn’t the only one that left the Forest of Illusions. I took Var with me, despite the Keeper’s curse. Did I make a mistake freeing him?
I took a deep breath, allowing the cold air to pass through me and clear some of my worries away. There was no way I could reverse my decision. All I could do was hope everything would turn out alright.
The leather of the chair shrieked as I stood up. “I guess I just want to say thank you. If you’d left a different memory in the Forest, I might never have made it out.”
Despite myself, I smiled. I both knew this man and I didn’t, but I had a good feeling with him. It was like meeting a friend for the first time and after everything I’d been through, it was good to see a familiar face. Even if that face was at least fifteen or twenty years older than when I’d seen it last.
I shot him a grateful look and turned around. I didn’t know why I came here, but now that I was leaving, I felt like I did find what I was looking for. Maybe I should listen to my gut more often.
Just as I was about to leave his classroom, my eye was drawn to a set of metallic leaves on the shelves. They resembled the Keeper’s mark, but they were more rounded and rustic. A perfect set.
“What are those?” I asked.
Dagwood smiled. “They were gifted to me.”
Inexplicably drawn to them, I brushed my fingers along the edge. The metal was soft, warm. It wasn’t copper, but it somehow felt similar.
My inner wings were reacting to it, just from touching the material. “What are they made out of?”
“Brass, I think.”
“Brass,” I echoed. “Isn’t that a mixture of copper and tin?”
The professor tapped his chin. “Copper and zinc, I believe.”
Brass… I’d been working with copper and while it had been behaving, I always wondered whether it was right. There’d been doubt in my mind, doubt that I couldn’t explain. But now that I touched the metallic leaves, my question could be answered.
Before I left, Dagwood called after me.
“Ylva?”
“Yes?
He bowed slightly. “We are both children of Keeper, you and I.”
What a weird thing to say. I frowned. “I guess so…”
“If you need anything, I help.”
I nodded. Between Brynhild’s refusal to help us out of the bunker, the Headmistress’ silence, and Master Ryuga trying to kill me, why not?
- Writer
