Always Choose Dare

Chapter 4 - Where Exactly?

Sand. I smell hot sand. Hot. Why the hell am I so hot? I swing my arm in an attempt to throw off my blanket, but it is far too heavy to be thrown. As I move my hand against it, I realize that it isn’t a blanket at all - it is a body. My eyes pop open only to slam shut again. The light is so bright it feels as though it has seared my corneas, but I know I need to open them to see who is on me. I try moving my hand to my forehead to block out the light. My arm is stiff and sore, and my skin feels blistered and chaffed. Slowly, I open my eyes and see a shoulder just below my chin, and there is nothing dainty or feminine about it. I take a deep breath, only to discern that there is a possibility that my ribs and sternum are fractured. Swiping my hand across my face, I remove the sweat before I attempt to speak.

“Hello?” My voice is barely recognizable croak.

The shoulder does not move, leaving me to do this on my own. I draw both of my hands between my chest and the body to the best of my ability, then press against the body until it rolls off of my left side. I take another deep breath, ignoring the sharp, stabbing pain in my chest. The heat is not relieved yet. Cautiously, I raise my upper body, stabilizing myself with my hands on the ground.

Once I am in a mostly seated position, I begin taking in my surroundings. The heat is coming from the sun, and I am outside. The ground consists of a mixture of sand and soil. Trees and bushes are not thick, but there are no structures in sight. Using my hands to push me up further, I turn my attention to the body on the ground. Carefully, I rock myself over to my left side and onto my hands and knees. Crawling around to the other side of this man, I seek his face.

“Marek!” I shout.

Gripping his shoulders, I shake him in an attempt to rouse him. When he does not respond, I check his vitals, relieved to find that he is breathing and has a steady heartbeat. I straighten up on my knees to see if there is water nearby, but do not see any. As I try to stand, I hear a faint groan.

“Marek? Are you okay?”

Marek groans and rolls on his side, providing his face with shade from the sun. Slowly, he opens his eyes and looks at me. “Alpha? Where the fu(k are we?”

Out of both relief and amusement, I can’t help but chuckle a little. I do my best to stand, which takes more time than I care to admit, and brush off my tactical clothing. Why am I in tactical clothing? I assess the abrasions on my skin, then look at Marek to find the same clothing and abrasions.

“What do you remember?” I ask warily.

I don’t remember anything myself that would explain why we are here in this condition.

“All I remember is getting my gear on and going to the Moon Goddess temple because the Fae needed us,” he says, his voice strained with pain.

The fae! Goddess, how could I forget? That vile fu(ker threw us into the void! Wait…if we were in the void, how are we here? Wherever here is, that is.

“Any clue where we are, Alpha? This doesn’t look like the description of the Sixth Realm,” Marek asks as he begins the process of getting up off of the ground.

I wince, knowing full well how he is feeling right now, and I reach my hand out to help him up.

“I’m honestly not sure. With the sun this bright, we can assume we are not in the first two realms. Considering we’ve been everywhere in the third realm, we know we are not home. That d**k of a sorcerer cast us out of the sixth, so that leaves the fourth and fifth realms. I’ve never been to the fourth realm and have only had a quick experience in the fifth, so this really could be either. I would say that it would be best if we keep our identity as lycans and Balance Keepers private until we know more about where we are,” I advise.

By the look on Marek’s face, I can tell his memories are surfacing, and he looks pissed.

“That despicable, egotistical sh!t smear threw us into the goddess-damned void!” Marek spits out. “When I dig my teeth into him, he’s going to wish his mother tossed him out and named the placenta instead!”

“Just be sure to leave room for me to get a bite in, too,” I growl out, patting Marek on the back. “Let’s start walking. We need to find out where we are.”

“How do you think we got out of the void? Was it the Moon Goddess?”

“I honestly don’t know. The last thing I remember was holding my pendant and thinking about friends and family. It felt warm in my hand, then I woke up on the ground here with you on top of me! Thanks for fracturing my ribs, by the way. Hope my body cushioned you well,” I say as I shove Marek jokingly.

Marek begins stretching his sore body as I do the same. There is no telling how far we will need to walk.

“Yeah. Note to self: Alphas don’t make good mattresses!” He rolls his eyes and groans. “So, do you think your pendant was enchanted?”

His question mirrored the one circling in my mind. Was my pendant enchanted? Or did the Moon Goddess intervene? Surely the gods of the realms were not supporting this Sid and his selfish ways. After all, this kind of evil is why they split the realms in the first place!

“Again, I don’t know. It’s either enchanted, or the gods stepped in to thwart Sid’s intentions. Surely they condemn his actions. This is the mayhem that had them wanting to destroy us all before the accord was made and sealed. All I know is that we need to find a temple and hope that the Moon Goddess can get us back to our realm before Sid finds his way there!”

“Thank the Goddess we are still mateless, or we’d lose our minds right now,” Marek huffs.

I nod in agreement. Vampires, dragons, and werewolves all have one thing in common regarding their mates: fierce protectivity. If we had mates in our realm with the threat of Sid and his mob of assassins looming, we’d lose our minds! In fact, I almost wonder now if I would be able to accept the bond with this current threat if I were to meet my mate soon. Having a mate is a gift, one that is treasured above all other gifts; but the downside is that it can make someone in my position as a Balance Keeper compromise their duty to the realms in order to assure the safety of their mate. Of course, there is also the fact that if I were to keep the realms in balance, my mate would inherently be safe. Though if Sid is as evil as he’s demonstrated himself to be, I wouldn’t put it past him to use my mate as leverage. Even without a mate, the idea sickens me!

“Alpha, if your pendant has some kind of enchantment or connection to the Goddess, do you think it would help us navigate this realm somehow?” Marek is apparently more on task than I am.

It’s obvious that I chose the right person as my Beta!

“It’s worth a shot! And while we’re in this realm, we should probably lose our titles. I’m just Daire from this point on, okay?”

“Yes, sir!” Marek briskly states, winking afterward to show his jest.

I hold my pendant that is hanging on the chain my father gifted me for my induction as the Head Balance Keeper. The little chain my mother had given me was long outgrown. Remembering the day she gave it to me, I envision the love in her eyes and how special I felt to be receiving it. I think back to being mesmerized by the gold wolf with the tiny heart shape cut through its chest and seeing how the wolf almost seemed to glow. Then I remember how proud my dad was when he handed me the new chain, how strong he had been when my mother disappeared, and how his love for me never faded, even when his heart was breaking. Moments later, the pendant grows warm in my hand, and I feel as though my heart knows which way to go.

“Follow me, Marek,” I say quietly. “I think we might have found our way.”

***

After six or so hours of trudging through sandy, thorny land in the hot, humid weather of this realm, Marek and I have finally found some hope. In the distance, we can see structures indicating living beings. As we continue our hike, we check our pockets for what items made it through the void with us.

“My palm reader is demolished. I’ve got reflective currency, purification tablets, my enchanted knife, an empty flask, a tactical kit, and my earpiece, which is not transmitting,” I state flatly.

The currency might be of use, but the two items I need most - my palm reader and my earpiece - are both not functioning. The palm reader is probably not even repairable.

“Do you have anything useful?”

“I have some reflective currency, purification tablets, the realms manual, a tactical kit, some dried meat, my enchanted blade, my canteen, and like you, a crushed palm reader and dead earpiece. I’ll be really honest with you, Daire - I wish I would have packed more given this circumstance. From now on, I won't fault my mother for packing her entire wardrobe for a weekend away!”

I chuckle as he shakes his head, looking down at his filthy clothes.

“I’ve seen how she packs,” I say. “I still think it would be too much!”

“Not if we are stuck here for more than a day or two,” he says, craning his neck to look toward the buildings as we approach them.

There are roadways between the buildings full of vehicles. Along the sides of the roadways are smaller paths made of concrete, upon which the people are walking. The buildings host different businesses, from banks to clothiers. Clearly, this realm was not very different from our own. They definitely travel in vehicles more than we do, though. I take hold of the pendant and think about fond memories spent in the capital city with my friends. As the metal grows warm, I take a left and follow the concrete walkway to another section of this city, one where the buildings appear both older and filled with businesses of a higher caliber. The items in shop windows look more ornate, and the foods smell more sumptuous. As we approach a men’s clothier, I stop outside its window front to dust off my uniform to the best of my ability while Marek does likewise.

As we enter, I observe my surroundings. The clothing is obviously hand tailored of fine materials. A gentleman steps out from a small cabinet of sorts, carrying clothing with hanging papers. He gathers the items onto a tabletop. Another man takes each piece and uses what appears to be a bulky palm reader. As he scans each small paper, a beeping sound follows. I make my way over to them to get a closer look.

“That will be one thousand eighty dollars and forty-nine cents,” the man with the palm reader states.

I ascertain that currency will be exchanged, so I discreetly place one reflective currency card on the tabletop. The gentleman buying the clothes places rectangular slips of paper with the number one hundred and an old man’s face on them onto the tabletop. I tap my reflective currency and slip it into my pocket. The men exchange currencies, then the clothing is bagged and handed to the man the way they would be in our realm. The only significant difference is that we do not have or use currency in the third realm, though it’s found in the first and second realms.

I find Marek looking at the clothing, feeling its texture, and smelling it. “I used one of my reflective currencies. It should be able to produce one thousand copies of the currency the gentleman used a moment ago,” I whisper to Marek, hoping not to draw attention to us.

He nods. “The craftsmanship of these clothes is not bad, though they would not wear well if we had to battle in them.”

“Let’s do our best to stay peaceful then, shall we?” I jest. “I’ve not smelled any smoky hints of dragons, and to my knowledge, from my brief stay in the fifth realm, it’s mostly made up of mountains and ocean, not flatland like this. We must be in the fourth realm. Either that, or we landed on a completely different planet.”

“Aye,” he replies, looking over my shoulder at the man who sold the clothing.

“Let’s get a change of clothing and find a library. We need to do some research so we can find a temple for the Moon Goddess. If not, then we need to know as much about this realm as possible. I just hope humans still have libraries!”

“Libraries and places where we can sleep. We’ll need to find both now that the sun is setting,” Marek points out.

My hand rises and takes hold of the pendant on my necklace. It is warm to the touch, and again, my heart and soul feel a nudging to head in a specific direction, but I ignore the pull, deciding to stick to the plan I’ve just made. What concerns me, though, is that I hadn’t chosen to touch the pendant and was not mindful of memories as I had been the two times before. This time, it drew me to it.

What kind of enchantment is this exactly, and is it gaining some kind of control over me?