International Legends

Chapter 18 - Ozara

The smell of cinnamon and pine wafted off of her hair. It was as if I had walked into a beautiful Christmas commercial. There was Naomi - her dark skin, long curly red hair, chocolate brown eyes, and her voluptuous figure staring back at Leo, who looked like he was about to fall over from the intensity.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asks.

"AAAAAaaaah" moans Jodie, and David picks up his pregnant wife, looking around for someone to come and rescue her.

"Is there a doctor around here?"

Princess Naomi just laughs, which causes my frustration to bubble. I want to drag this woman back to the Great-Tree, hold her by the throat, and beg the Naomi-Tree to let go of all the interdimensional viruses held up in there. Then, remembering the Time Guardian was the one running everything.

"Ugh, I'm so dumb," I tell myself, feeling as if I am the stupidest person in the world. It's as if all my thoughts had flown out the window at the reminder of the kinetic energy that is standing next to me - Axel.

His touch sends electricity through me, causing me to jump.

"Sorry?" he says, and I just mutter something under my breath, only to look back and notice the bird-woman Alira staring at us intently.

"Who's that?" asks Axel, agitated.

It's as if my brain died. Any thought that could enter my periphery exploded like a thousand stars.

Axel stared at me, as if he was trying to find my thoughts.

"I feel so self-conscientious! STOP!"

"What's wrong with you two?" asks Alira, but Axel continues to stare me down intently, as if he finds this all amusing.

"What is this even doing for you? STOP!"

"Uh guys," says David, "While you two are having a moment, my wife is going into labor. Can we save it for Chapter 40?"

"Yeah, it's best we get out of the clearing," says Naomi. "There are monsters out here."

Leo is staring at her dumbstruck, and it's no surprise when Naomi turns around at me and says, "Hey, what's up with the weirdo?"

What's really going on in our thoughts is the fact that Naomi is alive and well back in the time-line. As if there was a part of Naomi that hadn't been touched. Probably an unconscious desire in her to have Leo look at this untouched, normal part of her and feel an inkling of attachment. To say, "Hey, I'm not insane."

It's all about the couples, said a voice.

Who are you?

I wonder if everyone else has heard that voice, as it seems that the whole of us are looking quite flushed as Jodie howls in pain. Lux stares down at her mom, wondering what it is that she needs to do.

She needs to leave. That's what. The moment that baby comes out is the moment that Lux herself could freeze over or disappear. As Jodie is laid down in the grass, crying, I take Lux's hands in mine and stare her in her eyes.

"It's time," I say.

Lux, realizing this, is frantic and upset.

"I didn't get much time with them," she says.

"Think of it this way, you could still go back to the ship and find a way off. Or you could go to Deorum and try to figure out the secrets they're keeping there. It's just that the moment this baby is born, you will have to leave them alone, to raise you," I say.

"I know but…"

I shake my head at her. I don't want her to explain to me the real reasons that she had become so attached to her parents. Freak accidents, insane tragedy, perhaps a car crash that takes them away one day. Either way, death comes for us all. Even for Mom and Dad. We are not kids forever.