Stormbound...Epilogue

Once El Diablito disappeared, I recovered Diego and sheathed him. He was not particularly happy with me for leaving him stuck in the back of the troll for the Little Devil to pick up, but he didn’t resist being put away.

Next, I knelt down next to Ravyn, who was rather a mess. Her hair was as frazzled as one might expect after being hit with a major lightning bolt. She was breathing, but they were the short, ragged breaths of someone in pain. She was also moving a little bit, her scorched face a twisted mask of pain. Nothing major looked broken, but she was obviously feeling a great deal of pain.

Through gritted teeth, she gasped out, “Rusty...?”

I leaned down closer to her mouth. “Yes?”

She reached up with one hand and grabbed my jacket by the collar, yanking me even closer and grunted, “Take me to Betsy.”

“Betsy?”

“The Phoenix.”

“Oh..OK.”

I scooped her up easily, pretending not to notice her whimper as I did. As I was walking over to the prideful bird, I noticed how intently it was staring at me, eyes ablaze. I put Ravyn down next to the one wing that looked undamaged.

Immediately, the bird shifted in its own place on the ground until it covered Ravyn with its wing and was fussing at her with its beak.

I shook my head as I walked away, what an improbable name for a fantastical bird.“I’m gonna go check on...Naomi.”

I jogged over to where she lay on the sidewalk. I knelt down next to her as well, looking for any sign of life, not quite sure if I saw her breathing or not. I moved around to the other side, since she was lying on her side, facing the other direction. One glance at her face told me that if she was alive, it wouldn’t be for long.

I touched her shoulder gently, called out her name. “Naomi?”

There was no response from the shell of her body, but my touch did bring a rush of faint memories, fraught with emotion. They weren’t fully formed and complete memories like those that I had taken from Dr. Geek, but they were more...ghostly...perhaps left over from the passing of her Spirit, since I could tell that had already departed once I touched her.

Realizing my time was growing short, I touched her forehead with my other hand and actually strove to gather as many of her memories, as ghostly and incomplete as they were, making sure to keep them together as I stored them away to perhaps someday use them to help Alexa understand who her mother was and how she lived her life.

After gathering as much as I could, I closed her eyes with one hand and stood up. One thing from those memories stood out...there was something I needed to go get from the house.

I moved into the broken home, moving quickly and easily from room to room, helped by Naomi’s faded memories of the way the house used to be. The trolls had not been gentle in their forced entry. I made my way to the back room that she had been staying with Alexa and over to the night stand that was still in one piece.

I pulled open the second drawer down and saw it-- the small, mother of pearl and silver jewelry box that Naomi had used to keep her few pieces of good jewelry and her most precious belongings, things she had meant to pass on to her daughter when she was old enough.

I grabbed a nearby diaper bag, stuffed the box and a couple of small toys from the crib where Alexa had slept as well as the small, elaborate blanket that had been a hand made gift from Naomi’s mother. Lastly, I grabbed the framed photo of Naomi holding the newborn Alexa in her arms, smiling tiredly for the camera, a photo that had been taken shortly after she had delivered the child--I winced at that memory (of childbirth)--boy, was I glad I never had to experience that!!!

Shaking myself out of the reverie I had found myself in, I moved back out into the storm and started over towards where I had left Ravyn and the Phoenix.

I was brought up short when I saw Ravyn standing over Naomi’s body. She was still looking more than a little worse for the wear, still frazzled and scorched, but she was standing nonetheless.

“Ravyn, are you OK?”

Her withering look told me that she was actually closer to normal than I would have thought possible. “Where’s the baby?” She was looking at the diaper bag draped over my shoulder, a perfect fit with my ‘Terminator’ outfit and sheathed blades...

“I took her to safety before I came back for you.”

“Look, I’ve got no patience for games, you already owe me a new outfit, a makeover, and about a week at the spa of my choice, doofus. Who did you take the baby to?”

“Uh...the Professor’s place.”

“Oh, for Goddess’ sake. Leave it to a zombie to take a newborn child to the one person we both know who would have about a zero percent chance of actually taking care of the child!”

“Hey now! I was in a bit of a hurry, you know. His was the first place that came to mind. I told him to get her to the Frau or to Cerrydwen.”

“Yeah, well we’ll see if he’s got the sense enough to actually do that and not get lost in one of those dusty books of his! Sheesh, men!”

“Where’s the Phoenix?” I was looking around for the hard to miss bird, “And how are you up and around so quickly anyway?”

“I sent Betsy back to get healed up after she used her tears to help heal me of my wounds. She’ll be just fine in a few days. Unfortunately for you, Rusty, her tears can’t restore my outfit, fix this frizz in my hair or your bank account either, for that matter. I am NOT a cheap date, I’ll have you know.”

“Well, if you were, you would have been my first...” I muttered under my breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” I replied, a bit more audibly. “We should go find the Professor before he panics too badly. I highly doubt he’ll have anything other than Diet Pepsi for Alexa to suckle on, and that can’t be good.”

“Yes. This time you’re driving, but you better not even think of taking me to that Dark Place of yours on the way. Do you hear me, mister?”

“Yes, dear.”