Glad to Have Met You

To anyone who happened by, she was just a boot, stuck in the mud of the river bank. A remnant of a past struggle and an improvised exit strategy. To the eleven year old girl, struggling to make friends in a little, podunk town though, that boot was a forgotten secret, an ancient spiritual envoy that gave Aziza the powers of a long-forgotten goddess. Naturally, she had to try it on. She prudently rinsed it out in the river and made sure to look inside for frogs and bugs, before attempting to don it. Quite fortuitously, it was exactly big enough that she could keep her shoe on, while wearing the newfound boot of power. Besides... It looked like it might rain soon, so a rubber boot might come in handy.

The young girl returned to the path in her new boot and chose the direction of “home eventually” instead of “home right now”. A few clumsy slaps of the boot on her knee later Aziza could feel the energy of the world around her changing, gathering with every step she took in the boot. It felt like a static charge in the air. Strellana was waking up and feeling reenergized with every flutter of magic from the kid’s finger tips and each clap of their heels hitting the ground. They were bonding and revelling in it. At first, they practiced with pulling the winged seeds down from trees or trapping squirrels in invisible force fields, but naturally, they soon grew curious about just what could they do. Aziza held her hand outstretched and summoned her powers from the ground itself. Strellana pulled up the energy from the earth around them and channeled it up through the young girl's body. They couldn’t see anything happening, but Aziza knew, not far away, there was a large rock, that had been a meter or so to the right, barely a moment before. As they continued down the path home eventually, their bond tightened as they exercised their symbiotic powers. Like breadcrumbs, they left a trail of out of place stones and prematurely fallen leaves in their wake. Aziza pushed too hard on a branch, and did not like what the tree had to say about it, so the line was drawn at leaves.

Imperceptibly at first, the forest became darker, colder, and quieter. It started as a slight bother in the back of Aziza’s brain, the niggling feeling of destiny forcing its hand, followed them like a shadow. Maybe it was the shadow. Aziza stopped to think about whether the feeling was coming from her shadow itself, or perhaps something that was hiding in the shadow? Perhaps it was in between, something that was in her shadow that was kind of part of the shadow, but separate. She trusted her shadow, they’d always been allies. She did multiple laps on this train of thought before realizing that in all likelihood, it was the tree's shadows trying to warn her of the great evil ahead. Upon this revelation she stopped staring her shadow down, stood up, relieved, and started to take the next step down the path home.

With her arms at her side and foot about to land on the heavily-trodden dirt, Aziza and Strellana froze in place, like they’d been struck by a freeze ray. Directly ahead of them, standing on the seventh branch from the bottom, was Mordolox the Magpie, eyeing them down. The Sock of Power dangled from his beak. Strellana flashed images into Aziza’s brain, and a quite abridged story unfolded. The Sock of Power and Strellana were once bonded, part of a legendary set of cosmically forged armor. Eons ago, the armor had split itself up into bonded pairs and flung its parts to the corners of the world, its original purpose having been fulfilled. When Strellana and the Sock of Power had been ripped apart, in the Great Mud Ambush, the sock lost the means to control its own power.

It became clear to the girl that she needed to pick her next move carefully. They could feel Mordolox speaking to them. He warned Aziza that he had plans, delicate plans. That he had formed a complete bond with the Sock of Power, and that it would be hours before they were powerful enough to stop him. This meant there was still time to handle things peaceably. All she had to do was surrender Strellana, and if she didn’t, he’d have to take care of both of them.

Mordolox stopped to rapidly peck at the sock several times. He turned his head and stared them down with his other eye. They replied by rolling up the sleeves on Aziza’s windbreaker and balling up her fists.

He spread his wings and shouted, pleading for her to at least hear him out. He just wanted to use the powers of the sock to throw all the garbage trucks in the sea, so the bins would overflow and he wouldn’t have to look so hard for food. He was so tired of the raccoons getting first dibs at the trash. In fact, maybe he’d throw them in the sea too. Only the fully developed powers of Aziza and Strellana could stand in the way of his sea-trash fantasy, and he’d do whatever it took to make it happen. Even fight a kid with a boot.

After a brief moment’s reflection, she replied, in a hushed, serious tone, “That plan stinks.”

The ground spit dust as Strellana kicked forward with a wobble and Aziza’s fists punched towards Mordolox, launching a bubble of pure energy at the evil bird. He flung the sock around like a propeller, popping the bubble with a sound that scattered the dumbfounded forest creatures. They both took off towards each other, screaming. As he shrieked at them, lightning cracked open the air along Aziza’s body, drawing a line through the air to his beak. They toppled to the ground, escaping another bolt of electricity, the scents of ozone and smoke whirling through the air. Strellana pushed them behind a boulder sticking out of the ground. The frantic, black bird zipped back and forth through the air, clacking and cawing. Each time he flipped the stained, torn sock around, it sent another crackling shockwave their way, and the trees around them shook from the blowback. Aziza felt an idea take shape in her mind and jumped to her feet, still crouching behind the rock.

Strellana peeked around the edge of the rock and spied Mordolox’s location before dodging another deadly bolt of electricity. The sky had turned the darkest shade of grey and the magpie was furiously attacking the rock with his screams. Strellana focused on gathering all the energy she could and Aziza adjusted her pink, plastic, monster signet ring before placing both palms on the massive rock. Mordolox fluttered in mid-air, clenching the sock in his claws. The sock and his eyes started to glow an evil shade of red, and the very air around Aziza and Strellana seemed to burst into flames.

With Aziza’s hands firmly planted on it, the boulder began to shake. The ground around it split and the roots that had been holding the trees down cracked loudly as they let go. Through his own flames, Mordolox was unable to see the giant stone fireball headed straight for him. As soon as the ground released its grip, the boulder shot forward at an unbelievable speed and Aziza tumbled into the crater left behind as the flames chased her and slapped against the forcefield Strellana had created. With a harrowingly brief screech the flaming boulder smashed into Mordolox the Magpie. His feathers continued to flitter as the rock flew through the air. The tiny exposed threads from the holes in the heel of the sock were the first to catch.

The sock turned to embers before they made impact with the first tree. With a deafening series of cracks and crunches and thuds, the magically propelled boulder crashed through the forest, beyond the path. It knocked down and pulled out enough trees that Aziza now had a shortcut on the “home eventually” path, which took her past the convenience store with the good candy and rack of comic books, to the intersection where she turned right to school or left to go home. There they took an apprehensive look around, trying to find Mordolox. When it looked like he was actually gone, they burst into celebratory scream and wiggle.

Staring down the new shortcut, Aziza howled as loudly as she could into the dark sky, thumping her chest. Strellana joined in, but sounded more like gravel scraping against the hard dirt. They took the shortcut to the sidewalk and the sidewalk past the convenience store, to the intersection. Aziza contemplated turning right and giving Strellana a tour of her school and its playground, and the door they’d take inside on school days, but Strellana reminded Aziza that her parents would probably be wondering where they’d gone. It was decided they’d turn left when Aziza’s tummy interrupted and asked what they were having for dinner. They skipped half the way and spent the last half perfecting a trick where Strellana would sit only part of the way over Aziza’s shoe and Aziza kicked as hard as she could, shooting the boot into the sky. They had only practiced for a couple blocks, and were already pretty good. Strellana said if they kept practicing, they could probably get her to space like this. It might have been the best day ever.

When they got home, the driveway was empty and Aziza’s mom was sat on the lawn, kneeling, with her face in her hands. She ran (as best she could while carrying Strellana anyway) to her mom and accidentally tackled her into the soft, wet grass. Her mom just kept saying Aziza’s name, over and over again and gave the little girl the tightest hug she’d ever had. Aziza noticed the first drop of rain on her cheek as she tried to tell her mom about the magic rain boot she’d found. Mom was too busy texting and calling Dad to listen. She told Aziza something is happening, but the only words the girl understood were that her dad was looking for her, and they must leave as soon as he’s back. Her mom tells Aziza to go to the bathroom and change her clothes as quickly as she possibly can. Strellana said Aziza would still have some residual super speed and decided to stay on the porch to keep watch because something didn’t feel right. When Aziza came down, fresh and comfy in her warm, new outfit, she tried to grab a granola bar but noticed they were all out of snacks. Even bananas. Her favourite shoes were missing too, so she put on last year’s runners to head outside. As she opened the door, Dad pulled into the driveway and shouted at her and Mom to hurry. The clouds had opened up while she was inside, and the rain was coming down hard now, so she ran as quickly as she could, imagining that she was jumping clear of an explosion, into the packed-full station wagon.

Dad didn’t even wait for seat belts before he started driving; the car was in gear and moving as soon as the doors had closed.The only time it ever felt like she was moving this fast was last year, when her and Dad were driving home from camp. He had explained to her that they weren’t actually going faster than usual, but the unusually strong wind pushed the car around and made lots of loud noises travelling through the doors and seams in the car, which made it feel like they were. This seemed like it must have been both, wind and speed, she thought. She could see the tip of one cloud, it was the biggest she had ever seen, and covered in lightning. She could have sworn the sky behind it was glowing green. As their car rocketed down the street, Aziza tried to look back, past the boxes and bags which had been hastily placed in the trunk and on the seat beside her. She could see flashes of light and rain and the tops of the houses past her own. She bobbled around a little and lost sight of the houses. There were a few more bright, colourful flashes of light behind. She climbed up on the seat, and tried to find the houses again, but all she could see was trees and rain. She could hear Strellana shouting for her.

Mom and Dad insisted it wasn’t worth going back. She still didn’t understand why they were so upset or any of the words they said when they tried to explain why they had to leave in such a hurry. The only thing they said that she could understand was when Mom told her that IF they turned around, they’d need more help than any boot could offer. “You don’t know her,” she implored. The tears came reluctantly from Aziza’s eyes. Big, bulky tears that soaked her collars and cuffs and tasted like the ocean. She tried to remember what Mom said. That it wouldn’t be safe for them to go back, and a strong boot, by herself, could survive just fine. Maybe Strellana was safer on her own. A strong boot, by herself, would probably be fine.

With each block, Strellana’s voice was a little quieter, a little further away. They could each see the same flashes of light; Strellana told Aziza about the houses being torn apart by some unseen force. Aziza told her where Nanni’s farm was and the last thing she heard Strellana say was that she would find her. She didn’t know how, but she would find a way to find her.

Dad’s foot tried to push the gas pedal through the floor as they drove out of town. Aziza’s crying, and dad’s driving, only slowed when she heard him swear for the fourth time in her life. This time it was under his breath, and there was a tone of disbelief. All three of them looked out the window at the swath of trees that had been knocked over, creating a shortcut between the walking path and the sidewalk. Aziza tried to explain where the clearing came from, but neither mom, nor dad, would pay attention. Dad cussed a fifth time and drove faster.