The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode click here. To read it from the start, click here.

Gina and Zack’s quest has led them to the village of Rennou, where B’frona the orphaned eleven-year-old has somehow grown several years older.

“Why do you look different?” Gina asked.

“You are still as stupid as ever,” B’frona replied. “Have you never heard of aging? And why do you look the same?”

At that moment, a round-faced young woman appeared at the foot of the stairs. “B’frona, that wuckle-hen you snared will char unless…” She spotted the two strangers. “Oh, forgive a foolish maid. I did not realize—”

“Set two extra portions,” said B’frona.

“I will, little brother.” The girl hurried up the stairs.

B’frona followed her without saying another word.

Gina stood in silence until Zack stepped up behind her and said, “I think we’re supposed to…”  Feeling a push, she whirled around to confront him, but before she could say anything, he pointed at the broadsword on her back. She rolled her eyes and headed for the stairwell, grumbling, “OK, OK, you rusty little tyrant!”

“I completely forgot about the double moon,” she said as she made her way up the stairs. “I mean, about it being—what did Aunt Aloysia call it?”

“In similis,” Zack answered. “Our worlds are in-similis during the double moon, but they’re out-of-similis when the double moon disappears, so—”

“So, even though only two months have passed in Middleton, in Ismara it’s been–”

“Two years and eight months,” B’frona answered, as the Dores entered the second floor kitchen. He was still seething, but his anger had acquired a layer of curiosity. “How can you still be the same? And how can I be older than you?”

“You’re not,” Gina replied, “I mean…how old are you?”

“He passed his fifteenth cycle two months ago,” Sh’renn said with sisterly pride, “and the girls all say he is deliús!”

B’frona scowled at his adopted sister, and then resumed his assault. “So, J’nah, you have found some form of witchcraft that allows you to stay young and stupid while others—”

“Hey,” Zack jumped in, “how you doin’? I’m her brother, and she’s from another world, so it’s not really her fault because—”

“Zack!” Gina hissed.

Sh’renn dropped the heavy crockery platter. It split in half, causing the roasted hen to hop onto the floor as though it were alive. She bent to retrieve it, but B’frona scooped it up and carried it to a hammered metal basin.

Sh’renn stood staring at Zack and Gina. “Are you the Two Strangers?”

B’frona came back with the meat repositioned on a wooden platter, and they gathered around a small table. The four-winged fowl was peculiar, but not unpleasant, and the accompanying herbs were earthy and satisfying.

“Sh’renn believes in the Anaruols,” B’frona explained. “She thinks the Time of an End and a New Beginning is real, and that the Two Strangers—”

“But, B’frona, it’s true,” Gina cut in. “Look at me. Look at you. I’m not a witch, and…

We really are from another world.”

φ

Thoughts: Few things are harder than regaining the trust of someone who believes you’ve betrayed them.

To read the next episode, click here.