“Asahi—” his grandfather began.
“It’s all their fault,” Asahi whispered.
The police officer looked at him and frowned. “Whose fault, son?” he asked.
Asahi looked back at his grandfather. “The monsters. If they had not taken you, then you would have been here for Baba and Father. They should not have taken you. They are the reason Baba and Father are dead,” he replied in a low, fierce tone.
He didn’t wait for the police officer or his grandfather to respond. There was nothing they could say that would bring back his grandmother or his father. He hurried back into the kitchen, grabbed the dagger off the table and a dish towel from the counter, and exited through the back door.
The tears on his face mixed with the damp mist as he hurried along the uneven path into the forest behind their house. When he was about a hundred yards away, he stopped and took several shuddering breaths of the chilled air. He wiped his face with the back of his shirt sleeve.
There was an outcropping of rocks next to the path where he had often enjoyed playing. He walked over to it, dropped to the ground, and placed his grandfather’s dagger and the dish towel on the ground beside him.
It took him a few minutes to clear the dirt he had piled up near one side of the boulders. He felt along the ground until he found the large, loose rock that covered his secret hiding space. He wiggled the rock free, put it aside, and reached into the small crevice. Inside were the treasures he had collected over the past year. He scooped out the rocks, shells, and an assortment of toys he had hidden in the hollow space and tossed them aside.
Asahi carefully wrapped the dish towel around the dagger before he slid it inside the hole. He replaced the rock over the hollow area and concealed it by piling more rocks and dirt on top.
Once he was confident no one would ever find the dagger, he returned to the path. The heavy mist changed to a light rain that soaked through the dress shirt and pants he was still wearing from the funeral. There were dark patches of dirt marring his clothing, but he was beyond caring.
Asahi slowly walked back to the house, shivering from the cold and shock. His grandfather was standing in the doorway waiting for him. He stopped, and they stared at each other in silence for a minute before Aiko stepped out of the house, walked through the rain, and stood before him.
He trembled when Aiko placed a warm hand on his shoulder. “We will start over, Asahi. Yachats has too many memories for both of us,” his grandfather quietly announced.
“I took your magic knife and hid it,” Asahi confessed.
Aiko nodded in understanding. “Then you will know where it is when you are ready,” he replied.
Asahi stepped into Aiko’s open arms and hugged his grandfather’s waist. Silent sobs shook his frame. He couldn’t help wondering if the rain was Baba’s tears as she cried with him.
Chapter 1
The Isle of the Monsters:
Present day
Asahi roused suddenly from unconsciousness. He frowned when he saw a canopy of unfamiliar trees above him, not the expected Oregon sky. He curled his fingers, noting that instead of beach sand, he touched soft moss. Bright, alien colors filled his vision.
He slowly examined the surrounding area, then forced his body to move. Asahi quickly discovered that sitting up wasn’t easy when the world was spinning around him. He rested his forehead on his knees as black dots swam through his vision.
He took several deep breaths until he was confident that he wouldn’t pass out. Once he lifted his head and looked around the area, it didn’t take long to confirm his suspicion that he was no longer on the beach in Yachats State Park—or on Earth.
“Ruth,” he softly called.
He pushed up off the ground, staggering when another wave of dizziness hit him. He bent forward, resting his hands on his thighs, and waited for it to subside. It took several minutes of deep breathing before he was steady enough to stand upright.
The spell had worked. He stood in a strange forest now. Tall trees, many the size of Redwoods and Sequoias back on Earth, were towering over him. Unlike the trees back home, these had long spiraling branches with dark blood-red leaves that grew upward and branched out in huge sections. Their darker red trunks looked like dozens of smaller trees had twined around each other as they grew. The overall effect was breathtaking—and definitely alien.
He had made it to the world of the Seven Kingdoms. However, it seemed that Ruth was not with him. Magna, a former Seven Kingdoms’ resident, had given the spell to Ruth, and she had been the one to invoke it, but it was undeniable that Asahi stood here alone.
Blue, green, and yellow vines clung to the tree trunks and some had hanging fruit. He stumbled backward when he saw a small, hairy, bluish-purple mammal dart out from a hole in the trunk and grab a piece of the yellow fruit with two of its six appendages. The hairy creature turned and warily looked at him. It blinked its six eyes at alternate times before it brought the fruit closer to its chest. The animal swished its long, slender tail, which was covered in a series of fluffy purple tufts of hair, and then returned to its nest. Asahi smiled when he remembered the name of the mammal.
“A Purple-Tailed Tree Mouse,” he murmured.
He reached into the side pocket of his black cargo pants and touched his journal. It contained the information his grandfather had shared over the years. Looking down at the ground, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the black duffle bag that he had been carrying on his shoulder before he appeared here. He hadn’t been sure it would make the journey.
He knelt on one knee and unzipped the bag. A quick inventory showed that everything he had packed was still there. The first thing he retrieved was his 9mm handgun and shoulder holster. He secured the holster over his shoulder, then double-checked that the clip was full and the safety was on before he placed the gun in the holster and snapped the strap over the grip.
Next, he reached in and pulled out a white plastic trash bag. Inside the bag was a dirty dish towel wrapped around the dagger he had hidden twenty-six years ago. He unwound the dish towel and stared down at the dagger. It looked as pristine as it did the day he had hidden it.
The sound of chittering drew his attention back to the tree. Nearly a dozen of the Purple-Tailed Tree Mice were now gorging themselves on the yellow fruit.
He scanned the area again, looking for any sign of Ruth. There was no trace of footprints. Even from the brief time he had known Ruth, he was positive that she would have stayed nearby if she were here.
He kept the dagger out, stuffed the towel and the plastic bag back into the duffle bag, zipped it closed, and stood up again.
First things first—he needed to find shelter, take stock of where he was, and decide on his next move. If he was correct and the creatures in the tree were Purple-Tailed Tree Mice, then he was on the Isle of the Monsters. There was a rough map of the Isle in the journal. His grandfather had visited the kingdom once, but he had never ventured farther afield than the capitol city.
Asahi bent down, picked up the duffle bag, and pulled the strap over his head so it crossed his body. Based on the angle of the sunlight streaming through the upper canopy, he suspected that it was just after midday. He would have a few hours to secure a safe place for the night. The temperature was moderate now, but he suspected it would drop when the sun set.