Chapter 8

I bowed to the females as I felt that I might be before royalty. All the females gasped (underwater how, I don’t know).

They all looked at Catherine, he is well-mannered, as you said. For a surface dweller, he is a fresh pleasure to us. Now then, how can the daughters of the sea help you?

Queen Nemma, I am here to ask for a water guard for my master, came Catherine’s thoughts.

Jinn Catherine, is he the one? The one so many have waited so long to see? SO! Came Nemma’s thoughts, he is the one! Very well, here she pulled a necklace from a small chest before her. This guardian will protect you til it’s passing. It will do this gladly for who you are and me.

I was shocked but still felt that I was missing out on something. Though I do not like to think that I am the cause of a spirit passing, I will wear it with pride.

All the females gasped when I again bowed to the queen. She then stood and embraced me, bringing more gasps. That statement tells me that you will succeed. She then whispered in my ear, take care of her as she will you.

I looked at the Queen with a confused look on my face as she kissed my cheek. Catherine and I were suddenly standing outside the cavern. I shook my head, what had just happened?

Catherine snapped her fingers, and we appeared inside my hut again. OK, I thought, this day was starting to grow stranger and stranger.

I hadn’t thought that I was tired, but almost immediately fell to my rack. Damn I thought, as the darkne3ss moved in, I didn’t know I was this tired.

My last thought was, I hoped that Catherine was safer and was feeling better now. Little did I know that, that one thought would have the results it did.

Back in my old home, a sandy blond-haired woman suddenly sat up a glow appearing around her. For a moment she held her head, then the confusion that had been in her mind cleared.

She looked around the room she was in, her eyes falling on a picture on her dresser. Suddenly her eyes were wide, then tears started to fall.

She grabbed the phone that was next to the bed as she dialed a long-ago remembered number.

“Hello?” Came a voice that was very familiar at the other end.

“Is, is this Victoria Rayton?” She asked with a shaky voice.

There was a hesitation on the other end, “who in the hell is this? This prank isn’t funny, whoever you are!”

“Please, this isn’t a prank. I am James Richards’ daughter, I,” she tried to continue.

The older woman started to yell about bitches and assholes. “I am not sure of your game, little miss, but I am not playing.”

“Please, I am alone. I can’t find John, I don’t know where he is,” the sandy blond woman said as she started to cry. “Please help me,” she almost whispered.

There was a gasp from the other end of the line, “If you are who I think you, you were reported dead. The wreck was supposed to have killed all three of you. John went into the military.”

“Please, Miss Victoria, please help me,” the woman said.

“Stay there, I’ll be there in an hour. Also, if this is a prank, I will move heaven and earth to put you in jail,” the older woman said.

The young woman nodded, “I will be here, I have no one and really nowhere to go.”

The older woman hung up, shaking her head. This had better not be a prank, especially after the way that John had disappeared. She went to her garage and climbed into her car.

Actually, it only took a half hour to get there, so she sat there for a half hour watching. All that she saw was the little truck that sat out front.

Finally, she plucked up the courage and left her car. She was shaking as she approached the door, not expecting anything, she knocked.

To her horror and delight, her brother’s daughter opened the door. It was when the young woman looked at her with a look of recognition, that Victoria almost fainted.

“Miss Victoria?” The young woman asked as the older woman almost fainted.

I jerked awake as I felt a disturbing feeling. Why the hell do I feel so anxious? Catherine appeared almost immediately, feeling that John was worried and anxious.

“Master? Are you alright? I felt that something was wrong,” Catherine said.

“I’m not sure, it’s an uneasy feeling I am getting. I had it once before, though I don’t know why,” I said.

Catherine was immediately running her hands over me, then she was feeling all of me to confirm.

“I feel something master, but I can’t seem to define what it is. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that there is a magical protection on you. If this is true, master? I can’t tell what or who has done this.

This, of course, had me thinking. I seemed to remember something my father had told me decades ago. The harder I thought about it, the more it seemed to evade me.

I had just dressed when I heard a huge explosion outside. As I thought it was the same Jinn I had hurt a few times.

“Human!” He yelled when he saw me. “You will not deny me that which is mine!”

“Ha,” I laughed at him. “As you can see, you don’t have the power to get to either of us. You should go away before you really get hurt.”

“What!? You hurt me, that will be the,” he was starting to say, when a shadowy figure shot out of the necklace the sea woman had given me. I was barely able to follow it as it hit Elephant Jibby as I was starting to call him square in the chest.

For a moment I thought that nothing was going to happen, then Jibby gasped and fell out of the sky. He lay on the ground gasping even more than vanished.

I turned when I heard a gasp behind me, seeing Catherine with a hand over her mouth.

“Master! You hurt him very badly, I can feel him trying to get rid of the pain to no avail,” a now smiling Catherine was saying.

I sighed as I nodded to her. “I may have hurt him, but I feel that he is far from done with us. He obviously has grand designs for you. I will do all I can to keep this from happening. For now, we need to gather all that we can to aid us.”

Catherine nodded her head, thinking a moment, then snapped her fingers.

The next place we appeared was in the middle of a very hot desert. Catherine looked around a moment, then tapped the sand. At this point, with all that had happened, anything that happened, wouldn’t really surprise me.

Well, I thought, as I watched what appeared to be a huge door open from the sand. OK, I thought this was new, at least to me.

“So,” I started, then seemed to be sucked into the opening that was before us. Again, as I moved through the sand, I found that I could breathe with no problem. What seemed like an hour later we appeared before what seemed to be living statues.

“Who dares to disturb the brothers of the sand?” A nasty-looking, I guess, male said.

I was about to answer when Catherine spoke up. “Brothers, this is my master who is fighting Elvantor Hajib.” At the mention of his name there were a great many gasps that resounded through the sand.

I felt what seemed like pure rock that reached out to squeeze me, then let go as quickly.

I felt several beings kneel before me. “Master of Catherine, we are honored that you ask for our help.” I felt the one closest to me reach out, then hand me a huge shield. At first, I thought I wouldn’t be able to lift it.

To my absolute surprise, it was hardly any weight to me. “Master of Catherine, this shield will protect you against almost anything. Use it and think of the brothers of the sand.”

I then bowed to them as I reached out a hand to shake its hand. As its hand closed around mine, I noticed that it was shining with a bright light from within it.

There were more gasps as the same light started to shine from the others there. Less than five minutes later I was staring at ten males that appeared to be almost human.

All ten of them looked shocked as they appraised every bit of their skin that they could see.

“Brothers! It is him! The curse is broken, we are again as we once were,” the leader said. “If you ever have need of us, just call, we will be there immediately.”

With that, they vanished, and we were standing at the opening that was now closing.

“Well,” Catherine started, then giggled. “That went far better than I thought it would.”

I could only shake my head as Catherine quickly kissed my cheek, then snapped her fingers. This time we appeared so high up, that the sky was a lot more dark than blue.

I shook my head as I was about to panic, then remembered. Catherine said that she’d not allow anything to harm me, so I quickly calmed down. Catherine reached out and knocked on what appeared to be nothing.

As I said before now? I wasn’t as surprised as much as before, even when a door opened in front of us. We took a step within the door, then we were moving so fast it almost appeared as if we weren’t moving.

I almost thought that we were going to meet ancient gods the way things felt. Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me at all. I felt Catherine giggle beside me.

“No one really bothers them anymore, not for at least two thousand years. They retired, you might say, they were worn out after a few thousand years. Plus, I think they got a little lazy,” Catherine said.

“Not lazy, more like you said just worn out, most of us were,” came a loud booming voice.

“Master, may I introduce Zeus,” Catherine said.

I nodded my head, as I had thought I wasn’t really all that surprised. I also knew that he, along with the others, were obviously immune to Jinns.

“You are correct, nowadays, we try to relax, though we still do watch things. Not all that much, but we do. Now then, young Jinn, what can we do for you?” Zeus asked.

“I am trying to gather as many items as I can to protect my master. He has already released several of the cursed spirits and helpers,” Catherine said.