Bastien

6 years earlier...

"Hurry Bastien!"

I stumbled through the undergrowth, fighting down the tears as I followed behind. My legs weren't as long as my mothers, and I was afraid that if I stumbled and fell, she would simply leave me lying on the forest floor. As much as I feared my mother, I feared the forest more.

It was almost like there was an undercurrent of hate— an evil intention buried deep into the roots and branches, waiting for travelers to misstep. Branches like clawed fingers reached over us, and a cold wind twisted the few leaves that still clung to barren branches. The forest whispered and groaned, the barest of moonlight leaking down from thick clouds.

"Mom..." I whispered, terrified when a deep creaking noise seemed to answer back. I wanted to go back home, and curl up beneath the covers. After we'd eaten an extra slice of Clara's chocolate cake, she had said we were going on an adventure. Today was my 10th birthday, and she'd said that I was a grown man now. It was time I helped. My chest had puffed out and I'd felt brave in the fluorescent lights of the kitchen.

I didn't now.

Finally I stumbled out of the trees and down an embankment. I could just make out the thin form of my mother. A dark river stretched out before her, and she paced the bank like a caged animal. I slowly made my way to her side, and reached out to touch her hand. She jerked away when I touched her.

"Mom... I want to go home. Please."

She looked surprised to see me there. Then, after a moment, she pulled me closer and wrapped her arms around me.

"Be brave, Bas. I need your help. I'm trusting you to keep our secret." Her hand suddenly caught beneath my chin, lifting it to meet her eyes, one blue, one brown.

"You will keep our secret, won't you?"

"Yes... I promise." My voice was soft as a breath of wind. Her eyes went back to the river.

"Do you have your sword?"

I touched it with shaking fingers. I loved training with it in full daylight, the metal clash, clash, clash, but now all I could imagine was what sort of foe I might meet to need it.

"Then draw it and be ready."

She pulled a set of daggers from her side, and began to follow the river's flow downstream. I followed her for some time, and managed to wipe the sweat from my fingers onto my pants.

This is an adventure. You are brave like a knight and on an adventure.

A shadow dislodged from the woods.

I didn't even have time to scream.

I lifted my sword, missing completely, the weight of the sword throwing me off balance as I stumbled and fell.

I looked up to see glowing, inhuman eyes standing over me.

I'm going to die.

But I'd forgotten about mother, and I watched as she moved like a shadow herself. She drove her daggers down into the beast. The beast's scream tore the night in two.

I wanted to run, but I couldn't look away as the creature thrashed and screamed again. It flapped leather, almost bat-like wings, and had a long serpentine body, the size of a large dog. When it finally lay still, I picked up my sword and held it in front of me, approaching with the blade held out before me.

"What... what was that?" My voice trembled.

Mother wiped her dagger on the grass.

"A creature from the Dark Realm. They cross near where the Realms touch. It means we're close."

"Close to what?"

She stood and stared across the river, a longing and sadness that I would come to know well.

"The Blood Rose."

#

And now here I was again, standing over the remains of a dark creature, like the hundreds I had slain. The hundreds I had searched the woods for, the hundreds I had protected my friends from over the years. Yet still I was no closer to finding the rose.

"How do you know what the Blood Rose is?" Rell stared at me, her eyes wide.

For so long I'd hunted for the Blood Rose with my mother. For so long she had sworn me to secrecy. And then she'd gone. Lost into some dream world I couldn't save her from. After all her warnings, all her training, I'd failed to save her. I'd failed to find the Blood Rose.

And now Dasan was here, with his cryptic warnings and messages.

But now, somehow, I'd found someone who knew what the Blood Rose was. And might be hiding as many secrets as me.

And I suddenly realized I couldn't do this alone anymore.

"My mother was... obsessed with finding The Blood Rose," I said, closing my eyes. "We hunted for it endlessly. Then one day I found her lying in bed, in some sort of deep sleep. The doctors were all baffled. They called it a coma. They had no idea how to wake her. But I do. She needs the Blood Rose, it's the only thing that makes sense. So I've been hunting for it."

For two horrible years.

"How did she know about the Blood Rose?"

I paused. Even I couldn't fully answer this. "She often told me stories of it. And some old books in our family library talked about it." That much was true. "I've been hunting it alone for awhile now." And then a sudden revelation hit me. "Why are you hunting it?"

She stared at me, that wild, deep look in her eyes. I was entrapped by them; they held so many secrets. How could I ever know she was telling the truth?

"The Blood Rose was meant to sit between the Realms. Without it the mist that covers the Dark Realm will burn away, until the sun burns all the magic away." Her eyes were serious when she said this, and I stared at her, almost unbelieving.

"My mother talked about The Dark Realm," I said, slowly. "But I always thought..." I trailed off. I had always thought she was crazy. That the Dark Realm, like everything else, was an obsession.

"It's real," she said quietly.
"How do you know?"

Her cheeks colored a bit. "Because I'm from the Dark Realm. And up until a month ago, I didn't think the Human Realm was real."

I stared at her.

It couldn't be true.

And yet... A thousand little things suddenly made sense.

She acted like she'd never been inside a Walmart, or held a phone, or driven in a car.

Because she hadn't.

What if all the stories my mother told me: of trolls, or fairies, dragons, elves and a thousand other magical creatures... what if they were true?

Rell watched me, waiting for me to react.

I broke eye contact. It was too hard to think while looking at her. "We should get home. What should we do with the-" I turned back to the dragon, but already its body had begun to turn into smoke, disappearing up into the sky.

That never happened before...

But then I looked up. The first rays of dawn crept over the sky.

Rell came to stand beside me. "They can't survive the sun, not without a talisman protecting them, or powerful dark magic..." she trailed off, and I was surprised at the pain in her voice. "It's why we need to return The Blood Rose."

I stared down at the place on the cement, suddenly feeling hopeless and ashamed. "Rell, I've been hunting it for years and I've found nothing so far... "

I jumped when Rell's hand landed on my shoulder. "You haven't found nothing. You've found me. And I was a tracker and beast slayer in the Dark Realm. If we combine your knowledge of the Human Realm, and mine of the Dark, we stand a much better chance."

Her voice was confident, and she lifted her chin, a sure smile there. And suddenly, I wondered... had Dasan known this about her all along?

"I wouldn't have any idea where to start," I said slowly, wondering, for the first time, if it were possible my smiling grandfather had as many secrets as my cold mother.

"Let's start with the family books your mom had. Maybe they've got something about The Blood Rose."

A bird song sang out over the road, the dawn reaching pink and gold over the sky, deceptively beautiful for our current conversation. I wanted to go home and go to bed. But Rell stood with her hands on her hips, blocking my path back to the car. "So, what do you say?"

"What do I say to what?" I said in confusion.

"About being my partner?" She smiled, like she knew she already had me won over. "In the Dark Realm we seal deals with a mermaid scale and dragon tooth," her brow furrowed, "but I don't think even Walmart would have those."

I finally smiled. "In the Human Realm, a hand-shake will do."

She nodded, and then solemnly held out a hand. I stared down at her hand, and the offering she made, not knowing the full truth.

This can never work Bastien. This is dangerous for both of you. If she knew the full truth...

But I was tired of being alone.

If it had been anyone else, I would have been strong enough to say no. But this was Rell.

And if I wanted to find the Rose, to save my mother, I needed help.

I reached out, and took her warm hand in mine, shaking her hand, as dawn broke the night into a thousand beautiful pieces.

"Well then, partner," I said. "My first act as Human Realm expert is to introduce you to the wonders of I-Hop."