All standard disclaimers apply.

All characters in the following story are entirely fictional. And any resemblance to real people is entirely coincidental.

The author does not condone the actions in the story. A strict line must be maintained between fantasy and reality. It is morally neutral to fantasize or read about minors engaging in sexual activity, providing the fantasy or story is entirely fictional. In real life, adults and children should never engage in sexual activity under any circumstances.

In the real world, no one under the age of eighteen--or whatever the age of majority in your area happens to be--should be having sex. In the author's view, few people under the age of twenty-one are mature enough for sex.

If you are seriously considering having sex with a minor, please read no further. Instead, seek immediate help from a trained and licensed professional.

Remember to keep your fantasy life and your real life very separate!

This story may not be reproduced without the consent of the author.

The author may be contacted at: RaziHaze (at) Hushmail (dot) com.

-- CHAPTER VI --

HISTORIES AND LEGENDS

(NO SEX)

Jackson, Wesley, Chance, and Milo cleaned up the books strewn about on the floor. Kato, meanwhile, sat against a bookcase, breathing heavily, and regaining his composure.

"Why were those guys looking for you?" asked Wesley, taking a seat next to Kato. He softly patted the kinnara on the back.

"Because I'm a half-breed," Kato said, solemnly.

"Half-breed?" Milo asked. "I thought you said you were a kinnara."

"Well, yeah, I call myself a kinnara," Kato explained. "My mother was a human, and my dad was a garuda."

"Garuda?" asked Milo.

"It's a bird-person from Hindu legends," explained Wesley. "It's even more birdlike than a kinnara."

"Okay . . . " said Jackson, biting his lower lip. "That doesn't explain why those guys were looking for you, though."

"They want to unlock the doors to the Elemental Regions," said Kato.

Chance raised his eyebrows. "Okay. I think you might need to explain this a little more . . . From the beginning. `Cause there's something I'm definitely not understanding here."

Kato motioned for the boys to follow him. He led them to a small wooden table in a far corner of the building. "No one comes to the prophecy section of the library. Everything here's too cryptic."

The boy's all sat around the table.

"So," said Jackson. "Maybe you can explain this from the beginning."

Kato took a deep breath. "In the beginning--before there were animals, plants, or people--there were the Elements," he began.

"Yeah," said Wesley, as if it were obvious. "Nitrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Helium--"

"--I think," interjected Jackson, "he means something more like Earth, Air, Fire, and Water."

Kato nodded to Jackson. "There were Twelve Elements. They made everything: the plants, the animals, your world, Acadie . . . everything." He looked to the other boys. "Then a Thirteenth Element appeared: The Element of Power.
"Then, sometime later, the original Twelve Elements disappeared," Kato continued. "They vanished, leaving only the Thirteenth Element. Leaving only Power. Since then, Power and its armies have been slowly taking over more-and-more of Acadie. Conquering us. People call Power `the President.'" Kato scoffed and with disdain. "No one elected `President Power.'"

"`President Power'?" asked Milo. "Was that the guy who was here? The guy who was looking for you?"

Kato shook his head. "Belial is one of the President's generals. He's a demon. The other three guys were just some agents: Agents that work for the President." Kato ran a hand through his feathered hairdo.

"Our world and your world used to be one," Kato continued. He held his hands together, intertwining his fingers. "The magic and the mundane used to exist together. But, as time passed, the two worlds separated." Kato untangled his fingers and move his fists apart." And, as they separated, the Twelve Elements took the magical lands they liked from your world and brought them here."

"Like the House of Wisdom," said Wesley. "They took it from our world and brought it to Acadie, right? That's why it disappeared from Baghdad hundreds of years ago."

Kato nodded to Wesley. "Other places too: El Dorado, the garden of Eden, the lost colony of Roanoke, and so on," Kato explained. "Each of the Elements ruled over its favorite `lost land.' Each Element had its own `realm.' Think of each of these Elemental Regions as a country. Acadie was at peace. The borders to all of the Regions of Acadie were open. There were no wars. Everyone was happy." He sighed.

"But things changed when the Elements disappeared." Kato continued. "When the Twelve Elements vanished, each of their Regions was sealed off from the rest of Acadie."

"Sealed-off?" asked Jackson.

"No one can go in or out of any of the Elemental Regions," Kato explained and brought a hand to his chest. "Except for half-breeds. There's something about the fact that we're half-magical and half-mundane that lets us walk through the doorways that separate these Regions from the rest of Acadie."

"So?" asked Wesley. "So you can walk into the garden of Eden. So what!? Why does this `President Power' dipshit want you, or any half-breed for that matter?"

"Once the President takes over all of Acadie--including the sealed-off Elemental Regions--it'll be strong enough to break down the walls that separate Acadie from your world," Kato said with force.

"So--if he succeeds in taking over Acadie, then . . ." Chance gulped. "Then our world is next?"

"How bad could he really be? I mean, our world isn't exactly the model of peace and order." Wesley joked. "Sorry. That wasn't funny."

Kato shrugged. "Some people think the President wants to magically fuck with half-breeds. To find a way to use us to unlock--permanently unlock--the doorways to the Elemental Regions." He wagged his head from side-to-side. "I'm not so sure that's what Power really wants."

"What do you think the President wants?" asked Jackson.

Kato bit his lower lip. "There's an old prophecy," he explained, "about a group of warriors called the Tempest. According to the legend, the Tempest can walk through the doorways to the sealed-off Regions."

"Like half-breeds," interjected Milo.

Kato nodded. "Sort of. But, the Tempest Warriors can do more than just walk through these borders. They can unlock them."

"And if these doors are unlocked," added Milo. "Then the President's army can just invade the Elemental Regions?"

"Exactly!" said Kato. "I'm guessing the President thinks that the Tempest Warriors are half-breeds . . . or, are more likely to be half-breeds or something like that."

"So, then, the President wants to kidnap you on the off-chance that you're one of the Tempest Warriors," said Chance. "And, if you are, he wants you to unlock these doorways."

"Or kill me," said Kato. "Maybe both."

"Why would he want to kill the Tempest Warriors?" asked Wesley. "Wouldn't he want to keep them alive so he can use them to unlock the doorways?"

"There's more to the legend," said Kato. He paused for a moment then stood up and walked to a nearby shelf. The bird-boy shifted a few tomes around, then returned a few seconds later with a crystal- and gem-encrusted wooden cylinder. He uncapped the end of the tube, and withdrew a burned and damaged roll of parchment. Unraveling the scroll, Kato continued, "Most of the prophecy was destroyed, but we still have some of it."

Kato cleared his throat. "According to the prophecy, if all the Tempest Warriors work together, they can bring the Twelve Elements back to Acadie."

Wesley leaned over and began reading the scroll over Kato's shoulder. Only a fraction of the words were visible among its stains and burns. "The Peacock, a swordsman . . . The Wild Rose, a knight . . . The Butterfly, an archer," he read aloud. "Alone a Warrior can unlock a doorway . . . Together the Tempest can reawaken an Element."

"Are you even a warrior?" asked Milo.

Kato shook his head. "No."

"Is it possible for us to--to go back to our world?" asked Chance.

"Of course. Yeah." Kato nodded. "That's where you belong. Any portal you walk through should bring you right back."

"How does that work?" asked Wesley. "How did we get here to begin with?"

"There are hundreds of portals to Acadie in your world," said Kato.

"We didn't go through a portal," asserted Milo. "We walked through a bathroom door."

"It was both," explained Kato as if it were obvious. "Most portals look just like regular doorways. Most of the time you walk through that bathroom door, for example, you'll wind up in that bathroom. But," he held up a finger. "There's a small, one-in-a-million chance that you'll wind up here--or somewhere else in Acadie--instead."

"How?" asked Chance.

"Luck?" Kato shrugged. "Magic? Who knows?"

"The moon was in the second house, and Jupiter was aligned with Mars," said Wesley.

His comment was met with a bunch of stares.

"The Age of Aquarius." Wesley paused. "Does no one get my humor!?" he grumbled.

"So, I take it we're not the first people to travel from our world to Acadie," said Milo.

"Not by a long shot." Kato almost laughed. "Tons of humans have come here. My mother was from your world, for example. Famous people have come here! I hung out with James Barrie when he visited."

"J. M. Barrie?" asked Wesley. "The author of Peter Pan?"

"Mm-hmm!" Kato bit his lower lip and winked to Milo. "He was fun!"

"But, he died, like, eighty years before we were born!" declared Wesley.

"Like I said: Time doesn't work the same way here," said Kato.

"Well, at least that explains where he got the idea for Neverland," said Chance.

Jackson held his head in his hands for a moment. He readjusted his glasses and took a breath. "Come back with us," he said. "Come back to our world. Then you won't have to worry about the President, Belial, or his agents."

Kato hung his head, then lifted his bird-like leg up, resting his talons on the wooden table. "If I thought I could hide in your world, believe me: I would go back with you!" He sighed. "But you four should go back. It's safer where you're from."

"But, I like it here!" asserted Milo.

"Well," said Kato. "The library closes in about an hour. Enjoy it for now." He shrugged. "Maybe you'll make it back here one day."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

For the remaining hour, Jackson explored the House of Wisdom, marveling at its architecture and décor. He counted six wings in the building, each with five floors. Repeating silver swirl-like design in the ornate tapestries lining the walls caught Jackson's eye. And, in the murals and paintings, he saw waves of color.

Milo showed a particular fascination with the patrons of the library. Without an ounce of apparent shyness, Milo approached a dozen-or-so of the library's visitors. He asked a man about his exotic bark-like skin and a woman about her horns and the pronounced eye in the middle of her forehead. He spent fifteen minutes trying to find the cecælia again.

Wesley hid in a small corner of the third floor, pouring over lost books that he had only ever read about. He grinned at being able to skim through the pages of On Sphere-Making and The Gospel of Eve. Even though the books were not in English, something about the magical atmosphere of the place allowed Wesley to read and understand them.

Chance stayed with Kato. He asked the birdlike boy about his life and habits, and the society of Acadie. He learned about strange places in this magical world: From the Desert Hook, a land populated by herds of centaurs, to the Forest Primeval, the command post of the War Gods.

And, as the hour waned, the boys regrouped.

Kato led them to a doorway in the library's basement. He gave each of them a goodbye high-five--and a hug for Chance. And the boys left the House of Wisdom.