Kayal
I felt like I’d received a gut punch and I wondered how this could have happened.
I was fooling myself.
It couldn’t have happened.
It was impossible.
I mean, I didn’t have a complete understanding of the science behind it, but I knew it was possible.
In the universe, everything was possible.
I just never thought it would happen to me.
Not right here.
Not right now.
I tossed and turned all night long, unable to remain asleep for long.
The storm.
We’d been inside the storm and one of its bolts had struck us at the exact moment I initiated the warp drive.
That combination had created an effect I never thought possible.
We plummeted to the planet’s surface, spinning end over end.
We were lucky to have pulled out of it.
What would have happened if we didn’t?
Then our story would have been over and there would have been nothing left to be said or done.
Then we emerged out of the ship and saw the damage the fall had wrought.
I might as well have perished with the ship, I thought.
The M’rora would come and kill me.
Without the ability to defend myself, he would have done so easily.
But that hadn’t happened.
I was uncertain as to why until I saw the figure standing on the fringes of the forest.
He hadn’t tried to conceal himself or take us by surprise.
That hadn’t been his intention.
His intention had been to alert me of his existence so I wouldn’t react too quickly.
For a moment, I mistook him for the M’rora.
He was thick about the chest and torso and his horns were tall and powerful and his eyes glinted golden the way mine did.
Then he stepped into the dying light and showed himself.
And my blood ran cold.
It defied all logic.
For the longest time, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, that the lightning strike had also scrambled my brains.
But as he emerged and talked about witnessing us falling from the sky and coming out to help us, I realized what I was seeing was real.
And I still couldn’t believe it.
Even now, curled up in my bed on board my broken ship.
He was Yoath, and Yoath was my father.
Somehow, the combination of the solar storm and hitting warp speed had sent us hurtling back through time.
Now I needed to decide what I was going to do next.
Except… hadn’t that already been decided too?
That’s how I knew to lie about what my name was.
Froah.
Nem for Ava.
Because that was what those strangers in my memories were called.
Did I choose those names because of the memory?
Or were they merely the first names to come to mind?
I shook my head, already getting confused.
I tossed the blanket aside and swung my legs out.
It was pointless trying to sleep.
I wouldn’t succumb to it even if it did rear its head.
I paced inside my room, wondering what to do next.
I needed to get Ava to the Shadow Realm.
It still existed, even if it was no longer as large as it was in the future.
But they wouldn’t know who I was.
They wouldn’t believe my story.
And that was only if I could reach the Shadow Realm.
Had the Rift and the surrounding minefield been set up already?
I was a little fuzzy about the details and the exact date but the storm helped nail down some of the specifics.
It had to be around my birthday, two days before my birthday party.
The storm would come.
And so would the Shadow.
I came to a stop.
The storm.
If it sent us here, surely it could also send us back?
But to reach it, I was going to need to fix my ship.
How much longer would the storm rage on?
Five days in total, I recalled.
Then it would fade away.
But how long had it been here already and was there any way to reverse the effect and get sent back to my own time?
I didn’t know.
I guessed no one did.
This wasn’t the kind of thing that happened every day.
The universe could be a very strange place.
It followed the rules of physics… so long as it wanted to.
Scientists constantly made odd discoveries that made them scratch their heads and rethink nature’s rules.
It wasn’t much to hang my hopes on but it was something.
The alternative was to spend the rest of my days in this reality, and that wasn’t something to look forward to.
After all, I know what happens to Qyah’an’ka.
A knock came at my door and I immediately spun to face it.
I’d been lost in my thoughts and cursed myself for being so stupid.
It could easily be the M’rora.
Just because he hadn’t found me yet didn’t mean he hadn’t been pulled into the past with us.
But would he knock before entering?
Unlikely.
A little calmer now, I said:
“Come.”
The door slowly opened, revealing Ava.
She peered around at my room before her eyes came to me.
“I, uh, heard you talking to someone. Do you, uh, want me to come back later?”
Had I been talking out loud again?
Sometimes I slipped into the habit without even noticing.
It helped me hear my thoughts, otherwise, they would run around in my head in circles until I could no longer tell them apart.
“What is it?” I said.
She motioned toward the window at the back of my room.
“It’s morning. I heard a strange noise earlier a bit like a chicken back home. Last night, Yoath said something about breakfast? I wasn’t sure if you wanted any.”
I didn’t want to visit my parents, much less my younger self.
The last thing I wanted was to interrupt the space-time continuum more than I already had.
I could mess things up without realizing it.
But then, if what happened had already happened… what difference could I make now?
After all, the past had already been written and there was no changing it.
Any decision I made now was what I had already done…
Wasn’t it?
This whole thing was beginning to give me a headache.
“Yes,” I said. “Yes. Let’s go.”
Ava raised a hand for me to stop and resolutely kept her eyes on my face.
“You, uh, might want to put some clothes on first. The farmers might not want to see… the way you are.”
I looked down and realized I
