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The Gift

Edward's Storyline, Chapter 1.1

copyright comidacomida 2018

The trip back to my apartment from the mental hospital took about twenty minutes. It wasn't incredibly far away but it was early afternoon and the street traffic made it difficult to get anywhere fast. Considering I had a two-seater the idea of trying to fit all of the spirits inside the car with me left me wit a bit of a problem but, as it turned it, it wasn't as big an issue as I'd first thought.

Medved, despite being unwilling to leave me alone with the Ancient One refused to ride in the car and so, instead, he said he'd meet us back at my apartment and went off running; I was honestly surprised at how quickly the huge Bear could go! Tom, on the other hand, was able to enter the car before I did, simply stepping through the door and settling down into the seat. When I say 'into' I mean just that; in order to fit in the car he sat on the floor, taking up the same space as the seat itself and, even so, his horn still poked through the ceiling.

It seemed a little weird that he could go right through the seat but still somehow managed to be solid enough to not sit on the ground. Once the Rhino was settled I watched the Ancient One, once again in the form of the rainbow-feathered serpent wing his way into the jump seat of the car and curl up (seemingly) comfortably with his head poking out between the headrests of both seats; it was a little distracting but I got in anyway. That did leave one very obvious concern. "What about Treboada?"

The Wolf stood in front of the car as I put my seat belt on. Even as I spoke he walked right up onto my bumper. He didn't go through the hood or engine block; he didn't go through the windshield; he somehow managed to take up a position right atop the roof and also didn't fall through that either. I still couldn't figure out how spirits decided what they could go through and couldn't, but I didn't devote the time to consider it, especially once the Wolf spoke up, stating "Well? What're yeh waitin fer, boy-o? I'm pretteh sure we're all readeh!"

Realizing the Wolf probably had a better grasp of his abilities than I did I chose not to question his choice of seat, and I pulled out of the parking spot and headed home. As I mentioned, the trip took about twenty minutes and, in that time, I was subjected to red lights, traffic, pedestrians, and the general complications of city living. That also meant that Medved was waiting for us in the apartment parking lot. The discussion had been minimal during the journey; apparently everyone finally decided I needed a minute to collect my thoughts, and I'm glad they did, because I had.

As I got out of the car I watched Treboada walk right back down the same way he'd ascended, brushing his disheveled mane back with a happy, panting grin on his muzzle. "Gotta get yeh out onta a wide open road, Eddie... ah bet yeh can do lots better'n that."

Tom, having all but ignored the exchange, was heading toward the door to my apartment. "Edward, you work tomorrow, do you not?"

I glanced over my shoulder at the Rhino. "I'm off tomorrow and Friday-- I don't work again until Saturday. Why?"

Standing at the entryway, he folded his arms across his chest. "It's midafternoon and you have yet to eat anything."

I followed after him, fishing for the keys in my pocket. "I don't always eat lunch... sometimes I have too much going on."

If having one spirit looking after my welfare was bad enough, I had two. Medved walked past me, lowering his paw onto my head and ruffling my hair; I could have sworn I actually felt his touch. "Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. All of them are important, Edward."

Having learned enough about spirits at that point, I walked right through Tom and Medved, unlocking my door and stepping inside. Both the Rhino and Bear followed me in but, as I turned around to close the door I saw that both Treboada and the Ancient One were standing just outside. I waited, only to have the green Dragon scowl at me. "You must invite us in, Edward... we cannot enter without your permission."

Glancing at Tom then Medved, I looked back at the others and Treboada answered my unspoken question. "They be yeh Guardians, boy-o... their ancient Duty to yeh allow em entry since they be partah yeh an' they be of yeh."

What he said only made half sense. "What about you? You said you knew my dad. Doesn't that make you--"

The Wolf held up a paw. "Noo jist hauld on, Eddie. Tharr's a big difference 'tween bein' a Guardian an' bein' a Tribal Spirit."

His accent made understanding him completely difficult but I understood the basics: unlike Tom and Medved he couldn't come in without permission. Surrendering to the inevitable (assuming I wanted answers) I stepped aside and motioned inside. "Alright... you can both come in... but don't cause any trouble."

I spent the rest of the day (after heating up a frozen pizza to get Tom and Medved off my case) setting ground rules. I gave everyone a tour of my small apartment, which included a bedroom, a bathroom, and the main living room with attached kitchen. At Medved's insistence, he determined that all four of them would take up positions in the living room and that they should all respect the boundaries of my bedroom so I could have (as he put it) a sanctuary where I could retreat to if I was too overburdened by learning about the world. To be honest, I found the suggestion a little insulting, but I kept my mouth shut so we could move on to more important discussions, like learning more about the spirits.

Tom was the elder of my two Guardians; apparently he'd been around since biblical times and was, at one point, a powerful protector of the Jewish people. I pointed out that I was agnostic, but he only smiled and let me know that it was unimportant since I was from a true line of a family which had always been important to him, so he was my Guardian all the same. He brought up the Feldman/Fieldman discussion again, which continued to blow my mind, especially when he turned his arm over and revealed a tattoo of numbers on his arm.

I'd never seen a concentration camp tattoo in person before, but I'd heard about them in history class and I knew exactly what it was. He elaborated "Your great grandparents survived their time of abuse and never gave up their faith."

At that point I had nothing more I could add to the conversation, but Medved took over and I was able to learn more about the Bear. Like Tom, he was a guardian of my family but apparently his focus was due to the fact that my grandfather's family was from Russia (my grandmother's was from Poland). Interestingly enough, as it turned out, the family spirit Guardian followed the father's lineage, except for Judism, which favored the mother's, and so I found myself with two different Guardian Spirits.

During that discussion I realized that it was probably for the best since Tom's clear and mindful outlook was a good contrast for how hot-headed and aggressive Medved seemed to be based on my experiences in the hospital. He seemed overjoyed to finally be able to communicate with a mortal he was protecting and wasted no time in offering up story after story after story. Ultimately I had to interrupt some tale about the time my great great grandfather was from just one village away from the one where Rasputin was born. Once I had his attention I asked a question that was far more meaningful to me. "So, why didn't you want to travel in the car with us, Medved?"

The Bear's focus was wholly and completely on me and his face lit up at the question. "You are interested in my Vow?"

The green Dragon that was the Ancient One spoke before I could. "No. He just wants to know why you fought so hard to stay close to him and then went off on your own."

Medved shot the serpent a sour look, but then went immediately right back to providing me his full attention as he explained something about the age of industry and the industrial revolution and his general objection to 'modern machines'-- apparently he preferred old fashioned travel so much that he decided not to use anything more advanced than a locomotive. The Ancient One, having changed into the form of the furry red Dragon, found the entire concept of such a vow to be not only unrealistic, but foolish. "Mankind created the first steam-powered automobile in 1672... technically your inhibitions are baseless."

The Bear's scowl deepened. "They are no longer steam-powered. They are loud, and smelly, and wrong."

He excused himself after that, leaving me more time to converse with the strange entity that was introduced only as The Ancient One. I'd realized that there was more to him in more ways than one-- more specifically, there were three different spirits occupying the same... body? It's hard to say exactly what to call the 'physical form' of a spirit since they don't exactly have physical forms. Either way, the Ancient One was actually made up of three separate spirits who had long-since started operating as one, and his story was amazing.

The Ancient One existed before all of humanity which, by all accounts, shouldn't have been possible. All of the other spirits had repeatedly explained that humanity is responsible for creating the energy that spirits use to exist; if that was true, I questioned, how was it that the Ancient One could have existed before mankind? It was an answer that neither the green Dragon nor the rainbow feathered Serpent were willing to answer, but the furry red Dragon was happy to offer insight. "Which came first, Robert: the chicken, or the egg?"

I never much liked philosophy so I just chose the first choice. "The chicken."

The Ancient One smiled, pushing the issue. "If chickens hatch from eggs, then how could a chicken have existed before an egg?"

Shrugging, I relented. "Okay... so the egg came first."

Quirking a red-furred eye-ridge, the red Dragon pressed further. "But if the egg came first then how could it have been laid if there was no chicken to lay it?"

The statement made me pause for only a second or two before I recovered and gave the obvious answer. "Evolution."

The Ancient One curled back in on himself, 'swimming' through the air until he had practically tied himself in a knot, settling down on an armchair, still 'flowing' as he looked at me. "From what do you suppose chickens evolved?"

At least it wasn't still philosophy. "Dinosaurs, I guess."

The red Dragon smiled, and his features slowly faded away, blurring out as he was replaced by the rainbow-feathered Serpent. "Very good, Edward... and do you know that humans aren't the only source of spirit energy? All animals give off this energy too."

Treboada snorted. "Feh... narry enough fer a spirit t'survive... it'd take thousands a thousands t'feed even one a us."

The Serpent's smile was serene and peaceful. "To feed just one. Yes."

There was so much more I would have asked thanks to the vague point of agreement, but the Serpent was not interested in pushing the issue and Treboada was more than happy enough to fill the silence with his own voice. If I hadn't realized it before, it became readily apparent that the Wolf had a big personality and was perfectly happy swinging it around recklessly. Honestly, he reminded me of a lot of the guys I hung out with in high school and, in any normal circumstance I probably would have taken a liking to him, but there were still enough unanswered questions that I found myself wondering just what angle he was working.

It wasn't until that evening when the chance came up to discuss it. Treboada had just finished a lengthy story about him coming across the Atlantic Ocean and finding a few Scottish families in the US. Apparently he considered them 'his people' in the same way he considered me to be. I seized the opportunity and asked "So you said you knew my dad... he's Scottish?"

Treboada's tail, which had been making a consistent trip back and forth in a playful wag, came to a stop. He nodded, suddenly all business before stating. "Aye... ah knew 'im, boy-o... but ye'd be better off not knowin'... yeh da was a right prick. Yeh can't pick yeh family, Eddie, an' yeh more fortunate fer not havin' met th' basterd."

I stood up, meeting his gaze. "It's because of him that I'M a bastard."

Treboada's expression was unreadable as he stood up and walked off, speaking up as he did so. "Aye, boy-... ah know. Ah was there when Shawn begot yeh."

Our general conversation disbursed quickly after that and the rest of the evening passed quietly as everyone elected to give me some space-- well, almost everyone; at some point I heard the different personalities of the Ancient One arguing amongst themselves with the green Dragon wanting to bother me but the other two talking him out of it. The whole exchange was almost funny, mostly because I barely hear what was being said-- I would probably have liked it less if I'd been able to actually make sense every word.

I spent that night alone in my room, gazing at the ceiling as I tried to make sense of everything that had happened that day. My mom had died; I was sure of that. The Ancient One had somehow taken an interest in me and two Guardian spirits showed up to protect me from the same fate as my mom-- which the Ancient One assured me was not his objective. Treboada made an appearance and claimed to have known my dad and to be familiar with the Ancient One. The entirety of everything that had been laid out before me complicated my life in ways I hadn't even considered possible when I woke up that morning.

The only way I was going to have any chance of making sense of everything was to take it in bite-size pieces, so, before I went to bed I decided that I would get to know each 'complication' individually. The following morning I--