It’s weird: even though he’s nothing like them, the sun dweller soldiers remind me of Tristan. I guess because they’re from the same place. The Sun Realm. A place I’ve only seen on the telebox. A place I will probably never go.
Compared to the ragtag legion of star dwellers we saw back in the Moon Realm, the sun dwellers are polished and professional, with pristine red uniforms adorned with medals and ribbons and the symbol of the Sun Realm on the shoulder—a fiery sun with scorching heat marks extending from the edges. Their weapons are shiny and new, their swords gleaming in their scabbards, their guns black and unmarked. They have bright flashlights and headlamps, which make it easy for us to see them. If one of them aims a light in our direction, they will spot us.
My muscles are tense, as line after line of soldiers march past. Without counting, I know there are more of them than the star dwellers in subchapter 26. If they were to fight, it would be a massacre. But they don’t turn at our tunnel, don’t head for subchapter 26. They pass straight through the crossroads, moving somewhere else—I don’t know where.
Some of them speak. “Damn endless tunnel,” one of them says.
“Damn the star dwellers for their rebellion,” another replies.
“I’ve got to take a piss,” the first one says, breaking off from the pack. He heads right for us, the light on his helmet bobbing and bouncing off the rock walls.
“Well, turn your damn light off,” a guy says. “We don’t want to see you doing it.”
“Shut your pie-hole!” the small-bladdered soldier says, but reaches up and switches off his light, thrusting him into shadow.
I feel Tawni grab my hand as the guy’s boots scrape closer. We can hear his breathing, heavy and loud from his long march. I am coiled as tight as a spring, ready to shove my foot into his groin, or my finger into his eye, if he stumbles on our bent legs.
He stops, and I know he is close, practically right on top of us. Cloth scuffles as he gets his thing out. We hear the soft shhhhh of moisture as he pees right next to us. It splatters on the rocks, spraying tiny droplets of liquid waste on my leg. Tawni is even closer so she gets the worst of it.
He is so exposed I could hurt him badly in an instant. As much as I want to, it would be suicide. The rest of the soldiers would be on us before I could say Pee somewhere else, sucker!
I resist the temptation, trying not to throw up as the tangy scent of urine fills my nostrils.
He finishes, scuffles his clothing some more, scrapes his boots away. I breathe out slowly, and I hear Tawni do the same. The guy flicks his light on and reunites with the other men just as the last line passes through the intersection. Darkness is restored as the torches disappear into the outgoing tunnel. The thunder fades away.
We don’t speak for a half hour, barely move, barely breathe. It could be the first of a dozen convoys for all we know. I feel that if we stumble into the crossroads, a bunch of lights will come on, a net will be thrown over us, and we’ll be dragged away.
My legs are aching from lack of movement. I feel like screaming. I am trying to outlast Tawni, but what she lacks in toughness, she makes up for in patience. I can’t take it anymore.
“You smell nasty,” I whisper.
“Speak for yourself,” she hisses.
“That was really gross.”
“It was worse for me.”
“True.” Silence for another minute. Then I say, “Do you think it’s safe?”
“No.”
“Neither do I, but I don’t think I can sit in a puddle of urine any longer.”
“Okay.”
“I mean, I’m sure there’s some spa in the Sun Realm that claims urine has healing powers, or is good for the skin, or something, and offers urine baths and urine scrubs, but I just don’t buy it.”
Tawni snorts. “You’re nuts,” she says. “Thank God for the modesty of the sun dwellers.”
“Yeah, we were lucky. If they were like the guys in the Moon Realm I know, the whole platoon would’ve peed against the wall, lights blazing full force.”
I pull myself to my feet and help Tawni to hers. We don’t turn our lights on, opting to feel our way along the wall to the intersection. When the rough rock gives way to empty air, we know we’ve reached the crossroads. Tawni holds my hand and pulls me across the mouth of the intersecting tunnel. A bead of sweat leaves a salty trail on my forehead as my anxiety reaches a fever pitch.
No lights come on. No net falls on us. No one drags us away. Not yet.
We make it to the other side safely, and then walk another five minutes to put a safe distance between us and the intersection, before turning our lights back on.
Tawni’s white tunic is yellowed with filth. I don’t look at mine.
“I don’t know if I can go any farther wearing this,” Tawni says, motioning to her soiled garb.
“I’d prefer a hot shower before changing clothes. Check the map and see if there’s a five-star hotel nearby.”
Tawni smirks, but pulls out the map anyway, one of the ones that Tristan’s friend, Roc, gave us before we left them. I shine the light for her while she locates the 26th subchapter in the Moon Realm. She finds it and nods when she identifies the inter-Realm tunnel we are in. Using her finger, she traces our path along the tunnel. The line ends at the edge of the map.
“We need to switch to a Star Realm map,” she says. Fumbling through her pack, she selects a new map and unfolds it. She turns the map clockwise until she sees an edge with a tunnel going off the page that reads To Moon Realm, subchapter 26. When she pushes the new map against the old one, they match perfectly. “I guess we’re done with this one for now,” she says, folding the Moon Realm map and returning it to the pack.
I’ve officially left the Moon Realm for the first time. It feels weird, like I’m in a foreign land, not on earth anymore. As a little girl, I always dreamed of traveling the Tri-Realms as part of my job as a famous novelist, seeking inspiration for my books. Now I just wish I was at home, with my family.
Turning her attention back to the new map, Tawni continues tracing her finger along the straight blue line, until she reaches a red intersecting line. She taps the key in the bottom right-hand corner of the map. “Blue is for inter-Realm, red is for intra-Realm.”
“Those sun dwellers were traveling within the Moon Realm,” I say.
“Doing what?”
“Helping to squash the rebellion,” I guess.
Tawni nods, goes back to the map. “So if we’re here…”—she places her finger on the blue line just past the red one—“…then we are at least two days’ march from the first subchapter in the Star Realm—subchapter 30.”
“And the nearest hotel?” I joke.
“Probably an hour away,” she replies, “but it pretty much looks exactly the same as where we’re standing right now.”
I groan. I guess the builders of this tunnel didn’t really consider comfort to be a top priority.
“Wait a minute,” Tawni murmurs, peering at the map and once more consulting the key.
“What?”
“Eureka! There’s a blue dot not that far away!”
“Thank god!” I exclaim. “That’s amazing, wonderful! Uh…what’s a blue dot mean?”
Tawni laughs. “Watering hole.”
Yes! Now I really am excited. Our canteens are dry. We are filthy. A watering hole is just what we need. “Perfect,” I say.
Tawni and I are both smiling when we start walking again, our legs no longer sore, our steps bouncy and light. Funny how a little good news can have a physical impact.
We float along for an hour, expecting any second to hear the gentle slap of moving water against a rocky shore. When the second hour passes, I am getting antsy. Perhaps the map is wrong and there is no watering hole. Or maybe the underground lake has dried up, no longer fed by one of the many life-giving tributaries that flow in between and through the Tri-Realms.