Chapter 12 The Edge of the World

I open my eyes again and take in the sight. "Whoa."

I suck in a breath, all the odd and stinky smells invading my nostrils. The mass of water before me moves as if it were alive and reaching for us. It goes for so far there is a line of gray-ish murky water that meets with with blue of the sky. A strong wind sweeps in off the water like its sending its feelers out for us, directing the water that rolls onto the sand before us.

My breath leaves me for a moment as my body tried to decide whether to flee or collapse."That," I say, "Is a lot of water."


Brandon smiles at me. "Welcome to the Edge of the World."

Brandon, Maria, and me stand there in awe. It's probably nothing they haven't seen before, yet they still seem respectful of it and in just as much awe as I am. I've never seen something like this before, and I don't have a word for it. The sand at my feet, semi large granules, is almost white, and it seeps into my shoes uncomfortably. In the Neutral territory, there are fences up to stop us from getting too close. Here too, as we broke through the forest near the village, we stumbled upon an old stone fence, the remnants which can be seen on the hill. At some point, someone must have knocked the fence down to get access to this place.


It almost feels wrong to sit so near the edge, taunting the gods to come and find us.

Brandon catches my thought. "That old story." When I glance at him, he rolls his eyes. It reminds me of the way Mom rolled her eyes when I first told her the story and asked if it was really true.

"What story?" Maria asks.

Brandon and I look at each other; he looks as surprised as I do. I clear my throat. "The two brothers who destroyed the world are under the water sleeping. You don't want to wake them up, because if they know we're here, they'll fight over us too."


Maria doesn't roll her eyes like Brandon did at just the thought. "I've never heard that story." She says it quietly, solemnly.

"They say that sometimes in their sleep, they turn over, and that's when the ground quakes."

The three of us fall back into quiet listening to the ancient whispers of the water and the wind. I lift a hand to shove my hair out of my face and touch my cheek. It's cold and a little bit gummy with whatever is coming off of water. Almost on instinct, I lick my lips and taste salt. It's a weird sensation to realize that I'm covered in it like it's crystallizing over my skin and hair as we stand here before the water.

Beside me, Brandon moves quickly. He looks over at the rocks in the distance before he tells us sternly, "Stay here."


Something about it surprises me and almost seems un-Brandon-like to me. He tells us to stay like he's giving us a command that he expects us to just obey, and I can only watch him walk off towards the rocks with intent, taking large steps through the sand.

Maria watches him for a moment the same as I do before she looks back at me, a hand raising into the air as her eyes glitter almost mischievously. "You going to take that? I'm not. C'mon. There's something interesting over there."


She turns quickly and trots off after Brandon. I chase after her, only one second behind, but with a widening gap between the two of us.

I'm so intent on running after her running after Brandon, my shoes sinking into the sand so that more sand granules crush my toes, that I don't notice until we stop just past the boulder that we've moved much closer to the water. For a moment, I'm so caught up by how clear the water is as it rolls over the sand that I don't look up until I hear Maria swear.


"Shit; what is it?"

I turn and see four pair of eyes on us. Brandon looks slightly annoyed, though not surprised. Jimmy glances up at me, a much more serious look on his face than he had this morning when he was teasing Brandon over breakfast. I catch Angel's eyes right away, their strange blue so bright the movement is almost exaggerated when they move back down to the thing at his feet that's half buried in the sand.


There is a last pair of eyes that I don't recognize. They are bright green and they fall right on me. For a moment, I find I can't look away. There is something about this stranger that is different from the others. We both seem to size each other up in the instant we stand staring at one another. Something about the both of us seems out of place in comparison with the people around us. He glances away, back down towards the ground and as my eyes follow his, I catch a glimpse of the rest of his body. He stands there without a shirt, a large tiger tattoo covers his chest.


On the ground at Jimmy's feet is a wooden thing that's half covered in sand. That's the thing that seems to have Brandon and Jimmy both looking rather serious as they contemplate it.

"They're crossing the water," Jimmy says, his deep voice somehow carrying well despite the loud wind roughly brushing against us.

Maria says with no hesitation, "That's impossible."

Angel shifts uncomfortably, and it makes me notice that they pretty much all do, except for the one I don't know with the green eyes. No one is comfortable with the idea that whoever made this is able to cross the water. I glance out again at the edge and it makes me dizzy. Someone is crossing that?

"Who?" I ask, turning back to look at them.

"Lost Landers," Brandon says quietly. "From the Lost Territory. They've been appearing in town from time to time, and we thought there might be a breech in the territory line."

The only thing I know about the Lost Territory is that they are worse than the Wildlanders in every way. What more would we have needed to know? A normal Neutral wouldn't ever have to meet a Lost Lander. Of course, a normal Neutral wouldn't have a father who'd been an Experiment.

Maria smirks. "Please. Lost Landers somehow figured out how to travel on water? I don't think they're smart enough for that."


I raise my head up from looking at the contraption on the sand and look at Maria. There's a bit of vehemence in her voice that seems to come out of no where. I glance around at the others to see if anyone else noticed how odd that seemed. Brandon and Jimmy don't seem to notice. They appear to be quietly contemplating the problem. Angel has a slight twitch in the corner of his mouth that he doesn't really try to hide, and the green eyed man smiles tightly, a closed lipped smile that leaves his eyes looking as if they could cut something.

Jimmy says, "We'll have to have someone on guard here for now." Brandon stands with his arms over his chest as if in support and agreement. It's a small gesture between the two of them, and I'm not sure how I should feel about it.

Maria nods. "Right; I'll go first then." I glance at her, a little surprised that she would volunteer to just sit here and watch the water.

To Brandon, I hear Jimmy say, "Would you go tell Henri?"

I see Brandon pause for a moment, his brows drawing down a bit. Even I freeze uncomfortably when I realize that the "Henri" he's so casually referring to is our dad, and that if Brandon has to go talk to him, then I'd probably have to go too.


A third voice breaks in quickly. "I'll talk to Mr. Smith," Angel says as he starts walking towards me before Jimmy can command him otherwise. When he's near me I catch his wink, and when he walks past, his arm lightly brushes against mine.

Once Angel is past, Brandon is there, his hands gently directing me to turn around as he says his "see you soon" to Jimmy.





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