Some presents should stay wrapped, and some adventures should stay in the past.

Read the first chapter:

Shards For His Gift

By Melinda Kucsera

Knock, Knock (Chapter 1)

(This story takes place after Curse Breaker Revealed and refers to events in that book.)

Ran opened the door, but the hallway was empty, aside from the statues frozen in fight sequences scattered about. They glared at him with glowing crystal eyes, but Ran ignored them because they did that every day. Pairs of halo-wearing statues flanked the door too, but they weren’t fighting or staring at him. Those statues just looked at each other, but they didn’t knock on the door. Statues couldn’t do that. So, who knocked? 

 Ran glanced around again in case he missed something. Bluish light shone down on him from the lumir crystal mosaic on the ceiling, high overhead as movement caught his eye. Either a shadow flitted around the bend, or he just glimpsed the mysterious knocker. 

Even if the knocker ran, could they reach the bend in the hallway without him seeing them? The shadow was small, so it might just be a cat running away when it heard him open the door. A cat could have run behind the statues, and he wouldn’t have seen it. 

“Where did the knocker go?” Ran glanced at the woman statue cradling a male statue that would have slid off her lap if he wasn’t made of stone. 

Neither statue answered him. Ran listened, but he just heard a faint echo of footsteps in the main transept. I could go to the bend and look. But that meant leaving Inari and Nolo’s flat, and he wasn’t supposed to do that without Papa or Uncle Miren. I won’t do it. Papa got hurt really bad the last time I went out without permission. 

It was my fault Papa got hurt. Ran gripped the door. It was an inch thick and made of the same stuff as Nulthir’s door, but it wasn’t wood. Uncle Miren said all the wood in Shayari was enchanted, and that was why the door wasn’t made of wood. No one ever said what the door was made of, but it was hard like wood and striated too. Maybe the door was made of stone?

 “What are you doing?” Nerule asked from behind him. He was Inari and Nolo’s son, and he was a bunch of years older than Ran and a bunch of years younger than Uncle Miren. But he seemed like a nice boy. 

“I heard someone knock at the door, so I went to see who it was. But there was no one out here when I opened the door.” Ran swung the door wide open to show him. “See?”

Nerule looked more like his dark-skinned father than his mother, but he was more talkative than his dad. Nolo brooded a lot, but he had an important job, according to Uncle Miren. Inari was always sunny, and some of that sunniness had rubbed off on her son because he was smiling. Why was he smiling?

“I see. What’s that on the doormat?” Nerule pointed. 

Ran spun and stared. There was a shiny blue box on the mat. “That wasn’t there when I opened the door.” 

A ribbon wrapped around the box, and someone tied it into a big bow that tickled his fingers when he reached to pick up the gift. “I never saw a box like that before.” The box shimmered in the lumir crystal light like it was a crystal, but it would be cold and hard if it was, and the box wasn’t like that. 

“It must be for someone in your family.” That was only logical since Nerule’s parents owned the apartment. Who was it for? It’s probably not for me. Only a few people know I live here. None had visited, but Ran hoped Furball would since Nulthir’s flat was just on the other side of this floor. 

But Furball might be grounded after their little adventure went awry a few days ago. We were just looking for Saveen, so we could meet his mom and find out what happened to the baby dragon. Ran hung his head. 

He still couldn’t believe an adult dragon lived somewhere under the mountain. But his friend was a baby dragon, so his mom couldn’t be anything else because that wouldn’t make sense. Besides, Shayari was a magical country. If it could have mages, then why not dragons too?

I still want to meet her. But Ran shuddered at the thought of descending to the Lower Quarters again. That’s where everything had gone wrong three days ago. 

“Who’s the gift for?” Nerule rounded the couch, but he left his door ajar. The mysterious gift was more interesting than finding out what was in his room, so Ran stayed in the doorway, unsure about what to do now. 

“I don’t know. I don’t know how to read yet.” Ran pointed to the card tucked under the bow. “Can you read it?” Ran hoped so because otherwise, he’d have to disturb Uncle Miren, and he didn’t want to do that. His brave uncle needed to rest and stop worrying about Papa. 

I’ll worry about him since he got hurt to save me. Ran glanced at the door across from Uncle Miren’s, and worry weighed him down. The door was also ajar because he didn’t close it when he raced to the front door. Through that gap, light fell, but it wasn’t green because Papa must sleep, or his wounds wouldn’t heal. So that light came from the window or a lumir crystal since Papa hated darkness. 

“Yes, I go to school like your uncle. Let me see it.” Nerule took the gift from his nerveless hands before it could fall and studied the card. “It’s for you.”

Ran opened his mouth, but no words came out. For a moment, he knew how Papa felt when words failed him. “Who sent me a gift? Does it say on the card?” Because the only people who gave him things were in this flat. So they couldn’t have left it on the doorstep. Besides, it wouldn’t make sense for them to leave a gift out there when they could just hand it to him. 

I only have two friends, Furball and Saveen. But they wouldn’t leave a gift and run. They would have waited until I opened the door and at least said hello and maybe came in for a cup of milk and a cookie. Inari always had cookies. Ran glanced at the kitchen, which lay beyond the couches in the living room, and the dining table and its chairs. I don’t deserve a cookie. Not when Papa couldn’t eat anything but gruel until the wounds in his stomach healed. 

“Will you open it and see what’s inside?” Nerule held the box out. He was much taller than Ran, but that made sense since Nerule was like double his age or something. 

“Yes! But it’s a pretty package, so I must be careful.” Ran hurried to the couch and left the apartment door open. 

Nerule closed it, then followed him. “Do you want help with that?” 

“Sure.” Ran plopped onto the couch. It was nice living in a place with furniture to sit on, and it had windows too that overlooked the meadow spreading from the rocky feet of Mount Eredren. Their previous two homes, a damp cave in the Lower Quarters, and Nulthir’s cramped apartment didn’t have much furniture. Nulthir’s flat had windows, but not as many as Inari’s and Nolo’s flat. 

Light shined in through the kitchen window and spotlit a napkin-covered plate. A pitcher of tea stood next to it, but Ran wasn’t hungry, not when he had a mystery on his hands. Another couch faced this one, but no one sat there now. A blanket covered the place where Papa bled through the red-stained gauze wrapped around his waist. Was that only three days ago? It felt like more time passed. 

“A bad person stabbed him twice,” Uncle Miren said the other day. 

But Ran wasn’t supposed to know that since he’d listened in when his uncle explained what happened to Nolo and Inari. Then Papa was unconscious and couldn’t explain anything, so that task fell to his brother. Papa’s in big trouble because of me. Ran stared at the box on his lap as other things he’d overheard since coming here rattled around in his mind and heart. 

“I wish I’d known about the boy sooner. I’d have found him a good home,” Nolo said, just last night, but Inari stayed silent. 

Ran blinked when tears blurred the present sitting on his lap. It was taller and wider than his two hands, side by side. “I don’t deserve this gift.” Ran set it on the low table between the couches. 

Nerule sat opposite him and leaned forward. “Why not? You’ve only been here a few days, but you were very good during that time.” 

“Not good enough.” Ran hugged himself as tears slid down his cheeks. Worry wrapped hot hands around him and squeezed. What if Papa didn’t get better? “If I was better, then Papa wouldn’t be hurt right now.” 

“That’s not true. Those people were bad. They would have come after your father at another time.” Uncle Miren opened the door on the other side of the living room. “You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they took advantage of that, but it wasn’t your fault.” 

“Do you really think so?” Ran rubbed his eyes as Uncle Miren sat next to him. 

“Yes, I do. You’re the best little boy in the world.” Uncle Miren put an arm around his shoulders and gathered him in for a hug. 

Ran leaned into his brave uncle. “What about Papa? Will he—” Ran broke off unable to say the word, but he must know, even if the answer scared him.

“No, your father’s a fighter. He’ll get better. It just might take a while since we don’t know how much healing that ghost could do through the Ranger’s medic.” But it didn’t sound like Uncle Miren believed what he was saying. Nor did he smile. He wore the same serious expression as always, just minus the furrow in his brow because he wasn’t doing schoolwork right now. But he regarded Ran steadily with his warm brown eyes, and that dared him to hope his uncle was right. 

It was kind of far-fetched, though. Ghosts didn’t usually possess people and use their bodies to heal other people. But the ghost man wouldn’t have done that if Auntie Sovvan didn’t make a deal with him. “I hope Auntie Sovvan’s okay.” After all, she took the ghost with her when she left. 

“She’s fine.” Uncle Miren squeezed him tight. 

“How do you know that?” Ran leaned into him. 

“She can walk through walls. Trust me. She’s fine.” Uncle Miren rested his chin on his head, and he was probably right. Auntie Sovvan was a tough lady, but she always seemed a bit lost. 

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but is your aunt an angel? I’m only asking because she had wings and a halo, and only angels have that.” Nerule held both hands up in surrender. Oh right, he saw her because the healing and making a deal thing happened in this apartment, while Papa lay right where Nerule sat. 

Ran blinked to clear his sight. “Yes, she is. It’s a long story how she got that way, but I ‘member enough to tell you if you want, just not now.” Ran wiped his eyes on his sleeve and felt a bit lighter since he let the sadness out. Papa always said it was a good idea to do that. Bottling things up just made you feel worse, or so he said, and he was always right. Ran glanced at the door to the room where Papa rested.

“What’s this?” Uncle Miren picked the gift up off the table and studied it. “It’s a present, and Nerule says it’s for me. But it doesn’t say who it’s from.” Ran no longer felt like opening it. He stared at the door he left partially a jar. Was Papa really healing like Uncle Miren said?

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