Nydewin

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

“Grandma!” I screamed excitedly, as I ran out of the forest toward her

“Amelia! Where have you been,” She asked bending down so she could look me in the eye “you had me worried.” Her voice was sweet, I could hear the love in it.

“I have a secret.” I said lowering my voice to a whisper

A sweet smile crossed over grandma’s face that reached her eyes “what kind of secret?” she asked

I leaned in close, and with a voice so soft that she might have barely heard I whispered “I can speak to animals”

I watched as grandma stood there looking down at me wide eyed

“Grandma?” I felt suddenly scared

She looked around before shaking her head “Of course you can child, everyone can talk to animals.”

“But they don’t talk back to anyone else,” I answered trying to convince her

She was quite for a while “come inside Amelia, we need to have a chat.”

I followed her up the porch steps, to the front door. Wondering what I had done wrong.

The vision dissolved into blackness before I was engulfed by another vision.

The wind was howling, and the rain was coming down in big heavy drops. I was standing eye to eye in front of grandma, holding her hands.

“Amelia, when the time comes, someone will come for you.” It was hard to hear her over the rain and wind “and only then will your powers and your memories on how to use them will start coming back, but until then we have to lock them away, for everyone’s safety, especially yours.” She paused looking me in the face “Are you ready?” she asked

“Yes!” I tried to make myself heard over the rain and wind

She nodded, I could see the sadness in her expression.

Grandma then raised our hands to the sky above our heads and started chanting. I felt the power, the magic in the air around us crackling. As she continued to chant, I felt the magic that had been keeping me warm in the rain start to drain out through my hands. As the magic disappeared from me, and the cold rain started to bite I felt myself start to weaken, my arms became heavy and legs started to shake with the effort of standing.

“Stay strong Amelia, only one thing to do now.” Grandma said handing me a small smooth clear quartz crystal along with a small bleached white bone handled knife. “You know what you need to do.”

I took the stone in one hand and the knife in the other. My head was spinning, and the stone felt so heavy, too heavy. I felt myself swaying on my feet.

“Now child.” Grandma’s voice sounded so far away

With the last of my strength, I made a small cut in the palm of my hand holding the stone, there was no pain, or fear as the blood started to pool. I wrapped my fingers around the small stone and smiled at my grandmother. I could see the pain and sorrow that all this caused her. She didn’t want this for me, she just wanted me to be safe for as long as possible.

The vision melted away, again into blackness. However, I wasn’t overcome by another vision, instead, I seemed to be floating in the darkness, in nothingness. I knew I should feel something, scared even. There was nothing in this place, no lights, no sounds, there was nothing here that could hurt me. And not for the first time I relaxed further letting the peaceful darkness embrace me, after all this strange world of darkness was where I usually came when I would have one of my blackouts. It was only after I had relaxed that the vision memories came back to me.

They confused me, I still didn’t know what grandma and I had done that night in the storm.

“But you do, you just need to remember.” A soft, gentle voice whispered

This startled me, I had never experienced another voice in the darkness before, what’s more, I didn’t recognize the voice.

“Who are you?” I whispered back, alarmed by how loud my own voice seemed to sound

There was a long pause before the voice replied. “A friend.”

“Who are you, how did you get here and what do you want?” I could hear the irritation in my voice

“All in good time, that’s not important right now,” The voice didn’t give me time to reply, “You need to wake up, you need to come back to yourself.” The voice sounded urgent.

“What do you mean? I don’t know how?” I felt the panic starting to rise into my chest

More silences

“Trust me when I say I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to teach you how to return to wakefulness on your own.” There was urgency in the voice “I’m sorry.”

Before I could say anything, I felt myself being flung at high speeds in what I thought was an upwards direction, only to stop suddenly.

I woke with a dizzying terrible headache, the world seemed to be spinning all around me. I opened my eyes, trying to distinguish the time of day, only to find myself looking up into pitch black.

“Shit.” I caused aloud, I looked around trying to find some sort of reference in the black to where I was.

‘c***k!’

A huge sheet of lightning cracked overhead, lightening the small clearing around me, long enough for me to figure out where I was.

I sat up slowly, afraid that I might throw up from the pain in my head. Once on my feet, I didn’t have to wait long for another burst of lightening to light my way. It was slow progress I knew that, but I needed to get home.

After a few steps I noticed a small movement, coming from the shrub I stood next too. I froze, waiting for another flash of lightning, hoping that it wasn’t anything dangerous. The small blue-eyed red fox finally came into view after the next flash of lightning. I let out the breath that I unknowingly held, my lungs grateful for the fresh air.

“It’s just you.” I whispered to the fox relived

With another flash of lightening I started walking, being as careful as I could, not to trip. The whole time, I prayed that it was just a lightning storm, and that it wouldn’t rain.

The forest had thickened, enough that it was nearly impossible to see where I was going, even with the lightning flashes to help. That mixed with the fact that my head was spinning relentlessly now, I decided that I would have to either, find some sort of shelter and wait the storm out until morning or rest a bit and try to continue, taking brakes frequently. While I rested a bit, on the root of a large tree, I had the decision made for me.

I hadn’t even taken more than 4 steps before the rain was heavy enough to push through the canopy of the rain-forest, drenching the cloths I wore in a few short minutes.

‘Of course.’ I thought to myself. I looked down at the fox that looked just as wet and miserable as myself and couldn’t help but laugh.

The fox seemed to know that I was laughing at him and gave me a wicked, dangerous looking glare, that made me quite instantly.

“Sorry, you just look like a drowned rat.” I said to the fox, who’s glare had softened slightly.

I looked up, towards the sky “It is beautiful to finally get some rain though, it has been so long.” I looked back down at the fox, an idea suddenly coming to me.

I knelt in front of the fox, only now realizing that he was larger most other foxes.

Smiling hopefully at the fox I asked, “I don’t suppose you know how to get back to the house?”

The foxed looked back at me with his intelligent startling blue sapphire eyes. I stood disappointingly, shaking my head, wondering why I even bothered asking, it was just a fox after all.

Sighing, I squinted in the darkness trying to see any sort of landmark, to figure out where I was. During a flash of lightening, I started in the direction that I thought would lead me to the house. It wasn’t until I had walked a couple of meters that I realised that the fox was not following me. I turned to find him, still sitting where I had left him, looking at me with what I could only describe as amusement.

“What’s so funny?” I snapped at the fox.

The fox replied with a toothy smile, that sent shivers up and down my spine. I stood there frozen, thinking ‘This is it, these are my last moments, and here I am in the middle of the woods, alone, talking to a stupid fox ’

Just as I felt the fear, and panic start to make itself known, the fox made its way to me ever so carefully, without hesitation the red fox pushed his head into the back of my leg, then started wrapping himself around my legs in a figure eight motion much like a cat would. The fox’s touch had a strange yet calming effect. I found myself relaxing. Once relaxed, the fox butted his head into the back of my knee, making me take a step forward. I looked down at the fox who now stood beside me. his intelligent blue eyes glowing in the darkness. The fox then proceeded to walk in front of me. When I hadn’t moved the fox turned to me and made a strange purring noise.

I was fighting internally with myself, every muscle, every nerve in my body wanted to follow the fox, but my rational brain was telling me that if I followed the fox, that it might send me deeper into the forest.I had been so occupied, trying to decide whether to follow the fox, that I hadn’t realized that I had already started walking. Sighing heavily, I allowed myself to relax and follow the fox, praying that he was taking me home and not deeper into the forest. Even in the pitch black of night, with only the occasional flash of lightening to light the way, we were moving quite fast. I had even noticed after several moments that I wasn’t tripping over tree roots or fallen branches. Only after my feet had started to ache, and my teeth had started to chatter did I start wondering if following the fox was such a good idea.

I was looking down, at the wet soggy ground, wondering where the sudden light to see had come from. Only after a hooting owl caught my attention to look ahead, did I realize that the light was coming from the porch light. Excited I ran towards the light.

Once safe on the porch, I shock myself dry as well as I could, before looking around for the fox, only to find him, just as wet as I felt, at the top of the stairs looking somewhat undignified. I suppressed a chuckle

“I’ll get you a couple of towels.” I said to the fox as I opened the door “Stay here.”

I came back with two towel a spear pillow and blanket. Thinking that he may as well sleep on the veranda out of the rain. I laid the pillow on the floor under the kitchen window, then the blanket, before turning back to the wet fox.

The fox gave me a sideways look, that made one of his ears drop while the other stood tall and pointy.

“You can sleep here, so you don’t have to go back into the rain.” I knelt slowly on to both knees “Come here, let me dry you.”

The fox hesitated a while before he came close enough to allow me to towel dry his thick, wet coat as best as I could. I was careful not to hurt his injured leg. When I finished drying the fox best I could, noting how thin the creature was. I watched as the fox, looked out into the dark rainy night, before turning to the makeshift bed that I had given him. After he had made himself comfortable, I reached over and laid the corner of the blanket over the fox. I then went back inside, deciding after looking at my muddy legs, that I had better have a warm shower before bed.