Nydewin

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I spent the rest of the day, meditating, trying to remember more of my grandmother’s lessons. After a few hours, I came to the realization that, whatever she taught me would come back to me when I needed the knowledge most. Lessons lost, but I had this nagging feeling that I needed to start learning, but who would teach me. By lunch I had resolved to ask Cormac, what he knew, if anything about my past. There was something about the fox that unnerved me, my gut told me that he was hiding something, something important. I hadn’t completely decided if I should trust the fox yet.

It was mid-afternoon when I decided to look through some of grandma’s things, determined to find something to help me unlock my memories. It wasn’t until I came across a box filled with gemstones, that the memory of the stormy filled night, when grandma and I had bound my powers flooded through my mind again. We had, had help from a smokey quartz crystal.

It didn’t take me long to find the stone, once a flawless, smooth smokey gray quartz, was now filled with web like cracks. I picked the stone up to examine it closer, it seemed to pulse in my hand. I put the stone in my pocket, intending to ask the fox about it, hoping he would know what to do with it. It wasn’t until my stomach growled loudly that I realized that it was getting dark, and I would have to feed the animals and put them to bed.

I went to the cows first, who were expectantly waiting for their daily biscuit of hay and dollop of molasses. Usually I would wait for them to finish, as I talk to them about everything and nothing at all, then put them away in the barn before dark. However, when I looked up at the sky, something told me that I should leave them out this night. So, I followed my instincts and left them to walk into the barn on their own when they were ready. It wasn’t until I got to the chickens that I remembered my new ability to talk to animals, it wasn’t until after trying to communicate with the chickens, who seemed to only understand small words and pictures, that I regretted not trying to speak with the cows. After watching the chickens feed, again I had the urge to leave the door to the coop open. I looked up at the darkening sky, to find the full moon was glowing brighter than I had ever seen it.

I walked inside, so engrossed in memories of my grandmother and myself, celebrating the full moon that I nearly stood on the fox who waited for me at the top of the stairs.

Hissing at me, I felt the fox’s mind probe, against my shield, waiting for entrance. I let the fox through to the first layer of my mind, careful to keep the rest of it shielded.

“Good, you seem to have picked up shielding yourself quick quickly.” I could hear the approval in the fox’s mind voice.  Before I could reply however, the fox continued “It is time.”

“Time for what?” I asked out loud. When the fox didn’t respond I asked again, this time thinking the question at the fox “time for what?”

“Follow me, and I will show you.” The fox’s voice gave no hint to what he was talking about.

“Fine, but can I eat first?” I asked, feeling slightly annoyed by all the secrecy.

The fox thought a moment before answering. “it is probably best, I do not know when we will feed next.”

I frowned thoughtfully at the fox, wondering what he meant, instead of pushing the fox for answers however, I went to the kitchen made a cold meat and salad sandwich for myself, and grabbed the leftover rabbit stew that was in the fridge for the fox.

The fox seemed grateful for the nutritious feed but didn’t not acknowledge it out loud. I ate my sandwich slowly, enjoying every bit. Fresh home grow, food was something I missed dearly, when I lived in the city. I sighed heavily, wondering if I could eat meat again, knowing I could have had a convocation with them. I looked down at my hands and noticed that I still wearing my engagement ring. A sharp pain in my chest, as unwanted memories intrude red into my thoughts. I shook my head, I was better off on my own, in the mountains, without Jason. I pulled the ring off my finger and placed it on the table, just then I felt something warm touch my leg. I looked down to find Cormac, looking up at me with sadness in his eyes, as one paw rested on my leg.

“It is for the best.” The fox said

This startled me slightly, before I realized that I had let my mind shield relax, and my private thoughts had leaked through and into the connection I had with the fox.

Wiping away the single tear that had escaped, I lent down and pet the fox on the head, “Thank you.” I whispered to the fox through our connection.

The fox shook himself vigorously as if my touch offended him. “Time to go.” He sent sharply.

“Go where?” I asked startled

“I’ll be back for you in the morning, make shore you pack light.” He answered, before he vanished into the forest.

I waited, something in me longed for the fox’s company. Shaking my head, disapprovingly. I decided to stay outside and relax on the veranda, with the clear and crisp sky. The moon shone so brightly that there was no need to turn on any of the outside lights to see.

I cursed myself. Why couldn’t I be like other people. Why couldn’t I feel like other people. I shook my head. I sat drinking a small glass of Grandma Sage’s favorite glass of wine, listening to the forest. The longer I listen the more I heard the forest sing. At first, I just listened and smiled. Then I started to feel myself drifting off to sleep. Just before sleep could take over, I heard the words. I could hear the voices of the forest, they were singing to the moon, they were celebrating her happiness in all her glory.

Shinning stars,

Dew wet dawn,

On a full moon’s twilight,

Let your magic flow through us,

As we beat our drums of life, this night.

Flowing waters,

Flowering meadows,

On a full moons midnight,

Cleans our hearts and minds,

As we beat our drums of life, this night.

Singing forest,

Dancing shadows,

On a full moon’s first night,

Fill our souls with your light,

As we beat our drums of life, this night.

 I remember dreaming that night of flying over a forest, lit from the light of a full moon. I started circling a small opening in the forest and noticed a group of people crowding around a small campfire. I started to make my way down to them, slowly and reluctantly. I had the feeling that I wasn’t in my own body, that it wasn’t my dream. I remember thinking how nice it was to have the wind under my wings, and how freeing it felt. I wanted to stay up in the air and enjoy my midnight flight, but I also felt the urgency of the meeting, that I was about to have with the people waiting for me.

Before I landed, a massive electrical hot flush spread through my body, from head to toe. Then suddenly I was stretching my arms. My human arms. ‘I shifted?’ I thought to myself.

I was greeted with a hug from one of the strangers and a bizarre hand grasp by another of my companions. In the dream I was unable to see their faces, they were blurred out. Somehow, I still knew that the two strangers that greeted me were female, and that a male stood on the opposite side of the fire.

“You are late.” The male spook in a stern voice

“Sorry brother.” I answered, in a deep male’s voice. ‘This is definitely not my dream.’ I thought to myself.

“You are here now.” Said a soft, sweet voice, I looked to my left and noticed it had been the woman to give me a hug. I felt myself smile at her.

“We need to decide, who is going to cross over through the border and find the princess, to bring her back.” Said the male, enthusiastically.

“Amelia.” Said the sweet, soft-spoken women again. Her voice was just as sweet and soft as it had been before, but you could feel it cut through the air and hit you in the face like a slap. “Her name is Amelia, and she is the only person in the two realms that has the power to help us, even if she doesn’t know it yet.” She glared at the male on the opposite side of the fire until he averted his own gaze “Besides the choice has been made already.” Everyone looked at the woman, who then looked at me “Your father has seen who will pass through the portal and retrieve her.” fear welled up in me.

Just then, I woke up. I was freezing an couldn’t figure out why. I opened my eyes and realized that I was still outside laying in the hammock. A buzzing sensation started to fill my head, I rose groggily, noticing the fox standing in the yard.  

‘What do you want.’ I thought smiling at the silly fox. I stood up and walked out into the yard happy to see the fox.

I stood looking up into the face of the full moon and smiled as I let all the negative energy flow out and into the ground, replacing it with positive energies. I looked back down at the fox who was staring at me with a somewhat confused look on his face.

“what?”

Cormac didn’t answer straight away, the fox started to walk towards me, I froze. Then he started moving in and out of my legs in a figure eight, like a cat would, wrapping his tail around my leg. I giggled at the tickling sensation it caused.   

The buzzing static in my head grew stronger and louder. I turned to go back inside, with the intention of having a drink of water before going to lay in bed. Instead I had the uncontrollable urge to go for a walk in the forest.

I walked for about ten minutes, before I decided to stop and take in the smell, the fresh air, the atmosphere of the forest. I stood there, eyes closed and let the energy of the forest surround me, flow into me then out again. Once I felt completely relaxed and energized, I opened my eyes to find Cormac staring at me, with a tilted head, and floppy ear, with what looked like a confused or concerned look on his face, I could not tell.

Smiling at him I said “I feel more relaxed, more at home, in the forest, then I ever did, in the city with Jason,” I ignored the fox and looked up into the canopy, opening my arms wide and spinning around, once, twice, three times before looking back at the fox “That’s one of the reason I moved back.”

Cormac didn’t answer however, he just headed off further into the forest.

“Talkative aren’t you.” It was a statement not a question. I watched a while, trying to figure out why I was in the forest in the middle of the night. With a undeniable urge to follow the fox.

Cormac turned stopping to look at me “well, come on.” he said

At first, I noticed the energy of the forest felt like soft waves, but the deeper into the forest we went the more intense the waves got. Instead of washing over me, it felt like they were now crashing down on me. Soon it was humming in my ears, I could feel it on my skin like the pins and needles. The intense energies were starting to make me feel uncomfortable and sick.

I wanted to turn back, but something was pulling me deeper in to the forest. It was like a rope wrapped around my waist pulling me. I put my hand in my pocket and found my grandmother’s stone, I grabbed it tight praying the static would stop. Just when I thought I couldn’t take much more, it all stopped. My ears stopped humming. I could still feel the rope pulling me forward though, and whenever I thought about turning back, the rope would tug me forward.

Now that the forest energies weren’t attacking me, I was able to think more clearly. Grandma had told me about this, in one of her lesson, when I was younger. She told me I had to be careful, that the pull wasn’t always a good thing. That I had to decide whether the energies causing the pull were bad or good. I stopped dead in my tracks. I didn’t want to turn around, so the rope didn’t tug, it just stayed firm. Grandma’s warning that someone might be out to get me came to my mind. What if the energy pulling me, wasn’t good? What if it was the black witch Grandma warned me about years ago trying to trick me. Before panic could grab a hold of me, I closed my eyes and imagine a rope made of energy wrapped around me.

When I opened my eyes, I saw it. A rope made from, blues, and greens and purples, just like the energies I sometimes saw surrounding people. Auras grandma said they were, and that I should take note of what colours people’s auras were, because it could tell you what sort of person they were.

‘Pity I couldn’t see Jason’s aura.’ I thought to my self

I shook myself mentally, ‘Concentrate!’ I thought to myself.

I focused on the energies making the rope, and ran my left hand over the rope, feeling for the energies, and was greeted by the feeling of love, safety, calm, excitement. I pulled my hand away.

I looked back in the direction I had come and then in front of me, in the direction the rope was pulling me. Cormac just sat there waiting, his tale flicking from side to side, impatiently. His blue eyes shone brighter than ever, his red fur seemed to pulse.

“This better not be a trap.” I warned the fox

The fox stood and shook itself, before walking towards me. He pushed his head into the back of my knee, as if telling me to move.

“Okay,” I said, As I let the rope guide me again deeper into the darkening forest “you could at least tell me where we are going.”

It didn’t take long, before we entered a small clearing, surrounded by enormous pine trees, I was too busy looking at the trees, that seemed to shimmer in the moon light, that I didn’t notice a large flat rock, in the middle of the clearing and fell over it.

Laying on the ground I started laughing at myself hysterically. Once I finally stopped and was able to sit up and look at the rock, I noticed symbols wrapping around it. I started tracing some of the symbols that I recognized from grandma’s lessons, when I cut my finger. I put my finger to my lips. The sharp pain bringing me back to reality, the pull was gone, I looked around the clearing and saw no sing of the fox.

I sighed looking at my watch. It was already two O’clock. I sat on the rock and noticed that it was warm and left strangely homey. Without another thought about the rock, I realized that I was quite thirsty. I looked around for the fox, who still hadn’t showed himself, hoping to ask if there was a stream nearby.

Sighing I decided that it would be best just to stay put and leave first thing in the morning.

After staring up at the sky, looking at the stairs, I started thinking about the fight I had with Jason. It was the worst fight we had ever had, and I couldn’t help but think it was all my fault. Maybe if I had done things differently, I would have been able to give him what he wanted so badly, that he wouldn’t have gone looking for it, with somebody else. I put my hands on my stomach, if only I could have given him the family that he wanted, but it was too late now, someone gave him a child, a family. Just thinking about not being able to have my own family, made me think of Grandma Sage. I would be the last, and now I was alone. Tears threatened to form. I closed my eyes tight, I would not cry, not about this.

I could feel someone watching me and turned my head and gazed into bright blue eyes, that made me feel safe, they made everything else in the world seem not to matter. I shook my head, ‘it’s a fox you i***t!’

I sat up “I wish you would just talk to me, tell me why I’m here?”

I put my hand out, hopping the fox would let me pat him. Cormac lowered his head, and pushed his head into it

“I told you, its time to go home.” His voice sounded so far away. Cormac’s ears twitched, and he tilted his head, looking at me, as if he was trying to decide what to do or say next.

“But I am home, this is my home.”

Rubbing the fox’s ears seemed to have strange calm effect. Cormac responded by pushing his head further into my hand, obviously enjoying the ear rub. After feeling something strange on the back of his neck, I looked and found a small group of black feathers. I pulled my hand away from the fox. I could feel the panic and fear growing in my chest. I closed my eyes tight, and took a deep breath in through my noise, hoping to control my anxiety that was starting to flare up.

“Cormac!” I looked into the fox’s eyes. “what’s going on?”

“I’m sorry.”

At that very moment, my pocket started to burn. I took the stone my grandmother had given me out of my pocket and tried to throw it, but it was stuck. It started to burn and glow, the heat was starting to become unbearable, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t drop the stone. I looked around for the fox for help, but he was already gone. I was starting to panic. The stone kept getting hotter and hotter and I couldn’t drop it. I made a fist around the stone, hoping it would help with the pain, it didn’t, and I couldn’t open my hand again. The burning had started to radiate all over my hand, and was now traveling up my arm. I wanted so badly to scream. To let the pain out.

“Do it, my dear.” A soft sweet familiar voice urged.

I looked up to see Grandma Sage standing, with two other people, I didn’t recognize, another woman and a man.

“Scream child.” Said the man, who now stood in front of me “let it all out, the pain, the anger, the heart ache.” His voice was pledging “Share your pain.”

“Who are you?” I asked through clenched teeth

“I am prince Thiajar.” His voice was strong, and I could feel the power it possessed “Now scream!” he ordered

Unwillingly I screamed, the scream was louder, much louder the I thought ever possible. My chest was starting to ache and burn from lack of oxygen, but I couldn’t stop the scream. I could feel all the pain, all the sorrow and anger disappearing just like the air from my lungs.

And just like the air from my lungs the spirits that had been standing in front to of me disappeared Leaving me alone, once again.

I could feel myself about to pass out. ‘such a warm rock’ I thought ‘so peaceful.’ The scream stopped, and I collapsed on the rock, my heavy eye lids fell shut and I let sleep take over.

“You’ve done well my child.” I heard Prince Thiajar say “Rest while you can, there is still lots that needs to be done.”

“I’m proud of you my dear.” I heard Grandma Sage whisper.

“See you soon Princess.” I heard a male’s voice I didn’t recognize. Just a pair of bright blue glowing eyes.

Then just like that the darkness fell over me, there was nothingness.