The Elysian Valley: Kenna

3

Quickly walking out of the main campus building, I look around hoping to find Zola. "We need to split up in order to find her," Brooks suggests.

"Fine, but which way do each of us go?" Alma questions.

"We will just split it up by buildings and their surrounding areas. Brook, go to the east, Alma, to the north, Solana, go west, and I will take the south side of campus. It can't be that hard to find her considering how many of us are looking for her," I command.

They all look at me astonished that I am telling them what to do but quickly go on their way when I shoot them all a death glare. I walk towards the south thinking that they should just listen to  me, it isn't like any of them are coming up with a plan to find Zola. I cannot believe that Solana would do something like this We are all dependent upon each other and maybe it is a little bit unhealthy, but you grow up the way we did and tell me that you would have survived any better. I am pretty zoned out when I suddenly walk into a brick wall, or what feels like a brick wall anyways. After bumping into the wall-like male, I stumble backwards and just know I will land on my a*s. I feel arms quickly reach around my waist and steady me. "Woah, slow down a bit, girl. You could have ended up falling for me," he says while smirking at me.

I look up and see a guy with dark brown hair as well as emerald green eyes and adorable dimples in his cheeks. You can tell this guy is a joker. "Fall for you? I would never do any such thing, good sir" I start to smile.

"Well kind lady, where were you going in such a hurry?"

"One of my friends got a little upset at that stupid orientation thing, and she walked out, so now I am out looking for her."

"Was the orientation really that bad? I remember when I went, and I had a good time, then again one of my friends did not get into a fight with all the others and leave. You want some help  looking for her since I know the campus a bit better than you?"

"You know, I would really appreciate that. It is my first time on campus. I'm Kenna, by the way."

"Wow, I never introduced myself, how rude can I be? I am Eric," he says while holding out his hand for me to shake. I take his hand and feel an instant connection to him as though he was going to be in my life quite a long while. I smile at that, loving that my intuition is kicking in and telling me that this was a good guy. "Shall we be on our way, Eric?"

"Indeed we shall, Kenna," he states while leading me towards the building that I notice has a sign out front stating it is for science courses.

After searching the south side of the campus, I groan. "It's hopeless, Eric, there is no way that she is over here. We might as well head back to the main building and see if any of my other friends managed to find her."

"I suppose you are right. I'm sorry that I wasn't of much help, Kenna."

"No Eric, you were extremely helpful, it isn't your fault that she wasn't on this side of campus."

I look over at Eric and give him a small smile while turning around and heading the other way. When we reach the main building, I see all the girls standing there chatting, including Zola. I run up to them and punch Zola in the arm.

"What the hell was that for?"

"You can't just take off like that, Zola! We don't know this area and anything could have happened to you. You had me scared out of my mind. I have been roaming this campus for the past hour in search of you!"

Zola wraps me in her arms. "I'm sorry, Kenna. I know it wasn't smart but with what Solana said, I was just so frustrated. I needed time to cool down, and you know how long walks do that for me."

"I know Zola, but never again, do you understand?"

"Got it." Leaning in closer to my ear, she whispers, "Who is the hottie by the way?"

"What hottie?"

"The one you walked up with, Kenna. DUH!"

I quickly whip around and see Eric staring at us. "Oh wow,I completely forgot you were with me. I am so rude."

He laughs while saying, "I can't believe that you forgot me, this has never happened so quickly before. I feel like I should be a little bit hurt." He dramatically puts his hand on his chest and acts as if I have physically wounded him.

"Get over it, Eric. Zola is way more important than you. But since I was being rude as hell, and you have just spent an hour of your time assisting me in my search, I shall introduce you to the most amazing four girls you shall ever meet. Meet Brooklynn, Alma, Solana and our little runaway Zola."

Everyone quickly exchanges pleasantries, and Eric looks down at his watch. "I have a meeting to get to, ladies, so your chivalrous knight in all of his shining armour must be off!" 

I rolled my eyes. "Oh no, whatever shall we do without such a gallant knight to protect us poor defenseless females! We shall certainly perish without him around," I joke while placing my hand on my forehead, pretending as though I am going to faint.

Eric quickly  caught me. "See, I knew you couldn't survive without me. I may just have to skip this meeting to ensure you get back to your abode safely."

"Go to your meeting, you court jester. You can come and visit me later in the week on campus so that your heart does not wither from the ache of being away from me."

We are both laughing so hard that it is becoming hard to breath while the others look on as if we are out of our minds. Finally getting myself under control, I say, "But seriously Eric, thank you for everything, and I'm sure that I will see you around. You better get to that meeting though, so you don't get into trouble for being late."

Eric nods at me and then starts to walk off, he turns around while waving at me. "Until we meet again, fair maidens."

We all walk off campus towards our SUV when Brook suddenly states, "I'm so hungry, let's stop at a fast food place on the way home."

"Are there even any fast food places around?" I question.

"There has to be something,” Zola mumured logically.

"You are right, Zola. We can find something.”

After driving around for a while, we finally find a Wendy's. This is one of my favorite fast food places; they have amazing spicy chicken sandwiches. We order through the drive-through and then head home. After we finish eating, I figure it is time to discuss what had happened last night. "So, we need to talk about the trance thing Brook went into."

Brook groans. "I don't want to talk about it, guys. Like you said last night, Kenna, it was just a one off."

"I thought that until I went to sleep last night and had this weird dream."

Zola's head quickly snaps up. "What kind of dream, Kenna?”

"It was weird. I woke up in a field dressed differently, and there was a forest with leaves of all colors. Then there was this guy there, but he looked like an elf, and we argued a bit, and then he told me that I would find my soulmate among his people. It was very strange."

Solana's quiet voice breaks the tension that is growing  between us as I repeat my dream to them. "Why does that make you believe what happened with Brook was not a unique occurrence?"

"Well, I was there from the beginning of her trance, and she spouted off some strange words, and one of the lines was that the girls must find their soul. So how likely is it that she has this trance and says that, and then the exact same thing is in my dream?"

"Kenna, just because I said that in my vision does not mean that your dream was connected. You could have just been worried about what happened, so your subconscious made that dream appear to you. Now the hot elf guy, I have no idea how that part came to be."

"Even if there was no correlation between the two and your incident  was just a singular event, I still think that we should at least look into it.”

Groaning, Alma questions, "And how exactly do you suggest that we do that, Kenna? It is not like there are books about supernatural creatures or psychics that are true and not based on fiction. This search seems like it would be extremely useless."

"Alma, it may be useless and what we do manage to find could be completely irrelevant to what we are searching for, but I think we need to do something. If any of you have a better idea, let's hear it. The way I look at it, we can try to figure out what happened, or we can sit around and wait for it to possibly happen again except this time Brook could get seriously injured due to the visions. What if she has on while driving or crossing the street, she loses all awareness when in that state and it’s not a risk I am willing to take."

I am getting really frustrated with them. Why can't they understand that something really bad could happen if we do not figure this out. They think that it will go away, but my intuition is telling me that whatever is happening is just going to get much worse, and it will include us all. None of the girls answer me. Standing up while releasing a deep breath, I leave them there, heading up the stairs, intending on going to the library and hopefully finding something that could help us, even if I am the only one who thinks there is a problem.

I have been in the library for a few hours now, and some of the books I have found here are strange to say the least. It is like a supernatural lover’s paradise. Numerous books on all sorts of creatures like werewolves, vampires, elves, fae, and sorcerers line the shelves. There are made up histories, made up realms, made up royal families. This place is certainly something interesting. I'm getting exhausted but still have not found anything close to what I am looking for. I am ready to give up and maybe I will just try again tomorrow. As I am walking out of the library, I trip on a small table and hit the candlestick that is on the wall, as soon as I do, though, a secret passage begins to open up.

I gasp in surprise, and I don't know if I should follow the passageway though, it is dark and covered in cobwebs. Something also tells me that all of us need to be a part of this discovery, whatever it may be. Looking at the clock, I see that I've been here through dinner time and that it is now eleven at night, and I have school in the morning.

I quickly run to the kitchen and make myself a sandwich which I eat on the way back to my bedroom. I go into my bathroom and decide that a bath sounds nice, so I begin to run the water on the hottest setting that I can. I look through all of my bath products and find my pomegranate bath salts and sprinkle them into the tub, hoping they will help me relax after such a trying day. After soaking in the tub and running the jets for close to half an hour, I jump into the shower in order to actually wash my body and hair with my vanilla scented body wash. Once finished, I head to my bedroom and climb under my covers, praying that I can sleep without any dreams whatsoever, especially not ones with weird elf guys.

"You have got to be kidding me. I do not want to be here again!" Groaning in frustration, I realize I am once again inside of the mysterious field that I woke up in last night. My outfit this time is different. I am in a bright yellow tea length summer dress and a pair of white ballet flats. I have to admit that whoever dresses me in my dreams has very good taste.

Instead of leaving the field and heading towards the royal forest as the weird elf guy said, I went towards the water. Once I reached the shore, I realized that the sand was very fine and that it seemed to be pearlescent. I soon got to the water and saw that I could look all the way through it and see the bottom. It was strange though, because there was no wildlife inside the water it seemed. I heard the sand shifting behind me and spun around, dropping into a defensive stance. I may not be big but knowing that about myself, I made sure I could defend myself if needed by taking different classes such as: kickboxing, taekwondo, karate, and just a simple defense class. I wanted to be prepared for everything. Realizing that the shifting of the sand had stopped, I looked up and saw the strange elf man once again. "Go away, I am not having another weird conversation with a dream elf."

"I'll never leave you, little one. You are meant to be mine."

"I am dreaming, and you do not exist, meaning that I belong to absolutely no one."

"One day soon, I will find you and then you will know that I am real. Once that time comes, you will become my queen and assist me in ruling Thennor."

"I am not ruling anything, weird elf dude. I am going to college and maybe going to meet a nice guy and get married and have a kid or two. That in no way includes an imaginary man consistently disturbing my sleep."

He growled and rushed to me, grabbing me by the biceps in a strong grip. Though it didn't hurt, I just knew I wouldn't be able to escape him. "You will be with no other! If you marry and have a kid or two, it will be to ME, and those children will be MINE! Do not think that you are going to find someone who could complete you the way that I will."

"Chill out! You do not exist besides in my strange dream. I want to know how to get out of this dream and how to stop coming back to this place."

"There is no way to stop dreaming until we find each other. The dreams are the only way our souls can't connect right now, and they will connect in this way, no matter if you wish it were different."

"My soul is doing no such thing, weird elf guy, so stop trying to lie to me."

Running his hand through his hair, he looked into my eyes. "I understand if you don't believe me, little one, especially not growing up in this world. I am indeed telling you the truth though, you will discover that on your own soon enough."

I started to see that his image was wavering in front of me and knew that my dream was coming to an end. "I guess it is time for me to go, weird elf guy. Until we meet again, I guess."

He began waving to me and responded, "My name is Aiden by the way, not weird elf guy. I'll see you soon, little one.”