Enstranged Hearts

A Family's Legacy

A couple of years ago, when she was under the instruction of her research mentor, Dr. Marcus Blackwood, who is renowned as an anthropological ecologist: ‘The most important scientific breakthroughs happen between what we know and what we can take a gamble on.’

Her mind repeated those words as she sorted through yet more bizarre photographic evidence.

Something was changing. Not only in her immediate environment. But within her. Her sense of smell had gotten so acute. Once, she relied on sophisticated equipment to detect wildlife, now she could pick out animal presence with a kind of preternatural awareness.

Her night vision seemed to be getting slightly better. Now sounds that would have been imperceptible before rang with crystal clarity.

Until the seventh night of that research expedition, nothing changed. There was an energy in the forest itself that was not just ecological, that felt to pulse.

Imagining impossible data—the electromagnetic fluctuations that transcended rational scientific understanding, the thermal signatures that appeared to flit between states of matter, the audio recordings riddled by frequencies that our ears and most animals could not perceive—her professional equipment started registering that data.

And then he was there. Like a living monument to all she’d sought to deny, Kai Wolfe exited the forest. Not walking. Not stalking. Simply… appearing.

“We need to talk,” he said. His voice had a very depth to it and seemed to resonate with the very trees surrounding them. Not a request. Not a suggestion. It is a statement of fundamental truth.

Resistance—what Aria had so carefully built, a wall of scientific skepticism began to crumble. Something very fundamental was starting to unwind. She was about to learn that the line which separated scientific observation from supernatural experience was much more porous than she had ever dreamed.

The forest watched. Aria Lockhart had always found solace at science. A world of calculable phenomena, measurement, observations and logical explanations.

Perhaps scientific methodology offered a sturdy foundation for wresting reality from a place where emotions were unreliable and intuition dangerous.This philosophical approach was also apparent in her home.

The cabin was methodically organized with bookshelves full of ecological journals, labelled specimen collections, mapping tools placed in perfect order, everything carefully arranged, every camera lens and scientific instrument in its place. Nothing was left to chance.

Nothing was unexplained.The unexplainable just kept accumulating like evidence needed to be investigated.

After that Kai’s forest appearance the morning after, Aria approached her research with all the heightened analytical intensity of someone who is desperate not to find what they’re actually looking for. She would document if something extraordinary was happening. Categorize it. Understand it. First step was comprehensive data collection.

Frustrated, she first made an exhaustive log of the anomalous events. Each observation was careful.

Observation Log – Entry 37:

-Unusual animal behavior patterns

These are called electromagnetic field disruptions.

- The inconsistency of thermal signatures

- Shadow movements in photographic evidence, unexplained

#Context:

Rational explanation: Environmental stress. The idea of possible ecological disruption. It needs further work.

Rational explanations were growing harder and harder to keep.

The professionals in her network were not revealing a great deal. When Aria subtly probed about unusual local wildlife behaviors with her wildlife biology contact, Dr. Rodriguez, however, had her put a foot down.

During their weekly consultation, Dr. Rodriguez said "ecological systems are complex." 'You get behavioral shifts that we don’t always immediately understand.'

“Banishment patterns, genetic mutations, environmental stressors—they can make fascinating phenomena.”

It was a scientifically sound statement. Precise. Measured.

It was completely inadequate to explain what Aria was experiencing at the same time, however. There were supernatural shennanigans that surrounded her that were simply impossible to ignore — and her scientific training demanded rigorous skepticism.

Methodical deconstruction occurred of each unexplained event, an attempt to make the extraordinary ordinary. Some mysteries won't be easily reduced, but some will be.

After 10 days of intensive research, on the tenth day something happened that had never happened before.

When I went on a routine forest expedition I found a clearing, which seemed to be situated out of ecological parameters. The vegetation was impossible—plant species that shouldn’t be here, growth patterns impossible to iris leaf, black, anatomy, soil composition that defied botanical understanding, and all — which defied all scientifically reasonable probability.

Her scientific equipment started going crazy. The readings were wildly fluctuating electromagnetic readings. The temperature of the dissolved carbon dioxide warmed to a temperature it shouldn’t have. Human ears could not hear those frequencies, so audio recordings were captured.

Into this impossible space we entered, and at its center we came upon a single giant stone: ancient-looking, pocked with markings that weren’t the language or symbolic system we knew.

Emergent intuition vs Rational mind. Skepticism versus experience.Newer versus something older — the old versus the new/old. Something deeper.

She whispered, “This can’t be real.”

But it was.

What entered was something which pulsated with energy that went beyond any amount of physical matter. The patterns carved into its surface seemed to shift with her unpaying attention, Celtic knots that moved as if living entities, but the complex geometries called to mind mathematical tricks beyond the capacity of anyone to either think it through or understand it.

Almost involuntarily her fingers came out to touch the stone. It was electric. Memories. Not her memories. Ancestral memories. Flooded her consciousness with impossible images. Wolves. Transformations. Ancient rituals. Electro magnetic guardians for ecological balance.

Moving between human and animal states bringing generations of protectors.In her rational mind she started to build elaborate explanations. Hallucination. Extreme sensory fatigue. Psychological projection.Anything but the truth.

The truth was just too extraordinary. Too impossible.

And moments later, standing at the clearing’s edge, Kai appeared, and Aria knew something very, very large was on the way. Her world of rational explanation was beginning to collapse. She was terrified and inexplicably excited at the same time.

The stone continued to pulse.

Waiting. Watching.

It was a family compound of a history that went back a lot farther than Silver Ridge’s recent settlement. The property nestled in a private valley with forest giving way to a clearing where the mountain opened up, and the land echoed history, a place somewhere between the now and a time that seemed woven out of mythology.

When Kai was able to get Aria to come over, she went with the same carefully watching eye she brought to her wildlife studies. She was a scientist with her scientific mind that needed context, explanation, understanding.