Friday, June 25, 2004

Chapter 2
That night I had a dream. I dreamt that I had fallen asleep in the garden and was awakening. I went to the spot where Larenda was crying. I found not Larenda, but a tunnel poorly hidden by the brush. I heard an explosion coming from inside the castle that frightened me. That is when I woke up.
I sit up in my bed, look out the window, and see the stars. I did not want to wait for Larenda to find me in the garden. I dressed myself and walked quietly out of my room. I looked both ways and tip toed down to the garden door. I checked both sides of the hall, and cracked the door open. There was a tremendous flash of blinding white light. Strangely, the garden was not what I found. It was like opening the door to a temple. The walls and floors are made of a dark dreary stone. The occasional torch on the wall dimly lights the halls. Carvings of pictures decorate the walls but none of them shows any importance. Down the hall directly ahead, I can see lights appearing far ahead. I grab a torch off the wall for myself and tip toe down the hall so as not to make any noise. Of course, I realize that a moving light shows someone coming, so I put the torch back.
Slowly moving toward the lights ahead, I find a grand room with no one inside. “Where did you go princess?” I thought she would be the only one who could be here since she was the only one allowed in the garden.
I hit myself on the forehead. “Duh stupid, I’m not in the garden.” At the end of the hall, an amazing room seems almost self-lit. The ceiling in the grand room is almost so high you cannot see it. There are even clouds in here. All of the clouds are circling the center of the room. In the center of the room, there is a circle of stairs reaching twenty feet into the air. This is obviously, where the clouds are circling. I climb the stairs to reach the top but it seems like forever. It is like climbing a mountain. “Man, this seems to be taking forever. I’ll just relax on one of these steps here.” Sitting down I look down to the floor.
Looking down to the ground is brutal. I know its close because I have not been off the ground long but it looks miles below. I look to the top,
“It’s only a couple of steps away!” With renewed strength and enthusiasm, I make a run for the top. It comes not to a peak but a level platform. I barely stop myself in time not to fall into a dark bottomless pit starting at the top here. I lay on the edge looking into the hole. It has walls that go down along the way. I stand and look back to the door where I came in, and there is only a wall going all the way around. The clouds now are not too far above. I look again to the wall, and the hole. There is only one option now. I must jump into the hole. I plug my nose, close my eyes, and hold my breath preparing to dive into a watery grave or at least a place with no ground. I jump in ready for a fall, but instead I find myself going up instead of down. The bottomless pit is actually an optical illusion. It is no more than a piece of glass.
All of the clouds slow to a halt and float down to me. I can feel my body flying off the ground slowly at first, then faster. The clouds have come together and are now lifting me to the ceiling. Looking up I can see an opening in the ceiling. It looks large enough to have two or three pass through without getting stuck. I am drawn towards that opening closer and closer. I start thinking about how far it is to the ground. As if reading my thoughts the clouds drop me. Falling down, down, down, I see now the glass below me; I hope it is not too thick.
With a tremendous crash, I fall through the glass underneath me. From above there was only darkness below. From below, there is darkness above. When I land, i find myself in the garden.
“How the heck did I get here?” Lost in an unfamiliar garden, or place of any kind tends to get a little scary when you are ten years old. There is a tiny pool, not unlike the one in Larenda’s garden. In fact, it looks exactly like the one in Larenda’s garden. With nothing else to try, I dive into the water. It is funny how water turns to air as suddenly I am falling from the sky, miles above the earth. Wind flying through my hair, falling and falling. I decide to make the best of it and do flips and spins falling and falling. Pretending that I am a bird, flapping my arms, suddenly I start to fly. Flying up and around, not just falling to the ground. Enjoying myself, I realize that the ground never changes. I am floating over the same spot. My body, tangled up in a large web…like a fly to flypaper
Cold sweat dripping on my forehead, the web my own blankets, I sit up in bed, it is the middle of the day, around noon or so. I wipe the sweat off my forehead and put my feet on the stone floor. I must have been running a fever, because my mother is sitting in a char under the window. She is asleep, even though the light is pouring in through the window.
I will let her sleep. She has must have been up all night worrying about me. Nevertheless, as I get closer to her I cannot hear her snore. She was the loudest snorer in Lowry. I slip my sandals and a fresh tunic on and run out of the door. Instead of seeing the plant’s outside my door and patrolling guards, I see scorch marks and dead people. Just to be sure that this is no dream, I would pinch myself, but the smell of the burned flesh almost stops me from moving. Plugging my nose, I am walking down the hall toward the garden. When I turn the corner, I hear screams. They were screams of dying people, and the screams of the murders in a victory cry. I hear a couple of the invaders coming. Stepping back, I hide behind the corner and peer around. Those bastards! They are the ones who attacked my family! I want to scream, but I turn back around with my fists balled up tight and curse them under my breath.
First, they attack my family, and then kill every one in the castle! I will get them for this. Immediately, a tremendous rush of adrenaline comes over me and a strange tunnel vision leads me directly to a sword on the ground. With no knowledge of fencing, I pick up the sword anyway. It almost feels natural, but who cares? They killed my family. I run around the corner, wave the sword over my head, and scream at the top of my lungs. “I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS!”
They start laughing and pointing at me. Not really knowing what to do I hold the sword over my head and just throw it at the one on the left. It lodges itself in his stomach, down to the hilt. He looks down at it, just kind of amazed at its presence. The idiot next to him looks at me, and then looks at the rest of the sword hanging out the back. He passes out on the ground, almost instantaneously. His friend with the sword in his stomach hits the floor like a rock. Then screaming at the top of my lungs I run over and start pounding on his body with all my tiny might. Larenda! Oh no! I completely forgot about her. I stand up and look to the garden door. It looks untouched and unharmed. I look inside and see a blinding flash, again. However, this time, as the light faded from my sight, I saw the familiar shapes of the flowers and the lake. The sun was high in the sky with not a cloud in sight.
“Larenda, Where are you?” I heard a mumbling far off back in Larenda’s “secret spot” where she goes to be by herself. A sudden shade falls over the castle. This abnormality draws my attention to the sky. I thought there weren’t any clouds. There I see a tremendous flying figure with a twenty-foot wingspan. I knew that it must be a dragon. As suddenly as it came, it was gone again. It had flown out of sight. All that I could do was hope that it did not see me. It looked hungry.
“Oops. It is too late.” I heard it screech, and begin to fly back this way. Instinctively, I begin to run. After a couple of steps, I stop in my tracks. It was almost a voice inside my head telling me not to be afraid. It was calming, soothing, and nurturing. Like your mother’s voice, you have never heard until you are grown. I suddenly knew that it was the part of me I was missing.
“Larenda first, then the strange voices in my head, what’s next.” Skidding to a halt, I crouch down over Larenda’s body, and listen for her breathing.
“Wake up, Larenda.” I can barely speak over a whisper, I’m choking up with tears.
“You can’t leave me now, I’ll miss you too much when you’re gone.” The tears are running in cool streams. I heard a crash from right inside the building, as if it is just on the other side of the door. I stand up prepared to fight, but I just cannot leave her body here to be ravaged. When I grab her to carry her, she screams, and fights me from carrying her. I can see that she is suffering, because when I touch her she feels my fingers as knives, stabbing her.
“I’ll go get help.” I kiss her on the forehead, and softly put her back on the ground. When I stand up, chills run down my spine. I’m being watched. I turn my head slowly, afraid of what I may find there. There is a man and a woman standing there. The both of them are wearing similar looking garments, but in different colors. Their clothes are a spectacular design almost made for royalty. Nevertheless, you can tell these people are not royalty but are warriors. Neither of them carry any weapons but both can obviously take care of themselves. The man wearing red is fairly tall, extremely built, with his long red hair back in a ponytail reaching far down to his waist.
The woman, wears a sparkling green outfit, and has long green hair which she lets down from her bun. She dips her head down, and ruffles her hair with her hands. When she flips her hair back each one of them almost falls right back into place. The both of them wear magnificent necklaces that grab my attention, his red, hers green. If you stare at them long enough you can see a certain fire burning inside. Neither of them looks a day older than 17 years old.
The woman steps forward slowly, looking up in the direction of the sky, instead of at me when she says,
“There’s no time for introductions, we must get out of here NOW.” She turns to the door and says, “Bring the girl, too.” She runs to the door as fast as possible, but stops to peer out the door, slowly and surely. The boy in red waves his hand over Larenda’s face and she starts to float through the air. I stare in amazement over the mere fact that she is flying. I bend over to see if it is a trick but she is really floating there. He walks her over to the door, whispers something in her ear, and flies of into the sky. Larenda flies unconscious with him to wherever they are going.
The girl in green walks over to me and says, “Well, I guess there is some time for introductions.” She nods in the direction of her companion and says,
“He’s Ardin, and I’m Lissa. We are dragoons, protectors of the dragons. They need our help, and they help us.”
She reaches to her belt and grabs a rolled up piece of paper. “Take this map and go to the X. I will be waiting. You better be ready.” I reach out for the map and she whacks me over the head with it.
“That wasn’t funny.” I hiss at her.
“You weren’t ready.” She retorts. She tosses the map in my direction and I fumble it until I finally get a hold on it. After I tuck it into my belt, I look up but she is gone.
I decide that I am going to go back to my room and make a pack that will last the trip. I still cannot help but wonder what is going to happen to me when I reach the X on the map. About the time that I finish packing, the king walks into the room.
“What’s going on here?” He walks over to my momma, and reaches out to touch her, but stops and puts his hand back down to his side. He walks over to me, kneels, and puts his hands on my shoulders saying, “I need to talk to you later, meet me for dinner in the grand hall.” He left, and I needed to go for a walk. When I walked into the hallway, all the bodies of the people were gone. I gasped, and then I realized that a small gang of bandits couldn’t have killed all of the people in the castle. I walk over to the garden door and sigh. Under my breath I mutter, “Larenda, I don’t know if you can hear me but, I promise I will find you again.”

Minutes before the dinner bell rings, I go back to my room and get all gussied up for my dinner meeting with his majesty. I stop short of the double doors for the guards standing outside to open them. They give me a look of sympathy, before turning and opening the heavy oak doors. “Announcing, the little master Winchester.” They announced as they stood aside from the doorway. I bowed, and then took my seat next to my father’s chair. Looking over I realize that I will never see my father or my mother again. My eyes misted, and instantly tears fall down my cheeks like rain. I quickly wipe them from my face and take my place in my father’s chair.
“I’m sorry Neith. Your father didn’t make it either.” He clapped his hands and the serving people carrying trays of bread and meats of various types. As he broke bread and ate, he continued to express his sympathy for my losses. I found it odd that he had not offered me my father’s job as his advisor. But as he called for the desserts to come out, he got to the point.
“Neith, I’m just going to come out and say it. I want you go save my little Larenda. I know you are only ten, but after the attack I can’t spare any of my men.”
That certainly made me feel like he really cared about my advice. But I continued to listen.
“The real reason I want you to go after her, is because I know how much time you spent with her and how much you care about her.” This really shocked me. I nearly spit out my cider.
“I know you two tried to keep it a secret,” he continued, “and I know how much she disliked her fiancé.” He didn’t want to look at me while he was talking. He purposely avoided my eyes.
“I don’t even like her fiancé, but that’s unimportant. I noticed you were packing earlier, and I hope you will make Larenda your priority. I will give you anything you ask.” His eyes were tearing as he spoke, and he called for the table to be cleared away.
He stood up and I obliged him by standing as well. Before he leaves he speaks,
“Neith, before you leave tomorrow morning I want you to stop by the throne room so I can give you anything else you might need for your trip.“ Horace motioned over for a little brown-haired page to come.
“Johnny will accompany you to your room.” He and I had met before on a couple of occasions. He was often in on my practical jokes on the guards.
After the king left for his own quarters, Johnny and I began out long walk down the hallways to my room.
Out of the blue Johnny said, “Oh man, I wish I was going with you. This castle is nice but this isn’t the life for me. I belong in the woods, hills and in the wild. But after my parents died the king took me in.“
Johnny lived the live of a completely sophisticated adult, but he was only as old as I was. He needed to live his own life before he gave it away in service to king Horace.
“Why don’t you come with me? I could use the help.” Johnny looked overjoyed for a few moments until,
“Will King Horace let me come with you? He said he couldn’t spare anybody.” He started looking very downtrodden. I put my hands on his shoulders and said,
“He said I could have anything I needed. I will ask him to bring you along.” Johnny practically skipped all the way to my room. “Goodnight Johnny.”
I opened my door and peered inside. My mother wasn’t there. During dinner someone must have stopped by. I cried myself to sleep that night.