Whispers of Time

by Gwendolyn Ilimaris

  Jake shook his head at the memory. “Yeah, a party injury,” he said with a chuckle. “That is probably the best thing to say.” Vollen let out a hearty laugh.

  “You’ve done plenty more to help me out over the years.”

  Jake nodded before it appeared like a sudden thought occurred to him, “By the way what did you mean about the instrument failure you mentioned earlier?”

  “For about twenty minutes I was flyin’ blind. Every instrument we had all died at once.”

  “All of them?” Jake could not keep the shock out of his voice.

  “Yup, every single one,” Vollen said, his tone becoming serious. “It’s never happened to me in ten years of flyin’ and I hope it never does again.”

  “I wonder what caused that,” Jake mused aloud.

  “I don’t know. We had to replace almost every circuit breaker to get them to power up. It had to be some kind of major power surge.”

  “That’s pretty strange. I mean with all the fail-safes.”

  Sara got a sudden cold shiver while she listened to them talk when she realized that she could have caused the plane to crash.

  “Major Vollen, you’re needed back in the cockpit.” A call over the intercom system echoed around the room from the multiple speakers in the cabin and the atmosphere in the room changed in an instant.

  “I’ll send someone up with a radio in case you need anything,” Vollen said as he started down the ladder. “Don’t go anywhere without an escort.”

  “Thanks, Stan, I owe you one,” Jake called after him. They heard a laugh from the bottom of the ladder.

  “I know!”

  After the major left and silence fell over the room Jake looked over at the girls. Sara was still curled in a ball in her chair with her head on her knees. She was shaking from head to toe. Paige, having time to start processing, sat with wide eyes from the events that had just taken place. Jake sat down in the seat between them before he put an arm around each of them.

  “Come here you two,” he said, his voice soft. He could tell that they were both struggling to deal with what had just happened. Sara could not help but lean against him. She was comforted by his warmth. Paige just sat there still staring at the ladder.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I had no idea he’d try to arrest you.” Her eyes were rimmed with tears when she looked at her brother. Jake rubbed her arm with his hand.

  “I don’t tell you things without a reason,” he said. “You have to start thinking about the consequences of your actions.” She sniffed and nodded before resting her head on his shoulder. “And you,” he continued as he looked down at Sara. “Why did you go with the colonel? Didn’t you know that wasn’t a good idea?”

  Sara raised her head so that her chin was resting on her knees and she could look up at him, “I didn’t want to cause you any problems. I thought if I refused it would have been worse. I didn’t think he’d actually do something.” She paused. “I guess I was wrong.” Her voice was quiet, but every word rang of honesty. Jake tightened his arm around her.

  “Try to be more careful,” he said before he paused. His gaze became gentle and grateful. “And thank you for standing up for me. I’m sure that wasn’t easy.”

  “I couldn’t let them do anything bad to you,” she whispered without thinking. After a moment, Sara realized what she had just said and flushed red. Glancing up at him, she noticed he was regarding her with a complex expression. She looked away and tried to scoot over in the seat further from him, but he did not loosen his grip.

  Moments later he exhaled loudly and pulled both of his arms back from around the girls.

  “It has been a long flight so far and we still have about nine hours until we make it to Washington. Why don’t you two try and get some sleep?” He made a move to stand up.

  “Please don’t move, I was comfortable,” Paige protested. “And you were keeping me warm, right Sara?”

  The flush on Sara’s face darkened but she nodded without looking up. Jake appeared conflicted for a moment before he eased back into the chair again. He put his arms back around the girls.

  “Okay,” he said in a quiet resigned voice. The two girls leaned back against him and were both asleep within minutes. Jakes listened to their slow, rhythmic breathing as he rested his head back against the seat and looked up at the roof of the plane. He remained this way for a little while before he glanced down at his sister. She was such a handful he was not sure what he was going to do with her. These pranks of hers were not going to go over well in the adult world.

  She suddenly let out a loud snore in her sleep. Jake grinned and chuckled. He knew she would have been mortified if she knew. Jake watched her for a few moments longer before he glanced down at Sara. His mind went momentarily blank as he looked at her. With a gentle hand, he brushed a section of her bangs out of her face and tucked it behind her ear, and almost involuntarily kissed the top of her head. A split second later he realized what he had just done and jerked back from her. He stared up at the ceiling as he chastised himself.

  “What in the world am I doing?” He muttered. “She is way too young, moron.” He shook his head when noise on the ladder pulled him out of his thoughts.

  “Captain?” A voice said. Jake glanced at the girls before he lifted an arm and pressed a finger against his lips.

  “Shhh.”

  The man grimaced, “Sorry sir. Here is the radio Major Vollen asked me to bring you.” He whispered so he did not wake the girls.

  “Set it over there,” Jake whispered as he indicated his chair. The man walked over and put the radio down on the chair.

  “Major Vollen also wants everyone to wear their seat belts. We will be encountering a storm soon.” Jake nodded in response and the man headed back down the ladder.

  A short time later a loud crack of thunder caused Sara to jump in her sleep. Jake glanced down to see if it had woke her, but it did not. He wondered what she was dreaming about, but he did not dwell on it long before he closed his eyes and tried to take a nap.

  Sara was nervous about falling asleep next to Jake, but the events of the day had taken their toll, and she was exhausted. The warmth radiating from him and the smell of his bodywash caused her to relax. She only lasted a few minutes after she closed her eyes. Her mind drifted into a peaceful, dreamless sleep until a loud crack of thunder changed that.

  She suddenly found herself looking around a strange forest in the midst of a torrential downpour. Her brows furrowed in thought when she realized this looked just like the forest she had seen before. She started walking along a path that ran through the trees when she spotted a glimpse of a girl running. It only took her a few seconds to realize she was looking at the young woman she had seen before, but this time she looked like she was still a teenager. As the girl ran a young boy appeared at her side. He was also a teenager.

  “We have to hurry,” he said as he grabbed the girls’ hand and pulled her after him. She went with him with no protest. Sara hurried to follow them.

  “What are we going to do?” The girl asked, her voice filled with panic.

  The boy pushed his silver hair out of his face, “Run. I think if we can get near the cliff and I transform we can get away that way.” The girl was already shaking her head.

  “We cannot,” she said. “You cannot transform that well yet. You might not even be able to.”

  The boy grimaced at her response.

  “Look ***,” he said. “I have to get you out of here and I do not know any other way to do it.”

  Sara noticed when the boy tried to say her name it was like the memory cut out. She thought that was strange and wondered what could cause the name to be scrambled.

  “But…” The girl started to protest when a large orc leapt out in the path in front of them. The boy turned to the left, pulling her with him, and continued to run as fast as he could. The girl tried to keep up, but she was shorter than he was and could not keep up with his long strides. She stumbled and lost her gr
ip on his hand causing her to fall face first into the muddy ground. Rolling onto her side, she barely managed to get out of the way of the large sword the orc slammed into the ground next to her. She rolled again to try and get back to her feet, but the slope was too steep, and she started sliding down the hill toward the edge of the cliff. She pulled a small dagger out of her boot and stabbed it hard into the ground to try and slow her fall. The ground was so rain-soaked that the dagger could not bite into anything and slid through the ground like butter. Releasing the dagger, she clawed at the ground frantically trying to stop.

  “****!” She cried as she slipped over the edge. The boy ran toward the edge of the cliff and did not hesitate as he jumped off after her.

  Sara gasped in shock. He just jumped off? She hurried to the edge and saw that it was a fifteen-foot drop to where the teenagers landed. On either side of the small ledge they landed on was a hundred- and fifty-foot drop. The girl was holding her ankle and her face was etched with pain.

  “Are you all right?” The boy asked as he hurried to her side.

  “I think I broke my ankle,” she replied as she tried to stand on it and it would not hold her weight.

  A sudden loud laugh brought their attention back to the top of the cliff where the orc was standing.

  “Look what we have here. Little birds stuck in a nest. Watch out for that fall little birds,” he growled at them from above. The boy stood in front of the girl trying to protect her as the orc started lobbing large stones at them.

  “I will try to transform,” he said as he closed his eyes. His entire body started to glow while he concentrated but nothing changed. A few moments later he let out a heavy sigh and sat down with a plop.

  “I cannot do it,” he said breathing heavily. He looked up and saw a small force wall between them and the orc. The orc’s rocks were bouncing off it, but the girl was starting to breathe heavy from the exertion of holding the field in place. The two of them looked at each other with a resigned look. They were trapped.

  “We will jump,” the boy said.

  “But we will die,” she answered. Fear flashed across her face and he grabbed her hand.

  “We die if we stay here,” he replied. “At least we have a chance if we jump.”

  She hesitated before she nodded, and they jumped from the ledge. Sara reached out as if to try and stop them but found herself falling right along with them. The boy wrapped his arms around the girl as they fell, and she held onto him.

  A few seconds before they hit the ground an enormous silver claw appeared from above them and plucked them out of the sky. Sara looked up in shock and saw a huge silver dragon fly away. Before she had a chance to look back down, she landed on her back in a flower filled field beside a black obelisk. She looked around in confusion before getting back to her feet. Wondering where she was now, she moved around the black obelisk and found the young woman sitting on the ground in front of it. This time she was an adult again. Sara looked up at the stone and could not read any of it, but a finely carved image of a silver dragon caught her attention. Then there was another loud crash of thunder.

  Sara awoke with a sudden gasp and sat up so fast that she fell out of the chair and onto the floor.

  “I think that is me.” She heard the voice say in her head.

  “Who are you?” She cried.

  “I do not know.”

  Sara sat in her seat with her head on her knees. She was mortified by what happened after she woke up and wished she could sink into the seat and disappear. Jake, who had been half asleep, was startled awake when she sat up. He tried to grab her, so she did not fall, but was too slow and all he accomplished was causing all three of them to end up on the floor in a tangled heap.

  “Who were you talking about?” Jake asked again from where he was sitting on the other side of the cabin.

  “It was just a dream,” Sara replied without looking up. Since she had cried out when she fell to someone who was not there, Jake was worried she might have hurt her head more than he thought. She already told him several times it was just a dream. Shaking her head, she almost rolled her eyes. There was no way she could tell him she was hearing a voice in her head.

  “Okay everyone,” Paige said, her voice annoyingly loud as she clapped her hands together. Sara jumped at the sudden noise and looked up at her with a frown. “I think we have established it was just a dream. Let’s enjoy the little bit of the flight we have left. I mean we should be arriving anytime now.” She grinned at her brother and Sara when she stopped talking. They both just stared at her before returning to their own individual thoughts. Paige glanced back and forth between them before she sighed. They were no fun.

  A few minutes later a private appeared at the top of the ladder to inform everyone that they would be landing soon. The three of them moved around the cabin and secured their belongings before returning to their seats. Not long after they finished the plane began its descent into the Seattle, Washington area, and made its landing without incident at Fort Lewis army base.

  Once the plane stopped moving Sergeant Fields poked his head above the top of the ladder and motioned for them to follow him. He seemed nervous which caused Paige and Sara to share confused glances. Jake did not appear to be fazed by this and he jumped out of his seat. After grabbing his bag, he went straight to the ladder.

  “Let’s go,” he said as he followed Fields.

  “Don’t we have to wait for the plane to unload first like usual?” Paige asked as she grabbed her stuff to follow Jake. Her brother smiled.

  “Not today.” A look of suspicion flashed across Paige’s face as she and Sara followed Jake. Something was not right, and she wondered what was going on. Once the three made it off the ladder they headed for the back of the plane. The large cargo doors were open, and the crew was unloading what had been hidden under the tarp. It was Jake’s jeep.

  “Are you kidding me?” Paige exclaimed with a roll of her eyes. “Did you seriously smuggle your jeep on the plane?”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” Jake said with a smug smile. “According to the manifest there was no vehicle on this flight.” He quickened his pace and hurried to his car. After throwing his bag in the back he looked around.

  “Let’s go, Let’s go,” he said as he motioned to the jeep. Paige and Sara rushed over and tossed their things in before climbing into the back seat. Jake glanced back at Fields. The sergeant gave him a thumbs up with a large grin. Jake returned the thumbs up before he got into the driver’s seat. Once he started the jeep, they headed off the tarmac toward the nearest road. He drove through the base and out the front gate before he headed southwest toward the city of Olympia. When they reached the city, Jake found a gas station and pulled into the parking lot. Sara glanced up from the book she was reading in time to catch Jake attempt to stifle a huge yawn.

  “I’m going to get a coffee,” Jake said as he opened the door of the jeep. “I’ll be right back.” Sara frowned when she could see the dark circles under his eyes when he turned to walk away.

  “Hey Paige,” she said. “Jake looked really tired.”

  Paige glanced at her brother’s back as he entered the building, “You know I don’t think he’s slept since we left, and he had to work the night shift before graduation.” She frowned as she spoke.

  “That’s almost two days,” Sara said, her voice filled with worry.

  “Plus, who knows how long he’s been up before that. He works the night shift and then studies during the day. Sleep is an afterthought to him.” Paige folded her arms over her chest before she looked over at Sara with a mischievous grin. “I will just have to drive then.” She climbed into the driver’s seat before her brother got back to the jeep.

  “He’ll let you drive?” Sara could not keep the surprise out of her voice.

  Paige nodded, “I just have to give him the proper motivation. Let me drive or spend the rest of the day in this parking lot.” She laughed at the disbelieving look on Sara’s face.
“It will work.” Sara just shook her head. She could not imagine that Jake was going to be pleased with this idea.

  A few minutes later, Jake walked out of the gas station with a large coffee in hand. About halfway across the parking lot, he stopped when he saw Paige sitting in his seat. He tilted his head to the side with a disapproving look as he walked the rest of the way.

  “What’re you doing?” He asked as he pulled open the door.

  “Can’t you tell?” Paige said with a large smile. “I’m driving.”

  Jake was already shaking his head no before she even finished, “Oh no, you aren’t driving my jeep.”

  Paige’s grin slipped into a pleasant smile and Jake narrowed his eyes.

  “We aren’t going anywhere unless I drive. You look exhausted and need to sleep.”

  “Paig--.”

  “Sara even thinks you look tired. She’s the one who brought it up.”

  Sara tried her best to focus on the book in her hand but could not help but glance up when she felt Jake’s eyes switch to her. He regarded her for a moment before he looked back at his sister. When he sighed the grin returned to Paige’s face and she held out her hand for the keys. He hesitated before he handed them to her.

  “If you put a scratch on my jeep you’re dead,” he grumbled as he walked around the front of the car.

  “I know, I know,” Paige said with a roll of her eyes. “Wait, what’re you doing?” She gave him a funny look when he started removing the front passenger seat from the vehicle.

  “If I throw this in the back I can sit in the back and stretch out,” he said. “May as well be comfortable while my life is in danger.” He grinned when he saw the scowl that appeared on his sister’s face.

  Once he finished pulling the seat free, he put it in the very back with the bags before climbing into the backseat next to Sara. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye while she tried to continue pretending to read. He did not notice as he fastened his seatbelt and stretched out his long legs. Paige glanced back at him before she started the car and headed back onto the interstate heading south.