Fire - Betrayal

by Amelia Grace

  “Nic, the lactic acid build up in my right arm is killing me,” I commented.

  “Relax your arm Cate, and let me support you, I am more than capable of endurance, I can ignore muscle pain extremely well. You are awesome for lasting to the end. To be honest, I didn’t think you had it in you,” Nic said.

  “I am much stronger than you think Nic, mentally and physically,“ I commented.

  The loud sound of applause and wolf whistles broke out as Nic and I remained as the final couple to be standing on the stage.

  I smiled warmly at Nic, and he held me close to his body and lifted my feet up of the floor and swung me around. Then he gently placed me down and whispered thank-you.

  He brought his lips close to my ear.

  “I’d kiss you, but we have only just met.”

  I hugged Nic warmly. He was a really nice guy.

  The competition went well into the night, and finally Nic and Matt’s group were victorious. I had had a ball with the strangers that I had met at my new house. They made me feel fantastic.

  Nic again held my hand as we walked through the mass of people after the event. I was very good at being separated from him, and I think that he felt very protective of me for some reason.

  After the short drive to my parent’s house, Nic walked me to the front door.

  Before opening the front door of the house, I turned to Nic.

  “Nic, thank-you for talking me into going to the competition, it was the best night that I have had for quite a while….thank-you,” I said sincerely from the bottom of my heart.

  Nic looked into my eyes.

  “You’re welcome Cate. Thank-you for going along with our crazy plan.” And then he looked down and smiled.

  “I’ll have to get going Cate, I have a race meet tomorrow – early. I should have been in bed and asleep hours ago!”

  “Will I see you again?” I couldn’t believe that I had asked him that question. It was very unlike me to be so forward when it came to relationships.

  Nic looked at me, and smiled.

  “I’d like that, but I can’t tell you when at the moment,” he replied honestly, and smiled at me again.

  He slowly turned and started to walk along the path to the car. He only made it a little of the way before he turned and walked back to me. He looked deeply into my eyes, and then gently placed his hands at the side of my face, and kissed me lightly on the lips. Then he turned and made his way to the car, and left.

  Chapter 27

  Destiny

  Ben stood at the double door of the Breakfast Hall, hesitating as eyes turned to him, and mind communications silenced. He hated this. He hated that the Terreans thought of him as a superior being. He ignored their stares, their adoration and continued on to sit with his biological family.

  They greeted him warmly as he joined them, connecting minds and hands, his brothers and sisters goofed around with him until they met the eyes of disapproval from others. And then they settled, thoroughly enjoying the company of their big brother. They were all close in age. But Ben stood out from them. He was by far the most striking with his looks. He was the tallest, and had wisdom that exceeded them, probably from his earth upbringing.

  And they were a good distraction, from his Warrior status, and from the agonizing loss of the love of his life. His beautiful, beautiful Cate…

  The day was picture perfect. The clear blue sky went on for miles, meeting the teal lake on the slightly curved horizon. A gentle breeze wafted off from the sea, giving the air the faint smell of salt, as Ben now sat on the golden sand watching the gentle waves running up onto the shore.

  Though, he could only sit there for a short while. He could feel the ache in his heart for Cate surfacing again. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, drawing his inner strength to help suppress the agony that he felt.

  Then, a hand gently rested on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Jacinta standing next to him. She smiled at him before sitting closely next to him.

  “Hi,” she said gently.

  “Hi!” Ben replied.

  “Come to the flower farm with me Ben. I need someone to carry the basket for me as I choose flowers for the dinner tables tonight,” Jacinta said trying to look into his eyes.

  Ben did not make eye contact with her. He nodded in agreement, and then stood up to go with her.

  Jacinta walked closely to him, and after a short while placed her hand into his, gently entwining her fingers with his. She felt her heart beat faster. She was totally smitten with him. He was the one for her.

  They stopped at the Moonlight Inn to collect the basket for the flowers. Ben carried it for her in one hand, walking silently, his head on the ground ahead. Jacinta walked closely to Ben again, eager to put her hand back into his, but Ben did not want that. He pulled his hand away from her. He felt nothing for her.

  He opened the gate to the quaint flower farm. Colourful flowers grew prolifically everywhere, all in different stages of flowering. Jacinta weaved her way in and out of the flower beds as if she were floating, while Ben followed her with the basket. She frequently looked at Ben and tried to mind communicate with him, but Ben had closed his mind to her. He wanted nothing but friendship with her.

  As Jacinta placed the last of the flowers into the basket, she touched the side of Ben’s face tenderly, and looked deeply into his eyes. She was trying to reach into the centre of his being.

  She held Ben’s hand again and led him back to the Moonlight Inn to place the flowers into the water in the cold room, before she led him back to the beach.

  Together they slowly walked along the golden sand, Jacinta taking every opportunity to touch Ben – his hands, his shoulders, his back, the back of his neck.

  Then she stopped in front of him and gently placed her hands on his chest, and slowly brought her lips to his, kissing him. Ben let her kiss him, but he did not kiss her back.

  “Ben, I am The Chosen One for you. You and I were promised to each other at our births. It is expected that you and I seal our love, that The Warrior and his wife create a baby. It is The Rule. It must happen.”

  Ben looked into Jacinta’s eyes, then took her hand and placed it over his heart.

  “Jacinta, my heart does not beat for you. I can love no other as I love Cate. She is my life. If I can’t have her, I choose to remain as I am now – without a partner. I feel nothing for you. When you touch me, it is like my sister touching me. When you kissed me then, I felt nothing. When Cate kisses me, everything stirs within me, and I feel a powerful love between us, but with you, there is nothing – I’m sorry. I don’t care for The Rule. People should marry for love, not a prearranged marriage to someone that you have no attraction to – I cannot love you Jacinta. The Marriage Rule between you and I is broken. It will not take place – under any circumstances,” explained Ben.

  Jacinta continued looking into Ben’s eyes. He was speaking the truth. She knew that he would never love her like he loved Cate, and he would never seal with her. A single tear trickled down her face.

  “I am sorry Jacinta,” Ben said tenderly, “You are beautiful. I know many of the men here would love you dearly. You should choose one.”

  “I already did Ben, and I chose you, The Warrior,” replied Jacinta.

  “You can’t have me Jacinta. My heart belongs to Cate,” Ben asserted.

  Jacinta lowered her head and placed her hands over her heart, then silently walked away from Ben. His love was bonded with Cate, which could not be broken. She had felt the immense power of their love when they were in the receiving tent, before Cate had left. She had seen them kissing passionately, and witnessed the unbreakable energy connection between them.

  Jacinta felt defeated, yet bound by The Rule. She must go to the Council of Elders and speak to them about the matter of her future without Ben.

  Ben remained alone on the beach. He closed his eyes and listened to the soothing sound of the water as it washed up onto the golden sand. His heart was breaking. He crossed
his arms over his chest, squeezed his eyes shut and cried silently. His beautiful, beautiful Cate……..

  He clenched his hand into a fist and slammed it into the sand, and then got up and sprinted into the rainforest to the deafening waterfall. There he could let out his pain and no-one would hear him. He was more determined than ever now to get on with the mission of the portals, and then return to the Earth to find Cate…..his Cate. He wanted her back, forever.

  His beautiful, beautiful Cate.

  Chapter 28

  Danger Zone

  Inside the Council of Elders meeting room, Ben stood before the Councilors.

  “Your Highest, at the completion of this mission, I will be departing Une Autre Terre,” informed Ben.

  “Why Ben? Une Autre Terre is a beautiful place – peaceful, happy, and in harmony with everything and everyonet. There is no misery here like that upon the earth,” said the Highest Councilor.

  “I agree to the fullest with all that you have said, except one – misery. I am miserable here. Even with all of the happiness of everyone around me, and the glorious surroundings, I cannot be happy without Cate. I will return to the Earth to find her, and be with her. It is only when I am with her that I am truly happy,” explained Ben.

  The female Councilor stood up from her chair and walked over to Ben and placed right her hand over his heart, and then on his head, reading his emotions, seeking the truth. She removed her hand slowly, and looked at him, her eyes serious, but compassionate.

  The female Councilor returned to her seat in a state of shock, and then mind communicated to the rest of the members of the Council. When she had finished communicating with them, they all turned to look at Ben, their eyes of adoration. He was a great man, if not the greatest.

  “Ben, we have seen into your heart and head, and see the misery that you feel at separation from Cate. Jacinta was the one chosen for you for marriage from birth. But we can see that you will never love her. You are our Great Warrior. We cannot hold you bound to the Marriage Rule when you love another so deeply. If it is Cate that you want to seal your love with, you have our blessing,” said the highest Councilor with affection to Ben, their Warrior.

  Ben simply nodded his head and thanked them. He left the meeting pining for Cate, and wondering if their separation this time would be too much for her to deal with. Maybe, she would not want him when he returned to her? Maybe, her heart had been damaged beyond repair this time? Maybe, he could not heal her heart with his gifts as he had done before? Then what? What would he do with his life?

  His beautiful, beautiful Cate…..

  Ben returned to his mission work that day. He wanted to get started on the plan for the next part of the portal openings. He prepared the backpacks with water, food, shovels, picks and survival kits for on the Earth. He lined up the opal seed frames, and visualized how they would implant them on the Earth side. He managed to visualize everything about the portals, except for what he would see on the Earth on the other side of the portal. He had no idea of the location of the seven portals. Would they all be in one country, or different countries? Only time would tell.

  The moonless night was long, as Ben tossed and turned, eager to get started, eager to get closer to seeing Cate again.

  He met his partisans back at the hanger at daybreak, and gave them a rundown of the plan, motivating them, and encouraging them to be precise and unquestionable about the quality of their workmanship. There were no second chances with the positioning of the portal frames, the future of Une Autre Terre depended on them.

  Once again they transported the portal frames to the tunnel behind the waterfall that led to the dome where the vortexes were grouped.

  In pairs, they took the portal frames into each of the vortexes and left them near the inside portal, ready to assemble as they got to them.

  Meeting inside the red vortex, they assembled at the portal opening. It would not operate yet, as it was not complete. They needed to install the portal frame on the Earth side, and then somehow work on the heptagonal polygon, and how to secure it to operate the portals at their will.

  Ben mind communicated with his companions about the task that they were about to undertake. He handed all of them a pair of dark sunglasses to conceal the colour of their eyes, in case a situation arose that questioned their homeland. At least they all had experience on the Earth, be it for a short time, but still, they would know how to interact with the Earth humans.

  It was time.

  They all stood facing the portal, holding hands to be attached together as a group. Julia was in the centre with the heptagonal opal slither, while Jack and Josiah held the Earth portal frame next to the Terrean portal frame.

  Julia looked at each of the members of the group, fixing her eyes on Ben last to get his approval to go ahead.

  Slowly, Julia raised her hand with the heptagonal opal slither in it and placed it in the middle of the two portal frames.

  Immediately, a strong, loud, gush of wind started pulling them through the portal, mist swirling all around them. Then at once, they found themselves on the ground on Earth.

  It was a hot and dry land. The Terreans were repelled by the dryness and lack of lush vegetation. Ben was up on his feet first. He quickly looked around for other people that may have been near where they were. They were lucky, they were alone.

  Ben walked about ten metres away from where the portal lay, to get some bearings on where they were.

  Immediately, he recognized one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Paricutin Volcano – one of the youngest volcanoes on the Earth. The ground was covered in lava, pumice and ash, but vegetation had started to grow. There were green bushes here and there. They were near the base of the volcano, well away from where the tourists may visit. The portal was quite concealed, and hard to see. It already was camouflaged well.

  At once, the Terreans began working on installing the portal frame. Their plan was to work with speed and precision, install the frame and then seal it up well, not disturbing any of the land around the portal.

  While the partisans worked with shoveling and digging, Ben got out his solar-energy computer laptop and recorded data on absolutely everything that was being done, how and why, and tracked the area on GPS, marking it on his world map, and inserting a GPS tracking device into the frame of the portal.

  Finally, when the portal frame was in place, the Terreans were ready to re-enter the portal back to their world. This was a test of the unknown. They had made calculations with the placement of the frames with the opal seeds, but had not had the opportunity to test it between the two worlds. They had worked so hard, but could not be completely sure that the theory behind the control of the opening and closing of the portal would actually work. This was the test of fire.

  Again, they lined up together, connected, with Julia in the centre. She looked to Ben for his signal to proceed. He nodded.

  Julia slowly raised her hand with the heptagonal opal slither, and placed it about centre of the portal, and then the sucking force was felt with the mist oozing out from the portal.

  They disappeared and landed, back on the other side, victorious. The theory, the design, the calculations, the precision with which they cut the opal seeds into thirds, and placed the portal frames had all fallen together perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle.

  Elated, they hugged and congratulated each other, and then analysed each and every aspect that had occurred. They didn’t want to leave anything to chance, and they didn’t want to become overconfident and then start making mistakes. They had to remain focused and level headed. Nothing less than perfect would do.

  Together they walked back to the red vortex and into the dome room. They reenergized with some food and drink and then discussed the plan for the next portal – the orange vortex.

  Entering the vortexes was easy now. They had done it numerous times, and were confident of the outcome each time.

  The tunnel of the orange vortex was an exact image of the red vorte
x, and ended abruptly at the portal. The Terrean portal frame was already in place. Again they lined up with the Earth frame and in order in a line with Julia in the middle with the heptagonal polygon opal slither. Predictably, a strong, loud, gush of wind started pulling them through the portal, and mist swirled all around them. Then at once, they found themselves on the ground on the Earth.

  In a panic, Ben gathered the Terreans and shielded them. They were in a camping ground. Tents were visible, but not too close. But they could not risk being seen. The portal was horizontal, between a very large boulder and a ponderosa pine. Any person could accidently fall into this portal if it opened of its own free will, as it had been doing in the past.

  Jack, Josiah and Jordan worked vigorously while the girls kept watch for people coming their way. Ben quickly recorded data of this part of the mission, marking its GPS position on the map and placing the tracking device into the frame of the portal.

  The men completed the frame into the ground around the portal with haste, and they were all able to re-enter back through the portal and back to the orange vortex. They had all felt the panic this time. The camping ground was too close for comfort. Ben read the data that he had recorded and looked at the GPS information and discovered that they had been in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, America. They were all feeling uneasy after their experience in amongst the campers.

  After a circle conference together, they decided that two portals were enough for one day. Although it was exhilarating that their months of planning and testing was proving successful, the portals of the Earth side were risky and dangerous, and it was highly stressful.

  Tomorrow they would enter the yellow vortex and walk to the portal. So far they had been in Mexico and the US, where would they be tomorrow?

  Chapter 29

  Mission Completed

  Ben returned to his pod, exhausted, relieved but worried. His mind kept retracing over every part where Julia would hold up the heptagon to open the portals. What if she dropped it? What if it couldn’t be found? There had to be a better way to be sure that the portal would open, and to be certain that they could not lose the quintessential heptagon.