Emerald Dreams (The Dream Traveler Series)

by Nicole Knight

  The only person in town who owns a yellow Camaro is Kennan. Why was Kennan sitting out in front of my house? I had turned him down a few days ago, and yet he was still nearby, making his presence known. It was weird.

  I had never gotten any attention from any guys here. All of a sudden, a guy hits on me at a party, and I flip him. Then the most popular guy in school wants to be with me, and I could care less.

  Was he that bad with rejection that he thought he could change my mind just by watching my house? I suppose a guy like him has never heard the word no. I guess it wasn't entirely his fault. It was the people who surrounded him every day.

  I felt very uncomfortable knowing he was out there watching me. I walked downstairs and grabbed the apple Grandma was holding out for me. She was having a day of clarity. That gave me some hope that everything was going to be alright today.

  Mom and I walked out the door and got in the van. She cranked the ignition over and began to back out of the driveway.

  "Who drives that ugly yellow Camaro?" she asked.

  Her face was all scrunched up at the sight of the flashy car.

  "Kennan Smart does," I quietly told her.

  "Kennan Smart? Why is he camped in front of our house?" she asked.

  Her face turned from disgust to confusion.

  "I think he is following me," I told her.

  Maybe she could give me motherly advice on what to do? I'd never had unwanted attention from a guy before. It was sad that it took me eighteen years to get to this point.

  "Why on earth would he be doing that? Are you in some kind of trouble?" she asked.

  She looked up in her rearview mirror to see the Camaro pull onto the road behind us.

  "He asked me out in front of the class, and I turned him down. I guess he didn't like that. I don't know if he is still trying to get with me or get even," I said honestly.

  I shivered at the thought of him trying to get even.

  "Why did you turn him down? Didn't you like him? Oh, I get it, do you like girls?" she asked curiously.

  "It's okay if you do."

  Well, that was a strange thought.

  My mom thought I might be a lesbian. I by no means had anything against them, but I always knew that I only liked guys.

  "No mom, I like guys. I used to like Kennan but not anymore. He only likes me because I stood up to Lacey. As much as I despise her, she doesn't deserve to get dumped so that I will date him. I don't want to be that girl, and I can see what kind of person he is. I don't find him dateable anymore," I said.

  "Well, that's very noble of you," Mom said.

  Kennan followed us the rest of the way to school. When I got out of the van and started walking towards the building, Kennan ran up behind me and grabbed my shoulder. He had left his car running in the drop off lane.

  "Take it back," he said demandingly.

  "Take what back?" I asked.

  "What you said. Tell everyone you want to date me. Tell them that we're going out, you were just nervous. I don't know make something up!" he was starting to raise his voice.

  Both of his hands were on my shoulders, and it was making me uncomfortable. I was even more uncomfortable with him being so close to my face. It was an invasion of my personal space.

  "Why? I don't feel that way. Why should I have to lie?" I asked.

  I refused to belittle myself that much by dating him. I had higher standards now that I was with Axel, and Kennan couldn't even come close to competing with him.

  "Because you will feel that way sooner or later," he responded.

  He said it with so much confidence it was disgusting.

  "No, I don't think I will," I responded.

  I turned to walk away. Some students had heard Kennan raising his voice and were watching us. He was starting to make a scene that I didn't want to be a part of.

  He tugged at my shoulder again. When I turned around to face him again, I was prepared to tell him to get lost. Instead, I didn't get the chance. He pressed his mouth to mine and tried to force me to kiss him back. He was rough, and I didn't like it.

  Immediately Axel popped into my mind.

  I tried to pull back from the kiss, but Kennan had his hands behind my head to keep me from pulling back. I didn't want to be here, I didn't want to be kissing Kennan. I did the only thing I could without relying on my magic.

  I stomped heavily on his foot. I took my heel and strategically placed it right where I thought his toes would be in his fancy shoes. I felt his hands come off the back of my head as he broke his disgusting kiss to scream.

  I pushed him further away from me as he pulled his foot up to hold it. It was then that he lost his balance and fell on his ass.

  All of the students watching started laughing. I didn't find the humor in either of our situations. I pitied Kennan. He was never told the word no by anyone. He had no idea how to handle the word.

  It wasn't my responsibility to date him. I had my free will and the ability to look past his family's dollar signs. Before the situation could get any worse, I walked into the building. Madison met me at the doors.

  "What was that all about?" she asked.

  "Kennan wanted me to go out with him, take back rejecting him. I told him that wasn't going to happen, and then he kissed me. I tried to pull away, but he wouldn't let me. So I had to end it some other way," I said.

  "So you are serious about this? You aren't going to even give him a shot?" she asked.

  There was shock all over her face.

  "I don't need to. I see where it would lead," I responded.

  Madison reached into her skirt pocket and grabbed her phone that had beeped from an incoming text message. She swiped the screen, and a smile spread across her face as she looked at the screen. A second later she passed me the phone.

  I was watching a video of the events that happened not even five solid minutes ago.

  There was Kennan and I talking. He obviously looked very distressed, and I looked calm and collected with a tiny edge of disgust. I could see me turn away, and Kennan reach out again for me. I saw the awkward forced kiss, and then me stomp on his foot. I heard all the laughter in the background as Kennan fell to the ground holding his foot.

  Right before the clip ended, I could see the look of hatred in his eyes. Things had just gotten personal.

  I didn't like this at all. I looked up to see the size of the group message. When I looked at the top, there were maybe fifty numbers listed. I'm sure most of the recipients had already forwarded the video to someone else.

  That was how these kinds of things worked here.

  A girl came up to me and said, "Oh my gosh, Violet, you are so cool for turning down the spoiled rich kid. Good for you girl. I hope you are okay."

  She flipped her hair back behind her shoulders, gave a little smile, and then walked away.

  A small crowd was watching me from where Mads and I stood on the front steps. I heard the Camaro peel away from the drop off lane. It just barely dodged a kid who flipped him off as he passed.

  I had a feeling that Kennan and Lacey's reign of terror was beginning to crumble beneath them. That brought me a little satisfaction. I just didn't want to be on the top, waiting to be knocked down like they were. I promised myself that would never be me.

  I walked to class, not worried about dodging Lacey. She might be threatening me by trying to torch my room, but that's all she was capable of, empty threats and rude glances. I had the growing support of some classmates to get me through.

  Lacey approached me later in the day, true to her bitchy self. She knocked my books out of my hands. Before I could react, someone crossed the hall and got in her face. The girl's friend bent over and picked up my books for me. She reorganized them and handed them back to me in an incredible act of kindness. I thanked both of them once Lacey retreated. They said some kind words then headed to their next class.

  I walked around the rest of the day with people asking me all sorts of questions.

  "Why'd
you do it?"

  "Is he a good kisser?"

  "What's wrong with him?"

  There were many other absurd questions asked that I refused to answer.

  By the end of the day, Mads and I were no longer just the "scholarship kids," we were the talk of the school.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  I woke up again with Axel shaking me. This was beginning to become a routine.

  "Your eyes, they were glowing again," he said.

  "What did you see this time?" he asked.

  "It was a girl, maybe my age. She looked frighten as I entered a door she was standing behind. She was trying to be brave though. I have the feeling she is a good person. Maybe I am supposed to help her, or she will help us? I don't know, but when I see her, I have to talk to her. She could be the key to something," I said excitedly.

  I had a good feeling about this vision, unlike the others.

  He didn't have any of the answers to the questions swimming around in my brain, so he remained quiet, thinking about what it could mean.

  Today was the day that would change the lives of the whole Kingdom. We would both succeed and rescue everyone from a tyrant, or fail, and the prophecy would end with me. It was a lot of pressure to put on the shoulders of one man and woman.

  Axel and I said our goodbyes to the people that had taken us in for the night.

  They were sad to see us go. But I wasn't sad to leave. I was still disgusted with most of the men that had left us on the battlefield. I only felt bad leaving Andraya and her baby. Despite deserting me, these people could still use more help, but I didn't have time. I had to hope I could give them more help as Queen. Andraya gave us a horse we could use for the rest of our journey to the castle.

  I have never been so happy to see an animal in my life.

  "Don't worry about the horse; once you dismount and slap her rear end, she will come racing home," Andraya said.

  She must have sensed the hesitance I had when she handed me the mare's reins.

  "Thank you," I said.

  "You have truly been a good host, even when you didn't have much to offer."

  "Thank you, Princess. You are too kind. I wish you luck on your journey, and I wish you success in your quest."

  She gave me a little wink and a bow. She then turned her back and walked back inside of their village gate.

  There were men out trying to rebuild the village. Some men were cutting down nearby trees. Others were salvaging wood from the buildings that could be saved. It was a village rebuilding after a disaster. They were all helping each other. I took note of this.

  Axel was looking distrustfully at the horse.

  "What's wrong? Don't like fast transportation?" I asked, as he gave me a boost onto the mares back.

  "No, I remember my last ride well. I landed on the ground and days later found a girl wandering through the field while I was looking for my horse."

  "Ah, so we come full circle," I smiled.

  "Come on up."

  Axel reached his hands over the horse's back and hauled himself up. We were riding bareback. I guess there aren't any saddles in this world. I nudged the horse forward and guided it in the direction that Axel pointed out.

  We passed the single weeping willow tree planted in the middle of the battlefield. A breeze gently made its way through the tree, and its little leaves swayed through the air. It was like it was waving goodbye. I tried to ignore the little blow of guilt that had taken over.

  Forget it, it is the past now. Just learn from it.

  I can't even begin to explain how much easier this part of the trip was. My ankles were still a little bit swollen and would protest against movement sometimes. Riding took the weight off of them, bringing them and myself relief.

  The hardest part of the trip being on horseback was listening to Axel complain behind me.

  "This is so not knight like; riding on the back of a horse while his lady leads," he said.

  I also heard, "This is so uncomfortable."

  I'm assuming his butt was starting to go numb. Mine was too, but I didn't feel the need to complain.

  We passed several other villages. Some of them looked like they got hit by the freak storm that came through, but nothing seemed to be happening. There were no fires that needed to be put out, or any mothers screaming for their baby. It was quiet, so we kept moving along.

  Occasionally we saw the random person here or there. They would tilt their hat at us or a nod in our general direction. That was all we got, though. It made the ride anti-climactic.

  I was okay with this, we had enough excitement ahead of us.

  It was sometime mid-day when Axel told me to stop. I pulled back on my reins and brought the horse to a stop. She pawed the ground, eager to keep moving.

  "We are close to the perimeter. They are just below that hill up there. We need to get off horseback and start our crawl past them. Also, we need to take our little elixirs Wisdom created," Axel said.

  He slid off the back of the mare and then grabbed me by my waist and helped me down.

  I grabbed a carrot out of my bag of food. I broke off the greens from the end and fed it to the mare. She bit the carrot in half and chomped on the end that was in her mouth. Small pieces dropped from her mouth in messy slobber.

  When she finished that half, she took the remainder of the carrot from my hand and proceeded to chomp on it. After she was done, she nudged my arm, wanting more.

  I didn't have anything else to give her. I couldn't use magic so close to the knights in case someone could detect it.

  I double-checked that the magic blocker was still in the other pocket. Axel had held onto it after the events of the century storm and gave it back this morning. When I was happy that it was still there, I used both hands to give the mare a little rub down. When I was satisfied, she had a good rest I slapped her on her rear end, and she went trotting off in the direction we came.

  I hoped she would make it back okay.

  I pulled out my mini bottles of elixirs. Axel pulled out his. We counted to three silently on our fingers and took a swig of the liquid in the little vials. They both tasted bitter. I wanted to spit it out, but I resisted against the urge to do so.

  Axel and I looked at each other and nodded. We weren't going to say any goodbyes "just in case." We couldn't afford to dwell on that possibility.

  We got down on our hands and knees and crawled until we got to the top of the hill. Once we could see what was below us, we laid flat on our stomachs and scouted out what was below us.

  A few hundred feet in front of us were six knights spread out in a circle around the castle's perimeter. Luckily they seemed to be spaced out pretty far. I was expecting worse. That didn't mean anything, because the grass was a little lower than I had expected.

  "I thought the grass was supposed to be tall?" I whispered to Axel.

  "It is supposed to be, but this part of the kingdom experienced a drought," he whispered back to me.

  "Great," I whispered to myself. Axel must have heard me and nodded in agreement.

  I had just started army crawling my way through the dead grass when I suddenly felt weird. It must have been the effects of the liquids Wisdom gave us. I felt like I had more energy, and that last of the throbbing sensation in my ankles and even my hand was gone. My vision became sharper. It was like I had put on a pair of glasses. My hearing was a little improved as well.

  I could hear the footsteps of the knights pacing the ground ahead of us. This was great. Wisdom needed to bottle this stuff and sell it.

  I looked over to Axel to see how he liked his new superhuman senses. He didn't look like he was enjoying it as much as me. It looked like he was trying hard to keep from throwing it up.

  "Are you going to be okay?" I asked.

  We didn't have time to waste. If we continued to stay here, we would eventually be spotted, and we both knew it.

  "Fine," he whispered.

  "Let's get this over with."

  For someone w
ho didn't grow up in my world, some aspects of our language were the same. Like stupid sayings and such. I didn't think that was something Victoria might have brought to this place.

  I pushed that thought to the back of my mind and started army crawling behind Axel.

  We took it slow and easy. In what was probably half an hour, we only moved a hundred feet. We had to be careful not to make too much noise ruffling the dead grass. Healthy grass would have made less noise, but there was nothing we could do about it. I couldn't use my magic to make it healthy in fear of being caught. That's a pretty noticeable change to happen on its own.

  A few times, I had to hold back a cough caused by the dirt that Axel was kicking up right in front of me. We were only fifty feet in front of two knights. I could see them both if I lifted my head a little. They were talking to each other and not paying attention. One knight had left his guard station to visit the other knight. This left an area open for us to sneak through. We had to get to that open section. I was thinking about how to tell Axel to start heading left when I ran into his feet. He had stopped moving.

  I tugged on his foot to see what the holdup was, but he didn't respond. I silently slid on my belly right beside him. His face was turned towards me, but he was barely keeping his eyes open.

  "What's wrong?" I mouthed to him. I couldn't risk whispering.

  "I can't move," he mouthed back, barely.

  "We can't just stay here, we will be caught," I mouthed.

  A look of panic came over his face.

  Panic, I couldn't let myself panic. Think. Okay, so no magic, but I'm a little stronger now. There is no pain in my ankles. Then it hit me.

  "Axel, when I crawl in front of you, grab my ankles and hold on. I'm going to drag you," I mouthed quickly.

  All he could do was slightly nod.

  I slowly moved into position in front of him. I used my foot to tap his outstretched arm. He latched onto my ankles. I could feel that all of his strength was put just into holding on. There was a lot of pressure on my ankles, but luckily no pain yet.

  I began to slowly move. It took a lot more effort to pull me and almost two hundred pounds of dead weight behind me. Right now, I was mentally praising myself for my decision to work my body so hard and build so much muscle. Who would have ever guessed that I would need it already?