by Stacy Lee
****
The crackle of a fire pulls me from a deep, restful sleep. I crack my eyes open to make sure I wasn’t dreaming a new place before making my awareness know. A canopy of trees above me, splotches of the dark sky, twinkling stars, and the low hum of the boys voices assure me I am still where I should be. Sitting up I stretch feeling rested for the first time in a few days. Without the dream to interrupt my sleep I had finally been able to recuperate. My body seems to hum it feels so good. That’s when I glimpse my hand. It was glowing blue. Did she protect me while I slept? I distinctively remember letting the power go before I fell unconscious.
“Easy, Sam.” Xavier’s voice comes from beside me drawing me away from the glow covering my body. “You started thrashing in your sleep then that glow surrounded you, calming you. We were afraid to touch you once you started glowing and left you alone.” I nod but in my head I search for any memory of the cave and Raider. Nothing comes to me. She either felt him pulling me to him and stopped it or she took the memory from me. Laying my hand on the ground I send the power back to the earth with a silent thank you.
“Here, you need to eat.” Axel hands me a plate of cubes then takes a seat beside me. “Are you going to tell us why we landed here? Who you were talking to?” He asks as I take a nibble from a red cube. I shrug my shoulders then shove the cube in my mouth. How do I explain the things I saw? How do I put it in words?
“Sam, if you want us to trust you then you have to tell us what’s going on. We can’t keep you safe if we don’t know when you are in trouble or when you are doing that freak out thing with the lights.” I choke on the yellow cube I just shoved in my mouth at Xavier’s words.
“Freak out thing?” I ask once the coughing fit subsides.
“Yeah, you were glowing different colors and your body was spasaming. We didn’t want to touch you but we had no clue if you were doing it or if someone was doing it to you.” Xavier huffs aggravation clear in his words.
“At first the two women were doing it. When they left I was trying to copy what they did. It didn’t work out to well for me.” I sigh. I had to figure it out. Had to get it right. Thinking back on what they showed me I remember the red moon and wonder why she showed it to me. She said two things and the vision of the moon made three. Was it accidental on her part or was it something I did? Maybe the boys will answer the moon question for me. “When does the red moon rise?” I ask casually. Both look at each other then at me.
“How do you know about the Blood Moon?” Axel asks. I only shrug. “Sam.” He spits my name in warning.
“Fine, I saw a vision of it high in the sky. I believe I saw it for a reason but I don’t know what.” Again they stare at each other like they are silently debating on whether or not to tell me. Finally Xavier is the one to break their silence.
“It’s in two days. The Blood Moon rises once every two weeks. Some believe it is another planet in the solar system that we pass by twice a month in the rotations, others believe evil summons it up to give them extra power to call forth darkness, others consider it powerful but not necessarily evil and still others believe it is just another moon we can only see when it’s full and turns red. No one truly knows the truth.” So what was its importance. Two days…. I wonder….
“How long before we reach where my father is?” I ask carefully.
“If he is where we think he is, two days.” Axel sighs. His eyes search mine furiously prompting me to nod minutely at him. That was what I was waiting on. I was almost positive the bond must be made under the Blood Moon. If it did give off some kind of power it would strengthen our bond making it even greater than a normal bond therefore giving us more power. This just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it? An evil moon to bond under, how romantic. Grrrrr. Seriously? Were these people screwing with me?
“We will have to rescue him at night in order to catch them off guard.” Xavier says oblivious to the turmoil the statement causes Axel and I.
“Well if that’s the case I need to practice. Just a warning, I am not in danger but if I pass out glowing, leave me there.” Xavier quirks a brow at me but I ignore him and head to the divide.
If I was going to master both I had to master each one first, that’s what she said. I had to find out what I could do with the blue then the red in order to merge them together. Standing on the red side first, any pain it gives me can be soothed when I switch to blue, I reason out in my head. I kick off my shoes then sit with my palms on the ground and my toes dug in deep. With a steadying breath I pull the power to me slowly. It leaps at the chance to be free, filling me faster than I want.
Once my skin begins to crawl I shut off the flow and lift my hands. Concentrating I make the sphere in front of me around the size of a lemon. I didn’t want to cause damage, I only wanted to experiment with it. Setting a picture in my head I let the feelings of anger and hate consumes me, making the ball a writhing, living thing. When I can see exactly what I want to happen I open my eyes and push the sphere away from me into a tree trunk not far away. Upon contact it explodes, tree bark rains down on my head. When the dust clears the three foot high stump is gone. If that small amount can cause that much damage then I better tone it down some.
Next I walk to another broken down trunk and try to cover it in a shield like I had with the building. The energy surrounds it perfectly except everywhere it touches scorches to black. Pulling back I change sides repeating the same steps with the blue. The shield works perfectly. The explosion, however, doesn’t happen. It is only absorbed by the tree. What had the women said?
I will not harm the lowest of insect unless it is threatening to harm an innocent. This was the blue woman
And I will kill them all without discrimination. This was the red.
So if I take their words to heart that means blue cannot be used to do harm unless an innocent is in danger, like at the building. The red will harm anything it touches, it thrives on death. Just like how it was made. The deaths of innocents made the lands where the red energy resides. Axel had said the Phranoy had made the land fertile and good before the Ranoy began killing. So the untouched land was good, peaceful, and where the land that has seen a dark demise it’s angry and craves death.
I turn to the boys who are watching me carefully. “This place we are going for the King, would it be surrounded in Ranoy lands or is it close to an edge like this?” I ask pointing to the two forests. If it is the same desert in the vision then hopefully we will be on an edge.
“Surrounded. We will travel almost a day into the desert before reaching where we are going. The desert begins just past those trees.” Xavier points to large bunch of broken trees directly in front of me. Great. That means whatever the woman was showing me probably wasn’t for this battle. If we would be in the middle of their lands I needed more practice with the red energy to be able to use it. Not looking forward to it I drudge back to the dead forest side.
“How long till we leave?” I shout to Xavier who continues to watch me. Axel had curled up on his bedroll for the night.
“Six hours till daylight.” He replies.
“Stop me in three.” He nods but gives me no answer. “Unless I pass out before then.” I add under my breath. A snort from Axel tells me they heard me.
