by Toni Cox
Shortly after the wolf fell silent again, they heard a new sound. They were not able to place the sound, nor which animal it could have come from. When the head of one of the beasts finally appeared around one of the stones, they all tensed with fear and only when they noticed the person on its back, did they realise that the animal was a horse.
The others came, tethered their horses and then, in a time faster than seemed possible, erected a tent over the area where the girl was lying, started a fire and turned the area of the stones into a campsite. Someone came and led them to a tent. There they were given first water, then some bread and later some tea. They were treated kindly, but were not asked any questions. The people were friendly, but seemed preoccupied with the mystery of the sleeping girl.
One old man in particular did not leave her side once; neither did the wolf. The old man periodically dabbed the girl lips with water and then wiped her face. He did it with such tenderness; it made Aaron wonder if he was her father. The old man talked to her endlessly and at one point, Aaron thought he was praying. Other men came as well, kneeling next to the girl, talking to her, and one very handsome young man sat by her for a long while, held her hand and Aaron was sure he had seen a tear on the young man’s cheek as he bent down to kiss her. It elicited feelings within Aaron he could not explain.
As the moons made their way across the sky, the people served them some kind of stew. It was the most delicious thing he had ever eaten, although he would not have been able to tell what its ingredients were.
He watched the people as he ate. Everyone had the same pointy ears as the girl, but in some of the people it was more pronounced, especially the old man. Everyone seemed to be somewhere in their thirties or younger, with exception of the old man and a midget. They were also beardless, bar the midget, whose facial hair was so prolific that it was difficult to see his face or features. Most of the men were dressed in some kind of uniform, with breastplates, shoulder pads and some kind of wrapping for the forearms and lower legs.
Aaron desperately wanted some answers, but no-one was forthcoming with any. It was only much later that night, that the old man finally left the girl to come sit by them. The handsome young man that had served them their dinner now also brought the old man some tea. Aaron clenched his fists when the young man smiled at Jasmin before he left. She looked all too pleased with herself. Gnashing his teeth, he suppressed his fatherly protectiveness and concentrated on the old man; he really hoped for some answers.
He turned away from his smiling daughter and looked to the old man next to him. Close up he looked even older; his skin was wrinkled and his hair was white and thin. Nevertheless, his eyes shone bright and revealed a sharp mind, despite the man’s age.
“Please forgive me, Sir, for not having introduced myself before. I have been somewhat preoccupied,” the old man said. “My name is Silas Nightshield.”
Aaron introduced first himself, then the children. There was some confusion when Aaron wanted to shake hands with the man; apparently it was not their custom.
“It is good to meet you Aaron and children. We have been wondering about your presence here and we were hoping you could assist us in finding out what happened to Maia. I have done everything I can for her, she is comfortable now, but I cannot wake her.”
Aaron felt disappointment flood through him; he was the one looking for answers, but it seemed that the old man had come to him looking for answers as well, so he gave him a brief recount of what had happened to them over the last two days. During his telling, Silas became quiet and his face grew very serious.
When Aaron was finished, Silas asked, “Stonehenge on Earth?”
This started a conversation that kept them busy until the moons began their descent behind the snow-capped mountains. Aaron could recall every word had Silas said to them.
“This might be difficult to understand, Aaron, but you are not on Earth now. This is Elveron, a sister planet of Earth. It seems you have travelled through our Gate, Greystone, to come here.” Silas pointed at the stones around them and nodded as if to confirm something to himself. “The Gate is named Stonehenge only on Earth. Humans have not been to Elveron in a very long time. Elves and Humans used to be close, we used to trade with each other, but that was centuries ago. That you should be here now can only mean that you have come here with Maia. Why and how, I do not know, but she must have had her reasons. We will leave at first light in the morning to take her home. You are welcome to travel with us if you wish; otherwise you can leave to go home once we have cleared the Gate.”
There was then even more confusion once Silas realised that they did not know how to use the Gate, or that they had not come here of their own volition. Aaron was then introduced to Lord Longshadow, who apparently was the King of the Elves and Maia’s father and they discussed in length the implications of what he was telling them. It was only once Silas voiced his suspicion that Maia was, indeed, his wife Lisa, that Aaron forgot all his manners. He yelled and swore and it was only when Jasmin started to cry, that Luke was able to lead him away to his tent.
It took him another hour to calm down. Contrite he went to apologise to the king of the Elves and his advisor. They accepted his apology with dignity and assured him to do everything in their power to find a way home for him and his children.
A horse snorted somewhere behind him and the sound brought him back to the present. He wondered how long he had been sitting here, going over the events of the last three days. His cup was empty. He looked up as Jasmin climbed out of her tent, soon followed by Luke.
“Good morning, Papa, how did you sleep? Wasn’t it a wonderful night? I love sleeping in a tent. It is so cosy.”
Jasmin, her hair still in disarray from sleep, was as cheerful as ever. Aaron wondered where she got the energy for it. But it was one of the things he so loved about his daughter. He smiled as she tucked her shoulder-length, blonde hair behind her ear, just as Lisa had always done when she still had hair.
“Yes, Jasmin, I also slept well.”
Aaron gestured at all the activity around camp.
“They are getting ready to leave. Someone went to the forest during the night to cut logs for a stretcher. They built it this morning and piled it with blankets. It is for Maia to travel on. They have some kind of device that is holding the stretcher off the ground. Do you see how it seems to be floating?”
He tried not to sound irritated when he said it, but even he could hear it. He struggled to contain his bitterness, his inability to comprehend their situation or understand the people and their surroundings.
“This is all so exciting. I can’t wait to see what happens next.”
Jasmin clapped her hands and Aaron narrowed his eyes at his daughter. He envied her for her carefree attitude, but he could not shake his worry. They were in a strange land, or planet, if the old man was to be believed, with no way of going home. Every time he thought of Lisa, his heart ached. He had to admit that over the last couple of years they had not had much of a marriage, what with her illness and all. But that didn’t mean he loved her any less. She was his life and the thought that she might be gone forever hurt him in ways he had never been hurt before. While Jasmin and Luke were being served by yet another handsome young man, Aaron watched the girl on the stretcher. The more he looked, the more beautiful she seemed; her dark hair curled beautifully around her perfect face. He felt his resentment toward her rising. It was her fault they were here and it was her fault he could not find his wife.
“You better watch her, Dad,” Luke cut through his moping.
“Huh?”
“There are a lot of handsome and gallant men around here.” Luke pointed across the campsite where Jasmin stood, talking to the young man who had brought his tea.
Aaron felt the blood rise to his face; could this situation really get any worse?
“Come, Dad,” Luke laughed at the expression on his father’s face, “it is time to go.”
Darkness prevailed. She was dead;
she was certain of it. She was completely numb. She felt neither warm nor cold, could not tell if she was lying or standing; there was no smell, no taste, not sound.
When her feelings eventually did come back, she almost wished it was not so. Her head hurt and her body ached. One moment she was shivering with cold, and then she was sweating as if in a fever. For an indeterminable amount of time, she struggled against the silence and the darkness, but if she was really dead, then it did not matter in the end and so she stopped struggling, giving in to the darkness, letting it take her away.
A moment, or a lifetime, went by, spent in darkness and pain. Then Maia thought she heard voices. She tried to focus on them, but every time she thought she understood a word, they faded away again, leaving her in silence yet again. She struggled for a while longer, trying to catch the elusive sounds, but she was so exhausted. She let the nothingness take her yet again; but this time she had visions of a strange creature, a black shadow at the edge of her awareness, and it instilled such fear within her that she screamed silently into the nothing that was her death.
Adding to her terror were visions of malformed faces and creatures more horrible than she had ever seen before. They swarmed around her mind, attacking, and then devouring every part of who she was. She screamed and screamed, pleading for release from this agony, but she became weaker and weaker as the creatures ravaged her mind and in the end, she was too weak to resist any longer. She felt herself slip away. This was the end. She let go of her hopes and dreams and gave herself to the darkness one last time.
Then, just as she felt herself dissolve, a sound so sweet and true caught her attention. She felt it tug at something deep inside of her, dragging her back up out of her misery. She listened. At first, she did not understand the words, just revelled in the rise and fall of the voice, the tone and texture of the sound. Then, slowly, the meaning of the words became clear. She realised that she understood them and listened more carefully. It was the Mother’s Prayer. She listened and in her mind, she formed the words and repeated them over and over and over until, eventually, she fell into an exhausted, but peaceful sleep.
“Would you like to ride on my horse, Miss? I promise he is very gentle; especially with pretty young ladies such as yourself.”
Jasmin looked at the handsome young man who had spoken. He had a mop of unruly black hair that stuck out at odd angles; his brown eyes had a mischievous sparkle and his fine lips were permanently turned up in a smile. He was gorgeous.
They had kept the pace slow and steady, so as not to jostle the girl on the stretcher, and they had only been walking for about an hour. She neither was tired, nor sore, but being carried by a horse sounded like a very good idea. She had taken a liking to the beautiful animals. And the way he looked at her…she didn’t think she could refuse him anything.
“I don’t know. I have never ridden a horse before. They are extinct where I come from.”
“Really? That is so sad. Then I shall see it as my duty to reacquaint you with the species. Lady Jasmin, it is my pleasure to introduce to you Sir Parador.”
The young man took Jasmin’s hand and laid it across the horse’s soft nose. She saw its nostrils flare as it took in her scent. Startled she stepped back as it suddenly dropped its head and snorted.
“See, he likes you. My name is Archer by the way. But I am only half as charming as my horse. Would you like me to help you into the saddle, My Lady?”
Jasmin giggled. No-one had ever called her My Lady before. She acquiesced as he gently guided her to the left side of his horse and with more strength than she could imagine lifted her up.
“Now swing your right leg over his saddle. Yes, like that. See, that was simple.” He grinned proudly up at her.
“Oh, wow, he is so tall. I can see so far from up here. Thank you, Archer, this is wonderful.”
She graced him with one of her brightest smiles and he responded in kind.
“Now, just hold on to the saddle here.”
He guided her hands to the pommel of the saddle and showed her how to hold on. His warm hands on hers made her blush. Archer thought it was infinitely endearing.
“And just let your body move with the rhythm of the horse as he moves. Are you ready?”
“Yes, I’m ready.”
Jasmin took a steadying breath and then Sir Parador was moving. It was amazing. She loved it. She matched her movements to the horse’s gait; she could feel the steady rhythm of its footfalls. She had never imagined anything like this before. She grinned widely as Archer led her past her brother and father, who were still plodding along behind the floating stretcher.
They had been walking for two and a half hours by the time they reached a little forest west of the circle of stones. Although Aaron had no desire to ride a horse, he envied Jasmin for not having to walk. He didn’t know how many miles they had covered, but his feet reckoned it had been too many already. Luke seemed to be unaffected by the walk, but then he was also thirty-six years younger. Aaron wished they would rest soon.
“There is a little river that runs through the forest ahead. We will halt there to rest for a while,” Silas said as he fell into step beside Aaron.
Aaron wondered if Silas had read his mind; it would not have surprised him. Then he thought that it must be obvious that he was struggling. He stood up a little straighter and tried not to drag his feet so much.
“Thank you, Silas. I could really do with a rest. How far is it to your home?”
“On a fast horse you could reach it in a day, but on foot, it will take us three. We will sleep in the forest tonight after we have crossed Menandril Fields just beyond this forest.”
“Three days?” Aaron asked, aghast.
“I am sorry, Aaron, we did not expect any visitors, so we only brought our own horses, plus the one for Maia.”
Aaron thought it strange that Silas only talked about horses. He wanted to ask about other transportation, but every time he thought about it, the words eluded him. He tried to think of the city and how they got around and in his mind it was all clear; he just could not find the right words to tell Silas.
He was frustrated by the time they reach the little river, but as he beheld the site they had chosen to stop, he felt as if a weight had lifted off his tortured mind. It was beautiful. The mid-morning sun streamed in through the trees, highlighting the ferns and shrubs along the gurgling stream. The shade was blissfully cool and the purple flowers that graced the vines that wound around the trees gave off an almost sensual aroma.
As he found himself a flat stone to sit on next to the river, he thought of the holidays he had taken his family to back home. The Imagine Paradise locations were very popular tourist attractions located all over the world. They had once chosen an exotic Caribbean location, complete with sand, grass and palm trees.
Of course, everything had been man made and even the ocean was just a very large wave pool. Nevertheless, it had been pretty and it had been one of their best holidays. What the simulation had lacked, although he had not realised it at the time, was the smell. Here the sheer multitude of different smells assaulted his senses. Everything had its own smell; the grass, the flowers, the horses, the trees. And when the wind changed, it sometimes brought a gust of something unseen, something he had never smelt before. Despite himself, he was starting to like this place.
He startled when the wolf came past him to drink noisily from the water. A horse snorted just downstream from him as it stepped into the stream and then also drank its fill. He would have to get used to the animals; they seemed to be an integral part of these peoples’ lives.
He took off his shoes and dipped his hot and swollen feet into the water. At home, such a thing would be unthinkable. There were no natural fresh water resources left on Earth, none that were not polluted anyway. All their water was stored in huge reservoirs around the planet and severe restrictions applied. All water had to be cleaned and refined before consumption. The oceans, too, were polluted and most marine life ha
d died out years ago. He put his head in his hands, suddenly feeling ashamed.
“Oh, Papa, you are such an old goat.”
Smiling, Jasmin planted a kiss on his cheek and sat down beside him. He narrowed his eyes at her, but he knew she was just being playful.
“What?” he asked anyway.
“Putting your feet into the water like an old man,” she grinned.
He kicked his right foot and splashed water over her legs.
“Not all of us have the privilege of being carried around on dashing young men’s steeds.”
Jasmin blushed. She knew her father was joking with her, but she also knew him well enough to heed the warning in his words.
After they had eaten and rested, they moved on through the forest. It wasn’t very large and soon they had reached the other side. The little forest was situated on somewhat higher ground than the surrounding plain, so the scene that presented itself to them now on this side of the forest took Aaron’s breath away. Endless rolling hills of swaying, tall grasses stretched as far as the eye could see. To the west, they could now see that the large mountain ranges they had seen from the Gate were encased by a forest so large one could not see where it began or where it ended. Indeed, the mountains now seemed to be even taller; taller than any Aaron had seen in all his years he had travelled on Earth. Its towering peaks were capped in snow, which glinted blindingly in the sunlight. He stared at the scene for a moment, absorbed in his own thoughts. He jumped when Silas spoke right next to him. He had not heard him approach.
“The fields will take us about three hours to cross. It gets very hot within the depressions and it is best you cover your head and most of your face.”
