by Dave Renol
Nothing happened for several minutes, but from the look on his face he was giving it his all. A brief flash caught my eye and I looked back over the water. A moment later I saw another spark and then two more. Things looked quiet for a minute and then without preamble, a ring of fire popped into existence.
Looking at it with both my mind and my eyes it seemed both stable and controlled; it was the perfect shield for protecting a node. As long as the node was the size of a grapefruit, that is.
“Well,” I began. “It’s a start, I guess. Good job, dear.”
“That was trickier than I thought,” he admitted. “Building shields and countering pyrokinetic attacks when your life depends on it is one thing, and doing it in a deliberate manner on a quiet summer afternoon is quite another.”
“What was the tricky part?” Carl asked.
“The hardest part was linking the pyro shield to the heat sink in a sustainable manner. Whenever the shield started to come together, it would cut the connection.”
“Cool, so the shield is actually containing power flows. That’s the exact effect we need.”
“That fits in with what you were told by the elder?”
“Yeah, and it matches what Linda described in her vision.”
“If it’s clear tonight, I want to try and get a look at the vision myself. Maybe I can pick up on something she missed.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Carl said. “I want to try as well.”
“Let’s focus on this right now,” Mark said. “One thing at a time works better, and I want to make sure I have this part figured out right.”
He let his first attempt dissipate and got ready to try again. I decided to let my water sphere dissolve as well since it didn’t look like we were in danger of setting the mountains on fire. I was feeling fairly relaxed at the moment, and the boys were being very quiet during their experiment, so I thought it might be a good time to try going astral.
I almost got it several times over the next few hours, but every time I got close the boys would get into a discussion over the latest shield attempt and I would lose it. I was starting to get frustrated and that was counterproductive for how I needed to be. I decided to head home and try from there.
I let them know my plans and they said to go ahead and they would join me in an hour or two. I took my time heading back and enjoyed the day. The valley area was known for beautiful scenery in the fall when the leaves were turning, but I liked this time of year better.
I tried to stay close to the treetops, but occasionally I would cast my mind out to make sure nobody was around so I could go higher and take in the view. As I got closer to home, I did it one more time so I could enjoy the view a final time before getting too close to the roads and was surprised to see the bright aura of another person.
Even more surprising, the person was moving very fast and in a perfectly straight line. Knowing how impossible it is to move through the forest in a straight line, I took a closer look and saw that the aura was above the trees. Someone was flying!
Excited at my discovery, I acted without thinking and put myself on an intercept course. I tried to stay out of sight and think I succeeded since the aura kept heading the same way at the same speed.
Not knowing what to expect, I quickly built up some shields and got ready to interrupt the stranger’s flight. I didn’t want to provoke a fight, so I thought a casual and flippant comment might work best for an introduction.
“Howdy, stranger,” I sent as I rose into sight. “Nice day for a flight, isn’t it?”
We saw each other at the same time and I was surprised to see it was a rather scrawny little girl. I thought she would have been bigger, based on her aura. As surprised as I was, it was nothing to how startled she was.
I’m not sure exactly what she tried to do, but whatever it was failed miserably and she lost control of her flight. With her arms and legs flailing wildly, she crashed headfirst into a giant oak tree. I managed to catch her before she hit the ground, but she was out cold from her collision.
It wasn’t what I had planned, but I guess it was one way to catch a thief.
Chapter 16
Claire: Friend or Foe?
I slowly and painfully regained consciousness. What happened? Where am I?
A killer headache was slowing down my thinking, but as I woke up more I began to remember what happened. I was returning to the cave to make sure everything was fine with my friends when some lady flew up and spoke to me in my head.
It scared me enough I almost crapped my britches. I lost control of my flying and ran smack dab into an oak tree. Reaching up to my forehead I found a bandage covering a huge bump. It was for sure I had a tree-shaped dent in my skull under it all.
Wait a minute… why do I have a bandage on my head? Ignoring the headache, I opened my eyes and found I was resting in a lounge chair at someone’s house. Sitting up a bit, I looked around and figured I had to be at the house that was just rebuilt from a fire.
“Would you care for a glass of water or something?” a voice behind me said.
Startled, I spun around quickly and immediately regretted it. Note to self: don’t move fast or your head might blow up.
“Judging from the look on your face, maybe you’d like a couple of Tylenol as well as something to drink. I can offer water, juice, iced tea, or soda.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
“My name is Linda and I’m the person in the forest who caused your accident… sorry about that. To answer what’ll probably be your next question, you’re at my house. You knocked yourself senseless on a tree, so I brought you here.”
“You scared the crap out of me,” I answered petulantly. “What kinda juice you got?”
“Orange,” she answered. “Want some?”
“Yeah, that’d be great.”
Rather than get up to get me the drink she offered, she just sat there with a little smile on her face. I began to wonder if she meant for me to get it myself and found it a bit rude. You don’t offer someone hospitality and then sit on your butt expecting them to get it themselves.
I was about to say something when a tall glass of juice came to rest on the table beside me. I spun quickly both ways to see who put it there, didn’t see anyone, and remembered too late the ‘note to self’ I had just sworn to not forget.
“Ugg,” I groaned, grabbing my head.
“You shouldn’t move so fast after the knock to the noggin you just took,” she said, blandly stating the obvious. “I’ll fetch you some Tylenol to help, but quiet rest is what you need right now… unless you want to go to the hospital, that is.”
“No,” I said, trying not to move any more. “No hospital and no pills.”
“I had the feeling our troubling little thief wouldn’t want to go. That’s why I cleaned and dressed your wound here.”
I slowly grabbed the glass of juice and took a few small sips. Wow, that sure tasted good. “Am I your prisoner?” I finally asked.
“No,” she laughed. “You’re free to go at any time, but I would recommend you take the time to rest and recover a little bit. I also have a few questions I’m dying to ask you and would like it if you stayed for dinner.”
I thought about it while I sipped more of my juice. She didn’t seem angry or mean and she was trying to be a nice host. She also could have done anything to me while I was knocked out, but I wasn’t tied up, locked in a room, or put in jail. I also ached like crazy and was kinda hungry, so I figured I could go along with it for now.
“Ok, I’ll stay for a little bit, but no funny business or I’m outta here!”
“The Tylenol is next to your glass in case you change your mind. Would you like more juice?”
“Yeah, sure… hey, how’d you do that?”
“The same way I accidently startled you out in the forest, dear,” I heard in my head.
“So you have the same kind of super powers that I do?” I sent back in reply.
“I don’t know all of what you can do, but
it appears that we have at least some of the same abilities. We call it psionics, which covers a variety of powers of the mind.”
“We?” I asked.
“My husband also has the powers, and to a lesser extent our friend Carl does too. You’ll get a chance to meet them if you stay for dinner.”
I was suddenly less excited about the prospect of a free meal, but figured I could bail if I didn’t like the way things looked. Still, this lady seemed nice enough. While still thinking about all that could go wrong, I saw a carton of orange juice come floating to a landing on the table.
“Help yourself, there’s plenty more where that came from,” she said.
I did; I had forgotten how good OJ tasted.
“What kinda questions you got for me?”
“For starters, tell me how you discover your psionic powers?”
I was about to tell her it was a secret, but then realized she probably knew more about this stuff than I did and if I played my cards right I might even learn something. I told her about how I fell while climbing up to my cave but didn’t hit the ground.
I kept names and certain details of my less than legal activities to myself, but wound up telling her more than I originally planned. I was used to being interrupted every ten seconds by my friends, so I found it nice to be able to tell a story proper.
She was a real good listener, she only nodded her head or made fitting noises at the right time, and only asked questions during the obvious breaks. Once I got through the main stuff, she told me a bit about how they got their powers. I could tell there was a lot she wasn’t telling me, but one thing she told me at the beginning was bugging me and I was trying to figure it out.
Then it hit me. “You said it was a big thunderstorm that caused this psionic thing?”
“Yes, it somehow caused the creation of what we’re calling a node, and the two of us present at the time gained the ability to access its power.”
I considered my next words carefully before speaking. “You said this was last year around early summer, right? Well, would you get mad if I told ya this wasn’t the first time I’ve enjoyed your hospitality?”
She visibly jumped a bit at that, but rallied fast. “I’m sorry, but I can’t remember you ever being here before.”
“Well,” I said with a grin. “You didn’t exactly invite me or even know I was your guest. I was on my way to the secret cave I told ya about when I saw the storm rolling in. I took cover and wound up spending the night in your storage shed.”
Tapping the arm of my chair I continued. “You got some mighty nice outdoor stuff and one of these long ones was stored in there. All in all it was a pretty comfortable flop.”
I could tell she was surprised, but didn’t look mad so that was ok. She looked like she was about to comment on it but stopped, tilted her head as if listening to someone for a few moments, then resumed looking at me.
“The boys are on their way back,” she said.
I gulped, starting to get nervous again. “Are they gonna get mad that I’m here?”
“Why would they?”
“I dunno… it just seems weird that one minute I’m flying through the forest and the next I’m a stranger’s uninvited guest.”
“They’re harmless, although they’ll probably pester you for hours about your psionic abilities.”
“I can only lift things and speak with my mind… that should take about three seconds.”
She chuckled a bit before replying. “There’s one thing you can do that we haven’t figured out yet. You can mind speak to regular people and to one of us when we’re astral.”
“What’s astral?” I asked.
“It’s a way of separating your mind from your body. The ‘you’ part of you can leave your body behind and go somewhere else. We call it astral projection.”
“That sounds pretty weird.”
“It freaked me out the first time it happened, but it’s not bad once you get used to it. You can fly around with no worries about someone seeing you and since you left your body behind, you don’t get watery eyes from the wind.”
“That does sound kinda neat… is it hard?”
“It’s fairly hard to get into the right frame of mind for separation, but the rest is easy once you make it there.”
“Sounds sort of like a ghost to me.”
“I guess the effect would be similar except we can’t show ourselves to anyone and we’re still alive. We can talk more about it later on if you like, but here comes the boys,” she said, pointing out to the yard.
I thought about standing up to greet them, but I was still aching so I decided to conserve my energy in case I needed to make a break for it. I could hear they were chatting amiably as they approached the deck, burdened with chairs and other gear but carrying the awkward load easily.
“Howdy, I’m Mark,” the first one said, as he dropped his load and pulled up a chair.
“Good day, eh!” the second said, grabbing his own chair and pulling out a can of beer from his bag. “I’m Carl.”
“I’m Claire, pleased to meet y’all.” I wasn’t sure I was, but it’s always best to be polite.
“Linda tells me she was the cause of you having an unfortunate little run in with a rather large tree.”
It sounded like he was teasing me a bit, but that was alright; I could handle it. “I’m new to all this stuff and sure wasn’t expecting anyone else to be flying around… especially not in the middle of the forest.”
“I’ll bet,” Mark chuckled. “You should have seen Carl’s face the first time he saw psionic powers at work. He kept looking for hidden wires or some other sort of trick.”
“Can you blame me? It’s not something you see every day, and you did spring it on me without any kind of warning.”
“I thought I was falling to my death when I discovered my powers. I bet my face looked pretty funny too.”
“We can talk about Carl’s funny face later,” Linda said. “I’ll get dinner started if y’all want to go get cleaned up. Make sure Claire has everything she needs, and no pestering her with questions. There’ll be plenty of time for that later.”
I guess that was that. I was told that dinner would take about an hour so I had plenty of time to clean up and take a shower or bath if I wanted. Linda even offered to wash my clothes and lend me an outfit that would only be a little baggy. I took her up on all of it.
I decided a bath would help soak out some of my aches and give me a chance to try contacting one of my friends. They were loving it up there, but something could easily go wrong at any time and I was their lifeline.
When the tub was only partway full I decided to climb in and start scrubbing off the dirt. This would give me time to soak while talking to whichever one I could reach first. I winced when I got to my hair; it was a tangled mess and I even had a couple of twigs stuck in there from my accident. I would have to do something about it fairly soon or it would be impossible to keep in order.
The water was hotter than I would have liked, but after a few minutes it began to make my bruises feel better and I was able to relax. My headache had mostly gone away, but I wasn’t looking forward to trying long distance telepathy. Still, it wasn’t like I was trying from all the way back at town so I should be able to manage it.
Reaching out with my mind, I surprised myself by linking up with Charlie almost immediately. He was fishing… big surprise. I kept it brief and once I made sure they were still ok, I told him I was delayed and would make it when I could.
That chore done, I let the contact drop and slouched down lower in the tub in relief; it went good enough that it didn’t make my headache any worse. As I began to work on the second layer of dirt, I noticed the bath water was getting a very noticeable black tinge to it so I started it draining and used the shower to rinse off.
Even though it felt good to get this clean, I started to hurry since I figured I had been in here for quite a while already and I didn’t want to miss dinner. It turned out my timi
ng was perfect; there was stuff on the table already, and poking my nose around the corner I saw her pulling something out of the oven.
Dinner was awesome. There was bread and a salad, and the stuff from the oven was some kind of rice dish with chicken and veggies. I ate way, way too much, but it was worth it. I thought about my friends eating fish for every meal and wondered if they were getting sick of it yet. I made a mental note to get them something different soon.
Once it was over we went back outside where I knew the questioning was gonna take place. I started to get nervous again, but figured outside was better if I needed to make a break for it. I hoped I didn’t have to, since these people had powers too and had been practicing for a lot longer.
They kept invasive questions to a minimum, though, and wound up telling me more about themselves and about what they knew of the psionic stuff. I had a brief panic moment when they asked if I wanted to stay the night to recover from my crash, and if there was anyone they should contact to let know I was ok.
The questions seemed to be well meant, and I was feeling pretty bagged by now so I took them up on the offer of staying, but declined on the contact info. I told them I was eighteen and on my own, which was only a small lie. They didn’t push it.
While Mark got a room ready for me, Linda got together a bag of personal items she said I could keep. I left most of it for now, but opened up the toothbrush package and gave my teeth a good onceover. I heard Mark shout through the door that my room was ready, and to let them know if there was anything else I needed.
I rinsed the toothpaste out of my mouth and shoved everything back in the bag so I could check it out. Walking through the door, I stopped in amazement like I ran into a brick wall. I was stunned with what I saw.
There was an absolutely huge bed with several different kinds of blankets for me to choose from at the foot. My clothes were on a chair next to the bed; clean, dry, and folded with far more care than I would have bothered with.
A door further down the wall opened up to reveal my own private bathroom… it was smaller than the one I used to clean up in, but was still friggen amazing. After making sure that the window opened and the door could be locked, I got ready for bed.
