H.E.A.R.T. Saga: The Children

by Linna Drehmel

  They both recited the prayer for energy travel: “Yea we travel from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the HEART. Solace cabin number one, Ambassadors Mountain.”

  The altar stone glowed with a steady blue light, and the light traveled from their right hand to the stone in their left. When it reached the stone in their left, the energy pulled them through the stone to Cabin number one on Ambassadors Mountain.

  They found themselves standing in cabin number one on the Ambassadors Mountain with their right hands on the HEART stone altar.

  Gone

  7

  JorMelony sat at the center of the courtyard. She had the temple and The Ambassadors office at her back, and a rapidly growing crowd of people in front of her. She had never been one to get nervous in front of a crowd of people. She had been playing the tallice all her life so normally it did not bother her, but this morning something was wrong. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach and it made her feel like her morning meal was going to come back up.

  She looked over at her husband JorRobert, who was the lead HEART stone percussionist. The HEART guided him with his percussion stone through each piece of music, and he in turn guided the rest of the band with the rhythm he played. This job required him to take in and then use a lot of the energy, which he happily did while properly using the grain of HEART stone in his right wrist.

  Her job in the band was a little simpler. She played the small and subtle notes with her small tallice. She loved it. JorMelony loved the sounds it made, and the tickly feeling she had inside when she channeled small streams of energy through the grain of HEART stone in her wrist to enhance those small notes. However, today she didn’t feel right. JorMelony was afraid that with her not feeling right, her music would not sound right either.

  JorMelony looked to her husband for some sign that everything was normal, but she just could not seem to catch her husband’s gaze. JorMelony still felt sick, like she needed more energy. She did take some with her morning meal, but she felt like it was not enough energy today. All JorMelony could think about was going home and soaking up large doses of the HEART’s energy.

  JorMelony looked out past the growing multitude of people, hoping to see the brightly colored curls of her younger sister; instead she spotted the faces of her parents. The both of them glowing with delight to see one daughter play and another one restart an old, yet cherished tradition. JorMelony feared the growing sensation that something was going to go wrong would prove to be true and dash her parents delight.

  It was now daybreak and the band began to play a light and happy tune. Ambassador Symon, First Councilor Jude, and Second Councilor Fredrik walk out from the temple office to the midpoint of the tiled courtyard of the community’s center. The gathered throng applauded in excitement to see all three of the HEART’s servants, as well as in anticipation of the strong dose of the energy that they would all get from this gathering.

  Ambassador Symon looked more refreshed than usual. Second Councilor Fredrik slapped the Ambassador on the back and looked as if he had just said something that was funny as First Councilor Jude laughed at what he just said. Ambassador Symon stepped forward with a dazzling smile on his handsome face. He raised his arms with both hands glowing from the energy, so the large crowd of people would know to be silent for his speech. In respect for him, the band stopped mid-tune.

  “Children of the HEART,” he began. “This is a very special day today. We have not seen a gathering like this for more than a generation. There is a newly married couple, a couple that I, myself, bound in marriage with the HEART’s energy, who wish to take a couples’ solace.” The sound of his voice was obscured for a moment by cheers and more applause from the people he addressed.

  “The HEART of the planet, our MOTHER, is very pleased to see this happening again, and she would like to re-extend this offer to any couple who is newly married to take a couples’ solace. All couples need this time to make their bond stronger as husband and wife by communing in solace with the HEART.”

  He paused for a moment to see if DraDonna and DraDevon had shown up yet. Ambassador Symon looked around. Seeing that they had not yet come, he nodded to Second Councilor Fredrik and the taller man quietly left the gathering with a worried look on his usually happy face. Ambassador Symon saw that he still had the multitude focused on his words, so he went on.

  “While we wait on the happy couple to join us, I would like to tell you a little bit about them.” Although no one noticed, Ambassador Symon was beginning to feel irritated at DraDonna and DraDevon for not being on time.

  “DraDonna is the daughter of NayLara and NayMichael, who are both schoolteachers. DraDonna has an older sister, JorMelony, who played the tallice in our band here this morning with her husband JorRobert, who leads the band. DraDonna has been raised as a carpenter and is now serving my community by fulfilling our needs for furniture in her own unique way.

  “She was married to DraDevon less than a year ago. He is the second son of BriMarie and BriHenry, who both work as glaziers making the windows for our community. DraDevon’s older Brother is NulSam, who is married to NulJena who both work in home maintenance, and NulJena is going to have a baby soon.”

  With this announcement the gathered crowd applauded enthusiastically. After waiting a moment, Ambassador Symon continued his narration about the lucky couple. “DraDevon is a detail welder who services this community with his HEART enhanced skills at the forge.”

  As he finished speaking, Second Councilor Fredrik approached him with a grim look on his face and quickly whispered something in his ear that the crowd could not hear. He turned to face his Second Councilor. “You’re joking, right?”

  “I wish I were,” Councilor Fredrik replied.

  Ambassador Symon quickly turned around and dismissed the band. He drew his two councilors close and said quietly, yet with teeth clenched, “Councilor Fredrik, you and I are to stay here and give these people a high dose of energy with a small voltage of negative energy mixed in, and with any hope they will all go home and sleep for a few hours and forget what has happened here this morning. Councilor Jude, I want you to take JorMelony and JorRobert with you back to the Dra house and see if you can find any clues to where they went. Report back to me. If I am not in the office, use my EDUstone on my desk.”

  Turning back to the crowd, he put on a fake wide smile. “Let us all link up and take joy in the energy that the HEART our MOTHER gives us!”

  Councilor Jude quickly found where JorMelony and JorRobert had joined the crowed and motioned for them to follow her. With some disappointment, the couple turned away from the large gathering and followed Councilor Jude down the road toward the Dra home.

  JorMelony had hoped that the awful feeling she had clinging to her from the beginning of the gathering would be washed away by the clean sensation of the HEART’s energy. Instead, she and her husband were following First Councilor Jude down the road. And she knew it was to her sister’s house.

  “You know, JorMelony,” JorRobert started, “I am not at all surprised that your sister and her husband didn’t show up.”

  “Why do you say that?” she asked her husband with a confused look on her pretty face.

  “I just mean that this is the type of thing she would do. Being late or not showing up to her own gathering. She has been doing things like this all her life.” JorRobert put a hand on his wife’s small shoulder to slow her anxious pace.

  “You know I don’t like her very much, I have not hidden that from you. But I have always wondered what happened when she was inside your mom. Was there some kind of mistake?”

  “JorRobert,” she broke in angrily. “How could you say such a blasphemous thing? The HEART of the world, our MOTHER, does not make mistakes. My sister is not a mistake!”

  “I’m sorry JorMelony. You don’t need to get so upset. I was just wondering like a lot of people do. You have to admit that your sister is an odd one. I have heard people in the community say that they don�
�t know why the HEART matched her and DraDevon. He’s a good and normal person and she is so…”

  “Special!” JorMelony interrupted him. “There is nothing wrong with my sister and you should not be listening to idle gossip, such things are unbecoming of a son of the HEART.”

  “I am sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but a lot of the people in our community think that she should have been mind wiped a long time ago.”

  “I can’t believe you just said that.” She shook his hand off her shoulder, turned and walked with a quickening pace down the road after First Councilor Jude.

  JorRobert watched his wife’s back with frustration for a few moments and then jogged to catch up at the Dra home. He arrived not long after his wife and entered the house through the open front door. He found JorMelony standing just inside the door with a shocked look on her face.

  “What is it?” he asked her with a small touch of concern in his voice. Then he looked around in the main living area. He saw a room that had been ransacked. “Who did this?” he asked.

  “I did.” piped First Councilor Jude, “I’m looking for anything that would tell us what happened to them; where they went. Why don’t the two of you go check in the bathroom and the bedroom? Let me know if you find anything at all.”

  Without a word, the once quarreling couple walked, with hands clasped, to the small bathroom and looked inside. Nothing seemed out of place.

  “Did you find anything in there?” Councilor Jude called out to them.

  “No, nothing,” JorRobert answered her. “Just a few personal things missing, but nothing out of the ordinary.”

  “Well, keep looking. Check the bedroom. I’m almost finished out here.”

  They went into the bedroom and found a rumpled bed and a few articles of clothing scattered about, which did not seem out of place for someone like DraDonna.

  JorRobert was checking the blankets on the bed, not knowing what he was looking for when his hand felt cold hard steel. He pulled it out of the tangled blankets to reveal one of DraDonna’s screwdrivers.

  “This is odd,” he said, showing it to his wife.

  Upon further inspection of the bed, JorRobert found several more tools belonging to one or the other of them.

  JorMelony walked around the other side of the bed from her husband, wanting to look at her sister’s nightstand. JorMelony admired the unique craftsmanship that was singular to her sister. She loved the look of the sleek legs of the bedside table that ended in a blossom design. While she was admiring the beauty of the feet of the nightstand, she saw something green on the smooth hardwood floor. Curious about what this may be, JorMelony bent over to pick it up. She found that it was a leaf from that plant that she saw her sister picking the other day.

  “Have you found anything at all in here?” Councilor Jude asked from the doorway.

  “I found some tools lying on the bed here, but not much else.” JorRobert told her.

  “JorMelony,” First Councilor Jude inquired gently. “Have you found anything?”

  Casually, she closed her hand to conceal the small leaf that she found. “No, Councilor Jude, I’m sorry.”

  “Please let me know if you do find anything or hear from them. We’re very concerned about them. The Ambassador will be in contact with you through your home HEART stone.” She smiled at them both saying, “HEART’s blessing.” Then she turned and left.

  With a pleading look in her eyes JorMelony searched her husband’s face, “JorRobert, I know you don’t like DraDonna, but she is my sister and I love her.”

  “I know, my wife.”

  JorMelony opened her hand and looked down at the small green leaf in her palm. “Whatever trouble they’ve gotten themselves into, I hope they will be okay.”

  Surprised

  8

  It was a breathtaking feeling to travel by the HEART’s energy. The cold and sweet feeling of the energy running through the body from the right hand to the left, the energy connecting the two stones caused an odd mix of pain and pleasure. This odd feeling of pleasurable pain intensified as the body was pulled by the energy through the travel stone to the location that was stated in the prayer.

  All these feelings swirled through DraDonna’s body, followed by a dizzying sensation as they found that they were standing in the solace cabin.

  DraDonna and her husband took their hands off the HEART stone altar, slipped the travel stones into the packs at their belts, and looked around the cabin in surprise. What they had expected to find was a small cabin that was dusty, dirty, and run down.

  However, the scene that was in front of them was so very different. The cabin was twice the size of their home. It was not dirty or in disrepair. It was clean and neat with not a nail out of place.

  “I have a very bad feeling about this, DraDonna,” DraDevon stated.

  “So do I. These cabins haven’t been used for more than fifty years and look at this place. It is so clean, and in perfect shape.” DraDonna mused out loud. “I wonder who has been here.”

  “This is really creepy,” DraDevon said with a shiver. “Maybe we should have a look around to be sure that no one is here.”

  “Good idea. I will take a look around the bedroom and the bathroom and unpack our stuff as well. You take a look in the eating area and make sure that the MDC is working.” She held her hand out for DraDevon to hand his knapsack to her.

  “Sounds good. While you’re at it, make sure that bed is in good working order.” He winked, planting a playful slap on her backside.

  “You naughty boy!” she called back to her husband as she lugged all their packs to the other side of the cabin.

  DraDonna looked around at the large bedroom, with a big bed right in the middle of it and a window just behind the bed with wispy white curtains draping down either side that were tied back by beautifully knotted ropes. The bed had an intricate iron frame that had lots of lovely twists and knots that must have taken the welder weeks to create. The bed was made up with lots of soft fresh white linens that were tucked neatly around the fluffy inviting mattress.

  Her pulse quickened when she thought about her husband’s suggestion of putting the bed to good use. Oh how she wished that they really could just spend some of this time expressing their deep love for each other. He was one of the few people in this world that didn’t treat her like she was some kind of joke that the HEART was playing on the community. With him by her side, she felt like she could do anything. DraDonna knew that he believed in her. Knowing this helped her to have the confidence she needed to free all the trapped souls.

  Looking at this bed made her think of how talented DraDevon was at welding the amazing detail that he carved into each and every scrap of metal. She thought of how hard it must be to weld, trying to channel the energy into just two different fingers and then to make cold hard metal look nice. It was amazing to her.

  DraDonna thought about how easy she had it because she got to work with soft wood. To turn hard iron into something beautiful was incredible to her, just like him.

  With a sad sigh, DraDonna resigned herself to the fact that they probably would not have much time for romance. She knew that they would have to work hard to find out what was wrong with the world. Just what they were supposed to be looking for, she didn’t know.

  DraDonna opened the knapsacks, pulled out the clothing, and walked over to a beautifully carved dark wood dresser with a lovely framed mirror mounted behind it. She bent down and pulled out the well-made drawers, admiring how smoothly they slid in and out, thinking of the work that went into the fine piece of furniture.

  The young carpenter raised her head just a little and looked in the mirror. She saw a quick flash of brown fur disappear under the large bed.

  “DraDevon!” she yelled as she spun around, running the few steps over to the bed, and dove under it.

  “What is it?” he called as he dashed into the room, only finding the bottom half of his wife’s body sticking out from under the bed with her l
egs kicking.

  “What are you doing?” he said, unable to hide the laughter in his voice.

  “Ah, just a moment,” came the muffled sound of her voice as she wriggled backwards from under the bed on the smooth hardwood floor.

  She stood up and DraDevon burst out laughing at the comical sight of his wife’s wild copper hair and rumpled clothes. He took a big step forward and scooped his left arm around her hips drawing her to him. Then with a twinkle in his eyes, he tried to smooth her wild curls down with his right hand. “My wife, you are the most amazing creature on this planet,” his husky voice filled with love and admiration.

  Not able to resist her charm any longer, he drew her head to his. Slowly, and ever so gently, he caressed her lips with his own.

  His sweet and loving mood was infectious and the feel of his lips on hers was intoxicating. Her entire body tingled like she had just taken a big dose of the energy, and her mind was so muddled all she could think of was where his soft sweet lips would kiss her next. She wound her arms around his back and clutched his shirt tightly in her hands, holding onto him, pressing closer to his warm body. DraDonna could feel how their souls were bound as one; she wanted to melt into him again. All she wanted, all she cared about at that moment, was for them to be one body and soul forever.

  He called her an amazing creature. He is probably the only one in all of the communities that would say such a thing. His sweetness filled her soul with so much love that DraDonna felt like she was going to burst with happiness.

  Ignoring the yearning need in her soul to express her love for her husband, DraDonna pulled away from him just a little and took a deep breath to clear her passion filled mind.

  “DraDevon,” she said breathlessly, “there was some kind of creature in here. I saw it quickly run under the bed.”