Now listen little child of mind,
to wisdom from the earth.
To all the flowers of the world,
the ground will give the birth.
The roses and the daisies,
and the sunflower strong and tall.
The Lilies and the orchids,
yes the earth conceives them all.
They blossom and they spread,
until their colours all abound.
Yet none can match the beauty,
of the beauty I have found.
The Amriel, the Amriel,
the flower of a dream.
With petals flowing graceful,
as the ever flowing stream.
She was not born of mortal earth,
in ground she did not lie.
In dreams I saw her glowing,
like the stars within the sky.
And like as though she heard me,
and my hopefully begging plea.
She let herself be mortal,
so that she could be with me.
Amy’s voice lifted gracefully as she sang, smiling brightly at the little flower before her, the flower which the Arbiter recognised instantly as Amy’s namesake. He wondered at the words of her song. They seemed to speak a familiar story to him but he had never heard these lyrics before.
“Where did you learn that song Amriel, I have not heard it until now.”
“Oh, my father used to sing it to himself sometimes when he sat in front of the fire. I’m not sure if he knew that I listened. He only ever sang it when my mother was away.”
“Do you know what the song is about? Did your father make it himself?”
“I… I’m really not sure, I never asked him. I’ve certainly never heard it aside from when my father sings it. Amriel of course is the name of this little flower. I my mother was named after it.”
She looked up and smiled broadly at the Arbiter with a content expression. The Arbiter however was intrigued. Before now Amriel had been perceiving the world as if she was her mother. This, however, was certainly her own memory. Perhaps that had been the shift he had felt. Amy had become herself again.
They carried on for quite some time, occasionally discussing something they could see around them, sometimes in peaceful silence. The Arbiter used the time to ponder the change in Amy’s dreamstate but had nothing further to go on. Soon though, he made the suggestion to steer away from the river and head to the cave for the night. He was getting worried about the boy and the Imp. They needed a place of safety and more importantly, food. The trouble with human dreams was that the perception of time bore no reflection on the time flow in the physical world. Typically, their dreams squeezed in more time than was actually passing in the physical world, but how much extra time was Amy really stretching?
Amy was reluctant to agree to the change of course and wanted to keep to the river’s edge but ultimately, she agreed. The afternoon was rapidly departing and they would need somewhere to spend the night. They bent their course north, away from the river for a short while then made their way as directly as they could north east towards the cave.
The setting sun gave the forest a rich golden-red glow so that it was almost as if a great fire was burning a little further ahead in the trees. Some trees gave off a very distinct scent. If someone was placed blindfolded in the middle of a pine forest they would have been able to find their way to these trees purely by smell. Amy sucked it in with deep breaths. It was somewhere between roses and honeysuckle and surrounded her like a gentle perfume. A few birds were still flitting about between the branches.
The Arbiter took the lead and pressed forward with an increased pace. Somehow though, it was as if Amy was stretching the forest out in front of them to give herself more time walking beneath the trees. Parts of the forest seemed to repeat themselves without Amy taking any notice and their fast pace seemed to make no difference. The forest only slid by slowly. The Arbiter started to feel somewhat agitated. Amy’s replication pattern, which was the name of the dream technique which Amy was using but had certainly never learnt, could be threatening the lives of her friends. He needed to take action to try and speed things up.
“Ahhh,” he exclaimed suddenly! “I recognise this ring of trees, the cave is very close, we just need to bear to the left.”
Amy stopped and looked around in a disconcerted way. She didn’t seem convinced but wasn’t sure of her own feelings.
“Are you sure? I thought it was still quite a distance to the cave.”
The Arbiter was slightly thrown. Amy had not questioned any of his guiding remarks so far. Her grip on the internal reality of the dream state around her was stronger than it had been before. Nevertheless, he pressed his point.
“Quite sure! Yes, the trees here ring together more tightly and do not grow so large. We have already started to slope up the hills without realising.”
“Oh yeah,” replied Amy vaguely, “the trees are getting smaller. I suppose we must be getting close.”
The landscape around them shifted almost imperceptibly. Amy had either adjusted the world around them or jumped their location in the dream. Regardless of which, the Arbiter now recognised the new surroundings. Just a bit further ahead they would encounter a sudden but fairly small cliff.
It was only about four meters high but stretched quite a long way in either direction. The trees here were a mix of strange little replicas of the giants that towered over the heart of the forest and regular trees that any human would recognise like pines. Amy had altered the time of day as well as the surroundings. A dusky light was all that remained of the sun but the moon could be seen peeping up from behind the trees atop the cliff. The sight could almost have seemed eerie if Amy and the Arbiter hadn’t felt so at home here. As it was they casually strolled north along the base of the cliff faces until finally they spotted what looked like the shoulder of a giant rock protruding from the wall. They made their way around it and smiled. From the other side of the outcropping they could see a wide crack, which delved into the surface and started to broaden. The hole was so black that they could barely see past the entrance to the cave.
“Not to worry,” claimed the Arbiter, “unless things have changed recently there should still be a crystal lantern inside that activates when we enter.”
“What, you mean like a motion sensing light?”
The Arbiter was clearly pushing his luck. Evidently Amy had no recollection of the cave itself. He was almost surprised but then he remembered that this cave had always been off-limits to Amy’s mother when she had been growing up. Too many dangerous creatures visited it in the night. For now, he could be quite sure that nothing would disturb them. He decided to risk encouraging the blind creation from Amy.
“Yes, very much like a motion sensing light.”
“I don’t understand though, how can that possibly work with crystals?”
The Arbiter hesitated. He knew this may not have been achievable in Amy’s current state of mind. She was starting to apply rules to the world around her like an elf would.
“Well it is not exactly motion itself. It’s really more our actual presence. Our bodies let off all sorts of energy and signals. For example, a dog can smell where you have been for an hour after you have left because you leave your scent behind.”
“Yes, I know that. So, these are… what, crystals that react to odours?”
“No. However, such chemicals do exist. These crystals are different. Your scent is not the only thing your body emits. It also releases a very unique form of energy that isn’t fully understood. It is like… well, a bit like your raw presence. The effects of this energy can be seen constantly but because it is not understood, often these effects are explained away as coincidence or even tricks of the mind.”
“What sort of effects?”
“For example, the feeling that you are being watched when you are alone, or the feeling that you know someone even when you don’t. You sense this energy coming from people and
sometimes it feels extraordinarily similar to a person you do know and as a result your brain tells you that the person is familiar to you. Or, in the case of being watched, you feel a nearby presence but cannot see the source.”
“Right…” said Amy slowly as she tried to absorb what she was hearing. “So, these crystals…”
“React to this energy if the source is close enough, yes,” finished the Arbiter. “The energy can be transmitted over distances and dimensions that humans have not yet fathomed but these crystals are not nearly so sensitive as the human mind. The energy source needs to be very close indeed for them to react. In this sense, they are almost like motion sensing lights. They glow when you get overly near to them.”
Amy may have had her doubts but she did not outright disbelieve the Arbiter. She was fascinated by the idea he had explained and right now there was a very simple way to gauge the merit of this theory. She took a few long, careful steps into the blackness before her and entered the cave.
At no point was she ever surrounded by darkness as she expected. With her first step she lost some of the light behind her but could see the faintest glow before her. With each subsequent step the glow strengthened and the walls on either side of her could be seen in a strange ethereal light. They were rapidly opening up and stretching away from her. She could see them arc around to form an almost perfectly circular room. Not hanging from the ceiling like a lantern, but confined like veins in the surface of the rock itself, Amy could see the bizarre crystals glowing with light. Her mouth hung open in amazement. They could of course be natural fluorescent material but then they should have been glowing before she entered and she had never heard of a natural fluorescent being so incredibly bright. Their presence had most certainly triggered the crystals to glow, whether by the energy the Arbiter had described or by other means. His was as good an explanation as any.
The Arbiter followed relatively close behind Amy and heaved a sigh of relief as he reached the heart of the cave.
“Excellent! Now I think we deserve a good rest.”
Amy couldn’t help but agree. A strange feeling was gnawing at her, something between feeling tired and hungry, mixed with a hint of anxiety. That was odd she thought. She had no reason to be anxious.
“I think I could do with a lie down actually but I’m quite hungry. What should we do about food?”
“Let me worry about that,” explained the Arbiter. “You lie down and get some rest. I’ll sort out the food and let you know when it is ready.”
Amy felt no compulsion to argue. She lay down near the wall and curled herself into a ball with her head resting on her arm. At first, she left her eyes open and watched as the Arbiter made his way back out of the cave. She saw his figure outlined by the moonlight as he stood in the caves entryway, looking back at Amy thoughtfully for a moment before striding away.
Amy tried to let herself relax. The odd feelings of hunger and sleepiness washed over her conflictingly and she felt distinctly worried. Worried for the Arbiter maybe? Or perhaps frightened of the cave? Certainly, something about the cave gave her misgivings, almost like she shouldn’t be here. In the end it was the weighty need for sleep that overcame her and she started to drift into a dream. She could still see the glowing crystals above her, making her aware that she was still partially awake. Was it the crystals though? Or was it perhaps the moon gleaming in the sky?
Amy felt oddly jolted and could hear the sound of heavy laboured footsteps. In the moonlight she could just make out that the face of the person carrying her belonged to a young man who must have been around her age. All of her senses were being processed slowly, almost as if she was trying to translate everything she was seeing and hearing. One sensation was abundantly clear and sharp. Her stomach was twisting with painful hunger.
Yes, she thought, she had told the Arbiter she was hungry, he was going to bring food back to the cave. Why had the young man carried her out? She managed to let out a weak grown, which received an immediate reaction. The young man carrying her tilted her so that her head was raised higher and she heard excited speech break out with another person she could not see. She could only open her eyes for moments at a time and at a great cost of her energy. The speech stopped and she could feel the man carrying her turn slowly on the spot as if looking for something.
The second voice shouted out and the man turned with a vigorous twist, then started to move forward again with a quickened pace. They must have spotted something they were looking for. Amy bounced helplessly in the young man’s strong arms but the strain on her body was too much. She couldn’t concentrate on her senses any longer. She slipped back out of consciousness just as she and the young man had been plunged into darkness.
The crystals were glowing in their strange pattern in the roof. Amy felt exceedingly uneasy. She was sure that she had had a similar dream before. Yes, there had definitely been a young man carrying her, occasionally speaking with a second voice which belonged to someone she couldn’t see. What did it mean? She couldn’t remember having dreamed about anything else. Why did she keep returning to that particular dream? Who was the young man carrying her and why was she being carried? She wanted to know more but felt too awake to drift off again. Besides, she suddenly realised that the Arbiter was hunched over in the middle of the cave. The smell of fish pervaded the air mixed with a hint of what seemed, to her surprise, to be wet dog. She couldn’t imagine where that smell came from but the source of the fish smell was evident. A number of them could be seen on the floor beside the Arbiter.
After a moment Amy heard the sudden crackle of fire and the Arbiter stood up, revealing the one he had just started. Amy lay watching as he fanned the flames higher, being careful to blow the smoke in the direction of the cave’s exit. The flames were impressive considering the meagre fuel feeding them.
After a while the Arbiter pulled out a good sized knife and started to prepare the fish he had caught. How he had caught them Amy was not sure. He had no fishing equipment. It was only as she stood up and approached him that she realised his clothes were bathed in water droplets. Whatever he had done, he had gotten wet but his clothes hadn’t absorbed much water.
Amy stretched out her hands to enjoy the warmth of the fire. It was comforting, despite not having much effect. The fire didn’t seem to give off much heat, which Amy assumed was because it had only just been started. The night had well and truly settled in and as the wind rushed around the rock which jutted out from the cave it howled and whistled in an unpleasant way.
Amy was pensive, gazing unblinkingly into the flames while the Arbiter worked beside her. She didn’t take any notice of him as he carefully laid pieces of fish in the base of the fire in little metal pockets. The Arbiter, on the other hand, had noticed Amy’s distracted expression.
“Is there something on your mind Amriel? You seem preoccupied.”
“Oh,” Amy shifted her weight on her feet and looked up in surprise, “no. I mean, yes, sort of. It’s probably silly, just an odd feeling.”
“What kind of feeling precisely? Tiredness, worry, confusion?”
Amy’s eyebrows shot upwards. His shrewd guess was unnervingly accurate.
“Well yes, I have been feeling a bit tired. That isn’t a problem, but now I’m a bit confused and worried as to why those were the three things your mind jumped to when you look at me.”
The Arbiter remained undeterred, not reacting in the slightest to her comment. He was waiting for her to continue.
“Anyway, no, it’s not really worrying, so to speak, just odd. Every time I fall asleep it’s like I’m having the same dream. Not exactly the same thing over and over I mean. It’s more like… watching a movie. When I’m asleep I see a scene but while I’m awake it keeps running and I come back into it having missed a large chunk of what happened. It almost seems familiar.”
She felt exceedingly melancholy, lost in a haze of unclear thoughts.
The Arbiter was internally excited by what he heard. If Amy’s mind was
starting to piece together the consistency of her waking moments there was a good chance she was close to waking up fully.
“Hmm, that is a bit odd. Very interesting though. Next time you fall asleep maybe you will get a clearer idea of where these dreams are coming from.”
He dropped some cooked fish onto flat, polished, plate-like stones.
“Here. Eat something. You must be starving.”
She was. She took the food hungrily and gratefully and there was silence for some time as they focused on eating. The wind outside had picked up and was getting into the cave, making Amy feel quite cold and uncomfortable. She shuffled closer to the fire to stay warm but couldn’t take her eyes off the entrance to the cave. Her thoughts about her dreams were forgotten and had been replaced with strange thoughts about the cave. The wind howling around the rocks seemed ominous to her and she felt again the sense that she shouldn’t be here, that something inexplicable and dangerous about the cave was lingering in her memories. But she couldn’t get them clear in her mind. One thing she knew for sure, she didn’t feel safe.
The Arbiter seemed to have picked up on her emotions because as they finished the last of the fish he offered to stay on watch while Amy got some proper sleep. Amy was very grateful for his offer but was still nervous about falling asleep here again. She was undeniably too tired to move on though.
She curled up with the fire situated carefully between her and the entrance to the cave. The Arbiter placed himself near to the entrance and stood in stoic silence. She closed her eyes and tried to shut out her fears for a moment. She tried to block out the thoughts of dark creatures creeping into the cave.
Bridge Between the Worlds Page 28
