by J. M. Lyons
about it, we looked at it together. Why? You didn't tell me that I couldn't." I pleaded. "Don't worry. it'll be fine, but I had to ask if he
seen the scrolls." She said taking golden canister out from under
her jacket.
"Mia, these are only for your eyes and your eyes alone, no
one I mean no one can see them. Ok; do you understand." She
insisted, with disappointment in her voice. "Yes, grandma I'm sorry
I didn't know." I replied. "So I'll hide them and bring them to you
when you'll need them, which I fear may be sooner than later."
She said, staring at the intricate designs, running her fingers over
the different shapes that surrounded the entire container.
"Lay down and go to bed. We'll talk more tomorrow." She said
pulling the blanket off the bed. I got in quickly, as she threw the
covers over me. “Grandma, I'm sorry.” I said softly. “It's alright
Mia.” She replied, as she sat at the small table. I stayed awake
for a short while watching her stare at the container; touching every detail that surrounded it until I fell asleep.
7 EVIL IS NEAR
I woke the next morning to a chilling air blowing hard through
the tent door. The wind that blew in was so cold and so strong. I
looked around and my grandmother wasn't in the tent. I peeked
out of the tent and found grandpa and Tucker swirling wind back
and forth to each other. The wind was freezing cold and so strong.
"Gosh, it's freezing." I said out loud in hopes that they would
stop, but they didn't and just kept on going. I was glad to see
Tucker was alright even if he was freezing everyone to death. I put
on the small blanket that I had the night before, and went outside.
There was no fire burning this morning, but by the way they were
playing around I think they most likely peeled it. I thought to
myself.
"Hey guys having fun." I said, stepping cautiously next to
Tucker. "Hey; yeah grandpa wanted to give me some lessons. So;
I heard you made fire last night." He said, calming the winds that surrounded him. "Yeah; kind of I guess, uncle Tom was trying to
show me some stuff. It felt different." I said, looking at my palms
remembering what happened last night.
"Ok; Tuck, I need to do some chores, so lets pick this up
again later alright." Grandpa said with a smile, as he walked
toward a pile of wood that sat beside the small fire he used for
cooking. We watched him pick up one log after another placing
them in small stacks in the little pit. Grandpa was old, he wasn't so
young anymore. His frail body took a while to pick up the wood
and stack them, because he walked with a slight hunch due to old
back problems.
"Grandpa, let me do it." Tucker said hurrying over toward him.
Tucker picked up the logs and placed them in perfect small stacks
first into the pit, then beside it; to make it easier for him to grab
later. "Awe man, we put the fire out, wait I need to get a match."
Grandpa said with a smile. I walked over and stood next to
Tucker.
"Wait grandpa." I said, looking at the small pile of wood. "Let
me try something." I continued, as I closed my eyes and did the
same thing I did last night. I pictured that I was holding fire in my
hands, and as I concentrated I could feel the weight of the fire in my palms again. When I opened my eyes I had a small flame
growing within the palms of my hands.
I bent down and reached out, I put my hands on the wood that
sat together in a pile, and the wood began to burn. I could feel the
fire growing and burning hotter and hotter, soon the fire was
burning bright and hot. I closed my eyes again and felt the fire
getting smaller as I stood back up. When I opened my eyes again
the flames in my hands sizzled out. "Wow, that was awesome."
Tucker said, with his wide eyes trained on my hands.
"Does it hurt?" He asked very intrigued. "No actually it
doesn't; it just gets heavy, that's all." I replied, with a smile. The
air around the camp grew warm again as the sun of the day began
to rise. "Hey where is everyone?" I asked, finally taking notice that
no one else was around. "Uncle Tom came earlier and took
everyone to the field. But I had to stay here; I don't know why, but
he said I had to." He said as he walked over to the tent, and
disappeared inside.
"Grandpa, where's grandma?" I asked, remembering that she
wasn't in the tent when I came out. "Um I don't know, I think she
might have gone for a walk in the forest again; you know her,
she's probably looking for herbs or something." He laughed. "You know which way she went?" I asked looking around. "Um, I think
she went that way." He said, pointing toward a very small path that
sat between a bunch of overgrown shrubs and small trees, that
surrounded the camp. I hurried off to find my grandmother.
"Grandma." I called out, as I walked down the narrow path. I
touched every single shrub that grew close to the path, every tree
that I passed I touched; I remembered as a kid my grandmother
said that by touching the plants around you; you are absorbing
their energy as they absorb yours. For a minute there I forgot what
it felt like to walk through the forest and really appreciate every bit
of nature that surrounded me. The feeling of freedom to lose
yourself in this vast forest was tempting. With every tree that I
touched I could sense it's age and its memory that flowed through
it, right down to the aged roots that dug deep into the damp
ground.
Soon I reached a clearing that opened up right before a small
drop off, that spilled over to the lake which sat at the bottom of the
Weeping mountains. I looked over and noticed a small waterfall
that flowed into the lake. Through the light mist of water that
floated upward because of the wind; I could see a small bird
fluttering around in the mist, wetting it's small wings. The bird began to fly toward me slowly, flying against the wind. "Mia." I
heard a small voice say. Wait; what. I thought to myself, as I
squinted my eyes, looking at this small bird as it perched itself on
a little branch just above me.
"Mia." I heard again. "Are you talking to me?" I asked,
surprised at the thought, that a bird could really be talking to me.
"Mia; yes I'm talking to you." The small bird said, this time I was
sure that it was talking to me. I fell back a little totally surprised,
that it was really a bird that was talking to me.
"Hi Mia." The bird said. "I'm Wing, and I've been sent by the
gods to help you." It said, looking at me like a bird would; twisting
and turning it's head back and forth. "Hi Wing. I'm sorry but this is
weird; I can't believe that I'm talking to a little bird." I said, with a
smile looking at this little bird stretching its wings to dry.
"I'm hear to help you." Wing said followed by soft chirps. "How
will you help me." I asked, still bewildered by the fact that I was
talking to this little bird. "I can see farther than any of you can." It
said, as it fluttered its wings. “Besides, we'll rely upon each other
a lot in
the future. But, it's ok if you don't believe, because you will
believe soon.” I said stretching it's wings before it fluttered it's
wings. "Mia, who are you talking to?" I heard a voice say from behind
me. "Jon." I said, stumbling at the sound of a voice. "Sorry, I didn't
mean to scare you." He said, catching me from falling. "You
startled me, that's all." I said with a smile. "Did you see that bird?"
I asked, looking around for Wing. "No, I didn't see a bird but I did
hear you talking to someone." He said, looking around at our
surroundings.
"I guess I was just talking to myself for a few minutes there." I
laughed. "Um, your grandmother and Uncle Tom is looking for
you. But I am glad, that I finally have you away from everyone
else." He smiled. "Huh, so am I." I said, stepping closer to Jon,
slowly running my hands under his baggy shirt and around his
waist, pulling his warm defined body closer to me; as my fingers
softly touched his bare back. He stepped even closer, with every
touch. "So I guess we get a few minutes alone huh." He smiled,
looking deep into my eyes.
"Yeah; I guess we do." I said, leaning in to kiss him; he kissed
me back. We stayed there locked in a passionate kiss, leaning our
bodies closer together. Running our hands over each other,
touching every definition that our fingers could find. "Hey; grandpa said to go find you, and I guess I found you
both." Tucker said loudly, trying his best to scare us, as he
stepped into the clearing. Jon and I jumped a little at the sudden
interruption. "Wow, this is a nice view." He said looking over the
drop off, then at the waterfall that flowed over the cliff just a few
yards away.
"The wind here is nice." He continued. Jon and I just stood
there enjoying the feeling of having the both of our arms around
each other. "Come on lets get back, before they send someone
else to find us." Jon said with a smile. "Yeah; your right." I agreed.
"Come on Tuck, lets go." I said, turning with Jon to follow the long
path back to camp. As we walked slowly down the path, Tucker
hurried pass us. "You guys are slow." He said, as he brushed up
against me hurrying along.
As his shoulder brushed up against my arm; I began to feel
funny; I looked at him as he hurried on down the path. He
eventually disappeared beyond the part of the path that we could
see. I felt very weird; my head felt lighter and I began to get dizzy.
I started to see pictures flashing like blurred photo's in my mind. I
stopped walking; grabbing on to Jon's arm to stop myself from
falling. "Are you ok." He said, grabbing a hold of me. "I don't know." I
said looking at him; but I continued seeing these blurry pictures
flashing in my head. "What's wrong?" He said, looking at me. As
my legs began to fell weak, I slowly fell to my knees. “Mia.” Jon
said trying his best to hold me, as I slid out of his grip.
The pictures became more fluent and I could see the pictures
more clearly. I could see James, my mothers new husband. Why
was I seeing James. Why could I see him clearly. "Mia." I could
hear him saying. Then I got a glimpse of my mother walking
through the forest, touching the trees and shrubs as she walked
through; and as she touched them they would die, turning black
and withering away into ashes. I couldn't understand why I was
seeing this.
"Mia." I heard James voice again, this time it was much more
closer, like he was standing right next to me. "Mia, I'm coming for
you." He said, and now it sounded like it was right in my ear, as I
began to feel his presence next to me. "Aah." I screamed out.
"Mia, Mia." Jon said shaking me.
I quickly snapped out of it, no longer seeing the pictures that I
saw. I stood up freaked out; and shaking, I felt beyond scared and
held Jon's hands tightly. "Jon, I think something bad is gonna happen; I think I had a vision. I saw my mother and James." I said,
with a quivering voice.
"Come on we gotta get you to your grandmother." Jon said,
helping me up as we hurried back to camp. "What else did you
see?" Jon asked, as he guided me along the path. "I could see
my mom, and she was walking through the forest touching things
and when she touched them, they would die and turn to ashes." I
said, quivering at the thought of what I saw. "Mia, what if they're
the one's that we would have to fight. What are we gonna do?" He
asked, as we got closer to the camp. "I don't know." I replied.
The light of the day dimmed, as we got closer to the camp; we
could smell the smoke of the fire burning and we could hear
people talking. This time it was more than just those that was
already at the camp. "Who is that?" I asked, looking over at Jon as
I slowed his steps. The air around the camp seemed different, it
seemed so heavy, like a thick fog was approaching, it grew a little
colder with every step that we took as we got closer to the camp.
We stopped to see if we could get a glimpse of who was now
there.
"Mia, I know that you're there." I heard a man say. Jon and I
stepped out of the tree line that crowed over the small path. "So I see you've met wing." Elder Wolf said, turning toward me with a
little bird sitting on his finger. It was the very bird that spoke to me
earlier. "That's the bird that I was talking about." I told Jon,
stepping closer to the group of people that gathered around the
fire. I looked around and noticed that Tucker wasn't there.
"Did you see Tucker?" I asked, looking over at grandma. "No;
he went to look for you." She said, suddenly looking rather
worried. She walked over to grandpa and whispered something to
him. He disappeared slowly, onto the path that Jon and I just
came out from. I looked around at everyone who was now quite
and staring at me. "What?" I said, annoyed with everyone's
questionable glare.
"Mia, we are here before the third day because we needed to
warn you; the darkness that once invaded these lands is back."
Elder Wing said, as the little bird flew over to his shoulder. The
bird seemed to be whispering something in his ear, but all we
could hear, were little chirps. "So Wing tells me that you can hear
him." Elder Wing said, staring at me with a smile.
"So; Lana I see she's starting to understand what she will
need to do." He said looking over at grandma. "Yes Elder, I spoke
with her and she knows, who she is but I'm not sure if she totally understands it. However, whether or not she understands won't
matter soon." Grandma said, with a sad look on her face, as she
looked over at me.
Suddenly we were all shocked to hear a loud screaming from
the forest. Grandma ran off into the direction of the screaming, as
did uncle Tom and Elder Wolf. My dad was walking toward the
crowd from the entrance of the camp as everyone ran off, and he
followed. "Boy's I think you should follow too." Elder Wing said,
nodding toward Steve and Jim who was sitting around the fire.
"You too." He said, now looking over at Jon.
> Everyone left the camp leaving me and Elder Wing standing
there quietly. "I'll go and check on things. Hi Mia." The little bird
said, as he flew off into the forest. I quickly looked at Elder Wing
with a bewildered look on my face. "Ha, ha, ha; you heard that
huh?" Elder Wing laughed. "Um; yeah I did. So, he talks to you
too." I said, sitting down on the edge of a log. "Yup, it's been that
way for years." He smiled sitting across of me.
"So, my little friend said that he watched you collapse as you
and your boyfriend were walking back to the camp. Are you
alright?" He asked, staring at me. At first; I felt very reluctant to
tell him what I really saw. On the other hand I was afraid to lye to him; It felt like if I lied he would know. So I told him the truth. "Yes,
I did collapse but I'm feeling better though." I said breaking my
gaze from his eyes. "Do you mind sharing what happened?" He
said starting to move closer to me.
"Um; I don't really understand what happened. But I did see
something and I think I heard something too." I replied, still looking
down so that he would not see my eyes. "Tell me." He said, now
sitting beside me at the other edge of the same log.
"Well, I think I saw my mom and her new husband James." I
said, beginning to feel overwhelmed with anger and hatred.
"Continue please." He said softly. "So, I saw my mom walking
through the forest and she was touching things, like the trees and
the small shrubs; but they died, like they turned black, and they
turned to ashes.” I continued slowly; questioning my own mind.
“But I don't understand why I saw that. I mean the pictures
were so vivid, like I was seeing it actually happen. Then I saw
James, and he was standing with her, walking there slowly beside
her. Then I heard his voice, I could hear him calling me.” I
continued, as I looked up at Elder Wing.
“Then, he told me that he was coming for me. I mean I don't
understand what any of them has to do with anything; or why I would see them. I think they left Hillside after our dinner but I
really don't know. I tried to get my dad to tell me but he wouldn't
say anything." I said feeling my frustrations growing in me.
"You know the night that my dad got taken to the hospital.
Mrs. Hawks, our nosy neighbor, came over to check on us; and
she said that her and her husband thought they saw me standing
