by J. M. Lyons
circle in the air, suddenly a thick circle heap of earth pulled out of
the ground. He did it again this time beside the one he already
made. "You made us chairs?" I said, with a silly smirk on my face.
"Well, it might be just dirt, but at least we have somewhere to
sit. " He laughed. I just smiled and handed him the two bowls, and
walked over to a bunch of small shrubs that grew alongside the
creek and broke off a few branches. "Here this should help." I
chuckled. I placed the broken branches on top of the chair that
Jon made, and he smiled back. We both sat down and ate,
watching and listening to the water in the creek flow downstream.
I could hear the birds chirping around us, the tree branches
rustled around reaching as high as they could into the mid
morning sky. As I sat there I could feel the power that pulsated
throughout the forest, throughout the mountains. It made me feel
cold. I listened quietly to the different animals that were around
us; the insects, the birds, even the little ones that scurried in the
tree tops. "Hey, you want more?" Jon asked, reaching out for my bowl.
"Um; yeah sure. I guess I'm really hungry today." I chuckled. "Ah,
we all are." He laughed back, nodding his head over toward the
rest of the guys, scarfing down their bowls of food. We both
looked at each other laughing. Jon walked off toward the table
leaving me sitting there quietly. I looked around taking in
everything that I saw, everything that I felt from the things around
me.
The air started to grow warmer around me as the sun slowly
lifted higher into the sky, but still I felt a little cold as I continued to
absorbed the energy that flowed around me. The energy from the
water, from the wind, from the ground. I allowed the energy to flow
through me, taking in deep breaths and slowly releasing it, letting
the energy fill my blood with every breath I took. "Here you go."
Jon said, passing me another bowl of soup.
"You know sometimes it's so easy to forget how beautiful this
place really is." I said with a smile, looking around taking in the
breath taking views that surrounded us. "You know; this place
could be a real romantic place if you asked me." I said, stirring my
bowl of soup. "I know, I've been thinking about that lately. You
know if we aren't busy tonight we should go for a walk to the lake or something." He said, with his soft, gentle smile. "That sounds
like a good idea; I surely could use the break." I smiled back.
"Jon, come on we need to make some preparations." Dad
called out. "I'll see you tonight I guess." Jon said, with his smile
still on his face as he leaned in for a kiss. "Can't wait." I replied,
kissing him back. "Oh come on, you guys can kiss all you want
later." Tucker called out with his usual laugh. "Glad to know your
back to your normal self." I called back, as they all disappeared
into the forest.
I stayed near the creek for a while taking in my surroundings.
"Hi Mia." I heard a small squeaky voice say. I looked around
startled, and noticed a small brown shape hopping from one
branch to another then landing on a branch right above me. "Hi
there." I said, looking at this small squirrel looking back at me.
"I'm Lina." The squirrel said.
"I'm a friend of Wing, I too have been sent by the gods to help
you, in fact a lot of us have been sent to help you." She said.
"Really; so you mean there's more of you?" I asked. "Yes; there
are a lot more of us." She replied, with her squeaky voice.
"Is that Elder Wing?" She asked, twitching her little nose to sniff
the air. "Why yes it is." I said; turning to see him sitting there, staring into
the fire.
She jumped down off the tree branch onto my shoulder. I
jerked a little, feeling awkward about the situation. "Don't worry I
won't bite you." She giggled, with her whisker's tickling my ear.
“Can you take me to him.” She asked softly. “Um; I sure can.” I
said, as I walked over to Elder Wing who looked up at the sound
of my approach.
"Mia; ah you've found Lina." He said, lifting his palm allowing
her to jump into it. "Yeah, well more like she found me." I smiled.
"I've become an old man my little friend. I know it's been a while
since I last saw you." He said softly. "I'm just glad to see you after
so many years." She replied. "I'll leave you two to catch up." I said,
turning toward grandma and grandpa who were cleaning up the
mess from this mornings breakfast. "No Mia; I have something to
tell you." She said. "Come sit Mia, you must learn that the animals
here are your friends, and they want to help you. Sometimes they
are the only one's who can." Elder Wing insisted. I sat next to
them on a log of my own.
"Yesterday, I saw you and the one who can move the earth
talking." She said. "Ok." I replied. "But then I saw a dark figure step closer to you both, but this was no ordinary darkness, Wing.”
She said turning her little head toward his. “This was a darkness
that hasn't been seen in these parts for a real long time, since the
time of Great Tricloud." She said; looking at both of us, twisting
her little head back and forth. "Then we watched a battle between
the three of you; you two and the darkness." She continued.
"But Mia; the power that we saw in you, also hasn't been seen
in these parts for decades." She said, twitching her little nose
around. "My thoughts exactly my little friend." Elder Wing agreed
looking at me as well. "I'll bet that she can shape shift without a
problem." She squeaked. "Yeah, I haven't learned any of that, but
I did hear about it." I said with a cringe.
"Don't you believe that it's possible." She asked. "It's not that
I don't believe; it's more of a why me kind of thing." I chuckled,
back with a raised brow. From the distance we could hear loud
crashing sounds, followed by low rumbling that we could
eventually feel under our feet. "Wow, what's that?" I said looking
into the direction of the noise.
I scanned the tree tops and noticed that some, were moving
violently. "They must create barricades; so that if anyone tries to
come here again we'll know far before they get here." Elder Wing replied, looking into the same direction as I was. The rumbling
and crashing continued for a while. Then everything went quiet.
Suddenly, Wing came flying back to the camp fast. "Wing,
Wing." He said, in a panic. "They need you." He said, as he
landed hard on the ground. "Lina, go call the others; there needed
too." He said, and with that Lina jumped off Wings palm and ran
off into the woods. "David, somethings wrong." I heard grandma
say. I turned toward her and saw that she had become very weak,
nearly falling over.
"Lana." Grandpa said, catching her before she hit the ground.
He laid her down softly and stroked her hair. "Lana, Lana. What's
wrong?" He said, with the sound of utter panic in his voice.
"Grandma." I said, running over to her side. "Mia, you stay here."
Elder Wing called out, before disappearin
g into the forest. I looked
up at the tree tops and noticed that the trees began to shake more
violently and the distant rumbling sound, grew louder and louder
as the ground began to shake more and more.
Grandma's face turned a pale gray, like she was sick to her
stomach. "Mia help me get her to the tent." Grandpa said, putting
her arms around his neck to help her up. She tried her best to
move her feet, but her limp body wouldn't let her. "Grandpa, what's wrong with her?" I said, starting to feel scared. "I don't
know." He replied still in a panic.
We got grandma to the tent and laid her down on the bed. I
noticed that a box in the far corner of her tent was moving, like
there was something inside trying to get out. I could see a golden
glow coming from the box. "Mia, get the scrolls." She insisted,
pointing at the glowing box. I picked up the box and hurried back
to her side.
As she grabbed the box from me I could hear a loud howling
sound outside the tent. I started to get up to see what it was, but
grandma grabbed my arm with one hand; putting the other on
grandpa's. "No, stay in here both of you." She said softly. "You'll
both be safe in here." She said, holding on to the both of us tightly.
The howling grew louder and louder until it was right beside
the tent. "I can smell them, but I cannot see them." A voice said
with a growl. Just then I heard a louder deep growl and felt the
ground shake. "You will leave this place and never come back." I
heard the deeper voice say. Grandpa and I sat there quietly
looking at each other with utter fear in our eyes. "I know that she's
here and I want her now." A smaller evil voice said. "You will not
have her." The deep voice said. Suddenly we heard crashing, and pounding, and loud
growling just outside the tent. "David, don't move." Grandma said
calmly. "But Lana." Grandpa replied. "Please; my dear just stay
with me, I fear we both may not have much time left." She
pleaded, with sadness in her eyes. Grandpa didn't say another
word; instead he sat back on the floor next to her bed and held her
hand in his. As the loud crashing and banging around continued
outside you could actually see how much love grandma and
grandpa had for one another, as they stared endlessly into each
others eyes lost in memory.
Soon the noise subsided with the sound of whimpering that
seem to grow distant with every breath. "I will kill you the next time
you are in these mountains you demon." The deep voice said.
"Grandma." I said, scared to the core hearing all the ruckus from
outside. "Don't worry Mia; our friends are here and they are here
to help. You must trust them." She said, her voice becoming so
frail. "Lana are you still there?" The deep voice said, from behind
the tent door. "Yes; I am my friend, please come in." She said, as
the tent door flew open and the head of a huge brown bear
suddenly appeared. "Aaahhh." I screamed in total fear. "Oh, shut up girl, I won't
hurt you." He said, cringing at the sound of my scream. "I...I...I'm
sorry but your a bear." I said, quickly jumping onto the corner of
my grandmother's bed, backing away quickly. "I'm sorry my friend
but she hasn't had much time to learn about our allies." Grandma
laughed, in her ever growing frailness. Grandpa didn't move not
even a finger he just sat there staring at grandma. "Those demons
are gone, and I don't think they'll be back; the barricade is almost
complete." The bear said in his deep voice. "Good." Grandma
replied.
"We'll stay here until the time comes, that we are no longer
needed; but by looks of things we may be here longer than I
thought." The bear said, as he pulled his head back out of the
tent. "Grandma that; that was a big bear; a big, talking bear." I
said, stumbling over my words as they left my mouth. "Yes dear,
and there is a black wolf, and a red stag too." She said, with a soft
smile. "Grandma are you ok? I asked softly.
"In due time Mia we will all have to go to be with the gods, but
as for me and your grandpa here, that time will come soon. Our
old body's cannot last forever you know." She said softly with a
smile. She looked over at grandpa and held his stare before looking back at me. “Come here my Mia.” She said motioning to
her lap.
I laid my head across her lap, and I could feel her and
grandpa stroking my hair. Suddenly we could hear footsteps
getting closer toward the camp. "Whoa." I heard Tucker say
startled; followed by a deep growl. "I guess Tucker just met your
friend." I chuckled. "Go on outside and tell them what happened.”
She said softly, with a quiet giggle. I stepped out of the tent to find
the huge brown bear sitting in front the door, blocking the way.
Tucker just looked at me with big round eyes not saying
anything. "Don't worry I freaked out." I said with a chuckle. The
bear looked at me with a snarl, and took a deep breath before
plopping himself down with a heavy thud, followed by a cloud of
dust, in front the tent door. I could feel a sudden breath of ease
from Tucker. "Where's everyone else?" I asked looking around.
"Right there." He said pointing to a large cleared path that
suddenly appeared. "Wow, cool did you do that?" I asked. "Yup."
He said proudly, as everyone came filing out of the forest. Elder
Wolf came over to the bear and sat next to him, and although we
couldn't hear it, we could all tell that they were talking to each
other. "This is weird, how they can talk to animals." Tucker said leaning
over toward me.
"Tell me about it, sometimes I can hear them talking too." I said
with a raised brow.
"So you're crazy too...oh gosh my sister nuts." He laughed. "Shut
up Tucker, that's not funny." I snapped.
"Hey; you better watch out or she'll burn you, literally." Steve
laughed with a raised brow.
"Oh right I forgot about that." Tucker laughed back.
As the day slowly turned to evening, and the sun slowly
disappeared behind the mountain the air grew much, much colder.
Uncle Tom started to prepare dinner and it sure didn't smell very
good. Grandma and grandpa didn't come out of the tent, and
oddly enough no one asked for them either. I went to the tent
where Elder Wolf and the bear still sat talking to each other. I
slipped past the bears huge body and went into the tent.
Grandma and grandpa were still in the same position,
grandma laid on the bed sleeping and grandpa sat at her side on
the floor. "Grandpa, dinner's almost done." I said softly. "Oh, yeah
dinner. I almost forgot." He said, trying to hurry to stand up but he
too seemed so frail and out of energy; he had a very hard time getting up. I helped him up by his arm, and he hurried out of the
tent, I just stood at the entrance looking at grandma.
"Oh no Thomas, what are you doing?" Grandpa snarled at
uncle Tom. "Well; hey at least I'm trying. David's just sitting there
playing with his sticks. Uncle Tom argued back. "Move, move I'll
fix this." Grandpa sai
d smelling the atrocious concoction on the
fire. Everyone laughed as grandpa quickly pushed uncle Tom
away from the food, while shaking his head disappointed.
"Mia." Grandma called out. "Yes grandma." I said as I went
back to her bed side. "Soon my dear; your grandfather and I will
go to be with the gods, because it is now yours and your brothers
turn to take our place among the people of our tribes. We will give
our place in this world for you two to have yours." She said sadly.
"What no; you can't, none of you can." I demanded. "I've lost
you both once before grandma and I refuse to lose you again." I
said, as the warmth in my face grew and tears began to build in
my eyes. "I won't let you go grandma." I said, allowing the tears to
flow freely down my cheeks. "I'm sorry my dear Mia; my Mia, but
you don't have a choice." She said softly.
She moved closer to the edge of the bed finding the small box
that was glowing earlier. She took out the golden canister which held the scrolls. She pulled out one of the scrolls and turned it
over, showing me a blank piece of paper. "What is this, it's blank."
I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "No; Mia it's not. Grab that
mirror over there and the bowl on the table." She said as she
pointed them out.
I got the mirror and the bowl, that had a little water in it from
the table, and sat back at her side. "Look again Mia." She said, as
she put her finger in the water and touched the paper. Words
began to slowly appear, as the water from her finger seeped into
the paper; but I couldn't make out what it said. I sat there with a
confused look on my face. "Here." She said, as she took the
mirror and placed the paper in front of it. Slowly I could make out
some words:
You will follow the path laid in front of you by the light of the red
moon,
"Wow." I said, leaning back a little with an intrigued smile.
“This is a trick to these scrolls Mia, a trick that no one but me and
now you, know. You are not to show any one; not Jon or even
Tucker." She said, as she re-rolled the scrolls together and placed
them back into the canister. She handed me the mirror and the
canister with a smile. "This is now yours, this is the only mirror that can show you the words." She said. I grabbed them without a
questions and looked at her.
"I won't show a single soul." I agreed, sticking the canister
