Nykara

by Katie Holland

  “What is it?” Shay asked her.

  “I can’t ever see who is ahead of us, just a glance here and there. I don’t know what’s going on. If someone needs help why are they running?”

  “Maybe we should get out of here.”

  “Maybe you're right, I’m starting to have a bad feeling. Let’s find our way back to the trail.”

  When the girls turned around to go back they both screamed. There was a woman standing there. She was dirty and looked like she’d been wearing the same clothes forever.

  The words that came out of her mouth were just as shocking as her appearance. “Kaelneth, we need your help. Please find us. They have us held prisoner. You’re the only one who can help. Time is running out. I have to go.” Then she turned around and ran off.

  Alix woke up with a start. The dream was so real. She looked at the clock, it was still a few hours before she had to get up for school. She laid back down and closed her eyes. The dream came back to her like it was a memory. The whole dream was unusual but more than anything it was the woman in the dream that was bugging her. She seemed somehow familiar, but Alix couldn’t figure it out. Eventually, she was able to fall back to sleep.

  ****

  As Alix was getting ready the next morning she still couldn’t get the dream out of her head. She made Shay’s coffee when she made her own as she expected her to walk in the door soon. She wanted to talk to both of them about the dream. A few minutes later Shay was there, and Alix didn’t waste any time getting out to the car.

  “Hey guys, I need to tell you something. I had the strangest dream last night. It was so real, like the cabin dreams were. It started out with me and Shay hiking. We entered a clearing and we thought we heard someone yell help. We decided to get out of there but as we were headed back into the trees I saw a glimpse of someone and then we heard a scream. I started running toward the person. We tried to follow them but could never catch up. We were far in the woods and decided to go back as we were both kind of scared. We turned around and there was a woman there, it’s like she appeared out of nowhere. Then she said, and I quote, “Kaelneth, we need your help. Please find us. They have us held prisoner. You’re the only one who can help. Time is running out. I have to go.” Then she was gone. But what was even stranger is that she seemed so familiar. Like I’ve seen her before, but I can’t figure out where. It was really weird.”

  Ben and Shay were quiet for a minute while they processed what Alix said.

  “So, what do you think this means?” Shay asked.

  “Well,” Ben said, “I don’t think we should ignore it. Dreams can have serious meaning in the Nykara world. Just look at your dream about getting your tattoo. Also, because you’re the Kaelneth it could have even more meaning. Or it could be a vision.”

  “A vision? What do you mean?” Alix was curious about this because it reminded her a little of her mother’s letter.

  “Some Nykara, not very many mind you, have been known to have visions of the future or current things happening far away from them. I wish we knew more about your parents.”

  “Why?”

  “Maybe someone in your family lineage had visions or something like that. Your dreams are not normal, for a Nykara or a human.”

  “Well … there’s something I need to tell you then. My biological mother left a letter, well two letters actually. One for my mom and one for me. I haven’t read the one for me yet, but I did read the other one. She told my mom why they left me. She had some dreams that she couldn’t ignore that I was going to be in danger if they kept me. She believed them enough for her to give me up to keep me safe.”

  “Then we certainly can’t ignore your dreams,” Ben told her.

  “Okay, so what are we going to do?” Shay asked.

  “I think we need to figure out who the woman is,” Alix decided. “I really feel like I should know who she is. It’s what’s stuck in my head the most.”

  “So, we start there. Do you think you could describe her? Maybe I could try and draw her,” Ben said.

  “Maybe. It’s worth a shot. Let’s plan to do that after school. We’d better get inside. The bell is going to ring soon.”

  The rest of the day went by like a normal school day. No surprises or new revelations. Alix was looking forward to the end of the day, so they could start figuring out who the woman from her dream was.

  They went to Ben’s house after school. They figured his parents needed to know what Alix told them that morning and Ben needed his art stuff in order to try to draw the woman from her dream. Alix and Shay went to the kitchen to talk to Natalie and Rick while Ben ran upstairs to get what he needed. By the time he got downstairs, Alix had filled in his parents. They agreed that they had to find out who the woman was. Natalie got them a snack while Ben got his stuff laid out.

  “So, Alix,” Ben said, “I’ve never tried to do this before and portraits aren’t really my thing but I’m hoping between the two of us we can get something resembling her. So, you just start describing her and I’ll direct you as needed.”

  Alix wasn’t sure where to start but eventually, she got going. It took a while to even get anything that looked like a person. This was going to take longer than they thought. Natalie called Alix’s mom and invited them over for dinner. Alix and Ben continued to work on the drawing while Natalie made dinner. Shay got bored and decided to help Natalie.

  By the time Alix’s parents arrived dinner was almost ready, and the drawing of the woman was close to being done as well. Ben took a few minutes to finish it up and gave it to Alix. She thought they’d done a very good job. It had taken a few hours, but it was worth it. Everyone sat down for dinner and Alix told her parents about her dream. She knew they would make the connection to her mother. Before they started eating Alix showed the drawing to everyone. No one could say who she was. Her dad thought she looked familiar but couldn’t place who she was either.

  Alix and her parents went home. Alix had some homework she needed to do before she went to bed. She had to admit she was disappointed that they didn’t figure out who she was. She knew the woman’s identity was the key to her dream.

  ****

  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all the same. No dreams and no closer to figuring out who the woman was. Alix was so frustrated about that by Friday that Ben decided they all needed ice cream. After school, they went to get Shay’s sister and went to Lyla’s. They missed their monthly ice cream outing due to Alix’s training last week. While they were waiting for Alana to get home they all texted their parents to let them know what they were doing.

  They went to Lyla’s and asked for the ice creams of the week. Today they were chocolate chip cookie dough, peanut butter, raspberry chocolate swirl, and lavender. They all got two scoops with the fixings. Alix got raspberry chocolate swirl and chocolate chip cookie dough. Shay got chocolate and peanut butter. Alana wanted vanilla and raspberry chocolate swirl. Only Ben was brave enough to try the lavender and he paired it with vanilla. As usual, the ice cream was fabulous. Alix convinced Ben to let her try a little of the lavender. It was surprisingly good. Alana started telling them stories and was making them laugh, it was exactly what they needed.

  Ben took everyone home. Alix was looking forward to family movie night as it was her night to pick out the movies. Alix’s dad brought home pizza and they settled down to watch the first movie. As usual, after it was done it was popcorn time.

  “Mom, dad, I want to show you something.”

  Alix took out three bowls and put some popcorn kernels in each of them. She focused her energy and started popping the kernels using magic. It made her giggle as she was doing it. And the look on her parent’s faces was even funnier. Three bowls of popcorn were popped within seconds instead of the twenty minutes it normally took. She was able to melt the butter without the microwave as well. It was a lot of fun to be able to do that. She kept smiling to herself about it all through the second movie.

  After the movie, she decided to catch
up on some reading before she went to bed. With everything that had happened, she hadn’t had much of a chance to read and she missed it. Eventually, she was tired enough to sleep. She was thinking about her book as she drifted off.

  Chapter 29

  Alix was hiking in the forest again, except this time she knew it was a dream. Just knowing that made her feel better. She wanted answers, so she hiked to the clearing. She waited for a sound or movement, something to tell her what to do. She sat and waited for what seemed like forever and nothing happened. She decided to go looking for something, but she had no idea what direction to start with. She wondered if magic worked in the dream world, so she thought she’d try it. She went to the middle of the clearing and pulled some energy into herself from the forest around her. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, she was just winging it. She took the energy and kind of flung it outward to see what it hit. She had no clue if it would work but anything was worth a try. To her surprise, she felt something, almost like a tug on a string. She had no idea what it was, but she started walking in that direction. The feeling didn’t go away when she started walking but got stronger the farther she went. The forest was really dense, and it was hard to walk through it. She was so busy trying to get through the thick trees she almost fell down a huge embankment. Alix went to her left and the tug lessened. She went right, and the same thing happened. She figured that meant she had to find a way down. She wasn’t exactly athletic, so she hoped she didn’t break her neck on the way down. She tried to walk down and ended up falling on her butt. After trying and failing two more times she decided to sit and slide down. It was a lot further than she thought but she finally made it to the bottom, only to discover there was a river. The river was only about six feet wide and on the other side, the bank was just as steep as the one she’d just come down. She felt the tug to the left, so she waded into the river and headed that way. The bottom of the river was covered in very slippery, slimy rocks. She was trying to be very careful, but she slipped and fell. She went to get up and almost fell again. She’d hurt her ankle. At least it was only a dream. She thought she’d wake up after that but since she was still dreaming she guessed she had something else to learn. Alix found a long stick to help her walk. She hobbled down the creek at a very slow pace. Eventually, she came to a waterfall. She couldn’t believe it, there was no way she was going down there, she would die for sure. Alix was frustrated. She found a large rock to sit on. Her ankle hurt but at least the cold water had a numbing effect on it. She had to focus. The pain in her ankle had preoccupied her thoughts and she was losing the tug on the string. She closed her eyes and felt for the pull. It was ahead of her, towards the waterfall. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” she said to the air. She walked over to the waterfall, it had to be at least seventy-five feet down. There was no way around and jumping was out of the question. “There has to be a way. Maybe magic is the answer because I don’t know what else to do.” She thought about it. Even if flying was an option she didn’t know how to do it. She could move the water but that still left the long drop. She needed stairs or an elevator, a smooth way down. Alix finally decided it had to be the water that would get her down, nothing else made sense to her. But what could she do to the water that would allow her to get to the bottom? She didn’t think freezing it would work, it would be too slippery to get down. Maybe if she could slow it down, but even then, how would she get down? “Think, Alix, think.” If she could walk better, she’d be pacing. She was going to try freezing the water just to see if she could do it. She focused the energy and put her fingers on the river pointing towards the waterfall. Slowly the water started getting thicker and then turned to ice. Okay, so she could do it but how was that going to help her get down? “Come on brain think of something!” If she could make it like a slide maybe she’d be able to get to the bottom. She knew it was going to take a lot of concentration is she was going to make a seventy-five-foot slide. She closed her eyes and got a mental picture of what she wanted it to look like. She had it stretch out so that the descent would be slower. Now that she had a solid picture she took the energy from around her and put it into the water. She felt the river and waterfall harden into ice and take the shape she wanted. Alix opened her eyes and hobbled to the edge of the waterfall. She was amazed at what she had done. It was a giant ice slide. She wished she wasn’t dreaming and that someone was there to see it. Now it was time to go down it. She was sure it was going to be slippery and she was still unsure on how fast it would be, so she used her magic to grow a vine that was long enough to get her to the bottom. She grabbed the vine and sat on the end of the waterfall slide. Slowly she lowered herself down to the bottom. She was ecstatic when she reached the end. “That was so cool!” She got to her feet, turned the ice back into the water and made her way to the edge of the river. There was a small shore on each side, the rocky cliff sides were now behind her. She started walking and realized she didn’t know which way to go. Having to use all of her concentration to get over the waterfall she had lost the object she was seeking. Once again, she flung her energy out searching for that feeling. She was able to pick it up a lot faster this time. She was confused when she felt the tug behind her. She slowly turned until she felt the tug directly in front of her. She was staring at the waterfall. “There’s no way I’m going back up there. Why can’t I just wake up already?” Alix was pretty sure that she would wake up when she learned what she needed to know. Feeling a little frustrated again she found a large rock to sit on. As she was contemplating what to do next she heard a voice, it sounded like her name. She listened closely, and she heard it again.

  “Alix”

  “Who’s there?”

  “Alix, please help us. You have to find us. You’re so close.”

  “Who are you? Where are you? What do you want with me?” Alix yelled to the forest around her. She waited but didn’t get a reply. What she did get was a very strong tug on the line connecting her to whatever it was that she was sensing. She was surprised to find that it wasn’t coming from the top of the waterfall but possibly behind the waterfall itself. She picked up her walking stick and very carefully walked closer to the base of the waterfall. She got as close as she safely could and stopped. It wasn’t possible to walk through it and she was pretty sure trying to swim under it was a bad idea. She thought for a moment and figured that if she could turn the water into ice she should be able to move the water. She tried parting the water like a curtain. It was harder than turning to ice, but she managed to do it. Behind the waterfall was a cave. “One surprise after another,” she muttered to herself. Guessing some answers lay in that cave she proceeded to walk through the water curtain. There was a set of steps leading up to the cave. She gingerly walked up the steps to the entrance. It was pitch black in the cave. Since she had learned how to make a ball of light in her hand she quickly made one. She was extremely cautious entering the mouth of the cave as she didn’t know what to expect but glad that her light allowed her to see a few feet in front of her. The cave was long and skinny, and the walls were very smooth. She walked for at least five minutes and wondered if she was in the right place. She felt the tug and knew she was close. When she finally came across something she was stunned. There were three people lying on the floor of the cave. They were all laying on their backs. They looked dead, Alix hoped they weren’t. She got closer to them and could see their chests moving ever so slightly. That relieved her a little. There were two women and one man. All looked to be in their twenties or thirties. She used her walking stick to poke at the man’s feet. He didn’t move. She did the same to the first woman and also got no response. She moved over to the other woman and gasped. It was the woman from her last dream. She knew it wasn’t a coincidence. This was another clue to the puzzle. Alix bent down and shook the woman’s shoulder. No response at all. She wished she had her cell phone to take pictures but then again, she guessed that wouldn’t work in a dream anyway. She was staring at the face of the second woman when sudden
ly her eyes opened, and she said “You have to find us. We are running out of time.”

  Alix opened her eyes and looked at her clock. It was 5:02 on Saturday morning, so unfair. But after that dream, there was no way she was going back to sleep. She knew the dream was significant, but she wasn’t sure why. She decided to write down as many details as she could remember in her journal. She got out of bed and almost fell on the floor. Her ankle was killing her when she tried to put weight on it, the same ankle she’d hurt in her dream. She started to panic a little. She made herself take a few deep breaths to calm down. How could it be possible to be hurt in a dream and still be hurt when she woke up? She had questions that she couldn’t answer. She knew it was too early to wake everyone up but as soon as she thought she could she was calling an emergency meeting with everyone that morning. Alix got her journal and went back to her bed. She was going to keep her foot up while she wrote.

  Oct 15

  It’s been a while since I wrote anything, and a lot has happened since my last entry. To sum everything up, on my birthday I became a magical being called a Nykara. I’m freaking magical! I can still hardly believe it. Ben and his family are also Nykara. I found out that mom and dad aren’t my biological parents. My biological parents left me with them in order to keep me safe and then had to disappear. Oh, and not only am I magical I’m what they call the Kaelneth or the Chosen One! That means I have to save the world, um yeah, I don’t think so. Then I spent a week learning how to use my new-found abilities. I was able to learn in a week what it takes most Nykara months or even years. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked. Some of the things I learned were super cool.

  But the real reason I’m writing now is about the dreams. I now know that certain dreams I have are more than just ordinary. They are almost like a vision. Some parts of them are real and to be honest it’s kind of scary. I know they’re important even if I don’t quite know why yet, so I want to record some details in case they’re needed. With the help of Ben, I already have a drawing of the woman from my first dream. She was in the second one too, but I want to remember as much as I can so I’m writing it down while it’s still fresh in my mind.