Nykara

by Katie Holland

  The area:

  - thick forest, not well hiked

  - some kind of deep ravine

  - small river at the bottom of it

  - tall waterfall, maybe 75 feet, ends in a pool that becomes shallow to the shores

  - behind the waterfall is a cave, it’s long, quite narrow and very dark

  The man:

  - short brown hair

  - was wearing a red t-shirt, khaki cargo shorts, and hiking boots

  - maybe was 6’ tall

  - I’d guess his age to be in the mid 40’s

  First woman:

  - shoulder length dark blond hair

  - light blue t-shirt with a logo on it, a black jacket tied around the waist, jean capris and tennis shoes

  - height, about 5’7”

  - early 20’s

  Second woman:

  - long light brown hair in a ponytail

  - pale yellow tank top with white stripes, grey shorts, and walking sandals

  - short, maybe 5’ 1”

  - 30ish

  Oh, I almost forgot to mention the freakiest thing of all. In the dream, I hurt my ankle in the river and when I woke up it was sore in real life!!! What kind of freaky weird crap is that! I have to talk to Natalie and Rick about that ASAP.

  In the last two dreams, the woman knew I was the Kaelneth, how is that possible??? Ahh! I’m getting so frustrated. I don’t know what to do. How can I help someone I don’t even know? How can we figure out who these people are? Why does it have to be me? Now that’s the big question. I was just an ordinary girl and now I’m supposed to save the world? Haha universe, very funny. Maybe if I had grown up in the Nykara world I would be more ok with this but as it is I’m still freaking out about that. If my mother thought I was special I wonder, why she thought it was better for me to know nothing about magic until I turned seventeen. I think I would have been better prepared to see what was possible with magic. Maybe she knew something and didn’t share it with anyone, but I guess I’ll never know.

  Alix closed her journal with a sigh. Looking at her clock she saw that it was still before 6:00, way too early on a Saturday morning. She decided to read. She reached to grab her eReader off her nightstand and as she did she saw the letter from her mother. Alix picked it up and held it in her hands. As she did she felt that this was the right time to read it. She unfolded it and started reading.

  My Dearest, Sweet Alix,

  I want to start by saying the two most important things that you need to hear. The first is we love you so much. You were the best thing to ever happen to us. The second is that we are so sorry to have to leave you. It was the hardest decision of our lives and I hope you can forgive us for leaving you. Heather and Ted are the most wonderful people and I know they’ll be great parents and treat you like you’re their own. The next thing I want to say is Happy Birthday my sweet baby. I knew you were special from the moment I found out I was pregnant with you. I’m not sure what you will be to the Nykara people, but I know you are destined for greatness. I can feel it in my bones.

  I also want to apologize for having you grow up not knowing anything about your heritage. I’ve asked Heather to keep all information about your past from you until you come into your magic. Please don’t be mad at her when she tells you. I want you to grow up like a normal kid because if my dreams are correct you will have your share of tough times after you turn seventeen. My dreams. I’m trying to decide how much to tell you about them. I hope you don’t inherit my vision-like dreams but if you do please don’t ignore them, the consequences of that could be disastrous. My dreams are the reason we are leaving you with our dearest friends and have to go into hiding. When I came into my powers I occasionally had dreams that seemed so real it was like I was actually there. I mentioned them to my mom one day and it turns out that she has them too. It guesses it has been in our lineage for many generations so more than likely you’ll have them as well. The dreams regarding you and your future first started a couple of months after I found out I was going to have a baby. They were pretty vague at first but started getting very real and I couldn’t ignore them. We cut off all contact with anyone we knew, even our parents, quit our jobs and moved away. It almost killed me to not tell Heather what was going on, but she knew nothing about the Nykara world and we are not supposed to tell humans anything about us. I knew she would worry about me, but your safety was the most important thing to us at the time. My dreams were telling me that when you came into your magic the Grynn would always be after you, they want to destroy you. That terrified me. I didn’t understand why they wanted you only that you were going to be in danger. I knew not to ignore these dreams in particular. After you were born we secretly had your name changed and had documents made that showed you were born to Heather and Ted. I haven’t even asked them to take you yet, but I know they will. We are the kind of friends that would do anything for each other even if we didn’t totally understand why.

  So that’s why we left you as a baby. We will be going into hiding after that so that you can’t be traced back to us. I hope that one day we’ll be able to see you again but at this moment I just can’t tell what the future holds. I know that when I leave you I’ll be leaving a piece of my heart behind as well. Please forgive me for leaving you before you could get to know us, but it was the only way to ensure you would grow up at all. Heather has a photo album for you. I hope you can see how much we loved each other and you. You are the most beautiful baby in the entire world and I know you’ll grow up to be a stunning young woman. I will miss you every day of my life.

  Love,

  Mom

  Alix had held it together until the very end of the letter. Her mother’s words mixed with the tear-stained paper were too much. She ended up sobbing. The next thing she knew her mom was wrapping her arms around her and holding her tight.

  “What’s wrong honey?”

  Even though her mom’s arms were comforting it still took Alix a little bit to be able to answer.

  “I had a crazy dream and woke up early. Then I decided to read the letter that my mother wrote to me. It was all just too much, and I got so sad. I just couldn’t hold it in anymore.”

  “Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “I need to talk about it alright, but with everyone. Everyone needs to know about the dream and there was something in my mother’s letter that is important as well. I know it’s really early, but can you call Natalie and Tami and ask them to bring anyone with them that they think could help us. I wouldn’t ask unless I had to.”

  “Sure Alix, let me just wake your dad up and we’ll get dressed.”

  “Thanks, mom. You’re the greatest you know that, right?”

  Her mom smiled at her as she left the room.

  Chapter 30

  Alix had a quick shower and waited for everyone to get there. She was extremely restless. She made coffee, ate a granola bar, grabbed her journal and still no one had arrived. Once making the decision to tell everyone what was going on with her she was anxious to get on with it. She was pacing in the kitchen when her dad came in, which was kind of difficult considering her ankle was still hurting.

  “Are you alright Alix?” he asked her.

  “Yes, no, maybe, I don’t know.”

  “Okay honey. Why are you limping? Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  “No. I just wish everyone would hurry up and get here. I’ll explain why I’m limping later.”

  “Well, I’m here if you need me kiddo.” Her dad hugged her, and she gave him a great big hug back.

  “Thanks, dad.”

  Alix tried to calm herself down. Deep breaths weren’t helping so she went to her room and got her eReader. She went back to the living room and tried to concentrate on her book. She just ended up staring at the same page, so she set it down. She looked at the clock, it was 6:45 am. She knew she should give everyone a break since it was so early, but she couldn’t seem to sit still. She was driving hers
elf crazy. She got her phone and texted Shay:

  Alix: Are you up yet?

  She didn’t get an immediate response, but it was fairly quick.

  Shay: Yes, no thanks to you

  Alix: Sorry, but it’s really important. Where are you?

  Just then she heard people at the door. She got up and ran to the door as best she could. It was everyone she was waiting for. Ben, Natalie, Rick, Shay and her mom. But to her surprise, Miss Fay and Mr. Rollins were there as well.

  Heather took everyone to the living room and offered them coffee. Alix stopped Ben before he went into the other room.

  “Why are they here?”

  “Your mom made it sound urgent, so we thought we could use all the help we could get. Should they not be here?”

  “Um, I guess it’s fine. I know I said to bring help but it’s still weird to include more people. And even weirder to have teachers in my house.”

  “It’ll be okay Alix, everyone here is on your side.”

  Ben took Alix’s hand and they walked into the living room. She noticed that his touch didn’t make her skin tingle this time, but it seemed to calm her a little instead.

  “Why are you limping?” he whispered to her.

  “I’ll explain that in a bit. It’s part of what I need to tell everyone.”

  They had all made it to the living room and were sitting waiting for Alix. Everyone was looking a little confused and curious. Ben sat down beside his parents. Alix decided to stand, she was still too restless to sit.

  “Hey, thanks for coming on super short notice, I know it’s really early on a Saturday and I’m sure you’d still like to be in bed, but I have some things to tell you that I think you need to know.”

  Alix started by telling everyone about her first dream and the woman. Then went on with the second dream. She put as much detail into it as she could. Next, she told them about the dreams her mother had and the family lineage of the vision dreams. By the time Alix was done she felt a little better but needed to rest her ankle so she sat down on one of the chairs that had been brought in from the kitchen. They all sat quietly for a minute digesting what Alix said and then the questions started from almost everyone.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Alix yelled. “I can’t understand everyone at once. One person at a time please.” Ben raised his hand. It made her giggle to herself. She felt like a teacher with an unruly class. “Okay Ben, go ahead.”

  “So, you said you hurt your ankle in the river when you were dreaming and you’re limping now. Did you hurt it this morning after you woke up? Seems like that would be an awfully big coincidence.”

  “Actually, and this is really freaking me out, when I woke up from the dream my ankle was hurting, the same one I hurt while dreaming. I know it sounds crazy. I mean how can you hurt yourself in a dream and it still be hurting in reality? But that seems to be what happened.”

  Alix looked at Natalie, Rick, Miss Fay and Mr. Rollins. If anyone had an idea if it was possible it would be one of them. It was Mr. Rollins that spoke up.

  “May I heal your ankle before we go any further?”

  “Oh, um, sure. It would be nice for it to stop hurting.”

  Mr. Rollins went over to her, knelt down and put his hands on her ankle. In no time at all, it had stopped hurting.

  “That is so amazing. Thank you, Mr. Rollins.”

  “Alix, please call me Mike. That goes for you too Ben and Shay. It seems like all of are going to be spending more time together and Mr. Rollins is too formal. Except at school, I’m still Mr. Rollins there.”

  “Okay Mike,” Alix laughed. “Sorry, just seems a little strange. It’ll take some getting used to.”

  “And you might as well call me Karin,” Miss Fay said. “I agree with Mike, only formal titles at school.”

  “So back to Alix getting hurt in her dream,” Ben said to the crowd. “Has anyone ever heard of that happening before?”

  Everyone just shook their heads.

  “So, what does that mean?” Ben asked no one in particular. “I don’t understand how that could happen?”

  “Well,” Rick started, “as it seems that no one here has ever heard about something like this or knows how that could happen, it must be because you’re the Chosen One. We’ve already discovered you can do things that no one else has ever done so I guess we can expect more surprises when it comes to you, Alix. I’m sorry that’s not the answer you were looking for. But it looks like you’ll need to be more careful in your dreams though.”

  Alix had to get something off her chest. “I know you still probably have a lot of questions but there is something that’s been bugging more than anything else. Who are the people in my dream and why do they need help? Ben, did you happen to bring the drawing we did of the woman from the first dream?”

  “Actually yes. It’s right here.”

  “Pass it around to everyone,” Alix told him. “Please tell me if you recognize her.”

  Each person had a good look at the drawing.

  “She looks rather familiar to me,” Karin noted.

  “Really Miss Fay? I mean Karin,” Alix quickly corrected herself.

  “Yes, but I can’t quite place her. Do you have more information about your dreams about what they look like?”

  “I wrote down a description of each of them. Let me get it,” Alix found the right page in her journal and read what she had written.

  “Read those again please,” Ben asked her.

  His tone made her look at him. She couldn’t figure out the look on his face. Alix read the descriptions of the three people again. After she was done Ben got up and started walking around the living room mumbling to himself.

  “What is it?” Alix asked.

  “I think I might know who they are. Alix, our English project, the missing hikers from Yellowstone. Do you have a copy of our project here?”

  “Uh, yeah, hang on.” Alix ran to her room, grateful her ankle was healed, and found her copy of their English project. She handed it to Ben.

  “Here look,” he said. “Pictures of the hikers the day they each went missing.”

  Alix went over and looked at the pictures. She was speechless. It was all three people from her dream. In an instant, she knew what was going on. She was having trouble containing all her thoughts in her head. She started pacing and muttering to herself.

  Ben came over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “Alix, relax. Tell us what’s going on in your head.”

  Once again Ben’s touch helped to calm her down. She was able to put her thoughts in order and let everyone know what she had figured out.

  “Okay, sorry everyone. I just figured out something and it shocked me, and my brain went into overload. So as Ben guessed, the three people in my dreams are the hikers that went missing from Yellowstone in the summer. The woman in my dream is Samantha Warren. There were pictures of them in the English project we did. Speaking of which, Karin, why did you give that particular story to us? Seems like kind of a coincidence.”

  “When I pulled the stories out of the paper I just had a feeling that the two of you should work on that one.”

  “Fair enough. Seems like there are greater forces at work here. So anyway, they are the missing hikers, I recognized their clothing as soon as I saw the pictures. That in itself was a revelation but then I realized what the dreams really meant. This is real, they are real people, they are really missing, and they really need to be found. And it’s my job to find them. What I don’t understand is why? And who took them? And why those three people? Oh, and I guess a million other questions as well.”

  Alix had started pacing again as she was talking. After her mini-rant she sat down feeling defeated. She looked at the faces of everyone in the room and it didn’t look like had any more of a clue than she did. What are we going to do now she thought to herself?

  Chapter 31

  “So, what are we going to do now?” Ben asked the room.

  Alix looked at him sharply. She didn
’t think that mind reading was a Nykara trait, but Ben had said exactly what she was thinking.

  No one answered him. It was clear that they had no idea either. Alix only had one answer for what to do when she couldn’t figure out what to do; make a list.

  “So,” Alix said to the room, “As many of you know I’m a big fan of lists,” Shay had to giggle at that, “And since I don’t know what to do or really what to start with, I think we should write down all of the questions we have and anything else we and think of, unless anyone else has any other ideas.”

  There was a chorus of “no” and “I can’t think of anything,” so Alix got a pen and her journal and made two lists. She wrote down everything that was called out.

  Questions:

  - Where are they?

  - How do we find them?

  - Who took them?

  - What kind of magic is keeping them in the sleep-like state?

  - Who are the three people?

  - How were they taken? Can’t just disappear.

  - Was there any evidence left behind?

  - Can we save them?

  - What magic will we need?

  - Does Alix have to go alone?

  Suggestions:

  - We’ll need help to locate the place in the dream.

  - Find out more about them, might help to figure out why they were taken

  - Research other cases similar to this

  After they got a few things down on paper they decided that the number one thing they needed to do was figure out where the missing hikers were and find them. The rest of the issues were secondary. While all of them hiked casually none of them knew the area well enough to find any specific areas. They knew they had to get a bunch of maps. They weren’t completely sure where they might be, but everyone figured they were within 100 miles of Yellowstone.