Hidden Destiny

Chapter 1

The room was filled with an eerie mist. The sweet scent of tobacco and old leather invaded my nostrils. It made me think of the summers I spent with my uncle in Alabama. I looked around the room trying to figure out where I was. It was obviously not my bedroom; the lack of clothes lying on the floor made that obvious. The bed was a small with handmade tribal blankets on it. The wall directly across from where I was sitting in the bed had a painting of an elderly proud Indian Chief. His eyes portrayed strength and wisdom. "Where the hell am I?" I cautiously got walked over to the bedroom door; I tripped on the long lavender night gown I was wearing, so not my normal pajamas, sports bra and baggy pajama bottoms. I tried to open the door, and found that I was locked in. Panic began to set in. Am I the hostage of some deranged psycho? Have I been kidnapped? How am I going to get out?

A deep confident male voice interrupted my panic, “Be still my child; you are safe. A great darkness has fallen upon the people. The evil one is coming. Your time has come. Areskoui asks that you would help us in our time of need. Very few times have the Sky People asked for help. We are very proud, but now we are humbly asking that you help us Earth Child.”

“What are you talking about? I have no idea who the Sky People are, or who Areskoui is. I am no one great. I am just a teenage girl. My biggest wars are deciding what to wear in the morning, and trying not to be the dorkiest kid in the school. What do you expect me to do?" I waited for an answer. Nothing. I shouted my question again, but again I received no reply. Whoever had been speaking to me was now gone. I tried to open the door again, and this time it opened.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Beep, beep, beep ….. I reached over to the night stand next to my bed, searching for the evil thing called an alarm clock. Fumbling with the alarm clock, I finally managed to turn it off. Was it already 6:30? I really don’t want to get up. I thought about the weird dream that I had. Wow, I guess I better stay away from burritos before bed! Then I noticed that my shoulders were burning, so I walked to the mirror that hung on the back of my closet door, and I turned around so I could look at my shoulders. My shoulders and back were tattooed with a large black wing on each side. My mom is so going to kill me. I quickly tired to rub them off, but they did not show any signs of lightening. I was running late, so I grabbed my favorite hoodie, a soft, over sized pink fleece, and finished getting ready for school.

“Zoey, you're going to be late. Hurry up!” my mother called.

“I’m coming.” I yelled as I was running down the stairs.

“Zoey, are you really going to wear that to school? Really, don’t you want to wear something a little more girly? You know, like a skirt or something, anything but that hoodie and those jeans.”

“Mom, really, it’s the middle of October, and it’s cold outside. Not everyone can dress like you can. Anyways, like you said, I’m going to be late for school. I don’t have time to change.”

“Okay, you’re off the hook for today, but tomorrow is another story.”

Just then a car horn sounded. “That’s David, I have to go mom. Love ya, and I will see you later.” My mom waved as she told me to have a good day.

David was waiting in his old beat up blue car. It had seen many better days before he came to own it. David’s black hair was gelled forward like it was every day, and the sunlight made his beautiful tan skin seem to glow. He looked at me with his deep brown eyes. He was average height, muscular, but a little on the skinny side. His high cheek bones spoke of his Native American ancestry. His one imperfection was his nose; it looked like it had been broken a few too many times with a large hump in the middle, but it was one of my favorite parts about him. It reminded me that he was human.

“You look like you have had a rough morning,” he commented.

“You have no idea what kind of morning I've had! How would you feel about ditching today? I so need to figure something out. I figured we could drive up to the Seneca reservation.”

“Zoey, what in the world are you talking about? You know our parents would kill us, and your mom is a little more lenient than mine! Can’t you wait until after school? I can drive you up to the Res then. It's only an hour drive.”

“You don’t understand. Something really weird is happening. Pull over and I’ll show you.”

David pulled off the small country road, and looked at me questioningly. “Okay, are you going to show me what is so important or what?”

I hesitated, and told him to turn around. When I was sure that he wasn’t looking, I took off my hoodie and took my shirt off. I covered my chest with my discarded clothing and told him to look at my back.

David turned around and found my bare back facing him. My olive skin was tattooed with large black wings. I shifted uncomfortably.

“When did you decide to get that?” he asked full of surprise.

“You are so not going to believe me,” I sighed, “but you are the only person I know who might be able to help me. So, here it goes.”

“O just go on, I promise I won’t laugh, until you are done.”

“Shut up. Okay, so I had this dream last night. I was locked in this strange room. I was trying to figure out how to get out when a voice started talking to me.”

“Well, what did this ‘strange voice’ have to say?” he asked in his smooth alto voice.

“It said something about a war and a great evil coming. It said that some guy, Aireesoki or something….”

“You mean Areskoui?’ he interrupted.

“Yea that’s it. Now, let me finish. He said that Areskoui, needed my help. He said the Sky People were asking for me to help, but he called me Earth Child. I woke up and I had freakin’ wings tattooed on my back! That makes it a little more than just some dream, and I think it is a worthy excuse to skip school!”

David was silent for a moment. I searched for any clue to what he was thinking in his face, but he had always kept his emotions so well hidden, and I couldn’t tell. I began to worry that he thought I was crazy. Maybe he thought that I had gone to Hopper's party over the weekend, got really messed up, and didn’t remember that I had gotten the tattoo. However, I had been grounded over the weekend, and my mom wouldn’t let me go anywhere. When he did reply he was calm but very serious.

“Zoey, this is a really big deal. I’m going to take you to see my mom first, and then we will see if we need to go to the Res. There have only been a few times that the Sky People have ever marked a human. I had always thought they were just stories! But, you have the mark, and Areskoui is the Great Spirit. This is totally worthy of a day of ditching.”

“Why do we have to go see your mom? She won’t believe me., and she doesn’t like me anyways. Can’t we just go to the Res and talk to the elders?”

“No, we can’t just go to the Res, and we are going to see my mom; she knows our People’s legends. She will know whether or not you should go to see the elders, or if there is another way. If you go see the elders, you may not be allowed to leave the reservation, especially since you are not Seneca.”