Ch 4: Sharing

(runes) are the actual runes that they saw in their dreams. The font didn't transfer to WDC.



Chapter 4–Sharing

         Jena sat on the wooden deck at the back of her country home and gazed toward the ivy that climbed along the shed beside the greenhouse. Flower gardens and creeping ground ivy grew along the front of the buildings and along the patio stones leading to the house. A white picket fence enclosed the yard, to keep Caleigh, as a child, safe from cars and bordered both the driveway and the vegetable garden, behind the greenhouses. At times Jena wished she could always keep her only daughter protected behind a fence and snuggled in her arms; however, she knew that she couldn’t much longer. Her daughter would be sixteen this winter solstice.

         A fox ran behind the fence and tilted its head as it looked in her direction then disappeared behind the shed.

         Knowing her promise to protect her daughter from the family’s heritage, she shivered at the thought of the signs beginning to appear. Could she be wrong? Maybe it was just her imagination, or had she been waiting for so long that she was merely reading the signs incorrectly? Did Caleigh comprehend the symbols she had been drawing in her journal? The last time Jena had written in the ancient lettering, her daughter was only a few months old. She recalled it as if it were yesterday. Jena had been hiding from her true self and could no longer hide the truth. Time had expired. It was Caleigh’s birthright--her true destiny.

         Caleigh sat on the bench beside her mother and leaned against the wooden planks. “Mom, I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s just ... there’s no excuse, I know, but there’s a reason.”

         Jena took her daughter’s hand firmly in her own. “Caleigh.” She paused for a few moments. “You have no reasons to apologize. I’m sorry. This morning, I’d been watching you for a while.” She twirled a strand of her long blond hair. “Were you aware that you were drawing with your left hand?”

         “I was? I didn’t know that. Well, those symbols, I saw them in a dream.”

         “A dream,” Jena repeated.

         “Yeah. I was in the field behind the house.” Caleigh paused and spun the plastic bracelets on her wrist. “I stumbled upon a bridge over Oak River. The current was strong, but I just had to cross. It felt so real. Like, if I had fallen through the bridge, I would have drowned for real. I fainted and then I woke up underneath a circle of trees. Those symbols were carved in the trunks.”

         Jena looked around the backyard. Her gaze focused on the violets growing along the cobblestones. She was quiet for a few moments. Symbols? What was Grams showing her? “Have you ever seen those letters before?” Her voice quivered. She wasn’t looking forward to the answer. In fact she dreaded her daughter’s words.

         “Not that I can remember. I was really scared. I followed a creature behind a boulder. It was a glittering red winged lizard. It spoke.”

         “Oh no...It can’t be time!” Jena clutched the arm of the bench and clenched her jaw. The fox darted out from behind the greenhouse and glanced toward the house. Jena noticed the animal and shivered. Its ears were lighter brown than the rest of his body, and only one was black tipped.

         “What? Time for what?” Caleigh pursed her lips and her eyes narrowed as she watched her mother.

         “Nothing. It’s nothing.” Jena jumped to her feet. “Caleigh, get ready, we’re going to Changing Seasons. We’re out of coconut and lavender bath salts.”

         She gazed out to the grass and flower beds. Her daughter’s voice mumbled in the background, but she didn’t acknowledge her. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled and the fox responded with a bark of its own. “Silly fox,” she muttered.

         With her hands clasped together, Jena whispered, “It is time. Time for her to know the truth.”

***

         “Hey!” A voice shouted.

         Blaine stirred and then stretched beneath the shadow of the maple tree. “What?” Sitting up, he wiped his eyes and raised his arms over his head.

         Brody dropped to the grass. “I love weekends. Mom always makes pancakes and bacon. I called you.”

         “Must be nice. I had toast. I’ve been home all morning, well, outside. Too bad I couldn’t hear the phone in the backyard. Oh well.” Blaine yawned and scratched his face. “What’s up?”

         “I had another dream last night. It was too real.” Brody glanced toward the raspberry thicket, not far from the river. “I’m gonna ask Alexis to help me find a book.”

         “You’re always dreaming, and I doubt a book will help you with answers. You just wanna see her.”

         Brody ignored his friend’s comment, placed his leather jacket on a rock, and proceeded to describe his dream.

         Blaine heard a few of his friend’s words while he described another dream of the cloaked chanting freaks. Wonder why they never talk to him in English but only in some ancient language that was probably long dead. Brody has been dreaming about them for years. No wonder he keeps a journal. How could he possibly remember them?

         “They were chanting, ‘It is time,’ and then I woke up.” Brody said.

         “You understand them, finally?” Blaine asked.

         “Yep, finally. It was so weird.” Brody chuckled and messed up his blond hair.

         Blaine, in turn, began describing his dream, also including long robed mysterious men. “I was gonna climb onto the roof, you know, to see better, but one of the guys looked at me and shook his head. It was too weird. I don’t think the others noticed me.”

         “In your dream?”

         “Yes, I was dreaming. It was so vivid, but I was asleep. And then this shadow thing appeared.”

         The two sat in silence, wrapped up in the memories of their dreams. Neither spoke until disturbed by the sudden flapping of a low passing flock of black birds that scattered in the sky. The eerie cry of a lone wolf echoed from the distant field, perhaps from across the river.

          Blaine faced the water, wondering if it could be the same wolf he had encountered the previous night. “Too strange, a wolf in the middle of the day and so close to town.” A grey wolf raced along the river.

         “I heard one last night,” Brody commented.

         “You did? Wonder if it was the same one.” Blaine messed up his dark bangs.

         “I bet ya,” Brody said.

         “I followed it along the river, to Kiera’s place.” He recognized the black fur across one side of the wolf’s face from his walk the previous night. He was sure of it. The wolf loped around the pair of apple trees.

         “The hottie from the coffee shop? You know, I think it was the same one. I’d never forget the black on its face.”

         Blaine grabbed a stick lying on the ground and drew into the loose gravel by the riverbank. He sketched the five symbols from his dream – (runes).

         Brody looked at the symbols. “But what do they mean?”

          “I have no idea.” Blaine handed the stick to Brody. “You draw your symbols.”

         Brody drew (runes) and tossed the stick into the water. The boys compared the drawings.

         Blaine scratched his head and took a step backward. “In my dream, the creature slipped through the window, absorbed the markings, and then disappeared. Mom always leaves the hall light on, so I must have dreamt of them. The shadow creature was kinda like candle smoke, only a whole lot bigger. Did the symbols disappear in your dream?”

         “Nope. Wonder why yours vanished and not mine.”

         “I don’t know,” Blaine answered.

          “Dreams are symbolic. Our dreams were similar.”

         “Yeah, you’re right.” Blaine paused for a few moments, contemplating whether to share his adventure the previous night. He’ll think I’m crazy, for sure. The colors weren’t really there. He didn’t want to believe what his eyes had shown him. He didn’t want to listen to what his brain had told him.

“When I was outside of Kiera’s, I had this feeling that I was being watched. I whispered, ‘It is time.’ But, I have no idea why,” Blaine said.

         “What? Are you serious? What else happened?”

         Blaine looked at the ground, afraid that Brody wouldn’t believe him. “Yep, and then I turned toward the river and actually talked to it.”

         “What? Are you losin’ it?”

         “Seriously, it was as if the wind had told me what to say. ‘I am in search of inspiration. I will be ready. It is time.’ Wow, I can’t believe I actually remembered the words. I guess I’ll never forget.”

         Brody rubbed his cheek with his fingertips, frowning, “Time for what?”

         “I don’t know.” Blaine thought for a moment. “But what I do know is I need a milkshake and cheese fries. Logan opens The Karma at 1:00, since mom insisted on going to Boston today, and not the weekend.” He jumped to his feet and brushed off his jeans, waiting for Brody’s reply.

         “But it’s Thursday. Oh well, let’s go.” Brody grabbed his jacket from the rock. “I love Logan’s cheese burgers. His burgers are better than your dad’s, but don’t tell him that.”

         “He always puts extra cheese on the fries.” Blaine grinned. He glanced across the river as the wolf disappeared behind the trees. He could have sworn it had been watching them.

***

         Alexis walked across the raspberry, smoky grey and coconut white cobblestones of Changing Seasons Coffee Shop. She trailed her hand across the back of the wicker chair and then headed to the front of the café. She ascended the narrow wooden steps and opened the weathered door. Wind chimes of stars and moons sounded a friendly welcome, and the aroma of fresh banana-nut muffins greeted her. A calico kitten scampered through the opened door.

         “Welcome, Alexis!” Crissy stood behind the counter left of the door and tossed her blond hair.

         “I love your black streaks,” Alexis commented.

         She smiled at Alexis. “Thanks, I re-dyed it last night. I spent the morning baking. Banana nut or raspberry muffin?”

         “Surprise me, and an apple cider. I’m gonna read my book by the fireplace.” Alexis walked under the archway leading to the tables and the open hearth.

         Normally, the coffee shop was full of customers in the afternoon, but today it was as empty as the streets. Stopping for a brief moment, Alexis recognized another fragrance—cinnamon. More exactly, apple pies, the same smell as Gram Kristy’s kitchen. She dropped her backpack by the fireplace and noticed red candles on the mantel.

         She loved exploring Kiera’s café, so many treasures to find. By the front window, Alexis smelled a cinnamon-scented pinecone from a homemade willow-woven basket set on an antique table. She spotted a collection of seashells sprinkled on the shelf. She gingerly touched one of the spiky starfish. The water creature spoke to her soul--buy another starfish.

         Alexis returned to the fireplace, retrieved a novel from her bag, and snuggled into the cozy armchair.

         “Freshly baked muffin, for you.” Crissy handed her a mug and a muffin on a plate.

         “Thanks, Crissy.”

         “There’s so much to keep me busy on a baking day. If only I could convince Emily to help out, but she’s with Jaeden.”

         “They’ve been spending lots of time together. Mom thinks it’s cute, but I think she’s too young to be spending all her time with a boy.”

         “You’ll change your attitude when you fall in love.” Crissy smiled and then turned on her heels in the direction of the kitchen.

         Alexis nibbled the crispy edges of the raspberry muffin. Fresh berries burst inside her mouth. ”Love  raspberries.” She sipped her apple cider. Questions swarmed like bees. Where's that tower? What's the connection with Gram Katrina?  Could that creature be real? No, just in comics or movies.Time passed slowly. Her thoughts shifted to her dream and the sketch in the faded book, and she found it difficult to concentrate on the novel because images of the tower wandered her in mind. Need to talk to Caleigh about my dream. “I’ve seen that tower as a painting,” Alexis muttered.

         “What painting?” Crissy asked, dusting a shelf of seashells. “Perhaps I could help you?”

         “Oh, it’s nothing. Was I talking out loud?”

         “No worries. Did you know that Caleigh and her mother are upstairs with Kiera? They’ve been here for over an hour. You must have been really interested in your book.”

         “You’re right. I start reading and get totally absorbed.” She looked at the clock on the wall. “Oh my, it’s after two o’clock. I’ve been here for a while.” Alexis rubbed her forehead. She needed to talk to her best friend. The internal battle was giving her a headache. How could she not hear the footsteps overhead? She returned the book to her backpack and headed for the wooden spiral staircase.

         Vanilla and coconut aroma drifted down the stairs and tickled her senses. “Loving the Celtic music.” Alexis placed her hand on the wooden railing as she reached the second floor. She looked around the spacious, sunny room. Kiera and Jena were placing bags of herbs and glass bottles on the cabinet shelves.

         Caleigh reached into a cardboard box and retrieved a couple of purple pillar candles near a bookcase.

         “Hi, Caleigh.” Alexis took a step away from the top of the stairs. “You’ve been busy this morning. I had this dream and wanted to tell you about it.” She then noticed the painting on part of the east wall, beside the glass door leading to the balcony. “Stone towers…claws...captured.” Tears trickled down her face. She wiped a tear from the corner of her lips. Close by a tin can dropped to the floor. “Cold…” She felt a warm hand on her bare arm, but she only saw the creature. The sharp claws. The fangs. She gasped for breath. Dream images fought with reality. She couldn’t distinguish between the two. Fear surrounded her senses. She heard the raspy breathing and felt its breath against her skin.

         She sniffled. “Captured…winged creature…sharp claws.” Terrifying images tore through her mind. The sharp claws reached out to touch her. The hideous face stared at her. Drool dripped from between its lips. Her head spun and her stomach churned. She swayed and attempted to steady herself on the wall, but missed. She could feel herself falling but could do nothing to prevent from tumbling to the hardwood floor. A dark blanket consumed her thoughts. In her mind, she returned to the terrifying dream. The winged creature crept closer and closer. She whimpered and fainted beneath the painting of the mysterious towers.