Have Imagination, Will Travel

by Adam Carter

  After a journey time of perhaps twenty minutes, the train came to a complete stop and the announcer told everyone to change. Tarne left the train and found herself in the street. There was a busy road ahead of her, beyond which was a shopping centre, so it was to this that she headed, confident she would find an Internet café open, even though the hour was late.

  She suddenly realised then how cold she was, and began to wish she had retained the coat she had so frivolously cast aside a few hours earlier.

  Sirens wailed as she crossed the road and she supposed she was in a very dangerous part of the city. She quickened her pace, all the while thinking about how cold she was. Surely she could not actually be cold, for there was no cold within a realm in which nothing was real. She only thought she was cold because she perceived her surroundings as they were, rather than as they truly were. She doubted Old Man Robes ever felt the cold, and decided that nor should she. She needed to master herself in these realities, and if she could begin with something small, at least then she would have made a start. Tarne concentrated then, thinking about warmer climates. She pictured the blazing sun in her mind, beating down upon the golden beaches of ... of somewhere she had never been. An island, a small island, yes. A small island with a single palm tree calling it home. It was a very hot place, perhaps even too hot, and the salty sea breeze did little to doctor the temperature.

  And suddenly did Heather Tarne find herself curiously hot, even though the air about her was not so. Her body felt pleasantly warm, and she fancied she could almost even step into that other reality without the aid of any form of symbol. It was the first step she had taken towards mastery of her own mentality, and thus of her fate.

  Tarne located what she needed quickly enough and after speaking with the proprietor, sat down at a computer. She realised with some horror that she did not have any type of log-in, although decided to attempt variations of her name and somehow managed to get it right first time, even the password. It seemed strange to her, although she supposed that somewhere, in the real world, she had an e-mail address, and her memories had brought it forth for her. Either that or she was becoming far more proficient in the workings of these shifting realities than she had yet considered.

  Tarne immediately searched for “cats eyes” and received a lot of information concerning the eyes of cats or else those glowing sticks they always put at the edge of roads. She considered how she might refine her search and set the computer to look for images only, and then added several words one after the other to the search. She knew that one word would help her, although could not say which it might have been. She therefore attempted ‘symbol’, ‘sigil’, ‘scion’ (even though she didn’t know what that last one meant, but it began with the same letter as the others so she figured she wouldn’t lose anything by trying it), but none of them seemed to work. It was only when she typed in ‘tarot’ that she got something. (Actually, she typed in ‘tarrot’ and it promptly asked her whether she meant tarot instead.)

  She stared at the image she was being offered, clicked the mouse to take her to the website in question, then scanned the page. It seemed that in tarot there was a card known as the Wheel of Fortune, and it depicted a large wheel with several things about it, but atop it there rested the form of a Sphinx. It did not say whether it was the Greek Sphinx or the Egyptian one, although it looked more like the Greek version to her. According to the information on her screen, the Sphinx offered balance to the wheel, and she wondered whether this had anything to do with the reason she continually had to search for cat’s eyes.

  Having discovered nothing further from the computer, Tarne became frustrated, for she had been certain the Internet would have been able to help her. Turning her face from the screen that she might consider the matter, she was startled to see a kebab shop just outside the window. She did not even bother reading the name of the place, for her eyes were drawn to the dull neon symbol above the logotype; the symbol of two cat’s eyes and whiskers.

  Tarne leaped from her seat and ran for the door. She didn’t recall paying the café owner any money, although did not much care considering in a few moments she should be fading away to nothing. She did not stop running until she came to stand facing the neon sign. A wide smile spread across her face, for she knew that this was the way forward. Glancing about her at either side, she located a single tree, and proceeded to climb. The tree did not quite overhang the sign, although she reasoned she should be able to jump onto it.

  A shout from below reached her then and she looked down to see the café owner complaining at her. “Oh, put a sock in it, Chumley,” she told him. “In a couple a moments I’m gonna destroy the whole world anyway, so what does it matter that you die a few pounds short?” And then she leaped, reaching out for the sign ... and promptly missed.

  She struck the ground harshly and felt a terrible pain shoot up her leg. She did not at the time know whether she had broken it or merely sprained the limb, but it did not help at all that the irate café owner was brutally trying to haul her to her feet.

  “Hey,” Tarne shouted as new pain surged through her body. “Hey, get lost, pal. I mean it, go.”

  Tarne collapsed to the ground and realised he had done exactly as she had told him. She looked about for him, although there was no sign of the man anywhere.

  It took Tarne several moments to realise she had actually cast him away, that she had reconstituted his atoms and dispersed them elsewhere; but when she did realise, she grinned broadly. Turning her attention to her leg, she told herself it was not broken. She believed that it was, for her pain told her so, although her mind was informing her that she could will it back to an unbroken state.

  Forcing herself to stand upon it, Tarne found it hurt far less than she expected, and while she did not know whether she had set the bone back into place, certainly had she somehow managed to mentally remove a substantial amount of the pain. Instead of climbing the tree again, this time she hauled a bin over to the sign and stood upon it. She found herself directly before the neon sign and placed her hands to it. She did not know whether she needed a specific cat’s eyes symbol or if there was only one within each reality, although somehow she knew this to be the one she was seeking.

  And promptly did Heather Tarne vanish from that particular world forever.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  There was no confusion this time. Heather Tarne knew exactly who she was, where she had come from, and the identity of her only ally (which was technically not true since she had no idea who he really was). In fact, the only thing she did not know was where she was headed, and as she opened her eyes it was to find herself standing upon rocky terrain. There was sand and dust everywhere, and she seemed to be in some form of large valley cut into the sides of several small mountains or large hills. There were no signs of habitation or life of any kind, and Tarne suspected she was in a remote desert region, which meant placing a year to her surroundings was incredibly difficult.

  She decided to pick a direction entirely at random, for she did not know whether everyone’s starting points upon a new world were the same, and did not want for Sara Kiel to suddenly appear behind her, or worse still at the very spot upon which she was standing. She wondered what would happen if such was the case, although doubted it could be, considering most things in these worlds were controlled by Old Man Robes. If that was even his name. What was the name Kiel had given him? Abel, she believed it had been. She wondered why, although considered that perhaps this was his name. It seemed the most rational explanation for it; it was certainly less of a mouthful than Old Man Robes.

  Tarne walked for some minutes before she realised the valley in which she had found herself was as long as her imagination. It meandered its path, rising and falling over rocky bumps in the landscape so she could never see just how far it was going to stretch. If she did not escape the valley soon, Kiel would find her easily. She needed to get out of the open and find some cover, and it was to this end that her eyes perused the landsc
ape for a passable route up the sides of the valley. She eventually caught sight of a system of caves worked into one of the mountains, and determined to make her way towards these. Tarne intended to explore her newfound powers of physical persuasion, although first she would need to find a place in which she could sit down and concentrate.

  Making her way to the rise of one side of the valley, Tarne considered trying to fly over it, although her prowess of psychological movement had thus far fallen short of expectation, and she did not want another broken leg. She marvelled upon how little her leg hurt now, in fact it no longer ached at all, although she attributed much of that to the shifting worlds, and believed that once she had transferred to this new reality, Old Man Robes had reset her leg.

  She began to scramble up the sides of the valley, although found her progress slow. She managed to leave the base of the valley, although for every metre she climbed thereafter, she seemed to fall back two feet, and so, after an hour of climbing, all she had to show for her efforts was a progress of twenty metres and many deep scratches and abrasions.

  Knowing she had little time, Tarne took to climbing once more, and found her movements swifter this time, for reasons she could not explain. She supposed the terrain itself may have been easier, although she preferred to put it down to her own positive thinking and increasing power within these realities. As such, she soon made it to the rise of the valley and continued up the side of the mountain. Only two short hours thereafter, was she standing at the lip of the first of the caves. Night had begun to fall by this point, so she could see nothing of her new world. She decided therefore that she would spend the night within the cave, honing her abilities, and then view her new world come the morning and take stock of her options. With any luck, she would not be able to see Sara Kiel anywhere the whole world over.

  The cave was dark and Tarne decided as she entered that there would be no other living creature within, and so there wasn’t. Perhaps there weren’t anyway, perhaps even Old Man Robes had left the cave especially for her to find, although Tarne felt that if he could control the realities, then so too could she. The cave was damp and cold and she wished she had the knowledge by which to strike fire from sticks, but she did not. There were many roots growing through the walls, and she believed these to be flammable, although without the means to burst them into flame she knew she must go cold. Then she remembered how she had managed to fight the chill earlier by merely thinking of the tropical island, as though she had conjured the warmth from another time and place, and she sat that she might envision this once more. This time, however, she thought of a blazing fire, picturing within her mind the safe circle of stones which had stood outside the hut of Salamander. She would never have remembered to add such protective stones even if she had managed to construct a fire, and was thankful for Old Man Robes and his detailed vision of the hut. She could see the flames within her mind now, could feel the heat radiating from them, could feel the light pressing upon her closed eyes, and as she opened them it was to be greeted with the very thing which her mind had perceived as the truth. The fire before her was contained within its barrier of protective stones and burned high into the air. It was fuelled with various roots she had not even had the need to pull down, and Tarne felt incredibly pleased with herself.

  At last she had proved to herself that even upon another world she could control something of the atoms within, for she had been afraid that upon leaving the previous reality she would somehow have lost all such abilities. She now had heat and light, and as she sat cross-legged before the blaze she focused her mind again. She began with small things, and worked her way upwards so at first she mastered the ability of moving small rocks and, within only a couple of hours, she was confident enough to conjure into existence many non-living objects such as more firewood, a spoon and a badly needed hairbrush. She had yet to attempt anything living, although decided to leave that for another time. Instead, she focused upon her cuts and scrapes, although somehow the ability to heal herself proved elusive. She found this decidedly odd, although it supported the theory that Old Man Robes had healed her leg for her.

  Eventually, Tarne decided to go to sleep beside the roaring fire, and she awoke to find the cinders smouldering. Light was flooding the cave by this time, and Tarne moved to the edge of the opening to survey her world. Her view was incredible, although so far as she could see, much of it was encompassed by rocks and harsh terrain. There seemed to be greener lands to the north (for she assumed the sun was to her east), and there was even sign of a lagoon. She could see animals grazing there, although they were too far away for her to properly identify them. They appeared to be some form of giraffe, for she could see their long necks reaching for the tall trees, and she decided that whatever they were, they would be herbivores and therefore of no threat. There was no sign of any carnivorous activity, and thankfully no indication that Kiel had as yet followed her through to this world. There was also no sign of human habitation, which was frustrating since Tarne wished to lose herself in the company of others.

  She was about to descend when a terrible black shape crossed her. She leaped back a pace into the cave and searched the skies for any sign of a large bird, although there was none. Frowning at what it might have been, Tarne poked her head back out of the cave for another look around, although still could not see anything.

  Then something came into view at last and Tarne’s jaw dropped. The creature was no bird. Its wings were akin to those of a bat and its body was lithe and firm. Its head was long, tapering off in a thin snout with an equally thin protrusion coming from the rear of its head. Its beak seemed toothless, although Tarne did not intend to check. The wingspan was easily fifteen metres, and as the thing flew past her cave, it glanced in upon her curiously, although seemingly with no hostile intention.

  “Pirates, vampires, young guys willing to buy me drinks all night,” she muttered. “After all that, what’s not to believe about dinosaurs?”

  The creature, likely some form of pteranodon, flew away after but a cursory inspection of her, and Tarne decided it really didn’t want to eat her. From what she knew of dinosaurs, the flying ones only ate fish, although that was just what scientists of her time had said. The same scientists who had also made the front page of the newspapers by once claiming they had definitive proof of life on Mars, and then afterwards admitted that they had seen a rock from Mars which contained something which “looked like a worm”. In her experience, scientists tended to guess more often than not and, regarding things like dinosaurs, who could ever hope to refute them?

  “Actually,” a voice behind her said, “pteranodons weren’t dinosaurs.”

  Tarne spun about and gasped, although did not bolt. Sara Kiel stood before her, had somehow come through the cave to stand in an entirely unthreatening manner. Her gaze was levelled at the creatures flying through the sky, for there was more than just the one of them now. There was no sign of Old Man Robes, and Tarne found herself with a sudden overwhelming fear that something terrible had happened to him. However, she knew she could not panic, so cleared her throat and said, “They’re not?”

  Kiel shook her head slowly, her eyes still upon the animals. “Dinosaurs couldn’t fly, nor could they swim. Or at least not very well anyway. Dinosaurs were all land-based animals; it’s just that there were so many other creatures existing at the same time that people generally regard them all as the same thing.”

  “I never took you for a dinosaur fan, Sara.”

  “I loved them as a kid, what kid doesn’t?” And for an instant there came to her eyes the gleam of happiness, and Tarne almost forgot that Kiel wanted to kill her, for reasons which she still could not understand. “I love this place,” Kiel continued. “I’ve never been here before, I was always stuck with you and the others as we wandered through all those various worlds; but we never came to this one.” She looked at Tarne then for the first time, and there was no sign at all of the psychopathic killer who had taken the lives of Darkthorne
and Sparky so callously. “Do you realise I arrived here last night, but spent a few hours just walking around? There’s so much to explore here, I’m not sure I even want to find the cat’s eyes exit.”

  “I’m glad you like it here. I’m even gladder you want to live here.”

  Kiel smiled. “I can take a hint, Heather, even when it’s not a particularly polite one. If you want to leave, I suggest you look for a sabretooth. They’re cats and they have eyes, and they do exist in this time because I’ve seen one.”

  “Or a cave painting or something.”

  “People and dinosaurs didn’t live together, Heather,” Kiel said, pulling a face. “I thought everyone knew that.”

  “Guess I’ve just been watching One Million Years BC again.” She paused. “Is it any cat’s eyes that can get us through to the next world?”

  Kiel nodded. “There’s nothing special about them. To be honest, I don’t even know why that symbol was chosen over all others. Handy tip for you: you could even carry a spray can about with you and spray the symbol onto a wall. Instant access to the next world whenever you needed it.”

  Tarne was astounded. “It’s that simple?”

  “It’s that simple,” Kiel laughed.

  “So why’d Homer never tell me that?”

  “Homer?”

  “Old Man Robes, sorry.”

  “Old Man ... Oh, you mean the old man in the robes?” She laughed again. “Is that what he’s calling himself now? He doesn’t actually think he’s Homer, does he?”