Release

by Naomi E Lloyd

  He couldn’t seem to stop finding reasons for making sin to skin contact with her as she slept. A quick move of her hand from under her back so she wouldn’t wake up to a dead feeling in her arm. A little readjustment of her splayed out hair. A gentle, reassuring pressure on her arm every time her body jerked or stirred.

  This was so unlike him. He had never been one for offering physical affection, certainly not to complete strangers. Even Elna, who he had known almost all his life, had practically had to beg for a hold of his hand on their walks.

  This radiant girl who was now lying on his bed, was like a magnet that had been especially designed - just for him. And her scent. It smelled like coming home again. Not the familiar, damp air he breathed in this farmhouse, but in a deep, instinctive sense; the smell of a home that he had been longing to find in his mind.

  “Magnets repel you know,” the girl grunted with her eyes still closed.

  “Hello? Are you awake? Can you hear me?”

  The sound of her voice gave him such a start that he accidentally gave her arm a hard squeeze.

  “Oh, sorry!” He jerked back from the bed, shifting his body back into the chair. The last thing he wanted was to frighten her. Who knew what she felt about being touched by a complete stranger? Let alone, whilst she was sleeping on his bed!

  “You don’t need to withdraw from me. I liked the feel of your touch. It did not frighten me at all.”

  He gasped, torn between relief that he had not offended her, and fear that she had been serious about her ability to hear his thoughts.

  “Did…did you actually hear what I was thinking, just then?” he dared.

  The girl let out a deep exhale. She appeared relaxed, almost content, as she reached her hands up to her eyes, rubbing at them hard with her fists.

  “Ugh! My head feels like it is in a windstorm! And my eyes are stinging like crazy. I don’t even know if I dare open them again. The light is so different here.”

  “Oh, yes, sorry. I can make it darker for you if that helps?”

  He reached over to the small window behind him and pulled down the brown felt material that Annarita had pinned up for him to act as a curtain a few months before, back when his tendency for early morning rises had become a menace to the whole household.

  “Thank you.” The girl sounded out-of-breath.

  “You can look at me now,” she assured.

  He didn’t need any more encouragement. He spun back around to face her, only to be rewarded with a blinding flash of her eye-light. His hands flew up to protect his own eyes.

  “Am I too bright? Are you frightened of me?”

  He was about to say ‘no’, but his instinctive thoughts entered his mind before he could think to block them.

  I am terrified of you!

  As soon as he heard her reaction - a sorrowful whimpering sound - he let his hands fall from his face. He had no choice but to squint as he allowed his eyes to adjust to her phenomenal optics, although, thankfully, within seconds he found he could focus on her face with ease.

  “I am captivated by you,” he blurted out.

  Her instant smile lit up her face as much as her eyes.

  “Really? Because, I think I was meant to find you! I have been dreaming of this for a long time now.”

  With a little groan, she pushed her hands down on the mattress beside her hips and pulled herself up so that she sat upright, resting her head against the wall.

  He watched her, transfixed by this confusing combination of her normal human body movements and her entirely non-human eyes and changing skin tone.

  “I am really hungry, yes.”

  He frowned, trying to remember if he had just asked her this or whether he had merely thought of asking her.

  “You were thinking of asking me if I was hungry, so I just answered your question before you asked it.”

  She yawned and stretched, instantly releasing an intoxicating scent of warm breath and sweet sweat. Johannes had never before been aware that he even had a strong sense of smell.

  It’s like she has released a new part of me. Like everything now makes sense! Even though it shouldn’t.

  “Ooh, you like how I smell? I make sense to you!” The girl clapped her hands in front of her face, clearly delighted. “You make sense to me too. You smell of baked goods and maple syrup and comfort and excitement.”

  Johannes stared at her. Unsure how he could possibly respond. She was so forthright with her feelings. He had never heard anyone talk in such a way.

  His heart was pounding so hard he was sure it had increased in size.

  “What is your name?” he finally asked her, lowering himself down into the chair with the uncertainty of a much older man, who no longer trusted his bones and muscles to support him.

  “Tiegal Eureka.”

  “Eureka? Oh!”

  “Yes!” She shuffled her bottom to the left, edging herself nearer to him. He could feel the heat from her skin radiating towards him. “I heard a male voice call it out, when I arrived here earlier. Was that you?”

  “No, no, not at all! I didn’t even see you arrive this time. That was one of my neighbours you heard, Erasmus Jacobs”

  He paused, trying to think how he could explain.

  “He found a diamond. That was what made him cry out my name?” she asked.

  He sighed, realising once again too late, that her ability to access his mind meant she was one step ahead of him.

  “Well, yes. Eureka is what you shout out when you have discovered something. I guess it is a strange coincidence that it is also part of your name.”

  The girl, he now knew was named Tiegal, let out a peal of giggles. A sound so soft and child-like compared to her speaking voice it made him shiver. Being this close to her, watching and listening to her, was almost overwhelming. She really was a delightfully confusing, yet exciting, bundle of contradictions.

  “I don’t believe in coincidences. Anything like that should make you stop and think: what is the message I am supposed to be picking up on here?”

  Johannes didn’t know what he could say to this. What was the message behind all of this? His mother’s voice popped into his head, as it so often did when he felt disconnected from how he was feeling.

  What is worth having is never easy to obtain.

  He thought of these words as he watched this marvellous discovery before him. How her eye-light dimmed as she yawned again.

  “Agh! You must think I am so rude. You said you were hungry.”

  He reached into his pocket to pull out a few strips of biltong that Mrs Francis had shoved in his hands before he had left her hotel.

  “Here, try this for now. I will get you some proper food of course but this will help keep your energy up in the meantime.”

  He held out the dry strips of meat to her.

  “Ugh! What is that smell?”

  She recoiled from his hand, scrambling away to the other side of the bed. And then, to his horror, her skin colour transformed from its amber tone to an olive green.

  He pulled his hand back and shoved the biltong back into his pocket.

  “It’s erm, dried meat.”

  On hearing his answer, she reacted again: her nostrils flared and her shoulders shook.

  “Meat? From what? Please tell me not an elephant. Not one like my Namnum.”

  Her face had crumpled into a frown and a tremble of lips. He had to fight the urge to run over to her side of the bed and pull her into his arms, so that he could apologise for whatever foolish mistake he had just made.

  “No, it’s made from a cow, definitely not an elephant,” he reassured her, holding his hands up in the air and letting them hover at the side of his face.

  She took one look at his hands, sniffed the air around her and then began to retch. Not hesitating, he swung round, yanked open the window, withdrew the rest of the dried meat strips from his pocket and threw them out.

  “It’s okay. Look! All gone now. No more meat. I promise. I will g
et you some bread and fruit.”

  Tiegal’s face lit up. Her skin instantly returned to a peachier colour.

  “Fruit. Yes please!”

  His shoulders relaxed immediately, but almost instantly then stiffened as the sound of Kagiso’s voice filtered up through the open window.

  “Oi! Johannes Smit! What do yer think you are doing throwing food out of yer window like that. Show yourself young man.”

  “Oh no! Kagiso! She can’t see you here.”

  He needed to think - and fast.

  “Ka-gi-so? Hmm…” Tiegal squinted her eyes as she focused on him. Her expression made him wonder if she was trying to listen to his thoughts.

  “She is one of your family? Why don’t you tell her I am Elna? The female you were thinking about earlier?” Tiegal suggested, her voice a careful whisper. She was clearly letting him know that she agreed with his silent plans.

  Despite registering the calmness in her voice, he squirmed at how intrusive her power to access his mind was.

  “Johannes! Who have you got in there with you?” Kagiso sounded more than her usual exasperated. She sounded positively angry.

  He leaned his head out of the window.

  “Hi Kagiso!” He gave her one of his cheeky smiles and waved at her in a deliberately young, child-like fashion. It usually worked like a charm where Kagiso was concerned. But, clearly not today.

  “Who do you think you are? You go out all afternoon getting all angry with Frederick after a few too many whiskeys. And then, you have the nerve to just not turn up for the supper that I spent all day making for yer.”

  Her words stung. Kagiso did not deserve such ill-treatment. But, how could he possibly explain how his life had just been transformed in a matter of only a few blissful hours?

  “Hey, hey, Kagiso. Please don’t be mad. I’m sorry. And you are right! That was all very unthoughtful of me,” he placated.

  “And, not to mention that you then sneaked into the house and took some girl up to your bedroom! I can hear you talking to someone in there. It is not proper Johannes!”

  He raked his hand through his hair as he contemplated his next move. He could hear Tiegal shifting back down the sheets behind him and could still smell her intoxicating smell, but he knew he could not reveal her to Kagiso, or to anyone else in his family just yet.

  “It’s not what it looks like Kagiso. Elna was just making sure I got home safely. You know we have been friends for a while. I will make sure she also gets home safely, now that I am feeling better,” he lied.

  Kagiso tutted at him and threw her arms into the air.

  “You must think I was born yesterday Johannes. I would have heard if Elna was back in town.”

  “Damn,” he muttered under his breath, as he realised how obvious a lie that must have sounded. Elna had been gone for a year now. How could he have been so stupid?

  He watched Kagiso trudge away, her head hung low to show her clear disapproval.

  “Maybe you could find a place for me to hide, for now? The one you just thought of then?”

  Her suggestion made him flinch.

  The cabin? No! I never go near that place. It’s too full of bad memories.

  Tiegal flashed her eyes at him and then shook her head.

  “A place does not contain memories. They only exist inside here.” She pointed to her forehead. “And here,” she whispered, directing her finger towards her chest.

  “Yes, but not the cabin. It is tiny and damp, and cold, and dirty…” he protested.

  “I have lived in a tiny cabin before and that one was not something I did out of choice. This is different. I am making the choice to be in your cabin. Dirty or not. I think you should take me there, Johannes.”

  Hearing her speak his name made him feel dizzy and confused. He was sure he had not actually introduced himself by name yet.

  “I heard the female outside address you in that way,” she explained, before he could ask.

  “Please, let us go now. Something tells me we can change this troubled connection you have with this place. And… keep me safe whilst we do.”

  16. The Cabin

  Tiegal shivered in the darkness, pulling at the sheets to cover her body. The bed was unfamiliar to her and the room was full of conflicting smells that she was struggling to identify. She rubbed at her eyes and tried flashing them around her. But no matter how many times she tried widening her vision, no light would come. It was as if she were blind.

  “What’s the matter Tiegal? Is your light dimming by any chance? Are you losing some of your powers now?”

  Tiegal flinched at the sound of a female’s voice somewhere nearby. It resonated in the blackness of this cold room she had awoken in. And it filled her with dread. She knew this voice. And she also knew that it was not human.

  “Oh, now come on, Tiegal. Surely you must remember me? My powers are not that much stronger than yours, are they?”

  The taunting words rippled across to her. The threatening under-current they carried was palpable.

  “Where am I?” Tiegal pleaded.

  Please say Earth, please say Earth!

  “In your cabin of course, where else?” the voice answered.

  Hearing this made Tiegal gasp. She couldn’t have found herself back here again, in her Tandro prison? That awful tiny cabin Atla had contained her in? Hadn’t she just fallen asleep listening to Johannes reading to her. Wasn’t it his warm, sweet breath near her cheeks that she had felt before she had fallen asleep?

  Just as she was about to plead with the voice, to stop playing games in the dark, the unmistakable scent of mint wafted across to her.

  Hold on, I know this smell too!

  A fog-like memory of being in a hot, dry field filled her mind. Of carrying a bucket full of bananas and figs for Namnum, her beautiful elephant. And of the grumbling sound, the animal’s warning - to back away from the strange female that had approached them.

  Tiegal sat up bolt-right and blinked in rapid succession. Her eyes reacted instantly, finally allowing her light to fill the room and reveal the female before her. She was standing with her arms crossed at the foot of her bed. The way she was smiling at her was anything but warm.

  The moment she saw her, it all became clear. She was the same mysterious female who had appeared to her in that gust of wind, and who had then disappeared in a burst of turquoise colour energy.

  “You! The one who told me to release all my deepest thoughts in the Erasmati Pyramid. The one Namnum reacted so strangely to.”

  The female moved towards the bed, her eyes beaming a brilliant reflection that flashed out in alluring steps of light towards her.

  “I knew you would remember me. But I wonder… do you remember everything?”

  The female’s name was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t seem to pull the letters together…pa…do… or?

  “Parador!” the female answered for her. “And no, you are not in your Tandro cabin. Look again!”

  Tiegal flashed her eyes around the space. Once she saw where she really was, she breathed out deeply.

  “Johannes’ cabin!” she almost cried with relief, just as another realisation hit her. “But…if that is the case, then, why are you here? I mean, how?”

  Parador pressed her fingers to the Derado she wore close to her throat and smiled. A gust of turquoise mist burst around her.

  “You should know better than this by now Tiegal. You haven’t been in this other world for long enough to forget everything have you?”

  Tiegal rolled her eyes. Her light created a rainbow of reflections over Parador’s colourful mist.

  “Of course! I’m in one of my dreams!”

  Parador sauntered around the bed, as though she were tiptoeing, and then sat down on the part of the mattress close to Tiegals’ feet. Her distinctive scent made Tiegal shiver with trepidation. Her every instinct told her that this female was dangerous, even if she still could not quite remember why.

  “Hmm…glad to know yo
u are catching on! Although, it is a shame that you can’t quite recall how we are connected.” Parador licked her lips and flicked her raven black hair. Her Tandroan style bob shifted back and forth before resting back under her chin.

  Tiegal found herself shaking her head with vigour, unable to know how else she could respond. There was something else about this female. It wasn’t just her smell or her taunting voice.

  “Hold on! You have something inside your eyes. I remember that part now.”

  As she said this, she squinted her eyes to focus on Parador’s strange pulsating reflection.

  “That’s it! Your eye-light contains a hidden image. It’s something powerful and strong…an animal of some kind…”

  “A horse-tail. The very symbol of power,” Parador filled in for her, yawning loudly as she glanced around the cabin. “Interesting that you have found yourself in another cabin again, don’t you think? Shame your fantasy male couldn’t find you somewhere cleaner .”

  An immediate urge to defend Johannes made Tiegal launch herself towards her and give her a sharp prod on her arm.

  “Hey! It was my choice to be here. And we have made it cosy together, and clean!”

  Parador smiled and shook her head.

  “Ah, I think you and I both know that it is anything but clean in here. I am not the only one who has something hidden inside of them, just as you do. And, as you well know, so does this male you dreamed yourself over to!”

  Tiegal squirmed. There was something about Parador’s words that made her feel sick. What did she have hidden inside of her? And more importantly, what was she suggesting that Johannes had hidden inside of him?

  Parador stood up. As she smacked both her hands on her mint green trousers a cloud of black dust burst around her.

  “So much dirt in here Tiegal. Perhaps you should take more care with your choices? Have you considered that choosing to stay here means choosing to die?”

  Before Tiegal could respond Parador vanished, taking her beaming light and glowing energy colour with her, and leaving Tiegal alone and afraid.

  There was never any escape from these dreams. If she tried to trick herself into awakening she could encourage them to return. Instead, she curled into a ball and closed her eyes, crossing her fingers as she begged whatever universe she was in to not let this dream prophecy come true.