Chapter Twenty-Six
A Time to Remember
Tatyanna woke up to voices yelling, but she couldn't make out the words. She tried to open her eyes, but they were too heavy, and she just wanted to go back to sleep for a few minutes longer and dream about the mysterious, blue-eyed boy. Sleep wasn't granted to her. The voices grew louder and more frantic by the second. She started to open her eyes again when the door was thrown open and Emmett ran in. He took one look at her, stepped out to yell, “I found her!” and then came back into the room, grasping the wall for support, bending over as he gasped for breath.
Tatyanna was fully awake at that point, and throwing the covers off of herself, she walked toward Emmett to assist him if he needed it.
Emmett held his hand up to signal he was fine, and while still breathing heavily as he got the words out, “The castle...is...under...attack.”
“What?” Fully awake at this point, Tatyanna banished any hope of going back to sleep. “What do we do?”
“At this point, nothing. I don't know how he was able to breach the protection barrier, but he did.”
Tatyanna wasn't sure what question to ask first, and managed it to all come out in a jumble. “Who, what, is anyone hurt?
“No, that's why we were looking for you. When we couldn't find you. We thought maybe you were outside, and got caught in it.”
“No, I, umm...” She looked back at her parents’ bed, and saw the journal she dropped in the excitement. Bending down, she picked it up and held it protectively against her chest. “I found my mother's journal and was reading it. I must have fallen asleep.”
Dimitri came rushing into the room, with Althea at his heels. “I am so glad to see you safe. We need to find somewhere to hide. If he can breach the barriers, he may also be able to attack and burn the castle.”
Tatyanna turned around to look out the window, and saw huge giant fireballs raining from the sky above. It triggered a memory inside of her, and the journal grew warm and heavy in her arms. She felt sick to her stomach, and immediately ran past her friends, pushing them out of the way and out the door, toward the far stairwell. She raced up it and ran into the front tower which provided a view of the front of the castle and the entryway. All around her, she saw fire. The once healed trees were now pieces of burning ashes, decimated at the ground. Tatyanna grabbed onto the balcony for balance, and she was instantly transported to a time where she wished she could forget.
Tatyanna remembered standing in this exact same spot, waving goodbye to her father who was too far away to see her, and she could barely see him riding his horse. Balls of fire came out of nowhere and struck the land around them. She saw one hit her father, and heard her mother's screams as she ran out to try to save him. Tatyanna collapsed to the ground, still seeing her memories as clear as day. A bright phoenix rose from the ashes and straight into the sky. She heard more screams as another mother and her teenage son went racing from the castle, to where her father once stood.
Tatyanna continued to hear screaming, and didn't realize she was the one screaming. Dimitri was next to her, trying to shake her out of her vision and into present day. She blinked several times, hoping to clear her head, and was struck with the memory of seeing her father die. She screamed for the fire to stop, but instead, it just came down faster, as if her cries were causing it to do so. She knew Larik wasn't trying to hurt her, he was just showing her who was more powerful. She was filled with grief, and didn't have the energy, or the will, to put out the flames.
Tatyanna crawled over to the corner and wept. She cried for her father, her mother, and herself. Her mother's words came back to her, and she understood her mother had died out of grief. Her mother saw her soulmate perish, and no matter what great power she held, she was unable to save him. What was the point of being able to heal, if you couldn't save the ones that you loved the most?
She could hear Dimitri shouting her name, but couldn't pull herself out of it. She heard Emmett beside her, saying her name softly, but even he wasn't enough. He grasped her cheek softly in his hands and murmured her name, but the tears kept coming, and she wanted the fire to stop. She wanted to crawl back into bed and wished all of this was a nightmare.
The next thing she knew, she felt a rough tongue licking her hand, and she saw Emmett had turned into a cat. She gathered him into her arms and held onto him. She knew she was holding onto him tightly, but didn't care. This was the only way he could offer her what she needed.
It felt like time stood still. Tatyanna sat and cried her eyes out, rocking slightly all while holding Tux. Althea stayed at her feet, offering her comfort as well, and Dimitri sat at the opposite corner, watching her and waiting for her to compose herself. Never once pushing her, knowing she needed time.
As the tears started to dry up, Tatyanna looked out at her once beautiful land and saw it now matched the rest of the world. Dead and lifeless, and no room for hope. She was losing hope, and knew it wasn't wise of her to do so, but seeing her lands becoming nothing in a matter of seconds made her wonder if this journey was even worth it. Before she could continue that thought, Tatyanna saw a lone figure bending down next to a burned tree. As she watched, the tree shed off its burned, outer layer, and a new tree was created from underneath the old. The tree grew so tall Tatyanna couldn't tilt her head back far enough to see how high it reached.
“I'm sure Terran could use your help, if you are up to the task?” Emmett spoke up, startling Tatyanna.
She had loosened her grip on him, and he was able to wiggle free and shift back into himself. She knew he longed to console her, but wasn't sure how. Truth be told, she didn't know if she could be comforted, or what to do, but seeing Terran healing her land gave her the hope she was missing.
Before Tatyanna could respond, she felt the book grow warm in her arms. She hadn't realized she was still carrying it, and knew there was something she had to see. A part of her wanted to run away from the book and what it would show her. After what she had seen, Tatyanna didn't think she could see her father's death again. The book only grew warmer, and she felt herself being pulled into its pages, into the memories it contained.
“Maybe later,” she responded sleepily. “If you guys don't mind, I would like for you to stay here with me.” She patted her mother's journal as she continued to speak to her friends, “The journal is calling to me, and I need to know what it wants me to see, but I don't think I can be alone right now. Can you stay with me?” she asked, looking to both Emmett and then Dimitri. They both bowed their heads, and in the next instant, her eyes closed, and she could hear herself laughing.
She was a little girl, and it was around the time her father died. Her mother constantly had people around her, but she hardly saw her mother anymore. Tatyanna was told her mother wasn't feeling well, but she knew it was more than that. She longed to see her mother, to hear her voice again, but she tried to have hope all would be well, and her fears would be released. Her mother was in rare form. The castle was decorated, and the maids were running around like crazy getting ready for last minute preparations for a party of some sort. She wasn't sure exactly, but at least she was left to play with her friends.
Tatyanna ran around a huge room with Dimitri chasing after Emmett, who was currently shaped like a tiger. She leaned forward about to touch his tail, when he shifted into a bird and flew high up into the air. Tatyanna had stopped running to jump up and down repeatedly, but Emmett was just too high for her. She fell to her knees and started to cry softly in her hands. She stayed there long after Dimitri bent down to comfort her, and continued to cry as Emmett flew down and changed back into his human form. He touched her hand, and softly asked her to stop crying.
Suddenly, Tatyanna lurched forward, and grabbed him around the neck, yelling, “I got you!” Dimitri tackled them, and the three friends fell to the floor in fits of laughter.
The adult Tatyanna watched the scene from afar, wondering whose memory she was reliving. She looked around and didn't see he
r mother at all, so she knew it couldn't be hers. She saw two people standing off to the side, watching the child Tatyanna, and talking softly amongst them. Tatyanna instantly recognized them as the mother and teenage son who had run from the castle when her father died. She recognized their grief. Someone important to them had also died in that attack.
The woman was dressed like a warrior woman, and Tatyanna thought briefly back to Xena: The Warrior Princess. She used to watch it religiously growing up. Her long brown hair was pulled back into several severe braids held in a loose knot down her back. She wore tight leather pants, with two knives strapped to the outside of each thigh, and a long shaped weapon of some sort strapped to her back. She wore a matching halter top which showed off her tattoos. The boy behind her had jet black hair and startling blue eyes, and she realized this was the boy she saw last night in her mind before she fell asleep. She was intrigued by him, and wondered what his importance to her could be.
Tatyanna glanced at her younger self, and saw she was still rolling around on the ground with younger versions of Dimitri and Emmett, and walked toward the strangers, hoping to make out what they were saying.
“She has spunk,” the older woman commented, watching the scene before her.
She is just a child,” the boy said.
“She is resourceful,” she said, admiring the young princess.
“Still, just a child.”
The woman glanced to the boy beside her and said, “She will make you a good wife, someday.”
“Just a child!” he said, practically hissing it out. “I can't think of her as a wife, Mother. She is barely five years old. I'm twice her age. How can you talk about marriage, with everything that is going on?”
“You need to think like the warrior that you will be. One day, you will be a ruler in your own right. What her mother and I are proposing is a union which will unite two great people. This could be the union which has been prophesied.”
“I can't think about that when I look upon her. She is just a child.”
The woman looked aggravated. “She won't always be one. When the time comes you will need to step up and do what you are committed to do, despite how you feel about it now. As a leader, you have to make sacrifices every day.”
“Do I have a say in this life-changing decision?”
“No.” The woman glanced out the windows, to view the day growing darker. She turned to her son, and announced for all to hear, “Come along, children. The day is growing late, and we must get ready.” She clapped her hands twice, and the three children immediately righted themselves and stood in a straight line obediently to the warrior woman.
The images started to fade, and Tatyanna opened her eyes to see she was still sitting on the balcony with Althea, Dimitri, and Emmett. She had so many questions, and she didn't know where to begin, but she knew where to start. She had to find this boy, and discover what he really meant to her. As she thought about how to go about doing this, she had a lingering thought and realized that she didn’t see her mother at all during the memory. If her mother wasn’t there, then that meant she didn’t write this entry. If she was didn’t write it, who did?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
A Surprising Development
“Are you okay?” Emmett asked, concern etched onto his face. Tatyanna looked to her oldest friend, the images of her playing with him and Dimitri still on her mind. Why couldn't she remember that until now?
“We used to play together as kids,” she said, not answering him. Tatyanna searched each memory for the boy with the startling blue eyes, but only saw visions of her and her two friends.
Dimitri was the one who answered her. “We did,” he said, confirming what she already knew. “We practically lived with you for several months after the death of your father. Your mom wanted us here, as a way to distract you from what she was going through.”
“Your mother was a strong woman, but when she lost her husband, she lost a part of her soul, and the will to carry on. We were here to keep you occupied as she made final arrangements,” Emmett said, continuing on for Dimitri.
“Did you guys know that at the time?” Tatyanna asked, remembering the letter her mother wrote.
“No,” they both answered honestly together.
“We knew about the attack on your father, but everything else came as a surprise,” Dimitri explained.
“I had an idea,” Emmett said. Both his friends looked at him in surprise, and he shrugged. “The queen came to me, near the end, and explained to me what was going to happen, and asked if I would be Tatyanna's guardian. It was a great honor. I knew what I was sacrificing taking on that role, but I would do anything for you, Tatyanna. I truly never meant to deceive you.”
Tatyanna's eyes softened under his words. She knew in her heart he spoke the truth. She got up off the balcony floor, giving him a hug. “I'm sorry for the way I treated you. All of this is still new to me, but I'm slowly remembering. But, first, I need to find someone.”
“No,” a stern face said from the doorway, and she saw Medo standing there. “First, we need to get you to Marek. After an attack like this, you will need his army to protect you.” Tatyanna glanced at her friends, ready to protest but saw their faces and knew they agreed with the warrior dwarf. Her protests would go unheard.
She walked toward the dwarf, picking up her mother's journal, and pulled herself up tall. “Let me pack a few things, and I will be ready.”
Within ten minutes, Tatyanna was standing at the front entrance, looking back at her childhood home. She didn't want to leave, especially as she was starting to remember her memories, but now wasn't a time to be selfish. She agreed to this quest, and she needed to stand by her decision. If she needed the help of this Marek, then she needed to ignore her own agenda, and meet the man.
Tatyanna walked through the doorway and gasped loudly at the surroundings before her. Everywhere she looked, she saw vibrant life. The once dead earth that surrounded her home, was now healed and healthy. The trees themselves were at least triple the circumference as the trees she was used to, and she couldn't even imagine how tall they were. Flowers could have been mistaken as bushes, and they stood almost to her shoulders.
“What is this?” she asked, confused. “Is this because of Terran?”
“Yes, and no,” she heard a voice, and glanced to the left. Terran leaned against a tree, with his arms crossed against his chest and his legs crossed at his ankles. Tatyanna was surprised to see him, but more by his appearance. He no longer hid his face from her, and wore a loose fitting shirt that showed off the tangle of vine tattoos on his arms. She also saw the same tattoo continued up his neck, and onto the front and the sides of his face. She wanted to ask what that tattoo meant, but didn't want to insult her new friend.
His hair and face were clean shaven, but she could make out the twinkle in his eyes. He knew she was checking him out. She wished he would answer her unspoken question about the meaning of his tattoos, but he didn't. Tatyanna knew she would have to man up and ask it the old fashioned way, eventually. “Did you do all of this for me?” she asked him.
He gently pushed off from the tree and walked quietly over to her. “I did it because of you, yes, but because I needed to.”
Tatyanna closed her eyes and briefly counted to ten. She was really sick of people talking in riddles around her. Why couldn't they just say what was on their minds? She opened her eyes. She had forgotten to shield her thoughts, and found Terran smiling at her. He was having fun at her expense, and she narrowed her eyes at him. Tatyanna wasn't going to play his game, and Terran grinned.
“I've always been envious of you. You grew up away from here, and had a life. I spent my life pretending to be dead so I could survive. I would come over to your world and check in on you, and you always appeared to be content. Yet, you gave that all up to come back to save a world you didn't even remember. You don't put up with shit, and you stand up for what you believe.
“You are giving up your life
to give others a chance to live, and I realized hiding in the shadows was the coward's way out. I am no longer hiding. Healing your lands was a way for me to say thank you for opening my eyes, and as a way to make my stand. No way would your healing powers have been able to heal the earth like this. The earth wouldn't have stayed healed, but with my touch, it will.” He continued to walk closer to her, and she could see the tattoos on his arms changing. Instead of just brown, sickly vines crawling up his arms, she now saw that they were green with small rose buds on them. This wasn't a normal tattoo.
“Thank you,” she said, “but you know this will make you a target now.”
He nodded, and looked at her group of friends and protectors. “I'm ready for it. Plus, you are on your way to Marek's camp, and I figured he could protect one more. Also, I can offer everyone protection until we get there.”
“How?” she asked, and watched with her mouth open as Terran turned back toward the earth and spoke quietly under his breath. The trees slowly lowered themselves until their branches were inches above their heads, creating a canopy. It was a way to protect them from any attacks from above, or at least, temporarily protect them. She figured fire could burn through anything.
“That is why you can control water. You can put out the fire,” Terran said, answering her thought.
“Wait, what?” Dimitri asked, confused. “Did I miss something?”
“They can talk telepathically, remember? Royals can do it effortlessly,” Emmett informed them.
“This is all well and good, but we have dallied here long enough” the dwarf warrior said. “We can talk on the road. We must leave if we want to get to the camp by nightfall.”
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