"Huh?" I took a step backward then another, but Gabriel continued to stomp my way. I wasn't quite afraid, but I was certainly in caution mode. Why was he so mad? I looked to Mica and saw him make a quick and easy escape. The wimp.
"What do you expect me to do with them?"
I shook my head at him. "Do with who?"
He reached out and grabbed hold of my arm, effectively halting my backward motion and at the same time propelled me quickly toward the window. "Them!"
I looked out the window, but all I saw was darkness and the little patches of fire glowing within the forest. I jerked my arm out of his hold and said, "What are you talking about?"
He rubbed his forehead and then raked a hand through his hair, leaving spikes of golden brown standing in the wake of his fingers. After taking in a deep breath, he said, "They started showing up right after you left. One man, then a family, then more and more, and now there are seven groups out there."
I glanced out the window at the fires and asked, "Who are they?"
"They are the Army of the Sun. They are yours."
"Mine?" I asked, aghast. "I don't have an army."
"You do now."
"No, I don't. I don't even know what to do with an army. Send them back," I said.
He pierced me with his emerald stare and asked, "Send them back to where; the ghetto that is the kingdom, to the abuse of the Shadow Guard, back to the rebel army that is falling apart? Where should I send them, Sunny?"
The rebels were falling apart? Why? I looked out the window again and said, "But, but I don't know what to do with them." The thought of an army was just one more problem that I didn't know how to solve. "This is crazy."
"This is a revolution. Isn't that what you want?"
"No. I don't want a war or a revolution. I just want to try to make Acadia a better place for my people. Since, at this moment, I don't even know how to do that, I certainly don't know how to train and run an army."
"Well, you need to start thinking about it."
"I know that!" I shouted. "Do you think I don't know that? I am making myself crazy with thoughts of what to do. I have no idea. I'm just one person, Gabriel. What do you want from me?
"I want you to do something. Anything."
I sat down heavily in the chair that Gabriel had vacated when I arrived. "That's what I'm trying to do. That's why I'm here. I'm sorry, Gabriel, I didn't know about the people. Why didn't you tell me, let me know?"
"Why are you just now coming back?" he retorted.
"I was trying to sort out what to do. I was…" I looked directly at him to judge his reaction when I said, "waiting to see if Leif would come for me." After a pause, I shrugged away the brief stab of pain in the vicinity of my heart and said, "He didn't."
Gabriel blew out a heavy breath and said, "Well, that was a big waste of everyone's time then wasn't it."
I didn't respond to that. I again gazed out the window. I didn't look at anything in particular then. I just watched the darkness. I didn't need him to tell me what a waste of time I was to everyone. It was evident by Leif not coming for me, or Gabriel, or Lucas, or the king, or anyone for that matter. I had gone back to Earth, my realm, and no one had come for me. Not one person had come to see how I was doing, see that I made it home, that I was safe. No one.
"So?" he asked.
I glanced at him and said wearily, "So, what?"
"So, what do you plan on doing with them? Your army?"
I had no idea. "How many of them are there?"
"There are currently twenty-one people out there, but not all of them can fight. Maybe fourteen could be trained."
Well, I certainly couldn't train them. I still needed training myself. "Is there someone here that could train them?"
Gabriel didn't say anything for a long while. "Yes," he finally answered. "I know of a few men that could do a bit of training."
"Would I be able to be trained along with them? It's one of the reasons I'm here. I need help with horses, sword fighting, and some other things. Would they be willing to train me too?"
He nodded once at me.
"Anyone that wants to learn, will they train them?"
He paused but then nodded again. "Yes, if someone wants to learn, they will be allowed."
I had a thought then of Taylor, my friend from the rebel army. He didn't want to be a soldier. "What if there are some that don't want to train? I don't want to force anyone into this war. If they don't want to be part of the army, do we make them?"
"That is your decision. It's your army, remember?"
"I don't want to make anyone fight, but I don't want any lazy wastes around here either," I said. Then, "If they don't want to be soldiers, fine, but they have to work or something. Stable help, material gathering, preparing, or whatever, but they have to do something. If they stay and want to be part of the army, then they have to be a part of it. Produce something of importance. Contribute."
After a quiet moment, I said, "What do you think, Gabriel? Will that work?"
He finally graced me with a smile. "It's a start."
I released the ball of tension that I hadn't realized I had been holding. He was right. It was a start. It was something. "Okay then, let's train an army," I said.
I glanced at my watch and saw that I had already been gone from home over an hour. "Crap, Gabriel. I need to go."
His eyes widened at my statement. "Go? Go where? You just got here. We have plans to make and discuss."
He was right, but I couldn't do it right then. My mom was going to freak as it was. If I stayed longer, it would only get worse. "I know. I'll come back tomorrow, right after school. Er…no, around five." Stupid prom committee.
"Five?" he said in disbelief.
I shrugged. "I have school all day until three, then an obligation until five. I will come directly after. I promise. We can get some of the planning hashed out."
Gabriel widened his stance, crossed his arms over his chest, and stared me down. I could tell that he was upset when the muscles bulged out in evident display along his arms to his fisted hands.
Maybe I could get out of prom decorating early. "I'll try to get here earlier. Maybe four?"
"Four?"
"Gabriel, what do you expect me to do? I have to go to school."
"You need to decide what your priorities are."
That was easier said than done. I glanced again at my watch. I really needed to get home, but I also needed to ask one question first. "Gabriel?"
"What?" he huffed out at me.
I hesitated then finally spit out, "Why didn't you come see me?" I shrugged my shoulders and continued, "Check to make sure I was all right? Something."
He growled at me. That was not a good sign.
"Really?" he said.
I shrugged again.
"I have never gone over to another realm. I didn't know how to get to you," he said.
"Oh."
"So, I had to wait here and hope you'd come back," he said. "It took you long enough too."
"Okay," I said. It was a good answer, but for some reason it didn't make me feel any better.
"Sunny, look at me."
I did.
"Had you not shown up soon, I would have come for you. One way or another, I would have found you. I'm not letting you go now. You're the only family I have left."
That was what I had been waiting for. Something that said he cared for me. I quickly hugged the gruff man and said, "Thanks, Gabriel."
He hugged me back. It was a bit on the stiff side, and a smidge too brief for me, but it was still a hug. I'd take it.
I again looked at the time. "Crap, I'm sorry, but I really do need to go. I'll see you tomorrow."
Without waiting for a reply, I trotted quickly out of the room and toward the exit where I had come in. I grabbed shadows on my way and quickly phased into them.
On Earth, the shadows are light and cool and easy to hold. On Acadia they are different. Still cool and comforting, but they're heav
y and thick. They almost felt moist against my skin. They weighed me down and made it difficult to navigate.
I rushed by several men. I only noticed them because their outline color caught my eye. Their auras were bright in the dimness of the shadows.
It was proof that Gabriel had good taste in his men. By looks alone they appeared mean and vicious. They had full beards and penetrating eyes. Big chests and arms and legs, cut and defined in thick muscles. They were a ferocious looking lot, on the outside.
Their color though, told me what they were on the inside, where it mattered most. Of the two I passed, the first had the color of soft clear yellow, a happy, optimistic man in general. There are always bad and good with most of the colors, but the bad was minimal in that coloring. A bit egotistical maybe, but it could have been worse. I'll take egotistical any day over some of the other things I have found in people, like rage.
The second of the two I passed had a soft baby blue aura. I felt a brief zip of pain through my heart at the sight of the blue. Leif had a clear, clean blue aura. I wondered if he still did. It's a color for freethinkers, organizers, and possibilities. It also brings with it a touch of sadness though. I wondered what the man had in him that made him that way. A past lost? A concern for the future?
I made a note of the men so that I could remember that they were ones to trust. I had proof of their true selves by their colors.
The moment I hit the dirt outside the castle, I concentrated on my house, or more distinctly, the backyard. We had a small lot that was more dirt than grass because of a big pine tree that took up most of the space. I concentrated on the tree, the little hollow underneath the full thick branches of green. I grabbed another load of shadows and pulled them over me.
The yank was fast and furious. The tumbling and spinning was wild, but quickly over. I landed with a thud, right where I wanted to be, but without preparation. The dizzying ride made me wobble forward and crack my face against the rough shaggy bark of the pine. "Ow!"
I quickly wrapped my arms around the tree to steady myself and wait out the nausea. Realm jumping really needed to get easier. It just had to. The sickening feel every time was so not fun. I lay my cheek against the raspy tree and concentrated on breathing. The tangy pine scent penetrated my mind and eased the muscles in my stomach.
Holding my tummy with one hand, for the second time that night, I entered the house through the back door directly into the kitchen and into another wave of chaos.
"Where have you been!" my mother snapped at me the moment I stepped inside.
"Mom, I said I'd be right back."
"That was almost two hours ago. I don't know what's gotten into you, but this is unacceptable. Dinner is at seven every night. You will be here, every night for dinner. Not seven thirty, not eight, at seven."
"Mom."
"No. I'm not doing this with you, Sunny. You are seventeen years old, not eighteen. You live under this roof…"
I tuned out at that point. All I heard was blah, blah, blah. Not five minutes before, in Acadia, I was being told to take control of my own life. I was in charge and I had to make decisions and on and on it went. But then, on Earth, there I was being told do as we say and follow our rules. And frankly, I was having a hard time balancing the two realms.
I flopped into one of the chairs at the table and continued to listen to the hum of her voice but ignored the words of wisdom that were pouring out at me.
"Are you even listening to me?" she asked.
"What?" I said and snapped my eyes in her direction. "Yes. I'm listening."
She focused her deep brown eyes on my face. Then she sighed deep and long before she turned and pulled a food-laden plate out of the oven where she had been keeping it warm and set it down before me at the table. "Eat." She turned away from me and left the room.
I got up to get a fork out of the drawer then sat back down to scarf down dinner that consisted of very dry grilled chicken, macaroni and cheese, and carrots.
"How's it going?"
I looked up from my concentration on the plate to see my dad leaning lazily against the door jam. With his soft brown hair, sprinkled with plenty of silver and wearing jeans and a blue golf shirt, he still looked fit and handsome even though pushing toward fifty.
I shrugged. "It's going."
He pushed away from the door and sat across from me at the table. "You aren't happy."
I slouched down in my chair and stared at him. "No. I'm not," I said truthfully.
"We know you aren't, honey. Do you think we can't see you losing sleep and losing weight? There are circles of blue under your eyes. Your eyes don't sparkle anymore and you hardly smile. Yes, we know you are unhappy."
"I'm sorry."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Yes, I do. But you guys don't want to listen. You don't want to hear about Acadia and shadow walking. You think if you just ignore it long enough, it will go away, but it's not. This is who I am, and if you can't accept the shadow walker, then you can't accept me."
"Sunny."
"No, Dad. You think I don't see you guys? You think I don't hear you whispering about me? You have said it plain enough with your actions that you don't want to hear it."
"Wait," he said. "We do want to support you. We just don't think you are ready for this yet. We think you need to just be seventeen for now. Not some savior to another world that you don't even belong to."
I sat quietly for a moment pushing around the last bit of carrots into the cold macaroni. "That's just it, Dad. I do belong there, maybe more there than here." I set down my fork and got up from the table. "Whether I'm ready or not, Acadia needs me right now. Until you can accept that, I can't really talk to you or Mom about it. You won't and can't understand."
"We love you, Sunny. We just want what's best for you," he said.
I put my plate in the sink and turned to go. Over my shoulder I said, "Do you? Or do you want what's easiest for you."
He didn't respond. Only silence met my parting shot.
It was heading towards nine by that point, and I had a ton of homework still to do. So, I went to my room, closed my door, and flounced down on my bed face first. How was I supposed to work on my final report in environmental science when my brain and emotions were spinning wildly out of control?
I sat up, grabbed my science book and folder, and pulled out the directions. I had to write a one thousand word essay on one of two choices. The first was on 'how car and truck emissions contributed to global pollution and climate change'. The second was 'how did recycling help to conserve our natural resources'.
Both choices were boring. I was so thankful that there were only three weeks left of school. I needed a break. Big time.
Chapter Two
"So, I hear you don't have a date for prom," Shawn said.
I didn't bother looking up from the crepe paper flower I was making. "Who told you that?"
"Ben. He was saying how you weren't going 'cause you didn't have a date.'"
"Oh," I said absently. Stupid paper was too thin and kept tearing. My flowers were a mess. I glanced over to where Tara was working next to me to see a pile of beautifully made paper flowers.
"You suck!" I said.
Tara looked up at me and said, "What?"
I indicated her flowers, and she just smiled and laughed. "You'll get the hang of it."
I didn't want to get the hang of it. I wanted to stuff all the stupid flowers in the trash and set them afire.
"So, I was thinking maybe you could go to the prom with me," Shawn said.
I felt my blood drop down into my feet. I snapped my head up in surprise and gave my full attention to Shawn. "What?"
"Well, since you don't have a date, and Ben said you weren't going because of it, I thought you could go with me, or us."
"Us?" I asked.
"Yeah, me and Steve. Do a kinda ménage-a-trios thing. You know?" he said.
No, I didn't know. Didn't have a clue why he would think that was a
good idea. "Um…no…thanks," I replied.
"Why? Don't you want to go to prom?" Shawn asked.
There was a part of me that wanted to go. Wanted to get dressed up and be beautiful for a night of dancing and fun with my friends, but then there was that other part of me that didn't. What was the point of it without a date? Without someone you wanted to spend the time with or have the fun with? "Not as a threesome. Do you and Steve do everything together?"
He nodded his head and said, "Pretty much."
"Ew, Shawn," I said. "Maybe you guys should re-think that. Or better yet find a set of twins to date."
He actually looked like he was considering the option before he tossed down the paper mess he had been holding and said, "Well if you change your mind, let me know."
"Yeah, sure." I turned to Tara after he had left and said, "Did you hear that? Gross."
"What? Him asking you out or the threesome thing?"
I shivered. "Both. I'm surprised he even knew how to properly say ménage-a-trios."
She laughed and shrugged. "It's like cuss words, everyone wants to know how to cuss in another language."
I shook my head and said, "Seriously, though, they do everything together? Icky."
"He does have a point though. You really have to come to prom. You just have to."
"You'll have Chris. You won't even notice I'm not there."
She pouted a bit more and said, "You're my best friend. You're supposed to be there with me to share the experience."
I arched one eyebrow at her. "Oh, really."
"Yes. Really."
"I don't have a dress," I said.
"There's still time."
"Hmph." I turned my attention to the table and got back to work on my paper flowers from Hell. Did I want to go to prom? Not with Shawn or Steve, that was for sure, but did I want to go?
~ * ~
"You're late."
I spun around and shrieked, "Jesus!" I had just phased into Acadia at a run and hadn't expected to see anyone the moment I popped out the shadows.
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