by Sariah Skye
Finnian stood on the other side, looking distracted and serious. He held up his wristwatch and pointed. "It’s about that time. Are you ready?"
I nodded feverishly, and called for Gabriel. The rest of the group—Kiarra, Daniel and Maxxus—joined after a few moments.
"Won’t this be dangerous? Should they be here?" I asked, pointing at Maxxus and Kiarra.
"I—we—wouldn’t miss it for anything." Maxxus spoke factually and that was that. Kiarra nodded fervently.
"Okay, then." I agreed amicably. This wasn’t the time to get into an argument with anyone.
"This way." Finnian gestured for us to follow, and we trudged through the town, shielding our eyes with our hands against the setting sun as it pierced our vision with its bright oranges and pinks. Along the way we were joined by two unfamiliar people—one male, one female. The female had small, spritely wings so I assumed she must be a fairy, or pixie. The male was on the shorter side with plain features, long sandy blonde hair and pale blue eyes; he appeared entirely human. Daniel nudged me as he joined us and grinned, while I rolled my eyes at him.
"He’s cute," he whispered. I took another glance at him; I suppose he was, in a way. He walked with confidence, didn’t seem to be putting on any airs with his jeans and plaid campshirt and had a friendly smile. His long, thick, straight hair was tied in a ponytail at the base of his neck and it trailed down the middle of his back.
I raised my eyebrow. "He shouldn’t have nicer hair than me, that’s just not fair."
Daniel chuckled. Gabriel, who’d been walking cautiously a few steps behind us, deep in some sort of private thought caught up to us and questioned, "Okay, what are you hens cackling about?"
I made an odd face at him, but it was Daniel who replied. "Oh…just admiring the single boys. For me," he quickly added.
Gabriel shook his head at him. "You never stop, do you?" He grasped my hand and pulled it into his chest as we walked through the border of the forest and a few paces inwards. "You ready for this?"
I shrugged. It was a moot point; it didn’t matter if I was or not. It was something I had to do. "I’ll be fine."
"I hope so," he said nervously, bringing my palm to his lips and placing a soft kiss on my knuckles, sending an electric shiver down my spine.
We stopped a few moments later, at a clearing in the middle of the woods. Sure enough, there was the log remains of a burnt-out campfire and a handful of spots worn in the dirt where sleeping bags had sat. I didn’t recognize it from any "dream" but Daniel spoke up, reassuring me.
"Oh…this is it!" I breathed out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding at his confident words.
There was rustling in the woods, and Esmè appeared in the clearing seconds later, carrying her woven shoulder bag. "I’m sorry, I got here as soon as I could. After everything that happened, Becka insisted on smudging the entire house." She set her bag down on the ground, and nodded a friendly greeting me. "You are looking well, Leorah."
I offered a friendly smile, but was much too distracted to put up a conversation. I was however curious why she was here. I didn’t even have to ask to question it; somehow she knew.
"I’m here when you’re successful. Your friend will need much spiritual healing, right away if we want to save her," she explained. I nodded, giving her a grateful smile.
"Okay." Finnian clapped his hands together, removing himself from the group and standing opposite us, facing all of us, clearly indicating he was a leader. "Brief introductions: this is Nomi," he said, pointing at the winged girl. "She is fae, and a dreamwalker. One of few fae to be gifted this ability. You know Daniel already," Finnian said to her, and she nodded, with a pleasant smile.
"He came really far, very fast. He will be a very talented dreamwalker," she said, in a loud but very young, almost melodic sounding voice. Daniel blushed under her praise.
"This," he said, pointing to the friendly, long haired gentleman, "is Connor Styles, mage extraordinaire."
"Wait, what now?" I blurted quickly, in surprise. "Mage?" I couldn’t get the image of a video-game mage out of my head, wielding purple balls of magic and wearing long robes, carrying tall, glowing staves.
Connor snickered momentarily, and I immediately recoiled, feeling like an ass. "It’s okay, really," he said. "I get that all the time."
"A mage is technically a sorcerer who has been gifted with the powers of bending time and space," Finnian described. "Much like Gabriel with his control over the elements, Connor here has been gifted with extraordinary powers of the arcane, and mages—very rare—can make portals into other dimensions and have some control over time. This will be most helpful for us if we want to get to Kit." I nodded to him slightly, recognizing that it was somewhat like the skills of the portal bending and such of the black and violet dragons back home.
"And this is Daniel, the Seer and novice Dreamwalker; Maxxus, green dragon and friend of Leorah, the last living pink dragon," he said, nodding at each of us in turn, "and Gabriel, elemental sorcerer and knight of The Ancient Order of Dragons, or Ord na Draconica Dianthus. Kiarra you already know."
We all murmured shy greetings at one another as Finnian checked his wristwatch and glanced backwards over his shoulder at the sun just beginning to set over the treeline. "Only a couple of minutes until sunset. Positions!"
Esmè draped soft blankets on the ground next to each other. She pulled a handful of small candles from the mysterious depths of her bag and started placing them in a circle around the blankets. "You, and you…sit," she pointed at Daniel and me.
Gabriel grabbed each of one our hands and squeezed. Good luck, he mouthed to us. I offered him a wry but hopeful smile. Daniel took my hand from his brother and held it close to his heart, giving me a nervous look.
"We can do this," he said, biting his lip. It was more a question than a statement, seeking confidence he didn’t have.
I nodded. "We can." Daniel led me to the blankets in the center of the circle and we sat down in the center, one for each of us. We glanced at each other and exchanged nervous expressions.
"You." Esmè pointed at Gabriel and instructed him to sit in between his brother and I. "Once the portal is open from the outside of it, we need you to summon all the light you can. Fire if you have to—just give it everything you have and shoot it in the darkness. Leorah won’t be able to extract her friend if the Shadows won’t release her and her powers are useless in the shadow realm." Gabriel nodded, and came to sit on the ground in between us.
Esmè and Finnian arranged the rest of us; Finnian at Daniel’s side, ready to describe the scene to everyone via his mind "melding," Nomi nearby to help Finnian tell Daniel what he was to do, if necessary, and Connor just outside the circle, hands at the ready to summon the portal or whatever it was exactly that mages did.
Kiarra and Maxxus hung back, just there for moral support I guessed. Kiarra appeared neutral as she spoke in hushed tones that I couldn’t hear to Maxxus who kept shifting his human feet around fretfully.
Esmè entered the circle and offered Daniel and me both small vials of thick, gray liquid. We took them as she explained, "For sleep. They will put you in that state just before REM sleep where dreaming is possible, and will only last thirty minutes at most before you awaken so this will have to go quickly." Daniel and I twisted off the plastic tops and tossed them on the ground.
"Bottoms up," he said, with a quick, tense laugh as he raised the potion in a sign of Cheers!
I raised mine as well and we both swallowed our vials in one forced swallow; it was bitter and chalky tasting and surprisingly thick. Daniel even gagged a little as he choked it down. "Damn, that's nasty," he mumbled with a grimace on his face.
Esmè turned to Gabriel, as she stepped backwards. "Would you light the candles, please?
Gabriel nodded and effortlessly conjured a small flicker of fire in between his palms. He shot it with a flick of the wrist at the nearest candle to him and urged it to bounce from wick to wick around the circle un
til all the candles were lit.
I grinned at him proudly, still awed at his natural use of magic. It was like breathing to him, he didn’t even have to think about it. Gabriel smirked, and winked back.
"Ugh…" Daniel groaned from next to me, his eyes appearing heavy as he slowly lay back on the blanket.
I felt his fatigue as the potion started to take effect in me too; it felt like a giant yawn was waiting to escape but couldn’t. I too lay back, not before turning my head towards Daniel and reaching for his hand. He grabbed it and squeezed lightly, relieved for the anchor my grasp provided before I watched his eyes roll back into his head and he was out. I was asleep moments later.
Everything around me was gray. Gray and silent; there was nothing around. It was a few moments before I heard a nervous voice. "Leo?"
I turned, and Daniel was right there behind me, looking nervous.
"You’re okay?" I asked, as he nodded. "How are you doing this?"
He shrugged. "I’m just supposed to fall asleep with an image of my mind, of a place. This was the best I could come up with," he added with a chuckle. "Not too creative yet."
I smiled, and patted his shoulder. "It’s better than the shadow realm. It’ll be fine."
He beamed, thankfully. "The rest is rather involuntarily, actually. Finding you here, talking to you…it just kind of happens."
"Huh. Weird," I said thoughtfully.
He nodded in agreement.
"Okay, Connor is going to open the portal now," Finnian’s voice rang out from above, kind of like "God" and we looked up and around to find the source of the voice. Of course he wouldn’t be here but he sounded as if he should be right next to us. "Once he does, Daniel, you’ll need to lead Leo in. Just focus on her, nothing else. We’ll do the rest, because once you lose your focus, that’s it, this is done. So…no pressure," Finnian added with a wry chuckle.
"Fuck. No pressure at all," Daniel mumbled with a scowl.
We heard the sound then of...well it almost sounded like a hundred papers ripping, following by anguished low squeals and before us a hole opened up in the gray expanse, and exposing the darkness of the shadow realm that was nearby.
Daniel held out his hand and I grabbed it without looking. "Here we go…" he said, and we stepped through the veil and safety of Daniel’s gray, neutral dreamscape into the anguish of the shadow realm.
Immediately it felt stifled, choking, like all the will to live was escaping my body out of every pore. Daniel obviously felt it too, he swallowed nervously and his eyes widened in terror.
Kit. Must get Kit. I told myself, with conviction. I tried to push the terror of the Shadows out of my mind, and focused on my friend. With a newfound confidence, I urged Daniel and I further into the shadow realm.
I nearly tripped over a large object, much like last night. Daniel struggled to keep me upright, as a handful of needy tendrils taunted my feet.
A blast of light came from behind me—out of nowhere—and I knew it must have been Gabriel shooting his light magic at them. The tendrils shrieked and recoiled back into the ground below.
Relieved, I finally looked down. All I saw was a large, black mound below that shook and let out a whimper.
I gasped. That couldn’t be…Kit? I fought back the stinging tears in my eyes that would surely be falling if this wasn’t a "dream", feeling the emptiness emanate from Kit in waves.
"More light!" I commanded, hoping that Gabriel or Finnian could hear me.
More beams of light came shooting through the portal hole, attacking the blackness at my feet. They didn’t appear to be having an effect at first and then finally they began screaming and dispersing back into the ground.
When most of them had been burned by the bright light Gabriel had flung at them, I knelt down at Kit’s side, who was now exposed, shaking violently and mumbling incoherently.
Gingerly, I reached out and touched her shoulder. No reaction at all.
"Kit? Kit it’s me, Leo. I’ve come to take you away; some place safe," I said, trying to sound as comforting as possible.
A small noise—perhaps one of recognition—squeaked from her mouth.
"Kit?" I tried to shake her lightly and she just whimpered.
I looked over her listless body at Daniel who appeared extremely concerned. He sat down beside her and reached out, stroking the side of her arm. "Kit? My name is Daniel. I’m a…friend. We’re here to get you out. All you have to do is stand up, and we can get you out of here to someplace nice."
I flashed Daniel a thankful smile. He caught my face and replied back with a silent nod.
"Leorah, talk to her like normal, just like any other day. Remind her of what she likes, or what makes her feel good, just like you were talking normally," Finnian instructed from above.
I nodded at no one in particular and summoned up all my assurance in an attempt to urge my friend out of the void that she was in.
"Gabriel and I went to your house. We fed your cats," I blurted, it was the first thing I could think of. "So, they’re fine but they miss you." I didn’t know if they did or not really but I was willing to try anything, knowing how much she loved them.
"Cats?" she mumbled faintly. If I hadn’t been a dragon with keen hearing, I probably wouldn’t have heard anything.
"Yep. They’re good," I said, trying to sound chipper but struggling, feeling the weight of the darkness pushing down on me. More flashes of light and I forced myself to continue. "Yeah. They actually like Gabriel. Funny huh?" I chuckled lightly. There were no words from Kit, but she did stop whimpering.
"Something more, Leo!" Finnian’s voice boomed and I cried out in frustration.
"I’m trying! But it’s hard! It feels so— "
Daniel shushed me, with a finger to his lips. "Don’t say it. Positive thoughts."
I fought the urge to growl because I knew he was right.
"Do you know any gossip?" Finnian suggested. Someone must have given him grief because he continued, "What? Girls like that stuff, don’t they?"
I snickered shaking my head.
"Kit? Please just come out of…whatever that is. Wherever you are. I miss you. I need some girl advice…I actually went out on a date a little bit ago, and who knows? I might have an actual boyfriend soon, and I need your help. You know how stupidly clueless I am," I said, trying to sound light but I knew the desperation was leaking into my voice.
A small chuckle escaped Kit’s mouth. "That…coffee…guy," she stammered, trying to find the words.
"Yeah. Gabriel. You need to come back, I need you to go shopping with me. I need new underwear," I said, before realizing what I said. I covered my mouth with my hand as Daniel smirked at me.
"It gets even worse, because there’s another dra—errr, man that wants her too!" Daniel blurted out.
"What are you talking about?" I squeaked in reply
Kit’s head lifted slightly. "Oh?" She couldn’t hold it up and she promptly allowed it to drop back to the ground, and I sighed.
Daniel shrugged. "What? It’s gossip, isn’t it?"
I fought the urge to shoot Daniel a dirty look and continued. "Yeah I just know I’ll do something dumb so I need your help. You have to come back."
"Not…sure…can…" she stammered, in a small voice.
"But…you have to. We need to fix up the shop and get it open again." I didn’t know if that would actually ever happen—at least not with me—but I hoped it’d get a rise out of her. "Now everyone’s forced to go to Starbucks in the town over." Mentioning the huge coffee-giant generally got a rise out of her, sending her on an anti-corporate tirade.
"Damn…" she started to say. She laughed weakly, and I watched her struggle to lift her head. She cried out in pain as a tendril attempting to pull her head back down. Another flash of light and it recoiled but not before another handful of them began emerging from the ground.
She let out a shriek as they began closing over her appendages. She struggled for a moment before going listless again. "
Can’t…do…"
I gave Daniel a panicked look. He just shrugged.
"What’s her favorite things to do? Talk about? Anything, Leo!" Finnian called out.
I sighed, trying to recall things that were important to her. Her cats. The shop. Neither had evoked the kind of response in her I wanted.
I snapped my fingers then as a lightbulb went off in my head. "Unicorns!" I cried out.
Daniel looked at me as if I were daft. "Huh?"
"She loves them! I bet she’d like to meet one, for real. Before the storm the entire shop was filled with unicorn knickknacks."
Daniel grinned at me knowingly. "Really? It’s too bad they weren’t real."
"Oh, but they are!" I corrected him cheerfully. "They’re here!"
Kit ever so slowly lifted her head upward. Her eyes flew open and she peered around. "Where?"
"Here! Well…not here here. Not in this place. But they’re close! And you can see one—a real one—if you just get out of here. I’ll show you one!" I reached out and stroked her dirty hair across her shoulders.
"Where…here?" she stammered.
"This is an icky place. You don’t want to be here. Bad magic. Bad juju. We need to leave," I said.
She nodded, small. "Yes. Want to but…not sure how."
I gave Daniel a hopeful look.
"Just…take my hand." I held out my hand in front of her. "I can show you how. Just come…"
Slowly, gingerly, Kit reached out a weak hand and tried to put it in my grasp. "Not sure…if…can…so tired. Just wanna…sleep."
"You can, though! Just not here. I know of a nice place, you’ll love it. I will show you…just come. You have to want to, though." I insisted. "And once you feel better I’ll show you a unicorn. For real. They really exist. You just have to want to leave."
"I…I do…" Slowly—ever so slowly—she peeled her upper body off the ground. Slowly, she turned to me and even though her expression was blank and grim, she gave a small smile. "Leo? It really is you," she said, much more intelligibly this time.