Her heart leapt into her throat, adrenalin pounded through her with a sudden ferocity and her whole body began to vibrate with energy. Iin front of her was a man hooded and cloaked in deep grey, whose entrance she had neither seen nor heard. The sound of the chair on the wooden floor must surely have made a noise and yet there he was, seated calmly, silently and presumably gazing at her.
She could only assume this was the case because for some reason the hood seemed to completely shadow his face and she could not make out any detail. This was wrong. She had sat next to the window and it was a clear sunny day. It was not as though the man was wearing a black veil. The world fell into utter silence around her. The more she tried to focus on the man, the more he appeared to be shrouded in a haze. Momentarily, he spoke. His voice could not have been more unearthly. The depth, strength and emotion of his voice was unfathomable and filled with a low, gentle rumble, as if from the bones of the world itself.
“Good evening Amriel.”
He used her proper name.
“It’s the middle of the day,” she replied, “and who are you?”
“It is the middle of the day here. Where you are, night has already fallen.”
Before Amy had time to reply, the man carried on and she could not help but notice that an intensely dark green glow had begun to emanate from where his eyes must be.
“I have come because you are ready to begin your training Amriel.”
Amy noticed that the world around her was slipping into blackness until all that remained was her, the man and the table between them. Nevertheless, this didn’t surprise her. She was sure that she had never seen this man before and yet this strange statement had a familiar ring. She was meant to be training, she had discussed it before. It was a long time ago… somewhere cold. The man waited patiently as she tried to assemble her thoughts.
“I… I… I think I remember… yes… you’re an Arbiter, aren’t you? I think that’s the word. I can’t seem to get things clear in my head. What’s going on?”
The glow of his eyes was now unmistakable below the hood, like the embers in a fire, bright but not providing much illumination. They certainly weren’t human eyes.
“You are a dreamwalker Amriel. You are controlling this dream zone, holding it open while someone is trying to wake you from it. We do not have much time. You need to know how to find me in future. Take this quill and parchment and write the following as many times as you can. ‘Tonight, I will dream about dragons’.”
Amy obeyed, fighting hard to keep things in focus. The stranger was fast becoming fuzzy around the edges. He was fading to nothing but his voice echoed through her mind.
“You are about to start down a never-ending path of uncertainty, but right now you are going to wake up. When you do, you simply need to remember.”
“But I am…awa….”
Amy sat bolt upright feeling as awake as if it was the middle of the day and she had just drunk five cups of coffee. Her ears were buzzing. She noticed Snipping beside her looking apprehensive.
“What ‘appened?” he asked. “What ‘d ya do? Why didn’t ya let me into the dream zone?”
It took some time before her parents and Snipping were content with her recollection of the dream and Amy was getting tired of describing it again and again. Why were they so concerned? She thought they would be glad that she had finally met an Arbiter but they didn’t relax until the mail arrived. It contained, amongst the regular post, a blank envelope with a single sheet of parchment inside. Written on it so many times that it filled the whole page were the words, ‘Tonight, I will dream about dragons’. They all agreed this was a comforting sign that the Arbiters had indeed found a way to make contact and that Amy was in safe hands. The letter was an old method for helping young dreamwalkers make contact with the Arbiters and had only been developed after Gorhoth’s original banishment, meaning he would not have known about it since the elves had never submitted to him.
Amy had to hurry to school. She was running extremely late thanks to the hold up with parents. She rushed along the path through the park trying to make up time when she heard something odd. It was now late in the morning and so cold that no one was to be seen on the walkways. Yet she could have sworn that she could hear the sound of pattering shoes running behind her. It almost sounded like an echo from her own steps but sound didn’t really echo in the park. She stopped and spun around to look behind her.
Not all too far behind her, a man in a black winter jacket was walking along, but so casually that she couldn’t hear his footsteps at all. She turned away reluctantly and continued on her way, soon breaking into a run. She was nearly at the park’s end when she heard it again. There was no one there except for the man in the black jacket walking along gently. Was it her overexcited imagination, brought on by her nervousness, or was he no further behind her than he had been before? Surely he couldn’t have kept up if he had been walking at that pace the whole time? She crossed the street to her school, which was still bustling with students making their way inside. From the top of the steps at the entryway Amy looked back one last time. The man had stopped at the street and was looking around as if he was lost. He seemed to make a decision after a moment and made his way off down the street back towards the city.
Amy was dying for a chance to speak to Martay but the opportunity didn’t arise until lunch time. Knowing that Richard and Michelle would look for them in the library, the two of them found an empty practice room near the music faculty and shut themselves inside. As Amy finished her story Martay looked at her, impressed.
“So, you’re going to train with an Arbiter soon! What was it like? What do Arbiters look like? Do they look like humans?”
Amy wasn’t sure how to respond. His outline had been that of a man but those eyes…
“Well, I’m sure he’s not actually human but he was roughly the shape of one. I don’t actually know what Arbiters are even meant to look like.”
As Martay expressed his excitement, Amy’s mind drifted back to the odd experience in the park that morning. People walked in the park all the time, it was probably just Amy’s nerves from everything that had been happening to her lately.
On their walk home Amy invited Martay to dinner. Since he still had a number of assignments to finish, he reluctantly declined and continued on his way. She took out her keys and turned the door handle. She expected an almost immediate greeting from her parents but they were nowhere to be seen. The entry hall and kitchen were empty and as she did a quick search, Amy found no one in the living areas either. She made her way upstairs where she finally heard something to indicate their presence. There were muffled voices coming from their bedroom. There was clearly a very hurried argument taking place. Amy knocked on the door, then without waiting for a reply, opened it.
There were travel bags on their bed, half filled with more clothes lying in wait beside them. Snipping was dutifully doing the packing.
Amy’s parents turned to her as she entered. Amy wasn’t sure what to ask first but her father was quick to explain what was going on anyway.
“We have decided that since the Arbiters have finally made contact we can afford to take a chance and meet up with some old contacts of ours who might have some information. We shouldn’t be gone more than two weeks and Snipping will remain here to help you.”
Amy was instantly slammed by a wave of mixed feelings. She was instantly nervous, upset, scared, and yet, accepting. She certainly hadn’t expected her parents to disappear now.
Over dinner they spoke about the details of their trip and Amy was shocked to hear they would be travelling to the Nepalese Himalayas. What possible contacts could they have there, she asked herself? Her parents wouldn’t give her much information on that front and became secretive until Amy gave up.
The discussion returned to her training. It wasn’t until dinner was practically over that Amy asked what she thought was a childish question.
“What does an Arbiter actually look like?
You haven’t really told me much about them and I’m about to start training with them, whatever that involves. I wouldn’t mind knowing that either, come to think of it.”
Laszlo looked up at Amy with a strange expression. Was it concern or pity? Maybe it was both. He gave a heavy sigh and pressed his hands firmly together.
“We are sorry Amy. We know we are leaving you in the dark right as you are about to face daunting challenges and changes. We don’t really have enough time to explain everything to you properly but we agreed it was necessary to go as soon as we possibly could. At the moment, any action we take will be on the basis of blind guessing. If we could, we would have explained everything to you first, before you started training.
As for the training itself, that differs for each dreamwalker. Typically, they would run through basic training exercises to help develop control, as well as lectures on history. They’re very good at that because they saw it all and are naturally impartial and neutral, which means they present it factually and without any personal agendas.”
“Are the contacts you’re hoping to meet Arbiter’s as well? I thought they only really existed in dreams?”
“The contact we are hoping to meet with is called the prophet and he is extremely old. More than that I cannot tell you because I know very little about him.”
Amy felt like her father was still hiding something. This last sentence seemed false, she was sure he did know more about this prophet but she didn’t push it.
“Well that’s a start. You didn’t tell me what Arbiter’s should look like though.”
“That is because I was unsure how to answer, I was still thinking about it. Arbiters can appear in any form of their choosing but their true form is not really physical. Physical beings such as humans cannot comprehend their true form, so our brain fills in the unreadable space for us. That is why humans usually see them as dragons. Apparently, that is the closest physical appearance our minds can prescribe to what we actually perceive. Have you ever wondered where the idea of dragons first came from? Ever asked yourself why enormous colourful serpentine figures appear in almost every culture of the world despite no real historical link? It is the imprint the Arbiters leave upon the people whose dreams they enter when they work.”
Amy was left to contemplate this information as her parents got up and prepared to leave.
“You are in safe hands with Snipping and he will be able to answer many of your questions. We are truly sorry that we have to rush off like this, Amy darling, but it is necessary.”
A few minutes later they were hugging and kissing Amy goodbye before getting into a taxi and disappearing into the evening twilight.
Amy stood forlorn in the doorway, watching the vehicle as long as she could. She had a strange hollow felling in her stomach despite having just eaten. Eventually Snipping closed the door and offered to make her some tea.
The next few days were surprisingly hard on Amy. Snipping refused point blank to tell her how to make contact with the Arbiters until the weekend. This frustrated Amy immensely but every time she pressed the point with him she got the same automated response.
“When ya interact with the Arbiters ya shouldn’t be interrupted and they might require ya to stay in the dream plane for a long time. Ya parents ‘ave asked me to ensure that ya don’t miss any school so it ‘as to wait ’til the weekend.”
As such, Amy was forced to stick it out and slowly the days crept towards the weekend. Martay tried to help keep her spirits up, and was excited for her over the prospect of getting proper training. He agreed to join her for dinner on Friday, and when it finally arrived they made their way home with high spirits and a thrilling sense of expectation.
They were approaching Amy’s house when Martay stopped abruptly and ceased speaking mid way through a sentence. He pulled Amy behind a bus shelter and pointed across the street and up ahead towards her house. On the opposite side of the street to Amy’s was a woman standing stock still, staring at it with glazed unblinking eyes. They were wide open and yet somehow Amy sensed that she wasn’t truly seeing what was in front of her.
“Do you know that woman?” asked Martay in a hushed tone. Amy shook her head, watching the woman intently.
There were plenty of strange people in every city who might have behaved like this on any given day but Amy had ceased to take anything for granted and something crawling around inside her stomach said that something about this situation was wrong. What was she doing?
A car suddenly pulled out of a side street and drove directly in front of the woman with a loud growl from the revving engine. Once it had passed Amy and Martay saw how the woman suddenly came to life. She stumbled backwards a step for no obvious reason as if she had totally lost her bearings. She started turning her head in every direction with blinking eyes. After a moment she balled her fists and rubbed them hard against her face, then made her way slowly up the street with a very confused expression.
Amy and Martay stared at each other.
“What... the hell,” Martay began, “do you think that was?”
Amy shifted her weight uneasily. She had no idea but the uncomfortable sense of fear in her stomach hadn’t walked off along with the old lady.
After checking that nobody else was around and watching, they ran the final distance to Amy’s house and quickly got inside. The smell of cooking wafted from the kitchen enticingly and Snipping greeted them in his own friendly way.
“Yer bloody well late! What were ya doing? Ya know ya need to prepare for tonight!”
“Good evening to you too.” Amy retorted.
She was growing accustomed to the Imp’s unwaveringly irritated demeanour. If he had been green and somewhat taller he could have played the part of the Grinch, Amy thought to herself. Now that her parents were gone Snipping was less formal and polite. Amy felt that this was the more natural Snipping and found it more amusing than confronting.
She and Martay entered the kitchen and took up their seats at the bench. They were still feeling apprehensive after what had happened but the feeling was passing quickly as they became distracted by dinner.
Snipping had begun with a hot soup followed by the most incredible schnitzel Amy had ever tasted, only to be topped off with some kind of pastry based dessert that neither Amy nor Martay recognised but took three consecutive helpings of. It tasted that good. As they ate, Snipping began explaining things to Amy.
“As yer completely inexperienced ya probably need all the help ya can get in order to sleep soundly. Deep sleep gives ya some clarity in the dream plane, and a full stomach ‘elps immensely there.
Now, first things first. Don’t ever joke with an Arbiter. They’ve sought ya out to teach ya to bend the natural laws o’ worlds and control the power o’ creation itself. They won’t find it amusin’ if ya treat that lightly and you’ll seriously regret yer behaviour after. Secondly, don’t ask too many questions unless they ask ya first. They’ll teach ya in the way they deem best and as they’re the controllers o’ the dream planes, they’ll know far better than you which way is best, and give you information accordingly…”
These types of instructions went on for some time. Snipping also stepped Amy through the process of directing her dream towards the letter she had created earlier. That way, he said, her dream zone would have an identifiable basis to it for the Arbiters to find quickly. By the time Snipping was drawing to the end of his instructions it was getting late. He drew to a close and was silent for a moment, a gleam twinkling in his eyes as he looked hard at Amy.
“One last thing,” he said with an oddly soft tone, “If ya get a chance, could you ask the Arbiter to tell Bombalina where I am and what’s ‘appened to me?”
Amy’s eyebrows rose at the request. Snipping’s face looked like it was struggling very hard not to look imploring then a split second later he was his usual self again.
“Alright you two, off to bed. If all goes well Amy, you’re in for a long night and you shouldn’t keep the Arbiters wai
ting.”
That was rich, Amy thought, when Snipping had been refusing to let her make contact earlier in the week. Nevertheless, she obeyed willingly. She wanted to try and get to sleep and start unravelling the mysteries of dreamwalking.
Amy felt warm, comfortable and full but at the same time she was so brimmed with excitement that she could barely keep still. She kept rolling over and taking the piece of parchment off her bedside table. It felt odd seeing her handwriting when she knew she had never physically written it. Snipping had said that, for her, writing in her dreams amounted to the same thing as writing in the physical world but she couldn’t see dreams from the same perspective as Snipping just yet. For her, the physical world was very definitely the real world.
With time she began to relax a little and she eventually became sleepy. Her thoughts became increasingly cloudy and scattered until they drifted into nonsense. What little logical thought she still had allowed her to remember that she needed to look at the parchment. She lifted the parchment and looked at it with bleary eyes. When she couldn’t keep them open anymore, Amy slipped into dreams at last.
She was standing in the middle of a forest. What a forest! The trees were so tall she could not make out where the trunk started tapering, let alone where the tops themselves were situated. At ground level they were so round that Amy thought a building would have fit inside them if they had been hollow. The thought struck her as being very odd. The trees were clearly not real, they looked nothing like trees in the real world… The real world! It was like Amy was struck by lightning as she realised, she was dreaming. Normally when she realised she was dreaming she woke up almost immediately. Not this time. Her thoughts were perfectly clear. She knew why she was here.
“Hello?” her voice was loud but hesitant, “Hello? Are you there? It’s me, Amy!”
Bridge Between the Worlds (Dreamwalker Book 1) Page 13