Tomorrows Child

by Starr West

  As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep, exhausted. Or so I thought.

  The sounds from the forest permeated my dreams and instantly, I found myself running… dreaming again. I knew that much. I was happy. I was free. The sun danced in dappled patches through the canopy and warmed my skin. It was a good day. I looked toward the sky and saw the flickering lights, liquid ribbons of colour.

  “Psyche?” It’s Phoenix. But I’m sleeping. I try to force my eyes open. Phoenix softly touches my arm, causing my skin to quiver and my body to flush. He doesn’t say anything; he just holds out his hand for me to follow. I feel so tired, but we’d been through so much lately and I couldn’t deny Phoenix, even if I wanted to.

  I follow him into a garden. The moonlight throws long delicate shadows across the spring lawn and illuminates his face. Phoenix is smiling. Something is different… He is different.

  He glances towards my room and I look in the same direction, following his eyes… I am still lying on my bed - sleeping.

  Dreaming again, I really should have known, but it feels different. This is no dream. Phoenix shook his head. “No, Psyche, only your body sleeps.”

  As I looked at Phoenix and then at myself, I realised there was something different. We were… not quite solid… not quite transparent. Both Phoenix and I stood in the moonlight, transmitting an ethereal glow and yet not casting a shadow like everything else in the garden. It was like this when I walked with the goddess.

  Was I dead? No. I could feel the magick in the air, so tangible that I could taste it. Phoenix was smiling and shaking his head “You’re very much alive, Psyche.”

  Phoenix was answering my questions, they remained unspoken thoughts, but he heard them anyway. “This is your astral body. You’re safe, Psyche.” I knew about out of body experiences - astral projection, but I had never experienced it, nor had Phoenix ever mentioned it.

  “Where would you like to go, Psyche?”

  “Where can I go?”

  “Anywhere and everywhere.” Phoenix’s smile was enough to make my heart sing, but his touch was tender and I felt more real and sensitive than ever. I had nothing to compare this with except one stolen moment in the kitchen, months ago.

  “I could take you home for a visit… There’s a place that’s special to me, to us.”

  I nodded.

  He swept me up in his arms. I watched the world fade beneath us, and we were flying, Phoenix and I. Incredible, wonderful and amazing! Wrapped safely in his arms, I could feel his breath and the pounding of his heart. It was everything magickal all rolled into one moment. The butterflies that resided in my stomach began to flutter. We flew higher and faster and I felt the energy of the rainbow light tickle my soul as we passed through. For a moment, I thought we were surrounded by stars, but I held my eyes closed and absorbed the rush.

  I expected to enter a doorway to heaven or maybe some other tangible portal, but there was nothing. “We fly because we can, not because we have to travel to our destination. We’re merely a breath away from the mundane world,” Phoenix told me.

  We stood, hand-in-hand, in a field beside a narrow creek. The water was crystal clear and the pebbles on the bottom glistened like opals in the sunshine. I expect they were opals. Weeping willows lined the bank and hung in wisps, reaching to the water below like delicate fingers. I could feel Phoenix breathe and sensed a different kind of magick floating in the air. The magick was as crisp, fresh and untainted as freshly fallen snow. This was the way it was supposed to be.

  The scent of wild flowers and fresh apples filled the air. It was breathtaking. It was also familiar and the memories tugged at the edges of my mind, but they remained hidden. I didn’t have to reach for them, I knew they were there; these memories weren’t stolen or bound, but I left them where they were, for now.

  Phoenix was still smiling, delighted with my response to his surprise.

  “Wow, Phoenix, this is amazing. We have to do this again.”

  “We can come any time you like.”

  “Really? Are you sure you’re allowed? No one will turn you into some tortured immortal?”

  “Not for bringing you here, but our bodies need to be asleep, and Libby might disapprove. But sure, other than the sleep requirement, we can come anytime.”

  “Then why have we never done this before?” I couldn’t believe it, I could stay here forever and never leave, but maybe that’s the point.

  “If you’re impressed now, my sweet Psyche, then you are about to be dazzled. There’s so much more I can show you.”

  Phoenix took my hand and drew me close, brushing kisses lightly across my cheek and my shoulder and sweeping tender lips along my neck and my mouth. I touched the tip of my tongue against his lips and he tasted of honey even here.

  Phoenix pushed our palms together and I watched our bodies begin to melt and flow. My body was liquid, like mercury and honey. As he pressed himself against me, I felt my entire body melt into his. It was as if we were one, our bodies tangled in magick and consumed in the rush of passion. We created a swirl of colours that bled into our liquid bodies. Completely connected, wrapped in desire, consuming each other and yet, somehow still separate. I could feel his heart beat and his breath was sweet and warm.

  My body was free and flowed with liquid joy. I felt our love from the ages, from lives before this one, and I heard the songs of our lives and our love like a sweet melody. The love he felt for me needed no words. As I realised the truth of this, I let my love go so that he could feel my love too. Understanding our love was an amazing and precious gift. I now understood why Phoenix stood beside me and why he had returned to me. I would have done the same for him.

  Slowly, Phoenix began to free my spirit, not fully, but enough so that our bodies began to form and take shape. I could feel his hands and then his fingers. I could touch his lips again.

  “We need to return. It’s time to awaken - in your human body.”

  “Can’t I just lay here for a while longer? We really just arrived.” His arms wrapped around me, I didn’t want to move.

  “I am sorry, my love, but time on earth moves differently. It’s almost dawn. We still have a little time.” We relaxed under a huge tree on soft fine grass. No words were necessary and none seemed right. We still had not become separate entities and every sense was alive with the pure magickal breath of life that surrounded us.

  I watched Phoenix smile and his violet eyes glistened, “You seem quite pleased with yourself,” I said, but I was smiling too, brimming with bliss and overflowing with love.

  “Well, yes. Actually, you have no idea how long I have wanted to bring you here. But the timing was all wrong.”

  “So, is that what sex is like on the other side?” I blushed at the thought, but I had to ask.

  “Sort of, I guess, maybe, but it isn’t sex, not in any sense of the word. As a human, there is nothing to compare, nothing even comes close, there aren’t any words that describe this experience.” It was true; there really were no words.

  “This was special because of our love and our connection to the past.” I watched Phoenix silently as he continued and that cheeky, crooked smile pulled at his mouth. “You know, your virtue is still quite intact.”

  I hadn’t considered this fact, but now that he mentioned it, I can say I didn’t feel very virtuous and certainly not intact. We had been more intimate than I could ever imagine or ever believed possible.

  “I wish it could always be like this.”

  “It will be one day, when we have finished with this life. We won’t have to return to earth again… This is definitely our last time.”

  I smiled, “So… when this life is done, we can do this all the time?”

  “Yes, as often as you like, but it might get boring… after a while.”

  “I doubt it.” I could hear someone calling my name. Confused, I looked at Phoenix, he smiled and…

  I woke up in my bed.

  I fumbled through breakfast, a little daz
ed and more than a little mystified as the images of what took place danced in my mind. It felt real, but I knew it was only a dream. My dreams had always been vivid and my imagination created surprising images, like a surrealist painting. Not everything was as obvious as it appeared, but the mist, that shrouds a dream in the light of day, was absent. There was an intense clarity here that dreaming didn’t explain.

  As I relived the memories, a noise caught my attention, I looked up and saw Phoenix leaning against the doorjamb, and his crooked, cheeky smile sparkled in his violet eyes and confirmed that it had been real… not a dream at all.

  Losing all restraint, I jumped from my chair and wrapped myself in his arms. "I love you, Phoenix."

  "I love you too, Psyche."

  EPILOGUE

  A tall timber dais stood in the centre of the cold stone room. Perched on top was a large, leather-bound manuscript. Long slender fingers reached out, tentative at first, as they began turning the pages. The woman devoured the words with childlike enthusiasm and a hunger that was never completely satisfied. The words were not new, nor were they written by the woman nor the girl child that stood beside her, anxiously seeking her approval.

  The woman sucked at the cool air, causing the girl to twitch nervously and pick at the fresh scabs on her arm. A smile slowly crept across the woman’s face. She was pleased. There was no need for the fear that kept the girl so silent and obedient. This girl was a prize, not like the last. She came bearing gifts and she asked for nothing in return, which was just as well because she would probably get nothing.

  The girl held out her arm as an offering; she knew only one way to please the woman.

  “Hmm, not now, dear, we have much to do and very little time.”

  “Yes Volante, as you wish.” The girl began to back away, but she kept her eyes on the woman in case she missed a sign or a flicker of acceptance.

  “But you were wise to take a Darnell Shadow book. It is wasted on that girl.”

  That was all it took. It was all she needed. Raven smiled and slipped into the shadows.

  The End

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Acknowledgments

  There are many people who have helped along the way and then there are those who must be thanked simply for putting up with me and my obsessive behaviour while I wrote this story.

  First, I want to thank my family, especially my husband and my boys, who lived with me through the birth of this story while my mind was living in Mount Misty. You are all very patient and I love you dearly.

  To my beautiful sister Dallas, for reading every page, even the ones that didn’t make the final cut and for being as excited about the lives of Psyche and Phoenix as I am. I probably wouldn’t have finished this story without your encouragement. I also want to thank you for putting up with me as I fretted and stressed about every word. You were there right to the end. (And now we are going to do it again!)Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

  To my beta readers, Shannon, Amber, Sharon and Ben, who read the story before it was finished and then read it again because I asked. Thank you. And to my brother Edan, who inspires interesting characters.

  To my editing fairy, Teri, you are amazing. You were the first person to read this who didn’t know me and love me but you loved my story. Your comments gave me the faith to publish. Thank you.

  To Patti, Thank you for your continuing support, assistance and advice as I got my book ready to publish. Thank you for answering all my questions in the middle of the night and encouraging me to setup my “Social Network” before I published! You made the process so much easier.

  And finally, to my Mum, thank you for the music… and for all the things you do and say that get us through the hard times. I love you. …and because you and dad gave me a really cool name!

  About the Author

  Starr lives a rural life in Ravenshoe in Far North Queensland, Australia. She is a wife and a mother to four amazing and sometimes boisterous boys.

  The family has a small menagerie with one cat, four dogs, numerous Chickens, four pet rats, three Jersey cows, two calves, an old retired bay gelding and a very naughty orphan colt.

  Writing has always been a passion but it wasn’t until she was asked, ‘If you died tomorrow, what is the one thing you’d regret?’

  It’s a pretty confronting question but the answer was to write and publish a novel. That was enough motivation to get started and within 6 months, she had finished the first draft of Tomorrows Child, the first book in a series of Paranormal Fantasy Novels.

  Starr is involved in a number of community projects and enjoys learning ‘lost skills’ such as baking bread, making soap and candles. Her boys can light a fire with two sticks and find their way out of the rainforest.

  When she isn’t running after children or writing, she can be found in the garden growing vegetables or in the kitchen making things from scratch.

  You can connect with me online at:

  My Blog ~ http://starrwest.wordpress.com/

  Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Starr-West

  Myspace ~ http://www.myspace.com/578512421

  Twitter ~ https://twitter.com/StarrWestAust