Insight

by Tina Engel

  Feeling frustrated with them both, unable to connect with Brett, I removed my hands from the sphere, stood up, and pushed my chair back, which brought their attention to me. As I stood though, I broke the connection from the sphere and chair, and a shockwave went through my body like a lightning bolt.

  A flash of light blinded me, as I bent over in pain. I felt him there in the room, in my mind, searching for something. When the pain subsided and I stood, I was no longer in the room, but there in my dream world.

  The wheat was golden and tall, the tree branches waved slowly in the breeze and the grand castle was there, standing tall in the distance behind the great tree. I could hear the ocean behind me and the sound of birds high above. What I was doing here and how I got here, I didn’t know, but figured I would soon find out.

  Then I saw movement from behind the castle, behind the mountain that the castle was carved from. It was small at first, just a speck coming towards me. Then I saw it, a dragon, emerald green, and getting larger as it came towards me. This wasn’t the same dragon that consumed Eagle in one of my other dreams but still large and menacing looking, the closer it got.

  I looked around, wondering where I should go to seek shelter and realized there was nowhere to hide so I stood firmly planted, placing my shield around myself. I took the barrette out of my hair, released my weapon and allowed it to attach to my hand, turning into the simple, but sharp dagger.

  I was ready as the great beast landed just feet from me, its wings causing a large gust of wind as it landed, almost knocking me over. I regained my composure quickly and stood still but firm, trying to hide my fear.

  “There is no need for that feeble weapon.” It said. “I am not here to hurt you, for I belong to you. But then you do not know this, for you are not with me yet. We will meet soon, do not fear. Look for me. If you do not find me, everything will change. He knows this and has hid me well.

  And at that, the pain came back, deep inside and I bent over trying to steady myself, for I was certain I was going to pass out. Just before I laid down on the ground, letting the wheat field swallow me up, I saw her, Rose, not clearly, ghostlike, but I saw her, where the dragon had been. I laid still then, trying to calm my quivering body.

  Then the pain stopped and as I opened my eyes, I was back in the room, sterile and gleaming, so white, with faces looking at me.

  “What happened?” I asked. “I was there, in the wheat field, but with a dragon?” and I attempted to stand.

  Brett reached out to take my hand and helping me up, said, “Dragon?” As he looked to Biton.

  “Come sit back down, reconnect with your surroundings quickly!” Biton said. “He has seen what you saw. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. You were to see your dragon in the protected field. Interesting though. Tell me everything you remember.” Biton ordered.

  As I turned to go back to the table, standing next to it, with her hands on the sphere, was Rose, for just a moment. I said nothing but sat down and allowed the chair to reconnect.

  Brett didn’t leave my side until Biton ordered him to do so. Brett, looking at him with murder in his eyes, started to speak and I knew what he was about to say, being connected with him, his hands on my shoulders.

  “The hell with you and this craziness” was what Brett was about to say, so I quickly reached up and placed both my hands on his.

  “Brett, its fine, I am fine. Please sit down and let’s finish this so we can get back to the ship. I need to tell Lily what happened.” I said, with a pleading expression. “And Rose.”

  Biton spoke then, in a more diplomatic fashion with urgency in his voice, “My time is running short, and we must finish this. This place has been hidden from him for so long. He knew it was here, that I was here, but now that you have broken the barrier, by removing your hands, he has found me. Please sit Brett, so the barrier can be solid again.”

  Brett was frustrated and I could feel his fear. He lifted his hands from my shoulders, walked to his chair and sat down. He didn’t fight the connection this time. He knew it was no use and we needed to finish this quickly.

  When the connection for all of us was complete, Biton spoke, but not with his mouth, we were all connected in our minds and we could hear each other’s thoughts.

  “Tell me what you saw or better yet, show me. Show me all of your dreams, please.” He said. “Put your hands back onto the sphere, both of you.”

  We did as we were directed, and there in the sphere were my dreams, one at a time until this last one was complete. What was different though was that both Biton and Brett were there standing close by, watching, as were others but I couldn’t make out who or what they were.

  When the last dream was complete, the sphere went back to the cloudy swirls but we kept our hands on it.

  Brett commented, “Rose?”

  Before Brett could say anything else, Biton started, “The dragon knew this was going to happen, that you would break the barrier and find out about her, before you were supposed to. I don’t quite understand why this was supposed to happen but it has. The past, present and future are all so fragile.”

  Biton continued, “I was to show you this.” Suddenly the sphere cleared and I could see, like watching a movie.

  I saw myself in a place that I knew but couldn’t remember where it was, and I was picking up a large, egg shaped object. It looked like a large emerald, but I knew it was an egg, a dragon’s egg to be exact. Douglas, was there as was Lily, no, it wasn’t Lily. Who was it? Then the sphere turned back, to its cloudy mass again.

  I looked to Biton and spoke, “I was supposed to find the egg with the help of Douglas and Lily, or who? Or is this how I find it now?”

  Then I knew where that place was. I should have remembered when I saw it but I didn’t, I had forgotten, but why? I had been there so many times, played there with my imaginary friends. The dragon’s egg was hidden at home, in Pineville.

  “That was where it was hidden, and now, the future is unclear to me as to where the egg is. He was here trying to listen, but as long as we were connected to the sphere he couldn’t hear or see. He has left, choosing to retrieve the egg and hide it, not destroy it.” Biton said with a tone of confusion in his voice. “Instead of waiting for us to be done and destroying this place and us.” As he looked to Brett. I knew he was implying the two of them.

  He wants me, I thought.

  Biton removed his hands then and Brett and I did the same. “He is gone, we can talk without fear. The dragon is an important part of you, Princess Emilee, given to you by them, those who exist in your special place. It was hidden there in Pineville, protected by you friends, your forest friends, but now all is in jeopardy. I fear it is too late to retrieve the egg before he does.

  “Your vision proves it, your dragon sent you a message, to find her. Once he has the egg, she will hatch in captivity. He will try to break her, turn her to his ways. He believes if he has your dragon, then you will go to him and join him more easily.”

  “But my friends in Pineville, my family?” and I paused, standing. “What…”

  “Sadly, Princess, there is nothing…” Biton started to say but then the rumbling started again.

  Chapter 13

  Questions,

  So many to ask.

  But deep down inside,

  You know the answers.

  “The doorway to Gehenna, it must not be opened.” Biton thundered. “This didn’t go as planned. How didn’t she see this, know what the Dark One had done with the help of others, or maybe she did?”

  I cut him off. “The others who helped him, Proteus and a water fey. Who is she?”

  Brett stood then with a look of contemplation, as he was in my thoughts again, remembering what I saw in the water as the creature injected her venom into my leg. He then mumbled, so I knew that he had searched my thoughts, “Water Fey?”

  Brett’s face turned a sickly pale color and his eyes widened as his thoughts went to the same as mine…Queen Anahita? “S
he wouldn’t.” Brett said in a whisper.

  We both looked to Biton for answers. “All I know is that it is a female water fey who has been working for the Dark One, for a long time. We had no idea why or what they were doing. I only know what I saw in your mind, Princess Emilee, Queen Anahita, but is she the water fey helping the Dark One, I don’t know. She and they, now know too since this sphere connects us all together.”

  Biton paused then and said more to himself than to us, “Maybe she has always known, she does know most things, sees most things.”

  I put up a hand to stop him from talking and I shouted, “She, who the hell is she?”, “and then a bit calmer (okay, not calmer at all), I continued, “and who is connected to this sphere. You keep saying, she and they, as if these people, fey or whatever monsters, are up above playing a game of good versus evil, and this is no game!”

  Brett then seemed to come back to the conversation, after letting the idea that maybe Queen Anahita was the spy all along, soak in, and came over to me to calm me. I was surprised at his behavior since she had been his very good friend, and maybe more, for a long time. How could he be so calm? I thought.

  Brett, with a sober expression, took my hand in his and the zing and humming that I felt was safe and calming. I took a deep breath as Brett turned to look at Biton and spoke so calmly that it was a bit creepy. “What are we supposed to do now? Obviously things are not going as whomever the hell they are, planned, I assume.”

  Biton looked a bit sheepish, if that is possible, but composed himself quickly and went over to the sphere, sat down and placed his hands on it.

  “Brett”, I said.

  “Not now Princess. There is no time to get sentimental or assume anything at the moment. Things seem to be going haywire and we must figure out what to do to get back on track. Why was Rose there?” Brett said, with calmness but confusion in his voice.

  I was one with him, in his mind, and his thoughts. Where Queen Anahita was concerned, his thoughts of her were buried so deep, I couldn’t find them. Brett looked down at me, shook his head from side to side as if to say, not now, and then put his attention back to Biton.

  “Princess Emilee, come and sit, let us see what it says.” Biton requested, but Brett had other ideas.

  Brett took my arm in his and as he turned towards the doorway, he demanded that Biton open it so we could leave. He practically had to drag me, since I had other ideas, like going back to the table.

  Biton, with firmness and authority in his voice, bellowed for Brett to cease and for me to put my hands on the sphere. Brett continued to try to physically pull me to the doorway and as I looked back towards Biton, his look changed. His eyes, once silver were now black as coal. As he removed one of his hands from the sphere, a blue light came streaking out from it, hitting Brett in the chest and sending him flying into the wall.

  “Enough of this childish behavior. Why she puts up with all of you is beyond my comprehension. Princess, we don’t have much time. Come!” Biton demanded.

  I went over to Brett, bent down and placing my hands on his chest, I could tell that he was going to be fine. He just had the wind knocked out of him, and a few slight burns on his chest.

  I placed my hand with the ring, under Brett’s shirt, in the area that had the slight scorched spot on it. I could feel the skin was hot and I looked towards Biton, feeling my skin start to warm (okay, really hot). The last thing I needed to do was hurt this being that was supposed to be helping, but I wanted to at that moment.

  I turned back to Brett, and looking down I saw that my arms were that silvery white color. I calmed myself and let the ring do its magic to heal his slight wound.

  Brett was still slightly dazed but fine, so I got up, but before I could walk over to the table, Brett reached out and took my hand, stabilizing himself as he stood. He was a bit shaky so I pushed him gently up against the wall and told him to stay put. I didn’t need to fix a head wound, if he fell again.

  I walked over to the table but could feel Brett right behind me. Before I had a chance to sit down, the room started to shake again. Wasting no more time, and not allowing me to sit, Biton grabbed my hand with the ring on it and forced it onto the sphere.

  I saw it then, the doorway, blown apart, and me standing in the middle of it, I was silvery white but the bubble I was in was red. I was standing in a bubble filled with lava.

  Brett had his hand on my back, and saw it too, and gasped as he said, “No, Emilee.”

  I removed my hand from the sphere, as did Biton, and he stood and spouted, “There isn’t much time, you must go and close this doorway for good. This entrance connects his world, Gehenna to the humans’ earth. We can deal with the other entrances that he can still open, later.”

  I didn’t like what he had just said about other entrances, but there was no time to ask. I did ask though out of fear and concern, “What are you going to do?”

  Biton chuckled, more than I thought was possible for him to do and said, “You don’t need to worry about me Princess, I will be fine. You must hurry though. I need to seal this room and destroy the passageway, for no one can touch this sphere unless they have the blood running through their veins. Go now and don’t fail.”

  As we reached the door, it opened and I knew somehow we could leave, and we passed through the archway with no problem. I stopped to look behind and said loudly, “What about Rose? She was there!” And the golden doors swung shut, disappeared and suddenly bricks were falling from the walls.

  We turned and started to run in the direction that we had come, as Brett was saying, to himself more than to me, but out loud, “The same blood?”

  I knew what it meant but didn’t have time to explain, and suddenly he was in my mind, of course. (Not the right time, but then, when does he do things at the right time.)

  I knew that I had the blood of these beings flowing through my veins and Brett had just enough, after our blood mixed during our fight against Stephan and the trees. I thought at the time, it was going to kill him, but instead it probably kept him alive. What would have happened in that room, touching the sphere, if he only had his fey blood?

  Things happen the way they are supposed to. Brett was supposed to get injured and I was given the ring at the appropriate time, so as to heal him as my blood joined with his.

  I wondered then, even though Biton said that things didn’t go as planned, maybe they had. Maybe all of this was supposed to happen.

  I looked back at Brett, seeing he knew my thoughts and looked a bit perplexed. I turned away, putting only the thoughts of what was at hand, what I had to do, in my mind and ran, with the thought of Rose, lingering there also.

  I could see the beginning of the tunnel and the rocky walls all around were crumbling. I didn’t think we were going to make it in time, and was about to put my shield up to protect us from the falling rocks, when suddenly, the rocks froze in midair as if someone was holding them back for us to escape. I said in a whisper, “Thanks Biton,” and I heard a voice quietly say, “You’re welcome, Princess.”

  As we emerged from the tunnel, it closed, leaving only a wall covering, as if it had never been there. We were alone in the grand room and no more damage had occurred since I had been there earlier. It seemed the rumbling had stopped for now.

  “Now what? How do we get to the doorway without being seen or stopped?” I said, looking at Brett, who had a look of curiosity on his face.

  Brett came up to me and took my hands in his and lifted them slightly. As I looked at my hands, I realized that I was still the silvery white color, I hadn’t changed back. I wondered why I had turned this color again anyway, what was going on in my body?

  Suddenly the floor started to rumble, but not the same as minutes before. Then, not far from us, a hole opened up and guess who should appear but Kimberlite. I was stunned, shocked that he could be down here so deep.

  Kimberlite’s smile was large, the pride spread over his face as he said in a boisterous manner, unable to keep hi
s enthusiasm at bay, “Well someone had to come give you a hand, and here I am!”

  I asked him how he was able to get down here and know exactly where we were, as I walked over to him, and gave him a hug as he crawled out of the hole.

  As Kimberlite shook Brett’s hand and gave him a slap on the back in a gesture of true friendship, he said, “Queen Anahita told me that you needed help and led me to the underwater city. The lava pebbles in your necklace led me the rest of the way here.”

  Kimberlite reached out as he said the last part, and took the necklace in his hand. “Okay, I know how to get you to the doorway, so follow me. We’ll go under the city, where there are no eyes to see us. No eyes that are interested in us, anyway.” He said, with amusement in his voice.

  Kimberlite jumped down into the hole he had come out of, and reaching up, helped me down.

  Brett commented grouchily, as he jumped into the hole, “Just what do you find amusing about all of this, and how did Ana know where to find us?”

  Kimberlite’s face, still beaming with pride, said as he looked at Brett, “Well it is always nice to be needed, and when I can help out when you are struggling to keep the princess safe...”

  Before Kimberlite could continue, Brett cut him off as anger took over and his eyes turned red, “I am doing just fine without anyone’s help…”

  “Oh, you didn’t need the shark’s help to get back to the princess?” Kimberlite spouted.”

  “Enough!” I yelled, as I stepped in between them. “I think we have a doorway to close and this is wasting time.”

  I turned to Kimberlite then and asked, “How did Queen Anahita know where to find us and that we needed help.”

  “You will have to ask her.” Kimberlite commented. “I had been at the beach, where you left on Adam’s boat, and she came to me, telling me that you needed my help. It took some time tunneling under the sea but, I managed.” And he gave me a slight grin.