Nykara

by Katie Holland

  In order to get the most done in a short amount of time, everyone broke up into groups. Karin, Ben, and Mike were going to the town library to see if they had any topographical maps that could be useful. Her dad and Rick were going to talk to a few people they knew who were avid hikers. Tami had to get back home to check on Alana, but she was going to call a few friends and see if they could help with any information. Natalie and Shay were going to sit with Alix and see if she could remember more details of the area and maybe make some rough sketches. Alix’s mom wasn’t left out of the equation. Her mom had to go to work but was going to talk to her fellow nurses to see if anyone knew of any guides for the area.

  Now that they all had tasks to do the general mood was a little lighter. Ted and Rick left right away. The library wasn’t open yet and Heather didn’t work until later, so it was decided that they would make breakfast. Heather, Natalie, Karin, and Mike went to the kitchen which left Alix, Shay, and Ben with some time to themselves.

  “Okay, I’m just going to say it,” Shay said, as she stood up, “Oh my God this is crazy!! I mean this is like something out of a movie, not real life. This kind of stuff doesn’t happen to normal people.”

  Alix looked at Ben, then looked at Shay. “Uh Shay, in case you forgot I’m not normal people. I’m a magical being that is supposed to save the world one day.”

  “Yeah, well, okay I did forget for a minute. You’re still my Alix and it’s still new that you’re magical. I tend to keep forgetting that.”

  “That’s alright. At least I’ll always have you to keep me grounded.” Alix smiled at Shay.

  “That’s for sure.” Shay grinned.

  By the time they finished eating breakfast the library was open, so Mike, Ben, and Karin left to see what they could find out. Natalie, Shay, and Alix went into the living room to talk about what Alix could remember from her dream. Alix got her sketch pad and pencil and hoped they would be able to make some sense of the dream.

  “Alix why don’t you give me the pad? I’ll draw while you talk,” Natalie told her.

  “Okay, here you go.”

  They got settled around the coffee table.

  “So,” Alix started, “Let’s make the clearing the starting point. I don’t have a clue where it might be but it’s as good as any place to start.”

  Natalie drew a small circle on the page. “Then what did you do?”

  “I walked into the forest.”

  “How long did you walk for? And do you have any idea what direction you went?”

  “I’m not sure if time in the dream world is the roughly the same, but I would guess I walked maybe a half an hour. As for the direction, I have no idea.”

  Natalie drew a line moving away from the circle and wrote 30 minutes on it. “What happened next?”

  “Well, the reason I stopped was because I came across a deep ravine. I could feel that left or right weren’t the way to go so I had to go down the embankment. It was really steep like I had to slide down on my bum steep.”

  “And once you got to the bottom?”

  “There was a shallow, narrow river. I went left. I had to go really slow because it was slippery. Seemed like it took almost an hour. Then there was the waterfall with the pond at the bottom.”

  Natalie made a couple of angled lines for the ravine and drew a little river to the waterfall.

  “That’s pretty much the end of the line. The cave was behind the waterfall and that’s where the journey ended.”

  The three of them looked at the sketch. Shay started giggling. “Looks like a little kid made that.”

  Natalie looked at it again and joined Shay in her laughter.

  “I guess it does,” Natalie said between laughs. “But it gives us the general idea of the area. Once Karin, Ben, and Mike get back hopefully we’ll have some maps to compare it too. If we can find an area that has the clearing, ravine, and waterfall in close proximity I think we’ll be in good shape to start a rescue operation.”

  “So now what do we do?” Alix asked.

  “Until everyone gets back here I’m not sure there’s a whole lot we can do really,” Natalie told her.

  “Well, I guess I’ll go out back and practice some magic.”

  “I’ll join you,” Shay said.

  The girls grabbed coats, went out to the backyard and sat down on the patio chairs. Alix started magically finding seeds and pulled them to her. As they landed on her hand they started sprouting and forming miniature plants. By the time she was done, she had a tiny forest in the palm of her hand.

  “That’s so cool,” Shay sighed. “I wish I could do that. What does it feel like?”

  “It’s really hard to describe but now it just feels like it’s part of me. Let’s try something. Hold out your hand.”

  Shay held out her hand. Alix took it and put it in her hand palm up. She proceeded to do the same thing she did a few minutes ago and created a miniature forest in Shay’s hand.

  “Do you feel anything?”

  It took Shay a moment to respond. “First of all, it tickles my hand but underneath that, I guess it kind of tingles inside my hand. It’s so totally cool though!”

  Her excitement made Alix laugh. “I know I keep saying this, but I’m so glad to have you as part of my life. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “You would cease to exist without me. Well, at least you would be a lot more bored.” Shay grinned.

  “Very true.”

  The girls sat there for a long while just enjoying being outside and feeling the sun on their faces. It was a really nice day for the middle of October. Alix heard her phone alert her to a text and she got her phone out of her pocket.

  “It’s from Ben. They’re on their way back. I can’t wait to see if they came up with anything. Let’s go in. I’m starting to get a little chilly now.”

  They let Natalie and Heather know that Ben, Mike, and Karin would be back right away. Her mom cleared off the kitchen table in case they had been able to get some maps.

  “Oh, by the way, Alix,” her mom said, “Your dad called a little while ago and said that he and Rick were waiting on a friend of his and he’ll let you know when they’re headed home. I have to get going to work right away. I have a twelve-hour shift today, so I won’t see you until morning, but I’ll text you if any of the girls know any good guides.”

  “Okay mom, thanks for everything. Have a good shift.”

  It wasn’t very long after Heather left that Ben, Mike, and Karin returned. Their arms were loaded with long tubes.

  “Wow looks like you guys got enough maps to cover the whole country,” Shay said, as they walked into the kitchen.

  “Lucky for us the librarian working today is a friend of mine,” Karin told them. “Technically these maps are supposed to stay in the library, but she let me take them out under the strict understanding that nothing will happen to them.”

  They unrolled a couple of maps and studied them for a while. While the maps of the terrain were very nice to look at, no one was pointing anything out that might be useful.

  “Does anyone have a clue what we’re looking at?” Ben asked.

  Everyone shook their heads. Since it seemed that they were getting nowhere, they decided to wait until Rick and Ted got back. Hopefully, they would have found someone who could help them with the terrain maps. Alix, Ben, and Shay made their way back to the living room to wait.

  “Ahh! I’m so frustrated,” Alix practically yelled. “I don’t want to wait, I want answers, I want to do something.”

  Shay giggled at her.

  “Why are you laughing at me?”

  “It’s just so uncommon to see you so out of sorts, Miss Control.”

  Alix wanted to say something back, but the look on Shay’s face made it impossible for her to be even a little bit mean.

  “Yeah, yeah, okay, you’re right … again. You really do know me well.”

  Ben looked at them and shook his head with a smile. “I think you need to get
out of the house for a while,” Ben told Alix. Then he yelled toward the kitchen. “Mom we’re going for a drive. Alix needs to relax for a while.”

  She elbowed him in the side, but she had to admit that he was right. Ben, Shay, and Alix got their coats and headed for the door.

  “Be careful,” Natalie said, as they walked out.

  “We will mom. See you in a bit.”

  Chapter 32

  They drove around town for a while and then decided to head out on the highway.

  “Where are we going?” Alix asked.

  “Nowhere in particular. I thought we’d just drive around. I’m still getting to know the area so exploring is good for me. Is there anywhere you want to go?”

  “Yes,” Shay piped up. “I have a craving for some great fries. There’s a diner not too far from here. Let’s go there.”

  Shay gave Ben directions to the diner. They pulled into the parking lot. Neon lights flashed “BB’s Diner” on the roof of the building.

  “This place sure seems busy for kinda being in the middle of nowhere,” Ben said.

  “This place is always busy but it’s only open on the weekends. Everything they have here is always great. People will drive for an hour just to eat here.”

  They went inside and were lucky to find a table. Their waitress came and gave them menus and took their drink order. They looked over the menu items. It didn’t take Shay long to figure out what she wanted.

  “I’m having the cheeseburger and fries,” she announced, putting down her menu.

  “That sounds good,” Alix said. “I think I’ll have the same thing but with bacon. What about you Ben?”

  Ben was still looking at the menu. “The cheeseburger does sound good but so does the mushroom Swiss burger.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you get here it’ll be good,” Shay said to him.

  Their waitress came to bring their drinks and take their order. Ben ended up choosing the mushroom burger. It didn’t take long before their food came.

  “This looks delicious,” Ben said licking his lips.

  “It will be,” Shay said. “Dig in everyone.”

  They ate in relative silence as they enjoyed their food. They finished, paid their bill, went back to the car and started for home.

  “That was really good,” Ben said to the girls. “I’d go back there in a heartbeat. No wonder people drive a long way to get there.”

  They laughed and told funny stories all the way back to the house.

  “Thanks, guys,” Alix said to them as they pulled up in front of the house. “That was exactly what I needed. It was nice to feel like me again. Looks like our dads are back Ben. I wonder if they found someone who can help us.”

  They went in and found everyone in the living room. They had moved the furniture to the sides of the room and spread the maps out on the floor. There was a man they didn’t know staring at the maps.

  “Oh, hey honey, I’m glad you’re back,” Alix’s dad said to her. “I want to introduce you to Kris. We went to school together and I remember he used to hike a lot, so I tracked him down to see if he could help us with finding the area we need.”

  “Hi, Alix. It’s an honor to meet you and it’ll be my pleasure to assist you in any way I can,” Kris said, as he reached out to shake her hand.

  Alix thought that was a rather odd thing to say until she shook his hand. As soon as she touched his hand she realized that he was Nykara. “Um, hi, it’s nice to meet you too. Dad, can I talk to you for a minute.”

  Alix headed to the kitchen with her dad following.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked her.

  “Well, I’m not sure. Explain who Kris is exactly and what he knows.”

  “As I said we went to school together and we both ended up moving here. We weren’t close friends, but our paths would cross occasionally. When we were all talking this morning, I remembered him. He spent every weekend he could hiking, skiing and being outdoors. I had no idea of course that he was Nykara since I’m not able to sense them. But as soon as Rick met him he knew. So, Rick told him about you and what was going on. He offered his help immediately. He’s a really good guy Alix and I think he’ll be a big help to us.”

  “Okay dad, I’ll trust you. Let’s go see if he’s found anything.”

  Kris was studying one particular area of a map when they walked back into the living room. “I’ve been hiking in Montana and Wyoming for years. I think I might be able to find what you’re looking for. I just need to ask you a few questions Alix, okay?”

  “Sure, what do you need to know?”

  “The clearing, can you tell me how big it was? Maybe how wide and its shape?”

  Alix thought for a minute. “I’m not great with judging distance by feet but it was maybe about as wide as from the front of our house to the back of the yard. And the shape seemed to be a circle, like almost a perfect circle.”

  “That’s great Alix. Now, do you remember what kind of trees were around you when you were walking?”

  “There was a mix of trees. I’m not positive what they are, but I think there were some spruce and maybe poplar. The forest was so thick that if you couldn’t walk through it easily; the grass was fairly long and there were fallen trees making it slower to get through.”

  “And as I understand it you came to a ravine, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you tell me more about it?”

  “It was deep, and the sides were steep.”

  “Were the sides rocky or dirt or full of trees?”

  “Um kind of all of those actually. Near the top, it was more like the forest but with really small trees and it was grassy. The closer I got to the bottom it got rockier.”

  “How deep was the ravine?”

  “Um … it seemed really deep as I was sliding down. If I had to guess maybe a hundred feet?”

  “Okay, good. Now tell me about the river and waterfall.”

  “You seem to know an awful lot about my dream for just getting here,” Alix said suspiciously.

  “Ted and Rick shared as much information with me before we got here and then Natalie showed me the rough sketch she made based on what you told her. Don’t worry Alix, I’m on your side.”

  Alix looked at her dad, he nodded to her. “The river was narrow, maybe six feet wide and not very deep, a foot deep at the most. The waterfall at the end was probably seventy-five feet to the bottom. The water was deeper at the bottom of the waterfall but maybe only waist deep. The pool created by the waterfall was about as big as our house is.”

  “Excellent Alix,” Kris told her. “I’m going to take the information you gave me and have a better look at the maps.”

  Kris went back to the maps and everyone else just kind of stood around.

  “What do we do now?” Shay asked the room.

  “Actually,” Natalie started, “While you kids were gone I started doing some research into who the missing hikers are and as far as I can tell they are all Nykara.”

  “Mom are you sure?” Ben asked her.

  “Yes. I did some looking online and using their names and pictures I found each of their Facebook pages. I looked through what photos I could, and I was able to determine that each one of them was Nykara.”

  “How is that possible?” Alix asked.

  “Even in pictures, our tattoos are visible to other Nykara.”

  “Huh,” was all Alix could say.

  “So, they were Nykara and visiting Yellowstone. Is that all we’ve got?” Ben questioned.

  “Yes, so far,” Natalie answered. “But I think we can assume that they were taken because they are Nykara or Alix wouldn’t be involved at all.”

  “If they were taken because they’re Nykara that means we can assume …” Rick said, looking at his wife.

  “Yes dear, I think that we can assume the Grynn are involved,” Natalie said, in a resigned voice.

  Natalie, Rick, Karin, Mike, and Kris all looked like this news was the end of the world
.

  “Why would the Grynn care about three random people sightseeing in Yellowstone?” Alix asked.

  “They wouldn’t,” Ben said coming to the same conclusion as the rest of them. “They’re trying to find the Kaelneth. They want you, Alix.”

  Everyone in the room looked at her. She had to sit down. Shay started to say something to her, but Alix held up her hand to stop her. She needed a minute to process what Ben just said. She leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. Several times in the short amount of days since she had become a Nykara she felt like her life was out of control and this was one of them. She wanted to feel sorry for herself but knew that wasn’t going to help anything. After a few minutes of gathering her thoughts, she was ready to start tackling the problem again. She grabbed her list and started to cross off anything they had already done.

  Questions:

  - Where are they?

  - How do we find them?

  - Who took them?

  - What kind of magic is keeping them in the sleep-like state?

  - Who are the three people?

  - How were they taken? Can’t just disappear.

  - Was there any evidence left behind?

  - Can we save them? – YES!!! We have to.

  - What magic will we need?

  - Does Alix have to go alone?

  Suggestions:

  - We’ll need help to locate the place in the dream.

  - Find out more about them, might help to figure out why they were taken

  - Research other cases similar to this

  “Okay, Kris is working on where they are. We need to figure out what is keeping them asleep for lack of a better term and how to undo it. Mike, Rick and Karin can you look into that?” Alix asked them.

  “Sure,” Rick said.

  “I think we can skip over how they were taken. We know it was the Grynn, I’m not sure the how is important right now. Let’s move on to evidence, was there any left behind. Yes, but the coin is gone now so other than that I don’t think there was anything,” Alix said.