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Post Info TOPIC: Chapter 7


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Chapter 7
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    Avril was alone, asleep on a beach. Suddenly he awoke as the sand began shifting and shaking all around him. He felt as though he, along with a good portion of the beach, was being lifted into the air. Frightened and confused, Avril tried burying his arms deep into the sand to keep from being tossed around. As he did so he felt a strong wind blowing against his back.

    Coming on the wind was the strongest sense of peace, and joy, and pure ecstasy that anyone could ever have. There was no other way to explain it. All the fear and confusion had been blown away by that breath so warm on his back. Avril loosed his hands from the sand and lifted them high in the air as he started to laugh.

    Almost as soon as that wind stopped, Avril was blinded by brightness. The sand everywhere was suddenly glowing and twinkling so brightly that his eyes were hurting. As Avril tried to shield his eyes with his left hand he lay back on the warm, glowing sand still laughing. In spite of the brightness and the mind bending circumstances, the euphoria that came with the wind remained with him.

    "Avril, son. I love you and you are mine." The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. It reverberated through every fiber in his body. He heard it directly from his mind, yet the very air around him shivered with its echo. Then the voice spoke again, "Until now I have sheltered you in my hand. In another way I will continue to do so, yet I also have need of you. Will you go for me?"
    "For you, anything." Avril shouted in a whisper.

    As soon as he did, it felt as though he was being thrust into the air. Above him and around him there was nothing. It was pure blackness. Looking over his shoulder Avril saw the glowing sand spreading out around him. Gradually the feeling of motion stopped and Avril felt as though he was simply floating, weightless in a sea of nothingness. Most of the sand continued to spread itself out around him, but one by one each grain also slowed into stillness.

    As Avril tried to adapt himself to the surroundings, he heard that voice again. "He needs you."

Avril turned his head to the right looking towards the direction he thought the voice had come from. All he saw was a lone grain of sand, or was it a star, that was slightly bigger and brighter than the others around him. He called out in the darkness, "Who needs me?"

    The star that Avril was looking at slowly grew brighter and bigger. Then it was not just a star but a tiny blue ball. Little by little the ball grew bigger and bigger. Soon Avril was able to see tiny specs of white and green and brown as well as the predominant deep blue. Larger and larger this ball grew as it took up more and more of Avril's field of vision. He noticed that the white seemed to moving along at a faster pace than the green and blue that was also slowly moving left to right behind it.

    Gradually the blackness and the stars were pushed out of view. Avril's vision fixed onto one spot where a fist of blue seemed to punch into the green and brown around it. That spot, that bay, seemed to grow larger and larger as falling Avril saw more and more detail in the colors around him. Falling. Avril definitely had the impression that was what he was doing. Looking to his right, what was once a smallish speck of white had turned into a billowing mountain of whites and greys and violets. It was the most beautiful and surreal landscape Avril had ever seen. As it grew larger and closer to him Avril was enraptured with awe. This pillow of white mountains was now level with him and continued to climb higher and higher above him and to his right.

    Turning his gaze forward again Avril was shocked to see what looked like a tiny town with a river flowing along its south end and gentle rolling hills above and to its left. Below and to the left was an ocean of blue. Larger and larger this small town grew in his sight as lower and lower he descended. Avril imagined that this must be how an eagle must view the world. As he could see more and more details of the town he realized that it was larger than he first thought. In fact, it seemed to be larger than the forest he had grown up in. Those tiny moving specs grew in his sight into tiny people and animals and carts. With such a sheltered background Avril's mind fought against the idea of so many people living so close together.

    One building grew larger and larger in the center of his vision. It looked as if he was about to crash into its roof. Just as Avril threw out his before him to meet the impact, he found himself moving right through it. Now inside a large room Avril saw tables and chairs everywhere. About a third of them had people sitting in them. Some tables had customers talking to the people around them around them. Other patrons were busy eating the food set before them. At one such table a hooded man sat, eating alone. It was at this table Avril floated down to until he came to rest in the chair directly across from the hooded man.

    Looking up, Avril saw himself staring into the eyes of a very shocked Kayeen. Still in a state of shock himself, Avril felt his mouth open and heard himself saying, "Brother, I'm coming."

 

    Kayeen found himself gaining consciousness ragged and wet on the beach. Every bone in his body was weary. His shirt was missing and there was a long rip down his right leg. Still on his hands and knees, he began turning frantically in a panic until he found his sword. It was half buried in the sand about five feet to his right. Pulling the blade free from the scabbard, Kayeen tried his best to wipe it clean on his leg. Considering how wet and dirty his pants were, not much was really accomplished through the effort.

    Through a supreme force of will, Kayeen pulled himself up and began walking across the bleak, wet, stormy seashore. Beyond the pallid grey sand was a jagged, rocky landscape. As far as the eye could see there was no vegetation. No life. Kayeen turned around in a circle looking for anything he could see that would jog his memory as to where he was and how he got there. Nothing. Cupping his hands to his mouth, Kayeen shouted, "Hello!"

    As his voice was drowned out by the wind and the waves crashing along the shore Kayeen could swear he heard laughter. He shouted again. This time he was sure someone was laughing and it sent a chill down his spine. As disoriented as he was, Kayeen had no idea from what direction the laughter was coming. Kayeen strained his eyes trying his best to see any movement, but he could not see far in the murky darkness.

    Suddenly, he heard a voice very close behind him. "You are mine" the tenor voice said with contempt. Kayeen spun around with his sword gripped in both hands in front of him. Nothing. Adjusting himself into a defensive stance Kayeen slowly started advancing in the direction from which he thought he had heard the voice.

    Again he heard from behind him, almost over his shoulder, "You are mine." Again Kayeen spun around, this time swinging his sword. Again there was nothing.

    "I am nobody's!" Kayeen shouted back in frustration.

    From nowhere and everywhere Kayeen heard the darkness calling out to him. "You are mine and now I am coming to claim you."

    Kayeen heard the shouts of a thousand voices as shapes started walking towards him from beyond the waves. It looked as though the sea was giving up all its dead. Some of the thingscoming toward him were nothing more than skeletons. Others were partially decomposed. One looked as though it had walked through a fire. Charred skin was blending into burned bone. On another the skin was a pale white and the dark hair was missing in patches over the head. There was a rope of seaweed still clinging to that one's left shoulder.

    Slowly backing away from the waves and its coming occupants, Kayeen found his voice and shouted, "Opri." Nothing stopped moving. The living dead slowly, inexorably continued to advance. With a panic starting to show in his eyes Kayeen tried to push them back out to sea shouting, "Vint!" But no wind came. As his left foot twisted on a jagged rock, Kayeen fell backwards in pain. Still not taking his eyes off the row upon row of advancing corpses Kayeen called out again, "tragere". No fire came.

    Kayeen turned and ran. The jagged and rocky ground prevented him from moving very quickly and more than once he lost his footing and bumped and scraped his hands and knees. After running a few hundred yards he noticed a flat patch of ground. Running towards it he saw that it was a completely circular raised stone platform. Carved from the same rock, there were two steps up separating its completely smooth and level surface from the rocky ground everywhere else.

    When Kayeen stepped up onto the platform he felt as though he was being recharged. The weariness he had felt since first waking was gone. The pain and swelling in his left ankle was gone. The cuts and bruises from the many times he had tripped in his flight were gone.

    Beyond that, the very air around him had changed. The clouds overhead cleared just enough for a ray of light to come down and illuminate the rock. Where before the misty, heavy fog had prevented him from seeing more than a few feet, now he could see as far as he looked. What he saw, however, did not encourage him. He was on an island. The dead continued their slow march towards him from every direction. The first rows were now tightly packed and had covered half the distance from the shore to his vantage point. They were not hurrying, but there was no need. With the receding of each wave, another row of heads appeared from out of the water and began joining the marching ranks before them. Kayeen was trapped by an increasing number of malevolent zombies.

    The panic Kayeen had been feeling settled into a grim fatalism. At least his energy had returned. Even if there was no hope of escape, no hope of survival, at least he could take a good number of these things with him. So he waited.

    After what seemed an eternity, the front row of the monsters finally reached the lower step. Almost as one they lifted one of their feet and stepped up. There they stopped. Each one simply froze and looked directly at Kayeen as if they were waiting. When the row behind them bumped into those front corpses, they too froze. Gradually, packed in tight, thousands upon thousands of eyes seemed to bore into the lone refugee on the rock.

    The voice Kayeen had first heard on the shore called out from every direction, "You can't stay there forever. Sooner or later you will have to come down."

    Kayeen shouted to the wind, "Never! I will die before I let you have me."

    Then there was silence. Dead silence. Not even the waves could be heard any longer from where he once saw the seashore. There was no wind blowing through the sea of bodies looking directly at their captive. Even upon the bodies that still had most of their flesh there was no movement of the chest signifying breathing. Every hair, on those that still had hair, was completely still. Those with eyes never blinked. It was terrifyingly unnerving.

    Kayeen began pacing in a circle upon that stone platform like a nervous cat trapped in a cage. He did not dare get within arm's reach, but neither could he remain still. Warily he moved in a small circle with his knuckles white from gripping his sword. Even as nothing else would move, Kayeen could not stay still.

    After what seemed like days, the voice spoke again, "How long must we play this game. You cannot hide. You cannot run. There is no escaping your destiny. You are mine."

    Sensing the frustration in the unseen voice, Kayeen called back, "Never. I am my own man. I belong to no one but myself."

    As soon as he said this, there was an ear splitting crack. Dropping his sword, Kayeen put both hands to his ears to stop the pain. Below him, Kayeen noticed that a crack had split his stone refuge in two. As he reached down to pick up his sword, Kayeen's insides turned to ice. The evil army had taken that final step up and were continuing their advance.

    As Kayeen desperately began hacking and slashing at those undead warriors he could hear the laughter of that evil voice. It stopped its laughing to say one last time, "Now you are mine."

    Just before everything faded to black Kayeen heard another voice, "Brother, I'm coming."

 

    Kayeen woke with a start. For a minute the complete blackness of his room was a continuation of his dream. He reached for his sword and the coldness of the ruby pommel was a comfort to him as he settled into the reality of his surroundings. Never before had his nightmares been so vivid. Never before was it so difficult to put the fear and pain from them behind him. As they were becoming more frequent, they were also becoming more real. Kayeen was almost afraid to sleep at night.

    Until the first light of false dawn began creeping into his room from behind the curtains Kayeen just lay in bed. He could not sleep but he was far too tired to truly begin his day. So he lay there and thought. He rested and waited. Perhaps it is the stillness of sleeping on dry ground that had made the dream feel so much more real. Perhaps there was a storm offshore that he heard in the harbor town that put him on an island in his dream. Whatever it was, the morning had come, and it was time to put such nonsense behind him.

    Sitting up in bed, Kayeen pumped his hands into and out of fists trying to get the blood flowing through his arms and hands. His neck popped as he rolled his head trying to work out the soreness from the miserable bed. Yawning, Kayeen shrugged on his boots and stood up. For a second he had to steady himself as his vision darkened and refocused. Again he blamed his being at sea too long for what was really just a product of his insomnia.

    Coming down the stairs into the main dining room, Kayeen smiled as the smell of eggs and fresh kaff drifted up from the main room. As he turned the corner coming down the last couple steps he noticed that only two other people were in the main room. One was the Blue Spray's first mate, Tiev. The man sitting next to him was a stranger.

    Kayeen frowned, wondering what business Tiev had with this shady character this early in the morning. The man looked like a weasel with a blonde beard. He held his head out in front of him almost as if he were sniffing the air. His eyes seemed to dart everywhere at once, and the way he was sitting in his seat, it looked as if he were ready to jump up at moment's notice. At his side, held only by rope was a dagger shaped like, but too short to be a scimitar.

    When he saw Kayeen standing on the last stair, he did actually jump up. Tiev also stood, but he was facing the stairs almost as if he had been waiting for someone to come down. The first mate pointed to the third chair at the table and invited Kayeen to join them. After a very tired looking serving girl took his order of kaff, eggs and toast, Kayeen asked, "So what are you two scoundrels about at this ungodly hour?"

    The stranger simply chuckled. Tiev said, "Kayeen, this is Ragan. He's heard about you and your abilities. I think you might be very interested in hearing his proposal."

 

    Gavril woke with a groan. Sleeping on the ground was bad enough. When your spell for heat wore off too quickly, the lean-to wasn't any help, and you woke from numb ears and fingers, it was all that much worse. Noticing that his charge wasn't in eyesight, Gavril lumbered to his feet and began rubbing the life into his hands. When he reopened his eyes after a bear like yawn, he stopped. Rubbing his eyes he blinked purposefully, but it was still there. What had caught his attention was a very accurate map cut into the ground.

    Coming over to him, Avril pointed with his sword to where he had planted a dagger into the map. "There," he said. "What town is that?"

Not immediately answering, Gavril looked over at the young man. The boy wasn't wearing any shirt and despite the near freezing temperatures this early morning, he was lathered in sweat. As Avril's chest heaved from exertion, Gavril looked down at the sword, still in the boy's right hand pointed at the dagger. "You made this map?" He asked.

    "Yah." Avril answered. "What town is that?" He was still pointing at the dagger.

    "That's Takino. It's the main port on the outer coast of the Shino peninsula. This map is very good. I didn't notice any maps among your parents books."

    "There weren't any. That's where Kayeen is. We need to go there."

    "Wait a minute." Gavril was doing his best to wrap his sluggish mind around everything he was hearing. There should be a law against getting surprises before noon. "How could you draw this if you've never seen it?"

    "I did see it. From heaven."

    "From heaven?"

    "Yah, from the sky. I fell into the town right through a roof."
    "You fell"

    "Yah, and I saw Kayeen and told him I'm coming."
    "You did."

    "Yah, so now we need to go to this, this Ta"
    "Takino."

    "Yah, Takino. How long will it take us to get there?"

    Gavril just looked back down at the map on the ground. It was definitely too early for this.

 

    Gavril said nothing as the two of them quickly packed up their small amount of supplies and ate some dried cheese before continuing their journey south. Once they were moving again he had turned to Avril and told him to start from the beginning. As they had walked, Avril related to him every detail of his dream. Avril surprised himself with how much he remembered. Unlike most dreams, he was able to recall that dream in greater detail than he could the events from the day before.

    Beyond that, the dream seemed to give him a focus. After learning about the tree, leaving home and family, and beginning this journey, everything seemed in turmoil. These last few days were the first time he had ever been away from their little, underground home. He had been shocked to find out that most people actually built up, not dug out, their houses. He also was very upset that his surprise seemed so funny to his companion. It was just one more thing to add to the turmoil he had been feeling.

    But this morning, he had awaken with purpose. For the first time since starting this journey, he felt like he belonged on this path. For the first time since learning of his destiny when he had first taken his sword, he actually had hope. It was no longer something he shrank from inside.

Avril had tried to convey that feeling, that purpose, when he talked about the Creator's mission for him. But now, as the silence dragged on, he was not sure he had done so clearly. There were just no words. Avril looked over at Gavril nervously and continued to place one foot before the other. Ever southward they moved and the silence was broken only by their footsteps and the growing sounds of life in this sparse northern forest.

    Finally Avril could take it no more. "So you see why we need to get to Takino, don't you? Why don't you say something? It was a real vision, wasn't it?"

    Gavril looked sideways at Avril as they walked. "It doesn't matter if I believe it was real. Don't let anybody's doubts ever steal your conviction. If you know it was real, that's what matters. If you have to ask"

    "I do know its real. I just I just"

    "You were seeking my agreement or approval. That's natural, but it doesn't really mean its right. For what its worth, I do agree with you. I might have hesitated a bit more, but the map that sold me."

    "So we're going?"

    After another long pause Gavril answered. "I don't know. You're a smart kid. You have a natural intelligence. You've been given, in this instance, amazing knowledge. But neither of those means you have wisdom. Sometimes you need to move quickly and decisively. Other times you need to carefully deliberate a matter from every angle. It takes wisdom to know the proper time for both.

    "For instance, if your brother has already arrived in Takino, that means he hasn't been staying in any one place very long. He must have been almost constantly on the move. It will take us many weeks to get there. What if he has moved on? Also, what if you meeting him there is a future event? How far into the future? Are there things you, or he, need to do before that? What if he is there now, but you are to meet him some place else? After all, when Kayeen left your home, since I was already on my way, someone else from the Society was sent out with another Finder to get him. What if the quickest way to meet your brother is for both of you to meet up with the Society? These are all things you must consider before rushing into a decision."

    The two had reached the top of a small bluff. As the trees beyond were down in a valley, Avril had his first really good look at the mountain range they had been steadily approaching. The panoramic view he now had before him took his breath away. He had heard and read about mountains, but nothing in Avril's sheltered life would have been able to prepare him for this moment of beauty and awe.

    "Beautiful, isn't it?" Gavril pointed between two mountains a bit to their left, "On the far end of that valley is where I was born and raised."

He moved his hand a few inches to the right, "Right there is the path we will be taking. No matter what decision we make, first we need to cross the Great North Range."



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The first half of this, Avril and Kayeen's dreams, is probably one of my favorite things I've written. I haven't looked it over yet, but hope to keep it as intact as possible when I get to this point in the new version. Don't mess with perfection, right?



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