The Way

On the seventh day Amara didn't wake.  She had warned James it would be difficult to wake her and that in the event he couldn't,  they should begin their journey regardless.  It would have been more practical for the two to fly to Further and once Amara was awake that was just what they would do.  As there was an increasing sense of urgency between them, neither wished to delay the start of their journey while Amara paid the price of the sleeping spells.

James  decided he needed something to transport Amara, that could be easily abandoned when they were both ready and able to fly.  And so, with that in mind, he unceremoniously loaded her small frame into a wheelbarrow filled with blankets and the two small bags containing some supplies and remaining food for the journey.

For the first time since he'd arrived, James pushed the wheelbarrow onto the streets of Nether and took in his surroundings in detail.  It was a crisp autumn morning and a golden sun was rising over the thatched rooftops.  The only betrayal to indicate the desertion of the village was a lack of smoke rising from the chimneys of the tiny cobbled homes.  Flowers and shrubs covered the paths leading to each front door and lined the main road through the village.  So much love and care had been grown here by the spell makers.  James felt a deep sadness wondering who would take care of the village if its residents never returned.

Shaking away this thought, he felt a new determination.  James must find Maryn Asha.  He must.  It occurred to him that Maryn may be the only person in the dreamworld who could help him find a way back home.  James tightened his grip on the handles of the wheelbarrow and pushed past the abandoned flowers, and homes feeling uncertain about the future as Amara gently snored under blankets, soundly asleep.

Past the outskirts of the village fields, south of Nether was the Forrest of Caldore.  The three day journey would take them past this forrest and through the Green Mountains.  Then just outside the mountains was the town of Further, situated 10 miles inland of the Green Sea.    It wasn't the first time James had made this journey.  But so much had changed in such a short span of time that the security he'd previously felt here was long gone.  As he pushed Amara into the dark forrest, devoid of the soft glowing light the sun spilled over the village behind him, his unease increased.

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After a few hours of walking, birdsong and fresh air had uplifted James' mood.  He decided to stop by a stream and have his breakfast.  Positioning the wheelbarrow carefully so as not to allow it to slide or roll off the embankment, he pulled the covers away from Amara's sleeping face.  Her breathing was still the deep rhythm of a sound sleep and her features looked peaceful.  He decided he wouldn't try to wake her again so soon.  Re-covering her head, he removed the bag containing their rations for the journey.

Finding a comfortable nook in the base of a tree, James ate his breakfast of bread and cheese while listening to the sounds of the stream.

"You seek the spell makers, but they are gone," said a high pitched faraway voice.  It reminded James of what cartoon chipmunks sounded like back home.  He looked all around for who or what had spoken, but saw nothing and no one.  A small shell, the kind snails use for their homes, hit his shoe.  "Put the shell in your ear," said the voice.

James shrugged his shoulders and obeyed, stranger things had happened to him in the dreamworld and his instincts told him there was no danger here.  "Down here,"said the voice.  And with the snail shell placed gently in his ear the voice sounded normal, it was a female voice.  James' eyes followed the sound to a leaf that had fallen from the tree where he sat.  Standing on top of the leaf was a beautiful fairy.  And like all fairies,  her appearance mirrored the current season for the time of year.  The fairy's skin was golden-autumn brown, she had long black hair, bright orange eyes, a silk gown that seemed to be made up of all the colours of fall and from her back sprouted an enormous pair of intricately laced dragonfly wings.

"You seek the spell makers," she said, "You've come from their village.  But they are gone."

James was so excited to see another person that he barely knew where to begin and couldn't get his words out fast enough.  "Yes, we're looking for Maryn Asha and the others.  Amara Asha is with me, she's asleep in the wheelbarrow.  Everyone in Nether, they disappeared.  We're afraid something terrible has happened to them.  And I'm James.  I'm not from this world.  I'm stuck and I can't get back home. Maryn can help me.  But we can't find her. Do you know what happened to them?"

The fairy waited patiently while James rambled and when he'd finished she began to tell her story.

"James, I am Larken, senior advisor to the fae Queen Rienna.  By her decree, I'm here to offer you and the great granddaughter of Maryn Asha, safe  passage through Caldore.

"Nine days ago a great darkness descended upon the village of Nether.  No creature of the forrest dared go near it, so foreboding was its presence.  The silence of the forrest was such, that it was as if an unquenchable predator stalked every living thing that lie on the outskirts of that all-consuming darkness.  When this evil finally lifted no one remained in Nether and no clue was left to tell what happened.

"But this forrest of Caldore is old.  These ancient trees remember things and the wind in the leaves whispered to the great Queen Rienna what they knew.  Do you know what the trees whispered? They told us that The Balance has been disturbed, with the arrival of the newcomer to Abra."

At this point in Larkin's account, Amara sat straight up in the wheelbarrow.  Her eyes still closed, still trapped in the magically induced sleep.  Her facial expression was pained as if in a nightmare.  James jumped up and tried to ease her back down into the wheelbarrow.  He gently stroked her hair and whispered comfort, trying to calm her.  But Larkin confirmed what James had been thinking.

"She can hear us, she knows everything I've told you.

"She won't wake till she's slept off the spells.  Two more days, I would guess."  James stared from Larkin to Amara in shock.  He hadn't realised the spells Amara had used would take such a large toll, and by Amara's crinkled eyebrows he didn't think she'd realised this either.

"You said The Balance has been disturbed? What did you mean?" he asked, but in his heart, he already knew the answer.

"The balance of Good & Evil.  The scales have been tipped.  You'd better start walking again.  Something is coming.  Something wrong," and with that Larkin flew off towards the direction he and Amara had come from.  James took her advice, grabbing the wheelbarrow he began running through the forrest, towards the Green Mountains and he hoped all was not lost.