ONE

 

… No…

 

Feeling helpless, her pulse quickened as her panic rose. There was nothing she could do; she was too small.

 

The night was dark and she didn’t recognize her surrounds but at the same time, the ground felt familiar beneath her feet, like she thought home should.

 

‘Into the skull,’ an earnest young boy said, drawing her attention away from the large predators that stalked her and her friends. She’d never seen their like before but they too seemed somehow familiar.

 

Turning, she did not see a skull. She saw a large, white rock with two symmetrical holes in its sides. In each hole, she saw the rears of two other girls as they disappeared amidst a mess of skirts. Glancing at the one who remained beside her—a girl with brown hair and a kind face—she nodded and clenched her jaw resolutely abandoning her as she slipped inside to join the others where she let loose a sigh of relief. There was no way those beastly creatures would fit through the small opening.

 

Peering out, she saw that the boy who had ordered them all inside stood with three others. One was equally as small as herself, another was skinny, like the speaker was, though a little taller, and then there was one that was much bigger than them all. She knew them. Somehow she knew their names, their borndays, everything, just as she did the three girls who cowered with her and yet she had never even seen them before.

The small boy was the first to join the girls but the others hesitated.

 

‘Golan, go,’ she heard the speaker say and she felt her heart beating quicker at the sound of his voice. Peering through the hole, she stole a glance at the child who had such command over them. The one he’d called Golan obeyed him with only slight reluctance, leaving just two outside.

 

‘You too, Dorean,’ the biggest boy said softly, his voice filled with sad acceptance.

 

‘Not without you.’ Dorean, the one who had taken control of the situation’s, resolution seemed incorruptible. He would not leave the bigger boy alone to face the creatures and she felt a swell of affection for them both.

 

Movement within the odd cave, that she somehow knew was so much more, distracted her from the pain of her breaking heart as she thought of the pair remaining out there to face the felines that meant to make a meal of them. Golan, the tall, skinny boy with dark hair that seemed clearly definable within the oddly luminescent cave, pushed past her as he moved to the opening.

 

‘Dorean!’ he called loudly, receiving a hiss of disapproval from the eldest of the girls as he extended his hand beyond the hole. Within his grasp he held a long, curved, white stick that looked strangely sharp.

 

The boy, Dorean, grabbed the makeshift weapon, refusing to look at them. His face was a mask of determination and his dark eyes did not recognize the fact that she was imploring him, with her every fiber to acknowledge her in some way. Turning his gaze back on the threat, Dorean guided the bigger boy to stand behind him. Fixated on the goings on outside, she was completely unaware of what was happening within the skull—no; cave—and she hadn’t noticed the older girl until she called to the other boy who stood outside the protection of the walls.

 

‘Baxes!’

 

Handing him another of the odd sticks, Baxes moved from behind Dorean and took up his position in front of the other hole, the pair of them willing to defend their friends, despite the fact that if Baxes couldn’t fit through the hole, neither would either of those cats.

 

Fearing for her friends, she took a deep, settling breath, trying to calm herself. They would be fine, they had to be. Shifting within the cave to see what they saw, she felt as though she could see beyond them somehow, as though she was looking through their eyes, or more specifically, through Dorean’s eyes.

 

The cats moved, inching forward as they viewed their quarry with renewed respect. The weapons in their hands had turned them from helpless prey to potential threats within an instant. She could feel Dorean’s fear, even though she knew it wouldn’t be visible. How she knew so much about this boy she couldn’t say, but she took comfort in the closeness they shared. Even though she knew she’d never even met him.

 

Moonlight flashed in icy green hues as it reflected off the cats’ eyes and their muscles bunched. She knew they were in trouble and so did Dorean.

 

A squeal from within the cave distracted her, bringing her awareness away from the boys outside and back into the confined area. Another girl, a delicate and frightened looking thing with dark hair and big eyes that were firmly fixed above her, seemed terrified by what she saw. Following her gaze, she looked up, stunned to see the shadow of the creature that stood atop the cave—that her conscious mind was beginning to understand was no cave at all. The way the light behaved, it was like the walls and roof were translucent but also reflective… she would need to think more on it later, when the situation was not so dire.

 

‘Shhh,’ she hissed to the girl, silencing her even as she heard Dorean and Baxes outside discussing the situation.

 

Baxes voice was filled with fear, but Dorean… he seemed irritated more than anything, regardless of the worry inside him that only he, and herself, were aware of.

 

‘When they attack, don’t think, just do,’ he advised the bigger boy calmly.

 

‘It’s that easy?’

 

Dorean laughed and she couldn’t help but smile at the sound. ‘How should I know? It sounds good though, doesn’t it?’

 

The distraction seemed to encourage the beasts to attack. It came as a blur, and she felt her thoughts begin to thin. Something inside her was moving, something she’d never felt before, but something that was overwhelmingly determined. Aware of little more than the flurry of activity as the two boys slashed at the cats and tried to drive them away, she heard a howl of rage as one of their swipes connected with their target. Trapped between the hyper awareness of Dorean, that she felt as though it was her own, and the light headedness that threatened to claim her, she could do nothing but watch as the boy whose life she valued above everything else in the entire world seemed ready to end.

 

He spoke with Baxes, about what she couldn’t quite make out, but she heard their voices as they struggled to find a way to survive the attack. Time faded in her mind until one of the cats stepped forward, selecting to face Dorean, as if sensing that he was their leader. Within a moment, the beast pounced and she felt her breath catch in her throat as her heart stopped beating.

 

Soaring through the air, she felt the weight of it as it came crashing down on the small boy’s youthful frame and she screamed…

 

 

Waking with a start, she almost jumped out of the wagon she slept in. Morning neared. The black, star dotted skies were lightening and she breathed deeply, trying to settle her heart. It had been so real! Even now as she looked around the clearing, wide awake and trembling, she knew it had been little more than a dream but she could hardly deny it had touched her in a way that no dream ever had.

 

‘Marean,’ a sleepy voice enquired with a grunt. ‘What’s wrong?’

 

‘Nothing, I just had a bad dream.’

 

‘Go back to sleep. There’s still an hour or two before dawn,’ he said, bringing a smile to her lips. He was forever telling her what to do. Between him and her parents, it seemed she was never without guidance.

 

He was her brother, she was forced to concede it was his duty to issue commands but, as his little sister, she was also well aware of the fact that it was her duty to ignore his guidance. They may have been different in more ways than Marean could count but their similarities were just as many and, she knew that no matter what transpired between her and the older boy—who had made it his sworn duty to torment her relentlessly since before she could remember—he would always be there when she needed him.

 

Flicking her blanket off, she got to her feet, scooping her blonde hair out of her eyes, noticing that her hands had ceased trembling from the fear she had felt in her dream.  Absently, she reached for the woolen blanket that had covered her from the night’s springtime chill and wrapped it around her shoulders, as much for comfort as for warmth. The dream had upset her. Who were those children? Why had she, at the maturing age of almost thirteen summers, been dreaming about eight-year-old boys? She shook her head to clear the disturbing thoughts. Each of the children had been important to her, but in reality, she’d never had more than maybe three friends outside of her family her entire life. She wondered what could have inspired such foreign concepts to appear in her subconscious mind.

 

‘Is everything alright, Marean?’

 

Turning to look over her shoulder she spied the woman who had given her life walking towards her. Where she had come from Marean couldn’t be certain, she had thought her parents were still asleep.

 

‘I had a bad dream,’ she replied evasively with a wan smile. ‘It’s nothing, really.’

 

Her mother regarded her warily as her dark brown eyes bored into her from beneath a heavy frown. Her entire face conveyed a deep concern that seemed unwarranted for something as trivial as a bad dream. ‘Will you tell me about it?’

 

‘It was nothing, it just left me with a very real sense of fear and loss which is silly because I’d never met anyone in the dream before, no one died and I wasn’t even me.’ Frowning, Marean realized that her mother’s posture seemed to relax. The older woman’s behavior was strange.

 

‘Why don’t you go back to the wagon and try to get a little more sleep?’ her mother suggested. ‘We’ve been making good time, we might be able to spare a few extra hours before we set out today.’

 

Marean knew the tone her mother was using was not one of suggestion and, regardless of the fact that Marean was now wide awake and would not be going back to sleep, she knew that there was no point arguing with the woman whose strength seemed to drive them all.

 

Nodding, she smiled thinly at her mother as she embraced her. Inhaling the scent of her shiny dark hair—so much thicker and more luxurious than Marean’s own, stringy blonde hair—she took comfort in the strength and power that seemed to radiate from within her.

 

‘Sleep peaceful, Marean.’

 

 

The trail disappeared into the woods, making it impossible to see what lay ahead and Marean found the notion exhilarating. She was surprised by the shift in her behavior over the past weeks, the catalyst for which seemed to have been the dream that had caused her so much confusion in the beginning. She’d still not discerned the meaning of it but she couldn’t deny the impact it’d had on her. Those children had been so brave, acting against their fears in a way that seemed unnatural to her and it had inspired her to become better, stronger and more independent. Even in their young years, they had been far wiser and more mature than she had become under the watchful gaze of both her parents and her brother. She’d never been forced to make the kind of decisions that Dorean had made within her dream, the kind that could put her life in danger and she had already begun taking measures to remedy that.

 

No longer deferring to those older and more authoritative than herself, she had begun to contribute, to volunteer and to make suggestions that she never would have considered making before; and it was liberating.

 

‘You’ve changed these past weeks,’ her brother stated as she returned from the river with a pot of water for her father to cook the pieces of the large fish he had caught, boned and already chopped. Fish stew was his specialty.

 

‘How so?’ she asked him mildly, curious as to why he had taken the time to notice. Having seen his fifteenth bornday pass in the winter, he’d become less than attentive for the most part. Her mother and father had both assured her it was completely normal and though there had always been a hint of sibling friction between the pair, she had found his aloof quest for distance to be offensive—as if his motivation was born of his desire to get away from her.

 

‘You’re doing more. Things that I used to be lumped with while you got to just sit around.’

 

Marean shrugged outwardly, trying to appear unconcerned by his assessment of her previous behavior but his words stung as she studied him. Never before had she seen him so confounded, not even when he was learning to tie knots or string a bow. He was a quick study in most all things, like their mother and he resembled her physically too, with his thick dark hair and eyes. Marean wasn’t certain where her blonde hair and blue eyes had come from, when even her father’s hair was dark and his eyes hazel, nor did she know why everything seemed to come so much easier to them all than it did her. Seeing her brother’s inability to grasp her sudden shift in attitude filled her with a deep satisfaction that was born of her rivalry.

 

‘I got tired of doing nothing,’ she stated, her words barbed. “Nothing” seemed to be his favorite pastime of late. It was all her father could do to get him up and moving in the mornings.

 

‘Enjoy it while it lasts. A couple of years of labor and you’ll be wishing you never volunteered your services.’

 

‘Not all of us are bone lazy, Layth,’ she chided him, continuing before he had the chance to protest to her insult. ‘Some people quite like being useful.’

 

‘When did you become one of them?’

 

Suddenly feeling the overwhelming urge to upend the pot of water over his head, whatever Marean’s response to his baiting would have been was forgotten when she heard her mother’s voice.

 

‘They’re here.’

 

Looking over her shoulder, Marean saw her mother step gracefully out of the woods and it brought a smile to her lips. She had a talent for disappearing and reappearing at will, especially when they were in woodlands, a talent Marean hoped to one day acquire for herself. The benefits of being invisible seemed to be limitless.

 

Within seconds of her mother’s appearance, she heard the crunching sounds of a wagon’s wheels as it rolled along the trail, snapping sticks and crushing the dried leaves from last fall as it neared. Hurrying to where her father sat at the fireside, she deposited the pot next to him, wiped her hands on her rough spun, brown, woolen tunic and took off towards the new arrivals.

 

Almost a year had passed since she had seen her cousins and after her dream, she had thought of little else. Aside from Layth, they were the closest things she had to friends and in light of what she had witnessed within the depths of her slumber, she had been keen to see them again and to embark on the adventures that used to captivate them when they were smaller children. Nothing like what Dorean, Baxes and the others experienced, their own escapades seemed suddenly mild and civilized—something that Marean meant to rectify this visit, if time permitted.

 

Beaming her warmest smile, she watched the wagon roll in, her uncle Bode and aunt Shani sitting at the front, pressing their old horses onward. Bode’s face seemed forever youthful. His blue-gray eyes shone when he saw his sister. The pair were twins and their bond had always inspired Marean to be kinder to Layth.

 

‘Teahly,’ he said wryly, his blue eyes hinting at the words that would follow. ‘You look older than I remembered.’

 

‘Bode,’ she locked her steely eyes on his. ‘Mother always warned us that senility struck the men in our family early in life.’

 

Jumping down from his perch, Bode embraced his sister gruffly. ‘Then perhaps we shouldn’t leave so long between visits, one day I might forget you even exist.’

 

Teahly laughed. ‘You’d better not. I’ve missed you, brother.’

 

Looking away from the pair, Marean set her eyes on the young man and woman in the back of the cart. West and Klare, at least she thought they were West and Klare. West was stockier and more rugged than she remembered him being and Klare appeared to have aged a decade in the year that had passed since she had seen them last. Marean had always been the youngest of the group but she’d never felt that the years that separated them were as unbridgeable as they now seemed. West, at seventeen, was the eldest of them. He had dark hair and eyes, just like her brother and mother, but he seemed to be the odd one in his family of fairer members, just as Marean was in hers. Perhaps it was the reason he had always acted kindly towards her; setting their pace to match her shorter stride as they ran, picking her up and dusting her off whenever she fell—something that happened far too often for her likings—and making sure her voice, however small and unimportant, was heard and acknowledged, if not by all, then at least by him. She had idolized him as a small child and as she had grown, she respected his kind nature. Klare however, had not shown her as much consideration as West, nor had her affections ever been even the least bit consistent. Now, looking upon the almost fully grown woman of sixteen summers in all her fairer haired beauty, Marean saw only bored discontentment in her hooded, blue-gray eyes.

 

Nothing like Marean’s blonde hair, Klare’s was mousy but it formed thick curls, something Marean feared her own hair would never be capable of as she self consciously smoothed the fly away strands behind her ear, kicked up by the breeze as if to prove her point. Klare’s hair barely moved, the weight of it was far too much for the breeze to manipulate. Lowering her blue eyes, Marean couldn’t help feeling as though she was unworthy of looking upon the graceful woman in the cart.

 

‘Marean!’ West called out to her, his happy face splitting into a broad grin, encouraging her to smile in return before he jumped down, like his father, to greet his family.

 

‘West!’ she replied and ran to him, allowing him to lift her off the ground, spinning as he used to when they were much younger. Giggling, she held on for dear life as he whirled her around.

 

‘West,’ Layth greeted his older cousin with a dignified nod as Marean was settled back down to the ground, her head still spinning as the motion stopped.

 

‘You’ve grown,’ West stated, studying the boy who had shot up three or more inches in the past year. Accepting Layth’s extended hand, West pulled him into a rough and respectful embrace, making Marean’s giddy grin broaden. The pair had been good friends in their youth and she hoped that it remained that way forever. Even if she and Klare had never been close, she knew—somehow—that West and Layth’s bond would be everlasting.

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