Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (33 page)

Dorena's Landing, Missouri, at Dorena-Hickman
Ferry

"You have got to be kidding me!" Lisanne
practically screamed as she got out of the car at the Dorena-Hickman Ferry. "That's
a big river out there!" Turning to Merlin she said, "No way am I going out on
that--no freaking way! You got that?"

Merlin sniffed and stalked off. It was great to
stretch himself after being cooped up in the car for hours. He certainly wasn't
going out on the river on the ferryboat; that was one thing humans could handle
better than he could. She really should be grateful, he thought, since she was
going to get to ride on one of the few remaining riverboat ferries in America. And
who knew if there would be any left after the flood? No gratitude, that girl.
None at all. And he'd told her why she had to go out on the river, that the
horses were crossing the river. She just didn't listen.

Ah, wait now. Was he hearing something? Although
calling it hearing was misleading. It was more a sensing, a knowing. And this
was coming from Perceval. He'd finally gotten the name right. Some cat, this
Perceval. He had tons of information. Now he was telling Merlin, if you could
use the word telling, that there were more horses than expected. Well, Merlin
had thought it was more than a few--wait, that many? That was a lot of horses! I'd
better stay well clear of them when they get here or I'll get trampled, he
thought. Ah, that was the trouble--they were coming in around sunset at the time
of the last ferry. But it would take more than one ferry. So Andy and Lisanne
would just have to convince the ferry operator to keep running the ferry until
they were all across the river. Because after tonight, they might not be able
to get across. Weird things going on with the river. Well, duh, Merlin thought,
as if there aren't weird things going on all over the place right now! Oh, and
he was supposed to keep Lisanne in line and make sure she didn't shoot anybody.
He thought that was a little unfair. Lisanne was crazy, but not violent. Oh,
the ferryboat captain might be a problem. Well, Merlin thought, Lisanne can
just screech at him for a while, she won't need to shoot him, just listening to
her yell should bring the captain right in line. Meowing to himself, he ambled
off to find Lisanne and Andy. And the dog.

Cape Fair, Mrs. Philpott's House

THAT CAT HAS A BIT OF AN ATTITUDE

"Perceval! Look who's talking!" said Mrs.
Philpott. "You can be a bit supercilious yourself, you know."

"What's supersilly mean?" asked Samantha.

"Supersill-e-us, that's how you say it, Sam,"
Mrs. Philpott replied. "It means haughty, disdainful--" She paused as Sam looked
at her blankly. "Like when you look down your nose at someone." Continued
blankness on Sam's part. "Like when someone is a snob, being kind of snotty
about it."

"Oh, I know what that is. Like the way Mrs.
Tucker at the store looked at Harmony the other day?"

"Right. Just like that."

"But Perce isn't like that. He's a nice person,
um, cat."

Perceval meowed in agreement.

"Okay, whatever," Mrs. Philpott said. She was
feeling frazzled after discussions with Samantha and Perceval about all sorts
of things, the influx of a huge amount of horses, a crazy-sounding girl, and a
cat named Merlin being the last things on the list. "Merlin is sure this
Lisanne will handle things appropriately?"

SHE HAS ANDY WITH HER AND HIS DOG WALDO

PLUS MERLIN SEEMS TO BE ABLE TO WORK WITH HER

NOT SURE SHE IS REALLY CRAZY

MERLIN IS A BIT STRANGE HIMSELF SO ITS HARD TO
TELL

Mrs. Philpott was completely surprised by that
statement. "Merlin is strange? How is that possible? I thought you animals had
it more together than the humans at this point."

DO YOU AND HARMONY HAVE THE SAME PERSONALITY

"Point taken," Mrs. Philpott replied
thoughtfully. "I should have realized that. Of course there could be
differences among you, different personality types, different levels of
intelligence, too, if I'm correct?"

YES SOME NOT SO SMART

SOME HAVE DIFF LIVES DIFF WAYS TO SEE WORLD

SOME NOT SO NICE AS HARRY AND ME

"Yeah, Mrs. Philpott," Sam interjected, "there
are some animals who maybe got beat and stuff by people and they turned mean.
Like some of those whatchamacallit dogs that attack people sometimes. Oh yeah,
thanks, Perce, those pit bull dogs are one kind."

"Wait a minute, Sam. What just happened here--you
didn't know the name and then Perceval gave it to you, right?"

"Well, yeah, he knew it and I didn't."

"But it happened so fast and you weren't even
looking at him!"

Samantha looked uncomfortable for a minute, and
then shrugged. "It doesn't take hardly any time at all to say a couple words.
And you already knew I could talk to any of the animals around here. I think
you have to look at Perceval 'cause you don't have a lot of, um, spericene,
experience, with it yet."

And just how much of that did she get from
Perceval in the last couple of seconds, I wonder?
Mrs. Philpott looked from
the cat to the girl and couldn't help feeling a little twinge of fear of this
new ability. Realizing fear could probably be picked up by either of them, she
quickly asked, "So what does this mean, if there are 'bad' animals out there?"

Sam watched her for a moment as Perceval typed
on the computer. She knew about the fear. She knew lots of feelings from
people. Perceval thought maybe she was so closely connected to the animals that
she immediately picked up on what they felt coming from people. Harry said it
was 'cause she was smart, but then Harry thought she was the smartest person in
the world these days. It was hard to sort out just where stuff came from in her
head. And it was hard to know how to be, so people wouldn't be afraid of her.
But Perce and Harry said it would get better, that people just didn't
understand right now. She wondered about that. If they would ever understand
and not be afraid of what she could do. Even her mom and dad didn't know all
that she could do, and she was learning so much now. So fast. Was there anybody
else like her anywhere?

She looked down at Harry, stretched out on the
floor beside her, napping. Harry was almost always by her side, connected to
her like a string or thread was between them, even when they were occasionally
apart. Thank goodness for the animals, or she would have felt alone. But not
now. She never felt alone. If she let herself, she could open up a place in her
mind and feel connected to everything. But that was almost too noisy, too much
to feel. So she was being careful about doing that.

THERE ARE BAD PEOPLE WHO WILL CONNECT WITH
ANIMALS

THEY WILL INFLUENCE EACH OTHER

SOME ANIMALS WILL ATTACK OTHER ANIMALS OR PEOPLE

JUST LIKE SOME PEOPLE WILL ATTACK PEOPLE OR
ANIMALS

"Will they come here?" asked an alarmed Mrs.
Philpott.

"Maybe," said Sam slowly. "Maybe they will, but
maybe we will know about it before they do. That's why we have to set up an
alarm system like Perceval says. We have to find other people who can talk to
animals real good so we can know before, know in advance, of an attack. We know
some people who are coming who will help. We know about them already. What
would be good is if we found someone who could talk with the eagles."

"The eagles? Oh! Of course, the bald eagles. I'd
completely forgotten we have a large population of bald eagles in this area.
They'd be perfect for patrolling the area, right?"

YOU ARE CORRECT

"Stop being supersilly, Perce," Sam said
laughing, "you know she doesn't like that!"

Mrs. Philpott sighed heavily.

Hickman, Kentucky, at Dorena-Hickman Ferry

Janine could feel the sharp thread of fear that
ran through the horses near her as they watched the rolling waters of the
Mississippi flow by. This is more than a creek or stream, she thought, having
crossed numerous ones on the way here. This is big. The horse leader had told
them all about the Ferry, how they would cross the river on it, over to the
Missouri side of the river, but it didn't look so simple now they were here.

As she gazed across the river, Janine could see
the ferry moving toward her. Feathers, the dark gray mare she was currently
riding--and who, she wondered, ever gave that name to this big, solid horse?--
whinnied, and Janine laughed, hearing a jumbled explanation involving a small
child and the small size of Feathers when she was young. The child had named
her Feathers, saying she knew she would be light as a feather when she ran, and
Janine had to agree her gait was magnificent. Feathers continued speaking to
Janine, telling her there were friends on board the ferry who were there to
help. And then Janine froze in shock as Feathers explained to her that they had
animals they talked to as well! How amazing! Evidently Feathers thought so,
too, as she bobbed her head up and down in agreement.

The ferry pulled up to the dock, but the horses
did not surge forward. Andy stepped onto the landing area, in awe of the sea of
horses before him. They were everywhere! Then he spotted a horse with a rider,
and as they came toward him, he was struck by the grace of the girl atop the
large horse. They seemed like one being, some kind of centaur or something. He
noticed she used no saddle at all. And she looked so young! Her dark hair
floated around small shoulders and a delicate-looking perfect face, and her
clothes were travel-stained. She smiled shyly as he approached.

"Hello!" he called out. "We're here to get you
across the river."

"My name is Janine and this is Feathers. I don't
think we're all going to fit on that boat."

"Well, Janine, my name is Andy and we're just
going to have to make more than one trip. Uh, you can talk to these horses,
right?"

Janine laughed delightedly. "More like they talk
to me, but yeah, we can communicate. Isn't it the coolest thing?"

Andy smiled. "It sure is. I have a dog--Waldo--and
I'm still kind of blown away by all this."

"Are you driving the boat?"

"No," Andy replied. "There is a captain of the
ferry who will get us across, but he's not--" He stopped and realized they didn't
have words for all that was happening. "Well, he's not 'one of us' I guess you
could say. He isn't talking to any animals and I'm not sure how he will react
to the horses, but we'll manage."

At that moment, a loud argument was heard coming
from the ferry wheelhouse. "Now listen here, little lady. You never said there
were so many of them! You just said, 'take us across the river' all nice and
pretty--you never said there were hundreds of horses!"

"I don't care if there are hundreds of rabbits,
or cows, or elephants--you
are
going to take them across this river, and
you're going to keep doing it until I say stop!" The final words rose rapidly
in volume at the end.

Janine was looking worried as Andy reached out
to give her a hand dismounting, and then stopping as he watched her jump
lightly to the ground. "Uh, that's just Lisanne, a...friend of mine talking to
the captain. Don't worry. Let's just start moving these horses onto the ferry.
It's not like he's never seen a horse before. This ferry takes horses and
riders--he's just concerned because this was supposed to be the last trip of the
night."

"What'll we do if he refuses to come back for
the ones that won't fit on the ferry this trip?"

"We'll manage. Or rather, Lisanne will manage.
She's pretty formidable when she gets going with all the yelling and screaming.
And she's prepared to do what it takes."

As Janine walked with the lead horses onto the
ferry, she saw a pretty young woman wearing lots of leather with spiky black
hair pop out of the wheelhouse.

"Ooh, they're beautiful!" Lisanne crooned as she
watched the horses load.

Janine turned to Andy. "That's your formidable
leader who'll keep the captain in line?" she asked in disbelief. "She's hardly
bigger than me, and I'm only 16! And she's cute! She didn't sound cute."

"Believe me, size and cuteness don't matter when
it comes to Lisanne. She can be a bigger pain in the--well, let's just say that
she can handle the captain."

"Whatever you say," Janine said dubiously,
before returning to get another group of horses ready to go.

Cape Fair, the Samuels' House

"Mom! Dad, I'm so glad you got here finally,"
Jessica said as she hugged both her parents. John stood next to her, smiling. "Samantha
is going to be so excited to see you both," Jessica continued. "Now come on in
and let's get your suitcases into your room and then we can get some food and
drink into you. You know, I would have come to the airport to get you."

"Well, now, we felt like taking the drive, so we
just rented a car, honey," her father replied.

As they turned to head into the house, they saw
Mrs. Philpott come running up the lane, waving something in her hand.

"Now what is she up to?" John said. "For a gal
her age, she can really move when wants to!"

Jessica frowned at him. "John, you're terrible."

As Mrs. Philpott reached them, she bent over a
bit, taking deep breaths. "Whew!" she said, straightening up. "I'm out of
shape. Here it is--you have to watch this," she said while handing over a
videotape to John.

"What is this?"

"A tape of the news that just aired. You need to
watch this right now!"

Jessica interrupted. "Mrs. Philpott? Can we wait
just a minute? These are my parents and they just arrived. I'd like you to meet
Abby and Clayton Ames."

Her father stuck out his hand to Mrs. Philpott. "Just
call me Clay. Everyone does."

Abby laughed, saying, "Everyone does because he
hates the name Clayton!" She shook Mrs. Philpott's hand. "And I'm Abby, Jessica's
mother. It's nice to meet you. That must be some important videotape."