portal prophecies 01 - keepers destiny (21 page)

Walking over, she looked at the picture on the sleeping girl's arm. The bird looked different. It wasn't as mangled anymore. It was healthier, healing. But would Willow be safe until it healed completely? Could people be hurt and die in a dream? She didn't know the answers but figured she had better wake Mike and get the others together to discuss what she had discovered and decide where to go from here.

Ashlyn learnt quickly waking Mike from a sound sleep could be dangerous. He had grabbed her and almost hit her before he realized there wasn't a threat. For the first time she wondered what had happened to him. She had heard stories from the others as to their experiences with unusual creatures and how it affected them. Something horrible must have been in Mike's past she thought, something that made him so subconsciously aware of his surroundings that he could perceive a threat.

Mike released his grip and apologized. Ashlyn quickly told him she had important information and needed to gather everyone to go over it.

“It can't wait till morning, a couple more hours? Everyone will be tired,” Mike said yawning.

“No,” she insisted. “It can't wait. Willow may still be in danger as well as others.”

“Others?” Mike seemed a bit confused. “Okay, I will wake the troops. We can meet in the command centre.” He walked out brushing his short hair with his hand heading towards the building William was sleeping in.

Ashlyn sat for a moment on the edge of Willow's bed and whispered, “Hang in there,” to her, then added, “both of you,” looking at the picture of the black bird on her arm. For a moment she thought she saw it wink at her, maybe because it had eyes again she thought, or the light was playing tricks with hers. She smiled out of the corner of her mouth and headed over to the command centre.

To her surprise the main room of the house was already bustling with activity. The prophecy team was busy at work, two people would sleep in the back bedroom or on the couch, while the others read and tried to decipher meanings from the ancient text. It wasn't going so well from what Ashlyn could tell, but at least she had good news. Nathan had been right, the prophecy they discussed yesterday had been about Willow sleeping, but there had also been a message to her as well. It told her to follow the signs on the doors. That was what led her to Willow.

Behind her the door opened, the others were filing in, some yawning, some still in night clothes. She was particularly amused by the fuzzy pink bunny slippers Sarah was wearing. It was such a contrast from her usual orderly appearance she had grown accustomed to over the past days. Ashlyn wasn't the only one who noticed. Mike was already teasing her. Sarah's face turned numerous shades of red. Little giggles exploded all over the room.

In the corner, Zsiga was standing at the coffee maker. It had fascinated him since he first was shown what it was used for. Since then he had insisted on making fresh pots of coffee every time he was in the command centre. The first few pots were less than desirable and the others, to be nice, pretended to drink them, then suggested he use a little less coffee next time, throwing it out when he left. Now, he wasn't too bad. The smell of fresh coffee was filling the air louring several people who were half-asleep, following the aroma with mugs in hand waiting for a cup of instant wake up.

The three portal guards had all been interested with the technology of this world. They had never been exposed to anything even slightly like the devices and machines they were finding here and had been spending all their free time learning about how different things functioned.

William stood in front of the large map board by the fireplace. He called for the attention of everyone. Once the last few had found a seat, the guardians, Aslo, Kiera and their family, were lying comfortably by the fire in their house cat forms and everyone looked ready, he motioned for Ashlyn to come to the front of the room and tell them what she had learnt.

She began to explain the story of her night with the prophecy and it's hidden meaning for her. The deciphering team was very interested in the information. This meant that every prophecy could mean several things to different people and perhaps needed multiple interpretations. Then Ashlyn told them about Willow, how she was, what she had experienced, and the images of the world where their friends and family were being held.

A slight grumble erupted at the thought that the young keeper might want to attack a world that had an army that could defeat large forces when they were so few.

“We should wait to disagree until she is here to tell us how and when,” Ashlyn said. “But our friends...our family...if they are imprisoned and need help, I will stand by Willow and try to help them.”

“I have a feeling there is more information somewhere, a prophecy or something we are missing that will tie everything together about who we are fighting and why. I think that will help us decide where we are heading,” Clairity added. She had been Willow's best friend since birth basically and there was no question of where she would stand in a fight, not that she knew exactly how much help she would be. She knew her gift was sight, but she hadn't yet fully developed it. In fact she still just had '
feelings'
about things, that always rang true. The last few days she often thought that since heading into her sixteenth cycle the only thing she had developed was that her hair colour had settled on midnight black, the colour Willow had always said she liked the best.

“I did learn something else from the guardian bird,” Ashlyn said. ”Each of us still has a long way to go to discover what we can do, our abilities can extend as far as we choose to expand them, literally limitless. We all need practice.”

“Agreed. We can begin training as soon as possible, today even. Unfortunately, we are limited to lessons we know or have been taught and from what I understand there wasn't much mentoring going on back home,” William said.

“I can help with that,” Malarchy offered, causing an uproar of whispers. “I know I made mistakes, but long ago I was an original Council member and I helped set up classes to train people. I want to make up for my mistakes. I want to help. I want to see my son again.” He began to weep. Everyone else was at a loss for words. Malarchy had never displayed any emotion to them before and now this, such sadness and regret, they almost felt sorry for him. Many of them were not sure if they should feel contempt or pity for the man who was partly responsible for their world's destruction.

“Fine,” William said. “You can work with Mike and pick some people to help you set up training later today. We need to advance the abilities of everyone, as well as learn hand to hand combat and weapon use. Now, what about our Willow? Where did you leave things with her?”

Ashlyn's face drained of colour as she retold the story of how she was kicked out of the dream by the boy and what the bird had told her about him. She explained that she let the guardian into her dream to protect her.

“That is what happened to me.” Jade spoke for the first time since they had left her home. “Except it was Prince Joseph. He was supposed to take me away, just me. We were going to start a new life together. He was so caring, I believed him. I know that doesn't change what I did and I don't expect anyone to ever forgive me, nor will I ever forgive myself. I close my eyes and I see him killing my mother over and over.” Her words faded off into sobs.

Neil snorted a '
Figures
' in the background, which everyone chose to ignore.

“Isn't that defeating the purpose? We sedated her to get away from the guardian,” Mike asked, directing attention away from the obviously emotionally unstable girl and her disgruntled wannabe boyfriend.

It was Aslo that answered. “From what she has told us, I believe the Avian Guardian is healing and to the point where he or she can put what was experienced behind. It is most unusual. Until now it was thought a guardian needed to self heal if it was to heal at all. Did anyone happen to look at the picture on her arm to see if the image has changed at all?”

“Yes,” Ashlyn answered. “The bird is much better looking. It has eyes and the wing has regrown.”

“Then we need only worry about the boy. Bad things can still happen in dreams and if the mind believes them, some can be as real as if they were happening while awake,” Aslo added.

“How do we help her then?” William asked.

“We trust that she is strong enough to get through it and that she has some help. Hopefully it wont be too long before she is awake again. I suggest we discontinue the sedatives,” Kiera the other feline guardian answered this time. “Until then train as hard as you can. We will also help with development classes as needed.”

“Okay, trainers pick your helpers and everyone I suggest we change, have something to eat and meet in the training field to discuss your abilities in a couple hours,” William said ending the meeting.

Chapter Twenty-Three

It was a few hours before the training field was set up and ready to use. Much of the training would be based on physical skills and exploring uses of different physical talents. For those like Ashlyn, whose abilities could not be practised on a field, Mike had different forms of combat lessons available.

Mike had chosen Sarah, Iskander, Faramund and Zsiga to help him as well as a couple of other men from his world, to replace the portal guards while they trained their other skills on the field, if necessary. Malarchy had Aslo and Kiera as well as William and Diana on his team, trying to help advance magical skills.

First step was to explore what exactly everyone could do and figure out possible uses and advancement of their different talents.

Malarchy began with Ashlyn since she already had seen how her abilities could advance and things she could do in the future with training and hard work.

Ashlyn started by explaining what she had been able to do up until now and that her next steps were to locate people faster, change scenery, bring other people in and out of dreams and learn how to control the dream itself. This gave each of the others an idea of what they were trying to figure out about their own gifts.

Clairity offered to be next. “I have feelings, sometimes as to a place I should be or whether things are true or not. I think I should be working towards full prophecies and lie detection. I ironically enough, have a feeling there is also a physical aspect to my abilities I have not yet experienced, although I do not know what it is.”

“Very good,” Malarchy said. “The two of you would be good exercise partners, during the day work on simple mind reading in your extra time and at night work on dream walking and exploration. For now though, I think you both should join up with Mike and work on self defence basics. We have already seen the physical aspect of the attacks of our enemy and should be prepared for it.”

Aslo and Kiera agreed and the two girls headed off to join Mike. Nathan was the next to step forward.

“Pretty much everyone knows I can read books without opening them and very quickly. I can also transfer the entire book to another person word for word with full comprehension. Since I am only twelve, I have four years to develop my gift. Probably, your time would be spent better on other people. I can continue working on the book of prophecies.”

Diana smiled at how grown up her grandson had become over the past few weeks. She saw so much of his father in him and was proud. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the boy needed to continue his work inside the command centre. With approval he headed back to his table and books.

Jessie stepped forward. “I have extra ordinary strength and speed. I would expect I need to develop how to use both at the same time. I may be able to move a large object, but if someone is attacking me I need to be able to evade them at the same time. I am not sure there will be anything other than brute force that I develop but I also think I will be proficient in most forms of combat naturally.”

“Excellent, why don't you test that idea with Mike's team and see what happens,” Aslo commented and the others agreed.

Pete stepped forward. “Things can't hit me,” he said. “I mean like weapons, it's like I have an invisible shell around me. Not very exciting I am afraid.”

Aslo moved close to the boy and examined him. “This is the best news we have heard. Your next step is to extend a shield to protect others and if I am correct one day you may be able to create containment fields and even enforce the barriers between the worlds which have grown thin. I will walk over with you to talk to Mike. I would like to see you trying to protect people against physical attacks.”

Pete looked quite proud of himself as the two walked off to join the other team. He had always been the understudy to his two other brothers being the shortest of the three, although still taller than most men. He was for lack of better description, the in between one, not really spectacular in any way, but now he was finally getting some recognition and stepping out from behind his brothers' shadows.

Malarchy motioned for Dezi to go next thinking the triplet brothers would stick together, but was surprised by his response.

“I don't know yet,” Dezi said looking at the ground. It was unusual for him to shy away from anything and, even more curious, he was the only brother of the three that hadn't figured out what his ability was. “I think I should just work on combat for now.” Without waiting for an answer, he headed over to the combat team and left everyone wondering what had just happened.

The next boy stepped forward and silence followed. Neil, everyone knew now as '
the boy who ripped open the space between worlds and let the invasion in
'. It wasn't his fault of course. He had been bewitched by Jade into believing they were running away together to start a new life. He wasn't sure which was worse...being known as a weapon of destruction or a love struck pawn of Jade's.

“I can bend the reality of items,” he said quietly. “I can rearrange the way they appear, their texture. I can change space. I am not sure after stretching the barrier between worlds thin enough to break if there is anything else I will advance to. It was terrible but still sort of epic.”