The Golden Desires (5 page)

"Warm," they both said at the same time.

"What was it?" he asked her but she
could not answer.

"I do not know. When I saw it in my night
vision - my
dream
- I did not recognise it."

Trent looked around, suddenly remembering what had
seemed so odd to him when he had first arrived within the interior of the large
walls. He was warm - but outside at such a distance from the walls it had been
so cold.

"How can it be so warm here?"

Isabella was alarmed that it was the same question
that Adrian had so recently asked her, but she did not want to betray her
friend so felt it best to pretend to be unsure of the question.

"What do you mean? It is always this
temperature here."

"But you are on top of a mountain, and it is
very, very cold out there," he said, pointing in such as way as to indicate
he meant outside of the large walls.

"Yes," she replied, remember the other
aspects of her night visions. "When I had my night visions of you I could
feel
the cold. But it does not get cold here. It is always like this. It is our
home."

He looked at her then, for the first time
wondering about who the structure had been built for.

"Our? Are there other people here?" he
asked just as Isabella saw a stray mill worker come outside and make his way
toward the eating area.

She laughed softly and quietly at the strange man
before her.

"Yes, there is one right there!" she
said, pointing, but Trent saw nothing, and it showed on his face. "You
cannot see him?"

Trent was confused at what she was saying … what
she was
seeing
… and now he was really wondering if he
was
inside
a dream.

"All I see are a lot of broken buildings and
rubble … and you."

Isabella looked around her but could not see the
broken buildings he referred to.

"Nothing is broken here. What looks broken to
you?" she asked, curious.

He pointed behind him to the temple.

"That, for starters. It looks like a bomb
went off and flattened it."

Isabella walked past him and up to the temple
door. To her it felt normal as she passed through it.

"What is this 'bomb' you speak of? There is
nothing wrong here. This is our temple, and it stands as it always has."

To Trent it looked like she was magically walking
… through rubble.

"Wait! Don't go there!" he yelled at
her, thinking that she would surely bring down some of the random beams that
were standing upwards but which looked completely unsecured in any way.

Isabella turned to him and saw the concern on his
face so stopped and came back to him.

"I do not understand. Do you see different
from what I see? How could that be?"

"I…" he stammered, feeling well out of
his depth now. "I don't know. But Isabella, please don't go there. It
doesn't look safe. Is there an open area perhaps - somewhere where there are no
buildings or any other things that might fall?"

She smiled at him, wondering if he was jesting her
as Adrian did sometimes. But she only saw fear and seriousness on his face.

She held out her hand to him.

"Come. I know a great open space we can go to,
to sit and talk."

He looked at her, saw her hand extended, and found
himself surprised at how at ease he was with her, and how at ease she seemed to
be with
him
. Taking her hand in his, he then let her lead him past the
broken down buildings and rubble that he could see must have been a great township
at some time … a very, very long time ago.

They walked in silence, looking at each other
while continuing to hold hands, not sure what was happening with or between
them. At a logical level it seemed wrong that they should be walking together
so companionably when they did not know each other. Even for Trent - a man well
versed in meeting strangers and even taking some of them home with him for
sexual pleasure - he felt that they might be crossing a boundary by holding
hands. But he did not stop it. As much as he had wanted to be away from human
contact on his quest, he found that right in this moment, he was very glad of
it.

When they reached the area where Isabella had felt
the land warm when she was with Adrian, she sat down on the ground and invited
him to do the same.

Sitting down on the dirt, Trent was again
surprised that he felt no cold there. But when she told him to put both of his
hands flat on the ground, as Adrian had done, something surged through him. It
was warmth, but it was more than that. He closed his eyes and let the feeling
rush through him. It was not like anything he had experienced before. It was
like his veins had something new and exciting rushing through them. And he felt
so healthy and …
alive
.

Isabella watched him sit like that and took the
time to really look closely at his face. He was not like anyone she already
knew but she found she liked looking at his face. She felt close to him, like
she was meant to be close to him … like she was meant to be even
closer
to
him.

Suddenly he opened his eyes and initially looked
directly into hers, before she saw him jump up and backwards, then look
confused again.

"What is it?" she asked, alarmed at his
response, and standing up with him.

"What? I just saw things … differently…"

Neither knew what that meant, but Isabella coaxed
him with the softness of her voice, to sit down again.

When he did, he put his hands on the ground as she
had said, this time keeping his eyes open. Instantly things changed. Before him
she still sat, unchanged, but suddenly the image of dirt was replaced with that
of grass -
green
grass. And beyond, in the distance, he could see
buildings - upright, intact and well formed
buildings
.

He removed his hands only a short way, just
lifting them clear of the grass, and immediately everything was dark again, and
it was dirt they were on. But still she sat there before him, exactly the same.
She was in his view, no matter what he did.

"What is happening? What do you see?"
she was asking him, full of curiosity and intrigue herself at what new and
exciting things appeared to all of a sudden be happening in her home village.

He focused on her once more as he lowered his
hands down again, and once more was forced to see a different landscape.

"It is all changing, Isabella. When I have my
hands down like this I can see what I think you see - this is green grass we
are sitting on," he said and she nodded. "And I can see buildings
that look intact, over that way."

Isabella smiled at him.

"Yes. You are seeing my home. But why do you
not see it when your hands are not down? Who is seeing real? Me? Or you?"

His eyes were deeply focused on hers.

"You are the constant here, Isabella.
You
I
can see either way. Do you have a power that is making me see you?" he
asked and she shook her head.

"No, I have no power. I am just me. No-one in
my village has powers, I do not think."

Suddenly his stomach growled and he knew he was
well overdue for food but did not know how he could get to any. She heard the
sound though and laughed softly.

"You must eat."

"Yes, but how?"

She looked thoughtful for a while, also seeming to
do calculations in her head about how she could help him with the current
dilemma. Suddenly she stood up and held out her hand once more.

"Come with me," she said and he
immediately took her hand and walked. "I do not know if this will work as
I do not know if this will happen on all of our land, but our orchard is this
way."

She held his hand as she walked him through what
now looked like dry dirt and overgrown areas of growth. But eventually he could
see what must have once been healthy trees. Now, though, they were just dried
and dead stumps.

"Sit down here. Let us see if it works
here," she said and he obeyed.

As soon as his hands touched the ground, he could
see he was in an orchard with a vegetable garden nearby.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, unintentionally
indicating to her that he could indeed see what was around them.

He watched her as she leaned up and picked a red
apple off one of the trees that he could now clearly see was a fruit tree, and
she went to hand it to him, but as he reached out to take it, even with just
one hand, the image died … and so did the fruit. He was suddenly looking at
nothing.

Isabella was thoughtful enough to comprehend what
had happened so she instructed him to put his hand down once more, while she
reached up and took another apple. This time she came to him and pulled out a
small knife from the side pocket of her dress.

He watched as she cut off a slice and leaned in to
place it in his open mouth. It wasn't the most gracious way to eat, but he let
her feed him like that. He did not want to think about what would happen to the
food inside of him once he moved his hands.

As he sat cross legged, she was close to him,
leaning over him almost, and he was very aware of her as the beautiful woman
that she was. It had been so long since he'd had a woman's company … since he'd
had
any
company in fact. But it was more than that. Because of the
dreams, he felt like he
knew
her … like they were meant to not only know
one another, but completely be together.

Perhaps the fruit would end up being real -
perhaps it wouldn't. But in the moment, it felt to him like his stomach was
getting nourishment, and the fruit was far fresher than anything he had ever
had in his life. He let her feed him, partly because he knew his body needed
it, but also because he
wanted
to be this close to her. He had dreamed
about her and now she was real - seemingly in either reality. Whichever vision
was
the reality. That was the ongoing question to which the answer was
completely and utterly unknown.

When the apple was finished she threw the apple
core away onto what appeared to be a compost heap, but remained kneeling in
front of him.

"Isabella," he whispered, wanting to be
closer to her but knowing he could not. But the pull to her was so great, like
the universe
wanted
them to be closer. He had slept with many women, but
had never felt anything like this.

She surprised him by leaning in and kissing him
and he groaned in response, moving his hands off the ground as he did so. They
remained kissing until she heard a voice getting closer, and he saw her head
turn before she stood up quickly with the look of embarrassment. She knew that
the outlook had changed for him again when he had removed his hands from the
ground, but she couldn't leave him there for the gardeners to unknowingly walk
through if they were to go near the trees. If he
was
actually there.

 Suddenly he could see her talking to people,
except he couldn't see them. He could only see her talking … as if she were
talking to no-one. When she began walking he saw her indicate subtly with her
hand behind her to follow her, so he did. As he followed her he couldn't see
the people but he could tell from watching her where they were. He had no way
of knowing if they could see him, but he guessed not as she seemed to act as if
he weren't there, even though she now and then would look back at him.

He couldn't even tell where they were so had no
idea if people were walking through him - were there ghosts? Was
she
a
ghost? She certainly had not felt like a ghost when she had kissed him.

Or perhaps
he
was a ghost. Suddenly he was
thinking that perhaps he had actually died and was now haunting this place,
with the people there being real and her being some kind of medium.

The thought caused a shudder to pass down his
spine and he disregarded it quickly. Whatever was happening, he could not
change it or stop it, so trying to analyse it would do him no good. He opted
instead to enjoy the feeling of food in his stomach - something that did feel
like it was staying put, even though everything else had changed and
disappeared around him.

Isabella had to think of where to lead him. She
wanted him to be able to sit down and enjoy her village as she did, but without
him being seen.

He saw her leading him once more into the pile of
rubble she had tried to earlier. This time he let her, but while she seemed to
walk freely among it, for him he had to climb over broken debris.

"This won't work, Isabella," he called
out to her only a metre or two into what looked to him to be a war zone.
"I can't go that way."

She looked thoughtful and nodded in
acknowledgement. Looking around first, she then looked at him and said quietly,
"You lead me to where
you
can go, where you think you can sit and
be safe."

He understood her logic immediately, looked around
him, grabbed his backpack and eventually led her to where they had first sat.
Seeing no-one nearby, she leaned in close to him and whispered into his ear so
no-one else could hear.

"I have to get on with my day as usual,"
she said and he nodded in full understanding. "But I am going to go into
the temple and talk to one of our ancients, Elder Rhys. I will bring him here.
Will you stay here?" she asked and he nodded again. "Are you warm
here?"

"Yes, I will stay right here. No-one will
walk through me?" he asked, feeling giddy at the thought.

She laughed softly.

"No, I do not think that they can see you,
nor you them. But regardless, you are not on a path. No-one should walk
here."

He saw her look around once more before moving
right up to him and pressing her chest into his, and leaning forward to kiss
him fully on the lips.

Trent was hungry with passion for her. He didn't
know if it was a real passion - a  real
desire
- or if it were driven by
hunger for the human touch that he had been without for what seemed like so
long. He did not even know if she was
real
. But certainly in that moment
she seemed real, and whether or not she was, he was ready to indulge in the
feelings that were passing between them.