Dream Seeker

Dream Seeker: Chapter Eleven

The man's iridescent gaze fixed on the bird of prey making circles above their heads. He peeked inside his jacket and saw that the child was still sleeping, her neat golden curls covering her face.

He raised his head to the sky. "You'll have her over my dead body, you hear me?" He yelled, sweat trickling down his forehead. The child drank the last drops of water in his steel container. He knew it wouldn't be long before he'd collapsed from heat exhaustion. Seeing no end to the barren desert land, he closed his eyes and dropped to his knees. The sudden movement startled the sleeping girl. He unzipped his sun shielding jacket and she spilled out, rubbing her bleary eyes.

"Go," he said." He knows I'm dying." He pointed at the large black vulture in the sky.

"I don't want to."

"I made a bargain. You need to leave. Save yourself, don't let my sacrifice be in vain."

"It will eat me," she cried. "Please don't die."

He watched her with a half-smile. "I can't control that."

"You died once and came back."

"Yes, but that was different," he said, hesitantly. "One day you will understand."

Her eyes filled with tears. "You promised you would take me back home."

Before he could reply, he heard a loud and crackling sound in the distance. He exerted himself to his feet turning towards the source of the noise. A large portal had formed in mid-air not too far from where he stood. He swept the child off her feet, using the last amount of strength in him to carry her over to the portal. To his horror, the entrance began to shrink rapidly not allowing enough time for either of them to fit through it. He released the child and fixed his eyes on the tiny vibrating mass until it vanished into the thin air.

The girl looked at the man's face but she didn't say a word. She wrapped her arms around his leg, pressed her face against his jeans and sobbed. He gazed at her, and patted her head.

"We still have the canyon rift." He mumbled.

The girl looked up. "So that means you're not going to die and leave me here."

His blue eyes gleamed under the sun. "No." he said

The rite of passage had made Mowi a man; he had entered a new state of consciousness and was granted access into the sacred lands. The pale faces had failed to see the great importance of the dessert. The rift was invisible to them. Because of the pale faces lack of understanding of the Spiritual Realm, the tribe had struck a deal in the treaty where they would keep the desert as part of their territory.

Today was the first time Mowi would astral project. He crossed the barrier marking the sacred lands, feeling the intense heat of the sun on his face. Immediately, his body collapsed under the immense pressure of the rift. His mind was delicately drawn out of his body, flowing into space.

In his mind's eye, he saw a fair-haired girl and a man walking across the dessert. His first thought was to drive them out. Pale faces were not welcomed in the sacred lands. However, a strange voice in his head intervened. These pales faces were different from the others he had met. The elders in his tribe had taught him how to listen to his inner voice. The voice usually meant the universe was speaking to him.

He raised his spiritual head and saw the trickster spirit following the pale faces. The trickster spirit usually took the form of a black bird, most commonly a crow. No tales scared him more than those of the trickster. The tales of the conniving spirit had been told many times since he was a boy, but Mowi would never forget the first time he was old enough to hear one. He had been sitting by the fire with moonlight streaming down from the heavens as he listened to the distant cry of a coyote.

He had looked into the black eyes of the elder as he described his own encounter with the trickster. It took a man of great wisdom to see the trickster for who he really was. He was known to take many shapes and forms. At times he appeared to be more of a friend than a foe. The trickster was known to make negotiations with foolish men with him receiving the better end of the deal.

However, the same malign spirit was also responsible for all of creation. He had stolen the energy and released it to the grand void, creating the physical world. The energy had been divided into an impossible amount of particles, forming into stars, then planets, and finally life. Despite all of this, the trickster despised the result of his mischief. The beauty of life reigned above his deceit. In the physical world, the energy was more defined than ever. Through consciousness, the energy could speak.

In his rite of passage, the elder had whispered something into Mowi's ear. The great secret of life had made him a man. As he traveled through the rift, the secret felt realer than ever. We are all one. The energy is in all of us.

His lips were dry and chapped, his skin darkened by the sun, and his deep blue eyes were heavily lidded. His hand was trembling as he sliced the stem of the plant and placed the water container under it. Two drops was all he gathered. With a grunt, he hoisted himself up and tossed the container to the girl.

"Drink." His voice was merely a whisper. His throat was so dry he could hardly speak.

She took the container and swallowed, the drops quickly evaporated on her tongue. She turned to him feeling guilty but he looked away.

"That bird is still following us," she mumbled.

Jonathan gazed at the horizon. "Don't pay attention to it."

"I'm scared."

He looked at her, thoughtfully. "It cannot hurt you."

"You promise?"

He stared at her for a long time. "Yes," he said.

At nightfall, Jonathan dropped to his knees with a blank stare on his face. The girl grabbed him by his shirt collar and shook him. She looked up and saw that the bird was gone.

"No, please don't die. Please! I need you. Don't leave me. Please!" she seized his face in her hands, crying. "You're all that I have."

"He needs water." A voice said from behind her. She turned around to see a boy of no more than thirteen years of age wearing a cloak lined with eagle feathers.

He reached for a pouch strapped across his chest, and kneeled in front of Jonathan. He untied the opening of the bag and placed it to his lips.

"Drink," he said.

Jonathan made no response.

Mowi slapped him. "Drink."

Jonathan snatched the bag and drank the entire contents. Once he was done, he dropped bag on the ground. Staring at each other, Mowi and Jonathan rose to their feet simultaneously.

Jonathan extended his hand to Mowi. "Thank you."

Mowi ignored the gesture. "You must leave this place," he said.

Jonathan withdrew his hand, and ran it through his hair. "We are trying to, but we are lost."

Mowi studied his face with a frown. "You made an agreement with the trickster?"

"The what?"

"The bird in the sky. The trickster." He said with impatience.

Jonathan looked up at the sky and glanced at the girl. He turned to Mowi, and shook his head no.

Mowi eye's bored right through him. " I hope you are telling the truth."

He turned around before Jonathan had the chance to respond. "Follow me," he said.

How was it possible that a young boy could demand so much respect? Jonathan found himself relying on him entirely. He had been trying for far too long to find the right path, unsure of what that path lead to. The only thing he was certain about was his commitment to return Gael to her reality. It was his duty to undo all of the crimes committed against her. Ever since he had met her, he knew that Gael was different. He had spent hours at the TEC Lab going over her memories trying to put them in the correct pattern. It had never crossed his mind that he would fall for his own patient. A rift child. His knowledge would later be recruited by the same government which had introduced her to him in the first place. The moment he realized the reason why Gael and him had been drawn together was the moment he knew he had to stop it from happening.