The Heartstone Journey

Book 4 | Ch. 17 - Precognition

It was cold. It's lonely and suffocating as I remembered my childhood. This moment I'm experiencing is nothing short of the foreseeable future. I'm unsure why or how I knew this but I was shivering to my core, running away with tears down my face. A premonition? I was unsure of the uncertainty, I did however know it was a dream, a lucid dream and not a nightmare. There was something different compared to the other times at least.. another emotion deep down wriggled inside me, guilt. It seeped into my heart and squeezed at me pumping instead of blood, anxiety as its replacement. I knew all too well the feeling of that, it gripped at my throat, tied my tongue and made my life miserable. Why was I being shown this? Why was I running down snow in the winter? What made me bear such unbridled sadness and sorrow? Most importantly.. Why was the sky so colorful that night? Before I knew it I snapped awake with the room opening up to me.

"Uggh~.."

I moaned exhausted.

"I thought I had enough to think about after what the hell happened yesterday. Now I have another mountain of questions to ask."

Getting off my bed I felt different compared to yesterday. I was much lighter and less deprived of sleep than normal, I already knew who was the cause. He'd always worry about me and do things his own way if he's given the chance.

"Thank you, Cloudy."

I whispered happily, removing myself from my bed and dressing myself for the day. Or so I thought at least thinking it was dawn when in reality it was dusk. I didn't find that out until I spotted Nick returning with sweat covered all over his face exiting the darkness in the forest.

"Nick? You're up early?"

I exclaimed, getting his attention as he made his way toward me.

"No you're just up really late. I've been outside for hours."

"So it's dusk?"

I asked looking around only to notice how much more the stars glistened compared to when it'd be dawn.

"Well.. it seems you sweat it out a lot whatever you were up too."

"..."

"No shit."

Nick blankly waited a bit before casually cursing at him.

"*Sigh* Just get inside for now, I gotta clean off this stench or I'd leave a terrible smell on my perfect body."

Perfect body huh? Alright I'll let him cook up whatever he's on about. It'd be smarter to not play with a raging fire.

"You say something?"

Nick turned back aggressively.

"Nope! Nothing at all, Nick."

I claimed lying straight through my teeth on this one not even feeling bad for the comment I made.

"..."

"Ok whatever."

He flailed his arms behind his head and walked inside to shower up forgetting he told me to go inside.

"Ok, now it's time to find Hunter and Cloudy."

I moved along the given path we always took passing by several snow lilies, little critters and a never-ending drizzle of snow on my way down the path. Right as I hit the exit of the forest Hunter and Cloudy were arriving back from the town as they rushed to me catching I was up.

"Are you alright? Did you sleep well? Did anything happen while we were away?"

Hunter barraged me with a multitude of questions as I tried to get him to slow down.