Another Visit to Hertly

I awoke to the sound of Nera snoring loudly. ‘Jeez, he sounds like an angry rhino when he snores!’ I thought stupidly, trying to get myself into a happier mood; but it seemed to elude me, just out of reach of my ‘bubble’; as my mom would put it.
Sitting up, I picked up my shoes and slipped them on, then; standing as quietly as I could, walked over to the door and slowly opened it; cursing under my breath when it gave a loud creak, I paused, looking over my shoulder at Nera but he didn’t stir.
When I’d opened it; wide enough, I slipped through standing right beside the door, in the hallway and stared in awe at the receding passages; on either side of me, that seemed to disappear into darkness… I took a last look at the room behind me and then headed down the right passageway.
In this house it was as though time itself stood still, the air was motionless and all was silent.
As I walked, I realised that I’d passed an open red door, but when I looked inside there wasn’t anyone there, so I was sure it wasn’t the room we’d slept in.
After strolling along the passage; for what I was certain had to have been nearly an hour, I decided to turn around and head back to the room.
I headed back the way I’d come, but this time I didn’t pass an open red door or any red door, I was fairly positive that I would find my way back because there hadn’t been any turns on the way.
But as I continued walking; back the way I’d come, my confidence in finding the room dwindled, until I was sure I was completely lost.
I sat down where I was and covering my eyes started to sob. I know it was an over reaction but I just broke down right there.
‘I’m lost! I’ll never find my way back! I’ll never see my mother or friends…’ I was thinking with major self pity.
After a couple of minutes, I heard a mewing sound and then felt someone wrap an arm round me pulling me closer, I laid my head on his shoulder and sobbed some more, while he whispered in my ear, “It’s alright, you’re fine, nothings wrong, you’re going to be fine…” this carried on for a while, then as my sobbing stopped, he started humming and picking me up, carried me down a passage.
I must have dossed off because I opened my eyes to find Nera smiling down at me from my saviour’s arms. Nera lifted me towards himself and the stranger left before I could thank him for finding and bringing me back to where I was supposed to be.
“You shouldn’t wonder like that.” Nera teased.
“Who was that guy?” I asked barely registering what Nera said.
“Him?” Nera stared into space for a second, “He’s a guide like Paws, except he doesn’t guide people anymore, now he mostly avoids them, he hasn’t spoken to anyone in over two years and that’s the first time I or anyone else has seen him for over two years. Doubt anybody will see him again soon, either.”
I was disappointed, because I still wanted to thank him, but wasn’t about to give up, “What’s his name?”
“I think his name is; skie…”
After a while of contemplating things I asked, “Can you put me down? Please.”
He let me down but kept a firm hold on my arm, as though to steady me.
“You can let go. I’m sure I can walk without support.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, sorry…”
“That’s ‘k,” I said uninterestedly, “where are we headed?”
“We’re going to meet Hertly… again.”
“Why?” I really didn’t see the point.
“Because he has something to tell us, I believe.”
“If you say so…” I didn’t think I was going to get along any better with Hertly.
We walked the rest of the way in silence.
‘I wonder what Nera thinks Hertly has to say.’ I mused then remembered that Nera could read thoughts and quickly glanced over at him but his face hadn’t changed, he still had the same controlled peace written on it.
As we reach our destination I noticed that the door was already open and there were two stools placed in front of Hertly’s desk.
“Come in and make yourselves at home, I’ll be there in a sec, just need to find… Ah! Here it is.”
Nera’d stepped into the room; as soon as Hertly had told us to come in, he seated himself on the left stool while I sat down on the right one.
Hertly turned to face us once he’d found what he needed to.
“Ah. It’s you two, just the people I need to talk to.” He said warmly.
“Why?” I blurted out.
“If you give me a chance I’ll explain,” He continued, “As you’ll know, Nightmare, some people have special abilities, and the child of every clan leader will always have these abilities, if not more than one ability, the very most any one has had is up to three abilities” as he said this he glanced in my direction, “Now it is always the leader’s; of the clan you belong to, job to find out what the child’s gift is but as your mother isn’t clan leader any more and we haven’t a clue who your father is, you don’t belong to any clan and so even though you will have a Gift, no one has found out what it is and so you; I believe, will at the moment not have any idea what your Gift or Gifts are.”
As he talked I started to think, ‘Abilities? I’m supposed to have special abilities? If what he’s saying is true… What are my ‘Gifts’?’
“Do you understand what I’m saying?” Hertly asked gently as he saw my shocked face.
“Yes, I-I understand.”
“I’ll give you a moment to take this all in.”
“I don’t need a moment,” I snapped then looked at him apologetically, “How d-do you find out w-what my a-ability is?” I stumbled over a few of the words.
“I can’t, your mother has to.” It was Hertlys turn to look sorry.
“My mom?” I looked down at the floor, “I don’t know where my mom is.”
Nera looked up, “There is that other way.”
“No.” Hertly stated firmly, “We will not resort to using the other method.”
“What other method?” I glanced between them both questionably.
“Forget it. Nera is just being crazy.” Hertly said, still not looking at me.
“I’m not crazy.” Nera retorted, “You know that it will work, Hertly.”
“No. It won’t.” Hertly continued in a whisper, “It hardly ever works and you; above all people, should know what happens when it fails, Nera.”
“Don’t you dare!” Nera hissed, “I remember the consequences of that failure, I’ll never forget!”
“Then you should know what could happen to Ara if the other way fails.”
“I…” Nera slouched a bit on the stool with a retired look on his face, “You’re right… We can’t use that method.”
“Would one of you tell me what this other method is?!” I shouted at them.


wings©2007

...lost...

I felt something breathing down my back as something went by my right ear.
I jumped, throwing my arms up to protect my face, landing awkwardly on my left foot; I stumbled, falling backwards, the back of my right hip connected with a sharp corner.
“Aaah! Jesu... Urgh!” I was uttering quietly under my breath, but stopped when a light came on reducing the darkness to the shadows of corners.
I stood gawking upwards.
“Wow...” I said without even knowing.
We were in a sort of run down passageway, nothing special, although it was a bit on the gloomy side, but the ceiling... I mean I have never seen anything like it.! There was an intricate pattern carved into it, though it really didn’t look as though anything could’ve carved it because the pattern wasn’t actually in the ceiling in fact it was hovering about three Centimetres below the ceiling and seemed to be emitting an eerie yet curious light.
“What is that?” I whispered so quietly I was surprised when Mindreader answered.
“That? I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell you what that is.” Mindreader continued, “And even if I did you wouldn’t believe nor want to have known the answer.”
“How would you know?!” I snapped angrily.
“Because, I know.” He replied mockingly, smirking at the look of injustice and anger that appeared on my face.
“Look, I’m not some-”
“Paws! Where are you, stupid creature?!” He cut me off, as he shoved passed me, to yell down the passageway.
“Hmph.” I pouted, unhappy with his treatment of me, as though I was nothing more than a bug, ‘What happened to the you’re more important, bit?’.
“Paws!” Mindreader shouted angrily, “there you are, finally.”
Paws, I soon found out, is a cat, a short haired cat that had many shades of browns, greys, blacks and whites, what I mean by had is that that’s what he used to have.
Paws stood on his hind legs, growing taller until he was at the height of a boy in his tens, he wore blue pants that were a bit small and had holes around the knees, he was also wearing an olden day baggy, white shirt and a bag that had straps crossing his chest, his hair didn't stay one colour for long it seemed to shift through the colours of the cat, but his eyes were still a luminous green with slits, like that of a cats.
“Where were you Paws?” Mindreader asked, with a smile that said he already knew where Paws had been.
“I well... there...” Paws stuttered, trying to avoid both our eyes.
“Not letting your cat part get the better of you again.”
Paws smiled uncertainly.
Mindreader turning to me said, “The last time paws, couldn’t control his feline side, we ended up having to get rid of twenty dead mice and rats and also had to figure out what to do with two litters of kittens.”
Paws glanced down at the floor, trying to find something to stare at, blushing.
“Paws this is Ara Nickle.” Mindreader said pointing towards me, “As captivating as her name.” He smiled handsomely.
I blushed, looking down at the floor, big mistake.
The picture in the carpet was of a battle, there were bodies of dead and injured people lying around the battle field as the ones who could fight fought with the last of their energy, there was also some writing on it but I couldn’t understand what it said because it was in some foreign language.
“Ara this is Paws.” Mindreader said looking at me and then realising what I was looking at said, “Would you like me to tell you what it says?”
I nodded almost imperceptibly.
Mindreader saw the movement.
“Well it does say quite a bit but the gist of it is: A battle fought well and won loses more than if it had been lost.” Mindreader goes on to explain, “It means that if you go into battle to win you must be prepared to lose everything in it.”
I nodded again to show I understood, ‘That is very sad.’ I thought to myself, after that I was lost a bit in my emotions, I felt pain where a bruise was starting to show on my hip and I felt pain in my heart, plus the anger at not being told about the pattern hovering below the ceiling, above me and then there was my mom, I still didn’t know why she hadn’t picked me up and there were so many emotions I felt trapped and lost at the same time.

wings©2007