Chapter 1 - Strange Going's On
I awoke in a cold, dark cave. While sitting up my back clicked in several places, causing a bolt of pain to shoot through my body. I tried to remember what happened last night, but my brain was dead. Couldn't think. I could briefly remember having a weird dream a few nights ago about something like this happening, but it's not possible to see into the future so what did I dream about? Reality hit me, why was I in a cave? Woah. I looked around, seeing nothing behind me. In front of me was a small light source which almost blinded me because I'd been asleep for what seemed like ages. Gazing at my watch, I got myself into even more confusion. It was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. There must have been some mistake. The date was the 23rd May and the year 1520. My watch must have reset itself to this time and date because of some time zone change. Ah, yeah, I was on an aeroplane to Los Angeles, so where was I now and why was I here?
I came to the conclusion that my whole life was a dream and I had really lived here all my life, only I had been asleep to most of it because of some life threatening illness that I had now recovered from. I knew this wasn't true. Where ever I was, I rose from the cave floor and untangled any twigs or leaves I had attached to me. But from where I had missed one, it had pierced my stomach and created a shallow wound. I winced and wiped the excess blood away from my skin, and applying pressure with the shirt I was wearing. Well, was wearing; I now had on some brown cotton trousers, with leather boots and a cream top. To clarify if I had changed as well I held my hands up and turned my wrists slowly. They were normal, so I lowered my neck to look at my feet. That was all fine, it was only my face. My hand shot up to my hair and pulled a strand down. I let out a sigh of relief, it was still brown. I prodded and poked my face and it felt surprisingly average. I wandered out of the cave and looked around. What I didn't understand was why only I had been taken to this foreign place, not my family as well.
All of a sudden I was surrounded by strange people, circling me so there was no escape. Blinking excessively, I fell softly to the ground. I could half hear what was going on in the background, they were saying some kind of chant. I tried so hard to open my eyes but it felt like they were glued shut, or just weighed a ton. I groaned lightly as my whole body became encased in leaves. My breathing quickened and my heart was beating rapidly, I felt like I was going to explode. It all went quiet, nobody said anything. The leaves vanished and I awoke for the second time today in a strange place. The men were gone, it was like they were never even here. My surroundings had changed, I was in some kind of camp with people bustling around me. I obviously didn't look out of place, nobody seemed to be staring harshly at me.
A man came up behind me and tapped me gently on my shoulder, I gasped and turned to look at him. He held out his hand politely for me to shake hands with him. I did so, feeling relieved that nothing was going to happen.
"Today has been so strange." I said. "I'm Dana by the way."
"Don't worry, I can relate to the experience you've just had. They did it to me about a month ago, not very nice. Yes we know, we brought you here especially, You're very special you know. I'm Anesil." He replied.
"Okay, umm, do you know if there is a toilet I can use?"
"Toilet?" Anesil questioned.
"Oh, sorry, modern day language. Lavatory/ WC?"
"Ahh, yes, go right to the end there and turn left. You will find some there." He said in answer to my question.
"Thanks" I grunted.
I wandered down to where Anesil had told me. A foul smell blasted through my senses, almost making me fall backwards. Composing myself, I blinked twice and sighed deeply. When I managed to get into the toilets I stared in amazement and disgust, they were literally holes in the ground with small bricked partitions dividing them. It was the only means of a toilet round here, so it had to do. The other women in the camp didn't even care about privacy, they went in front of each other, I found this awkward so waited for the one at the end of the complex.
After this I walked back up to where I saw Anesil but he was nowhere to be seen. I began to feel a little hungry, all of these happenings have made me work up an appetite. I caught someone's attention,
"Excuse me" I started, "Do you know where I can get some food? I'm new here-" I asked.
"Sorry, there's three set meal times, supper is in a little while, you'll be able to eat then." A meek voiced woman pointed out.
"Okay thanks for your help." I replied.
I was really confused. I had to get things straight in my head. My brain re-winded to when I first woke up. I played through everything a few times and felt a little better, I didn't feel as though my head was spinning.
A bell rang and startled me. Everyone started moving quickly around me saying 'Got to get to dinner, got to get to dinner' repeatedly. I copied them to fit in, following they're quick walk towards the dining area. As they went past a certain point they piked up a tray, so I did too. I guessed this was to eat our food off. I carried on following all of the people that lived in this camp until the person in front of me stopped suddenly, making me stop abruptly too. I apologised for slighty crashing into the woman and thought about why I had been brought here. There must be one particular reason. I remembered back to when Anesil had said I was very special, so its something to do with me or a relation to me. From a few spaces back in the queue, I heard my name being shouted. It was Anesil, finally someone I half knew. He came forward in the line to be behind me, and talked to me, mostly about why I was here. I listened eagerly, I needed to know why I was abducted and brought to this camp in an unknown territory.
"Do you know why you were brought here?" He asked.
"No, care to explain?" I snapped back.
"Ohh, don't know if I should tell you after that. Has nobody told you the rules?"
"No. Nobody's told me anything, I don't have a clue where I am or what I'm meant to be doing here. Sorry about the snap I guess I'm just tired." I replied.
"Okay, I better tell you then." Anesil vowed to me he would tell me over supper, once we had got out food.
The line moved steadily forward and soon enough it was my turn to get dinner. It seemed this place had very specific ways of doing things, so I mimicked the woman in front of me. On offer there was a pork stew, with the normal vegetables and bread or there was cottage pie with bread and butter, and apple pie for pudding. Not bad food, I thought. I asked for the cottage pie with bread and butter; I recieved a plate containing this and a bowl with apple pie in it. The tables were long, very long, with benches to sit on. There were so many people here, most of the seats were already accomodated, but I found a few that were at the end of a table; for Anesil and I to sit in and talk.
"So you want to tell me then?" I asked.
"Yes. Yes, I will. Its a rather long story, so I'll shorten it for you..." He replied.
"Okay, go ahead."
"You awoke in a cave this morning, because-" He paused and then continued, "-because you are a very special girl. Your name, Dana, is coincidentally the same as one of our injured seer's. You will not know what the term 'seer' is, so I'll explain that too, although you may know it when I say it. A seer is a person who dreams vividly in their sleep, for example they are known to dream about future actions-"
"I do that!" I interrupted suddenly.
"-future actions or thoughts. You are a seer, quite a prominent seer at that - this means you've been a seer all your life. Being a seer has advantages and disadvantages, the good things being you can see things before they happen, big moments on your life that you need to be aware of. But then the bad things are that you can get badly hurt from seeing these things, because you mostly try to act on them, telling people and trying to not make them happen if they are bad moments. Your name and circumstances means that you have been taken here to complete a challenge; our Dana cannot complete it because she is badly hurt, a fight with another sorceress has left her on permanent bed rest until she is strong enough to walk again. The attack really took it out of her, she is currently unconscious - perhaps in a coma, we are unsure. She has been set to catch a very renouned warlock's breath, its complicated. A necklace has been passed down through many generations of this group, its known as The Seed of Thought, because when you catch a sorcerer's breath it automatically takes note of their actions, if you like, it will read their mind and steals those memories. This means they will not remember what they have done, they will have no clue they did it in the first place. Now, because you are a seer, and because your name is Dana, you are a perfect match with our Dana, your breath's fit proficiently. This match is too far to miss and ignore, so we have to get that challenge complete before The Seed dies. We will perform a personality transplant; meaning you will become her and visa versa. You will have all of her knowledge of magic, she is a fairly experienced level four going on level five, but she's still a weakling. But you'll forget any of this happened, all of what I've just said you will already know anyway, but where you came from and how you got here will be forgotten. Anyway, now you know lets eat, don't know about you but I'm starving." Anesil explained with tremendous detail.
"Wow, that's a detailed explanation. I'll have to see, I'll sleep on it and tell you my decision then. I agree, I'm going to eat now." I replied, struggling to take in everything he just told me.
"Yes, I know, and I thought you knew, you don't have a choice, you're doing it no matter what you think." He stated.
"Oh, okay then, I better prepare myself for this personality transplant you've got planned for me then. When will this be? Sorry, I like to be kept in the loop." I insisted.
"You will need to be at your strongest - you must be very healthy and willing; in the right frame of mind. It'll be tomorrow morning, after you've had a good nights sleep, and yes, I do too. How old are you? Age can sometimes affect the personality side of things but it shouldn't be too bad. I'm twenty."
"Right, I see, I will be, I always am. I'm eighteen, is that bad?" I asked.
"No, no, that's very good actually, Dana is nineteen, one years difference won't do anything." Anesil added.
"Great, so thats settled then." I noted.
I hadn't got my head around all this yet. I'm desperately hoping that this whole experience is a dream, and that I'm still on a plane to Los Angeles. I don't really want someone else's mind, I like my own. Coping with all of this was going to be very hard, I've never had a weight as heavy as this dropped on my shoulders and been told that I needed to complete something before a necklace dies. These strange going's on were really eating away at my brain. I finished my supper and pudding, so I took my wooden plate and bowl up and distributed it on a shelf with everyone else's. Anesil wasn't that far behind me.
"Anesil, where will I be sleeping tonight? I'm pretty tired actually." I sputtered.
"Ahh, now I think you'll be sleeping next to me, someone you know and all that - if you were to go in the women's complex with the rest of them you won't get a wink of sleep tonight. The only thing they'll ask you are questions, and plenty of them. There's only about six of us where I sleep, and it's all mixed, so you won't be the only girl, don'y worry."
"Thank you, you've been so nice to me, you've made me feel very welcome." I replied.
"You'll be given some night clothes and a wash kit, you know, the basics to get you going. As you become more known in this camp, you'll be able to move to the women's area." He notified me.
"Right, okay, thank you. Where we off to now?" I asked. As I asked I looked down at my watch and noticed the time was already half past nine.
"Bed, I should think, you've had a busy day. Everyone sleeps now anyway, so you won't be kept awake by anything."
"Good, I am quite tired." I stated, as I let out a large yawn. "Oh god, sorry." I apologised for yawning with my mouth wide open.
Anesil and I got to our sleeping complex that consisted of six people. I got given some night clothes and a wash kit to clean my face with. After I had done this Anesil showed me where I was sleeping, he got into bed and went to sleep, what seemed like instantaneously, so I happily got into bed as well and shut my eyes.
The night seemed to pass really quickly. I slowly stirred, and checked my watch. It was half six, everyone else was still in bed so I went back to sleep too.
I was rudely woken up by Anesil hitting me with one of his pillows.
"Come on" he started, "time to get up, it's your big day." He stated.
"Urghh, alright, but next time can you please not wake me up by a pillow forcefully colliding with my face..?" I asked politely.
"Oh, sorry, I'm a little active in the mornings. Come on get up! Breakfast is in a little while, you need to be all ready, washed, dressed, everything." Anesil replied.
I groaned again.
"Fine, I better get started then, takes me ages to get read-" I paused and had a short think. "Well, it would take me ages to get ready if I had electricity and make up." I continued.
"Elec- huh?" He questioned.
"Elec-tricity, I wouldn't worry about it, its all very confusing. It will be invented soon, don't worry." I explained.
Anesil stood standing trying to say the strange new word that I knew so well. In the end he eventually said it correctly.
"Electricity! Electricity! Electricity!" He shouted.
"Alright, calm down, no need to get that exicted about something that doesn't exist yet." I giggled, then stopped because he wasn't amused in the slightest.
Everybody left so I could get ready for breakfast. I was done in about five minutes, which is a substantial improvment on an hour of two. The bell rang again and I went out to go to breakfast, which smelt like smoked ham and some sort of bread pudding. I grabbed a tray, and waited in line. I could tell this routine was going to get repetitive.
Time seemed to fly by, before I knew it I was back at the tent with Anesil. He went over again briefly what was going to happen to me, after the personality transplant there would be morphing involved, so I would have their Dana's mind and then morph into her for the time I was away from the camp. He said that it was very sensitive, that it could sense when I was coming close to the camp, and morph me back so that people didn't become suspicious.
Anesil had brought me to where their Dana was, which was on the hospital ward in a separate room, isolated from everyone else. The room smelt odd, kind of old and musty. I suppose the only visiters Dana gets is the hospital staff who give her her medicine and treat her wounds.
"This is who you'll be changing into." Anesil said, stating the obvious.
"No shit sherlock. I really hate it when people do that-"
"-Yeah, I guessed." I said.
"We'll prepare you in a little while for the tranformation. You'll need to be completely relaxed and calmed down." He reminded me of some of the main points from yesterday, like I wouldn't remember or something.
"Okay, how about if I have a nap before we go ahead, I could go now?" I asked.
"Yes, yes that would be perfect." Anesil started, "Your strength will be up as much as it possibly could, meaning you will be strong enough for the transition." He finished.
"Right, I'll go now. I need a few extra hours anyway, still a little tired from last night; I slept well, but the drastic situation that happened to me yesterday really took it out of me." I uttered.
"Lets hope you sleep well then, restore your vitals." Anesil whispered.
"Yes, lets hope so." I replied.
I went off back to our complex and concentrated on getting some sleep. I laid down on the straw and cotton combined matress and covered myself with the blanket. I slowly began to drift off, until I was fully asleep. The worst thing happened.
Every colour was so bright, like it had been insanely enhanced; they were hurting my eyes. I got up off the bed and went outside to find Anesil. Everything was quiet, no one was outside doing their washing or collecting things. It was quiet enough for tumbleweed to be blowing around in the wind. I staggered over to where their Dana lay, I was in a huge amount of pain, but I couldn't pin point it to a certain area of my body. I got in to the ward holding my stomach, but the pain was radiating all over me. Anesil appeared out of nowhere and began talking to me in a very strange voice. He was saying something about them trying the transformation and it not working, so it left me really weak and in a large amount of pain. I felt really ill, so I went outside to make sure I didn't pass anything on to Dana. But Dana was me wasn't she? Oh, something was messed up. I felt as if I was here, but then I wasn't because I had my body and mind. Maybe some of her mind got passed to me, but then it didn't work fully, so they stopped it and left me with some of her thoughts. I was turning over in my mind at that point how I got to the transformation, I was in bed having a nap, so how could it have happened already? Confusion clouded my brain. I started shouting Dana! Dana! DANA! DANA! incredibly loudly, but that was my name, so why was I calling for myself? Urgh. I could feel my body being shaken up, like I was having a fit or something. I gasped loudly.
I shot bolt upright.
"What happened?" I asked Anesil. "No, wait you were different, I was different, ahhh urgh..." I went on to say.
"It looks to me as if you had a seer dream. Now you shouldn't wake people up in the middle of one, but yours was extreme, you were shouting the place down, something about the transformation failing. To get you to wake up I was shouting your name repeatedly, while shaking you. It was the most extreme seer dream I've ever seen." He replied.
"Oh no, yes I remember, the transformation didn't work, it left me weak and in pain, all over. Towards the end of the dream I was shouting my own name, and shaking like I was fitting."
"Yes, that was probably me, sometimes things are passed on, sorry about that." Anesil said in an apologetic tone.
"Its fine, really, are you sure the transformation will work?" I asked hesitantly.
"I'm certain it will work, you've no need to worry." He comforted me with this, nothing could go wrong. Or could it?
I did trust Anesil with this whole situation, but there was a side to it that I didn't particularly like; one side of my heart was with it and one against. I didn't like the fact that I was away from everything I owned, everybody I knew and loved. I had been placed into this surreal world and told that I had no choice in the fact that I was going to be put into somebody else's body. Saying yes wasn't my first reply, but now I've got to know at least Anesil a little more, I've taken to a shine to the idea. I've never been in love before, but there was something different about Anesil. It wasn't like it was in my seer dream, it was a good different, an aspect of him that I really rather liked. He had blonde hair with blue eyes, and the sweetest smile to match these iconic features. His body was toned, he'd obviously had to be strong to take on what ever mission the camp gave him. When his eyes were on me, it felt like it was only about us, nothing else in the world counted. I don't know what had got into me. Anesil said my name, and I snapped back into the real world, if this was real. It was time for the transformation, my moment had come to switch bodies.
"So.. how are you feeling about this, how shall I say, body switching?" He asked.
"Well, as you can imagine, nervous and worried, I really don't want that dream to coincindentally come true." I replied with a nervous laugh at the end.
"You will be fine, nothing has ever gone wrong before, so why should it now?" Anesil said confidently.
"You've got a good point but you hear stories about-" I decided to stop before I told him more about the future, not that he would live that long anyway.
"About what?"
"-Oh, you know.." I desperatley tried to think of something to say.
"Spit it out.." He said.
"-about people in hospitals, modern ones that is. People walk in quite healthy with only a minor cut on their arm, or a bump on the head; but they don't manage to walk out again. I know this situation can't relate to that but its the same sort of thing if you get me, all I'm saying is that complications of all types are possible, and people can die from cutting their leg or break a bone that multiple people break, and is easily fixed. I worry a lot, thats all." I stated.
"Well, that's mod-ern? hospitals for you, we've got proven methods that work all the time, no complications, trust me. The main element is trust, trust me and you'll be fine." Anesil replied.
"Yes, modern. And okay, I do trust you, I do! I'm a worrier, if you can call it that."
"Honestly, you will be fine, you'll see." He insisted.
The tent was in sight and I started to really feel nervous, but I trusted Anesil with my life, which was hanging in the balance. I reached out and pulled the blue curtain back and entered the 'zone' in which I was going to become Dana. Their Dana was already here, laying perfectly still in her hospital bed. I was told to take a seat on the bed next to her, and lay down, so I did. My hands were clammy and my heart rate increased. I tried so hard not to let it show, but Anesil was watching me the whole time, he knew I was nervous but then he knew I'd be fine, he's probably seen this procedure many times. I closed my eyes and let the people around me do what they had to do. Nobody explained what this would feel like, I hoped I wasn't a lab rat and being tested on.
"You will feel very tired and perhaps a little sick while the transformation is going on, but there's nothing to worry about." One of the nurses said.
Like I hadn't heard 'there's nothing to worry about' before.
"Okay, thanks." I noted what the nurse had said and began to calm down.
Someone else came into the tent. I opened one eye and glanced at whoever it was. It was a man dressed in a grey hooded cloak, with his hands crossed in the opposite sleeve, creating a one armed effect. My eye shut quickley after this few-sceond-glance, and I consentrated on relaxing again. Getting worked up about this was ultimately worst thing that could happen. I could hear the man; he walked up inbetween the beds and breathed out deeply and loudly. His breath stank.
"Unist acurad de osonay fiot, unist acurad de osonay fiot." He said.
I guessed this was the transformation spell. Then something really weird happened to me. I started to ache all over. As the man chanted on, I could feel the pain spreading everywhere, all over me. This was strange, everything was exactly as it was in my dream, or was this my dream playing again? Major confusion, couldn't think. There was a different bit. I was running through the camp with blood on my knees and hands, like I'd fallen in a blood pool or something. But where had this come from? I didn't like it, I wanted to stop. 'Drageny' I heard a separate voice in my head that wasn't mine. Maybe the transformation was working, maybe I'd fallen asleep during it. 'Lockarmeh' if these were spells, the switch was definitely working, they were unknown words, and I certainly didn't know what they meant in the slightest. Everything started to blur, there was nothing I could focus on, nothing that stood out. It was all very bland and plain.
Morgana stood behind a tree, with Arthur closely following her. She was up to one of her usual tricks, there was a cloud of evil above her. My eyes opened sharply. I tried to move my hands but couldn't, they felt as if they were weighed down with rocks.
"Hello Dana." A voice said. I couldn't pin point where it was coming from.
"Dana, are you alright?" It became easier to hear. I was sure I'd heard this voice before, I recognised it.
"It's me, Anesil. Don't try and speak, you're still recovering." He said.
"W-w-why am I here?" Recovering, from what?" I said groggily.
"I told you not to speak. You're here because you had a personality transplant with someone who was brought here especially, so you could complete your challenge." He answered.
"Who? Challenge?"
"Yes, a girl named Dana, we had to find someone who had the same name and was a seer. Don't you remember, your challenge of capturing Merlin's breath." Anesil replied softly.
Everything was banging in my head, even him speaking softly; it felt like he was shouting at me. Thoughts were slowly coming back to me, in drifts and drabs. I remembered that I fought another sorceress and lost, so I ended up unconscious and hurt really badly.
"I'm remembering." I murmered, "Is this normal?"
"It is very normal, thoughts do come back to you shortly after you wake up." He whispered back to me. "You should get some rest, you're very weak." Anesil continued.
"Okay..." I said while I let out a breath.
I slowly drifted back off to sleep. I thought about what would happen next, but I really didn't know.