This story is based on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' which is own by Joss Whedon. I do not own nor do I have a claim to it.
Prologue:
In the beginning, demon ruled the Earth and humans were exiled to the Earth from other dimensions for a death sentence. Then the unimaginable had occurred. Humans were finding each other and forming groups. These groups grew into settlements. For centuries humans from these settlements fought back against the demons within the darkness and the shadows, which earned them their title 'The Shadow Men.'
Ultimately these Shadow Men stumbled across a coven of powerful witches calling themselves 'The Guardian' whom themselves were exiled from another dimension. The Guardian had the same goal as the Shadow Men and together they devised a plan to create the ultimate weapon against the demons. Three Shadow Men captured a fifteen-year-old girl from their village and forcibly endowed her with demon powers and strengths. This girl eventually became known as 'The Slayer.' To help the Slayer defeat the demons the Guardians forged her a magically endowed weapon known as the Scythe. While holding the Scythe its power enhanced the slayer's strength with a surge of energy that she could feel.
The Shadow Men and the Guardians knew that this was only a short term solution; a couple of years at best, so together they called upon the great power, 'The Powers That Be.'
The Powers That Be granted a version of their request by taking a portion of the slayer's powers and spreading the seed of future Slayers throughout the world; thus creating Potential-Slayers. The Potential-Slayers then spread the seed even further by passing on the Slayer's gene to their children. To ensure that each Potential-Slayer was ready to fight at the moment chosen, The Powers That Be had inflicted each of them with the dreams of the past Slayer's battles.
The creation of the slayer's line had a price though. That price was one Guardian and one Shadow Man had to immediately forfeit their will and corporeal lives to work as the conduit to The Powers That Be as the Oracle. The Powers That Be was also the power to choose which of the Potential-Slayers would become the Chosen One.
By The Powers That Be being the one to choose the Chosen Slayer the Shadow Men had no control over the Slayer. To remedy this, the Shadow Men turned towards the Guardians for help. The Guardian believed that the Slayers shouldn't be controlled though; however, in the end the Guardians reluctantly forged eight duplicate magical devices known as the dream-casters along with one magical device for a future slayer known as the Shadow-Caster. The dream-casters returned control over the Slayer to the Shadow Men by allowing them to induce dreams to anyone. For the slayer the dreams were urges that would pull the slayer into demonic regions and if the Chosen Slayer attempted to ignore her urges, they became a burning desire that she eventually couldn't ignore.
In a very short time, the title 'Shadow Men' was replaced by the title 'Dreams-Casters.' For centuries their title as 'Dream-Casters' and for a few individuals AKA 'Sandmen' remained unchanged until the formation of the 'Watchers Council' in the year 551 A.D.
The Formation of the Watcher's Council
Chapter 1:
During a hot summer's day a couple of miles outside a moderately size village of a farming community of Egypt, in the year 551 A.D., Fola a young and inexperience witch was sitting in the common room of her small dwelling while practicing a very powerful resurrection spell on dead flowers. After reciting her spell for thirty minutes the flowers rejuvenated.
Fola was proud for what she had achieved and to make sure that it wasn't just beginner's luck she decided to try the spell again on something bigger.
Fola carried her spell supplies and a few personal items for a quarter of mile through a field and stopped at a dead tree with a tree trunk of nine inches in diameter. The field itself was commonly used for a burial ground. Less than a year before, more than fifty people were buried between twenty and sixty feet from the dead tree after a deadly diseased swept through the village and claimed a large percentage of its population.
When Fola did her spell on the tree, she greatly increased the ingredients. Everything else she did was the same as before; however, it took slightly longer before she was able to see the tree being rejuvenated. As she continued to chant her spell, zombies began to break out of the ground behind her. She didn't see or hear any of them, until one grunted near her ear. When she turned to look, the zombie grabbed her and snapped her neck. Fola was only dead for a short time before she rose as a zombie.
Each zombie walked in a random direction and only fifteen of them walked towards the village.
It was more than an hour before the fifteen zombies had made it to the village. A middle-aged man named Diallo was walking through the village and was the first to see the zombies strolling through. After seeing what he did, he quickly ran to a bell in the middle of town and began ringing it.
As a few villagers quickly gathered, Diallo pointed out the zombies that were walking aimlessly while saying, "Someone had brought forth zombies. Go quickly and warn others; then barricade yourself and your family in your homes."
"Let's go," someone cried out.
As the small crowd dispersed, Diallo rushed to a moderate size farmhouse and banged on the door.
A slightly younger man named Kiros opened the door. Before Kiros had a chance to speak, Diallo said, "We need to summon the slayer."
"Demons?" Kiros questioned.
"Zombies. I don't know who raised them, but we need the slayer. I'll go and find the others. You stay here and prepare the summoning spell."
"Of course." Diallo nodded and walked away.
At a small farmhouse a family of six was just beginning their evening meal. The father was originally from Greece; however, his wife and four children were born in a village to the west. They had recently migrated to their current village after the epidemic had subsided.
While they were having a peaceful conversation four members from the previous owners of the house who happened to have died during the last epidemic, came crashing through the front door. Three more zombies crashed through the back door.
Everyone jumped up while screaming. The only escape was through a window. Helen, a fifteen-year-old teenager and the youngest of four siblings, was the first to climb out, but once she was out a zombie with rotting flesh hanging off its skeleton grabbed her from behind.
Helen's mother screamed at the sight, but before the zombie had a chance to kill Helen, Helen instinctively flipped the zombie over her shoulder. Once the zombie was flat on its back, Helen's primal force as a recently chosen slayer instinctively kicked in and she began to pound on the zombie.
Inside the house, Helen's family was stunned by the sight of seeing Helen fighting and delayed too long to make an escape. When Helen heard her family's fearful cry being silenced within seconds of each other, Helen twisted the zombie's head with her might until it finally came off in her hands. She then tossed the head to the side and dashed back into the house.
Helen gasped when she saw her entire family ripped apart. She stood there staring at the carnage that was once her family with tears flowing down both cheeks. Reality of the situation then quickly came back to her when two of the seven zombies grunted as they were closing in on her.
At a speed faster than an average slayer, Helen knocked all the zombies back several feet and before they had a chance to come at her again, she dashed out of the house and took off running towards the village.
At another farmhouse, a tall, bearded, middle-aged British-born man named Manfred, his wife Shadya and three grown sons Ramsay, Archer and Clifford were fighting off three zombies by lighting them on fire with torches. Ramsay was thirty years old and the oldest. Clifford was the youngest at the age of nineteen. After the zombies fell to the ground while roasting, Manfred and his family rushed towards the village.
Helen was midway to the village when she spotted Manfred's twenty-six-year-old daughter Aggie while scrabbling on the ground while trying to get away from a zombie. Helen made a dash for the zombie and just as the zombie was reaching for Aggie, Helen knocked the zombie away from her.
Manfred and the others were coming into view as Helen was pounding on the zombie with a fast series of kicks and punches. Aggie just sat there watching in an awe.
When Manfred saw what he did, he stopped in his tracks while uttering out in a slightly poor pronunciation of the local language, "I'll be damned. Helen is the slayer."
"Slayer? As in those heroic girls from the Sandmen's children stories?" Clifford questioned.
"Those aren't just stories," Manfred quickly answered. "Let's go. We need to help Helen."
Everyone rushed towards Helen and Aggie. Shadya slightly trailed behind the others.
Before they got too far towards Helen and Aggie, Ramsay asked. "How do you know that Helen is the slayer?"
"Twenty-seven years ago, a slayer saved your mom from a demon while pregnant with Aggie and that slayer moved and fought much like Helen is now," Manfred said.
"Helen seems to move more quickly though," Shadya added.
It took Helen a few punches and kicks to knock the zombie to the ground and once it was down, she grabbed its head and twisted it off with a slight struggle. Once the zombie was dead, Aggie got on her feet.
As Manfred and the others were stepping up Helen mournfully said, "Seven of these… these walking corpses killed my family."
"Oh, Helen, I'm sorry," Aggie said.
"What's going on?" Helen quickly asked. "How are dead people walking around and killing people?"
"They're zombies and someone raised them with magic," Manfred said.
"You know how to kill them, but you don't know what they are?" Clifford questioned.
Helen pointed to the dead zombie while saying, "This is my second one I killed and the first one I just… I can't explain how I knew what to do, but I knew."
"You knew, because you are the slayer," Manfred said.
"I'm the what?" Helen asked.
"You're the slayer," Manfred repeated.
"What's a slayer?" Helen and Aggie asked.
"Slayer is the term that the Sandmen use while referring to the heroic girl who fights demons," Manfred said.
"I don't fight demons," Helen quickly said with certainty. She then hesitantly said, "I have dreamed of fighting grotesque looking people though that can be confused as demons."
"You might be getting those dreams from the Sandmen," Manfred said.
"Who are the Sandmen and why… how can they do that?" Helen asked.
"Sandmen… or Dream-casters what they actually call themselves, give the slayer dreams," Manfred said. "That's how they communicate with the slayer. Tilon or Kiros can explain better. They're both Dream-casters."
"We need to stop these zombies first," Archer said as Ramsay was noticing three more zombies in the area.
Aggie saw the focus expression on Ramsay's face and asked, "You're seeing something."
"The zombie Helen killed and the others that we've seen have all came from the field near the dead tree," Ramsay said. "The clue on how to stop these zombies might be there."
"Then we should go there," Archer said.
"Not without swords," Manfred said. "Kiros has swords we can use and Helen can get her answer of what a slayer is as well."
"That's sounds good to me," Helen said before everyone began walking.
At Kiros' farmhouse, nine of the seventeen Sandmen in the village were sitting in a circle in front of an apparatus similar to that of the shadowcaster apparatus. A silhouette figure that represented the slayer sat on a round track. A candle burned in the center of the track while casting a shadow on the wall. For a few minutes they were chanting the spell to summon the slayer through her dream. The silhouette figure suddenly moved on the track and rested once it reached a northwestern positioned.
The Sandmen were slightly thrown by it. They expected the silhouette figure to rest in a southern direction towards Africa. Africa was the last known whereabouts of the current slayer and a sudden directional shift meant that a slayer had died and another was chosen from the last time that they invoke a slayer's dream.
"We're summoning an inexperience slayer," one of them said.
"This changes nothing," Leeto said. "Continue."
Kiros nodded before he began sprinkling Calynthia powder several inches over the silhouette figure while avoiding the flame. The others recited an incantation while Kiros sprinkled the powder.
They reached a crucial point of the spell of where any sound could change the outcome of the spell. A golden cloud began to form over the silhouette figure and before Kiros was done, there was a hard knock at the door. Kiros was startled and dumped a large amount of powder onto the flame; which sizzled like gunpowder. A black spoke was created and mixed with the golden cloud. The golden cloud changed to a more grayish color before emitting a flash of light that momentarily blinded everyone.
One of them uttered out while rubbing his eyes, "Dear, Lord."
"What did we do?" the youngest of the Sandmen asked. "I mean, how will this affect the slayer?"
"The guardians are the ones who had forged this device with their magic and they had told us that if this would occur, then the slayer would forever dream of demonic activity on her own," Leeto said. "For now on, the slayer will be drawn to the strongest demonic activity wherever that demonic activity will be in the world."
"So we no longer have control over the slayer?" the youngest Sandman asked as there was another knock on the door.
Leeto was standing while saying, "We'll still be able to stimulate her dreams as we can with anyone, but our control over the slayer has been severely lessen." He then walked towards the door. "The guardians had wanted this from the very beginning and now it's done." Leeto opened the door to see Manfred and his group.
"Leeto, we're looking for Kiros," Manfred asked.
"He's here," Leeto said as Manfred and the others were noticing the smoke in the room.
"Did we interrupt something?" Manfred asked.
"Yes, but it's too late to worry about it now," Leeto said as Kiros moved up behind him. "Come in."
As Manfred and his group walked in Kiros asked, "What can I do for you and your family, Manfred?"
Manfred saw the apparatus. He then looked at the faces of each person before questioning, "All of you are Sandmen, aren't you?"
"We're Dream-casters," Leeto corrected.
"Of course," Manfred said. "Were you nine summoning the slayer?"
"Manfred, if you haven't noticed, the village is under attack by zombies so was there something that you want?" Kiros asked.
"All the zombies came from the field with the dead tree and we think that the clue on how to stop the zombies is there," Manfred said. "And to get there, we need swords."
"Manfred, I understand that you and Ramsay are the best two fighters in the village, but neither one of you are a match for zombies," Tilon said. "And yes to answer your earlier question. We were in the middle of summoning the slayer, but you and your family's interruption might have severely jeopardized our chances at getting the slayer here."
"Tilon, Helen is the slayer," Manfred quickly said.
"What?" Tilon questioned as all eyes turned to Helen.
"Don't look at me, people," Helen quickly said. "I never heard of a slayer before."
Manfred grinned as he repeated, "Helen is the slayer."
"How do you know?" Leeto quickly asked.
"She had killed two zombies by ripping their heads off," Ramsay said.
"Well, to be fair, one was pretty much on his way on becoming a skeleton," Helen said. "It could've been a her though. But going with what the zombie was wearing…"
"Helen," Leeto quickly said to get her attention.
"Yes?" Helen questioned.
"Have you been getting the dreams?" Leeto asked.
Helen gave him a curious look before saying, "I dream all the time. So what kind of dreams are you talking about?"
"Have you dreamed of fighting demons?" Leeto asked.
Helen pointed towards the ones who she arrived with before saying, "As I told them, I have dreamed of fighting grotesque looking people."
"Leeto, trust us," Ramsay said. "Helen's the slayer and we came here to get swords so we can go to the field of where these zombies were raised from."
"All right," Kiros said as he moved towards his weapon storage cabinet. "I have four swords and two battle-axes."
"Give Helen a sword," Leeto said as Kiros was stepping up to the cabinet.
"I don't know how to use a sword," Helen said.
Kiros was opening the cabinet as Leeto said, "It's time for you to learn. In fact you won't be able to kill most demons with your bare hands so you'll need to learn how to use several different types of weapons."
"Great," Helen sarcastically said just before Kiros handed her a sword.
Manfred, Ramsay and Clifford also each took a sword. Archer and Diallo took an ax. There were four maces and four men in their twenty took those. Three men had also grabbed lamps for the coming sunset. Once everyone was set they all left the farmhouse. Aggie, Leeto and the older men stayed behind and barricade themselves in.
Midway to the field, Helen spotted Fola off in the distance and uttered out, "Oh God. Fola's a zombie!"
Kiros spotted ten zombies ahead and said, "Forget about Fola. The zombies we need to worry about are coming straight for us."
After Helen turned to look, she said through clenched teeth, "Those are the zombies that rip my family apart."
"Your…" Diallo was only able to get out before Helen made a mad dash towards the zombies.
"Helen! Wait!" Ramsay called out. Helen never responded. "Damn! Let's catch up, everyone." Before Ramsay and the others had taken a few steps Helen was swinging her swords at the zombies.
"She's quick even for a slayer," Diallo commented while running to catch up.
Helen had cut off three of the zombies' heads before the others caught up and joined the battle.
As slow as the zombies were moving killing them was more like target practice for an experience warrior. Helen while using her sword had killed six of them within a short time.
When the last of the ten zombies were decapitated Ramsay quickly glanced around while saying, "We're clear. Let's continue."
Minutes later, as they approached the tree, they saw it flourishing. When they stepped up to the tree, they saw magic supplies next to it along with a few items that Diallo recognized belonging to Fola.
Diallo quickly realized what had happened and uttered out, "Fola, you stupid, arrogant amateur."
"What did Fola do?" Helen quickly asked.
"She was practicing her resurrection spell on this tree," Diallo said.
"Fola was practicing witchcraft?" Ramsay quickly questioned.
"She's been practicing witchcraft for almost a year and she had no business messing with spells of this nature," Diallo said.
"What's done is done," Manfred said. "How do we end Fola's spell."
"From what I can tell, I think Fola's spell was meant to rejuvenate the tree and not raise the dead," Diallo said. "So I would say destroy the tree and the spell should end."
"Helen, you're the slayer," Kiros said. "Use your slayer strength and uproot the tree."
"A slayer is supposed to be strong enough to uproot a tree?" Clifford questioned.
"Well not any tree, but one as small as this one, Helen should be able to do it with no problem," Diallo said before he noticed that Helen was looking at him as if he was crazy. He then grinned. "Give it a try, Helen, before you look at me like that."
Helen took a heavy breath and exhaled before stepping up to the tree. She grabbed the tree with both hands near the ground and began to pull hard. After a minute of struggling hard she had barely lifted the tree a half-inch while cracking the dirt around it. She gave up trying and said, "I can't pull up that tree. I must not be a slayer."
"You're the slayer," Manfred said.
"I saw the tree lift up and that's more than any of us can do," Ramsay said. "Try again and this time, I'll help."
"Fine," Helen said before bending over while grabbing the tree trunk again.
Ramsay grabbed the tree trunk just above Helen's hand before he said, "Okay. Pull."
As the two pulled hard on the tree, the tree was slowly being uprooted; however, before they could uproot it, more than twenty zombies came towards them.
Clifford saw the zombies and said, "A small army of zombies are walking our way."
"Ramsay, you and Helen destroy that tree," Kiros said. "We'll hold back the zombies."
Before Kiros and the group could go after the zombies, Helen and Ramsay uprooted the tree.
After allowing the tree to flop over, Ramsay quickly turned towards one of the men who was carrying a lamp and ordered, "Burn this tree now!"
"You got it," the man said as he moved towards the tree.
Helen was rubbing her sore muscles when Ramsay faced her and uttered quickly, "It might be a few minutes before that tree is completely destroyed so grab your sword."
Helen nodded before moving towards her sword. Once she and Ramsay retrieve their swords they took off after the zombies behind the others. Helen dash passed everyone though and began attacking the zombies first. However, because of the overwhelming number of zombies, Helen had to fight back several zombies at a time before she was able to decapitate one.
After a few minutes of fighting, the zombies collapsed to the ground. Helen was looking around her while questioning, "What happened?"
"The tree was destroyed," Diallo said.
"It's over," Kiros added.
"We need to get back to the village," Diallo said.
"What about the bodies that are spread all over?" Helen questioned
"The last speck of sunlight will be gone soon, so we'll worry about it in the morning," Diallo said. "So let's go."
"Let's hope that these bodies don't attract wild animals before morning," Manfred said as everyone began walking towards the village.
Minutes later, Diallo stepped up to the bell again and rang it to signal all clear. Everyone else went to Kiros' farmhouse. Kiros had to knock and announce who he was before Leeto opened the door.
As they were walking in, Leeto questioned, "Is the crises over?"
"It's over," Kiros said. Helen wandered over to the cabinet that the dream-caster was setting on for a better look at the apparatus. "The zombies were inadvertently raised by Fola and we destroyed the object of Fola's spell."
"Good," Leeto said as he was noticing Helen looking at the dream-caster in a disturbed manner. "Are you okay, Helen?"
Helen glanced at Manfred for a moment before saying, "Manfred told me that I'm a slayer and that I fight demons."
"You're not 'a slayer,'" Tilon said as Helen moved away from the dream-caster. "You're 'the slayer' and yes, you fight demons."
"But I don't… or I didn't before tonight," Helen said.
"You were just recently chosen," Leeto said.
"I was chosen for this?" Helen quickly questioned.
"Maybe this will explain it," Tilon said. "Into every generation a slayer is born. One girl, in all the world, a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer. She is you."
"Well, I don't want to be a Chosen One," Helen quickly said.
"The Chosen One doesn't get a choice," Leeto said.
"I do have a choice." Helen gestured towards the dream-caster as she continued to say, "You can summon me all you like; that thing doesn't control me."
Leeto grinned before saying, "When we say that we summon the slayer, all we do is give the slayer dreams. There are seven other groups of Dream-Casters in the world and for the past few days you might've been getting dreams that are urging you to travel in a certain direction."
"I have been getting dreams or urges for the past two weeks to travel southeast," Helen said. "It's nothing I can't ignore though."
"Those urges may not be strong now, but if you don't listen to them then they'll become a burning desire that you eventually can't ignore," Leeto said. "And the only Dream-Casters to the southeast from us are in Ethiopia near the Sof Omar Caves."
"That's were the last slayer was at," Tilon said. "They must still need a slayer down there."
"Helen, Ethiopia is where you have to go," Leeto said.
"You want me to go to Ethiopia?" Helen questioned.
"By you being the slayer, you must go where you're needed and you are apparently needed in Ethiopia; otherwise you wouldn't be getting urges to travel to the southeast," Leeto said.
"I'll go with you, Helen," Ramsay said.
"You can't go, Ramsay," Leeto said. "She alone must fight the demons."
"Helen may be the slayer, but she's still a child," Ramsay quickly said. "She needs someone to watch out for her, and to guide her. While watching her fight those zombies I know what she needs to survive."
"What does she need?" Leeto skeptically asked as Helen just crossed her arms and listened to what was being said about her.
"Helen is quick," Ramsay said. "She's faster than anything I've seen before."
"All slayers are quick," Leeto said. "And strong; much stronger than any person. Those are abilities of a slayer."
"Helen is weaker than most slayers," Kiros said. "However, she is the third slayer I've seen in action and she is noticeably quicker than the other two."
"So Helen needs to be taught fighting tactics that utilized her speed while working on building her strength," Ramsay added. "I can do that. I can teach her to fight and help her to build up her strength."
"Fine, I won't stop you if you want to go with Helen and be some kind of watcher to her," Leeto said.
"To keep slayers from dying at a very young age, perhaps all slayers should be assigned a watcher," Aggie said.
"What about slayers dying at a young age?" Helen quickly asked.
"Helen, I'm sorry, but slayers die within two years of being chosen," Leeto said. "I haven't heard of any slayer living more than two years."
"And when one dies another one is chosen," Kiros added.
"I don't want to die in two years," Helen apprehensively said.
"And you won't," Ramsay said. "As your… 'watcher' for a lack of better description; I'll make sure you live past two years."
"Why aren't slayers assigned watchers?" Manfred asked. "I mean, since you can summon a slayer you could assign her a watcher when she arrives?"
"All slayers are not always discovered as easily as we discovered Helen," Leeto said.
"Well, you should try," Aggie quickly said. "Training future slayers to fight would give them a chance to survive longer."
Leeto glanced at Ramsay before saying, "You're right, Aggie. We should try better to locate each slayer as she gets chosen and assign her a mentor… a watcher." He turned towards his fellow Sandmen. "We'll contact the other Dream-Casters tonight and tell them of our plans."
"I'll get out the things we need," Kiros said.
"How will you do that if they're scattered through out the world?" Helen asked.
"Through their dreams," Leeto said as Kiros walked over to the cabinet that the dream-caster was setting on. "Everyone is welcome to stay and watch, but all of you will need to be quiet as we do the spell."
Kiros pulled out a three-by-five card with a symbol on it from the cabinet and then picked up the dream-caster.
As Kiros was carrying the items Helen saw the symbol on the card. She gestured towards the card while asking, "What is that symbol?"
"Dream-casters will carry that symbol on their body," Leeto said. "Once our spell is finish, every person who carries that symbol will dream the same thing. And that dream will be of me telling them of our plans to assign watchers to slayers."
"How would you give dreams to other people?" Helen asked.
Leeto gestured towards the card with the symbol while saying, "By using a blank one of those. If the intended person has a distinctive mark you would re-create that mark on the card. If the intended person doesn't have a distinctive mark then someone with the talent at re-creating someone's likeness can sketch the intended person's likeness on this. Of course with both methods we take the risk of stimulating dreams to unintended individuals as well as the intended person."
"There are other methods to stimulate an individual dream," one of the Sandmen said. "The dream-caster is actually designed to stimulate dreams of people who we have never met or someone that we're out of contact with."
"How would you give me dreams?" Helen asked.
"We use a specific token to give a slayer her dreams," Leeto said.
"Dream-casters in other regions must have one of these devices as well," Manfred comment.
"Each of them do," Leeto said.
"There are eight devices then," Helen commented. "Are they all the same?"
"All the dream-casters are, but there is another device similar to the dream-caster that has five sides," Leeto said. "We were told that it was called a shadow-caster, but we don't know what it does exactly. The guardians forged it when they forged the eight dream-casters. The guardians even included a book with it. Our ancestors were told that the device was forged for a slayer in the far future when she'll face a powerful evil beyond anyone's imagination. The only thing required from us is to keep it safe and that it will reach the intended slayer through fate."
"Where is this shadow-caster?" Ramsay asked.
"The group of Dream-casters in Ethiopia has it," Leeto said.
"It's located where I'm being summoned to?" Helen questioned.
"Yes," Leeto said.
"To guarantee the shadow-caster's safety, it should go to the slayer," Ramsay said.
"Especially when it belongs to the slayer," Manfred added.
"It belongs to a particular slayer, but you two are right," Leeto said. "The current slayer should be the one to protect it. When she dies it will be passed down to the next one."
"Okay, I really don't like the discussion of me dying," Helen commented.
Leeto gave Helen an amused grin before saying, "You'll die sometime; even if it is from old age and when you do, the shadow-caster will go to the next slayer." Helen just smirked. "While the shadow-caster is in your possession though, you are not to open it. In fact, the instructions to all slayers will be, 'a slayer is never to open it with the exception of an extreme emergency.' Anyway, I would like to start this spell now."
Ramsay nodded while saying, "We'll be quiet."
While the Dream-casters were preparing the spell someone knocked on the door. Clifford was the closest to the door and when he answered, Diallo stepped in and joined his group.
Like with the earlier spell, Leeto and his group sat on the floor in a circle around the apparatus. Aggie, Ramsay, Manfred, Shadya, Helen, Archer and Clifford sat in the floor behind Leeto's group within a reasonable distance between them and remained quiet during the twenty minutes that it took for Leeto to complete the spell.
As everyone was standing up, Helen asked, "Will every Dream-caster dream tonight of your message?"
"Every Dream-caster doesn't wear the symbol on his body, but the ones who do will dream tonight including me," Leeto said.
"You'll dream of your own message?" Helen questioned.
"I should and if I don't, it means that the spell was done incorrectly," Leeto said. "Anyway, we're done here."
"Helen, you'll come home with me," Aggie said. Helen just nodded.
Everyone said his or her goodbyes and left Kiros' farmhouse. Once everyone was outside everyone went his or her respective ways.