Chapter 3: Who is Toby?
For the next couple of days, Jenny was in a trance-like daze. Everyone noticed it, and had kept asking her what was wrong. She would never answer them though. Often, it looked as though she didn't even hear what they said. In fact, Jason and Sam where often steering her away form walls and doors that she was about to run into, and didn't even notice that she about to. After the third day, Sam decided to impose her friends muddle thoughts with her friendship. After Programming class, she dragged her friend outside under the willow-tree, and sat her down.
"You know, what ever threw you off that one day sure knocked you for a loop." Jenny gave Sam a strange look, and Sam sighed. Her friend hadn't even comprehended that she had said anything! "Jenny, after that one day you went home, you haven't been yourself. You are constantly in a daze, and you won't even talk to us anymore! What has gotten into you? I can't even sense you anymore!" Jenny just looked up at her, and blinked. Sam sighed again. This was going to take a lot longer then she thought.
Subconsciously, she reached out for her friend, and only seemed to find a silvery gray mist swirling around her mind. It had startled her, and she backed off quickly lest she become ensnared in it. Grabbing Jenny by the shoulder, she shook her a couple of times. "Jenny. You have just *got* to wake up!" Finally, recognition sparked in her black eyes, and Jenny then looked around frantically. She didn't remember where she was! Sam placed a reassuring hand upon her shoulder, and brought her friends attention to her. "It's okay Jenny. You're at school."
"How did I get here?" asked her friend, placing a hand upon her brow. Sam reached for her friend again, and felt a massive headache approaching. She also felt, however, the swirling mist still at the fringes of her mind, and would not let go. It was fastened there like a parasite.
"You got a ride from me for the last couple of days."
"Last couple of days?" asked Jenny in disbelief. The last thing she remembered was being tossed out of that weird misty landscape by Toby, the creature with star-bright eyes. She had been running from those eyes all night in her dreams, and now she woke up at school, Three Days Later!
"Yeah. I didn't want you to walk after I got a distress signal from you, and got my mom to drop us off. You've been off on your own. We've had to practically stuff food down your throat because you haven't been eating either. Jack thinks your drugged, and Frankie keeps joking that he sold it to you!" Jenny growled at that.
"That brat Frankie! If I ever can get my hands on him......." She hit her hand with her fist, and Sam regarded her friend like she had never seen her before.
"Boy, have *you* changed since three days ago. I've never seen you do that before, except towards me." Jenny sighed, and put her hands down to her sides.
"I know. I just don't know what's gotten into me."
"Toby, if I'm reading you correctly," Sam replied, squinting at her friend. Jenny quickly put up a barrier against the star-bright eyes that she had seen, or the encounter with him the other day. Sam blinked, startled, as her friends barriers closed around her.
"Man Jenny. What's gotten into you? I've never had you shut me out like that before!"
"I'm sorry Sam, its just..........." She splayed her fingers in front of her so that her friend would make up her own conclusion. Since 5th grade, when they had met, Jenny had trusted practically everything to Sam. She had told her about this strange connection she had, these strange feelings, who she had crushes with, her secrets, and the like. Sam had absorbed it like a towel, and had told Jenny some of the same stuff. That's when the Psychic had come to school.
Now, psychics were not unheard of, but they were hard to run across. Apparently, this one wasn't even scheduled to come, although she was well known in her filed. Her name was Diyer (die-yehr). She had walked into the girls classroom, while they where having fun sending pictures to the other, and had announced that she would be giving a demonstration on how the ability worked. Since it was Psychology class that she decided to interrupt, the students were more then willing to let her have the class. Of course, they had learned the basic principles of how psychics worked, but they had never seen one work live. For her demonstration, she had chosen Jenny and Sam as her displayers. She had them sitting on the teachers desk in the front of the class, and they where to tell the class what they saw, or what they were told. After a couple simple pictures, like trans-motors and Sellivans (plants), Diyer started talking to them. Little did the girls know, she was talking to one, and asking the other to respond. With the other responding, they were confirmed as psychics. Though, Diyer never told them what level they were at. She had told everyone else that they were basic; that they could only send pictures, and maybe a few words. What she didn't tell them, though, was that they were quite a powerful pair.
In talking to one, she had almost "heard" the thoughts of the other that were pulling in her words. The waves emanating between them had been remarkable, but she didn't want them to know that quite yet. They could still turn out to be useful to her.
Sam smiled and shook her head.
"Naw. It's okay Jenny. Each to their own thoughts occasionally, huh?" Chuckling, she looked at her friend, and rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm not offended. I just find it................" She smiled as the response to that, evening the odds by letting Jenny conclude what she wanted. They sat there in silence for a moment, looking at each other, then both burst out in hysterical bouts of laughing. It was an old joke that neither could tell, but they sure got a good laugh out of it when it came up.
"Samantha Rayes! Jenny Mills!" yelled a voice from somewhere near the office. Both girls' heads shot up as Ms. Valren (vall-wren) came storming towards them. "The bell rang 10 minutes ago!" Both girls exchanged glances, a couple of mental words, then grabbed their bags and ran for it before Valren could corner them. It seemed like the only teacher out to get them was her. Giggling as they outran the teacher, the tore down the clean, crisp hallways, and ended up hiding in the Library. When Mr. Verron. (vear-roon) saw both girls tear through his door, he tried unsuccessfully to hide his smile, then motioned them quickly into the restricted section. As they dashed towards the door, he pressed a button under his desk that unlocked it. He trusted them in there. They never caused any damage to the books, so he really didn't mind them reading what was in there. They ducked quickly behind a bookshelf in the caged-off section, throwing their bags into a secret cubby, and sat there panting silently.
When Ms.Valren came, Mr. Verron argued that he hadn't seen the girls, and that he had a presentation in 10 minutes that he had to set up and prepare for. Ms. Valren left, and both girls peered to the side of the bookcase. Mr. Verron looked at them, sighed, then headed their direction.
"What have you two done this time?" he asked, though he mostly directed it at Sam.
"We didn't," Sam replied, shaking her head. "I pulled Jenny off to talk to her, and I guess we didn't hear the bell." Mr. Verron smiled, and winked.
"That's okay. It's not just you guys. The bells didn't work today. I have several students here today." He smiled, then nodded around the library. Several faces emerged from hidden cubbies, work rooms, offices, and even from underneath some of the desks all around the library. "They wanted your spot, but I figured it was reserved." Winking again, he smiled and headed for the digital workstation at the front of the library. The other faces smiled at them then hid themselves again as the girls replied,
"Thank you Mr. Verron."
"Any time girls."
Sam and Jenny both let out deep sighs as they sprawled themselves onto the cool floor.
"Why does she have to do that?" asked Sam out of the blue. Jenny gave her a puzzled look.
"What?"
"Call me by my name. If she keeps that up, everyone will know what my name is by the end of the year. I won't be Sam anymore." Jenny couldn't suppress a quiet laugh.
"I don't think there's any chance of that Sam. All you have to do is slip a word to half those jocks you beat up, and there won't be any problems." Sam gave her a wicked look.
"Only half?"
"I meant the half of the population of jocks that you beat up." Sam grinned widely.
"I can't help it that the other half haven't challenged me yet."
"That's because they're smarter then that. After the first half, they decided you really were a tomboy, and left it at that." Sam hid her laugh behind her hand, then they sank into silence as one of the classes came in to listen to Mr. Veroon's presentation. As Jenny was thinking though, she happened to look up. Above her was an old leather book with gold writing on it. Tilting her head a bit, she could read what it said: 'Ancient Legends'. Quietly, she got up to her knees and plucked the book from the shelf, noting where she had gotten it from. Then, sitting cross-legged, she flipped to the table of contents.
Table Of Contents Introduction The Legend of Varshoon The Beasts of Nasharvo
Toolari
Vevor
Nagaski
Nelesh
Xavar
Noovel
Mackshee The Birds of the Five DreamKeepers
Touldesh
Vavook
Shevantor
Nashvtey
Tobyarlv...................
She stopped at the last one she read, the looked it over carefully. It started with what that strange bird in her dream called itself; 'Toby'. Finding what page it was on, she flipped over to it.
The first page had the name on it, but the second page is what caught her. The next two pages where covered with a huge portrait of a strange, shadowy creature with eyes that seemed to glow even as she looked at them. It's wings spread out across the divider, and it was surrounded by a sort-of swirling gray mist. The next page had the same bird, perched in a tree with the sun setting behind. It blended in perfectly with the shadows that were around it. The next picture was the same, except you could see these two blazing stars of light coming from the creature, and you knew it was looking right at you.
Jenny gasped when she saw the first picture, but the third seemed to be studying her. Quickly, she turned to the next page, which had an older form of their language on it. Not that she noticed it, the pages where a lot older then the rest of the book as well. They were made of thicker paper, and were yellowed at the edges. Having had her language class be that of the elder languages, she started to read the curving text.
Of the five DreamKeeper birds, Tobyarlv (tobe-yar-lev) is the one most shadowed in mystery. Not following the traditions of the others like Touldesh (toll-dish) the DreamWeaver, Vavook (vaav-oo-k) the DreamDeliverer, Shevantor (shev-ant-or) the DreamNighter, and Nashvtey (nash-v-tAy) the DreamBreaker, Tobyarlv become the only guardian of the world in which the other birds thrived. Living between the barrier of Waking and Sleeping, he can either divert the others to their target, or divert them away from it. Being unrelated to the others, which were brothers and sister, he became the rouge. His eyes filled with stars when one day he cried unto the heavens that he could not see in this place that he ruled, so the ruler of this world from long ago cast stars themselves into his eyes, and made them shine. The stars changed their pattern, and thus, the other birds had to rely on him to transcend his realm to reach their goals. Older then the world itself, none know from which place this bird originated from. Although, those that won his favor were given a small piece of his realm which was incased in one of his tear-drops. With this, they had the power to put to sleep their enemies, or escape from them by using his realm.
The newer portion went on to say that it was unsure if he ever existed, and if he did, that there were none of these trinkets left. She didn't really want to follow that. When she turned the page though, a small piece of paper fell out, along with a shadow feather. When she picked up the feather, it shimmered around the edges like silver was trapped in it. Turning to the paper, she read in an even older language what was written there.
/I have seen him. The bird of black. The one who lives in shadows. The one who sees with stars above. The creator of a restless vision. A fellow friend, a companion he. Never far apart are we.
Forever guardian and protector be
Forever more that we are thee./
"Cool poem," remarked Sam over her shoulder. She had noticed that Jenny had grabbed a book, and so she had decided to read over her shoulder. That's when she had discovered that her friend had a piece of paper. It must have fallen out of the book. As she examined it closer, she noticed the style of writing on the paper. "That's your handwriting! I never knew you knew how to write in the older tongue!" The look Jenny gave her sent chills running up and down her spine. It was a surprised and terrified look.
"I don't." Both then turned and looked at the old book sitting in her lap, and discovered it was gone.
For the next couple of days, Jenny was in a trance-like daze. Everyone noticed it, and had kept asking her what was wrong. She would never answer them though. Often, it looked as though she didn't even hear what they said. In fact, Jason and Sam where often steering her away form walls and doors that she was about to run into, and didn't even notice that she about to. After the third day, Sam decided to impose her friends muddle thoughts with her friendship. After Programming class, she dragged her friend outside under the willow-tree, and sat her down.
"You know, what ever threw you off that one day sure knocked you for a loop." Jenny gave Sam a strange look, and Sam sighed. Her friend hadn't even comprehended that she had said anything! "Jenny, after that one day you went home, you haven't been yourself. You are constantly in a daze, and you won't even talk to us anymore! What has gotten into you? I can't even sense you anymore!" Jenny just looked up at her, and blinked. Sam sighed again. This was going to take a lot longer then she thought.
Subconsciously, she reached out for her friend, and only seemed to find a silvery gray mist swirling around her mind. It had startled her, and she backed off quickly lest she become ensnared in it. Grabbing Jenny by the shoulder, she shook her a couple of times. "Jenny. You have just *got* to wake up!" Finally, recognition sparked in her black eyes, and Jenny then looked around frantically. She didn't remember where she was! Sam placed a reassuring hand upon her shoulder, and brought her friends attention to her. "It's okay Jenny. You're at school."
"How did I get here?" asked her friend, placing a hand upon her brow. Sam reached for her friend again, and felt a massive headache approaching. She also felt, however, the swirling mist still at the fringes of her mind, and would not let go. It was fastened there like a parasite.
"You got a ride from me for the last couple of days."
"Last couple of days?" asked Jenny in disbelief. The last thing she remembered was being tossed out of that weird misty landscape by Toby, the creature with star-bright eyes. She had been running from those eyes all night in her dreams, and now she woke up at school, Three Days Later!
"Yeah. I didn't want you to walk after I got a distress signal from you, and got my mom to drop us off. You've been off on your own. We've had to practically stuff food down your throat because you haven't been eating either. Jack thinks your drugged, and Frankie keeps joking that he sold it to you!" Jenny growled at that.
"That brat Frankie! If I ever can get my hands on him......." She hit her hand with her fist, and Sam regarded her friend like she had never seen her before.
"Boy, have *you* changed since three days ago. I've never seen you do that before, except towards me." Jenny sighed, and put her hands down to her sides.
"I know. I just don't know what's gotten into me."
"Toby, if I'm reading you correctly," Sam replied, squinting at her friend. Jenny quickly put up a barrier against the star-bright eyes that she had seen, or the encounter with him the other day. Sam blinked, startled, as her friends barriers closed around her.
"Man Jenny. What's gotten into you? I've never had you shut me out like that before!"
"I'm sorry Sam, its just..........." She splayed her fingers in front of her so that her friend would make up her own conclusion. Since 5th grade, when they had met, Jenny had trusted practically everything to Sam. She had told her about this strange connection she had, these strange feelings, who she had crushes with, her secrets, and the like. Sam had absorbed it like a towel, and had told Jenny some of the same stuff. That's when the Psychic had come to school.
Now, psychics were not unheard of, but they were hard to run across. Apparently, this one wasn't even scheduled to come, although she was well known in her filed. Her name was Diyer (die-yehr). She had walked into the girls classroom, while they where having fun sending pictures to the other, and had announced that she would be giving a demonstration on how the ability worked. Since it was Psychology class that she decided to interrupt, the students were more then willing to let her have the class. Of course, they had learned the basic principles of how psychics worked, but they had never seen one work live. For her demonstration, she had chosen Jenny and Sam as her displayers. She had them sitting on the teachers desk in the front of the class, and they where to tell the class what they saw, or what they were told. After a couple simple pictures, like trans-motors and Sellivans (plants), Diyer started talking to them. Little did the girls know, she was talking to one, and asking the other to respond. With the other responding, they were confirmed as psychics. Though, Diyer never told them what level they were at. She had told everyone else that they were basic; that they could only send pictures, and maybe a few words. What she didn't tell them, though, was that they were quite a powerful pair.
In talking to one, she had almost "heard" the thoughts of the other that were pulling in her words. The waves emanating between them had been remarkable, but she didn't want them to know that quite yet. They could still turn out to be useful to her.
Sam smiled and shook her head.
"Naw. It's okay Jenny. Each to their own thoughts occasionally, huh?" Chuckling, she looked at her friend, and rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm not offended. I just find it................" She smiled as the response to that, evening the odds by letting Jenny conclude what she wanted. They sat there in silence for a moment, looking at each other, then both burst out in hysterical bouts of laughing. It was an old joke that neither could tell, but they sure got a good laugh out of it when it came up.
"Samantha Rayes! Jenny Mills!" yelled a voice from somewhere near the office. Both girls' heads shot up as Ms. Valren (vall-wren) came storming towards them. "The bell rang 10 minutes ago!" Both girls exchanged glances, a couple of mental words, then grabbed their bags and ran for it before Valren could corner them. It seemed like the only teacher out to get them was her. Giggling as they outran the teacher, the tore down the clean, crisp hallways, and ended up hiding in the Library. When Mr. Verron. (vear-roon) saw both girls tear through his door, he tried unsuccessfully to hide his smile, then motioned them quickly into the restricted section. As they dashed towards the door, he pressed a button under his desk that unlocked it. He trusted them in there. They never caused any damage to the books, so he really didn't mind them reading what was in there. They ducked quickly behind a bookshelf in the caged-off section, throwing their bags into a secret cubby, and sat there panting silently.
When Ms.Valren came, Mr. Verron argued that he hadn't seen the girls, and that he had a presentation in 10 minutes that he had to set up and prepare for. Ms. Valren left, and both girls peered to the side of the bookcase. Mr. Verron looked at them, sighed, then headed their direction.
"What have you two done this time?" he asked, though he mostly directed it at Sam.
"We didn't," Sam replied, shaking her head. "I pulled Jenny off to talk to her, and I guess we didn't hear the bell." Mr. Verron smiled, and winked.
"That's okay. It's not just you guys. The bells didn't work today. I have several students here today." He smiled, then nodded around the library. Several faces emerged from hidden cubbies, work rooms, offices, and even from underneath some of the desks all around the library. "They wanted your spot, but I figured it was reserved." Winking again, he smiled and headed for the digital workstation at the front of the library. The other faces smiled at them then hid themselves again as the girls replied,
"Thank you Mr. Verron."
"Any time girls."
Sam and Jenny both let out deep sighs as they sprawled themselves onto the cool floor.
"Why does she have to do that?" asked Sam out of the blue. Jenny gave her a puzzled look.
"What?"
"Call me by my name. If she keeps that up, everyone will know what my name is by the end of the year. I won't be Sam anymore." Jenny couldn't suppress a quiet laugh.
"I don't think there's any chance of that Sam. All you have to do is slip a word to half those jocks you beat up, and there won't be any problems." Sam gave her a wicked look.
"Only half?"
"I meant the half of the population of jocks that you beat up." Sam grinned widely.
"I can't help it that the other half haven't challenged me yet."
"That's because they're smarter then that. After the first half, they decided you really were a tomboy, and left it at that." Sam hid her laugh behind her hand, then they sank into silence as one of the classes came in to listen to Mr. Veroon's presentation. As Jenny was thinking though, she happened to look up. Above her was an old leather book with gold writing on it. Tilting her head a bit, she could read what it said: 'Ancient Legends'. Quietly, she got up to her knees and plucked the book from the shelf, noting where she had gotten it from. Then, sitting cross-legged, she flipped to the table of contents.
Table Of Contents Introduction The Legend of Varshoon The Beasts of Nasharvo
Toolari
Vevor
Nagaski
Nelesh
Xavar
Noovel
Mackshee The Birds of the Five DreamKeepers
Touldesh
Vavook
Shevantor
Nashvtey
Tobyarlv...................
She stopped at the last one she read, the looked it over carefully. It started with what that strange bird in her dream called itself; 'Toby'. Finding what page it was on, she flipped over to it.
The first page had the name on it, but the second page is what caught her. The next two pages where covered with a huge portrait of a strange, shadowy creature with eyes that seemed to glow even as she looked at them. It's wings spread out across the divider, and it was surrounded by a sort-of swirling gray mist. The next page had the same bird, perched in a tree with the sun setting behind. It blended in perfectly with the shadows that were around it. The next picture was the same, except you could see these two blazing stars of light coming from the creature, and you knew it was looking right at you.
Jenny gasped when she saw the first picture, but the third seemed to be studying her. Quickly, she turned to the next page, which had an older form of their language on it. Not that she noticed it, the pages where a lot older then the rest of the book as well. They were made of thicker paper, and were yellowed at the edges. Having had her language class be that of the elder languages, she started to read the curving text.
Of the five DreamKeeper birds, Tobyarlv (tobe-yar-lev) is the one most shadowed in mystery. Not following the traditions of the others like Touldesh (toll-dish) the DreamWeaver, Vavook (vaav-oo-k) the DreamDeliverer, Shevantor (shev-ant-or) the DreamNighter, and Nashvtey (nash-v-tAy) the DreamBreaker, Tobyarlv become the only guardian of the world in which the other birds thrived. Living between the barrier of Waking and Sleeping, he can either divert the others to their target, or divert them away from it. Being unrelated to the others, which were brothers and sister, he became the rouge. His eyes filled with stars when one day he cried unto the heavens that he could not see in this place that he ruled, so the ruler of this world from long ago cast stars themselves into his eyes, and made them shine. The stars changed their pattern, and thus, the other birds had to rely on him to transcend his realm to reach their goals. Older then the world itself, none know from which place this bird originated from. Although, those that won his favor were given a small piece of his realm which was incased in one of his tear-drops. With this, they had the power to put to sleep their enemies, or escape from them by using his realm.
The newer portion went on to say that it was unsure if he ever existed, and if he did, that there were none of these trinkets left. She didn't really want to follow that. When she turned the page though, a small piece of paper fell out, along with a shadow feather. When she picked up the feather, it shimmered around the edges like silver was trapped in it. Turning to the paper, she read in an even older language what was written there.
/I have seen him. The bird of black. The one who lives in shadows. The one who sees with stars above. The creator of a restless vision. A fellow friend, a companion he. Never far apart are we.
Forever guardian and protector be
Forever more that we are thee./
"Cool poem," remarked Sam over her shoulder. She had noticed that Jenny had grabbed a book, and so she had decided to read over her shoulder. That's when she had discovered that her friend had a piece of paper. It must have fallen out of the book. As she examined it closer, she noticed the style of writing on the paper. "That's your handwriting! I never knew you knew how to write in the older tongue!" The look Jenny gave her sent chills running up and down her spine. It was a surprised and terrified look.
"I don't." Both then turned and looked at the old book sitting in her lap, and discovered it was gone.