"You were in my dream – how did you - ?"
The woman only laughed and pointed to a chair next to the couch. "Why don't you sit down?"
Clark looked at each of his parents – both were smiling. He furrowed his brow and cautiously sat down in the chair.
Wakanda took another sip from her tea. The cup, Clark now noticed, seemed to be made of a gold with many intricate designs carved into it. She set it down on the table in front of her, letting Clark see the unusual fuchsia liquid bubbling inside.
"So, um…what is going on…exactly?" Clark wondered, rubbing his palms together nervously.
"Wakanda told us everything, Clark," Jonathan admitted.
"E-everything? As In…" He swallowed, feeling out of place for some reason, "…everything?"
"Oh, Clark you're so brave!" Martha patted her son's knee with pride. "That whole experience…it must have been so scary…"
"Wait, how would you know everything that went on? You were in my dream. You weren't real," Clark stated, staring at the old lady sitting next to his emotional mother.
"This is exactly why I wanted to visit you today – you still haven't figured out the entire picture." Wakanda turned to face Clark more directly and he leaned forward, telling himself not to miss a word of what this wise old woman was about to say.
"Your father and I will be in the other room. I'm sure this might take a while," Martha exclaimed, pride still beaming on her rosy face. Jonathan led her out of the living room quietly.
Wakanda watched them go with a smile, then turned back to Clark to continue with their conversation. "Yes, I was in your dream, but I'm not just a figment of your imagination by any means. I'm the great grandmother of Ira, the new boy at Smallville High."
Still confused, Clark took in this information tentatively.
"Um…ok…"
"Last night, my great grandson and his friend Mikail came to my house saying how they'd just hit you and another young girl."
"Ira…and Mikail hit us?" Clark repeated, hardly believing the words.
Wakanda nodded, causing her large jeweled earrings to jingle.
"Ira said the two people disappeared as soon as they hit them and I was the only one he could trust to help. So, I did a little research into my incantations after I found that you had both been sent to Sogni Dromen – "
"Incantations?" Clark felt just as lost as he did when Viren had been telling him the Old Story.
Wakanda smiled at his bewilderment. "Yes. I'm witch, you see."
If it was possible, Clark's jaw would've snapped and his mouth would've dropped to the floor.
The old lady laughed a little. "Oh, Clark. I am sorry you keep finding bends in the road. I guess you just have accept that what you see isn't always what you get."
"But…I still don't understand. Ira and Mikail…how could they possibly have caused Lana and I to be sent into Sogni Dromen?"
"Yes, it's quite a complicated explanation," Wakanda nodded. "Ever since Ira was young he knew that his powers of hallucination were a burden. He knew that if they somehow mixed with another life form's abilities…complications could arise."
"Complications like sending people into Sogni Dromen?"
"Sogni Dromen as well as other dimension people aren't even aware of yet. You see, his powers resided in the mind and the senses. When he is experiencing extreme panic or excitement, particles are automatically released from his body. And if they mix with foreign particles brought out by the same excitement…"
"Mikail?"
Wakanda nodded once again, smiling oddly.
"Then why did we get sent into Sogni Dromen and not them?" Clark asked with confusion.
"Neither Ira nor Mikail can work their powers on one another. It just…can't happen. So the only other beings that the released powers could attach to and control were Lana and you." Wakanda took another satisfying sip of her drink.
Clark looked down at the carpet, processing everything slowly.
"So…so you did a spell that would let me see you in my dreams?" he wondered, trying to catch on.
"It wasn't really a spell, just a last resort. At first I wanted to teleport myself into the dream realm, but I didn't have any idea how I would get out. So, I took a different route and did something called lucid dreaming. I dreamed my way into your mind and told you as much as I could about the Old Story. Oh, I know it's hard to comprehend, Clark..."
"How did you know about the Old Story? Or anything that was going to happen?"
"Oh, the old story has been in my family for generations," Wakanda admitted with a sigh. "Nathin was the prophet who came up with it."
"Yeah, Viren was telling Lana and me about him."
"Well, he was also a real person just as you and me. He'd dreamed up the prophecy one night and that's how it spread into Sogni Dromen. Before that he'd actually thought he was going batty or something." She let out a short giggle and took another drink of the liquid. "That's when he came to me."
Clark almost said, 'Whoa, you're really that old!', but only just stopped himself.
"I was a psychiatrist back then. He told me all about the thoughts that had been eating at his mind, and I slowly found all he said had some connection to the dream realm - Sogni Dromen.
"We both began to do piles and piles of in depth work on the subject. However, most of our theories could only be based on beliefs of ancient cultures that have long since died out.
"Nathin finally decided to lucid dream into Sogni Dromen and getting some real proof. But his dream only confirmed his suspicions about Sogni Dromen's loss of the Mist and everything else that was full of goodness."
Clark listened to all she said with awe. "So what happened to him?"
"He grew old trying to save the dream world and eventually lost his mind. The Alsymers soon killed him after that."
"Wow...so it was his fault that all this happened?"
"No, not at all. In fact, because of him, Sogni Dromen had a head start and knew exactly what to expect.
"Unfortunately, the races in that realm are just about as doubtful as ours. When the prophecy was first introduced, it included every single detail to the events that would happen. But no one believed it, so a bunch of idiots decided to cut out some of the 'outrageous' matters so people would pay more attention to it."
"Like the part about me," Clark added sadly.
Wakanda cocked her head to one side sympathetically. "Aw, why do you say it like that?"
"Say it like what?"
"Like what you are is a curse."
"Because it is!" He hadn't meant to say it that loud, so he swallowed uncomfortably and added. "Sorry..."
Wakanda once again curled her deep wrinkles into a smile and then moved closer to Clark.
"Your parents tell me that you've decided to blame everything bad that's happened in this town on yourself."
Clark stared at the floor and let out a long sigh. "Everything here that's bad is somehow connected to the meteor shower. I came in it. Why shouldn't it be my fault?"
He hadn't really meant to admit that part about coming down in the meteor shower, but the way Wakanda acted so unaffected by his words, he supposed she somehow already knew.
"Clark, Sogni Dromen and even the Old Story were founded well before your time. If you weren't here, Lana would've been taken in that world alone and the 'knight' who was meant to save her would've been missing."
Reluctantly, Clark looked up at her as she spoke. Suddenly his eyes narrowed. "Wait…that sword…"
Wakanda grinned broadly, as if already knowing what he was going to ask. "Yes?"
"It had Kryptonian writings on it…how…"
"Now that part of the story was reserved specifically for you, Clark. The Phantom was your demon and you had to face it alone. The sword was there as your weapon and it's still your means of defense now. That writing on it was what you stand and fight for."
"Truth and justice…" Clark juggled the words around in his mind. He suddenly began to see how right that explanation was. "That's why I liked it so much in Sogni Dromen. In the end, I found out that I really belonged there…everything had a meaning and a purpose…I finally had a purpose."
"Whether you choose believe it or not, Clark, you have a purpose on Earth. Lana and Jake do also."
"Yeah…then I guess all I'm good for is saving people from dream worlds."
"Of course not." Wakanda spoke up, taking off the smile that she'd worn almost the entire time Clark had talked to her. "Sogni Dromen was a small bit of your life. It was magical and special and you'll never get another experience like it again. In that realm, you had a solid purpose – a destiny. But it's not like that in reality.
"There is no such thing as destiny here, Clark. Krypton didn't even have it. Your life is what you make of it. It's not written or foreseen yet. If it were, we could just sit back and let life take it's course around us."
"How can there be no destiny? No fate?" Clark wondered doubtfully.
Wakanda smiled and shook her head. "There are separate roads you can choose in life. Some may seem unspeakable, yet they're still there available to you. If you happen to follow one that leads you so something amazing, that's fate. It's rare, but some people actually can follow a road in their life that may feel like destiny because it's lined with fate – meeting up with people and ideas at just the right time…connecting with everything in life that will make them happy.
"That's the key to life. That's what everyone in the real world is searching for. They are trying to find that one road in their life that will take them all the way to glory. That's happiness. That's the only destiny that exists in this world.
"Maybe in the beginning your life wasn't chosen by you. You were automatically sent down the path of coming to Earth, but now you have to find another road. Your fate road. Everyone has one. You just have to discover if you have what it takes to find it."
"So, what your saying is that I have no destiny, but I do have the chance to find my fate in the world?"
Wakanda was beaming now. Her expression reminded Clark of a huge, great waterfall bubbling and foaming with words of inspiration. "It's what separates Sogni Dromen from this world. We have the chance to change destiny for better or for worse. I had to come here today to tell you that, Clark. You were destined to go to Sogni Dromen and that is all. The question for you now in life is: can you see that road to destiny and do you have the courage to take it?"
For the first time in his life, Clark finally felt like he had a purpose here. However small or big it may be, he would find it. He would find his destiny.
"Thanks, Wakanda."
"It was my pleasure." She stood and headed towards the front door as she added. "And don't be such a stranger all the time. My house is just two blocks down from the Talon. Come and visit a poor old woman once and a while, will ya?"
Clark grinned. "You bet."
"You're a good boy, Clark Kent. A very lucky boy, too."
She then stopped at the front door and, to Clark's surprise, poured the rest of her drink on her head. It trickled over her in streaks of purple and gold until she was completely gone.