Disclaimer: Not mine. And never ever will be. Except maybe for the OCs. They'll show up soon enough.
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Kodomo Hikari: Gomen ne, minna. I haven't abandoned this fic so don't worry. It's just that I was very busy with work and family issues. I couldn't write while I was worrying about moving out and finding a new place to stay, the safety audit at work, organizing a Christmas party in the workplace (major, major migraine), safety manuals for the plant operations, my mom's depression (Thank kamisama that she got over it.), audit results, office decorations, etc. Aw heck, you can read it in my blog. I've tried to keep it faithfully at least.
Kurama: You looked stressed.
K. Hikari: Boy is that an understatement. Anyway, I hope y'all forgive me for the extremely delayed update. Err...I hope I still have readers left...err...uhrm...
I haven't forgotten my readers. I've also just read FF.net's announcement regarding author notes. I don't have the technical knowledge to make my own website so I'll be using my yahoo group as a place to post author's notes, author sketches etc. I'll configure it so even if you are not a member you can read the messages. You can leave me your messages either in my Eudoramail account or in my yahoo account. All links can be found in my bio if you're interested.
On to my reviewers:
Bloodfang - Arigato for the chibi Hiei pillow. Yes, the eyes are just A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E! ^_~
Dragon Lady Supreme - *pouts* Kurama won't let me use the insta-curse kit. He hid it somewhere. I swear, if I didn't know, I'd never guess that he's a youkai. Gomen, big writer's block. Haven't gotten over it yet.
Kaeru Soyokaze - Wow! Your friend loves Watari? Yay! That makes two of us! I mean who can resist a blond, genki mad scientist who's forever trying to make a sex change potion?! ^o^ And thank you so much for your email.
Sammy - Oh man, I hope I haven't disappointed you because of the much-delayed update.
Dark Moon Goddess - That was very bad of me. After rediscovering my fic, I took near forever to update. Chotto...rediscover?! Why you! And here I was thinking you're reading along but not posting. * pouts * But hey, does that mean we're even then? ^_~
Confetti - Sugoi! A new reader aside from the regulars! I promise...I won't disappoint you.
Pippin Skyweasley - ^_^ Tatsumi and company are from the anime Yami no Matsuei.
Shiozaki - Sugoi! Sugoi! One of my favorite authors left a review! I am so honored! Gomen ne. I was unable to participate fully in your fanfic challenge. But I've read the submissions and they were good!
Please understand that when I wrote this fic I am still not over my writer's block. This is why it's so short. I also wrote this in the evening. I stayed in the office longer than everyone else did so I could finish this and not disappoint my readers.
I promise that once I start my vacation, things will be back to normal and I'll make up for the lost time. Thanks for sticking with me minna. I really appreciate it. Reviewer cameos, questions, etc. will resume in the next chapter.
P.S. I've seen some authors center the title text in their stories. How do they do it? I can't seem to do the same thing. Can someone tell me how? Please?
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Word Watch:
Strata = several rock layers
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Chapter 9: Still Time
"Time Present and Time Past
Are both perhaps present in Time Future
And Time Future contained in Time Past.
If all Time is eternally present,
All Time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an Abstraction."
-T.S. Elliot
The winds whistled pass his ears. He felt frozen. He brought his hands to his face to warm them with his breath only to realize that he was floating in midair. Or for lack of a better word, flying through the air with great speed. Without his broom. Without any magical aid whatsoever. The earth below him was receding in a dizzying speed that he wasn't even sure where he was now much less, where he was going.
He forced himself to stop flying. He didn't have his wand so he tried moving backwards, flailing his arms and kicking furiously with his legs. A few minutes of useless thrashing made him come to a conclusion. Whatever it was that was propelling him forward was not letting him go. Harry was not going anywhere except wherever someone or something was taking him.
Panic overwhelmed him. Was this another of Voldemort's powers? But wait...didn't Professor Dumbledore say that the Dursley's house was the safest place for him to be in? Could the headmaster be wrong? Immediately he pushed that disturbing thought away. Dumbledore had never been wrong on anything as important as that.
Perhaps he was dreaming. Perhaps this was Voldemort's dream and he was seeing it too. Either he way, he had to wake up because now he was sure he WAS dreaming. He had to break this connection because if he could see into Voldemort's dream then it was a sure bet that the man could see into his.
What if he sees my recurring nightmare about Sirius...?
He renewed his struggle, this time not to stop flying but to wake up. He was at home and warm in his bed. This was just another dream...
He saw the horizon curved and he knew that he was flying higher than any jet plane. The earth below was now just a hodgepodge of colors and light. Ahead he could see the stars loose their twinkle1 and he realized with a jolt that he was now leaving the planet, that he was now on the boundary before deep space.
Where the hell am I going?!
Fear grips him. No. No. This could not be Voldemort's power. God help us all if this was. He risked looking down once again only to see the earth as a blue and white sphere in the blackness of space.
Oh, dear lord...
Then a brilliant light flashed and the next thing he knew he was shooting somewhere filled with blinding light.
I'm...I'm not in space anymore...
However, the most relevant question would be...Where the hell am I?!
The brilliant white light faded into a bright sky blue and now he was zooming past cottony wisps which he realized where clouds. And then he broke through the cloud cover. Below him, a vast world spread out. One look at the landscape and he knew this was not Earth or rather this was not the planet Earth that he knew of. The ground was littered with bones and scorched black by some huge explosion that left it scarred. He could barely make out a lone slender figure standing in the center and then he was past that scene. Somehow, he sensed the overwhelming sadness of that lone figure. That one had lost something or someone dear.
As he sped on from the horizon, he could see that sharp mountain ranges blocked his way. He found to his horror that he was going straight for them. He vaguely remembered Hermione telling him that sometimes the things that happen to a dreamer in his dream also reflects on his sleeping self. If so he was going to be a bloody mess when he wakes up...assuming he wakes up.
As he neared the range, he heard a godlike voice chanting in a language he could not understand.
" Sídh go neimh..." 2
He held out his arms in what he knew was a useless gesture to protect himself as he neared the rock face. Just when he thought he was going to crash into the granite surface, he suddenly realized with a start that he was going through it. It was disconcerting to know that he was immaterial. He was passing through several layers of strata before he suddenly came to another horrible conclusion.
O my god. I'm dead?!
Before he could ponder on that, a great cavern opened up before him. Now he was floating over a great multitude of people...no wait...some were people but some were decidedly not, were gathered. It seemed they were listening to someone.
Harry squinted his eyes and saw a tall woman who was the subject of everyone's rapt attention. The next thing he knew, he was standing right beside her on the stone ledge. He looked around uneasy but then he noticed that no one seemed to know he was there. In fact, he even experimented in making faces to the hooded man beside him but the man's face didn't change.
So not only was he immaterial, no one could see him as well. Now he was sure that he was not dead because even though the dripping water from the stalactites did not drench him, he was still bitterly cold. The only thing keeping him from hypothermia was the light of the torches held by what he thought were monks. He could still feel. Dead people don't feel, right?
God I hoped so...
Harry focused his attention to the woman. So she was the voice that he heard resonating on the mountains. He had no idea what she was saying so he studied her instead. She was tall. In fact, she was VERY tall. Taller than any woman that he knew off. He barely came up to her chest and it seemed so were the monks behind her. Long curly coppery tresses fell down her back. She wore a simple velvet moss green dress that complimented her lithe figure. But it was her face that held his attention. She had incredibly smooth skin, almost like marble. In fact, if she weren't speaking he would have thought her to be a marble sculpture. She also had the strangest eye color...amethyst. They looked more like jewels than real eyes.
"Neimh go domhan domhan fo neimh neart i gcách..." 2
Her eyes...face...how old was she? Her face was unblemished by age and yet he could sense that this woman was old. Ancient even.
The crowd suddenly roared and Harry found himself flying in the air again. This time the sky had taken a grim color. The clouds opened up to him to reveal a great army advancing on a plain.
The Sons of Belial...
He jumped at the thought. Where the heck did that one come from? And then as he looked again at the plain he realized it was the same plain that he passed before only this time there was no graveyard of bones. Only one lone priest-king standing in a far off distance waiting for the army.
Priest-king?
Again, he had no idea how he knew. He sensed something frightening coming for him. He turned around to see a great ominous black mist sweep over the horizon. A chill came over him. A chill that he knew was not the cold air's fault.
Evil Wind. Divine Wind.
He was not going to ask where that knowledge came from. All he wanted right now was to get as far as possible from that Evil Wind. His suspicion was only confirmed when everything that dark mist touched withered away.
"Shurpu Elish shamamu!" 3
He turned around at the sound of the great voice and was surprised to see not the priest king but another tall man who looked decidedly modern in his clothes and appearance. The man was holding three artifacts of some sort and he was directing the light from it to the dark mist. There was another man with him. Harry could sense the incredible powers possessed by the two. Together the two were fighting off the dark creatures that the dark mist gave birth. He could not see the two men's faces but one seemed to command the shadows and another was throwing pieces of paper that had a deadly effect on the mist creatures. That same man seemed to have the loyalty of a great white tiger and a great fiery bird as the two came to his aid whenever he was in danger. He had a brief glimpse of ruined cherry groves and two huge snake-like creatures intertwined on a building.
To his horror, inky black tendrils from the mist reached out for him. One of them grazed his foot and he felt searing pain shoot out from his ankle. A blackened skull grinned at him and Harry gave in to the fear. He tried to fly away but all efforts to move away felt like going through molasses. And the mist was getting so close…
Then the first man's voice reached a crescendo and the next thing Harry knew he was blinded by the light.
He woke up, drenched in his own sweat, one fist jammed into his mouth to stifle any screams that were threatening to come out. His heart was racing fast.
It was a dream.
It was different from his nightmares before. Those nightmares were about people whom he had directly or indirectly caused their deaths.
No. This was more than a dream. It was an omen.
Time was unraveling and the different realms where merging.
TBC
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Footnotes:
1. Stars twinkle because the atmosphere bends their light. In space, light from the stars travel straight because there is no atmosphere so they do not twinkle. Once you near the boundary between our planet and deep space, you can see the stars barely twinkle because of the extremely thin atmosphere. (Man, am I dorky or what?!)
2. Excerpt from the Irish old prophecy called the Morrigan's Prophecy. It predicted peace at the end of a great war. Kind of like the one mentioned in the Book of Revelations in the Bible.
3. I rearranged the words of the great Sumerian Creation Epic Enuma Elish.
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K.H.: Well, that's it for now. I'm trying to work through my writer's block here. Apologies if it seemed so short to you. I promise that I'll make up for it during my vacation break. Links to my yahoo groups, blogs etc. can be found in my FF.net bio. So go ahead push that 'lil purple (or blue) button and tell me your rants or raves. Until then. ^_~
Hiei: Can I slash through writer's block?
K.H.: If only it were that easy (notices Hiei's dazed look). All right, who fed him sugar?
Everyone starts slinking away.
K.H.: Mou…
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