Chapter 8 Journeying Inward
Sunlight filtered into the room quietly, brushing against the young man's face. Slowly he opened his eyes and looked around the unfamiliar room. Where was he? He slowly sat up and began rubbing his forehead. What had happened. He remembered water, waves, and drowning.
Am I dead?
He pinched his arm. No, he wasn't dead. He sighed, and sat up in the bed where he lay. The man hugged his knees and rested his head against them. So much had gone wrong.
"Oh!" a voice suddenly startled him. "You're awake! That's good!"
He looked up to see a strange man dressed in a doctor's garb with a frightening scarred left eye.
"I'm Dr. Hardy," the man said. "You washed up on shore this morning. You were found by a girl named Nami. She saved your life."
The young man blinked slowly and looked down at the ground.
"Who are you?" Dr. Hardy asked.
"Uh..." the man put a hand to his head and tried to remember.
"What happened?"
He closed his eyes and thought, trying to remember who he was, and what had happened. Waves, water, drowning. Waves, water, drowning. Waves, water, drowning.
The Harvest Sprites are going to the Island. They must be warned. The people must be warned...
His eyes widened as he poured over the unfamiliar memory. Harvest Sprites?
"Do you not remember who you are?" Dr. Hardy asked.
"Cliff..." the man said. "My name is Cliff..."
"Do you remember how you got here?"
Cliff slowly shook his head. The doctor sighed.
"That is unfortunate."
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Vesta sat in front of the TV watching the weather. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Thandrana's flower resting on the table. The announcer began speaking of clear skies and warm weather, but Vesta's mind began to journey somewhere else. She felt the presence of something powerful. Her eyes widened as the room grew darker.
'Hello Vesta.'
Vesta jolted up from her chair as the weatherman grew silent and a strange voice filled her head.
'How do we come to understand good?'
Vesta looked up and saw Thandrana's face appear on the television screen. A ghostly aura filled the room as cold air brushed against Vesta's skin like cold hands.
'Journey inward to discover who you are. Who will you become?'
Vesta turned to the left and stared off into the darkness.
'Go ahead. Go into the darkness.'
Vesta stood there hesitantly.
'It is what you are. Journey inward, discover who you truly are. Within you will find the ability to be a goddess. The ability to become something great. Only through darkness will we discover light. Only by knowing our evil will we know our good.'
Vesta took a step forward into the darkened highway. Cold air moved slowly from her bedroom towards her, as if the ghosts of the dead were awaiting her. She began shivering as she took another step. The darkness was creepy, frightening, for who knew what was waiting for you inside it. But at the same time it was exciting, thrilling, like a horror movie. So terrible, but yet so intoxicating. As Vesta continued journeying into the darkness inside the cold air grew stronger, and it began to surround her. Down the hallway, past Celia's room, she found herself facing the door to her room, shut tightly closed to hold back the darkness inside.
Vesta reached out to open the door, but found that it was locked tightly. She reached into her pocket and found a small black key. Vesta thrust it into the door quickly, and twisted it violently. She grabbed the door handle and pulled, but it remained locked. Intoxicated by the darkness, Vesta grew angry, twisting the key in the lock in desperation. But still the door would not open. Vesta pulled the key out and threw it to the ground. Then, she walked back to the other side of the hall before charging full throttle at the door. She slammed into it, breaking the door down and tumbling to the floor. She was in the room.
Slowly Vesta lifted herself up from the ground and stared off into the shadows. Shivering uncontrollably, she couldn't shake the fact that something terrible was lurking in the room with her. Slowly she stepped backwards as if to leave the room, but found that the door that she'd broken through had disappeared.
'Only by journeying inward...'
She heard a growl, and whirled around, gasping in fear. In the midst of the pitch blackness something moved.
'Only by embracing the darkness inside...'
The closet slowly creaked open. Vesta stood there transfixed as the shadowy figure of a man stepped out of the closet. The ghostly creature moved slowly towards her, its shadowy trench coat and top hat obscuring its true shape.
'Will you discover who you truly are?'
Vesta slowly raised her hands in surrender, while squeezing her eyes shut and whimpering.
'Journey inward... journey inward...'
The shadow moved towards Vesta, the sound of hard boots against wood resounding as if from the inside of a cave, echoing outward as if from another world. The shadow reached her, and stopped. Vesta opened her eyes and looked up at the ghostly being. Then, without a word it stepped forward, channeling itself straight inside of her. Then, it was gone. It was inside of her. Vesta leaned back, breathing heavily in relief.
'Find yourself.'
Then with a start Vesta awoke to find herself sitting on the couch in front of the TV. The room was not dark and the weatherman continued talking about the sunshine that they would be receiving.
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Note to self. Never ever let the dog into the pasture again. That morning I made the mistake of doing that and payed for it dearly. You see the stupid dog spent about five minutes barking at the cow. Finally the cow got angry and chased the dog around the pasture for fifteen minutes while I tried to save the dog from its wrath.
So anyways the only good thing which came out of this was that I decided on a name for the dog. Here Stupid! Fetch the stick, Stupid! Sit Stupid! Okay, so technically I named him John Hancock so as to impress the neighbors, but frequently I end up calling him stupid as opposed to John.
Anyways, after all that I decided to go visit Celia and see if I could work up the nerve to ask her out on a date or something. Not that I was actually any good with girls, but hey, there's a first time for everything. Actually around then I was seriously thinking about visiting my cousin. From what I'd heard he was doing very well with girls, and was actually getting married to the girl of his dreams. Lucky dog. I finished my morning chores and set off to Vesta's farm. When I arrived I went to knock on the door, only to see Celia open it up before I got a chance.
"Oh..." I said startled. "Sorry..."
"Hi Josh!" Celia said, smiling.
I smiled shyly, before stepping back to let her out the door.
"So are you out taking advantage of the great weather we're having?" she asked as she stepped out of the house and shut the door behind her.
"A-actually I was wondering..." I stuttered slightly, "if you'd like to go somewhere with me."
"Why?" Celia asked. "What do you need from me?"
Nothing! I just want to spend time with you...?
"Hey Celia!" a dark haired man suddenly stepped out from behind the house, startling both of us. "Aren't you supposed to go shopping today?"
Who was this guy? He gave me a not so pleasant stare before turning back to Celia.
"Oh yeah," Celia looked at me apologetically. "Sorry Josh, but I really need to be going."
I looked down, unhappy that this guy had just ruined my chances of going somewhere with Celia. I then got an idea. Perhaps I could go with her.
"Would you like me to come with you then?" I asked. "You know, since you can't go somewhere with me and all..."
Celia brightened up and smiled.
"That would be-"
"Bad," the dark haired man suddenly said. "You can't go with her."
"Marlin..." Celia protested, glancing at him disapprovingly.
I opened my mouth to protest, but the man beat me to it.
"You just came up here to pick up women, didn't you!" he said glaring at me.
"Hey wait a second!" I stepped forward angrily.
"Marlin!" Celia protested. "You shouldn't say things like that!"
Suddenly Vesta came running out of the house.
"What's all the ruckus about?" then she looked at Celia. "Celia, why haven't you gone shopping yet like I told you?"
"That man was keeping her from going," Marlin said, gesturing at me.
"Marlin that is not so!" Celia was getting angry now.
"I'm sorry," I muttered, looking at the ground. "I didn't know Celia had to go shopping."
"Marlin," Vesta sighed. "Go bother someone else."
Marlin sulked off while Vesta shot me a grin.
"Why don't you be a good boy Josh and escort Celia to the path to the port?"
"That's a great idea," Celia said.
I nodded slowly before taking Celia's hand and leading her down to the path.
"I'm sorry about Marlin," Celia said. "He just worries about me too much. Don't ever listen to what he says."
I nodded and smiled.
"I'll see you... later perhaps?"
Celia smiled, and nodded before walking up the path towards the port. I then turned to see Marlin standing behind me with his arms folded.
"Hey," he said, glaring at me.
"I'm Josh," I said unpleasantly.
"Marlin," he said. "Stay away from her."
"Who?" I looked at him strangely. "Celia?"
"You heard me right," he said. "Stay away from her."
"And whose gonna make me?" I asked. "You?"
Marlin glared at me again, before turning away and walking back to the house.
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Something happened that night. Shadows everywhere clouding all vision as a cold and deadly silence set upon the entire village. In each home across the village the Thandrana's flowers grew taller, and brighter. Their petals opened slightly, for the moonlight seemed to slow down their growth. At the inn Ruby awoke feeling terribly thirsty.
Rising, she stood up slowly so as not to awaken Tim and walked into the bathroom for some water. Ruby twisted the handle quickly and a slow stream came running out of the tap. She held her cup under it until it was filled up. Then, she lifted the glass to her lips to drink it, but then caught a glimpse of an image plastered on the mirror. It was Thandrana.
"Are you thirsty?" Thandrana asked.
Ruby nodded quietly.
"Then drink," Thandrana's hand extended out from inside the mirror holding a pink glass in it.
Ruby accepted the spirit's glass and drank from it.
"You will no longer know thirst," Thandrana said smiling. "Will you be my servant?"
"Yes," Ruby said. "I will be your servant."
"Good," Thandrana said. "That's all I wanted to know."
Then in a flash she disappeared.
