Chapter 4
Dream Sequence
Cody blinked a couple times. The last thing he remembered is that he was in agonizing pain. And right now he is in an endless black-ish blue void. The teenager took a step, but he didn't hear a sound when his foot made contact with the ground.
Huh?
Cody then looked at the ground and gasped. His foot is made of stars! He then looked at his entire body as he realized that he's a walking star constellation!
"WHAT THE HECK!?"
His voice echoed across the area that he resides. Cody then began hearing ancient African music; the instruments being played gently and the quiet chanting blended well with each other in harmony.
The teenager followed the somewhat hypnotizing sounds as it got louder and louder until he found the source: a star constelation of the Tree of Life! Cody walked around the tree made of clustering stars as he then approached it. Curiousity overtook the teenage, as he slowly stretched his arm towards to it with his entire hand. As his index finger slightly touched it, an explosion of color rushed forth from the tree as Cody was no longer a star constellation and the area around him is now that of a savannah. The music itself changed as the instruments became more loudly vibrant while the chanting is more lively and enchanting.
The Tree of Life in front of him is no longer a constellation either as African animals began appear from the tree itself. They began to move about around both the tree and the teenager as if they're doing a ritualist dance. The animals themselves shifted from having normal feral expressions to having anthropomorphic ones while transforming into African-like drawings every five seconds. Alongside the animas is the currents of wind with leaves and other floral particals as the dawing sun is behind the Tree of Life.
The wind then began to encirlce Cody, sometimes blocking his sight as it pushed him away from the tree by three yards. Despite of that, he was in awe of what is happening. The teenager looked around himself staring at the changing wildlife as he then noticed a very and too familiar figure standing next to to the Tree of Life.
It can't be...!?
As he stepped a bit closer, the figure turned out to be a young woman with light brown hair tied in a medium ponytail and wearing a sunny-yellow t-shirt, blue shorts (that were originally jeans), and brown hiking boots.
"Ariel?"
The woman nodded sadly as she wore a happy smile upon her face. Filled with many emotions, Cody then tried to run to her except the animals blocked his path.
"HEY! GET OUT OF MY WAY—?!"
The animals, one by one, transformed into glowing orbs matching that of the colors and brightness of the midday sun. Then the wind began blowing into Cody, pushing him slightly away from the tree, as the wind enters Cody's lungs in which revieving a strangely familiar sensation as if recieving something back that was once a part of him. The feeling increases as each orb then rushes into him while his body absorbs them. Each time the orbs enter his body, he is pushed even further away from both the Tree of Life and Ariel. Cody tried to fight against them in order to reach to his sister, but to no avail. And each time he's being pushed away, Cody slowly enters a black void as the savanah, the Tree of Life, and Ariel goes further away from like a light in the end of a dark tunnel.
Cody then sees the last orb enter inside him as the speck of what was in front of him disappears leaving him in blinding darkness not before he begans to stretch forth his arm.
"ARIEL!?" Cody yelled as he woke up sitting straight up from the ground while stretching forth his hand to grab. He clasped his mouth shut with wide eyes as tears streamed down.
"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!" Stan yelled with a freaked out tone.
Cody quickly wiped the tears from his eyes figuring that his friends must've heard him screaming. He then asked with false obliviousness "What?"
As he faced them, all of his friends are all awake sitting straight up with a mixed expression of bewilderment and being freaked out.
"What do you mean 'what'?!" Stan asked incredulously, "I just had a weird dream about being made of stars and then—"
"We touched a constellation of a tree and ended up in a savanah?" Fred said.
"YOU HAD IT TOO?!"
"Apparently we had the same dream." Rosa stated.
Cody sighed inwardly in relief realizing they didn't hear his scream as Rosa added "I think we just recieved the gift of understanding the people."
"OKAY!" Greg argued with slight annoyance while adjusting his glasses and trying to get they all just experienced, "HAVING THE SAME DREAM MIGHT BE A COINCIDENCE, BUT RECEIVING THIS "GIFT OF TONGUE" AFTER DRINKING THAT LIQUID —WHICH ALMOST KILLED US BY THE WAY— IS IMPOSSIBLE AND ILLOGICAL!?"
"Alright then," Rosa asked with slight annoyance, "explain what we all just experience."
"I don't know! But all I know is that magic isn't real!?"
"So did I! But after drinking that potion and having the same dream, I'm starting to consider it."
"I agree with Rosa." Cody said. He then turned to Greg as he added "I'm having a hard time believing this too man! But there is no other explaination for it!"
"I'm just glad that they didn't kill us." Stan said.
"By the way guys, Am I the only one that feels great, positive, and refreshed even though we shouldn't be after what we went through after drinking the potion." Fred asked, "Even my breath smells really fruity along with a really good aftertaste?"
"Now that you mentioned it, yeah I do." Stan agreed.
Cody and the rest then noticed it too as then Greg then looked alarmed as he then said while poining out "I don't want to add any more problems to our list but..."
Everyone then checked their surroundings and realized they're all alone in the plains of the savannah. Not even a trace of tribe they were in was in sight. The only things that are with them is their luggage, Tony's messenger bag, Rosa's duffel bag, Jack's huge tent stored in its bag, five sets of bows with a quiver full of arrows, sealed containers of food stored inside tribal bag, five filled waterskins each having a sling, and a tribalistic form of a sleeping bag for Rosa (since the boys already have their own sleeping bags in their luggages).
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT?! THEY REALLY DID LEAVE US BEHIND!?" Stan exclaimed.
"Dude, that ain't cool." Fred agreeing with him.
"Will you guys relax!" Rosa said, "You act like we're already dead!"
Rosa then got up and approached the stuff that the tribe gave them. "They gave us the essentials to survive our safari to the Pride Lands."
"We're not going on a wildlife tour!" Greg corrected.
"It means 'journey' in Swahili Greg." Cody said. The boys stared at him with a surprised look. "I know a small bit of Swahili from my sister. I'm not fluent like Rosa."
Rosa smiled.
"But why do we need bow and arrows?" Fred asked, "Didn't the High Chief say that if we don't bother any dangerous wild animals, they'll leave us alone?"
"We'll use them for hunting for food if the rations they gave us runs out before we reach our destination." Rosa replied.
The boys just stared at her.
"What's wrong with you guys?" Rosa asked with raised eyebrow, "Don't you know how to hunt or use a bow?"
"Uh, no." Greg said simply.
"I only know a little." Cody added, "Sorry."
"Ugh..." Alexa groaned in annoyance, "Looks like I got to teach you bows how to use them along the way."
"Along the way?" Stan asked, "We don't even how to get there?!"
"We have Cody's pendant—"
"The High Chief says it's a map, but it doesn't look like one!" Greg argued, "It doesn't have what it makes it a map. It's just a picture!"
"If we just decipher it like Zukufu says—"
"It's going to take a litteral century before we figure it out." Fred said.
Rosa frowned at Greg, Fred, and Stan in both annoyance and frustration. "Cody, can you help me out here?"
Silence was the response she has gotten. "Cody?"
Rosa, along with Cody friends, turned towards him as they him already standing up with the pendant off as he's studying it in his right hand. This left them shocked with wide eyes. Greg, Fred, and Stan long enough to know he'll never take off his pendant! Not even when showering! Rosa knew he wouldn't never take it off either by the mail they exchange with one another and what his friends told her.
"Hmmm..." Cody kept on studying intensely at his pendant trying to find out it's meaning as he touched its surface with his fingers.
But then, he came up with an answer.
"I think I deciphered?" Cody said.
The other teenagers stared him with astonished wide eyes.
"Really?!" Greg said.
"What time is it?" Gary asked as he placed the pendant back around his neck.
"It's dawn will rise in several minutes." Rosa replied as she starred at the sky.
"How do you know that?" Fred asked.
"I learned a few things from the Swahili tribes that my parents and visited." Rosa replied, "One of which is telling time without the use of a watch."
"That's very useful." Greg complimented.
"Thank you." Rosa said with smile, "I can gladly also teach you guys about it as well."
"Why do you want to know about the time?" Fred asked.
"If I'm right," Cody began, "When dawn fully rises, walk beside in that direction."
"Are you sure?" Stan asked not fully conviced. Cody then held the necklace in front of everyone while wearing it "The animals on the pendant are walking besides the dawning sun. That's all we can go for right now. If we're not there by five days, we'll have to decipher it again."
Seeing no other choice, the rest of the boys began to to stand up as the teenagers began to grab their luggage. Cody first grabbed his father's bag and checked its contents if they're still there. They're all intact... except with the addition of a note. Cody grabbed the note and began to read it silently:
"Dear Cody,
Be careful when using your father's gun in the Kingdom of Life. Those that live there aren't very keen to outsiders besides those of our tribe. Also they tolerate those that hunt for sport and the weapons they use because of the unpleasant stories they've heard about them. King Simba may want you to have it, and the ammo, destroyed before he lets you and your friends help you if he sees it. So if I were you, I refrain from using it. Even for self defense and protecting your friends. The bows you have will suffice. The king will allow them since they're different from guns.
Also our are allowed to use your father's knife however. So wear the belt with the knife in its sheath.
I pray for you and your friends on this safari.
From your friend and that of your sister's,
Kijani"
Cody frowned. He knew Kijani meant well, but he wasn't going refrain from using it. He will listen to some of the tribalman's words but he will definately not have it destroyed. Cody will only use when he and his friends are in serious danger while never using it for hunting (since he doesn't have that many bullets). Plus he'll have to keep it a secret from his friends since they bother him into using it (and even more worried that they take it without his permission... especially Stan) and from Rosa since she'll make him get rid of it.
"Whatcha got there?" Rosa asked almost startling him. Cody then placed the note back in the bag and explained what it said, and who wrote, while leaving out that he has his father's gun.
"Good thing that we don't having any firearms."
"Yeah, good thing we don't." He hated that he lied to Rosa and his friends.
"It would be nice to have one though." Fred said.
Cody then began to put on his belt through the belt straps of his shorts and then attached the sheath, with the bowie knife in it, to left side of the belt.
"Dude," Stan began to praise Cody, "You totally like an adventurer from the movies."
"Thanks."
Rosa rolled her eyes.
Then Cody began to grab his luggage, since the others already got theirs, as Rosa also noticed them carrying their instruments in their cases. "You know it'll be difficult by carrying them along with your luggage right?"
"We're not just going to leave them!" Stan said, "We paid for them with our own allowances! And besides, the people there might like our music."
"I wouldn't set your hopes up, since your guys' music might startle them."
Stan then immaturely immitated her words silently. Rosa then turned around and he quickly stopped while looking all innocent. She then gave him a warning frown.
"When is dawn going to rise?" Cody asked.
"Any moment know." Rosa replied.
After two minutes, dawn began to rise; the teenagers waited until dawn is fully risen as they then began their long walk.
"This 'safari' is going to give me blisters." Greg began to complain.
"Come on, it''ll be fun." Rosa said while being positive, "We can tell stories along the way while building up our muscles. A five day walk is basically child's play to me."
Cody smiled at Rosa's enthusiasm.
"Your friend is sure optimistic." Fred said.
"Mm-hmm." Cody replied.
They kept walking for a while until Cody began to ask "By the way, did any of you guys see a person in you dream as well?"
Each of his friends, one by one, replied no.
"Why do you ask?" Greg asked, "Did you see someone?"
"No, just wondering." Cody replied.
Rosa raised her eyebrow in suspicion at Cody for a second and then focused on their journey to the Pride Lands.
Author's Note
The "Dream Sequence" is inspired by both the Transformation Scene and Transformation Song from the Disney's 2003 film Brother Bear.