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Somewhere buried deep in the mists of time is a legend with
out origin. A tale with no know source that speaks of a hero that will deliver
the land in its time of greatest peril. This hero is only known as the Eye of
the Storm...
***
Cassie woke up one morning with a start. The dream, she'd had that dream again.
Shaking, she got up and went to the mirror. The reflection that peered back
at her was that of a somewhat shaken silver Zafara. She laughed as she saw the
odd expression on her face and tried to smile. The smile was shaky and lopsided
and didn't quite reach her frightened eyes.
Eyes, those eyes in the dream were a lot like
the ones staring back at her from the mirror. Grey with highlights of dark blue
and deep purple, not unlike that of a storm cloud.
She shook her head as she realized that the
dream must have gotten to her more than she originally thought. She sat down
and thought over it again. Disjointed images soon came together into the dream
that had haunted her sleep for the past couple of months.
She recalled standing on a mountain high above
an unknown land. The wind whipped through her fur and she gazed into the oncoming
storm. As she looked deeper into the heart of the storm Cassie saw two eyes
gazing back at her. She remembered the awesome power and fierce beauty held
within those eyes.
From somewhere inside the storm, a voice called
to her, "Too long have you been away, Caesius. The time has come for you to
return and claim what is yours."
Cassie had looked once more across the strange
new land and saw it was a place of wild beauty with the same fierce light and
strange power that she had seen held in those eyes. She remembered feeling a
strange joy well up inside her as she watched the storm's fury fly across the
wild landscape.
This joy was cut short though as a shrill cruel
laugh ripped through the noise of the storm. The malice of the laugh drove away
any good feelings and seemed to consume the land around her with its hate. Darkness
fell suffocating the land and all of its splendor.
Cassie shuddered at the recollection of the
majestic world she had seen been consumed by that violent laugh and its hateful
malevolence. If only there was something she could do.
What did it all mean, anyway? Who was Caesius
and what did it have to do with her? Cassie pondered this as she made her way
into the kitchen and began to make breakfast.
She sat down to eat and tried to get her mind
off the dream. She picked up a newspaper and began to skim through it. An article
on the opening of the new Art Gallery caught her attention and she decided that
she would go and see it. It would probably help to ease her mind and relax her
a little.
After finishing her breakfast, she made her
way down the crowded street to the art gallery. It was a modern styled building
with large glass windows and shiny steel doors. Inside was well air conditioned,
and Cassie began to calm down. There were some beautiful paintings and a few
interesting sculptures.
She really began to enjoy herself as she causally
strolled along the rows of some beautifully done landscapes. She had always
loved landscapes. They were very intriguing and she liked to wonder what was
beyond the borders of the picture or past the horizon.
She was musing about an interesting seascape
when she came upon a picture that made her stop dead. She was looking at an
oil painting of a lone mesa towering above a wild looking grass land. The mesa
was sharply outlined against an immense thunderhead. Clouds roiled in the dark
sky and they gave the picture an ardent magnificence.
"I was there," she thought to herself, "I know
this place from my dreams."
Frightened by this, Cassie looked to the name
plate of the picture. It was titled 'The Coming of Caesius.' Caesius, that was
what the voice in her dream had said. What could this all mean?
Cassie decided to try to get in touch with the
artist and find out where her dream was taking place. The name on the card read
Morgan Travers so she went to the main office and asked how to get a hold of
Mr. Travers. The Aisha at the front desk gave her an address, and instructions
on how to reach him.
Cassie hardly noticed where she was going as
she walked along Main Street. Her mind was so occupied that she passed by Mr.
Travers flat twice before she finally got it right. She walked up to the door
and knocked feeling more than a little apprehensive.
Morgan Travers was nothing like what she would
have expected. He was a young spotted Zafara that looked nothing like the old
eccentric Lenny she had been imagining.
"H-hello," she stammered awkwardly, "I saw a
painting of yours at the new art gallery on fifth street, and I wanted to ask
you about it."
"Come on in," he said jovially leading the way
inside, "What did you want to talk about?" Cassie, who was relieved to have
been invited in so openly, sat down on a comfortable sofa and began to explain.
She told him about the dream, and concluded by telling him that she wanted to
know where the picture was painted.
"Agrestis. I painted it in Agrestis," he said
after a short pause in which he looked her over carefully.
"Where's that?" Cassie asked.
"Agrestis is a land different ours, I really
can't explain it very well, but I do know that it can be reached through a gate
that connects our world with it. I've been there," Mr.. Travers replied with
a far away look in his eyes.
"Can you take me there Mr. Travers?" Cassie
asked bringing him out of his reverie.
"I can and will only if you call me Morgan.
This Mr. Travers business makes me nervous, and besides I can't be much older
that you are," he said with a laugh, "Come visit me tomorrow morning and I'll
have everything ready."
The next morning, Cassie showed up at Morgan's
flat bright and early. She could hardly believe that she was going to see that
wild land of her dreams. This feeling of excitement was accompanied by a feeling
of intense apprehension that caused her stomach to churn and her knees to shake
slightly. She hoped fervently that she would not meet that laugh, or feel that
darkness close over her.
Morgan opened the door and let her in with a
smile.
"We're all set to go whenever you're ready.
I expect they'll have been waiting for you so the sooner we leave the better,"
he said over his shoulder as he led her into a small room in the back.
"What do you mean they'll have been waiting
for me?" Cassie asked curiously, "I've never really been to Agrestis before.
How do they know me?"
"The arrival of Caesius has been awaited for
years now. They'll know you as soon as they see you. I did."
Cassie was about to ask what was meant by this,
but her words caught in her throat before she could speak them. She was looking
at a window that should have been looking into the kitchen, but instead revealed
an expanse of woods that gave way to endless grasslands. The sight of the familiar
land made her feel as if she had been living in a foreign country all her life,
and was now just about to come home.
Morgan smiled at her and quietly said, "Welcome
home Caesius."
To be continued…
Author's Note: All of the names and places in this story have some kind
of meaning. I chose the names because they mean something relevant to the story.
All of the names of places and characters are from languages such as Latin,
Malay, Welsh, and many others. I even used elvish words from J.R.R. Tolkien's
stories. I want any feed back that you can give me as this is the first story
I have written so let me know how you like it! Thanks!
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