Copyright © 2012 by Cryton Daehraj

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-4065-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-4067-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-4066-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012913781

iUniverse rev. date: 08/16/2012

Contents

Chapter One: The Cave

Chapter Two: The Storm

Chapter Three: Poisoned

Chapter Four: The Lovers

Chapter Five: The Hallucination

Chapter Six: Confrontation

Chapter Seven: The Forest

Chapter Eight: Power Leeches

Chapter Nine: Not Alone

Chapter Ten: The Wizard

Chapter Eleven: Magic Tricks

Chapter Twelve: The Creature

Chapter Thirteen: The Lake

Chapter Fourteen: Some Background

Chapter Fifteen: The Platform of ‘vsn

Chapter Sixteen: The Monks

Chapter Seventeen: The Grove

Chapter Eighteen: The Gate

Chapter Nineteen: The Courtyard

Chapter Twenty: On the Steps of the Temple

Chapter Twenty-One: Sexual Tension

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Three Chambers

Chapter Twenty-Three: Powering up

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Council Chamber

Chapter Twenty-Five: T’mar’s Secret

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Grid

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Battling the Creature

Chapter Twenty-Eight: C’aad’s Death

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Library

Chapter Thirty: Sexual Appetites

Chapter Thirty-One: Escape

Chapter Thirty-Two: Globe Transport

Chapter Thirty-Three: Sand Trap

Chapter Thirty-Four: Another Secret

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Vent

Chapter Thirty-Six: F’bol’s Seduction

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Cave of ‘loh

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Wastelands

Chapter Thirty-Nine: B’el’s Plan

Chapter Forty: The Castle

Chapter Forty-One: Rest and Healing

Chapter Forty-Two: The Final Battle

Glossary

Chapter One:

 The Cave

J’son, we are here what you are there. You are here what we are there. I have never met anyone quite like you.

T’mar in the cave with J’son

His first conscious thought was that he was cold and laying on something hard. He was on his stomach with his left arm providing the pillow. His floor was of packed dirt on top of rock or some other similar material, but he didn’t know that yet. His thoughts swirled around him, disconnected and strange. He didn’t even know his own name. The words that formed within him seem alien and not his own. A strange name surfaced within his mind, a name he didn’t recognized but knew belonged to him on some level.

J’son.

The sound of it echoed painfully around in his head. J’son? What was that? Was that his name, or someone else? And if it was his name, like he now believed it to be, then why did it sound so strange and unfamiliar? Even his thoughts, which were slowly beginning to churn under their own direction, sounded different, like pronounced in a foreign language. His head hurt; his eyes hurt, like needles had been shoved up underneath his lids: spiky, white-hot pokers jabbed deep into his forehead. Thinking hurt, and the images dancing before his eyes spoke of an exotic, unfamiliar content and texture. Where was he? And why did he hurt so much? Why did his name, J’son, sound so unfamiliar?

Slowly opening one, sleep-encrusted eye, his forehead lying on the back of his hand, J’son tried to focus on what was directly underneath him. The smell of dirt flooded his awareness and the small puff of air exiting his body as he breathed stirred up a tiny dust storm. Inhaling the fine particles irritated his nose, causing him to sneeze and then cough. Raising his head a few inches above the floor, he opened both eyes now and looked around him. Still on his stomach but arching his back to see, J’son slowly came to the realization that he wasn’t in a room but lying on the floor of a cave. Peering into the back of the cave, squinting into the darkness, he could just make out the walls of uneven rock and a ceiling that disappeared into shadows. Slowly turning his throbbing head left and right, J’son was able to see that the mouth of the cave lay behind him. He could see light filtering in and the opening was outlined in a fiery red color.

Sitting up, his head swam with disconnected images, faces that he knew he should know but couldn’t bring to mind their names. Or rather the words which came to mind didn’t sound like any names he had ever known. The name Tammy came up but was immediately transformed into T’mii. Although the first name sounded right, it didn’t feel right in his mouth, just like speaking a foreign language. He scooted over to one of the walls and leaned against it. He closed his eyes again and his swimming vision settled down. It was quiet and he could hear the sound of wind blowing outside. He opened his eyes again and looked out the mouth of the cave.

Where the hell am I? He asked aloud, but the words sounded foreign to his ears. He tried to form an answer for himself but the words coalescing within his mind had a strange texture and sound. The words seemed right, but the sound was peculiar. What was the last thing he had done, he wondered. Fully awake now, he blinked several times trying to take in his surroundings. Filtered daylight lit up the cave and gave it an eerie, reddish glow, reflecting off of something deep within the cave. J’son stood up slowly, placing one of his hands against the wall to steady himself. He was breathing heavily now and his vision was swaying this way and that. He reached up with his other hand and felt for the ceiling, trying to get an idea of the size of the cave. The entrance to the cave was smaller than the inside and he found that his hand disappeared into the gloomy darkness overhead.

Gaining his equilibrium, J’son shuffled over to the opening of the cave and looked out. The first thing he noticed was that he was high up the side of a mountain standing on a narrow ledge maybe a thousand feet up. Looking down he saw a craggy, rock-splintered landscape falling away for about one hundred yards and then the tops of dense, furry trees: a forest that covered the lower portion of the mountain in a velvety cloud, extending out for some miles. The leaves of these trees looked more like feathers, even from this distance. Closer to him, growing between the crags and folds, tiny shrubs swayed in the light breeze. From his vantage point he couldn’t see any movement or signs of life at all. By all appearances he seemed to be alone in this strange place. The ledge he stood on extended a few feet past the mouth of the cave and the bright daylight burned away the shadows surrounding the opening. He wasn’t too sure at all how he got up here or why he had fallen asleep.

The fact that he didn’t know where he was, or that he couldn’t remember what he had been doing before, didn’t bother him too much yet. His thinking was too confused to really even consider what he had been doing. Where he was, he was sure, was somewhere in his home state of Alabama. He loved to go camping and hiking, but this place didn’t look anything like home. In fact, even the sun looked funny. It didn’t have that yellow color he was used to. It had more red to it and seemed to be curving into the horizon rather than climbing overhead. There was also a wavy haze to it, like seeing the sun from a few feet under water. His impression was that of a sun rising on another planet. Above the arc of the sun, twinkling in the distance, were vague points of lights that he took to be stars. J’son studied these objects for a moment then gave up trying to identify any familiar constellations. Nothing looked right.

The sun disappeared behind a large outcropping to his left in the distance and then reappeared on the other side, arcing higher into the sky but still on a course that wouldn’t take it directly overhead. The sound of scattering rocks was heard in the distance and J’son thought he could hear the disturbing cackle of some kind of bird or animal. Maybe he wasn’t as alone as he at first thought. A small cloud of dust rose from the floor of the canyon and he thought he could just make out what looked like a lizard of some sort sunning itself on a ledge about fifty feet below. He tried to see if there was a trail to get down but couldn’t locate one. Still, he figured he had got up there somehow and after his headache went away he would remember what was going on.

He went back into the cave and the darkness felt good on his eyes. It took a minute for his eyes to readjust to the dark and he stood there, his back facing the opening, until he could see the contour of the cave. He felt a slight, cold breeze caress his face and was startled to discover it originated from somewhere deep in the cave. Maybe that’s how I got up here, he thought, gazing deeper into the cave. But where is ‘here’?

J’son started for the rear of the cave, but then stopped, staring deep into the darkness. He thought he heard something, like the shuffling of feet. A loose rock falling, there! He did hear something. Thoughts of a hibernating bear crossed his mind, but then, perplexed, J’son wondered what time of the year it was. Bears only hibernate in the winter. Was it winter? He looked over his shoulder at the opening and saw the hazy, reddish light spilling in. It didn’t look like it was winter.

Where the hell am I? he asked again to no one in particular. His voice echoed back into the cave and reverberated around the large, rocky room. He sat back down and leaned against one of the walls with his head between his knees. The pain in his forehead had subsided a bit and he tried to think back to what he had been doing before he woke up here. In his mind’s eye, dim images of a place far away and faces of people he knew but couldn’t decide his relationship to them, flashed across his awareness. A face of a boy, a young man like himself, stood out clearly in his memory. The boy’s name was … T’mmy! His name is T’mmy and he is J’son’s friend.

Something had happened. J’son and T’mmy had been together and something had happened. There had been a battle, a battle of the mind. There had been a force of some kind. It was powerful and destructive. He had attacked that power with his mind, hurting it and him, but it got away, whatever it was. He had followed it, and there was a woman, too! That’s right, he thought. She was there, that woman from his dreams. Wait a minute. Was he dreaming now? Did this place actually exist? What was her name? Where did we go? What is this place? All these questions raced through his mind.

His head was spinning and he felt like he needed to puke. He leaned over and spit on the floor, wiping the spittle away with the back of his hand. He straightened up and closed his eyes, tilting his head back. Images danced across his awareness, jumbling his thoughts. Confusion and anxiety gripped him. Beads of sweat formed at his temples and trickled down the sides of his face. J’son felt cold and sick. He closed his eyes tight, hoping that maybe this was some kind of dream. Visuals played out tiny little dramas in his mind, but they were disjointed and choppy. Did I drink last night?

J’son, are you okay? The feminine voice sounded surprised but happy. J’son! You’re awake. How do you feel? Standing before him, coming out of the darkness at the back of the cave, stood a beautiful woman dressed in what appeared to be some kind of organic, furry material he had never seen before. Her feet were clad in leather-like sandals that extended up to about mid calf. Her footwear didn’t have any laces but stayed snug on her legs, like elastic or something. Her short skirt, tan in color, hung easily on her hips at an angle that displayed her belly button and a large amount of skin. Her breasts were covered with the same material as her skirt and appeared to be made of one piece, form fitting and supportive. Emerald green eyes looked out at him, smiling, framed in fiery red hair that fell below her shoulders. Her lips parted slightly and J’son could just make out the soft pink tip of her tongue as it brushed against her bottom teeth. Her smile faded into a question and she said, J’son?

J’son had been staring at her for what must have been several seconds, mouth agape. Not only did her presence surprise him, her physical appearance left him breathless. Here stood the girl from his dreams: A female Amazon who was looking at him in a very familiar way, cocking her head to the side and smiling a sweet, seductive smile J’son recognized. The way she was looking at him made him physically arouse, embarrassing him and causing him to drop his hands into his lap.

T’mar? he asked, looking up at her shyly.

Yes, J’son, it’s me. Whew. You were just staring at me and I was starting to get scared. I thought at first you were a residual holdover from Earth but now I see you’re real. Honestly, I didn’t know what to think. I’m not too sure how you got here. I’m not even sure you are supposed to be here. This shouldn’t have happened. When T’mer gets here, he will know what’s going on.

What? T’mar, what’s going on? Where am I? How come I can’t remember what happened to me? Why does your name sound so funny? And why are you dressed like some guy’s male fantasy? J’son stood up and for the first time he noticed how he was dressed. He had on a skirt, too, with sandals that covered his feet only up to his ankle. His straight, dirty blonde hair hung around his face and rested just above his shoulders. His chest and abdomen were slightly ripped and he could see the contours of his arms and legs. He looked and felt muscular and strong. He flexed his arms several times, looking at his biceps, not recognizing his own body.

I can explain, she said, gently reaching out with her hand to touch his cheek. She made contact with his face and J’son felt something akin to a bolt of electricity buzz his head. The sensation extended down his arms and legs. Then a bubble of static electricity erupted out of his chest, surrounded them and spread out, encompassing them in an energy field that seemed self-generated. T’mar withdrew her hand with a gasp and turned away. The field around them collapsed immediately and J’son saw that T’mar looked scared.

I’m sorry, she said. I just…

As confused as he was, though, he was man enough to feel a strong, sexual attraction to her and he reached out with both hands, placing them around her bare waist, saying That’s ok. I want—

J’son jerked away, startled, throwing his hands into the air, feeling that same electric transmission, like static electricity but more intense. In that one moment of contact he could sense what she was feeling and he liked what he felt. His attraction to her overwhelmed his hesitancy and he boldly reached out to her again, hoping to touch her once more. This time he touched her with just the tips of his fingers. She followed suite and the two of them made contact. A small, bluish sphere appeared between them just inches away from his chest. It grew larger, enveloping them and changing colors from blue to red.

The field seemed charged with electricity, growing just enough to enclose them, diffusing out at the edges. Lowering his hands, hoping not to break contact, he pulled her closer to him and embraced her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. Images flooded his mind, images of passion and lust. He burned for her and he knew, somehow, that she wanted him, too. He could read her thoughts, her desires. They had made contact with each other physically the way they did whenever he used to dream about her. The feeling was incredibly intimate and sexual at the same time. He had the feeling like the two of them had merged on some level, their bodies belonging to each other, one and the same. He leaned in close to kiss her, their lips almost touching and then…

J’son, we shouldn’t, she said, pulling away from him and breaking contact. The field collapsed and disappeared, leaving a slight electrical tingle in the air between them. It’s not proper. Our fields aren’t the same. I could hurt you.

She knew this wasn’t true and it bothered her to say it. Her energy field told her explicitly that he was a good match and even now she could feel her body wanting him. Was this the same boy from Earth? There, he was just a teenage boy with a crush, but now he looked grown up and well endowed. It appeared his human form was hiding something, she thought. She felt the passion of desire welling up within her and now it was her that had the crush. They stood together, their bodies just inches away from touching. She could feel the heat of his body radiating out to her, wanting her as much as she wanted him. She knew then that if he reached out to her again she wouldn’t be able to control herself, nor did she want to. It may be wrong, she thought, but I don’t care.

Just as she was hoping to touch him again, J’son broke the silence and the sexual tension between them by saying, Can you at least tell me what is going on? Apprehension replaced lust and he sounded to her like that scared kid back on Earth. A scared kid with tremendous power, she reminded herself. Or would he still possess those abilities? How else could he have gotten here? And he didn’t look like that skinny kid anymore. He was very attractive and she smiled quietly to herself.

J’son, I’m not too sure why you are here. You shouldn’t be. Connection between your would and ours is only supposed to be one way; from here to there, not the other way around. When B’el left your reality, I pursued him, or rather his energy signature, back here. My thought was that you would wake up back on Earth, not clear across the galaxy. That shouldn’t have happened. You really shouldn’t be here. It doesn’t make any sense.

So where is here and why can’t I remember anything? He was still looking at her. It was hard not to.

This is where I am from. This is my world. This reality is B’el’s stronghold. Things here are very different. T’mar looked beyond J’son to the mouth of the cave. You shouldn’t have come through. You should only exist as a dream to me. But here you are. I’ll have to educate you quickly. Do you remember anything?

Just bits and pieces. I keep flashing on faces and places that seem familiar, but they feel more like a dream. I remember you, but you don’t look like you. I mean you seem different. And I remember we were following some… thing that possessed awesome power.

That would be B’el. What else do you remember of Earth?

Earth? Then this isn’t Earth, just like he thought. J’son stared at T’mar again, wanting to reach out and touch her soft skin. Her deep emerald eyes shined out at him, smiling slightly, playfully. He thought about the two of them being here alone together and the thought made him want to caress her body.

J’son, we were following B’el, trying to capture him and bring him before the celestial courts so he may be judged for what he has done. We were on Earth in your hometown of Hope, Alabama. Do you remember? I found you in your dreams and we teamed up to get him. We had a battle and he slipped away from us, disappearing into the ethereal realms. When he disappeared, I thought he would materialize somewhere else on Earth. Instead, the thread of his essence, his energy signature, led us here, to our planet. I still don’t know how you came through. When earthlings dream, you call out to us and we answer you. Your dreams are what pull us through to your world. We are able to materialize because we feed off of your imagination. The energy created by your thoughts allows us to manipulate matter and become solid. The image of me on Earth is just a residual hologram of what I am here. I seem different to you because I am different. On Earth, I became your fantasy. My physical appearance was a direct result of some kind of composite picture you have of the female form. In short, I was perfect according to your expectations. The sexual energy…

T’mar trailed off at this point. Her high cheek bones took on a crimson color and she turned her head away from J’son, looking down.

B’el! That’s right. I remember him now. He came to me in my dreams. Wait a minute. Now I remember. He killed my dog. And all those people back home. J’son started to tear up. There was so much death from before. Thoughts flooded his awareness and within a moment he was staring into space, oblivious of his surroundings. J’son had entered a trance of sorts and saw things he didn’t understand. Confusion gripped his mind and he wasn’t sure about what was real. In his mind, he struggled to hold on to the image of his home town, hold on to the reality of Hope, Alabama. His life there seemed to be slipping away only to be replaced by images of this world. Why was it getting so hard to remember home?

From T’mar’s point of view, J’son was staring off into space, but from his perspective he was deep within himself, reliving the scene from another time and place. In his mind’s eye he saw someone that he recognized. Someone in authority, like a police officer, but that seemed to be in the past. The scene changed and the cop no longer had a badge but he stilled carried a gun. He’s a detective now, J’son thought. The detective was sitting behind an old wooden desk. A phone rang and he picked it up. This is Dunn, the man said.

W-W-What? J’son snapped back, fully here again. His eyes were wide and showed signs of panic.

What did you see? T’mar asked.

I think I was home, back on Earth. There was this man named D’unn. I think I know him, but not like he is now."

Do you think it was the present or the future?

The future? I don’t understand. J’son was really getting scared now. It seemed like whenever he closed his eyes, he was taken back to a place in his memory, a place from his past, or was it the present? Why did T’mar think he was seeing the future? And yet, as soon as she asked him if that was the case he knew that it was. The future, I think.

"If you concentrated hard enough, do you think you could ‘wake up’ back there? You really need to get back to Earth while you have a chance. The only way we can enter your reality is to have someone from your world call out to us. It is only through dreams that we can materialize on your planet. I only have a short time that I can help you. You see, here we quickly forget the reality of your world. It begins to fade like a dream. Soon, I will only have a vague memory of what happened there. You being here may help me to remember, though.

Here, we study very hard to remember and have used what you would call Occult methods to hold those memories in our mind’s eye. Imagination is very important to us. In fact, it’s everything. It’s the essence of power that only a few can safely manipulate. We use that power to call out to ourselves from your world. It is in that manner that we can travel back and forth to your world. It is said that B’el never forgets and can travel back and forth easily. When we are called out of this world by one of you, we never know what to expect. We maintain the image of ourselves on your world through the practice of religion, in all of its forms. On your world, we are constantly reminded of who we are. The same is not true here.

But what about your power, like back on Earth? J’son was trying really hard to process what T’mar was saying, but at the same time he was struggling with his new-found ability to travel across time and space. Unlike what she was saying, he was remembering more and more about his life back on Earth, not less. He had no doubt that T’mar and this world were real and he was starting to understand the complexities of his situation. But also, why did T’mar seem so anxious? Back home, she possessed incredible power. She could manipulate matter and disappear at will. She even taught him how to control and direct his power. Now, she seemed helpless and a little scared. His presence here really did cause her some concern. Was it true that he had the power to fold space and time?

Our power is bound here, she said after a moment’s pause. It’s very limited, almost non-existent. To practice that art- She was struggling to articulate what she wanted to say. She lowered her head and put a hand on her hip, thinking. Slowly, she spoke again, It’s the only way we can protect ourselves against him. The only way we can hide.

T’mar fell quiet. Waves of confusion shadowed her face. J’son could see the conflict. But more than that, he felt her confusion. It was remote at first, just on the edge of his awareness. Then it grew to the point that he could sense it on some level. It was like he could read her aura. The images forming in his mind conveyed the impression of someone caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing. There was shame there, intermingled with the confusion. And guilt, too. As attractive as she was to him, physically, what he was receiving from her repulsed him. He wasn’t sure why this was so and fought against the impression, but it was too late. He had seen a side of T’mar that he didn’t like, didn’t respect. She’s really not all that pretty anyway, he thought.

Say, when you travelled back just now, was D’unn asleep? Did he seem like he was having a dream?

Uh, no. He was sitting at a desk talking on the phone. How would I know if he was dreaming? And how would I know if he was dreaming about me?

Did he see you? Did he interact with you? Did his movements seem programmed? Her questions were quick and rapid-fire. She was digging for information. She was hoping, also, that maybe she could hold on to her memory of Earth.

No. You were telling me about B’el and all of the sudden I felt carried away. The cave was here at first, but it faded into the background. Then walls of wood and plaster appeared and I found myself looking at a man seated behind a desk. I don’t even know if I had a body or not.

T’mar put both hands on her hips and sighed. She was looking at J’son and the confusion that haunted her looks a moment before vanished. She was calming down and emitting an entirely different set of impressions. Dropping her hands to her sides she moved closer to J’son, stopping just inches away from him. She made a move to reach out and touch him, but stopped short. Like touching a light switch in winter, a small electric spark jumped between them, startling her. She could feel the power radiating from him. He almost seemed to be glowing.

J’son, I want you to close your eyes and try to see if you can make contact again. This is very important. Try to clear your mind and allow thoughts of D’unn to appear. Concentrate on that image. Try to speak to him and see if he is aware of you. If he can’t see you or sense you, then maybe it is just a residual image and that won’t help us. If he can sense you, then we can use him as our portal. We need a door way, J’son. We need a way to get you back to Earth, a way to escape if we need one.

I’ll try, but I’m not too sure I understand. Closing his eyes, J’son took a deep breath and slowly let out it out. He breathed in again, holding it for a few seconds before letting it out. On his third breath, images flowed into his awareness and J’son felt some part of himself leaving the confines of the cave. In his mind’s eye he beheld a bird’s-eye view of the town square back home. He had the distinct feeling he was flying but was unsure as to how that was accomplished. Looking down, he caught a glimpse of a light post and instantly he was at that level, still floating about five feet above the pavement.

Turning his attention to the large, plate-glass window on his left, he saw that he was now in front of Sandy’s bar looking at a reflection of himself in the front glass. What he saw was a small, bluish sphere the size of a softball. What’s that? he thought.

What did you see? Did you see yourself? Did you look like a person? T’mar had heard him mumble something but didn’t make it out. From her perspective, J’son had entered a trance, had stood perfectly still and was barely breathing. He stood that way for several minutes before he began to mumble.

No. he said, sounding groggy even to his own ears. I looked like a small balloon. I was blue. It reminded me of those dreams I have.

If you tried again, do you think you could call out to me? Try saying my name or maybe just concentrate on me. Do you think you can remember what I look like? I’ve never met anyone who could come and go on his own without anyone calling out to him. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. T’mar had met someone before who could do that. B’el had studied the occult arts long ago and had accumulated a vast body of knowledge of the mysteries and could manipulate reality anyway he pleased. It was scary the power B’el possessed, but also exciting. That knowledge was forbidden and to practice those arts could bring damnation. At least that is what all sentient creatures knew instinctively.

Something was building up within T’mar, that old lust for power she had felt before. It was a power she had tasted a long time ago, in a different age of the universe, when she was a student of B’el. A disciple, she reminded herself. It shamed her to think about the price she had paid to study under B’el. But here was someone who could do what B’el could do. If she played her cards right, maybe she could learn from J’son now. She could pick up her studies and… Fear rose up in her thoughts. Thoughts of blasphemy and the power that came from practicing the black arts dominated her awareness. I shouldn’t have followed B’el here, she thought nervously.

I’ll try, J’son said, sounding defeated and pathetic. Once again he closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind. Images of stars set in the blackness of deep space entered his awareness, tiny points of lights calling out across the universe. The scene only lasted a moment or two, and then those same stars streaked away from him leaving white linear trails tracking before his eyes. The streaks blurred and merged into a wall of white, then in a prism-like way colors fanned out from the center and were transformed into the familiar buildings and streets of his home in Hope, Alabama.

Chapter Two:

The Storm

I am what you would call a Goddess, only I won’t require your worship.

T’mar speaking to J’son in the cave

J’son found himself at street level and he felt like he had a head that he could turn and move around. Glancing down, he saw himself having the shape of a human being with legs and arms and a torso. He held out his hands and looked at his palms, flexing his fingers repeatedly, opening and closing them. Then remembering what he was supposed to do:

Tamara, can you hear me? The sound of his voice caught him off guard, but the echo that came back surprised him even more. The street and building that he had been standing in front of dissolved into a million points of light, the solid brick and mortar disappearing altogether only to be replaced by solid rock with T’mar standing beside him.

I heard you say my name, she said, moving closer to him. It was very clear, but the sound didn’t come from your body here. It was like hearing someone calling out from a great distance using a bullhorn. Usually when I feel someone reach out with their mind it is while they are in the dream state. Most of the time, the dreamer doesn’t even know that they are being used and a portal opens within the ethereal realm, the birthplace of dream. My entry into that realm is usually accompanied by swirling images and creations of the disembodied ego, but this time I didn’t see anything. The portal didn’t open.

What happened? J’son asked, still coping with a feeling of disorientation.

You were standing there so still that I thought you had left your body behind and were exploring the astral realms out-of-body. This is very strange. We’ll have to try again later. J’son, any chance you get to go back you must take it. See if you can solidify yourself and maintain hold of your body image before you call out again. That may give you some stability. We need access to a portal or we’ll be stuck here. I don’t want to confront B’el without the means of being able to escape. If he finds you here, I’m not too sure what he would do. He hates your race.

Ok, T’mar. What’s going on? Astral realms? Trans-dimensional dreams? The need to escape? J’son still wasn’t convinced that this place, this world, was real. The way T’mar talked it was this planet that had reality and the places on Earth were mere dream images coming from people who had eaten a slice of bad pizza. Where are we and why do I feel like I am in two different worlds at the same time?

J’son, for lack of a better analogy you are on the planet of the gods of your forefathers. We were banished here millennia ago for crimes against the Good. We are what you would call the fallen angels of the Bible, although we don’t consider ourselves as evil. That designation was given to us by inferior beings (Inferior beings?!) that have no idea what they are talking about. As for ‘where’ we are, I have no idea. Because we were found guilty of interfering in human development, we were sent millions of light years across the universe, away from Earth so that we wouldn’t inherit… I mean take… I mean… We’re being punished for something that we didn’t do and wasn’t even our fault. We were only trying to help.

Help who? Us? If it were your race that got banished, why do you say you were trying to help? If we’re a million light years away from Earth, how is it you remained in contact with us?

It was only when your race started to call out to us that we were able to find a way back to you. It was through your dreams that we gained access to your world again. Even though we lost contact with your race you still called out to us, believing that we existed. That’s what I was trying to say before. We are able to attach ourselves to your dream stream and with it pull ourselves through to your side. Without someone from your world to dream us into existence, we would never be able to return. It is only through dreams that we have access to you, so we can help your race.

Help us? You just said you were being punished for helping us. What exactly are you being punished for? T’mar’s answers were disjointed and scattered and if he understood what she was saying a little condescending. Had he been used? It sure seemed like that was what she was saying. J’son was getting impatient. He could feel his blood pressure rising and the headache he had had earlier was starting to grow again, mostly right behind his eyes.

’When the sons of God saw the daughters of man were fair, they took to themselves wives from the race of Man.’ This is something that should never have happened, J’son. Your leaders, your captains of industry, those at the top, all those that have authority over you are in reality the offspring of us. You are our children, the sons and daughters of the gods. Your world has been enslaved by those who wish to take your inheritance for their own selfish reasons. Your world is a battle ground between the forces of good and the forces of evil. B’el is the leader of the forces of evil, the power that wants your world and your reality.

J’son was pacing around the cave digesting what she was saying. He had read up on conspiracy theories that suggested what she was saying, but the reality of what she stated went against his religious upbringing. And now she was talking about a battles between Good and Evil, like something out of the Book of Revelations. This was too much. T’mar, what are you talking about?

A war is coming to your world, a war like the one that devastated your world in the past. We need to find a way to stop it. That’s why I came to you in the first place. B’el must have felt you from before and followed you in your dreams casting a shadow across your awareness until he became real to you. When he had gain enough access to your world through your dreams and the dreams of others, he materialized and started to work behind the scenes. When I met up with you at first I thought you were just a conduit, a channel that I could take advantage of. Your ability to remember your dreams and work within them made you a much sought after portal. Instead, you became a …

J’son’s head was spinning. So many questions and the answers T’mar gave only raised other questions. What was real? He felt like he was living in two different worlds at the same time, neither of which seemed solid. Sons of God? That definitely sounded like something right out of the Bible. Why did he look physically different than he remembered himself looking? Why did his speech sound strange in his ears, even though he could understand what was said to him? Was he really supposed to believe that he was on a planet far away, deep in the universe and he got here because of some metaphysical doorway he had access to? And why was it that everything T’mar said sounded like she was making it up as she went? Something wasn’t right. Looking at T’mar in the dim light of the cave and seeing the way the rays of the sun outlined her hair, J’son once again got the feeling that she wasn’t telling the whole truth, that she was holding something back, that she wasn’t telling him everything.

Suddenly, a shadow passed across the mouth of the cave, engulfing them in total darkness until their eyes adjusted. T’mar turned away from him and walked over to the opening, standing just inside the cave. She looked out at the gathering clouds and the blackness they brought. J’son followed her and approached her from behind locking his arms around her firm waist and pulled her close to him. He didn’t know why he had done that, only that he was inextricably drawn to her, wanting to feel her warm skin against his.

His hand quivered as he fought the urge to reach up and cup her breasts. He decided against it and instead they watched the storm roll in, his chin resting lightly on the top of her head. The smell of her hair was a mixture of mountain air, various floral scents carried by the wind and a slight, musky odor that aroused his loins and filled his mind with thoughts that only two lovers would share. He wondered if she was feeling the same way. He ignored the energy enveloping them. What he didn’t realize at the time was that his thoughts were the generator of her smells. He was the reason why her body was realizing sex hormones.

Dark, ominous clouds had moved in obscuring the sun and blanketing the sky and valley below in a thick darkness. The light of the sun was gone, but lightning flashed on the horizon streaking the sky in a violent, sporadic show of light. Thunder erupted all around them and the wind was starting to blow heavily. In the distance, illuminated by the storm, they could see dust and debris being sucked up into the sky, swirling up from the ground in a vortex of spinning debris.

J’son, we have to leave this cave, T’mar said, looking back over her shoulder at him. She, too, was enjoying having his arms around her. It had been a long time since she had felt this way, but she knew what she was feeling and thinking was wrong. He was an earthling, an animal. She pulled away from him and the tenderness she had felt was replaced by a growing fear. Prolonged exposure to the storm… Well, we just have to go.

T’mar brushed past him, heading towards the back of the cave. She disappeared within moments, hidden within the shadows. J’son could hear her footfalls as they scraped across the litter of loose gravel scattered around the floor of the cave. Her steps quieted and seemed to fade away, coming up to his ears from below instead of coming from the back of the cave. J’son followed her back into the dark, his eyes straining against the diminished light. The force of the wind had entered the cave and J’son could feel the electrical push of the storm against his back. The hairs on the back of his neck and arms stood up and he could see the discharge of static racing up and down his forearms. Raising his hands to eye level, the electrical current danced around his fingertips looking like a kirillian photograph.

Reaching the back of the cave, feeling around as best as he could in the dark and hoping he wouldn’t slam his head against an outcropping, he discovered the cave narrowed down to a few feet wide, forming an inverted V shape. He felt a rock or something brushing up against his hair and he quickly ducked, instinctively lifting his hands up to protect his head. He couldn’t hear T’mar anymore and he became even more disoriented. It was dark in all directions, confusing him, and he wasn’t too sure where he was supposed to go. He could still feel the wind on his back, but now he felt another breeze, not as violent or as electrically charged caressing his cheek.

T’mar? he called out.

Down here, she said from below. Take the passage to your left and watch yourself. The steps are a little steep.

Turning to the sound of her voice, he took a couple of tentative steps in that direction, holding out his hands to avoid slamming into a wall. A couple steps more and J’son could feel the gentle breeze blowing his hair away from his face. Groping his way through a rough opening cut in the rock, he almost tripped down the first step, coming down hard on his heel on the step below, sending a painful shock wave up his spine.

Uhn, he groaned in the dark, rubbing the small of his back and arching it as best as he could in the cramped stairwell.

Careful, sweetie, she called up again. The stairs are hazardous in the dark.

Did she just call me sweetie? Cautiously stepping down to the next, rough-hewed step, J’son was surprised to notice sweat trickling across his forehead in spite of the coolness of the cave. He reached up and sponged his face with his forearm. The sweat stung his eyes and he closed them against further irritation. When he opened them again, blinking the sweat out, he noticed he could see a dim light filtering up to him from several feet below.

The steps rounded a turn and the light increased, but only slightly. J’son was now in what could only be called a tunnel at the end of which was an opening. The tunnel was about fifty feet long and barely three feet across. The ceiling was so low that he had to stoop just to enter it. T’mar had made it to the end of the tunnel and was standing at the opening looking back at him. She motioned for him to come then stepped outside and out of his sight. She seemed to be in a hurry and wasn’t waiting for him.

J’son, bending over at the waist and moving as fast as he could, traversed the tunnel with little difficulty and approached the opening with hesitation. The wind was still howling outside and large branches could be seen flying through the air. Thunderous sounds of crashing and breaking accompanied the wind and he put his hands over his ears trying in vain to block out the noise. Looking at the destruction the storm had brought raging just outside the tunnel opening, he was starting to wonder why T’mar had wanted to leave the relative safety of the cave for the chaos of the open.

It didn’t make much sense to chance getting hit by limbs falling from the sky, nor the biting sting of dirt impacting his bare torso. Seeing how he was dress in only a skirt-like thing that hardly covered his groin area, J’son really didn’t want to brave the storm. What shelter could be better than this place? He wondered. Being this close to the opening, the hairs on his arms, chest and neck were standing at attention, vibrating slightly and popping like when he would put on a wool sweater in winter. In the darkness of the tunnel he could see tiny sparks flowing off of him.

The lightning flashed again, closer this time, followed a moment later by another riotous round of ear-splitting thunder. A lightning strike just outside the tunnel brought a nearby tree crashing down, falling just to the right of the opening. Limbs and branches stripped clean of any foliage littered the ground. The coverings of the trees were flying freely in the storm and occasionally he saw three foot sections of a fur-like substance similar to his tunic whip by at an alarming rate. J’son watched as one piece slapped into a tree, snaked its way around the trunk and disappeared into the storm.

There was the sound of a large explosion, very close, and the sky lit up. J’son lit up too. For every crack of lightning, he felt an electrical current rise up within him and saw a high voltage static discharge shooting out from the tips of his fingers. There was no pain associated with this phenomenon, just surprise and incredible feelings of power. It was the feeling of power coursing through his body that really surprised him. It seemed as if he were somehow connected to the storm itself. The lightning flashed and he glowed. The thundered raged and he experienced the popping of electricity.

J’son wanted to try something. Waiting for the next crash of lightning, he thrust his arm out in front of him, pointing at nothing in particular. The sky exploded in light and a high-intensity discharge leapt from his hand. A tree twenty feet away and as big around as a car splintered down the center from top to bottom. Staring at the palm of his outstretched hand and then at the broken tree smoldering a short distance away, J’son was nervously excited at the prospect that he had just obliterated something so large. It was like he had a ray gun in his finger. He really needed to speak with T’mar, wherever she was.

T’mar, he yelled out into the storm, sticking his head out of the opening and cupping his hands over his mouth. The hurricane force wind carried his breath away and the sound of his voice fell dead, sounding flat in his own ears. Where are you! He thought to himself, feeling the force of his own mind.

(I’m over here, behind this boulder.)

He heard the words in his mind, crystal clear and full of information. He couldn’t tell why he looked where he looked, but when he did there she was, poking her head out from behind a large boulder about a hundred yards down an embankment. He knew where she was as soon as she spoke to him. Somehow, they were in mental contact and J’son answered her the same way she had communicated to him. Forming the words in his mind and thinking about her at the same time, he released the words, consciously following them through the void of mental space.

(I’m coming!)

Chapter Three:

Poisoned

We will speak with you, mortal. You have been given a great gift that must be used in accordance with our wishes.

The Transcendentals speaking

within J’son’s hallucination

The ebb and flow of his headache seemed to pulse in time with the raging storm: a lightning strike, the release of energy, the stabbing pain behind the eyeballs. But wait. There was another step to the process, his heightened awareness informed him, but he couldn’t explain how he knew that. It was only when he broke it down through reflection that he saw his part in what was happening outside the opening of the tunnel. He realized on some level just below conscious awareness that he was acting like a lightning rod. He was somehow in contact with the mind of the storm and was directing that consciousness toward them. He was the reason why the sky was on fire.

That realization brought with it a strange sense of calm and understanding. Closing his eyes, he flooded his mind with peaceful and gentle images, relaxing him, quieting the fear, doubt and confusion he had felt since waking up here on another planet. Even his growing anxiety over his inability to distinguish between the ethereal aspects of dream and the factual physical reality of this world seemed to fade into the background. Outside, the storm quieted, the wind calmed down and the lightning flashed quietly in the distance, moving away. The clouds slowly parted and the sun was no longer totally obscured. Thick shafts of light shone down, casting large, irregular circles of illumination on the ground.

Sounds of small life forms scurried out from their respective hiding places, sniffing the air to see if the storm had passed. Looking down, J’son watched as a hairy, rat-like animal, maybe six inches long, moved about his feet having appeared out of a thin crack in the rock. It climbed over his sandal-clad feet on six, long, delicate legs, looking like those of a daddy long leg. Everywhere the animal stepped on J’son’s feet left tiny, puffy puncture marks. Surprised by the stinging, bloodless wounds now covering both of his feet, J’son started to hop back and forth from one foot to the other trying to step on it or at least not let the creature touch him again. Jumping outside of the tunnel trying to get away, J’son stared down at the dozen or so whelps forming on his feet. The itching was unbearable and he lifted his foot trying to rub it up against the calf of his other leg. What the hell is that thing? He thought.

The air outside smelled wet and alive. The wind and lightning had died down considerably, but J’son could feel the potential hanging in the atmosphere. In the distance the sky was still a dark, swirling mass of clouds with occasional dull flashes and a rumble that he could feel coming out of the ground. Like the electric discharged he always felt whenever he used to play around the power cable towers back home, the air was filled with ionized energy.

J’son, hurry up! We have to get off of this mountain before the storm comes back. T’mar had been hiding in the crevices between several massive boulders, but now that the wind had died down she poked her head up and was waving at him frantically. Moving away from the protection of the boulders, she started back up the slight incline heading towards J’son and the entrance to the tunnel.

Seeing her coming up the incline, J’son moved down in that direction to meet her. He had to climb over a large, fallen tree that was in his way and he tripped over the litter of broken branches scattered all over the place. His feet hurt and were starting to swell. They were numb, like when your feet fall asleep, and walking was becoming extremely difficult. The straps of his sandals were cutting into his flesh and he could see an ugly blue color mixed in with the red whelps. By the time he reached T’mar, he was hobbling and his head was pounding.

J’son, your feet? T’mar met him about half way between the fallen tree and the boulders and now had her hand on his slumped shoulder. She could see the strain in his face and knew that without immediate attention he might lose his feet. She had seen this before and knew exactly what had happened. He had been poisoned by a ’wat. It was a deadly poison that brought intense agony that lasted for days if not treated. But what concerned her about the infection at the moment were the hallucinations that would come soon.

Do you think you can still walk? she asked. We have to make it to the bottom before that storm comes back. I should be able to find you some medicinal herbs down by the lake. It’s all downhill from here, but we’ll have to look out for roots and other vegetation sticking out of the ground. No need to have you breaking your leg and tumbling to the bottom.

T’mar’s emotions seemed to be in check, but J’son could see the worry in her face: deep lines creased her forehead and there was a concerned look to her eyes. The deep pools of green that J’son had fallen for only a few hours before were now concealed behind nervous clouds of their own. His head felt like it was splitting in half and his feet had swelled to the size of footballs. His toes were normal size, but his feet were puffed up and indistinguishable as such.

I’ll try, he said dejectedly. His thoughts were falling and his mind was becoming unstable. Dark images flowed into his mind and took form blocking out all external visuals. Closing his eyes, cartoon-like figures in full psychedelic glory appeared. They seemed surprised to see him and turned to talk with him. There were two of them, tall and thin with long arms and legs. They were saying something to him, but J’son couldn’t make it out.

CRACK! That was the sound of a lightning strike, hitting very close.

The sound reverberated around the mountain, startling J’son. He opened his eyes and stared around, eyes ablaze and alert.

What was that? J’son said, looking at the dark, ominous clouds in the distance. The sky had a fierce, turbulent expression, an angry look that reminded him of a tornado. But that wasn’t what caught his attention. A strong breeze was blowing again causing the tops of the nearby trees to sway erratically in a twisting manner. Debris rapidly filled the sky again, twirling around, sending dust and small branches high into the air where they struck up against something invisible in the sky. The sticks and branches crackled and sizzled. Violent streaks of electricity arched up and scattered in all directions, following the curve of something incredibly large only seen when lit up.

Grapefruit-sized balls of glowing electricity rode the wind, emerging out of the dark clouds slamming up against that arch in the sky. Upon impact they exploded, splattering globs of plasmatic energy across the arc after which hundreds of jagged electrical tentacles fanned out and dissipated into the distance. Some of the blue/white, plasma-filled balls ran into the tops of trees, exploding there and raining super heated, pregnant globs of a jelly-looking substance down all around them, setting the grass and underbrush on fire.

That’s the roof of the Dome, she explained, raising her voice to be heard over the noise of the wind and static discharge. It is part of the… protective field that surrounds this place. It keeps bad things from happening.

T’mar wasn’t telling the truth and J’son knew it. What he didn’t know was why she felt