Fantasy Land

Chapter 3

Flying

Jayna

The flight is long, overnight. Gabie and Lest snuggle with one another as they sleep. Lest also holds my hand during take off and landing knowing I don't like flying very much. We finally land in Europe, Amsterdam to be exact. We get off the plane, collect all our luggage, and gather our train tickets and tram passes.

The day is spent wondering the beautiful city, going through markets, and buying trinkets. We spend the afternoon in the zoo, admiring the animals there. Turning in for the night at our hotel, supper is eaten quickly as we chat about the wonders of the city. When bedtime comes, we all pass out instantly.

I look around me, eyes heavy. Pain ripples from my stomach. I look down to see my stomach covered in blood. My blood. I see large hands on my stomach leading up to a hunk of a man. His golden eyes bore into me as he speaks in a language I don't understand.

"Stay mit mér minn love. Í dag er eigi þinn dagr til feast með godsrinn." (Stay with me my love. Today is not your day to feast with the gods.) Behind him I see a woman. She is tall and beautiful. Her hair is long and ripples in waves of sea green blue. Large horns sit atop her head, enormous hawk-like wings stretch from her back. Her hands are raised level with her hips, her fingers surrounded by a green glow. Her fingers are slim, nails long making her fingers look deadly. Adding to this effect is the blood that drips from her hands, soaking into the creases of her palms and fingers.

The chaos seems to flow around her.

"Poor little Jillian." The woman speaks in English. "Now what oh great leader?" She snarls at me. The hatred burning in her eye's pierces through my very soul. I attempt to drag myself back away from her but the rippling ache in my stomach stops me. I let out a weak cry from the sheer magnitude of the pain.

"Mystique, enough of this." Growls the man as he stands between me and the woman. "You've made your point."

"Says the man whorefused to listen to my pleas before he murdered my son." I then notice thetears that run down her face clearing paths down her cheeks. I attempt to presson the wound to stop the bleeding, but my hands won't move. My eyes shut beforeI can witness anything else.

I wake in a cold sweat to Gabie and Lest shaking me.

"Are you okay?" Lest asks, brows pinched in worry as he holds me steady. Gabie's attention has been drawn from me to something in the bag at the foot of my bed.

"Yeah." I say as I take a deep breath. "Just a really weird nightmare." I stare at Gabie as she pulls something from the bag, dropping it instantly.

"You brought it with you?!" She shrieks at me, pointing at the journal I found in the attic a while back.

"Not intentionally." I crawl over to the end of the bed, picking up the journal. "I swear this was on my desk when I left." I tell her honestly.

"So, what? It grew legs and walked into your bag?" She sneers at me. I've never seen her like this.

"Both of you enough." Lest says in a stern voice. "The journal will stay with Jayna, and we will continue to enjoy our vacation. You'll both survive so please don't fight." We nod our agreement, attention turning back to the journal. The stone of it glows and swirls, drawing my focus. What was that dream? I wonder to myself.

Lest leads Gabie back to bed as I tuck the journal away, snuggling back into my own bed. I fall back into a dreamless sleep before waking again to my alarm.

We all get dressed and pick up our rental car to start driving across the countryside. Gabie drives first, me as her navigator, and Lest lounging in the back seat. I hold a paper map, following the road we are on currently. There are a handful of spots we marked at home that we wanted to see, some spots already places of interest on the map. I glare at the map as I look at the many road signs we pass.