All I see is white. White walls, white furniture, and by a small window is a woman. Her skin is paler than the walls themselves, her eyes seeming almost transparent in the light, and her white hair shimmering like water. The sun outside the window rises higher and lights up her figure almost blinding my eyes.
“You’re the transparent lady.” I say.
“That is what you may think of me, but, I am more commonly referred to as Lady Ashka.” She says turning towards me. “But, that is not why we are here. I have sent for you to tell you this, nothing is as it seems. There may be people that seem to be your allies but are truly your enemies. Don’t trust anyone. And most importantly don’t let anything come between you and your quest. Do not fail me Emmeline Rosenbloom.” At this she turns away facing the sun once more as she slowly starts fading away.
“Wait! What do you mean nothing is as it seems?” I yell to her vanishing figure.
“Do not fail me.” She whispers as she fades into mist.
I wake with a jolt shivering. I slowly crawl over to the bright light of the fire as I slowly stop shivering. All of a sudden I feel something buzzing in my pocket. My phone. I quickly take it out and look at the screen, but, to my dismay on the screen it said low battery. Damn. I exit out of the low battery screen and stand up walking across the room searching for signal. Nothing, of course there are no satellites in the 12th century. My hope lost I sit back down in front of the fire.
I look at my watch, 5:00 am, another couple hours to go until morning. I pick up my blanket and quietly walk over to the fire with it but, at the last second I trip over someone’s foot and fall. My knee lands hard on the cold stone floor, I curse under my breath.
I look over to see who’s foot it was and see Skandar blinking blindly with sleep. Damn. I give him an apologetic look pointing over to the fire and showing my blanket in my hand. He nods and slowly sits up, then he looks over to the others all fast asleep. Ginger laying curled up on her blanket she looks so peaceful. Patrick lays in a heap of crumpled blankets his eyes moving back and forth behind his eyelids.
Skandar stands up, and walks over to sit next to me by the fire. Before sitting down he takes some of the wood next to the fire and puts them in making the fire glow even brighter. We sit in silence before I say, “Sorry about waking you up.”
“It’s okay. It is nothing to be sorry about.” In his heavy British accent.
At that moment he leans forward, at first I think he’s going to kiss me but then he grabs a piece of wood and puts it in the fire. We sit in silence for another minute. Then he turns towards me and opens his mouth to say something but, instead he grabs my neck and pulls me into a kiss. My eyes are wide open with shock. Then he pulls away, his smile only lasts a minute until I slap him right across the face. I grab my blanket and run out of the room. I fling open the door of the house and run outside, I keep running and running till I get to a lake.
I wrap myself in my blanket for a moment but, decide against it. I stand up and take off my blanket and jacket. Until I stand in my shirt and jeans. Then with out thinking I run straight into the water. The water was cool and refreshing, I swim around for a while, then come back to the shore and sit down on a large rock. I sit there for I don’t know how long. The sun slowly starts to come up and I hear someone calling my name. But, I don’t move. I stay sitting there, my jeans and shirt don’t dry very well while I sit there because, by the time Patrick comes running to the rock I’m still soaking wet.
“What are you doing out here?” he asks taking a seat next to me. I don’t say anything I just kick a couple rocks around. Then he notices I’m dripping wet. “Why are you wet?” In response I point to the lake. He nods his head, understanding.
“You know everyone is really worried about you. Well, Ginger is still sleeping and Skandar won’t say a thing. But, I and Aunt Rosetta were looking for you for hours.” He says
“I’m fine. I just…” I try think of a decent lie but, can only think of… “I just need some fresh air and I wanted to cool off”
“You wanted to cool off in a lake?” He asks pulling out some seaweed from my hair and taking a shell off of my shirt.” I let out a small laugh and look down myself; yes the lake might not have been the best place for a swim.
“Come on. Aunt Rosetta made eggs for breakfast.” He stands up and pulls me up by my hand.
