Temporal Exploring 101 - Deep Future

IV.36 The Adventurous Ones

Natty and I were dying to talk to Erin Morgan about what had happened at the Forbidden Cave, but we did not want to get Ndemba involved in this – and we suspected that neither did Erin, herself. So we had to wait for an opportunity to bring up that topic at a time when the Welsh girl was alone.

As it turned out we had to wait until the evening of that day, after we had said our good-byes to Lord and Lady Kerrington, and James had driven us back to St. Albert's.

There was a perfunctory knock on the door to our dorm room.

Natty had just enough time to yell "Come in" before Erin entered the room.

"I wanted to talk to you guys," she announced. "You know, about what happened. I imagine you've got lots of questions. Questions that for the most part I shan't be able to answer," she added, with a rueful smile.

"You bet we've got questions." I glanced at the amulet she was wearing around her neck. The gem looked as I had last seen it, dull and completely without luster.

"What do you think happened to that?" I asked her. "Do you really think it turned dull because it got exposed to the sun?"

The Welsh girl shook her head. "I doubt it. See, it has been exposed to sunlight plenty, including that time when we retrieved it from where it was hidden at Mount Fernyr, and still nothing like this has ever happened. No, this must be what it looks like after its power has been completely used up."

"Its power used up? What do you mean?" Natty asked.

"Well, the way I figure it, that bracelet is, or maybe has been an amulet, and ..."

"What exactly is an amulet, anyhow?" I interrupted her.

"You don't know what an amulet is?" The Welsh girl smiled. "An amulet is an object of magic that is worn for good luck, and also for protection."

"That's what it did today at the Forbidden Cave, isn't it? Protect us, I mean," Natty prompted.

"Perhaps." Erin frowned. "To be honest, I don't know what to think. Anyhow, it is a pity that its power appears to be gone now. Granny Morgan once showed it to me, a few years ago, and she explained to me that it was one of the last of its kind." She sighed. "That reminds me of something else I once overheard her saying. She said, 'There are so few of us left, now.'"

"Whom do you think she was she talking about when she said 'so few of us'?" Natty asked.

"I believe she was talking about the families that hold and pass along what Granny Morgan calls the gift," the Welsh girl explained. "We, that is to say, the Morgans, are one of those families."

"Why do you call her Granny Morgan rather than just Granny, anyhow?" I inquired.

Erin laughed. "Because I have got another grandmother, silly. Granny Fredericks, my dad's mum."

"I see." I had assumed Erin's dad to be one of the many missing husbands and fathers that appeared to consistently occur in the families of the Meddling Natives through the generations. "So your mum and your dad are still together, aren't they?"

"Of course they are." Erin gave me an odd look. "Did I say anything that makes you think they are divorced or something?"

"No, I am sure you didn't. I must have got something mixed up here," I muttered, silently cursing myself for having ignored one of the temporal explorer's most basic rules, the one that says: 'Do not make any assumptions'.

"You are carrying your mother's family name, though, rather than your dad's, aren't you?"

"Yes, that's true," Erin confirmed. "But that doesn't imply that my parents are not living together or that they are divorced or anything."

"No, of course not. So, what do you think about those families your grandma was referring to?" I prodded, eager to change the subject. "Do you think they could actually be witches or the descendants of witches?"

"As I told you before, I am not really sure what to believe, at this point," the Welsh girl told us. "When I was little Granny Morgan used to teach me all kinds of small tricks and stuff, but I thought it was all merely a fun game, back then. Such as, when she taught me how to let go of thoughts and enter a trance. Or later when she taught me how to conduct a seance. I am still not certain if it wasn't all just Granny inventing some fun and interesting new games for her young grandchild."

"Do you remember anything else she taught you?" Natty sounded intrigued.

"Well, she was trying to make me learn how to get attuned to animals or to other people. Like when we were sitting near a brook and watching butterflies and birds nearby. Granny would ask me to focus on one particular butterfly or on one particular bird, and she would ask me what that butterfly or bird was going to do next. Was that bird going to fly off or was it going to hop around in the grass looking for bugs to eat, that sort of thing."

Erin smiled. "Once we were taking a trip to London, and at one point we were sitting near a playground close to a mall, eating ice cream. So we watched that small girl, maybe three or four years old, with a cone of ice cream in her hand, and Granny asked me, what did I think that girl was going to do next? And I shrugged and was about to say that I had no idea, when suddenly it struck me, like an instant flash of knowledge, and I blurted out, 'She is going to drop her ice cream cone and jump on the swing, Granny.' And oddly, that's exactly what happened. That girl's mum was livid." She laughed. "But that never worked consistently for me, guessing what some animal or person was about to do. Especially not when I very much wanted it to work, so ..." She trailed off.

"But your grandma was attempting to train you, in some manner, then, wasn't she?" I prodded.

"Train me? I wouldn't quite put it like that. At least, she did not train me in a consistent manner. In my memory, it was fun and games. And she stopped doing that altogether after my thirteenth birthday or so," the Welsh girl explained. "In fact, it looks like she has been actively trying to keep me away from that kind of stuff, in recent years. I once heard her talk to one of her friends about me, and she was like, 'No, I don't think so. I'd rather leave her alone for a bit, let her enjoy her teens like a normal kid.'" Erin offered us a crooked smile. "Like a normal kid. Sounds ominous, huh?"

"Sure does. And now that she has gone into hiding or whatever, you may never learn the truth about all of that," Natty mused.

Erin shrugged. "Maybe that's not a bad thing."

"Maybe so," I agreed.

It looked like Erin Morgan really did not know all that much about that mysterious group of people that her grandmother appeared to belong to.

"That group of people ... I mean, all the families that bear the gift, whatever that may mean ... How do they call themselves? Do they have a special name for themselves, perhaps?" I asked.

"It's funny that you ask about that. I have found myself thinking about that too, lately. Because, yes, they actually do." She laughed.  "Or perhaps we do, as it turns out that I belong to them, by virtue of being a member of the Morgan family. Anyway, there is a word in the old language, in Cymraeg: anturus. It means, adventurous." The Welsh girl smiled. "So, I once asked Granny Morgan that question, if there was a name for what we were, and if perhaps that name was witches.  I guess I was trying to provoke her or to draw her out."

"Naturally, I did not succeed. I have never seen Granny lose her temper. But in answer to my question, she used that word. She said, we are The Adventurous Ones."

"The Adventurous Ones, huh?" For some reason, that made me smile.

It might not be very original, but it sure sounded a whole lot better than The Meddling Natives.

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A / N : Thanks a bunch for reading and sticking with TE 101 until this point! I truly appreciate your support and your critique and your interest in this story. As always, please consider adding your comments or voting for this chapter.