Magic and Destiny: Fate

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jaine Adel woke with a start one morning, having just had a bad dream. She was breathing heavily, sweating profusely. She looked around in the midnight gloom. She could feel the eyes upon her, looking at her, but she could not tell from which direction they were coming from. She pulled back the covers and pulled herself out of bed, one leg at a time.

Going out into the hallway, she could still not sense where the presence she was feeling emanated from. She lurched forward, not of her free will, and fell to the ground, a sharp, dull pain in the small of her back as if she had just been kicked by something massive. She looked behind her but could feel nothing. Was it a phantom, or was she just imagining it. She opened her mouth, and began to wail, frightened as her young mind could not understand what was happening.

Lights to her right and further down the hall flicked on as the sounds pierced through her parents sleep, and they came running out into the hall to see what the commotion was. "What is it?!" The father exclaimed, looking up and down the hallway as he leaned down to pick up his daughter.

"I don't know what it is papa. It felt l-like something k-kicked me in my b-back." She managed to say through her tears.

"Oh honey, you must have just had a bad dream. Come on; let's get you back in bed." She took the girl from the arms of her father, and walked her back down the hallway and into her bedroom once again. She could not sense the presence that was there, but her daughter could still feel the... thing that was still in the room.

As she was being tucked into her bed, she grabbed onto her mother's hand and held it tight. "Please don't leave me alone tonight mama... I can still feel it. It's still here."

The mother leaned down and kissed her little baby on the top of her head, smiling down at her. "Don't worry, honey, nothing's going to happen to you as long as you're in your bed. If you believe, nothing can harm you while you are on your bed. Believe, like I believed, and a shield of power will protect you while you sleep." She kissed her daughter on the head again, and with her still crying, silently now, she walked from the room, closing the door behind her.

Jaine believed her mother and believed, and eventually she fell back to sleep, not to be disturbed for the rest of the night.

When she woke the next time it was full daylight outside, and she learned that her parents had let her sleep-in because of her nightmare. She rubbed at the sleep still in her eyes, and yawned wide. Blearily, she got out of bed and walked to her door, walking through the door and into the bathroom to splash some water onto her face.

Once she was fully awake, she pulled on some leggings and her dress, and went outside. It was a Saturday, so she was able to go out and play with her friends or go play in the woods as long as she wanted. She didn't have many friends, however, because she was convinced her house was haunted, and most children stayed away from her because of it.

She walked from the house and found her parents sitting out on their porch in matching rocking chairs. She smiled at her parents, and grabbed a few slices from a small pile of fresh peeled oranges and ran off into the woods to discover some new secrets that she didn't already uncover the week before. Walking through the tall grass, she ate her oranges, tossing the peels into the grass to let them become food for the plants around her.

She walked the path that she was familiar with, from exploring just about every weekend. She took a different direction than the last time she reached the end of her route. Veering off to the left, she wondered through the woods, going from tree to tree, looking for anything that might be considered special. After a few hours of searching, she came to the grand oak tree, the one the village elder's spoke of in their grand tales, stating that it was supposed to be the home of a terrible entity. A prison put there by an ancient guardian. She didn't believe them, and walked up to the tree, climbing up from the ground, latching on to each tree branch she could reach.