"Thaw Creatures Part 2"

Preface

The owl of encouragement had been a symbol throughout time of wisdom and knowledge with supernatural powers. It is said that when you see an owl you are to treat it like a sign from the ancients. It was a sign that you were playing an important role in time because owls were the Ultimate Observer; consciousness itself looking upon you in moments of greatness. So, when the time were to come and Acer's mom had to let him go, she was confident it would be the right path because there was an owl who showed up every evening just after dusk at the cave barn next to the gardens she tended to. It started the day that Acer & Gunther, the Green Dragon, fell into a deep meditation. "It is a sign," she said to herself, even though being a mom, she did not really want to let him go. Acer was her only son and the only family she had left in this entire world, and the events unfolding in front of her were terrifying.

1.

"Three nights man! The boy and the dragon have been asleep for three nights," Carl, one of the male guard soldiers exclaimed loudly. Annoyed he continued, "How much longer do you think he will be asleep? We have to get back to base and put together our teams so that we can once and for good put an end to these attacks!"

"That is if, and ONLY IF the prophecy is true. Maybe the kid just bumped his head," Reedly, another male guard soldier joked.

At that moment Christinia walked into the room where the soldiers were hanging out and puts in her “two cents”, laughing yet with seriousness, "...right and the dragon bumped his head at the same exact moment? I mean really, Reedly!” Christinia starts rummaging through some of her things but not finding what she is looking for. “The Green Dragon saved this whole village and the kid, he said he could hear him. We wait and when he wakes it will be exactly the right time, they are both supposed to. Have a little faith man,” she cracked as she grabs what she came in for and then rushes out to the gardens to speak with Acer's mother, Dartona.

2.

There was excitement all throughout the entire village. For the last three nights since the Green Dragon’s victory, the entire community had been on a buzz and celebrating. All the men and women in the tavern were singing a new song in the name of the prophecy.

"Village Mount Forel is where it began, a defeat came from the sky. In a victor Oh Green Dragon the creature he slang, oh ringing true Oh I Dee I!"

It was good to see people rejoicing for a change. Christinia had not seen much of this in her lifetime. The world she knew was one full of training, research, and a fight she feared may never completely be ready for. Rejoicing was a nice change indeed.

3.

Acer woke in a state of confusion. It was as if someone put him in a huge black darkroom with nothing but the dark mist of emptiness surrounding him. Confused and lost Acer yelled out, "Hello? Hello? Is there anyone out there?" He rose to his feet and tried to walk and see if there was anything around him but no matter where he walked, it was just emptiness. He went to yell out again but suddenly a deep and loud male voice rang throughout the entire emptiness, "Hello Boy."

Then an owl appeared in the distance. The owl was close enough to be able to verify that it was indeed an owl, but still far enough to where it would take him a few minutes to run up and get close to it. When Acer started to run up to the owl he went nowhere, as if he was running in place. Puzzled, he kept trying. "Something has got to give," he told himself as he continued running and running out of breath.

"You have spirit boy," a different deep voice whispered as if it were from behind him. He quickly looked behind him and saw nothing. He then quickly turned back around and saw the owl coming towards him. As the owl with beautifully lined brown, tan, & white feathers moved closer to him, it got bigger and bigger until right before him it was the size of the dragon. With the owl’s large feathers reaching wide and pushing a gust of wind towards Acer, in a flash the owl became the Green Dragon, and then suddenly in another flash they were in a forest. In this forest there were large pine trees everywhere. They were the tallest he had ever seen! It was a forest like the forests the elders in the village speak about when they talk about the world before the Vast Shift.

"These were the forests in my time, young Acer. When I was called to help the humans the first time. In Sher Forest, home of the Major Oak trees and magical creatures, everything was connected like one major pulse; a heartbeat that beats together as one,” Gunther, The Green Dragon explained.

“Why are we here now,” asked Acer. “What happened?”

Gunther went on to tell him more about the old days while Acer sat there in “Awe”. He shared with him about how humans waged wars against each other and how humanity had evolved since then. He shared with Acer about how the Vast shift changed the auras of all organic living beings on this planet. Then finally, Gunther shared with Acer how when Acer was born consciousness called upon the dragon to help humanity. He told him how Acer shared a piece of his light, his spirit, with him and that is how they are connected.

“I will always be able to sense you Acer. Since you were born, I have been keeping the Thaw Creatures from coming within a 200-mile radius of you and your village. Therefore, the creatures’ numbers have stayed so low. Now we will carry on together; together along with a few other elements, we shall defeat all threats to this planet which in turn affect the entire universe. It is all connected, just like our bond,” Gunther shared with Acer elaborating more on the ways of the universe.

4.

Christinia walks up to the village garden to see Acer’s mother, “Good Eve Dartona, how are the plants treating you today?”

“The garden might outlive us all,” She replied, and before she could get another word in, there were restless bustle in the village. Both Christinia and Dartona start asking around to see what is going on.

One of the town’s men stopped and replied, “The silent alarm just went off again! Run and hide! Get to the caves!”

Christinia and Dartona rush through the crowd to the cave entrance where her team was, the same place where the dragon and Acer lay. She motions for her team to go and hide.

“What about those two,” Reedly in question whispers to her as they move to the back of the cave. Christina whispers back to him, “Don’t worry about them. If they lay there still, the creatures won’t sense any motion from them.” Reedly responds, “…and if they do?”

“Then we pray the dragon is mobile enough to defeat them,” She responds hiding behind some cave furniture. Dartona then quickly changed her mind about hiding in the back and says to Christinia, “I’m going to stay out here with you. That’s my son out there.”

All at once the village was silent as they wait for the Thaw Creatures to pass through.

5.

Gunther and Acer walk through the forest talking about everything from the past to the present, and then the future to come. Acer stops and turns to Gunther asking him, “What happens when we defeat the creatures?” Gunther looks at Acer and begins to speak but then suddenly feels a sense of danger. He looks around and then looks at Acer with intensity. Acer quickly responds with the same intensity, “I felt it to! We must get back! How do we…”

Gunther cuts him off and says calmly, “Close your eyes and chant the word “Awake” three times. It will set the intention to return to consciousness.”

Together they close their eyes and chant, “Awake…Awake…Awake!”

Slowly they both open their eyes, look around, and then Gunther whispers to Acer, “Don’t move.”

As he whispers to Acer a T-Rex walks up towards the two of them. It starts to sniff and growl, then raises its head high sending off a loud chilling “ROAR” to the sky motioning the other to come join it. Acer stays as still as he can except, the shaking that fear natural does to the body when it sets in, and as the creature moves in closer with the sides of it mouth curling up showing its huge fangs. The Green Dragon moves his head in first and then slowly his body in between the creature and Acer and gives an even louder roar back at the creature.

The battle is on!

Gunther yells to Acer, “Run!!!”

As Acer runs to the cave where he can see his mother hiding. His mother motioning for him to hurry but then yells out, “Acer, Look Out!”

Acer see’s the other creature coming straight towards him but before it can get to him a dragon’s tail swoops in with force and knocks it out while taking the other by the neck. With all Gunther’s force he tries to pick up the T-Rex and fly it up to drop it, but the other creature gets up and starts to bite at Gunther’s tail, forcing him to drop the other.

Acer makes it to where his mother is finally, and they continue to hide. Then both T-Rex’s get to their feet and start heading towards the cave where Acer ran to. Gunther flies into the air and lands between where Acer, Christinia, and Dartona hid from the creatures. With a gigantic deep breath in, wings extended fully, and then an even bigger breath out he blows a wave of fire that could take out a herd of creatures. The fire is heavy and hot; so hot it cooks the creatures to a burnt crisp.

As the creatures lay there on the ground, smoke rising from their burning skin, the three-hiding come out from where they hid and walk up to the creatures as they take their last living breath. Gunther walks up behind them and them all four stand there feeling the heat, the smoke, and the death-full victory.

6.

When the rest of the villagers came out of their deep caves, they all came up and gathered around the Thaw Creatures. This time though, there was no rejoicing or cheering. The entire village stood there in a state of shock. They were not use to this many attacks on the village due to Gunther killing any creature that got within a 200-mile radius. The rejoicing was over, and the fear set in knowing that Acer would be leaving and taking his dragon with him.

The next few hours the team created a game plan for heading back to the head village located just behind the three waterfalls. It was the most protected village there was because there was one way the Thaw Creatures could get in. They would have to walk the path behind the waterfall. One could travel there by climbing to the top of the three waterfalls, across, and then down it again would take weeks. Thankfully the creatures could not climb very well so the three waterfalls had all the advantage.

Acer, Christinia, and the team would travel by horse at night using the dark to hide if they needed, while Gunther would travel and watch the land from the sky. The trip would take three nights. They created their plan and then went home to pack, rest during day light, and then return to meet at the center of the village at dusk. They would move out at sundown.

7.

After the meeting everyone started to break up a little and head to where they were to sleep. As Christinia was leaving she saw Acer gathering his things to leave as well and walked over to him. In an odd casual way, she starts to ask him questions, questions like, “So I heard you were a storyteller? What kind of stories do you tell? Where do they come from?”

Acer just looked at her with his awkward boyish gaze and crack his half smile, like he was enjoying her attention and said, “I read lots of books. My mother always brought fictional books home for me to read and so I developed a fascination to narrate. It is a passion of mine. Like reading to a lover, or so I’ve heard (they both giggle). Besides, what else is there to do in this tiny village but daydream?”

Christinia flashed her half smile and laughed under her breath a little and responded, “Yeah, I grew up in a small village, so I suppose you are right.” For a second, she felt a chill run up the middle of her neck where the tiny little hairs tickled her pale skin. She tried not to notice but she could not help it because she enjoyed it. “That’s strange,” she thought to herself. She shrugged it off and continued to her quarters. She knew she had to get a good day’s rest so that she would be ready for the journey ahead.

8.

Tossing and turning, asleep but restless was Christinia in her slumber. Visions came to Christinia in her dreams. She had learned the art of “Dream Walking”, but the beginning of a dream is always the hardest to grasp a sturdy hold on their sanity, regardless the level of the dream walker. Even the most advanced dream walkers struggled with the first contact in the dream state.

Her teachers would advise her to consciously keep telling herself to focus on the idea of breathing deeply, calming her mind till she found a stable “grounding” in the dream, and then move forward. Christinia had mastered this part though and it no longer phased her as much. This dream, it was different because it did not feel like a regular dream. This dream felt more like a message. It felt like something was projecting to her from another consciousness, not taken in from consciousness that was collected while in her awake state. The difference was that one was collected with her consciousness in her body, and then the other was completely foreign.

It was the same vision every time. She would be walking along a beach when suddenly a wall of water starts falling from the sky. It would reach the ground on one side and right before it started coming down again on the second, she would see herself in a past life of a hundred years ago reaching out to her. Then the third she would see herself exactly the way she was reaching out to her as well. Then the fourth wall of water started to come down and she saw herself from a future life. All three could be seen in its each wall of water and they were all three reaching out to her.

Seconds later both the future and the past glided into the third wall of water where her present was. It looked like she was calling out to herself till she finally collapses to the ground and right before she passes out, she hears three voices say, “You must connect to the power of three or we will all be lost.” Christinia would then wake up shaken, body sore, and the echo of those words, as if she was physically in that moment during the awake state. When a person internalizes a foreign dream that is sent as message it weakens the body and causes small trembles. This was one side effects that no one can shake. They called it “the reminder”; collected data in the subconscious like saving a file to a computer.

Christinia took a sip of water and tried to make sense of it while writing down the details in her journal. “Information permanently saved,” she whispered to herself. She thought to herself, how ironic, if computers like "AI" saved data, maybe it was sort of a similar process. Then she thought to herself and whispered, “I just need to get some sleep.” She laid down and closed her eyes, "Just sleep."

9.

Sundown was approaching and the team, the village, the dragon, and Acer were all getting ready for the group’s departure. Christinia and her team were preparing the horses and checking their gear. The trackers had been destroyed but the dragon was going to be above flying around and so they would be able to hide in time if a creature came through.

The villagers prepared by cleaning up the mess from the creatures and disposing of the creatures’ bodies by burying them; the meat from their body was good for the soil. They also would check the silent alarms to make sure it is working properly and create a plan to keep everyone close to a hiding spot at all times in case a Thaw Creatures came through while Acer and his dragon were gone. The entire village and villages surrounding them were on high alert. The danger was very real for them now with the dragon not there to protect them.

While the team finished up loading everything, Guther and Acer practiced their dragon sight. Dragon sight is Acer’s ability to see what the dragon sees. The two of them can connect consciously since their light is one. The two of them also share an aura which allows Acer’s skin to take on scale like features when there is danger and manipulate fire. Acer cannot create fire, but he can manipulate fire when it is created.

Shortly after the team finished loading, they started helping the villagers finish preparing everything before they begin their journey to the head village, The Three Falls Village.

Everyone mounted their horse except Acer who was hugging his mother goodbye. “I love you mother. I will come home as soon as I can. I don’t know how long that will be but,” with a single tear falling from his face he stopped, looked his mother in the eyes, and reached out to hold on to her a second longer.

She responded, “My son, I love you. Please be safe. You are all I have left but you are a man now also, and you have work to do. Annihilate those monsters.”

Acer had never heard his mother speak so fiercely and with pride. He would do everything in his power to not let her down. Dartona, his mother then turned to the dragon and said to him, “And you Gunther, please protect my son. Both of you come home to me.” She places her hands over his muzzle, caressing him like a mother. He notions to her that he will, and then Acer mounts his horse, and the dragon takes flight.

Both Acer and Gunther activate their dragon sight, and then Acer motions to Christinia they are ready. Christinia motions to the team and they are all off; destination Three Falls Village.

10.

Slight glances, small chatter, a flash of a smile, a look in her eyes; all things that were taking place between two people who felt an attraction the first time they spoke. Acer had never met anyone so strong yet gentle and intuitive. She had short hair, a strong body, and carried herself so well. She was a leader and yet she seemed to listen to him and follow him. There was no power struggle. She did not have the need to be right all the time and that was attractive to him but, not what attracted him to her. Christinia seemed so familiar to him, somehow, they knew each other. The way she looked back at him into his eyes saying things only one soul could say to another. Acer had found love at first sight. She had left an imprint on his heart, and it seemed to him that she felt the same. The two of them still had to handle themselves in a professional way though. They were on one of the most important missions for humanity’s future and that had to come first.

11.

The group traveled during the night and rested during the day. Each night as they moved closer to the head village, Christinia’s dreams grew stronger and more intense. On the third day before they were to reach the village, Acer laid near her and heard her restless in her sleep again. This time he ignored the need to pretend he was not affected by her and rushed to wake her. Brushing her hair away from her face while he held her in his arms, she clings on to him and opens her eyes. Both of their faces almost close enough to kiss, if just to feel her red plush lips and taste her kiss. She fought the urge until she could not find a single reason to fight it anymore. Releasing her fight, he could feel her letting go and pulls her in to kiss her.

The more they kiss the more intense the feeling between the two of them feel until they hear movement outside her tent. The distraction causes them to come back down from the cloud they were both on looking into each other’s eyes; tasting each other’s kiss. Acer stops and looks away for a moment and says to Christinia, “You were restless and crying. I was worried and so I came in to see if you were ok. So, are you? You, ok?”

Christinia smiles and watches his shy tendency while searching out eye contact with him again. She understands his reason for shying away, but also wanted him to feel her intention and her love. Their eyes meet again, and she shares with him about her dreams, “I don’t understand completely yet what they mean but I think there is a third element to all of this.”

He responds to her, “Have your dreams ever been wrong?”

“No,” she replies.

He smiles and asks her, “What do they show you?”

“They brought me to you,” she replies nervously while fidgeting with her hands.

He places his hands on to hers, assuring her that he is glad they did. Somethings don’t have to be said, only felt through a touch. He pulls her in to give her a comforting hug, gently kisses her on her lips quickly, and then leaves back to his tent like a gentleman. She lays down and giggles a little to herself like a schoolgirl and then whispers softly, “I love him”, as she slowly drifts off to sleep.

12.

The group gathers themselves and prepares to travel the short distance that was left to the head village. As they travel towards the village, Acer picks up the trace of something moving to the east of them through his dragon vision. He slows his horse to a stop and looks at Christinia. She takes one look at the fear in his eyes and then turns to the team and says, “We have to hide…now!”

Quickly the group look for a place to hide. “Over here,” Reedly whispers loudly motioning everyone to a small cave. The group waits as the two Thaw Creatures slowly walk up to their horses. One of them starts to growl and go in to one of the horses to attack when the dragon flies in and swoops the creature into the sky. Gunther takes him as high as he could into the clouds and drops him on top of the second one, killing them both, but not before the creature had picked up Christinia’s horse. The horse laid there almost dead as Christinia rushed over to it.

“We have to put it down. It will suffer and I can’t stand seeing her suffer,” Christinia wept while caressing the horse. Slowly Gunther walked up to the horse and took its neck by the mouth and snapped it, confirmed the horse was dead. Acer helped Christinia stand up and put her on his horse. He gathered her things, placed them on his horse, then he mounted his horse, and then they all rode towards the head village. She held on to Acer closing her eyes tightly trying to hide her emotion about the horse and for him.

It was not even an hour before they were met with guards from the Three Falls Village. Finally, they were here, and they were safe.

13.

The group followed the guards while Gunther, in front of the three waterfalls, waited to be brought into the village. The guards wanted to let the village know that the Green Dragon would be entering the village and to not be afraid, he was here to help humanity. He didn’t mind waiting for them. The dragon had almost forgotten how beautiful waterfalls were and decided to embrace the view.

Acer, Christinia, and her team follow the guards behind the three waterfalls, down the main steps, into the village, and straight to the head towers where they would meet with the elders of the village. The group enters the towers and come to a room where there is all kinds of equipment, radars, and futuristic screens for communications. It was very high tech and something Acer had only heard about in stories told to him by his mother and the elders in his village.

In the middle stood an older man and woman. The village was guided by a man and a woman to keep the masculine/feminine dynamic equal and make sure that the power is not dominated by one sex or the other. Both were in their late nineties with long greyish hair, a long beard on the male, and both wore long flowing velvet purple gowns. The people of the village addressed them as “He-Sir” and “Lady She” instead of their birth name and it has been this way for every elder elected to keep everything equal and formal.

The male elder spoke, “Welcome young Acer, my home is your home. We have much to share with you before you, your Green Dragon, and the team leave for the nest of the Thaw Creatures. Before we send you to where you may rest, I was hoping we could discuss an issue that is pressing close to the nest.” The male elder motions Acer, Christinia, and her team to walk with him and the female elder over to one of the screens and continues to speak, “We have picked up a force with a gravitational pull, pulling the sun and all the planets in the solar system into our planet Earth. We are unsure what exactly it is but, it needs to be destroyed or we won’t have to worry about the Thaw Creatures; the sun will cook us all.”

Acer looks at Christinia, Christinia looks back at her team, and they all acknowledge to each other that they understand the danger. Reedly speaks out in sarcasm from behind everyone, “Ok… no problem… and here I was thinking that this was going to be a piece of cake!”

14.

It had been almost 2 weeks since Christinia laid in her own bed. She missed the pillow mattress, with a duck feather pillowtop from the village ducks, and the fur blankets that kept her so warm. Tonight, she would soak in a hot lavender flower milky bath, sip on some fresh wine from the vineyard in the village next to them, and “wait… what was that…” she thought to herself. There was a knock at the door.

“Knock, Knock, Knock,” from the door.

As Christinia went to dip her toes into the tub full of hot and steamy water, she walked over to the door to see who it was. She opened the door, and it was Acer holding a single daisy that he picked up along the way to her place. “I heard that anything more than a single flower could be considered overzealous,” Acer explained to her while looking directly into her eyes.

Christinia finding it hard to look back into his eyes because the emotions she feels when she does; she has an uncontrollable urge to sink into him and kiss his lips in ecstasy. She finally looks in his eyes and responds, “No Sir but, using such big words could be.” She laughs and goes in to jokingly hit him in the right shoulder when she stumbles over her own two feet and almost falls to the ground. Acer catches her in his arms, bringing her in closer, and the two of them are compelled to look deep into each other’s eyes again. The energy between them is so intense that they can’t hold back anymore. He kisses her lips, and they leave a trail of clothes in the direction of her bed where they make love through the day.

15.

There are two lovers who made a soul connection and gave themselves to each other, a group of psyche and guard soldiers saying hello and then goodbye to their families, a dragon in an open field resting among the trees, and a village preparing for one of the most important events of their lives. For tomorrow’s evening they will journey to the nest.