'Traveling Dangerously'
Traveling Dangerously
The next morning at breakfast,
Alexis was utterly cheerful, despite my feeling of impending doom, and Kries’s worry for me.
“So? You two slept soundly in the same room. What does that means for your great old grandfather Alex?”
I couldn’t help but smile at that point.
“It means you were right,” Kries said with a smile to Alexis.
“Wonderful!!! I knew it! I told you Kries. Didn’t I tell you?”
He pranced around as well as a little old man with a cane could.
“Yes grandfather, you were right,” Kries smiled.
“Told him? What did you tell him?” I asked suspiciously.
“That you two would end up together, ever since I knew your father, I’ve known our lines would connect. Don’t you remember playing with Kries as a child?” he kissed my forehead softly.
I thought and thought.
Then I began to remember a little boy with black, spiked hair I would play with on warm sunny days by the cool ocean water.
“Yes! I remember now. You knew then we would be together?”
“I didn’t know, but I hoped. So did your family.”
“Why didn’t they ever tell me when I was older about you guys?”
“Your family and I grew apart. We led separate lives and didn’t have much time free to spend together. But I have a strong feeling that will change now. Just know that the wonderful feelings you both have for each other, though you may not be able to identify them, are real, and you have had them since before you can remember," he smiled sweetly at both of us.
“Well if we live long enough to get married I can’t wait.”
I didn’t mean to say it but I couldn’t help it,
I felt like getting my hopes up now would be to crushing in the long haul.
“What?” Alex stopped pacing.
“I knew it. Tell me,” Kries commanded sitting down next to me.
“Tell you what? I’m lost,” Alex threw in.
“She had a dream last night; she woke up screaming,” he said staring at me the whole time as Alex sat down.
“Tell us my dear.”
“Look we all died, that’s all that matters,” I slammed my head into the wooden table.
Kries barely had time to place his hand in between my head and the table before I hit.
“We need to know exactly what you saw Clara.”
“Look Kries was tied to the stone bridge, paralyzed about to have his heart ripped out, Alex was being attacked by a swarm of them, and I was cornered by Dumitro and like six others. Dumitro reached out to me when I woke up.”
Kries and Alex looked at each other, before either spoke.
“You lied to us,” Kries said.
“What! No I didn’t. How did I lie?”
“You said we all die. No one died.”
“What yes you did, we all did.”
“No, my dear we didn’t. Kries is tied up about to die, you’re against a stone bridge about to die, and I’m being attacked but not dead. When visions occur like these, details like that mean a lot. You can never assume, because a vision changes depending on the circumstances. Do not be so afraid," Alex patted me.
“I… I didn’t mean to lie, I just thought…”
“You’re fine. Don’t worry about it,” Kries said kissing my head lightly.
“Well, we meet with the rest of the Ancients in three and a half hours. And I haven’t figured out how to tell them who she is," Alex pondered.
“Easy grandfather; I demand that she stays with me at all times, as she is...well we'll call her my fiance... and I want to protect her, and her visions.”
This seemed to satisfy Alex
as he got up and started pacing again.
“We head out in fifteen minutes so I suggest we pack up, and get in the carriage,” Kries said.
I turned and went to my room, and closed the door. I was so stressed out. I was going through some serious culture shock. 'I am used to being forced into ladylike behaviors, but now I'm probably going to die, by a species of heart-eating demon people? Woo! And before I could even get married to the man of my dreams, literally?' I sat down on the bed and tried not to cry.
It took me a grand total of five minutes to pack what little I had brought. I tried not to think about what might happen, and rather about the blue ocean, my drawings, my safe home, my sweet daddy, and my loving family. Kries came in, interrupting my thoughts, to see if I was ready to go.
“Yes.”
I grabbed my loaded bag,
and started to quickly walk out the door ahead of him, when he threw his arm across the doorway stopping me.
“What?” I said a little shocked.
“You are not going to die,” he said with such authority as he stared into my eyes, that I almost believed him.
I nodded and walked under his arm. When we arrived at the train station in Brasov, I was surprised to see how many people appeared to be Greek. I also didn’t understand why we had staid an hour away if we were intending on taking the train here anyways.
“The village we stay at is a Lautner occupied village, it is safer.”
We had a two hour train trip ahead of us. As I sat in the blue train compartment, staring out the window at the mountainous landscape passing by, I could feel someone staring at me. I looked over and saw it was Alex.
“What?” I asked softly.
“It marvels me how brave you are my dear. We need you and your dreams, and we will not let anything happen to you. We love you. Never forget, Kries is fonder of you then of himself, or anyone else.”
“I know. It’s a… just a big change of scenery for me,” I gave a weak smile.
“Here, it’s an old recipe from my ancestors. It will make you feel better in every aspects.”
He handed me a cup of something warm. I drank it down, and I was reminded of chocolate chip cookies on Christmas, and fluffy puppies playing in a meadow of green grass.
“Thank you, I feel a lot better,” I smiled.
“You know when I was a young boy, my grandmother use to tell me that this world was very 'mida' and that we should always trust that the spirits know what they’re doing. If we die, or get sicks, or have misfortunes, it’s purposeful. Your life could always be worse, you could be a demon,” he smiled.
“What does 'Mida' mean?” I asked, pretty much getting the overall picture.
“It’s pronounced 'Midday', and it means mystic...mystical, depending on the context.”