Jaden sat up as the coughing slowed. His stomach was aching. He hadn’t eaten anything since finishing off the rations the day before. He looked about the clearing for something edible. There were many shrubs and trees, a few vines tangled between them, but nothing of use to him. It had been the same for the entire way he had travelled, with very little even resembling a source of food. He stood up to walk to the stream. At least, he would be able to drink fresh water.
He took no more than two steps before coming to a stop.
A difference. The clearing was not as he remembered it. He was not alone here anymore.
Slowly, he turned to his left.
She was here.
The woman from the dream was here. She was sitting on the other side of the stream near the large rock, seemingly meditating. Her hair and skin were the same as they had been in the dream, her outdoors look was strangely clean and her features were soft and beautiful, but the garments she wore were different, in more detail now. She was wearing a dark blue dress that was loose below her waist, but tightened with smooth material above, and her shoulders were covered with a loose-fitting brown coat, with its sleeves rolled to her elbows. They were nothing like the draped clothes of the dream.
She was sitting cross-legged with her hands resting in front of her knees, seemingly oblivious to Jaden’s careful approach. He made as little sound as possible as he walked toward her, like a cat stalking prey that it had never encountered before. He was wary of her, cautious, unable to understand how she had entered the most sacred of places. She had been an intruder inside his mind. How had she managed to get there?
Accidentally Jaden kicked a stone. Thinking he had disturbed her, he froze, but she had not even stirred, so deep she must have been in her trance. He continued forward when he thought it safe and reached the part of the stream in front of her. He sat down facing her, sitting in the same position but with his eyes open. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. For a moment, he sat in awe, staring at her in disbelief. He did not understand how such beauty could have existed.
But this was not all that troubled him. Little of this woman’s presence made any sense. She was an outdoorswoman, her skin darker than his, but it and her clothing were perfectly clean. He was covered in dirt and muck from travel, while she did not seem to have a mark on her. Who was she? What was she doing here? Why hadn’t she woken him from his nightmare?
A thousand questions raced through his mind, but there was only one answer to them all, and he was going to find out for sure, now.
‘This is a beautiful place,’ he said, deciding she was more than aware of him being there.
The woman sat perfectly still, without giving even so much as a smile in response to his statement.
Jaden waited several seconds, giving her ample time to reply. ‘It is a shame we’ll have to leave it,’ he said sadly, pausing for another few seconds. ‘The Alliance attacked my home. They will be coming here soon. They leave nothing behind. They will kill us if they find us here.’
Still this woman made no sign of hearing him speak, as if she were in a deep sleep, so far away that she could not be reached, even if he was to get up and try to physically get her attention. She was solid as a rock, but her breath showed that she was alive. This was not new to Jaden. He too had been taught how to meditate to the exclusion of all else around him. That this woman knew of these methods only made him believe even more strongly that he was right.
‘But you’re not going anywhere, are you?’ he asked. ‘You aren’t afraid of an army … or ten. They can’t do anything to you.’
Jaden paused once more. He had to have been right. There was no other answer to it.
His voice softened as his stare dropped to the stream, and then to his feet. ‘My home was attacked a few days ago. There was only one there to try to save us. If you were so close, why didn’t you come? We needed your help. My people…’ Jaden blinked away a tear. ‘My family is dead. I’ve lost them. Where were you?’
He waited. Although he knew she would not, he hoped she would reply. He could feel the memories coming back to him, the emotions he had felt as he witnessed the horror of the attack. It always seemed too real whenever he allowed himself to think of it, as if it were happening to him again and again.
‘Why do you stand by while the innocent suffer? You were meant to protect us. You were meant to stop the Alliance,’ he said, tears now starting to run freely and his voice failing from the anguish he held inside.
He started to think back to the dream, when he had first seen this woman. She had been powerful enough to withstand the elements, to move freely while he was frozen in place. While he ached and screamed out, she had walked through it all without a care. She had been invincible to the chaos, and yet she had done nothing for him or the boy even in the dream.