THE WAY KEEPER

CHAPTER VII

DESIRE'S POV

EARLIER

DESIRES POV

'Come Desire' Lara said to me motioning with her hand. I walked towards her and let her lead me to a jeep, still holding the ice pack to my face, but my heart was drawn to the tall stranger who's touch sent currents throughout my body.

'Marcus' I whispered to myself, testing his name on my lips and Lara smiled looking at me like she heard me which I find weird. In truth, I find the entire situation to be strange and common sense tells me to walk away, but my spirit feels safe. The men we passed by we're about twice my height, muscular and good looking but not as good looking as my Marcus. What! when did he become my Marcus? I think I hit my head too hard.

I feel Lara touch my arm and try to turn to look at her but it hurts so much I wince. She looks at me apologetically and motions me sit by the door as she orders for a bottle of water. 'Sit right here, I will be right back Desire.' she said as she walked over to the car in front.

'Here is your water Luna' said a male voice to me. I removed the ice pack to find a young man about my age holding out two bottles of water to me. I tried to smile at him as I replied, 'I'm sorry, Luna has gone to the other car', taking the bottles from him. He looked at me strangely before walking away. Lara returned with a pill in hand. 'Here take this, its a pain reliever', she said placing it in my hand. I looked at the pill, coloured in purple with black capsule before placing it in my mouth and swallowing with water. She holds out her hand to take the bottle from me and directs me to lay in the back seat and take some rest.

I close my eyes and slowly feel exhaustion take over me as I slowly drift out of consciousness into sleep. It isn't long before I find myself in the the first of many dreams that I experienced after I turned eighteen.

I was swimming beneath the waves of a mighty ocean, the rays of the sun casting a shimmering light below. I was drawn to the voices of women chanting in a strange language I had never heard but understood clearly like I had been speaking it my entire life. I saw them assembled in circular manner within a cave open to the night sky above with the moon shining her light and sea water thrashing in powerful currents beneath. Candles lit the cave casting a magical illumination within. A woman I assume to be the leader takes a dagger as the others continue to chant, walking to the lower depths of the cave towards the giant jelly fish thrashing beneath the waves trying to break free of the chains it is bound in. I watch in horror as the woman leviatates the jelly fish, stabbing her with a knife, spilling her fluids into a bowl. Once the bowl is filled, she simply drops the jelly fish to crash into the water below before drinking the contents of the bowl.

Unable to control my rage, I charge at her screaming. All the women in the room hold their ears at the high pitched frequency I emit except the leader who seems shocked at my presence and is unable to defend herself before I crash into her and we both land into the ocean below. We fight for the dagger in the ocean, scratching and pulling each other; trying to over power ourselves until she holds my neck squeezing tightly. I take hold of the knife, first cutting her arm before cutting her face, causing her to scream in agony before disappearing. I swam to the surface to find the cave empty with only the jelly fish close to death trying to wriggle her way back into the ocean. As I walk towards her, she lashes her tentacles at me trying to protect herself but I begin to sing a tune my mother sang to me countless times whenever I had a fit to help me relax, making the jelly fish stop abruptly. She wraps her tentacles around me slowly pulling me towards her and places me on her head gently. Instinctively, I lay my hands upon her soft jelly like surface humming the tune again as she begins to glow and her wounds heal completely. I smile as she begins to pull herself back into the ocean with me laying atop her as we slowly submerge.

'Gratitude little one' says a soft female voice in my head. I jerk up in fright looking for the source.

'Who said that?' I respond looking around me trying to find the source.

The voice chuckles in my head again and one of the tentacles taps me in the forehead. 'Over here' said the voice again as the tentacle waves at me. 'You can talk?' I ask surprised.

'I do not speak like you do, but I can share my thoughts with your mind. Your mind interprets my thoughts in a manner of your understanding, didn't your mother teach you how we connect with our minds?'

'My mother?' I responded puzzled

'Surely you must have the backing of our queen to have faced a full coven by yourself ?' she asked again but everything she said was foreign to me and I did not know how to respond.

She stops and raises one of her tentacles upwards me. 'Do you not know who you are?'

I was thinking about how to answer her when we heard a female voice from a distance.

'Pyrawe, is that you old friend?'

'Mistress you are back' said another voices in male tone. And I saw two fishes with scales of silvers and golden eyes swim towards us.

'What happened mistress we lost connection with you and feared the worst' said the male.

'Vishana, you were right. The witches were not trustworthy. I was held captive for many nights.'

'You captive, how us that possible? They are land dwellers an you are a royal.'

'I was betrayed by the one we called friend'

Both fishes had strange looks on their faces and stopped.

'Pyra, the king, he...'

'I know Ernak, we will discuss that later.' said the jelly fish interjecting the male fish.

'Yes my lady.Owe, I've told you to stop doing that.' said Ernak turning angrily to the fish that smacked his head with her tail.

She responded as she gracefully swam past him, 'I told you not to bring up that topic, yet you did'.

She stopped before me, staring intensely at me and said, she's human, how to I communicate with her? I wish to thank her.'

'I can understand you.'

'She can understand you', both Pyra and I said together.

'Did she just...? How did she ...? How did you...? said the male fish as he darted around me.

'Calm down Ernak' said Vishana.

'A human speaks and understands the language of the seventh water realm, how do you expect me to calm down' said Ernak and suddenly he was held by Pyra's tentacles and slowly began to can down. As his yellow eyes turned white, do did Visha's for a few minutes before all came back to normal..

'Tell me child, who bore you?' asked Visha

'My mothers name is Eve, Eve McQueen.'

'And your father?' asked Ernak

'I never met him, my mother refuses to speak of him and I stopped asking when I realised she how hard she cried everytime I did. I think it hurts her to remember him.'

'Indeed' she responded sadly, as she began to swim again

'Listen well little one, for what I am about to reveal will challenge everything you have ever known or believed to be true. It may seem to you that all if this is a dream but this is not a dream and the world you live in is only a fraction of creation. The world you know is but a fragment of the grand design of existence.' said Ernak

'We do not know how you were able to travel into our realm and under normal circumstances my mate would have hunted you down to take your powers or your life but because of you, my friend and mistress is back with us.' said Vishana

'Therefore as a reward you will be allowed to travel the oceans freely and I will teach you how to navigate and understand the norms of each of the realms. Some realms you will be allowed free passage, for others you will earn the right. However be warned; if you prove a threat to the waters or my mate, I will not hesitate to hunt you through all realms on earth to find you and kill you.' continued Ernak

'But how is all of this possible I am human?'

'Does anything you have witnessed tonight seem human to you? Here you are, sitting upon my friend in the middle of the sea breathing without aid. Thalassa only grants her gift of free passage to her children.'

'Who is Thalassa?' I asked

'We will answer all questions when next you return. We are here' said Prya

'Where are we?' I asked

'The doorway to the human realm' Visha responded as we moved closer to what looked like a vortex as large as a mountain twirling in the middle of the sea with several creatures of different shapes and sizes moving in and out of it.

'Wow' I say looking in pure wonder at the powerful force that stood before me. We moved closer and many of the creatures made way, clearing a path for the jelly fish. Many bowing slightly She stopped and gently helped me to climb off her head.

'This is where we must leave you, only you may step forward.' said Vishana

'How will I see you again? How do I know that all of this is real?' I asked sadly looking at her.

She tapped my forehead with her tail saying, 'whenever you feel the need to see us simply think to us, we will find our way to you. My mate may seem scary too you but its only because he takes his role to heart and is protective to those he cares about, however I have feeling he you two will turn out quite well'.

She looked at Pyra saying 'Mistress, it is time.'

I looked at Pyra who raised, her tentacles above me and showered gold coloured specks onto of me. The gold glitter swirled around me until it made the insignia of tentacles upon my right arm.'

'I, mistress of the blue waters and tributaries grant thee passage through my waters' she said and her entire body lit up surrounding us both in a bright golden light. I shut my eyes momentarily until I felt her tentacles touching me.

'When you reach the vortex, think only of your destination and it will take you there. I have instructed Vishana and her mate to take your lessons through visions and dreams, it will be safest to avoid disaster. When the time is right I will call to you. Go now'

I swam towards the vortex along with the crowd that resumed travelling through it. I closed my eyes thinking of my room as I passed through. I felt weightless as my body fell through space passing through a tunnel of various dazzling colors.

'Desire, sire, sire, ire!' said the sinister voice within the tunnel.

'Only think of home' said Prya's voice in my head again

'you're real, real, real' said a sinister voice again as I fell into the bright light below and slowly opened my eyes to see a huge man with his hair tied in a bun sitting in front of me looking at the road in front of him, he was so fixated on whatever he was seeing that he hadn't noticed I was staring. Lara was right, the pain had stopped but my face still felt swollen, I could tell we were still in a moving car.

As I prepared to rise, I heard Visha's voice in my head.

'Come child the mistress and I need to see you immediately.'

I smiled looking at him, as I slowly drift back into sleep to meet my teachers. As my eyes slowly close I see him turn back to look at me and I think to myself: Home.