The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (28 page)

‘Hrummmp!’
Sonal said, feeling slightly embarrassed but privileged at
witnessing such a tender moment, ‘shall we continue then?’ He asked
with a smile as he linked his arm through Jed’s. ‘Ready then, on
three..., three…’ The three friends stepped directly into the
darkness and vanished, leaving the clearing empty and silent, with
no one to witness the pin points of light appear once more as the
tessellation broke apart and the hexagons begin to shrink, becoming
smaller and smaller until they too finally disappeared along with
the brilliant light.

Gideon stared
at the old man before him; he looked just as he had remembered from
his dream, his blue eyes kind and sparkling with humour.

‘It took you a
while longer than I anticipated young Gideon,’ he said as he
dropped something from his closed fist into Gideon’s outstretched
palm. The sun twinkled through the leaves and caught the crystal in
the silver pendant as it fell the short distance causing sparkles
of dancing colour to race across his hand. Gideon held the pendant
by the chain, his free hand reaching up to his neck.

‘It’s like
mine,’ he said, as he withdrew his own amulet and pulling it free
from his neck held it next to the first.

‘They are not
exactly the same,’ began the old man, ‘although they do look
identical, watch...’ the old man said as he held out his hand once
more, Gideon let the pendant fall softly into the man’s hand while
allowing his own to fall back into his shirt. As he watched the
pendant with its chain nestling in the palm of the man’s hand it
began to glow, suddenly it was so bright Gideon could not look
directly at it, as fast as the glow appeared it vanished taking the
little silver and crystal amulet with it.

‘As I said they
were similar and looked identical but yours was real. Sometimes
Gideon you must look outside the box and think laterally.’ The man
smiled at him fondly and reached forward to lift Gideon’s chin,
closing his open mouth. Gideon thrust out his chin defiantly, angry
for being treated like a child who could not learn his lesson.

‘Well then
Surr, who am I?’ He asked again as the sun disappeared behind a
cloud. In reply, the old man held his arms wide indicating the area
around them and Gideon noticed his surroundings for the first
time.

‘Oh’ Gideon
said breathlessly as he realised the tree they were standing by was
the only full-grown tree in the area and it topped a green grassy
knoll. In the distance, he noticed some beautiful white stone
buildings with a small river twinkling in sunbeams and running
swiftly across the landscape like a ribbon of blue green cutting
through the grass.

‘Where are we?’
Gideon asked.

‘In the years
to come this will be a magnificent forest,’ the old man said,
pointing around him at the various people busily filling the ground
with small trees and plants. Gideon blinked, somehow, the lay of
the land looked familiar and a suspicion began forming in his
mind.

‘Surr,’ he said
seriously, turning again toward the man. ‘This may sound a bit odd
but nowt about this ‘ole situation is not odd…, should I ask,
when...
are we?’ The man began to laugh.

‘It’s
whole
lad, not ‘ole, but let’s sit a while and wait,’ he
said, smiling at Gideon’s pique for being corrected, his deep blue
eyes twinkling. He sat himself down leaning against the bole of the
tree, quietly smiling up at Gideon’s scowl until Gideon too sat
down on the soft grass and absently scratched an itch on his ankle;
he stared at the old man wondering what was going on. He had a
thousand questions and wanted answers but the old man, satisfied
that Gideon would do as he requested tipped his hat over his eyes
and settled more comfortably against the tree.

‘We wait a
while now boy…’ was all he would say as he folded his hands over
his lean frame.

Gideon, tired
and hungry ignored the rumbling in his belly and the slight itching
of his skin and layback on the grass. He stared up into the tree
trying to focus his mind, wishing for a piece of wood to whittle
and wondered about Mayan and his friends, whom he supposed were
still sitting under the moonlight in the glade listening to Varan’s
stories. Blue had been with him when the old man had appeared in
front of him, where was the wolf now he wondered.
No,
Gideon
corrected his errant thoughts
, the wolf ‘ad been beside me but
moved when I asked me question, the ole man ‘ad appeared where Blue
‘ad been…,
Gideon sat up staring hard once more at the old man,
not at all sure where his chaotic thoughts were taking him. What
did he know about the wolf, that he loved him, yes, that he had
always known him, yes, never aging…, and in fact, didn’t he
remember his father telling him he had been around when he had been
a boy himself? Then there were Blue’s eyes that distinct shade of
deep piercing blue
and not dissimilar to the man asleep under
the hat!
He took a gulp of air and opened his mouth to speak
his thoughts when in front of his eyes his father, along with Mayan
and Varan all tangled together, fell through the air in front of
him landing with a thud on the soft ground. The old man lifted his
hat and looked at the stunned group before him.

‘Hmmmm...,’ he
said, adding, ‘wake me when everyone arrives will you Gideon, I’m
rather tired.’ He pulled the hat down over his face once more and
effectively ended any sign of continued conversation.

‘Where are we
an’ what be goin’ on ‘ere boy?’ Asked his father, as he pulled
himself up and helped Mayan to her feet; all the while looking
suspiciously at the old man lying on the ground.

‘Where be this
place Gid?’ Mayan whispered.

‘Don’t ask
May,’ Gideon replied as she also looked around her, wholly relieved
to be with Gideon once more she closed her mouth and much to
Gideon’s surprise, for once did as he asked and said nothing
more.

Just as his
father opened his mouth to speak again, a voice came from under the
hat.

‘Oh, hello Jed,
nice to see you, nice to be able to talk to you too, without
shouting I mean,’ Jed looked at the old man quizzically and
glancing at his son raised his shoulders in silent question. Gideon
did not answer, so taking his cue from his son, Jed looked around
once more, taking in his surroundings and sat down next to him
rubbing his legs and arms absently, quietly puzzled, his eyes
returned to the old man under the great tree.

Varan also said
nothing but walked a few paces away from the group to look at the
view before them from the edge of the knoll and turned to speak,
when suddenly pain was evident on his face. He turned his back to
the company, his shoulders tense and gently heaving, finally he
fell to his knees. Gideon knew his friend’s brother was crying, was
in pain somehow and wanted to help but was not sure how.

‘Leave ‘im boy,
let ‘im ‘ave ‘is privacy…’ whispered his father as Gideon made to
stand, so he stayed where he was and left Varan to work out
whatever ‘it’ was alone.

Varan sobbed,
not noticing as the sun came out and played over the pale and
rainbow coloured dome that he had inadvertently walked through. It
covered the entire valley before him, almost but not quite up
reaching up to the place where the rest of the group sat around the
tree, a pearly, almost translucent barrier and very similar to the
failing one he had grown up beside, the difference was that this
one was whole and perfect.

There they
rested, whispering quietly amongst themselves whilst they waited.
Eventually Rhoàld then Sonal, a smiling young Jed and Lemba stepped
out from nowhere into the sunshine and joined the group on the
grass.

Sonal rubbed
his arms slowly and stared around him nervously, wondering if the
gateway had closed behind them and they were stuck here,
wherever here is,
he thought as he revelled in the feeling
of peace and acceptance that filled the very air they breathed.
Lemba walked to Varen and sat beside him as pain consumed her for a
moment and tears filled her eyes, she swallowed hard repressing the
lump in her throat and the pain passed as quickly as it had come.
Not understanding what had happened she assumed everyone had felt
the same thing and ignored the sensation.

Excited voices
welcomed the late comers as Gideon cleared his throat, Varan turned
to the group, whatever demons that had held his thoughts completely
gone as Lemba, her sudden pain also forgotten, smiled at the
welcome and the hug Mayan gave her, feeling that she truly belonged
for the first time in her life.
I would die for these
people,
she thought as she rubbed the roof of her mouth with
the stub of her tongue to relieve an itch. She could still feel
Jed’s tongue as it had explored her mouth tenderly and as if in
response to her thoughts, he moved to sit beside her, shivering
gently as he sat and squeezed her hand.

‘Would yer look
at that?’ Mayan cried, pointing to the dome that seemed to come
down between them, almost cutting Varen, Lemba and young Jed off
from the rest of the group.

‘It’s a dome of
protection,’ Varan began and lifted his hand in wonder as he tried
to touch the delicate fabric of magic in front of him, explaining
as much as he could about the shiny iridescent barrier and
marvelling at its strength and beauty as he did so.

Gideon had sat
quietly whilst awaiting his friends and had been mulling over all
he knew, or thought he knew so far.
Think laterally ‘e said,
well let’s see iffen this is lateral enough fer ‘im,
Gideon
grinned at his thoughts and prepared to be laughed at.

‘Blue,’ he said
taking a deep breath, everyone turned to look at him bar the old
man who seemed to be sleeping. ‘Blue,’ he called again ignoring the
questioning glances from his companions. ‘We be all ‘ere,’ he added
as the man lifted his hat and raised his eyes to greet the small
company.

‘Actually
Gideon,’ he said, ‘my real name is Thaddrick, and it’s
we
are
all here,’ he smiled as he corrected Gideon’s speech,
his eyes belying the scold. A hushed silence broke over the small
group sitting under the tree, finally broken by Gideon’s
father.

‘Well…, ‘By the
Journey,’ iffen I can walk through a gateway from night ter day I
think I can believe yer tellin’ the truth. Though ‘ow comes yer be
spending yer time as a wolf I dunno,’ laughed Jed as he pulled
himself to his feet and walked over to the man still seated under
the tree. Standing before the man and bending down from the waist
Jed peered closely into the old man’s eyes.

‘Yeah folks,
thissen be Blue, I’d kno’ them eyes anywhere…’ he said and held out
his hand to help the old man to his feet clapping the man’s back
hard.

‘Remember this,
Jed?’ Thaddrick asked, as he pulled open his shirt to reveal a
jagged scar high on his shoulder.

‘Well I’ll
be…,’ Jed smiled again, ‘Blue, I never did thank yer fer saving me
life,’ he said and pulled the old man into a tight embrace. The
rest of the group looked on clearly puzzled, unaware that as a wolf
Blue had pulled Jed from the burning smoke filled cottage after he
had tried to kill himself and been injured during the rescue. Jed
had cleaned and sewn the wound closed himself and nursed the wolf
back to health.

‘Where are we
Blue?’ Gideon asked, for what he felt was the fiftieth time as he
rubbed at an irritating itch on his back.

‘You have
guessed already I believe young man,’ Thaddrick answered, allowing
the name of the wolf to stand.

‘This is ‘ome
ain’ it’ Gideon stated matter of factly. ‘This be Green ‘Ome
Forest!’ The assembled company looked around them with puzzlement
evident in their looks.

‘We travelled
through the void, through time itself…,’ Varan said softly, turning
to his brother, amazement written on his face.

‘How is this
possible?’ Sonal asked.

‘No, ‘ow come
yer a wolf?’ Young Jed asked as he stared incredulously, noticing
for the first time the man’s colouring and eye colour really was
exactly the same shade as the wolf he loved.

‘I will answer
all your questions after we have eaten and rested but…,’ he said as
he faced the company, spreading his arms wide encompassing the
mighty shimmering barrier before them and the whole area within and
smiled again. ‘Firstly, let me say you were right, Gideon, this
is
Green Home Forest, or will be in time to come and welcome
to my home. Know that time in the outside world will not pass in
quite the same way, however long you stay here so please, follow
me,’ he said as he turned away from the company and began to make
his way down from the summit of the grassy knoll. Gideon crossed
through the domes barrier and felt his blood begin to pound, he
recalled Sonal’s tales of the bleak and shuddered but the feeling
vanished as he saw the others experience something similar as they
too passed through.

The small
company had no option but to follow Thaddrick as he crossed through
the verdant growth of small trees and bushes, all in various stages
of new life.

‘I have the
role of Verderer here,’ Thaddrick said as he walked on and the
small company caught him up. ‘I am in charge of the forest,
maintaining its growth and health, as you know in time this will be
one of the most magnificent forests on this world.’ Pride sounded
in every word. Sonal, hearing the meaning behind the phrase glanced
at Varan and tried to reach for the roots of the magic, he
desperately wanted to talk privately with his brother but as
before, there was nothing.

‘There is magic
in the air here,’ Rhoàld stated as they walked, ‘I can feel it,’ he
added looking suspiciously at Thaddrick. Apart from his recent
activities, Rhoàld’s only other experience of magic had been with
Gath and magic had always stood for blood and pain, over the last
few months it had meant his own pain and Bastian’s death. Thaddrick
stopped walking and immediately turned to him.