The bronze fire-lizard leads you to a beautiful meadow with many different kinds of shrubs and flowers. The meadow is surrounded on two sides by forest. A path runs through the forest. There are several alcoves in the meadow where it touches the forest. Only two of these alcoves have something in them. You see a small table with a chair. The table has a manuscript on it. Looking at the flowers ,you recognize none of the plants or flowers. One type of flower is a light purple with loose petals and is a bit lopsided. Another has rainbow colored petals. Some of the shrubs have flowers on them, but the flowers seem intelligent. They turn as you move through the meadow. Other shrubs grow close to the ground with their branches burrowing into it.
A tall woman appears in front of you. She is dressed as an ancient Egyptian. She is wearing a white dress and the skirt looks like petals. She has a golden crown on her head that looks like a crane. She is carrying a staff shaped like an anhk. In the middle of her dress, a blue eye stares out at the world. She looks at you and smiles. You can't help but smile back.
"My name's Aseta. Welcome to the story meadow. I guard Remanth's stories, so no one takes them. I am a guardian of myths, ancient history, and the past. Who are you and why are you here?" You reply with your name and say you are exploring. Aseta smiles again and nods.
"Then you are welcome," she says to you. "You should enjoy Remanth's stories; she's a good writer. The first story won her school's Halloween literary contest. The second story is still under construction." You nod again, looking at the doors. You realize Aseta has only mentioned enough things to be on two of the paths in front of you. You try to look down the third path, but you can't see much farther than a meter. Aseta notices your scrutiny and turns to see what you are looking at.
"Oh, I forgot to mention that. That path leads to Remanth's poems. She also has poems from friends there. So far, she has one poem from a friend there. I must leave now, so stay as long as you want. You are welcome back any time. Remember that the planets below will take you back to Remanth's main home. If you see an alien, however, it will take you to the Cyberpets Grove. Good-bye," Aseta says. She smiles once last time and fades. You choose a path and walk down it.
Tessa’s Dare
Tessa tiptoed quietly through the cemetery. The moon was out, but it didn’t do a very good job of clearing away the mist that hung low over the cemetery. Tessa pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, nervously. There were several trees planted around the tombstones, all looking like ghostly hands reaching for the sky and freedom. She walked past the tombstones, which were a ghastly white. They seemed to be floating in a sea of mist.
As Tessa walked by a particularly ugly tombstone with a gargoyle on top, she felt something grab her ponytail. Tessa screamed in fright and lunged forward, away from the grasping fingers. When she looked back, Tessa saw a few strands of her black hair hanging from a tree branch. She giggled at herself and walked to the crypts along the back wall of the cemetery. She was searching for a certain crypt, one that said McManlon on the door. She came to the first one and read the name. Harlon.
“That’s not it,” Tessa told herself and moved on. She continued reading the names; Reede followed by Merna followed by Lartoc; until she finally reached the crypt that said McManlon. She walked around the crypt to see if there were any windows or cracks in the stone that would allow her to see into the dark room. There were none.
“Well, I might as well get this over with,” Tessa said. “I hope I’m able to move that door.” Tessa walked back to the door and examined it. She noticed that the dirt in front of it looked like it had been swept. The sweeping continued in a half-circle, as if the door had been opened recently. Additionally, there were gouges in the door itself. When Tessa grabbed the door handle and pulled as hard as she could, the door swung open easily, and she was knocked off her feet.
“Wow, that was easy,” Tessa said breathlessly. “Maybe the groundskeepers keep the doors oiled or something.” She crept silently in, but froze when she thought she heard breathing.
“It’s only the wind,” she reasoned with herself. “Just that and nothing more.” She stood up from the half-crouch she had fallen in when she heard what she thought was breathing and looked around. There was a family of skeletons lying around the perimeter of the crypt. Along one wall, there seemed to be a man. He had on a dark colored suit and had a cane and top hat. His suit and hat were in tatters, but the cane looked only slightly decayed. It was made of a dark, polished wood and looked like it could last until the skeleton had turned to dust. Along another wall was what seemed to be a female skeleton. This one had on what looked like a formal evening dress. It was impossible to tell what color it was as it had decayed into a light gray. The dress would have been pretty had it been new. The woman was also wearing a necklace that had a teardrop-shaped sapphire on it. The necklace was very beautiful and Tessa couldn’t believe the woman had been buried in it. Along the other wall was the skeleton of a child. The child’s skeleton was small and the shoulders were hunched over. It seemed to be a boy. He was wearing a little suit, very much like the one the man was wearing. His seemed to be a grayish color, though. The boy didn’t have a cane or a top hat, but he did have a little stuffed bear next to his arm. The bear was falling apart and the stuffing was poking through holes in the arms and legs.
Tessa decided that a little bone from the woman’s hand should be enough. Also, the woman’s skeleton was closest to the door. Tessa crept over to the skeleton and eyed it. She looked at the hand and decided to take the index finger. She gently lifted the woman’s hand and twisted the finger off. Tessa then pocketed the finger, put the woman’s hand back down, and tiptoed back to the door. When she reached it, she turned around and looked around the crypt one last time.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’ll return the bone as soon as I can.” With that promise, Tessa walked out the door and pushed it closed. Then, she made her way back through the cemetery, past the ethereal tombstones, and through the wraithlike wind clawing at her legs. Tessa saw the gate s looming ahead and broke into a lope. She couldn’t wait to get out of there. She made it past the gates and walked hastily back to her house. She walked in her front door and into her room.
“Did you get it?” One of her friends asked anxiously. “Let’s see it.” Tessa reached into her pocket and grabbed the finger bone.
“Ohhhhh,” her friends sighed. “You did it. You finished the dare.” Tessa nodded and smiled.
“I ought to return this now, though,” she said. “I’ll be back in a little while.” Tessa pocketed the bone again and grabbed her jacket. She shrugged into it and walked back out of her house. She jogged back to the cemetery and through the wrought-iron gates. The moon was still out and it was still light enough for Tessa to see her way. This time, she ignored the mist and tombstones and headed straight for the crypt. When she got there, Tessa noticed that the door was open slightly.
“It was probably the wind,” Tessa said, uneasily. “That door is a little loose.” She pulled the door open and slipped in. She walked to the woman’s skeleton and laid the finger down where it had come from.
“Thank you,” she whispered and turned to leave. Suddenly, a moving shadow caught her eye. She moved toward the wall with the child’s skeleton. Tessa watched intently, but didn’t see the shadows shift. She shrugged and turned toward the door. It was closed and Tessa distinctly remembered leaving it open. Tessa walked over to it and pushed. The door slid open a few inches, them stopped. She pushed again, but the door wouldn’t budge. Tessa stepped back a couple of paces, turned her shoulder toward the door, and ran into it. The door opened enough this time for her to slip out. She did so and turned to close the door. As she did, a hand grabbed her shoulder.
“Boo!” Someone shouted behind Tessa. She screamed and lunged to the left, wrenching the hand off her shoulder. She started running, but stopped when she heard the laughter.
“Jeez, Tessa,” her friend, Ellie, said. “It’s only me. You need to relax.” Ellie was doubled over, she was laughing so hard. Tessa walked back toward Ellie, laughing.
“Relax?” She asked incredulously. “You tell me to relax in a cemetery.”
“You’ve got a point. Let’s go back. You’re mom is going to be looking for you.” The two girls walked back to Tessa’s house. They walked in silence most of the way, but when they were about a block away from Tessa’s house, Ellie asked, “Tessa, why did you go get that bone? You didn’t have to. You could have just said no.” Tessa thought about it for a minute, then answered.
“I wanted to see if I could conquer my fears of cemeteries. I guess I thought that if I went in one at night, it would have helped me get rid of that fear. I think it worked because I’m not scared anymore.” Ellie nodded. The two had reached Tessa’s house and were walking in when Tessa’s mother looked out the window.
“Tessa,” she called. “What were you doing out there?” Tessa and Ellie exchanged a look and Tessa answered, “We were looking at the moon. It’s so big and bright, isn’t it?” Her mother looked at the moon, nodded, and went back to her room. Tessa and Ellie walked into the house and to Tessa’s room. Tessa and Ellie started getting ready for bed. Their other friends were already lying in their sleeping bags and talking drowsily. Tessa and Ellie lay down and the other girls asked what they did back at the cemetery. Tessa laughed, answered, “Ask me in the morning.”, and she promptly fell into a deep sleep.
Glist
Morgen Brown sat on the front porch of her house, staring off into space while her three friends talked around her. She was alternately combing through her memories and watching the sidewalk in front of her house change color. Suddenly, one her friends shook her shoulder.
“Morgen? Earth to Morgen! I asked you a question,” Katie Rowan said.
“What? Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you. What did you ask?” Morgen answered.
“I asked what you were doing,” Katie replied. “I don’t think the sidewalk can be that interesting.” Morgen laughed with the rest of her friends. Now that she thought about it, it did sound funny. When she got her breath back, Morgen replied. “I was glisting. Why do you think things change colors when you don’t blink for a long time?” Her friends thought a moment. They seemed stumped by the question. Then, Logan Nite hazarded a guess.
“Maybe you’re stressing the retina and the rods and cones in your eyes,” he suggested. That idea seemed to make sense, so the others nodded.
“Morgen, you said you were glisting,” Ethan Leigh said. “What is glisting?” Morgen thought a moment, trying to find words for what she termed glisting.
“Well, it’s obviously a word I made up,” she replied. “You know when you stare off into space and think of nothing? I was thinking about how often I do that and glist popped into my head. So now, I describe staring off into space as glisting.” Her friends, satisfied, turned back to talking about their days at work. They often came to Morgen’s house to wind down and relax. Katie was a doctor who worked in the ER. Logan worked with the government. He was the only one who didn’t seem to have stressful days at work. At least, he never talked about them. And Ethan was a fellow archaeologist who worked with Morgen. Morgen started glisting again, listening to the drone of her friend‘s voices. This time, there was a picture on the concrete. Morgen watched, fascinated, as the scene unfolded. A tall, heavyset man with short gray hair was pointing a gun at another man. The other man was a little shorter and thin with shoulder-length black hair. The man with gun was holding out his hand and seemed to be asking for something. The black-haired man shook his head and shrugged. The gray-haired man didn’t seem to like this answer because he pointed the gun at the other man’s leg and squeezed the trigger. Morgan saw a flash from the end of the gun and a spray of red from the black haired man’s leg. He dropped to the floor, holding his left leg. The gray-haired man walked over and stood over the other man. He said something and held up his left hand. He had three fingers up and a slight smile on his face. Morgen knew that the black-haired man had until the third finger went down to give the other man a satisfactory answer. The gray-haired man slowly counted down; keeping the gun leveled at the black-haired man’s stomach. The man with the gun reached one. The black-haired man had stubbornly not said a word. The gray-haired man shrugged and squeezed the trigger again. This time, blood erupted from the black-haired man’s stomach. The man with the gun turned and walked away, leaving the other man writhing on the ground in pain. As Morgan watched, a pool of blood started forming around the man. Suddenly, he stopped moving and lifted his head. The man seemed to look straight at Morgan and mouthed the words Help me. Then, he collapsed and Morgan’s vision ended. She shook her head and looked up at her friends. They were still talking about work and didn’t seem to notice that anything was wrong. Morgen tried to remember if she had ever seen the two men before. The black-haired one seemed familiar, but Morgen didn’t know why. She turned to her friends and said, “You guys are going to think I’m crazy, but something just happened. I was staring at the sidewalk and instead of seeing the sidewalk, I saw these two guys.”
“You’re right, Morgen,” Logan laughed. “You do sound crazy. But go on, this sounds interesting.”
“Well, one man was holding a gun. He had gray hair and was tall and heavyset. He seemed to be about sixty years old. The other man had black hair and seemed to be in his twenties. He was a little shorter and thinner than the other man,” Morgen replied. “The gray-haired man seemed to want something the younger man had. He kept waving the gun at him and seemed to be shouting at the black-haired man. Then, the gray-haired man shot the other man in the leg. He stood over the man and gave him three seconds to give an answer. When he reached one, the gray-haired shot the black-haired man in the stomach. There was blood pooling around him and he looked straight at me and said help me. Then, he passed out.” Morgen finished recounting her story and waited a little breathlessly while her friends processed the story. The silence went on, each thinking deeply. Finally, Ethan asked, “Are you sure you didn’t imagine it all? You do have a very active imagination.” Morgen thought about it and answered, “I don’t think so. It seemed so real. And I think I saw the black-haired man before. I can’t remember where, but I’m pretty sure I have.” Then, Katie got up. She turned around and picked her jacket up off the stoop.
“I’ve got to get going,” she said. “I have to go feed Bruno and give him his medicine.”
“How’s he doing?” Logan asked. Katie shrugged.
“The vet said he should be back to his usual doggy self within a week. He’s eating more and isn’t losing any more weight. He should be completely healthy soon. Bye everyone. See you later.” Then, she walked down the sidewalk and got into her black jeep. As Katie drove away, Logan said, “I have to go, too. I have five hours to get some sleep. I have a date tonight. Bye all.” He turned and started walking toward his house. He lived a block away from Morgen and they met at an Independence Day block party a few years back. Ethan turned to Morgen and asked, “Do you mind if I sleep on the couch tonight? I need to do some research at the museum and I don’t want to drive the couple of hours back to my house afterward. I’ll probably be too tired.”
“I don’t mind,” Morgen answered. “You know, you spend so much time at my house, it’s almost like you live here.” They both laughed. Ethan got up and waved good-bye. Then, he started walking to his car. Morgen watched the blue car pull into the street and drive away, then went inside. She had some research to do, too. She sat down at her computer and opened a document file titled Dreamcatcher. In it was all the information Morgen could find on dreams and how they affected the mind. This was one of her hobbies. Morgen wanted to analyze how the human mind worked with dreams and how it distinguished between dream and reality. She downsized the document window and logged onto the Internet. She went to one of her favorite search engines, Gonna Find It, and typed in dreams. The search engine found about two hundred. Morgen paged through them quickly, remembering which ones she had already bookmarked and seen. She saw a couple new sites and bookmarked them to examine later. Then, she went to a different search engine, called The Pile, and typed in astral projection. This time, the search engine came up with almost five hundred hits. Morgen looked at the site names and read the little bit of text under each name. Most of the sites were other people’s personal experiences, people mentioning astral projection in a web page, or instructions on how to astral project. Morgen clicked on a site that looked promising. The text read, “Astral projection is a form of travel. It involves your conscious mind leaving your body. Usually, this happens when a person is asleep, but it can be done while awake.” She didn’t read much further; this was mostly stuff she already knew. She clicked the Back button and continued her search. Morgen quickly paged through the rest of the listed sites, not finding the information she wanted. No one seemed to have any information on starting an astral projection by staring off into space. She finally became impatient at about the twentieth page and gave up looking for the information she wanted. She went back to her first search engine and then sat looking at the computer screen. Morgen had an idea about what happened to her, but she didn’t like it. As she sat, Morgen realized her hands had become exceedingly cold. Her fingers felt like little blocks of ice. She decided to log off the Internet for a little while and go make a warm cup of tea. While brewing the tea, Morgen couldn’t stop thinking about the black-haired man in the vision. She hoped he would survive the gunshot wounds. If he existed at all. Morgen saw that the tea was done brewing, and poured herself a cup. She added her normal amount of sugar and sat down at the table. Morgen didn’t like the suspicions that were worming their way through her mind.
“Okay, so what if I am right?” Morgen asked herself. “What if I did imagine this all? Am I crazy?” She considered that for a little while. She didn’t feel crazy. Although, Morgen had heard that usually people that are insane consider themselves perfectly sane and rational. Morgen was pretty sure her friends would have noticed if she was acting a little insane.
