Becoming (Chapter Seven)

7. Upgrades and Choices1

I decided that waking up to people staring at you was not preferable. In fact, you could just say it was downright uncanny. I debated about whether or not I should pretend to go back to sleep. Maybe you could wish them away. It was worth a try. I closed my eyes. Go away, I want to sleep more! I opened them.
They were gone! 2

“Told you,” said Nylan as he spat out the leaves from his mouth.
Trivlan pouted in silence, the wet leaves on top of head arranged quite humorously. From what Nylan had gathered as Adien in The Other Reality, Trivlan looked much like a clown. When a leaf reddened by the coming fall fell on his nose, it only added to the comical effect. Nylan smiled while Trivlan only added to his deep frown lines.
“Now we just have to fine out how far she sent us,” said Nylan, pleased they had a gauge on her power.
“She can’t just go about sending a counsel member, me to say the least, into the forest, and a forest possibly even in the god-forsaken parts of this world!”
Nylan wished that Trivlan would talk this properly more often. “I see my tree-house; I don’t think she sent us far.”
Trivlan huffed and shook the leaves out of his dark, battle cropped hair.
“Let’s go back quickly, before she begins to panic.”3

Yes! I figured I must have fallen asleep after I closed my eyes and they left. It was perfect, and I got up to go explore, hopefully find a way out. The door was open, with no guards. Perfect, to say the least. Quite groggily, I got up and walked to the door. When I peered out, empty, steep stairs greeted me.
I formally ignored the stairs and concentrated on the view. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The trees leaves were turning the beautiful reds, yellows and oranges of fall. Even better, it was early enough that none of the leaves were the brown, dead color.
I began to hope that I could fly above the trees. I sighed, knowing it was impossible, and began to walk down the spiraling stairs. It was genius, how the steps came out of the trees, almost like Jenga blocks.
However, Nylan and a counsel member popped out from around the corner, violently running into me.
“Oof,” I said as I took the impact from Nylan, and the other man tripped, almost falling off the stairs, and I panicked. Don’t fall! He didn’t, because an invisible force held him back, carefully setting him back on the stairs, completely upright. His face was pale.
I pushed Nylan off me. “You’re good at magic,” I said, trying to get on this guy’s good side.
His face was confused. “Ummm… Well, thank you, for ummmm, saving me, Miss Reynolds.”
Now it was my turn to be confused. I looked at Nylan, who was then brushing himself off. He looked like he was preparing himself for a speech, but the he was caught off guard when I stood up.
“What?” I asked.
“Look down.”
I did, and was shocked to find that my feet were a few inches off the ground. “Oh. My. Gosh. What is happening?” My voice was rising in pitch and volume, and my breathing was uneven.
“Jade, Jade, you need to calm down. We’ll explain everything okay?” His palms faced the ground, and his arms moved up and down to emphasize his words. I just swallowed and nodded, not quite sure what I wanted to hear.
“Look, um, you should, well, you should probably sit down,” said Nylan, carefully, cautiously.
I sat down slowly, not leaving Nylan’s fearful eyes. “I’m… becoming something, aren’t I?” I inquired; sure I was close to the truth.
“No,” I heaved a sigh of relief, “you’re already something.” Gulp.
My eyes went from left to right. Sarcastically breaking the silence, I spoke. “Well… you could tell me what I am…”
His eyebrows rose. “I could.”
Very angry, I imagined in my mind slapping him, hard. Suddenly, Nylan reeled back, holding his face in pain.
“Ouch! Jade!”
I wasn’t stupid, I realized that I had power, and I was beginning to feel it. “Stop it, Adien, Nylan, whoever you are, I’m not an idiot, I can think for myself.”
“Of course you can,” spoke the all-forgotten Trivlan, beside me, “but you’re not going to until you can control yourself.”
I knew I was being immature, but I didn’t want to back down, being stubborn and angry. “I am controlling myself.”
“It’s not the way you think, it’s much, much more complicated. Now, just, try not to think, okay?”
“Not to think! Hello, I have to think to breathe, it still requires some effort!” I retorted, rudely, knowing that even though he was only a year older, he was still my elder in knowledge.
He made a visible attempt to control the anger that I could feel from him. I secretly knew what was happening, in the darkest corners of my mind, I did. It was almost like I was going to use that information in my battle plan. My mind was set for a battle, any war or argument that I could take on, it was ready. This argument seemed to me as something that I needed to win, something I couldn’t afford to lose.
“Jade, you are, and were the Dragon Master, seeing a dragon, let alone getting near it, set your abilities and powers off in an irreversible increase. Soon you’ll be the most powerful being in this world, possibly all of them.”
“There’s more than two?”
“Thousand, perhaps millions of everything people conjure up in their mind.”
“That’s a lot.”
“This world and yours are the main ones, the ones where other branch out from, now this is unimportant, we must discuss your training, the first of which is your control of your power, which is only growing by the second. I know you can feel it.”
He’s making neutral, keep the battle!
No, he wants to help you; stay on his side, there’s no reason to be hostile.
I looked at him inquisitively. Are you really on my side? I asked in my mind. To my greatest surprise, a voice like his answered back. It buzzed in my mind.
“Yes, if there were sides, which there isn’t, I would be on yours.”
I looked at him, instantly recognizing the telecommunication that I’d read about in books was now one of my new abilities. Sweet! I was soon out of touch with the world, exploring the minds around me. Some, like Trivlan’s were harder to get in, and I didn’t bother, knowing they would probably be devastated if I accidentally broke their barriers completely. I didn’t know much about it yet. I avoided Nylan’s thoughts, afraid of what they might tell me.
“Jade!” I obviously had drifted to space for awhile. “Don’t go running around in minds while you know nothing about the gift!”
I decided to defy him, feeling power welling up inside. “Fine, but I won’t stand anymore of this pointless chatter. I will be at the mind master’s tree house in an hour.”
With that, I stomped up the stairs, ticked at how he had gotten the better of me. The bouncing of my steps made my necklace come out from under my sweatshirt. I must have been working its way up. Angry, I yanked off, and threw it down the stairs. I immediately felt that something was wrong.
The pull of the necklace hurt, and I was compelled to go after it. My loss of judgment had me jumping off the stairs, twenty feet up, after the necklace. I closed my eyes and thought very hard about flying. When I opened them, I had only slowed my decent, but it was enough.
My feet gently hit the ground by the necklace, and I quickly picked it up. Relief flooded my body.
“You’re going to need that,” said a voice by my side. “Nylan didn’t tell you, I’m sure.” I turned to see a pale elf, haggard and wrinkled speaking to me from the shadows.
“Who are you?” I tried to reach into his mind, but I was only shocked by how heavily guarded it was.
“My mind is blocked by magic no one has told you of. Better, magic. It has no laws, and aids you greatly in battle. Mmmm… yes, I think you would do well in this area.”
I was cautious. People who hide in the dark aren’t exactly people to trust. “What is this necklace?”
“The key to your power, until Nylan decides you can control it enough to have it permanently.”
“So anyone can take this… and have the power?”
“No, no, only you are meant for it, but it can be taken away, least you earn their trust.”
“I’m sure talking to you isn’t going to help that much.”
The elf laughed, a scratchy, ugly laugh. “No, no, but I can weed you out.”
“I’ve read enough books and seen enough movies to know that you’re not the way to go.”
“Of course, but you’ve only been here for a day or two. Who says that you are on the right side?”
I started circling the elf, needing something to do. He flinched, nervous. “The way you hide, the way stand, regarding me as though I could kill you with a step, and the air around you.”
“You are wise, but as you know, there will always be a time when you will doubt. I’ll be there,” his voice faded to a whisper, “waiting.”
Then the elf was gone, and the light became brighter, as if the elf had sucked it out of the air himself. I shivered, worried already about the choices that had instantly come into my life.
It scared me the most is that the power and knowledge that had finally wiped away my worries, and given me a new life in another world, could be taken away from me. I put the necklace on again and tucked it under my sweatshirt, walking towards where I felt Nylan waiting for me.
There were a lot of questions that I needed to ask.