I ran up to Warren, grabbed his hands, and dragged him out of the way. He was groaning and I saw a deep scratch in his left arm. It was shredded like beef jerky and the white bone was glistening in the sunlight. He was terribly pale and I was worried that my only life-line was gone.
A giant growl behind me brought me out of my worries. I flipped around, and screamed. The tiger was lunging toward me, fangs aimed on eating me alive. I dodged out of the way, only receiving a slashing pain on the right side of my chest. I saw blood soaking through my shirt at a rapid rate. The warmth was quickly leaving my body. I clutched the wound with my left hand, and summoned my energy with my right. I blew it at the tiger, full force. If I’m dying, then your for sure coming with me buddy. But just as the vapor-tornado was reaching the tiger, it rocketed back into my body, setting me off balance and slamming me to the ground. I looked up, startled to find the beast melting away like sunlight being covered by a shadow. I looked down at my chest to see the blood disappear, along with the pain. The energy I had before the battle returned to me. I got up and raced over to where Warren was starting to get up. His arm was blood, bone, and scar free. He was grinning ear to ear in happiness.
“Congratulations! You just passed your first training session!” Warren said happily.
“Training session? That was just a whole TRAINING SESSION?! You scared the heck out of me for TRAINING?!” I said furiously.
“Well, it trained you to never help someone till the battles over, get moving quicker so you can help faster, summon your wind while controlling the power of the wind, and sizing up your enemy. So, I would say that it was a pretty useful training session.”
I thought about what he had said. It made a bit of sense. “What happened to our wounds?”
“That tiger was called an interactive hologram. The interactive holograms were made by a ZaVeraid with intelligence, his name was Ed. You make whatever you want the hologram to be, set the level of ferocity and cleverness, and then push the create button. The creator takes the wrist band can push the yellow button to freeze the hologram, the green button to unfreeze, and the red to erase the hologram. The hologram can’t kill, and when it’s erased, all the energy spent, and all the damage done, is returned to how it was before. So, it makes a great training device.”
I had to admit, it was pretty cool. I started laughing, embarrassed that I had flipped out on Warren for helping me, yet again.
“So,” I said, changing the subject, “Can I see my friends now?”
Chapter 11
Warren signaled me to follow him and I eagerly obeyed. On the way to seeing my best friends, he started explaining about light columns.
“There kind of hard to understand if you don’t have an open mind.” He said as we walked across the everlasting fields.
“Well, my minds wide open.”
“Good, then you might understand this just a bit.” He said with a good-natured smile. “There are millions of light columns. Actually, there are too many to count, there is no word for the number of light columns. They are stacked right on top of each other. They are like realms. We are in a light column, though there is no name for it.”
“Wouldn’t it be called Earth?”
“No… Earth is just a piece of this light column, what about outer space, and all the other planets? The reason this light column has no name, is because most of the population doesn’t even know about light columns, therefore, no name.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Here’s a different light column.” Warren said, sticking his hand horizontally in a random space of air, “here’s another.” He put his other hand right on top of the other in the air.
“If we were in a different light column, say, Verania, then the light column we are in right now would be nowhere to be found, it would just be in the air, like all of the rest of the light columns we aren’t in.”
“Okay?” I barely got what he said.
“Every light column looks different, some are small, and some are huge, bigger than this one.”
“Mhm” I said, getting bored.
“Alright then, here we are!” Warren signaled to the empty air before us.
Before I could ask exactly where we were, he dropped on his stomach to the wet grass. He spoke to the grass like he whispering a code, and then this spherical dome rose from the grass. It wasn’t green, surprisingly, but a light blue. The dome split at the top and folded down at the sides to show an empty screen.
Warren pushed the big blue button on this control panel and then spoke the names of the two people I’ve been dying to see, “Carmen Landers, Liz Jacobs.”
They both popped up on the screen, those two faces, those two real faces that I have been dying to see since I got separated, and I eagerly took them in. Carmen and Liz were talking urgently and Liz kept signaling to the place on the metal bars where my door had materialized from. Carmen had tear streaks down her face and Liz’s eyes were all red puffy. I started crying tears of joy, they were alive, Carmen and Liz friends were alive, and I was so happy. I started getting weak with relief and before I fell to my knees, Warren caught me and pulled me tight into his arms. I cried for no more than five minuets and then came to an executive decision.
“We have to get them out of there.” I said stubbornly still in Warrens arms.
“Oh, I already have a plan for me to get them out of there.” Warren replied.
“Wait… I will help get them out! You can’t stop me!” I said trying to get free.
He held his grip on me firm, “Sam, I can’t put you in that kind of danger, I’ll get them out of there, then contact the portal and bring you back.”
“Bring me back from where? Oh, no. You better not send me to one of your light colu—” Warren cut me off as his musical voice entered my mind.
I used my last bit of strength and pushed away from Warren, but it was already too late. I flew to the ground, face up. I looked up and saw Warren looking at me with an apologetic look on his face.
Then I felt my mind and body slip away from that light column, and into a whole unknown universe.
Chapter 12
When I woke up my head was spinning and it felt like parts of my body were still left on Earth. I was super comfy, however, even though my right arm was twisted behind my back at a weird angle. I felt like I was on the softest cloud in the universe. I opened my eyes to see where Warren had forcefully taken me. I gasped as I saw that I actually was on a cloud.
The sky was blue but there were clouds above and below me. I was woozy and tired. All I wanted to do was go to sleep for a month. My body was screaming at my eyes to shut so it could be dark and peaceful again. I obeyed my body’s wish.
Suddenly I snapped my eyes back open. This is all a set-up, Warren sent me here so I wouldn’t have the energy to try and get back to Earth! In this light column a months rest must be normal! I was angry at Warren for doing something in such a way, setting up a poor little girl just for wanting to save her best friends.
I decided that I would get back to Earth, and I wouldn’t sleep until I did. I got up and walked a couple feet, and it was so irritatingly hard, considering that the comfy clouds enveloped you with every hateful step.
I saw a giant figure in the distance, and thinking it could help, I broke into a run until I reached it. It moved and I saw huge holes where the giant’s eyes should have been. He was made of white fluffy clouds, and also had a gaping hole for a mouth.
“Hello there young one,” The cloud giant said in a deep voice that sounded like a thunder, “You must be Sam, the one Warren sent.” The giant fell back onto its back with a deep, relieved sigh, “I haven’t been asleep for two hours waiting for your arrival. I’m exhausted!”
“Wait… you know Warren?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Why yes, he’s the teenager who is always friendly to the other light columns. Ah, yes, he’s a good boy.” The giant said sleepi
ly.
“What? A good boy? You call someone that sends little girls to unknown universes because he doesn’t want her to help save her best friends in the whole wide world a good boy?!” I spat.
“Well, well, well, I only heard his side of the story. Let’s hear yours.”
So, I told him my side of the story, telling him about my friendships with Carmen and Liz, how we got captured, and how Warren saved me. I told him about the giant tiger “attack” and what Warren did to trick me into being close enough to him to send me to another light column. I told that giant everything, and might have exaggerated on how much I struggled before Warren sent me to this light column. I even told the giant how I thought that Warren sent me here so I would be too tired to ever find my way out of here before he wanted me to go.
The cloud giant listened to me respectfully, nodding at the explanations I gave. When I was done talking, the giant took a few moments before he decided to speak. And those ten words, those precious ten words, made my day.
“Well then, I think you should go help your friends.”
My mouth flew open in shock, “You agree with me? A friend of Warren’s agrees with me? Well then, you’re not too bad of a giant after all! So, how do we get out of here Mr. Giant?”
“Mr. Giant… hmmm, I like that,” The giant laughed in a deep gruff voice, “Your not too bad yourself. Oh, and about getting out of here, you’ll have to go to the portal on the other side of that hill and then you’ll be able to go home!”
I looked over to the twenty-foot cloud hill twenty feet from us, “Ha, that’ll be easy!”
“Easy? Why, not even the best athletic in this light column could go over that hill in the time that you need to be over it! If you start up that hill, you know you won’t be able to stand up for at least an hour after, right?”
It took every think I had not to burst out laughing, “In my light column, people do five times that hill in an hour!”
The giant wasn’t convinced, “Well, you can try to accomplish that hill while I take a long, soothing, much needed nap. Good night and good luck.”
Ignoring the giant, I started walking towards the hill. This will be too easy.
Chapter 13
I started up the twenty foot hill with a great amount of confidence. This shouldn’t be too hard, it’s just at a hill, I thought.
I was walking at a steady pace when the ground started to incline. As I walked up a deep wooziness fell over me. It must just be this light column. I’ll just push through it.
However, I couldn’t push through it. It was like anesthesia was mixed into the oxygen at this level of altitude, which wasn’t that high. I looked back over my shoulder and saw I hadn’t even gone five feet up the hill. Mr. Giant was watching me with an amused grin. I thought that he was enjoying every minute of my struggle.
I finally got half way up the hill in what felt like hours. The ground started whispering to me in a snake-like voice saying one word, and one word only, over and over again. Sleep. Sleep. I fought the urge, the need to save my friends impelling me onward.
I thought of the giant behind me, laughing at all of this. Sleep. Sleep. My eyes were shutting, so I let them. You don’t need to see when all you have to do is walk straight! My body convinced me.
I walked two more steps when I realized that this was impossible. I let my body slide down, heard my butt hit the ground with a soft ploosh.
Why do I always end up falling asleep when I need to stay awake the most? I thought. I started slowly sliding back toward the ground, and back toward the grinning giant. Right before the sleep could take me, a pink light enveloped me. I could see the color through my closed eyelids.
I forced them open, even thought they felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. I saw a metallic pink light before my eyes. I looked back the way I slid down the hill, figuring that I actually slid down the opposite side of the hill. A wide grin spread across my tired face, Ha! I sure showed Mr. Giant! I stood up, just to fall back down again. I looked at where the pink hue was coming from.
There was a circular platform about five feet from where I was standing. It was bordered with thick silver metal and the pink hue was emanating from the center of that platform, which was oddly a light blue. I thought of my friends, and how they might depend on me. That gave me the endurance I needed to get to the portal.
I could never have stood up, no way. What I did definitely wasn’t movie quality. I crawled to the portal, having to stop every half a foot to remember why I was wasting so much of my energy for. When I finally got on the platform, I felt the power from it surge into my body. I was instantly awake, and the first think my sober mind thought of was Warren.
***
Instantaneously I was under a very prickly thorn bush. My head was spinning so fast it felt detached from my body. I grabbed both sides of my head, trying to slow it down. I closed my eyes and vomited right in front of me. The smell of half-digested toast and eggs I had for breakfast filled the confined space, but the vomiting made me feel better. I opened my eyes and looked around. To my left, more of the prickly bush, to my right was, “Oh no.” I whispered.
Warren’s bloody and torn, very still body.
Chapter 14
“Warren? Warren!” I yelled.
I checked for his pulse. I moved my finger up and down his bloody neck and couldn’t find one. I started panicking. I mustered the best CPR I could put together, but I realized that it wasn’t working. His skin was cold, his face was pale, and he was almost completely covered in blood. I knew that he was dead...
I couldn’t accept it. It couldn’t be true. My savior, my guardian, my friend, he couldn’t be dead. I wouldn’t allow it. I started getting angry, angry at fate.
“Why’d you have to kill him!” I shouted to no one in particular, “Why him? He’s the good one! Kill me instead!” I pleaded.
My anger just wouldn’t let me stay idle and do nothing. I did the only thing I could do. I focused my energy, felt the warm wind, and blew a gentle breeze into Warren’s pale blue lips. The breeze got faster and faster, until it was rushing into his body, making his chest rise and fall just like it used to. I added warmth, thinking it would be useful. My tiredness was gone, replaced by a fierce determination to save Warren, just as he saved me. I would force wind into his body, then let it out, force it in, let it out. It became a pattern for me. I started working like a machine, like a type of life support.
I stopped, only when I thought it would either work, or utterly fail. I did one more gentle breeze in and out of his body, then sat back on my knees, and waited in that little thorn bush cave. Those first milliseconds were the hardest, and I must’ve had six-thousand questions run through my head in that amount of time. Will his chest rise again? Will it be him, or just the momentum from me giving him air? Did the air I gave him even have oxygen in it? Will I ever hear is voice, or see his light beautiful orange eyes again? Will live move on? Those were just some of the first thoughts.
Warren’s chest rose again, and fell again. Up and down up and down. He was alive, and I had saved him from the depths of death. I realized I was holding my breath, and when I let it out, tears freely fell from my eyes. I was the one that was pale now. I was shaking with relief, and weakness. I wondered if I would pass out again like I did in the tunnels. I told myself I wouldn’t though. In the tunnels, I really had no reason to stay awake, but now I had a friend to take care of, to nurse back to health. His life depended on mine.
I stayed there watching Warren. Making sure his chest never stopped, making sure that he never got too cold again, or too hot. Every time his breathing got shallow, I would summon just enough energy to send a breath through his lungs, and help him start his strong breathing again. I washed off the blood with a nearby, clear puddle and a peace of my shirt
that I tore off. I found no physical wound. I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad about that. I decided that it wouldn’t matter either way. I knew I would still try just as hard to save him.
I had a lot of time to think while caring for Warren. After an hour or two past, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t go to sleep until I saw those eyes, and heard that voice again. I would drop dead before I let him die.
My breathing was becoming shallow by the time the light had faded outside our thorny cocoon. Looks like I might actually be dropping dead here in a moment. I though coldly. I let my eyes close for just a second longer before I opened them, and right in front of me were those precious orange eyes, the ones I would have died to see. Then I heard the voice…
“Sam?”
Chapter 15
“Warren! You’re finally awake!” I said enthusiastically.
“How… How did you get here?” He said in little gasps of breath.
“Ha,” I said, remembering my pride for escaping the prison Warren put me in, “Long story short, I climbed this agonizingly hard-to-handle hill and made it to the portal. I’m stronger than you think.”
“You… You got through the portal? Usually… Usually only… only ZaVeraid’s with… with transfer can send themselves and others through portals… You… you must be special.” Warren’s eyes fluttered with the effort of saying just those words.
“Don’t waste anymore energy. I just brought you back from death.”
Confusion was on Warren’s face and just before he was about to speak, I interrupted him.
“Looks like we’ll be staying here awhile… I’ll fill you in on what happened when your heart decided to give out.” I said.