Chapter 5
First Bolt
"Where were you at lunchtime?"
Aspen opened her eyes and felt the soft green grass under her hands. She blinked at the two shapes above her and sat up. Sandy and Dylan looked down at her.
The sky was a familiar lemon color, and the air was pleasantly warm. It was so nice here; she wouldn't mind having this dream every night, even though she kept dreaming of people at her school.
"Hello. I'm back again," she said as she smiled at them.
Sandy frowned. "I waited for you."
"Leave her alone, it wasn't her fault." Dylan glared at the tiny girl. Her long blond hair was braided, and she wore a faded pair of jeans and a dark brown shirt.
Standing up, Aspen dusted herself off and looked at her surroundings. A gently sloping hill lay before them. It was blanketed in a forest of pine, birch, and sugar maple trees. Patches of red soil broke the line of grass just before it reached the trees. A narrow trail spiraled between the thick foliage and disappeared up the hill.
She felt more confident in her dream and turned to study Dylan openly. It was just a dream, after all. It would be over soon.
He had finely chiseled cheekbones and a strong jaw. His lips were full and expressive, and thick eyelashes rimmed his eyes. Black hair completed the almost painfully good-looking picture, and her heart fluttered as he stared straight back at her. She reached up and ran her fingertips along his collarbone, and shivered as prickles of pleasure danced across her skin.
He stared at her bemusedly.
"I like the way you make me feel," she whispered. "All tingly inside."
"Aspen!" Sandy exclaimed in shock.
Aspen shrugged. "It's true. This is just a dream, so I don't mind saying it." She turned to face Sandy. "I don't feel anything when I touch your skin, but touching Dylan makes me feel good."
"Well, someone's going to regret saying those words soon." Sandy rolled her eyes and grinned broadly.
Dylan ignored Sandy and stepped closer to Aspen. "I broke her TV. Did that make you feel good too?" He took her hand and rubbed his thumb up and down her wrist.
Aspen closed her eyes and soaked up the sensation. Then realizing he'd asked her a question, she said, "Excuse me, but whose TV did you break?"
"Miriam's. She'll have to wait until tomorrow before it can be fixed. Did you like that?"
"Yeah, cool. Thanks." Her dreams were getting better all the time. Even her clothes were playing the game-the skirt had been replaced by a tight pair of jeans, which looked good tucked into a pair of hiking boots.
Sandy smirked and said, "Come on, Ms. Walker, time for your training. We've been waiting for you forever." She motioned for Aspen to follow her, and Dylan released her hand. She missed the contact with his skin as soon as he'd let go.
Following Sandy up the hill was difficult, but her boots made the climb easier, and her jeans and long-sleeved top protected her from scratchy branches. After a while the hill leveled out, and inky openings appeared in the rocks up ahead, a string of caves that were completely hidden under a canopy of trees. Bright green vines wrapped around their entrances, as well as the boulders that were scattered in front of them.
Birds chirped cheerfully in the branches of nearby trees, and Aspen watched a squirrel scamper up and down a tall tree trunk as they approached. A sharp smell of vegetation hung in the air, and the sky was the color of pale lemons.
"Well, we're here," Sandy announced. "Dylan, can you get the table please?"
He glanced around the area for a second before parting the vines obscuring the entrance of one cave and disappeared inside. A minute later, he returned with an old rusty table that he placed just outside the entrance.
Sandy grabbed a few dirty plastic bottles that were strewn around the cave opening and arranged them on the table.
"Help me, Aspen." She pointed to a few more crushed and charred bottles that seemed to have been melted at some stage, and Aspen picked them up obediently.
"Right. Stand back now. It's time for you to see what a Dream Walker can really do." Sandy took several paces backward and indicated for her to do the same. Dylan joined the two girls and faced the table.
"Lift your hands up, but keep your elbows against your sides," Sandy ordered.
Aspen played along, lifting her hands and holding them out until a prickling sensation made its way up her arms. Surprising her, a blue flame of electricity shot out from her fingertips.
"Oh," she cried and dropped her hands, causing the flame to extinguish.
"Come on, girl, we've got a lot to do today." Sandy grinned, then motioned to Aspen to look at her hands. They glowed like blowtorches. "Watch me. You can't control your energy just yet. Dylan and I can do it easily, but we've had years of practice. Concentrate on the feeling in your arms."
Aspen stared at her flame-tipped fingers and found it difficult not to panic. The current was warm and made her feel so alive. Determined to succeed and impress Dylan, she willed herself to listen to Sandy's voice.
"Good girl," Sandy said. "Now imagine that the tingling in your shoulders is hot water streaming in a pipe. You can control it by closing the tap on the pipe. When you close the tap, you shut off the water supply, or power in this case. Got it?"
"Yes." Aspen shivered a little, anxious about the whole situation, but she listened to Sandy carefully.
"Relax, soldier." Sandy stepped closer and spoke next to her ear. "Switch the tap off now," she ordered.
Aspen pretended that a valve had been closed in her mind. The tingling retreated from her limbs and before she knew it, the flames were gone.
"Fantastic." Sandy hopped up and down. "I told you she'd be good."
"That's great, but can you do this?" Dylan smiled broadly and winked. He stretched out his hands and shot at two bottles on the table in front of them with such accuracy that she gasped. The blue flames from his fingers hit the targets instantly and melted the bottles to a crisp.
With a frown of concentration, Sandy joined him and pointed toward the table. A burst of energy shot from her fingertips and the other bottle melted as well.
The smell of burned plastic reached Aspen's nostrils and she wrinkled her nose, then noticed the light above them seemed to fade. She glanced up at the sky.
"Lemona is almost over," Dylan said to Sandy. "Maybe we should wait until Lavendula has passed before she tests her strength."
"Don't be ridiculous, she's new. Her power will be weak until she practices, and they won't notice anything. Come on, we have about two minutes left." She spun around to Aspen. "Give it your best shot."
Aspen grinned. "Watch this." Aiming her hands at the table, she concentrated hard.
Suddenly the entire metal table exploded. It was incinerated in a second, and Dylan grabbed both girls to shelter them from shards of hot steel dropping from the air. A heat wave expanded toward them and it singed her eyebrows.
"Ouch!" she screamed. Sandy and Dylan recovered before she did. They got up from the ground and stared at the total devastation around them. Even the opening of the cave was blackened from the blast. The vines had withered away and the trees around them had been flattened.
"Oh no!" Sandy cried. "It's Lavendula. Quickly, we've got to get out of here."
She grabbed Aspen and pulled her forward. Dylan took her other arm and they ran together.
"What happened?" Aspen shouted as they dashed down the hillside.
"The Chancellors will find us. You've disturbed the fabric. They can sense where we are," Sandy huffed out as they ran.
"Have I done something wrong?"
"No, but you're stronger than any of us ever imagined, Aspen," Dylan said through gritted teeth.
They ran in silence after that. Sandy left the path they'd used to climb the hill and ran through the undergrowth instead. Tiny branches grabbed at Aspen's clothing and snagged pieces of material from her sleeves.
Someone cried out behind her and she stole a glance over her shoulder. Branc
hes in the trees were moving, and loud voices shouted in the distance.
"Don't look back, just run." Dylan reached out for her arm and dragged her forward. She ignored the warmth that his touch always created in her body, and ran as fast as she could.
A strange, sweet smell clouded the air. Once, a teacher had used ethanol in her physics class, and the odor reminded her of its rich, sugary fragrance. The sky had changed from lemon to the color of old bruises, and the air was cool around them.
"Run with her, Sandy, quickly. I'll distract them!" Dylan shouted. He loosened his grip and turned back. The girls stared after him for a second.
"Come on!" Sandy yelled. "We've got to hurry. Run as fast as you can."
- - -
Aspen woke up suddenly, completely out of breath. She jackknifed out of bed and picked up the alarm clock. Ten minutes before she had to get up for the morning. Her breathing was still ragged, and she glanced down at her pajamas.
"Oh my word," she whispered.
The pajamas she wore were slashed and ripped at the sleeves, as though she'd actually run through the forest. Jumping out of bed, she yanked the shirt off.
Her pants weren't ripped, but the top was ruined. There was nothing sharp on the floor that could have caused the damage. Maybe Miriam had snuck in and cut her top during the night. She sighed and rolled her top into a ball, then stuck it as far as she could into the back of her clothing drawer.