Blog Post #16: Sacrifice

Continuation of Blog Post #15


Alaina was hanging to herself by a thread. She only stayed with herself because of the names. That's what they were right? She was so confused. As she concentrated on the shining lights she noticed, through the confusing haze in her mind, that they were bound by a thick, slimy, black cord. Nothing that beautiful should be bound by such and ugly thing, she thought. She reached forward and grabbed the cord. She screamed and pulled her hands away as quickly as she could. It had burned her! But in that moment of pain, she had  also a moment of clarity. She remembered who she was, why she was here, and what she needed to do. It was fading fast though. She thought quickly and concluded that the cord binding the names was them being held by the Burglar King. Bracing herself to do what she had to before she lost herself again; Alaina reached out quickly and grabbed the cord again.
Hot searing pain burst through every nerve ending in her hands. It traveled up her arms and into her shoulders. Everything in her was screaming to let go! It was going to eventually reach her heart and brain making for a very long and painful end she knew.  Alaina tugged even harder her efforts now tinged with desperation that only the dying posses. Every pore, every cell in her body was zinging with sharp pain. I'm going to die, She thought with resignation. Then suddenly through the pain she felt a pressure on her hand, as if someone were squeezing it anxiously. She realized deep inside her being that this presence on her hand was important to her. She channeled that feeling of power it gave her and pulled on the black cord. She felt it begin to give, but at the same time she was also starting to lose strength. With what she knew would be her very last action, she tore at the cord with the very essence of her being, and collapsed.

Queen Ayla looked around her a horrible scream resounding in her head. She was on the floor in the throne room, the floor! She stood up hastily before anyone could see her faux pas. Then she remembered what had happened. The last thing she remembered was the Burglar King ripping her name from her and her son running from the room. "Khitam!" She yelled. Then she heard the sobbing from across the room. "No, no, no!" It was a man's voice. Ayla walked cautiously around the corner. There was a man with his back to her crying over the still form of a young girl with brown golden hair and porcelain skin that was too white for living. "Excuse me," The queen said politely, aware of how delicate of a situation this was. The man turned around and the queen just about fainted. "Khitam?" she said breathlessly as she used the wall to hold herself up. "Mother?" he said through his tears. "She did it!" he said ecstatically "Oh, she did it." he said much more somber as he looked back at the still form of the girl on the floor. "What? What is going on Khitam?" She said as she knelt next to her son that she didn't recognize anymore. "Whats going on?" he responded "Well, I love her Mother" he said gesturing to the girl "And she saved all of us."

Blog Post #15: Beyond the Mind Field

Continuation of Blog Post #14


            Alaina thought of all the people who needed her, her father, her grandmother, Boy's parents, all the people of Boy's kingdom, and Boy himself. With all of the people she loved in mind she sent out a psychic blast that knocked the Burglar King off his feet. She grabbed Boy's hand and began to run. "Where are we going?" He asked. "To the throne room where the names are!" she answered as a castle rose up in the distance, "Trust me, I have a plan!" They ran together up the stairs to the doors that were guarded by two towering knights. "Are they real?" Alaina asked Boy. "No, they are astral projections that he has created, so in a way, they are the Burglar King." "Good." Alaina replied as a sword appeared in her hand. She went up to the first knight and ran him through with her sword, and he dissolved into nothing. She looked over her shoulder to see that Boy had taken care of the other knight and they both turned in tandem and pushed the doors open.
            Inside of the castle was the most confusing layout Alaina had ever seen. "How in the world are we supposed to traverse this?" she said looking at the upside down staircases and the staircases that lead to nowhere. "I have no idea!" Boy replied. "Well then we just wait for the Burglar King to come and get us?" Alaina yelled getting frustrated, her whole plan centered on getting to the throne room. "Wait, I think I have an idea!" Boy said, "Can you reach out with your mind and see if you can feel the names and lead us to them?" "But I'm already out of my mind! How can I reach out again?" Alaina said. "I have no idea but you have to try!" Boy said grasping her hand anxiously. "But what if I can't come back?" She said worried. "Alaina," Boy said looking straight into her eyes, "If we don't try, you won't come back anyway!" She finally got his point and replied,"Boy, I need you to hold onto my hand and don't let go no matter what." She knew that she could feel the pressure of his hand anywhere and would always know how to come back to it. "I promise I will never let go." he said and with that Alaina closed her eyes and searched for the missing names.
             It was nothing like the Mind Field. The Mind Field had order and had rules and was a place that, even if it was something she never would have thought possible to exist, it had logic. Where she was now was simply raw instinct, no rules and almost empty. It was the very basic and genesis of thought. It scared her senseless. She knew that if she stayed her too long she would loose herself to the animalistic way of thinking this place inspired. She found it difficult to remember why she was here; what she needed to do. Names! She thought. Names, names, names! She thought it over and over like a chant inside her head to keep her sane, and on task. She drifted towards a glimmer that she thought she saw in the distance. The glimmer grew stronger and stronger the closer she came. She knew it was what she was looking for. As she drew nearer it grew so bright it was like a mini sun composed of million of tiny individual stars. She knew she had found what she was looking for, names. But while she had been so focused on her goal of finding the names, she could no longer remember anything else that she was supposed to do, and soon she felt herself succumbing to the wiles of the place beyond the Mind Field.

Blog Post #14: Confrontation

Alaina and Boy walked together until they reached a door. "Are you sure you're ready?" she asked him, really just trying to fill the scared silence that had fallen between them. "No," he said, "But whatever happens, I want you to know, he will get into your mind and reveal secrets that you never wanted to see the light. Whatever he finds, just know that I love you and you have to trust me if we are going to get out of this alive." "Of course I trust you Boy," Alaina answered "You can't have that bad of secrets, can you?" She turned to face him “Can you?” she asked incredulously. Boy sighed and said "You just need to trust me no matter what." Disconcerted Alaina turned away and they resumed walking. They came to the door. On the other side waited their enemy, Alaina’s Uncle, the source of long years of suffering on both their parts. Boy reached forward and opened the door.
A loud booming laugh shook everything as they stepped through the door. "So my brave little niece has come back to try and defeat me! How cute! Oh, and what’s this? She brought along her little boyfriend!" An astral projection of a man stood in front of Boy and Alaina. He was tall and striking, and he had her mother’s eyes and cheek bones, but that was where the similarities ended. The man had a wild tangled mass of blonde hair, and he wore all black save for a skull that he wore around his waist on a belt. His collar went up above his ears, and his eyes were full of madness and broken images. "Well, I guess you will die together, I admit I will enjoy watching you tear each other apart." He said. "I would not be so sure of victory!" shouted Alaina. The similarities to her mother on this monster had shaken her. "Oh?" said the Burglar King, "And why is that, little one? Do you really think you can defeat me? I am the second generation of Cecily the Sorceress, you are the third, and of my pathetic sister! The girl had no back bone, only went to the Mind Field once in her life time and it scared her so bad that she never went back! What in the world to you think you can do?” He said with scorn. It seemed that he got larger with every word that he spoke until he looked down upon the couple from several feet up. “It is not about what I can do, dear uncle” Alaina said much more calmly than she felt as she reached for Boy’s hand for comfort. She squeezed his hand to tell him that it was nigh time that they attacked and got this whole business over with. She contacted him with her mind and they began the countdown. Five, “It really depends,” Four, Three, “On others, “ Two, “And what I must do, for them” One!

Blog Post #13: Confessions

Continuation of Blog Post #12

Boy, it's you! Alaina thought. Its always been you! You are the one who gives me power, you are the one I need! Hearing this Boy retreated and pulled his consciousness from hers in their complete submission to each other. "What are you talking about?" He asked looking bewildered. "There is no possible way unless..." he stopped his face reddening. Alaina saw that he would not accept this unless she confessed it out loud. "Boy, you remember the stories my Grandmother told me right?" She asked him. "Of course I do, I just brought them up remember?" he snapped feeling edgy. Alaina stepped towards his turned back. "Well," She said softly, "Do you remember the most powerful force there ever was in any of those stories?" she said getting closer. He didn't answer, his back was tense. Alaina reached out to his mind, craving the closeness that they shared just a few moments ago, and trying not to lose her nerve to tell him what she felt. She reached his mind and was met by a hard, high brick wall enclosing his consciousness. Alaina searched for a chink in his armor to get through to him. As if this wasn't hard enough already, now he was resisting her failed attempts to tell him how she feels.

Finally Alaina found a hole in the mortar between the bricks of his wall. She whispered through it, "The most powerful force was always..." She stopped suddenly terrified of her own feelings. What if she had interpreted them wrong? What if it was just a heat of the moment sort of feeling? Suddenly a strange warmth radiated all throughout her body emanating from her heart and she knew that what she felt was true. She pressed on with her message with courage in her words. "The most powerful force was always love, Boy. I am in love with you." she whispered through into his mind. The wall around his mind suddenly and instantly disappeared and she was engulfed by him, psychically and physically. She saw how he had listened to her all these years, how he had come to love the sound of her voice. How though he had never seen her he thought she was beautiful, and how he would cry when bad things happened to her and he could do nothing to help her but give her comforting words. How he thought he would go crazy if he did not see her face, or hold her hand. The truth was he had loved her for his whole life. And knowing that she returned his love was the greatest moment in his whole life. There is nothing we cannot do, together. I love you Alaina. he whispered. "Well then," Alaina said out loud, pulling back from him a little. "Do you think we should go take down the Burglar King now?" she said with a smile. "Definitely!" Boy said esthetically "But first," he leaned down and kissed her. He pulled back and smiled in her breathless face "Just in case!"

Blog Post #12: Power

Continuation of Blog Post #11

"Well what should we do?" Boy said turning to her "I'm gonna wait for a little to see if anyone else shows up." Alaina said, peeved. "Come on, Alaina! We have a more important problem than your messed up family!" Boy said trying to get some sense through to her. "Right, right. Well all we have to do is find what gives me power, easy!" Alaina said sarcastically. "We can do this, Alaina!" Boy said empathetically. "Listen to me, ever since I first talked to you, I knew you were powerful and special. Seeing what you have done in the short time you were here just proves it! Remember when you used to tell me the stories that your Grandmother told you? The ones about the heroes and quests and saving the day and adventures? I know I remember. I also remember you telling me that you wanted your own adventure and how I would be your first choice to come with! Alaina! This is it, this is your adventure!" "I know!" Alaina shouted back, "but think how I feel! All I've known all my life is ordinary! I always knew that I would never really get an adventure and I knew that Grandmother's stories were, just that, stories!" She turned away from him to hide what she was really feeling. Because the truth of the matter was, Alaina was scared. Sure she had a less normal life than the average child, but she really was not ready for all of this. Most of all she doubted herself. She did not know a thing about the mind field and her two most beloved people in her life had just abandoned her to deal with her most difficult challenge by herself!

I know how you feel. She heard Boy's voice inside her head. She became completely mortified as she realized Boy had heard her innermost fears because in her emotion she had forgotten to block her mind from him, with their close proximity they were almost always privy to each other's thoughts. "I can't believe you would listen in on my thoughts like that!" she said turning towards him "It's not like I had a choice!" he said " you were practically throwing the thoughts into my head!" Alaina turned away again, her entire frame shaking with embarrassment and anger. She felt Boy come up behind her and whisper in her ear. "I truly am sorry." he said sincerely "But, I really do understand. I grew up as a prince, with almost everything done for me. My world changed almost completely overnight. I lost everything, my friends, my teachers, and...." he paused, "and my parents. I know how it feel to be a lone and to have so much responsibility thrust upon you when you know you aren't ready. But you must know that you are ready. You know why?" he asked her, then he slid into her mind. Because you are not alone. Alaina felt Boy completely. He was every where. It scared her. But she felt his fear as well and was soon comforted by his presence and slid into his mind. They became one being and were completely open. That is when Alaina realized she had already found what made her strong, what gave her power.

Blog Post #12: Cecily the Sorceress

Continuation of Blog Post #11

"Grandmother?!" Alaina said, "How did you get here? You knew about this place to? Did mother? Did everyone but me?" She was getting frustrated. Next to her Boy was muttering something under his breath. "It can't be, she was a fable. She can't exist." "Oh I assure you dear boy, I exist, I am Alaina's Grandmother." she said " Oh! Beg your pardon madame, it's just I thought for a moment, you looked exactly like..... never mind." Boy stuttered, blushed and looked away. "Exactly like what? Like Cecily?" Her Grandmother said. When she said this Boy's head snapped up sharply. "Yes, you are her aren't you?" he said getting excited. "Oh Alaina we're saved! Cecily is the most powerful mind ever, she can defeat the Burglar King!" "What in the world are you talking about? This is my grandmother, I have no idea who Cecily is!" Alaina said thoroughly confused. "Alaina dear, do not yell at the poor boy. He is right, and so are you." she quickly added at Alaina's astounded look. "You see dear, Although I have never journeyed to the Forest physically, mentally, this is my second home!"

"What do you mean your second home?" Alaina asked " Well, back when I was younger," her Grandmother started "I was at a fair when a old gypsy beckoned me over, she said that I had a young strong mind, and would I like to learn to use it to its full potential? I agreed and she began to teach me. She taught me a bout the Mind Field and about Astral Strands and how to follow them to other places. I grasped each concept with ease and was progressing quickly, too quickly. My teacher said I had great power but it would get out of control, so she set a spell on me to harness my power. The spell was the last thing she did, she was old and it took all of her to complete it. I loved my teacher and grieved her death, but the spell she put on me did not do exactly what she wanted it to do. It allowed me a complete understanding of everything in the Mind Field. So I was all powerful and in no danger of getting out of control. I began to wander the Mind Field a lot in my spare time. Even when I was pregnant with your mother and her brother. My power was passed along to them, but in unequal parts. Your mother got most of the control and limited access to the Mind Field, but your uncle got next to no control and full access to the Mind Field. He went crazy and lost his mind to the Field and one day ran into the forest and never returned. I searched for him in the Mind Field and found him several months later in this kingdom, secretly taking the names of people. I psychically contacted the King and Queen of the realm as Cecily the Sorceress and told them of the danger and how to rid themselves of it. They aprehended your uncle and I banished him to the Mind's Cradle, an inn where he could do no damage. I visited the King and Queen often, and their young prince and taught them simple workings of the Mind Field. Soon when they had learned enough I withdrew and had to tell your mother the news. She was so devastated at losing her brother she made me promise to never enter the Mind Field again. So when years later you were born, I could not see if you had the gift of the Field or not, and I had no idea that your uncle had escaped, until we got the letter with your name on it. For you see in the ancient language of the Forest your name means Hope or Help. Your mother knew what it ment, her brother, or the Burglar King had escaped, but still forbade me to help. So I allowed you to take the sand and see if you could save them yourself, for you see, you are the most powerful mind of all, you just need to realize what makes you powerful."

"But Grandmother, you've beaten him before, why can't you now?" Alaina asked "The Mind Field has rules and I cannot interfere for I have already used these Astral strands to much, you must do this alone, but it is not impossible, you must find what makes you strong!" and with that she faded away and they were left alone again.

Blog Post #11: Battle Plans

Continuation of Blog Post# 10

"Alright, we will deal with that later" said Alaina standing up "Right now we need to free all of Boy's people. Father, will you help us?" she said looking down at her father, who still sat on the ground "I will tell you what I know, but if I were to fight in my own mind, I would not make it." He said looking defeated. "The Burglar King's mind is set up like a castle, with the best defenses I've ever encountered. The names are kept in the throne room as piles of treasure and gold. You will be able to see the reflection of the trapped person in the shiny surface, instead of your own. To release them, you must either, make the Burglar King release his hold on them, this is a highly unlikely outcome my dear." " You mean to say, we cannot reason with him?" She said dismayed. " You have seen his mind, it is not one you can reason with." He responded gravely " Then what must we do?" Boy asked " You must take his very existence and bind it and throw it into the Mind Field, and make sure he has no control when you do, or he will be able to grab a cord and find his way back. But if he is bound correctly then he will float forever in the Mind Field. Then you must take each of the names out of his mind and they will automatically return to their bodies. This is all I can give you, you must figure out the rest for yourself, good luck my dear." And with that he faded and was no more.

Alaina stood staring at the spot where her father had been not just moments before for what seemed like eternity. Finally she turned towards Boy, who was watching her. "Are you all right?" He asked her. "Well, lets see. I've found out my father isn't dead, that he is a spineless fish and is trapped in his own mind, and I must save him and a whole population by defeating one of the most sick and powerful minds in the known, and apparently unknown worlds!! Oh yes, I'm quite all right." she said letting out all of her pent up frustration. "But you do not have to do it alone. I will help you Alaina, whether you want my help or not!" He said and the way he looked at her reminded her of how they had come to this white place. She blushed and looked away. Boy grabbed her face and turned her to face him. "Don't you turn away from me! You have no idea what you mean to me, and I hate seeing you so sad, I just want to keep you safe and you won't let me and it's so frustrating!! Alaina, I love you!" Alaina stared into his face in shock, then leaned forward and kissed him again. "Oh! Your first kiss!!" a voice said. Alaina broke away to see her Grandmother standing behind Boy.