«Nothing fades as fast as the future,

nothing clings like the past»

Peter Gabriel

************************

Laughter...

Jai'eesh's head whipped around suddenly, scarring the people sitting next to her as she thought she heard something or rather, someone laughing. She scanned the immediate area around her only to discover that her companion was just staring at her confused by her abrupt actions.

«Jai? You okay?» Rusty asked quietly.

Jai stared at Rusty for a moment before answering. He looked like a young man in his late twenties, short red hair with blond tips and an amazingly well built body. They had known each other since high school and Jai'eesh counted him as one of her best friends, someone she'd lay her life down for and vice versa. Those blazing yellow eyes of his bore into her hazel brown ones.

«No, I'm fine Rusty. Just thought I heard something that's all,» with having said that she took another look around the room she was in as Rusty turned back to reading one of his many mechanical journals spread around him.

Jai was sitting on top of a huge oak table; one of many that filled the cavernous Commons room as it was called. The room served as both a formal and informal dining hall, as one could smell food cooking from the huge kitchens that lined one side of the room. The stone walls were made of granite, smoothed and painstakingly carved with numerous scenes all over them, depicting anything from battle scenes to other historical moments. High above, hanging from the ceiling were dozens of colorful banners, each displaying what looked like family crests made up from cloth, leather, beads and even fur. At first glance this place could be mistaken for something out of a medieval castle, but if one took a closer look...

None of the carvings on the wall had any humans in them, only monstrous humanoid animals walking around, also each one of the crests on the banners floating high above depicted some sort of monstrous animal figure. Of course, one would only notice that after they got over the fact that there were real, blood and flesh versions of these creatures walking, sitting, and eating in the huge room with Jai'eesh and Rusty. These weren't monsters though, far from it, they were all Wyrecreatures; a race with the ability to change from one animal form into a humanoid form at will.

A group of Wyrecats, puma Wyrecats to be exact, all sat in one corner of the room playing a card game while eating some meat jerky that was in a huge bowl in the middle of their game. Another larger group of Wyrewolves sat more towards the kitchen area, drinking and quietly talking amongst themselves, occasionally a big belly laugh erupting from one of them from time to time. Other than that, the only other people in here besides Jai'eesh and Rusty, was the Bard's group up on stage in the front of the Commons. The Bard, a small albino Wyrewolf, had a few others with him up front as they were setting up for this evening's mealtime entertainment. However the Bard was staring at Jai now, obviously the only other person other than Rusty to notice what was going on with Jai. Jai smiled at him reassuringly when their eyes met, but the Bard took awhile to go back to what he was doing as he just in turn stared at her still concerned.

Jai turned around and tried to go back to what she was doing earlier herself, picking up her bead loom for she was in the middle of making a huge bead tapestry, but she found instead that her concentration had left her. The day started out as quite an uneventful one in the fake mountain base that the Wyres that lived here called Shadow Mountain. It was raining when Jai got up this afternoon and the forecast she caught on the news the night before said it would be raining there for a couple of days at least. Rain usually put Wyres in a somber mood, and Jai had decided to drag a fair chunk of her bead collection out and start on a new project in the Commons. Rusty had joined her later on during the day, and now the Commons was starting to fill up as it was nearing dinnertime, and no Wyre would ever miss dinner.

Jai's restlessness increased as she finally just stood up, jumped off the top of the table leaving behind all her beads and her project, and startling Rusty once more in the process. Before Rusty even had a chance to even get up and call out after her, Jai had already left the Commons and was now half way down one of the dozens of halls that made up Shadow Mountain. She let her feet lead the way, since they obviously knew where they were going even though she didn't. It wasn't long before Jai reached the very depths of Shadow Mountain, unfinished subbasement floors where not even electricity had been carried down to, let alone the newly dug tunnels even be made ready for people to safely travel through. Yet now she knew where she was going and why she was so restless. Gaia, the soul of the Earth itself was calling for her Avis and Jai'eesh had no choice but to come to her summons. Alone in complete darkness, Jai'eesh headed for the Earth Shrine.

The Earth Shrine was one of the four elemental shrines in Shadow Mountain that balanced the natural energy in the fake mountain, allowing the very few Wyres that could use magic to learn in a stable environment. When the mountain base was first renovated by the Shadows, Jai had helped create the other three shrines; Air, Fire and Water, but to everyone's amazement, the Earth Shrine was already there and seemingly waiting for them. The shrine was nothing more than a large cave with stalagmites and stalactites covering the ceiling and the floor. The walls held quartz crystals growing in large clumps, all glowing with a soft light due to the cave being a place where ley-line energies converged for the entire valley. Naturally this place would be considered mysterious, but with the high amount of energy collected here it was downright otherworldly. Jai'eesh quickly advanced to the middle of the cave and instantly dropped into a kneeling position with her arms crossed over her chest. Her long red-brown hair caught up with her hasty actions as it fell around her upper body and obscured her face. She didn't have long to wait as the cave quickly took on new dimensions. She shivered uncontrollably as all the hairs on her body started to stand on end as the usually latent energy started to congeal.

Gaia's true form was impossible for a mortal to behold, due to being such a large power; her consciousness spanned several dimensions. Hence, Gaia would «create» forms to let Jai'eesh know that she was in the shrine. The forms could range from a simple slivery mist, to a set of «eyes» where the pupils would be the Earth and the Moon respectively. Unlike her form, her voice was always the same: forceful, yet quiet.

When she was finally bidden to look up, she found herself not in the cave anymore, but kneeling in deep space. It almost threw her off balance, but the minute she instinctively grounded her energy she discovered she was still in the cave. The silvery mist was everywhere now, framing two orbs making them look like bodiless eyes. The orb's «pupils» were the Earth and the Moon. The minute Jai looked up and locked eyes with the Goddess's she found herself slowly falling asleep. This had never happened before, but her surprise quickly melted away as did her consciousness. The last thing she remembered was how heavy her eyelids felt.

Through the haze of coming out of a deep sleep, she felt soft grass on her cheek and a slight breeze chilling her skin. As she woke up, she found herself looking to the side at a large gray cat that was also sleeping next to her. She slowly sat up and took in the surroundings around her. They were lying in a patch of soft moss and grass under a large, gnarled oak tree in the depths of an ancient forest. Then next thing she noticed was what she was wearing, since she remember only having her normal ripped jean shorts and white tank top on before she went in to see Gaia. Now she wore a version of the Wyrewolverines' battle clothing, all consisting of black and gray leather but with woven bead trim that was Jai'eesh's trademark. She inspected her lace-up leather halter-top; the bead trim made up of wooden beads so they wouldn't give off a glare or make a sound. The beads were dyed dark earth colors and woven in patterns that would blend in with any surrounding. The lower half of her body was covered in leather leggings and a loincloth that tapered down to a point that was also trimmed with beads. Completing the ensemble were her knee high boots, made of sharkskin dyed black. She had the boots made long ago based off what she learned about sharkskin in a class once. Sharks have an odd arrangement of scales that if one runs their hand against it one way it would feel smooth, but feeling it against the scales, the skin on the person's hand would be ripped to shreds. Thus, if during a fight some one tried to grab her leg or block a kick, they'd be in for a rude surprise.

She turned her head to see not only her traveling pack, but also her sheathed Nihon-to, and her old gray jean jacket covered in random patches lying on the ground beside her. Obviously Gaia was not without a sense of humor by sending one of her favorite piece of clothing with her. Jai got up and put her sword on along with the traveling pack around her waist and the jacket over her bare arms. Then she squatted next to the gray cat and scratched it on the head. The cat woke purring loudly and turned its large yellow-green eyes on her.

Hello Love, have a nice trip?- an all too familiar mind-voice asked sweetly in Jai'eesh's head.

«Yeah, I was going to ask you S, where are we?»

Mr. S, Jai'eesh's bonded Nightmare cat, got up on all fours and started to clean himself, - Where's a good question, but it's more like when.-

«When? You mean...»

-Yes, Gaia sent us on a mission back in time. Don't you remember her orders?-

Suddenly a sharp pain shot through the right side of her brain as Jai'eesh nearly fell over as if someone shoved a nail through her head, luckily she caught herself on the oak tree. Mr. S was trying to say something, but she couldn't hear him, another, stronger mind voice prevailed.

-Jai'eesh, my bird. This is a memory I implanted inside your mind for you to remember when you reached you destination 500 years in the past. I had to implant these memories due to I cannot aid you at this time. 500 years ago there was a huge disturbance in the time line, one that threatens the future as you know it. To preserve your timeline you must help restore the natural line of events. The information within the implanted memories will let you know what you must do to correct it, however there are drawbacks. The memories were too large for your brain to handle all at once, thus the memories may come randomly and at unexpected intervals. Or the memories may never resurface at all. This all depends on how well your brain can process the information.

-Your first objective is to find a piece of red crys...-

«Ugh,» Jai grunted as the pain subsided and Gaia's voice trailed off into nothingness.

«Figures I lose it right when the instructions are being given.»

-Lose what? What happened? Are you okay?-

«Gaia never told me what we're supposed to do here, she never told me anything, she just planted the instructions inside my mind for me to remember as we go along. After she told me this, the memory faded. It seems my mortal mind can't take all the info at once so I get it in snippets.»

-So now what?-

«Not sure, she wanted us to find some piece of red crystal I think.»

-Red crystal? How the heck does this fit in with us stuck in the past?-

«I don't know.»

Jai took another look around the old forest again. Deep emerald green met her eyes, but something was off in this forest; there was no noise what so ever. No bird calls, no insects chirping, no nothing. It was deathly silent. Jai suddenly felt like something was watching her and when she looked up, the sky looked like it has suddenly gone mad. Mr. S looked up along with her only to see a sky ravaged by what looked like the Aura Borealis gone berserk. The sky was a sickly purple with black and gray clouds looked like a blight against it as eerie lights flashed between them. There was no wind, yet the clouds rushed by as if a hurricane was coming.

«Just a thought, but this is fucked up.» Jai said in a deadly serious tone.

-Amen,- the Nightmare cat quickly agreed.

«Gaia told me that something happened 500 years ago that disrupted the time line that we're used to.»

-Let me guess, we get to fix it?-

«Yes, and who wants to bet that this has something to do with it.»

-Swell,- The cat said with quite a sarcastic tone to it.

Jai didn't answer as she took off running, with her bonded following right behind her.

Bioelectrical energy, chi, ki, magic, mana, whatever people called it, it flowed over the Earth in invisible rivers and streams called ley-lines. This was the energy that all living things produced during their life spans, as well as during their deaths. Normally, people that could use magic were sensitive to these power sources, but Jai was overly sensitive due to being bonded to Gaia. She could actually «feel» when something was hurting the Earth, as she was now. Whatever it was that was causing this part of the Earth so much distress was not to far from her position and was probably causing the insanity in the skies. As the duo ran, Jai let her mind clear as she let her sixth sense take over as she could now see the ley-lines that ran throughout not only the land, but in the trees and plants around her as well. They shimmered lightly in different colors overlaying her normal vision, and just from what color, or how thick the lines were she could tell if a plant was sick or healthy. The colors here weren't the normal colors for a healthy forest, which would have a light green-blue glow to her eyes. These ones had sickly, wan brown-yellow ley-lines as if something was draining all the life out of the forest. The ley-lines on the ground showed that a majority had their flows reversed from their normal routs by having a reddish tint to them as Jai followed them to find the source of the drain.

Soon, the trees gave way to mountains, and a shear cliff made of white stone covered in withered, dying vines blocked them from going any further. Jai looked down to see that the forced ley-lines flowed not around the wall like they normally would, but they were being pulled into it. She put a hand on the stone and as soon as she did she jerked her hand back like she had been burnt. Through the wall she felt nothing what so ever. She should have felt the sickly energy run through the rock to its destination, but whoever did this had it well shielded so even she couldn't feel it. She looked down to see S rubbing on her leg, but he wasn't purring, all the hair on his back was standing on end as he looked off to the right further down the wall. She ran following the cliff face until she hit what seemed to be an area that was once an entrance. Boulders and rocks blocked it like a landslide had occurred, but Jai saw conflicting signs on the rocks like someone had tried to blast this way open once, yet there was no hole here, only solid rock...

Jai'eesh reached down and picked up her Nightmare bonded as placed him on her shoulder as he wrapped himself around her neck and braced himself by digging his claws into the padded parts of her jean jacket. She instantly jumped on the nearest boulder and began climbing up it. Who ever destroyed the pass was trying to keep whatever was inside from getting out obviously, but the destruction provided Jai with an easier way inside than trying to climb the shear cliffs that surrounded the area. It took her a good half-hour to finally reach the top as the sun was setting in the distance. It gave her just enough light to see an entire city nestled on the other side of what was now a huge stone wall, not the cliffs as they had originally appeared to be. She stayed low to the ground and crept along the top of the cliff trying to find a secure spot to sit and take in the sight before her. Jai soon found a large crevice right before the cliff jutted up again. She dropped down into it, which did a good job of hiding her as well as giving her an excellent view of huge city.

She sat down to catch her breath and let S jump off her shoulders. He sat next to her as he too tried to take in the vastness of the hidden city. The huge stone wall encircled the expanse of the city until it hit the mountain range that the walls looked like they had originally come from. The city itself was right under the shadow of a mountain that looked like a jagged dagger trying to tear the sky open, and with the crazy weather swarming around this area, it looked like it was doing exactly that.

Just inside the walls, large expanses of forest and fields framed the city that looked like it was carved out of the same rock as the wall cliffs. From her position Jai could make out a four paved main roads defining four sections of the city, the biggest of which leading straight to the destroyed pass. They all led to the middle of the city where a large complex dwarfed all other buildings in the place.

-I'm willing to bet that that huge temple is where all this crap is originating from.- Jai mindspoke to her bonded.

She had switched to mental communication so that, no one patrolling the area would hear anything. Due to their bond, their mental conversations were on such an deep level that one would have to rip through their souls just even hear a whisper of what they were saying.

In the dying light, S had no problem making out the details of the city that his bonded couldn't see, -This is nothing more than a well-built fort. Hidden perfectly in these impassable mountains, they make one heck of a defensive barrier. Plus only a small group of people can defend that pass against hundreds easily.-

-I don't think this place was build primarily for defense Love. Look at the streets, if this is a hidden city, those main roads aren't big due to commerce like in other cities. Heck I'll bet you it isn't even near a trade route considering we didn't see any road except for deer paths on the way here. Those are for easily mobilizing an army. This place was built to launch an offensive without anyone finding out about it.-

-Who would do all this? And why out here in the middle of nowhere? That reminds me, where are we?-

-It would be a good thing to know. The more information, the better off we'd be for figuring out what the heck we're supposed to be doing here.-

Jai opened her pack and took out a small silver orb. She threw it in the air as it stopped dead and it flew right back to her and just hovered there above her head. This was Narnia, part of a living computer composed of microscopic artificial cells that lived in spherical colonies as a single unit. Narnia's main body was back at Shadow Mountain controlling the automated side of the base. Smaller bodies could separate from the main and were used regularly on the Shadows' missions as recorders, translators, information databases, and communicators.

«Narnia I want you to try and figure out where in the world we are,» Jai whispered to the orb right beside her face.

«We regret we cannot locate any global positioning satellites. Something may have happened to them.» The orb answered back in a digitized female voice.

«You can't find them because they haven't been invented yet. We're about 500 years in the past. Is there another way you can figure out where we might be?»

Narnia's silver «skin» rippled as it compiled the information Jai'eesh just gave it, «That is a possible explanation as to why the satellites are not there however improbable travel through time is. We must rise higher to see if the land matches any data we have of this time.»

«Permission granted, but do not be seen.»

The orb suddenly simmered then disappeared as the once silver exterior bent the light through it instead of refracting it off the surface. Jai and S didn't have to wait long as the orb reappeared in the same place like it had never moved at all.

«I have found an old Tibetan map that correlates with this area in my database. The map dates to the time you have supplied as well, it is of the trade routes around the city called Zhu Zin. However the city we are looking on is not Zhu Zin, nor is the city anywhere on the map but this mountain range is. Does this help?»

«Yes it does, thank you.» Jai muttered as she grabbed the orb and put it back into her pack.

-Could you fill me in on what all that just meant?-

-Sorry S, yes I know where we are now. I was reading the latest National Geographic earlier where they had just started excavating a huge city on the border of China. A group of archeologists just recently discovered the map and are using it to excavate the city. Some of the artifacts that were found there name the city as Zhu Zin. It's a really strange find since there's evidence of several different cultures mingling there. It must have been a huge trade city, and its located near a place called the Temple of Light.-

-So? I still don't see why someone would start a invasion here.-

Jai pursed her lips in thought, -Me neither, but I feel like I'm going to put the pieces together any moment now. It's all there, it's just not clicking for some reason.-

-Well, I was thinking while Narnia was telling us our location. That city's not big enough to house an invasion army of any size let alone feed one. So if one's coming, where is it coming from?-

-There's only one way to find out Love.-

The cat shrugged and said nothing as he jumped up on Jai's shoulders and resumed the position around her neck. Jai climbed out of the crevice and she ran to the edge of the cliff and looked down judging the distance to the ground. She then turned and took a running start and jumped.

Author : Candy Benson

Creation date: 2002-4-29-12-31

Modification date: 2003-9-14-16-50