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7. MATERIALIZED CHILD
His name was Tyber.
A young man of sixteen years stood near his horse in Shadow Meadow—a grand pasture of hundreds of miles, sprawling long and wide. He stood gazing at the bushes of redberries and wildflowers growing at the base of Mount Gold. A medium height individual—with wind-blown blonde hair, freckles, and a body adorned with jewelry—filled a basket with berries.
Tyber knew of the theatre troupe that lived in the mountain's northern caverns, and he'd seen many of their performances. The Performers of Gold they were called and were popular, for their performances were impressive.
He had also met some of Thunderbold’s tribe at the Spring Meetings, for trading and socializing, and although Tyber might not remember their names, he would recognize their faces. As he stood admiring a cascade of wildflowers—which dropped colorfully down the side of the mountain of gold—a most incredible thing happened!
The flowers suddenly became flooded with a fluid form emerging from the ground. What? A fluid form emerging from the ground? As the boy watched, the form took a more defined shape.
To his grand amazement and excitement, the form blossomed into a girl.
A girl had just blossomed from the wildflowers growing upon Mount Gold!
His mouth hung wide, opened from shock, but he was not afraid. With eyes bulging in amazement, he ran to the newly arrived figure. “Whoa!” he exclaimed. “Where did you come from!” He was so elated he could hardly compose himself. “Are you an Image?” For what the boy had witnessed, was indeed a miracle.
The girl looked up into the sky at him and mumbled incoherently.
Tyber could see she was in a daze, and wanted to help her. He reached his hand to her and asked again, but with less excitability, “Are you an Image?”
The girl seemed disconnected to reality. He stared at her. “Are you lost?”
The languid girl’s weak hand floated to the boy’s opened palm, but she could not speak. Once she was on her feet, the young man saw she was about his age, though not as tall. “Do you live in the mountain?” he asked her.
Freegirl looked around her. She was very dizzy, and sat back into the wildflowers quickly.
The boy stepped away from her and grabbed the pouch of ginseng juice tied to his horse’s saddle. “Here,” he offered. He held the leather container while the baffled girl took tiny sips. She seemed to be in a trance. “Are you... aware?” the boy asked, a bit nervously.
Her lips moved as if she was going to speak. She moaned, “Ohhh.”
The boy could not stop watching her, as he was most concerned. She did not seem to be injured. She did not seem frightened. She just seemed slightly out of focus, and it was very unusual to encounter a person who was not focused.
“Can you stand?” he asked. “I can help you get up the mountain. Maybe we can find someone from Mount Gold to help you.”
Suddenly the dizzy girl blurted, “I have to get to the Lore Halls!”
The boy was baffled. The Lore Halls, he thought. She must be an Image whose been on a strange journey and has become confused. As he was just as confused, he agreed, “Fine... Fine...” Tyber assured. “My horse will carry us both to my friend’s house where you can rest."
As Freegirl was in a very dazed state, she quietly allowed herself to be pushed upon the boy’s horse. He hopped up behind her and guided the stallion away from Mount Gold—where her family had been roaming and looking for her.
Moments before Freegirl’s unusual materialization, several members of her clan had been all over the slopes calling her name. Now she was being carried away by a stranger into the great valley of the green—Shadow Meadow.
He was a wood-worker and a carver, whose family lived in Shadow Meadow, near the Large Bend of the Whisper Waters. He'd come south at the beginning of spring to collect herbs, growing near the Swim Hills.
Relatively large, muscular, and with a thick chest and arms, he roamed Shadow Meadow on a daily basis with his horse-friend, Wilson the Stallion. He enjoyed his own company, and preferred being alone.
His friend, Rainbow, lived in a cottage about ten miles from the golden caves—where Freegirl’s clan lived. It was to this cottage Tyber took his desire to help another, and the girl he saw rise from the wildflowers beneath the mountain.
Freegirl held loosely the horse’s mane, while her unknown rescuer, sitting behind her, put his arms around her waist, held the reins, and directed the horse.
She was very lucky Tyber owned a fur saddle. Of this blessing—her comfortable seat—she had no clue. Instead, she saw glimpses of the ground pass under hoof, and had to catch herself several times as she thought she was falling.
Tyber wondered who in the world she could be, as he helped steady her.
“My friend is Rainbow. He lives about ten miles from here and knows of the people in the mountain. Are you part of the theatre troupe?” He knew theatrical people who traveled were an eccentric breed, and thought she could be one of the Performers of Gold. He talked to her often, hoping to get an answer.
Hearing the Voice tell her everything was safe—this young man had been purposely sent—she began to remember. The previous night had been a long one. She had missed the rest of the Full Moon Gather, and her people were probably quite worried. But everything was going to be perfect, the Voice kept saying. She would never be alone, as guidance would always prevail, even when humans were not present.
Suddenly the strange girl exclaimed, “I need to get to the Lore Halls! I need a boat!”
Tyber was mesmerized by her. She was intense and disturbed, yet gentle and serene. She appeared strong and capable, while appearing helpless. Where did she come from, this enigma, how did she get here, and what would have happened if the boy had not been near the mountain collecting herbs?
“My friend, Rainbow, has many river mates. Someone will be able to help you with a boat.” Tyber wanted to take care of her, loving boy he was. Plus, it was the first time he'd ever seen someone materialize before his eyes. He felt he owed the incredible experience a gift, and helping her was his offering.
Wilson continued walking along the river, the two riding double on his back. It was mosquito season and the air hummed. Fortunately, for the Children of the Glimpse, the food they ate gave them strong resistance to biting insects. They never got itchy bites, but the thick wave of buzzing bugs was sometimes a nuisance. In fact, it was so thick at times it looked like the riders were in a fog of insect clusters, fat and swarming.
Occasionally, the flitting bugs landed upon the two children, then danced quickly back into the air to avoid contact with human skin. The people never got bit. However one needed to pay close attention to one’s breathing, for it was easy to sniff a bug into the nostril, or suck one into the mouth when speaking. The eyelids had to be kept lowered to filter the mania.
The loud humming of the insects could, also, mesmerize a person to sleep. The travelers went at a docile pace, affected by the buzzing.
The green tapestry of Shadow Meadow lay to their right—while the Whisper Waters murmured to their left. The emerald meadow was huge, grasses reaching two hundred miles to the east. The river, which ran along the meadow’s western edge, held a large lake in its path called Save the Lake.
From Freegirl’s mountain cave, to Save the Lake, the distance was two hundred miles. However, the river meandered so much the water distance was closer to five hundred miles long.
Aside from the deep blue of the river, and the bright azure of the sky, Freegirl and Tyber were totally surrounded in a blanket of velvet green.
As Freegirl watched the soft color move beneath her, she absent-mindedly leaned her head against Tyber’s chest, and gazed into the distance. Smaller than little ants and dark green, she could vaguely see the front row of tress that marked Living Forest.
Shadow Meadow surrounding her, was gorgeous and tranquil, yet she barely saw it, for her anxiety to cover space kept her staring at the barely visible line of trees on the horizon. That tiny line of trees represented her future, and her future is where she lived. The forest was one step closer to her goal. The variety of meadow trees, here and there protruding from the long grass, she barely saw.
The name of the enormous green was Shadow Meadow, for the zillions of birds living in the nearby forest. When they flew in massive flocks over the great meadow, they would create a tremendous shadow upon the voluptuous field. They only flew at sunrise, shadowing the land beneath their wings.
“What is your name?” Tyber was hoping to have a conversation. “Mine is Tyber,” the young man spoke to the quiet girl, as he guided the horse up the riverbank that would eventually lead to Rainbow’s cabin.
Tyber’s friend lived near the river, though not directly on its banks. Most river dwellers had their own private beaches, but Rainbow’s cabin had been built upon the grassy meadow, away from the water, where fewer insects swarmed.
Freegirl started to answer his question then stopped. She heard the name “Heart” in her head and almost told him Heart was her name. But then, as if in a dream, she heard herself say, “Freegirl” in a hoarse voice.
Maybe she was beginning to come to awareness, thought Tyber. “Then you must live in the mountain?” he continued questioning.
“Yes…” she felt groggy. “We were having... our Full Moon Gather... and…” she hesitated, “…something... weird happened…” Stopping there, she saw her Nightmare begin to reawaken itself, and the muscles in her face clouded.
Tyber unconsciously held his breath and with surprised eyes, waited. Freegirl shook her head a few times, not sure where to begin. Then she remembered the golden chain. “I found this,” she said, as she lifted her wrist for the boy to see.
“The Full Moon Gather was three days ago.” He said. “What happened?”
“Three days ago!” She shouted it loudly, as she jerked forward in the saddle. The girl turned nervously to look over her shoulder—gazing passed Tyber, and towards the golden mountain. “That’s impossible!” She could feel the cheeks near her eyes bulge with heat—and the hot juice of her tears flaming.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go home? We can get food and water at Rainbow’s then I can take you back ho…”
“I have to get to the Lore Halls!” Her voice quivered—she was in a state of desperation. Then she shook her head and whimpered. Letting her chin fall to her chest she mumbled, “Oh…they’re going to be so worried.”
Watching her, Tyber was becoming more uneasy by the moment. The girl was indeed upset and in need of healing. He kicked his horse to a trot and told his new companion everything would be fine. “We’ll get you to the Lore Halls,” she heard him say.
Then she thought of her father. Her poor father, who had been mysteriously injured, had said the same exact words.
They were almost to Rainbow’s cabin in the meadow. As they ascended the bank from the river, a doe and her fawn jumped friskily in front of them, perhaps on their way to get a drink from the river. Tyber’s stallion, Wilson, shied and bounced side-ways, dislodging him and Freegirl almost entirely. But the young man was used to his horse and used to being a rider, so he resituated himself and his limp passenger, with her barely noticing the upset.
They continued riding. Tyber kept his thoughts private. There is something seriously troubling this woman, he acknowledged to himself.
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