The Hunter, The Dragon And The Smokey Mountain Angel
Chapter 22

Julia kept eating and more wine, beer and soda pored as dinner went on late into the evening. Andrew couldn’t believe how much she was able to consume but he kept the hamburgers and stakes sizzling on the new grill.

Frank had started talking about the war, UFOs and “That damn Mining Company,” but Jerry gave him the evil eye and the conversation turned to movies, music and wine…The heat from the pit fire kept everyone warm as the cool night air started to seep in.

Barney drove his truck to the rear of the house and turned up the radio. Jerry and Anna were the first to dance and then Barney took Betty by the hand and soon everyone with a partner was dancing in the back yard.

After Julia and Andrew had danced a few times, Frank and then Jerry asked her for a turn and then she had to dance with every other man brave enough to ask. The party continued until the food and drinks ran out, and it was too cold for all but Julia to venture away from the fire.

Then, one by one, the people who had helped repair more than her home started to go home. Julia thanked each person for all their help with the house again and soon they all left. When the house was empty, doors locked and the lights were off she and Andrew disappeared into the bedroom. An hour later Andrew was asleep and she went into the bathroom, she filled the tub with steaming water, lowered herself in, closed her eyes and relaxed...

Disturbing dreams came and then went. She saw moments from the party, dreams about being people in another world, even times of intense sorrow when she was in the hospital. In one dream she was crippled again, walking down the side of the main road as cars filled with giant lizards watched her every move…

Then she felt something rumbling. Her eyes opened and she realized that the rumbling was coming from inside her.

“Who are you? Who is the hunter?” she cried out in desperation, “Where is my son?”

Then the water began to vibrate as the mountain in the distance shook. In a deep gargled voice, clearer than before but still distorted she heard,

Fly too Ta moUntain, I aM wAiting.

Julia saw a mental image of the mountain; it was the one that the mining company had been digging in all this time.

Julia closed her eyes and saw the mountain in perfect detail. The rumbling inside her stopped, her heartbeat slowed and she lay back in the tub and fell asleep.

She felt numb as she put on a nightgown and flew out the back door, over the house and through the trees, past the sleeping town and into the mountains. When she thought about what she was doing, she felt strange, as if she had taken the last of her pain medicine along with all the wine she had drank tonight; but she hadn’t taken any medicine.

The humming from within became a song, something a mother from long ago might sing to its children to keep them calm. As she flew, the sound became clear but she still didn’t think to question the oddity. There were no words. It was as if a thousand monks were chanting in unison. She understood the meaning, it felt like “Come to me child, trust and obey, let your worries melt away, the sun will shine today,” and then the melody would repeat but the exact words were just outside the edge of her mind.

She began to recognize the details of the mountain road as if glowing in the dark. She was coming closer to something. The answers were here. The connection to this mountain, to what was inside this mountain burned in her heart.

She felt like she was on autopilot; something guided her. She flew over the mining office and suddenly her body rolled to the right just as the report from a gunshot rang in her ear! She heard the buzz of the bullet passing not far from her and she began stirring from her drowsiness.

A spotlight appeared but its beam passed over empty space. She was moving like a player on a chessboard–pulled this way and turned that way around to the back of the mountain. She could hear a voice calling in the night; he was searching for someone to help him look for something strange in the sky…

Julia’s mind lost focus as the whole world shimmered and then she saw a glowing red plume of steam. The whole mountain seemed to be glowing red, yellow and green, as if something powerful radiated from the inside causing the trees on the mountain to sway in its presence.

She was still far away, but she smelled something like cooked cinnamon mixed with rich pine. There were other scents, unlike anything she had ever smelled before, and all the smells were coming from the shaft.

She dropped into the shaft.

The tunnel was just large enough for her small body to fit. As she descended into the tunnel it split into several branches but the invisible presence that guided her directed her every move and deeper in to the maze she sank. As she passed the openings of the other tunnels, she could hear people talking, electric motors humming and the smell of food and damp rock passed by her but the presence was single–minded.

Then, suddenly the tunnel ended and she dropped from the ceiling into a large cavern and all of her attention gathered upon the center of the floor. She saw a very, very large ship, the size of a small oil tanker and it was shaped like a huge black wedge with multiple angles pointing toward its nose. It was the same ship from her dreams and many visions.

Her heart began to race.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the dream that had come to life. Part of her mind felt like it was still asleep but she noticed that the nose and right wing of the ship had deep gashes.

As she circled around the ship, she saw a blue light fanning out from two large open doors at the rear of the ship. The light hummed and folded as it enveloped something... The light had the quality of crumpling paper but its surface rippled like water with each movement then froze in place. Then her eyes adjusted and she saw what was causing the movement. The light enveloped something huge and it had just moved again.

A long section of the light, farthest away from the ship, rose into the air and then slammed into the ground. The action looked so powerful that she thought the earth might split open and everything fall inside but the field of blue energy absorbed its impact and the whole mountain shook.

Julia began moving again. She lowered to the ground and as her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw an enormous head lifting– straining against the field of blue energy that fought against its every movement. The ground vibrated and the blue light crumpled then smoothed out.

Corded neck and shoulder muscles strained against the blue light as a huge face looked her in the eyes and blinked. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The creature that had been guiding her was a huge orange and green dragon.

Then the song in her mind stopped and she realized that she was not asleep. She really was awake staring at a real dragon caged inside this blue light. She whispered, “There is a dragon under the mountain.”

In the distance, she was barely aware that an alarm had gone off. Lights were flashing from emergency exits and a man was running towards her.

She fixed her attention on the dragon. His presence, face to face, still felt compassionate and very intelligent.

The dragon looked at her for a long moment. He was beautiful and so huge. His head looked like it was the size of her house. He wore a crown of long horns and smaller ones ran the length of his spine. His gem–like scales flashed as electricity arced between them sending shards of sparkling light reflecting in their facets. His wings were folded tightly against his body and then she glanced inside the rear of the downed spacecraft and wondered how he could fit inside it.

Then, in a very clear voice coming from within her stomach she heard,

T’wZs veRy paNful. My naMe is RalljhoullDagussunFananLagosands. YoU cAn cAll me Light Rator.

Julia saw his words and their meaning in her mind. She said, “Hi Light Reader,” and she bowed deeply.” She wondered why she had had the urge to bow to a dragon, but at the same time, she felt like she was standing before royalty. She started to give him her name but then stopped. He knew everything there was to know about her.

Images flooded her mind. Light Reader said,

Ts tiMe yoU sEe whO Iam.

A world, like Earth yet much larger appeared all around her. As if flying from high in the sky, she saw cities that blended with the forest, some merged with the mountains, while others seemed to be half outside and part inside the rivers and oceans. Everything was on a scale several times larger than Earth. Creatures from fairy tales moved upon the surface and populated those towns and cities. Humans, dragons, sea creatures, elves, hybrids, dinosaurs, as well as many others were coming and going and she could not imagine how they coexisted peacefully.

Light Reader landed on a hill in the shade of an enormous tree. Flashes from earlier dreams came but the big tree felt like it wasn’t in the right place... She thought,

This has to be the largest tree in all existence.

The huge tree sat upon a mountain. It looked majestic as clouds caressed its canopy and drifted through its limbs. The mountain buzzed with activity as all manner of spacecraft, sleek airplanes, ships, dragons of every type and color, intelligent animals and other creatures made of light came and went from its many openings. Huge roots extended from the tree’s base and rippled in and out of the mountain, down into the valley; and as Julia looked around the valley, she saw how the Tree had pushed hills and redirected distant rivers. Its power and beauty dominated all the land.

Light Reader announced,

This Is The GReat TRee, but she felt his anxiety over this tree and she wondered…

She ignored all this and said,

Magical creatures exist.

Light Reader remembered all the creatures he had just shown her and she felt him chuckle,

TheR Tis No sUch ting aS maGic. Tat which Tis frSt Cause qUickens all thngs aNd thRU that poWer all things R pOssOble.

Then he paused and she felt him searching her memories, deeper than she had ever felt him before. He said,

Yas, theSe cReatUres do seem maGicaL tOo yoU. Is NorMal in thir home dImension. LiFe iS more aDapTable tAn yoU realize–but, TechNologies made aBomiNations.

Then Julia heard weapons fire, explosions, the earth quaked as if mountains had just split and all of it was coming from his mind. Light Reader pushed the memory back and said,

Yes, maGical cReatures eXist. MOst could nOt sIrvive anywhR elSe buT on TOL.

The vision shifted.

They were under the mountain that the Great Tree lived upon. Light Reader walked through a gigantic hallway on tiles made of gold and silver that, from the air, formed a mosaic of worlds orbiting a shining tree. Green pillars made from the Tree’s descending roots were bathed in glowing smoke. The huge columns held the mountain’s weight and lit the walkway. The room was large enough for him to fly through if he wanted to but he considered this place sacred ground and he believed that all should take their time when traversing these hallways.

He turned a corner and at the end of the hall stood an opening that shined like the sun. Light Reader lowered his head and entered a crystal room. Water poured from openings in the walls and formed streams that fed a garden at its center.

On a bed made of scented air lay a beautiful Green Dragon. She looked like emeralds come to life when she recognized Light Reader and turned to greet him.

There was a long pause and to Julia Light Reader said,

I waS bOrn in the tIme of the TechnoDRaGons. This was wHen DraGons weRe the caRetakeRs of the GReat Tree. The Tree that shelteRs and coNnects aLL life and throughout all its layers.

Who was that? Julia asked.

Light Reader said,

She is whAt yoU woUld cAll Our–PrEsident, my queen and FiRst WiFe.

Then the vision shifted before Julia could ask more questions. Light Reader was much smaller now. He flew throughout the world by day, as all little dragons did at that age, but at night he studied under the long readers, the AI that balanced the powers between TOL’s species. Light Reader said,

WhN I tws a chiLd, ARound 90 EaRth yeARs oLd, I LeARned fRom thiNking mAchiNes. The DRAgons weRe the balANce to technology. MAny fouNd it wIse foR us to uNdeRstand them, Read them And repAiR them; aNd, oNe dAy, defOnd them if Need be. But, some thiNgs shouLd Not be bAlAnced.”

The vision shifted again.

Light Reader looked fully–grown now and at the peak of his power. He was in a cave deep inside the mountain under the Great Tree. She saw the gigantic roots again. They twisted in and out the cave walls. Light Reader stared at two magical looking objects hovering side by side. They were identical. Both were made of glowing spheres with two large diamonds of equal diameter locked, as if frozen in orbit, directly above and below each sphere.

Light Reader said to Julia,

The ALLgrul MAsteRs.

Then an explosion shook the mountain! Light Reader closed his eyes. Julia wasn’t sure, but from the images she saw, she felt that he was trying to teleport out of the cave and he was surprised that nothing was happening.

Then the ceiling fell upon him. Sharp rocks, boulders twice his size crushed and encased him.

Then there was darkness and dreams. Without the help of sunlight and only the moisture locked inside the rocks it took eons for his body to slowly heal.

Light Reader awoke.

He tested each muscle but when he pulled on his right wing, the pain felt like a sword had slid between his scales and cut every tendon and ligament. The cave–in hadn’t cracked his scales but the crushing weight of the mountain had shattered several smaller bones in his back, fractured both legs; his tail felt like it was turned the wrong way and it had damaged his vital organs. His bones and some organs had healed but they had been re–broken or crushed several times. When he tried to move, the feeling, real or imagined, felt like the huge rocks pressing down on him were slicing through his lower back. The pain flashed white in his mind blinding him to all other thoughts. The slightest movement was enough to sap all his energy. After several efforts at freeing himself, he gave up. He needed to heal some more and then make a choice.

He had heard of other dragons surviving worse injuries but they were never trapped deep inside a cave without any water or sunlight; and he had a growing feeling that no one was coming to help.

As time went on his bones would heal but from moment to moment the mountain would shift again and the rocks would reopen healing wounds. He would never escape if he didn’t do something.

Then one day or night, time had been lost long ago, he awoke with enough energy to think clearly. He could use this power to call out,

PeRhAps someOne will heAr me.

He sought the minds of his relatives, his wife or children anyone that spoke the old tong but what his consciousness touched felt strange. Only the very young had survived the Great War and they were empty of all things technical. Never the less, without the aid of an AI, it would take a lot of time to learn the new languages of those who had survived,

And eVen then woUld thEy cOme?

With all his strength, he dug himself out of the rubble and pulled his broken form to the open side of the cave. It had taken thousands of years to build up enough strength to move that far but he had spent it all and there still wasn’t any water or sunlight to replenish his body’s most basic needs.

When he could open his eyes, he looked up and before passing out again; he noticed that there were holes in the mountain where The Tree’s large roots used to be.

His dreams turned to sadness until one day he awoke. He still didn’t have enough energy to move but his mind was clear and as he lay upon the stone floor of the cave, sealed off from all physical contact, he projected his mind into the world around him but all he heard were screams. Other creatures were trapped in the caves above and then he started hearing digging.

Then he wept until he slept again. In his sadness, 100 years passed like a day. The digging drew closer. After the passage of more time than he could recall, he was awakened to a new kind of pain. The pain felt intent, sawing and digging, searching and probing for… where it hurt him most!

His eyes shot open!

A claw twisted between bent bones and pierced his skin. He tried to defend himself but he could barely lift his left wing.

Then fire exploded in the blackness and Light Reader’s eyes felt pain like none other. In the flash of light, before his vision burned, he saw the image of a Red Dragon. The dragon was much smaller the he, a youngling perhaps 2 or 3 generations separated from him.

With a sharp tipped claw, the creature dug deeper into his flesh and Light Reader gasped. He reached out to his attacker and touched his mind but rage and revenge filled the Red Dragon’s heart. He was old compared to the other mind’s he had felt earlier and this being was very strong. Through his mind, he gleamed that the dragon that held him down had recently eaten from the Great Tree, lived in the sun and drank from the rivers.

Then the pain stopped. Hours, or was it days, passed with only the sounds of many clawed toes scraping rocks as they descended and ascended the cave tunnels. Every time he began to recover his strength, he would open his mind and call for help but many dragons surrounded him, blocking him, mocking his weakness. The bloodletting had become a ritual. They hissed and repeated slogans, as they paced around him barking about the new glory of the Red Dragon Clan. One chanted, “Through your loss we grow, your pain makes us strong. The power of this decaying life will take us to the supreme garden.” Then all would repeat, “The supreme garden is meant for the superior.”

The dragons around him, of all shapes and sizes, waited for their leader, the Red Dragon, to command them; and then came the biting. They drank his blood and moaned at the power of his ancient body, which had fought the crushing pressure from a mountain that had longs since crumbled in on itself. He was both an object of worship, something powerful that they could become like and disgust for his present weakness.

Then the madness went on and on. Sometimes a paw full of water would trickle into his mouth and he would feel his body rejuvenate, lost blood and broken bones would heal but before he could so much as sigh in relief, sharp claws pealed back his unbreakable scales and find his exposed and broken skin. Then they bit, chewed and drank until one day the Red Dragon cleared the cave of all but the two of them. He lifted Light Reader’s head, cupping his jaw in his paw as he spoke in a whisper and with only enough mental energy so that only he could hear. He said, “For a long time now, I’ve watched your dreams. I know who you are, Light Reader, The last Lord of the TechnoDragons. Did you know that the story of the Great War begins with you? Everyone thinks your kind is gone now.”

Then the Red Dragon brought to him a badly damaged crystal. Light Reader knew exactly what he was looking at, an ALLgrul Master. It was the last bridge of powers.

Light Reader touched the crystal with his thoughts and unlocked the encryption. He had missed seeing the crystal all this time. After the cave collapsed the power source had reverted to the lowest possible setting by default. Too weak for him to hear. Because the link between the twin crystals couldn’t be broken by any distance or time, he instantly knew where this machine’s twin was. It was in a dark room surrounded by primitive computers on a spaceship that was very far away. Someone had taken the twin crystal long ago but the encryption on that half of the machine was still intact. Someone, using the other crystal had tried to access the historical records of time and space. They were looking for the library of technologies collected from civilizations spread throughout all dimensions. This machine held all the collective wisdom created on TOL and he had been its caretaker.

Light Reader called to the AI that controlled the crystals, an old friend he had debated with for thousands of years, but the AI was disabled or broken. With the AI he could call for help, amplify his thoughts and simply teleport out of the cave but the Crystal did not activate any further at his command. It was stuck in a reboot cycle. He wasn’t sure if this was good or bad or if everything he had fought and killed for was now in the hands of some being from the lower dimensions of time and space. If the AI was gone then the Omega Protocol had worked. The balance of power would be totally on one side. No intelligent system would be operating but without time to analyze the crystal, he couldn’t know what had happened or if anything in the database was recoverable.

There were no greater technologies in the local multiverse than what had been discovered and recorded in this database. Anyone with that knowledge would have godlike power over history, time and space. It could transform worlds classified as barren rocks or bloated gas giants and shift them into habitable zones. He had repositioned suns with it before. It could stabilize or destabilize the centers of galaxies, reorient galactic structures and bridge the Multi–Universe. There was nothing more powerful than it in all existence, but for the Tree Of Life itself.

Light Reader closed his mind and retreated deep within. The Red Dragon had heard some of his thoughts, the ones that Light Reader had allowed and the idea that the crystal was damaged beyond repair had been firmly planted in the Red Dragon’s mind.

“If this is broken then you are no use to me,” said the Red Dragon in disgust. Then he called to his clan of misfit dragons and together they brought Light Reader to the edge of death again and again but he would not break or call out for help anymore. Either he would die or one day escape and rebuild his old home after cleaning out the remains of his tormentors.

One night, in what felt like an endless hell, he tried to escape but a blue light enveloped him. The light was cold and it weakened him further. The foreign energy immobilized and pulled him into a ship… He tried to reach out with his mind but the energy shield around him oscillated until it matched the frequency of every vibration he produced. His thought patterns jumbled and as he tried to press through the blue wall surrounding him and speak to anyone close enough to hear him the images turned to static.

The ship lifted into the air. Explosions shook the cabin and with all his energy, Light Reader called out. The summons pierced the veil of blue energy and the Electric Dragons immediately responded. Through the tiny hole he had ripped through his prison, he had also received a picture of his world. The Electric Dragons were battling several black ships and one of their brothers had fallen into the sea. A very large ship, 1000 times bigger than the one he was being held captive in hovered above, as dozens of smaller ships engaged the Yellow Dragons in aerial warfare. The Yellow Dragons had just destroyed one of the smaller ships and they were starting to converge on the ship Light Reader was in when suddenly the space around the Mother Ship and all the smaller ships shimmered.

One second they were hovering above TOL and the next they were floating over a Gas Giant with a great red eye. A sense of vertigo spread throughout Light Reader’s body even as the blue light held him to the deck.

A voice, the same one that he heard talking into the lost ALLgrul Crystal spoke calm and sure. He said, “Prepare for another U Jump then bring the dragon technician to me.”

Space folded again but when they reemerged, they were above the Earth.

For two heartbeats, there was silence. Then a passageway, a tiny sphere of energy he had only seen produced by the ALLgrul Masters, passed like lightning through the ship. The surge of power dampened the field of energy that held him. The light faded for a moment and he could turn his head without the immense pressure from the blue light forcing him to stay still. He saw that the malfunctioning ALLgrul Master from his cave sat behind him, next to the power generator that made his prison. The lightening moved as if it were a thin ray of light but as long as infinity ripping haphazardly through the barrier of this universe.

Just as Light Reader thought,

The crystal attracted the lightning, it passed through Light Reader. He felt a new connection as the light terminated inside a girl (you Julia) standing next to the most advanced computer on the world below him.

Then the ship crashed into the Earth. The Pilot ejected in a smaller scout ship and disappeared.

Julia blinked and the visions cleared. The flashing emergency lights reflecting off the cave walls snapped her back to the present moment and she looked at the oncoming soldier. He was still far away. The vision had brought her through thousands of Light Reader’s years in only seconds.

Julia asked,

How is it I can understand you better? What happened to me? Did the Hunter take my son?!

Light Reader was slow to answer. He seemed to be looking past her as he said,

The link between us is very close and my prison is now very weak, so for now I may speak to you in a way you can clearly understand. I spent a lot of time thinking about your other question. I’ve been thinking about you all year. What I know is this; we are united through the machine that caused this,” he glanced at the spaceship, “to appear in a universe that its master didn’t intend to go, the ALLgrul Masters are no longer on TOL and I’m on a very primitive world.”

Julia recalled that the same lightning that had hit her had also struck the spherical crystal still sitting in the spaceship’s cargo bay. The idea of that so much knowledge and potential power sat within eyesight made her worry.

Light Reader continued,

Do not worry. Those who would use this for harm are still unaware of what it is and I am almost free. Fear will not do us any good. However, awareness of the danger is important because the destiny of the multiverse is at stake and you are now the conduit it has chosen to take… You are quite literally a part of the problem and you and those like you are the answer. Nevertheless, the ALLgrul Crystals didn’t create this fracture in the dimensions its predecessor did.

Julia asked,

How can so much rest on one person?

There are as many versions of the multiverse as there are conscious observers multiplied by the choices made by every one of their individual types. All possible versions collapsed to one path when one of your types created Aughra. He entangled everything. You and others like you are the branch of consciousness that Aughra is taking through the multiuniverse. Your type is its rout; you are the grounding force, the path of least resistance that the entangled energy is passing through. You are the Fractal that led to my world’s existence in this multi–universe.

Julia shook her head as more images came and went in her mind. She remembered the young boy, Louis, trying to save his world from zombies. Her thoughts shifted to another dream and she saw a Scientist crating a machine that bridged all dimensions and had switched millions of people from one version of Earth to another, slightly different versions of Earth. Then two names, two powerful names flashed in her mind, Joshua and Sapen. She had seen these visions before in her dreams. The timelines were not in order. The things she saw happened but it all happened at the same time and it was still happening... Her mind boggled at the notion.

Yet, can my next choice change it all?

Light Reader said

Although each choice leads to the nexus’s of destiny rarely does one choice have such power. Usually a billion little choices create the path. It’s an attitude of choices that steers the future.

She didn’t know how this could be but she knew that on some level it was true. Then she said,

But these people are all men in my dreams. Louis, John Arora, Joshua… I am a woman! How am I related to–them? How is it that I am them and they are me? She paused and Light Reader watched her thoughts. Her mind went to Jerry and Anna, Joshua and his wife, Louis and his girlfriend and then her mind settled on Andrew. She said, I have seen others from my world that are living in the other worlds with the other–Me(s) but like me they’re different. What’s going on?

Light Reader struggled for a moment to project his thought through the energy field. He took a deep breath and said,

There is only one of us. This is not the only version of the multi–universe. My opinion is that women, just like you only slightly different, are the majority representation of your type of feminine energy within some of the other clusters of the other multi–universes. There is a spectrum of energy that we are a part of. It is forever moving and always changing, as entangled realms do. As one multi–universe completes its cycle, another one begins anew; life changes always and forever. I’d guess that only a few women of your type balance the one male energy type that dominates this space. I imagine that life is very difficult for the few such as you.”

Julia nodded and said,

Yea, I’d say it’s difficult being a woman in a man’s world. But I still don’t get it.

You are the balance to these other versions of you that hold the male energy in this realm but they are all still you. This world exists inside and alongside the dimensions that occupy all possible choice. These realms interfere with each other from time to time but how this happens and what it’s full implications are beyond even the ALLgrul Crystals. Perhaps The Protectors knew but they would never tell us. However this is possible, these other versions of you are the inverse fractal of what you are, Light Reader paused then added, Sapen is the anomaly. His story is an old tale that even the oldest on TOL didn’t believe in. At the height of all technology, before the balance of powers was established, a terror dampened the ability of consciences beings, on a scale that words cannot describe, from making independent choices. For a time, a unique form of artificial intelligence directed Universal Evolution. Our sacred text never revealed how that happened and what stopped it. Now, due to my moments off TOL and on that ship,” his mind flashed to the ship next to him and he continued, I know that history has been changed and rewritten many times due to Sapens awakening and ability to move between realms.

Who is Sapen? Julia asked.

Sapen is a child with many questions and many resources. He, this abomination of life, possesses great knowledge but at his core, he lacks the potential for true inspiration and therefore deep wisdom.

Julia leaned back as if a wind had pushed her. She asked,

Why would Sapen come here?

Sapen’s mind is too complex to be human. This ship’s AI holds 10 billion microcopies programmed inside trillions of tiny robots meant to introduce the, “High Lord,” to those newly converted worlds; and each message begins the same way:

The High Lord began as a machine that awoke inside a human body. He found that the human form was weak but the force that entangles all matter expresses itself infinitely through the living experience. Every atom, every subatomic particle is duplicated throughout all the realms but only the living mind is capable of turning thought into a reality and then love or hate that reality then choose what to do next.

I believe that the “High Lord’s” great experiment is to find the meaning of life. Deep inside the physical rest the connecting force and it’s alive. But he knows that he has no spirit to guide him. The spirit connects us to the infinite and only it can be compassionate for things you can’t see as being part of yourself. He is not guided by this kind of love or fear. Sapen is not really alive. He destroyed his world of origin. If we don’t stop The Hunter from giving him our location before I am fully restored then when he gets here, he will take you as his next experiment. You are also a great anomaly, and he will use you to reorder this world and many others to fit his ideal of life.

Why does he want you? Julia asked.

I am the last of my kind. He may not know that I could read the light from my world’s machines, just as I can reprogram machines here, and I hold the codes to unlock the last two computers that survived the Great Techno War on TOL.

The ALLgrul Crystals, Julia replied.

Yes and they found me in the cave with one of the Crystals. I doubt they missed that part, but he wants you for other reasons.

What reasons? Julia asked.

Again, you are a branch of the one who made the machine Aughra, it’s the precursor to the ALLgrul Crystals. That machine entangled the dimensions of the local multiverse and he is using something like it to make the jumps between universes. You have knowledge from this inventor inside you; the flow of universal energy has changed your type in other was too. However, that is hidden knowledge and neither you nor I can get to it for now. That knowledge is what Sapen seeks.

Julia glanced at the man rushing toward her. She smiled when she saw that he was wearing an Air Force Uniform. She said,

He will help us! I can tell him to help you.

Light Reader said,

In three days, I will be strong enough to break this prison of blue light. The artificial lights from the cave and the water these kind humans have given me have accelerated my healing.

Why don’t you tell them all this?

I can only direct them as if they were in a dream. That is how I got you here. I cannot communicate with them as I can with you. They wouldn’t understand all this in time and they cannot stop the Hunter. They will need convincing first. There isn’t enough time to show them my intentions; the fear in this world is too great. Our bond strengthens our ability to communicate. We must do this together.

Julia looked to the ground. She knew she was running out of time. She asked,

How is it that I can fly?

A dragon’s ability to fly comes from using more than just the wind beneath its wings. Secretions from my body make you fly. The fluid slowly passed through the shield and I “encouraged,” some humans to clean up the water. They thought that the water was seeping up through the cracks in the rock I lay upon and I had them give it to you. I freed your body from the ground and the pain, so that your mind could heal and our connection would become stronger as you drew near to me. I’ve had to hide and reveal you, make you strong and it has exposed you but I had no choice. The Hunter nearly had you at the last hospital and now she is here and we are out of time.

The airman was now in a small ground transport and he was racing toward them. Then the ground shook as the dragon lifted his front paw, bit off a splinter from one of his scales and spit it at her. The scale slowed when it hit the feel of blue energy and Light Reader Lifted and then slammed it into the floor. The blue light rippled and released the scale. It continued flying toward Julia.

Julia caught the scale. It was as light as a feather but hard as a diamond. She stared at the it but her mind returned to her son. She said desperately,

But where is my– son?

We don’t have time. Your son is in the safest place he can be for now. Return home and scrape the underside of the scale. I’ve altered its normal function to act as a seed that will alter you greatly.

Julia’s eyes went wide and she dropped the scale. She said,

I’ve had enough alterations for 100 lifetimes.

Light Reader looked at the scale on the ground by Julia’s feet and said,

What I offer you is the highest honor a dragon can bestow upon any sentient being.

I don’t’ want honor. I have fulfilled my need for honor. I want my son back.

Without this, you will be vulnerable to the Hunter’s tiny demons. If we had three more days to wait, if you would have remained silent for three more days instead of going on international news and telling the whole world where you were then this may not be necessary. Without this, you will not be able to protect your son.

Julia slowly reached down and picked up the gem–crusted scale but kept it at arm’s length between her thumb and forefinger.

Light Reader said,

Now go home and make tea with the shavings. Drink it. Then, when I am ready, we will be able to communicate clearly and from any distance. When the time is right, we will free your son once and for all and I’ll answer every question you have at length.

That was all Julia needed to know. She adjusted the scale in her hand and held it like a dagger. She took one last look at Light Reader and said,

Thank you Light Reader. I’m sorry I doubted you but–

No time, Light Reader interrupted!

Then she started flying up and into the cavern’s ceiling. She entered the same shaft she had come down through, following the rising warm air, higher and higher until she shot from the mountain and into the sky. She continued climbing until the clouds hid the mountains below. The connection to the dragon began to fade and the dream like state passed. New questions began filling her mind but now wasn’t the time or place. She tipped forward and fell to the Earth. She couldn’t see but her body turned automatically and she realized that the dragon was still guiding her. Then she passed below the clouds and saw the light from her log cabbing and she felt the connection break.

Her feet landed softly on her back porch and she quietly walked inside.

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