Aspen and the Dream Walkers (6 page)

“Hello. I’m back again,” she said as she
smiled at them.

Sandy frowned. “I waited for you.”

“Leave her alone, it wasn’t her fault.” Dylan
glared at the tiny girl. Her long blond hair was braided, and she
wore a faded pair of jeans and a dark brown shirt.

Standing up, Aspen dusted herself off and
looked at her surroundings. A gently sloping hill lay before them.
It was blanketed in a forest of pine, birch, and sugar maple trees.
Patches of red soil broke the line of grass just before it reached
the trees. A narrow trail spiraled between the thick foliage and
disappeared up the hill.

She felt more confident in her dream and
turned to study Dylan openly. It was just a dream, after all. It
would be over soon.

He had finely chiseled cheekbones and a
strong jaw. His lips were full and expressive, and thick eyelashes
rimmed his eyes. Black hair completed the almost painfully
good-looking picture, and her heart fluttered as he stared straight
back at her. She reached up and ran her fingertips along his
collarbone, and shivered as prickles of pleasure danced across her
skin.

He stared at her bemusedly.

“I like the way you make me feel,” she
whispered. “All tingly inside.”

“Aspen!” Sandy exclaimed in shock.

Aspen shrugged. “It’s true. This is just a
dream, so I don’t mind saying it.” She turned to face Sandy. “I
don’t feel anything when I touch your skin, but touching Dylan
makes me feel good.”

“Well, someone’s going to regret saying those
words soon.” Sandy rolled her eyes and grinned broadly.

Dylan ignored Sandy and stepped closer to
Aspen. “I broke her TV. Did that make you feel good too?” He took
her hand and rubbed his thumb up and down her wrist.

Aspen closed her eyes and soaked up the
sensation. Then realizing he’d asked her a question, she said,
“Excuse me, but whose TV did you break?”

“Miriam’s. She’ll have to wait until tomorrow
before it can be fixed. Did you like that?”

“Yeah, cool. Thanks.” Her dreams were getting
better all the time. Even her clothes were playing the game—the
skirt had been replaced by a tight pair of jeans, which looked good
tucked into a pair of hiking boots.

Sandy smirked and said, “Come on, Ms. Walker,
time for your training. We’ve been waiting for you forever.” She
motioned for Aspen to follow her, and Dylan released her hand. She
missed the contact with his skin as soon as he’d let go.

Following Sandy up the hill was difficult,
but her boots made the climb easier, and her jeans and long-sleeved
top protected her from scratchy branches. After a while the hill
leveled out, and inky openings appeared in the rocks up ahead, a
string of caves that were completely hidden under a canopy of
trees. Bright green vines wrapped around their entrances, as well
as the boulders that were scattered in front of them.

Birds chirped cheerfully in the branches of
nearby trees, and Aspen watched a squirrel scamper up and down a
tall tree trunk as they approached. A sharp smell of vegetation
hung in the air, and the sky was the color of pale lemons.

“Well, we’re here,” Sandy announced. “Dylan,
can you get the table please?”

He glanced around the area for a second
before parting the vines obscuring the entrance of one cave and
disappeared inside. A minute later, he returned with an old rusty
table that he placed just outside the entrance.

Sandy grabbed a few dirty plastic bottles
that were strewn around the cave opening and arranged them on the
table.

“Help me, Aspen.” She pointed to a few more
crushed and charred bottles that seemed to have been melted at some
stage, and Aspen picked them up obediently.

“Right. Stand back now. It’s time for you to
see what a Dream Walker can really do.” Sandy took several paces
backward and indicated for her to do the same. Dylan joined the two
girls and faced the table.

“Lift your hands up, but keep your elbows
against your sides,” Sandy ordered.

Aspen played along, lifting her hands and
holding them out until a prickling sensation made its way up her
arms. Surprising her, a blue flame of electricity shot out from her
fingertips.

“Oh,” she cried and dropped her hands,
causing the flame to extinguish.

“Come on, girl, we’ve got a lot to do today.”
Sandy grinned, then motioned to Aspen to look at her hands. They
glowed like blowtorches. “Watch me. You can’t control your energy
just yet. Dylan and I can do it easily, but we’ve had years of
practice. Concentrate on the feeling in your arms.”

Aspen stared at her flame-tipped fingers and
found it difficult not to panic. The current was warm and made her
feel so alive. Determined to succeed and impress Dylan, she willed
herself to listen to Sandy’s voice.

“Good girl,” Sandy said. “Now imagine that
the tingling in your shoulders is hot water streaming in a pipe.
You can control it by closing the tap on the pipe. When you close
the tap, you shut off the water supply, or power in this case. Got
it?”

“Yes.” Aspen shivered a little, anxious about
the whole situation, but she listened to Sandy carefully.

“Relax, soldier.” Sandy stepped closer and
spoke next to her ear. “Switch the tap off now,” she ordered.

Aspen pretended that a valve had been closed
in her mind. The tingling retreated from her limbs and before she
knew it, the flames were gone.

“Fantastic.” Sandy hopped up and down. “I
told you she’d be good.”

“That’s great, but can you do this?” Dylan
smiled broadly and winked. He stretched out his hands and shot at
two bottles on the table in front of them with such accuracy that
she gasped. The blue flames from his fingers hit the targets
instantly and melted the bottles to a crisp.

With a frown of concentration, Sandy joined
him and pointed toward the table. A burst of energy shot from her
fingertips and the other bottle melted as well.

The smell of burned plastic reached Aspen’s
nostrils and she wrinkled her nose, then noticed the light above
them seemed to fade. She glanced up at the sky.

“Lemona is almost over,” Dylan said to Sandy.
“Maybe we should wait until Lavendula has passed before she tests
her strength.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, she’s new. Her power
will be weak until she practices, and they won’t notice anything.
Come on, we have about two minutes left.” She spun around to Aspen.
“Give it your best shot.”

Aspen grinned. “Watch this.” Aiming her hands
at the table, she concentrated hard.

Suddenly the entire metal table exploded. It
was incinerated in a second, and Dylan grabbed both girls to
shelter them from shards of hot steel dropping from the air. A heat
wave expanded toward them and it singed her eyebrows.

“Ouch!” she screamed. Sandy and Dylan
recovered before she did. They got up from the ground and stared at
the total devastation around them. Even the opening of the cave was
blackened from the blast. The vines had withered away and the trees
around them had been flattened.

“Oh no!” Sandy cried. “It’s Lavendula.
Quickly, we’ve got to get out of here.”

She grabbed Aspen and pulled her forward.
Dylan took her other arm and they ran together.

“What happened?” Aspen shouted as they dashed
down the hillside.

“The Chancellors will find us. You’ve
disturbed the fabric. They can sense where we are,” Sandy huffed
out as they ran.

“Have I done something wrong?”

“No, but you’re stronger than any of us ever
imagined, Aspen,” Dylan said through gritted teeth.

They ran in silence after that. Sandy left
the path they’d used to climb the hill and ran through the
undergrowth instead. Tiny branches grabbed at Aspen’s clothing and
snagged pieces of material from her sleeves.

Someone cried out behind her and she stole a
glance over her shoulder. Branches in the trees were moving, and
loud voices shouted in the distance.

“Don’t look back, just run.” Dylan reached
out for her arm and dragged her forward. She ignored the warmth
that his touch always created in her body, and ran as fast as she
could.

A strange, sweet smell clouded the air. Once,
a teacher had used ethanol in her physics class, and the odor
reminded her of its rich, sugary fragrance. The sky had changed
from lemon to the color of old bruises, and the air was cool around
them.

“Run with her, Sandy, quickly. I’ll distract
them!” Dylan shouted. He loosened his grip and turned back. The
girls stared after him for a second.

“Come on!” Sandy yelled. “We’ve got to hurry.
Run as fast as you can.”

• • •

Aspen woke up suddenly, completely out of breath. She
jackknifed out of bed and picked up the alarm clock. Ten minutes
before she had to get up for the morning. Her breathing was still
ragged, and she glanced down at her pajamas.

“Oh my word,” she whispered.

The pajamas she wore were slashed and ripped
at the sleeves, as though she’d actually run through the forest.
Jumping out of bed, she yanked the shirt off.

Her pants weren’t ripped, but the top was
ruined. There was nothing sharp on the floor that could have caused
the damage. Maybe Miriam had snuck in and cut her top during the
night. She sighed and rolled her top into a ball, then stuck it as
far as she could into the back of her clothing drawer.

Time to Explain

Sandy was waiting for Aspen as the bus rolled into
the school grounds again. She’d let her hair loose, and it hung
like a curtain around her petite body.

“Hey.” She smiled as Aspen jumped from the
vehicle. Other students walked around them in groups, laughing and
chatting loudly.

“Hey, where’s Dylan?” Aspen asked too
quickly, then mentally kicked herself, not wanting to sound
eager.

Sandy grinned and played with a small dream
catcher that she wore around her neck. It looked suspiciously
similar to the one that Dylan wore.

“He had to divert the Chancellors. He’ll be
here later.”

“Excuse me?” Aspen stopped looking at the
necklace and stared at Sandy in shock. “Did you just say he
diverted the Chancellors?”

Sandy burst out laughing and hugged her
backpack. “Yes, dummy. Didn’t you know it was real?”

The bus rumbled to life next to her, and she
jerked as Mamma Megs honked the horn and waved good-bye.

“Excuse me?” This time she asked the question
in a state of shock.

“Ooh, Dylan. I like the way you make me feel
all tingly inside.” Sandy giggled. “I told you you’d regret saying
that.” Aspen stared at her blankly. “Hmm, I can see this is going
to take longer than I thought.” Her friend dropped her smile and
sighed dramatically. “Let’s meet at lunchtime and I’ll explain it
all to you.”

Nothing could have shocked Aspen more, and
she closed her open mouth abruptly.

“Come on, you’ll be late for class.” Sandy
walked toward her class and Aspen followed her blindly. Once they
reached her history class, Sandy pointed to the door.

“See you at lunch,” she mouthed silently,
then disappeared into the throng of kids that surged through the
hallway.

Aspen walked to her desk in a daze, barely
noticing the scents of chalk and pine disinfectant that permeated
the classroom she slumped into her chair in a state of
bewilderment. Dylan’s seat was conspicuously empty behind her.

After looking around the class, she caught
Miriam’s angry gaze from across the room. Her stepsister was
dressed to kill in a low-cut tank top and a tight pair of
Wranglers. Chewing a piece of gum vigorously, she sealed the bubble
against her lips before popping it over and over. Aspen looked down
and opened her books to avoid any further confrontation.

The lessons dragged on far longer than usual,
and it was difficult to concentrate in any of her classes. She
couldn’t wait for lunch to start. Luckily Miriam hadn’t spoken to
her at all, and she was grateful for the small respite.

Finally the lunch bell rang and she ran to
the cafeteria to search for her friend. Sandy waved to her from a
table in a semiprivate alcove. Aspen dashed over and dropped her
bag on the floor. Holding out two sandwiches stuffed with lettuce,
tomato, and ham, Sandy motioned for her to sit and handed her a
juice.

“Here, you look like you’re starving. I’ll
talk while you eat.”

Aspen bit into the bread hungrily. The dream
catcher charm that dangled from a suede cord around Sandy’s neck
seemed to glow under the fluorescent lights.

“So, where to begin?” Sandy smiled and
slotted a straw into her juice box. “You, Ms. Walker, are part of a
very powerful race called the Dream Walkers.” She tugged at the
straw with her mouth after the announcement.

Aspen couldn’t speak after she’d bitten off a
large piece of bread, and she tried to chew without choking. Once
she’d nodded her head, Sandy smiled and continued.

“We’ve been in existence forever. Our purpose
is to protect children from nightmares.”

Aspen swallowed awkwardly and looked around
to make sure that they were out of earshot before hissing, “What
are you talking about?”

“You haven’t been making this all up.”
Sandy’s mouth quirked into a half smile. “We’ve been waiting for
you for a while. A Dream Walker only gets their full powers after
their sixteenth birthday, which means you should get your powers
tomorrow.”

Aspen took a smaller bite of the huge
sandwich in front of her. Other students chatted loudly around
them, and an annoying fly tried to land on her bread. She shooed it
away with her hand.

“My dreams, are you saying they’re real?” she
asked in disbelief.

“Close your mouth before you swallow that
fly.” Sandy laughed. “Yes, they’re real.” She lifted the dream
catcher charm in her hand. “You’ll get a present for your birthday
tomorrow. You’ll be wearing one of these soon. It’s a Dream Walker
necklace.”