Flutter (The Discover Series) (3 page)

“Did you hear that?”

I couldn’t hear the second hunter’s response.

I waited, straining to hear whatever it was that had caught their attention. I couldn’t hear anything, but I could feel something, something strong, nothing I had ever felt before.

The Princess moved again and I glanced down at her. I could see it in her eyes; whatever I was feeling was coming from her, and… someone else. Whoever it was, was not one of our kind. Her eyes were sparkling brightly, and there was a faint golden glow outlining her silhouette. She looked dreamy, happy, and calm; so whatever she was feeling wasn’t hurting her. I could tell that whatever was on the other end of the connection was getting closer, as the sensation was getting stronger.

“There is something over here,” one said, “bring that light here.”

I could hear them moving right over our heads. I pushed us deeper into the soggy earth which caused more clumps of dirt to fall around us.

I could see the spotlight of the flashlight, as they shined it down
toward
the opening of the tunnel. Turning, I placed Sara behind me and pushed her as far out of sight as I could, before turning my attention back to the two men. They hadn’t moved from above us, but I knew it was only a matter of time before they moved down to inspect the inside of the tunnel.

“Get down there and check it out.” One ordered the other.

I focused all of my energy, and warmth started flowing through my veins; traveling
toward
my hands until streams of currents swirled, forming a brilliant ball of light. It wasn’t very strong, but it would do for now.

I felt the Princess’s hand on my arm and turned my head
toward
her. She was looking down at her hand; her little fingers found the skin of my wrist. My eyes followed hers, as she shifted her grasp, centering her thumb directly over my pulse. I could feel the warmth intensify, and the ball of light bloomed brighter and stronger. She smiled, dropped her hand away, and moved behind me again. I was so stunned that I didn’t realize what was going on outside the tunnel.

“Who’s there?” I heard the hunter yell. “Get out here where we can see you!”

“Can’t we all just get along boys?”

“What are you doing out-“

His question was cut off, and there was a muffled sound. I couldn’t make out what was going on; and then I heard a loud thump followed a second later by another. Then it was quiet. There was no longer light from the flashlight and I watched the entrance of the tunnel, my eyes darting back and forth, waiting.

I could see the shadowed outline of a body, through the long vines of grass, a second before they stepped through the opening of the tunnel.

Holding his hands up, I knew he had been the one who startled the
hunter
. I felt the Princess stir behind me. She was trying to see around me, and I could feel her reaction to him, the intensity of their connection shocked me.

Walking past me she walked right up to him, and he knelt down in front of her.

“Hi Sara, I’m Adan.”

Flutter

One

Black out

Adan

I sat alone, sipping my coffee slowly without really tasting the searing hot liquid.

The ordinary coffee shop was dimly lit, and about to get dimmer; as one of the hanging lamp’s bulb pulsated, flickering like a Morse code message. It was a twenty four hour place, and at three in the morning there was a surprising amount of people scattered throughout the shop; sitting at tables and bar stools at the counter. I wondered what they were doing here at this time of the morning.

I took another sip of the bitter coffee and tried not to grimace as the harsh flavor slid down my throat, warming my body as it traveled down. I used the coffee as a distraction, something for my hands to do while I waited. The more I forced myself to drink it, the more I regretted not just getting something off the laminated breakfast menu. The waitress sauntered over to me
again
, and presented me with what I was sure was meant to be her most enticing smile, sticking out the pot of coffee in a flirtatious offer.

“Can I get you anymore coffee?” Her voice was syrupy sweet and that, combined with the suggestion of coffee, made my stomach twist.

“No thank you.” I said just as sweetly, returning her smile. I had the feeling I could have been a complete jerk, and she still would have swooned.

“Well then stranger, can I get you anything else?” It was hard to miss the invitation in her question, but just in case I had, she made sure her point was made with her body language.

“No, but thank you. I’m just waiting for a friend,” her face fell slightly, but brightened when I added
who
I was waiting for. “He shouldn’t be much longer.”

“Well if you need anything, you just holler.”
She winked
and turned away.

I couldn’t help but follow the swish of her hips as she walked behind the counter and disappeared into the kitchen. I shook my head and tried to grind away the image that was burned into my eyes lids, with my fists.

I turned, looking out the window. It was pitch black outside, with no light to be expected for months. Big billows of angry clouds covered the sky with the promise of stormy weather for the people of this small town.

It was the middle of the year on this side of the world, and the middle of winter as well. Most of the towns that surrounded this area, had been sunless for months and expected to be sunless for a few more. After almost twelve years of this pattern, it wasn’t a big fuss anymore. If scientist
s
couldn’t explain it, then a town of less than five thousand people didn’t have a chance.

I looked down at the table and began to skim the outdated article that had been cut from a newspaper ten years ago, and placed under a thick piece of glass. It talked about how the town looked as though it would be left without any sun for the second year in a row. A year before the published date of the article, the sun suddenly disappeared for nearly seven months, leaving nothing but storm clouds in the sky. No one could explain why this had happened or how long it would continue.

There was an epidemic of chaos after the first month with no sun. Crime, in the towns affected by the missing sun, sky rocketed to an alarming high. You wouldn’t think so much violence could exist with only a few thousand people, but it was there. Everyone swore it was the end of the world, an omen for the sins of all the wrong doers. Stores were raided and houses were broken into, people spent weeks underground expecting the worst. Reinforcements were finally called in, and everything eventually started to calm down enough that it was safe to go out without being harassed.

After almost eight months of no sun, the town’s people had awakened one morning to find the first sunrise. Again, no one could explain what made it reappear or why any of it had happened in the first place, but people considered it a positive sign and a blessing when it returned. When it happened the next year and the year after that, no one knew what to think anymore.

No one except for me.

I knew what caused the sun to disappear and hide for months at a time, depriving this side of the earth its warmth. What I didn’t know was
why
or
how
it happened.

I took another sip of my cold coffee and made a face of disgust.
Blah!
I didn’t know why I continued to drink the stuff. I pushed it to the other side of the table, so I wouldn’t impulsively pick it up again. I waved off the waitress as she started to work her way
toward
me once more, she put on a full pout but turned around.

I looked at my watch and realized it was just about time to get moving again. We still had another day of traveling if all went well, and I wanted to get out of here before we got hit by this storm.

I decided to wait for Aaron outside and shifted out of the booth, reaching into the back pocket of my jeans, and throwing down enough cash to cover the coffee and tip. As I passed the counter I tried to ignore the look of longing in the waitress’s stare down, as she drew lazy circles on the top of the counter with a red finger nail. The door of the coffee shop chimed, and I nodded a goodbye to the waitress, pushing my way through to the outside.

I stood off to the side, knowing Aaron would be back anytime now. I shoved my hands into my pockets, and rocked on the balls of my feet to keep myself occupied. It was cold, but it didn’t bother me. I kind of liked it, or at least had adapted to it. I played the part because it drew less attention to me. People te
nded to notice the only person
that
wasn’t trembling
and flinch
ing
away from the icy bite of the weather.

This would be our last stop before we finally reached them, and Aaron had needed to get some last minute supplies before we headed out. I wanted to be there already. The closer we got to our destination, the more anxious I felt, which I took as a good sign. Everything I had been put through, my entire life, up until this point, had been put in fast forward,
literally
. I had been waiting for this moment for as long as I remembered. Now I just wanted this task to be over, but everything seemed like it was going in slow motion. It had been so long since I had had to live life at the natural pace of time.

I saw Aaron walk around the other side of the diner. Pulling my hands from my pockets, and cupping them around my mouth, I blew hot air into them. The bitter smell of stale coffee filled my hands, and I grimaced.

I was going to have to brush my teeth before we left
, I thought to myself.

Aaron walked up to me nodding, and I took a deep breath.

“Let’s go get ourselves an ice Princess.”

Flutter

Two

Ripple Effect

Sara

I couldn’t remember exactly when I had become aware of the fact that I was in a dream.

I couldn’t remember anything actually.

It was so dark I couldn’t tell at first if my eyes were open or closed. I blinked rapidly, trying to distinguish a difference between the two. It was an intense kind of darkness and it immediately had me feeling claustrophobic. It didn’t help that I felt almost completely restricted, but by what? My breathing came harder and faster, and I tried not to freak out.

I didn’t know how long I had been asleep, everything in the ‘where and when’ department of my brain seemed to be pretty fuzzy. The more I realized just how little I could remember, the more the small pin needles of panic started to spread throughout my body, making my fingertips and toes tingle with numbness. I desperately tried to construct some memory of where I had been, or even what I had been doing last, but everything seemed to blur in my mind - including this dream. I knew it had to be a side effect of still being comatose somewhere, and honestly that’s all that kept me from going into full on hysterics.
Everything inside me was screaming that something wasn’t right, and it went a lot deeper than being held hostage inside a dream.

I hate the kind of dreams where you know you were in one, almost like looking into a window at yourself, but no matter what you do you just can’t wake yourself up. Sub consciously, you know when you are dreaming; there is always that lingering nagging feeling deep inside, sending
off
warning
bells that something just isn’t right, and I was experiencing those signals loud and clear right now.

Scratch that, this wasn’t a dream; this was definitely more a nightmare.

Dreams, at best, were something that you didn’t mind sleeping through, or getting woken up from at the most inopportune moment. Nightmares on the other hand were trap doors, dead ends around every corner, fear gripping suffocation; and no matter how terrifying they seemed to be, it was almost impossible to be woken up from one when you wanted nothing more.

I had been so absorbed with the disorientation of the memory loss I was struggling with, that I hadn’t actually stopped to let myself think about the actual nightmare itself. But now I was starting to feel…cold?  And that distraction took me in another direction. It occurred to me then that I was trapped, and for the first time since becoming aware of my circumstance, I realized I couldn’t move anything. Was I standing? Or was I lying down? I didn’t even know, but the fact that I was doing either of the two in this nightmare, and I was just now realizing it had me freaking out more.

Attempting
to focus, I pulled in all the corners of my concentration and tried to figure out my surroundings. I couldn’t see more than a few inches from my face, so trying to squint to see a few
feet
in front of me was
beyond
out of the question. My eyes had adjusted to the pitch black I was surrounded by; it was definitely brighter now, like someone had lit a lantern and was slowly adjusting the strength of the
flame
.

I still couldn’t seem to put into words exactly what I was surrounded by. It didn’t help that my vision was completely clouded either, like I was looking through fogged-over glasses. Whatever I was bound by was solid, and not entirely clear; it had a good grip on every inch of my body. The only thing I had any room to move were my head and neck, and even those I couldn’t move much.

Trying to analyze the situation of my dream could easily have been, hands down, my
worst
idea ever. At least I thought so. I still couldn’t remember past memories, so trying to remember past bad ideas was probably no
t going to happen at the moment
-

Ugh!
I scolded myself. I was getting side tracked again.

I currently had bigger problems to sort through. Starting with:
why couldn’t I wake myself up?

Maybe I was just in too deep a sleep, and it was going to take a while to coax my brain to finally react.

I couldn’t seem to feel anything around me; and even though I wasn’t physically uncomfortable, the simple fact that I seemed to be snugly enclosed in something was extremely off putting. Breathing seemed to be next to impossible; and I struggled to drag small amounts of air in through my nose to keep myself from passing out-not only from lack of oxygen, but from the frightening unknown.

Could someone pass out in a dream?
  I didn’t know.

I tried to focus on what my fingers could feel; but they were numb, so the attempts were useless. I also wasn’t exactly sure where they were, it felt like my entire body had fallen asleep. The loss of feeling also made it hard to determine if I even had clothes on. The list of things I was unaware of continued to grow. Instincts had me attempting to look down, but I was drawn up short; the tip of my chin rubbed up against something smooth…cold and…wet.

I shivered.

Just like that, the memory was there, flashing in my mind like big, bright, neon lights blinking:
remember me, remember me!
Instantly I was able to breathe just a little bit easier. It was as if the chill had triggered something inside my head, and
suddenly
I could remember being sick, extremely sick. There had been two weeks of intense flu like symptoms. If flu symptoms could be on steroids, mine had definitely taken a few hits. I remembered having a high fever, cold and hot spells - I had been burning up one minute and completely overcome with the chills the next. Horrible headaches had attacked me, as well as a dull ache that settled into my bones. That’s what this was: I had obviously gone delirious, most likely from the rollercoaster of symptoms I had suffered, and now they were messing with my mind.

I could feel it again, my body was starting to shiver from the coldness I felt earlier, and I prayed that this would be enough to awaken me. My breathing started coming faster, and I could see the small vapor clouds it left in front of me inside the small cave that surrounded my head. Suddenly everything seemed
so
real to me
, making me doubt my earlier thoughts and
I was beginning to doubt if this was a dream at all.
I was starting to see things clearer now, and the edges around my dream no longer blurred.
I
nstantly the small area I was in was bathed in a soft, golden glow of light. I still couldn’t move my head to look down, or even around me really, but my newly refined eye sight could finally focus on what was surrounding me.

No, not surrounding me
,
trapping me
, I thought.

I blinked several times, and squinted, my brows pulling together in confusion, and I shook my head in denial.

This wasn’t real; I had to be dreaming
, my mind argued against the infeasibility of what I was seeing.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and dragged my teeth over my bottom lip, and as hard as I could stand it, I bit down on my lip until I could taste the faint metallic flavor of blood. I waited a couple of seconds, waited to wake up, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes slowly and instantly wished I hadn’t, the light around me had grown brighter, and there was no mistaking it this time.

Oh my god!
I thought frantically, as I realized what I was trapped in.

I was trapped in ICE!

Adan

Have you ever had the feeling of being drawn to someone,

B
ut there wasn’t anything they had said or done.

That’s exactly how I felt walking over the surface of the icy lake, standing directly over the spot I knew she was hidden. Nestled deep below, she was protected and safe inside of her frozen cage. I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around their whole
Freezing
process. But from everything I had learned, these extreme measures needed to be taken
to ensure
she would remain secure.

She was the key to everyone’s survival. I knew that was a lot of pressure to put on any one person, even one as strong as her, but I knew she could handle it. I had witnessed once before how strong she could be. She meant everything to the safety of two clans, to their very existence.

Oddly enough, she meant a lot to me too. I didn’t quite know how, but being this close to her did something to me. Gravity was at its finest moment here, pulling me toward her. As if to prove a point, I crouched down, drawn to the spot just above her head and placed my bare hand on top of the thin layer of frost that covered the entire lake. The cold bit at my exposed flesh, but not enough to distract me from the tingling sensation that was currently consuming all of my attention.

The moment my hand had pressed against the ice, sparks started and sizzled, electric currents soared up my arm, spreading like a wild fire throughout my entire body. The ice
splintered
and shifted below my feet from the intense pressure of the electric currents, sending hairline cracks over the top of the lake. I thought about pulling my hand back, but even if I could have sent out the effortless command, I knew I wasn’t going too.

I had thought my reaction to her the first time we had met had been a fluke, adrenaline from the events that had taken place earlier that night – a night that even now, after sixteen years, I could still remember clearly. The situation at that time had been completely different, and although I felt strongly about her then, it was vastly different now; just as strong, but
definitely
different. She had been just a toddler then, and my instincts at the time, had been a deadly need to protect her at any costs. But now…now I had a hard time explaining to myself what I felt
toward
her. The urgency to guard her was still there, but it was more than that, and it wasn’t something I was comfortable thinking about, even in the safe confines of my own head.

Here I was, with every single one of my nerves vibrating with life, hope, and that same strangely familiar yearning
that I was missing something
. I hadn’t expected my reaction to her to be even stronger, after all this time, especially with the depths of thick, solid ice separating us. The barrier should have been laughable to me, it was nothing compared to the millions of miles, and years that had been stacked against us.

It was my mission to bring her back, other than her Watcher; I was the only other one to see the Princess alive. My instructions were strict but clear: find the princess, warn her Watcher, and under no circumstances was I ever to have
any
contact with her. I was to remain invisible to the girl who haunted my dreams, and created an ache
deep in my guy that
I didn’t completely understand. Of course I had wanted to know why I wasn’t allowed to be around her, especially with the weird connection I had to her; but as always the information and details I was allotted were on a ‘need to know’ basis only, and apparently I never needed to know anything.

I could have protested, made things difficult for the council of both clans; but my need to protect her outweighed the small part of me that wanted to rebel against my pre-written fate.
My job had been to get them safely off the island. I had been extremely confident the pull she had on me would come in useful, even if it was good for nothing else but confusing the hell out of me. I had expected it to take me a lot longer to find her, but the gravity-like link had drawn me to her the whole time, guiding me to her location
.

Within a week I knew of her vicinity, and within two weeks I knew exactly where she was. After two months of zigzagging all over the northern hemisphere, making sure I lost anyone who might have been following me, I was finally standing over her.

My reaction to her had always been there; as far as I could remember. It had been a dull crackle over the years, but the moment I had started tracking her, the current surged to existence full force. It had been like a special beacon she was releasing just for me; like she knew I was coming for her, and she wanted me to find her without any trouble.

I
knew
how crazy that
made
me sound, but how else could I possibly explain the connection I feel
toward
her? Maybe it was just the fact that I needed her to save our kingdom
that
was putting more emphasis on the attraction I thought I had to her. It was just my imagination working overtime; after all, illusions were her kind’s specialty. That explanation made me feel less guilty about my forbidden feelings for a Princess that wasn’t
mine
. Relief was temporary because in the end I knew my reaction to her had nothing to do with our royal responsibility.