Alana sat up in bed, a feeling of deep desolation crushing her. She’d had the dream again with the handsome stranger from the world below. Once again, they hadn’t been able to reach each other. She knew it was just a dream, but why did it have to affect her so profoundly? She felt like it was important to reach him, the most important thing in the world really, but when it came down to actually being together it seemed impossible. There was one obstacle after another.
This time it was different, though. A huge looming darkness had come in at her and she hadn’t been able to reach him at all. Her view of the man had been blocked, and he had disappeared behind a huge silhouette of oppressive black. It felt terrifying and evil; the distinct touch of the twisted types of beings who utilized others to serve their own selfish means. There were plenty of them throughout the universe, and she was concerned that this was a kind of omen. One she had to talk about right away to the leader of Kaldernon, Lopu Mansana.
Lopu was the wisest woman that Alana could think of. Alana had been taken under Lopu’s wing early on because she had shown the potential to be both a powerful Loni and a powerful Dragon shifter. It was up to fate to decide, and Lopu wanted to make sure that whichever way it went, Alana would have the resources that she needed to become the most powerful version of herself that she could possibly be. Without Lopu’s guidance after her parents had died, Alana was sure she would have been a goner. Luckily, her teachers and mentors had sent word to the capital city of Rallah, and before she knew it, Alana was being accepted into an elite school.
But it didn’t stop there. Upon meeting Alana, Lopu, a powerful Loni oracle, had a vision telling her to keep Alana and train her well. Lopu always followed her intuition–Lonis were powerful mystics and creators; they carried shifter children and were the builders and innovators of Kaldernon. Alana and Lopu immediately formed a deep connection and Lopu claimed her as a daughter, to be trained however Alana pleased. Her passions changed from day to day, but Lopu was patient with her and always sought the best teachers for her possible. Nobody disputed Lopu’s wisdom and before she knew it, Alana was on the way to being trained as both a powerful warrior and in the fine, meticulous arts of Loni craftsmanship.
“What’s the matter dear?” Lopu asked when Alana approached her after they shared breakfast together. “Something is the matter.”
“I feel a terrible evil out in the universe,” Alana said. “It’s one I can’t understand.”
“There are many evils in the universe,” Lopu said with a tolerant nod. She was the kind of woman who expected precision and detail, and this vague topic was likely to try her patience quickly.
“This one came to me in my dreams.”
“I see…”
Lopu stood and turned her back to Alana.
“What should I do?”
“Do you know where this evil resides?”
“Well…no,” Alana admitted. She had no idea if it was even real or not. She had a very active imagination, and neither of them were sure whether her Loni powers were of a clairvoyant or psychic nature or if she was just very talented in crafting because of the Loni blood in her veins.
“I know you felt it was important enough to tell me about,” Lopu said, finally turning back to Alana. “But if you don’t have any details there isn’t much I can do to help you. I will issue a warning to the people however, to keep their eyes open for anything that might seem amiss. Thank you for telling me your concerns.”
“Thank you, Lopu,” Alana said with a gracious bow. Lopu smiled warmly and nodded her head, but Alana left with knots in her stomach. She hated bothering Lopu with things that she might perceive as trivial. The woman was in charge of an entire planet, and she was impatient with trivial matters and the people who were small-minded enough to bring them to her attention.
She had done the best she was going to do, though, and Alana sighed. If only she knew what the dream meant. Why was it that she had been dreaming of the same man for so many nights? It had started when she was young, a teenager, when the people of the Kersh clan had finally made their grand return to Kaldernon. It had been incredible to see all the new faces and those who had grown and developed on another planet.
The world had changed, and somehow, after a meeting she had attended with Clayton of the Kersh clan and Lopu, she had begun having dreams of a boy about her age. He was handsome and brave, but there was no way of knowing anything else about him. They were always struggling to come closer to one another in the dreams, but they were always separated by obstacles of every nature – water, fire, cliffs. Nothing they did brought them any closer together. And now there was danger in their strange little world. Alana didn’t know what it meant, but she knew that if nothing else, she would have to do her best to be as brave as the man in her dreams.
He had grown alongside her, each of them aging at the same pace. Every year she grew stronger and more womanly, and he grew stronger and more manly. His hair grew darker, his muscles bulked, and his eyes, if possible, seemed more and more desperate for answers. Lonelier, somehow. But they had never spoken and there was no way of knowing whether or not he was anything more than just a figure in a dream. All Lonis had powerful, strong dreams, and maybe hers meant nothing at all. Or maybe it meant everything. It was unbelievably frustrating not being able to tell which was which.
As Alana left Lopu’s quarters, she couldn’t help but feel that it was a mistake to dismiss what she had seen. There was trouble somewhere out there in the universe. And somehow, she was connected to it. How, she would never be able to know.
She brushed the thoughts away. It was time for her morning lessons. It would do her good to get some strength training out of the way. But she knew, as she did every time she had one of her dreams, that she was going to feel strange throughout the day. Especially now that she had seen the unmistakable face of evil. Still, she would have to get through it and do her best not to let it bring her down and distract her from her training.