The Enchantments: Book 3 - The Key of Sorcen

Chapter 22: Night Stars

The sweet embrace of sleep was suddenly shattered by a large noise coming from outside the hut. Fin jerked awake, he sat and tried to concentrate on where the noise came from. He felt his head swim and had to put his hands down to the side to keep from falling over.

He first realized how tired he still felt, the second was how dark it was now. The streams of light he had gone to sleep looking at were gone and all that came through the slits under the door was blackness.

He pulled himself to a kneeling position, and then with his back aching from the uncomfortable bed he had to endure he crawled to the entrance and slid out. It was colder then he remembered, in fact, a lot colder. He slowly got to his feet hugging himself as a shiver went up his back.

"Holy cow it's nighttime!" He said out loud. He remembered going to bed earlier in the day and now it was night but was it.

Fin looked up at the sky and watched the light from the moon as it glowed through the branches of the treetops. Something wasn't right and he couldn't figure out what. He tried to catch a glimpse of anything around the encampment as he stepped from the path, but there was nothing.

Everything seemed typical, the camp was quiet with the only sound coming from the interior of the forest as the normal echoes of insects filled the expanse, but something was different. A light mist filled the area around his feet and for some strange reason he felt himself wishing he were somewhere else. From what he could tell it was late, very late. He had that cool feeling inside his body you know the sensation you get when you wake up too early and your body is still used to the warmth of the bed.

He hugged himself closely and looked up to the sky, dreamy blue clouds floated by the moon turning the early morning into deep shadows. He couldn't shake that feeling of being watched, his eyes scanned the edges of the trees but still found nothing.

"Why do I always seem to give myself the heebie-jeebies, and why the heck I'm I standing in a rainforest at..." he looked at his watch, "...three thirty in the morning?"

Fin rolled his eyes and made the decision to go back to the hut. "If I'm gonna be stuck here I might as well catch up on my sleep." He said to himself then stepped towards the path. It wasn't until he was near the hut that he suddenly stopped listening to an eerie voice now filling the air.

'Your journey is just beginning,' a voice that seemed to be mixed with the air around him.

"Who are you?" He yelled out.

'Go to the Spirits of the Water,' it reverberated through the camp.

"Please, you have to give me direction, I need direction!" He yelled again.

Almost immediately he knew the voice was gone, something in the air went colder and the haunting silence filled him again. What did it all mean, he felt almost helpless. That is until he saw movement to his right and the dark shadows soon began to glow a soft white.

"You!" He said in surprise. "Why do you haunt me like this?"

The small vision of the black child stood before him in a tattered dress, her body glowed in dramatic contrast to the dark shadows of the trees. Slowly and methodically she stepped from behind the palm and walked over to where Fin stood nervously.

"Who are you?" Fin asked.

'I am the spirit of future consequences, I direct the chosen ones to their destiny.' She said softly.

"If you're the grim reaper I'm gonna be extremely upset!" He joked.

He heard her snicker lightly and a smile crossed her beautiful looking face. 'I will not harm you, I'm here to help you, please take my hand and let me guide you.'