 |
March 1998—April 1998
Many things were to happen in the coming weeks. First of all, many of Ariana's friends pledged to aid her in her fight. One of the first to do so was Jessie. A rather good fencer, all she needed was a good sword in order to be useful in a fight. Calan gave her Galesong, the sword that had belonged to his sister Suela. In honor of Ariana's position and of Jessie's own adventures, Jessie renamed the sword Dreamsong. Later she was to learn that Dreamsong's pommel contained K'Tirnan, the mysterious Gryphon's Jewel, which had strange magical properties and, in fact, held the soul of a woman who had died long ago.
Another character came on the scene—Sentressa the DreamWarrior. She followed her Guardian to Rivendell in order to discuss plans for the Dreamworld's defense. Others pledged their aid as well, including Ariana's new friend Claudius. Ariana soon found she would need that aid; one night a nightmare actually followed her out of the Dreamworld and tried to attack her. Hearing Ariana's screams, Calan hurried to defend her, going practically berserk as he fought the creature, a shadow wolf. He killed the nightmare, and to his immense relief, Ariana was unharmed.
In fact, while Calan never mentioned his feelings for Ariana, they were quite obvious. The way he would look at her, his sad smiles and occasional longing glances, and the way he was so fiercely protective of her—that said it all. Still, when anyone brought up how Calan apparently felt about Ariana, he would vehemently deny even a hint of love. As for Ariana herself, his behavior toward her was very proper. He always called her "milady," and he never pressured her in any way to return his feelings. Overall, he simply tried to be a friend to her, and a protector, always treating her with the proper respect. But still, the amount of danger Ariana was constantly in upset him to no end. He was extremely shocked when he learned by accident that were the Dreamworld to die, Ariana, being bonded to it, would die as well. Calan swore that he wouldn't let that happen.
Ariana and her friends did not just gather friends to aid them; they also offered their own help to anyone who needed it. One night when Ariana and Calan were talking in the inn, a young girl entered, injured and frightened. 14-year-old Christiana was a runaway slave with strange telepathic abilities. Her former master was now hunting her, and it was he who had caused her current injuries. Ariana healed Christiana as best she could, while the girl haltingly told her story. Calan told Christiana he would protect her from her master, and Ariana promised to help him do so.
The weeks passed, and events in the inn proceeded along these lines, with Ariana gathering support and helping others in turn. But underneath the surface, something else was happening to her. The more she got to know Calan, the better friends with him she became—and the fonder of him she grew. Still uncertain about Andrew, this all confused Ariana to no end. Having no experience in such matters of the heart, Ariana grew more and more upset about it all, until Calan finally noticed that something was wrong. At first he thought Ariana was worried about Andrew, but she tearfully explained that it was something entirely different. She thought she might be falling in love with Calan, and the idea was so confusing that it upset her terribly.
Calan had long ago decided that Ariana simply did not return his feelings, and so it would save him a lot of grief to never hope that she might someday. So while Ariana's words stunned him, he didn't dare think about what it might mean, not wanting his hopes to be raised and dashed again. What was more important to him at the moment was that Ariana was upset, and he couldn't bear to see her hurting. He said nothing, only hugged her and did his best to comfort her. Ariana hated to leave so soon after saying what she had, but she was needed in the Dreamworld. She left the inn for the night, leaving Calan alone with his thoughts.
Calan didn't have long to ponder Ariana's words. Christiana—whom he had not seen since he and Ariana helped her several weeks before—soon rushed into the inn, frantic with fear. She was followed by her former master, who had finally found her. An extremely dangerous man with strange powers, he was known as Ahriman the Keeper. When he entered the inn, Christiana fled in terror; he gave chase, and Calan followed, hoping to protect the girl.
The resulting battle was fierce and heated, and no one escaped injury. Calan and Christiana were finally victorious, and Ahriman was sent back to his castle in a backlash of his magic. Calan saw Christiana to safety, but he was so badly injured, battered by weapons and dark magic, that on his way back he collapsed in the gardens. Flint found him the next morning and took him back to his house, but Calan had fallen into a deep coma and would not wake up.
When Ariana returned to the inn a few days later, Flint and Tasslehoff sadly told her what had happened. Frantic with worry, she had them take her to Flint's house to see Calan. There, unsure of what to do, she tried using her magic to see exactly what was wrong. She found herself pulled into his memories, searching his mind and seeing visions from his past...and also the dreams he had told her he'd had of her. It all made no sense; some images were startlingly familiar, and she couldn't understand how Calan could have dreamed them. Eventually the force of the visions threw her back out of the magic, and she realized something else would have to be done to wake Calan up. Then she came up with a drastic plan...she would take friends to the Dreamworld with her (something she'd never known how to do before) and search out Calan's dreams herself, hopefully to free him from their hold so he could wake up.
Using Flint and Tasslehoff's memories of Calan, Ariana searched for Calan's dreams, wandering through the Dreamworld. On their search they ran up against Shenji of the Thousand Blades, a bounty hunter hired by Ramiel to kill Calan. Ramiel had transported him to the Dreamworld to try to kill Calan there. A fight ensued, and Ariana and her friends managed to send Shenji out of the Dreamworld again. They hurriedly continued on.
After a run-in with a nightmare (which Flint unfortunately discovered), they got back on the path and continued into the forest. Ariana, hearing the laughter of children, hurried ahead to investigate, leaving her friends behind. After a long chase, she came to the edge of the forest, where a wide meadow spread before her. There she saw two young boys playing with wooden swords. They saw her and asked her to join them, introducing themselves as Ramiel and Calan. It was one of Calan's memories of his childhood; Ariana had found his dreams.
Ariana joined the two boys, and they led her to a great castle on the far end of the meadow. At the entrance, they stopped, fearfully saying there was something bad in there. Ariana walked just inside to investigate, and out of the shadows stepped the real Ramiel. He told her (mockingly, of course) what he was doing there—after Shenji's failure he'd decided to take matters into his own hands. He said that if he could destroy Calan's happy memories, Calan would die, but when he got to the Dreamworld he found his work mostly done for him. Ariana demanded an explanation, and he told her that she had nearly destroyed Calan herself by rejecting his love.
Bewildered, upset, and angry, Ariana unleashed her fury on Ramiel, and the argument grew more and more heated. Finally it became a fight, each one preparing to throw a bolt of magic at the other. Ramiel, having gained the power of darkfire after Bane's death, was now terrifyingly powerful. Ariana, however, was furious over Ramiel's mocking words, and even more so over what he had both done and tried to do to Calan. Her anger increased her magic's strength to match Ramiel's, so when both powers were unleashed and flew towards each other, the resulting magical backlash was strong enough to throw Ariana and Ramiel from the Dreamworld. Flint and Tasslehoff, still searching for Ariana in the woods, were also returned instantly to RavensDale.
Ariana found herself in the Thoroughfare in RavensDale and immediately took herself back to the edge of the woods and prepared to go back into Calan's dreams. Sentressa the DreamWarrior appeared however, and the two began talking. Sentressa seemed rather bitter about things, thinking Ariana was not doing the best job she could of being the Dreamworld's Guardian, but Ariana defended her actions as best she could, saying she of all people knew she wasn't perfect. The argument died away, and Ariana turned to look out at the meadow...and Sentressa drew her sword, seemingly about to attack Ariana. She hesitated though, finally demanding to know why Ariana was Guardian. Ariana turned, apparently not yet realizing that Sentressa had been about to kill her, but if she didn't get it at first it didn't take her long. She and Sentressa talked, and Ariana explained her point of view. Sentressa admitted that she had gone over to the Lord of Nightmares, thinking his side the likeliest to win, but now she agreed to join Ariana again, surprised that Ariana would still trust her that much. Sentressa then vanished, leaving Ariana alone.
Ariana was about to into the meadow where she had found Calan's dreams the first time, when she saw a young woman in that same meadow, crying. Ariana went up to her and asked what was wrong, and the woman looked up...she was a mirror image of Ariana herself.
Ariana's mysterious double gave Ariana a somewhat confusing explanation of who she was. Someone—she didn't say who—had created her at the same time the real Ariana was born. The "dream Ariana," however, was created to look as the real Ariana does now. Following her creator's instructions, the dream Ariana began entering Calan's dreams when he was seventeen. The reason for this is still unknown, but the result was plain. Calan eventually fell in love with the mysterious dream girl, and the dream Ariana fell in love with him.
After hearing all this, the real Ariana was extremely confused and rather upset too. But before she could recover enough to really sort through everything, the conversation turned to Calan's troubled state. The dream Ariana told her that Calan was trapped in an endless nightmare that he could not break out of. Despite all her powers, the real Ariana, drained by her struggle against the nightmares, could not break him free, the dream Ariana explained. The only way someone might be able to do that was to use a stronger power. The dream Ariana's deep love for Calan could help her save him, but she would have to give up her own life to do it.
The real Ariana tried to protest, but her stunned words were no convincing argument, and her double's mind was made up. The dream girl hugged her, walked a short distance away, and dissolved in a flash of blue light. At the same moment, the real Ariana was thrown back out of the Dreamworld and into RavensDale, finding herself in the middle of the Thoroughfare once more. After a few quiet and still moments, stunned because of what had happened, she ran off into the night, hoping to find some answers.
The Dreamworld Saga ©2001 by Amy Unfred