Crow - The Awakening (27 page)

"I missed you too, Steven," Asherah said softly, her tender voice as much in his mind as it was in his ears. Hearing her say that thrilled him, making his heart beat a little faster. But of course she missed him, he thought to himself, smiling. They were hopelessly in love. He felt it, knew it deep within his heart. They were a part of each other. He frowned a little however, as he detected a touch of melancholy coming from her presence within him. Her continuing caress masked that though, returning his attention to her love and he relaxed, smiling. "But it's time to wake up," she continued, and sighed as she bent over and kissed him again, her lips ever so lightly caressing his.

"Hmm?" Steven was really comfortable and didn't want to even open his eyes. This day was perfect. Why ruin it by waking up? "No, you can't make me," he joked, grinning.

"Wake up, dear," she whispered again insistently, sounding as if it was coming from far away. Her hand continued to caress his face but suddenly it felt wet.

"Eww, what's that?" he asked, wiggling. The only response he got was a deep grunt. Opening his eyes, he saw the huge face of a bear licking his face.

"Oh, that's enough," Steven said, pushing the bear away. He sat up and held his head. It was throbbing. The dream was fading fast, but not the pain he got in his heart as he missed the days with Asherah before he realized that it was all an imaginary crutch, a fantasy. He felt foolish and heartsick at the same time, a dichotomy that frustrated him greatly. The headache didn't help any. The bear stretched and got up, lumbering away."Thanks a lot!" Steven called after the bear sarcastically as he wiped his face dry.

The sun was up in the sky already and felt good. He hadn't napped in the meadow for two years. Sleeping there overnight was a pretty good idea. Except for the headache, he felt pretty well rested. Getting up, he leaned against the snag, a little dizzy. He looked down and spotted his backpack and staff and remembered the events of the day before. He had run away. His heart suddenly ached and legs got a little weak as he remembered his decision and Sally crying, and he wondered if he should rethink his decision. "No, I need to look forward," he said to himself. Picking up his backpack and stick, he started walking for the far side of the meadow.

Something else tickled his memory. He stopped for a moment, thinking. "Ah, the vampire again. And the wolfman." He cracked his neck and the throbbing headache reduced immensely. "First time they were both in my nightmare together." He shook his head, bemused, and planted his staff firmly as he hiked out of the meadow into the forest at the other side. It's been a long time since I had that dream, he thought to himself. But he was out of his medicinal tea and was leaving an otherwise very secure home, so it was no wonder that the stress was getting to him. Looking forward, he couldn't imagine what lay in store for him or what troubles he would find. Living in the little town with his forest and daily routine he had security. Now he was suddenly thrown into the unknown and it was both liberating and terrifying at the same time. Part of him screamed to go back home and he had to stubbornly move forward.

He almost tripped as he nearly stepped into a crevice in the ground. Steven stopped and looked down into the rift. It wasn't deep and just wide enough to put his foot in. Curious, he looked back at the snag, following the line of the fissure. There were scorch marks on the snag and patches of the meadow had blackened with several parts burned to the soil. Scratching his head, Steven tried to remember the last time a grass fire had burned the meadow. He was surprised he had not noticed the cracks in the soil or the ashes before, but then he had avoided the meadow since the days of Asherah, so it was no wonder. Turning, he resumed his trek.

As he half jogged through the meadow, he noticed some of the tropical dandelions that he used to love so much during the days of Asherah. Closing his eyes, he stopped and steeled himself against that fantasy, the daydream he had come to see as a coping mechanism thanks to his years of therapy sessions. Perhaps he should stop by Dr. Dougherty's on his way out for more of that tea? But the therapist would just try to stop Steven from leaving. Regardless, he was determined to not be distracted or fall into that fantasy world again so he rejected it mentally, squeezing his eyes shut harder as he focused on the here and now. When he opened his eyes, the view was just regular meadow plants, bees, and butterflies, with no hint of tropical whatsoever. Breathing a sigh of relief, Steven continued trotting through the grass and left the meadow for the forest on the other side.

Only then did he realize he had never been in this part of the forest. It was as if the meadow had been a barrier of sorts and he had stopped there. Steven blamed his daydream again. It had apparently distracted him from pushing out and exploring more of the forest farther from home. His bear friend lumbered out of the forest undergrowth as he left the meadow, and Steven slowed down to allow the bear to walk beside him for a while until it got distracted by a large patch of berries. Steven walked a little farther, then also stopped to fill up on berries, plus a few mushrooms, and fill up a sack for later before he continued his journey. After all, he hadn't had breakfast yet.

Laurence sat on Steven's bed, looking around the room. Someone had come back the evening before and emptied out the cupboards and pantry, and even took the chickens from their coop and packed up and left, but most of the rest of the belongings remained behind. That was quite unexpected. He should have taken more care to hide his presence the first time he was there. Not knowing if they'd come back, he had called in and requested an agent be posted in the area to keep an eye on the house. They would be an innocuous resident that would swing by infrequently to see if anyone had returned home. He also strategically placed bugs in the home to cover any lapses in surveillance. One way or another, if the occupants returned to this place, he would know about it.

That done, he was free to search the home. He brought in a forensics team to go over the home with fine detail. The entire history of the boy was embedded in the essence of this home and he was determined to discover all he could about Steven. How could a boy that young have broken into such a sophisticated network? Or even manage to get a manufacturer to produce prototypes of a custom designed computer for him? The child was a complete enigma to him. He had expected to find a team, or a very smart hacker his own age, but to find a boy really jerked his curiosity chains hard. But not just a boy. A seventeen year old that was a perplexing puzzle in every way.

Furthermore, what connection did the boy have with the aliens? What did they want with him? Was he wanted by them for the same reasons Laurence hunted him? After all, Steven did crack into an alien network that his organization had tried in futility to fully access. Were they trying to silence him? Or is it possible there were more than one faction of aliens present? The thought of aliens hashing out a war on Earth was disquieting to Laurence and he was even more determined to get to the bottom of things and find the kid.

The boy had run away and his parents had disappeared, so all was not as it seemed in this family. They were afraid of something. His organization was too surreptitious for them to even know about, so something else spooked them. What could they fear so much that they'd pull anchor and leave, even when their son was out there on his own and out of contact? Perhaps they were afraid of the same creatures that were chasing their son? Could the parents also be involved? And yet, he ran away and they abandoned the homestead, effectively going in different directions. The dynamics of the whole situation perplexed Laurence as he tried to form a picture of what was going on. More and more questions seemed to crop up, generating even more as he found few answers.

On the bed he had spread out items that helped him formulate a picture of Steven's profile. He had found many more sketches of Asherah, from when she appeared to be a little girl all the way to a teenager. Their detail was breathtaking. If he held them away, he would swear they were photographs. In some, Steven used color pencils and the faint patterns of her fine fur were detailed so well that he had to look closely at the drawing to see the fine pencil marks. If anything, Laurence couldn't help thinking Steven had a future in art were he not a target.

The drawings of the meadow were also intriguing. Steven detailed many plants well enough to make a botanist proud. He was no expert on plants, but was sure his boss had people who could identify these. He took pictures of the drawings and gave them to the forensics team who would forward them to agency experts for further analysis. One plant seemed to get more attention than the others. Laurence looked at it, recognizing the dandelion properties. But the coloring hinted at more exotic properties of this plant. He would have to remember this strange new development. Is this something the boy was imagining or seeing? He noted priority on that one to his boss.

The creatures themselves were an ancient puzzle the Order Laurence belonged to had spent much time trying to solve, and here there were four of them in this area. Laurence grinned, loving his work all the more. He had seen them with his own eyes. He hoped to find some sort of hint of them at the house, but so far that had not come to pass. If Steven or his parents had anything to do with those aliens, they had been thorough in hiding it. Except for the copious amount of sketches Steven drew of Asherah, and a few of a large wolfish looking man and a brooding, cloaked man.

Further search of his room exposed a stash of textbooks. Most were homeschool oriented books, but one was an online college. He texted a request to his remote team to get to work gathering all the information they could about his college activities and transcripts. There may be an easy interception opportunity if the kid was still taking classes. One of the team members handed him a transcript he found in a kitchen drawer. "I think you'll find this interesting."

"Engineering?" He looked at the performance evaluation, taking note of Steven's major. He was rather surprised by the grades. For a kid who had graduated high school just as he was entering his teen years, and who was successfully cramming four years of college into two years, he was startlingly mediocre in his grades. Consistently so in most of his classes, Laurence noticed as he flipped through the pages of the transcript. What was a prodigy like Steven doing making those sorts of grades? Was it possible that he's not really all that bright? No, Laurence knew better than that. He was hunting a child of genius the world rarely sees, if at all. The only other reason would be an attempt to blend in and not stand out. He was hiding. "Who are you hiding from, Steven?" Laurence asked. Certainly not him. Not yet anyway.

He shook his head. "And did they find you last night?" He put the evaluation down to think. Those chasing him appeared to be formidable foes, but Steven was still eluding them, and giving them plenty of grief while doing it. Steven eluded him during all the time he was trying to track him down. Laurence had to believe he was successful in escaping his pursuers. Otherwise his mission was over.

He pulled out his phone and attached a projector to it and played the videos he copied off the laptop. Old security footage of four lab workers huddling around their equipment. Laurence paused the video and leaned forward. "Earl, what is the status of Dmitri's estate?"

"Hold on." One of Laurence's forensics specialists made a call.

"The residence is empty at the moment. The deceased has been taken to a mortuary." Earl confirmed.

Laurence pointed at the item in the video that captured his attention. He saw an almost identical version of it, albeit smaller, in Dmitri's lab. "Retrieve that for me please."

Earl took a photo of the equipment and left.

Laurence stared at the item. He could only guess what it was for, but that it was in the video and in Dmitri's lab was of great significance to him. Another clue to add to the very mystifying puzzle that was Steven.

"Steven didn't leave much behind except his old computer, a handful of the flashdrive computers and stuff," Sirel said as she rooted around the tree house. She looked at one of his piezo electron scanning microscopes, touching it and bringing it to life. A screen powered on and Sirel looked at the previous scan - an abraded computer chip. It wasn't a very good scan, however, but Sirel found it odd nonetheless.

Penipe peeked through the hatch, wincing a little from the pain in her ribs. Sirel was happy to leave her on the ground, but Penipe insisted on coming up here. She was more motivated than ever to capture Steven, especially since her daughter was now involved. Sirel rolled her eyes and lifted Penipe up into the tree house with a touch. It was the first time for her to be in the tree house and she looked around, amazed.

"He built this by himself?" She touched the weave of the walls.

"Would seem so, Penny." Sirel returned to her search.

"It's just like our homes on Syagria. How could he know how to do that?" She walked around the trunk, examining the construction.

"He does have a bit of Elf in him," Sirel said over her shoulder. "Instinct?" She stood up. "Or maybe it's just a coincidence. After all, Syagria doesn't own the concept of woven structures."

Penipe looked at her. "At this point, I'm not chalking anything up to coincidence, Sirel. Something strange is happening and we need to find out what."

"Like how a deviant could bond with your daughter?" Sirel cocked her head, looking at Penipe.

Penipe's eyes flashed with anger, but she maintained her composure. "How is that even possible?" She looked out the portal, disgusted. "Our bonds are deeper than life itself." Something bothered her. "But they require surrender. A deviant couldn't possibly do that."

"It would seem one has." Sirel caressed the counter with her hand as she walked around the tree house, following Penipe as the Elf explored the construct that Steven had put together, hoping to get some sort of clue about his psyche.

"Meruk and Lelana!" Penipe gasped as she looked at the drawings of Steven's father and mother he had pinned to the wall. They could have been photographs, so lovingly drawn with such exacting detail. She pulled one of the drawings off the wall and looked at it. She looked at Sirel. "Since when does a deviant actually care about anyone else?" She held up the drawings. "He's bonded with Asherah, and..." she waved her hands at the numerous drawings of their former comrades, "...he's obsessed with his parents." Penipe remembered Sally defending him, as if he were a normal boy. "Something isn't right, Sirel. A deviant does not do this. What game is he playing?"