Other World: Dawning

Copyright © 2011 by Connie Whiteley

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Cover Illustrations by Madison Whiteley

Cover Background Artwork by Steve and JoAnn Taylor

ISBN: 978-1-4502-9193-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-9195-8 (dj)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-9194-1 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 5/10/2011

For

Loy Sr., that special hunting trip

Jamie, your dream and trust

Loy Jr., words of encouragement

Cathy H. ignited that first spark

Karen, believing in me and that final painful edit

And

Especially Madison your innocent enthusiastic excitement

Thank you all for your unwavering

Faith in me and your patience,

As I completed my lifelong dream.

Contents

Prologue

Huntress

Old Crone

Past Meets Present

Reborn

Reunion

Zane

Transition

Awakening

Trunk

Boston

Companion

Faeries

Appointment

Loss

Elements

Meeting

Merged

Veil

Down Time

Feed

Power Circle

Twister and Rue

Final Preparations

Approach & Retreat

Matthew

Tornadoes

Prevailed

Epilogue

Prologue

I make no claims as to the validity of the following descriptions of almost events. I have reported this story as an outsider in the hopes that this tale could be told in an unbiased methodology. I make no summation as to the real or imagined contents of these pages only that as a reporter of events, the interviewees were convinced of their reality. You will have to search yourself at the conclusion and decide what you can or cannot accept as fact. I have no way to verify the information as it has been told to me. I can only relate the story. The mind is a very interesting entity. The veil that separates life from death, truth from lie, reality from imagination is very often only in the eye of the beholder. Enjoy!

Dawning

Not the beginning but the beginning of this account:

Huntress

The earth belched out the last of a thunderous and wet storm, welcoming a delayed cloudy gray dawn. Tatiana pulled her stocking cap down over her ears then tugged the strings on the hood of her parka hunting jacket tightly around her face. She loved to hunt and though she was uncertain whether it was the pursuit itself, or the actual kill that excited her, hunting came naturally. She was never bored as she scanned the countryside, eyes narrowed as she peered into stands of woods for hours. The only passion that seconded her love for hunting was her love of horses: riding, training, and breeding— all of it. Tatiana had hunted in these woods many times before and loved it. Her life was kind of ironic-the predator side of her as a hunter and the horse side of her as the prey.

It was a quiet morning in the woods – the day creatures had not yet started to stir and the night ones had long retired. Shadows from little light played on every side of her. She could see from the hill she was sitting on, all the thickets in front of and off to her sides the clearings between each one. She should be able to easily sight in anything that came into any of them. An ice storm from the previous winter had left mangled branches tangled in the underbrush. The quiet and solitude caused a reflective mood to settle down upon her as a slight breeze rustled the leaves.

It was November, the week before Thanksgiving. Her twin boys would have just turned 32 in September, had they lived. In some ways it seemed as if it was just yesterday and in other ways it like only a dream. She had celebrated her 50th birthday in January and was staring down the barrel of her 51st in just a few short weeks.

The morning had been so quiet it was unnerving. She was startled out of her reverie by a flock of birds which appeared to have been flushed out of a thicket and were headed west. Suddenly off to her left, more birds sprang up headed in the same direction. There was something moving out there, she assured herself. She had let her rifle relax to her lap as she toured memory lane. Now with all this movement, she brought it back up to the ready position.

During her moments of reflection the early light was increasing but a fine mist and dull gray clouds still obscured the surroundings. Out of the corner of her eye to the right she saw a fox squirrel hustling up a nearby tree. The leaves had all fallen so she had a clear view of the little guy and thought this would be a great shot with her 22 rifle.

But of course today she was after bigger game so she was just an observer of the cute squirrel. With her rifle still in the ready position she noticed the squirrel’s attention was riveted in the direction the birds had come from. She looked in the same direction certain that something was disturbing the wildlife and would be coming into her sights very soon. Her game of choice today was a big 11 point buck that had been spotted in this area.

Tatiana was keenly aware that other big game were known to inhabit these woods not as tame as deer such as black bear, bobcats, mountain lions and even panthers also roamed these hills. It was easy under these circumstances to move swiftly from predator to prey, one must always stay on alert.

She heard a woodpecker making holes in a tree behind her and was distracted momentarily from the squirrel, her senses prickling. Suddenly the squirrel screamed as if he had been shot. He looked one last time and then jumped to the branches of a nearby tree bolting through the woods west of her.

Her nerves on alert she was expecting to see game come into the clearing out of the brush from the same direction the squirrel had bolted. This was part of the excitement of the hunt. The anticipation of what would appear perhaps that big buck or a coyote. What she did see however was not any of those game animals but something that would change her life forever.

As if he had appeared out of nowhere there stood a man at the edge of the clearing near the trees. Being on alert, her senses registered his specifics: young, medium muscular build, average height, between 5’ 11- 6’1". His skin was strange, catching the existing light in an unusual way, almost appeared to be shimmering. It reminded her of what the roads looked like in the hot desert sun when you were driving into the heat, kind of like a mirage. It was difficult to explain even in her mind. His hair was short but longish on top and windblown, stylish, a beautiful brown, the little light there was catching highlights of blonde. His hands were clear of any weapon; he carried nothing on his back. The morning was misty and very cool, definitely not shirt sleeve weather however he was wearing only a black t-shirt and jeans and some kind of black boots. He was staring right at her and of course her eyes were riveted on him.

The woods had suddenly grown still, no sounds, movements, or breeze, nothing. Her body and mind felt numb, as she sat there staring at him, it felt as if tiny fingers were probing her brain. Strange flashes of her whole life were popping into her head and then slipping back into the recesses of grey matter and another thought would take its place like a fast forward on a tape machine. She couldn’t move or pause the rewind button. She sat paralyzed as time seemed to be frozen.

Then just as suddenly as he had appeared, the flashes ceased and he was gone. Her eyes had been frozen on him, yet she had not seen him move. He just disappeared in the same way he had appeared. She sat still, thinking he would reappear at any moment. She didn’t know for how long but finally came to the realization that he was truly gone and not coming back. Her mind was clear again, the probing fingers had vanished along with the young man. The breeze was back, the birds resumed chirping and the leaves were rustling in the trees again.

The morning was still obscured by clouds but the sun was brighter behind them and much higher in the sky. She wondered what had just happened or if she had been daydreaming. The feeling that washed over her was very confusing. She wasn’t really frightened, actually felt renewed, refreshed and stood stretching. She placed her rifle against the old stone fence beside her. If she had been sleeping it didn’t feel like she was waking up and she remembered everything. How much time had passed? Just how long had she sat there staring at the young stranger feeling those icy probing fingers in her head? There was no way to really know without a watch.

It was like another world out here in the deer woods and time was hard to calculate. Maybe that is why she liked it so much. It was so different from everyday life. There were no real schedules except the sun and your stomach. Both of these were no help today, it could have been a few minutes or an hour.

The wind was picking up, the mist had turned to a slight drizzle and it felt as if the temperature had dropped several degrees. She shivered, as her mind began to grapple for an explanation. What had she been thinking about before the young man appeared? It was her sweet twin baby boys that had died only a few short minutes after birth.

Is it possible she may have just imagined the young man, perhaps wondering what her boys might have looked like if they had lived? If that was the case, then why didn’t she see two young men? Many times as she sat in these and other woods just like them doing the same thing she had done today, thought about her past and had been in a reflective mood. Never had anything like this ever happened before. Why today and why had the woods become so still? She thought perhaps it was another hunter who had taken off his coveralls to relieve himself. It was as if she had felt him rather than seen him anyway.

She saw her companion coming through the woods. Matthew- was a magnificent sight to behold. He was tall with broad shoulders, dark hair and tanned skin with hands that were tough and weathered. His smile could melt her heart and she loved him even though he always kept her at a distance-keeping his past shrouded in mystery. He walked up to her and said, Let’s move to another part of the woods for the afternoon hunt, I haven’t seen anything, how about you? At first she started to tell him about the visitor in the woods but for some strange reason she felt she shouldn’t.

She responded I think that’s a great idea. I haven’t seen anything either. I need a break anyway and maybe a sandwich. He nodded in agreement.

They drove to another stand of woods, parked, ate a quick lunch and headed up the mountain. They separated and went in different directions for the afternoon hunt, as was their custom. Tatiana settled into a spot with a good vantage point she could see in almost every direction just like this morning’s hunt. She could hear the water trickling thru the rocks in a nearby stream and her thoughts were strangely again brought back to the past. This time it was a blessing because it pushed the thoughts of the young man from this morning into the back of her mind replacing them with her twin boys. They had not even let her hold them or see them. But then it really wasn’t anyone’s fault because when they came in to tell her about the babies she had gone crazy, hysterical. There was nothing anyone could do but sedate her, allowing her mind and body to heal. She had been so young only 18 when they were born, it was understandable that she was inconsolable.

While she slept, the family had decided it would be best to have the boys put to rest in a graveside service. Her mind was still a blur about those months because she was under sedation. She remembered only what they had told her. The small headstone on their joint grave bore no names, only a silhouette of two babies being held by large hands with clouds all around, and of course the date to remind her anytime she would visit.

During that time she became pregnant again. It was a difficult time of excitement and horror, worrying that the same thing may happen again but life continued and healing occurred. Tatiana changed many things about her life during that period. She wanted her priority to be enjoying her new baby girl but always in the back of her mind were her other babies-her first babies and she would never let herself forget. Every holiday and every birthday she visited the tiny joint grave, sitting and talking to them, giving updates of their new family. A mother could never forget, once conceived, a child becomes a part of who you are; the bond that is forged is forever.

Old Crone

Calling his mother The Old Crone was not in any way disrespectful. Quite the contrary, his mother was the most respected witch he knew, maybe even the most respected witch in the world. She knew everything about the Other World. He had lived in both the Real World or human world and the world the humans didn’t see, the Other World. The human world occasionally caught glimpses of the Other World but they didn’t want to admit it existed so when they did see or hear of something associated with the supernatural, they discounted it or explained it away in their own terms.

He wondered sometimes where they thought some of their ideas had come from for movies, television, books, and video games. Those were based on the reality of the world he had found with his adopted mother. He saw the good and bad in both.

His mother, Betina The Old Crone worried about him all the time, even after the change had happened in him that had made him so much stronger. She understood that the bad in both his worlds could erase him from the universe. It was really important to her to help keep the balance of the universe. She said it was the responsibility for all of us; it was just that some of us denied it or didn’t care. He loved his mother and respected her wisdom.

He felt his life was complete but he would never forget his other family. From the very beginning his mother had been honest with him about his birth mother and family, never trying to hide anything. She wanted him to know and appreciate his roots.

Circumstances had caused his adopted mother to move across the country right after he came to her. It had been impossible for her to actually show him where they lived or let him see them. He realized he would never be close to them but still wanted to know as much about them as he could.

He remembered with a heavy heart the story of his birth and the years that followed. Betina, his adopted mother had been a morgue nurse at the time of his birth. She was always on call to deliver bodies to the morgue during her shift at the hospital. The rest of her shift was spent covering on the different floors of the hospital wherever they needed her. It just so happened that one of the duty nurses the day he and his brother were born was out sick, so she had been called to the maternity floor to help out. When she got to work that day, the young mother to be had been in labor for several hours. She had gone into premature labor and the nurses on that floor were doubtful that the outcome would be good. They had tried unsuccessfully to stop her labor, so now they all waited as the doctor made his way to the hospital to deliver the baby.

They did not know at that time the young mother would be delivering twins. Birth was usually a happy time and Betina always looked forward to working on this floor but today the mood was sobering and heavy. There was none of the usual chatter about the upcoming birth and the nurses and orderlies walked the halls with lowered eyes.

It just so happened that there were no other mothers preparing for imminent birth so everyone was concentrating on the young mother who was about to give birth prematurely. Betina stayed in the background. She was all too aware that she would probably be taking the tiny body to the morgue, her main duty at the hospital but still she hoped she was wrong.

She could hear the muffled screams through the doorway every time it opened. There were a few times that she caught glimpses of the family as they waited for the doctor to arrive. She thought What a beautiful young couple, so young and so hopeful.

Every time she told the story a tear came to her own eyes as she thought of all of her childless years. She had always wanted to have children but it wasn’t in the cards for her life. She had many adopted children and people in her life that completed her and made her happy. But always there was that empty spot that lingered and the occasional thoughts she had.

The doctor had arrived then and the bustle of the floor intensified. Betina busied herself with small tasks but kept a vigil over the door of the young woman about to give birth. After almost an hour a nurse came through the door, hurrying to get some more supplies for the doctor. Betina tried to catch a glimpse inside the room. The nurse’s expression let her know that things were not going well. Shortly after the nurse returned to the room, the door opened again and Betina saw the nurse carry a tiny figure over to the bassinet in the room, another nurse was joining her. Betina knew that the baby had been born and they would be working on it now to clear its airways and clean the child.

Suddenly the door flew open and a nurse ran out. She was barking out orders for the available nurses to come and assist. Betina was relegated to answering pages from other patients and the phones.

The young husband was ushered out of the room to where the rest of the family was waiting. One of the nurses grabbed an additional hospital baby bassinet and was taking it back into the room. The young mother had quieted down after the birth of her child now appeared to be in labor again. Betina knew then that a second tiny life was about to be born, unexpected twins.

As Betina manned the desk and waited patiently while the commotion quieted. She heard the muffled sounds inside the room and knew that soon the second life would come into the world. It seemed like ages to her as she waited but actually not very long. The door opened and the additional personnel started to file out. The scene inside the room was subdued as the twins were being cared for now by the doctor. Betina could hear no sounds from the babies.

Two of the nurses who came out were talking, Betina tried to listen in. The babies were boys, the second child that had been born was so tiny they couldn’t believe it was even alive. The doctor had told the nurses to put the babies into incubators and at this point hope for the best. A specialist was being called in but no one seemed to have any hope that the twins would even last long enough for him to arrive.

The young man took a break from his musing. He remembered the tears that always came to his mother’s eyes whenever she related his story to him. Her heart was so tender but Betina told him his history so he would always understand how he had come into the world and how she came to bring him home. It saddened him to know the excitement and sorrow that had been associated with him and his brother’s birth. He got up and splashed water on his face then went to the window to look out at the street below.

Children were playing in the sunshine. He remembered growing up here and playing down in those small yards and streets in front of the apartment building. The weather was unseasonably warm for this time of the year. The small suburb near Boston where they lived had been having the normal days of cold and rain but the weather had turned warm and sunny in the last few days. Everyone was taking advantage of the beautiful sunshine. He couldn’t actually hear their laughter but he imagined how it sounded down there. Several of the mothers sat on the steps of the old brownstone watching the children play.

He turned back to the table and sat down, once more he would finish the account of his birth and feel the sorrow that filled the hospital on that day so long ago. One more time he would also experience the joy and excitement Betina had felt as the story played itself out in his mind.

The twin boys had been born-cleaned up but they were breathing sporadically. They lay resting next to each other in their incubator when Betina entered the room to clean up after the births. They had made the decision to put the two tiny babies into one incubator, perhaps it would comfort them somehow since they had been intertwined together for the past several months inside their mother. The facilities at the city hospital were not as good as some of the areas hospitals. They didn’t have the latest equipment and the family was young and poor. A nurse stood over the babies keeping watch as Betina cleaned, she saw the nurse stiffen and start working frantically over one of the babies. The nurse turned and looked at Betina, beckoning her to go and find the doctor.

Betina left the room and headed for the front desk to summon the doctor. He had been talking with the family so he was close and entered the room only moments later. He emerged a short time later with a saddened look on his face and came over to the desk to speak with Betina. She knew then that her services as a morgue nurse would be needed.

Betina entered the room with tears in her eyes. The first born, the largest of the boys had died. The nurse was swaddling him and summoned Betina to take the small bundle downstairs to the morgue. Betina looked over at the small frame of the young mother. She was sleeping, so frail and worn out. Betina knew the young mother would never hear her remove the small bundle from the room. Betina glanced over at the incubator holding the tiny infant that was still laboring to breath. She wondered if she should wait a few minutes to see if this infant would survive the loss of his brother. Almost as the thoughts escaped her mind, the infant went into a spasm that took his last breath.

She had seen this happen before, twins born early, one dies, shortly after taking the baby out, she would have to come back for the other. She didn’t understand why this was the case but it was. Perhaps it was something about the close connection between the babies in the womb.

The nurse motioned to the front desk through the door for them to send for the doctor. Again he arrived shortly after the call because he had not yet gone back in to speak with the family but had waited in the small office next to the front desk. She figured he had been waiting to see if the other twin would expire also.

Betina slipped back into the room and waited. The nurse quickly swaddled the tiny infant and handed the baby to Betina. She turned with tears in her eyes and the two tiny bundles in her arms back toward the door. The doctor came out behind her and went to the elevator to send for it to this floor so Betina could take the tiny boys to the basement morgue.

The doctor turned from her without a word. Betina knew his hardest job was now to report to the family that the babies had died. Soon the mother would wake and want to see her children and he would have to tell the young mother also. The poor doctor would have had a long day when his part of this panorama was concluded.

The doors to the elevator opened. Betina stepped inside. Something about the second bundle she held drew her attention. She removed part of the swaddling to stare at the tiny face. He was so perfect and still had his color. She pulled him up close to her face. She kissed the tiny cheek which felt warm.

Of course it had only been a few moments since his death she reminded herself. She just couldn’t bring herself to cover the beautiful face again. It was macabre staring into the face of the dead infant. She knew if someone were to see her it would only add to her reputation as being a bit bizarre but she felt safe because when you pushed the button on the elevator to the basement and morgue floor, it was a non-stop ride. No one wanted to enter the elevator with a body so she knew she would be the only passenger.

The elevator door opened to the damp, ill lit floor. Not only was it the morgue but it was the maintenance floor of the hospital as well. Another elevator on the other side of the building came down to the maintenance wing. A long corridor with a heavy door, that stayed closed, separated the two wings. No one ever came through that door as far as she knew.

She could hear the whine of the machinery that operated the hospital. There was an odor and a sense of death that permeated the morgue even when there wasn’t a body waiting to be picked up by the coroner or the mortuary. It wasn’t a pleasant place but Betina had become comfortable here. Someone had to take care of the dead. She was more familiar than most with this part of humanity. People were afraid of death but Betina wasn’t. She knew it was just another stage of life and that it wasn’t the end.

She laid the small bundles on the table by the bedding. She called the mortician to come and pick up the twin bodies. She knew she would have at least an hour or more before he arrived. He would bring a small box perhaps even the coffin and put the babies inside. Many times in a premature birth that is what they did. Since the babies were so small they would probably put them in the coffin together, joined in death as they had been in life.

Betina stared at the smallest child. She still could not bring herself to cover that beautiful perfect face. What would it hurt to hold the tiny boy for just a few minutes before the mortician arrived? She cooed and rocked for a few moments to the child as another tear escaped her clouded eyes for the child she had never had. Something about this death wasn’t like so many she had witnessed in the past. The child didn’t appear to be breathing obviously but it also didn’t have the death pallor that she was so used to seeing.

On impulse she went to her satchel which lay by the entrance. She pulled out a small bottle of elixir that she housed in the side pocket. Her heart was not what it used to be and being a witch she was privy to many of the old secrets of healing that had been passed down to her for many generations. She had made up the elixir from a combination of herbs, salts, and potions for herself. When she was feeling stressed or ill, she would put a small drop on her tongue and suddenly feel the rush of healing wash over her. The mixture had been magickally charged; she had seen it heal when nothing else would. She kept the vial with her for any emergency she might encounter.

Today the elixir would be for the child. She prayed a sincere request to the Goddess Nyx for healing. Betina wasn’t sure why but she found herself compelled to touch a drop of the liquid to the lips of the tiny child then watched in amazement as his small frame pulled in a slight intake of air. Betina smiled and watched in wonder as the blush increased in his cheeks and the baby’s breathing became even. She almost couldn’t believe it, magick amazed and delighted her. Rarely did she interfere with the day to day life of humans. They didn’t believe or understand and it could be dangerous. But now witnessing this miracle happen before her, she was reminded just how powerful her skills were and how much of a difference she could make. She sat watching the baby for a few more minutes just to be sure. The color was returning to the baby and the warmth she had felt from the tiny body was increasing. She was elated as the heavy labored breathing she had seen upstairs in the incubator was gone. He was so much better already and appeared both robust and calm. She knew the elixir was strong but she hadn’t realized that it had this kind of power.

There had been many opportunities over the years to step in on behalf of humans and use her abilities to ease suffering or help