Chapter Two
2 – Flight
The two of them were very confused and still didn’t understand what the mysterious woman had meant, but as much as they told each other it was a joke they were both shaken.
That night Melissa sat by her mother’s bed. After about an hour she was half asleep in her chair when Jesse walked in holding a candle for light.“I can tell I’ll have trouble sleeping,” he said grimly, sitting by her.
In fact, after only ten minutes both were delving deeply into their dreams.
Jesse’s dreams were troubled that night. He dreampt the stranger had stolen Melissa and his mother and locked them in a tower in a far away place. It took him almost the whole dream to find them. When he found the tower he had to fight men who soon turned into bulls. Then he saw Melissa and their mother find their father in the tower and they lived together happily – without him. Jesse had cried out, trying to get them to notice him fighting outside but they couldn’t hear him. The strange woman laughed and watched him fight. The bulls overpowered him. He then cried out and woke suddenly. He turned to Melissa and his mother in a panicky state but they slept on. He shivered and got up to get breakfast.
He worried if the dream might be some sort of vision. But it couldn’t be; their father had died. He laughed it off. But after seeing that strange woman yesterday talk about far away lands made him wonder if anything was possible.
Melissa soon came out yawning.
“Our mother is still asleep,” she said. “Do you reckon that woman will come back for us soon?"
“What? Oh, no I don’t think she will come back. Do you want some sausages?"
They both wondered a lot that day and they waited to see what would happen. The woman never arrived. When dinner came neither were altogether very hungry, but both had laid aside their anxious and mysterfied thoughts and were able to concentrate wholly on the meal.
That night, Melissa was in bed and drifting slowly to sleep. Suddenly, and without warning, she was overcome with a feeling of dread that something was terribly wrong. She sat up, shivering and breathing heavily in the dark. The feeling did not go away – and if anything, it intensified, like a weight on her heart growing steading stronger, and taking hold of her. She lit a candle and hurried to her brother’s room.
“Jesse? Jesse!” She shook him until he woke.
“What is it?” he asked, looking annoyed at being woken.
“I feel so terrible! Oh, can’t you feel it? I must be going crazy... it’s so horrible, and I really feel like we must leave!"
“What are you talking about?” Jesse murmured, lying back down.
“I’m not sure... I just have a really bad feeling. Even though I pretended not to, I felt like that woman was telling the truth. And maybe we really are being hunted. And if we are, aren’t we putting the rest of the village in danger? And – and mother?"
Jesse opened his mouth to question her further, but suddenly he was overcome by the same contracting feeling that Melissa felt.
“Oh!” he gasped. “That’s so weird!” There was a strong sense of foreboding and horror in the air. Slowly, having a strange feeling that there was something out there, he reached over to his window and drew the curtain slightly.
What they saw was a single patch of mist hovering in the street, moving along silently. Melissa gasped in surprise at this oddity and Jesse put a hand over her mouth, shaking his head warningly.
They watched silently as another patch of mist appeared around a corner and moved towards the first, and then what they saw made them almost scream out in terror. Both mists swirled up to about two metres high and they formed the shape of a man and a woman. They seemed to be saing something, but the two children couldn’t hear as they were inside. The figures were larger than real people and had the look of people who were not there to simply say a polite hello, but at the same time they had vaige features that were not quite fixed, and they looked as if they might simply blow away.
After a moment they turned back into their mist forms and continued moving in different directions.
Jesse slowly closed the curtain and stared, white faced, at Melissa.
“Are they after us?” asked Melissa in a whisper, although she already knew the answer.
Jesse nodded shortly. “I think so... what are we going to do?"
“Come on, we must run away!"
“If we go outside then they’ll find us!"
They sat in silence for a moment, and then agreed that they must go. They got hurriedly changed and stole quietly out of the house and past all the village houses till they were walking away from the village itself. They did not know where to go. But they knew they were putting their poor mother and the village in danger every moment they stayed there.
“I always knew something like this would happen,” Jesse said to Melissa, “I knew something would come from those vision things we have. What did that woman call it? Farsight?'
“Foresight,” Melissa corrected. She turned back to look at the village – and she saw one of the mists hovering next to a house, as if it were watching them.
“Jesse? Turn around...” she said quietly. He turned back to gaze at the mist. There was a pause, then suddenly it started racing towards them at a ferocious speed.
“Run!” Jesse yelled, grabbing her arm and pulling her along.
When they looked back they saw the mist was a lot closer – and it had been joined by three more!
They ran harder, but both knew they had no chance. These unearthly creatures were too fast.
Soon the mists spread out and they had one on each side. The children stopped running as the mists stopped in front of them – and behind. They were surrounded.
The four mists swirled to form the tall beings – two male and two female. They slowly stepped forwards, leering at the children with those unfixed expressions.
“Lord Gendon will repay us dearly for this,” one said with a cackle. They all joined in the strange laughter and Jesse and Melissa shivered.
The four beings reached out as they drew nearer – but then there was the sound of approaching hooves and out of nowhere a black horse jumped into their midst. A hand grabbed Jesse and Melissa before they realised what was happening, and pulled them up with great strength onto the back of the horse.
Melissa (who was sitting awkwardly in the middle) clung onto the rider’s waste. Another glance made her realise it was the woman who had visited them.
Jesse was nearly falling off the back (as it is a very hard thing to fit three people onto a horse) and clung desperately to his sister.
The two of them glanced back in terror. The tall people had turned back to their grey misty forms and were trying their hardest to follow. The horse was about in equal speed to them and for a few uncomfortable minutes they pursued them at the same distance.
They came to a little creek and the horse leapt cleanly over it. The woman bent low over her horse’s neck and whispered something. Melissa and Jesse could not tell if they were words of comfort, warning or some strange magic but whatever it was made the horse snort and quicken its pace.
They rode to a place where trees were scattered here and there and the horse dodged and swerved around them. The mists followed them. Melissa clung onto the woman as they raced along head buzzing with what had happened, and yet not able to properly concentrate as she was trying to hold on. Jesse held onto Melissa in fear that he’d fall off the back, and kept stealing glances backwards to their persuers, fear in his eyes.
Soon the trees thickened to almost the density to make a good forest. The mists were falling behind and seemed to be finding it harder and harder to keep track of where the horse was.
After the mists were out of sight the horse rode on for what seemed like an age to the children, but was really only a bit longer than half an hour. There was now no sign of the beings behind them at all.
They went into a slow trot until finally the woman stopped the horse, and slipped neatly off. Jesse (who had occasionally done some horse riding before) marvelled at how this woman rode with no saddle. He got off, quite bruised, and helped Melissa down.
“Did we lose them?” Melissa asked nervously.
“I think so,” the woman said with her back rudely facing Melissa. “I told you two to keep out of danger, but instead you get yourself chased by spirits and spiritesses."
“It wasn’t our fault,” Jesse snapped, “They were hovering around outside. And I mean, where were you in all of it? And while you’re telling us, can you remind me what your name is?"
She turned to him, frowning sourly. “I am Hanniahidra, and if that’s too much for your small brain to remember, some people just call me Hanni. You ask where I was. I’ll tell you. I received a false call and was ambushed by spirits. I only got away in time to save you children."
“And... where are you taking us now?” Melissa asked.
“Well, we’ll cross the border to Doria hopefully by two days time, and then we’ll see if we can stay in Miradel... After that we shall go down the Epiar River to Orstina to meet the landpaters. From there we’ll go straight to Silvadale Castle. Hopefully we won’t be caught on the way."
It sounded like a tiring and long journey to Jesse and Melissa. Both sat there glumly. “Why would we want to go?” Jesse asked after a moment of silence.
Hanni gave tilted her head a little, as if curious. “In the vision Raynar the landpater had of you he said that you two would be seeking something in Doria. I daresay you know what I’m talking about."
The children shook their heads. Hanni looked a little taken aback, but let it pass.
“Is it possible you have the wrong people?” Melissa asked anxiously.
“What?” Hanni said, “No, it must be you. Most likely you two are the only people in Bidham with the gift of foresight; it’s very rare. Anyway, the spirits thought it was you too as they were in your village. Speaking of spirits, we should build a fire. They don’t like heat, it burns them up. I mean, they are only vapour.”