A Winter Dream

“Can you see anything?”Lila asked through the bond.

“I can’t see anything, but I can hear them yelling. Your grandfather is screaming that they shot him, and they are trying to defend themselves by saying they were protecting him from intruders. He’s calling them imbeciles and saying they haven’t been invaded for over three hundred years…

“O-ho, he just asked who gave them orders to shoot strangers on sight. They aren’t saying anything. He just screamed for them to answer him…

“One of them just admitted that his mate gave that order. I hear him stomping off now. Too bad we’re going to miss the…what did that television show call it when we were waiting for your mom to wake up?”Yari wondered.

“Smackdown. We’re going to miss the smackdown,” Lila answered.

“Do you want to see?”the melds whispered in Lila’s head.

“Can you do that?” Lila asked aloud.

“Do what?”Yari asked.

The shield meld detached from Lila’s arm and hovered in the air a few feet in front of them. It changed shape and became like a three-dimensional television, but the view was like that of a small child running through the castle. Lila’s brow furrowed trying to figure out how this was happening, but in the next breath, the lightbulb went off in her head and she realized that the melds she’d ordered to stop the bleeding on her grandfather were now covering a wound somewhere on his lower half. It was communicating what it was seeing to the melds that were with her and they were translating that into something she could see.

Yari and Lila watched in fascination as he stormed about flinging open doors and searching rooms. The melds were feeding the sound into Lila’s mind, as well. He was calling out for Jesslyn, which Lila assumed was his mate.

He entered a courtyard somewhere inside the castle walls and found a woman with two girls a little older than Lila. They were seated at a table covered in food and drinks that were similar to what one might see at a tea date among ladies on earth.

“Girls, leave us,” he ordered.

“Raine, we’re having tea. Why don’t you join us?” the grating voice of the woman sounded through the melds into Lila’s ear.

“NOW!” he shouted, and the girls jumped up from their seats and scurried off into the castle.

The woman’s face was pinched in disgust as she hissed, “You aren’t satisfied just to yell at me? Now you mistreat our daughters, as well?”

“Dana is here in the dungeon, isn’t she?” he asked in a quiet voice that made Lila shiver.

Her face flickered an expression of irritation for an instant before she composed herself, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Jesslyn, the guards shot at my granddaughter behind the castle. They said you gave orders to shoot any strangers on sight. They shot me, by the way, in case you were interested,” he paused, and she said nothing.

He sighed heavily, sounding weary, “You’ve done everything you can to sever my ties to my daughter. You let me think she was dead. I know you did something to bind her away from me and now you’ve imprisoned her…for what? Were you going to kill her?”

Jesslyn’s face contorted to one of rage, “You think I’d kill her?! I was only trying to figure out how to send her away again. You’ve always thought the worst of me haven’t you, Raine? No matter what I did I wasn’t as good as Dana and her mother.

“That woman wasn’t even your mate, but you loved her. You gave her the love that was meant for ME! You had none left to give by the time I met you. I suffered for years, begging you to love me before I bound that girl away from you. It’s your fault I did it!

“When she was here, I was nothing to you. And when I could, I gave you two more daughters to love and raise, but they weren’t good enough either. No one was ever good enough for you but Dana and her mother. You only ever loved them…and now you have a granddaughter, do you?

“I hope they found their mark when they shot at her. I wish I had killed Dana all those years ago before she gave you someone else to love more than me!”

Raine sighed again, “I tried to love you, Jess, but your heart was always selfish and cruel. There was no one you could ever say a kind word to but me…and you haven’t even done that in over twenty years.

“The moment Dana disappeared I knew you had something to do with it. Do you know what else I know? Those girls of yours that you call my daughters aren’t even mine. I knew about your affairs. I knew, but I didn’t care. You lost any chance of winning my heart when you sent Dana away.”

Jesslyn screeched in anger and grabbed a knife from the table. She rushed at Raine screaming, “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you…”

Suddenly the melds formed back into a shield and reattached to Lila’s arm.

“Communications have ceased,”Lila heard spoken into her mind.

“Yari, the melds stopped broadcasting, I say we try to get in and get Dana out. There’s no telling what that lunatic will do if she’s managed to injure Raine.”

“Agreed,”Yari replied,“Hold on tight.”

Lila sent a message to the melds,“Can you somehow surround Yari and me in case of attack? Shield us as much as possible?”

“It will be done,”they whispered back.

Yari leapt into the air and flapped her wings several times before gliding back towards the castle walls.

Lila informed her,“Just head right in. My shield melds are ready to block any attacks.”

“Will do,”Yari confirmed.

And she did. She flew straight over the castle and landed in the central courtyard. Several guards and servants standing around were frozen in awe at the majestic creature that had invaded their master’s home. Not a single person moved to stop them.

Lila hopped off Yari’s saddle and sent out,“Lead the way.”

Yari strode with purpose, her paws padding softly as she tucked in her wings and walked through and archway that marked the entrance to the descending spiral stone steps. Lila followed close behind as they walked down the wide circle that wrapped around a central stone column. As they traveled further downward, the aromas of mildew and body odor wafted up the stairwell and made Yari blast air out of her nostrils to try and repel the rank smells.

After what seemed like a quarter of an hour, they made it to the bottom and Yari led the way to a dark hallway with a dirt floor that was lined with cell after cell as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t all that far considering how dark it was. Yari stopped abruptly and sniffed the air then started moving more quickly. Three cells down, she halted again and motioned at a cell to the right with her paw.

“Mom?” Lila called out into the cell.

Raspy breathing could be heard inside and after a moment the weak voice of Dana replied, “I’m…I’m here, sweetie. I’m just so tired…”

“Open the lock, please,”Lila sent to the melds, and they complied.

The door swung open, and Lila went in while Yari kept watch. She followed the sounds of her mother’s ragged breaths and reached out her hands to find her. Her fingertips brushed Dana’s skin, which was fevered and moist.

“Let’s get you out of here, mom,” Lila whispered.

She pulled her mom up into a seated position on the floor and crouched down to wrap an arm around Dana’s waist. She then wrapped Dana’s arm around her own shoulders, gripping that hand in order to keep her from sliding off. Lila pushed off her feet as hard as she could, leveraging the strength in her legs and butt to stand up, dragging her mom with her.

Lila guided her out of the cell and Yari was waiting, lying on her belly,“Lila, put her on my back and strap her in.”

Lila managed did get Dana on top of Yari’s saddle with the help of the melds and began buckling the leg belts on one side. When they were all done up, she moved to the other side and buckled that leg in, as well.

“Let’s go,” Lila whispered and the moved back towards the stairwell with Yari practically crawling on her belly to keep Dana’s head safe from being smashed into the stone ceiling.

Once they were at the stairs, Yari was able to safely stand up again and Lila lead the way. It took longer to go up than it did to go down. Lila’s leg muscles were aching, but she pressed on. When she started to lag even more, Yari put her head under Lila’s butt and pushed her up, carrying some of her weight as they climbed.

“Communication restored,”the melds spoke into Lila’s mind.

“Is Raine still alive?”Lila replied as they neared the ground level.

“Yes. He’s injured. Melds are attempting triage,”they answered.

“Take us there,”Lila ordered.

The melds of her shield detached and formed a trail ahead of her, which she followed until they were out in the courtyard once again. The meld trail led to the right and they continued on until they stepped under another stone archway and found themselves in a smaller courtyard that Lila recognized as the place Raine and Jesslyn had argued.

Lying on the ground, not far away, was Raine and he was covered in blood, but breathing. Lila ran over to him and knelt down beside him.

“Raine? Are you ok? We have Dana…” she told him, trying to comfort him.

He moaned in pain and cracked his eyes open with great effort, “What’s…your name…granddaughter?”

“Shh…let the melds heal your wounds, and my name is Lila,” she answered softly.

Raine ignored Lila’s shushing and said with some wheezing, “Take…your mother and... go quickly.”

“This is our second time here. She didn’t port with us last time and we don’t know why,” Lila explained.

Raine coughed and with it sprayed a small amount of blood onto the dirt. His voice was stronger as he spoke again, “How did she get here?”

“She was bound to a cornerstone in my grandmother’s home. Yari and I destroyed it, and that brought us here to her where she’d traveled in her dream. She’s weak and we thought she was dying…maybe she still is…but when she told me how to port away, I tried to take her with me to my father’s dimension, but she was left behind. We came back to get her,” she told him.

Raine used his arms to push himself into a seated position on the ground, “I think my injuries are ok now. Whatever these tiny things are have been knitting me back together since I was shot by the forest.”

“They’re my melds. They’re an organism from my father’s realm,” Lila told him.

Raine nodded, “I think she didn’t port with you because you must be new to it, and she wasn’t well enough to use her own abilities to assist you. She’s not bound here or anything. I would be able to sense it if Jess had bound anyone here.”

Lila sighed with relief, “I’m so glad to hear that. Are you strong enough to assist? This beautiful creature here is native to the realm we’re trying to get to. Does that help you at all?”

“Yes, it does. I need you to port yourself and the creature, then I’ll follow with your mom,” Raine explained.

At that moment, Lila’s shield umbrellaed over Dana’s head a split second before another projectile made contact and bounced off of it.

“We need to find cover,” Raine said, “the portal could take a minute for me to open.”

“No worries, pops,” Lila smirked, “Meld-friends can you stop them from firing on us?”

“Yes,”they answered.

“I love those guys,” Lila laughed.

“Me, too,” grinned Raine.

The shield meld continued to whip about deflecting projectiles while Lila’s scabbard detached from her thigh, reshaping into a sharp, flat boomerang shape. It flung itself up to the top of the castle wall where three archers were attempting to shoot them with arrow-like projectiles. Lila watched it fly up and slice through their bows - strings, wood, and all. The sliced bows fell from the archers’ hands, plummeting to the courtyard below.

Lila crawled over to the table Jesslyn had been having tea at and flipped it over onto its side, sending fine china and food flying across the dirt. It was a good, sturdy, thick wooden table that Lila felt confident could deflect any other flying ammunition directed at them. She gestured for Raine and Yari to join her in crouching behind it, which they did in short order.

The shield melds formed a barrier over their heads and to their sides that was reminiscent of a tent.

“Let’s do this,” Lila said as she reached out to put a hand on Yari’s paw and reached up with her other to touch the melds.

Lila could feel the vibrations of the covering as more weapons had been acquired and were currently flinging more projectiles their way.

Raine held onto Dana’s hand and placed a palm flat against the fur on Yari’s side next to the saddle. He made eye contact with Lila and nodded firmly before closing his eyes.

Lila knew her port would be faster than a minute, so she counted down until Raine looked like he was in the zone, then closed her own eyes.

She envisioned her father’s library. The memory of the wood floors and bookcases, the gorgeous rugs and the soft, worn leather couch filled her mind’s eye. She began drawing in the details of the wood, then she moved onto to detail the rug beneath the sofa, then the sofa itself and finally, she stepped across.

When she opened her eyes, she was on the rug in front of the sofa and Yari was lying on the floor beside her, just as she had been in her grandfather’s dimension. The melds were still formed over her head and when she pulled her hand away, they compacted themselves back into a round disk, a short blade, and a scabbard then glided to the floor beside her.

She noticed Remus lying by the fire and he lifted his head and said,“Your father is on his way.”

Lila waited, holding her breath until her mom began to flicker into view on Yari’s back. She was slumped over the saddle and still strapped down.

Lila heard footsteps running into the library, but she sat still waiting for her grandfather. She vaguely registered that her dad released Dana from the straps of Yari’s saddle, picked her up and raced out of the room.

“Where’s Raine?” Lila said aloud, “if mom’s here then he should be here, too.”

“I’m sorry, little flower. I don’t think he was ever going to come with us. I don’t think he could,”Yari admitted.

Lila’s eyes flew to Yari’s and saw the sadness there, “You knew he wasn’t going to come.”

“I didn’t know for sure, but I suspected he only meant to help you push Dana through,”Yari replied.

Tears spilled over and ran down Lila’s cheeks. She suddenly felt more exhausted than she’d ever been in her entire life. She reached out and began to unbuckle the saddle from Yari’s middle then finally shoved it off her back. When it fell off to the side, Lila sidled up to her bonded and buried her face in the soft fur under her wing. Yari spread her wing out and covered her with it while she nuzzled Lila’s hair with her muzzle.

Lila didn’t know how long she laid there cuddled up to Yari, but before long a pair of strong arms picked her up and carried her against a solid chest. She didn’t even have the strength to open her eyes, but she knew that Ransom had her.

He took her to her room and laid her on the bed. He began to untie her boots and she was asleep before the first one was even pulled off her foot.