The Golden Desires (4 page)

8 ~ THE STRANGER

Isabella awoke, once again startled
by a vision of the night. The same man was in it but the vision itself was
different. This time she could see him sleeping. He was in strange clothes and even
though he had many layers over and around him, he was so very, very cold. She
could feel the cold come to her through the vision of the night, and once again
it distressed her. But then she could see what he was seeing and realized he must
be looking at the outer walls of her village.

There was no mistaking what walls they were, but
they looked different from his view. She knew from having grown up with the
view that around the entire outer layer of the village the walls were covered
with roses of a deep lavender colour. That was what she saw whenever she went
anywhere, every day of her life.

But the view she got from the point of the view of
the man in the night vision was not that of a wall covered in roses. It was grey,
dark, blank and so …
bleak
.

All of a sudden a deep male voice echoed into her
head, stunning her as she could not make out where it had come from.

"What mysteries do you hold?" the voice
asked, but what was he asking about? The walls? The village? Or
her
?

Her vision changed so that she was no longer
seeing from his point of view anymore, and instead felt like she was looking at
him again.

In her vision she walked toward him and watched
him sleeping there, in the odd layers of cloth he seemed to be using to keep
him warm. And he looked so cold. How could he be so cold? It was always so warm
where they were.

In her vision she knelt down close to him and
reached out her hand, and upon touching his cheek, saw him wake up, confused, before
settling his eyes on her. They did nothing more - they did not smile, they did
not speak. They just looked at each other with such a
knowing
.

She sat upright in her warm bed, holding onto the
night vision as tightly as she could. These visions were different from others
she'd had. These were so
real
.

Immediately she jumped out of bed and dressed. She
had to get to breakfast and find Adrian.

~~~~~

"These night visions are different, Adrian!
Something is different!" she said to him, showing him exactly how much the
night visions were affecting her.

"Isabella, all of us have them at some time
or other. They don't mean anything."

"Yes, but that is where something
is
different
- I
know
it is. Something isn't right. I think I need to go and speak to
an elder - perhaps Elder Rhys," she said and saw Adrian's eyes go wide.
"What do you think?"

"Elder Rhys?! He is … an
ancient
! You
can't just go and talk to him about something trivial…"

"These visions of the night aren't trivial! I
know they are something
else
," she said to him with a volume that
was louder than her usual voice, causing people to turn and look at her.
Instantly she lowered her voice before speaking again. "I must go to see
him. Straight away. I will see you at dinner time."

She stood to leave and instantly saw him stand
also.

"Wait, Isabella. I will walk over to the
temple with you. I may not be able to go inside but at the very least I will
escort you as far as I can."

Isabella smiled at him sadly but gratefully.

"Thank you."

~~~~~

Isabella tentatively stood in the temple entrance.
It was a commanding structure that had always seemed to call to her, as if it
were silently but consistently extending a private invitation to her. She did
not know if everyone else felt the same way about the building. Nor did know if
the feeling was even real, or simply a figment of her imagination. But as she
approached to enter, she felt a sense of homeliness come over here, like this
was where she was always meant to be. As if the spirits of her ancestors still
resided here, and were calling out to her, telling her she was special and that
she had a purpose … a
calling
.

She stepped further into the temple, aware that it
was not a public space that people went to for trivial purposes, and she
wondered if she should really be there after all. Visions of the night were not
rare, and as far she knew, they never meant anything, but something about this
felt different to her, as if it were not something to be overlooked or ignored.

Isabella stood for a moment and closed her eyes,
taking a deep breath as she felt …
something
… flow over her. She
couldn't define what it was, but it stirred her blood whilst at the same time
making her feel incredibly at peace.

"Isabella," she heard a voice call out
to her, for a moment alarming her and forcing her to open her eyes and look
around.

Her eyes settled on Elder Rhys. In addition to
being an elder, he was also an ancient - one of the oldest persons of the
village. She did not understand yet why some elders were ancients and some were
not. To her she only knew that they were old, and wise … and that the people of
the village put full trust in them on the very rare occasion when any decision
had to be made. But generally they were never seen, keeping themselves hidden
away behind the façade of the large temple.

"Elder Rhys," she whispered, in awe of
the power of the man in front of her, and not sure what etiquette she should
follow by greeting him in the temple.

He saw her start to smile, then seem to change her
mind as if she were uncertain if she were welcome to do that. Then she started
to bow, or nod, and once again seemed confused.

Suddenly she heard him laugh quietly.

"Isabella, you are welcome here. Come. I can
see that you have something to discuss," he said to her, helping her to
relax before she smiled at him and began to walk alongside him until they were
in a small room.

He guided her to sit in a hard wooden seat in the
room, as he sat down opposite her and looked at her with a look of anticipation
and patience. In front of him he saw the young woman looking around her, full
of curiosity and extreme inquisitiveness.

"What do you wish to discuss?" he asked
her and finally she turned her head to look right at him.

"I … I have seen things in my visions of the
night, and they are … confusing me. I know night visions are unimportant…"

"On the contrary, Isabella, Visions of the
night sometimes tell us things that we need to know, and can provide us with
direction for us to go on our path of life. I sense that you have been
experiencing something more than a standard vision of the night, though,"
he said and she saw him lean forward, as if hungry to hear what she was going
to say. "Tell me."

"A man … there is a
man
who appears.
He is not from here. He looks different. And he is so cold. When I wake I can
feel
the cold that he is feeling. He has a different face. But how can I have a
vision of someone I have never seen and do not know? My visions of the night
are about Adrian, or my mother or father, or … other people … but always the people
in my night visions are people that I know. I do not know this man. And I have
now seen him in more than one vision of the night. How can that be?"

The ancient before her sat quietly. He already
knew of her vision of the night - he had seen it too - but he did not share
that with her now. She was startled by the night vision, and her knowing that
the vision was being seen by him as well would not serve any purpose, or put
her any more at ease. So he kept quiet, his mind also curious about the
discovery that suddenly he was seeing a vision of the night that had belonged
to someone else. When he had woken from that vision of the night, he had
wondered if she might have seen him there, in the vision too, but as he
listened to her now he realized that she must not have. She had seen the vision
just as he had, except to her it was only the man and herself in it. To him, he
had been watching from a third person view point, as if seeing it happen from a
distance.

"How many visions of the night has he been
in, Isabella?" he asked her, inquisitive as it had only been the one that
he had been somehow made a party to.

"Two."

He was surprised further by her answer. Why had he
seen one but not the other? He was 600 years old and he had been through one
similar experience before, but not quite like this, and in his extremely long
lifetime, the rarity of anything new happening made this discovery intriguing
to him.

Isabella watched his face, somewhat expecting inside
of her that he would laugh at her and tell her she was being silly, and there
was nothing to worry about or even think about with regard to her visions of
the night. But he didn't do that at all.

"Sometimes things happen, Isabella, that we
cannot explain. Perhaps it is your mind creating this person as a way to
indicate to you that you should be moving forward in some part of your
life."

"You do not think it is in any way real? You
do not think that the man in my visions of the night is real?"

"I think … I think that you should keep
remembering your night visions if you can, but do not worry about them. In time
if there is something you are to learn from them, it will be revealed. It is
always the way."

Isabella looked at him in the hope that he would
continue speaking, but soon realized that those words had been his closing of
the conversation. She stood up and smiled at him before quietly leaving the
room, having not learned anything more about the odd instances that were
happening to her in the night, than she had known before.

~~~~~

The following morning Isabella awoke again with yet
another night vision fresh in her mind. In this vision of the night she saw the
same man again. The vision showed that he was now inside the village, near the
temple.

Immediately she took a moment to make sure she was
properly awake, before dressing quickly and running from her home. It was a 10
minute dash to the temple, she knew, with it being at the far end of the
village.

As the temple came into view she slowed, seeing a
figure standing directly in front of it, staring at it. As if sensing her
there, he turned and saw her, and she saw him drop the bag he had been holding
over his shoulder, and go quite white.

Slowly they walked toward each other. It was still
early and no-one in the village was yet roused apart from the cooks in the
kitchen, who she knew would not come outside.

He saw her walking toward him and he felt his
heart beating heavily in his chest.

Finally they stood facing one another, each seeing
such a look of intense curiosity on the other's face.

"You have been in my visions of the night,"
Isabella finally said, not sure if it was a statement or a question that she
was trying to portray but he looked confused.

"Visions of the night?" He seemed to
play the words over in his mind and then smile softly. "Oh, perhaps you
mean dreams."

"Dreams," he heard her repeat softly, as
if she had never heard the word before.

"And you were in mine also. Although you are
far more beautiful now that I see you in person," he said, instantly
hearing himself as if he were a player from the life he had just left.

Isabella was enraptured. She was drawn to him
automatically, and moved closer. He did not step away from her, as if he also
felt they were meant to be much, much closer.

Trent brought his hands up to gently touch each
side of her face, and was warmed by the feeling of her skin, as if she were emanating
warmth from deep within her.

He saw her lean into his hands as she continued to
look directly into his eyes and he was instantly drawn to want to kiss her.

Isabella saw his lips coming down toward hers but
felt no fear. When they touched she felt something she had never felt before.
It was as if this was the moment she had been working toward -
waiting
for
- all of her life. She did not dare pull away - she had no
wish
to pull away.
She was 21 and it was her first kiss in her lifetime. She wanted it to be … to
remain
… the most special kiss - the most special
moment
- that she would ever
experience.

At 30 years of age, Trent had kissed a great many
women - far too many, he knew - but he had never felt what he was feeling now. In
his dreams he had felt an incredible pull toward her, and those feelings were
only intensified now that she was so close to him and her lips were on his.

When they separated they stood back from one another
and just looked closely at each other, both uncertain how this had come to be.

"I don't understand any of this," he
said, shaking his head as if he expected to wake up from a dream. "Who
are
you?"

She looked closely at him, also so scared - and
yet at the same excited - by what it all meant.

"I am Isabella," she said simply and he
laughed softly at her, since she obviously did not understand the full extent
to which he was asking. "Who are you?"

"My name is Trent. Trent Solace," he
said and held out his hand in a greeting natural to his world, but she
immediately stepped backward and stared at his hand.

She looked up into his eyes, suddenly remembering
another part of one of the night visions she'd had.

"There was something else … something yellow.
I handed it to you."

Immediately Trent remembered that part of the
dream also. He had forgotten but he could clearly see it in his mind now that
she had mentioned it.

"Yes! You handed it to me," he said,
letting his mind remember. "It was…"