10th moon, year 3564

15 cerva (miles) from Sirila Forest

Tonoi Village

She was moving. Everything was still black but with a hint of red beneath slowly burgeoned its way through. And a cacophony of noises.

Someone was arguing. A lot of someones. She distinctly heard her mother's voice although it sounded as if she was far away. There was another voice, much closer, and male. He was just as angry as her mother but Kyna felt as if the anger was more at himself. Although she didn't know why unless...right. She remembered now.

The car coming towards her. Her dumbass frozen mid walk as she daydreamed of getting stabbed through the back. She'd been dreaming again and this time she got hit by car for her troubles.

Kyna wanted to wake up and tell the other guy in the room, because she could feel herself lying down on something soft, that it wasn't his fault. She remembered him honking his car. It wasn't his fault she wouldn't move. And let her mom know that he wasn't to blame.

Guilt for putting her mom through this on the anniversary of her husband's death drove her to open her eyes. Let her mother know that she was fine and sorry for worrying her.

Her eyes fluttered and beams of white light pierced through the black and red. Heart racing, Kyna willed herself to open her eyes. She might not be able to get out the bed -depending on how bad her bruises were- but she can damn well open her eyes.

Finally her eyelids fluttered open. She narrowed them against the brightness of the lights while her other eyes remained as black and red as the coming dawn.

Heart racing, Kyna tried to turn her head. She felt the shift of straining neck muscles move side to side, yet the body below her was as still as a living statue seen downtown. Except she wasn't silvered or gilded up or wearing a costume. And she wouldn't call the hospital gown she was wearing a costume.

Oh fucking shit! Did she die? Was she a ghost and having an outer body experience?

No, no. That can't be right. Her eyes were open, she can see it for herself, and staring at her with their swirling pools of black ink...

Weren't her eyes dark brown?

"Do something," yelled a faraway voice. Was she dreaming this too? Is this the whole life flashing behind your eyes thing before you die? If so, it sucked ass. And she had the strongest urge to find the person who started this lie and kick him or her. "We're losing her!"

Well doc, do your job and zap me awake already. I've had enough creepy dreams to last me for a lifetime.

Kyna saw a light.

At least someone got something right about crossing over, she thought. She took a step toward it, stopped and mentally shook her head. What was she doing?

She knew she was curious but she couldn't possibly be that curious. Wasn't walking towards the light the proverbial, big sign that this was the en? Her life had expired and moving to the next phase of life, the afterlife?

The non-life flashing before her eyes before was interesting. But Kyna refused to believe that her body had quit on her. It was still ticking. So there was no way she'll voluntarily leave the world of the living to become part of world of the dearly departed.

Mind made up, she turned away from the glowing, warm orb in the distance. But before she turned her back a strange pulse was released from it. It grew larger, it's light spread outwards like tentacles of death, surrounding her. She felt tiny pinpricks of discomfort, like wearing damp clothes, under her arms. Even the space between her toes.

Her body rocked gently on a lumpy surface like water swirled in a vase. How odd.

Kyna's eyes finally opened. Bright colors from above blurred like a children's hand painting. She blinked and everything came into focus in wondrous clarity. She was staring at a fresco unlike any other she'd ever seen or studied at school.

Dragons, unicorns and what definitely looked a griffin were traipsing through a forest. Walking alongside them were people dressed in medieval garb carrying a long train of papyrus in their hand. They held a feather in their other hand as if to checkmark against the tiny words written on it.

If Kyna didn't know any better, than the fresco above her was a recounting of a migration. The fantastical immigration version of Ellis Island.

"Wow."

"She's awake grand healer."

Did she say that out loud?

Grand healer? Like grand archangel?

A face appeared before her, as lined and grandmotherly she'd ever seen. A few strands of white gossamer hair sprang loose from her severe bun, which was almost as large as her nose. But really helped to get her vision into focus was the huge, mole mountain smack dab in the middle of her forehead. It nestled between the old woman's eyes and brows like an isolated island.

Then another face hovered above her across from the lady. Long, faced and tan and beautifully real with dark, soul shattering brown eyes peeking through thick, tumbling curls to match. And streaked with dried blood.

"Are you alright," he asked. His brows drew together in concern. "How do you feel?"

Will this dream never end?

Kyna swallowed, clearing the invisible mothball sticking her tongue to the roof of her mouth, and answered, "ᚨᚽᚽᚵᚩᛑᛑᛀᚩ."

What the fuck...was that me? Did she hit her head so hard she forgotten how to speak and is now talking gobbledygook? No. That wasn't it at all. As soon as the words left her mouth, her mind had already translated it.

Oh god no. She said oh god no.

The clarity of what happened and what she'd said it her well like a car, with shocking and hurtling truth that vibrated to her bones and organs so hard it threatened to combust. She was speaking another language. A foreign one, and unlike anything she'd ever heard and she's from the Bronx. More astonishing was that her dream-sword-bloody guy had spoken it too. And she'd understood and answered the first thing to came to mind when someone wakes up to find out that they're still dreaming.

"See," admonished the old woman. She disappeared from her right and from the click-clack sounds was shuffling some stuff around. "Told you she's alright."

Ignoring her as if she wasn't there, foreign boy - she really gotta find out his name - walked around her bed and said, "That's not what you said before."

Before? What did he mean by before? Oh. My. God. Did she die or something? She really died? Then is this purgatory? Though what sins did she commit that she was punished in the afterlife lame in bed? And with characters like foreign boy and old lady.

"Then why can't move? You said it'll work?"

Oh shit. It's worse. She's paralyzed?

Kyna slowly tilted her head to the right and whispered, "Excuse me."

The old lady swatted her hands in the air in annoyance as she gently placed her tools in a satchel. "It's been almost a millennia since we used the dolls Nica."

So his name was Nica. Doll?

"I gave you an estimation. Not a guarantee."

"Excuse me," she managed to say a little louder.

Nica and the woman, who Kyna soon figured out was some kind of doctor of sorts, turned towards her at once. The three of them stared at each other for several moments. Then they all spoke at once.

"It worked!"

"See I told you it'll work!"

"Who are you people? Where the hell am I? What's going on?"

"Okay. Okay. ONe at a time. My name is Ula and I"m a grand healer. This young man beside me" -she pointed a snarly hand to her right- "is Nica. He brought your soul to me. And-"

"Soul? What do you mean soul?" Then Kyna remembered the last thing she saw before she entered her dreamworld, a car coming towards her. "My-my soul? Then what about my b-body."

"Hmmm? Your body." Ula squinted her eyes and tapped the side of her mouth. She gave Nica a knowing look and entered a silent conversation as if to discuss about how much they should tell her.

Kyna grew agitate. "Tell me already."

Ula sighed. "Though it's my first seeing your kind dearie. But I'm pretty sure your body is back on Earth."

"Ula!" Nica barely held his patience and pinched the bridge of his nose. Kyna couldn't tell what their relationship were. But when Nica shouted, beneath the frustration in his voice, she heard the affection he surely had for her.

"What? No use crying over spilled souls. It's the least of her worries anyways."

Kyna's mind reeled. Her body was where? No she didn't just tell her that her body was back on Earth? Then where was she then? And how is it she's laying on this bed with these two cooks beside her? Where was her mom? Hell where was her brother?

Kyna refused to believed Ula. She had to be some whack job who escaped from the psych ward to play doctor. Obviously she had a body. Her heart was pounding and she was breathing...

Kyna paused and stiffly wrinkled her forehead in thought. She wiggled her fingers and her toes too. It felt resistant like she was pushing against putty. Fear trickled and percolated as she struggled to move her arm, bend her elbow and placed her hand on the left side of her chest.

No badump-badump. Her chest didn't rise and fall. Eyes widening in horror and too shocked to scream, she instead latched on to the burgeoning seed of anger blooming inside her. Well at least she could feel emotions she thought as she latched onto the simpering concerned faces of Nica and Ula, and demanded, "What did you do?"

Silence hung heavy in the air like a NYC heatwave. After several moments it broke with Nica's icy reply, "What we had to."

If Kyna could hit him she would but she was too sluggish to move. Ula solved the problem with a slap on the back of his head.

The corners of her mouth slowly lifted in a smile and just quickly left when Ula leaned down and patted her hand.

"Don't worry. We'll put you to rights. Hopefully."

Kyna almost believed her up until she said that 'h' word. She wanted to ask what she meant by that. Instead she closed her eyes and futily wondered if Shandrea will wake her up like Alice's older sister.

She opened her eyes again and saw that nothing changed.

Kyna sighed. If she'd known before hand so much craziness was going to happen, her ass would've skipped school today and stayed home.

Kyna has woken up in a new world and in strange circumstances. To say that she's having a bad day would be an understatement. So what'll happen next? Find out in the next chapter. :-D

PS As you know, The Soul Traveler, has been entered into Wattys 2017. If you've enjoyed the story so far and want to lend your support, then please remember to vote for it. Just click the star on upper right corner or bottom of the page. Share it across your social media as your fantasy book to check out and read. And don't forget to use the hashtag #Wattys2017 when you do.

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