Red Leaves and the Living Token - By Benjamin David Burrell Page 0,13

or not, he had nothing left.

"Please."

He shifted his weight to move his knee off a sharp rock that had been poking him from under the sand.

Another flicker lit up the sky. As he looked down into the depression that his knee had left, he noticed a faint trace of light had remained after the lighting's bright flash.

As the wind blew the trace of light grew into a glow. The sharp stone that he'd felt under his knee was emitting light. As the wind continued to clear away the sand, the object grew in size and complexity. It was some sort of carving, the figure of a small plant or a miniaturized tree! There was something else, something on the tree. He wanted to reach down and feel it, to pick it up, but he hesitated. It wasn't natural. The wind cleared away the sand down to the base of the figure. It had a long bird curved around its thin trunk and a solid round base of roots.

His curiosity overcame his apprehension, and he reached down to pick it up. As his fingers made contact a Flash of blinding white light filled his vision. His ears rang with a high pitched whine. After a moment, his sight and hearing returned, but he was no longer on the beach. He was standing in the street a few block from the hospital. Directly in front of him, an ancient stone archway rose up out of the ground, completely blocking the road. A stone pathway extended beyond it but not in front of it.

He couldn't imagine that it had been there long. It would've been blocking traffic, had there been any. He stepped towards it.

Flash, his vision turned to white. After a moment the color returned, and he was standing somewhere else - outside an old school. He was sure he'd seen it before but wasn't sure where it was. He remembered he'd been impressed by the high stone wall that surrounded the school. In the street beside the wall of the school, he saw another archway. This one, unlike the first, was made of white stone and seemed rather modern. At least the stones seemed almost perfectly cut. Yet, it too seemed completely out of place as it blocked the road.

His vision flashed to white again. When it receded he found him self again in another place. This time he was on a mountain top in the middle of the day. A meadow stretched out in front of him. At the end of that meadow, a beautiful white structure made of white stone sat, its spires leading his eyes up to the bright sky. The blue burned into white.

Then he saw his son crumpled on the wet forest floor. A wave of red light washed over him. He opened his eyes, then stood up. The forest blanked to white again.

His sight cleared, and he found himself back on the beach. A stabbing pain registered in his finger tips. He jerked his hand back from the glowing figure. His fingers were bleeding where he had touched it. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapped it around the figure and tucked it into his jacket.

-

Rinacht stepped up onto a rock overlooking the beach. He could see Mr. Handers kneeling down in the sand below.

"Mr. Handers!" He called.

Suddenly his employer got to his feet, with out seeming to acknowledge him, lifted something in his hands, then wrapped it up and put into his jacket. Rinacht may not have seen it clearly, but it had appeared as though the object he held was glowing. He watched Raj turn and walk away down the beach. He must not have heard his call; he thought. So he hopped down off the rock and rushed over to the stair way leading down to see if he could catch up.

-

Raj hurried through the thinly populated city streets. He knew the one he wanted wasn't far. He just wasn't sure exactly which way. He turned the corner and looked up. It looked familiar. He walked around the side of the building to get a view of the open street. There taking up more than half the road was the archaic stone archway. Just as he'd seen.

He pulled himself back behind the building and hid himself up against the wall, shaking his head. This was not good. To dream about it, to see it in your mind, sure, fine. But to see it there in front of you, awake.