Red Leaves and the Living Token - By Benjamin David Burrell Page 0,51

white light. He leaned forward to get a better look. Lying in the soft ferns was a tiny white stone carving of the majestic tree he had just been standing in front of.

He reached up to touch it, but before his body could respond, his vision pulled back as though there was a cord tied around his waist. In an instant, he was back in the plaza. But then, in front of him, across the plaza, on the mountain side far in the distance he could see something glowing. It was a tiny bright spot of light shining like a beacon.

His awareness returned to the walled square of red earth beneath him, to the radiant and beautiful tree he had reached up to touch. Only, there was no tree. His hand was raised, and nothing was in front of it. The square was empty.

With that his body gave, and he collapsed.

-

Emret woke under the warm covers of an adult sized bed. Moslin, sitting in a chair next to him, put down her book. "How you feeling?" She asked.

"A little dizzy." He looked around the strangely decorated room. It looked to him like what her bedroom might look like. Religious paintings and drawings. Botann iconography. An image of the Holy Master Cleric. The room even had two room height trees in opposite corners. Like the larger version, he’d seen earlier these trees too seemed to flow into the make up of the room. "Where are we?" He asked.

"Before we left I made arrangements for us to stay with a good friend of my fathers. After the episode in the plaza, he came and helped me get you home." "What happened?"

"What happened? You trespassed onto one of the most sacred places in the Botann faith, almost started a riot and came this close," she pinched her fingers together, "to being killed by the guards on duty. I don't suppose you noticed the large, do not cross, signs before you squeezed through the fence? Or the fact that there was a 10 foot high stone wall around almost the entire ground?" He let out a heavy breath. "I'm sorry. I..." He looked away, avoiding her eyes. He wasn't ready to talk about what he saw. He wasn't comfortable himself with what he saw. "What were you doing?"

He glanced up at her long enough to see the anger and frustration on her face. How could he explain that all he cared about was getting to that tree. He would've done anything to get to it. He was looking at his life being restored to him. Just over that wall. Just within reach. Wouldn't she have done the same? "You put both of us in jeopardy. We're lucky we're not both in a cell right now. Literally. My father's friend worked a miracle getting us released," she explained. He gulp in a quick breath. "I thought I saw... I thought..."

"You thought what?"

He rubbed his hands together. How could she be so cruel?

Her angered glare softened. "Oh." She put a hand on his. "You thought you saw... Him?" He nodded.

"I'm sorry. I knew what happened was overwhelming. I didn't realize..." She scooted over the bed and took him in a tight hug. "Do you want to talk about it?" He shook his head.

"You know, I meant what I said. We'll figure this out."

He nodded, still hanging his head low. "Would you take me somewhere before we go home?" "Sure." She cocked her head and smiled. "OK." She studied him, not sure what to make of his request. "There's a mountain to the south of the city. I need to go up the second canyon a little ways." She chuckled. "You need to go to the mountains? Really?"

"Yes I'm serious." He said.

She stopped laughing and stared at him, confused. "Why?"

"I can't tell you."

"You can't tell me? She shook her head and muttered to herself, "great!"

The door creaked open after a quiet knock. An older Botann man with dark robes poked his head in. "Moslin, I have a moment now if you'd like to talk." "Yes, thank you." She said then stood up. "We'll talk more about it later, OK?" She turned before slipping out the door. "Get some more rest." Emret pushed back the covers and slid out of bed. On his knees he carefully hobbled over to the door and pushed his ear quietly up against the wood. Sure enough, he could hear them talking. Moslin's voice was faint but still understandable. "I wanted to ask