The Emerging Part I: Dream

Santhemum walks through the Injhihato’s hallways. She hears Hawk’s footsteps ahead of her. She sees numerous closed doors. Soon, she hears nothing but a rushing water. She scratches her head as she continues to walk.

Her mouth hangs agape only slightly as she passes a majestic fountain, shooting from the floor to the high ceiling nearly ten stories above her.

Arcs shoot out from the massive geyser, shooting down back to the floor. She sees a barrier preventing anyone from walking to close to the fountain and falling in unexpectedly.

She makes her way to the barrier and her eyes open wide in awe. The fountain’s base is not at the barrier’s edge, but rather another ten stories down, arcs sprouting every which way from the main spray, back down onto the fountain’s massive beginning.

She feels a tap on her shoulder. She jumps, startled, not having heard anyone approach due to the fountain drowning out any other noise. Her heart calms as she sees Hawk standing before her with a slight smirk on his face.

Hawk motions his head behind him. Santhemum nods. The two walk side by side as they walk away from the fountain. The fountain soon becomes quieter and then nonexistent as they turn many corners, backtracking the way Santhemum came.

They find their way back to the door entering into the Gallery. Hawk bypasses the doors and sits on the first step on a nearby staircase. Santhemum observes Hawk hunch over his knees. She makes eye contact with him, almost feeling his hidden pain.

Santhemum walks to sit beside him on his right side. She sits straight, waiting patiently. She gazes at the back of his head, seeing where his hair begins. She sees his hair almost resembles the fountain. She smiles at her own foolishness.

Hawk suddenly turns and stares at her, “You do not talk much, Santhemum.”

Santhemum expresses confusion and rolls her eyes at the same time.

Hawk looks away, “I do not mean that to be mean or anything, I just like it. Sometimes, I wish silence was the quality of many more people. Sometimes, I feel like there is only noise inside my mind. Like there is someone always inside my mind, trying to force me into something.”

Santhemum stops Hawk with a hand to his right arm. She holds her hand to his forearm. Hawk looks back at her, locking onto her eyes. He can almost feel her sympathy shooting into his mind.

Hawk then hears the velvet voice of hers escape from her mouth, “Sometimes, all we need is a friend to sort through the noise.”

Hawk blinks, almost in disbelief he heard Santhemum speak yet again. “Your voice seems to clear the noise.”

Santhemum flushes, pulling her hand back to herself.

“Santhemum?” Hawk asks.

Santhemum looks at Hawk seeing seriousness on his face.

“What did you feel looking at that fountain?”

She looks at him with perplexity.

Hawk smirks, “The first time I saw that fountain, I passed it on the way to the Gallery the night Fox first ran away. It meant nothing to me, I passed it without a glance. But something drew me to it tonight. I gazed at it tonight and I felt something stir inside. As if there were some sense inside me awakening. I felt, strong.”

Santhemum listens with great interest. “And?”

Hawk smiles, “And, I do not know, I felt that something as powerful as that fountain, shooting up nearly two hundred feet, it must have started from somewhere. I feel that I am only a base of that fountain right now. That I have something inside of me ready to shoot out and become something glorious. As if leading this Pentad of ours is only preparation for something greater to come.”

Santhemum grabs Hawk’s arm. He turns quickly to look at her. She puts a forefinger on his lips. She speaks with her eyes. Hawk turns and silences himself. He hears velvet streaming into his ears.

“Though we have never deemed a leader, I agree it should be you,” Santhemum begins. “But, even if what you feel inside your heart is true, then perhaps you should learn to control the noise so that it does not control you.

“Also, if that greatness does befall you, do not forget yourself in it. Power can bring darkness into your mind. I do not want to see darkness enter your soul, Hawk, I feel as you do, that greatness is in our future. But, it is up to you what to do with that greatness.”

Hawk turns to look at Santhemum. He smiles, “Thank you, Santhemum. Let’s get out of here,” he says, standing and offering his hand to Santhemum.

Santhemum returns Hawk’s smile but refuses his hand as she strides past him and enters the Gallery. Hawk drops his hand as he follows her. They meet Fox still sitting on the bench having long finished his meal, resting his head on his hands, staring at his mother’s statue.

Hawk touches Fox’s shoulder and gestures for him to join them. Fox smiles and rises from the bench. The three walk side by side as they exit the Gallery.

“By the way, did Vaiqon ever find you?” Fox asks. “He was looking for you.”

Hawk and Santhemum look at each other, they shake their heads.

“Oh. Well, all I told him was which way both of you went,” Fox says.

Hawk and Santhemum nod, look at each other, flush slightly and continue their walk back to their bed chambers.

Pork lies in his bed wide awake. He finds sleep eluding him with a cackle. Each time he closes his eyes even for a moment, a foreboding feeling jars his eyes to flicker open immediately.

Pork gazes across the chambers to see Desert curled tightly under his blankets in his bed. Pork sits up in his bed and gazes at the window above Hawk’s bed. Stars twinkle in the night sky. He sighs, remembering the nights he once stared at the night sky with his father in Karacrross.

Pork hears Desert rustle. Pork glances at Desert to see him sitting up as well. Desert and Pork make eye contact. Desert shakes his head in the dim lighting of the dying fire.

Desert climbs out of his blankets and walks to the table in the center of the chamber. He sits down, props his feet up on the table, and places his hands behind his head. He rests his head on his hands as Pork sits in the chair on the other side of the table.

“Couldn’t sleep either, Pork,” Desert says.

Pork shakes his head. Desert smirks.

“Well, what’s on your mind?” Desert asks.

“You first,” Pork counters. “You hardly ever have trouble sleeping.”

Desert nods slowly, “I suppose you are right,” he says fighting back the memories of the past few nightmares he has had the past few weeks. “Well, I just have this bad feeling. I can’t quite explain it. It could be that I am nervous, but, I don’t know. I don’t like this feeling.”

Pork nods, “I understand, Desert. I feel the same way. Like there is a knot in the pit of your stomach.”

“Exactly. It is a weird feeling.”

“Have you ever been nervous before, Desert?”

“Once.”

Pork looks at Desert incredulously. “Really?” he asks, shocked.

Desert nods slowly, “Yes, really. The last time Hawk and I dueled each other. I truly thought one of us was going to kill the other.”

Pork gapes, “I can’t believe it. Wouldn’t that not help you though?”

Desert glares at Pork, “You believe just because I despise Hawk I cannot respect his power?”

Pork shakes his head, “No, it is not that, it is that you and Hawk have always been at odds. If you would have killed Hawk, no one would be able to stand in your way.”

“And no one would be able to challenge me as Hawk either.”

Pork winces, slightly hurt. Desert notices the small recoil of his friend before saying, “Look, Pork, you are strong, very powerful, a potentially expert okit, just as I, but, Hawk is of a different mind than me. He challenges me thoroughly.”

Pork looks away from Desert. Pork stares at the fire, anger building in his expression. “You underestimate people, Desert.”

Desert looks down. “I know. It is a weakness, I am sure. But I can also overestimate people.”

Pork glances at Desert with suspicion, “Such as?”

Desert smirks with treachery in his eyes, “Such as you. I expected you to be better than me at okit by now, yet here you are, second rate compared to me.”

Pork’s anger explodes across his face, “You watch your mouth, Desert. You think you are the best okit in the entire Injhihato, but you will find you are wrong!”

Pork rises from the chair, collapses into his bed and closes his eyes forcefully. Desert rises casually from his chair, climbs gently into bed, and lets his eyelids fall. ‘Such an easy person to trick,’ he thinks to himself.

‘I will be better... I will be better... I am tired of being second best... for far too long... since Karacrross,’ Pork thinks to himself. He thinks self-doubting thoughts until finally sleep overcomes him.

Hawk, Santhemum, and Fox enter the bed chambers quietly. They each climb into their beds and find sleep overtakes them quickly. The Pentad tosses in their beds, strangling themselves in their blankets. Their unconscious minds wreaking havoc upon their psyche.

Hawk sees dark clouds brewing on the edge of the horizon, streaking as lightning, burning into him. Desert finds himself in a plain with his strength failing him. Santhemum cries into her hands, iron bars surrounding her. Fox walks with his mother, a shadowed figure he can almost start to feel before she is obliterated by an explosion of blood from her back. Pork observes a duel, feeling every strike and slash for himself, nearly dying as the duel concludes.