Chapter 3
Eavan was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. She had changed all the colors in her room so that they were in a purple and lime green theme and had taken a shower. Now she was supposed to be asleep, but sleep was not something easily achieved. Eavan was lying there thinking how it had all began. It’s funny how this was the happiest day of Eavan’s life and it had all started in a church, at a funeral.
Not a funeral exactly, but a visitation, a visitation for Eavan’s aunt Cathy. Cathy was Eavan’s favorite aunt. She had impacted Eavan’s life greatly being like a second mother to her. About a week earlier Cathy had been driving home from work at night when a drunk driver hit her car. The impact killed Cathy and almost killed the drunk driver.
At the visitation Eavan had walked up to the coffin, took a look, and started crying. She ran out of the main part of the church into the narthex or the area right before the main part of the church. No one came to find her. They all thought it best to let her cry her grief away. Crying she collapsed to her knees. And that was when she noticed the orange light and had made the most important decision of her life, to open the door. All her life had changed in that moment. Lying there she knew this day would be clear in her mind forever.
Eavan tossed and turned all, all these things in her mind, unable to sleep. She had planned on exploring the castle tomorrow, but she really couldn’t sleep and a walk might help. She opened her door and stepped out into the darkness. She walked out of the hallway, down the stairs, and eventually came upon a large hall.
The hall was richly decorated with tables as if for a feast. Along the walls were old suits of armor that glowed eerily in the moonlight that shone from the windows that extended from ceiling to floor. There was a door off to the side that she presumed led to the kitchen. She decided to go there next. Maybe a glass of milk would help her get to sleep.
The kitchen was huge. But then it had to be to feed the whole castle. It was also creepy. There were tons of nooks and crannies that someone could hide in. This made Eavan uncomfortable. Cautiously she made her way to the refrigerator where she soon busied herself with finding the milk. She was having such a hard time finding it thought that she didn’t even notice that someone was behind her.
“Hello Eavan”
Eavan turned around quickly to scared to scream.
“Jason?”
From the darkness the figure emerged proving to be in fact Jason.
“Jason” she repeated, “What are you doing here?”
“I found I couldn’t sleep. As a matter of fact recently I have often found that I couldn’t sleep.” he replied.
“I couldn’t sleep either. I thought a walk would help.”
“Yeah, it usually helps me too. I come to the kitchen a lot, but I find that a moonlit walk in the gardens works wonders.”
“How do I get to the gardens?”
“You can get there from the dinning hall. The door you came in leads to the dinning hall. What do you say we go to the gardens?”
“I’d love to.”
Jason led her out the door she came in into the room she now knew to be the dinning hall. He walked over to one of the windows and pushed it open like a door. Eavan looked out and saw that there was about a twenty foot drop to the garden.
“Seeing as you’re still getting used to your wings I’ll carry you down.” said Jason.
“I can do it myself!” Eavan replied.
“As you wish.” In the blink of an eye his red wings were out and he had flown to the garden.
Eavan made her wings visible and followed Jason down to the garden. She found herself in a beautiful garden with all kinds of flowers; roses, daisies, tulips, lilies, petunias, carnations, and many others. What Eavan really loved about the garden was that all the flowers were purple.
“Welcome to Eavan’s Garden.” said Jason.
“Eavan’s Garden?” Eavan asked.
“Yes, Eavan’s Garden,” replied Jason, “Princess Eavan’s Garden. The story of Princess Eavan is one well known to all fairies. Do you want to hear it?”
“Yes, that would be wonderful.” said Eavan. She sat down on the grass and Jason sat beside her. He put his hands on her shoulders and said
“Close your eyes and imagine this.” She closed her eyes, “Imagine a girl sitting in this garden on a sunny day. She is almost sixteen as you are and looks much like you do. She is Princess Eavan. She spends her days reading and writing in her journal in this garden. That day she was sitting right here in this very spot combing through her long golden hair when a fairy with white wings wearing a white dress appeared. This startled Eavan for at that time fairies didn’t have magic. The strange fairy told Eavan that she was Esa, the fairy goddess, and that she had a gift for Eavan. Esa said she would give Eavan and her people the gift of music and magic. Esa told Eavan that there would be ten elements and one element that would be above the other ten. Its symbol would be purple wings and this gift Esa would give to Eavan and her descendants alone. She touched Eavan’s wings and just as she had said they became a deep lavender color. Then she disappeared without any other proof that her words were true. To this day fairies have had the power of the elements and magic on their side. And just as the goddess had said those who were descendents of Eavan were born with power over all the elements and the purple wings that Esa had given Eavan so long ago.”
As Jason told Eavan this story Eavan felt as though she were actually there in the story, as if she were standing off to the side while it happened. When Jason told her it was a sunny day she could feel the sun's warmth on her face. When he told her of Eavan she could see the girl as clear as day. When the fairy goddess Esa appeared Eavan felt a wave of energy run through her as though Esa was radiating power. Everything felt so real even though Eavan knew it was just a story from the mouth of Jason. When the story ended Eavan opened her eyes and said
"That was a beautiful story and you're a wonderful story-teller. How did you make it seem so real?"
"That's magic, love." he replied.
"Are we going to see any more of the garden?" asked Eavan.
"If you want."
"I think we should rest a while first." she yawned and was soon asleep resting her head on Jason's shoulder.
"Maybe we should continue our moonlit tour of the gardens tomorrow" he whispered.
Jason picked Eavan up and flew her back to the dinning room. From there he carried her to her room and layed her in her bed.
"Sweet dreams" he whispered as he closed the door on his way out.
But Eavan's dreams were anything but sweet. She was in Eavan's Garden alone.
"Jason?" she called, "Jason, where are you?"
She didn't know she had fallen asleep. She thought she was still in the garden with Jason. She heard people screaming for help somewhere else in the garden. Running through the bushes she found the path to be a never ending labyrinth. It was as if the screams came from the middle of the maze and the middle was impossible to find. The moonlight was fading as though measuring how much time Eavan had left. Left turn, right turn, dead end, turn around. Eavan navigated the maze until finally she heard the screams right around the corner. Turning the corner she saw the most amazing and frightening sight she had ever seen.
The screaming people were in the middle of a circle of hedges. The hedges were surrounded by a vortex of air which was surrounded by a circular wall of water. This was surrounded by a wall of spiraling fire. At first Eavan was somewhat calm. She had never been taught to use her magic, but she knew she had power over all the elements. First she raised her hands and pushed them away from each other while willing the fire to part as her hands did. The fire didn’t budge. She tried bringing the fire to her and extinguishing it. She was able to bring a small ball of fire to her, but no more than that. She tried bringing the water towards the fire to put it out, but the water wouldn’t move. She tried everything she could think of feeling more and more hopeless. Unable to do anything she sank to the ground crying while the fire began to consume her.
