Chapter 1 Scene 4:The meeting of Mike and Lilith

As Lilith enters the clearing and sees Mike sitting at a campfire that he had made, she wonders to herself just when will the others arrive.

      As Lilith enters the clearing and sees Mike sitting at a campfire that he had made, she wonders to herself that now having meet Mike, just when the others will arrive. As she wonders just when will the other arrive, she decides to employ magic to find out.

 

 

 As Lilith allowed the pull from a door to a world she had not yet truly seen (nor to a world see had not even been to yet) guide her, see became aware by sight the light of a campfire in the not to far distance. As she drew nearer with her two companion animals in tow, she became aware also of what appeared to be the vague outline of a man facing in her direction and sitting on the far side of a campfire. She knew somehow then, that he was one of them. She knew partly because of the bond the six of them held with each other and partly since she knew that this forest held no other life within it save for the trees and the two of them and her to animal companions and still those still yet to come.

    

     As she drew nearer to the man and his campfire, she also became aware that both the man and his campfire lay in a rather large clearing and that the clearing was where the unseen door to a world not yet truly explored beckoned for her to come. As Lilith stared into the daytime sky, she judged that they had about an hour or more of daylight and its rays left before the night descended upon them to cast its dark shadows across the land and this eerily silent forest to which they had all been beckoned to come to.

    

     With the light of the campfire now strong enough with which she needed not the sphere of light which was yet still suspended above her staff's stages head and between its carved antlers, she bide the light to returned from wince it came by saying,"Return light now to the place from which I had called you forth from." and as though heeding her command, it did just that. The sphere of light winking out and returning to a place beyond vision and a place beyond knowing (a place beyond knowing except to her) as did the light that the sphere had cast ahead of the three of them as well.

    

     As she approached the edge of the clearing she paused a moment to calm herself (as the thrill of the moment that she would be meeting for the first time one of the group members in the flesh, caught up to her) she noticed as the man looked up from his campfire as he slowly stirred (with a long wooden spoon) a pot full of good smelling food.

    

     Entering then into the clearing a moment after her brief pause, the man looked to her and said,"Bandit, its good that you made it."

    

     Smiling at the thought that he would remember her nickname, she thought that the name suited her. The nickname came from the fact that she wore black makeup from the right side of her head at the level of her eyes, across her eyes and on her eyelids, to the left side of her head. This black band of makeup terminating at the point her temples ended at the side of her head. This black band giving the appearance of a racoon's black face mask, and which was why the name Bandit was given to her since racoons were often called urban bandits for their raiding of trash cans and garbage.

     

     Nodding her head then as she entered further into the clearing  (the nodding of her head meant as acknowledgment of his greeting's to her) she moved to stand a mere two feet from the flames of the campfire."Mike I presume?" asked the Bandit of her first time meet friend.

    

     "It is." answered Mike in return as he stood up from his sitting position," Who else would have the skill, other than you of course, to cook a fine meal out in the middle of the wilderness." he then spread his arms out wide at the word "wilderness" to indicate the woods around them.

    

     "Mmmm" said Lilith as she smelt the nice aromas that wafted up from the open pot that sat atop the campfire,"Whatever you're cooking smells real good."

    

     "It is" said a very proud sounding Mike as he gestured with his right hand and his right arm outstretched for her to sit before the fire and for her to rest herself."It is a mixture of kidney beans, carrots, potatoes, and tuna. I remembered that for the times that your do eat meat that you will only eat it if it is fish meat."

    

     "I prefer to stand until the rest arrive, thank you. And thank you also for you remembering of my preference for fish meat and no other. It is a kind and thoughtful gesture and one I will not soon forget."said Lilith to Mike as she nodded her head once more in a sign of thankfulness at his thoughtful gesture.

    

     "You're welcome." he replied as her smiled at both the gesture of thanks and at her words.

    

     "I wonder when the rest will arrive." asked Mike of Bandit while expecting no answer in return (for in his mind how could either of them know when the rest of the group was to arrive until they did).

    

     "Well, let us see shall we." replied Bandit to his thought to be unanswerable question. As she pulled back from over her head the hood of her cloak, she smiled a playful smile at Mike as if to say that what she  was about to do next would greatly surprise and impress him indeed. With the hood of her cloak now removed, Mike was now able to see clearly her head and face. She was as beautiful as he had remembered she was as he had last seen her in their realm of their dreamscape.

    

     Her hair was long, straight, and jet-black in colour and her eyes of a deep emerald green. Her skin was of a rich cream like colour. She was tall at six feet, and he guessed that she was no more than one-hundred and thirty pounds. Her appearance was slender, though all the group knew of her to be both strong of body and of mind. She was strong of will, but most importantly, even stronger of faith. She wore a white blouse with black ruffling at the neckline that traveled half way down the shirt, while the cuffs of the blouse was white and so too was ruffled. She wore a black skirt that ran to just above her ankles, and she wore a plain looking black pair of shoes. Atop her outfit she wore a cloak that seemed (if the colour of the interior of her hood was any indication) jet-black in colour from within (the colour being the same as that of her hair) and the cloak's outer appearance was that of a rich medium purple. The cloak of hers was attached to her blouse by means of a pair of (what appeared to be) brass clasps shaped in the appearance of dragon claws (these clasps being to either side of her neckline). Around her neck was loosely lied a golden coloured twined string (that presumably allowed her to fit the cloak more snugly in times of cold weather).
 
    

     As Mike looked a moment longer at her, he thought to himself that Lilith was a incredible woman indeed.

    

     As Lilith peered at the mound of earth that Mike had had to dig up to make his fire pit, she merely said,"This will do." With those words now said, she twisted the head of her staff to the left (the head and face of the stage now facing in that direction as well) she then pulled up on the head of her staff and the entire top half of her staff separated from the bottom half. The staff in actuality was not one piece at all, but rather two which when placed together as one and the top half twisted so that the stage's head and face faced forward locked together as one. The lower half of the staff's top[ half  had all of its bark shaved off so that only the white interior of the wood showed. The lower half also had slight curves to it to either its left or right sides. Its bottom end was smooth and rounded unlike the bottom half of the staff which was capped by a silver tip. The top half of the staff was some three feet in length and the lower half some three and a half in length.
    
     With the two halves of her staff now separated from one another, she, with her right hand simply touched the round bottom end of the upper half of her staff to the mound of dark brown earth. The earth was hard packed and not easily swayed to crumbling, or so it seemed until the touch of her staff to the mound's dark brown surface. As the staff touched the mound's surface, the mound of earth crumbled like one might think a man made structure would after a thousand years of weathering, plant growth, and neglect would do as it crumbled into a mound of dust and debris. The mound crumbling and then spreading out in much the same way as one would watch ripples in a pond ripple out throughout a pond's surface in one dropped a stone into the pond. The crumbling and spreading out of the mound done as quietly as the wood's surrounding it. This rippling and spreading out continued until the soil became a thin earthen disk of only an inch in thickness and two feet in diameter. The earthen disk was smooth as glass and still its deep chocolate coloured brown. The earthen disk rested just down and to the right of the campfire (the closet side of the fire to Lilith), with a space of just two feet separating the two (both the campfire and the earthen disk).

    

     With the disk now made, the Bandit placed the bottom tip of the top half of her staff on the rounded side of the earthen disk that faced her. As she circled her staff's tip the entire circumference of the disk, as she did this she heard Mike say.

    

     "I hadn't thought that magic existed in this world."

     

     "It does, if you know where to look. For the channels' and powers of magic in this world, though not as strong as in Ashena, are as strong here as a rip current. You just need the knowledge and have the ability to tap into them." replied a smiling Lilith. As she was say those words she circled the disk once, twice, three, and then finally a fourth and final time with the rounded end of her staff before ending the circling where she had started it. Lifting then the end of her staff off of the ground beneath it (the rounded tip showing oddly no sign of the earth sticking to it), the dark brown earthen disk shimmered in the way that water does when the sun's rays reflects off of it, then the shimmering died down completely then, only to be replaced by the earthen disk becoming as reflective as a mirror's surface.

    

      "Now." said Lilith as they both peered into the now reflective surface of the earthen disk (the reflection being cast back at them being that of the area of the forest to which they had both enter from). "Let us see where the rest of our group is currently, shall we." and as the two of them continued to peer into the still reflective earthen disk, the face of a man appeared reflecting back at them.
    
     The image of the man they could see in the reflection was that of Trevor, the man to whom the prophesy had prophesied the centaurs would rally behind. He was tall, six feet two inches, Lilith knew since she was the creator of this spell and as such knew how to judge the image, though she doubted that Mike could tell as he was neither the creator of the spell nor well versed enough in magic to be able to interpret the image properly.

    

     Trevor was a man of some thirty years, and all knew of him as a well-learned man. He wore black, round rimmed glasses and had a light beard going on his face. he had a heavy build but was not fat in anyway. Trevor was muscular, but not overly so. He had brown eyes and light brown hair.

    

     As the two of them (namely Lilith and Mike) continued to watched the image of the man on the reflective earth disk before them, to Lilith's amusement she watched Mike's reaction as the both of them now heard Trevor's voice for themselves for the first time since, long ago they all became aware of one another. Trevor was facing away from the forest to which the two of them had already enter (the same forest to which all of them would eventually have to enter) facing out into the rolling countryside beyond the forest from which all of them either would soon or already had come.

    

     "I waited for you guys" said Trevor to some others that neither Mike nor Lilith could quite see yet from the image set down before them,"I sense that the other two of our group has already gone a head of us and are waiting for us at our final destination, whatever that maybe?" As Trevor then extended his right arm towards the forest that lay before him now, The Bandit allowed for the image of the earthen disk to shift now to those he had spoken to earlier.

    

     The next to appear in the earthen disk's reflection was that of Sue, the one to whom the fractured Amazon peoples and nation would rally behind. She stood at five feet twelve inches tall and was slim of build, she had long brown hair drawn up into a single ponytail at the back, and she had bright green eyes. Her skin was lightly tanned and her body showed the signs of her great agility in the appearance of her toned appearance alone. She wore a brown tunic that ran from her collarbones' to her waist, the tunic having no sleeves at all. She wore tight-fitting (though light in weight) pants that ran to just above her ankles. And around her neck she wore (to Lilith's eyes) a very beautiful necklace that had at its front a ring of what seemed to be of the purest silver and had at its front facing center a valentine's style heart with an arrow through it itched on its surface (the necklace being a sign from one very much romantically in love with her to Sue). All knew (most importantly of Sue) as she was one with mastery of the acrobatic arts of the Amazon's of Ashena.

    

     "So you must be Trevor?" inquired Sue of the man that now stood before her,"It's so good to finally meet you. And you my good sir must be William," continued Sue as she looked away from the forest before her back towards the direction of the open country beyond the forest's fringes.

    

     "I am" stated a man in a warm tone of voice at her own statement. As the image of the reflect panned to the man who had just spoken (the image gliding and change as if like a camera in a movie might change to follow another character in a movie) the man to whom the voice belonged to then did appear.

    

     The man was tall, six feet three inches tall to be exact. He had fiery red hair (his hair almost looked like the mane of a lion by the way he kept it). He was clean shaven with bright blue eyes. He wore a light brown leather vest over a white shirt and wore long brown pants. He was also wearing black running shoes. The man in all appearance was built like a tank, with a massive body and strong looking limbs to boot. All knew of him as a master of archery, and all too knew of his as a steed fast ally of both the elven nations' and of the world of Ashena as a whole This was the man that all of them knew would lead the elven archer's into battle against their foes (whoever or whatever their foes maybe).

    

     "Well, shall we go then?" stated yet another voice as the image of the earthen disk yet moved again to cast the image of who next was to speak. The image was that of yet a third man, and both knew that this man was to be that of Jasper. He was the one to whom all of wizardry would rally behind in the great and upcoming battle for Ashena. He too was of the tall sort, being of six feet and one inch tall. He had long black hair and dark brown eyes. He wore a long black leather coat whose sleeves went to his wrists and whose length went to just above his knees. He wore a brown t-shirt under his coat and wore dark gray pants. He wore black shoes and a silver cross around his neck. He had a light mustache but other than that was clean shaven as well.

    

     As Jasper ran a right  hand through his long black hair (apparently a little impatient at the delay of their destiny that awaited them all) Lilith thought to herself that this man (though still only twenty-two years of age, as they all knew each others ages) was still weak in this world with his magical abilities but she nonetheless knew he had great potential and would learn soon enough just how powerful he could be and just what spells layout there for him to learn. For unlike Lilith who had never needed to be taught how to use magic or where to find such power and spells (or even how to create new spell by scratch) Jasper had to be taught how to wield magic, for magic had always lay within Lilith and was part of her, and as such she needed but to draw or call upon it, where as Jasper had to be more aware when summoning his spells and had to know where and how to draw power from many different magical sources.

    

     "Yes let us go," said Sue and as she did so they heard her also say,"Coming my beloved." and as the image once again turned to show this new person they both (both Lilith and Mike) looked on with wonder, for both wondered who this next person could be, for like Spirit and Starling, this next person was not truly apart of their group but was nonetheless welcomed. As the image of this new person came into view for the first time, they where both pleasantly surprised at the image of the person to whom they now both peered at. For it was not a man at all to whom they had thought would be her beloved, but rather a woman. It pleased Lilith to no end that she would be wrong as to Sue's love interest, for as a Wiccan, she believed that all things balanced out in the end, that it was meant to be that there was many ways to love and to be loved in return. That may it be gay, straight, or bisexual, that all things were meant to be the way they were and as such should not be either altered or stopped. Truly (thought Lilith to herself then) this was how the intricate web of life was meant to be laid out for them.

    

     "Lets" said this now fifth person to whom nobody had expected to meet until now, and as the five of them started towards the heart of the forest and the eventual meeting of those five with both Lilith and Mike, the two of them were then of the same mind (though neither of them knew this) the mind set being that this adventure would be more than something and would have been well worth the wait they all had gone through for these past number of years now.

    

     As the five of them then entered into the forest and its surroundings, Lilith merely said,"Well soon we will have company, but not before the sun has completely gone down for the night. And as such" finished Lilith as she touched the white rounded tip of the bottom end of the top half of her staff to the earthen disk once more which was now darkened as all that was needed to be known of their friends arrivals was now known (as the tip touched, the disassembling of the earthen disk back into the earthen mound was like the disassembling of the mound and the forming of the disk but this time only in reverse) she then reassembled her staff whole again and snapped it together with the head and face of the stage pointing forward, and turned herself in the direction of their companions who were soon to come and said,"I call forth again the ball of light." and as she said this the ball of light that she had summoned earlier came forth between the stage's antlers and above its head."Go forth now" she said as she was finishing her instructions to it,"and bring safely to us our companions all." and as though heeding its summoning and the commands given to it, it darted forth as soon as she tilted her staff towards the direction of their companions (the tilting of her staff was like her casting out a lifeline to her companions, or like one might cast a fishng line, though in this case not meant in a way to catch prey but meant as a means with which to bring their friends safely to them).

    

     As the sphere of light shoot forward then (its eventual destination being their companions and its mission to bring them safely to the two of them) it weaved in amongst the trunks of the great and towering trees, and the mind-set (if one could say that it had one) being their companions and its sole mission of safe guiding. And then it came Mike's mind for him to ask,"You said it's but us, your animal companions' and those to come that are the only life in this forest other than the trees, so why would they need safe guidance?" a look of concern now creapping onto his face and into the eyes of the man now standing behind her.

    

     As Lilith turned to face him, not a trace of worry graced her features nor shown in her eyes, she then just merely said,"You obvoiusly came by smooth ground, but from where I came in the ground was generaly ruff and uneven. One might easily twist and ankle or just as likely break one, if one cannot see by night where they are going. Don't worry,"said Lilith as she finished her explaination to him," We are alone in these woods and the sphere of light will guide them as safely to us as the Mother goddess and the moon has always guided me." and as she finished those words she merely knelt on the ground before the roaring fire and looked Mike then straight in the eyes with a kind and thoughtful look in hers and said,"You may as well sit as well, for we have a little while more to wait before they arrive."

    

     And with that he walked back to his same place before the fire and sat himself down and awaited for their friends to soon arrive.

Author's Note

Please give feedback or review. I promise to do the same. Thank you.