He looks like any other cave dweller, like any other human. He has a pulse, he’s breathing and he’s responding to us. I don’t know what’s wrong with him! Everyone stepped away from the throne back against the edges of the room and remained silent. I look back to the chief, but this time, his eyes were slightly cloudy. “Healers! Healers we need you!” I shout out, but no one responds; every person, warrior or healer, man or woman, remains silent and unmoving. I flew out among the people, enraged at their disrespect and disobedience. “Where are the healers?! Do you see? Your chief is…” I didn’t have the words, I couldn’t speak. Why is he sick? What’s wrong with him? I don’t see anything, so why did someone cry out? My head pulled forward and I had trouble looking up, but it passed and I flew back to the chief and checked his eyes again. “What??” His left eye bulged out and a small watermelon showed through his dilated pupils. His entire head, then his entire body, was swelling. I touch his arm. Ice cold. I check his pulse. No pulse. But he is still breathing! No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening! This isn’t the chief, this has to be some sick replica, a hoax! This is a distraction, it has to be. But a distraction for what? And why are the healers not coming? Maybe they are a part of it, but if they were in on it, then why is the entire tribe standing back? The room hazes out of focus and my head is pulled down again. Fear grips me. Had they done something horrible to me? Was there a reason Jerrodd and Jathan losing their memories, could the healers actually restore them but they were choosing not to? Or maybe this started even longer ago, a year ago, when the chief himself accepted us three so easily and warmly. The cave dwellers were definitely intelligent, did they plan all this? Did they show us all their secrets so that we would go challenge Other Dweller, and my friends would lose their memory then I would look like a hero, and now they are manipulating me with the gem in my heart? What if my impossible victory in that last battle with Other Dweller was planned? What if Other-Dweller was the chief, or controlling the chief, or visa-versa? What if, right now, someone was watching?

“Help the chief, help him!” I whirl back around and see that the growing had stopped, but his back was arched and his neck was elongated, and he started to take on the shape of a chicken. “What?? What is going on?!” I hesitate. What if this is all in my head? How much is in my head, did I ever leave America?

But whatever the situation, reality or not, I was trapped here. So, what do I do now? How do I test my theory? I quickly grab a mind control and telepathy gem and break them, grind them together, and instead of placing the shards on my tongue, I inhale them, and the effect is three times greater. I could read every mind and speak to every heart. It was hard to control, and I nearly lost consciousness because it was so suddenly overwhelming. I was terrified. Could someone else see my heart and mind? Was this really the best choice of action? What next? My body shook uncontrollably but I pushed forward and used the unstable, uncontrollable magic. There was no question about it, every person in the room was bent to my will; I didn’t see conspiracy or deceit in any heart or mind. But I could not read the chief’s mind; it was all a gray mass, there was nothing to see, but I knew it was the chief because I could see his heart and the great love he had for his people, and for me as a sort of adopted daughter.

Again, I wondered if Other-Dweller was controlling this somehow as a higher intelligence. Then it clicked; the chief must be possessed by Other Dweller and he must b controlling every other person in this room, including me! How else could I have known to inhale the shards? They had never told me to do it like that. The room grew hazy like heat rising from a dessert, and my entire torso was pulled downward, and I couldn’t straighten up!

They cried out again, “Please help him!” I had to help somehow. I flew to him and landed, all catawampus because I was stuck bent over, but he looked perfectly normal! He was leaning back on his throne, looking restful, but then I saw the problem: he was delirious, rolling his head back and forth and muttering nonsense. Oh, that must be the problem! The chief just has a fever, and all the gems’ powers in his blood are out of whack. That’s all this is, haha, silly me for thinking this was some psychotic thing! Whew, glad that was cleared up!

No sooner had I thought that did a haze appear in the hall, and grow larger till every person was inside of this brownish orb. The chief blinked and became aware again, immediately telling us everything that had happened: A few months after my friends and I arrived, Other Dweller threatened the chief and the cave dwellers and told them to send us out, and he would deal with us accordingly. That was all he told the chief, and that was all he needed to tell; the chief agreed. They carried out their plan, and the only casualty was two people’s memories, which turns out is easily retrievable. But Other Dweller refused to let them restore my friends’ memories. He also said he would overwhelm me with sadness and guilt so that I would kill myself, but the chief put his foot down. However, his resistance was futile, and Other Dweller possessed him. I did become depressed, but I won that battle, however, and when I had those heart surgeries, Other Dweller, through the chief, implanted a fragment of a gold gem, for mind control, and the rest is history.

“But… you’re possessed… and I have a fragment of a gold gem in me… How do I know what you say is true, and how do I know I am not possessed or controlled?” I let out a groan and I’m pulled onto the floor, my body all tense and contorted, and the room vibrating and shaking. Throbbing heat overwhelms me.

“My child,” the chief says, “this is not happening. You are on the floor convulsing, this is all in your head. You had a dazed look, then flew and grabbed the two gems and inhaled the shards before we could stop you; we tell you to place them on your tongue for a reason. You’ve overdosed, you’re having a seizure.” His voice grew distant as he continued, “Other-Dweller is controlling us.” “But… If he’s controlling us, then h-how…” I can’t speak again and I feel my face reddening because I cannot breathe. His voice changes again. “Child, this is all true. I had a stroke, that is why my niece screamed. But Other-Dweller has been watching you, and after you saw me die, he took control of you and made you inhale the shards.” I gasp and my head spins. “You’re dead? How are you t-tell… telling me this?” “Because, dear one, you are passing on as well.” His voice changes yet again. “But remember, love, Other-Dweller is still controlling you, anything you sense, anything you hear me say, could be false.” “What?!” “Haste! Haste! Diligence! Guard yourself, Rebecca! Watch!” “What? What? What, what, what, what, what, what…” Everything spirals out of thought and I fade away.

“Rebecca, Rebecca wake up.” It felt like coming out of anesthesia. I open my eyes and roll my head, trying to swim out of the dizziness and the haze.

“Rebecca come on kiddo.” I open my eyes again and turn to the voice, then drop my head back with heavy eyelids. I feel something deliciously warm my heart and I immediately revive. My friend Jerrodd is waking me. I look down at my chest and see the source of the warmth. It’s a pink crystal. “What is-.” Shouting distracts me.

“What were you thinking?!” I sit up and see my friend Jathan is standing in front of the doctors, condemning them for idiocy. “What were they doing again Jerrodd? Oh yeah…” Jathan says sardonically. “Making her inhale your stupid magic gems and inducing a coma and making her hallucinate horrible things and nearly killing her!” I am fully awake now, so I stand and set the gem on the metal table. I lean against the table and Jerrodd goes to break up the argument before Jathan hurts those stupid doctor experimenters. My head spins a little bit and the room gets hazy with heat again. The chief, the gems, Other Dweller… “Jath-… Jerro-…” I fall to the floor with a smack. Someone turned me over on my back and I felt the life-giving warmth from the crystal again. “You may permanently be dependent on this gem, Rebecca,” a scientist said. “But don’t worry, it might wear off a little over time, you are only just waking up.” “And whose fault is that?” Jathan muttered. I was alert again so I sat up, taking the gem and holding it myself. The scientist continued. “We’ll put it in this pouch for now,” he took the gem and slipped it into the pouch and tied it off with thread to hang around my neck. “Over time you may only need a portion of this, but for now you need to wear this 24/7. That’s all I have for you, you can go home.” “Oh really, that’s all?” Jathan challenged. The scientist hesitated then ended the conversation forcefully. “We’ll cross that when she’s stronger, but you can return home now.” With nothing else to do or say, the three of us returned to our rooms in the cave. Oh yes, the cave and the chief and the gems were all real, but Other-Dweller and the chaos of it all were fiction from the dream. I didn’t remember what I had dreamt about, it felt like a dream to me, a dream that I could never remember.

Turns out I was permanently damaged; I needed the gem with me at all times if I wanted to stay in reality. During the “experiment” I had inhaled too much, and they didn’t think of me having a naturally strong imagination, so it was kind of like giving a person a shock with the defibrillator when they were already awake, and the person was actually Zeus and he had lightning bolts already inside him.

They melted my pink gem down into a ring. The band, the main jewel, the accent band, and the smaller jewels were all made from the gem, and every bit of the gem was used, so I didn’t have to worry about not having enough of it with me.

I didn’t like the look of it, mostly because it was big and had a pink hue, but I needed it to survive, so I just dealt with it.

Goodbye after goodbye, promise after promise, delay after delay; it took forever for the three of us return home to Kansas, but not without gifts. They gave us gems with magical powers to reinforce the strengths we naturally had. Jerrodd was given a green one for strength, Jathan a gold one for mind control, and I was given a blue one for flight. They were fashioned into armbands. I was somewhat haunted by them, and even though I dreamed of flying more than anything, I only used it a few times, only when the three of us would meet up together.

We didn’t meet up often, but when we did, we would drive up to a lake and camp there for the weekend. The moment we had finished setting up, we would slip on the arm bands and we would battle. A mock battle, of course, just a game, but there was a passion for winning. The winner would choose what to do the rest of the weekend, and we had wonderful adventures and lots of laughs sitting around the fire and sleeping under the stars.

Every time we met up, we would wonder about the cave dwellers, and twice we even tried to find them again. But they couldn’t very well let that happen, they are the world’s best-kept secret for a reason. We didn’t bring it up much, there was no need; we knew what happened. Slowly, over time, the facts were lost in our memory. But that was alright with us. After all, why would anyone want to remember a journey when they sailed through rough waters and found a secret cave, earning magical powers?