This is another of my crazy dreams I had, (slightly embellished to make a story), probably after eating ice cream late at night. :P

A clan of people lived, centuries ago, as cave dwellers. Now, these weren’t the sort of cave you would picture when you think of a rocky hole deep in the ground. These caves wee dry and well lit, with strong structures and supports. These caves were worn down till they gleamed, and were up kept, with the entrance being a cavity in the side of an ocean cliff, which opened into a great hall with polished stalagmites and decorated stalactites, with a treated, even floor and beautiful gems covering the walls. This great hall was the central cave to all the others; the smaller cave off-shoots were just like a small dome of suds on one large bubble. However, the people reserved this great hall for grand occasions, using the side passages to travel through the colony. Meetings were held in a humbler cave. They didn’t polish these walls, leaving it more natural. However, this cave had more gems embedded in the walls, left there by nature. An entire bottom half of one of the walls, about five feet up, stuck out like a peninsula, and on this peninsula the chief and his advisors and family would sit and orchestrate the meetings.

It would be crude to call these people common or unsophisticated however, despite the fact they lived in caves; these people were miraculously blessed with great knowledge of science and magic. For fear of boring you, I will not tell you all their abilities now, but one thing must be understood: these people are a long-kept secret, and no explorer has ever found them, and never once have they been exploited for their discoveries.

The chief in his old age decided however that he wanted to know what was out there, so he sent me out and brought back three young adults; me and two friends of mine, Jerrodd and Jathan. The chief and most others accepted us, but like any earthy system, there was opposition. The chief told us everything about their history and their caves, and how they had lived here for hundreds of years. He showed us their magic as well. The source was actually the gems on the walls, a mere coincidence that they had even chosen this cave to live in at all; the magic didn’t come from any great feat they had accomplished. The gems, all the beautiful shining colored gems, were infused with magic, and the different colors conveniently marked and labeled each gem with different powers. Mind control, flight, super strength, foresight, shape shifting, and telepathy are the gifts. The chief showed us how to use them, and we spent the next month exploring all the possibilities, discovering their capabilities, and studying the techniques to use each gem.

But, like any good thing on this earth, it was threatened by evil.

The chief sent us three to defeat the Other Dweller, a man who lived alone in a cave and challenged the good magic with his dark arts. So, we three cast off, but three days later, only Jathan and Jerrodd returned in a rotted row boat, a boat they did not sail out on. Their memories completely wiped clean, with no idea what had happened or who they should be missing; me. The caved dwellers assumed I was dead. But the chief kept hoping.

His hope did not go to waste; I was alive, and perfectly healthy. I was in the boat we were sent out on, and I found Other Dweller’s cave, and he had one gem for each power; there was only one of him, so he didn’t need more. We battled! Each day we used a new gem, I faced a new threat, and a new hopelessness. I had lost every fight: super strength, flight, foresight, shape shifting, and telepathy. On the last day, the fight was with mind control. I felt in my gut that I would lose. I was mentally and emotionally wasted, and my body was wrecked. There was no chance. No hope. Nothing.

But I won. And I returned victorious. Gloriously. With honors. But I did not deserve it. The undeserved honor turned to shame and took over my mind. It was all I thought about. Somehow, I knew that, ultimately, I had lost this final battle as well.

The next morning I went to find my friends Jerrodd and Jathan. I had not known grief until that reunion: they didn’t know me. Not only was I a fraud, but a stranger among loved ones. The grief became more than my heart could bear; it was always there, I could do nothing without pain, I wanted to run, to pound the grief into the ground and gasp for reviving air. I wanted to escape. Disappear. So, I took my childhood dream, married it to science and became a female equivalent of Peter Pan. The gem, the blue one that had the power of flight, was implanted in my heart. It was too large a piece and if I ever wanted to take it out, my human heart wouldn’t be big enough to pump blood on its one, which meant I couldn’t live without it, but I thought that I would never want to take it out so I would be ok. But I didn’t realize all the consequences. The gem, even though it worked with my heart by sending pulses out, like a , it was solid and it did not move or beat. The gem filled my blood with its static pulses, which changed my brain, which affected my mind. The result: I lost my personality and compassion. I was light as a feather, I could fly, I had no worries, but I also had no substantial drive and no emotion. The chief saw my change of heart and put his scientists to work to figure out a way to make me human again. It took six months but I didn’t mind; who knew, becoming human again might mean that I lose my flight, and six months gave me ample time to fulfill my dream.

I lived in the cave with the people, and they accepted me how I was; a heartless flyer.

I spent all my daytime helping around the cave and spending time helping reconstruct Jerrodd’s and Jathan’s memories. They were like children, asking simple obvious questions, but sometimes they were honest and revealing questions, questions adults overlook or learn to not let it worry us.

In the six months of waiting for a heart, the scientists could finally bring a long-term experiment of theirs to light: they would give me some human blood to replace the infused blood in my system that was affecting my brain and mind. They would not remove the piece of the gem, that way I could keep my ability to fly, which was a bonus. However, the gem would always emit the pulses, and my blood would eventually, after an estimated year or so, get like it was and I would need another transfusion, but it was worth it. The transfusion was a success. My heart was alive! There was a celebration, the hero was restored! I was my old self, the one that Jerrodd and Jathan knew, but still didn’t recognize.

During the celebration in the great hall I soared under the ceiling, thoroughly enjoying myself as we all played games. I glided up to my two friends Jerrodd and Jathan and gave them hugs and kisses. My heart fluttered with joy when neither of them flinched away; they trusted me again! The two boys had to make friendships with each other and with me after they lost their memory, and they finally were feeling comfortable enough to let me hug them. They didn’t return the hug, however, but that was a mere trifle compared to the huge “hug success”.

The chief called us to gather in the great hall beneath his jut of rock where his family celebrated. He gave an eloquent speech giving praise and thanks to his scientists and congratulations to me, and with round of applause, the feast was begun. What a joyous occasion!

A cry echoed and everyone stilled. Something was wrong with the chief!

To be continued…