Maia returned home from her trip to Oasis Landing and gifted
each of the quads a Sprite of their own that she had bought at a gift shop
during her stay. The children squealed
excitedly and immediately began playing with their new virtual pets.
And Maia soon discovered that a memento of her vacation,
courtesy of her night with Pryce, would be arriving for her soon.
In the meantime, she attempted to seek answers from the
missing portion of her dream about her past life.
But it was difficult, and she still felt blocked even though
she tried to be as open to the experience as she could. Night after night, Maia relived the same
moments in her dreams as she always had; she couldn’t remember anything beyond
being with Samael, and then the pain of burning in the heart of a star.
She
began to doubt that there was anything more, and to wonder if perhaps Shravan’s
theory was wrong. Maybe it was just a
dream and not a past life memory after all, and maybe seeing Samael at the
wishing well for that fleeting moment was only wishful thinking on her part; a
mystic illusion brought on by what she had hoped and expected to see...
Still, she did keep trying. And finally there came a night
when Maia caught a brief glimpse of something she hadn’t ever seen before she awoke;
images of an event that had occurred between her being with Samael and burning
alone.
She saw a meteor streaking towards her from the sky mere seconds
before a massive explosion rocked the night.
Maia had escaped the impact of the giant space rock itself, but was trapped within the blackness of smoke and soot. She couldn't see her way through it to escape the searing flames, and she began to burn.
Maia woke herself up again when that part of the dream began,
feeling cheated and angry. That was what
she had worked so hard for? To recall she had been killed in her past life by the
explosion of a meteorite?? She didn’t see how knowing that could help, and that
little bit of knowledge was not worth the horror of reliving the dream!
And what
was the point of going through the pain of remembering it if there was no way
for her and Samael to be together again anyway?
Thinking of what had been but could never be again only caused her
unnecessary anguish. She decided her only protection against useless heartbreak
was to put everything behind her; to ignore the dream from now on and try to forget
all about Samael.
Soon it was time for the twins to become children, and Maia
threw herself into celebrating in order to help her avoid thinking of anything
involving her past life.
Happy birthday Piper!
Happy birthday Beck!
Now that all the werewolves were beyond toddlerhood, Maia
could send them off to the park to play and howl as much as they wanted!
Shortly afterwards, the quads were ready to age into teens.
Happy birthday Dax!
Happy birthday Jude!
Happy birthday Indie!
Happy birthday Eden!
The teens brought their IFs Drifter, Rail, Summer and Breeze
to life.
Maia went about teaching all eight of them to drive.
She had barely finished teaching the last teen when she went
into labor, so they drove straight to the hospital.
She came out with twin souvenirs of her vacation to Oasis
Landing; Pryce had given her two sweet daughters to remember him by.
Welcome Celeste!
And welcome Avalon!
Time passed, and although Maia hadn’t forgotten about Sam
and still had her recurring dream occasionally, she was getting better at not
thinking of him as often. It also helped
that she kept herself involved with her kids and their various interests.
Maia’s three werewolves enjoyed hunting and were all
collectors. Beck stockpiled rocks, Piper
snared small rodents, and unsurprisingly, Jude caught insects.
Diana seemed to approve of their hunting and gathering, and
shared her catches with them when she found something one of the kids
collected.
“Look! Diana found a bug!”
“JUDE!”
Jude’s IF Rail wanted to learn mixology, and Maia was happy
to give him some tips on mixing good drinks.
Dax and his IF Drifter enjoyed fishing and sailing.
Eden enjoyed tending plants and got permission from Maia to
grow some fruit trees on the rooftop garden area.
Eden’s IF Breeze loved dancing, especially ballet, but she
also would dance and sing along with the stereo when the mood struck her. Diana never missed an opportunity to “sing”
along with her!
Indie was musically talented and her favorite pastime was
playing her guitar. Sometimes she would
busk at the park while her IF Summer, who was athletic, practiced soccer.
Most of the kids also loved swimming, so the backyard pool area got a great deal of use.
Eventually, Maia felt it was time to find herself another
challenge donor, and she looked over the list Isak had given her. She chose a man named Nathaniel Raas who
lived up the street from her and made arrangements to visit him and further her
task.
When Maia arrived, she and Nathaniel made small talk as he
showed her around the house.
“What’s this?” she asked him when she spotted a curious
contraption on one of the tables.
“It’s a small prototype of a time machine that I found years
ago and have recently replicated; would you like to see the full-sized
version?”
“Sure,” Maia said, and he led Maia into the garage to show
her the time machine.
Maia’s interest was piqued. “How does it work?” she asked.
“Well, I don’t know exactly... I haven’t quite figured out how to make it
operational yet. I’d really like to
travel to the future though, and see what the world is like then. What about you?”
“Not really. I mean,
future events can be completely altered based on what happens in the present,”
Maia answered, remembering how hard reading the future as a fortune teller had
been for her, and thinking of how her life had been so radically altered when
she had ended up marrying Reid, believing that he was her soulmate based on
Shravan’s interpretation of what he had scryed in the crystal ball. “But the
past... that’s something I would be very interested in seeing,” she said as she
eyed the machine speculatively, considering how much easier it would be if she
could journey to the past and see what had happened, rather than force herself
to try and dream about it.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know how to make that function work
either!” Nathaniel laughed. “So since it’s no good as a time machine, I just use
it for a closet!”
Maia shook her head and smiled. Well, she had given up on being with Samael again
anyway, hadn’t she? If anything, the
fact that this time machine didn’t actually work just made her more certain
that she had made the right choice about moving forward with her life and
leaving the past in the past, so go forward she would.
“Well, have you ever woohooed in a closet?” Maia asked
Nathaniel flirtatiously.
“No, but that is one adventure I am definitely up for!”
So Maia and Nathaniel leaped into the time machine
closet together.
The inside of it was dark and cramped, but undeniably workable
for their purposes. They even had a place to hang their clothing!
However, Maia didn’t realize that her back had been pressed
against the buttons of an interior control panel on the wall until after they
had finished their woohoo.
But now she noticed that the machine had started humming.
“What’s happening?”
Maia shouted, as ultraviolet light blinded her and the time machine spun
and shuddered so forcefully that Nathaniel nearly dropped her.
“I think it got activated somehow!” Nathaniel set Maia down,
but the couple clung to one another to keep their balance as the machine whirled
faster and faster. Maia felt a dizzying, falling sensation as though she were
riding in an elevator. Then the feeling abruptly stopped, the bright light went
out, and the doors of the time machine slid open. Maia scented decaying
vegetation and heard the hooting of owls, the song of cicadas, and the calling
of what she guessed must be bullfrogs. It seemed they weren't in Lucky Palms
anymore!
“Where are we?” Maia wondered aloud at the same moment Nathaniel
asked, “When are we?” Blinking as
their eyes adjusted, the two of them stepped out into the heavy, humid air.
They found themselves in a dark, foggy area, surrounded by
tall reeds, mossy oaks and weeping willows. Maia heard a fish jump practically
at her feet. She jumped too.
And then she got a good look at Nathaniel and nearly jumped
again.
He looked like a holographic projection! She looked down at
herself and saw she appeared to be a hologram as well, although she felt no
different physically.
“Yeah, we’re probably not going to blend in very well here. Wherever
and whenever here is.” Nathaniel went back to inspect the control panel of the
time machine, looking for information about where they’d landed and trying to
figure out what had gotten it working.
Peering around in the dark past a cluster of banyan trees, all
Maia could tell was that they’d landed in a swamp. But she smelled a hint of smoke, heard the
crackling and popping of burning logs and noticed a flickering light nearby—a
campfire! Curious, she slowly crept through
the darkness towards it.
Maia felt a sudden sense of déjà vu wash over her. Except it wasn’t déjà vu—she truly had seen
this all before! She and Nathaniel had journeyed into the past, her past, and she saw herself with
Samael, just like she had in her dreams!
Maia’s attention was so focused on watching her past self
with Samael that she didn’t hear Nathaniel behind her and she stifled a gasp of
surprise when he whispered, “What are you doing? You shouldn't go wandering off like that!”
“Shh!” Maia put her finger to her lips and gestured towards
the couple near the campfire.
“Haha, you’re creeping on a couple getting frisky? Wait... whoa!
Are they actually wearing animal skins?” he asked in a low tone. “Holy crap! We time traveled into the past!”
“Yes, yes, I know,” Maia whispered impatiently. “Now be
quiet! I want to hear what I’m saying!”
“What do you mean, hear what you’re saying?” Nathaniel
asked as he peered at the couple sitting on the grass, and then looked at Maia
in shock. “That’s a past you?? Oh no, no, no, no! If they discover us, we’ll
create some kind of time paradox! Come on, we have to go now!” he whispered
urgently, as he tried grabbing Maia’s arm to lead her back to the time machine.
Maia struggled against him.
This was her best chance to solve the mystery of what had happened to
her and Samael! “Let go!” she whispered furiously.
But Nathaniel kept trying to pull her away. Off balance,
Maia tripped over a dead branch and it snapped underfoot, cracking like a
gunshot against the silence of the dark.
“Aw hell! They heard that! Run!” Nathaniel yanked
Maia along as they ran splashing through the swamp.
With the cold mud sucking at her bare heels and hindering
her speed, it was like trying to run in a nightmare. Maia was half terrified they’d
be caught and half in tears that she would never know everything that had
happened to her past self or to Samael. A sense of unreality swept though Maia as she and Nathaniel made their escape,
and there was a part of her wanted to call out madly, “Don’t mind us! We’re just a couple of naked holograms running
back to the future!”
Maia and Nathaniel scrambled into the time machine and
Nathaniel mashed all the buttons, trying to get the time machine running again.
“I think I got it! And the previous trip configurations were
saved so I should just need to hit the return key and we’ll to go back to where
we started!” he shouted triumphantly as the machine began humming around them.
Maia closed her eyes against the reappearance of the
blinding light and hoped the gyrations of the time machine would send them back
to their own time and place.
Moments later, Maia and Nathaniel stumbled out the time
machine and back into his garage.
“Are you okay?” he asked with concern.
“I think so, but I’m never
doing that again!” she announced.
But after watching Samael and herself together in the past,
she had confirmed that her dream was not just a dream; she no longer had any
doubts that it was a piece of her past life. She might not be able to recall
everything yet, but she remembered how it felt to be with him—Maia had seen the
truth of their love for herself.
As she walked
home, she considered that perhaps she couldn’t force her memories to come back
to her in full, but if she and her soulmate were meant to be together again,
the knowledge she needed would be triggered somehow.
