Dream Weavers

Chapter Eight

She avoided Hain's eagle-like gaze on her, giving her goosebumps. She didn't understand why he was looking at her so intensely. "How's your mentors?" she asked, sitting in between Hallee and Quill on the fountain's edge. "Ece is...gone from my sight. I have no idea where she went."

It was obvious, Aline hoped, from the way she was sitting that she didn't want to talk about what had happened with Wen and Hain. She kept her fingers laced together, focusing on the stones below their feet.

Hallee sighed. "Kael--is that his name? I can't remember--said like, two words to me when we got outside and then he flew off. I met Quill here and we've been waiting since." Hallee sighed, looking around the square. "It's a big sad, he's very nice on the eyes," Hallee said, nudging Aline.

Aline rolled her eyes, though she nudged Hallee back. "At least yours talked to you," she complained. "You too, Quill. All Ece said to me was to meet her somewhere at five in the morning. Then she flew off!"

Quill and Hallee shared a look between one another. "Five? As in the time five?"

Aline nodded. "Yeah. Unless she meant it as a street or something," she said, rubbing her neck. "I don't know any Five Street or avenue...or anything."

Hain glanced at the trio and raised his eyebrows, though he said nothing.

Hallee scrunched her nose in thought. "Well, Kael told me scarlet. That's all he said. At first I thought he meant like someone's hair or name but..."

Quill looked up. "Daffodil said plains." Quill's face changed, looking far off at the houses in the distance. "Five, scarlet, plains..." he mumbled.

Hain glanced at Quill. "Is he thinking?"

Hallee and Aline nodded. "Do you know anything about the Dreamweavers?" Hallee asked, leaning forward to face Hain. "Anything?"

Hain looked annoyed that he was being spoken to. "All I know is that Ece and a fae named Valentine were really close and she's still devastated about her death. Kael, Daffodil, and Ece are real close even though they don't seem like it." He shrugged. "Could be a rumor, though."

Hallee glanced over to Aline to see her stiffen up. "Ah," Hallee said, placing a hand on Aline's back.

"What's wrong with her?" Hain asked, staring at the pale face of Aline.

"We have to meet them at the Scarlet Plains at five in the morning!" Quill exclaimed, almost pushing Aline back into the fountain. After catching Aline by her wrist, he grinned. "The Scarlet Plains!"

"What?" The rest of them said, staring at Quill like he'd gone mad. "What do you mean?"

"The words, they're just one big riddle. We're supposed to work together to figure out what they mean. It's probably a test to see if we can really be their apprentices!" Quill exclaimed, eyes shining. "It's really lucky for us to already know each other, then. Imagine if we weren't already friends!"

Aline hummed, moving what Hain said about Ece and her mother to the back of her mind. She ignored Hain's eyes on her and nodded. "That makes a lot of sense. Being a Traveler, and a Dreamweaver, would take a lot of communication and teamwork. If we couldn't do that, what's the point of training us, right?"

Aline was a little concerned at it, however. If they didn't put the pieces together or if they didn't like each other, how would they even know what to do? Guessing that it was better thought out as a pretest of sorts than an actual test to train them, she pushed it away and focused on what Hallee was saying.

"...didn't even think of that!" Hallee jumped up, bringing Aline up with her. "You guys are geniuses!" she exclaimed. "I love you guys! Where would I be without you two?"