Balance of the Skies (bxb)

PART 1 - CHAPTER 1

The dreams began on his fifteenth birthday.

He remembered waking up in the middle of the night, no other sound except for the crickets' singing in his grandmother's garden. He looked at the clock next to his bedside table and groaned.

1:23am

He had tried to go back to sleep, but he couldn't. The dream had been so vivid...

He was walking down a wide corridor, full of light, full of fresh air. Huge open windows on either side allowed a cool refreshing breeze to dance around him. He walked further along, only to realise that he was now going through a sea of soft, fluffy, white curtains, one after the other, obscuring his vision. He could not see where he was going, yet he felt compelled to go on, down this bright, wide corridor, full of light, full of curtains. He could not hear anything around him except the soft whooshing made by the light fabric as he made his way through. Yet he could smell a pleasant scent – more than pleasant it was comforting, a mixture of morning dew, freshly picked strawberries and cinnamon. A weird combination, he thought as he walked on until he reached a wall with nothing on it but a mirror and a painting. He decided to ignore the painting and look in the mirror first. And that is when

He woke up.

When he squirmed around his bed a few more times and saw that sleep eluded him, he got up and made his way to the window. Everything was bathed in the silver white light of the moon that was high up in the sky. Not in full form yet, it still glowed majestically in the pitch-black sky. He had always been fascinated by the moon and he did not know why. His grandmother always laughed at him when he was younger and asked her about that glistening orb up in the sky.

He looked at the clock again.

1:48am

He did not know why he felt restless – he knew it had nothing to do with the fact that it was his fifteenth birthday today. For him, just like for all the other children in his village, it was a day like any other. Lessons in the morning, then helping out the adults in the fields. He knew there was only one way to calm down, so he walked to his desk and got everything he needed. It was only then that he switched on the light, sat down and started to paint. He had no idea what he was creating but he could not stop the brush strokes as they formed an image on the paper in front of him – a wide corridor, full of light with soft, fluffy curtains blowing in the breeze. He did not stop before he was done.

3:17am

"Lorien, is everything okay?"

His beloved grandmother stood in the doorway, her white hair piled high on her head, her bedgown wrapped loosely around her small frame.

"Yes Grandmama. I couldn't sleep."

"So you decided to create a masterpiece in the middle of the night?" She smiled at him fondly like she always did.

"Hardly," he smiled back. "I had a strange dream."

She frowned slightly at this and asked, "May I come in?"

"Yes of course Grandmama." It was then that he realised that she was still in the doorway. She shuffled further into the room, her bare feet making the slightest sound on the cold tiles. There was never a time when he saw his grandmother wearing shoes inside the house, no matter how cold it was.

"I was walking down a corridor that looked like this one," he said by way of explanation. His grandmother said nothing but looked at the painting with interest and some other emotion that he could not make out.

"You are very talented Lorien. You should take your gift seriously."

"Gift?"

"This talent that you have - your drawing skills are very good. Do not let it go to waste."

"Thank you Grandmama."

"Go back to bed now. You have lessons in the morning." And with that, she pushed him gently towards his bed and, once he was back in, she tucked the covers around him. As he felt sleep claiming him, he felt his grandmother's lips brush against his forehead and his heart swelled with love towards this woman – the only family he had.