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“Hiiii everybody, it’s me Jessie! This week’s LadyStar Chapter of the Week is a real neat one. It’s from our first book, The Dreamspeaker, and it’s a chapter that’s called Swifty River. It’s about when Talitha found this real spooky forest where these little lights float around the trees and a pond. There’s this little bridge that’s real important later too. We hope you like our story! Be sure to visit us every week for a new best chapter! Ja!”

“That’s one of those monsters from my dream at the Lithic Pavilion.”

“I think something weird is going on again.”

“Is it the Halloween monsters?”

“Nope, don’t think so, but we better be ready anyway.”

LadyStar is the story of a group of girls who each have a powerful weapon they wear disguised as a priceless jeweled treasure. With their magical weapons, Jessica Hoshi and her friends can transform into the Ajan Warriors, champion defenders of the enchanted realm of Aventar!

“Hi! I’m Jessica Hoshi! If you like stories about action and adventure and discovering magical treasures and fighting evil monsters, you’ll like our books a lot! Me and my friends have lots of fun adventures together! You can read LadyStar: The Dreamspeaker for free! The whole book! Right in your browser! So tell all your friends and come visit us as much as you want! There’s always something fun happening on our site!”

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

He stood on the opposite side of the attic from the trunk. Straight white hair covered one eye and a huge wickedly sharp pauldron encased the shoulder of his metal-armored left arm. He was dressed in shades of purple and wore a scabbard across his back which contained a massive sword. A red amulet consisting of a single cut gem hung from his neck, glowing faintly.

Six girls stood and stared, faces frozen in shock.

“Where did you come from?” Jessica finally stammered, her voice rising in both pitch and volume. “What are you doing in my house?”

“I have come to recover the property of His Grand Maleficence from renegades. There will be silence in this piteous hovel or I will
annihilate it.” The man’s face did not change expression. He spoke with a deep menacing tone.

Jessica and her friends regarded the man’s dark presence, and he glared back at them. His gaze was vacant, somehow, as if there were no life in his eyes, only a malevolent purpose.

He reached up with his right hand, and began to trace a shape in the air. He used the third and fourth fingers of his hand to trace two vertical lines straight down, and a sickly dull gray mist appeared from the tips of his fingers. It looked as if he were drawing a shape on a piece of transparent glass between himself and the girls. He drew a sharp backwards shape that looked like a combination of the letter ‘C’ and the number seven across the two vertical lines.

Ever so slowly, the shape began to change color to a dull dark orange, and then began to brighten. As it started to glow, Jessica and Ranko began to lean back. The girls were completely transfixed by what was happening. All except Cici, who stood frowning while the jewels on her timepiece were glowing brightly enough that their light was illuminating the floor slightly.

As the color of the shape floating before the swordsman became a brilliant yellow, a thick reddish substance of some kind began dripping from the amulet around his neck. It looked as if the amulet itself were bleeding. At that moment, the shape in the air burst into flames. An invisible wind blew the swordsman’s hair upwards, and all the color had drained from his now completely black eyes. His voice filled the room.

“The Ajan lies will now, finally, be defeated. Place those accursed talismans before me, or everything you know, and everything you love shall burn as brightly as the flames which consume this glyph.”

With looks of alarm and concern on their faces, one by one Jessica and the other girls timidly put their treasures on the floor near the glyph, then backed away quickly.

“The timepiece,” he said.

“No! You leave me alone!” Cici said flatly. Ranko’s raised her eyebrows. The other girls all turned to look at the swordsman at the
same time.

He chuckled icily.

“Have we courage among cowards?” He said. Shannon’s mouth dropped open and she put her hands on her hips impatiently. Ranko turned and caught Shannon’s eye, shaking her head quickly and waving both her hands low near her waist to warn her not to say anything. Shannon frowned instead.

“He told me you’d try to steal my lantern, and you can’t have it!” Cici shouted. Who? Jessica thought. Who warned Cici?

The swordsman chuckled again, but Ranko noticed a slight tension in his voice that wasn’t there before. With the hand nearest the burning glyph, he seemed to pull its very essence out of the air, absorbing its power in his fist. Ranko saw him slightly shift his weight to his forward foot, and her instincts warned her he was about to do something.

“Little Bit!” Ranko shouted as he drew his sword with a sharp metallic hiss. The weapon slashed down with incredible speed. Ranko thought she heard Cici say something, but it was lost in a lightning white discharge of energy.

Ranko and the other girls all turned away as every surface in the room was illuminated in a stark, blinding light for a moment. They all turned back. The swordsman stood holding his sword at his opposite shoulder, glaring at Cici, who was standing inside a shimmering globe of translucent energy, holding a gleaming gold lantern with several colorful lenses.

Where did that come from? Ranko thought. All of the girls stared in total shock. Shannon gasped. Jessica put her hands over her own mouth.

Cici shouted with her eyes closed.

“BY THE POWER OF THE CRYSTAL TERRANE, THE WARRIOR OF THE ROCKS!”

The resulting blast of light and energy disoriented all of the girls. When Jessica’s vision finally cleared, she looked for Cici. Standing
where Cici had been was what at first appeared to be an entirely different person. She wore a suit of deep brown material with light
trim at the sleeves and waist. The coat had long sleeves, and the pants had a circular design drawn near each hem. She wore closed sandals that appeared to be made out of some kind of coral-type rock, and a brilliant pastel-colored scarf around her neck and shoulders. She also wore a wide hat with no brim. Jessica only recognized it was Cici from the color of her orange hair and the little curl in front of her hat. She still held the gleaming golden lantern in front of her, and wore a little satchel at her side.

“The little man said I have the power of the Pathfinder and gems and my lantern is stronger than you! You have to leave us alone!”

The swordsman’s face was dark and he hesitated as his eyes burned with frustration and revenge. Ranko recognized he might not be able to get past the spherical barrier to get the lantern. He must need that lantern for something, Ranko thought.

“Very well,” the swordsman sneered, gathering the other treasures carefully as he watched the Warrior of the Rocks and her powerful treasure.

“Mark this.” he continued. “Voices cry out across the eons, searching for refuge as they cling to their vain hope in false ideals. I, Sorcerer-Regnant of the Ghost Rune, shall gladly leave their last remnants in the hands of a renegade orphan, and I shall wait patiently for hope to be forever crushed. It shall be a fitting end to ignorance and weakness, that knowledge and strength may rule.”

The Sorcerer glared, and his visage darkened. The glow from his amulet cast dull reddish shadows across his face. He slowly emphasized his next words.

“Pursue me but a single step, and I shall take the Chronicler’s Lantern from the place of your defeat.”

With that, the Sorcerer and the Ajan Treasures he held in his armored fist simply faded from sight.

Seconds after the dark menacing presence of the Sorcerer had departed, Jessica and her friends stood staring at the corner of the attic he last occupied, still in shock at all they had just seen and heard. Finally Ranko broke the silence.

“Anyone want to guess what we just saw?”

Shannon swallowed. Her mouth was dry from fright and her heart was pounding.

“It’s a trick. People can’t just appear and disappear.”

The Ajan Warrior of the Rocks stood defiantly, still watching the spot the Sorcerer had occupied moments before.

“Cici?” Jessica asked apprehensively. “Is it still you?”

The Warrior of the Rocks allowed her Spectrum Deflect to fade as she turned around to face Jessica. Jessica recognized Cici’s smile.

“Yeah! I’m still Cici. But I’m also the Warrior of the Rocks now.”

Ranko looked past Jessica and saw that Talitha was busy with something inside the trunk.

“What’s going on there, Professor?” Ranko asked as Talitha lifted a huge heavily bound book with large tarnished slabs of brass attached to the edges of the cover and connected by a piece of very thick dyed material that looked very similar to leather. The cover was dark brown and appeared to be made of a soft, smooth wood. The brass and canvas formed a lock that prevented Talitha from opening the book.

“I want to read this book,” Talitha said quietly as she examined the brass fittings for some way to unlock the cover.

“This is no time to sit and read!” Ranko exclaimed. “Some magician with a sword just did the world’s greatest vanishing act and stole all of Goofy Bird’s jewelry! We’ve got to do something, not start reading a million-page book!”

“Jessica what does this say?” Talitha asked, indicating the strange words on the cover of the book. “Is this the same language as what was written on the trunk?”

“Yeah,” Jessica said. Ranko had recovered from her outburst and turned her head sideways curiously, trying to see what Jessica was reading. The other girls crowded around Talitha, who was now sitting on the floor by the trunk with the oversized book in her lap.

“This is the word for ‘book,’” Jessica said, pointing at the first of five words. “These two words are ‘of.’” She pointed at the second and fourth words.

“Book of something of something,” Alanna said. “How come you can’t tell what the other words are?”

“I got a better question,” Ranko interrupted. “How can you tell it says ‘book’ and ‘of?’”

“I know!” Jessica exclaimed excitedly, pointing at the fifth word. “That’s ‘Isia’ again! Just like on the trunk! See? Here it says ‘This
vessel sealed by order of His Grace, Duke of Isia’” Jessica indicated the inscription on the trunk’s lock. “See how this word and the last word on the book are the same?”

“Hey yeah,” Shannon said, looking back and forth between the trunk’s lock and the book cover. “They are the same. Almost exactly the same letters, like the same person wrote both.”

“Book of something of Isia,” Alanna concluded. “Okay so this book is about the place this Duke is from. Hayashi’s right, then. It probably has a lot of information about Isia, whatever that is.”

“But what if it’s all written in that crazy language?” Ranko asked. “Is Goofy Bird going to sit there and point out ‘of’ and ‘Isia’ every tenth word and hope we can figure it out?”

“Maybe it’s like a storybook!” Cici exclaimed. “Maybe it’s got pictures like the book I got about whales and the ocean!”

“If this book is illustrated, it will help us a great deal, even if we can’t understand all of the text,” Talitha said, looking up at the other
girls.

“Gotta go with the Professor,” Ranko said with her trademark grin. “She’ll have this whole question dialed in and be writing reports about it any minute.” Talitha looked down at the book again, trying to hide her face.

“How do we open it?” Shannon asked.

Jessica reached out and touched the lock. It snapped open instantly. All of the girls and Teko jumped back slightly.

“What? Hey!” Ranko said, looking up at Jessica. “How do you keep doing that?” Ranko asked.

“It’s the same as the trunk, I guess,” Jessica said, shrugging.

Talitha very gently lifted the huge cover of the book and pushed it open. The pages were very thick and a very light brownish color. On the first page was a large block of writing illuminated around the edges and decorated with vines, leaves and gold accents.

“What about it Goofy Bird?” Ranko asked. Jessica sat down next to Talitha. Talitha lifted and moved the book so they could share it as the other girls looked at the unfamiliar letters on the first page.

“These are the something of the province of Isia as written by the something serving His Grace…” Jessica began reading out loud,
replacing words she didn’t know with the word “something.”

“His Grace has something something that the something which traveled to the shores of Ro.. Rrrrooo- teny sa?” Jessica hesitated, trying to sound out the strange word and translate it at the same time.

“Rotensha!?” Ranko exclaimed, pointing at the second paragraph. “Does it say that? Does it say ‘Rotensha?’” Jessica looked up and nodded. Ranko snapped her fingers.

“We got something then, ladies!” All five of the other girls looked up as Ranko turned to look at each of their faces. “In my dreams it was always the same place and in one of them this voice said I was in a place called ‘Rotensha.’” Ranko pointed at the page again for emphasis.

Talitha turned to a huge colorful map drawn across the next two pages of the book.

“There,” Ranko said, planting her finger on the map with emphasis. “Right next to the ocean. ‘Rotensha.’ Same word, right?”

Jessica nodded.

The other girls all looked. Ranko was pointing at a large area in the south-eastern region of the map.

“I was there,” Ranko said.

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

The following afternoon, Jessica was in her front yard cleaning some of the leaves out of her mother’s wildflowers while she waited for her friends to arrive. Encouraged by their discussion outside Talitha’s house earlier in the week, the girls had all planned to spend the afternoon trying to figure out their dreams. Jessica had made a point of inviting Cici too, after she saw how much Cici had enjoyed her mother’s homemade cookies the last time.

Jessica heard a familiar voice and turned around. Alanna, Shannon, Talitha and Ranko were walking up the sidewalk towards her house. Ranko waved and Jessica waved back.

Jessica turned back towards her front door and froze. Sitting on top of the roof of her house was the white bird! Jessica ran towards the front door. If I can get to the attic, she thought, maybe I can get a closer look at that bird! She ran through the front door and up the stairs towards the attic.

She stomped up the stairs and turned around the railing to run back to the window that faced the side of the house. The attic was lit by sunlight through three windows–one facing the side yard and one each facing the front and back yards. Sitting on the ledge of the side window was the white bird, and it was staring directly at Jessica!

“Oh please don’t fly away,” Jessica said quietly, putting both hands out to try and make sure she didn’t frighten the bird. It just sat there, calmly watching her. It was her first chance to get a close look, and Jessica noticed the bird had beautiful light blue and darker blue markings on its wings. It’s feet were wide and strong looking, and it had a single light blue feather curving up from the top of its head.

After a few moments, the bird walked two steps closer to Jessica, right up to the edge of the window sill. It turned to look towards the corner of the attic between the two windows and crouched. Jessica held her breath, hoping against everything that it wouldn’t fly away. After just a moment, the bird leaped off the window sill into the attic! Its graceful wings flapped twice quickly as the bird settled on a canvas cover that was draped over a large trunk. After it landed, it stopped and turned to look at Jessica again. She couldn’t be quite sure, but Jessica thought she saw an expectant look in the bird’s eyes.

Jessica was overwhelmed by a feeling of familiarity. It was both curious and frustrating at the same time. Why does this all seem so familiar to me? she thought. Then the bird spread its wings again, looking directly at her. It leaped from the trunk, beating its wings once to gain lift and again for momentum.

It flew directly at Jessica!

Jessica stood calmly for a moment, then, as if she had known how all her life, she lifted her forearm towards the white bird’s reaching talons. The bird landed on her arm, allowing its weight to settle as it held its wings out for balance. Jessica held the bird’s weight as it folded its wings and ruffled its feathers once. It shook its head with its eyes closed a few times, and then opened them again, looking directly at Jessica. Its fuzzy face had a contented look. Jessica couldn’t help but smile. Then she giggled.

“You’re a nice bird, huh?” she said. The bird just looked at her calmly, sitting there on her arm. After a few moments, Jessica heard the sound of people climbing the stairs. She turned towards the staircase in alarm, hoping the others wouldn’t frighten the bird away. She thought about shouting to them, but she thought that might frighten the bird too. Ranko reached the attic first. She turned to look over the staircase railing and stopped.

“Whoa,” she said. Shannon gasped as the saw Jessica and the white bird.

“What is that?” Shannon asked. “What kind of bird is that?”

The four girls slowly crept into the attic, all of them realizing that sudden movements might frighten it.

“I don’t know,” Jessica whispered. “But this is that white bird that’s been following us. I’m sure of it.”

“Those are the same yellow eyes I saw outside school that day,” Talitha whispered, nodding.

The bird just watched them all as they slowly gathered around.

“By the way doofus, this is the cleanest attic in the world,” Ranko grinned. Jessica smiled and tried not to laugh.

“He seems so tame,” Shannon said. “I wonder if we could pet him?”

“Teko’s a nice bird,” Jessica looked at the bird, then back at Shannon. “He wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

“Teko?” Ranko asked. “Why did you call him Teko?”

“Because that’s… his..” Jessica looked confused for a moment. “…that’s his name..” Jessica’s voice trailed off as if the words had
caused her to remember something.

“Hoshi?” Shannon asked, noticing the faraway look in Jessica’s eyes, just before she looked at Shannon insistently.

“This means something! I’m sure! Remember how it turned into a flower? It followed me to school and it was outside in the poplar trees too!” Jessica spoke excitedly, then looked back at Teko. “He’s been watching me ever since school started,” she concluded.

Just then Teko turned around on Jessica’s arm and leaped towards the window sill. The gust of air from his flapping wings made Jessica and Shannon’s hair flutter slightly. He landed again on the canvas covering the trunk and turned around to face the girls. He bobbed his head up and down as if trying to emphasize action of some kind.

“What’s he trying to tell us?” Shannon asked. “What’s inside that trunk?

Jessica shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before.” She walked over and slowly pulled the canvas cover off, giggling as she watched Teko walk along the moving canvas as if it were a conveyor until he reached the surface of the trunk’s lid and stopped again.

All four girls looked closely at the trunk. It was made of very dark colored wood and reinforced with a tarnished gold-colored metal. A very ornate key lock held the trunk closed, and beneath the lock was an inscription of some kind written in an unfamiliar language.

“Jessica..” Talitha began. “That’s from my dream.” All four of the other girls turned to look at Talitha.

“That trunk was in your dream?” Ranko asked.

“No no.. the writing on that inscription. It’s the same kind of writing that was on the parchment next to Swifty River.” Talitha
walked over to the trunk and knelt down in front of it. “But I don’t think they’re the same words. I can’t read what it all of it says but this word is ‘Isia’ and this word is ‘grace.’” Talitha pointed at the strange looking words as she spoke.

“Isia..” Shannon repeated. “Isia grace? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Jessica walked over to the trunk and looked closely at the inscription. “It says ‘This vessel sealed by order of His Grace Duke of Isia’”

Talitha looked up at Jessica, surprised. “You can read this language?”

“Yeah. Except I’m not sure what..” Jessica absently reached out to touch the lock and a bright orange spark of energy arced between the lock and her fingers just before the lock snapped and the latch clicked open.

“Ow!” Jessica exclaimed, pulling her hand back reflexively. Talitha jumped back with a start.

“What was that?!” Ranko almost shouted. “Was that some kind of electric lock or something?”

Nobody spoke for a few moments. All five girls just stared at the open latch on trunk. Teko watched the girls and waited.

“Do we want to know what’s inside?” Shannon asked rhetorically.

“Hey, let’s just hope the Duke of Isia doesn’t get upset, whoever that is,” Ranko said, walking a little closer to the trunk and looking back and forth between Jessica and Talitha. “Can we open it?”

Jessica looked up. “I guess so. I just hope it doesn’t zap me again.” All five girls gathered around the trunk and looked back and forth at each other. Jessica noticed the slightly worried looks on the other girls’ faces, and wondered if they all noticed the worried look on her own face.

“Okay,” Shannon said, and reached for the trunk’s lid. The other girls all reached down with both hands and began to pull the edge of the trunk’s lid as well. It was very tightly closed, and the girls had to struggle with it for a few moments to get a good grip.

“Wait, wait,” Alanna sighed. All of the girls relaxed and looked at her. “We’ve got to lift all at once, okay?”

Jessica nodded and turned back to the trunk.

“Ready?” Alanna announced. All the other girls re-established their grip on the trunk lid and waited, looking at Alanna for the signal.

“Go,” Alanna said, and started to pull. All four other girls pulled the lid at the same time. Jessica heard a deep creaking sound as she felt the lid begin to move slightly. Teko spread his wings in surprise as the lid slowly moved. All of the girls’ eyes were closed as they pulled the lid with all their might. Finally a blast of stale air escaped from inside the trunk, causing a cloud of dust to drift across the room past the girls. Teko hopped down from the lid to the next nearest box as the trunk opened further.

“I think we got it,” Ranko said, her voice straining. “Get underneath it so we can push instead!” All five girls moved their hands under the heavy lid and and pushed it towards the wall. Finally, the trunk was open. Teko jumped over to the edge of the trunk and joined the other girls as they all looked inside with wide eyes. They were completely unprepared for what they saw. Alanna and Talitha gasped and Ranko put her hand on her own forehead as they stared.

The trunk was filled with shimmering fabrics of crimson and gold. There were silver plates and cups with exquisite ornamented designs and set with golden gems. On one side was a huge heavy book with a deep crimson-colored cover and bright gold metallic lock both inscribed with the same type of writing as the trunk’s lock. In the center was a brilliant, delicate coffer made of a gleaming bluish silvery metal inscribed with a pattern of twisting branches and leaves. In the center was a large oval-shaped light golden stone with a symbol carved into it.

“Hoshi, where did you get all this?” Shannon asked finally.

Jessica just stared. “I don’t know,” she mumbled quietly. She looked back and forth. She thought she recognized some of the items. She also thought the crimson and gold color of the fabrics was meaningful somehow.

“That’s an alto clef,” Jessica said absently, pointing at the symbol on the coffer.

“What’s an alto clef?” Ranko asked, looking at the symbol for a moment, then looking at Jessica.

“It’s a musical symbol. It’s like a treble clef. Most viola music is written with an alto clef,” Jessica said. Shannon giggled quietly and Jessica looked up, smiling. “What.” Jessica asked.

“You always surprise me when you do that, Hoshi,” Shannon laughed. “Every once in a while you sound just like Hayashi!” Jessica smiled at Shannon, then laughed too. Talitha blushed and turned her head and hid her face behind her hair.

“Why would an alto clef be on a jewelry box?” Alanna mused.

“Jewelry box?” Jessica turned to Alanna. Jessica’s face brightened. “Sugoi! Do you think there might be real jewelry in it?”

Alanna nodded. “There could be.”

Jessica knelt down and reached towards the decorative lid of the box, then pulled her hands back.

“What if it’s got one of those zap locks?” Jessica said with a worried look.

“I don’t see a lock, Jessica,” Talitha said, peering at the sides of the box. “It looks like it doesn’t have an outside latch at all.”

“Whoever put jewelry in this box must have been sure it wouldn’t get stolen,” Ranko chuckled. Jessica reached for the jewelry box lid once again, but slowly. She tapped the top and edge of the box lid a few times with her fingers, as if expecting it to be very hot. Nothing happened, so she placed her hand on the lid of the jewelry box and pulled at it gently. It opened easily.

All five of the girls gasped.

The inside of the coffer was lined with a deep purple fabric, and it contained five sparkling pieces of jewelry worked in so many
different kinds of precious stones and metals that Jessica couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“They’re beautiful…” Shannon whispered.

“Where did they come from?” Talitha asked, looking over at Jessica.

“There’s another alto clef,” Jessica said, pointing at one of the pieces of jewelry. It was a tiny golden charm in the shape of an alto clef with tiny red jewels set around its edges. It was placed in the center of the jewelry box. It’s right under the carved symbol on the outside, Jessica thought.

“Can we pick them up?” Shannon asked, looking at Jessica hopefully.

Jessica nodded. “Mm hmm.” Teko watched Jessica intently, looking back and forth between her face and the jewelry box.

“Careful. Don’t break anything,” Ranko cautioned as Shannon reached for a black ring circled with tiny glittering bluish-colored jewels around its edges. Talitha picked up a bronzed talisman decorated with translucent green leaves. Alanna gently picked up a bracelet decorated with jewels cut in the shape of chalices, and Ranko used both of her hands to gather up a necklace made of tiny ocean wave shapes linked together with pearls. Jessica picked up the golden alto clef charm.

Just then the girls heard Cici shouting from the front yard. “Jessie! Jessie! Look what I got! Look what I got!” Then Cici started
knocking frantically on the front door. “Jessie! Jessie!”

Jessica and the other girls all looked at each other, then Jessica stood up carrying the charm and walked over to the front attic window. Jessica turned the latch and pushed the window out to open it.

“Cici-chan!” Jessica called out the window, looking down into the front yard to see where Cici was. Cici ran from the front door out into the yard and looked up, holding her little beret on her head.

“Jessie! Look what I got!” Cici shouted, jumping up and down and pointing at her new watch.

“Hi Cici-chan!” Jessica smiled and waved. “You can come into the house. Just walk up the stairs on the left side of the living room. We’re in the attic.”

“Okay, Jessie!” Cici ran back towards the front door. Jessica heard the front door open, then slam shut as she turned back to the trunk.

Ranko and Talitha looked up as they heard Cici running up the stairs.

“Jessie!” she shouted again as she rounded the railing at the top of the stairs.

“Whoa, slow down there, little bit,” Ranko said, putting one hand out and waving at Cici. Cici stopped when she saw Teko.

“Hey, look at the big white bird!” Cici said, walking over to the other girls. “Is that a new pet, Jessie?”

“Well, I guess so,” Jessica said, looking over at Teko, who was still sitting on the edge of the trunk.

“Cici, where did you get that?” Talitha asked, indicating the item on Cici’s wrist that looked like a watch.

“I found it in the park and the little man in the lantern told me how to make the lantern into a watch!” Cici said proudly with a grin. Talitha looked up at Jessica with a confused look. Jessica saw that Cici’s watch was very unusual. It looked like it was made out of rock with dull gold-colored metal around the edges. The hour markers looked tiny jewels set in the face of the watch.

“Hey! That’s real silver,” Cici said, pointing at the necklace Ranko was holding. Ranko looked down at the necklace and then looked back up.

“How do you know that?” Ranko asked. Cici peered closely at the necklace.

“And those are aquamarines, and pearls,” Cici pointed at each stone and jewel on the necklace as she named it. “And those leaves are emeralds, and Shannon’s ring is obsidian with little sapphires and Alanna’s bracelet is platinum with diamonds, and Jessie’s charm is gold and those red gems are garnets.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Ranko shook her head. “How do you know all that? I don’t even know what obsidian is!”

Cici just shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know that it’s obsidian.”

“If what she says is right,” Alanna said. “We’re all holding priceless pieces of jewelry. Platinum is even more valuable than gold.”

Jessica looked down at the charm she was holding and frowned. As she did so, she noticed that one of the jewels on the face of Cici’s watch was glowing brightly.

“What does that mean?” Jessica asked, pointing at Cici’s watch. “Does your watch have an alarm or something?”

Cici put her hand around the watch and looked at it carefully. “It means that there’s something enchanted nearby.”

“Sorry. What?” Shannon asked, smiling. “Enchanted?” All of the girls looked at each other, then back at Cici, whose serious expression hadn’t changed at all.

“The orphan is correct.”

The voice was cold and sarcastic, and swirled like a dank gust of bitter winter air. All of the girls looked up at the sound and began to look around the attic for its source.

To Be Continued in Chapter Twenty-Two: The Strength of the Tiniest Stone

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Jessica Hoshi stood on the sidewalk in front of Tree Shores High School. It was late Friday afternoon, and the orange light of sunset was beginning to cast long shadows across the parking lot. Lined up along one side of the parking lot near the Fine Arts building were five huge silver colored buses with dark colored windows.

Jessica was surprised. They looked so new! She thought they might be tour buses.

Parked behind the buses was a large truck pulling a trailer behind it. Jessica could see about a dozen students wearing green band shirts milling around a number of storage trunks arranged around the back of the trailer. That must be the drum equipment, Jessica thought. Painted on the side of the white trailer was an enormous TSHS logo with two diagonal green stripes.

Jessica started walking across the parking lot. She was also wearing her green band shirt and her uniform pants. She was carrying her uniform coat and hat in a coat liner, and her saxophone with a brand new “Tree Shores Lions” sticker on it. Jessica was so excited to see all her friends and to finally get to play a real show, something she had been waiting to do for so long. She hoped she would do all of the marching steps correctly. She couldn’t wait to play.

As she walked, Jessica saw more and more people gathered around the opposite side of the buses and standing on the sidewalk. Almost all of them were dressed in band t-shirts. There were also several parents passing out scarves and hats and pin-on buttons. One of the parents was busy reparing a pair of white suspenders and a couple of the mothers were loading gallon jugs of orange juice into a metal cooler.

Jessica just stood and stared. There must have been hundreds of people! This is more people than were at my junior high graduation, she thought. She looked and looked but couldn’t see Talitha, Ranko or even Shannon. I hope I can find Talitha chan so we can sit together on the bus, Jessica thought as she approached the crowd of band members.

Just as she stepped up on the sidewalk where the buses were parked, she saw Mr. Factor. He was dressed sharply in a navy blue suit and shined shoes as he stood and spoke to a couple of the older band members. Wow, Jessica thought. He looks so important! He wore a green and gold diagonally-striped tie and shiny silver-rimmed glasses.

Jessica scanned the crowd over and over again, despairing that she would ever find Talitha. She saw Carl, the senior boy who was the saxophone section leader, who was humming and sorting things in his saxophone case and wearing a pair of music player headphones. Jessica wondered if she should interrupt him to ask where to go.

“Goofy!” Jessica sort of heard a familiar voice, but she wasn’t sure. “Goofy Bird who is too short to be in the marching band!” Jessica whirled around. There stood Ranko Yorozu. She was wearing the same outfit, but had an orange headband on and a Tree Shores bumper sticker stuck to the shoulder of her shirt.

“Ranko-chan!” Jessica shouted as Ranko ran over. “Finally I found somebody! I’ve been looking for Talitha-chan. Have you seen her yet?”

“Nope, but I think she might be helping with the instrument truck. The Professor is probably way down at the end of the parking lot.”

“This is so exciting,” Jessica said, bouncing up on her toes a few times. “I can’t wait for my first football game. I’ve never seen a
real football game before. Do you know how to play?”

“Oh yeah. Football is a cinch. I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Ranko said confidently. “No sweat.”

“When do we leave for the stadium?” Jessica asked, looking around to see if other people were getting on the buses yet.

“Not sure, but call time is in like two minutes, so whatever we’re going to do, it’s happening pretty quick here,” Ranko said. “Looks like we’re breaking into sections. Catch you at the game! Green and Gold!” Ranko put her fist in the air and grinned.

“Yay!” Jessica said, then walked over to where most of the saxophone players were gathering around Carl.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen,” Carl said. “I fully expect everyone here to completely tank the show and make us all very sad and dejected so we all quit music and take up horticulture.” The freshmen all looked around at each other, not sure if he was serious.

“Bus rules are pretty simple. No throwing anything. No running up and down the aisles when the bus is moving. No making faces at anyone except the Mesa Bay football team or band. Make sure you pick up all of your equipment when you leave. Does everyone have their chips?”

Jessica looked around again. Chips? Several of the older band members pulled colorful cellophane bags of various kinds of potato chips from their suit liners.

“Don’t worry freshman life forms,” Carl said, burrowing into a large dark colored bag with TSHS on the side. “I brought extras.” One at a time, Carl pulled bags of chips out of his carrying bag and tossed one to each of the freshman saxophone players. One of the older horn players walked by just as Jessica failed to catch hers. He shook his head feigning impatience then rolled his eyes and walked around her as she scrambled to pick up her bag of chips.

“This is your only free bag, so BRING YOUR OWN NEXT TIME!” Carl shouted, closing his eyes tightly. Then he opened his eyes and a calm smile crossed his face. “Now, let us summon the happiness only the wonderful potato chips can bring.” All of the other saxophone players held their bags of chips in one hand. “Ready?” Carl asked.

All at once the entire section of nearly two dozen people shook their bags of chips, making as much noise as they possibly could. Jessica smiled and shook her bag of chips along with everyone else.

“Listen to the chips! They are happy! The chips are with us!” Carl shouted. Jessica giggled as she watched a couple of the other saxophone players hold the bags near their ears, still shaking them, rolling their eyes up as if they were listening intently.

“Now we are prepared to play a wonderful show.” Carl said, dropping his chips back into his carrying bag and closing it up. “We shall feast on the chips of happiness after we run the other band off the field with our halftime and win the game!”

Jessica looked down at her package of potato chips. Oh good, she thought. I like sour cream flavor. Then she saw Talitha walking
towards her. Talitha turned from side to side as if looking for someone.

“Talitha-chan!” Jessica exclaimed. Talitha looked up and smiled, hurrying over to where Jessica was.

“Hello Jessica,” Talitha said. “There’s so many people here, I almost got lost.”

“Can we sit together on the bus?” Jessica asked. “I wasn’t sure if you had to stay with the drummers or not.” Talitha shook her head.

“Leila said I could ride on any of the buses.”

“Oh goody. Let’s go find a good place. I think a lot of my section is going to be on this one,” Jessica said, indicating the second of the five buses.

“Don’t you have to put your instrument on the truck with the others?” Talitha asked.

“Uh uh,” Jessica replied, shaking her head. “They said that only tenor and baritone saxes had to load their instruments on the truck. The altos get to put theirs in the bus luggage. See?” Jessica said, putting her case down next to the small collection of alto saxophone, clarinet, flute, trumpet and various other cases on the sidewalk by the open luggage bay. Four of the older students were busy loading the cases one at a time to make sure they all fit.

“You should have seen all the drum equipment, Jessica,” Talitha said. “There were so many sets of tom-toms and so many cymbals. All of them together filled up almost half of the truck. And that big bass drum Leila told us about? It’s as tall as me!”

“Sugoi!” Jessica said as they walked up the shiny metal steps to board the bus.

“Sugoi is right,” Talitha said. “I’ve never seen a drum that big before. They didn’t even use it in practice. I wonder who marches that enormous thing?”

Jessica looked down the aisle of the bus. Row after row of clean dark blue seats went down either side of the cabin, with luggage compartments overhead. The floor was carpeted, and it was very cool and comfortable inside. Jessica looked out the nearest window at the other band members as they continued loading instruments. The tinting on the windows added a little gray to all the colors, making it look like it was later in the day. The quiet sound of the engine and the whine of the ventilation system made it sound like the inside of a jet. Every few seats on either side, a uniform bag was hanging along the window. Jessica walked down the aisle, looking for a seat where there wasn’t a uniform bag. After a few feet she found one and stopped.

“Here we go. You get the window seat, okay?” Jessica said. Talitha nodded and turned sideways to reach her seat. She clipped her uniform bag to one of the loops just above the window, and helped Jessica do the same. Then they sat down, each in their own seat complete with an armrest.

“This is just like taking a plane trip huh?,” Jessica said, smiling happily at Talitha. The backs of the chairs were at least a foot taller
than they were, and were very clean and comfortable. Other band members were starting to file on to the bus by now, each choosing different seats and hanging their uniform bags as they sat down.

Talitha was busy examining the little keypad mechanism under their bus window when she and Jessica both jumped in their seats. One of the band members had run on to the bus suddenly and then howled as loud as he possibly could. His face was painted green on one side and gold on the other. He was wearing a black band shirt with the word “DRUMLINE” written across it in green, and an illustration of a lion’s face above it.

“Lions!! WOOOHOOOOO!!!” he shouted, his head back. Everyone else on the bus cheered in response and he started working his way down the aisle, high-fiving people at random and cheering at them. Some of the other band members started laughing and smiling as they watched his antics.

He reached Jessica and Talitha’s seat and offered his hand. Jessica enthusiastically high-fived him.

“YEAH!! You’re in BAAAAND NOW!!” he shouted and took his sunglasses off. He put them on Jessica and kept moving down the aisle. Jessica slowly took them off and turned to Talitha, whose face was frozen in an expression of surprise and confusion. Jessica had a huge grin on her face as she giggled. Finally Talitha smiled and they both laughed. Jessica jumped up and turned around in her seat to watch as the boy stopped among a small group of other drummers. Talitha peered over the edge of her seat as well.

The drummers all started the “Make Some Noise” cheer, stomping their feet together for the drum part with double-eighths on each downbeat, and after a few beats the rest of the band members joined in.

“Make some noise if you know who you are!”

“LIONS!”

Pretty soon the entire bus was thundering with the cheer.

“Make some noise if you know who you are!”

“LIONS!”

Jessica and Talitha both shouted “Lions!” each time they were supposed to join in.

“Make some noise for the number one band!”

“LIONS!”

“Make some noise all across the land!”

“LIONS!”

After the cheer everyone clapped and shouted as the boy walked back up the aisle nodding his head with his hands in the air as if accepting the applause.

Jessica dropped back down in her chair and turned to Talitha.

“That was fun! I can’t wait for the game!” Jessica exclaimed. Talitha’s eyes were a little wider than normal as she nodded in agreement. Most of the people aboard were seated by now and the bus driver was busy fiddling with the visor over his seat. The double-doors closed with a quiet hiss.

After a few more moments the bus started to pull away, following the lead bus. They were finally on their way! After a few moments, one of the older band members, a senior trombone player named Will, stood up at the front and held on to the chrome bar next to the stairway for balance as the bus jostled back and forth.

“Okay, we’ve all had our fun, but now its business. We step off exactly ten minutes after this bus stops. You know the checks: music, gloves, hat, spats, reeds, sticks, mallets, valves, slides. Get your horn and get with your sections right away. Don’t stand around talking because there isn’t going to be any extra time before pre-game. Mesa Bay has a good team and a good band, and the Lions are going to need every bit of our support. Questions?”

Nobody volunteered.

“Go Lions,” Will said, turned around and sat back down.

“Eeeee..” Jessica squeaked. “This is so exciting! I wonder how many people will be there?” Talitha shrugged.

About half an hour later, the sun had set completely. Jessica’s wide blue eyes stared through the window at the parking lot outside the stadium. Talitha stared as well. Every single parking place was occupied, and hundreds of people were streaming through the jammed parking lot towards the bright lights of Nathan Brown Memorial Stadium. Many of them were wearing Tree Shores letter jackets. Almost all were carrying megaphones, pom-poms or green and gold towels, and several were wearing Tree Shores hats. Some of the boys who looked like they might be students at the school were wearing green facepaint.

“I don’t believe it,” Talitha said very quietly. “I’ve never seen so many people before.”

“I’ve never seen lights like that. Looky at the stadium Talitha-chan! It looks so bright!”

The bus pulled around to one side and alongside an open grassy area behind the other buses where the drill team and flags had already gathered. It slowly rolled to a stop and Will stood back up.

“One seat at a time. Uniform coats only. Don’t put your hat or gloves on until you get your horn and music together. Ten minutes! Let’s do this!”

The band members in the front row of seats stood up. All four were already wearing their dark green coats as they walked down the stairs carrying their hats and gloves. Row after row filed off the bus as Talitha and Jessica both put on their coats and picked up their hats. Jessica carefully installed her bag of chips in her hat as instructed by the upper-class saxophone players. Finally Jessica and Talitha hurried down the steps on to the grass.

“Let’s play a good show Talitha-chan!” Jessica said. Talitha looked very nervous, but she managed to nod as she started towards the
instrument truck to get her glockenspiel. Jessica turned to where the instruments were being unloaded and began looking for her saxophone case.

Almost exactly ten minutes later, Jessica was hurrying to her place in the band’s parade formation, trying to flip the pages on her music holder and put her hat on at the same time. She passed row after row of other band members, all looking very sharp in their full uniforms: deep green with gold and white trim. She finally reached her place between two other saxophone players who were both almost a foot taller than her. Jessica had only a moment to look back and forth quickly for Ranko and Talitha before she heard Paul Castaneda’s voice from the front of the band some fifteen ranks away.

“BAAAAAAAAAAND!!”

Jessica felt herself take in a quick breath and felt her heart jump a little as three dozen field drums loudly played three quick notes in
unison. Her hat felt like it was about to fall over to one side. What about my chips? she thought suddenly.

“TENNNN-HUH!!”

Seventy-seven gold flags snapped straight up as the band came to attention. Drum Major Paul Castaneda did a perfect right face and paced a few yards to the left side of the formation, where he did a perfect left face. He stood for a few moments at attention with his parade mace held behind one shoulder. The brim of his tall hat was just over his eyes, and the gold embroidery of his epaulets and collar reflected a little of the stadium lights. He began pacing again alongside the band formation. The band members stared straight ahead as he passed rank after rank.

As he passed Jessica’s rank, she was only slightly aware of him, because she was doing her best to stand at attention properly. She glanced down at her saxophone neck and noticed her music was turned to the wrong page.

The flags fluttered quietly over the band as Paul walked along the right side of the band towards the front again. After another perfect halt and left face, he returned to his place at the head of the formation with another right face. He waited a few seconds and then his hand moved quickly to pick up the white whistle around his neck. He put it up to his mouth and his hand snapped back to his side.

The first few ranks of the band watched as the mace spun out from behind Paul’s shoulder with blurring speed. He did two flourishes with the spinning mace, one on each side just before it froze in his hands at an angle with the sound of the chains rattling along its fiberglass shaft. Start on my left foot. Start on my left foot. Jessica concentrated on her left foot until she realized her eyes were closed as tight as she could shut them.

Paul lifted the mace straight up directly over his head as he held it with one hand. The sound of his whistle pierced the night air. A long tone, followed by three short bursts at a marching tempo. Full cadence!

Jessica counted the fourth beat and stepped off with her left foot right along with the rest of the band. She heard the high voice drum of Leila Hakumei’s roto-toms begin to play the parade cadence at the exact marching tempo of the rest of the band. At the end of each measure, Leila cascaded down the other three drum tones and then returned to the cadence on the high drum. After four measures, all of the field snares joined in, playing the offbeats of the cadence tempo on the rims of their drums.

It’s just like the solo Leila played at rehearsals, Jessica thought. Only now all the drummers are playing it! Jessica wondered if she were flipping the mallets like she did in the band room.

“Eight!” one of the drummers shouted as they continued marching and turning into the aisle of the parking lot. “Seven!” Jessica noticed they were shouting at the start of each measure of the cadence. They continued counting down as the band began to turn to their left, following Paul, who was marking their marching tempo with his mace. Jessica saw they were veering in the direction of the stadium.

Jessica looked very slightly to her left as they turned so she could try and see the flags. She saw the stadium lights reflecting off the
beautiful gold bells of the sousaphones as they swiveled back and forth in time with the cadence. Behind the band, an ocean of streaming gold flags followed. Jessica stared for a moment, just before one of the drummers yelled “Two!” then “One!” She thought she heard him yell something else, but it was completely overwhelmed as all five bass drums cascaded in sequence through the next measure into the sound of an entire rank of crash cymbals blasting the next downbeat. All of the drums started playing the parade cadence at once, and the wave of sound was incredible.

Jessica was startled and quickly turned back to face forward. She could feel the drums as much as hear them. Alanna-sama was right, Jessica thought. Everyone’s going to notice us! She kept marching, but now Jessica was holding her breath. She had a sudden swelling feeling of pride. She wondered what her friends were all thinking right now. She wondered what Ranko and Talitha would say. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a couple of small boys pointing at the band members as they passed rank by rank and looking up at their parents. The adults were all clapping and a few students were shouting and cheering. I’m really part of something special now, Jessica thought.

Some of the football fans in the parking lot waved their pom-poms and spun their green and gold towels as the band passed. Jessica wished she could wave or smile back, but she knew part of showmanship was to keep her bearing like everyone else. They were very close to the stadium now, marching towards a tunnel leading to the field level. Jessica looked up slightly, trying to see past the brim of her hat. The wall of the stadium was too tall for her to see the top edge, but she could just see one of the enormous stanchions supporting a bay of silver-colored field buckets spilling bright white light into the stadium just as they passed into the tunnel.

As the drums entered the tunnel, the volume increased four-fold at least, but the drummers didn’t quiet down one decibel. Jessica thought the sound might be just a little too loud, but then Jessica smiled a little as she remembered what Leila said to her during rehearsals. You can never have enough volume.

The tunnel became brighter and brighter as the band passed a row of what looked like tractors parked behind chain link fences in the tunnel. Just above them was a huge white sign with green lettering that read

NATHAN V. BROWN MEMORIAL STADIUM
FIELD LEVEL SOUTH

Jessica peered ahead to try to see what the field looked like, but there were too many ranks ahead of her to get a clear look as they continued marching. It was then that she heard a clear, deep amplified voice that sounded as if it were coming from someone standing right next to her, even with the drums playing.

“Ladies and Gentlemen… please direct your attention to the southeast entrance to the stadium…”

Just then Jessica heard Paul’s whistle again, followed by a sudden rise in the volume of the crowd. Everything is happening at once! Jessica thought.

“Introducing the Pride of the Sunset Coast…”

The crowd started to applaud, then cheer. Jessica experienced a moment of confusion as she thought she heard applause coming from almost every direction. How many people are here? Jessica’s rank still hadn’t reached the opposite end of the tunnel, so she couldn’t see, but she could hear. The announcer continued.

“…the award-winning Tree Shores Lions Marching Band and Drill Team!”

The sound rapidly grew from a cheer to a low roar as more and more people joined in. Jessica was suddenly amazed, scared, nervous and excited all at the same time. Her rank emerged from the tunnel into the bright lights. Jessica experienced a moment of vertigo and she felt herself almost lose her breath. The stadium was huge! There were people everywhere!

“Shores! Lions! Yeah!” Jessica heard the people directly over the tunnel shouting, whistling and cheering as she passed the tunnel exit.

Jessica frantically tried to think of what she was supposed to do, but all they were doing is marching. Alanna said everything would be cool, Jessica thought. Alanna said everything would be cool. Jessica hoped Talitha was okay, but she knew Leila would help Talitha do her best. The crowd didn’t seem to affect the other people in her rank. Jessica kept marching, hoping there weren’t too many people looking at her, but then she suddenly felt very excited. This is my big chance! Jessica thought. Now we get to play for all these people!

The band had turned into the nearest end zone of the football field, and Jessica heard Paul’s whistle again. She saw Paul lift his mace with both hands holding it horizontally over his head. The band stopped moving forward but continued marching in place. Then Jessica heard him whistle the cadence halt. She listened carefully for the count as the drummers switched out of the full parade cadence into the halt. Seven beats later, Jessica planted her left foot in perfect synchronization with the last note of the halt and then she shouted “LIONS!” as loud as she could while planting her right foot along with the rest of the band. The crowd responded with another huge cheer. Then Jessica heard Paul’s voice again.

“BAAAAAAAAND!!!”

Jessica’s mind was racing. She was so excited she didn’t know if she would even remember how to play saxophone for the show.

“LEHHHHHHHTT FACE!!”

Jessica did a left face with the rest of the band. There was a football team on the field along the sideline to their right. They were wearing brown uniforms with white numbers and helmets. They were standing and watching along with everyone else. Jessica suddenly realized her band was the center of attention. Just then, she heard Paul’s voice again.

“FIGHT SONG!” A moment later, Jessica heard the Drum Captain shout “FIGHT SONG!” as well. Then Paul picked up his whistle again. One long tone, followed by a short burst. Jessica snapped her saxophone to the ready position with the rest of her rank. Please let me play good. Please let me play good. Jessica concentrated as hard as she could. Starts on ‘D’ Starts on ‘D’…

Paul whistled again, just like the cadence signal. Jessica counted the fourth beat and began to play just as two hundred and seventy other musicians hit the first note. Jessica thought she was playing. She listened carefully for her saxophone part as the massive phalanx of trumpets picked up the first flourish of “Fight Lions Fight.” Two measures later, another cymbal crash gave way to the powerful sound of the low brass. Jessica couldn’t hear herself. All she could hear was the rest of the band.

Jessica kept increasing her volume as she played, but it didn’t matter. All she could hear was the crowd and the rest of the band approaching the cheer part of the fight song. The entire experience was dizzying. Jessica couldn’t believe she was playing for so many people! Just then, she thought she saw a team of cheerleaders off to her left, just beyond the huge wall of spinning gold flags. They all put their fists in the air at the same time.

“T!”

It was the cheer section of the fight song! Even the crowd joined in,
making each letter echo around the stadium.

“S!”

Jessica looked around and heard the band cheering along. I’m supposed to cheer now! she thought.

“H!” Jessica shouted with the rest of the band.

“S!” She shouted as loud as she could.

“T-S-H-S FIGHT LIONS FIGHT!”

Then they started to play again. Jessica tried her best, but she still couldn’t hear herself. The band actually sounded like it was getting louder. She was already exhausted and the game hadn’t even started yet. Off to her left she saw a huge crowd of football players running by. They were wearing white uniforms with green numbers and green helmets with gold paw prints on the side. It’s our team! I’m sure of it! Jessica thought. Jessica wanted to cheer, but she was still playing the fight song, so she just played louder.

It was the last refrain, and Jessica was ready for instruments down right on time. A moment after the clear bright tone of the last note of the fight song, Jessica snapped her instrument back to the down position. A huge cheer erupted from the crowd as Jessica’s music lyre rattled. Jessica froze and held her teeth together, hoping her music wouldn’t fall off, because she was absolutely sure every single person in the stadium was watching the short blond alto saxophone player in the 35th rank. The Tree Shores Lions football team ran to the sideline on the left side of the field and gathered in a huge group.

“BAAAAAAAAAND!!”

Jessica heard Paul’s voice again, and listened carefully.

“LEHHHHHHHHT FACE!!”

The band turned towards the home stands, and now Jessica could see the flags. Jessica wished she was on the flag team. But then I wouldn’t get to play my saxophone, she reminded herself. Row after row of gold banners stretched almost halfway across the end zone towards the opposite sideline. She looked past them into the Tree Shores side of the stadium. There was a huge crowd sprinkled with various shades of green all the way from the field level to the highest row of seats and almost all the way across. A square empty section right in the middle of the crowd started right at field level and included at least three dozen rows of seats. That must be where we get to go, Jessica thought. It seemed that except for that area, the only other seats that were empty were in the corners of the stadium, since Jessica could see there were even people sitting behind the opposite end zone.

There must be a zillion people here! Jessica thought as she looked up at the lighted scoreboard just below the press box. It read:

LIONS 0
PIRATES 0

That’s Mesa Bay, she thought. Mesa Bay Pirates. Then she smiled and almost laughed remembering Ranko saying “yarr” all afternoon at rehearsals the previous day after finding out who the Mesa Bay mascot was.

She heard the whistle again and looked for the mace. This time Paul was signaling a field cadence instead of full cadence. Jessica stepped off with the band, but this time only a single field snare marked time with a downbeat every four steps. The band was manuevering on to the track next to the home stands. Jessica saw all of the cheerleading equipment was already set up there, but the cheerleaders had made way so the band could stop in front of the stairs leading up to the stands.

Paul stopped the band at the entrance to the stands and whistled another halt. The drummers obliged with yet another thundering, crashing two-measure barrage of sound, and Jessica yelled “LIONS!” with the rest of the band right on time again. The crowd responded with another cheer, but not quite as loud as the first few. The game was about to start, and Jessica couldn’t wait.

After a few minutes the band was finally situated in the center of the Tree Shores crowd. Jessica was happy because she could see both Ranko and Talitha in the percussion section in the first two rows below where she and the rest of the saxophones were sitting. She looked over to the right side of the percussion section and saw a very thin boy with long stringy brown hair standing next to the most monstrous drum she had ever seen. It was tilted at a strange angle and leaning up against a short chain-link fence which divided the concourse at the field level below the seats. He stared out on to the field.

Jessica looked out on the field and saw all the football players but she had no idea what was happening. The announcer had introduced some of the names of the players from both teams a few minutes earlier and now there was a small group of them in the middle of the field with one of the referees. Jessica wondered if they were arguing or something. She glanced down and saw Ranko pointing at her. Jessica waved and smiled. She wished she could ask Ranko what was going on.

The group at the center of the field broke up and the players went back to their respective sidelines. At that moment, the thin boy next to the big bass drum looked up into the stands for a moment and then yelled “KICKOFF!!” as loud as he could. Jessica watched in amazement as he seemed to actually climb up on the huge drum with a mallet in each hand.

“War drums!” Carl shouted. “Make it loud!” Jessica looked around as everyone stood up. She had no idea what was happening. It seemed that everyone except her was standing. Jessica stood up quickly and looked out on the field. She noticed the other team had their players spread out all over the right side of the field while the Tree Shores players were all lining up in one big row.

Just then, the thin boy started playing the monster bass drum. He established a thundering rhythm, rapidly moving the heavy mallets up and down with the beat. The sound of the drum seemed to bring the band, crowd and cheerleaders to life all at once. Jessica saw the cheerleaders all standing up on their platforms, pushing their fists in the air on each downbeat. Then she heard the entire band yell “GO!” all at once.

“GO!” they all yelled again. Jessica listened carefully to the drum and immediately recognized the tempo. Four beats later, the band and cheerleaders all yelled “GO!” again. The low rolling rhythm continued under the shouts. “GO!”

“It’s not loud enough!” Carl wailed. “We’ll be ruined. RUINED!”

“GO!” the band yelled again. The thin boy seemed to be in some kind of frenzy. He kept his head down and swung the mallets with a mighty determination, drawing sharp growls from the number five bass with each impact, maintaining the beat for the entire band as they all cheered “GO!” again every measure.

“Louder!” Carl yelled, then made a funny sound like a cartoon character wailing in despair.

“GO!” Jessica joined in with the cheer. The sound was amplified by the rest of the crowd joining in, and each four beats “GO!” sounded like an acoustic jab hitting a punching bag. “GO!” The bass drum player neither stopped nor slowed down. He was in a world of his own, weaving together a great percussive rumbling for all to hear. “GO!” Jessica shouted as loud as she could. The roar of the drumming continued. “GO!” She heard a whistle and saw one of the referees signal something. “GO!” A moment later, the little football flew into the air, flying from Jessica’s left to her right. “GO!” Jessica watched the football intently, hoping she could figure out what was happening.

The cheer quickly became a roar. One of the Mesa Bay players caught the ball and started running, but was immediately surrounded by white jerseys, and a great collision of players buried the ball and the player carrying it. A moment later, several referees arrived, and a moment after that, the drumming stopped with a final “GO!” from the Tree Shores side of the stadium. The crowd cheered again.

All at once, the older band members took their seats, with the freshmen joining them a moment later, after about half of them realized they were the only ones standing. The band started to mill around, and Jessica saw Ranko and Talitha climbing the stairs towards her row.

“Hiiiii Ranko-chan, Talitha-chan!” Jessica waved.

“What’s up Goofy Saxophone!” Ranko raised her voice over the noise of the crowd. “Hope your section doesn’t mind if we join ‘em for a few minutes.”

“Only if you brought chips,” Jessica said, smiling. Talitha and Ranko looked at each other as Jessica pulled her bag of sour cream flavor potato chips out of her hat. Then she smiled broadly.

“Free chips, huh?” Ranko said. “No rabbit?” Ranko grinned.

Jessica stared for a moment, then got the joke and giggled.

“Hey, you should have heard the Professor. There’s five glockenspiel players, and I’m telling you, they hit every note perfect. I was
standing right behind them in the end zone.” Ranko exclaimed. Talitha put her hands up and covered her own face.

“Super sugoi!” Jessica said. “I played as loud as I could and I couldn’t even hear myself. But I heard Leila-sama in the cadence! Did
she flip the mallets like in the band room?”

“Yep,” Ranko said as Talitha nodded in agreement. “Drummer girl is pretty tough.”

“Okay, so how do you play football?” Jessica asked, turning to look out at the field. “Are we winning?”

“Nah, nobody’s scored yet,” Ranko replied.

“How do we get some points and stuff?” Jessica asked.

“Okay, it’s pretty simple. In football, when we get the ball, we get four chances to go ten yards. Those chances are called ‘downs.’” Ranko explained as Jessica and Talitha nodded.

“So two of the white lines?” Jessica asked. Ranko nodded.

“If we get ten yards, then we get a first down and four more chances to go ten more yards,” Ranko said.

“And then we get some points?” Jessica asked hopefully. Ranko shook her head. Talitha listened carefully, analyzing everything that was happening on the field as Ranko explained.

“Nope. We have to get to the end zone to get points. All the way over at the end of the field.”

“Over there where it says Lions?” Jessica pointed.

“Yeah. If we get the ball into the end zone it’s called a touchdown and we get six points.”

“Yay! Six points!” Jessica cheered.

“Or we can kick the ball through those two yellow poles right above the end zone. If we do that, it’s called a ‘field goal’ and we get three points. We also get one chance to kick the ball after a touchdown and if we do we get an extra point.”

“Oooh, I hope we get lots of extra points,” Jessica said, looking intently at the field goal over the Lions end zone.

“The scoreboard will tell you what’s going on. Right now we have the ball and its second down with seven yards to go,” Ranko said.

“Seven yards to go till what?” Jessica asked, looking up at the scoreboard.

“A first down,” Talitha replied, straightening her glasses.

“Professor Powa!” Ranko said, jostling Talitha’s shoulder and making her smile.

“Yay!” Jessica cheered again, then noticed something on the field. “Hey!” she said, standing up indignantly. She pointed at the field and turned to Ranko. “They cheated!”

“Freshman life form,” Carl said from a few seats away. “Please take your seat and keep your hands and arms inside the car at all times.” A couple of the other saxophone players chuckled.

“Oh, gomen nasai,” Jessica said, looking over at Carl for a moment.

“This has been a public service announcement,” one of them said, causingmore of them to chuckle. Jessica sat down and looked at Ranko with a worried expression.

“Who cheated?” Talitha asked.

“Our guy was running to get more downs, right?” Jessica said. Ranko nodded. “But the other team knocked him down!”

“Yeah, that’s what they’re supposed to do. They’re on defense.” Ranko replied.

“But that’s not fair! How are we supposed to get more extra points?” Jessica protested.

Ranko realized it would be a while before Jessica Hoshi understood football.

To Be Continued in Chapter Twenty-One: Hidden Treasures

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Cici walked towards Collins Park with her fourth grade class. It was one of their science day trips. She was carrying her little bookbag over one shoulder. The park was always a fun place to visit. Cici loved the little carved white stone statues that were set along the paths that led through the verdant grounds.

She followed the other kids down the first path that led off the sidewalk and down a slight incline. A cool green canopy of leaves covered the clean light-colored stone path, and Cici could hear many birds nearby as the sound of the traffic from the nearby street subsided. She passed the familiar white ivy-covered gazebo on her left side and stopped for a moment to look at the statue of the deer next to it. Cici wished the deer would come to life. She had always wanted to see a deer for real. As she turned to continue walking, she saw a gleaming gold object hidden in the shrubs near the deer statue. As the other kids began to wander off the path to look at the various floral displays and statues, Cici stopped and took a couple of steps forward to look.

At first, Cici thought it was some kind of decoration for the gazebo and the statues around it, but it was confusing because it was hidden slightly. None of the other decorations in the park are hidden like that, Cici thought. Cici walked off the path and towards the object to get a closer look. She pushed a couple of the plants’ leaves aside and walked carefully across the soft grass. As she got closer, she saw that the sides of the object were many different colors and that there was a large gold circular handle on top of it. In the shade of the trees and plants, Cici could see the object was glowing slightly.

The gold color fascinated Cici. She had never seen anything so beautiful before. She sat down in front of it and reached out for the circular handle. She used the handle to turn the object. It was heavy, but not so heavy that Cici couldn’t lift it. As she turned it, she saw the other sides were all different colors, and seemed to be made out of very thick glass. She could almost see through the glass sides to the center of the object. The glow seemed to be coming from inside it. Then Cici’s face brightened. I know! she thought. This is a lantern!

Cici counted the sides. There were eight sides, and they were all different colors. Cici kept slowly spinning the object around, watching as the light from inside the lantern shone through each colored lens and reflected from the ground. It looked so pretty, Cici thought. It was then that she heard a voice.

“We must find the Palace in the Sky…”

Cici looked at the lantern in surprise. She peered through the orange lens and could very dimly see the shadow of a tiny person inside. It looked like a man wearing very heavy robes and a cloak. The shadow did not move, but Cici heard the voice again.

“Quickly.” The voice said faintly.

“Who are you?” Cici asked.

“I will teach you the powers of this treasure, and you must use those powers to find the Palace in the Sky. We must hurry,” the voice said.

“Powers? What kind of powers?” Cici leaned close to the lens, trying to see better who the little person was, but all that was visible was a faint shadow.

“The treasure you hold is the Chronicler’s Lantern. It is the most ancient of the Ajan Treasures, and a powerful artifact of the Realm of Aventar. With this treasure, you shall wield the powers of the Pathfinder, and have knowledge of precious metals, gems and stone,” the voice said evenly.

Cici interrupted. “How come all the sides are different colors?”

“My power is weakening. I will try to tell you what you must know to keep the Chronicler’s Lantern safe before my power is gone. A great evil seeks this treasure. Listen to my words.” Cici nodded and listened.

To Be Continued in Chapter Twenty: The Strength of the Tiniest Stone

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

“I hope Talitha’s home,” Jessica Hoshi said, happily walking alongside Ranko.

“Wow,” Ranko said, looking up and down the street at the expensive mansions. “I’ve only been to the North side of the lake a couple of times. I think these houses get more expensive every time.”

“I like my house because it’s cute,” Jessica said. “These houses are beautiful, but they look like you could get lost in them.”

“So what’s the deal with Professor Girl?” Ranko asked. “She was completely weirded out yesterday, and I didn’t see her all day, except in band. She’s got some good ideas about this whole dream situation, and that’s why I got you guys to go with me. We’ve got to get this solved.”

“I don’t know,” Jessica said. “She wouldn’t talk to me about it. She gets really quiet when she’s like that and won’t talk to anybody. I haven’t seen her much the whole week.”

“She needs more confidence” Ranko replied. “If she just had some time to think about it, she’d have the whole problem solved in like two minutes. You should have seen all that stuff she wrote at Doubler’s. Looked like my math homework but in a different language. It was way out there.”

Just then, Jessica and Ranko rounded the corner to Talitha’s street, and Jessica saw Alanna and Shannon waiting for them near the iron fence next to the sidewalk.

“Ladies!” Ranko shouted. Both girls turned and waved.

“Hiiiiiii Shannon-sama and Alanna-sama!” Jessica shouted happily.

Shannon smiled. Jessica was such a goof, she thought. A moment later, Jessica and Ranko ran up to the two older girls.

“Hey Hoshi, how are you guys doing?” Shannon asked.

“Everything’s cool, Miss Shannon” Ranko said, “but we’re sort of worried about Professor Girl. We haven’t seen her much like all week. I talked to her a few days ago and she had some important stuff to say about these dreams we’re all having. We need to team up here, and quick.”

“How come you call her Shannon, but everyone else with a nickname?” Jessica asked.

“Because Miss Shannon’s not a Goofy Bird,” Ranko said, punching Jessica lightly on the shoulder.

“Hey!” Jessica exclaimed, putting her hand on her hips.

“I think Talitha lives on this street,” Alanna said. “I haven’t been up here very much though. Isn’t North Shore Gardens near here?”

“Yeah, it’s over there,” Ranko pointed towards the corner at the end of the street. “On the other side of that intersection if you walk down the shore the dock is right there, and the shops are on the other side of the street.”

“I hope Talitha is feeling better,” Shannon said quietly as the four girls began walking down the shaded sidewalk.

“Today I got to the corner early to see if Talitha was going to be there so we could walk together,” Jessica nodded. “She hasn’t been there all week.”

“She’s been in school,” Shannon replied. “I know I saw her at band practice, even though she’s always off practicing with the drummers.”

“I wonder why she won’t talk to us any more,” Jessica said. “She seemed like she was having fun at Doubler’s. Maybe it’s all my fault,” Jessica said. “I hope I didn’t make her mad.”

“It’s not your fault, Hoshi,” Shannon said. “You didn’t say anything that would make her mad.”

“She seemed more mad at herself than anyone else,” Ranko offered.

“Huh?” Jessica asked.

“She was crying after she threw all her books down on the sidewalk,” Ranko continued.

“Okay, now I’m really worried about her,” Shannon said.

“Me too Shannon-sama,” Jessica agreed.

Just then, Alanna pointed at the driveway of a large house across the street from where the four girls were walking. Talitha was running towards them!

“Talitha-chan!” Jessica exclaimed. The girls looked both ways, then ran across the street to meet her. As they got closer, however, they could tell Talitha was still troubled. She had a worried look on her face, and she looked very tired, as if she hadn’t been sleeping at all.

“Talitha-chan, what’s wrong?” Jessica asked.

“I saw it, Jessica. I saw Goldenwood. There was a voice there, and the trees could talk. A voice said I had to find the treasure because a great evil had come to the land. I have to protect them, Jessica.” Talitha spoke quickly but insistently.

“You had another dream,” Ranko said. Talitha nodded.

“I knew someone was trying to talk to me, but this was the first time I actually heard a voice. Before it was just these lights floating over a pool, and words on a piece of parchment. They’re in trouble, Ranko. They’re afraid, just like we are.” Talitha looked down at the sidewalk.

“So what is it? We all keep having these different dreams all in different places. What’s the connection?” Alanna asked. “Every night I have the same dream and wake up at exactly the same moment in the dream, right after I see the chalice in the pool.”

“Before the last dream I had, I always woke up next to the footbridge that crosses Swifty River. Even if the first part of the dream was different. Every time I saw the bridge, I woke up,” Talitha said.

“But then you said that you saw something different in this dream, right?” Jessica asked. Talitha nodded.

“It’s like a game,” Ranko said. Everyone looked at her at the same time. “Can’t you see? The bridge and the pool and my cave entrance. They’re all the same. They’re all like these doorways.” Ranko said.

“What do you mean?” Alanna said. “A doorway?” Ranko nodded.

“I don’t mean like a real door. But like… you can’t go past a certain place and then you wake up. My dream is the same as yours, boss. I’m walking on this beach and the ocean is really loud and there’s storm clouds and thunder and noise everywhere. And in the distance, there’s like this cave made of rocks. Like the shore is a cave next to the ocean. I don’t know the word for it.” Ranko rolled her eyes trying to think of the word and snapped her fingers a couple of times.

“It’s a cove…” Talitha said quietly.

“Yeah! That’s our Professor!” Ranko bumped Talitha’s arm. “A cove!”

“Anyway there’s this cove,” Ranko said, “but there’s these stone containers that are carved into the sides of the cove and each of them has a different amount of ocean water in them. It looks like they work together or something but I can’t figure it out. Then I see a real dark cave entrance, and just before I walk into the cave I always wake up.” Ranko clenched her fists.

“Made me mad last time too because I wanted to see what was in the cave, and when I woke up I knocked my bats over because I threw my snow goggles at them.” Ranko laughed at Jessica and Shannon who were looking at her with surprised expressions. “Hey, I was frustrated. It was like the five millionth time I’ve had that stupid dream.”

“What if we all get past these doorways Ranko says are in our dreams?” Shannon asked. “Like I think I have to get that scribe guy to let me go to Starlight Vale and then maybe I’ll get to see what Hayashi saw.” Jessica noticed Talitha look up when Shannon said the word “scribe.”

“What is it?” Jessica asked Talitha.

“I talked to the ‘Scribe-Craftsman’ of Goldenwood,” Talitha said. “That’s who told me about the ‘great evil.’” Shannon nodded.

“The guy I talked to was the ‘Scribe-Footman’ of Starlight Vale, I think.” Jessica looked at Ranko and Alanna. “Did you guys talk to Scribe guys?” They both shook their heads no.

“I think the guy I talked to was a ghost. I saw this little girl too and she was crying because she didn’t know where her dad was. I also talked to this girl with this really dark cape. She said everything I saw was a reflection,” Jessica said.

“Reflection..” Alanna said.

“We’re all having the same dreeeeeeeams!!” Shannon clenched her teeth and tilted her head back, growling in frustration. “What is going on?!?!” Ranko jumped back into a playful kung-fu pose and voiced a high pitched “ooowaaahh” sound.

“Careful there, Miss Shannon,” Ranko said, lifting one eyebrow. “Don’t get all dangerous on us now.” Jessica giggled.

Talitha looked up. “I have a theory,” she stated.

“Yeah!!” Ranko shouted, lifting both fists into the air. “Finally! The Professor checks in for the ninth inning!”

“I’m almost certain now that these ’scribes,’ whoever they are, are tryting to warn us about something. We’ve seen that all of our dreams are similar and consistent.” The other girls nodded.

“Every dream has a different place. Ranko’s cove. My forest. Alanna’s waterfall. I think every dream is trying to tell us something by making us get past the door that Ranko talked about. Once past, I think everyone will find the same type of place I found. Maybe you’ll all get shields too, I don’t know.”

“That’s it!” Shannon said. “You said you had to find Goldenwood. The scribe guy said I would find Starlight Vale! Are those the same kind of place?” Shannon asked excitedly. “You guys will find places like that too, except you just don’t know the names yet, right?”

Alanna shook her head. “There’s nobody to talk to in my dreams. I don’t know what the waterfall or the fortress is called.” Ranko folded her arms.

“Nobody home at the cave either. I’d call it the ‘weird-city cave of water whatever’ but somehow I don’t think the scribe dudes would like that name.” Shannon turned to Jessica.

“What about you, Hoshi?” Jessica shook her head.

“I don’t know. My dreams are more confusing than you guys. There’s all kinds of people to talk to but they all say different stuff. I can go almost anywhere, and I always wake up at different times.”

“So much for the perfect theory,” Alanna said.

“Oh man, and we were so close too,” Ranko said, kicking at the air in frustration.

“Yeah but guys, we made a lot of progress, you know?” Shannon said.

“That’s true,” Ranko said. “Good to see the Professor is back in action.” Ranko bumped Talitha’s arm again, making her smile.

“Hey man, if you guys have any problems or need to talk about this, I’m there. Just give me a call.” The other girls all nodded. “We need to pitch in for each other because this is too weird.”

“You guys wanna come over tomorrow?” Jessica asked. “We can do homework together or something. I hope we don’t have any more dreams but if we do we can talk about them.” Shannon nodded.

“Yeah, we should try to spend more time talking about this. The more we figure out the less weird these dreams will be,” Shannon said. All the other girls nodded.

“Great!” Jessica smiled. “I’ll get my mom to make cinnamon oatmeal cookies this time!” Ranko gave Jessica a high-five.

“Sounds good. I’ll be there early so I can steal everyone else’s cookies!” Ranko crept away as if she were stealing something. The other girls all laughed.

To Be Continued in Chapter Nineteen: The Little Man in the Lantern

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Talitha Hayashi awoke from a dreamless sleep to the sight of the leaves of a darkened tree far overhead, swaying lightly in a crisp, warm wind.

A storm is coming, Talitha thought. Then she frowned, confused by having drawn such a conclusion even though the sky looked completely clear, if slightly gray.

Talitha sat up and looked around. I’m here again, she thought. This is the same place I was lost before. She was surrounded on all sides by huge maple and oak trees.

I’m not afraid, Talitha thought. She looked over her shoulder, fixing on one particular tree. She looked at it for a moment, then frowned again.

Everything will be alright now, Talitha thought. She looked to her right. Another tree stood there, it’s shadowy branches moving as the wind gusts gently nudged them each in turn.

“I have to find Goldenwood,” Talitha said out loud as the wind suddenly caught some of the leaves on the ground and threw them down a simple dirt path. Talitha looked in the direction of the leaves and saw that the path led directly into the forest in front of her.

Hurry, Talitha thought as she ran to the edge of the clearing. She turned and looked back at the trees in the small grove she had just left. She frowned again. Then she ran into the forest.

She was driven by a need to understand, by a need for more information. As the young girl ran along the lightly marked path, she passed dozens and dozens of huge trees. Grey and brown trunks. Green, yellow, gold and brown leaves. Dozens of branches. Pine needles and leaves littered the ground in all directions.

A dark gray sky covered the leaves of the trees in a thick, stuffy warmth. To a distant observer, Talitha’s tiny form would have seemed insignificant among the mighty thickets and forests of trees that stood guard over her course.

Let her pass, Talitha thought. She stopped suddenly.

“That wasn’t me,” she whispered to herself.

“Who’s there?” she said. Dozens of trees stood there as if they were regarding her question. Talitha turned and looked behind her. Trees stretched into the darkness all the way up the side of a low hill.

Maybe she’ll tell us a story, Talitha thought as she turned back around. She gasped.

“Who are you?” Talitha said out loud. She waited. Only the wind answered her. “Answer me!” she shouted abruptly, startled by her own voice. The wind seemed to react to her outburst with a strong gust. “I’m tired of this!” Talitha shouted again. “Do you hear me?!? I want this to stop right now!!!” Talitha screamed, stamping her foot as tears began to form in her eyes. She stood there on the verge of crying, staring at the trees, growing more frustrated at their silence.

Everything will be alright now, she thought. Talitha took a step back as a chill went up her spine.

“Huh?” she said out loud. “Who are you talking to?” she asked, not even knowing who she was asking. The trees stood silently as she brushed the tears from her face. Talitha looked up into the gray sky as the first hints of clouds began to swirl past the leaves.
She looked deep into the grove of trees nearest the path. So many of them, Talitha thought, and she couldn’t help but smile a little. The wind swirled through the branches of the trees near the path again.

The branches were pulled slightly in the direction of the gusts, and the leaves whispered, adding their sound to the low hum of the wind.

A storm is coming, Talitha thought. She smiled again.

“I know,” Talitha replied.

The next gust of wind carried a whispery voice that Talitha could just hear say “tell us a story.” She looked around for the source of the voice but couldn’t see anything except the trees.

“What?” she asked, somewhat embarassed at the thought of taliking to nobody.

“Please?” another gust asked softly, as if carried on the wind. “We want to hear your voice.”

“How can you hear my voice?” Talitha asked. “Trees and plants can’t hear.” After several moments of silence the voice returned with the next soft push of crisp air from the wind.

“Please come sit among us and tell us a story.”

Talitha stood there on the path, completely amazed. She was having a conversation with a forest. Her curiosity was piqued, however, and she took a couple of tentative steps towards the trees.

Dozens of voices seemed to converge in her mind.

“I’m glad,” one said. “She’s going to stay with us!” a delighted voice exclaimed. I’m not afraid of the storm any more, another said.

“Oh my goodness.” Talitha looked up as the sky darkened. A cloud had begun to obscure the moon. She slowly walked off the path and into the forest itself. The ground was very soft and covered with a shallow blanket of leaves and small twigs. She held her arms close to her body and looked around apprehensively. Talitha had never been especially afraid of the dark, but she had also never heard voices in the wind either.

Talitha looked to her left and saw a small patch of grass under a large gray tree with a thick canopy of leaves. She walked over and sat down, leaning her shoulders against the dry, stone-like trunk and folding her hands neatly in her lap. The forest seemed to be listening, and waiting.

The air should be colder, Talitha thought. A few moments ago, the breezes were slowly gathering into a stiff, biting wind, but the small grassy patch was quite warm, like the inside of a fireplace-heated cabin. The forest extended to the horizon in every direction. Most of the trees seemed quite ancient.

Talitha leaned to one side as she looked up. The tops of the trees were not visible from the ground. A few saplings and younger trees were scattered amongst the taller ones. It appeared to be just at the beginning of the Fall. The leaves covered a spectrum of yellows, oranges and browns. Talitha just sat and watched, entranced by her peaceful surroundings. Once again she got the sensation the forest seemed to be waiting for something.

Are they waiting for me? Talitha thought.

“What should I say?” Talitha asked out loud. Moments passed. The trees did not answer right away like before. The sound of very distant thunder crept into the forest slowly, as if trying to conceal itself. It rolled across the horizon behind Talitha, from her right to her left.

I’m not afraid, Talitha thought.

“Where is Goldenwood?” Talitha asked out loud. More time passed. Talitha waited patiently for an answer, presuming that if the forest had a voice, perhaps it knew the surroundings as well. Suddenly, she heard a tapping sound to her left. She jumped and looked quickly to see what it was.

Another tapping sound caused a brown curled leaf to move slightly. Then another did the same thing nearby. Then another. The sound was being made by raindrops falling on the leaves. The sounds began to combine and soon a soft rain began to fall across the forest.

“Should I tell you about Geology?” Talitha asked, grasping for anything from which to make a story.

“Is Geology a King?” came the answer. “Or is he a mighty warrior?” asked a different voice. “Or is she a beautiful princess?” asked a third.

Talitha just looked around as the rain pelted the fallen leaves softly. It seemed that there were dozens of different voices.

“No no no, Geology is the study of the Earth: rocks, continents and mountain ranges.” Talitha replied.

Talitha thought they might be confused now.

Then a voice asked “are there many trees like us in the mountain ranges?” Talitha smiled. The trees were trying to understand her.

“Yes, there are many trees like you in the mountains, especially on the sides where rain falls because of the weather patterns.”

“What happens to the trees like us?” another voice asked. Talitha began to explain the relationship between the geology of mountain ranges, weather patterns and foliage growth. Each time she completed a sentence, a different voice would ask “what happened then?”

As the rain fell, sometimes briskly, sometimes less so, Talitha sat under the huge oak and talked quietly to the forest as the storm passed overhead.

“And so that’s why weather patterns and mountains help forests and other plants grow,” she said, completing her short introductory lecture.

“Can you believe there are so many trees like us?” one of the voices asked. The others began to answer. It seemed as if Talitha had started a lively conversation. She sat and listened as the trees discussed what she had told them. She could pick out a few words here and there, and it seemed many of the trees were delighted to learn about others like them.

“You’re a worthy storyteller,” a voice finally said. “You must pen these tales. The tales of Geology, mightiest King of the Mountain Forests!” Talitha’s eyes widened for a moment, and then she laughed. She stopped herself, realizing she had completely forgotten her shyness. She looked down suddenly, tightening her hands together. The voices had quieted.

“Your voice brings peace among us,” a gentle wind whispered. At that precise moment, Talitha noticed something different out of the corner of her eye. She stood up to look and noticed a stone path just down a slight grade a short distance to her left.

“Is this where I’m supposed to go? Is this Goldenwood?” Talitha asked. The voices had subsided. It was indeed peaceful.

Talitha looked down the smooth stone path. She noticed especially vibrant-looking green grass growing along each edge of the walkway. Slowly and with measured steps, Talitha began to walk down the slight grade towards the path. She had no idea where she was going or why.

Talitha stopped after a few steps and adjusted her glasses. There was not a single sound from the trees. Everything in the forest seemed to be waiting for something.

“Hello?” Talitha said quietly. “Hello?” she said again, even quieter. Even the wind dared not answer this time.

Talitha continued along the path, taking each step tentatively. She wondered if she would find the pool again, or whomever might have written the scroll. She wondered what the words she had read meant.

After walking some distance, Talitha stopped, thinking perhaps she had heard something. A slow, heavy breeze caused the tops of the huge trees along each side of the path to rustle slightly. Talitha looked up, wondering why she couldn’t hear anything else. Just then, she heard something from the base of the path.

Talitha turned around and gasped.

Along each side of the stone path, bright gold flowers had grown right up to the point where Talitha was standing.

“Those weren’t there before!” Talitha exclaimed out loud. “What did I do? What’s happening?”

A strong and beautifully deep voice answered from all around her.

“The ancient sentinels of Goldenwood have chosen their Champion.”

Talitha turned around again, then shrank back as her shyness caught up with her. She clasped her hands behind her back and looked down at her feet, allowing her hair to completely cover her face. She hoped whoever it was wouldn’t notice her.

“Behold your sanctuary, maiden Talitha,” the voice said gently. “The tallest and most ancient of the trees in these gardens, the sentinels, trees that lived when this garden was first planted, have prepared a place for you where you need not be afraid, for you have taken the fear from them in their time of need.”

Talitha looked up very slightly. She wanted to say it had been no trouble. She wanted to reassure the trees they neednt repay her for simply waiting with them in the rain, but she could not form the words to answer. There was so much she suddenly wanted to say, but she could only listen.

“In this place, no harm shall come to you. The Willow Lights that led you across Swifty River saw your compassion and your gentleness. Even the golden flowers growing along this path know the great love in your heart, and they have returned your gift with their many blooms.”

“Who are you?” Talitha finally asked, her voice a nearly inaudible whisper.

“I am the Scribe Craftsman of Goldenwood. I have tended these gardens and told them of the gentle voice they would hear one day. I told them of a maiden that one day would hear their voices, and would tell them wondrous stories of distant places.”

“So… the words on the scroll were true?” Talitha finally looked up, surprised by the suddenly obvious.

“Yes, maiden Talitha. You have known it from the beginning. This place you have sought since you first read my words.”

“Where are you?” Talitha began looking around. “Why can’t I see you?”

The voice hesitated. Talitha waited patiently, looking through a nearby stand of maple trees across the banks of a gloriously clear pond. Dancing over the water were dozens and dozens of little floating lights just like the ones Talitha had seen before. They must be the Willow Lights, she thought.

“A great evil has come to the land, Storyteller,” the voice finally replied. “For this reason, we cannot take our true forms. None of us can. Our greatest treasure, the shield which bears the symbol of our greatest and most ancient life, may be forever lost to us.”

Talitha was concerned. What seemed to be such a peaceful, happy place seemed to be caught under a shroud of sorrow.

“For ten thousand years these gardens have bloomed here in peace. These most ancient of sentinels have seen kingdoms rise and fall. They have watched over the land from which they themselves grew, and cast their mighty boughs to protect others,” the voice said wistfully. Talitha looked up into the canopy of leaves overhead.

“But their once strong voices have faded. There are no words in the forests to comfort the new trees. They are alone. They call out into the gardens, hoping to hear a comforting answer, but there are none left to answer. None have the strength. There is only pain.”

Talitha could sense the terrible fear, the awful coldness of absence. With nobody to protect them, the young trees were bitterly afraid of every dark moment, every storm and every nightfall. Talitha’s reached out to comfort them with her heart. She yearned to know where this lost treasure might be found.

“They are dying,” the voice said. “All of them.”

A cold weight settled on Talitha’s heart.

“The ancient sentinels have given the last of their strength, the last fading beauty of the once great springs of renewal to protect and care for you, because you have cared for their children. What little is left of Goldenwood’s power is given to you, that you might bring hope where there is now only suffering.”

Talitha felt tears on her face.

To Be Continued in Chapter Seventeen: Doorways to Destiny

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Classes at Tree Shores High School had been dismissed for at least an hour when Talitha Hayashi rounded the back fence near the athletic field. She looked up for only a moment to look down the length of the empty sidewalk.

Seeing no one, she looked back down and began walking along the route home, towards the quad and the familiar corner she passed every morning on the way to band practices.

The street was completely deserted. Not even a single car was visible in the quiet neighborhood behind the campus. She walked with her head down and her hands together under a small bundle of geology books which she held at her waist. She was troubled.

Her active, brilliant mind was fighting itself in a painful struggle to understand the ominous images from her dreams. Especially the screaming… That awful screaming…

She shook her head, whispering to herself. It didn’t make her feel any better. She felt a wave of frustration. She had no answers, and this only added to her pain. I can always find the answers, she thought. Why should this be any different? She was close to despair.

She blinked and was surprised by tears resting on her eyelashes just as someone shouted from behind her.

“Hey! Professor!”

Talitha turned and saw someone round the same corner she had passed, but this time at considerable speed…

Ranko Yorozu skillfully executed a perfect skate-over-skate power turn at the end of the fence and leaped into the air, using the cement incline at the edge of the driveway as a ramp. She floated for a moment in mid-air, then landed again, gliding along swiftly with powerful strides of her balanced competition hockey blades. She was again dressed in her favorite red Knights jersey and a complete set of white safety equipment: geared up for speed.

Talitha turned and hastened towards the corner, brushing desperately under her glasses to wipe away her tears. She fumbled under the glasses and sniffled as she hurried down the sidewalk.

Suddenly, Ranko skidded sideways to a precision stop right in front of Talitha. The shorter girl gasped and jumped at the loud sound of the hard wheels against the concrete of the sidewalk, almost dropping her books.

“Hey,” Ranko said, exhaling heavily as Talitha struggled to recover some semblance of composure.

Talitha just turned away, still sniffling and brushing at her face. Ranko was confused because she hadn’t seen or spoken to Talitha at all in several days.

“You’ve made yourself pretty scarce this week there, Professor. What’s up?”

“I– I don’t know..” Talitha said quietly as she quickly walked past Ranko towards the corner. Ranko turned and slowly gave chase, rolling along next to Talitha as she kept her head down and her books tightly clutched to her body.

Ranko watched Talitha closely. She seems preoccupied with something, Ranko thought. “Any more clues on those dreams we told you about?” Ranko said, only seeming to cause Talitha to walk faster. “Professor?” Ranko persisted.

“I don’t know. Please…” Talitha answered, slowing down slightly.

“…please leave me alone.” Talitha hurried ahead.

Ranko stopped and called after Talitha, raising her voice slightly.

“Of all the people I know, I’d have expected you to know something about all this!” Talitha stopped suddenly. Ranko waited, still standing a few yards away. Talitha just stood there, staring at the sidewalk. Ranko wondered what she was going to do.

Suddenly, Talitha threw all her books down on the sidewalk. Then, as if startled by her own actions, put her hands up to cover her mouth for a moment, then covered her face.

Ranko was startled for a moment, and suddenly self-conscious. What did I say? Ranko thought to herself. She slowly rolled over to where Talitha was standing, and, with perfect balance,knelt down on her rollerblades to gather the scattered books. As she did so, she heard Talitha crying quietly.

Ranko looked up and saw Talitha standing with her hands completely covering her face. She finished stacking the books and stood back up, still perfectly maintaining her balance on the narrow rollerblades.

“Here’s you go, Professor. Good as new,” Ranko said quietly, offering them as she spoke. Talitha didn’t react right away, but eventually began to brush her face again. After a moment, she gingerly reached out and took the books from Ranko.

“Thank you,” Talitha said very quietly, sniffling and speaking with a raspy voice, keeping her head down. She allowed the books to fall sideways and held them with both hands at her waist, a manuever as well practiced and precise as any of Ranko’s rollerblading skills.

Ranko put her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “Are you going to be ok?” she asked, unsure about what to say for fear of upsetting Talitha further. Talitha just nodded, turning her head reflexively to hide behind her hair.

“Talitha,” Ranko said.

Talitha looked up, noticing that Ranko had called her by name for the first time.

“What’s going on?” Ranko asked, curiosity flashing in her intense green eyes. Talitha looked away immediately, aware of Ranko’s gaze, but constrained by habit not to meet it. She hesitated as the unbidden dark images of her nightmare began swirling out of her memory again.

Then she looked back down and shook her head. “No,” she said. “I can’t. I…” Talitha just kept shaking her head, believing desperately that she could make it go away by sheer physical activity. “I’m afraid…” she said, defeated, pushing the nightmare images towards the back of her mind

“Me too,” Ranko said. “I’ve seen stuff in these dreams I don’t want to see again,” Ranko continued. “But we can beat this thing if we work together. We’ve got to beat this thing!”

Talitha felt tears stinging her eyes once again. Teardrops fell on the lenses of her glasses as she blinked to try and hold them back. She reached up and took the glasses off, sniffling. She wasn’t a competitor. She wasn’t familiar with the concept of opposing a challenge.

Talitha Hayashi preferred to retreat into the comfort of the familiar: the words in her books and the facts in her mind, shielding herself from the anxious and the unfamiliar. Talitha sought to address an obstacle by analyzing it, then finding a brilliant way of sidestepping it, rendering it harmless by logic and fact.

But the mystery of these dreams was persistent, and Talitha’s mind had instantly concluded it must be faced, and soon. She was most concerned about the lack of facts, because without them, she felt powerless.

Ranko, on the other hand, was frustrated by inaction. She wanted answers, and now, even if she had to fight to get them. The two girls couldn’t have been more opposite.

As Talitha continued struggling with her tears, Ranko reached out and gently took her glasses, pulling a handkerchief from her own pocket.

Talitha followed the glasses with her hand for an instant, but then returned to holding her books. She stood there, feeling quite vulnerable. She was never without her glasses. They were just as much a part of her as her hands. She had been wearing them since the age of five.

“My dad always told me to carry a handkerchief.” Ranko chuckled, trying to make her feel better as she cleaned the clear lenses. “Here,” Ranko said, offering the thinly-framed, delicate glasses back to Talitha.

Talitha began slowly walking towards the corner as Ranko rolled along beside her.

“What if I’m wrong?” Talitha asked rhetorically.

Ranko didn’t really know the answer to that question. The idea of Talitha being wrong was so far outside Ranko’s experience that she actually had to concentrate to imagine it.

“No way,” Ranko said reflexively, realizing that her answer wasn’t very impressive to her shy friend.

As they arrived at the back courtyard, the answer flashed into Ranko’s mind. Talitha had a confidence problem! Now Ranko could employ her own trademark brand of encouragement: the team captain.

“Hey, Professor. Let me tell you a story.” Talitha looked up, curious. Ranko started her story, pointing at Talitha.

“You probably don’t know it, but you’re just like Tara, our left wing last year. She was tough; the only other girl in the league, and she was unstoppable until about a month before the playoffs.” Talitha listened intently as Ranko continued.

“When they picked the teams, they put us both on the Knights, thinking that would make our team easy to beat. Boy, was that a mistake,” Ranko smiled mischeviously.

“Anyway, she had a goal in every game during the season, but then she went cold. She missed shots in a couple of games, and we lost. Then she just stopped shooting at all, even when she was open.” Ranko said as she finished folding the handkerchief and put her hands back in her pockets.

“She lost all her confidence. It was pretty intense there for a while,” Ranko said. “So I told her we needed her for the playoffs and stuff, you know, to try and build her back up.” Ranko spoke enthusiastically as Talitha nodded.

“But Tara said she didn’t want to be the reason we lost again, and that we might miss the playoffs if we lost any more games.” Ranko gestured with both hands outstretched to emphasize her point. “So I told her if she doesn’t shoot, we might not win any more games either!” Then she put her hands back in her pockets, lowering her voice slightly and directing her next comment at Talitha.
“And I’ve got to tell you the same thing.”

Talitha’s eyes widened. Ranko had made a brilliant point.

“Nobody can figure out this stuff like you can. Like that equation stuff with the singulars or whatever those dweebs were talking about at the pizza place,” Ranko winked.

Talitha looked down, smiling slightly.

“You’ve got all that stuff dialed in, Professor. You got the tools and you got the talent. You probably got a whole house full of books and computers and slide rules and charts and graphs. Girl, you could probably fly to the moon right out of your front yard,” Ranko laughed.

As Talitha listened, she visualized everything Ranko was saying, images far more comforting than her nightmares: her perfectly indexed reference books in her room. Her self-programmed computer. Her special keepsake wall chart of the solar system…

“You gotta go with what you’re best at,” Ranko smiled, then winked. “And hey, even if you don’t get a hundred percent of it, you’ll be way ahead of the rest of us.” Ranko said as Talitha looked back up.

“We need you,” Ranko said sincerely. “We can’t win without you.”

Talitha absorbed Ranko’s words carefully. Talitha concluded that Ranko was right, but her eyes betrayed the fear she felt. Realizing her visible outward appearance of concern, Talitha looked back down to try and hide her suffering, but Ranko was more perceptive than Talitha thought. Ranko knew exactly what it felt like to be afraid, since she had experienced similar nightmares.

If I could just make the connection for one other person, Talitha thought to herself, maybe I can gain sufficient insight… Then, Talitha suddenly looked back up. She had made up her mind. She sighed and looked past Ranko, staring at nothing in particular.

“I think we’re all in danger,” Talitha Hayashi said in an eerie monotone.

Ranko felt her stomach muscles tense slightly. Talitha’s voice sounded out of place, as if she were talking with someone else’s words or voice.

Talitha finally shifted her gaze back to Ranko, looking her directly in the eye for just a moment until her shy nature caught up with her sudden inspiration. She looked back down at her shoes, tightening her grip on the science books. She spoke unevenly and haltingly.

“I… I can’t be sure, but I think someone is trying to communicate with me in my dreams.”

Ranko’s eyes widened as she heard these familiar thoughts.

“Someone is insistently trying to communicate a warning to all of us. Everyone except Cecilia.”

Ranko was amazed at Talitha’s words. She took a deep breath, hesitated uncharacteristically for a moment, then exhaled heavily, closing her eyes. Her feisty nature reasserted itself as her eyes opened and flashed with a renewed and intense concern for her new friends.

“We’ve got to tell the others, first thing tomorrow.”

Talitha silently nodded once in agreement as they turned the corner towards the north shore of the lake.

“Gotta book, professor. I’m sure we’re going to make a comeback: We’ve got a ‘go to’ player now!” Ranko slapped Talitha on the shoulder to encourage her, almost knocking her down as she lunged powerfully in the other direction on her rollerblades and glided away towards the downtown area.

“Bye, Ranko,” Talitha said quietly, holding her shoulder after regaining her balance. She watched Ranko skate down the sidewalk into the dusky evening until she was gone, and then turned to continue walking home.

To Be Continued in Chapter Seventeen: And a Gentle Voice Shall Be Heard

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Jessica Hoshi awoke from a dreamless sleep to find herself in yet another desolate wasteland. The air was as still as it could be. There was no sound except that of a distant wind. She was alone.

Alone, just like before, Jessica thought. But it was different now, as if the land had resigned itself to the darkness that enveloped it. In her other dreams, there was the fire of conflict. Now, there was only an uneasy quiet.

She sat up and saw she was wearing her band t-shirt and jeans and favorite yellow shoes. The mist on the ground looked like the far side of the clouds in a night sky. She stood up and looked around. It was like she was walking on air. She took a few tentative steps and breathed a sigh of relief as she found the ground solid under the mist. For a moment she thought she might fall if she moved. Now I’ve got to find my way out of this place, she thought.

Jessica heard the nearby wailing sound of a child crying, which was almost instantly drowned out by a sudden gust of sharp icy-cold wind. She remembered her previous nightmares, where she couldn’t quite be sure what she was hearing. It was as if the wind arrived just in time to try and conceal the child’s voice, but Jessica was sure this time.

Someone was here with her.

She wasn’t quite sure why, but Jessica suddenly became very angry. If something was making a little child cry here, she was going to do something about it! She began walking quickly towards where she thought she had first heard the sound. The wind began to resist, pulling at Jessica with frozen gusts, but she was determined.

After only a few dozen yards, Jessica saw a huge structure begin to emerge from within the fog. She stopped, unsure whether to continue, or whether something might be waiting inside. She recalled the battle she had seen, and immediately became apprehensive. What if those monsters come back? she thought.

Jessica very slowly began to approach the building and the wind swirled past once again, carrying the unmistakable sound of a little girl sobbing. Jessica was sure she heard a voice speaking, and a tiny voice calling for “daddy.” The sound was coming from the direction of the huge structure.

“Who’s there?!” Jessica cried. The building was only a short distance away. Maybe if she ran fast enough, she might be able to find the lost child this time! I’ve got to hurry! Jessica thought.

The Lithic Pavilion

Her breath short, Jessica stopped running as soon as the pavilion came into clearer view. It was the same building, but this time she could see no people. The building appeared dark and abandoned. Even the water no longer reflected from its ceiling.

Jessica ran as fast as she could to the steps of the massive structure and looked up into the interior of the pavilion. From this vantage point she couldn’t see very much, and just as she placed her hands on the step to start to climb, she heard another wailing echo from immediately to her left.

She turned and ran around the circular path of the lowest step to the left side of the building and stopped. There was nothing there. At that exact moment, Jessica felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Someone, or something… was watching her.
Jessica whirled around and froze. Floating in mid air next to the steps was what appeared to be a little girl rubbing her eyes. She was wearing a bright yellow dress with white trim around the collar and sleeves and had blond hair and little brown slipper-like shoes. She sniffled once and asked in a crystal clear, yet tiny wavering voice, “Do you know where my daddy is?”

Jessica held her breath and shook her head no quickly. The little girl started to cry again, putting her other hand up to cover her face. Jessica suddenly felt sad.

“Don’t cry,” Jessica said. “It’ll be okay. We’ll find him together.”

The little girl suddenly looked over her shoulder as if she had heard something, and then literally blinked out, vanishing into the mist. Moments later, Jessica heard crying again from the other side of the building, but the sound was getting quieter, as if she were running away.

Jessica ran as fast as she could around the front steps of the pavilion to try and find her again. The sound of crying had disappeared completely by now, but Jessica was sure she had run this way.

As Jessica ran away from the steps and towards the misshapen trees, she heard a rustling sound from above, followed by a piercing cry. Startled, she stopped and looked up to see a magnificent peregrine falcon sitting in the brittle branches about 20 feet overhead. It’s white-yellow eyes stared directly into Jessica’s gaze, and its wings were held slightly to each side, as if it were preparing to leap towards Jessica.

“That’s far enough.” Jessica heard a voice sharp with authority and a slight tone of hostility. Standing in Jessica’s path was the shrouded girl.

“Where did she go? What did you do with her!?” Jessica asked insistently.

“It is too dangerous for you to remain here. You must leave,” the even voice replied.

Jessica hesitated, wondering what might happen if the little girl were caught in another battle like the one she had seen before.

“You’ve been warned,” the warrior said, her gaze locked on Jessica’s as she drew one of the sleek swords from over her shoulder and turned slightly to one side, slowly and carefully pulling her cape from over her opposite shoulder, freeing both of her arms. The sound of the mysterious warrior’s voice sent chills up Jessica’s spine, and she heard the falcon rustle behind her, sounding a low cry of its own.

Jessica was scared by the threatening stance of the shadowy warrior and ran back to the steps of the pavilion. She just wanted to help, and she didn’t understand why she couldn’t keep looking for the little girl. Jessica hoped she was okay.

Looking back, Jessica saw the cloaked warrior had disappeared as well. She was alone again.

Jessica was confused and started to feel like she wanted to cry too. She hated this place, and wanted to go home.

But then Jessica thought she should be strong. She composed herself and yelled towards where the warrior had been standing. “I just wanted to help!!”

There was no answer. Jessica slowly turned and walked in the other direction, wondering if she would be able to find her way in the swirling mist. She slowly left the pavilion behind as she walked into the distance.

Jessica trudged along, thinking about the lost little girl. She couldn’t help being concerned. It was the same voice. The one from nearly all her nightmares.

Finally Jessica looked up and saw shapes emerging from the thick fog. It looked as if huge hewn stones were growing directly out of the ground. There seemed to be dozens of them scattered into the distance. They were all roughly square-shaped at their base and each seemed about twice Jessica’s height. Jessica looked back and noticed she had walked so far she couldn’t see the pavilion any more.

She began to walk through the collection of massive silent stones looking up at each as she passed. The air was very still and heavy, and there was the scent of wet leaves slowly getting stronger. and Jessica could hear no sounds. The strangest thing about this place, she thought, is that it was almost always completely silent. There were no insect sounds, no wind, and no animal noises.

Slowly the air began to take on a slight orange tinge. A brightness gradually emerged from the mist as Jessica picked her way through the maze of square stone columns. She could smell something burning as she approached what seemed to be the source of the flickering yellow-orange light.

Finally Jessica rounded one of the columns to find a campfire burning on the ground about 10 feet away. A grove of trees was visible nearby, beyond the edge of the columns.

The mist was almost overwhelmingly thick here, emphasizing the cramped feeling between the huge, monoliths which formed a forest of sorts in all directions.

Sitting on a dark log next to the fire was a person dressed in a dark brown robe with a hood covering their face. Jessica hesitated for a moment, unsure whether the person posed any danger.

“Are you just going to stand there?” a deep voice asked, the sound surrounding Jessica on all sides. She jumped, startled at the sudden sound.

“You scared me!” she said, a slight tone of annoyance in her voice.

“Are you a traveler?” a man’s voice asked from under the unmoving hood. The man looked up for a moment, then looked back down, tending to the fire with a small wooden stick.

“Where is your walking stick?” he asked. “Surely you haven’t set upon a journey without a staff to mark your path?”

Jessica didn’t answer. Staff? Walking stick? she thought.

“Hmm,” the man shook his head. “Then you must be a thief. Shame to set upon a wanton path at such an early age.”

“I’m not a thief!” Jessica snapped, putting her hands on her hips.

“I have nothing of value. I can only offer you my fire and my water. I am a traveler from the north of Chaer. Please join me for a time.”

As Jessica hesitantly relaxed, sitting on another log near the fire, she picked up a small, polished yellow stone from the ground near the log, examining the crude symbol of two wings and a sword carved into it’s smooth surface.

“What does this symbol mean?” she asked. The man looked and then turned back to the fire.

“That is a symbol of suffering. Pay it no mind.”

“Suffering?” Jessica asked.

“It is not something which sane men speak of,” the man answered. “She will hear.”

“Who?” Jessica persisted. The man sighed heavily.

“Even in the southern lands, there is no escape from this. All want to be regaled with the tales,” he said as he stabbed at the fire in frustration. “Very well. But you must never speak of this again, to friend or foe,” the man said, leaning forward to whisper, “…for she hears when her name is spoken. That is the symbol of the LadyStar.”

“LadyStar?” Jessica asked.

“It is an ancient tale, for the legend has not been seen since the time of Gaelen, King of Silver. Gaelen II was a fastidious monarch who hoarded vast fortunes for conquest. In the tenth year of his reign, he formed a massive army and directed them north to expand his realm. Horse and man, catapult and caravan traveled for one week, to the very border of the northern province…” The man hesitated for a moment, and took a deep breath.

“A place known as Kulnas Forge…” Then he exhaled and hesitated again, continuing to speak as if it required great effort.

“On the eve of what would have been one of the greatest massacres known to the age, something terrible set upon those men.” He continued.

“You see the northern lands had no cavalry. They had no catapults, no engines of war. Their villages were guarded by conscripts. Farmers and their sons, many taking up arms for the first time in their lives stood scarcely a mile from the border in a vain and hopeless attempt to defend their homes. They would have been mercilessly trampled under hoof and wheel but for one unexpected event.”

“In the deepest hour of night, watchmen at the army’s camp were surprised by a blinding flash of pure white light from a nearby hill. They somehow managed to sound the alarm and thousands of the King’s soldiers moved to defend their position, believing a surprise attack from the north was underway. With the banners of Gaelen II raised, and the clarion of trumpets sounding the attack, the mighty armies of the Vulture Crest moved north by torchlight and found a single figure standing alone on a hill.” The man sighed and looked up.

“The rest is legend.”

The man looked up into the sky as if recalling something from a distant place.

“..and she stood resplendent upon that hill… armed with but a sword made of diamonds, and faced the armies of a King.”

He waited, then continued, staring into the smoldering embers as Jessica listened with wide-eyed attentiveness.

“Many tales were written of how Gaelen’s armies marched gloriously into battle that night. None were written of how they returned. They feared the truth: that the armies of the Vulture Crest were driven before the LadyStar like frightened rabbits: their swords cast to one side, their shields to the other, arms in the air, faces frozen in masks of terror it would take a thousand pages to describe.”

“It is an image no man can forget: thousands fleeing, a horizon burning in white-hot flame, the screams of cowardice. To this day none dare approach that field of battle. They say it is still haunted by the echoes of a defeated kingdom.”

“Then there are the legends: tales told by madmen returning from scenes of battle so horrifying that even the scribes with their many words were reluctant to describe them adequately. They say she commanded arcanery the greatest wizards in history could only dream of. Her victory remains legend to this day.”

The man seemed agitated now.

“There were tales of her burning the Earth with her feet and causing white fire to flash across the sky. That she threw bolts of power the width of a village road, pulverized engines of war the size of ten dwellings, cast aside entire mounted battalions of heavy cavalry with but a wave of her delicate hand.” His voice began to rise in both volume and tension.

“Champion knights foolish enough to challenge her were reduced to tears by her glance. They said it was radiant as a winter’s orchid yet as terrifying as a raptor’s stare. Her enemies vanquished, she walks the field of battle like vengeance afoot. The light of her fury could be seen from distant lands! Gaelen’s magnificent army, ten regiments of fine soldiers, an army that had once shaken the very Earth itself with its movements!” He stopped suddenly.

“The LadyStar swept them aside as if they were insects!” he shouted, pointing at Jessica. Then he seemed to try and calm himself. The man’s voice receded with his apparent anger and he looked back down at the dimming fire.

“No magic, no man, no beast can oppose her will. To stand against the LadyStar in battle is to stand defeated.” He hesitated again.

“Some say she is a timeless being of virtually limitless power. I say she is destruction: nature’s perfect response to an overwhelming concentration of evil.” He threw the burnt stick into the fire and looked up. Jessica could still not see his face under the cowl.

“You must never speak of this again. For as surely as the armies of the Vulture Crest did not return from that dark night, she will hear her name…

“…and she will come for you.”

To be continued in Chapter Sixteen: We Need You Talitha

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

“We did great, didn’t we!!?” Jessica exclaimed. Talitha smiled.

“We’re the best band in the world!! We played the whole halftime show all the way from the beginning and I didn’t make any mistakes and I was always in line and I played really loud all at the same time!!” Jessica could barely contain herself.

“And you were out of tune!!” Shannon yelled from across the field, then started laughing as the members of the band broke for the sidelines and the band room.

“How could you tell I was out of tune!?!” Jessica yelled back, putting her thumbs in her ears, making a face and drawing surprised looks from a couple of the senior trumpet players. Ranko ran up to Jessica.

“Did we stick that show or what!!” Jessica’s eyes widened and Ranko held up her hand. Jessica gave her an enthusiastic high five, and both girls laughed.

“Of course we did ’cause we’re the best!!” Jessica said.

“I think they might let me play marimba for the Latin chart,” Talitha said. “I think I already know how to play part of it.”

“You know how to play all of it!” Jessica said, still excited.

“Hey, where’s the power from the Professor?” Ranko said, holding her hand up.

“Oh…” Talitha said.

“Go ahead, Talitha-chan!” Jessica said.

Talitha tentatively put her hand up and gently tapped Ranko’s hand, smiling nervously.

“That’s what I’m talking about!!!” Ranko almost shouted, taking Talitha by the shoulders and slapping one arm to encourage her. Terror followed by surprise flashed across Talitha’s face, then she smiled again nervously, straighening her glasses as Ranko let her go and laughed.

Shannon walked up. “Well, ladies, I think we’re ready to perform, what do you think?” Jessica spun around 360 degrees in place, still nearly bursting with happiness.

“I think we’re going to have millions of fans all over the world and we’re even going to be on the radio!!”

Shannon looked at Jessica quizzically. “Radio?”

Ranko put her hands out in front of her face, making an imaginary movie screen with the thumb and forefinger of each hand. “I can see it all now… fame, fortune and the first ever rock and roll marching band with yours truly as lead guitar!”

“Yay!” Jessica laughed.

“We better play well, though, because Rockfield won the championship last year.” Shannon said.

“Championship?” Jessica asked.

“They went all the way to the finals with their football team, and their band wins sweepstakes every year at the Founders Day Parade,” Shannon told them. “And they’re really obnoxious about it.”

Jessica was listening intently. “Well, we’re still the best band in the world! Tree Shores High Lions!!” Jessica laughed again, jumping ahead of the other girls as they walked towards the band room. Then she turned around. “Hey! We should have a party!”

Shannon walked right past her. “Way ahead of you there, doofus.” Jessica turned around and saw that Alanna was walking towards them.

Jessica stood up straight, wanting to impress the older girl. Ranko and Talitha stopped too. Alanna walked up to the three younger girls as Shannon put her trumpet into her case.

“You all did a fine job today. Mr. Factor was very impressed.” Alanna said. Jessica was very happy to hear such a compliment from the Second Drum Major. “Paul thinks we have a good chance of winning a field competition this year. We’re already performance level with the show, and school hasn’t even started yet.”

“Who’s Paul?” Ranko asked.

“Paul Castaneda. He’s a senior and he’s also the Drum Major,” Jessica said reverently as if she were talking about royalty. “He’s really tall and handsome and Talitha likes him,” Jessica said, casting an eye towards Talitha, who blushed instantly.

Jessica laughed. “I’m just kidding, Talitha-chan.”

“He can toss the full mace 30 feet and catch,” Alanna said. “He won four first place trophies last year in parades. He can toss almost as high as the field lights.”

“Sugoi!” Jessica said, obviously impressed.

“Su– su– what?” Shannon said.

“Sugoi! It means ‘Amazing’ in Japanese!” Jessica said. “I hope he can do that at the game.”

Alanna sighed. “I can barely toss 10 feet and still catch.”

Ranko whistled. “Wow. I don’t think I could toss two feet, unless they were on blades and I was cutting a slick corner at top speed,” Ranko put out her arms like she was surfing.

“He’ll have an awesome routine by the first game,” Shannon said. “He gets here every morning at six to practice his field routine. I saw him twirling two maces at the same time yesterday.”

“Well, are we ready to fulfill the annual tradition?” Alanna smiled.

“Tradition?” Jessica asked. Shannon folded her arms.

“It’s the last day of summer rehearsals, doofus.”

“Huh?” Jessica looked confused. Talitha and Ranko looked back and forth between themselves and the two older girls.

Alanna looked at Shannon, who smiled mischeviously. “You know, I think the freshmen are particularly slow this year,” Alanna said.

“I know. It’s really a shame that we have to work so hard to maintain the traditions of this great organization.” Shannon said, pretending to be exasperated. “We haven’t much to work with.”

Jessica, Ranko and Talitha were completely dumbfounded by this point. Finally Alanna and Shannon burst out laughing.

“We’re going to Doubler’s!” Shannon laughed, throwing a spare band T-shirt at Jessica and covering her face with it. Jessica laughed, pulling the T-shirt off her head. Shannon was referring to Doubler’s Pizza, a large baseball-themed restaurant and arcade near the downtown mall which was also the unofficially official gathering place for the entire Tree Shores High School music program, especially the marching band.

“Come on!” Alanna said, turning back towards the band room. “There’s a pepperoni and mushroom masterpiece over there with my name on it!!”

“Cici-chan!!” Jessica said. The younger girl whirled around, holding her rotund cat in front of herself with both arms. Her face lit up when she saw Jessica. “Hi Jessie!!” she said, running towards her and forgetting all about the strawberry soda she had just ordered.

“What are you doing here?” Jessica asked, smiling.

“I go here all the time to get their strawberry soda cause the other places don’t have any!” Cici said excitedly. “And I brought Hikousen cause he gets lonely if I leave him at home.” Cici looked down at Hikousen, who was unconscious and purring loudly, as usual.

“Do you get the strawberry soda too?” Cici asked.

“No, we got cola with our pizza.” Jessica smiled.

Cici’s eyes widened. “You get to have pizza too?”

“Sure! It’s the last day of rehearsals and we’re having a party. Our Drum Major invited us.”

“Hey! Hoshi!” Jessica turned to look. Shannon was motioning to her from their table across the room.

“Oops! Don’t forget your soda!” Jessica said, pointing to the counter. Cici turned around and ran to get it. Jessica walked towards to the table, and Cecilia walked up next to her, now carrying Hikousen like a loaf of bread in one arm and her soda with the other hand. Halfway to the table, Alanna walked in front of Jessica, who stopped as if caught carrying jewels out of a museum. She pushed Cecilia behind herself.

“Hi Alanna-sama!” Jessica giggled nervously, worried that Alanna might see Cici and get mad.

Cici, of course, didn’t understand Jessica’s manuever, and looked past Jessica to see who the older girl was. Each time, Jessica tried to push her back out of sight. Alanna just stared at Jessica, wondering what was going on.

“What.” Alanna said.

“Oh, nothing” Jessica laughed again, breaking her concentration and losing track of the fidgety little girl behind her. Cici ran out from behind Jessica and right up to Alanna.

“Hi Alanna!! I’m Cici and this is my cat Hikousen!!!” the younger girl said as loud as she could, holding the comatose Hikousen up towards Alanna as high as she could. Alanna was surprised, and just stared at the fuzzy sleeping cat’s face for a moment, sipping her drink. Jessica’s face fell. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. She was sure Alanna was going to make her stand at attention all weekend. Alanna continued sipping on her soda, peering around the spherical cat at the smiling little girl underneath.

“Hello, Cici and Hikousen,” Alanna smiled.

“Are you really in charge of the whole marching band?” Cici asked.

“Sometimes. I’m just the Second Drum Major.” Alanna said, still smiling.

“Wow,” Cici said. “Do you get to boss Jessie around?”

“Yes, I do,” Alanna said. “I outrank everyone except the Drum Major and Mr. Factor.”

“Even Shannon?” Cici said, her eyes as wide as saucers.

“Even Shannon,” Alanna smiled.

“Wow, cause she’s like almost a teacher!” Cici exclaimed. Jessica giggled quietly.

“Aren’t you going to have some pizza with us?” Alanna asked, inviting Cici towards their table.

Cici’s eyes widened again. “Can we really?” she said. Jessica smiled. Alanna is so cool, Jessica thought.

“Come on,” Alanna invited both of the girls over to the table. “There’s four different ones. All you can eat.” Alanna turned towards the crowded table. Cici and Jessica followed.

“She’s nice,” Cici whispered to Jessica.

“I know,” Jessica whispered back.

Talitha was sitting at the table with her plate on top of her closed Geology book, two slices of plain cheese pizza neatly arranged on it. Next to her was Ranko, who was having the time of her life telling skateboarding jokes to Shannon, and adding a fourth straw to her own soda. On the other side of the table was Leila, who was concentrating on getting the perfect blend of parmesan cheese and peppers on her Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza.

Next to her was Shannon, who was pouring soda into more ice-filled cups and laughing nearly hysterically at Ranko’s eloquent and showily told jokes. Alanna slid onto the bench-like chair and grabbed a plate. There were at least 12 other tables like this one, each full of members from the band, at least 100 people in all. Jessica sat down next to Ranko, who handed her one of the recently-filled cups.

Cici walked up to the table, which was right at her shoulder-level and looked. “Wow, that’s the most pizza I’ve ever seen in my whole life.”

“Whoa,” Ranko said. “Whatcha got there?” Ranko motioned to the pointy ears visible over the edge of the table.

Cici put Hikousen on the table. “That’s my cat Hikousen. He’s always sleeping and purring and being big and fat.”

Ranko laughed. “That is, without a doubt, the coolest cat in town.” Ranko got up from the bench and walked around Jessica, who looked up and then to her right, following Ranko with her eyes as she sipped on her soda through a straw. Ranko knelt in front of the little girl. “I’m Ranko. What’s your name?” Ranko asked, holding out her hand.

“I’m Cici” the younger girl said proudly, shaking Ranko’s hand.

“Well! Cici, huh?” Ranko boasted. “I had a best friend in elementary school named Cecilia, and I’ll bet that’s what your name is short for, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” Cici said, smiling.

“I knew it!” Ranko said, tapping Cici’s nose with her finger and making her giggle. “You’re a cool kid, Cici. Now, jump in there and grab some pizza before Hikousen eats it all.” Ranko scritched Hikousen’s ear before sitting back down, which caused his purring to nearly shake the nearby cups.

Cici slid on to the bench next to Alanna, who handed the younger girl a plate. Jessica pushed one of Shannon’s newly filled cups across the table with one hand, eating with her other hand and almost dropping her pizza in the process, which caused her to laugh as she tried to catch it, which made her almost drop it again.

“Careful there, goofy bird,” Ranko said. “Do you need a couple hundred napkins?” Jessica laughed again, pizza now slowly stretching towards the table as Ranko dropped several napkins on her head. Jessica finally got her pizza under control and Ranko turned to the others. Everyone had paused eating for just a moment and Ranko suddenly felt a chill up her spine.

“Whoa.” Having paused, everyone noticed the change in the tone of Ranko’s voice.

“What?” Shannon said, picking up her soda.

“I just got the weirdest feeling.” Ranko said, looking around at the faces of the other people at the table.

Jessica, intrigued, turned and looked at Ranko. “What kind of feeling?”

“Like all this is so familar. I know I never met any of you before a couple of days ago.” Ranko continued, then paused. “But I get the feeling… like… this has happened before.” Her voice sort of trailed off as she looked over everyone a second time, trying to figure out the source of this strange feeling.

Jessica looked down. “Me too.”

Ranko turned quickly. “Huh?”

“I’ve had that feeling ever since the first day of rehearsals. Like the day my mom made peanut butter cookies.” Jessica said slowly.

“Mmmm!” Cici chimed in, her mouth full of pizza. “Those were the best cookies I ever had!”

“I must say,” Leila said, softly and evenly. “You all seem to be reminiscent of something for me too.”

Shannon looked back and forth between them. “Maybe it’s because of the dreams.” Everyone looked at Shannon at the same time.

“What dreams?” Cici asked, sneaking Hikousen a piece of ground beef from her pizza.

Everyone started talking at once, all describing their own dreams from the past couple of weeks. The volume slowly rose as each girl tried to make herself heard. Talitha gave up first, looking down at her pizza. Then Ranko stopped, but she didn’t give up.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Ranko said loudly as Jessica and Shannon started gesturing to emphasize their stories. “Wait a second!” Ranko almost yelled. Everyone stopped.

“Oh my goodness…” Talitha said, trying to hide behind her hair again.

“I guess that means we’ve all had the same experience,” Alanna said. “We’ve all had dreams about a waterfall?” Talitha nodded.

Shannon spoke next. “And a forest?” Leila and Talitha nodded.

“And caves?” Alanna added. Jessica, Ranko and Talitha nodded.

“How come I didn’t get to have a dream about a waterfall?” Cici asked.

“I don’t know,” Ranko answered. “Did you have dreams about anything else, like a forest or a cave?” Cici shook her head no.

“Hmmm…” Ranko mused.

“We should talk about this,” Jessica said finally. “We need to write it all down. Everything we see in the dreams. I know!” Jessica exclaimed. “We should start a club! We’ll call it the ‘Dream Club!’ and we’ll all be in it!”

Cici’s face brightened. “Can I be in it too?”

Jessica smiled and nodded. “Everyone can, ’cause it’s better if we all think of what the dreams mean.”

Jessica stood up and looked around the table for approval. Ranko nodded, Talitha straightened her glasses. Leila gave a thumbs up. Shannon smiled. Alanna nodded. Cici nodded, her mouth full of pizza again.

“Mwwrrzzzz….” Hikousen half-purred, half-meowed, then fell asleep again.

“Okay. We’re all in the ‘Dream Club’ and Talitha is our official secretary. She writes down everything we all think of from the dreams, and then we can all read it and maybe we’ll find a clue!” Jessica said.

“And then once we do, the Professor can figure it out, right?” Ranko said. Talitha blushed again.

“If not,” Leila answered. “Perhaps our combined observations will.”

“I’ll make us some badges,” Shannon said. “I have a crafts kit that would be perfect for it.”

“Now one thing,” Alanna said, causing everyone to stop and listen. “We have to be serious about this. The dream I had was very vivid and very scary. It wasn’t like any dream I’ve had before. I want to know what it means, and we’re all going to need each other’s help.”

Jessica nodded. “We promise, Alanna-sama. We’re the best club in the whole city. We’re going to figure this out.”

“I’ll draw a Dream Club sign with my new crayons too!” Cici chimed in. “So we can put it on our clubhouse!”

Jessica’s face fell. “Clubhouse?”

Cici nodded. Jessica just looked at Cici, which caused the younger girl to ask “we have clubhouse, right? Every club has a clubhouse!”

“Clubhouse?” asked a voice from behind Jessica. Devin Brooks walked up to the table with three other boys. One very tall, another very short and wearing glasses, and his friend Clayton, whom Ranko, Jessica and Talitha recognized from earlier in the week.

Jessica looked up and said “Sure!” before she saw who it was. Her face turned eight different shades of red as she looked directly at Devin.

“Hi” the boy said. Jessica didn’t answer right away. She felt herself slowly floating off the bench.

“Hey!” Ranko answered for her. “What’s up, guys?”

“Morons!” Clayton answered.

Ranko pulled back, surprised. “What?”

“Morons. These two are morons. They think that time and speed are constants as a mass approaches a singularity, and that’s just stupid.” Devin turned to look at Clayton, but Jessica didn’t take her eyes off of him.

“It’s a black hole, idiot. And it is a constant. Once the mass reaches the event horizon, the normal rules of physics don’t apply!
Any idiot can see that, even you!” the taller boy said.

“You’re both wrong. Even if the normal rules of physics don’t apply, there isn’t enough energy released for it to matter. One gram of mass only releases a couple hundred thousand joules of energy according to the formula.” the shorter one said.

Ranko did a double-take as she noticed Talitha sketching figures on her napkin while the boys argued.

“What are you doing?” Ranko whispered.

Shannon and Alanna looked at each other in confusion as the boys continued to argue. Finally Talitha pushed the napkin in front of
Ranko and whispered in her ear.

“I still maintain that your calculations, even if they are right, don’t apply because it isn’t normal space.” the taller boy said.

“Ah yes,” Ranko answered. “But your calculations are wrong.”

Everyone turned and stared at Ranko in stark surprise.

“You forgot the equation is mass times c *squared*” Ranko said proudly. “Back to the drawing board, boys!”

The four boys stood agape at Ranko, who had just correctly observed a critical flaw in both arguments. Talitha straightened her glasses, but said nothing. Jessica just continued floating through the restaurant, watching Devin.

Shannon smiled. “Most fascinating, Professor Ranko.”

Ranko smiled, puffing up and putting her thumbs under her collar like a lab coat. “Why, thank you Professor Shannon. Quite elementary, you know.” Cici giggled. “So, I know you’re Devin, and you’re Clayton, but who are the other amateur physicists?” Ranko asked.

“Oh, this is Barclay. He plays mellophone,” Devin answered. “And that’s Alec. He’s a freshman. He doesn’t play anything in band, but he’s the A/V guy.”

“A/V guy?” Cici asked. “What’s that mean?”

“He sets up all the electronics and microphones for stage shows and stuff. He’s even got permission to use Mr. Strings’ A/V lab, and the computer lab too.” Barclay said.

“Sounds exciting,” Ranko said, rolling her eyes.

“It’s cool. I can—” Alec was interrupted by Shannon as she giggled, and Alec looked over at her reflexively, stopping suddenly.

Shannon turned to look again and noticed Alec staring at her. She stared back for just a moment. Alec almost gasped.

“You’re…” he haltingly started to talk. Shannon waited, slightly confused, looking at Alec.

“You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life,” Alec said slowly, looking directly at Shannon. Jessica was jostled out of her trance over Devin and looked over at Shannon, putting her hand over her mouth. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

All of the other girls at the table looked at Alec at exactly the same moment, Leila even leaning forward to do so, as if a 10,000 watt spotlight had suddenly been trained on him. Alec looked back at everyone, as if suddenly remembering what he had just said.

Shannon’s eyes widened, and she blushed. She was suddenly very embarassed, realizing that everyone was now looking at her. She reacted the only way she could think of.

“Don’t say that!” Shannon snapped. “You’re stupid for saying that!” she said loudly, fumbling her words as if she weren’t exactly sure what to say.

Jessica was startled by her reaction, as were the others, especially Alec. She slapped her hands on the table and got up from the bench. Everyone watched as she stormed past the boys towards the front door, her long hair trailing behind her. She pushed the door open and went outside.

Jessica looked after her friend. She had forgotten all about Devin now, and she went to follow.

Alec looked up at the other boys, looking for all the world as if he had just broken a priceless vase.

“Way to go, Sparky. Now she’s going to hate you.” Clayton said.

“Don’t be silly,” Alanna replied. “She’s just embarassed.”

“Yeah, next time you should come in with a guitar and a rose in your teeth and serenade her,” Ranko said.

Alanna laughed. “Well, it wouldn’t be any less embarassing, that’s for sure.”

Cici laughed too, even though she had no idea what a serenade was.

Jessica pushed open the door to the outside parking lot and looked in both directions. She saw Shannon sitting by herself on a planter a few yards down the sidewalk in front of Doubler’s. She looked as if she had been crying. She was brushing off her face with one hand and looking down. Her long, brown hair was hanging over her shoulder, and slightly hiding her face.

Jessica walked over to her slowly, stopping a few feet away.

“Hi Shannon-sama…” she said quietly, hoping Shannon wouldn’t yell at her. Shannon looked up, still wiping her face with her hand.

“Hi Hoshi,” she said, looking back down. She sniffled once.

Jessica felt encouraged enough to walk closer. She sat down on the planter next to Shannon. She felt like saying something, but decided to wait, mainly because she didn’t really know what to say. Then she changed her mind.

“Are you okay?” She asked, realizing how silly the question sounded the moment she said it.

“Yeah.” Shannon answered immediately, sniffling again. “I hate it when boys make fun of me.”

“Make fun of you?”

“That’s why he said that. I know it isn’t true. He just said it so they could make a joke out of it.” Shannon said, brushing away another tear.

“Shannon-sama, I think it was real,” Jessica said. “He wasn’t laughing after you left. Nobody was.”

Shannon looked at Jessica. “No it wasn’t, Jessie. I’m not the most beautiful girl. I’m not.” Shannon looked back down, catching herself before she started crying again.

“Shannon…” Jessica said, putting her hand on Shannon’s shoulder.

“I hate it when people talk about me. I hate it.” Shannon continued. “I’m always looking down at everyone, even the boys, and I stand out like a big stupid-looking tree.”

Jessica just listened, but kept her hand on Shannon’s shoulder. She had never heard Shannon talk this way.

“My Dad always tells everyone that he talks to that ‘Shannon is five foot eleven now’ like it’s some kind of big accomplishment, and I hate it. And then my stupid little brother makes up all these names…” she sniffled again. “I wish I was just normal.”

Shannon brushed away another tear. “And I know I’ll never find a boyfriend, because nobody wants to go out with a big stupid tree like me.”

Jessica knelt down in front of Shannon so she could see her face. “Shannon-sama, don’t say that!” Jessica took both of Shannon’s hands.

“I would give anything to be as pretty as you.” Jessica was very insistent and serious. “I wish I was tall like you. You’re so graceful. You’re really really confident, like a model, and you have the most beautiful long hair of anyone I’ve ever seen. Any boy in school would be the luckiest boy in the world to get to go out with you.”

Shannon looked at Jessica’s bright face, at how sincerely she wanted Shannon to feel better, and she felt like crying again.

“But I’ll always be taller and so the boys won’t even want to dance with me at a prom or anything,” Shannon said, looking away across the parking lot, trying as hard as she could not to cry. Her words were balanced ever so delicately between speaking and sobbing.

“But just think,” Jessica said, not really knowing how to answer what must have been on Shannon’s mind for years, but doing her best. “Just think how beautiful you would look in a long gown at the prom. You’d be like a princess. You’d be the most beautiful princess from a storybook.” Shannon sniffled once more, looking down at Jessica’s bright face again. She is so insistent, Shannon thought.

Shannon wasn’t sure what to think about Jessica. Even though she was younger, Jessica acted like a best friend. She seems to really care how I feel, Shannon thought. Jessica was so different from other people Shannon knew: people who said they were her friends, but really weren’t.

“Besides, you have to wear the princess dress, because if they make me wear it, it’ll drag on the ground for ten whole feet.” Jessica smiled. Shannon laughed once, even though her face was still red with tears. Jessica smiled, still clutching Shannon’s hands.

“Thanks, Jessie,” Shannon said.

Just then, Ranko walked up. “There’s a whole lotta pizza going on in there, ladies.”

Jessica looked up. “Hi Ranko-chan!”

“How are you doing there, Miss Shannon?” Shannon looked over at Ranko and nodded. “Don’t worry, I think we’ve got loverboy in there under control now. They’re all off playing some stupid video game anyway. They need the practice after I beat ‘em,” Ranko winked. Shannon laughed again and stood up.

“Hi Shannon!” all three girls heard someone calling to them from the front of the building. Shannon looked to see who it was. Daphne Benning, a member of the flag team, was running towards them.

“Did I make it? Did I make it?” Daphne asked excitedly, jumping to a stop in front of the three other girls.

“You made it,” Shannon laughed. “Half the band isn’t even here yet.” Daphne smiled and made a little victory gesture with her fists. “I got here before the whole drill team. I’m always faster!” she exclaimed.

“Hey Daph, these are my new friends. They’re both first year. Hoshi plays alto saxophone and Yorozu plays cymbals,” Shannon put her hand on Jessica’s then Ranko’s shoulder to indicate who was who. “Daphne is second year flag team and official head bus cheer director for long parade trips.”

Daphne giggled. “Hey! We needed the encouragement! We had to be ready for the field competition and everyone was feeling bad because we missed sweeps by half a point!”

Shannon explained how Daphne had led cheers for the entire 200 mile trip home from the Seaside Festival Parade the previous year so the band and flag team members would be ready to do their best the next day at the Regional Field competition. The surprising part was it was her first year on the flag team!

“That is too slick,” Ranko said. “Hope you’re on our bus for parades this year so you can keep us psyched for competitions. I didn’t join this band to help us lose!”

“We’re gonna beat Rockfield this year…” Daphne frowned.

“Don’t get her started, Yorozu. Daph is way too competitive,” Shannon cautioned.

“Why’s that?” Ranko asked.

Daphne giggled. “Four older brothers! I had to play football and dodgeball and fight over toys from the time I was old enough to walk!”

“Awesome,” Ranko said. “You should have been here for the big video game competition a minute ago.”

“Yeah! I would have joined too if they were gonna play that new dance arcade game,” Jessica said. “Doubler’s has the one with the all-new music.”

Daphne gasped. “That’s my favorite game! I’ve been waiting for them to get new music too! Let’s go, we have to try it!”

Jessica and Daphne ran back inside to find the video games while Ranko and Shannon followed and turned towards the table where Alanna and the other girls were still having their pizza.

To be continued in Chapter Fifteen: A Sword Made of Diamonds

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

All four girls walked down the street along the southeastern shore of the lake towards Jessica’s house. It was just getting to be late afternoon, and a slightly chilled wind drifted off the lake. Jessica was distracted by some of the fishing boats a few hundred yards offshore.

“I wonder if my dad is out on the lake right now,” Jessica said quietly, looking past the trees as they passed for any sign of Tadashi’s launch. “He’s got to remember to take the light nets today because the water is too rough for lines.”

“Do you know a lot about fishing?” Shannon asked, curious about Jessica’s comment.

“I go fishing with my Dad all the time. We can fly fish and we have two different kinds of nets and we can even do trawling and regular line fishing on the lake. My dad is the best fisherman in the whole world! He said we could even go ocean fishing someday and catch really big tuna and sea bass and barracuda and maybe even a big blue marlin! We can’t catch those fish here ’cause this is just freshwater. But we can get trout and stuff,” Jessica replied.

“My goodness, Jessica. I had no idea you were so knowledgeable about fishing on the lake. I’ve never been fishing before,” Talitha said as they walked along. Cici nodded in agreement, and watched Jessica, wanting to hear more about the different kinds of fish.

“Then we all have to go some time!” Jessica exclaimed suddenly. “I could show you all the best places to get trout and sunfish on the lake and then my mom can show you how to cook them! We make the very best fish dinners together. My mom knows every recipe.”

“That would be fun,” Shannon said. “I’ve only fished from the shore, and we didn’t catch much of anything. I got a cold because it was February and it had rained all morning.”

“I know a shore-fishing spot that would be perfect. We can get a million catfish but we got to use the right bait for those guys because the floor of the lake is all yucky,” Jessica said.

“What do you have to use?” Shannon asked.

“French fries!!” Jessica giggled. “Really! Catfish love french fries best!”

“If I had my fishing stuff I could get catfish from right here in front of our house,” Jessica added as she ran off the sidewalk on to a grassy area. “Here we are! Let’s sit by the lake. I’ll go get some of my mom’s cookies. Be right back!” Jessica ran back across the sidewalk, turned and looked both ways, then ran lightly across the street and up the front walk into her house.

“Wow, what a neat place..” Cici said. “I wish I lived by the lake like you guys.” Shannon and Talitha walked about ten yards off the sidewalk and sat down between two large trees only a few yards from the water. The grass was still speckled with wildflowers from the previous spring.

A few moments later, Jessica came back out the door of her house carrying a serving tray with a pitcher of icea tea and four glasses. Following her was Mrs. Hoshi, carrying a plate of cookies at least two feet in diameter. Jessica walked as carefully as possible, balancing the tray in her hands.

“It’s cookies!” Jessica laughed. “Have as many as you like!” Jessica set the tray of iced tea down on the ground between the three girls.

“Oh, this is my mom,” Jessica said, standing back up after setting the tray down. “Mom, these are my friends from band, Shannon-sama and Talitha-chan, and this is our new friend Cici who goes to the elementary school down the street from our school.”

“It’s so nice to meet all you girls. Jessie has told me so much about you,” Mrs. Hoshi said. “I really hope you like our cookies. This is Jessie’s first batch of peanut butter. She normally likes to make chocolate chip and cinnamon oatmeal.”

“You made these cookies in your house?” Cici asked, incredulous.

“Yes we did,” Mrs. Hoshi answered.”Jessie and I make cookies and bread and cakes all the time.” Cici didn’t say anything. She was still trying to imagine how someone could make real cookies in their own house.

“Have fun girls!” Mrs. Hoshi said after she handed the plate of cookies to Jessica. “I’ll be inside if you need anything.”

“Thanks mom!” Jessica said. Jessica set the plate of cookies down between the girls as Talitha started passing glasses around and Shannon carefully poured each glass full of tea. Cici just sat and stared at the plate of cookies.

“What’s the matter, Cici?” Jessica finally asked, watching Cici sit with her glass of tea, but not drinking any of it. Shannon and Talitha had each picked up one of the cookies already and were trying them.

“How can you make cookies in a house?” Cici asked. “I thought they were made in big factories by lots of people.”

“You’ve never made cookies before or baked anything, Cici?” Jessica asked.

“I don’t know how to do that,” Cici said. “I know how to make dinner sometimes but all the cookies we get are from the store.” Cici finally picked up one of the cookies and tried it while the other girls talked. She couldn’t believe it. It was the best-tasting cookie she had ever tried. She finished it right away, but saved one piece for Hikousen. After the second cookie, Cici felt a little better. She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was.

“I wish I was better at cooking. I can make spaghetti though,” Talitha said, smiling.

“Ooh ooh! I want spaghetti!” Jessica said excitedly. “Make me some?”

Talitha nodded, smiling.

“Yay!” Jessica said, throwing her arms up in triumph. “Do you like the cookies, Cici?” Jessica asked.

Cici nodded. By now she had a cookie in each hand and was enjoying herself immensely. Jessica smiled. Cici seemed to be very happy now.

“I’m still really tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night again,” Shannon said. “I had another one of those weird dreams.” Jessica and Talitha turned to look at Shannon at the same time. “It’s getting really bad. They wake me up now and I can’t go back to sleep. Then I’m tired all the next day at school.”

“Me too,” Jessica said. “Except now it’s just parts of a dream. Sometimes I just see that same canyon for a minute and hear this really cold wind and then I wake up.”

“And then you can’t go back to sleep?” Shannon asked.

“Yeah,” Jessica nodded, breaking her cookie in half. Then she looked over at Talitha, who was staring into her glass. “You too, huh Talitha-chan?” Talitha nodded.

“I have the same dream every night…” Talitha said quietly.

Shannon noticed the sad and concerned look on Jessica’s face. “I wonder what’s going on?” Shannon asked.

“I had a dream too!” Cici said loudly. All three of the girls looked at Cici at the same time.

“You too?” Shannon asked.

“Yeah! I dreamed it was my birthday and I got new crayons and a beach ball!” Cici announced proudly.

All three girls stared at Cici for a moment, then Jessica smiled. The statement broke the tension perfectly. Shannon and Jessica laughed and even Talitha giggled quietly. Cici laughed too.

“Oh Cici you should call your mom,” Jessica said. “She can pick you up here, right?” Cici’s expression instantly changed. She looked down and started picking at the grass and mumbled something.

“What?” Jessica asked, leaning closer.

“I don’t want to,” Cici said very quietly.

“Cici, you have to tell your mom where you are,” Shannon said. Talitha nodded in agreement.

“Come on,” Jessica said, standing up. “You can use our phone.” Cici hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly stood up and followed Jessica.

A few minutes later, the two girls came back to the lakeside.

“How come your mom has all that cloth and yarn in your house?” Cici asked, looking up at Jessica.

“She makes stuff with it,” Jessica said, smiling. “She’s making embroidered aprons and placemats.”

“What’s embroidered?” Cici asked.

“It’s a way of sewing designs into fabric. She can sew thread into the placemats in different designs, like pictures of flowers and stuff. She put my name on my neckstrap for my alto that way.”

“Your mom can make anything all by herself, huh?” Cici sat down next to the plate of cookies. “I want to learn that too. I want to be able to make stuff. All I know how to do is color.”

“Well, that’s making something, right?” Shannon said, smiling, trying to encourage Cici, who seemed to be slightly depressed. Cici sat picking at the grass again. Her mood had changed entirely from the moment Jessica mentioned her mother.

A few moments later, a dark-colored vehicle drove up the street towards Jessica’s house. It passed the four girls and screeched to a stop near the curb. It was a large, new-looking sport vehicle with bright chrome wheels. The bright red brake lights stayed on and its horn honked twice.

“I have to go,” Cici said dejectedly. She slowly gathered her bookbag and Hikousen.

“Bye Cici,” Shannon said.

“We’d like to meet your mom,” Jessica said. The car horn sounded again, as if to answer Jessica. The front door of one of the neighbor’s houses opened, and a man stood in the doorway, looking for the source of the noise. Jessica’s mom walked out the front door of their house, drying her hands on a dishtowel. Cici just slowly walked away from Jessica and towards the car.
Jessica and the other girls watched her walk down the sidewalk as Mrs. Hoshi walked across the street to where Jessica was standing.

“Is that Cici’s mother?” Mrs. Hoshi asked.

“I guess so,” Jessica replied.

Cici reached the car, opened one of the doors to the back seat and placed her bookbag and Hikousen inside. Then, leaving the car door open she turned and ran back to where Jessica was standing. She stopped a few feet from Jessica and Mrs. Hoshi. She looked like she had been crying again.

With tears in her eyes Cici looked at Mrs. Hoshi and shouted “you’re the best mom in the world!” Her voice broke on the last couple of words and she ran back to the car, still crying.

Mrs. Hoshi watched Cici climb into the back seat of the car and slam the door. A few moments later the car accelerated down the street and turned a corner. Jessica looked up and saw the look of concern on her mom’s face as Shannon and Talitha walked up.

“I wanted to meet her mom,” Jessica said quietly.

Ranko Yorozu awoke from a dreamless sleep to the sound of the ocean. Slightly alarmed, she sat up and looked around. She was sitting on a flat, sandy beach. It was dark, and the moonlight made the sand appear a ghostly bluish-gray. She noticed she was wearing her rollerhockey jersey and her jeans. The dark water of the ocean gently washed across the sand a few steps away. The air was cool and still, with a dank scent of seaweed.

Ranko got up and began to walk down the beach towards a formation of rocks in the distance. The stars were a spectacular canopy of sparkling lights. It was a beautiful place, but it was still unfamiliar. As she walked, Ranko looked up the beach in the direction away from the water. It was too dark to see very far, but there were no trees, plants or structures visible.

As Ranko approached the formation of rocks, she realized they were part of a large land formation forming a cove in a small inlet. At the center of the cove, Ranko could see waves submerging rocks at the entrance to a large cave. At the entrance to the cave, there were faintly visible lights glowing very near the water line.

Ranko could count four lights. Three were blue and one was purple. They looked like reflected light and they shimmered slightly in the distance.

Suddenly Ranko thought she heard something. She looked out into the ocean. The air felt different somehow. She looked up as another cool breeze drifted past, followed by the sound of a small wave breaking on the damp sand.

“A storm,” she said out loud.

To be continued in Chapter Fourteen: Like a Princess from a Storybook

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Later that afternoon, after band practice, Talitha noticed Jessica was looking towards the back fence of the athletic field. Suddenly, Jessica began determinedly walking towards the gate on the fence.

Talitha turned and watched her walk by. “Where are you going, Jessica?” Talitha asked, straightening her glasses.

“I’m going to find out who that is that keeps watching us all day.”

Suddenly, whoever it was that was watching band practice noticed Jessica was walking towards her. The person picked something up off the ground, turned and ran around the corner, disappearing from sight, but was apparently running towards the school courtyard.

Jessica hurried to follow, going out the gate and down the back sidewalk towards where the little visitor had been standing. It only took Jessica a few seconds to reach the corner, and she looked into the courtyard from the sidewalk. About 50 feet away, sitting on the grass and facing away from Jessica was what looked like a little girl. Next to her was a large, round object that looked like it had a tail! The little girl just sat there, alone. She looked as if she might be trying to hide, right in the middle of an open area.

Jessica wondered who this could be. She looked way too young to be a student at Tree Shores. Jessica slowly walked around the corner and began walking across the courtyard grass towards where the little girl was sitting. As she walked, Jessica heard band practice dismissed across the field. Jessica just had to find out who had been watching them every single day of band practice so far.
Jessica tried to walk quietly across the lush grass of the courtyard. As she got closer to the girl, she saw that the round object had stripes on its back, and ears! The girl didn’t move. She had her hands clasped in her lap, it appeared.

Jessica slowly walked around the girl, stretching to try and see her face, which was partially covered by her bright orange hair. She was looking down at her hands. Jessica didn’t speak. One more step and she would be able to see her face…

Suddenly the little girl looked up. “You leave me alone!!” she cried. “Or I’ll.. I’ll say something… really mean to you!” Her voice broke on the last few words, and Jessica could tell she had been crying. The little girl looked back down, sniffling, apparently hoping that Jessica would go away. Jessica just stood there, unsure what to do. She looked up again.

“You better not make fun of me!” she cried again, her eyes full of tears. “Leave me alone!!” The little girl grabbed a handful of grass and threw it at Jessica, who stepped back a couple of feet to avoid the small green cloud of leaves and blades of grass. She looked down again, and started to cry audibly, wrapping her arms around herself.

Jessica noticed that the round object next to the girl and her tiny backpack was a huge cat. It didn’t react at all to the little girl’s outburst, seeming to be oblivious to what was going on around it. It must have been the size of three regular cats, Jessica thought. The girl was dressed in a school uniform from Tree Shores Elementary School, complete with a little white beret. She had a bright orange curl of hair sticking straight up out from under the beret.

She continued to cry. Jessica tentatively moved a little closer to her, and knelt down on the ground.

“I’m not going to make fun of you,” she said evenly and softly.

“Yes you are!! Everyone at your school is mean and they throw things at me,” the little girl sobbed, continuing to look down.
Jessica wasn’t sure what she meant. Had some of her friends in band actually thrown something at her?

“I won’t be mean,” Jessica replied, “and I won’t let anyone throw anything at you anymore.”

The girl looked up, still hugging her own shoulders and sniffling. “Really?”

“Uh huh,” Jessica said, “and I won’t even let them make fun of you either.”

The girl paused, looking at Jessica, struggling to believe the words she had just heard. She wanted to believe what the older girl had said.

“I’m Jessica Hoshi, but you can call me Jessie. What’s your name?”

The little girl just stared at Jessica. She wasn’t sure what to think of someone just introducing themselves like that.

“I.. I’m Cici,” the little girl said with a small voice.

“Hi Cici-chan,” Jessica smiled. “Is that your cat?”

“Yeah. That’s Hikousen,” Cici replied quietly, still sniffling. “He’s my friend. He purrs all the time.”

Jessica stood up from her kneeling position and sat down on the grass in front of Cici. “Do you go to the elementary school down the street?” Jessica asked.

Cici started picking at the grass next to her backpack. “Yeah. I’m in fourth grade, but I don’t like school.”

“You don’t? Why not?” Jessica asked, looking through the fence next to the courtyard and noticing that everyone had left the practice field already.

“Cause all the kids make fun of me and they’re mean and my teacher is mean too,” Cici said, pulling at the grass harder, a hint of anger in her voice. “I just want to go home and have my crayons and draw pictures with Hikousen. Hikousen likes my pictures.”

“What about your Mom and Dad?” Jessica asked. “Do they like your pictures?”

“I don’t know,” Cici said, shrugging, still picking at the grass. “They always say they’ll look at it later. They’re real busy and stuff I guess.”

“Brothers and sisters?” Jessica asked.

“I don’t have any brothers or sisters,” Cici said quietly.

Jessica paused for a moment. Then noticed that Talitha was walking towards them from the sidewalk. “Hi Talitha-chan!!” Jessica waved. Cici turned to look, then turned back to Jessica.

“Is she nice like you?” Cici asked.

“Sure! and she’s really really smart too,” Jessica replied, noticing that Cici had just called her nice. Talitha walked up to where Jessica was sitting.

“Oh, um, Talitha-chan, this is Cici-chan,” Jessica said, motioning to Cici. Talitha turned to look at the little girl, straightening her glasses.

“Hello,” Talitha said.

“Hi Talitha!” Cici exclaimed enthusiastically. “Are you smart?”

“Oh, my goodness,” Talitha said, looking down and away slightly.

Just then, Shannon walked up to where the girls were talking in the courtyard.

“Shannon-samaaaa!!” Jessica exclaimed, getting up from the grass. Shannon walked up next to Talitha.

Cici looked up at Shannon, her eyes as wide as saucers. “Are you a teacher?” she said, her voice and face full of wonder.

Shannon looked down at the little girl sitting on the grass. “No,” Shannon said, laughing. “I’m just in high school.”

“This is Cici-chan and that’s her cat Hikousen,” Jessica said.

Shannon knelt down next to Cici and Hikousen and scratched Hikousen’s ear, causing his purring volume to increase dramatically.

“Nice to meet you Cici.” Shannon smiled. Cici just stared at Shannon, her eyes still wide. She still couldn’t believe that Shannon wasn’t a teacher.

“We better go or we’ll be too late to get our stuff from the band room,” Talitha said, with just the slightest hint of urgency.

“Run for it!” Jessica exclaimed, wildly running towards the sidewalk and the athletic field gate. “Let’s go Shannon-sama! My mom has peanut butter cookies from this morning!”

“Um, can I go to high school too?” Cici asked suddenly, still looking up at Shannon in total awe. Shannon looked down at Cici and smiled. Jessica and Taliiha started walking back towards the sidewalk.

“No, I don’t think so, Cici. You’re a little young for high school.”

“But, but I got some money for allowance and stuff and I saved it in a jar and I can go buy a uniform and then I can be just like you and be in high school with you guys,” Cici stammered, trying to persuade Shannon as best she could.

“Cici, you should be in elementary school with your friends.” Shannon spoke with a soothing tone. “You’ll have plenty of time to go to high school later, and you’ll still have your friends with you.”

“But I don’t like the kids at my school. They make fun of me and they aren’t like you guys,” Cici said, looking back down. Jessica and Talitha were already yards away, and Shannon turned to follow them.

“I have to go now, Cici. Talk to you later, okay?” Shannon turned and began to walk towards the sidewalk. Jessica and Talitha turned and stopped as they saw Shannon walking towards them. A few steps later, Shannon reached the other two girls and they all began walking towards the sidewalk. Suddenly Shannon slowed down and stopped, then turned to look back. Both Jessica and Talitha noticed, and also stopped to look back.

Cici was still sitting on the grass, her back to them. She hadn’t moved.

“I wonder if she should be sitting out here by herself like that,” Talitha said, obviously concerned.

“She said the kids at school make fun of her, and she wanted to go to high school with us,” Shannon replied, the expression on her face softening.

“Yeah. I think she’s lonely. She’s an only child and she said her parents work and I don’t think she has many friends,” Jessica said.

“Oh my,” Talitha said quietly. That was enough for Shannon. She continued to watch Cici for a moment, then began walking towards her. Jessica and Talitha watched as Shannon walked towards the younger girl. Finally she stopped next to Cici and knelt down next to her, brushing her long, dark brown hair back behind her shoulder with her hand. Jessica was amazed by how calm and confident Shannon was.

“Hi Cici.” Cecilia didn’t respond. Hikousen just laid there next to Cici’s little bookbag, half-purring and half-snoring, as was his custom. Cecilia was sitting cross-legged with her arms folded in front of her, but not in a pout. Shannon could tell that Cici wasn’t mad. She seemed more frightened. Shannon just waited, kneeling in the grass next to Cici. She knew her presence alone would eventually be enough to get Cici to at least answer her. She reached out after a few moments and scratched Hikousen’s right ear a few times, which caused his purring volume to increase again, but did not cause him to wake up, it seemed. Cici just kept staring at her own folded arms.

“Hikousen is my only friend,” Cici finally said after a minute of near complete silence, and just loud enough for Shannon to hear.

Shannon waited a moment, smiled, then replied. “I’m your friend, Cici. Jessica and Talitha are your friends too.”

“No you’re not. You don’t want me around.” Cici’s voice was small and quiet, but she wasn’t crying.

Shannon put her hand on Cici’s arm. It was a gesture that the little girl couldn’t help but notice. She looked up at Shannon, her eyes glistening with tears, hoping to hear the words that would make the awful loneliness go far away. She sniffled.

“We’re all your friends, Cici. We want you to be with us as much as you want. But you have to go to your own school and learn lots of things before you are ready for high school.” Cici just listened, her face an expression of wonder and her eyes wide watching Shannon talk to her. This big girl, this older girl was talking to her just like a real friend!

“You can come and be with us every day after school if you want,” Shannon said. Cici’s face brightened.

“Really? Every day?” Cici asked in excited anticipation.

Shannon smiled and answered. “As much as you want. I promise. But you have to promise me you won’t drive us crazy,” Shannon said. Cici smiled, nodding agreement with her eyes closed, then opened them, still smiling.

“..and you won’t drive anyone else crazy..” Cici repeated the nod, exactly the same way. “Okay then,” Shannon said as she stood up.

“Let’s go Hikousen!” Cici said, expertly scooping the almost spherical ball of fur up in one arm and her bookbag in the other.

Naturally, Hikousen remained completely oblivious to everything. Shannon watched as Cici ran towards Jessica and Talitha, holding her beret on her head with one hand and carrying Hikousen in the opposite arm, her bookbag trailing from one shoulder. Cici ran up to Jessica, talking to her excitedly and pointing back towards Shannon. Shannon knew her words were exactly what Cici needed to hear.

Shannon walked over to the three girls and smiled. “Now I’m sure I heard someone say something about peanut butter cookies.”

To be continued in Chapter Thirteen: The Best Mom in the World

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

The following day, Jessica Hoshi was on her way to school very early. She wanted to be sure she was on time to meet Talitha. She was carrying her soprano saxophone in its case. It was the start of the second week of summer rehearsals and the first day the band would practice with instruments. The sun had not yet risen, and a light fog was still visible over the lake.

Jessica was confused. She hadn’t had any dreams for a couple of nights, and she wondered if perhaps the nightmares had finally gone away.

She hoped Talitha’s and Shannon’s were gone too.

The lake is so wonderful this early in the morning, Jessica thought. She sort of wished she didn’t have to go to school today. Jessica thought how neat it would be to go fishing with her father today. I’ll bet there are fifty trout right next to the shore, she thought.
I could catch a million fish today, Jessica thought, and my dad could catch two million. She slowly started walking down the street towards the school. Just then, Jessica began to walk very slowly and quietly. She thought she had heard a rustling sound overhead.

Sitting in the poplar tree right next to the sidewalk was the white bird! Jessica stopped, unsure what to do.

“Please don’t fly away,” Jessica said very quietly.

At that very second, the white bird seemed to glow slightly for an instant, then spread its wings and leapt powerfully from the top of the poplar tree. The sky seemed to brighten as the powerful beats of the bird’s wings carried it higher in the sky. Jessica looked up, shielding her eyes from the brightness.

Jessica tried and tried to follow the bird as it seemed to fly directly into the sun. The sky glittered with reflections from the brightening lights in the perfect blue sky, even though Jessica knew the sun hadn’t even risen completely yet today. This can’t be happening, Jessica thought.

It was far too bright to see where the white bird had flown, but as Jessica desperately tried to see through the glare of the brightly lit sky, she noticed something lightly falling towards her. It didn’t seem to be falling very fast. A leaf, perhaps? Jessica put her hands out to try and catch it.

As Jessica watched in amazement, a translucent blue flower slowly floated into her hands. It looked as if it were made out of glass, and it appeared to be incredibly delicate. As it landed gently in her hands, Jessica noticed it had almost no weight.

It turned into a flower, Jessica thought. The white bird flew into the sky and turned into a flower…

“I’ve got to tell Talitha-chan!” Jessica said out loud.

Jessica held the flower very carefully and ran down the sidewalk as fast as she could to meet Talitha.

“TALITHA-CHAAAAN!!” Talitha almost dropped her music books at the sound of Jessica shouting from further down the sidewalk.

Jessica ran up to Talitha just as Talitha turned around. “Talitha-chan! Talitha-chan! Look! I saw the white bird again and it flew into the sky and it turned into a flower!”

“Oh, my goodness,” Talitha replied, still trying to recover from Jessica’s sudden shouting arrival. “You saw the same bird again? The one we saw in that tree over there the other evening?”

“Uh huh,” Jessica replied. “It was the same one, I’m sure of it. And it was looking right at me and I said ‘please don’t fly away’ but it did. And then the sky got all bright and stuff and then it turned into a flower and I caught it, see?” Jessica gently showed Talitha the flower she had caught.

“This is very peculiar, Jessica. How can a bird turn into a flower? Are you sure you didn’t just catch something that was blown into the sky by the wind?”

“No, I don’t think so, ’cause there wasn’t any wind. It was weird too, because the sun wasn’t even up yet but the sky was all bright like it was the middle of the day, and it was all sparkly and stuff. It’s like it was some kind of dream.”

“That’s strange. Do you suppose this might have anything to do with the dreams we’ve been having?”

“HEADS!!” A voice shouted from behind Talitha and Jessica. Jessica had only a moment to turn and look. Someone wearing a red shirt and jeans was hurtling towards them both!

“Look out!” Jessica shouted. Talitha reflexively put her hands over her eyes and face. Jessica put her arms over her head and ducked.

At the last possible instant, the person leaped into the air. Jessica turned all the way around and looked just in time to see whoever it was float in mid-air for what seemed like several seconds and at least several feet off the ground.

As Jessica watched, the person landed lightly on a set of jet black rollerblades, having jumped completely over Jessica and Talitha, and strode away, gathering speed and eventually disappearing into the distant parking lot. Just like that, they were gone.

“Oh, oh my goodness,” Talitha said shakily, peeking out from behind her hands. “What on Earth just happened?” Jessica giggled.

“It’s okay, Talitha-chan. We’re okay.”

“Ooh! We better hurry! Looky! I set my watch five minutes ahead so I could remember I was supposed to get to school five minutes early and so I would have five more minutes later and I wouldn’t be late and stuff.”

Talitha just stared at Jessica, hoping she wouldn’t try to explain.

“See, I read in this magazine that if you set your clocks right you always have more time! So I just had to try it and set all my clocks! Let’s see… there’s my watch, and the clock in my room, and the cute little clock on my notebook, and…” Jessica continued as the two girls started towards the school again.

A few minutes later, Jessica and Talitha had almost reached the edge of the athletic field fence and the main parking lot. They were absorbed in a discussion of whether setting a clock forward or backwards would change the amount of available time when they were interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Do you two always walk that slow?”

Jessica and Talitha both looked up at the same time. It was the person in the red shirt! And it was a girl! She was no longer wearing rollerblades but she was still wearing the same red shirt and dark gray jeans. The red shirt had a strange looking ‘X’ on it, Jessica thought.

“How did you jump that high?” Jessica asked, still surprised.

“Oh, that was easy. Good thing you two are so short,” the girl replied. Jessica smiled. ” So do you guys know where the main building is?”

“You should be more careful,” Talitha said, straightening her glasses and surprising Jessica with uncharacteristic assertiveness.

“Hey, I always wear my knee and elbow protectors and my helmet. I was in a hurry this morning because I have to get enrolled by Monday, and I had to help my mom move the grill supplies this morning.”

“Besides, I’m way too good to run into anybody,” the girl said, smiling and winking.

“So you’re going to our school now?” Jessica asked.

“Yep! New freshman on campus. I’m Ranko Yorozu,” the girl said, holding her hand out and offering to shake hands with Jessica.

“Hi Ranko-chan! I’m Jessica Hoshi, but you can call me Jessie!” Jessica replied, enthusiastically shaking hands with the red-haired girl.

“And this is Talitha Hayashi. She’s the smartest person in the whole school!” Jessica said. Talitha blushed and looked down for a moment, then looked back up, straightening her glasses once again out of habit.

“Here, want me to fix those for you, Professor?” Ranko said as she reached out and took Talitha’s glasses off.

“Seems these are a little loose,” Ranko said, turning the delicate glasses over in her hands and examining them closely as Talitha gingerly felt around for where her glasses went.

Ranko peered through the lenses for a moment, then turned away, closing her eyes. “Whoa!” Then she looked at Jessica and winked. “Won’t be borrowing these too often.”

Jessica watched, amused, as Ranko cleaned the glasses with her shirt and Talitha continued to feel around in the air with her eyes closed. Seemingly satisfied, Ranko peered at the glasses once more, then using both hands, carefully fitted them back on Talitha’s face. As her vision cleared, Talitha saw Ranko smiling.

“There you go. How’s that? Better?”

Talitha nodded slowly. “Way to go, Professor!!” Ranko almost shouted, slapping Talitha on the shoulder a couple of times and almost knocking her over.

“Oww,” Talitha said quietly, reaching for her shoulder after regaining her balance.

“So what are you guys doing here? School doesn’t start for three weeks.”

“We’re in band and we have summer rehearsals today! See?” Jessica held up her saxophone case. “Today is the first day with instruments!”

“Band, eh? You guys play any good 50s tunes?” Ranko asked.

Jessica and Talitha looked at each other. “I don’t think so,” Jessica said slowly. “Talitha-chan is the music librarian though. Maybe she can find some! Do you like 50s music?”

“Sure. My mom’s got the biggest collection of 45RPM records you’ve ever seen. She’s got a big restored jukebox in the diner and she got them all so she could have cool music. I learned to play guitar from them.”

“You play guitar?!? You should be in band with us!!”

“Uhh, Jessica?” Talitha tried to interrupt quietly, noticing Jessie’s sudden enthusiasm about guitars in a marching band.

“And then you can play all the cool songs you know after Talitha-chan finds all the 50s music! We have to tell Shannon-sama aaaaaaall about it!!”

“We even get uniforms and we get to go to all the football games and stuff, even though I don’t know how to play football, but Shannon-sama said we don’t have to know how to play very much because we only have to play half of the game and stuff.”

“You mean at halftime?” Ranko asked.

“Yeah! Halftime! Sugoi! You know as much about football as Shannon-sama! Do you wanna be in band with us?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Yay! Let’s go, Talitha-chan!! We have to ask Shannon-sama about the 50s music!” Jessica exclaimed.

“But.. but..” Talitha couldn’t keep up with Jessica’s energy. Guitars in marching band?

“Oh no! Talitha! There he is!!” Jessica grabbed Talitha’s arm.

“Who?” Ranko said, turning to look at two boys who were walking towards them. “That guy?”

“Hide me! Hide meeeeeeeee!” Jessica’s voice became very high-pitched and quieter as the boys walked up.

“Hi! Ready for rehearsals?” Devin Brooks asked. A heavier boy was walking with him.

“Sure!” Ranko said.

Talitha nodded.

Jessica smiled, frozen in place.

“Oh, don’t worry about her. She just forgot how to talk. We’re going to stop by the library for some books on basic vocabulary before practice.” Ranko winked, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb at Jessica.

“You must be new. I’m Devin Brooks, nice to meet you.”

“Hey, Devin. I’m Ranko Yorozu, your new guitar player.” Ranko turned to the other boy, who was a little taller and heavier. The other boy just nodded.

“And you are?” Ranko asked.

“Huh?” The other boy said.

“You. Your name,” Ranko said intently.

“Oh, my name’s Clayton.”

“Well, see you at practice,” Devin said as the two boys walked past.

Ranko waved.

Talitha nodded.

Jessica smiled, still frozen in place.

“You can take another breath now, Goofy Bird,” Ranko said, bumping Jessica’s shoulder with her arm.

“Isn’t he wonderful? He always talks to us…” Jessica said dreamily.

“Whatever you say. Let’s go check out this band of yours,” Ranko said, dragging Jessica towards the main building as Talitha followed.

“What kind of shirt is that? It has your name and zeroes on it. Were you in a race?” Jessica asked Ranko.

“This is my hockey jersey. I play center and goaltender for the Knights Rollerhockey team,” Ranko replied proudly.

“Roller.. hockey team??” Jessica repeated quizzically.

“Yeah! It’s a lot of fun. I learned to ice skate playing pickup hockey at the rink, but they wouldn’t let me play in the league because I was only ten, so after I got some rollerblades for my birthday, I decided to compete in some freestyle races and then joined the hockey league.”

“What is the ‘C’ for?” Talitha asked quietly.

“Good eye Professor!” Ranko replied. “I’m the team captain. Makes all the boys mad, but I’ve got a 0.9 goals-against average. Best in the league,” Ranko beamed.

“Wow!” Jessica exclaimed. “Are they cute?”

“Who? Oh, the boys? Sure are…” Ranko smiled. Jessica giggled.

“Especially when I knock ‘em into the boards,” Ranko said, bumping Jessica’s shoulder with her arm again. Jessica giggled again, even though she didn’t have the slightest idea what “knock ‘em into the boards” meant.

“You must have played goaltender in some games where the opposing team didn’t score a single goal,” Talitha observed.

“Yeah, I’ve got five shutouts. How did you know that?” Ranko asked, intrigued.

“Well, the law of averages indicates that in order to have an average of less than one, values of less than one must be averaged, and since hockey scores are counted in integers, there must be at least one score of zero.”

“Whoa, you are the super Professor. You should be our statistician,” Ranko said slowly.

“See? She’s so smart,” Jessica said, smiling. Talitha straightened her glasses again.

“She plays glockenspiel,” Jessica continued.

“Glockenspiel? What’s that? Is it delicious?” Ranko asked.

“Huh?” Jessica asked.

“It’s a set of bells on a metal frame,” Talitha said, smiling.

“No, it’s not! It’s a miniature xylophone!” Jessica exclaimed.

“Got it,” Ranko laughed. “Now are you sure they’re going to let an electric guitar player into marching band?”

“There’s Shannon-sama! She’ll know! She knows everything about marching band and stuff. HI SHANNON-SAMAAA!!” Shannon was busy practicing a difficult passage in the halftime show opening chart. “SHANNON-SAMAAAA!!” Jessica shouted again, running across the field.

Shannon stopped playing her bright silver trumpet as she heard Jessica’s voice from across the field. Only a few dozen of the band members had gathered for practice early.

“Hoshi, calm down. You’re late,” Shannon said as Jessica ran up to her, exhaling heavily from running.

“Oh, gomen nasai. This is Ranko-chan. She plays guitar and she learned from her mom because she has 45 records and they’re all 50s music, and so she asked us if we had any 50s music, and so I said Talitha-chan was the music librarian and she might be able to find some 50s music and…”

“Hold it!!” Shannon ordered.

Jessica stopped in mid-word.

“What does she play again?” Shannon spoke slowly, emphasizing each word.

“Electric guitar?” Ranko replied as she and Talitha walked up.

“You can’t carry an amp around on the field,” Shannon said, slightly confused.

“Nahh, but I can play those!” Ranko pointed towards the drummers who were bringing their equipment out to the field from the band room. Four sets of large crash cymbals had been placed on the field along the edge of the cement.

“Hey, Leila!” Shannon shouted. “Need any cymbal players?” Leila turned her hat around backwards, gave the thumbs up sign to Shannon and then picked up a bass drum and started carrying it towards the opposite side of the field.

“You’re hired,” Shannon said, turning back around to face Ranko, Talitha and Jessica. “Be sure to check with Alanna and Mr. Factor before practice.” Shannon pointed towards the Fine Arts building where the band room was located.

“Cool,” Ranko said. “Marching electric guitar, huh?” Ranko said, elbowing Jessica in the side and making her laugh. “Have to turn in this stuff to the main building too.”

“Main building is right across the lunch area from fine arts. It’s the only one-story building. Can’t miss it,” Shannon said.

“Be right back, ladies.” Ranko left the group and walked towards the building that Shannon had pointed to.

“Did you bring the wrong case?” Shannon asked, pointing at the small instrument case Jessica was carrying.

“No, it’s my soprano. My dad wants to have my alto worked on some more. This one was done first,” Jessica smiled. “But I got a new mouthpiece!”

“Two saxophones. You must be serious about your music,” Shannon smiled.

Jessica giggled again. “Three. I got a tenor too, and a flute. I got a WX-5 too but I don’t have a synthesizer so I can’t play it very much.”

“What’s a WX-5?” Shannon asked, intrigued.

“It’s the coolest thing ever! It’s an electronic reed instrument just like my soprano, except you can use it to control a synthesizer and make all kinds of really cool sounds with it. I like it ’cause I can control bend and pitch almost as good as my jazz setup!” Jessica replied enthusiastically.

“Wow,” Shannon made a mental note never to underestimate Jessica’s knowledge of music again. “I don’t have any electronics for my trumpet, but I got it replated just before summer rehearsals,” Shannon said. “It was gold last year.”

“It’s really beautiful, Shannon-sama. Silver trumpets are the best!” Jessica said, then giggled. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun! I wonder what we get to play first?” Jessica wondered aloud.

“Scales,” Shannon sighed, then laughed, shielding her eyes as she noticed the sun rising behind Jessica and Talitha.

“Alright, let’s get warmed up. Practice starts in ten minutes,” Alanna said as she walked past the other girls carrying her parade mace.

“Yes, ma’am,” Shannon said. The girls all immediately scattered towards their respective sections with their instruments.

A few minutes later, Jessica was straightening the ligature on her mouthpiece, sort of off by herself but still near the saxophone section.

“Baka reed,” she said to herself quietly as she worked with the tiny plastic and metal loop that held the reed against the mouthpiece of her soprano saxophone.

“There! Finally!” she signed, satisfied the reed was attached correctly now. Now what should I play to warm up? she thought.

Shannon was talking with some other members of the trumpet section, trying to make herself heard over the din of almost 100 other musicians. Near the trumpet section were a dozen or so horn players, some of whom were getting used to their new mellophones instead of the french horns they played in concert band. Suddenly Shannon heard an incredible series of notes from the direction of the saxophone section. She looked up but couldn’t see who it was.

“I’ll be right back,” she told the other trumpet players as she started making her way in the direction of the sounds. The more she listened, the better it sounded. She noticed some of the other kids were looking in that direction too as she picked her way past some of the trombone and baritone players. Finally she stepped past a couple of other saxophone players and saw who it was.

It was Jessica. She was standing with her back to the group, holding her soprano saxophone in front of her, and playing better than Shannon had ever heard before. It wasn’t just another inexperienced high school kid playing random notes. It was music.

Jessica’s fingers danced lightly over the keys of her saxophone dextrously and expertly. Warm bright tones flowed from the instrument as she traveled up and down the full range of the soprano saxophone, adding flourishes and embellishments to her chosen melody. Shannon immediately recognized it as a minor key with accidentals often used in jazz riffs.

To Shannon, the notes from Jessica’s saxophone seemed to float into the sky and then slowly fall to Earth like a spring rain. Jessica was even playing notes outside the normal range of the instrument, notes that Shannon had never heard before, much less ever heard played as part of a jazz solo. Jessica seemed to reach them effortlessly, and without so much as a single missed key or note.
Shannon looked to either side and saw about 15 other kids watching Jessica play, silhouetted in the hazy light from the rising sun. Wow, she thought to herself.

“Hey, Hoshi!” Shannon said. Jessica stopped playing and turned around.

“Hi Shannon-sama!” Jessica replied brightly.

Leila walked up next to Shannon. All the other kids just kept staring at Jessica, who noticed everyone was watching her.

“What,” Jessica said.

“Oh! Nothing,” Shannon replied. “Where did you learn that?” she asked.

“That’s a solo from a CD I got last week,” Jessica smiled. “Is it okay if I play it?” Jessica asked.

“Of course,” Shannon replied.

“Yay,” Jessica said, turning back to her saxophone and beginning to play again.

“She learned that in a week, from memory?” Shannon said quietly to no one in particular.

“We should put her in jazz band,” Leila said, turning to walk back to the drum section. “That girl can play.”

“Yeah, if only freshmen could join the jazz band,” Shannon said.

To be continued in Chapter Eleven: Cici and Hikousen

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

“Let’s go!” Jessica shouted, running past Talitha towards the band room exit.

Over the past couple of days, Talitha had noticed that Jessica was always going somewhere. Talitha normally would have preferred to stay in one place, since that meant she would be less likely to meet new people or have to talk much.

But with Jessica around, Talitha found herself acting very differently. Jessica was always the center of attention, and Talitha was fascinated by how easily Jessica met and talked to students and band members she had never met before. It was something Talitha would never be able to do on her own.

Jessica was always moving around and finding new things to talk and laugh about. Talitha’s more logical thought process was sometimes confused by the constant changes in Jessica’s attention. Talitha knew Jessica was very bright and intelligent, even though she always seemed distracted. Talitha noticed Jessica didn’t seem to analyze her own thoughts as much, at least not the way Talitha would. It was a very different way of looking at the world, but still, Talitha was intrigued by her energetic personality. She had never met anyone like Jessica.

Jessica turned back to look at Talitha.

“What.” she said as she watched Talitha adjust her glasses again.

“Oh, nothing,” Talitha said quietly, looking down. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay, Talitha-chan!” Jessica replied brightly. “You’re thinking again, huh? Think of something really, really smart, okay?? Let’s go!!” Jessica pulled Talitha by the arm towards the side entrance to the band room that led to the athletic field.

“Hey!” Talitha laughed, running along with Jessica towards the doorway. Sometimes it was fun not to be quite so contemplative.

“Today was such a nice sunny day. I like sunny days best. These are the best days for band practice!” Jessica said as she walked through the door with her arms open wide.

“I hope it doesn’t get too hot again tomorrow. I can’t imagine how the boys who play our bass drums can carry those heavy drums around. I get tired just carrying my bells.” Talitha replied.

“I like those roto-tom-a-tom-toms and that cool girl who plays them really fast and stuff. I want to be a drummer too so I can play like that. But I like my saxophone too. I should bring my soprano instead of my alto when we get to play. I like my cute soprano saxophone. I know! I’ll bring both, and then maybe I’ll bring my tenor on another day and stuff!”

“They’re called roto-toms, Jessica.” Talitha smiled.

“Roto-tom-a-tommy-rom-a-tom-toms?” Jessica laughed.

Once again characteristically unconcerned with accuracy, Talitha thought. Jessica always seemed to breeze right past the details and find something fun about almost anything. Talitha was very happy to have Jessica Hoshi as a friend. After a few moments, the two girls were walking along the street behind the athletic field towards the courtyard.

“Now that we know how to march and stuff it’s almost time to start practicing the halftime show! And it’s almost time for our first game! I wonder if our football team is as good as our band? I’ve never been to a football game except I’ve seen the ones my dad watches on television when he’s mad about not catching enough fish and so he just stays home and grumble grumbles,” Jessica said.

“Jessica, you talk in a very strange manner. I have to listen fast to hear everything you say.” Talitha smiled. Jessica giggled.

“Hey, l

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Alanna Kawa awoke from a dreamless sleep to find herself standing at the edge of a glorious canyon in a frigid snowbound mountain range. She gingerly looked over the snowy edge down into the canyon. A layer of motionless clouds floated lazily a hundred feet below the ledge. The opposite wall of the canyon was a pale, precipitous rock face formed by numerous unevenly spaced mountainsides, their peaks also obscured by small gray clouds.

She turned around and brushed a lock of hair from her eyes. A path of dark, dense soil littered with patches of snow and smooth gravel led into the mountains from the small ridge where Alanna was standing. She took a few steps up the path just as a frigid breeze raced down the incline and out into the canyon. Alanna shivered and closed her eyes, shielding them from the icy gale. The ground was soggy, but she found good footing on the very slight incline of the rocky path as it turned sharply to her right. As she walked, she passed several very shallow puddles of water, and she could hear the sound of drops of water falling from behind the rocks and from under the narrow shelves of ice that encrusted the rocks on either side of the path. It seemed that despite the freezing wind, the snow was slowly melting. Alanna could hear a faint rumbling sound in the distance.

Alanna stopped and looked up at the overcast gray sky. What clouds were visible were moving very slowly. She guessed it might be morning. As she continued climbing the increasing incline of the path, in the distance Alanna saw the dark form of a huge mountain begin to emerge. The sound was getting louder as she trudged up the grade. The ground felt much more solid on this part of the path, and she quickened her pace, hoping to find shelter from the cold, watching carefully to avoid the patches of solid clear ice along the heavily packed soil of the path. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying her best to endure the bite of the icy wind. A few yards further up the path, Alanna noticed the rocks formed a portal of sorts that seemed to lead into the sky, since only the shadow of the distant mountain was visible past it.

She climbed past the portal and into a storm of icy water vapor and a frighteningly loud rumbling sound. She found she was standing on another shelf at the end of the canyon so close to a majestic waterfall that its near edge rained lightly on the smooth rock. She looked up into a slightly brighter sky. The source of the waterfall was at least a fifty feet above the end of the path and landed on a crudely semi-circular outcropping another fifty feet below, forming two smaller falls which disappeared into the frosty haze. Alanna winced and shielded her eyes with her hand at the reflected glare from the haze. The sun must be out now, she thought.

The sound of the waterfalls was pleasing, Alanna thought as she watched the blue, silver and white sparkle of the water. Despite the chill, Alanna reached out to feel the water as it rained down. As the first sheets of water drenched her hand and arm, the waterfall vanished!

In the sudden silence, Alanna felt as if she had suddenly been transported to another place. She turned to look as dozens of tiny white insects that appeared to be miniature butterflies flew past her. When she turned back around, she gasped. In the place of the waterfall was a translucent bluish spiral staircase that rose gracefully into the sky! Alanna looked down at the other two smaller waterfalls beneath the ledge. They had both turned into spiral staircases as well!

Which direction should I go? she thought. Alanna carefully leaned forward a little and looked up. She thought she could see the top of the closest staircase, so she decided to climb first. She walked over and tested the staircase with her weight first. It was as solid as the rock shelf she was standing on, and seemed to be made of ice, but it wasn’t slippery at all. She began to climb the stairs towards the top of the waterfall.

The spiral stairs led to a flat platform of rock with a wide channel cut into its center. The water in the channel was frozen and connected to the end of the stairs. Alanna stepped off the staircase on to a platform of solid rock and soil which formed the bank of the channel. The moment both of her feet touched the bank of the channel the loud sound returned. Alanna looked at the channel and saw the staircase had disappeared, replaced by the roaring waterfall again.

Alanna turned around and watched the clear water as it swiftly moved past. The channel was about ten feet deep and constructed of very smooth polished gray stone with pale blue swirls. Alanna followed the channel into the distance with her eyes, turning as she looked.

She was standing at the base of a massive structure that seemed to be cut directly from the top of the mountain! The channel she stood alongside led through an arch formed by two immense columns that appeared to be made of icy stone. Past the arch columns Alanna could see a cavernous room. A soft lavender color reflected from the far wall of the room.

She turned and looked back towards the canyon. Sure enough, with the exception of one much larger mountain in the distance, there were no other peaks near the height of this one. A movement in the sky suddenly caught her attention. She looked up and saw a huge shadow pass overhead, only very slightly visible through the clouds. For just a moment, Alanna thought she saw the powerful downward movement of a huge wing, but as quickly as it had appeared, the shadow had passed. Alanna’s gaze settled on the snow-covered peak of the mountain as the shadow passed it. It formed the top of the structure and appeared to have many levels, with each decorated as elaborately as the arch on the level of the channel. The entire structure looked like an elaborate castle of ice carved out of the mountain’s peak.

Who could have built something this beautiful? Alanna thought. She looked down into the flowing water of the channel and saw her reflection in the smooth surface. She sat down next to the edge and reached into the coolness of the flowing river. As she lifted her hand back out, the water in her hand froze and formed a delicate star-shaped jewel. Alanna’s eyes widened and she smiled, then laughed, astonished at the lovely shape of the glistening ice jewel. This was such a wonderful place! She gently lowered the jewel into the water of the channel and it melted away. She lifted her hand once again and this time the water froze and formed a flower that resembled a delicate lily. I wonder if I can make what I think of? Alanna thought.

“Hmmm..” she said out loud. “What should I make?” Alanna thought for a moment more and then said “I know!”

She cupped her hand into the water once again and watched the flower melt away. She closed her eyes and concentrated as she lifted her hand from the channel. When she opened her eyes, she looked and saw a musical note frozen in her hand.

“I did it!” she said out loud. “I thought of a musical note and it appeared!” Alanna stood up, gently carrying the musical note made of solid clear ice as she walked towards the columns. As she walked along the channel, the size of the structure became more apparent. After several minutes of walking, Alanna had only reached the halfway point between the columns and the waterfall! She looked up at the towering archway and stumbled backwards trying to see the top of it. After several more minutes of walking, she reached the archway and stood the frozen statue of an eighth note on the edge of the column’s base. She looked at the opposite column and realized it was at least a hundred yards away. She looked up again. The archway was easily large enough to fit a small building through, she thought.

Alanna followed the walkway bordering the channel through the archway into the chamber. She saw that the channel flowed from a huge circular pool of glassy-smooth water in the center of the chamber. The walls of the chamber looked uneven, like the inside of a cave, Alanna thought. The far wall was bathed in a pale lavender light, but she could not see its source. Several smaller channels just like the one she had followed extended in all directions from the circular pool. Alanna walked closer to its edge and looked up. An elaborately decorated railing and balcony were visible high along the edges of the chamber. Blue and white lights shone along the walls of the balcony, casting long bright splashes of light along the pale cavern walls. Alanna could only hear the distant sound of the waterfall and the echo of her own footsteps.

The pool was exactly the same depth as the channel leading to the falls. Carved into its floor was the shape of a huge silver-colored chalice.

“So beautiful…” Alanna whispered.

To be continued in Chapter Ten: It Turned into a Flower!

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Jessica Hoshi and Talitha Hayashi were walking to band practice together. It was still the first week of summer rehearsals.

“We finally get to have our instruments and we get to play. Now first you said you would explain better what a glockenspiel is,” Jessica said.

“It’s a percussion instrument, Jessica. It’s just a set of chimes on a metal frame, tuned diatonically like a piano. It’s like a miniature xylophone.” Talitha was very amused by Jessica’s fascination with the glockenspiel.

“A miniature xylophone. That’s so cute.” Jessica smiled. Talitha smiled too. Jessica’s personality was starting to affect her.

“Oh! What about that new music book you said you got? I got five whole new jazz albums. Let’s see, there’s a fusion one, and then one with all saxophones, and then there’s one with a jazz trio combo, but that has a trumpet player, and then… there’s so many neat charts! I put them all on my music player.”

“My mom bought me the advanced piano lessons from the series I’ve been practicing with. I’m supposed to practice once a day for one hour. I should complete the book in about a month.” Talitha sounded like she was reading instructions.

“Wow,” Jessica said. “I could never practice that much with a book. I just like to play whatever I think of.”

“Play whatever you think of?” Talitha said quizzically. “How can that be practice?”

“It’s improvising! It’s jazz! You just play whatever feels right. I’m not very good at it though, because I always forget the chords and stuff.” Jessica stopped suddenly. “Talitha-chan! You should try it on piano! That would be so cool!”

“Oh no, I could never do that.” Talitha said quietly, shaking her head.

“Sure you can!” Jessica exclaimed. “You’re so smart you could remember every chord in the whole world, and then you’d never make a mistake!” Jessica tugged at Talitha’s arm, trying to convince her. “Let’s try it today!”

Talitha looked up at Jessica, then back down again. “I’m afraid….”

“Hmm?” Jessica was puzzled.

“I’m afraid I would make a mistake,” Talitha said quietly.

Jessica listened. She wasn’t sure what Talitha meant. Jessica wasn’t concerned about mistakes. I would just laugh about it and keep playing, she thought to herself.

“I don’t like it when I make a mistake. It means I haven’t practiced enough.” Talitha said, almost whispering.

“Talitha-chan! You’re the best piano player ever! You said you played four whole recitals and only made one mistake!” Jessica said insistently, trying to encourage her new friend.

“No no, Jessica. It was four mistakes in one recital,” Talitha said, shaking her head. Just then they heard the chimes from the tower clock.

“Oh no! Looky! Now we really have to hurry! Come on Talitha-chan!”

Jessica and Talitha ran quickly through the gate at the back of the athletic field and then towards the Fine Arts building. Just before they reached the breezeway, Talitha stopped and turned around.

“Hey, did you see that?” Talitha said, taking a few steps towards the parking lot and looking towards the fence at that end of the sidewalk.

“Huh?” Jessica stopped and turned to look. Talitha pointed at the parking lot with her right hand and looked back at Jessica.

“I thought I saw someone running along the fence just now and something flying into the street. It came from behind the main building in the parking lot.” Talitha said.

“What flew into the street?” Jessica asked.

“I think somebody threw something. I couldn’t see who it was because it came from the parking lot behind the main building.” Talitha said, looking back at Jessica.

“You think they’re still there?”

“I can’t see. Must be on the other side of this building,” Talitha replied, straightening her glasses again. “And we were supposed to be at marching band practice several minutes ago.”

“Oh no! That means Shannon-sama’s going to be really—”

“Hoshi!! Hayashi!!” Jessica and Talitha both heard a voice shouting from the direction of the Fine Arts building.

“— mad…”

Shannon walked from the breezeway over to the two girls. “What is going on here? You’re both late for practice.” Shannon said, obviously annoyed.

“Oh, my goodness…” Talitha tried to hide her face behind her hair.

“Oh! Shannon-sama, we just saw some people throwing something at someone from the parking lot over there, and we were going to go see but then Talitha-chan said we were late so we were just about to go to practice.” Jessica talked as fast as possible, trying to convince Shannon they weren’t late on purpose.

“We wouldn’t have been late if we hadn’t stopped to see what was going on.” Talitha added.

“Well, let’s go. We’ve got to practice for the halftime show now. We’ll see what happened in the parking lot later.” Shannon said turning back towards the breezeway.

As the band prepared to begin practicing the halftime show, Jessica was busy putting her music in order. Jessica pointed at one of the sheets of music. “Hey look! This music has lots of little pictures all over it. Let’s see, there’s a bear and a kitty and a little circle design and lots of little stars and a fishy and …” Talitha looked up, then looked closely at Jessica’s music.

“Oh, Jessica. That’s trumpet music. You can’t play that in the halftime show,” Talitha said.

“But I like this music because it has all these little drawings everywhere. And I can play anything!” Jessica made fists with both hands and frowned to emphasize her confidence. Talitha shook her head.

“But that music is written for B-flat trumpet. You play E-flat alto saxophone. You’ll be out of tune with the rest of the band.”

“That’s okay! I can transpose! I could even bring my tenor saxophone and then I’ll be in the right key!” Jessica smiled, obviously trying to be silly.

“And what are you going to do when the rest of the trumpet section hears you playing their part?” Talitha asked, smiling back.

“I’ll tell ‘em I wanna be in the trumpet section!” Jessica laughed.

“Do you think they’ll let a tenor saxophone in the the trumpet section?” Talitha asked, almost laughing.

“Hoshi, why do you have my music?” Shannon Ka Yoru walked up, carrying her silver trumpet. Jessica turned to face Shannon, suddenly serious.

“Is this really your music, Shannon-sama?”

Shannon frowned slightly. “Yes. It’s really my music, and why do you keep calling me that? My name is Shannon Ka Yoru. Not Shannon Sama.”

“It’s because you’re our squad leader.” Jessica beamed.

“What is?” Shannon asked, confused.

“Shannon-sama. It’s Japanese, and it means you’re really important. And you are! Because you’re our squad leader and we’d never learn to march unless you told us how!”

Shannon sighed. “Hoshi? Has anyone ever asked you where you think up all this stuff?”

“I learned about it in a Japanese class my mom takes me to. See, I would call you Shannon-chan, which means you’re my friend. But I’m supposted to call you Shannon-sama, which means you’re really important because you’re in charge of our whole squad!” Jessica held her hands out to her sides to emphasize her point. “Did you draw all these little pictures too?”

“Uh, yeah, well.. just don’t worry about that. I need my music for a sectional.” Shannon looked down, fiddling with the valves on her trumpet.

“These are really really good, Shannon-sama! We should show them to Alanna-sama!” Jessica proudly showed Shannon the music she had just been discussing with Talitha.

Shannon looked up with an angry expression on her face and shouted. “No! Hoshi! We’re not going to show them to anybody! I want my music back and don’t tell anyone that I drew those pictures either!”

Jessica hesitated, surprised at Shannon’s raised voice.

“I’m sorry, Shannon-sama. Here you go.” Jessica spoke quietly and gently handed the trumpet music back to Shannon.

Shannon took the music and hesitated, still working the valves on her trumpet nervously. Then she sighed, looking down and to one side.

“I.. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. I just don’t want people talking about my drawings. I don’t want people to bother me about it.” Shannon said in an almost inaudible tone.

Jessica and Talitha just stood quietly, partly out of respect for their squad leader, and partly out of concern that Shannon seemed sad.

“I haven’t been myself today. I didn’t get much sleep last night.” Shannon spoke without looking up.

“That’s okay, Shannon-sama. Your drawings are really, really good. How come you didn’t get any sleep?” Jessica asked sympathetically.

“I had this really strange dream about a forest and this huge rock cliff and… it was just really weird.” Shannon shook her head for emphasis. “It wasn’t like a regular dream either. It’s like I can remember the conversations and everything.”

“That’s very unusual, Shannon.” Talitha replied.

“Well, anyway. I’ve got to go to the trumpet sectional. Bye.” Shannon turned and walked away, still looking down at her trumpet and music.

“Wow, Talitha-chan. Shannon’s dream sounds like the one I had a few nights ago.” Jessica said, watching Shannon as she joined the other trumpet players.

“You had a dream just like Shannon’s?” Talitha asked, quite interested.

“Well, there weren’t any cliffs or any conversations and stuff, but there was this gray sky, and it was really cold and then I heard…” Jessica’s voice trailed off.

“What did you hear?” Talitha asked, intrigued and trying to encourage Jessica to keep talking.

“I thought I heard someone crying. It wasn’t easy to hear too because of the wind and stuff. But then I woke up.” Jessica shook her head. “I couldn’t figure it out.”

“That’s very interesting,” Talitha said, her voice also drifting off slightly.

“What’s interesting? Do you know what the dream is about?” Jessica turned to look at Talitha with a hopeful expression.

“It sounds like you are describing your dream just like Shannon did. You are remembering many details. That’s very unusual.”

“That means I’m super-smart huh? I can remember stuff from dreams!”

“Well, I…”

“Now we just have to figure out what they mean. I wonder if Shannon-sama will tell us more about her dream if we ask really really nice and stuff?” Talitha noticed Jessica was starting to get that hyper-silly tone in her voice again. Then she changed subjects once again.

“I hope we learn the halftime show real fast.” Jessica made a fist again. “I got some good music parts for alto saxophone.”

“We better get to the sectionals.” Talitha said as a number of band members walked out the door and turned towards the group gathering on the blacktop next to the field.

“Okay, Talitha-chan! I’ll see you after practice so we can walk together, okay?” Jessica shouted as she ran towards the saxophone section.

“Okay. Bye, Jessica,” Talitha said as she turned to walk over to the percussion section.

Continued in Chapter Nine: Waterfalls to the Sky

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

What was that sound?

Shannon Ka Yoru awoke from a dreamless sleep, and found herself lying on the ground looking up directly into a moonlit sky sprinkled with thousands of tiny stars. It was so peaceful, she thought. At the edges of her sight were what appeared to be the tops of very tall trees, rustling slightly in a breeze she could neither see nor hear.

It was peaceful, but it was also completely unfamiliar. I’ve never seen this place before, Shannon thought. Suddenly, the cold breeze reached her, causing her to shiver. She heard the tree branches moving and the leaves crackling against each other. That couldn’t have been the sound she heard, could it?

How did I get here? Shannon thought. The ground was covered with fallen leaves and broken twigs, and was very dry and soft. Except for the occasional breeze, the air seemed very still, and there were no sounds at all except the rustling of the highest leaves of the trees.

It seemed like another world, but still, there was the moon. She stared at it for a moment, entranced by how bright and sharp it looked in the sky. The night couldn’t have been any clearer. She could see even the tiniest stars.

Another breeze swirled through the topmost branches of the trees nearest her. It’s like a dream, Shannon thought. It’s like some place I would like to visit. It’s like I belong here, she thought.

As another breeze drifted past, gently brushing the leaves on the ground next to her, something didn’t seem quite right. It was as if this place was stopped in time somehow, waiting for something that might never arrive. Even the moon seemed like it hadn’t moved in weeks.

Shannon sat up and brushed her hair back, looking around at the cold, foggy forest. She found no path nor could she see anything in the distance. The mist covering the ground and drifting between the trees seemed to glow slightly. Shannon noticed there were a few smaller plants and rocks on the ground.

The ground in this forest had a very strange consistency. It looked brittle and dry in some places, and muddy in others, like there had recently been a rainstorm. Shannon stood up and looked for some sign as to where she was. The breeze again drifted through the trees, making the mist swirl. The air had a damp scent that reminded Shannon of wet grass.

The trees themselves were absolutely massive. A canopy of dark leaves covered most of the sky, and Shannon could only see the tree trunks up about ten feet until the leaves obscured their true height. Dozens of huge trunks were visible from where she was standing. This forest must continue for miles in every direction, Shannon thought.

Shannon wondered about the sound she had heard. Looking up again at the small patch of sky visible among the leaves of the trees, she saw the moon again. Again she had that uncanny feeling that time had stopped somehow. Nothing seemed to be moving except the breeze and the mist.

The mist seemed to be glowing a little brighter to Shannon’s left, and she decided that would be the best direction to find a way out of the forest. As she started picking a path over the uneven ground and through the trees she heard branches and leaves moving again, followed by the sound of another breeze.

Shannon remembered to try and look for some landmark to remember where she had been. She walked across tiny mud canyons into which wisps of the fog had settled. The sound of her shoes on the brittle edges of the dirt was quite loud compared to the near silence of the rest of the forest.

Shannon had absolutely no idea where she was going, or why. In the distance, all she could see was a smooth flat layer of fog which looked to her like the top of a cloud, and more trees. As she continued to walk, she started to wonder. If she were really lost here, how would she find her way home?

Shannon looked up again, hoping to see the moon, since it seemed to be the one familiar sight in this strange place, but by now the the sky and most of the trees were obscured. It seemed that by walking towards the brightness, Shannon was walking deeper into the fog.

Now she wanted to go back, at least far enough so she could see the moon. But she also wanted to see why the mist was brighter in this direction.

Shannon’s curiosity won over her apprehension, and she continued walking. She was starting to become slightly impatient. I should be able to at least find a path or something, she thought to herself.

She stumbled over a shallow muddy patch as she passed a particularly huge tree trunk. Having regained her balance by leaning against the tree with her hand for support, she managed to climb up a wide low incline and stopped to look around again. She could see nothing but mist, fog and trees in every direction. She started walking again, more out of frustration now than curiosity. Stupid fog, Shannon thought. She stomped along, becoming more annoyed by the minute.

In her haste to find a path past the huge trees, Shannon failed to notice they were gradually becoming less numerous. It was only after the ground had become much more even that she looked around again. Either the fog had become much thicker in only a few minutes, or the forest has vanished, Shannon thought. Now she wanted to go back, but she didn’t know what direction to go. She couldn’t see anything in any direction. At least in the forest she had some way of trying to establish where she was or where she had been. Now she was completely surrounded by fog and mist. If I go back, she thought, how would I even know what direction I’m going?

Making her best guess as to what direction she was walking before she stopped, Shannon slowly continued walking deeper into the fog. She was becoming more concerned. She couldn’t see the sky, the stars or the moon any more. She could see nothing except mist, and were it not for her walking and disturbing the heavy blanket of fog, she wouldn’t be able to see the ground either. Shannon was becoming afraid. She wanted to go home.

It did seem that the fog in the direction she was headed was getting slightly darker. Shannon looked from side to side as she approached the dark area. Gradually as she walked, a huge wall of rock emerged from the the fog and mist in the distance. The mist overhead dissipated near the cliffs to reveal a spectacular canopy of what looked like millions of stars. It was a magnificent sight. Shannon couldn’t believe she was imagining all this. Somehow, some way, she thought, this must be real.

Shannon walked closer to the cliffs looking up to try and see the top. The cliffs looked like a huge beautiful dark jewel of some kind, almost like a palace. They belonged here at night, and only at night, she thought. Shannon looked from side to side, but the cliffs vanished into the fog only a few yards away. If there were a way to walk around them, it would be hidden somewhere in the mist. Shannon didn’t want to get lost again, so she started looking for another solution.

Again she looked skyward and sighed, relieved to see the moon once again. It was comforting, in a way, kind of like the moon was following her, watching over her as she walked. She shivered again as another breeze caught up with her, swirling through the pasty, thick fog, and dashing ahead of her into a narrow canyon passage in the rock.

She hadn’t noticed the passage before, even though she was standing only a few feet away. She stood and stared, trying to see as far as possible into the canyon. Suddenly she had an extremely eerie feeling the breeze had just gently pointed out that passage: the path she must follow.

Despite a mixture of confusion and apprehension, Shannon was determined to find out what was going on. I don’t care if it’s scary, Shannon thought. I’m going to see what’s in that passageway, because it’s got to be better than trying to find a path through this stupid fog. So Shannon began walking into the narrow canyon, determined to find whatever was there.

After walking a few steps into the passageway, she looked up again. The walls of the canyon made it difficult to see the sky, but she could still see a narrow band of stars roughly the same shape as the canyon path itself. Shannon could see that the passageway turned to her right after another few yards.

There considerably less breeze inside the canyon. She stopped and clenched her teeth as her feet crunched on the pebbles and dirt that covered the path, making more noise than she wanted. The moonlight was much dimmer, making Shannon wish she had some kind of light source. At least in the mist and fog she could see clearly. She was trying her best to be as quiet as possible. She strained to hear, and thought she heard a rushing sound in the distance, but she wasn’t sure.

I have to keep going, she thought, but she wasn’t sure why. She just had this strange feeling there was something here, and she had to find out what it was. She stood up straight, and steeled herself, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a moment.

“Okay,” she said aloud, and continued walking.

Shannon reached the turn in the canyon, and she noticed the passage became narrower as it turned to her right. She was sure she could hear a rushing sound now. Was it the wind? Or maybe water? Shannon wasn’t sure, but it was getting louder with each step she took.

That must be what I’m trying to find, Shannon thought. That rushing sound might be an important clue. I walked all the way through that dark forest and the fog and mist to get here. This is where I’m supposed to go. She had no idea why she was thinking this way, but it was important. It was the most important thing in the world to her at that moment.

A few feet further down the passage, it widened considerably to form a small chamber of sorts. The light from the moon bathed the smooth stone path in a pale bluish light which was almost entirely absorbed by the exquisite dark surface of the rock. Shannon walked right up to the edge of the chamber, expecting to walk right through it and continue towards the rushing sound.

As she reached the chamber edge, her stride caused her right hand to move forward into the moonlight. As the light touched her hand and fingers, they vanished! Shannon gasped and jumped back, looking at her own hand incredulously. She moved her fingers, making a fist and then opening her hand again. Everything seemed normal.

Ever so slowly, Shannon knelt down on the stone path and reached towards the edge of the moonlight again, thinking perhaps she imagined what she thought she had just seen.

Once again, just as her fingertips reached the moonlight, they simply disappeared. Shannon stared in total amazement as she moved her invisible fingers around the edges of the light. She reached further, causing her entire hand to vanish. It didn’t hurt. My hand is gone, Shannon thought, and it doesn’t hurt at all. She pulled her hand back out of the moonlight and it reappeared instantly.

Shannon sat on the ground in the narrow canyon holding her right hand and looked up. There was the moon again, but now it was only about half visible. Part of it was hidden behind the near edge of the canyon. Surrounding it were thousands of stars. They seemed so bright. Shannon felt as if she could reach out and scoop them out of the sky like tiny grains of twinkling sand.

Shannon felt much better. For some reason, she wasn’t afraid like before. This strange place she had found almost felt like home. I want to learn all about this place, Shannon thought. I want to know everything there is to know. She stood up. I want to be happy here and make this place even more beautiful than it already is. Then she walked directly into the moonlight and disappeared completely.

She looked down at her feet. She was completely invisible. She looked back up at the starlit sky and glowing moon and turned around and around, holding her arms out to her sides. She smiled and closed her eyes. She was no longer afraid, even of being invisible. She stopped and looked further into the canyon on the opposite side of the small chamber. I want to see what’s there, she thought.

She ran out of the chamber and stopped as she reappeared. She turned around to look back. The moonlight stopped right at the edge, just like the other side. Shannon smiled and then laughed joyously. This really wasn’t such a scary place after all, she thought.

She noticed the walls of the narrow path she was following were becoming more and more translucent. Shannon stopped to look closer. She reached out and touched the smooth, cool surface of the rock. It looked very much like the night sky, and for a moment, Shannon thought she might be seeing a reflection of the sky overhead. A dark bluish glow emanated from deep within the rock, making the surface appear somewhat transparent. It was like no wall Shannon had ever seen before.

Slowly she continued walking along the path, running her hand along the wall to her right, and marveling at how it sparkled, even in the darkness. Shannon was amazed at how easy it was to see in this passageway, even though it was obviously nighttime, and long past sunset. The rushing sound was very loud by now, and Shannon turned to look in the direction of the noise ahead of her.

The rushing sound was getting louder. She wanted to see what it was.

“That’s far enough.” It was a man’s voice. Shannon looked up and saw a silhouette dressed in what appeared to be a cape and an armored helmet standing on a rocky ledge about 15 feet above the canyon passage.

“Why do you trespass here?” the man asked.

Shannon was too surprised to say anything. She hadn’t expected to see anyone here. Just then, Shannon heard a low growling sound. Movement caught her eye to her left and she looked up to see a huge cougar prowling along the ledge. After a few yards it hopped down and out of sight.

“Answer me,” the man said.

“Ummm…” Shannon gulped. She was suddenly very frightened. “I don’t know. I was just in this forest and then I found this path and then I was here.” Her voice was quavering just a little. She didn’t sound very confident.

“What is your name?” the man asked.

“Shannon,” she answered. The man paused for a moment. Shannon thought he was probably angry. She waited for him to say something. “I’ll leave if you want, if you can tell me how to get home.”

“Don’t you know where you are?” the man asked.

“No,” Shannon replied. The man did not answer. Shannon couldn’t tell if he was still angry or just didn’t want to say anything.

“You cannot go forward, and you will not retreat. How do you plan to solve your problem, traveler Shannon?” the man asked after several moments of silence.

“I don’t know,” Shannon said with a slight tone of impatience in her voice. “I don’t even know where I am.”

“You are behaving uncharacteristically,” the man stated flatly. Shannon’s mouth dropped open. She didn’t know what to say. The statement was so unexpected that she really couldn’t believe she had heard it.

“Who are you!? How do you know how I should behave?!” Shannon challenged the shadowy figure.

“I am the Scribe-Footman of Starlight Vale. Soldier of the Banner of the Night. I have pledged my shield to defend this place until the Huntress returns to defend these lands.” The man spoke very authoritatively, and with a deep, clear voice.

Shannon looked around. “What’s Starlight Vale?”

“It is the place into which you are attempting to trespass,” the shadowy footman replied. “Starlight Vale is a place of quiet contemplation; a place where one seeks knowledge. It is a peaceful sanctuary, but also a place of immense power.” The Scribe continued.

“Starlight Vale is where a warrior seeks solace; where the Starlight Huntress seeks wisdom.” The man had Shannon’s complete attention. She had never heard anyone talk like this before.

“So what am I doing here?” Shannon asked, genuinely curious as to what Starlight Vale looked like, and where it really was.

“Because you, like the warrior who moves through the moonlight as effortlessly as the gentlest wind, seek answers,” the scribe answered cryptically.

“Wait a minute! How do you know what I want?” Shannon said, suddenly annoyed again. The scribe sighed deeply.

“You hide great sorrow,” he said. “It has inspired both your frustration and your search for knowledge. Despite your impatience, your wisdom grows with each passing year. Soon you will become a beautiful young woman. You will be strong and you will inspire and protect the people you love.”

Shannon’s heart skipped a beat, and she blushed instantly, looking down and reaching up to touch her hair nervously. Her eyes were wide.

“You, you… think I’m beautiful?” she asked quietly, turning her face to one side and smiling.

“Do not be distracted!” the man said sharply, jolting Shannon out of her reaction. She looked back up quickly.

“You must learn who you are, traveler Shannon.” the man’s voice was firm but patient.

“If you truly wish to remain who you think you are now, then leave this place, for you are where you do not belong,” the scribe said. “If, however, you seek wisdom and knowledge; if you seek to become more than your fear will allow, then your journey can begin once you have defeated your impatience. It is all that prevents you from finding what you seek.”

Shannon was incredulous. It was like looking in a mirror. The man seemed to know her very thoughts.

“When you have chosen wisdom over impatience, the power of the night will answer only to your voice. The moonlight shall become your cloak and shield. Behold, you are already able to hear the pure waters of Starlight Vale. They will become your window to new knowledge.”

The man continued to speak, as if reading from a book of verse.

“It is then, and only then, that you will find what you seek. Amongst the exiled treasures of a betrayed people, your destiny awaits you. In the quiet of darkness, where your power is concealed, the destinies of four others like yourself await. On the day you learn to understand that power, you shall become Exalted of the Stars, and they will call you sister. You will not just run with the pack, you shall lead the feral hunt as one of their number.”

Shannon had no idea what the man was saying. Her mind reeled with questions, but she couldn’t decide which to ask first.

“Together, you will be victorious. Without you, they shall fail, and all shall be lost. You must choose between frustration and victory. You must learn to survive. Consider these truths on your journey. If you truly believe in your heart you can succeed, your victory is assured.”

“Farewell, traveler Shannon.” the scribe said as he slowly faded into the night.

“Wait! Wait! You said you would tell me where I am! Come back!” Shannon shouted. “Where am I!?”

“WHERE AM I!?”

Continued in Chapter Eight: You Should Improvise Too!

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Jessica Hoshi stood on the sidewalk in front of Tree Shores High School. It was late afternoon, and the orange light of sunset was beginning to cast long shadows across the parking lot. Lined up along one side of the parking lot near the Fine Arts building were five huge silver colored buses with dark colored windows.

Jessica was surprised. They looked so new! She thought they might be tour buses.

Parked behind the buses was a large truck pulling a trailer behind it. Jessica could see about a dozen students wearing green band shirts milling around a number of storage trunks arranged around the back of the trailer. That must be the drum equipment, Jessica thought. Painted on the side of the white trailer was an enormous TSHS logo with two diagonal green stripes.

Jessica started walking across the parking lot. She was also wearing her green band shirt and jeans. She was carrying her uniform in a coat liner, and her saxophone with a brand new “Tree Shores Lions” sticker on it. Jessica was so excited to see all her friends and to finally get to play a real show, something she had been waiting to do for so long. She hoped she would do all of the marching steps correctly.

As she walked, Jessica saw more and more people gathered around the opposite side of the buses. Almost all of them were dressed in band t-shirts. There were also several parents passing out scarves and hats and pin-on buttons. One of the parents was busy reparing a pair of white suspenders and a couple of mothers were loading gallon jugs of orange juice into a metal cooler.

Jessica just stood and stared. There must be hundreds of people here. This is more people than were at my junior high graduation! Jessica thought. She looked and looked but couldn’t see Talitha, Ranko or even Shannon. She hoped to find Talitha so they could sit together on the bus.

Just as she stepped up on the sidewalk where the buses were parked, she saw Mr. Factor. He was dressed sharply in a navy blue suit and shined shoes as he stood and spoke to a couple of the older band members. Wow, Jessica thought. He looks so important! He wore a green and gold diagonally-striped tie and shiny silver-rimmed glasses.

Jessica scanned the crowd over and over again, despairing that she would ever find Talitha. She saw Carl, her section leader, who was sorting things in his saxophone case and wearing a pair of music player headphones.

“Goofy!” Jessica sort of heard a familiar voice, but she wasn’t sure. “Goofy Bird who is too short to be in the marching band!” Jessica whirled around. There stood Ranko Yorozu. She was wearing the same outfit, but had an orange headband on and a Tree Shores Lions Volleyball bumper sticker stuck to the shoulder of her shirt.

“Ranko-chan!” Jessica shouted as Ranko ran over. “Finally I found somebody! I’ve been looking for Talitha-chan. Have you seen her yet?”

“Nope. The Professor is probably way down at other the end of the parking lot. I think she might be helping with the instrument truck.”

“This is so exciting,” Jessica said, bouncing up on her toes a few times. “I can’t wait for my first football game. I’ve never seen a real football game before. Do you know how to play?”

“Oh yeah. Football is a cinch. I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Ranko said confidently. “No sweat.”

“When do we leave for the stadium?” Jessica asked, looking around to see if other people were getting on the buses yet.

“Not sure, but call time is in like two minutes, so whatever we’re going to, it’s happening pretty quick here,” Ranko said. “Looks like we’re breaking into sections. Catch you at the game! Green and Gold!”

“Yay!” Jessica said, then walked over to where most of the saxophone players were gathering around Carl.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen,” Carl said. “I fully expect everyone here to completely tank the show and make us all very sad and dejected so we all quit music and take up horticulture.” The freshmen all looked around at each other, not sure if he was serious. “Bus rules are pretty simple. No throwing anything. No running up and down the aisles when the bus is moving. No making faces at anyone except the Mesa Bay football team or band. Make sure you pick up all of your equipment when you leave. Does everyone have their chips?”

Jessica looked around again. Chips? Several of the older band members pulled colorful bags of various kinds of potato chips from their coat liners.

“Don’t worry freshman life forms,” Carl said, burrowing into a large dark colored bag with TSHS on the side. “I brought extras.” One at a time, Carl pulled bags of chips out of his carrying bag and tossed one to each of the freshman saxophone players. One of the older horn players walked by just as Jessica failed to catch hers. He shook his head feigning impatience then rolled his eyes and walked around her as she scrambled to pick up her bag of chips.

“This is your only free bag!” Carl closed his eyes tightly and shouted. “SO BRING YOUR OWN NEXT TIME!” Then he held out both hands, palms down, opened his eyes and a calm smile crossed his face. “Now, let us summon the happiness only the wonderful, wonderful crispy… lightly salted potato chips… can bring.” All of the other saxophone players held their bags of chips in one hand.
“Ready?” Carl asked.

All at once the entire section of nearly two dozen people shook their bags of chips, making as much noise as they possibly could. Jessica smiled and shook her bag of chips along with everyone else.

“Listen to the chips! They are happy! The chips are with us!” Carl shouted. Jessica giggled as she watched a couple of the other saxophone players hold the bags near their ears, still shaking them, rolling their eyes up as if they were listening intently. “Now we are prepared to play a wonderful show.” Carl said, dropping his chips back into his carrying bag and closing it up. “We shall feast on the chips of happiness after we run the other band off the field with our halftime show and win the game!”

Jessica looked down at her package of potato chips. Oh good, she thought. I like sour cream flavor. Then she saw Talitha walking towards her. Talitha turned from side to side as if looking for someone.

“Talitha-chan!” Jessica exclaimed. Talitha looked up and smiled, hurrying over to where Jessica was.

“Hello Jessica,” Talitha said. “There’s so many people here, I almost got lost.”

“Can we sit together on the bus?” Jessica asked. “I wasn’t sure if you had to stay with the drummers or not.” Talitha shook her head.

“Leila said I could ride on any of the buses, but I have to go with the drummers after we get to the stadium right away.”

“Goody. Let’s go find a good place. I think a lot of my section is going to be on this one,” Jessica said, indicating the second of the five buses.

“Don’t you have to put your instrument on the truck with the others?” Talitha asked.

“Uh uh,” Jessica replied, shaking her head. “They said that only tenor and baritone saxes had to load their instruments on the truck. The altos get to put theirs in the bus luggage. See?” Jessica said, putting her case down next to the small collection of alto saxophone, clarinet, flute, trumpet and various other cases on the sidewalk by the open luggage bay. Four of the older students were busy loading the cases one at a time to make sure they all fit.

“You should have seen all the drum equipment, Jessica,” Talitha said. “There were so many sets of tom-toms and so many cymbals. All of them together filled up almost half of the truck. And that big bass drum Leila told us about? It’s as tall as me!”

“Sugoi!” Jessica said quietly as they walked up the shiny metal steps to board the bus.

“Sugoi is right,” Talitha said. “I’ve never seen a drum that big before. They didn’t even use it in practice. I wonder who marches that enormous thing?”

Jessica looked down the aisle of the bus. Row after row of clean dark blue seats went down either side of the cabin, with luggage compartments overhead. The floor was carpeted, and it was very cool and comfortable inside. Jessica looked out the nearest window at the other band members as they continued loading instruments. The tinting on the windows added a little gray to all the colors, making it look like it was later in the day. The quiet sound of the engine and the whine of the ventilation system made it sound like the inside of a jet. Every few seats on either side, a uniform bag was hanging along the window. Jessica walked down the aisle, looking for a seat where there wasn’t a uniform bag. After a few feet she found one and stopped.

“Here we go. You get the window seat, okay?” Jessica said. Talitha nodded and turned sideways to reach her seat. She clipped her uniform bag to one of the loops just above the window, and helped Jessica do the same. Then they sat down, each in their own seat complete with an armrest.

“This is just like taking a plane trip,” Jessica said, smiling happily at Talitha. The backs of the chairs were at least a foot taller than they were, and were very clean and comfortable. Other band members were starting to file on to the bus by now, each choosing different seats and hanging their uniform bags as they sat down.

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Jessica Hoshi awoke from a dreamless sleep to find herself in yet another desolate wasteland. The air was as still as it could be. There was no sound except that of a distant wind. She was alone.

Alone, just like before, Jessica thought. But it was different now, as if the land had resigned itself to the darkness that enveloped it. In her other dreams, there was the fire of conflict. Now, there was only an uneasy quiet.

She sat up and saw she was wearing her band t-shirt and jeans and favorite yellow shoes. The mist on the ground looked like the far side of the clouds in a night sky. She stood up and looked around. It was like she was walking on air. She took a few tentative steps and breathed a sigh of relief as she found the ground solid under the mist. For a moment she thought she might fall if she moved. Now I’ve got to find my way out of this place, she thought.

Jessica heard the nearby wailing sound of a child crying, which was almost instantly drowned out by a sudden gust of sharp icy-cold wind. She remembered her previous nightmares, where she couldn’t quite be sure what she was hearing. It was as if the wind arrived just in time to try and conceal the child’s voice, but Jessica was sure this time.

Someone was here with her.

She wasn’t quite sure why, but Jessica suddenly became very angry. If something was making a little child cry here, she was going to do something about it! She began walking quickly towards where she thought she had first heard the sound. The wind began to resist, pulling at Jessica with frozen gusts, but she was determined.

After only a few dozen yards, Jessica saw a huge structure begin to emerge from within the fog. She stopped, unsure whether to continue, or whether something might be waiting inside. She recalled the battle she had seen, and immediately became apprehensive. What if those monsters come back? she thought.

Jessica very slowly began to approach the building and the wind swirled past once again, carrying the unmistakable sound of a little girl sobbing. Jessica was sure she heard a voice speaking, and a tiny voice calling for “daddy.” The sound was coming from the direction of the huge structure.

“Who’s there?!” Jessica cried. The building was only a short distance away. Maybe if she ran fast enough, she might be able to find the lost child this time! I’ve got to hurry! Jessica thought.

The Lithic Pavilion

Her breath short, Jessica stopped running as soon as the pavilion came into clearer view. It was the same building, but this time she could see no people. The building appeared dark and abandoned. Even the water no longer reflected from its ceiling.

Jessica ran as fast as she could to the steps of the massive structure and looked up into the interior of the pavilion. From this vantage point she couldn’t see very much, and just as she placed her hands on the step to start to climb, she heard another wailing echo from immediately to her left.

She turned and ran around the circular path of the lowest step to the left side of the building and stopped. There was nothing there. At that exact moment, Jessica felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Someone, or something… was watching her.
Jessica whirled around and froze. Floating in mid air next to the steps was what appeared to be a little girl rubbing her eyes. She was wearing a bright yellow dress with white trim around the collar and sleeves and had blond hair and little brown slipper-like shoes. She sniffled once and asked in a crystal clear, yet tiny wavering voice, “Do you know where my daddy is?”

Jessica held her breath and shook her head no quickly. The little girl started to cry again, putting her other hand up to cover her face. Jessica suddenly felt sad.

“Don’t cry,” Jessica said. “It’ll be okay. We’ll find him together.”

The little girl suddenly looked over her shoulder as if she had heard something, and then literally blinked out, vanishing into the mist. Moments later, Jessica heard crying again from the other side of the building, but the sound was getting quieter, as if she were running away.

Jessica ran as fast as she could around the front steps of the pavilion to try and find her again. The sound of crying had disappeared completely by now, but Jessica was sure she had run this way.

As Jessica ran away from the steps and towards the misshapen trees, she heard a rustling sound from above, followed by a piercing cry. Startled, she stopped and looked up to see a magnificent peregrine falcon sitting in the brittle branches about 20 feet overhead. It’s white-yellow eyes stared directly into Jessica’s gaze, and its wings were held slightly to each side, as if it were preparing to leap towards Jessica.

“That’s far enough.” Jessica heard a voice sharp with authority and a slight tone of hostility. Standing in Jessica’s path was the shrouded girl.

“Where did she go? What did you do with her!?” Jessica asked insistently.

“It is too dangerous for you to remain here. You must leave,” the even voice replied.

Jessica hesitated, wondering what might happen if the little girl were caught in another battle like the one she had seen before.

“You’ve been warned,” the warrior said, her gaze locked on Jessica’s as she drew one of the sleek swords from over her shoulder and turned slightly to one side, slowly and carefully pulling her cape from over her opposite shoulder, freeing both of her arms. The sound of the mysterious warrior’s voice sent chills up Jessica’s spine, and she heard the falcon rustle behind her, sounding a low cry of its own.

Jessica was scared by the threatening stance of the shadowy warrior and ran back to the steps of the pavilion. She just wanted to help, and she didn’t understand why she couldn’t keep looking for the little girl. Jessica hoped she was okay.

Looking back, Jessica saw the cloaked warrior had disappeared as well. She was alone again.

Jessica was confused and started to feel like she wanted to cry too. She hated this place, and wanted to go home.

But then Jessica thought she should be strong. She composed herself and yelled towards where the warrior had been standing. “I just wanted to help!!”

There was no answer. Jessica slowly turned and walked in the other direction, wondering if she would be able to find her way in the swirling mist. She slowly left the pavilion behind as she walked into the distance.

Jessica trudged along, thinking about the lost little girl. She couldn’t help being concerned. It was the same voice. The one from nearly all her nightmares.

Finally Jessica looked up and saw shapes emerging from the thick fog. It looked as if huge hewn stones were growing directly out of the ground. There seemed to be dozens of them scattered into the distance. They were all roughly square-shaped at their base and each seemed about twice Jessica’s height. Jessica looked back and noticed she had walked so far she couldn’t see the pavilion any more.

She began to walk through the collection of massive silent stones looking up at each as she passed. The air was very still and heavy, and there was the scent of wet leaves slowly getting stronger. and Jessica could hear no sounds. The strangest thing about this place, she thought, is that it was almost always completely silent. There were no insect sounds, no wind, and no animal noises.

Slowly the air began to take on a slight orange tinge. A brightness gradually emerged from the mist as Jessica picked her way through the maze of square stone columns. She could smell something burning as she approached what seemed to be the source of the flickering yellow-orange light.

Finally Jessica rounded one of the columns to find a campfire burning on the ground about 10 feet away. A grove of trees was visible nearby, beyond the edge of the columns.

The mist was almost overwhelmingly thick here, emphasizing the cramped feeling between the huge, monoliths which formed a forest of sorts in all directions.

Sitting on a dark log next to the fire was a person dressed in a dark brown robe with a hood covering their face. Jessica hesitated for a moment, unsure whether the person posed any danger.

“Are you just going to stand there?” a deep voice asked, the sound surrounding Jessica on all sides. She jumped, startled at the sudden sound.

“You scared me!” she said, a slight tone of annoyance in her voice.

“Are you a traveler?” a man’s voice asked from under the unmoving hood. The man looked up for a moment, then looked back down, tending to the fire with a small wooden stick.

“Where is your walking stick?” he asked. “Surely you haven’t set upon a journey without a staff to mark your path?”

Jessica didn’t answer. Staff? Walking stick? she thought.

“Hmm,” the man shook his head. “Then you must be a thief. Shame to set upon a wanton path at such an early age.”

“I’m not a thief!” Jessica snapped, putting her hands on her hips.

“I have nothing of value. I can only offer you my fire and my water. I am a traveler from the north of Chaer. Please join me for a time.”

As Jessica hesitantly relaxed, sitting on another log near the fire, she picked up a small, polished yellow stone from the ground near the log, examining the crude symbol of two wings and a sword carved into it’s smooth surface.

“What does this symbol mean?” she asked. The man looked and then turned back to the fire.

“That is a symbol of suffering. Pay it no mind.”

“Suffering?” Jessica asked.

“It is not something which sane men speak of,” the man answered. “She will hear.”

“Who?” Jessica persisted. The man sighed heavily.

“Even in the southern lands, there is no escape from this. All want to be regaled with the tales,” he said as he stabbed at the fire in frustration. “Very well. But you must never speak of this again, to friend or foe,” the man said, leaning forward to whisper, “…for she hears when her name is spoken. That is the symbol of the LadyStar.”

“LadyStar?” Jessica asked.

“It is an ancient tale, for the legend has not been seen since the time of Gaelen, King of Silver. Gaelen II was a fastidious monarch who hoarded vast fortunes for conquest. In the tenth year of his reign, he formed a massive army and directed them north to expand his realm. Horse and man, catapult and caravan traveled for one week, to the very border of the northern province…” The man hesitated for a moment, and took a deep breath.

“A place known as Kulnas Forge…” Then he exhaled and hesitated again, continuing to speak as if it required great effort.

“On the eve of what would have been one of the greatest massacres known to the age, something terrible set upon those men.” He continued.

“You see the northern lands had no cavalry. They had no catapults, no engines of war. Their villages were guarded by conscripts. Farmers and their sons, many taking up arms for the first time in their lives stood scarcely a mile from the border in a vain and hopeless attempt to defend their homes. They would have been mercilessly trampled under hoof and wheel but for one unexpected event.”

“In the deepest hour of night, watchmen at the army’s camp were surprised by a blinding flash of pure white light from a nearby hill. They somehow managed to sound the alarm and thousands of the King’s soldiers moved to defend their position, believing a surprise attack from the north was underway. With the banners of Gaelen II raised, and the clarion of trumpets sounding the attack, the mighty armies of the Vulture Crest moved north by torchlight and found a single figure standing alone on a hill.” The man sighed and looked up.

“The rest is legend.”

The man looked up into the sky as if recalling something from a distant place.

“..and she stood resplendent upon that hill… armed with but a sword made of diamonds, and faced the armies of a King.”

He waited, then continued, staring into the smoldering embers as Jessica listened with wide-eyed attentiveness.

“Many tales were written of how Gaelen’s armies marched gloriously into battle that night. None were written of how they returned. They feared the truth: that the armies of the Vulture Crest were driven before the LadyStar like frightened rabbits: their swords cast to one side, their shields to the other, arms in the air, faces frozen in masks of terror it would take a thousand pages to describe.”

“It is an image no man can forget: thousands fleeing, a horizon burning in white-hot flame, the screams of cowardice. To this day none dare approach that field of battle. They say it is still haunted by the echoes of a defeated kingdom.”

“Then there are the legends: tales told by madmen returning from scenes of battle so horrifying that even the scribes with their many words were reluctant to describe them adequately. They say she commanded arcanery the greatest wizards in history could only dream of. Her victory remains legend to this day.”

The man seemed agitated now.

“There were tales of her burning the Earth with her feet and causing white fire to flash across the sky. That she threw bolts of power the width of a village road, pulverized engines of war the size of ten dwellings, cast aside entire mounted battalions of heavy cavalry with but a wave of her delicate hand.” His voice began to rise in both volume and tension.

“Champion knights foolish enough to challenge her were reduced to tears by her glance. They said it was radiant as a winter’s orchid yet as terrifying as a raptor’s stare. Her enemies vanquished, she walks the field of battle like vengeance afoot. The light of her fury could be seen from distant lands! Gaelen’s magnificent army, ten regiments of fine soldiers, an army that had once shaken the very Earth itself with its movements!” He stopped suddenly.

“The LadyStar swept them aside as if they were insects!” he shouted, pointing at Jessica. Then he seemed to try and calm himself. The man’s voice receded with his apparent anger and he looked back down at the dimming fire.

“No magic, no man, no beast can oppose her will. To stand against the LadyStar in battle is to stand defeated.” He hesitated again.

“Some say she is a timeless being of virtually limitless power. I say she is destruction: nature’s perfect response to an overwhelming concentration of evil.” He threw the burnt stick into the fire and looked up. Jessica could still not see his face under the cowl.

“You must never speak of this again. For as surely as the armies of the Vulture Crest did not return from that dark night, she will hear her name…

“…and she will come for you.”

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

“I got my music! I got my music! Yaaaaay!!” Jessica Hoshi jumped up and down with a huge smile on her face, hugging the small pieces of paper.

From inside the small music library Talitha just stared at her, unable to discern why the simple transfer of a stack of music from one person to another was a source of such excitement.

Jessica stopped suddenly and looked at Talitha with a brilliantly happy face and almost shouted “Domo arigato gozaimasu, Talitha-chan!!”

The other kids in line for the music library just stared at Jessica as she turned away from the amazed Talitha and ran back to where she had left her saxophone case.

Clayton Thornton, who was in line with the other band members, leaned over to Devin Brooks as Jessica rushed by and whispered “what is it with you saxophone players?”

“Hey, at least we get a melody once in a while,” Devin said as he elbowed Clayton in the side. Clayton elbowed Devin back.

Later, after Talitha had helped distribute the rest of the halftime show music, she sat with Jessica to read through the charts of the new show. Band members were drifting in and out of the room during the break before afternoon marching practice. Some of the first-year drummers were busy cleaning the heavy green and black fiberglas carriers for the field drums while the squad leaders fitted and adjusted the heads on five tuned bass drums. Each had a green and yellow Tree Shores High School logo with “MARCHING LIONS” written underneath.

Jessica had been watching as one of the older drummers taped large pieces of what looked like folded pieces of cloth on to the outside of the the larger bass drum heads when Leila walked by.

“Um..” Jessica asked, trying to get the older girl’s attention. Leila turned around and looked at Jessica without saying anything.

“How come they put those things on the bass drums?” Jessica asked.

“So they won’t ring,” Leila said. “Bass drums need to thud. If the heads aren’t dampened, they’ll ring and sound all wrong.”

“Those logos look neat too,” Jessica said. Leila walked up the risers to the drummer’s area. Jessica was satisfied that the drummers knew what they were doing, so she turned back to her music and show charts.

“Look, Talitha-chan. We have to learn aaaaaaall this before the upper class band members get back so we can have a great halftime show,” Jessica lined up the pages describing the show around her saxophone case. “Look at all the different places we have to go. Oh! Look! We get to spell L-I-O-N-S on the field!”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, Jessica. I don’t want all those people looking at me. What if I make a mistake?” Talitha said as she shuffled the show charts around absently.

“Are you really scared of being in the band and in the halftime show, Talitha-chan?”

“I’m afraid of having all those people watching. It will be even worse than recitals,” Talitha replied. “The last time I played Chopin at a recital I made four mistakes, and I was sure that the people there could hear them. They were loud.”

“You played a whole recital and only made four mistakes? Sugoi…” Jessica said. “Talitha-chan, you’re the best piano player in the world.”

“Oh, my goodness…” Talitha said quietly as she turned her head.

“Really, Talitha-chan, that’s amazing.” Jessica tried to persuade her as Talitha shook her head. Then Jessica grinned.

“I make about a million mistakes every time I play, even though I never played at a recital before because there aren’t really any recitals for saxophone,” Jessica said. “You really don’t have to worry about playing in marching band though.”

“Somebody worried about performances?” Alanna Kawa asked, walking up to the two girls. Jessica looked up and suddenly spoke very seriously, trying to impress the Second Drum Major.

“Yes ma’am. Umm.. Talitha-chan is uhh.. well, she’s trying to help me because I was thinking about all those people in the audience and making mistakes and stuff.”

“Well, Hoshi, just remember that we’re all part of the same team. Just do your best and everything will be cool.” Alanna spoke with her characteristic confidence.

“Yes ma’am,” Jessica replied with a happy expression. “I’ll do my best!” Alanna smiled and walked over to where the tuba players were discussing the show charts. Talitha was still shuffling her own charts as Jessica turned back to her saxophone case.

“See Talitha-chan? Just like Alanna-sama said. Everything’s going to be cool!” Jessica said.

Talitha nodded, noticing how graciously Jessica had asked the question on her behalf. Jessica didn’t have to do that. That was the nicest thing anyone has done for me in years, Talitha thought. She was far too shy to say anything about it, of course.

At that moment, a blast of sound erupted from the drummers’ area. Jessica and Talitha and about four dozen other people looked up in surprise at the staccato sound of a high-voice tom-tom. It was Leila. She had picked up and put on the shiny silver roto-toms and now she was playing them with purpose.

The solo was spectacular. Leila’s black and green mallets moved so fast they were almost a blur. She played the highest voice drum the most, interchanging rolls with fast series of evenly played eighths and sixteenths, punctuated with single accented notes and cascades to the other three drums. After a few seconds, she continued her high voice drum solo, but increased tempo and began to flip the mallets in her hands between phrases of notes.

Jessica and Talitha looked at each other with wide eyes. It looked like Leila was juggling the mallets as she played! The two girls continued to watch in awe as Leila increased the intensity and speed of her solo as some of the other drummers started cheering her on. Then, right on cue, four of the bass drummers joined in with two-note lead-ins every four beats. Leila just continued playing, her expression calm and impassive and her head and eyes moving only slightly to keep track of which drum she was playing. One of the snare drummers, an older boy with sandy hair who was wearing sunglasses, joined in, matching Leila’s high drum solo note for note on his field snare. Jessica realized this wasn’t an improvisation.

Then all of the drummers switched to the rims of their drums, one-two-three-four they played, four notes in time with their tempo with both sticks, then the two-measure cadence halt thundered through the room. After the last three notes from all the drums in unison, all of the older band members in the room shouted “LIONS!”

The first-year students all began to cheer wildly. The exciting sound of the drum cadence and especially Leila’s solo amazed Jessica almost beyond words. She turned to Talitha.

“Did you see? Did you see? Sugoi! That was super cool!” Jessica shouted and jumped to her feet with a delighted look on her face. “Leila-sama is the best drummer ever!” Jessica joined in cheering with the rest of the first year students. Talitha couldn’t help but smile, both at Jessica’s exuberance and the indisuputably thrilling drum solo.

A few moments later, after the cheering had wound down and the drummers had returned to their meticulous work, Jessica was still raving about Leila’s solo.

“Shannon-sama said you get to be in the drum section too. I wish I played drums! Which one are you going to be? There’s lots of places for drummers in this halftime show.”

“Leila said I would probably play glockenspiel,” Talitha replied, adjusting her glasses again.

“Glockenspiel? What’s that?” Jessica asked.

“It’s a set of chimes on a lyre-shaped structure. The bells are arranged diatonically similar to a piano keyboard and struck with a small hammer to make different tones. I’ve been playing piano since I was five, so I guess the drummers think I can play bells too. It doesn’t seem to be very difficult.”

“Wow, Talitha-chan. You know everything, huh? You answer questions better than Dr. Strings, and he’s already been to college and he knows about science and stuff.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I should try to find more efficient answers.”

“Talitha-chan, that’s okay! You should try to have the best answer you can, because then you’ll do great in your classes! Besides, I want to hear the smart answer! Then I’ll know as much as you and I can be super-smart like Talitha-chan!”

Talitha looked down and didn’t answer.

“Time for marching practice again!” Jessica said. “Let’s go!” All of the first-year students began to file out the front and side band room doors towards the athletic field for afternoon practice.

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Talitha Hayashi awoke from a dreamless sleep to find herself in a dimly lit forest of very thin trees. The air was very heavy and still, and there was a strong scent of bark and dried leaves. She looked around in all directions and could only see more saplings far into the darkness. The only remarkable nearby feature was a faded path of sorts a few yards to her right.

All of the trees seemed to be about the same height, and spaced at roughly regular intervals, which made Talitha wonder if this grove had been planted recently. None of the trees had any leaves at all, only gray sharp branches. The ground was a pale white color and mostly covered with broken sticks, branches and dried out grass and leaves. There were no other plants Talitha could see nearby.

Talitha thought it must be winter, even though it really wasn’t very cold. In fact the air felt slightly warm. There was no wind at all. The sky was gray and overcast, and the light was very strange. It was apparently the middle of the night, but Talitha could still see quite a distance, even though she couldn’t tell if the light was coming from the sun or the moon.

Talitha wasn’t sure what to do. Should I follow the path, she thought, or should I walk through the trees? Or should I stay here? Talitha looked up the path until it disappeared over a nearby rise. In the other direction, the path traveled down a gentle slope into a much thicker and much darker stand of trees. Talitha listened carefully, but could hear only the sounds of a few insects chirping and way in the distance, the faint sound of what might be a brook or perhaps a small waterfall.

Talitha took a few hesitant steps towards the path. After only a few feet she stopped. At the base of one of the nearby trees, Talitha could see a small glowing light. It was a very pale greenish color and it seemed to be drifting towards the path very slowly. It was the most curious thing, Talitha thought. She didn’t think it was a firefly, because it was easily the size of an orange, and the area around it was glowing as well. It was only about a foot off the ground, and it was now drifting out into the path. Just as it reached the narrow path it ever so slowly shifted to a shade of pale yellow.

Talitha stepped back to keep her distance from the little light. As she did so, it started to climb higher and move a little faster, then it turned and began to move towards her. She took another step back as it rose to her eye level and stopped moving, hovering directly in front of her astonished eyes. Talitha watched the light for any sign of danger, but it just floated there as if it were looking closely at her face. Once again, very slowly, it shifted colors and she gasped. This time it began to glow a deep gloriously beautiful shade of green.

Talitha had read stories about will-o-wisps before. Perhaps that’s what this is, she thought. Maybe it’s a will-o-the-wisp! Just as she moved her hand up to try and touch it, the little light darted to her left, then back to her right. Talitha stepped back again, surprised at the sudden movement. She watched as it spun around her twice and then glided swiftly out on to the path and up the incline.

After only a moment it disappeared into the distance, enveloped by the darkness. Talitha hurried to follow. After Talitha reached the top of the incline, she saw that the trail followed the slope down to the edge of a riverbank. Crossing the river was a rustic footbridge, and there, floating in the air halfway over the bridge, was the glowing light, now a very faint shade of lavender.

Talitha slowly walked towards the footbridge. As she reached its edge, the glowing light raced towards her, circled her shoulders twice as she backed away, then spiraled across the bridge, flying quickly up the path into the darkness. Talitha stood there aghast. The little light seemed to be acting intelligently! Does it want me to follow? she thought.

As she stood trying to decide what to do, Talitha noticed the footbridge had unlit stone lamps set atop the short columns at either end: two on her side of the river and two on the other side. They were made of a coarse yellowish stone and seemed to be slightly scorched. She also saw there were letters carved into the right side wooden column. Intrigued, she crouched down to get a better look.

“Swifty River,” Talitha said out loud. She was confused again. She understood what the carved words meant, even though they were written in a completely unfamiliar language.

Talitha looked back in the direction from which she had walked. The path was obscured by the darkness, although she was sure it was still there. I can figure this out, she thought. She turned to look across the river. She stood and wondered.

What will I find if I cross Swifty River?

To be continued…

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

As she stared to run towards the doorway, a grey-haired man wearing a lab coat walked out the door and turned to walk the opposite direction.

“Um, excuse me?” Jessica said. The man turned around to face Jessica.

“Yes?”

The man was very tall and wore rounded glasses. He also wore a white lab coat, gray slacks and a gray shirt and tie. His hair stood almost straight up. He looked like a nice man, Jessica thought.

“May I help you?” he said.

“Can you tell me where the band room is?” Jessica asked.

“Ah, yes. Of course!” The man looked up at the ceiling and held up the index finger of his right hand as he announced “Today is the first day of summer band rehearsals!”

“Normally I would tell you to follow the sound of the drums. However, as they are not playing yet, you will need a more detailed procedure, generally speaking, as it were. Now, what would be the most efficient path to the band classroom? Hmmm…” The man looked down and began to ruminate, rubbing his chin.

Jessica waited for a few moments, then began to wonder if he had forgotten the question.

“Are you a band teacher?” she asked hopefully.

“Unfortunately, no,” the man smiled. “As wonderful as it might be to direct the study of cacophonous musical instruments, I am a scientist. I am Doctor Antonius Strings. I teach Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy and Geology. And you are?”

“I’m Jessica Hoshi, but you can call me Jessie!” Jessica replied brightly.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Hoshi,” Dr. Strings replied. “Now then, if I am recalling correctly the location of the music department, I believe I can provide directions.”

“Oh, good,” Jessica smiled.

“However, as you are now approximately eleven minutes late for the first day of band rehearsal, we must proceed expeditiously. If you will follow this hallway, turn left and proceed approximately 18 meters, you will arrive at yet another turn. At that exact point, turn left exactly 90 degrees, and proceed another five meters, and there you will achieve your goal.” Dr. Strings once again triumphantly held up the index finger of his right hand to emphasize his conclusion.

“Thanks very much Dr. Strings! Bye!” Jessica said, hurrying off down the hallway again, then she stopped suddenly, turning around again. “I wanna take Astronomy, Geology and Chemistry and Physics class this year!”

“Ah, but a good scientist must also master language, history, mathematics, and in your case, music. One science each year will be sufficient. Don’t you agree?” Dr. Strings replied.

“Hmmm… didn’t think about that. Okay! I’ll take all those classes too and then I’ll take all the science classes and stuff! Bye!” Jessica rushed off, following Dr. Strings directions.

“Farewell, Miss Hoshi, and good luck!” Dr. Strings said before walking into another classroom. Jessica turned the corner, and just as Dr. Strings said, there was room 74. There were several students standing in the hallway around the classroom. Jessica didn’t recognize anyone, and many of the students looked much older. I wonder if they’re seniors, Jessica thought.

There were two girls standing by the door talking. One of the girls was very tall and had very long dark hair. She was wearing a grey t-shirt, a pair of dark blue shorts and white tennis shoes and was holding a clipboard. The other girl was shorter, but still taller than Jessica. She wore a white t-shirt with the words “FLAG TEAM” written in green on the front, gold shorts and also wore white tennis shoes. She wore her brown hair in a ponytail. Further down the hall was a group of at least eight boys loading heavy looking equipment into a huge black crate with TSHS written on the side.

Jessica held her saxophone case and jacket with both arms as she walked slowly towards the door. The girls continued talking to each other and didn’t notice her.

“Um.. ” Jessica interrupted. The tall girl looked right at her as if to say “don’t interrupt.” Jessica shrank away from her, still hugging her saxophone case.

“Yes?” the tall girl said. She was also wearing a whistle on a green lanyard around her neck. Her shirt had green block lettering that spelled out “INSTRUCTOR.” Jessica thought she sounded annoyed.

“Um, is this the band room?” Jessica asked sheepishly. The tall girl looked at her for a moment.

“Yes. Why do you have your horn?”

“Huh?” Jessica said, looking down at the saxophone case, then back up at the tall girl. “I thought we were supposed to bring our instruments.”

“It’s only the first day. We’re not supposed to have instruments until next week.”

“Why not?” Jessica asked, genuinely interested in why a band would rehearse without instruments.

“You have to learn how to march first,” the brown-haired girl said with a puzzled expression. Jessica was embarassed, and blushed. The tall girl gestured towards the open door to room 74.

“Orientation is inside, and you’re late.” Jessica looked through the open door.

“Um.. thank you..” Jessica said quietly, and entered the band room.

Inside the huge room were at least a hundred people, all listening to an older girl at the front of the room. Jessica immediately started looking for the nearest corner to hide in. To her left she saw a large collection of drum equipment, and a drumset. There was no room to sit over by the drums. She looked to her right, and saw a tiny spot in the corner, next to some cabinets.

“And we won’t go easy on people who are late!” the older girl said as she read from her clipboard without looking up. Jessica gingerly picked her way past the people already sitting on the floor. Jessica blushed again, realizing the older girl at the front was referring to her.

She finally reached her destination and sat down, still hugging her saxophone case, at the back of a room full of unfamiliar people. She looked around the room. There were so many people here to join the marching band, and Jessica realized she really didn’t know anyone.

The girl at the front of the room looks so important, Jessica thought. She had short, very light white hair and purple eyes, and she was very tall. She was speaking with such authority, Jessica thought. She wondered who this girl could be.

The older girl stood in front of the blackboard and next to a piano with a huge stack of papers on it. She was wearing a white t-shirt with “LIONS” written in tall gold block letters with green trim.

“Now we need to explain a few things about how a band works,” the older girl announced.

“My name is Alanna Kawa. I am the Second Drum Major. I am the ranking member at summer rehearsals, and my responsibility is to teach you what you need to know to be a part of this band.” Alanna put her clipboard down.

“Just so we’re clear. I outrank everyone except the Director, Mr. Factor, and our Drum Major, Paul Castaneda. That means the squad leaders, rank leaders, section leaders, instructors, Flag Captain, Drill Team Captain, pageantry unit leaders, parade unit leaders and every other member of this band is under my command, and so are you as long as you’re here. My first responsibility is your safety. You will be expected to follow my instructions and the instructions of my staff without question or you’re gone.”

Alanna picked up her clipboard again and looked back and forth at the new students with a serious expression before continuing.

“You’re all about to join a tradition here at the Shores older than any of you. We are the Tree Shores Lions Marching Band. We are the largest single group of students at this school. The combined performance band and pageantry corps has twice the members of all three of our football teams combined.”

“Sugoi…” Jessica whispered, still holding her saxophone case and jacket with both arms.

“We represent the green and gold. We represent the Lions. That’s everywhere we go: before, during or after school. We are the centerpiece of every school event: sports, tournaments, parades, pep rallies, ceremonies and festivals, and even graduation. You’ll hear a lot about ’school spirit’ from song leaders, boosters and cheerleaders, but we’re different.” Alanna put her clipboard down and pointed back and forth, indicating everyone in the room.

“We are school spirit.”

The new students listened quietly, most with their eyes slightly wider than normal.

“Nothing makes a statement like 400 Tree Shores Lions marching into a cheering stadium at full cadence with 80 gold flags streaming overhead. We’re the only people at this school that can make that statement, and if you’re still here in 18 days you’ll hear what our students, alumni and crowd thinks of it at our first home game.” Alanna paced back and forth as she talked.

“If our team is losing, and the crowd is quiet, nothing wakes up the Lions spirit like this band.” She pointed and emphasized the words “this band” each time.

“If we have to march ten miles to greet our academic tournament team at two ‘o clock on a Thursday morning after they lose by one point in the finals, you can be guaranteed the first to arrive and the last to leave will be this band.”

Alanna turned back around and continued pacing.

“If we have to travel 100 miles to support our football team when they’re up against an undefeated team in the playoffs, you can be sure when our football players look up into the stands, even if nobody else shows up, they’re going to see this BAND.”

“That’s right.”

“Yeah.”

A couple of older band members with clipboards were standing next to a bookcase near the side exit nodding and agreeing out loud as Alanna spoke. Both wore shirts with “INSTRUCTOR” written on the front. Jessica noticed the banner behind them with a huge green football helmet stitched into it that was literally covered with signatures written in black marker.

“You better believe we’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again. We’ve marched through rain, heat, wind, dark and cold to support every single team and club this school has ever had, and if you’re not ready to make the commitment to play “Fight Lions Fight” in an empty bus station for two freshman chess club members who just placed third out of three teams, you better just get up and leave right now…” Alanna paused with an intense expression.

“…because you do not have what it takes to be a part of … this … band.” Alanna punched two fingers into the top surface of the nearby piano to emphasize the last two words again. Alanna frowned slightly as the intensity of her voice increased.

“I don’t care who it is. If they wear green and gold and represent this school, as long as we wear the uniform we’re going to support them, rain or shine, day or night, near or far. We represent this school. Off this campus we ARE this school, and every single team, club and student here no matter what can count on the support and spirit of THIS BAND!”

Suddenly a cheer went up all around the room, and Jessica jumped at the sound. She noticed that at least three dozen people had gathered around the edges of the band room while Alanna was talking, most wearing instructor shirts. They all shouted “LIONS!” and “SHORES!” and whistled and pumped their fists in the air as they clapped and cheered. Jessica smiled as she noticed most of the other new students were as amazed as she was at the energy and enthusiasm in the room.

“If you think you’re ready to be a part of it, this is where you prove it.”

Jessica sat wide-eyed and listened to Alanna continue her introduction. Jessica was amazed at how confident and strong she was. Jessica put her saxophone down and noticed the girl sitting next to her. She had brown hair and glasses and she was wearing a school uniform just like Jessica’s! She sat with her hands folded neatly and rarely looked up. Jessica thought she looked frightened.

“Hi,” Jessica whispered. The girl didn’t answer.

“My name is Jessica. You can call me Jessie if you want to..” Jessica persisted.

The girl next to Jessica turned her head slightly, as if she was trying to hide her face. She didn’t answer.

“Each group of like instruments has a section leader. There are ten section leaders, one for flutes, clarinets, saxophones…” Alanna continued, listing the instruments on the blackboard as she talked.

Jessica looked up, hearing the word “saxophone.” That’s me! she thought.

“…pipes, trumpets, horns, trombones, tubas, field percussion and low percussion. If you have a music, instrument or performance question, you should talk to your section leader first.”

“What’s your name?” Jessica whispered to the girl next to her, a little louder this time.

“Is there something you’d like to add?” Alanna asked, looking directly at Jessica. Everyone in the room turned to look at Jessica as well.

“Who me?” Jessica asked.

“Yes, you. The new girl. Please don’t talk when I’m talking.”

“Oh, okay,” Jessica said quietly. Alanna turned back to the blackboard and finished writing her list.

“Our entire musician leadership are seniors this year,” Alanna indicated several older students standing around the edges of the room. “We also have fifteen instructors who helped us bring back awards from every single event we attended last year, including four first place awards. They know the drills, the shows and the field, and they’ve earned the respect of the band and the school.” Alanna paused for a moment.

“As Second Drum Major, they’ve earned my respect too. This would be a good time to remind everyone that from now on you address the instructors, your squad and section leaders, and the Drum Majors as ’sir’ or ‘ma’am.’ Not ‘Alanna’ or ‘hey you.’ Also we’ll be calling each of you by your last names to avoid confusion. Everyone understand?”

Most of the students in the room nodded. A few people in the front row said “yes ma’am” quietly.

“Great. Let’s get started. Everyone out on the blacktop on the west side of the 300 building next to the athletic field. Squad leaders will assign everyone to groups. We’ve got five days to teach you how to march before the rest of our musicians return next week.” Everyone in the room got up and started towards the exits.

Jessica picked her way through the crowd towards Alanna who had started arranging and sorting the papers on the piano. She got past the group and half-ran up to the piano.

“Um…” Jessica started. Alanna looked up. “Can I please leave my saxophone here?” she asked.

Alanna waited.

Jessica waited.

“Oh! Umm.. ma’am!” Jessica laughed nervously.

“Yes. Just leave it by the caves,” Alanna answered, turning back to her papers. Jessica looked around the room quickly, just for a moment actually expecting to find caves in the band room.

“Um.. ma’am?” Jessica started again. “What caves?” Alanna looked up again.

“Oh, that’s right, you’re a freshman.” Then she looked back down, sorting through show charts, replying without looking up.

“The cabinets right behind where you were sitting. The tuba players call them the caves. Do not OPEN the caves, for the tuba players are many and are not to be annoyed, especially by a freshman woodwind player.”

“Thanks, er, um, gomen… um, ma’am.” Jessica said even more nervously. Alanna looked up again.

“Gomen? What does that mean?” Alanna asked. Jessica looked confused.

“Oh, um, it means ‘thank you’ in Japanese. Or was it sorry? I forgot.” Jessica smiled, then laughed nervously.

“What was your name again?” Alanna asked.

“Jessica Hoshi!” Jessica said, even more enthusiastically. “But you can call me Jessie!”

“Well, Hoshi, you better get to drill practice and get your new friend there too, or your squad leader is going to run you both around the field until sundown.”

Jessica turned around and saw that the girl she had been sitting next to was still sitting in the same place, head still down and hands still folded. Jessica ran back to her saxophone and placed it carefully next to the caves just like Alanna said, then she jumped down in front of the shy girl.

“Aren’t you gonna go to drill practice?” Jessica asked.

The shy girl didn’t answer. She just turned her head slightly again and looked down at her hands. Jessica thought she looked like perhaps she was still frightened.

“Aren’t you gonna?” Jessica asked very quietly. The shy girl didn’t move at all.

Jessica didn’t know what to say. She had never met anyone like this before. Jessica was used to quickly being able to make friends with almost anybody, but now she was confused. What do I do? Jessica thought. I don’t want to just leave her here all by herself.

“Hey, come on, um.. you can stand next to me if you want to.” Jessica said brightly, trying to encourage her.

“I… I can?” The shy girl looked up.

“Sure! Come on!” Jessica said, giggling and tugging at the shy girl’s hand trying to help her stand up. The shy girl stood up tentatively at Jessica’s insistence, still looking a little frightened. She adjusted her glasses and looked at Jessica.

“What’s your name?” Jessica asked.

“T- Talitha Hayashi…” the girl said, very quietly.

“Hi Talitha-chan! I’m Jessica Hoshi, but you can call me Jessie!” Talitha paused for a moment.

“No no… it’s Talitha Hayashi.”

“Hmm?” Jessica looked at Talitha quizzically. Then Jessica laughed.

“I meant Talitha-chan!” Jessica said happily, emphasizing ‘chan.’ “It means you’re my friend!” Jessica smiled. “Its Japanese. I’m learning Japanese in a really really neat class that my mom takes me to. Except I didn’t used to like it ’cause of the tests and stuff and because of going to school after school but now I like it a lot.”

Talitha adjusted her glasses again and looked down. Jessica seemed like a nice person, she thought. She knew she should say something now because the other person had stopped talking. Talitha couldn’t think of anything so she just hid her face behind her hair and adjusted her glasses again, hoping Jessica wouldn’t get impatient.

Talitha was worried. This was always the way she made people not want to be friends with her. She tried as hard as she could to think of something to say, but the longer she waited the more nervous she got. She finally gave up in silent frustration, hoping Jessica wouldn’t hate her. It was always the same. Nothing made Talitha feel worse than being sure people hated her.

“Hoshi!! Hayashi!!” a voice shouted from the doorway to the band room. Jessica and Talitha both looked and saw the tall girl standing in the doorway with a clipboard. Alanna shook her head and laughed quietly, still sorting papers at the piano.

“So this is my squad. One is late and the other is late twice. You two get out to the blacktop for drill practice now!” the tall girl ordered.

“Sorry ma’am.” Jessica said quietly as she carefully walked out the door with Talitha doing her best to hide behind Jessica as they walked. The tall girl frowned as she watched them walk by.

“We’re not getting off to a good start here, Hoshi,” the tall girl said.

“Yes ma’am,” Jessica replied as they walked into the hall.

“Sorry I got you in trouble,” Jessica whispered as they walked quickly down the hall towards the athletic field exit.

Talitha nodded.

“Come on!” Jessica said, giggling, and ran ahead towards the athletic field. She was happy she had made a friend on her very first day of marching band.

“Sugoi…” Jessica said quietly as they walked out the door into the area behind the 300 building. “This field is bigger than my whole junior high school!”

“According to the orientation materials, there are many students at our school. Tree Shores also has a large and accomplished athletics program.”

“Did you memorize the whole paper?” Jessica asked. Talitha blushed and turned her face away.

“That’s okay, Talitha-chan. It’s better to know stuff about stuff,” Jessica said. “There’s the practice group. Let’s go and do our best!” Jessica shouted, running towards the group. Talitha ran to catch up with her.

To be continued…

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Jessica and Talitha stood together reading a new handout with instructions for the second day of summer rehearsals. Jessica skimmed the page quickly, and then looked up, watching the other new band members walking in small groups back to the band room. Then she turned back to Talitha.

“I’m the best marcher in the whole band! I can do about rest and parade right and everything! Oh, and Alanna-sama knows everything about everything in band and that tall girl does too. Band is going to be so much fun. I can’t wait so we can get our instruments and play!”

Just then one of the older drummers motioned to Jessica and Talitha. Jessica ran over to see what they wanted, and Talitha followed. The older drummer had an instructor’s shirt, but also wore a green TSHS baseball hat.

“Hold these,” the older girl said, lifting a huge metal frame with four drums attached to it from her shoulders and turning them around. Jessica tried to steady herself as the weight of the drums settled on her shoulders and waist.

“Oof,” Jessica exhaled. “These are heavy!”

“Congratulations, you’re an assistant drummer. Don’t fall down and don’t touch the heads,” the girl said without looking up as she stepped over a massive bass drum sitting on the ground next to a wooden box full of woodblocks, rattles and maracas. She pulled a tool out of her back pocket that looked like a wrench and started tugging at one of the fasteners on the opposite drum head.

“Really?” Jessica asked with a smile. “I’m an assistant drummer now?”

“One step above a freshman,” the girl said as she dropped the tool and picked up a mallet. “Been fighting with this head being out of tune all day,” the girl muttered as she moved to one side of the drum. “The #2 bass hates me.”

“BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!” the girl played four loud notes on the huge bass drum then reached over to the other side. “BOOM BOOM BOOM!”

“Better, I guess. Needs work though,” the girl pulled her lavender hair out of her eyes and dropped the mallet. “You can hear it right? The far head is still flat.”

Talitha and Jessica both nodded. Just then, one of the senior drummers walked up.

“What do you think, Leila?” the boy asked.

“It’s maybe sorta tuned for now but it’s going to be flat again tomorrow. We need to replace that head or pull some of the damp off this side. It’s really thin now though, and I think the tone is too close to the number one bass.” The boy crouched down and looked at the fasteners on the near side.

“It rings now too,” the boy said. “Not much but it’s noticeable. This your new assistant?” The boy put his hand over his eyes and squinted at Jessica holding the huge set of four drums.

“Hoshi thinks she’s a saxophone player,” Leila said, tossing the tools and parts back into an empty wooden box with “TSHS BAND” written on the side.

“Ah, Carl’s section. Saxophones are a crazy bunch. You’ll have fun,” the boy said. “But not as much fun as the DRUMMARRRRS!” the boy put his hat on backwards and picked up the bass drum while Leila stacked the percussion box on the toolbox. Jessica smiled.

“Come on,” Leila said. Jessica and Talitha followed Leila and the older boy across the field towards the 300 building. The sun was close to setting and cast long shadows in the orange glow of late afternoon. Jessica walked awkwardly, trying to get used to the weight of the drums she was carrying.

“What kind of drums are these?” Jessica asked.

“You’re wearing my roto-toms,” Leila replied. “Those are the cadence lead drums. You tune them by spinning the head frames.”

“What are those things in the other box?” Jessica asked.

“Traps,” Leila said. If it isn’t a drum, cymbal, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel or vibrophone, it’s a trap, and it goes in this box.”

“It’s a trap! Run!” the boy shouted from ahead of the group. “It’s a traaaaaap!” His voice echoed in the cement breezeway. Jessica giggled.

“He’s funny,” she said. Leila nodded.

“Eric’s the only sane drummer besides me.”

“How come you call it the number two bass drum?” Jessica asked.

“There’s five tuned basses in the parade cadence drum section,” Leila replied. “Number one bass is the highest tone, smallest drum. Number five is the lowest tone, biggest drum.”

A few minutes later, after Jessica had helped Leila put the drums away and she had gathered her horn and jacket, she and Talitha walked back out to the athletic field towards the gate. Jessica was still very excited about her successful first day of band.

“Hey, did you see that?” Jessica said, looking across the field towards the fence along the edge of the athletic field. “Someone was standing outside the back fence just now and they ran away when I looked over there.”

“I don’t see anyone. Do you know who it was?” Talitha said, straightening her glasses and looking towards where Jessica was pointing. Jessica shook her head, then laughed.

“They probably saw we have to march a hundred miles a day and they thought they better get away before we make ‘em join the band!” Jessica said. Talitha smiled.

“Maybe they can’t wait for the first game to see the halftime show.”

“I hope we get to play instruments soon. Our section should get some good parts,” Jessica said. “We had really good parts for alto in our old concert band.” Talitha kept reading the handouts from earlier in the day with notes on how to march.

“I think using eight steps for every five yards is somewhat inefficient. Perhaps they should consider a more optimal use…” Her comment was interrupted by a boy’s voice.

“Hey you play alto saxophone, huh? I saw you with your case when you walked in this morning.” One of the older boys walked up to Jessica and Talitha. He wore glasses and had short brown hair. He wore the standard Tree Shores uniform, including dark slacks and a green tie.

“Uhh.. … uh huh..” Jessica answered quietly.

“Cool. I play alto too. Talk to you later.” The boy walked back towards the building, joining two other boys as they walked. Talitha continued.

“As I was saying, I think perhaps a more optimal number of… …Jessica?” Jessica stood watching the boys until they passed through the gate next to the Fine Arts building. She had a huge smile and a look of total amazement on her face.

“Jessica?” Talitha asked again, straightening her glasses. Jessica turned to Talitha, her blue eyes bright with happiness.

“Did you see? Wasn’t that nice? He just walked right up and talked to us!” Then Jessica instantly changed subjects, as she often did.

“Ooh, we get music tomorrow so we can write down all about the halftime show!” Jessica said excitedly. “So what direction do you go to go home?”

“I live on the north side of the lake, so I have to walk past the quad.” Talitha said.

“Yay! We can walk together! Do you wanna walk together?” Jessica asked.

“Okay,” Talitha replied, smiling.

“So do you think that really really nice boy will talk to us again tomorrow?” Jessica asked as they began to walk.

“Jessica, all he did was say hello…” Talitha observed.

“Yeah, but it was really really nice of him, wasn’t it?” Jessica asked, talking quickly and insistently. “Really?”

“Oh, my goodness…” Talitha said quietly, slightly alarmed by Jessica’s excitability.

To be continued…

LadyStar™ The Dreamspeaker is Copyright © 2006 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved