The Barn

She woke in a frenzy, not sure what had just happened. A giant red barn in the middle of a dense forest? A sickly old man who called himself Adon? She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she replayed the details of her dream.

She could hear the wind whistle while she glanced around and noticed she was surrounded by thick evergreen. Soon the sounds of the rodents running through the forest brush faded in along with the sight of a big red barn. The barn looked to be about two stories high and, it seemed so fragile that a leaf could turn it to dust.

Elle began tiptoeing toward the barn, afraid the slightest movement would cause it to turn to dust. She knew that was a ridiculous thought, and yet she couldn't shake the fear it would crash to the ground before her eyes.

Finally, she was at the barn. As she reached up to push on the big red double doors, they flew open on their own.

She quickly looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but she couldn't help feeling like someone else was with her. Elle began to back away from the towering doors of the fragile barn.

"Hello child." rumbled a deep echoey voice.

Elle flung her body around and, in front of her stood a tall thin creepy old man.

The old man had long white hair that turned into a long beard as it crept down his face. He stood at what, to Elle, seemed like 10 feet high and wore a green hooded dress that kissed the ground. His voice was so deep she could feel it vibrate through the surrounding earth. He gave off a sense of calm but looked sickly and, it turned her stomach.

Soon she noticed the wind had stopped whistling and, the rodents had settled. It was silent, dead silent.

"Wh-who?" She barely sputtered out the first word.

"I am Adon, keeper of Earth's portal." Adons voice thundered toward her.

"Wh-wh-what?" Again she could barely mutter the word.

"Do not be afraid. I will not harm you. You have the characteristics of someone who could be the next keeper of Earth's portal." He rumbled.

"I HAVE WHAT TO BE THE WHAT?" this time she bellowed. The harshness of her question was undeniable as she began to laugh. Soon she came to realize that none of this could have been real. It had to be a dream, and suddenly the memories of her day began to pour back into her mind.

"Before you go I have a riddle for you. Through the spine, you will find a path to another time before you stop, you must sail." This time shaking the trees from their roots.

Elle leaped from her bed and ran for her dream journal as not to forget a single detail. She pulled her journal and pencil out of the desk in her room and quickly began jotting down the details of the most real dream she has ever experienced.

Why did she feel as if she knew this man at his very center? What was her dream trying to tell her? And what does his riddle mean?

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Elle's entire house rattled, startling her from intense thought into real life. She jumped from her chair to run downstairs. She realized it was still dark out; she had no idea what time it was or why someone was banging on her door this late.

She crept around the corner toward the front door, and sitting inside her home in front of the door was a manila envelope with big written words on the front of it. Slowly, Elle drug her feet toward the front door and the envelope. Realizing someone had to have been inside her home to put it there, Elle picked the envelope up it read -through the spine-. Panic set in as Elle slowly peeled the metal clasps back on the manila envelope.

Why was someone inside her house in the middle of the night? How did they get in? How could they possibly know about her dream? It all had to be some insane joke. Although Elle could not process nor understand how someone could pull it off, she truly believed this was the prank of a lifetime.

Afraid of what the package might contain, Elle ever so slightly opened the envelope only to get a glimpse of a book. With Booming rage, she tore the envelope open and ripped the book from its grasp.

It was a thick leather-bound book; it looked handmade and wore down. The leather on the cover had age cracks running through it and, it was darker more in some areas than others. The pages were different sizes longer, wider, and protruding past the cover.

Elle slowly began to shift from page to page. Her eyes darted across words on each page, none of which she could read as they were in a different language. Finally, she came to the last page of what seemed to be someone's journal, and on the page, it read -Through the spine, you will find, a path to another time, before you stop you must sail-. The exact riddle from her dream.

She began to ruminate the abstruse event of the night as she climbed back up the stairs clutching her new book so hard her knuckles turned white. Elle needed more rest; she set the book on her nightstand and crawled back into bed praying she wouldn't have another mysterious dream and, she faded to black.

Soon morning arrived, Elle crawled out of bed and straggled toward the bathroom. After she finished taking a shower and waking up, everything from the night before began to ricochet around her mind. She began to think about the riddle as she had finished getting ready for the day. Through the spine? What could it mean?

Elle picked up the large old leather-bound book and began looking through the pages again, this time with a fine-tooth comb. Still, there was nothing standing out to her; nothing made any sense. How is she supposed to go through a spine? Then she realized something everything has a backbone, including books. She slammed the book shut and began looking across the cover as she dragged her fingertips along it.

There it was on the spine of the book, something she couldn't see but could feel. There was a tiny arrow on the bottom edge of the spine, and it was pointing downward. Elle flipped the book upside down and slid her finger into the opening at the base of the spine and, pulled up a piece of paper. She unfolded the paper into a giant map. This map seemed esoteric, incomprehensible. With an intrepid attitude, Elle began to study the map attempting to understand its abstruse language.

In her mind, the next line of the riddle played over and over again -a path to another time-. Her eyes glided across the map, struggling to make a connection, any connection. For hours she sat there in that same spot studying that same map, noticing all of the tiny symbols creeping across its face. There was a tree symbol, a red house symbol, and an ocean wave symbol. There was only one little red house sitting on what looked to be an island far off from the mainland.

Elle couldn't help but make the connection between the little red house icon and the big red barn from her dream, but what was this path to another time? Struggling to find the answer, Elle decided it would be in her best interest to go back to the book, so she did.

For three days and two nights, Elle studied this book and map, sleeping off and on for a couple of hours at a time. The entire situation had gobbled up and swallowed her whole. All she could think about day in day out was the answers she was seeking. The answers that at this point seemed so far out of reach she would never find them.

For one last time, Elle sat down at her desk, book and map in hand, only this time she had a secret weapon. Her name was Shelba and she was a philologist. As someone who studied languages throughout history, she had to be able to help. There was a rapping on the door. Finally, Elle would get the answers she desired.

Elle answered the front door, introduced herself to Shelba and invited her in.

"Hello Elle, I'm Shelba. I'm the philologist you called for assistance with yesterday. Why don't you tell me about this book you own." Shelba insisted as they walked into the living room.

"Well, as I told you yesterday I've experienced some weird stuff and, I found this book someone left for me. It's leather-bound and seems very old. I'm just wondering what language the book is in." Elle explained.

"Well, why don't you go ahead and get it. I will see if there is anything I recognize." Said Shelba.

Elle ran up to her bedroom and grabbed the book and map. As she walked toward the door to go back to Shelba she felt an intense pull in her mind. Something or someone somewhere told her to hide the map, so she folded it up and hid it back inside of the book's spine, and headed back downstairs.

Shelbas eyes widened as Elle rounded the corner with her big old leather-bound book. She sat down across the coffee table after handing the book to Shelba with hesitancy. Why was she so nervous? This is what she wanted. She wanted answers and, she wanted them now.

Shelba opened the book ever so carefully as not to ruin it and, her eyes got bigger. So big they looked as if they would pop right out of her skull.

"This is magnificent!" Shelba popped off.

She stood up and began pacing back and forth while flipping through the pages.

"I've never seen this language before in my life. The closest it seems to me is an old Druid language." Shelba said excitedly.

"Okay, I think it's time for you to go. Thank you so much for your help, I truly appreciate it, but I can take it from here." Elle exclaimed as she pushed Shelba toward the door.

She snatched the book out of Shelbas hands and slammed the door right in her face.

"But I!" Shelba expressed before the door stopped her mid-sentence.

Elle ran up to her room and began desperately searching the web for anything about druids. After coming across a website that informed her a bit on druids, she went back into the book one last time.

In the middle of the book, Elle noticed the pages connect into one. She couldn't make out much, but from what she could decipher, Elle finally had the answer. A path to another time? Adon had to have been speaking of the barn. It was the only thing she could not figure out or understand. It was on an island on the map to which she had to sail too. All of the pieces of the puzzle were finally starting to fit together nicely.

Elle packed a few things like water, food, blankets, and clothes. Not sure what she would encounter on her journey, Elle headed toward the experience of a lifetime.