Queen Arloine silently thanked Enapay and turned back to the crew waiting for her close to the entrance of the cave. She smiled a large, broad smile at those sitting there, looking to her for guidance. As she stood there looking at the strange mixture of creature and human, the walls glistened and twinkled from the large pieces of quartz sticking out of the ebony black walls. It was a beautiful sight. “Well everyone, we are going to stay here for the night. I think everyone could use some rest and it is a good time to adjust to our new lives and our new time frame. Things will not be the same and time will not run the way we are used to from this moment on. Now,” she said with an even larger grin spreading across her petit face, “it is time to unpack your sleeping gear and lay it out. Everyone that is, except for Nick and Cholena,” she said with a little giggle. “You two will be sleeping in the ‘Sacred Cave’ tonight as set forth by the Ancients. I will see the two of you off in a moment. You should all find your eating utensils because Ernie and Marie are going to come around and pass out food and something to drink and if you don’t want to miss out, you’d better be prepared,” Arloine said with a full belly laugh. “If you were smart, you packed them were they were easy to get to,” Queen Arloine said. “Wait, you can’t mean we’re to go to bed after we eat Mama,” several voices rang out in unison. “It’s still really early, isn’t it?” Arloine laughed out loud. It was a full belly laugh. She had known she would get this reaction from her reactive bunch of kids. “Well, I just said that we were going to have to get use to a different frame of mind when it comes to time, didn’t I? Let me see if I can explain it to you bunch of little children,” she said with an even more vigorous belly laugh. “Oh my, we all have so much to learn while on this quest. I have learned we are in what is known as the cave of ‘in-between’. We are ‘nowhere’ in time. We are in-between one place and the other, the place makes no difference. Wherever you are going or coming from, we are in between. We are in another dimension, in a separate time, a time that belongs all to its own. It can stop for long periods or wiz by at twice the speed of light. Things do not move here like they do in the ‘hard world’ or even in the place we are going to. Here, life has its own perspective, its own meaning.” “So, I take it we are not on the Woodard Estate anymore then,” William said with a smile and a wink, knowing the answer already. “You are so right my charming Willy; we are not on the Woodard Estate, at least not technically speaking anyway. We have entered a magical realm, one on which we must be very careful not to upset a balance. There is a very special equilibrium here. If you do as I say, things will be fine and the stability will be maintained but if you do not listen, there will be terrible consequences, not only for you but you will make trouble for all of us and for the very existence of this curtain, of the veil of the “in-between” itself. Am I clear on this?” the Queen asked sternly. “Yes Queen Arloine,” was sounded by all who were present in one collective chorus. William, Carlos, Marty and Marcella pulled out their sleeping bag and then pulled another out for the Queen and laid them in a circle, their heads all pointing towards the middle. The creatures from the Island of Discovery, (Paco, Dante, Maxi, Ernie and Marie) would sleep amid those from the “hard world” on blankets brought from their world, laid out on the moss carpet. The Faerie Nidawi, the smallest among them, would rest in the middle of the group on someone’s backpack. It was really a nice little setup. After the beds were laid out and everyone had flopped down upon them, a sort of fatigue began settling in over the crew like a misty rain falling out of a fog. The Queen called quietly to Nick and Cholena and asked them to join her in a quiet conversation. She wanted to give them their instructions on how to get to their “room” for the night outside the earshot of perhaps some curious spectators. “Okay you two, I need to tell you how to get to your honeymoon suite,” Arloine said softly, a small chuckle in her voice and a gleam in her eyes. “Sure thing Mama,” Nick said with a large smile. “You two are to go to the ‘Sacred Cave’ which is still in this realm of the “In between”. It is the most ancient of places and has only been used by those deemed most worthy by the Ancients. It has been hidden in the “in-between” since before time began. It has been set up especially for you by all of the Ancients themselves including the Lady Chenoa and Enapay. I have no idea how or why and it is really none of my concern. It was not done for me; it was done for the two of you. Now, you are to go and rest, become acquainted with one another and most of all; ready yourselves for our quest. You are the most important part of what we are doing. When it is time to leave we will see one another again. Unfortunately, it will only be in a few short hours. We won’t be getting much rest before we must go but it will be more than enough in this cave of ‘In Between’. When we are preparing to leave, I will send Nidawi to you,” she said as she kissed them both on the cheek.
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