Fortunately I had planned ahead, and had brought both my own backpack and Brenda's. That was important for a number of reasons. First of all we had to change out of the Gael clothing we were currently wearing, or the Scots would think we were period actors looking for a play! Secondly, our return tickets were in the packs so we needed them to get a flight back to the US. Thirdly, my billfold was in my pack and we needed money to get from Mallaig back to Glasgow Airport.
We wasted no time changing into normal clothing, as the wind blowing up the little Scottish beach was icy cold. That meant I was only able to get a quick glimpse of my girlfriend naked, but any look at her like that is a good one, so I was grinning fit to burst.
Our next problem was how to get from Beoraidberg to Mallaig railway station, but that was solved when a friendly local stopped his car and offered us a lift. The Scots were turning out to be a friendly bunch.
There wasn't much different about our journey back to Chicago's O'Hare Airport, apart from the fact that it took much longer getting through customs in the US than it had in Glasgow on the outward flight.
The flight did pass a little quicker, as Brenda took the opportunity of telling me about what had happened to her while we had been separated.
The King hadn't treated her badly, but she had been worried about what I had been up to with Hassan.
"Of course I trust you, Sean, but that woman looked as if she wanted to eat you right up! Don't tell me she was thinking the arranged marriage was a bad idea. She couldn't get her claws into you fast enough!"
I assured her that I hadn't given Hassan any encouragement and even shared the fact that she had tried to use a spell on me.
"That's it! The next time I see that woman she's history," Brenda snarled.
The worst that Brenda had had to endure was boredom and some bad manners from the palace servitors. She even admitted that she quite enjoyed dressing up in the fancy Gael clothing, but reckoned it wouldn't do for when she was working on her engines!
The fact that a squirrel had delivered a note to her had certainly been a surprise, but she had recognised and trusted my handwriting. When Accipiter had shown up, she caught on quickly to what I had planned and screamed with delight when they had flown beyond the city's walls.
I had called Mom from Glasgow before our flight took off, and she was waiting at O'Hare to pick us up. Of course she wanted to know all the details of our visit to Gael and her relief at our return was clear.
"How could you ever have agreed to marry that man, Mom? He's arrogant, full of himself and just plain rude!
"Do you know he basically kidnapped us? When we got there, he told me that he'd arranged for me to marry some Princess and that we wouldn't be allowed to leave Gael. So much for an informal visit!
"Fortunately for us we escaped, but that man is a psycho!"
Mom seemed pleased that I didn't like my father, but also worried about the fact that we had run off.
"Oh, dear, Sean. I know Kenneth and he won't be happy that he hasn't got his own way in this. I wouldn't be surprised if he sends soldiers to take you back."
I thought Mom was worrying too much. It seemed very unlikely to me that the King would send Axonite soldiers here to the 'other-world', and I told Mom so.
We dropped Brenda off at her house, and she told me the first thing she was going to do was strip down the engine on her ATV. Five days without getting her hands covered in oil was clearly too long for my girlfriend. She was determined to put that right as quickly as possible.
Once we got home, Mom began to interrogate me the way women do. She wanted to extract every single little detail of my trip and made me repeat as many of my conversations/discussions as I could remember.
When I managed to escape Mom's questioning, I sat down to think about what I was going to do next. There was only a week until my birthday and Charles had told me what to expect when I 'emerged'. It was going to be difficult to keep that a secret in our little town, but somehow I was going to have to manage it. I was not going back to Gael! Not for any reason!
With any notion of returning to Gael now firmly behind me, my thoughts moved on to consider what kind of future Brenda and I would have. We had already discussed colleges in the past and that looked as if it was the most likely thing for us to do now.
The University of Illinois was reasonably close by in Chicago. It had a College of Engineering and a College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. That would allow both of us to study the things that we enjoyed most and still stay together.
Lying in bed that night, I heard the voice but I chose to ignore Charles this time. Having decided that I wasn't going to return to Gael, I saw little point in 'flying the Road' to dreamtime. What use would any further lessons be now anyway?
Over the next few days I worked hard to catch up with the schoolwork that I'd missed because of my trip. There were two other things occupying my thoughts - what do about 'emerging' and what to get Brenda for her birthday which was at the end of March?
February the fourteenth happened to be a Sunday this year, so my birthday wouldn't be a school day. Time was running out on me, as it was only two more days to go and I still hadn't come up with a plan to conceal what Charles had told me was going to happen.
It was vital that no one saw anything strange, as I didn't want to become either a 'freak', or a laboratory rat for the US government. All I wanted was to get on with my life and share it with my girl.
On the Wednesday before my birthday, I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. Picking Brenda up from St Ann's, I drove her over to her house and we went upstairs to her room to talk.
"Do you think your parents would let us spend a few days alone out at the cabin?" I asked her.
Brenda knew that I was worrying about 'emerging' and she quickly realised what I was planning.
"Sean, that's a brilliant idea! The cabin is out in the middle of nowhere, so no one will see anything when you do your 'thing'. You know my Mom and Dad will do anything for you after you helped with Mom's cancer. I'm sure they'll let us stay at the cabin, but if you're worried I'll go and ask now."
That's just what she did and she was back in a few minutes to say her parents were fine with the idea. After that, we put out heads together to come up with a list of things we would need to take with us.
Some of the things that Brenda added to the list seemed a little over the top to me and I couldn't for the life of me see why we would need them.
"What are we going to do with grill? It's the middle of February, a cook-out is a little unlikely, don't you think?"
"Nonsense! My grilled chicken is one of your favorites and that's what I'm making for your birthday dinner."
"Well, what about this? Why the heck are we taking a bread making machine?" I asked.
"I want to make sure we've got fresh bread for toasting," she replied.
Now, I just couldn't see the logic in that. Why would we need fresh bread, so we could toast it? Surely toast was toast, whether you started with fresh bread or stale?
Brenda also made up a comprehensive first-aid kit on the basis that we didn't know what might happen when I went through my 'emerging'. I had told her everything that Charles had told me, but she wanted to be prepared for anything.
The list grew so long that it took me an hour on Friday night to pack my truck. We wanted to get an early start in the morning so that we would have most of the day on our own at the cabin.
I groaned when I realized that I would have to unpack the truck once we reached the cabin and not for the first time wondered why my girlfriend couldn't have kept things simple.
There was fresh snow overnight and that mean that the drive to the cabin was quite treacherous, but we made it without any mishaps. Once there, Brenda helped me unload and we managed to empty the truck in less than an hour.
The first strange thing to happen on this short 'vacation' was that I spotted something that had absolutely no right to be where it was. Brenda asked me to bring in some wood from the pile at the rear of the cabin and as I was walking round to get it, I saw our initials carved in one of the logs.
"Brenda! Brenda! Come and see this."
It took her a few minutes to bundle herself up against the cold and then she joined me, grumbling at being called outside.
"You know, Sean, I asked you to bring in the wood so that I wouldn't get all cold again," she groused.
"Look up there," I pointed to the carving.
Brenda looked puzzled when she saw what it was.
"But how is that possible? Are you playing some kind of trick on me, Sean Taggart?"
"I promise you that the only time I've ever carved our names into a log was at my Grandma's cabin in dreamtime, " I assured her.
"But that's impossible," she said, repeating herself.
"Didn't you tell me that this cabin was only built ten or eleven years ago?"
"That's right. But maybe it would have been more accurate to say that it was re-built around then. I think there has been a cabin here for a lot longer than that. Mom and Dad wanted something a bit more modern inside though, so they gutted it and had it completely re-modelled."
There was little point in standing in the snow staring at the initials, so we returned inside and I stacked the wood I'd carried beside the stove.
Try as we might, we couldn't come up with an explanation for how the initials had got there.
Once we got the stove lit, the cabin warmed up fairly quickly and we kept ourselves busy putting things away in cupboards. Brenda decided to make a start on making some bread - I'm sure only because she felt she had to justify bringing the machine in the first place - and I kicked back with a book for a while.
It turned out to be a really enjoyable Saturday alone with my girlfriend and before we knew it, it was dark outside and time to bed down. I noticed that Brenda was acting strange, kind of skittish, and I wondered what was bothering her.
"What's gotten into you? You're acting all jumpy. If you're worried about tomorrow then don't be. I'm sure everything will be just fine," I told her.
"It's nothing to do with tomorrow you big lummox. Sean, um, do you think we can ... I mean, do you think tonight might be the right time to, you know ... take the final step?"
The biggest grin imaginable must have lit up my face and I think that was answer enough for Brenda. I pulled her into a hug and stroked her brown hair.
"Brenda Thomas, I am going to spend the rest of my life with you at my side. If you think now is the time to give me that most precious of gifts, then I would have to be out of my mind to say no. I would be honored to share something so special with you."
I must have made a better job of my reply this time than I had the last time she had brought this subject up. She pulled her head back from my shoulder and we shared a kiss. The kiss was tender and sweet. It spoke of the depth of our love for each other and if I could have, I would have given my girl the moon and the stars at that moment.
We undressed almost shyly and snuggled up together in the big bed. Things were a little awkward at first, as this was the first time for both of us. Somehow we managed to figure it out though and it turned out to be everything it should be. Later, we fell asleep spooned together, my right arm wrapped around her, my hand cupping her perfect little breast.
That's how we were still lying when I woke up on my birthday and I decided right then that it was the prefect way to start the day. I gently swept her hair to one side and kissed her softly on her neck. That woke her up and she stretched like a cat before turning to face me.
I could see the little flecks of gold in her brown eyes and was also close enough to be able to count the freckles across her nose and cheeks.
"Last night I gave you the biggest, most important gift a girl can give," she said. "I don't think I can top that today, so I hope you're not going to be disappointed."
"You could never disappoint me. If you gave me an empty box for my birthday it would still be special coming from you."
"Sean Taggart, sometimes you can be a goof!"
Brenda insisted that I remain in bed while she prepared breakfast for her birthday boy. Soon the smell of bacon was drifting into the bedroom, closely followed by the smell of toast. No doubt my girl had used the freshly made bread for the toast and I couldn't help laughing out loud at that thought.
She kept me waiting until lunchtime before she gave me my present. First I had to set up the grill outside in the snow so she could grill chicken for us to eat. Once we had cleaned up she had me sit on the sofa and then she retrieved my gift from the bedroom.
Brenda handed me a small package and I noted that once again the wrapping was almost down to an art form. I showed that I had learned my lesson from Christmas and took my time unpicking the tape instead of just tearing the paper open. Once I had it unwrapped; I found a small, cube shaped box.
"Open it," she ordered.
I opened the box and found that it was empty.
"I don't know how you guessed that I'd got you an empty box, but there you go. Happy eighteenth birthday, Sean."
She burst out laughing and I guessed that I'd been set up. After I had made that silly comment this morning, she'd somehow managed to find the time to unwrap my present and then re-wrap the empty box. Cute huh?
Her hand came from behind her back and she held out a ring. It was like a signet ring I guess, but it had a somewhat unusual feature. Instead of a plain stone, the ring had a small engraving of Brenda in profile. She slipped it onto my finger and it fit just right.
"I have to warn you about this ring, Sean. I might not be a wizard like that Hassan, but I've put a spell on this to ward off all other women. In case you didn't know it, I've decided you're a keeper."
I pulled her onto my lap and kissed her soundly.
"It's perfect and you don't need any spells to keep me away from other women. I was all yours from the first moment you fixed my mower."
As they day wore on I became increasingly nervous about my 'thing' as Brenda referred to it. Mom had never told me so, but I was apparently born in the evening. Of course, there were no accurate clocks in Gael, but I would later be able to tell her that I must have been born at exactly 17:38. I knew that because that's when it happened.
Brenda was the first to notice something was going on.
"Sean, why is there light seeping our from your eye sockets? It looks really weird."
I glanced at the clock on the wall and it was 17:38. There was a mirror in the bathroom and I ran there to check out what Brenda was talking about.
"Shit, I think it's starting," I said as I walked back into the main room of the cabin.
The next thing I knew, it was as if the floor had opened up and the most powerful searchlight ever conceived had been turned on below my feet. The light was blinding in its intensity and I could feel it ... the Road.
This was much more than the connections I had made with 'the Road' in the past. I experienced an incredible rush. The most enjoyable feeling I had ever felt up until that moment was the joy of orgasm with my girl. This was like that feeling, multiplied a hundred times or more. The pleasure was immense, dizzying. It verged on being overpowering.
"Sean! What's happening?" screamed Brenda, but there was nothing I could do.
There was a rushing noise in my ears and a surge of raw energy to every single, little nerve ending in my body. I knew that I had joined and become 'the Road'. For a few moments there was nothing else but 'the Road' and the awesome feeling of power it was giving me.
Gradually, I became aware of a different sort of light surrounding me and radiating outwards. The light was thick (I know that sounds strange, how can light be 'thick'? but that was how it looked) and a reddish-purple in color. It rolled away from me the way smoke billows from an oil fire and I saw it enveloping Brenda. I heard her scream once and then I couldn't see her anymore.
Charles had said that my emergence would include a massive surge of magical energy and I was guessing that was what this reddish-purple light was. He had been clear that there needed to be wizards present to control this magical energy or there could be dire consequences.
Streaks of white light began to shoot through the reddish-purple light. I had played with a Van de Graaff generator in school once and the jagged bursts of white light looked similar to the arcs of electricity the generator had produced. There were far more of them here though - hundreds, perhaps thousands of flashes. They were accompanied by a crackling noise and a cloying smell.
Then there was a tremendous single crack! I must have blacked out.
When I regained consciousness, I found I was in what looked like a cell or even a dungeon. The effect was added to by the heavy metal manacles around each of my wrists and the chains that ran from the manacles to a metal bracket that was set into the wall.
There was the most awful pounding inside my head - like the worst headache I had ever had. Without even thinking about it, I reached deep inside myself and summoned up some of the power stored there to do something about the pain. At the same time I made light work of pulling the chains out of the wall and stripping the manacles off of my wrists.
As far as I could see there was no break in the brickwork of my cell. There was no door or window and I wasn't sure how I had ended up here. Getting slowly to my feet, I made a careful study of each of the four walls but found nothing to indicate a door.
The same was true of the floor, but it was too dark to see the ceiling. Just then a voice spoke to me.
"Ah, good. You're awake, Sean. How nice of you to join me at last."
I recognized the voice as belonging to Princess Hassan.
"Hassan? What's going on? Where am I and where is Brenda?"
She laughed. It wasn't the beguiling, infectious laugh that I had heard at the banquet in Gower. No, this was a wholly evil laugh. It sent shivers up and down my spine.
"Hassan? At least show yourself so we can speak face to face."
"I saw how easily you tore the chain from the wall, Sean. I don't think I want to get close to you for the moment. You also put on quite the little demonstration when you emerged - very impressive. Someone should have warned you to have some wizards present though, to control all of that magical energy.
"Such a waste! I could have grown my magical capabilities if I had been able to soak all of that energy up. Still, it did knock you out and that made it possible for me to make you my captive. I suppose I can't have everything."
I processed what Hassan had said. I now knew that she had somehow been present when I had 'emerged'. She hadn't been able to soak up the magical energy I had created, but she had taken me prisoner for some reason.
"Why would you want me as a captive, Hassan?" I called out.
"So that Scania can have Axon, silly. Your father will die soon and without an heir, his kingdom will become my father's!"
"Then why not simply kill me? Why hold me as a prisoner?"
"You made me look very foolish when you abandoned me to run off with your 'other-world' trollop."
I rushed at the point in the wall where her voice seemed to be coming from, summoning up a huge surge of power. I wasn't going to let her talk about Brenda like that and I'd heard enough of her prattling to last me a lifetime.
When I crashed into the wall I felt more pain than I had ever experienced in my life before. I was thrown across the cell and collided with the opposite wall. My ears were ringing, but I still managed to hear Hassan's evil laugh once more.
"Foolish, Sean. Foolish. I've cast a reflector spell on this room. The more force you hit the walls with, the more it will hurt you.
"Now, where was I? Oh yes. You rejected me, Sean. You rejected me and shamed me in front of King Kenneth and all of his nobles. Surely you won't begrudge me having a little fun with you before I kill you?"
Edited By TeNderLoin