Chapter 5

I was frustrated that my new skill wasn't developing as quickly as I would have liked. Brenda helped me of course, if anything she was more excited about it than I was.

She had me holding progressively heavier items with my mind and frequently she would throw things at me unexpectedly. A couple of times I wasn't quick enough and I was hit in the eye by an orange and on the side of the head by a small lump of cheese.

"Hey!" I whined. "Quit it, will you?"

"You won't get any better unless you practice harder," was Brenda's reply.

Around then my dreams returned and they grew stronger and stronger. Almost every night, now, I found myself flying with the birds across a strange countryside ... and always there was the voice.

"It's hard for me to describe the voice to you. Hearing the voice was a bit like meeting someone you knew in the street. Although it was only a voice, in my head it was so much more. There was an entity there, a personality that I could feel.

"Fly the Road, youngling. It is time to accept your birthright. Fly the Road!"

I somehow knew that the voice was old, and that he was wise. Hearing him tell me to 'Fly the Road' every night, was beginning to wear a little thin however, as I had no idea what he was asking me to do.

Of course I shared my dreams with Brenda and it was down to her advice that I made a significant breakthrough.

"Why don't you just ask the voice what he means? You know, Sean - if you were lost you'd ask somebody for directions wouldn't you? Why should this be any different?"

It sounded so simple when she said it that I turned red with embarrassment. I tried to excuse myself for missing the obvious by thinking something as mysterious as the voice and what it wanted me to do couldn't possibly be so easy.

The same night I slipped into my familiar dream-state. Once again I was four-years old and poised on the lip of a steep ridge. I could hear the strange birds flapping all around me, and the voice spoke the now annoyingly familiar words.

"Fly, youngling. It is time, fly the Road!"

I remembered Brenda's advice and to be honest I was getting pretty cheesed off (perhaps from being hit on the head by the said dairy product!).

"Look, would you stop saying that over and over? It's kind of dumb to just repeat yourself all the time when it must be clear to you that I don't have a clue what you mean!" I snapped.

The birds squawked and wheeled around my head, as if startled.

"Well why didn't you just ask?" said the voice.

"What? It really is that simple?" I asked in surprise.

"Of course it is. Now, what is it you don't understand?"

"Well for one thing, who are you, and why can I hear you inside my head?" I asked.

"I am Charles, or Teàrlach, if you prefer the Gaelic," he replied, "I am your appointed teacher and mentor."

"Well, that makes everything as clear as mud then," I mused in reply.

"You have much to learn, youngling, much to learn," said Charles.

"Why do you keep telling me to 'fly the road'?" I asked next, "I'm not a bird, I can't fly."

"More than just birds can fly, Sean. You need to learn how to fly the Road, as it will bring you to where I am so that your training can begin in earnest."

I still had no idea what he was talking about. Yes, we were having a dream conversation, but one of us wasn't understanding, and I decided to tell Charles so.

"Listen, Charles. I know the words you're using. The order you're putting them in is even grammatically correct. They make full sentences. The problem is that they don't make any sense to me!"

"Feel this, youngling," said Charles.

Immediately, I had the sensation of being surrounded once again by a vast untapped reservoir of power. It was the same awesome feeling as I'd had when I had stood at the bottom of the ravine.

"You have tapped into the Road's power before, although you stupidly used it to build a snow fortress to impress your girlfriend," said Charles.

"What is it?" I asked, impressed by the way it made me feel.

"I've just told you, don't you listen? It is the power of the Road. You need to connect to it, and use its energy to fly to where I am."

I remembered that in previous dreams I had simply launched myself from the ridge and found myself flying with the birds. Charles' words were still not making sense to me so I did the only thing I could think of - I leapt from my high vantage point and let the air whistle past me as I fell.

The birds squawked their pleasure at my actions and flocked round me as I plummeted towards the ground. I could feel the power growing inside my body. Then suddenly, magically, I was flying with them, instead of plunging towards the valley below.

"Yes! Well done, Sean. Now, follow the Road and we can begin your training," said Charles.

I heard his words in my mind and at that moment something seemed to flick a switch and I could see a shimmering network of lines below me. The power thrummed along each line but there was one that stood out from the rest. It was thicker and just looked more substantial than the others.

Swooping, I flew until I was directly above this thicker ribbon and sensed a further increase in the power that was available to me.

"Is this 'the Road'?" I asked.

"There are many roads as you can see, but this 'the Road'. It will lead you to me eventually."

I stared down at the shimmering, silvery threads below, marvelling at how they criss-crossed like the highways on a road atlas.

"Are they ley lines?" I asked.

"Some people in the other-world call them that, but in Gael we call them ròidean, in the plural, or rathad (road, in other-world speak)," Charles answered as if he was speaking to a child.

I remembered then that he was speaking to a child. I was only four-years old, after all, in my dream.

"Why does it seem that I'm only four?" I asked.

"You have many years of training ahead of you, Sean. Four-years is the normal age for one of our kind to begin," said the voice.

"But I'm almost eighteen, how can I suddenly be four again?"

"You're almost eighteen in the other-world, Sean. I am able to return you to being four here in Gael. That way we can fit in all of the things I need to teach you and undo your mother's foolishness."

I was a little distracted by the fact that I was flying. The sensation was wonderful and I was trying to soak up everything I saw and felt. I wasn't that distracted however, and I hadn't missed the fact that Charles had used the words 'the other-world' several times. He had also referred to a place called Gael that I was sure I had never heard of but which sounded oh so familiar.

"Charles, why do you refer to where I'm from as 'the other world'?"

"You should know that that place is not where you are from, Sean. You were born on Gael and that is where you will return. Your mother took you to the other-world when you were very young. It will take you some hard work, but you will be able to overcome your years in the other-world eventually."

Something was pulling me down towards the ground and I pulled my arms in tight against my side. Doing so increased my speed and the birds around me squawked excitedly as they followed suit, tucking their wings in and rocketing downwards.

I watched the first of the birds flare, spreading their wings until they landed gracefully. I tried to mimic their actions and it worked after a fashion. Unfortunately I misjudged the speed and instead of landing softly on my feet, I toppled and fell flat on my face.

I sensed Charles laughing at my attempts at a landing, as I sat up and dusted myself down. Just like with other dreams the next thing I saw was a line of robed figures walking towards me along a worn path. The birds were surrounding me and they squawked as if in greeting to the robed figures.

"Sean! Sean! You have come at last!" shouted the foremost figure.