The Dreamer Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set Vol I - III: A Sci-Fi Parallel Universe Adventure (The Dreamer Chronicles - Science Fiction For Kids And Adults) Read online

  The Dreamer Chronicles Boxed Set

  Thank you for purchasing the Dreamer Chronicles Boxed Set. With over 1,120 pages of great value reading, this boxed set contains the entire trilogy!

  Book I: Sarina's Nightmare

  Book II: The Dream Killer

  Book III: Moon Zero

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  SARINA'S NIGHTMARE

  (The Dreamer Chronicles Book I)

  Dear Reader, thank you for joining Sarina on her journey. I hope you enjoy it.

  May I share a word or two about spelling? Thank you! I consider myself to be ‘half-Australian’ and ‘half-British’. Which means I’ve chosen to use British English spelling conventions throughout. So for example, when you see an ‘s’ that you think should be a ‘z’, that’s me using my native spelling.

  But knowing you, Dear Reader, that won’t bother you one bit!

  Please, start reading!

  For Isabelle and my Dad

  My inspiration.

  ~ 1 ~

  Xtrium

  An icy darkness descended into the valley and seeped into the edge of the township.

  Paolo stared up from the edge of the field at the slowly advancing black dread, then across at the townsmen working in the field.

  Some had fallen to the ground writhing in agony, others had their faces turned to the sky.

  All had their hands clamped over their ears.

  He pulled himself away from the sight and turned to Andreas in alarm.

  Andreas too, had his hands to his ears and was collapsed against his plough, doubled over in pain. He caught Paolo’s gaze and with difficulty, released a hand. He signalled to the boy to run away, but the noise must have been unbearable and he quickly pressed his hand back.

  “Run Paolo! Run!” The older man’s face was twisted in anguish, but he moved his lips clearly enough that Paolo could still read them. “Valkrog has summoned the Darkness. The noise is paralysing us. Run to the forest and hide.” He jerked his head towards the forest trail.

  Paolo hesitated. The last time he had run from the sadistic bird-man, he had managed to remain undetected, only to learn that his father had died at the creature’s hands. With his mother and brother still missing, Andreas was all he had left.

  He was torn between staying to help Andreas and the other townsmen, or escaping, but he soon realised by taking advantage of his deafness and hiding, he would be of more help once the attack had passed.

  If there were any survivors.

  He looked up again and spotted the bird-like creature in the distance. He shivered at the sight and reminded himself that the day would come when he would avenge his family.

  He stirred himself into action and, frustrated at not being able to speak, he signalled back to Andreas, and turned and fled into the thick forest trails.

  He ran, alone in his silent world, thrusting aside wet branches and leaping across twisted roots on the path. His mind raced. Where to hide? What did Valkrog want, and why had he summoned the Darkness?

  He peered through the murk to make out the trail, and an idea came to him. The log, over by the clearing, across from the lake. He’d hidden there before, when the bird-man and his sorcerer master had come to take the women and the children, and left him behind. If he could get through the forest and across the clearing, he’d be safe until the Darkness retreated, or—

  Or what? Did Valkrog intend to kill the rest of the townsmen this time?

  Paolo pushed on faster now, his clothes wet from the cloying, black mist, desperate to reach safety. The safety of the hidden log he thought of as his own. None of the other kids in the township knew his secret place existed. Not that it mattered anymore, since he was the only one left.

  He knew the trail so well he could navigate it blindfolded. Running into the clearing, the blackness was less oppressive. He sprinted to the other side and around the perimeter of the lake, and dived into the middle of the large hollow log that lay there.

  He had no way of knowing how badly the Darkness was affecting the townsmen, nor whether Valkrog was still terrorising the township. In frustration he kicked the inside of the old log, and some of the wood crumbled away to reveal a small patch of moss, glowing with a faint blue hue.

  He’d never seen this in the log before, and he scraped away more wood to reveal more moss, glowing blue, extending all the way out of the end of the log and down to the grass. Each time he touched the moss, the blue light flared briefly and sent a tingling buzz through his hand.

  He pressed both hands down on the moss outside the log and a surge of power buzzed up his arms. Paolo jerked his hands back in surprise. What was that? Cautiously he tested again, pushing with one hand. He felt energy rise up his arm and watched as the blue glow intensified. Was that his imagination or did the Darkness retreat? Not by much maybe, but he was sure the icy mist had also diminished.

  Did the strange blue moss affect the Darkness?

  He tested again, pushing harder with both hands, and this time, prepared for the buzz of energy, he did not pull his hands away but maintained the pressure.

  The blue energy flared again, and the Darkness retreated a little more.

  Paolo, determined to do anything to rid the valley of the dark threat, leaned in with both hands. He felt the buzz of power grow and craned around to look back behind him, and kicked his feet up and into the top of the inside of the hollow log to anchor himself.

  He turned back to face the moss and shuffled his body until he was securely braced. Now he could push with maximum effort. He pressed both hands into the moss and pushed with all his might, his legs straining behind him to drive him into the ground.

  The blue glow consumed his hands, and the energy flew up his arms, where it changed to a life-affirming vibration, and the glow built to a breath-taking crescendo of positive power.

  The sky flashed white and the air shifted violently in the trees. The Darkness imploded into the shifting air and vanished, along with the icy mist.

  In the field, Andreas looked up in surprise as the Darkness disappeared and the crushing howl was cut short. He slowly lowered his hands and looked at the other men doing the same.

  Paolo felt the vibration in the ground diminish and stop. He sat up and looked down at his clothes. He was completely dry. He looked at his hands and was surprised to see a faint blue glow coming from his palms, which faded as he watched.

  ~~~

  Sarina woke up gasping for air. She put her hand on her chest. It felt bruised—as if a giant pair of hands had been pushing down on her, making breathing difficult. She looked at the clock. 6:38am. Again.

  She tried to remember her dream. A frightened boy pushing her, desperate for help, and so she had willingly obliged. She had summoned what she thought of as ‘the white-light’, and sliced the huge wraith-like bird with a blast of energy, but the bird just laughed with its huge mouth opened wide, and vanished, leaving smoky-black trails dissolving into the air as she watched.

  When were these dreams going to stop? And who was the boy who needed her help?

  “No time to worry about THAT,” she muttered and got out of bed, exhausted. “I’ve got maths homework to
do before school.”

  Any more dreams like this and she wouldn’t be able to concentrate on her beloved painting, let alone the stupid maths and science gobbledygook.

  She flicked a quick, longing glance at the fresh canvas sitting on the easel and then over at the pile of her own favourite paintings she’d picked as entries for the upcoming competition. There were still too many to choose from, and then a thought popped into her head. Maybe she could paint something especially? Ooops. She was supposed to be focusing on her maths. She shook her head to try to clear the distracting thoughts. Really. Did everyone have this much trouble with school?

  ~~~

  Inside the fortress, high on a hillside above the township, the man’s head jerked up from the maps on the desk. He sniffed the air as if sensing something, then walked to the window. He leaned out on the stone sill and scanned the dark sky, sniffing the air again, and smiled.

  “I do believe someone has found it at last,” he murmured. “The question is; who? And how quickly I can find them—and force them to lead me to it.” He straightened and strode to the doorway, opening the door to issue a command to the brutish soldier with a shaved-head, waiting outside.

  “Hursk. Bring me Valkrog when he returns. We have work to do. Someone has found Xtrium.”

  ~ 2 ~

  Ultimatum

  The fine pointed tip of the sable brush hovered above the paints, as if deep in thought about the choice of colour, then delicately dipped into a pot filled with a rustic ochre paint.

  Sarina lost herself in the delightful, fluid flow of her painting, and flicked the brush across the canvas, adding the golden highlights to the sunset in precisely the way she imagined.

  “Beautiful. Love it. Magnificent.”

  Mrs Gratten, her art teacher, stopped behind Sarina to admire her work.

  “Thank you, Mrs Gratten,” Sarina said, “honestly it’s just an image that was stuck in my head when I woke up. It’s nothing really.”

  But it was more than that. For a few mornings now she’d struggled to shake off the persistent images in her head when she awoke.

  “My dear, it’s not nothing, it’s simply wonderful—totally reminiscent of Monet’s ‘San Giorgio Maggiore al Crepuscolo’—I can almost smell the jasmine.” She lifted her nose to the sky and took a big sniff of air, then leaned in close to Sarina and whispered. “You are going to enter I hope?”

  Sarina looked at her teacher with a big smile. “Oh yes. I wouldn’t miss that opportunity for the world.”

  Mrs Gratten nodded, smiling. “That’s great. You’ll do well of course.” She straightened and looked over at Georgia, who was struggling to rescue a sopping wet and runny picture of a fat brown cat with a minuscule head—at least Sarina thought it was a cat—and failing miserably.

  “Now, Georgia darling,” Mrs Gratten said, walking over and peering intently at Georgia’s work, “what exactly is this?”

  Georgia looked sideways at Sarina, stuck her tongue out and made a face.

  Sarina chuckled and concentrated on the small figure she was painting. The boy was running through the grass and was strangely dressed, as if from a mediaeval time, and he had a large mop of curly brown hair.

  She looked at the expression she had painted on his face and she remembered where she had seen him before.

  In her dreams.

  ~~~

  The next day, Sarina woke to the shrill sound of her alarm and sighed. She looked at the clock. “Oh great. Tuesday. Double science and double maths.”

  She gazed across her bedroom at the unfinished canvas sitting on the easel, a set of brushes longing to be put to use, a partially painted picture of a sad-looking boy with large pale-blue eyes begging to be completed.

  “Ah, it’s no use,” she said to no-one in particular and stretched her arms to shake out the ugly thought of her ‘double horror day’. She jumped out of bed and surveyed her messy room.

  Apart from her beloved art, her first year in high school had been a disaster. Maybe next year, they’d let her drop her two most hated subjects. She realised what a stupid thought that was. High school was all about maths and science, and to tell the truth, she was dreading it.

  She sighed again. Dragging the chain and moping around definitely wouldn’t help. She reached for her clothes and began dressing for school.

  ~~~

  “Hey, Sarina! What’s up?” Georgia skipped up to Sarina in the playground.

  “Oh hi, Georgia. It’s Tuesday and … you know …”

  “Ah! Double science?”

  “And maths,” Sarina added, gazing at the classroom entrance and wishing she could make it disappear. “I just can’t seem to figure that stuff out, it’s like a foreign language, all gobbledygook. Ugh.” She shook her head in disgust and looked at Georgia for sympathy.

  Georgia smiled. “You’re lucky you’re the school’s almost-famous artist. Everyone wishes they could paint and draw like you.” Georgia smiled again and put her arm around Sarina’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go in and start the day with a positive happy attitude.” They walked off into school, arm in arm.

  At the entrance Sarina saw the lanky figure of a boy heading in their direction. Rats. She really didn’t need her nose rubbed in her problems before the day had even begun. Just because he was a super-brain didn’t give him the right to mock her in science class. Then she caught herself. Georgia was right, she should do her best to be positive. After all, she’d seen the boy’s attempts at art, and they weren’t pretty. Anyway, no need to be smug. He couldn’t draw to save his life.

  ~~~

  Sarina thought her science experiment was progressing quite well for once. Well at least it had been, up until the moment she knocked over a flask of alkali and sent it spinning across the bench. She leapt over to catch it and managed to do so before any of the contents escaped, but let go of her pencil and dropped it on the floor.

  She bent down to pick the pencil up and when she stood up, she crunched her head into someone’s chin.

  “Ouch!” said the recipient of Sarina’s head, “Did you think to actually look where you were going?”

  “Oops, sorry.” Sarina rubbed her head and looked up—and straight into the eyes of the lanky boy. Oh great, this is gonna be fun. Not.

  “Ummm, sorry, Nathan—here let me—” and she reached over to hand him back the mini-clamp that had been thrown out of his hand and onto the bench. As she did so, she knocked the recently-rescued alkali flask again, only this time it fell off the bench, directly onto Nathan’s shoes.

  Where it emptied itself.

  The boy jumped backwards to avoid making the mess worse and reached down to pull off his shoes. He glared at Sarina.

  “First you smash into me,” he rubbed his chin, “then you tip chemicals onto my shoes. You’re a walking disaster, aren’t you?”

  He threw another angry look at her and started to walk off in his socks, then stopped and turned around to stare at Sarina.

  “You’re so clumsy. I don’t know why they even let you in here. How come you can hold a paintbrush perfectly well, but a simple test-tube? You know what I think? I think you should stay well away from it. It’s quite obviously not something you can ever expect to be good at. Ever.”

  He turned around and stormed off, holding his alkali-saturated shoes out in front of him between finger and thumb in disgust.

  Sarina wasn’t sure she really cared what Nathan thought, but she couldn’t stop the tears welling up in her eyes as she knelt down to clean up the mess. Positive start indeed!

  ~~~

  The bell signalled a finish to what had felt like an excruciatingly long double-science class and Sarina walked out of the classroom into the corridor, relieved to be free of science—well at least until Thursday.

  She saw Georgia further down the corridor and hurried to catch her. Georgia waved and stopped, and opened her mouth to ask a question, but closed it again when she saw Sarina’s red eyes and the expression on her face.

/>   “Come on, Sarina, why don’t we check out our paintings, they should be dry now,” Georgia said.

  Sarina gave her friend a half-hearted smile. “OK. Maybe it will help me shake this funk.”

  They headed off into the brightly lit, newer wing of the school, and saw some of the senior teachers coming out of the teachers’ meeting room between the wings. The last to exit was the school Principal, Mr Forrester, who caught sight of Sarina looking at him and motioned for her to stop and wait.

  He walked over to her, combing the strands of hair across his bald head and dabbing them back into place. “Ah, Sarina Metcalfe, just the person I need to see. Are you free now?”

  She looked up and nodded, afraid to ask exactly why the Principal had a sudden desire to see her. She had a sneaking suspicion it may have something to do with a flask of alkali. How had Mr Forrester found out so quickly about Nathan’s shoes?

  She hadn’t realised how tall he was, having never stood this close. Maybe it was because she had never had that much to do with him before. Well obviously that was all about to change. Rats! Her day was going from bad to worse—and now she was in trouble with the Principal.

  She followed along behind him to his office, turning once to look back at Georgia and roll her eyes.

  The Principal’s office was at the end of the staff corridor, and when she reached the door, Sarina saw the nameplate: Mr Charles Forrester, MEd. She guessed the letters must mean something important or he wouldn’t have put them there. Why didn’t they spell them out? Presumably it meant he was an expert in education, or schools or something.

  They entered the office, and Mr Forrester pointed to the hard wooden chair in front of his desk. Sarina sat down and discovered the chair was even less comfortable than it looked. He closed the door and walked around to sit down in a large, old and wrinkled leather swivel-chair behind the desk.