Eagle's Walk

This was a story that came to me years ago when I was walking alone through my grandmother's orchard. It was the first story I ever wrote on this very laptop from which I still operate, writing down the stories that I feel impressed to share. It was the next chapter in a series of events that the then fairly new Eagle Rivers was unfortunately going through and one that, for obvious reasons, was highly interesting. Below is a revised edition of a short story originally called "Eagle Meets Heaven" which details the account of an act that has made Eagle famous to his friends and family.

He knew that it wouldn’t be long before something bad would happen. Plenty of bad things had already happened, and even though he couldn’t see or hear, and wasn’t sure if he even existed, he still had his feelings to go by. His blood sugars had been extremely low all morning and the formula he was receiving through the line that went down his nose into his stomach just was not doing the trick. He was on a low-strength IV of sugars but it wasn’t doing a thing so they had him off of it for now. The muffled sounds of people purred dully on his weak, deaf ears and he felt numb, as if he were nothing but a cloud of mist, up to the mercy of nature. Suddenly his head started to spin, a feeling that Eagle was way too used to, especially in the last few weeks before this. If he could see before now he knew his vision would be dimming rapidly and he wondered what would await him when consciousness returned. He could feel his head pounding but he relaxed, knowing he had nowhere to fall as the darkness took over him. This, he knew, was his body's failed attempts to use the energy in his body in the most effective and rationed manner, for he was in a full-on sugar crisis, but as he lay in total darkness he knew that his body, full of the ramifications of his genetic inability to absorb sugars properly, had once again betrayed him. It would be over soon. He trusted this much of his body.

He could hear birds chirping and thought he could hear some water running in the distance. He felt a warm breeze on his side and could almost taste the sweet air that flowed so smoothly around him. Everything was still pitch black but he felt as though bright, radiant rays of sunlight were shining on him. The more he lay there the more he realized that he was in no pain whatsoever. In fact, at that moment, he felt better than he had ever felt in his life! He had never felt like this before, never did a dream come close. Finally an odd thought crossed his mind and he wondered if he had died and this was Heaven.

Suddenly, as though he had heard this from someone else, and in wild amazement, he opened his eyes and stood up quickly. “Heaven?!” he exclaimed aloud. A flock of pure blue birds flew out of the tree overhead. Eagle looked up at them and then slowly looked around, his mouth open in amazement. What he saw was absolutely incredible. He was standing near the bank of a river- the clearest and brightest river Eagle had ever seen. He looked up and saw tall trees with the greenest of greens. Everything was so vivid and vibrant! Never had such a place existed before, and it was as real as the fact that he was standing there, feeling quite odd...

Just then, he saw something out of the corner of his right eye- the part of his eye he was usually blind in. To his astonishment he realized that his vision was whole again. He spun around and looked upon quite a figure. He was tall and had thick brown hair in a very slight wave. His eyes were a bright blue and his nose was tall, matching his tall face. He had a very soft and mysterious but all the same inviting smile. He looked oddly, eerily familiar, and yet Eagle was sure he had never seen someone with his visage or aura before.

“Who are you?!” Eagle exclaimed, in surprise.

The man simply smiled, put out his arm gently, as if to silence him, and said, “It does not matter right now. Come. Let’s talk a minute.” His voice was gentle and familiar and inviting like his smile.

Eagle followed this strange figure through the grove of trees, brilliantly lit by the perfect golden sun. As the tall figure ambled ahead, the thought that Eagle had was making itself more and more clear and he stopped abruptly.

“Am I… dead?” Eagle asked, looking around as if he would offend some invisible person watching if he said the word 'dead,' almost in disbelief that he could actually be in Heaven.

“Well, that depends a great deal of what you mean by dead!” the mysterious man replied, chuckling. He then went on, saying, “Eagle, to answer that in the way you seek, yes, you are dead.”

Eagle, looking quite surprised, suddenly had a million questions burning inside of him and they all flew out of his mouth like steam in a kettle. “Will I always be here? Will I go back? Am I permanently dead?”

“Your death at this time is a conditional one," the man replied. "You will only be here for a short while if all goes as planned. If all the people in the hospital room where your body is right now work together and take their mind off themselves and focus it on you, then you will be able to be brought back to life by your father and Baxter Lightfoot." As he said this they continued walking, as if just holding friendly conversation while traveling through a garden.

Eagle was amazed at what he was hearing. He looked down to step over a tree root and noticed he was not as thin as he was just a moment ago. In fact, he was toned and healthy. It was ever apparent that he was in his perfect form. He then had other questions he wanted answered.

“What has happened to me? Will I ever recover?”

The man smiled and explained, “You have been having several problems with your disease lately. Right now the loss of blood sugar is causing you to waste away and is causing your body to appear aged. It looks like you will return to Kesly but you will be changed. Hang in there, though, because you will be just fine. Be patient, Eagle.”

Eagle still had an important question to ask. “How long have I been dead?” The man smiled and said, “Eagle, time here moves on a very different timetable than it does where you are from. Time is not important here. By your worldly measurements you will only end up being dead for about five minutes if all goes well.”

No sooner had these words come out of the stranger's mouth then suddenly, a swirling, ocean blue vortex appeared behind Eagle. It was exactly what Eagle thought it was- a portal back to the carnal world.

“Oh look! They’ve done it! Now go, go return to Kesly!” the man exclaimed, grabbing Eagle's elbow excitedly and guiding him gently to the majestic pane of energy. "I knew they'd do it!"

He approached the portal and was putting his foot through when he stopped and turned around. “Will I remember this?”

The man gave him a wide, familiar smile and cheerfully replied,“Yes. As a gift to you, you will always remember every second of this meeting. Keep it in your heart and do not talk of it except at the right time. Now go. People are waiting for you."

Eagle now with his right foot in the portal, was suddenly stopped by a cry of the mysterious man, as if he had forgotten something.

“Wait! Before you go, I have a request to ask!" He looked at Eagle, his eyes full of earnest admonition. He paused for a short while before saying, "Take good care of Winterwood, will ya? She loves you and never wants to lose you.”

Eagle was shocked that the stranger knew of his love with Winterwood but nodded as he turned to face the portal again. Suddenly, he remembered the question he asked when he first arrived. He was sure that this man could answer it now.

“Wait! Before I go, who are you?”

The mysterious man looked at him, his face full of love and happiness, as if he was waiting for this to be asked again, and very carefully said, “I am Riedlan… Your son.”

Eagle had no time to react. He felt the energy of the portal carry him away, gently sending him flying through an unknown amount of space. He did not know how far Heaven was from Terabi's Realm or the carnal world but as he spun and fell through black space he felt assured that he would safely return to his body. He began to feel a great warmth and then a fog came over him and he was welcome to lay for however long it took to wake up.

Everything was black again as it was before, but this time all of his pains were back and he could feel the itchy tube in his nose. He had no idea what length of time had passed from when his spirit left his body to when it returned and how long he had been recovering. All he knew was it was no dream- it was real. The image of the strange man, his son, was right there in his mind, as clear as when he met him Riedlan was right when he gave him the gift to remember it all.

Some time passed and the next thing Eagle knew he could hear doctors saying, “It’s truly a miracle that he came back to life, for he was dead. We’ll see if he’ll ever recover.” Eagle remained as calm as day as he could then hear them telling his parents that he made it. His vitals looked good and he did indeed feel much better. He knew he was getting better anyway because he could hear everything so clearly and instead of seeing blackness he could see shadows moving around his closed eyes.

As Eagle listened to the doctors, their voices slipped away. He could hear singing and could see many great and colorful things. His mind became focused on his parents- how they felt. He was certain they were fearful and knew that they were so very happy to get their son back. His mind then flashed to his brother and sister- what they must be going through. He hadn’t seen them since Harvest Festival in November and their first sight of him over winter break was him fighting for his life in the Kesly hospital. His head spun as he thought of his friends, and what they must have thought when they heard the news that he had been life flighted to the hospital that knew him best. What would they think when they found out he had died?

Suddenly, he remembered what the strange man had said about Winterwood. He told Eagle to take good care of her and that she loved him. He then remembered how she reacted to small problems and realized that this had to be eating away at her. He couldn’t imagine how she’s ever find happiness if he was gone. He then realized the extent to which they were in love. He clearly saw her in his mind and she was sad, lonely, and looked old. Without even knowing what he was doing, a single exclamation burst unconsciously from his lips.

“WINTERWOOD!!!”

His loud choral voice, even when scratchy from the breathing tube that hadn't been removed too long ago, echoed down the hallways and caught everyone by surprise, including himself. He opened his eyes and found that he was staring at the hospital ceiling. The next thing he knew, he could hear soft footsteps running toward his room. There, bursting through the door, was Winterwood. She was crying with joy and she threw her arms around him crying, “Oh Eagle you’re back!” Quickly after her followed all of Eagle’s family, most of the Lightfoot family, and Eagle’s amazed doctors.

“I’m back… Yes… So good to be back…”

This was all Eagle could manage before he realized just how weak he had become in a short period of time, but this did not dampen his highly renewed spirits. He was back. Not only was he back, but he was all the way back. As he looked around, he became aware of other things that this terrible energy crisis had cost him. He could no longer see out of his right eye at all, save just some notion of movement. He figured that it was here that his spirit became totally detached from his body- through that eye. He was just thankful it wasn’t any more. With that he lay back, letting visitors talk while he rested. He had an important discussion to be had with Winterwood later.