Spirit Ch. 04

Jun 18, 2010

Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit Chapter Four Astral Travel & Dreams

Current mood:creative

Heavy Metal Thunder Productions

Presents...

Copyright protected on June 2010.

The persons, places, entities, and events depicted in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, places, entities, or events is unintentional and purely coincidental.

Warning Some stories may contain adult language, explicate violence, adult situations, and some sexual content. These stories are intended for a mature audience.

Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit

Written by Stacy James Meadows

With Concepts Created by Stacy James Meadows, Larry William Van Hoorebeke, and Donald Edward Van Hoorebeke.

Previously on Fragmented Pieces Book I Spirit... Jason Chambers had killed three women, but because of lack of evidence was sent to back to his home under house arrest until more evidence can be brought forth. He thought about the past for awhile before falling asleep. Meanwhile, Steven "Shadow" MacGraw came home for a night off from work, and celebrated a pagan holiday by casting a magical circle. We now return back to Steven as he prepares for bed.

Chapter Four

"Astral Travel and Dreams"

Steven had already picked up the ceremonial stuff and placed it away where it belonged. He had done a bit of house cleaning and laundry as well. Now he sat in front of the television watching the ten o'clock news. The heat in the house had started to become unbearable, so after the holy ceremony Steven had turned on both fans in his apartment and kept them running.

He was happy to see that nothing unusual yet has happened while he was enjoying his night off. All the things mentioned on the news could be handled by other people who were supposed to handle those kinds of things, and he didn't have to mess with them.

Steven waited until after the weather report was over, and then shut the television off. He was tired and would probably have another busy day ahead of him tomorrow, probably doing other people's work instead of in his special field, so as he weariedly yawned he decided to go on to bed.

Before going to bed though he got one last drink of juice, and checked his magical sleeping things, which included a good working pen and a journal to write down his dreams in, a petrified piece of wood on his bed stand, and a cinnamon stick he had under his pillow. Both the petrified wood and the cinnamon stick would help him gain meaning from his dreams, and the journal would let him record the meaning of the dreams and allow him to look back on them later for reference.

After checking the items, he knelt down beside his bed, and said a small prayer of thanks to the goddess and the god. It went something like this:

Dear goddess of the moon, oceans, and the Earth,

Known as Diana, and several other names.

Dear god of the sun, woodlands, and animals,

Known as Pan, and several other names.

I thank you both for the many blessings that I have received,

Both at work and tonight in the circle.

May you guide me to doing your bidding and work,

Also, I want to thank the four elements:

Earth, Air, Fire, and Water,

For their help in helping me to fulfill your great work.

With all of my heart I love you,

And I hope I can bless you,

In much the same way that you have blessed me.

Finishing the prayer, he crawled into bed, and laid flat on his back underneath the covers. He then totally relaxed his body, and began to do rhythmic breathing taking a breath in for five seconds, holding it for five seconds, letting it out for five seconds, holding it for five seconds, and then repeating the process over and over again. After a few moments of this and with a slight mental push, his soul left his body, and he was astral traveling.

In his astral form he could see himself laying in bed, as he floated around the room. He had done this hundreds of times, but he still enjoyed looking at his own body from outside of it without looking into a mirror.

Quickly he decided to go to the astral gardens to meet some of his astral mentors that he had there. There were three of them that he normally met. All three had been long dead, but stayed in the astral realm to help those like Steven who ventured into the astral realm. All three of them had a working idea of how the world and technology of today worked, and the state of affairs of people today and in the future, despite coming from totally different societies with much less technology.

One was named Grey Wolf, and he was an early native American shaman, who lived in the time before the white man ever came. In his time he talked to the animal spirits, did magical healing, scurried the future, astral traveled, performed ceremonies, and cast spells by smoking different herbs in his pipe.

A second was a wise Oriental man named Yang. He once lived long ago in the orients teaching mental discipline and martial arts. He was very wise, speaking in riddles at most times, and possessed a great many mind powers, such as: telepathy, telekinesis, and even seeing the future. Many times Steven had consulted with him on how to use mind powers properly or for his wisdom. Steven could only slightly use such mind powers, and only with very great effort. He knew he would one day have to spend many years to perfect such talents, but now he did not have the time or patience.

A third was a robed man who wore a hood over his face. Steven didn't know his name, but he did know that the figure was once a great druid priest and had great control over the plants and animals. He appeared on occasions to give advice on how to properly treat plants and animals, and sometimes even lectured Steven on how he mistreated nature at times. On some rare occasions he would teach Steven a few druid spells, but only when he thought Steven was ready for them.

There was also a fourth who rarely appeared. She was an Egyptian princess priestess. Steven didn't know her name either, and she only really appeared when he was working on figuring out some ancient symbols, and she would tell him their meanings.

Occasionally he would run into others here, such as Viking warrior, a mystical witch, a powerful warlock, etc, but usually those were only a one time thing, and the four mentioned above were the most common. He one time even ran into another pagan who was dying in the hospital somewhere in the USA, and that was a very sad astral visit, though he hoped to have eased their suffering somewhat with their visit together. Who knew what to expect or who would appear in the astral realms with each visit? It was always a surprise.

Grey Wolf was the one that met him in the astral gardens today. He sat on the ground covered with a blanket, and smoked on a shaman's pipe. On his shoulder sat a hawk, and by his side, laying in the grass, was a large grey wolf. Steven knew this was his traveling companions, the animal spirits that protected Grey Wolf. Steven also knew there was a third companion nestled in the blanket with Grey Wolf. It was the cunning weasel spirit.

As Steven approached, Grey Wolf looked up at him and spoke, "Steven, I have been expecting you. Come and sit down beside me, we have much to talk about."

Steven approached and sat down in the grass beside Grey Wolf saying, "As always it is a pleasure to see you again Grey Wolf. How have you been?"

Grey Wolf spoke, "Ah, I wish this was a pleasure trip that we could just visit, but I have grave news for you."

"What is it, Grey Wolf?" Steven asked. "You seem concerned."

"I am." Grey Wolf spoke. "An evil spirit from my past is coming to haunt you. Listen carefully to my tale, and watch as it unfolds before your eyes."

With this Grey Wolf pulled a few more herbs out of his side pouch and placed them in the pipes bowl. The animals began to even pay attention to the tale as well, and even the weasel came out from under the blanket to sit on Grey Wolf's lap, so that she too could see the tale as well.

Grey wolf began to speak, as images began to form from the smoke arising from the pipe. "Many moons ago, more than I could possibly count, when I was still alive, a very powerful and evil spirit came into our village. The spirit hid until the moon was high and killed many braves, squaws, and children. I consulted the spirits of nature, and with their help I developed a spell to trap the evil spirit. I made a clay pot with a lid, gathered several herbs, and prepared for his next attack. That night, which happened to be when the moon was new, it appeared to attack another squaw in our village, but this time I was ready for it. I placed the clay pot on the ground, put the herbs into my pipe, and began to smoke it as I said an ancient incantation of exorcism and entrapment for the evil spirit. The evil spirit was drawn away from the squaw and into the clay pot, which I immediately threw on the lid, and sealed the lid permanently shut with a special adhesive made from herbs and heated by fire. The clay pot I buried in the surrounding caves deep within, and placed the symbols of my people to warn that an evil spirit was placed within."

Steven spoke interrupting Grey Wolf's story here. "That's an interesting story Grey Wolf, but what does that have to do with me?"

"Patience, young one, I was getting to that before you interrupted me." Grey Wolf spoke. In warning the wolf at Grey Wolf's side let out a small growl of irritation, as Grey Wolf continued his story. "The evil spirit has called upon many dark friends, and has grown a lot stronger during his entrapment. It has waited a very long time, and has plotted out it's revenge every moment it has been trapped. He is freeing himself even now as we speak. You will be called upon to take care of it, this I have foreseen in the future. More I can't say, except that when you think you have won it will return again. My time here grows short, but I know that you will be able to handle the evil spirit."

With that Grey Wolf stood up, and his animal spirit friends stood to follow. He turned to leave, but was stopped momentarily by Steven placing a hand on his shoulder.

Steven spoke saying, "Please wait, Grey Wolf, is there anything else you can tell me?"

Grey Wolf was about to say something when suddenly several black widow spider spirits came menacingly from nowhere and spoke to them, "Stay away from our friend. He is protected by us. You can't stop him or us."

While Steven's attention was on the spiders, Grey Wolf slipped away into other parts of the astral plane. The spiders began to advance towards Steven. Steven realizing that Grey Wolf was gone and that he was in trouble decided to terminate this astral visit and return home.

As soon as Steven's spirit returned back to his body and he awakened, he immediately turned on the lamp beside his bed, and pulled out his dream journal, and wrote down every detail that he could remember. It took him ten minutes to completely finish the journal entry.

When he was finished, he decided to get another drink from the kitchen. This time though something that would help him go to sleep. He mentally narrowed the choices down to either warm milk or hot chocolate, as he walked towards the kitchen. On his way through the living room he detoured long enough to turn the television on, and changed the channel to the all news channel. Right now it was talking about the stock prices.

Steven went into the kitchen and finally decided on making a cup of hot chocolate. He pulled out his kettle and filled it with some water from the kitchen sink. He turned on the stove, and placed the kettle on the burner to warm the water up. Searching the cabinets, he pulled out the instant hot chocolate, a spoon, and a coffee cup placing them on the counter beside the stove.

He had to wait for the water to get hot, so he decided to go watch news in the living room. He sat in the chair and watched as the news was talking about another major airline crash, in which there were no survivors. After that they talked about a guy from Oklahoma who was America's most wanted because he had went on a killing spree after a convenience store robber gone wrong, and managed to escape. Steven didn't care about that because police could handle it. The kettle went off about half-way through the news story and Steven made his cup of hot chocolate.

When he sat down again the weather report for the nation was on. The weather report was done about the same time Steven had finished his cup of hot chocolate. He shut off the television and filled the cup with water to soak in the kitchen sink.

He went to bed to go to sleep, not doing anything special this time. He laid there a minute in the darkness before he decided to look at the journal entry one more time and turned on the light. He grabbed the journal and skimmed through it quickly one more time. He placed it back and shut off the light to ponder what it meant. While still pondering on Grey Wolf's meaning, Steven fell fast asleep.

Steven's first dream of the night was a little out of the ordinary for Steven. It started out normal enough, but then got strange.

Steven was walking through a mechanic place for semi-trucks. Mechanics were working on trucks here and there and Steven was helping one of the mechanics fix an engine in one of them. He would hand the mechanic tools that the mechanic would ask for. First a wrench, then a Phillip screw driver, and then finally an engine part of some kind. While the mechanic was working on the part, Steven looked around the garage area, and noticed that black widow spiders were beginning to crawl all over the walls. As Steven watched, the spiders began to start crawling ..over the mechanics and biting them. They would scream in agony before dying.

Eventually all the mechanics were killed and the spiders had Steven surrounded and began moving in on him. Steven woke up shaking and covered in sweat, inspite of the circulated cool breeze coming from the bedroom fan. It took him a minute before realizing it was just a dream. He turned on the lamp again beside his bed and made another entry in his dream diary. After finishing the entry, he calmed down enough to go back to sleep and have another dream.

This time he was in a house, which looked kind of old. In another room Steven could hear that fighting was going on. He walked cautiously over to the doorway and looked in. Two men were fighting. One was a really big guy in a wrestler's mask, and the other wasn't quite as big as the other guy, but was still pretty strong looking.

The guy in the mask kicked the other guy in the stomach, and when the other guy bent over in pain, the masked guy forced his head between his legs. The masked guy then did a power bomb through a table, which is to say, he lifted him up in the air, flipping him over, and then slammed him back first through the kitchen table, which broke in half.

The masked guy walked around the room for a moment to catch his breath before reaching down with one hand around the other guy's neck and picking him up. With one hand the masked guy picked the other guy up off of the ground apparently for a one-handed choke slam, but the other guy kicked him in the groin causing the big masked man to release the hold and bend over in pain.

The masked guy was standing in front of a closed door as the other guy backed up a little. The other guy then kind of ran forward and kicked the bigger masked man in the head causing him to fly back, crashing through the closed door and down the basement stairs.

Steven thought that it was over and began to walk forward when suddenly a hand shot up through the floor and grabbed Steven's leg. Steven was shocked as the hand began to pull him down.

"No!" Steven screamed as he woke up again. As he realized it was a dream again, he began to wonder if he ever was going to get some good sleep tonight. He turned on his light, and looked at the time. It was two a.m. He pulled out his dream diary and wrote another entry quickly, before going back to sleep.

In the next dream he had he was in a room with a concrete floor. His religious gear was there as well, except there wasn't an alter. With a piece of chalk he drew a circle with a six-foot diameter, and inside the circle he drew a five pointed star. He blessed a bowl of salt and a bowl of water placing some of the salt in the water. He went around the circle and blessed the outer layers of it with first the salt, and then the water.

He then placed a candle at each star point and called to the four elements and then the goddess and god to enter into the circle.

For a minute after that nothing happened, but finally smoke began to fill the circle. A lady stepped out of the smoke. She was the most beautiful woman Steven had ever seen. She turned her back towards Steven and looked out of the circle. She looked as though she was preparing to defend herself from something.

Suddenly a flash of lightening hit the ground beside her, with a crackle of thunder. A muscular horned man stood clutching a spear beside her. The horned man stood with his spear ready to fight along side the woman. Steven began to realize that this was the goddess and the god.

From behind Steven he could sense other presences as well, and he turned to look. Steven saw three elementals standing at their star points. One was water, one was fire, and the last was Earth. Steven could sense there was a fourth, but could not see it. It was the elemental of air, which Steven knew was there, but was invisible as always.

Steven could feel their love for him, and sense their protection of him. Steven felt safe and secure here in the middle of the circle. Steven thanked all six of them for coming. The four elementals began to leave and then the horned god.

The goddess turned and spoke to Steven saying, "Remember this spell. If you need our protection, we will come."

With that she began to fade away as a loud ringing bell began to intrude into Steven's mind and he realized it was his alarm clock and he woke up. Steven shut off the alarm, and made the final entry for the night into his dream diary.

Next Chapter Five "Trouble in New Mexico" where an evil spirit that has been trapped for many years is finally freed and about to cause havoc by taking control of a hoard of black widow spiders to go on a rampaging killing spree.

File #: 19

Character Star Power: 2

Code Name: Grey Wolf

Alter Ego: None

Aliases: None

Nick Names: None

Legal Status: Dead

Allegiance: Only to Steven "Shadow" MacGraw

Sub-Groups: None

Rank: Tribal Shaman

Occupation: Tribal Shaman

Known Relatives: Unknown

Birth Date: Unknown

Birth Place: Somewhere in the USA, along time ago.

Height: Unknown

Weight: Unknown

Eyes: Green

Hair: Brown

Attitude: Patient and mystic. Acts like a teacher to Steven.

Known Powers: Shaman abilities such as communicating with animals and nature, astral travel, seeing future events before they happen, mystical healing, spell casting by smoking different herbs in his pipe, etc.

Equipment: A Shaman's pipe and Native American clothing.

Known Skills: Shaman, hunting, gardening, and survival.

Limitations or Weaknesses: He is a spirit now dwelling on the astral plane which Steven consults about on mystical things, so it is unknown what weaknesses he has.

For More Info. See: Steven "Shadow" MacGraw

History: A long time ago in the now present day USA, Grey Wolf was a shaman for his tribe of people. Exactly which tribe Steven has never quite figured out. After Grey Wolf passed away, he remained in the astral realm to guide others in mystical ventures. Steven is uncertain of how this came about. Before he did become this guide however, he trapped an evil spirit that was terrorizing his tribe into a clay vase. Sensing the evil spirits release he has come to help Steven stop this evil spirit again.