Chapter 27

“When we return, we will be married.”

Cathy replies sweetly, “Okay.”

Just as Cathy is saying that, Andromeda flashes into the room and says, “You ready White Sorceress and her Great Protector?”

Dakota and Sorbo look at each other and hold hands and then in unison they say, “Ready!”

With another bright flash they are standing on a long dusty road. They turn and look behind them and all they see is the same road winding to the horizon and beyond. It is the same as they look forward. To each side of the road is prairie land. The grass is tan and stands about two feet tall as it sway in a mild warm breeze. The sky is red and the clouds are going by in a time-elapsed fashion.

“This is The Long and Lonely Road and down it you must travel.”

“How far is it to Aden?” asks Dakota.

“It is not a journey of distance. It is a journey of understanding and a state of being. When you are ready you will already be there. May the graces of the gods and the universe guide you on your way.” and with that she is gone.

“Well, that was thoroughly unhelpful.” Dakota nods up at Sorbo as he says that, and then she takes her left hand into his right hand.

“Which way do you think, Sorbo?”

“Hmm, well, the final decision is yours, but since this is not a journey of distance but of understanding, I doubt if it matters.”

“Well, okay then. I say our future is ahead of us and since we are already pointed in this direction I believe we must go forward.”

“Makes sense to me.” Sorbo takes an extra long time to look at Dakota and slowly a smile comes to his face.

“What?”

Sorbo kneels down in front of her and he places his left hand on her petite thirteen-year-old waist and uses his right hand to brush some of her wavy dirty blonde hair out of her face and from before her beautiful blue eyes. Her hair is finally about four marks past her shoulders. He looks her up and down and sees her body as it is beginning the transformation from a little girl into womanhood. With her purple mid-thigh length short sleeve dress, her form hugging burnt orange leggings and her comfortable brown leather boots she is a pretty girl, a powerful witch and a trained warrior. Like Sorbo her sword hangs on her left hip so she can pull it out with her right hand.

“Dakota, I want you to know that I love you. I am so very proud of you and you are the greatest honor I have ever known. I love and accept you because you are Dakota, not because you are the White Sorceress.”

With tears in her eyes Dakota flies into his arms and says, “I love you, Sorbo.” When they pull back Sorbo places his hands on each side of Dakota’s head and kisses her lips long and tenderly. “Wow!”

Sorbo smiles and brings his right hand around her and as he is patting her bottom he says, “You ready, my darling girl.” Dakota nods her head and once and again she places her left hand into his right hand and they begin their journey.

Sorbo has long since taken off his ceremonial armor so he is wearing his brown breeches, royal blue long sleeve shirt and brown leather boots that are very similar to those that Dakota are wearing.

“Sorbo?”

“Yes, my love.”

“If Aden is the God of Neutrality then why do you think he is getting involved in a struggle between light and dark?”

“Because, my darling child, nothing is ever just black and white. Everybody and everything is made up of positive, negative and neutral particles and in fact that very aspect is what creates motion or life or, or, ah hell, or...”

“Is it the cycle of life in that not only do those things flow from creation, but creation itself is made up of those very things?”

“Yes, after all what is light without dark and if there was only positive and negative there would be no time. Now even though in the physical world, in the growing field of science, positive repels positive and the same with negative, in the energy world or spirit world, if you want to go there, where neutral is the void it allows for continual motion, which is life, like we have talked about before, but it also gives everything its space so we can coexist in relative harmony. If there were only one side there would be no motion. If there were only two sides the universe would tear itself in half, but since there are three sides and limitless versions and possibilities, life flourishes in this dimension and all the others.”

As they are pondering all of this they turn back to The Long and Lonely Road and standing just before them is a little girl about six years old with red hair and red eyes.

“Hello,” she says, in a sweet melodic voice.

“Hello.”

“Hi.” says Dakota, while waving with her right hand.

“Is Aden about?”

“You are walking on him, Great Protector. You are he.”

Dakota looks down at her feet and the ground. “Hmm.”

“What may we do for you, little one?”

“In order to find that which exists and does not exist, you must re-find that knowledge that has been lost.” Just then a little dust devil picks up and surrounds the little girl and by the time the soil falls back to the road she is gone.

Dakota and Sorbo look at each other with raised eyebrows and then Dakota shrugs her shoulders and they begin walking once more hand in hand. As they are walking along, they are pondering the little girl’s words in their own unique way.

Dakota is brilliant and Sorbo has long since fallen in love with her beautiful body, beautiful heart, beautiful mind and beautiful spirit and her next words do not change that. “Sorbo?”

“Yeah, baby.”

“I love knowledge because it is a powerful weapon and yet it is so light weight.”

“Okay,” he says, smiling.

“Since our journey is not one of distance but understanding and the little girl said we are seeking a lost knowledge, and sometimes it can take a lifetime to gather the necessary knowledge to move on to the next level of creation, do you think we could be here for the rest of our lives?”

“It is hard to say. There are some lessons that cannot be taught, they must be lived.”

“Sorbo, look some horses!” Off to the right of the road feeding off the wild grasses are two horses with a reddish tint to them and when they turn and look at them they have red eyes also. They are saddled and ready to go.

“Hmm, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?” wonders Dakota.

“Time is a very elusive thing. Sometimes a minute can take a lifetime to tick by and a lifetime can go by in a blink.”

“So, we should not rush our time for the understanding is too important and since the knowledge we seek has yet to come to us we should not rush to grasp at anything just because we feel we should understand something.”

Sorbo looks down at Dakota and sees a pristine thirteen-year-old girl with a mind that outshines the stars. Sorbo bends over and kisses Dakota on the hair. “It is your decision, my love.”

“This is our journey and the world’s journey, so only together will our words and thoughts equal up to the task. We will not rush a lesson that is this important.” Without another word, hand and hand, they continue down the road. About ten paces down the road Dakota’s beautiful heart shines through as she says, “Maybe we should take the saddles off the horses so they will be more comfortable.” They turn around and look back at the horses that are long gone.

When they turn back around there is a little cottage not unlike the one Sorbo was living in when he first met Dakota. The road V’s just before it and two different roads continue on to different destinies. In fact, this cabin looks identical to Sorbo’s old cottage.

Dakota looks up with her trusting blue eyes and Sorbo raises his eyebrows. They clasp their hands a little tighter and walk up to the front door and knock.

A little girl of twelve answers the door and it is the dead princess Hannah with her red hair and green eyes. Sorbo makes to step back, but Dakota holds onto him firmly.

“Hello, Sorbo, my friend, my knight.”

“Hello, Hannah.” says Sorbo, with tears in his eyes. When Sorbo calls the little girl Hannah, Dakota looks up at him quickly.

“Hi.” says Dakota, to the other girl.

“Hello, it is an honor to meet you, Dakota. Please come in, we should talk.”

When they walk into the cabin they find Dakota’s mom, dad and big brother waiting for them. You would think Dakota would run to them, but she sidles up to Sorbo holding his hand as hard as she can.

“Hello, Dakota.”

“Hello ... mom.” Dakota says, holding herself together. “This is my friend and my knight Sorbo.” As she says that part she looks over at Hannah who is smiling at her with an understanding that wants to make Dakota cry.

“We obviously have not crossed over, so what may we do for you folks?”

“We are here to answer one question for you without giving you an answer. Part of the knowledge is since we are ghosts of your pasts that the understanding will be more easily found because of that.”