Chasing Dragonflies

By ATMM Naughton

Part-human, part-dragon ... She may be humanity’s only hope. To be entrenched in a world of dragons beyond mortal understanding frustrates sixteen-year-old, Catherine La Nid. And being forced to play nursemaid to her elderly grandmother hasn’t helped her as she struggles to make the transition from troubled teen to dragonhood.Everything’s changing too fast. Everything’s confusing as she is dragged into visions that threaten to tear apart the existence of her family.What Catherine discovers about her medieval ancient blood-line and her crucial role in the future of the universe threatens to change her forever ... and perhaps even destroy the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ATMM Naughton
• Release date: Sep 3, 2012
• ISBN: 9781921968389

Book preview

CHASING DRAGONFLIES ©

by

ATMM Naughton

© 2012

eBook Version 1.0

DEDICATION

For my family,

who are blood...

For my friends,

who are family...

Thank you.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Dare to believe

Seek out your dream

Envelop its essence

Emerge triumphant

...newness

SMASHWORDS EDITION

ETEXT PRESS PUBLISHING

PO Box 3488, Joondalup,

Western Australia, 6097

Australia

[e-mail]

www.etextpress.com

CHASING DRAGONFLIES

AN ETEXT PRESS BOOK

ISBN: 978-1-921968-38-9

This edition published at Amazon.com.

Copyright © ATMM Naughton 2012

www.atmmnaughton.com

ATMM Naughton has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and any and all other applicable international copyright laws to be identified as the sole author of this original work.

This book is a work of fiction and all characters in it are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This eBook (electronic book) is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, transmission or otherwise, be redistributed, sold or hired, without the publisher’s prior written consent. Further, this eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by the applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

First published as a paperback in June 2012

ISBN: 978-1-921968-34-1

CHAPTER 1

Dare to Dream

Grandmere Anne has recently come to live with us and I hate her, not personally but because she has reduced me to a baby-sitter twenty-four seven.

Her beautiful green eyes diminish me to jelly, even in the light of the dim, night lamp. Her drooping, distant eyes say far too much. But I hate her.

‘Catherine, I’m so grateful,’ her soft, accent floats through the room.

I still hate her, I tell myself, as I hold her arm, walking towards the toilet for the third time this night.

I’m sixteen years old and my life should be enjoyable, fun and free. I shouldn’t be stuck looking after an old woman with a terrible bladder problem, who needs a walking frame in a home that is far too small to even use a walking frame!

I’m finishing year eleven at Hemingson Senior High School and the summer holidays are only a few weeks away. I worry that I will be spending the summer babysitting both Grandmere Anne and my pesky brother, Tony.

It’s the weekend and the early morning light is quickly filtering into my room. I can hear Grandmere Anne tossing and trying to turn over. I pretend to be asleep. The thought of having to do another toilet trip so early tires me. I hate her for inconveniencing me and invading my life.

‘Are you awake?’ she asks.

I hear her trying to adjust herself and I imagine her feet as they shuffle into her slippers. My bed (now her bed instead) squeaks as she lifts herself. I peek, quickly catching her looking at her feet, struggling to push them into her slippers.

Can’t she see that they are already on, I think.

My feet are now quite comfortable, I hear inside my head, as if I have thought it. I quickly open my eyes and sit up on the folder bed, where I have been sleeping for the past three weeks… since Grandmere Anne arrived.

We stare at each other.

‘So you are awake! Would you like to help me to the toilet?’

No way, I think as I stand replying, ‘Sure,’ with half a smile.

I know you think that you hate me, I hear in my head.

‘What?’ I say.

‘What, what?’

‘What are you doing?’ I finally ask.

Grandmere Anne simply enters the toilet where the loud gushing slowly becomes a trickle.

Thank God, I think.

Yes, that feels much better, explodes in my mind.

What the hell is happening to me? Am I going bloody crazy?

No! And remember what your parents say about swearing.

My parents hate anyone swearing. I am only thinking it, and even my mind is being invaded.

Grandmere emerges from the toilet, seemingly oblivious to the banter in my head. I lead her to the bathroom where she washes her hands; I am totally smashed with anger, frustration and confusion.

Hell! I think, but this time she just turns and smiles wickedly. My face and heart droop with the thought of something I completely don’t understand. She waddles back to my bed- now her bed - like an ailing duck.

‘So what’s happening?’ My eyes search her face for any clues. ‘What are you doing to me?’

‘It’s not what I’m doing to you, darling, it simply is.’

‘This is rubbish!’

‘Pardon?’ Her eyebrows roll in with confusion, as her ethnic background gets in the way of her understanding me. I see this as a good thing.

I turn away and lay on my prickly bed. Mum and dad have gone to Saturday morning mass and from there to Tony’s game. My older brother, Josh is at his friend’s house. We are alone. This feels creepy.

‘It’s okay, I’ll explain.’

Of course you will, I think.

‘What do you want to know?’

‘Well for starters, what just happened back there?’ I have to speak slowly otherwise she will not understand me. And Grandmere Anne begins explaining.

I roll over to face her; the softness of her undulating, glassy voice fills me with calmness, even though her words are causing me silent terror.

‘I have a twin sister.’

‘You mean you had a twin sister, because she died in Belazzio, didn’t she?’

‘Yes… and no.’

I frown with the semantics of her words, for I am now miserably confused.

‘Listen, when Cherrie and I were young we had such great times together; we played endlessly. It was a different time; a different world. We shared a secret. At first we thought it was normal to speak through our thoughts, but then we told our family. Instead of the excitement we felt, they were filled with horror and we were both caned and told to never speak of this again. But of course, we kept on, until one day, after a chance encounter with an alternative, cultural ritual ceremony, Cherrie was never the same.’

At this point, she catches my fear and pauses for a long while. Finally I reassure her, ‘Go on.’

‘Cherrie began to hear other thoughts, they were evil. She made me listen to some, but eventually I was so afraid that I pushed out the thoughts until it all stopped. She was seventeen years old when they came to take her away. She wasn’t crazy, but she became crazy.’

I watch Grandmere Anne intensely, trying to believe and understand this phenomenon.

‘It was a warm, summer morning when I saw her for the last time. I hardly recognized her. Cherrie’s face was drawn, she was almost white. I caught a glimpse of her thoughts. By now her mind had been swallowed by the madness within the compound. Every evil thought had clasped onto her mind like unrelenting leaches. The speckled moments of terror took me years to expel.’

Suddenly I am screaming, as visions of terror dance like flashes in my mind.

‘Stop it now,’ yells Grandmere.

There is blackness, silence and then light.

‘What the hell are you doing to me?’ My panicking voice doesn’t stop. I have lost control as if something or someone is controlling me and then a voice in my head yells – Stop! Immediately I am calm, as if someone else has a switch to my body and my mind.

‘This is a gift and a curse with which you have been honored. Cherrie allowed fear to take her life far too soon. You must learn to control your mind so this never happens.’

Like hell I do- not likely.

You have no choice!

‘Understand,’ her soft voice continues, ‘it chooses you, you do not choose it, the gift. But you do choose what comes in and out of your mind.’

‘But you just said that Cherrie didn’t have a choice.’

‘No, she chose not to have a choice.’

‘How?’

‘She gave in; she gave up. She allowed fear to guide her instead of expelling it, like I did to you just now, as I have always done for myself.’

‘What if I can’t, what if I’m too weak?’

‘Yes, you can, everyone can. You are not too weak, you just have to believe and fight for what you believe in,’ her voice trembles in my soul.

‘But what do I believe?’

‘That is for you alone to answer, but first you must understand the purpose of the question, before the true answer can be sort.’

‘I’m confused.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ she laughs. Her laugh is like a little stream running through me, filling some recent emptiness.

‘God loves you.’

What a random comment.

‘He has planned this with Saint Michael and his army of Dragons.’

I baulk at the idea.

‘This is a different realm of our spirituality, of the unknown that surrounds us; the mystical and mysterious forces working together for beauty and goodness. Remember, you can control what you allow in and out, but it takes serious belief and practice.’

‘I don’t want this. Why now and why the hell did you pick me?’

‘Now- because my time here is short. Besides, you need me gone to have a great summer holiday, remember?’ she smiles.

‘That’s not funny.’

‘I didn’t pick you; I just help to guide you. I’m not meant to stay. Lots of wonderful, amazing experiences will fill your summer and I’ll be watching.’

‘Don’t talk like that.’ I’m upset now. I want her gone, but I don’t.

‘It’s all right.’

The front door opens and the sound of Tony’s little feet grow louder as they gently tap on dad’s pristine, polished floorboards. Tony swings open my bedroom door.

‘Hey, come and have some cake, we just went to the bakery. Yum!’ He flies out again, not a care in the world; lucky him.

Sometimes I feel sorry for Tony because mum and dad work two jobs and he misses them. Today is the first time he has them to himself, together.

‘So how was cricket?’ I ask as I walk into the kitchen.

‘I don’t understand the game,’ says mum as she smiles.

‘I try to explain, but she isn’t interested,’ sniggers dad.

Mum smiles again. ‘It looks like a little fun, standing around in the sun, throwing a little hard ball at some timber posts, then trying to catch it as it comes flying towards you. That could be fun.’

The front door opens and Josh enters the kitchen.

‘As usual just in time for food,’ I say.

‘I’m telepathic, told you I was gifted. I read your mind.’ I stop, glance at Grandmere Anne who is now seated at the kitchen table.

‘What a joker you are,’ giggles my Grandmere.

What the hell is happening? my thoughts fly at her.

Only you have the gift, for now, comes her voice inside my head.

I look around, dazed by the unfamiliarity of my mind being invaded with such ease.

‘Are you having cake?’ Tony asks, tugging on my nightgown.

‘No, you can have mine.’

But then Josh snatches it off the plate and in one mouthful his cheeks are bulging like two pregnant stomachs back to back.

‘Josh, that is mean,’ yells mum, clipping him across the back of the head. He ducks, but not in time. ‘Why are you always so cruel to your family?’ It’s not just this time. Josh always manages to only think of himself.

Tony begins to cry as I try to console him.

When we were younger, Josh would trip over me, knock me down, stand on my hand while I sat on the floor watching TV, or push past me as we tried to serve ourselves dinner. He didn’t always mean to hurt me, but then he just got away with it. And now, even at eighteen and working full-time, he still acts like a twit. But he is my brother, and I mostly love him.

The day passes. By the afternoon I am desperate to see my friends. We speak on the phone and I ask mum and dad if I can go to the movies. ‘No, you’re too young,’ is all they say. I yell, telling them, that they have to trust me. ‘No!’ they say again.

‘I’m sixteen, for goodness sake, my friends have been going out for years and I’m still stuck at home.’

‘Well that’s more reason for you to stay home and away from all that temptation.’ My parents’ closed minds and strict ways exasperate me.

I walk outside and sit near the mango tree. It’s flowering but only just. Dad’s garden is filled with foreign food; eggplant, a guava tree, a mango tree and a pawpaw plant are just some. The only recognizable Astiun thing is the lemon tree. Everyone else has one of those; it’s normal.

‘Come in for a moment,’ mum calls.

My parents look at each other and dad explains, ‘You can go to the movies as long as I drop you off and pick you up, and you don’t do anything that you shouldn’t do.’

I am puzzled. Why?

Because it’s good for you. I hear Grandmere’s voice soothing my mind. I again look at my parents.

‘Actually, it is your Grandmere who suggested we let you go and begin trusting you.’

‘Now do the right thing,’ dad adds sternly.

‘Okay, dad.’ I rush over and give them both a hug. Then I glance across at Grandmere and she winks as I think how lucky I am to have her.

I quickly call Misty, one of a group of my best friends since first arriving at Hemingson High; who is quiet, yet exciting. She has dark hair and deep set blue eyes. Even though the evening is cool, I feel new warmth in my house and in my heart.

I give dad a kiss as I hop out of the car. ‘Don’t say it dad, just trust me,’ I smile.

‘See you soon.’ Not too soon, I hope.

I enter the foyer at the cinema with excitement. The girls wave as we rush towards each other.

‘Finally your parents are trusting you,’ says Maggie, who is another of my good friends. She is carefree, bubbly, sweet, short and well-developed.

‘Actually, it was my lovely Grandmere who set it up.’

‘But you said that she just gets in the way.’

‘Yeah, maybe I am a little wrong about some things.’ We giggle.

‘This movie’s on me, you can pay for the next one.’

After the movie, dad is waiting for us. ‘Hey dad, can you drop the girls off? They knew that you had to pick me up anyway.’

‘Yes, sure,’ he begins to frown- never a good look.

‘Thanks Mr La Nid, you saved my father a trip.’ The girls jump out and