Lundeeria : Chapter Three

Chapter 3: Strangers in Lundeeria

As the first rays of the sun began to lighten the sky, it happened.

As Gazelle shook the moss from her ears, Nightingale sang more softly and then became quiet. The Lundeerians ceased dreaming and began to wake up. The air next to Gazelle started to shimmer. As she and Nightingale and all of Lundeeria watched, the shimmering started to become solid.

The animals saw form and color taking shape, disappearing, and then coming together again, more clear than before. This happened several times. Then, the form and color shimmered brightly one last time, swirled as if in a tiny whirlwind, and settled to reveal two unmoving shapes!

It seemed as if everyone on Lundeeria was holding his or her breath. Indeed, in all the land, the only breathing seemed to be coming from the two forms who lay in front of them. Suddenly from the assembly a voice called out, “I’ve seen such animals before in my dreams! Those are humans!”

The Dream Seeking had really worked? Were these the humans? But they are so small! How could creatures this small cause problems? And how did they get here? How could dreams produce forms? Dreams are just that, dreams. But these creatures appear very real! And since they appear very real, and very alive, what happens now?

Gazelle called out, “Be quiet my friends. Please be quiet as we think what to do now.”

But it was too late.

The two shapes had begun to move. But not like before when they had shimmered and changed. This time the shapes moved as solid wholes. Everyone in the assembly drew back.

It looked as if the human creatures were waking up!

Tortoise came forward to stand next to Gazelle. Nightingale flew in and landed lightly on the shoulder of one of the humans. After a moment, one of the humans sat up. As he opened his eyes and then stared in delight at Nightingale, he said, “Emma, wake up! There’s a bird on your shoulder!”

The human named Emma stretched, also sat up, and opened her eyes. She didn’t notice a bird. But she saw a gazelle! And a tortoise!! And that wasn’t all. There were other animals standing behind the gazelle and the tortoise. She was too scared to move. All she could do was point and stammer, “Justin, loo-look!”

But Justin didn’t turn to look where Emma was pointing. He couldn’t. He too was frozen as he looked out on a sea of animals. All staring back at him!

Seeing that the two humans were alarmed, Nightingale began to sing a soothing song, and Gazelle began to softly speak.

“Please don’t be afraid. We mean you no harm.”

Gazelle’s eyes were so warm and gentle that Emma felt herself begin to breathe again. And the way Nightingale blinked her brown eyes and cocked her head made Justin smile a bit in spite of his fear.

“That’s better. Are you okay? You’re not hurt in any way, are you?”

Gazelle’s soothing voice seemed to further calm the two humans. But even so, all they could do was shake their heads in reply.

“My name is Gazelle. This is Tortoise, and the bird on your shoulder is called Nightingale. Am I to understand that you are a Justin and that you are an Emma?”

Gazelle looked from one to the other as she said their names.

By now Justin was also staring at Gazelle. “Uh-huh,” he said as he nodded his head.

“Yes,” added the other. “I’m Emma. This, this is my brother Justin,” she managed to add. 

“I’m very happy to meet you. We’ve never met a Justin or an Emma before,” Gazelle replied as she gazed serenely back at the two, who stared open-mouthed at her.

“Wait a minute! You’re talking! How? Animals can’t talk!” Justin’s curiosity was winning out over his fear.

 “Animals can’t talk in your world? In our world, all animals can talk just like we are doing.” Gazelle took a deep breath. This was going to take a bit of explaining.

“You are humans, right?” Gazelle asked.

“Of course,” Justin replied, somewhat confused. How could anyone not know they were humans?

Curious himself, and sensing that Justin and Emma were getting over their initial shock, Tortoise asked, “Please excuse my ignorance, but are all humans like you?”

Unsure what he meant, Emma replied, “Well, yes. But we’re children, not adults. Is that what you mean? We’re twins actually.”

Emma then looked at Gazelle. “Earlier when you referred to ‘our world,’ you meant the animal world, right?”

“In a way,” Gazelle answered.

Nightingale spoke next. “Our world is an animal world, yes. But it’s more than that. Our world is called Lundeeria. And while I don’t want to shock you any more than I’m afraid we already have, I have to ask, is your world called Earth?”

The children were again speechless. Justin managed to blurt out, “Our world? Are you saying this isn’t Earth?”

“Are you saying we’re on another planet?” Emma squeaked.

“Umm, yes dear. Lundeeria is another planet. Have you never heard of it?”

From the children’s faces, the Lundeerians realized the children hadn’t. The animals all held their breath waiting to see how the two small humans would react to this news.

“Cool!” suddenly laughed both children.

The Lundeerians were greatly relieved. Also, they were rather impressed. The two children were remarkably okay with the fact they were on another planet.

“How did we get here?” Justin asked.

“We dreamed you here,” replied Nightingale.

“Super cool!” giggled the two children.

“What do you mean dreamed? How did you dream us here? And why?”

“Well, it’s rather a long story,” Tortoise replied.

And with that, he began to tell Justin and Emma how the dreams started, how confused and worried the Lundeerians had become, and how they all dreamed together and two human children appeared.

After listening to all this, Justin said, “But we still don’t know why we’re here.”

Thoughtfully, Gazelle spoke. “We dreamed you here because we sensed trouble in your world. We felt much fear there. That’s not something we feel often in our world. If something unusual happens, we might become anxious. But the fear we felt from your world seemed much more than that.”

“Oh!” Justin and Emma looked at each other. They were also at a loss to explain what was going on.

Trying to be helpful, Justin spoke up. “Well, sure, there’s fear in our world, but that’s normal. Things can happen and people get scared, but it’s okay in the end. Things work out. It’s no big deal. Right Emma?”

Emma looked thoughtful and then said, “Justin, wait a minute. We’re humans so we’re thinking of human fear. But the Lundeerians are animals.”

“Maybe they’re talking about animal fear?”

(To be continued...)