[Fireheart]: 318.Short Stories.Tal-Inri.Tal-Inri Part II.Tal-Inri Part III.Tal-Inri Part V.Tal-Inri Part VI.Tal-Inri Part VII.Tal-Inri Part VIII

I sat up quickly, and looked around myself. I had fallen asleep at the base of the really neat looking tree with the pagan symbol carved in its bark. It was still raining, and I was still mud-streaked, but my body had cooled off, and now I was quite chilly.
I stood and began walking in the general direction of home, my right leg heavy and next to useless because it had fallen asleep. I had had a really realistic, yet really weird dream. It had been epic. I could write a book on it, it had been so epic.
I replayed the dream over and over in my head so as not to lose any part of it as I walked home. I opened the sliding door after removing my filthy boots outside and tiptoed past the couch, where my mom was asleep, and went to the bathroom to take a shower. 
I glanced in the mirror, and I was shocked to see three faint, golden lines on my right cheek. Where that unicorn… Flamedancer was his name, gave you the clan marking… I tried to shake off the weird feeling that the fact induced as I turned on the water. But it lingered. I decided to look at my right shoulder for the dragon mark, and when I looked in the mirror I saw what looked like a henna tattoo on my shoulder blade of a flaming heart.
Neither mark came off in the shower, or ever really faded, even after several weeks; for some reason, so one else noticed them.
One final event gave me total clarification as to the reality of my journey to Tal-Inri.
Sitting on the beach by the local lake in late summer with a few friends, I noticed a boy close my age, wandering along the shoreline with a few other boys. My friend commented that he would be attending our school that fall. He was uncannily familiar, and for some reason I decided to approach him. He was lithe and tan, with curling, unruly blond hair and ice blue eyes flecked with silver. On his bare shoulder blade was what appeared to be a henna tattoo of a cloud with a lightning bolt extending from it, and under his right eye a golden lightning bolt shimmered faintly.
He noticed me, and I knew he recognized me as I walked towards him. He smiled warmly, and took my hand, bending down to whisper in my ear, “The war is over. Tal-Inri is at peace, and I thought that since my duty was done there I would come here. I did make a promise, after all.”
I nodded, smiled, and whispered back, “I knew you’d come back, Storm.”
He smiled playfully. “Actually, here, you might want to call me Jeremy.”
I returned the playful smile and shook his hand, introducing myself. “Jenna.”
We embraced briefly and then went our separate ways.
I didn’t see him again until the school season, but we hooked up, and have been dating ever since. We share a great secret that we keep safe from the rest of the world. It’s a very special bond.
To this day I believe strongly in everything magical. After using the Lesson that the Ageless Tree gave me, I was able to repair my relationship with my mom, bring my grades up, and improve the overall quality of my life.
Somewhere, Tal-Inri lives on, and the Ageless Tree awaits the next human who it senses a Lesson to be learned in. Perhaps that human will be you.