Prologue : The Beginning of the End
Damash of Three was on his knees, his forehead rested on his arm, pressed against the green crystal prison where he resided for the last fourteen years. His arm stopped some of the sweat dripping down his face. He was exhausted and recovering from anxiety of the events beyond his prison, dying to interfere, but happy with the present results.
Fifteen years earlier, Damash was on a hunting and rescue party when for some odd reason they were discovered. The protection they normally enjoyed, failed. Of the fifteen hunters, he was shot by the locals who did not take the time to understand what they saw. As with most encounters with human hunters, it was shoot first and worry about the wrong later.
He remembered bitterly the others departing, hastening to summon the portal, the only entrance and exit to Jade, his country. They must have considered him dead, and he groaned as he watched the portal blink out of sight in the sky. Around him the humans who had discovered them were hastily searching for Damash of Three, following the trail of blood. The beams of their flashlights passed through him and he groaned again as he realized that the pain had snapped him into the zone of nothingness, between the Earth and Jade. They walked through him and they could find nothing except the blood spots in the soil. He moved aside and watched them for a while as he also looked to the west, hoping to find the portal reappear in the sky. In a way he considered himself lucky. He would not die from the wounds he sustained, but the bad part was, he could not enter the Earth's atmosphere, and he could not return to Jade.
Jade began on the Planet Jade in the Andromeda Constellation. It was a dimensional glitch, a world that had popped into existence from an experiment in science and remained for nearly 4000 years. It rested in the Swiss Alps, totally unknown or detected by the Earth's residents. Jade, however, was very knowledgeable of Earth, its climate, and its species. Jade residents were very human in appearance, but their mental capabilities far surpassed that of humans. They had mastered dimensional travel and in one final experiment, a huge section of their world disappeared and became attached to Earth in the Swiss Alps.
The situation resolved to be beneficial for Jade. The absence of female births in Jade was nearing them to extinction. But with the advent of the portal and their secluded spot on the globe, they soon found that mating with earth's females was possible and very sustaining for their species.
Damash stood and stretched. He wiped the sweat from his face and pressed his forehead against the crystal wall to view Amanda again.
Yes, it's still there. This is good, Damash. We might just make it this time, he said to himself. He was not a full Jade Bear, the final phase of Jade male development, but since his confinement to the netherworld, he had made some progress in that direction, without the use of the Paraclipse. He was able to touch the Jade Lines that were in abundance in the world, unseen by humans. He knew that much of it was driven by the love for the woman lying on the bed before him. The other factor was his determination NOT to remain a prisoner forever.
After he recovered from the shock of being left for dead, Damash of Three wandered around the earth for a long time. He constantly looked for the portal signal threads in the barrier around him, but they remained elusive. He finally arrived at the conclusion that the Council must have decided to close the portal. He could understand that, for the mishaps and accidents were becoming more frequent. That was the price of an increasing human population and decreasing wildlife territories.
His wanderings took him to South Africa where in one of the tent bazaars in Johannesburg, he found a replica of a Jade Bear. The likeness was so astonishing that he realized the sculptor must have had the opportunity to observe one at length.
It was exquisitely beautiful. Jade colored crystal, with the hair in fine detail. Silver fangs jutted downward from the opened mouth. Even in the dimness of the tent it stood out, begging for attention.
Damash stayed in the area for a long while and one day a trader named Randolph Watson came to the bazaar and the owner of the Jade Bear launched into a long and pleading diatribe about the magical quality of the Jade Bear. Damash chuckled at the lies but they had a good effect on Randolph. He purchased the bear, and Damash made his decision. He sought and found the transferring threads and he launched himself into the Jade Bear before Randolph dropped it into a velvet sack provided by the seller.
So, Damash of Three eventually made his way to America and was given to Amanda Blake. Amanda kept him on her dresser and wished on him many times, until nothing happened and she stopped. However, she would not hear of his departure, destruction, sale, or anything else that would separate them. Uncle Randolph said he was magical, and she promised that she would always believe, and she did. She kept belief in the back of her mind and the bear on her dresser.
Amanda was married five years later, and what a delirious marriage it was. It even made Damash delirious and wonderful inside the Jade Bear. He was torn between fits of jealousy and happiness as the groom, Joseph Matkins, began to love his bride. Life was a garden of roses and happiness until the accident.
The light turned green and the pedestrian light switched to walk. Amanda stepped into the street, well inside the cross walk lines and ahead of the other people. She heard the squeal of tires before she had a chance to stop or even think. She never had the chance to turn her head before the car hit her at 65 mph. She bounced off the windshield and flew through the air like a rag doll, to land on the ground 75 feet behind the car.
She was lucky, for what it was worth. Her life hung on by a thread for several minutes. She was declared dead on the scene and then she reacted. In the hospital she was declared dead six times more. She remembered each one and the growing frustration of the doctor. The seventh time, he begged her to die and stop the torture. That's when Amanda's spirit rallied and she returned to the living, if it could be called such. Her injuries were many. She was brain damaged. She could not remember her name, her friends, where she worked, nothing. Both broken legs and crushed right hip had to heal. Her broken back and collar bones were longer in healing. Joseph accepted his responsibility and he tried to care for her at home, but her invalid status lingered and soon grew into a burden that he could not handle. That is when the real problems and the beatings started.
The last one was the worst. But with the last blow, came a very odd but welcome change. Capillaries in a section of her brain broke and blood started trickling to the parts that were not normally stimulated in humans. And her mind responded dramatically to the life-giving fluids.
Damash could scarcely believe what happened as her brain developed a new pattern, one that he could feel and touch himself. He realized the woman was Jade, but not how it could be possible.
But for the other parts of her, Damash worried. Three times her heart had stopped and Damash clung to the Jade Lines and willed her to live, pouring as much compassion and love into each one as he could. With each re-start of her heart, and recovery of life, her vital signs became stronger until at last she slept peacefully.
And Damash of Three watched, wept, and continued his loving vigil, interwoven with a silent rage against Joseph.
On the last strike from Joseph, Amanda’s brain shifted from the blow, gathered into a puddle against one side of her skull and then shuddered back to near normal, knowing it would never live through one more pummel that strong.
However, veins that were clogged became unclogged and a gland that remained dormant since her conception no longer remained that way.
The gland delighted in the flow of the blood life force and all of its 2000 cells rejoiced with excitement.
“Who are you? What are you?” asked the brain. “You are an intruder and cannot remain.”
“I am not intruder. I must have been present at the moment of conception or else I would never be. I cannot have been inserted after the fact and after the birth. That will never work. I am necessary for life.”
“Who are you? Where are you from?”
“I am from Jade. I am Jade City. I am Jade trees, soil, air, water, blood flowing through Jade residents, Jade memory, history, and future.
“Where am I? In whom do I live? Please tell me versus returning me to a dormant state.”
“How can I do that? I am damaged.”
“Do you still have access to the memories? They are genetic. Take me there and I will communicate further.”
“I can, but they are damaged. They are scrambled.”
“Who is the person?”
“Amanda Amy Matkins. That is the extent of my knowledge.”
“Open her memories. Let me ride on the blood stream and inside her endocrine system. My instructions are imprinted on my and her DNA. It has to be, from conception.”
“Hold on, please. Let me arrange it since we are at rest now.”
The Jade Gland waited and then suddenly seeped through every cell in Amanda’s body. She gathered all the information, felt overwhelmed at the extent of damage, but set about her task. She called for assistance from the Jade City and the Jade Portal and both were empty responses, as if they were deceased.
She then analyzed all the damage to Amanda’s body and mind and set into motion war plans to salvage her at all cost.
“The Life Principle must exist, and it will, so long as I live inside her. I will work with you to heal her, brain. Together we will work to heal her and to do that we must heal you. Do you disagree?”
“No. I have waited long for something to happen. I am nervous about your sudden appearance, but I agree. Proceed.”
“Okay, Amanda. Let us see how you respond to a release of this little-used hormone.”
Amanda stretched, took a deep breath, sighed luxuriously and fell into a relaxed REM sleep pattern.