Kyle tried to ignore her last comment as Liz came into the room, immediately realized what was happening, and took her place on the empty spot along the medicine wheel.
Michael handed Liz the last remaining healing stone and picked up the bowl. River Dog had claimed that water was a substance the aliens and humans had in common and was used to bond them in the ritual. Taking a sip, he then handed the bowl to Max on his left. Max also took a drink from the bowl and passed it to Kyle, who went along with the ritual by passing it to Liz. The bowl finally ended with Maria, who placed it on the nightstand beside her, leaving a few sips of water in the bowl, figuring they might need it for Isabel when they revived her.
Now came the hardest part. River Dog had taught them all a chant to accompany the ritual. Although the phrase had been responsible for saving his life and thus the sound of it was permanently emblazoned into his mind, Michael was not familiar enough with the Native American language to know the exact words or their meaning. Sounding the words out carefully, he began the chant, hoping the pronunciation came close enough to the correct phrase. «Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH…»
He indicated to the others that they should join in, hoping it was their joined concentration behind the words that had mattered more than the words themselves, which he knew he was butchering by even attempting to recite them without a proper translator available.
«Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH…»
«Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH
«Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH…»
They continued the chant, each reaching out to Isabel separately and together as one. With eyes closed, they tried to find their friend, restore the balance, and bring her back. Intensity crept into their voices as they continued to search for their lost member, without any response. But instead of images of Isabel, each of them only saw the darkness behind their sealed eyes.
Max realized it had not taken anywhere near this long to locate Michael when he was ill. Peering out, he looked down to his sister and saw no change in her prone body. «Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH,' he said even louder, willing the others to match him in both volume and force. He did not care that Jason was in the other room and could probably hear them. His sister's life could be at stake, and worrying about the possible discovery of their alien secret by a twelve-year-old was not high on his priority scale.
«Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH…»
«Max,' he heard Michael's voice, but ignored it.
«Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH» he repeated the chant again, knowing that he was the only one in the room still speaking.
«Max, it's not working,' Michael gently insisted as Max
felt the people on either side of him already moving away from the circle.
Opening his eyes, Max confirmed that all of his friends already had a look of resignation on their faces.
«Maybe we did need to use a circle of rocks… I could find River Dog,' Michael suggested. «If we knew the exact words…»
«No,' Max said. «It won't work.»
«It was just a guess,' Liz quickly went the positive route. «There's probably a lot more we can try.»
But Max barely heard her as he moved in to protective mode. «Kyle, was Isabel like this when you found her?»
«Actually, she was sitting up,' he explained. «In a very uncomfortable-looking position. I laid her down.»
«What was the room like?» Max continued. «Was anything out of place?»
«No,' Kyle admitted. «It pretty much looked the same way it does now, except for the bed and rope. Oh, and I borrowed your baseball bat. Hope you don't mind.»
Maria flashed him a confused look.
«And you didn't move anything else?» Max asked, ignoring the last part.
«Actually,' Maria chimed in, «I did find her yearbook on the floor. I put it on the desk.»
Both Max's and Michael's faces lit up at the clue, although no one else in the room knew the significance of the yearbook.
«Why didn't you say anything?» Michael asked in an accusing tone.
Before Maria had a chance to express her confusion, Max cleared things up for her and the rest of their friends. «Isabel
uses her yearbook when she dreamwalks on our classmates.» He bent over his sister and noticed that her eyelids were fluttering slightly. Max knew that this was a result of the rapid eye movements experienced when people dream. «Was it open to a specific page when you found it?»
«No. It was closed,' Maria replied, picking up the book and seeing the one beneath it. «Look at this. A book on dream analysis.»
«Okay, we know what's going on. Now we just have to figure out who she was dreamwalking-,' Max said.
«No, we don't,' Kyle interrupted. «It's me.»
Kyle proceeded to explain his previous request that Isabel help fix his dreams and the reason why he had asked. He detailed every bit of his sleeping problem and his conversations with Isabel.
«Why didn't you say something sooner?» Michael said in his normal accusatory way.
«She said she wasn't going to do it because it was too dangerous,' Kyle replied defensively. «It never occurred to me that she would try it without telling anyone.»
«She does have a tendency to act on her own,' Max said. «And I've never known her to back down when a friend's life could be at stake.»
«Wait a minute.» Kyle froze. «I just want to be clear on this. Are you saying Isabel's currently trapped in my mind?»
Max's face was stone as he nodded.
«Well, get her out!» Kyle yelled.
Hoping to break the tension, Maria walked up to him and yelled in his ear, «Don't worry, Isabel. We're working on it!»
The joke didn't go over very well. The tension remained, though there was now a loud ringing in Kyle's ear to distract him for a moment.
«Has something like this ever happened when she dreamwalked before?» Liz asked.
«Never,' Max replied. «I have no clue how to stop it, Michael and I can't consciously enter a person's mind like that.»
«Are you sure?» Maria asked, not wanting to broach a sensitive subject. «Michael and Isabel do have that connection. You know, from before they were sent here.»
Maria was, quite reluctantly, bringing up the topic of the former relationship between Michael and Isabel when they were on their home planet. The two had shared some mental links in their human form, most notably when Isabel thought he had impregnated her in her dreams.
«Maybe Michael should try to reach her,' Maria suggested.
«I don't think so,' Liz interjected. «She's in Kyle's mind. He's probably the only one who could get through to her.»
«I did see her earlier when I meditated,' Kyle suggested. «But as soon as I realized she was there, I was pushed right out of my trance.»
«You need to reach out through your mind,' Liz replied.
«How?» Kyle asked. «Last time I checked, I was a mere mortal-well, mostly mortal.»
«Through your dreams,' she explained. «You need to go back to sleep.»
«In case you missed what I said earlier,' he replied, «I haven't been having the easiest time falling asleep lately. How do you suggest we do this?»
«Ooh, hang on.» Maria bounced over to her purse and started digging around, finally pulling out a small bottle that she handed to Kyle. «Use this.»
Kyle looked at it skeptically.
«It's a relaxation aid,' she explained. «Purely natural ingredients, nothing to worry about.»
«I don't know.» He was still reluctant. «Sleeping pills?»
«No,' she said. «Not sleeping pills. They're just some herbs that help with relaxation. I use them at particularly
