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“I saw something. I couldn’t even begin to explain it if I tried, but I’m stunned by the immensity of life.”
“Like you saw God?”
“If God is energy and life, then maybe. I don’t know. I never believed in a big spirit who directs everything that happens here, but I now know that everything is just so…alive.”
“I know what you mean. Right now, there’s a busy beetle making its way into the cuff of your jeans.”
“What?” He shook his leg and watched the black creature scuttle off.
“It thought it had found a new hiding place.” Baer laughed. “This is wild!”
They grinned at each other and once again, Clay was surprised by the sense of closeness he felt to Baer. “It’s like we’ve always known each other.”
“It is. Weirdest thing I’ve ever felt, but according to Flo and Jo, we’ve known each other in past lives. It’s hard to swallow all that, though. I never believed in reincarnation. I’ve always thought of life like a car battery. It eventually dies.”
Clay shook his head. “In a way, maybe. I don’t know what happens to our souls, for want of a better term, but it’s like they live on somehow. Like we flow back into the earth. Maybe not everyone is reincarnated. Maybe it’s only us because of the magic we were given.”
Baer stared at him for the longest time, then gave a sort of whole-body shudder. “It’s so much to take in.”
“Overwhelming, right?” Clay stroked one finger over a blade of grass. “This tiny plant is only a part of a much bigger one, yet it has a life all its own.”
Baer playfully groaned and stretched out in the grass like a big cat lazing in the sun. “Now I’m going to have trouble eating my vegetables.”
“That’s the thing. We’re meant to partake of the world. Everything lives because of everything else.”
He turned his head toward Clay and grinned. “I’m going to start calling you Guru Clay.”
“I’m just learning, and I feel this sort of stunned realization I don’t know how to deal with. I feel like such a small part of this massive working whole.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, it’s almost too much.”
A swallow flew into the clearing and landed on Baer’s leg. He stared at it in stunned silence, then threw his head back and laughed.
“What? Did it say something?”
“It wants to know if I’ll move. There’s a bed of worms under my ass.” He scooted to the left and the bird hopped down and pecked at the ground, flying off when it had a worm in its beak.
“What was it like to be a mountain lion?” Clay asked. “Do you retain your own thoughts, or do you start thinking like the animals?”
“I’m still me. Did I scare you?”
Clay shrugged. “A little. Your brain can scream all it wants that Baer’s that beast, but instincts are gonna demand you run.”
Baer nodded and looked up at the sky. “It’s wonderful. I could feel the strength in my muscles as I ran, could smell everything down to the smallest creature. My hearing was intense. My sense of smell was stronger. But I had all my own thoughts.” He went quiet as another small swallow dropped to the ground next to him. Then he chuckled. “They’re feeding their young today. Wow. Just wow.”
“I can’t imagine.”
“The love they feel for their chicks is so intense. Like Ruby’s love for me.” He looked around. “I wonder where she got off to.”
“Probably chasing that rabbit. You don’t think she’ll get lost, do you?”
“Nah. She’s more intelligent than even I knew.” He studied Clay for a moment. “These powers are great, but how do you think we’re supposed to use them to stop the…what did they call those creatures after us?”
“Pestilents.” Clay’s lip curled. “Awful name but it fits. And I have no idea. Supposedly when all of our brothers—and that’s so strange to even think about—arrive, our combined powers work to stop them from coming into this world. We can stop them from leaking energy from this dimension into their own.”
“That’s a hell of a responsibility.”
“I know,” Clay whispered.
“I wonder what they’re all like. I can’t wait to meet them.”
“You’re going to stay?”
Baer lifted an eyebrow. “Aren’t you? Don’t you want to see this to the end?”
A dark premonition skittered along Clay’s back. “Don’t say ‘the end’ like that. I get the feeling our end before was pretty bad.”
“Well, then this time, we’ll have to succeed, won’t we?”
He stared at Baer, who met his gaze, his own just as intense. “We’re going to have to do our best.”Chapter 7Knocking down old cabinets was strangely cathartic. Dane wielded the sledgehammer, grinning at the satisfying crunch of wood as pieces came off the wall. It made a bigger mess than using a mere hammer, but it was just him and it felt good to…smash.
