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“How’d what go?” he said, flicking his eyes up to me.
“The rock samples.” I laughed. “The whole reason you’re here.”
“Oh. Yeah. Good.” He said quickly, “I got what I needed.”
He unfolded his legs and stood beside me.
“Let’s go up the side of the valley, and then further north along the ridge.” He pointed in the direction he had disappeared to an hour earlier. “It’s a better vantage point. And less water.”
He thinks I can’t walk two feet without injuring or drowning myself.I couldn’t really fault his logic; my track record wasn’t great.
After an hour of climbing over large boulders, the ridge flattened out, and we could walk along it, peering down into the gorge. It looked like a Martian planet, only better. The maroon and purple pillars stretched into the crisp blue sky like arrowheads. The hike became effortless as the vistas extended on for miles.
The scenery helped distract me from my disappearing act. The light didn’t feel menacing like the creature had, but the connection felt the same. It was a link, a bond. With the creature, it had felt like it was feeding from my energy, my fear. But the warm glow from the tattoos of light, to the sounds it radiated, it felt like it filled me up, until I was whole again.
The symbol, when threaded with the glowing essence, throbbed with a power so ancient, it felt primordial.
I wiped my palms down my pants again. The glow from the symbol had been made of the same thing that the tattoos streaking my body were made from. It was the same light, the same energy.
I’m going crazy.
Too much time alone paired with a rough couple of years, and you got a raving lunatic who believed in… what?
Magic?
No, that felt wrong. It wasn’t magic… It was something more—so much more. It was like the universe had aligned and we were one; for a brief moment in time, I was more than just me. I was something else entirely. Like I was what the light had been waiting for.
I sighed and crunched on the nuts I had packed. Well, the alcohol had worked. The dream had come so vividly, I could almost see Gray Eyes as he became the creature. His beautiful silver eyes had become black. They were an endless night of rage. The nails weren’t human. They were claws. Its teeth weren’t humanoid, either. They seemed to once have belonged to a man’s mouth, but they were fine needles, sharp enough to slice down to the bone.
And this creature was furious.
I quickened my steps, jogging up to Logan. I reached out and brushed my hand against his shoulder blade.
Logan stopped abruptly and pivoted toward me. “What’s wrong?”
“Uh, nothing. I just wanted to talk about where you want to stop for the day,” I said.
“Another three or four miles, and we can stop and eat,” he said.
Logan seemed to peer down at his wrist every few minutes. I couldn’t imagine I was walking so slowly he was worried about our pace. I was keeping right behind him.
“Are there more samples you want to take today at that certain rock area?” I asked.
Not now. I don’t have a solid creature-killing, life-saving, nobody-gets-hurt plan and we’re about to enter the valley of death.
“Yeah, at the cliff side I sent you a picture of. I need to get there today, so we stay on track. I already told you this. Why are you asking?”
He crossed his tree-trunk-sized arms over his chest and waited.
“No reason. Just thought maybe there was another area on the trail up here, or by the creek,” I offered, waving my hand to the water below.
“No. I can get more of the creek when we come back, if I really need to,” he said curiously. “Any other reasons?”
Think. Think of an excuse. Distract him. Keep him out of the valley.
“I was thinking… we could, um…” I reached my arm out and gripped onto the front of his shirt.
Think faster…
