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I know I should get up and get moving, but for the moment all I want to do is feel the ground beneath me. I need to take a moment to enjoy being alive before thinking of what comes next. For the moment, that we made it to the top of the ridge is all that matters. I don’t want to think about what is coming tomorrow.
There’s a grunt and a scrabble that makes me sit up.
Michael has turned toward the noise too.
For a moment I see nothing. There are no stars to light the sky, though it isn’t truly night either. More like the dusk than dark.
“Made it, no need to worry,” Talon says with a wave of his claws.
I grin. I can’t help it. For all that he looks like the worst kind of monster—not even human looking—he is the one that seems to have kept his memories and sense of humor. Unless he developed it here, while spying on Michael and Tail.
Michael gives him a nod and says gruffly, “thank you for helping.”
“Not a problem. I’m sure you’d do the same for me.” The way he says it, it’s clear he doesn’t believe it.
No one said anything.
Michael presses his lips together, then offers me his hand.
It’s the silent order that it’s time to move. I accept his offer. We start walking, not on the top of the ridge where it would be easy and even, but slightly over the other side, which is sloped all the way to the bottom. It makes me think that instead of walking down, we could just roll.
Talon follows. I’d like to be able to grab his hand, so he doesn’t feel like he’s tagging along. When I reach into the shadow and grab a part of him, like his elbow or ankle, he feels cold and human to begin with, but after a time his skin starts to hurt my hand like I’ve been gripping a piece of ice and it’s all I can do to keep a hold.
“That’s the spire.” Talon points with a claw. “Not much to see from this far away.”
I follow the line of his claw. It looks awfully tall and thin.
How high do we need to climb to get home? What if we climb and climb and there’s nothing there except more climbing? Or falling…
“How far did you get?” Michael asks without even looking at the spire.
“Not far enough.”
“Clearly,” Michael growls.
Talon lifts his claws in what might be a shrug. “I don’t know. I tried a few times. Each time I failed to climb as high as I did the first time.”
“Were there others with you?”
“Sometimes, not helping me though. A few were always trying to climb. Most waited at the bottom to catch anything that fell, and by catch, I mean eat.”
My stomach clenches. I understood that without the extra detail.
“Are you sure that’s the way out?” Michael asks, like he knows I want another option. Maybe after seeing my less than brilliant performance climbing the ridge, he is having doubts that I will make it to the top. I was having doubts when it was first mentioned.
“It’s the only one I have ever heard of.” Talon is silent for a moment. He clicks his claws together. “There were people above me who never came back.”
Michael stops walking. “People or monsters?”
“I don’t know. They were too far above me. The first time seeing them gave me so much hope. But while the one I was watching climbed with ease, I saw others lose grip. I ran out of places to dig my claws in to. I circled the whole damn thing, searching for the easy path. What were they doing that I wasn’t? I was up there an entire day trying to figure it out.”
“Then you came down?”
“I watched others—not easy when there is a fair bit of jostling and fighting at the base. The second two times I had no one above to inspire me. No one gave me hope.”
And each time he failed, he’d become less.
“You think that’s the key? Hope?” Michael snarls.
