Through the next days of travel, we avoided the cactus forests and we watched the skies for giant birds – they seemed more active at night. I realized why the first time I saw one in the light of a setting sun. We ducked low when we saw the shadow, watching as it swooped over the sands very near us. It was an owl – a massive one, about the size of a plane, with dun-colored feathers speckled in blacks and browns and whites. Large saucer-like eyes studied the dunes. I could see a glow pop up around Lyre as he narrowed his eyes at it, ready to defend us if it came near, but it lifted into the sky and trailed off into the distance toward a dark splotch on the horizon that we could now recognize as another cactus forest. We watched it go in silence and I wondered if it had a nest somewhere there – another reason to avoid such places.
We moved forward, not wanting to be in its range when night fell, and camped later in the evening in the remains of a set of massive sun-bleached ribs. Although most of the flesh was gone and the other bones were already buried in the sands, a pair of vultures (thankfully normal sized) lingered. They perched on the ribs and watched us settle for the night. Since the ribs offered some meager protection, Lyre risked a fire this evening to keep us warm.
When it was my turn at the watch, I moved over to the edge of the firelight, placing my hand on one of the sand-smoothed ribs. I wondered what kind of creature it had been. From my understanding, the monsters of the desert were only vaguely described in old books written by bold adventurers in days past. If it didn’t linger near the edges of the desert to attack settlements, it was as mysterious as a deep sea creature. I stared up at the looming rib – it was easily twice my height. I hoped that we wouldn’t run into a living, breathing relative, but at the same time found the idea compelling.
I started to move back toward the warmth of the fire when some shifting of shadows caught the periphery of my vision. I turned my head to stare out across the dunes, squinting to try to figure out what I had seen. Something near the ground shifted. I froze, trying to figure out if it was just my imagination when the firelight glinted on the reflective cat-like eyes of a predator. Gasping, I began to shout a warning, when two things cut me off.
First, the eyes of the spiny cat shifted up, and it let loose a vicious screaming cry that gave me instant goosebumps – it rose, spines bristling as it made itself appear larger. Just as I realized this was a defense posture, the second thing happened. I felt the sweeping breeze of air moved by massive wings, could feel rather than see the darkness of the shadow that blotted out the moonlight just before massive talons closed on me, one almost carelessly piercing my leg as I was grabbed. I gave a short shocked yell as I felt myself bodily lifted into the sky. I hadn’t heard the owl’s approach at all.
I could hear my friends waking from all the noise, could see the glow of magic springing up and outlining them in the dark, the figures growing smaller as I was lifted higher up. I also reached for my own magic to be more visible to them. I could hear Lyre shouting my name as Larina and Silden chased off the spiny cat, could see a massive blast of fire hurtled in the direction of the giant owl that had grabbed me, but it missed, and then we were quickly out of range.
My leg burned where it was still punctured, and I panicked with indecision – I could attack the owl, but how far from the ground was I? Would I survive the fall into the sands below? But then I started to think about becoming owl food, my hair and bones undigested in an owl pellet, and without even realizing I was casting. I could feel the air crackle with energy around me and heard the owl’s surprised squeal as it was electrocuted. It dropped me instantly, and I felt a moment of weightlessness until gravity pulled me down.
I had one hope. I closed my eyes and fervently pleaded, oh please oh pleaseohpleaseohplease!
You get yourself into the most interesting predicaments, the voice said, almost like it was whispering right into my ear, and chuckled. But since you asked so nicely…
I knew instantly what I could do, and fervently shouted, “Thank you!” out loud. And then I cast my new spell. I turned to face the ground, which even by the pale light of the moons I could see approaching quickly. And then – I slowed. I didn’t stop completely – I continued down, drifting light as a feather. I even felt a slight breeze shift my landing. I held on to my magic the entire way, twisting my head around everywhere to see if there was any danger nearby. I had the feeling if I cast another spell, it would interrupt the slowing and I would fall at a normal speed again, but I didn’t want to be helpless either. Luckily, there was no sign of the owl. It must have decided I was too much trouble to eat after all.
When I finally drifted to the ground, I collapsed under my own weight as the pain shot up my injured leg. I lay for a moment in the sand, staring up at the sky, and then forced my breathing to slow until I took three long, controlled breaths. As I let the last one out, I reveled in one amazing thought: I was alive.
And then I was hit with the next, slightly more alarming, thought: I was alone.
I sat up immediately and tenderly touched the wound on my leg. Even knowing it wouldn’t work, I tried to cast my healing spell on myself, but the gaping wound remained. It wasn’t so deep that I was concerned for my life, but there was still a lot of bleeding that needed to be stopped and it was painful. I took off the black tank top I still wore under the loose, billowy shirts that I had managed to find, and tied it around the wound as best as I could. Then I stood up. I gingerly tested the leg – I could just barely put a little of my weight on it, maybe enough to hop along briefly. It would be easier if I had some sort of improvised crutch, but I doubted I’d just find something like that laying out in the desert.
Besides, I wasn’t sure which way I needed to travel to find my companions. The entire ordeal of being carried off and then falling had messed up my sense of direction. It might be better to wait for them to come to me… if they had seen which way the owl was even flying. I hopped up to the top of the highest sand dune I could see, finding it difficult to move with the sand shifting underneath me. I sat down at the top to take a breather, looking around to see if I could make out the massive ribs we had camped within.
I rubbed at the muscles around the wound, feeling the pain radiating, and debated the risk of visibility. I could make myself easier to find, but that would make me easy to find for anyone – and anything – nearby. “I don’t suppose you’ve got some handy way to get me out of this?” I asked out loud.
I paused to see if the voice would answer, but heard nothing. In the distance, I could hear the yipping cry of some sort of nocturnal animal, and felt like it was laughing at me. Frowning, I decided to take the risk – I reached for my magic, summoning water in my hands to splash on my face and clean up a bit, and untied the tank top to wash the wound out a bit. Then I summoned water into the tank top and twisted it to wash it out, and dismissed the summoned water to keep from freezing. I retied the tank top.
Maybe someone had seen the glow of magic. Maybe they hadn’t. But the next display would be impossible to miss. I pulled the same electricity that I had used to shock the owl, focusing it around me, and blasted it up into the sky directly above me, arcing streaks of crackling blue-purple light traveling straight up nearly fifty feet into the air. Even as the spell faded, I held my magic ready so that I glowed. If something came to attack me, I would need to be able to defend myself.
But I hoped my friends had seen.
I wasn’t sure what length of time had passed, but I could swear I heard someone shouting my name. At first I wondered if I was dreaming – I was exhausted from the events of the night and kept catching myself drifting off every time my head tilted forward on its own. I could feel clotting blood shift on my skin where it had dripped down my leg and dried. I allowed my grasp on my magic to drop, and scratched at the dried blood on my leg, idly watching it flake off into the sand.
Larina dropped down by me first, immediately reaching out to inspect my wound. The pain of her touch caused me to whimper, and she paused for a moment, then carefully continued pulling the tank top off. Lyre had knelt beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder. Larina tsk’ed as she looked at the large claw puncture, summoned some water to wash the wound and clean out the tank top like I had earlier. I watched absently as she twisted the liquid out of it, saw how much red the water carried with it, and passed out.
When I woke, it was daylight and I was staring up at the arches of the massive ribs we had camped under previously. One of the vultures was still present, staring down at me, a quiet patient specter of death. I glared back at it, annoyed. My mouth felt dry.
I sat up and summoned water, grateful for the ability as I washed my hands and then gulped mouthful after mouthful down. The wound on my leg felt strangely tight. As I started to pull off the tank top, Lyre said, “We had to burn it to get it to close properly. It’ll leave a scar.”
It looked awful. I laughed to myself at Lyre’s words, because it reminded me how the doctors had been so apologetic for the scars I had left over after my car crash. I examined the skin around the wound, and was satisfied that it didn’t look like there was any remaining bleeding pooling underneath. I moved my foot and each of my toes. I was still in pain, and would need to be careful with the wound until it was fully healed, but for now there didn’t seem to be any complications. I looked up at Lyre and Larina, who were perched nearby looking worried, and could see Silden keeping a careful watch on the horizon. “I’m not worried about scars. Thank you for finding me,” I said, smiling at them reassuringly.
We rested there the remainder of the day. Lyre and Silden were reluctant to leave the next day, wanting me to rest as much as possible. Scavenging through the sand, Silden had found a bone fragment that was a close enough shape to a crutch. He cut it down to my height and I practiced with it some. It was awkward on the sand, but did help keep some of the weight off my wounded leg. Larina took stock of our supplies on the second night, and Lyre and Silden examined the map, trying to guess by the size of the desert how many days we had remaining before we reached the ravine. “Maybe about 3 more days, barring any other events,” Silden said.
“We’ve got about 5 more days of supplies, if we’re careful. We should be fine once we reach the ravine. There’s a river, so it should be easier to scavenge for food,” Larina said, repacking our supplies. I noticed that she had repacked things to give me the lightest load, and felt a bit guilty at being a burden. They refused to let me take a turn at watch as well.
The next morning, we set out early at Silden’s insistence. “This desert is unpredictable and we only have enough supplies for one more major setback. Let’s push through to safety,” he said. The second vulture had returned in the night – the two birds watched us as we departed, and I flipped them the bird, glad to be rid of their eerie presence.
As we walked, Silden, who had taken the last watch, quietly discussed something with Lyre. I watched Lyre tense up and glance around, but then went back to walking forward as though nothing were wrong. Then Silden dropped back to talk to Larina, who also stiffened as he spoke, but then simply nodded and kept trudging on. I wondered what he was telling them, but was apparently going to get my turn as Silden dropped back to walk beside me. He spoke so quietly that I could barely hear him. Still, the words nearly caused me to come to a complete halt. I had to force myself to keep hobbling along on my crutch. “We’re being followed. I believe it’s the Hunter from the ship.”
“When did you see him?” I asked after a long pause, wondering why the hell the man was still after us after all this time. How had he survived the desert without magic?
“Last night. He was spying on our camp, and I pretended not to notice him. I don’t want to force a confrontation yet, if it can be helped. Maybe we can get into the Empire without another fight.”
“He killed Junel,” I muttered angrily, surprised to find how eager I was to confront him.
Silden nodded. “And he could yet kill one of us. I’ve come too close to tasting freedom to risk it on revenge.” I grimaced as I considered that, not sure that I felt entirely the same. “Besides, if we lead him into the Empire, we may not have to face him alone.”
I didn’t respond at all, only stared at the path ahead of me grimly. After a moment, Silden slipped back to take the rear, trailing behind me. As the afternoon wore one, he called for the others to slow a bit. I realized he was making sure they kept their pace close to mine, and felt bad again that my injury was holding us back, especially if we were being stalked by a madman.
mehryment 