We settled down and I slept early for once. As a result, I found myself waking when it was still dark out – only the slimmest bit of light to the east hinted at the coming dawn. Lyre had the last watch, and was awake and maintaining a fire – now that we were out of the desert, the night didn’t cool as dramatically as it had, but the fire still looked warm and inviting. I stood and stretched, went through my brief morning routine, and then walked over to sit near where Lyre was keeping his watch.

Lyre was staring back towards the desert. I studied him in the shifting firelight. His hair had gotten longer over the course of our trip and he had tanned a little under the desert sun, but was still very fair skinned. I realized he looked thinner too, and wondered if we all looked the same after so many days of walking and rationing our food.

I started to rub absently at the peeling skin on my shoulder, and then forced myself to stop. To distract myself from my discomfort, I asked, “What do you plan to do when you reach the Empire?”

His eyes shifted to me as I spoke. “I promised you I would protect you,” he said. “I’ll go where you go.”

I frowned. “You’ll finally be free, Lyre. I’m not going to hold you to that promise. You should do what you want.”

“That is what I want.”

I stared at him, and he gazed back at me so intensely that I wanted to avert my eyes, but forced myself not to. “Why?” I asked.

He hesitated for a moment, seeming to search for the words, and finally averted his gaze as he began to speak. “As a slave, I learned not to form deep attachments. I’ve… fathered children in breeding agreements. Children I’ll never see, with women I’ll never meet again. I’ve never made deep friendships. The humans never saw me as an equal, and my fellow elves could be sold off or killed on a whim. I could have been sold off or killed on a whim.” He paused for a moment in contemplation before continuing. “I admit, I made the promise to protect you quickly. Because I knew I wouldn’t be beholden to it for long. I did not feel any true responsibility to you. You were another human that would use me and then move out of my life.” He turned his eyes back to mine, the firelight almost making the pale blue glow. “But you weren’t… just another human. You freed me. For the first time… I can fight to keep a person I care for in my life. I am free to do that. And I want to go with you. You’ve become important to me.”

I stared at him, feeling a little breathless at what he was saying. I opened my mouth to speak – feeling that I should say something, but not knowing what – when his eyes shifted out past me toward the desert again. “What is that?” he asked. I turned, almost relieved for the distraction. It looked like there were three balls of fire hurtling towards us out of the dark. With a growing unease, I realized I could just barely hear distant barking.

I watched the glow envelope Lyre as I shouted, “Larina, Silden! Wake up!” I also reached for my own magic, standing to move forward to protect our other companions as the fiery figures bound toward us quickly.

They looked like dogs, almost like Rottweilers if Rottweilers were made of flame.  Silden and Larina were awake, but looked groggy and confused and completely unprepared for the flaming figures that set upon them with vicious growls. I could hear Larina screaming, but before I could do anything my attention was taken by the third dog that came barreling straight at me. I uttered a surprised squeal as it launched itself into the air at me. I attempted to dodge, but my injured leg tightened in pain and I ended up falling to the ground instead.

I twisted to look at the dog that had just jumped at me, saw that it had turned and was preparing to jump again. I also saw that Lyre had raised a hand to summon a ball of fire to blast at it. Internally I screamed at the idiocy of fighting fire with fire, but the force of the blast did catch it off guard and send it hurtling back past me several feet – I cried out as embers and sparks from the impact fluttered in the air around me. The flame hound did not appear to be hurt by the blast. As I pushed myself up, I raised one hand, summoning a wave of water to douse the creature.

The flames sputtered away, revealing an almost skeletal looking dog underneath, thin flesh pulled tight against the gaunt contour of its frame. It steamed and smoked and sizzled, but did not appear any more harmed by my efforts than Lyre’s – it pulled back the thin skin that covered its muzzle, baring sharp teeth at us as it growled. I immediately went diving back to where I had left my pack, intending to grab my dagger and cursing myself for not keeping it on my person. The hound lunged at me, and Lyre moved between us.

I could hear the sizzling of contact, and Lyre cried out in pain and terror, seeming to forget his magic for a moment as he struggled to push the snapping jaws away from his neck. I was panicking and having a hard time pulling the dagger free, but finally managed to unsheathe the blade and lunged forward with it.

The dog squealed and growled in pain as the blade pierced its flesh, and I cried out in surprise at how hot it was to touch. It felt like I was burning wherever my flesh met its flesh, and I was trying my best to pull away from it without losing my dagger. It turned to snap at me, but Lyre had a hold of its head between his hands. He spoke a series of words I didn’t fully recognize, and with a crystalline flash the entire head froze in a block of ice.

Lyre quickly pushed the still hot body off of him, letting the frozen head fall to the ground with a sickening thump. The body struggled for a moment longer, but then stilled and stopped. We stared down at it for a moment, both panting, when the screams and cries of our companions reminded us of the remaining dogs.

Silden was just finished freezing his attacker in a huge block of ice, but had been mauled badly, blisters rising up his chest and face from where contact with the fire hound had burned him. Lyre had his rapier out and, seeing that Silden was safe, moved forward to slash at the last dog, which had gripped Larina’s arm in its jaw and was viciously shaking its head as she screamed. It yipped and howled angrily, turning on him with snapping jaws. I moved forward to quickly heal Larina, watching the deep bites close over, the angry welting burns on her flesh fade back into clear fresh skin. I attempted to place my hands on Silden before he ran past me, but he broke contact in his haste – I watched in fascination as half of his burns seemed to vanish, but the healing was incomplete.

However, the third fire dog turned to run. We watched it go – the sun was rising now, the day brightening. We could hear more distant barking, more howls. “There’s more of them,” Larina panted as she handed me my pack. I took it absently, squinting to see if I could make out fire anywhere on the horizon, but even with the sun at our backs, it was hard to see in the bright morning light. We quickly gathered the remainder of our supplies, and made our way south along the edge of the ravine, keeping an eye out for a safe way down.

We froze when the figure stepped out ahead of us, Lyre throwing an arm out protectively in front of me as we recognized the lithe form of the Hunter, still dressed in black leathers. “There’s a way down over here,” he said. Confused, we continued to stare at him for longer than we really had time for. The sound of the dogs grew nearer – they were close now, nearly on us. “Are you coming?” he hissed at us angrily. He glared at each of us, and then with an annoyed sigh he began pulling out his blade.

I could hear Larina, Silden, and Lyre turning to face the dogs, summoning more ice to encase them. I didn’t want to take my eyes off the Hunter, not entirely trusting him, and I tensed as he approached. But he ran past us to help in the battle. I watched as he went sliding under a leaping hound and sliced up at it, then was quickly on his feet, swinging his blade at the next hound. Watching him fight, I understood why the Hunters were considered fearsome. We had nearly half a dozen of the flame beasts on us now, and he moved like a whirlwind through them with his sword, hardly touched by flames or teeth at all. I watched in awe as he used the symbol on his blade hilt to extinguish the flames of one of the hounds – their fire was magical.

Rousing myself, I realized I had to help. I summoned water to douse the flames of the nearest dog, and laid a hand on Lyre to help heal him of some of his wounds. The dog I doused growled and stepped forward, and I brandished my dagger and backed away from it, wishing I knew the ice spell the others were using. As I backed away, I nearly lost my footing – glancing back, I realized I had allowed the dog to back me up against the cliff face. The height was momentarily dizzying, and I almost felt like I was going to careen over the edge just staring at it.

The dog jumped and I tried to move out of the way, but it bit hard on my arm, causing me to drop my dagger. I cried out in pain and struggled with it briefly, when a blade suddenly pierced it – looking up, I could see the harsh, beautiful features of the Hunter’s scowling face and mismatched eyes. The dog slipped over the edge.

The Hunter had grabbed my other arm to steady me, but the dog still had its jaw locked on me and still weighed down the Hunter’s sword. His scowl slipped into a look of concerned surprise as he realized the animal on his blade had overbalanced him and was pulling him over the edge. In one heart fluttering moment, I attempted to lean back, to push us both toward solid ground. But my wounded leg gave way and the three of us went over the side of the cliff face.

It all seemed to happen in frightening slow motion. The dog finally died, its jaw loosening on my arm, its body slipping off the blade. The Hunter’s eyes – one black, one white – stared at the cliff face as it slipped away, his hand letting go of me as he reached helplessly up toward it, his mouth opening in silent surprise. I heard Lyre shout my name, saw his concerned face appear at the cliff as he watched us fall.

I grasped at my magic. I had a spell for this. I could survive this. I turned and watched the Hunter slipping further from me. And as I prepared to cast my spell, a voice shouted in my head. A new voice. Louder and deeper than any voice I had heard yet, and demanding. RESCUE HIM! it screamed in my head, echoing with such ferocity and volume that I winced in pain. And I realized from the look of shock on the Hunter’s face that he had heard the voice too.

I paused for a long moment, maybe too long. I stared at the quickly approaching ground below – we’d be bouncing off the cliff face soon if I didn’t do anything. I reached out and grabbed his hand, and cast my spell.

The glow wrapped around both of us and instantly our fall slowed. I watched the remains of the fire hound scatter across the rocks below, like a water balloon filled with visceral red, and closed my eyes at the gore. We shifted with the breeze, drifting away from the face of the cliff. When I opened my eyes again, I realized we were going to land in the water of the river. The Hunter sheathed his sword, his arms gripped me tightly as he stared at me, his eyes full of questions. But for now, he remained silent.

The spell gave out when we were still several feet up. I cried out in surprise as I found myself hurtling down to the river again. The water was deep enough that I wasn’t injured in my fall, but I lost my grip on the Hunter as the current pulled me along, surprisingly fast, surprisingly strong. I struggled to orient myself, hoping to aim myself at the shore, but I couldn’t break free of the tumbling water. I gasped desperately, flailed helplessly. I didn’t see it coming, but I could hear the crack of the rock against my skull, felt it jar my senses, saw a brilliant flash of sparks behind my eyelids.

---

I had a dream of drowning.

---

When I woke, I blinked slowly at a ceiling of low damp rocks. I could hear the murmur of the Hunter’s voice nearby, low and angry, like he was arguing with someone. I started to sit up, but the flashing pain behind my eyes stopped me. I gasped, reaching my hand up to my head.

I felt truly awful. My injured leg throbbed, and I wondered if the wound had been opened while I thrashed in the river. My arm felt bruised where I had been bit, and just glancing at my hands as they came up to my face, I could see that I was covered in scalding burns, blisters running up my arms where I had made contact with the fiery monsters before. I was still damp from the river, and my head…

I gasped again, barely able to process the pain. “Lay still,” the Hunter said quietly, his voice very close now.

“I’m going to die,” I gasped. I did not feel that was at all dramatic to say.

He was quiet for a very long moment. Then he placed a hand on my head, very near my wound, causing me to wince. My vision was blurred, but there was no mistaking the familiar glow of magic that enveloped him.

The pain in my head subsided. My vision cleared. I stared at him in shock.

I sat up slowly, gingerly – I wasn’t fully healed. My head injury was gone, my leg didn’t throb as badly. I had the feeling my bite wounds were no longer bleeding. The burns weren’t blistering, but still made my skin shiny, and my arm still felt bruised, and I was still generally sore all over. I stared at him, trying to wrap my head around what any of it could mean.

“You,” he said, his voice low and angry. The water from his golden curls fell on my face as he leaned in close. “You hear them too! Explain the voice to me at once. Why am I able to do this?”

I laughed. I couldn’t stop myself.

Late in the afternoon we ran into a strange hole filled with water so clear and deep that it disappeared into turquoise shadows. Silden dipped his hands into the water and raised it to his face, sniffing and then taking a cautious sip. “It’s fresh,” he noted. Although we had no concerns about water, we lingered for a bit to dip our feet into the pool and washed up as well as we could. We were cautious to keep an eye out for our Hunter, but I hadn’t seen a sign of him at all. I wondered if Silden had really seen him or just imagined him, but didn’t vocalize that thought. When we finally moved on, we found another hole a few hours later, and another several minutes after that.

“Maybe there’s an underground cavern system?” Lyre wondered out loud, looking doubtfully at the shifting sands around us.

We didn’t spot any more until the next day, and we were a little glad to see it this time. They had become nice spots to take brief breaks, and we weren’t sure when we would see another again. “I think I’ll take a swim in this one. I kind of miss the ocean,” Larina said, dropping her pack and removing her shoes and clothes. She slipped into the water. Silden moved to join her, also stripping down.

I stayed back for a moment, half out of prudish embarrassment at the nudity but also to scan the horizon for any danger. “It’s strange that there’s no plants growing around these watering holes. You’d think there’d be something like an oasis. Or wildlife that’s drawn to them.”

I glanced over at Lyre. We had been around each other as a group so constantly that I wondered at taking this moment to ask him if I should share where I was from with Larina and Silden. I didn’t think I had a reason to hide it anymore, but I was reluctant to talk about it because it reminded me of so many things – of home, of my dog, of my parents – of why I might have been summoned to this world in the first place. But as I opened my mouth to broach the subject, the ground rumbled. There was a rushing sound of water and a massive splash as something came crashing up from the hole – I heard Larina screaming and Silden shouting.

Something huge had come rushing straight out of the hole, throwing Silden and Larina bodily from the water. It loomed in the air over them, far larger than the dunslyth. It was like a massive worm that opened on one end, displaying rows and rows of teeth. From within the cavernous tooth filled maw, tentacles reached out, tentacles covered in even more teeth. I gaped openly, watching as the tentacles closed around Silden, who was sprawled on the sand beneath it. The worm began to pull back into the hole, pulling a shouting Silden into its throat, disappearing under the water.

Screaming his name, a glow surrounded Larina as she jumped in immediately. Coming to my senses, I also began to rush forward to help, and felt myself stumble as I put too much weight on my injured leg. Lyre wrapped his arms around me. At first, I thought it was only to catch me in my fall, but then when I regained my balance and tried to push forward, I realized he was holding me back on purpose. He was trying to actively pull me further back from the hole where our friends had disappeared. “Lyre!” I shouted, but I couldn’t break free from his grip.

Lyre’s eyes were wide in shocked terror and he was shaking his head emphatically, simply saying, “No, nonono…”

I turned back toward the water, which had calmed into an eerie stillness. I dropped to my knees, mumbling their names. Everything had happened so fast. And now they were just… gone.

There was another rumbling deep within the ground. Lyre began to renew his efforts to pull me back away from the pool, but something was different this time – the water bubbled and churned, and turned red. “Oh my god,” I muttered, wondering whose blood it was. Chunks of gristly meat began to float to the surface.

And then there were hands splashing up, gripping the wet sand – Lyre immediately rushed forward to help, and I hobbled to keep up with him, and together we pulled both Larina and Silden up onto the sand and away from the water. Silden was covered in gaping wounds that instantly pooled with dark blood, so much more blood than when the Hunter had attacked him on the ship. I placed my hands on his head instantly and focused on closing the wounds. There were a lot of them, spread across his entire body. I could hear him whimpering as he regained consciousness.

Larina sat very near to me, shivering, one hand still firmly gripped to Silden’s shoulder. I realized she also had large gashes across her head and face and arms. “I had to let it swallow me,” she said through chattering teeth, “just enough to have the air to speak the spell.” Lyre rubbed her arms as though to warm her, and she leaned back against him and closed her eyes.

We moved further back from the water and decided to camp even though the day was far from over. When I was done healing Silden, I also healed Larina. This time the effort of the healing left me bone tired, almost like I had gone running, perhaps because their wounds were more extensive than anything I had healed yet. I needed to rest as well. Healing also didn’t replace the blood Silden had lost, nor remove the shock Larina felt. They sat awake for a long time, their heads pressed close together and their arms wrapped around each other until Larina had stopped shivering and muttering about the teeth. Eventually they snoozed in the warmth of the evening sun.

I wrapped the blanket around them as it started to get chillier and sat next to Lyre. I let my injured leg lay out flat on the ground. “Why didn’t you let me help them?” I finally asked, my tone a bit brusquer than I had intended. I closed my eyes to calm myself. I felt tired, which worsened the lingering anger I had over those few moments when I had thought our companions were dead.

He was silent. I opened my eyes and looked over at him. His eyes looked unfocused as he considered my question, and his expression seemed to say that he wondered why himself. Then he focused on my face, and a strange flicker of emotions crossed his features. “I thought they were dead. I couldn’t lose you too.”

I felt myself go very still, repeating his words in my head, and realized he was staring at me very intensely with those bright blue eyes that almost seemed to glow in the light of the setting sun. I turned to look back at the watering hole to avoid his gaze. “How do you think it gets the water?” I asked to change the subject. “Does it really dig that deep down?”

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Lyre shift his attention back towards the bloodied pool of water as well. “Maybe it can summon water with magic?”

I thought about monsters using magic and shuddered, wondering what else we’d run across.

---

Lyre took the first watch, insisting that I sleep since I had obviously worn myself out with the healing. When I woke, the sky was beginning to lighten on the eastern horizon. “Did you stay awake all night?” I asked Lyre angrily. “You should have let me take a watch.”

He smiled and brushed off my anger. “Then you can take a watch now. I’m going to catch a quick nap.” He then fell asleep with enviable quickness. I sat, carefully watching our surroundings, mindful of the fact that we were possibly being followed.

The full night of sleep seemed to be exactly what Larina and Silden needed at least. They both woke looking better, like the color and life had come back into their faces. We ate a very quiet breakfast, and Larina made a last comment at one point of, “So many teeth,” while shuddering in revulsion at the memory. Silden patted her on the back.

Once Lyre was awake, we continued on. We did not see any more of the watering holes on our way.

We had a lovely and uneventful day of travel after that. The dunes were starting to fade into more hard packed ground. We even spotted a very normal looking oasis at one point, but still decided to loop around it, not wanting any more surprises before we reached the ravine. We could see the mountain range that the river came from far to the north. First, they appeared as indistinct blue smudges on the horizon, but before we camped for the evening they had turned into larger purple shadows, and I could see the white shading of the snow along their peaks. We were close now – perhaps another day’s travel and we’d be out of the desert.

We were sitting close around a summoned fire, taking some sustenance from our rations. I noticed that Larina and Silden had grown quite close since their shared underwater experience, and they sat comfortably leaning against each other, his arm over her shoulder. Larina chewed thoughtfully on her jerky, staring at me for a long moment, and I tilted my head and raised an eyebrow in response. “We were so focused on fixing your injury, and you were so out of it when we found you, that I never got the chance to ask – how did you get away from the owl?” she asked.

“I electrocuted it.”

“But it had you so high up…” she drifted off, then shook her head.

I wondered for a moment how much I should share. Tentatively, I said, “I learned a new spell. A spell that slows falls.” Silden raised an eyebrow this time but said nothing. Larina frowned at me. I felt overwhelmed with guilt suddenly. They had done so much to help me, and I had no reason to distrust them. They were my friends. I looked over at Lyre, who was frowning at me curiously as he studied the look on my face. “I’m… not from this world.”

For a moment his lips thinned and his frown deepened, but he said nothing. I turned to look back at Larina and Silden, who both stared at me with widened eyes. And almost everything I had been holding back from them came pouring out. “And you’ve known this entire time?” Silden asked Lyre.

He nodded silently. They stared at each other for a moment and some sort of understanding seemed to pass wordlessly between them. “Lyre was the one that told me that there are stories about outworlders amongst elves. Since I can use magic and want to find out more about why I’m here, I decided that going to the Empire was my best bet.”

“It does make sense,” Larina said slowly. “So these moments when you learn new spells… they just come to you naturally?”

I paused and swallowed for a moment. I hadn’t even told Lyre about the voices, and this was the perfect opportunity to come clear about every last bit of it. When I had started talking, I had planned to let them know everything, to explain that there was something that was teaching me these spells. Instead, I nodded in response to Larina’s question. “Yes. I just seem to understand them naturally.”

Larina stared into the fire thoughtfully. “I’ve heard tales of outworlders, but mostly just what Lyre has heard, I’m sure.” She turned her head to Silden, nudging him slightly with her shoulder. “What about you?”

“Yes… tales of outworlders sealing shadows and sorrows.” Silden shrugged. “Mostly sounds like fairy tales. But I did hear the sailors talk about how you arrived in that beam of light. They were unsettled by it.”

“I saw it,” Larina said. “I was on duty that night. It lit up the whole of the sky, was almost so bright as to be blinding, and then tapered into streams of light that pulled away back to the sky. And then later when I saw you use magic… I was so shocked to see the light of it around a human.” She paused for a moment and grinned at me sheepishly. “I suspected you were not from our world, but I didn’t want to pry. I’m glad you’ve told us.”

I smiled but averted my eyes, staring at the ground. 

We took turns at watch and the night passed without event, much to my relief. When I woke, I went through what was now becoming a natural morning ritual for me – summoning water to wash my face and rinse my mouth, to drink and clean a bit. Although we had taken a few dips in the watering holes we’d come across, I hadn’t had a chance for a full bath in what felt like ages. I couldn’t wait to get to a place where I could really soak and scrub all the dirt and sand off of my skin.  And just to be out of the desert – the extra cover Lyre had given me helped immensely, and having constant access to water had been great, but I was still peeling from the sunburns I had sustained, and my leg was still sore. I wanted to be somewhere safe, where I could rest and heal.

We reached the ravine as the sun was setting. We approached a particularly steep area to stare down into the cliffs and canyons where the river far below had cut a deep swath into the ground over the centuries. We stared in awe at the colors of the sunset and the beauty and splendor of the striated rocks and verdant foliage, the glinting of the river twisting out of sight far below. It reminded me at once of the Grand Canyon, which I had seen in college when a friend and I had decided to make a road trip to see what all the fuss was about.

“How are we ever going to cross that?” Larina said, staring at the steep rocks.

Silden gestured south. “It looks like there may be a way to hike down over there. It’s getting dark though, so we should camp and try it tomorrow. Once we’re down, we can think of how to cross the river, and find a way up on the other side.”

Larina stared across the ravine and was silent for a long moment. “That’s Empire land over there,” she said at last.

“Yes… when we get across, we’ll finally be in the Empire.” Silden placed an arm around her shoulder and she turned to smile up at him. “And we’ll be free.”