Goddess Unravelled

Sleepless Searching

 Dreams were late in coming that night, and Alice spent most of the hours before dawn turning this way and that, until the covers were a tangled mess, and Altair retreated to the couch. Finally she forced herself to lie still, staring up at the ceiling blankly.

Her mind was too busy, she couldn’t stop thinking about the arrow. It was locked in the desk  downstairs now. The chest was sitting on top of the box with the dagger in it. Soon she’d have an entire collection of weird magical weapons. But did the arrow really give her a hint about which god was coming next, or was it just a weapon? She supposed she could always try stabbing a god to see what it did…

She snorted, and then buried her face in the pillow to keep her giggles quiet. It wouldn’t do to have to explain to Altair why she was laughing like a lunatic at three in the morning. The lack of sleep was clearly getting to her brain.

She had spent half the evening researching greek gods, and now she tried to list off all the gods that came with arrows: Artemis, Apollo, Eros…

Another fit of giggles seized her as she pictured herself battling cupid.

Okay, maybe not Eros. If she was honest with herself, the arrow probably had something to do with Apollo, who had a silver bow with golden arrows given to him by some kind of immortal blacksmith. So that meant that Apollo, god of light had some kind of beef with her? That didn’t seem right. It wasn’t as if she’d ever met the guy.

Maybe they were reading way too much into it. Maybe the arrow was, as Azura had suggested, just something for stabbing with. Something that would help her fight whatever crazy came her way next. But the fact that this mysterious order had given her something else to fight with, implied they thought something else was on the way….

She sunk deeper under her sheets, eyes still fixed to the ceiling. They were right last time.

The ceiling became slowly fuzzy the harder she stared at it, and she blinked sleepily, wondering if she was finally dropping off. She didn’t feel like she was falling asleep. Her brain still felt very awake….

But…the room was starting to fade. It felt like she was sinking deeper into the soft mattress….there were sounds around her suddenly, crickets chirping, the trickling sound of splashing water….

The bedroom was gone.

She was in the jungle again. This time she looked around and there was no one with her. If she tipped her head back and looked up through the heavy green tree tops she could make out the sky. The sun was setting, painting the clouds orange.

Did she recognize this part of the jungle? Had this been the same part she’d walked through to get to the black rock?

Crackling in the underbrush made her freeze, and she spun around, heart slamming against her rib cage. A figure emerged from the trees several feet away. A tall, tanned figure in torn black jeans.

The man in the mask was silent and still as he regarded her, and Alice could hear her blood thrumming in her ears. Her face felt suddenly hot. Every detail was the same, his dark skin, his muscular chest. He finally moved, taking a cautious step towards her. He still moved like a predator, like a hunter.

Was he hunting her?

It didn’t matter, did it? This was only a dream. Besides, as he moved closer, lips curling into a smile, Alice had the distinct impression that this dream man did not intend to hurt her.

The way his eyes glittered behind the mask promised that, Yes, he would hunt her. But if he caught her, the results would not be unpleasant for either of them.