Nyx (Complete✅)

Chapter 62

   Liam blinked. The light seemed a bit brighter once they had teleported, but he just guessed it was the fact that the village was in a higher altitude, and the atmosphere might be thin enough to let in more light.

   Then he realized that, although everyone else had made it through, and they were at the village as intended, Beth's hand was no longer clasped in his own, and he couldn't see any trace of her. For all the signs of her being there, she might have been a figment of his imagination.

  He spun around, looking for her. A lump was quickly forming in his throat. Beth was nowhere to be seen. "Beth?" he called, thinking that maybe she had managed to get out his sight behind some of the other people milling about. There was no answer.

   His breath quickened and he pushed his way out of the crowd of the returning Viscordians, spinning every which way to try and catch a glimpse of her. "Beth?!" he called louder, his voice more frantic this time. He noticed that a couple of the Viscordians were shooting him strange looks, but he didn't care. All he cared about was finding Beth.

   He shouted her name again, and then again. There was nothing. Not an answering yell or even a breath of sound that might hint at where she had gone.

    Jakam came over, maybe because he had noticed Beth's absence as well, or more likely he had heard Liam's panic.

   "Is something wrong?" Liam could tell that he was talking slower than usual, and for that he was grateful. He could hardly focus on understanding the language at all at the moment.

   "Beth... I can't find her." He continued to spin every once in a while, hoping to catch sight of something he'd missed before. He couldn't decide if it was better that there was no sign of her, or that there wasn't a bad sign, like blood.

   He felt Jakam's hand rest on his shoulder, forcing him to stop his desperate whirring. "You won't find her by worrying yourself into sickness. She's smart, she can take care of herself. There's no need to worry." Liam had a feeling that Jakam might have been about to add 'yet' to the end of his words.

   There was a lot of sense in Jakam's words, and Liam knew that. But he couldn't stop himself from worrying. Even after everything Beth had done, and how much she had proved herself, the thought that she might be in trouble was just too overwhelming to ignore.

   "Liam, calm down. We can find her together, but not if you aren't thinking straight."

   Those were the words that finally managed to snap Liam out of it. Even the idea that he might not be able to help her was awful, especially if it was because of his own panic. He took a deep breath.

   "Good." Jakam nodded and removed his hand from Liam's shoulder, turning to head into the village. "Come." He said over his shoulder.

   Liam followed Jakam into the village, but he had to wait. Jakam had things to do. He was responsible for telling the news of their outing. The villagers demanded every scrap of news, and wanted what—at least to Liam—seemed a far too detailed recounting of what exactly had taken place. He shifted every moment or so from foot to foot impatiently and couldn't help but glance towards the outskirts of the village with almost every other word that Jakam spoke.

   It seemed hours before Jakam was finally free again, and was able to speak with Liam again. He offered for a search effort to be started as soon as possible, and every free and able-bodied Viscordian would assist in finding Beth. Liam eagerly agreed, and without any further delay, a party was amassed and headed down to start searching. Another part headed further up the mountain's face. Liam went with the downwards-heading party.

   Every few seconds, someone would yell Beth's name. They were all stretched out in a long line, combing through the woods and searching as far as their eyes could reach in either direction. To either side of Liam, there was a different Viscordian. He could just make out their dark hair flashing through the trees. He called Beth's name, adding his own voice to the chorus.

   Every second that passed, another thought popped into Liam's head. Another scenario where she might be in some horrible danger, or near death, or unable to get out of some dark pit... he shook his head, almost hoping that the action would make the thoughts vanish. No such luck.

   He kept walking, his eyes darting rapidly from tussocks of teal grass to huge dusky-copper boulders to glossy-leaved shrubs. Tears burned the backs of his eyes, but he wouldn't allow them to fall just yet. He had to find Beth, even if it was the last thing he did. He would never stop searching.

___________

   Beth found herself fairly gasping for breath. She couldn't believe her eyes. The huts looked just as she had seen them before, but instead of a burnt-out look, they were a dull greenish-grey. Many of them had small decorations hanging on the outsides. Tools that could have been anything from fishing rods to rakes were propped neatly against the hut closest to her. Viscordians greeted each other, smiling.

   Beth regained her composure and ducked behind a small grassy hill. She had to stay hidden until she learned what exactly was going on. For all she knew, she might be causing a world-ending paradox just by flattening the grass at her feet.

   The first thing that came to her mind in the way of possible scenarios was time travel. How else would Kelbar's village be reversed from a husk of death to a town teeming with life? It was just so strange that Beth's mind almost refused to believe it. Another possibility occurred to her.

   She could be dreaming, hallucinating. She might have passed out after transporting so many people, and now she was lying on a bed in the Viscordian village, probably with a fever. Maybe Liam was clutching her hand and hoped she would wake up. The thought seemed so comforting compared to the cold and vast unknown possibilities of time travel that she almost found herself believing it.

   But she shook her head. She couldn't just accept that as fact. For all she knew of the situation, she might have developed another ability—the ability to travel through time. She just wished she had the ability to travel more than one way.

   She almost found herself willing this all to be some fever-dream. It would be so easy to just lay in a coma with no real consequences. She couldn't die if she made a wrong move, and she certainly couldn't cause any paradoxes.

   She squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten. She just needed to stay calm and try to figure this out rationally. She had already gone through the exact same trains of thought twice without realizing it until she had done it. She had to collect herself before she went crazy.

   She just had to think of Liam. Wherever he was, she had to get to him. Somehow she would, even if the solution was waking up, or if it was mastering a strange new ability, or what. She had to get back and that was that.

   She stood up and studied the village again, searching for clues as to what might be going on. Her lungs seemed unable to draw in a breath when she caught sight of someone who looked all too familiar. It was Kelbar! It had to be!

   But no... it couldn't be. She reigned in her thoughts before they got out of hand. This Viscordian, although almost a twin to what Kelbar looked like, was too old. There was no way that it could be him, because if her time travel theory was true, then Kelbar would have gotten younger, and not older.

   This could be Kelbar's father, though.