Snippets

Chapter 8

"You don't know that Hawkins is dead." She clarified after the charged silence.

I nodded honestly, "I don't know for certain."

"But..?" she prodded.

"But," I amended, shrugging, "I have a hunch, and my hunches are usually correct."

"There's a lot to you a lot of people don't know, hmm."

It wasn't a question, and I inwardly smiled at her plain-faced observance. After a brief moment during which she was deep in thought, I added, "There's a lot to you a lot of people don't know about either," and I gave her a smug side smile, meeting her eyes briefly as she looked at me warily.

She grunted, and we hiked in relative silence through the switchbacks of the shoddy trail as it lazily wove up the side of the first mountain in our path.

I could tell she was deep in thought by the way her eyes mirrored the falling of her feet: trained on the ground, and jerking forward a few feet at a time. Looking back over my shoulder for the third time since the beginning of our ascent, I still couldn't shake the feeling of being followed, and so I increased the pace even more, and Shaffron matched it without asking questions.

The ruins of Elahbethsar lay just over the rim of this mountain, situated at the heel of a deep river valley that stretched its footprint through eastern peaks of the Palehrodo's range. Glancing at the sun, I knew we'd make it before the heat of the day, and though I appreciated that fact, I also wished that we could enter by cover of nightfall to potentially throw off any pursuers. I'd just have to lead them on a false trail out of the city, and circle back without being seen.

I doubted that would fly well by Shaf, who was already tired. Odd, she had gone well the last few days, and I had helped her stretch her muscles this morning to be sure they didn't clench up on the climb. But despite her successful efforts in maintaining the quick pace, her breathing was ragged. It reminded me of my earlier question about her sleep, and I decided to ask again, "Did you sleep okay last night?"

"Can... we... take... a break?" she gasped, instead of answering.

Let me reiterate my earlier statement about her being 'already tired.' She was exhausted. Overhauled. Absolutely pooped.

I chanced a look over my shoulder, down the zig-zagging trail and into the desert-like landscape we had climbed from. No motion met my eye, but the hair at the nape of my neck was raised stiff from the chills of being watched. No matter, if we stopped they would too. Surely they wouldn't be stupid enough to attack during the day.

Decided, I nodded sharply, gesturing to a nice bushel of sage for her to lean against. Which was exactly the same as the bushel I nestled my back into, which was the same as the bushel next to it, and so on and so forth until you had the entire horizon covered with exact same, scented bushes.

She gratefully slumped to the ground, still panting heavily. Mercy, had I been so distracted I hadn't noticed how tired she had gotten? The chill bumps ran down my back again and I grimaced. Yes, I probably had. I had one-too-many bad memories of this area. One-too-many being exactly one, in this case. I still remembered their sand-colored, flowing garments, and the tickle of a knife on my throat.

Quickly, I pushed the memories aside and unclipped my canteen from around my grungy haversack, "Don't drink too much or too fast," I advised as I dangled the jug in front of Shaf's face. She grabbed it up without second thought and had already begun chugging when my words registered. Instantly, the canteen was back in my hands and she was wiping her mouth, coughing slightly.

I smirked, "Don't say I didn't warn you. Just don't puke it up, now, that's our only supply until we reach the next spring."

She nodded, gazing out at the desert that stretched below us. Her silence grew sullen, and after a few minutes, when her breathing was no longer so labored, I hopped back to my feet. "Come along, now. We have places to be!"

My words were greeted with an icy glare, which was rather refreshing in the heat.

Despite the glare, we made good time toward the top of what seemed to be a ridge, connected to the surrounding mountains with the same masses of curly-haired sage that presently surrounded us.

Then, suddenly, it was below us.

"Wow," Shaf breathed next to me.

I grinned, taking in the sight of the canal-ridden city. We had made it.

"Eh eh oh, eh oh, eh eh oh, eh oh, eh eh oh, eh oh, eh eh oh, eh oh, I was left to my own devi-i-i-ices..."

My eyebrows perked up at the singing coming from my side.

Shaf just grinned at me, "It reminded me of a song by Bastille."

"Song? Bastille? What? Who? What are you talking about?"

"You poor thing," she smirked unsympathetically, "I know expecting you to know about ancient cultures and their music is a little much to ask, isn't it?"

I graced her with the same icy glare that had so refreshed me earlier, then gestured toward the city below us, "At least I know more about this than you do."

"Certainly," she agreed, as she stepped past me to lead the way down the path toward the abandoned city, "But then again, this isn't ancient, now is it?"

The sickly sweet tone in her voice should have elicited a growl from me, but I only smiled and listened intently to the next few bars of her song as she sang and walked...

"Many days fell away with nothing to show, and the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love..."

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Hello my dear readers!

I have been making some changes in my characters and plot, and trying to make it so you guys don't have to read everything all over again, haha!

So please excuse this less-directed chapter, but I assure you things are about to go down!

Hold onto your seats, we're going for a wild ride :)

~T.P.E.