7 - Eventful Journey

"Come," the voice called again. I'd lost track of how many times by this point.

Our water break had taken longer than I would have liked, but it was important. Plus, we each had a souvenir cup of water for continuing the journey.

The river was a quick and easy crossing. It didn't flow quickly, and the large rocks jutting from the water worked as stepping stones. Silence hopped along first, and the rest of us followed. I took the tail, being the last to cross.

We traveled another half hour, suddenly further than we had previously been from camp. Silence led the way, taking a curving path, and marking trees frequently. Suddenly, she stopped. Thomas, who was following close behind, bumped into her, sloshing a little of both his and Silence's water.

"Wha-" he started to ask.

Silence put a finger to her lips, and raised the sword into a defensive position. She passed her cup to Thomas, and disappeared into the foliage.

I scanned the trees. Something was off. I could almost guarantee that there was a monster that we couldn't avoid ahead, so Silence went to take care of it. But I felt... watched? I looked for a weapon. All I needed was a sturdy stick I could use as a club. I spotted one a few feet off to our left.

I still felt watched. "Keep an eye out," I whispered to Katie, who was just in front of me.

She nodded, and I crept towards the stick. I got my hands around the stick, and pulled. It seemed caught on something, but there was some give.

The sense that I was being watched chilled. I dropped the stick and dove to the ground. As I did, a fuzzy something flashed where I had been standing. I scrambled up, eyes training on what could only be called a giant rodent. It was two feet tall, standing on its hind legs. It was covered with dull brown fur, except for its tail. Whiskers quivered from its beady nose. Its barely-open mouth showed sharp fangs.

My moment of analysis ended as it disappeared into the bushes. "Ambush predator." I said, "Relies on its speed to catch prey before it notices. It probably has little protection in frontal combat."

"How do we fight it?" Thomas asked.

"Stay together," I said, returning to them, "and stay vigilant. They won't waste energy on a prepared target."

A pained squeal punctuated my sentence.

A sly smile formed on my lips. "Or, do the opposite, and surprise the ambusher."

Silence reappeared shortly after, dragging a rodent corpse by the scruff, and holding a blood-slick sword. The feeling of being watched slowly faded away as Silence looked pointedly in multiple directions. She then led us to a nearby clearing. Once sure we were alone, she handed Thomas the sword. He gutted the giant rat while the rest of us gathered firewood from the edges of the clearing.

Soon enough, the savory smell of roasting meat permeated the area. I occasionally felt non-human eyes on me, but they quickly disappeared from Silence's glare. I wanted to ask her how she knew where they were with such accuracy, but she probably wouldn't tell me. You know, because she doesn't talk.

The rodent meat tasted as good as it smelled, thank Justys. It made a delicious dinner while we cooked enough to fill our bags. Since we hadn't eaten any of the snake meat from our bags yet, we tossed it to our silent observers to make room for meat that actually had flavor. We still had to leave most of the corpse, because we couldn't carry it for an unknown amount of time. There would be more opportunities to get leatherable skin and hard bones.

Nightfall came two hours later or so. Silence had found a shallow cave just large for three of us to lay down comfortably. We decided to sleep in shifts, and keep two on watch at a time. Juliana offered to do a double shift since she didn't watch last night, and Katie reluctantly agreed to double as well. I offered to double, but Silence shook her head. I knew why, but I had to try.

I did take my shift with Katie, during which I told her about a planet shaped like a donut. Gravity was really warped in a way that people could live in the middle of the hole, the outer edge, or anywhere in between. She had the occasional question that was easy to answer.

We lost track of time, ignoring the phantom voices and whispering about the novelty of other worlds until the night was about a third through. I woke Silence, and fell asleep.

I dreamed of a man in a cloak. He held a simple sword with a jeweled pommel. He raised his blade towards a monster three times his height. A challenge to the insectoid giant. It screeched before striking with its bladed forearms. As it made contact, glowing blue walls stopped the claws in their paths. The cloaked man hadn't flinched.

"You cannot harm them while I stand."

Suddenly, I was among a crowd. The others seemed to be native Americans wearing simple leather clothing. One held her little child protectively.

The giant bug screeched again, and my attention snapped back to it.

The cloaked man's response was patient, confident, and final, "Then come."

I startled awake, sitting straight up. That was no dream, at least not a natural one.

"Come," the strange voice invited again, as though to confirm that it was the same as in my dream. Thomas and Juliana looked over to me.

"You okay, Marcus?" Juliana asked.

How could I explain? "Yeah. Bad dream."

"Okay. Go ahead and get back to sleep," Thomas said, "We probably have another hour or two before dawn."

I nodded, and tried to go back to sleep.

The day that came after I woke back up included running from some variation of bees, watching Silence outmaneuver a giant monkey that tried to kill us, and arriving at a building that could only be called a temple.