by J. McSpadden
Camille's mouth fell open in shock at his tender words and actions. She may not have recognized the stranger, but he apparently knew her very well. His hand cupped her cheek for a mere second, a smile twitching his lips with what she thought might be compassion before he stepped away, putting a substantial amount of distance between them, and slipping his glove back in place.
At first, the man had appeared young, the look of a boy growing into a man. Now, however, in the dead of night and on the run from Chimera, he appeared ages older than herself.
"Who are you?" Camille asked, unable to keep the question tumbling from her lips.
"I'm an old friend Camille; you don't need to be afraid of me."
"I'm not afraid," she replied, her voice confident—unlike the subtle shake in her hands.
He nodded once in apparent agreement. Without wasting another second, Vesyon headed up a path through the hills and Camille trailed behind in a tangle of astonishment.
The air tasted different the higher they went, filled with the bitter fragrance of wet pine needles instead of the soggy sweetness of rotting leaves at the end of autumn. Snow lay in icy piles along the tree roots and over the tops of bushes, a chilly blanket draped over the forest grounds. They moved in sync, one foot in front of the other. It was like a mesmerizing dance to Camille—one she'd done many times before and yet couldn't remember until she was already doing it.
Vesyon slowed his pace as they headed toward a snow-filled meadow, one too expansive for Camille's liking. She felt a cold tingle run the length of her spine. Something wasn't right. "Are we crossing?"
Vesyon nodded curtly, glancing around the widespread clearing. The meadow extended almost a quarter mile in front of them, a sea of weeds and waist-high grass dusted with white.
"We're no longer in Sierra Village, are we?" Camille whispered. She sensed his urgency to keep moving, but he remained still as a statue.
"We're much further south than I believe you'd remember. Just through that forest and beyond the hillside is the northern end of the Red River. We need to cross here to make our way into Romeo Village," he said in a bare whisper. The rain had slowed considerably. Water droplets slipped through the air, gentle and calm against the naked plains of Camille's face. Vesyon's hood was now pushed back. She could see the sharp angles of his face, and his features, though striking, were not conspicuously handsome. His black, shoulder-length hair lay in stringy cords, wet and glistening like the coat of a seal. His eyes were the color of early dawn, a whisper of unknown horrors hiding in the shadowy depths. She wasn't afraid of him, but she could see why anyone in their right mind would be.
Weighed down with a handful of weapons, a downward angle tugging on his lips in a perma-frown, and a stoic expression cemented in place, Vesyon was incredibly intimidating—as a much as a full-grown grizzly could be.
"What are we waiting for?"
It was as though the whole earth hushed at her words. The rain trickled to a complete stop. Milky fog obscured their view of the meadow's grass, rising upward as though the ground itself had exhaled its warm breath into the frigid air. Slowly, Camille noticed bright red eyes winking like rubies amongst the fog.
"They can't see us yet, but they will once we enter the meadow. The beasts can smell us. They know we're here," Vesyon said.
"How many?" She only saw two pairs of eyes glaring in her direction, but the heavy mist billowing above the powdered snow was misleading. There was no telling how many Chimera were out there, and Camille's instincts warned her to prepare for the worst.
"Don't know. Let's move," Vesyon mouthed, motioning for Camille to follow his path. He crept along the edges of the meadow, skirting along the tree line, and within seconds the moon emerged to light up the ground with its silvery rays.
Camille gasped. The field was absolutely crawling with beasts.
Together they edged forward as quietly as possible through the crackling, icy grass, but it was impossible not to make a sound. More eyes appeared at their right, pair after pair, and Vesyon tugged on Camille's hand.
"Run!"
Camille bolted toward the opposite side of the meadow as Vesyon kept pace beside her, the dense trees looming ahead.
"To the left, head for the docks!" Vesyon bellowed, leading Camille through the forest terrain toward the wide belly of the Red River. They dove between the trees and down a rocky hillside. Camille slipped and fell before shoving herself up to maintain speed with Vesyon. The Chimera were closing in on them—she could hear their thunderous steps and smell their foul, reeking breath. It was an incredible feat not to vomit on the spot with them so close.
"They'll catch us!" Camille shouted.
"No, they won't! Keep moving!"
A small boat sat on the edge of the dock, bobbing in the river's current. Vesyon reached it first and yanked the tether free as Camille bounded inside, spinning to stare down the dozens of Chimera emerging from the trees.
They were at least seven feet tall, with matted black fur covering their massive wolf like heads. Multicolored scales glistened like oil down their backs and neck as they moved, hugging the bulky weight of their body. Claws the length of Camille’s forearm gripped at the earth, stamping in frustration, their muddied legs a mess of matted fur and dried blood. Ghastly red eyes watched as Vesyon and Camille drifted along the water, their mouths splitting open to reveal several rows of sharp teeth.
"They don't swim, do they?" Camille asked apprehensively.
"No—Chimera are really only great at doing one thing in the water: drowning."
A nervous flutter gripped Camille's insides. "So they can't follow us?"
"Of course, they can. Chimera know how to use a bridge," Vesyon said, steering the tiny boat through the swiftly moving current.
"Where's the next bridge?" Camille asked, panting as she massaged an aching stitch in her side.
"About half a day’s ride on a horse, but we'll be long gone at that point. We're going to cross here and head the remaining distance to Romeo Village on foot."
Camille didn't question his authority. After barely escaping a pack of Chimera, she was more than happy to listen to Vesyon's instructions. They quickly docked along the grassy banks on the opposite side of the Red River before taking off into the trees.
After several more hours of intense running, Vesyon finally slowed enough for Camille to catch her breath and take in her surroundings. The rain from Sierra Village had stopped completely, but a slight dusting of snow dogged their movement through Aspera.
Vesyon dropped his bag onto the hard-packed earth with a thud and thrust a small blanket into Camille's shivering hands. "You need to rest a bit; there's a boulder over there you can sleep under. I'd build a fire to keep you warm, but we can't risk it."
"Can't risk what?" Camille asked through chattering teeth.
"They'll eventually find a way over the bridge, and I need you well rested when they do."
Her mouth fell open as he began to walk away. "Wait—you're just going to leave me here alone?"
He stared at her for a moment with an expression that could only be described as bewilderment, before disappearing into the shadows.
This man is crazy, Camille thought as she shook out the musty blanket and curled up beside the massive boulder. How could she possibly sleep knowing there was a pack of bloodthirsty Chimera on the way?
Camille groaned as her exhausted muscles welcomed the little warmth of the blanket, and the moment her eyes closed, she was out.
***
Blurry images of unknown people swayed in front of her eyes: half-starving, gloomy in presence, and white as death. Bloodshot eyes stared at her ominously, their mouths hanging slack as an oozing black substance drained from their lips to turn their skin into fur and scales.
They advanced on her, hordes of them, their eyes a deep-set red, glowing like embers. It was terrifying, but the person walking shakily at the front of the crowd kept her feet locked in place. It was Lunci, and his skin was transforming
before her eyes into black fur and scales, eyes fiercely red and trained on her. He wasn't Asperian anymore—he was a beast, and one that thirsted for the dark red liquid coursing through the meat of her body.
"Lunci," Camille blurted out weakly, but there was no verbal response from the boy, only a menacing growl as he fell to all fours, reaching for her with razor-sharp claws that clenched down on her windpipe—
"Lunci!" Camille gasped as she jerked awake, drenched in a cold sweat.
Soft dawn light filtered through the damp leaves overhead, and Camille felt a distorted fuzziness cloud her mind while she tried to process what she'd just seen.
It'd only been a dream, but was so intensely real that it burned her to the core all the same. Not until she shook her head to rid herself of the images did she realize that she was clasping her hunting knife, ready for an attack.
Soft footsteps crunched against the rocky ground nearby, and her head snapped toward the intrusion. "Good, you're awake," Vesyon said, eying the sharp hunting blade briefly. His expression was pinched and slightly worn with fatigue, and he seemed instantly older to her. "We need to be on the move again—by mid-morning this hillside will be swarming with Chimera."
"Now wait for just a second," Camille said shoving the frost dampened blankets off her legs before standing to face him. "Is it really a good idea to keep running from these beasts only to lead them into another village?"
"We aren't running from anything—we're leading them toward us," Vesyon replied briskly.
"I'm sorry—what?!" Camille asked. "Why would we do that?"
"You're the most infuriating woman!" Vesyon burst out, leaning so close she could've punched him square in the jaw if the mood struck her. "We don't have time for this! We need to be on the move." He immediately regained control and stood back, though his eyes continued to storm wildly.
"But why'd we leave Sierra Village alone? Shouldn't we have stayed there to protect them?" Camille asked. "What if they didn't all come after us—what if some stayed to take out the whole village?"
"We are protecting Sierra Village," Vesyon huffed. "We're taking what they want most as far away from that village as possible."
"Which is?"
"Isn't it obvious by now?"
Camille snorted as she shoved her belongings in her pack. "I can assure you it isn't."
"They want you, Camille. They were coming for you."
"Me?" Camille nearly dropped her pack. "Lunci had been attacked because of me?"
"Yes. So, keeping you out of Sierra Village is the best way we can protect the people there."
His words rang in her ears and Camille fell against the boulder, overcome with guilt. Without warning, Vesyon reached out with a gloved hand pulling her upright and into his arms. "I'm sorry Camille. I left you there too long." His arms tightened around her, gentle and yet firm as though he were trying to press his apologies into her skin. She felt the raking brush of stubble scratch against her cheek as he shook his head. "I'm so very sorry for what I've done."
His intimacy caught her off guard as much as it fascinated her. She couldn't be sure, but she could swear that he looked at her the same way Jacob had stolen glances at her a few times during their hunts: deep longing so beyond a simple desire that it was almost painful. Camille had never brought it up with Jacob. She hadn't wanted to embarrass him, but every time she caught the sideways glances or desperate longing in his stare, she had smiled gently in a show of blissful ignorance, not wanting to stoke the fire with encouragement.
With Vesyon, the piercing looks felt incredibly different. It not only caught her off guard, but it also confused her. She didn't look at Vesyon like a friend or a hunting partner; she saw him as a stranger. Albeit a very present and intense stranger currently pressed against her and holding her close. He was a fierce and intimidating man, but he was incredibly warm, and for the first time in her life she felt completely safe.
Disentangling himself from her, he kept his eyes averted, putting several feet of distance between them. The chill crept back in, and she more than regretted his sudden distance.
"The pack that followed us to the river will be here soon. We must cross into Romeo Village before nightfall," Vesyon said, his eyes looking everywhere but at her. She nodded, clutching her cloak tightly around her shoulders as they trekked deeper south into the trees, her skin still tingling where he'd touched her.
It was well into the afternoon before they crossed into the outer arms of Romeo Village, and by then Camille's stomach was roaring for sustenance.
"We can stop here," Vesyon said, glancing around the area. "I'm going to collect some wood for a small fire—see if you can find some food."
Camille studied the frosty ground and came up empty plant-wise; she'd have to do some hunting. Dropping her pack to the ground, she dug around and found some thin but heavy-duty rope that was perfect for trapping.
She set about tying off looping circles and knots for her tree traps, keeping a circular loop on the ground and devising a weighted pulley system by wrapping the remaining rope over a tall branch and under a rock at the base of the tree. The loose and tight knots felt so familiar under her small fingers that she found herself smiling at the memory of Peter teaching her how to hunt. A pang of worry stung her chest as thoughts of Lunci swam to the forefront, but she batted them away like flies, concentrating on the matter at hand: she was hungry and needed food. It was a problem she could solve.
With one trap done, she set about starting a second one. Camille knelt in front of a new length of rope, continuing to knot and loop the way she'd learned.
"What's this? A hunter off her guard?" A silky voice remarked from behind her as a blade pressed into her back.
Camille's fingers instantly froze, her heart speeding into triple overtime. The voice was familiar, but deeper in timbre than Vesyon's.
She leaned slightly forward and spun, kicking out her right leg to throw him off balance. He leaped away, and Camille pursued him, throwing another kick that landed successfully against his left shoulder. "Ow—hey!" he shouted, glacier-blue eyes dancing with playfulness.
He arced the sword in her direction, and Camille ducked, yelling as it whooshed mere inches over her head. "It's you!" Camille burst out, shoving the blond drifter she’d seen in Sierra Village against a nearby tree so hard that his sword flew into some nearby bushes. "You—you just tried to stab me!"
"Oh, I knew you'd dodge it," the man said smugly. "And don't look so happy to see me. A genuine 'hello Theo Shaehy, so good to see you again' would've been fantastic, but alas."
"First—I don't know you. 'Theo,' is it? Well, it's not nice to say hello with a sword at my back," Camille retorted.
"Oh?" he said in a challenging tone. "A welcoming knife is better, is it?"
Camille blushed at the memory of seeing him in the woods, her small hunting dagger her only weapon at the time. Now she was properly weighed down with tools of protection, but there was little use in grabbing one. The sparkling bubble of humor swimming in the ocean depths of his eyes let her know that he was merely teasing her.
"Perhaps a sharp blade and a curt word or two is the best and only way to greet a man such as yourself."
"Is that so?" Theo replied, his eyebrows shooting up toward his hairline. "I can think of a better way." His smile, though incredibly alluring, caused Camille's entire body to stiffen. He moved toward her, arms stretched out to either side in a motion of embrace, but she quickly backed away, her hand jutting in front of her to hold him off.
"What are you doing?" Camille said, her voice curt and sharp, crackling through the brisk air like a leather whip.
He stopped, faltering for a moment, and then stared at her. His eyes narrowed into slits and then relaxed again in open assessment of her. It was quite unnerving and yet she didn't turn away from it. She, in turn, glared back at him with just as much attention, her eyes roving his body to place him in the unknown empty memories of her past life. Who was he to her? Just like Vesyo
n, Theo knew her, and it bothered her to no end to not recognize him in the slightest.
The sides of his head appeared freshly trimmed almost down to his skull, but the top blond mop of his hair curled charmingly over the back of his head as though he had just run his fingers through the wavy silken strands. His crescent moon eyebrows were full, hunkering over nomad-blue, almond-shaped eyes sparkling in the late afternoon like rays of light on cresting ocean waves. He was taller than she remembered, just a hair shorter than Vesyon if she had to guess, but his build appeared stockier. His shoulders pressed outward against the muddied black linen shirt he wore as though it were almost a second skin, and yet his waist trimmed down into a very dramatic "V" leaving the shirt loose and waving in the wind beneath a dark brown leather vest.
A sharp nose and angular cheekbones gave his face a stone-like visage, but the scar running the length from his temple down past the corner of his left eye destroyed any perfect symmetry he perhaps had at one time. He quirked a cocky smile, apparently loving her silent perusal of his body.
"Are you done?" Theo said, one brow tilting upwards in obvious amusement.
Camille tensed at his expression. Shaking her head with annoyance, she felt ready to slap the stupid grin off his gorgeous face when it miraculously melted away. He went rigid, staring at a spot just over her shoulder.
"Don't. Move," Theo said slowly, bending to reach for his discarded blade. "Move very carefully toward me, Cam."
"Which is it? Move or don't?" Camille hissed.
"Keep your mouth shut, Cam, and just inch toward me. Trust me."
Camille opened her mouth to question him further when she smelled it: the stench of rotting flesh, followed by a deep and guttural growl. The Chimera had found her.
