by Sophia Sharp
Suddenly she stopped, remembering Gray. Was he still looking for her? He must be. Would he know where to go, now? That was unlikely. Not with the way she was travelling. But could she in good conscience bring him along with her to more danger? Then again, if he were looking for her where she said she would be, and was unable to find her, that would distress him even more. She turned her attention away from the elder momentarily. She had to get Gray.
In her mind, she imagined the same connection forming between her and Gray that existed between her and the elder. It would allow her to know where he was, and vice-versa. She focused, willing it into place. And it snapped to existence easily. Without any trouble, she knew exactly where he was.
He was much closer than she expected. In fact, it felt like he was less than a mile to the northeast – much closer than he should have been if he could only travel on his feet. It seemed like he had some control over this place too, and used it to go toward her.
Laura turned toward him, ran forward, and drew on the torrial to fold the land in front of her. It happened instantly. In the flash of an eye, the landscape before her simply cut off and became another, with no transition between the two. Laura stepped over the edge and let go. She felt the world rebound back to its former shape, and when she looked back, she saw new land behind her. Land she had not crossed, but skipped over.
There, not a hundred feet away, was Gray. And he was barreling toward her with all the speed he could muster. Laura ran to him. He nearly knocked her over when they met, standing on his hind legs to allow her to embrace his tummy. On contact, the connection between their minds formed. Not the one that told Laura where he was, but the special one that allowed them to share thoughts and emotions, images and memories.
It was not as strong here as it would have been in the real world, but it was enough to communicate. Laura felt elation stream in from him, tinged only slightly with the barest hint of worry. She smiled. Gray was just happy to see her, with no thought to his own wellbeing or anything that had happened before. There was no anger for her inadvertently misleading him, no distrust from coming to the forest and not finding her there. Just happiness at seeing her. Even the hint of worry that seeped in originally was now gone.
“You came here for me,” Laura told him, “and I won’t forget that. You saved my life many times before. Where I have to go, you may have to do so again. Or I may need to do it for you. But whatever we face, we’ll do it together, won’t we?”
Gray roared loudly in reply, and then, in complete contrast, reached over and grasped Laura’s shoulder gently in his jaws in a display of affection. Laura smiled, and patted his head.
“I don’t think you can keep up with me,” she said, thinking out loud, “but I do know of a way we can get to where I need to go together. Stand still for a second, and don’t be alarmed.” She sent the same sentiment through the connection between them, and waited for understanding to come back through. Once it did, she closed her eyes and drew on the torrial.
When she opened them, there was a saddle tied onto Gray’s back. She laughed with delight. Seeing the elder on the snake was what had given her the idea. It was just like the harness he had used, except modified slightly to fit Gray’s size. Gray twisted back to look at it uncertainly, then gave his great body a violent shake. The harness did not move an inch. He looked at her and tilted his head questioningly.
Laura smiled, and patted his cheek. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Look at this.” In one move, she swung herself around the side and up onto the saddle. It was a perfect fit. She held onto the handle with one hand, while using the other to reach down and re-form the connection with Gray once more. “No matter how fast you are, you can’t keep up when I run at full speed,” she explained, supplementing the words with images through the connection. “But with the new way I can travel, we don’t need to run at all. You’ll be the one who takes me there, and I’ll manipulate the path in front of us to make sure we go faster than I could running.”
Laura pointed to the side, in the direction of the elder. “That’s where we need to go.” Gray snapped at the air once, then set off at full speed.
Laura laughed with joy as she felt the air stream across her face. Gray was fast, and the burden of carrying her and the harness did not seem to slow him at all. Together, they would find the elder. Together, they would see justice done.
Laura focused on the connection that existed between her and the elder. He had gone far, but had slowed recently. Perhaps because he thought she was not following anymore. While the connection would soon tell him otherwise, let him think so for the moment. It was a small advantage she’d be happy to exploit.
Gray kept running forward, and Laura reached through the torrial to bend the world. Reality shimmered in front of her, and then the terrain they were on ended and another began. Gray jumped through without hesitation. She felt the elder start to move away, faster than he had been going recently. Already, he had picked up that she was coming. And already, he was running. From her.
Laura used the torrial again to change the landscape in front of her. Gray remained unfazed. Together, they jumped from place to place, each time getting closer and closer to the elder. It wasn’t long before they left the bleak terrain that marked the place she had arrived and entered one more vibrant. They went over rivers, across mountains, and through valleys. They were running, they were chasing. They were hunting.
The elder did not move in a straight line, but Laura always knew where he was. She directed Gray the proper way each time the path altered. The rush of chasing somebody, something, was not lost on her. She felt her hunting instincts kicking in for the first time since her feeding. This was what being a Vassiz was all about. The elation of the hunt, the thrill of the chase. Now, she was the hunter, not the elder. Their roles had been reversed. With adrenaline pumping through her veins, and her eyes focused squarely ahead, the ache in Laura’s foot did not even register. She was wholly focused on getting the elder.
Again and again she bent reality to go where she needed, compressing vast stretches of land into folded tapestries that she and Gray burst through. There was only one thing on Laura’s mind, and that was finding the elder. And finishing him off.
A stray thought entered her mind, and she found herself wondering how the others were doing. Even if she managed to kill this elder, all her plans would be useless if but one of her friends failed. She shook her head, and put that notion out of mind. She couldn’t think about things she had no control over. In an instant, she was back in the moment, chasing the elder across the land with Gray at her side. In an instant, she was the hunter again.
They followed as the elder jumped from place to place. When Laura drew on the torrial, and she and Gray went through the border she created, entire landscapes streaked by their side in a heartbeat. She had not dreamed of such control over this world. And, even better, by what she collected from the connection, the torrial allowed her to cross greater distances than the elder could unaided.
Bit by bit, they were catching up. The elder had a head start, but Laura had the torrial. Soon, they would meet. And then Laura would kill him.
Out of nowhere, the elder stopped. She and Gray were only one more fold from catching him. A strange kind of interference appeared on her connection with him. Laura slowed, pulling Gray to a halt. She could still feel the elder, but telling his precise location was like trying to make out the image on a grainy television channel.
“He did something,” Laura said out loud. “We’ll have to be careful.”
Gray emitted a deep rumbling sound from his throat as if in understanding.
“Alright.” Laura drew on the torrial and created the final ripple needed to bring them to him. She was wary, though, and so made it stop a good distance away from the elder’s exact location.
Gray stepped through the border, and suddenly they were in the depths of a dense evergreen forest. The interference on Laura’s connection with the elder increased exponen
tially, but she could still tell he had not moved. But from so close, the interference was enough to mask his location.
“He’s hiding,” Laura whispered to Gray. “He knows we’re here. We have to be careful.”
Quickly, she slid out the saddle and onto her feet. She allowed the harness to disappear, which made Gray look at her thankfully. Despite her best efforts to make it comfortable for him, it still must have still been an annoyance. Not that he would ever admit as much.
Laura tried to draw on the connection to find the elder, but the interference was too much. She used the torrial to get rid of the interference, but nothing changed. The connection was as obscure as ever. It wasn’t quite camouflaged like it had been once before, and Laura would know if the elder moved, but it was enough to block her from finding the elder exactly.
She knew he was somewhere in front of her. But that spanned a radius of nearly sixty degrees. If he hid well, she could walk right by him in these woods and not realize it. She couldn’t rely on the connection anymore. Now, it was up to her to use her instinctual senses.
She pushed the fuzzy connection to one corner of her mind. It would only be a hindrance. She put her hand on Gray’s head to form the connection to him once more. “Stay back,” she told him. “You can follow, but only do so from a distance.” She felt affirmation shoot back through the link, telling her he understood. With that, she set forward.
She had not gone a hundred feet when a strangled cry broke through the air. Somebody was in pain. But it was not the elder’s voice. Was somebody else here?
Laura sensed her connection to the elder, making sure he wasn’t where the cry had come from. As best as she could tell, he was not. The sound had come from her left, whereas the elder was still ahead. She turned in the direction of the noise.
The cry came again, more dire this time. Laura’s heart missed a beat when she realized who’s voice it was. Logan’s. But how did he get here?
She ran through the trees, racing toward the voice. Another cry of pain spurred her onward. She burst through a row of trees, and her eyes fell on a horrific sight.
Logan was there, slumped against the thick trunk of a tree. A deep red gnash ran along one arm, from shoulder to elbow, exposing raw muscle and bone. His shirt was off, and he had used it to try to contain the wound, but blood still streamed out of it. The entire cloth was stained red. Laura nearly vomited when she saw the scene.
But that was not all. Logan lay there awkwardly, with his legs twisted horribly underneath him. His face was a mask of pure agony. He was breathing hard, and the three scars along his torso pulsed wickedly, threatening to break free at any moment. His eyes were shut.
Not a second after Laura first saw him, Logan opened his left eye feebly. The small movement made him seem even more weak. He saw her, and for a brief moment the agony in his face was gone. Then it returned, greater than ever.
Laura rushed to him. Hundreds of unanswered questions raced through her mind. How did he get here? What happened to him? How could he possibly be in a condition like that? Anxiety gripped her. The whole scene, all of it, was just so surreal.
Laura was breathing hard by the time she got to him. She also felt dizzy. Seeing Logan like that made it feel like her entire world had been turned upside down.
“Oh my god, Logan,” she whispered at his side. “Logan, what happened to you?” Using the torrial, Laura made a fabric bandage appear, and set about wrapping it around Logan’s arm to stem the bleeding. He winced at every touch.
“I came… to find you,” Logan said weakly. “To… help.”
“To help? With what?”
“Your… battle. The… elder…”
Laura shook her head. Tears started to fill the edges of her eyes. She refused to believe this was happening. She had never seen anybody so badly hurt. The blood kept pouring out of the nasty wound, and Laura pressed the bandage even tighter to close the gap. It helped only a little.
“What happened to you?” Laura demanded as she continued working at the bandage, but concern softened the severity of her tone. She couldn’t even think straight. She was furious at Logan for letting this happen to him. Enraged at him for thinking she needed help. But, most of all, worried sick about his condition. She was stuck in pure disbelief that something like this could even happen. It had never been on her list of possibilities.
“…Fell,” he explained weakly. He looked up. “From the sky.”
“From the sky?” Laura repeated. “What?”
Logan shifted his good arm slightly to point upwards. Laura followed the direction with her eyes. She looked above, and gasped. Directly above her, in the canopy of branches, was a gaping opening, where something had come crashing down. Something, or, rather, someone. She looked around, and for the first time saw the broken branches and leaves littering the ground around Logan. He had fallen right through.
“From where?” Laura asked. She finished with the bandages. It wasn’t much, but it was better than before It seemed to slow the bleeding a bit.
“High,” came Logan’s reply.
Laura looked up again, then down at Logan. And then the horrible positioning of his legs made sense to her. As the realization dawned, she let out a horrific sob.
“No, no, no, no,” Laura repeated, over and over again. Her chest constricted until she could barely breathe. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening!
“My legs… are broken,” Logan said. His teeth were gritted, and he was doing his best to look away.
“No! That can’t be true! How? Logan, how?”
“I tried… to follow you… after I was done. Gabrielle… told us to go… straight back. I couldn’t. Couldn’t… leave you. Found where you were… used the torrial. Came here. It did not want to let me… but I fought… to find you. Entered the dream, and…”
Logan’s head fell with the effort of speaking. Laura caught it in her hands instantly. She brought him close to her, and started stroking his hair gently. “My poor Logan,” she cooed. “My sweet, poor Logan…”
“The torrial… did not want to bring me here,” Logan continued after a few moments. “I thought I could control it… was wrong. Appeared here… high in the sky. Nothing but forest far below. I fell for so long. So long. Did not think I would make it.”
“No!” Laura gasped. “Logan, you’re here now! You’re here with me. You made it. No matter how far you fell, you’re still alive!”
“No,” Logan whispered slowly. He took a moment to brace himself, and then, using his good arm, put it on Laura’s shoulder to push her away. Laura moved without understanding.
“No? What do you mean, no?”
“Laura,” Logan said gravely. “Not only my legs are broken. My back is, too. From… the fall. I can’t even feel… my legs. And I’ve lost blood. More… than I can survive. Laura. I’m… not… going to make it.”
Laura’s eyes widened, and the cry that was ripped out of her throat dwarfed every sound she had ever made. She pushed Logan’s arm aside and threw herself at him. Her arms shook as she wrapped them around Logan’s torso and pulled him in. She held him so tight that she would never let go. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she couldn’t keep them in anymore. She started sobbing against his chest, pulling him in closer to her, holding him for dear life. She would never let go.
After a few moments, Logan caught her hand in his. Laura pulled away slowly, and looked at him through wet lashes. He was looking past her shoulder, somewhere in the distance. He would not make eye contact with her. When he spoke, his voice was somber. “Laura, I’m not going to make it,” he repeated.
“No,” Laura said, shaking her head. “No. You cannot say that! The angels can heal you! They healed Alexander before. They can do the same for you!”
“Nobody can fix what has happened to me,” Logan said in a fatalistic tone. Hearing him say that ripped Laura’s heart in two. It was like he had already accepted his death.
“You can’t say that!”
Laura screamed at him. “No! I won’t let you go! You can’t do this to me!”
“Laura, listen,” Logan said in a low but calm voice. Every word that escaped his lips was a terrible struggle, but he was able to form full sentences without pausing now. Surely, that was an improvement? “My back is broken. I’ve lost a lot of blood, and losing even more, fast. Even a Vassiz cannot survive such injuries. I’m going to die.”
“No!” Laura screamed again. Tears streamed down her face. “No, you cannot!” She grabbed his face with her hands and pulled him into her. Every bit of resolve she had about finding the elder vanished. Everything she had thought she needed to do disappeared in the wake of seeing Logan like this.
“It’s okay,” Logan whispered beneath her. She let him go, and framed his cheeks with her hands. He looked so weak now. So very fragile. “Laura, I’ve come to terms with it. You are… the last person I wanted to see.”
“No! You can’t say that! No!”
“Laura. There’s something… I need you to do for me. Please?”
“Anything.” The word flew out of her mouth. “I’ll do anything you want. So long as you don’t go.”
“The pain is unbearable,” Logan whispered, “but it’s been worth it to see your face again.” He brought his good hand up to her cheek and traced the outline of her jaw. He strained even to complete that movement. Then his hand fell back down. “Laura, I’m going to die. I need you… to set me free.”
Laura blinked. “What do you mean?” Then understanding of what he was asking dawned on her, and her eyes widened. She held in a gasp. Surely, he couldn’t mean—
“Laura,” Logan repeated, stronger this time. “I cannot walk. I’m going to die. Slowly, and in agony. You need to end it. Put me out of my misery. Please.”
Laura drew away. She was completely taken aback. “No, you can’t ask that! No, I can’t!”
“Laura you must,” Logan repeated. “Use the torrial. Bring the knife to you again. Only with that can you set me free.”
