Fate of the Gods by Matthew J. Kirby

Author:Matthew J. Kirby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2017-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Natalya kept looking back down the Path as she and Grace walked slowly away from the hill. She expected to see Owen running up behind them at any moment, possibly with the enormous and frightening Dog. But she saw nothing, even after walking for quite some time, and she began to worry that they had made a mistake leaving him behind.

“I thought he would be right behind us,” she said.

Grace looked back. “He was smitten with that Dog.”

“I don’t think it was about the Dog,” Natalya said. “And I think maybe the Dog is a part of what we’re supposed to be doing in here.”

Grace stopped walking. “You think we should’ve stayed with him?”

“I don’t know. I think that was something he had to do. Or something he thought he had to do. He wasn’t going to leave, I know that, and I’m not sure he wanted us there.”

“So what should we do now? We could stop and wait for him, I guess.”

“We could.” Natalya looked forward down the Path, and she glimpsed a small boulder directly ahead. “Let’s keep going for now. I want to see what’s up there.”

Grace nodded, and they resumed their slow walk through a countryside of white rock ledges and green turf. The landscape felt both old and new at the same time, like a deep layer of earth that had only recently risen to the surface. The Path remained very much the same as it had been, and the wind smelled faintly of sage.

As they got closer to the stone, which turned out to be about the size and shape of a pig, Natalya saw that it sat by a crossroads where a dirt trail intersected their Path. Carvings covered the stone with geometric shapes, spirals, and figures of men and extinct animals. This was the Crossroads the Wanderer had mentioned, where Owen could find a new owner for the Dog.

“Maybe we should wait here,” Grace said.

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Natalya said, and they sat down on the boulder back-to-back.

Even though this part of the simulation felt more open than the Forest had, it had its own kind of boundary. The endless rolling hills closed them in and kept the horizon from view. It still felt to Natalya that if she left the Path she could get lost here, maybe forever, just on a larger scale.

But in another way, this simulation didn’t bother her like the others had. Here she was herself, and she could make her choices. She wasn’t trapped by the past and what her ancestors had done. She didn’t have to shoot anyone with a bow or fight anyone. She was glad to be here instead of the Viking memories.

“How is David doing?” she asked Grace.

“He had a hard time synchronizing, but he’s got it now.”

“Is that why you came in here?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to sit around doing nothing,” she said. “After I read—” She stopped and looked away.

Natalya wondered what she had just left unsaid, and she was about to ask when Grace pointed down the road.

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