Pettikin by Smith Abby

Author:Smith, Abby [Smith, Abby]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Softlight Press LLC
Published: 2016-12-13T05:00:00+00:00

13

Red.

That was my first thought when I opened my eyes. Not fire engine red, but red like the sandstone rocks of the Grand Canyon, or the deserts of the southwest.

We were standing on a bed of rust-colored sand that stretched on for miles. A range of purple and red mountains cut a jagged silhouette against the horizon, their peaks lit up every few seconds by silent flashes of heat lightning. The sky was dark lavender on the horizon and black overhead where dense clusters of stars formed unfamiliar constellations. I couldn’t see a moon, but everything around us was illuminated somehow—bathed in a pale white glow from some unseen light source. Towering plants that reminded me of saguaro cacti, some more than ten feet high, were interspersed with lower, shrubbier sagebrush-like plants.

It was a twilight desert world.

I had a feeling of dissolving and re-materializing when I jumped through the Gateway, but I hadn’t seen light or felt the peaceful emptiness that I had when I traveled to Vala’s world. It felt more like being in a void—a darker kind of nothingness.

Pettikin slid down from my shoulders and dropped to the ground. He sank into the sand past his ankles. My feet had also sunk into the ground more than I would have expected. I lifted one foot and set it back down tentatively. Instead of coarse grains of sediment, this sand was made of small, round beads with a rubbery, gel-like consistency. The beads rolled to the side when I set my foot down, creating a deeper indentation than ordinary sand would.

“What is this place?”

Pettikin shook his head as he turned around, scanning the landscape.

“I don’t know. I’ve never been to this world.”

The air felt cool and somehow thick or electric—as if I could feel the individual molecules against my skin. It gave me goose bumps. A shooting star streaked across the sky and then disappeared into the darkness. I thought I saw a pair of glowing, white eyes peeking at us from behind a cactus, but they quickly disappeared.

Taos hummed and pulled on his rope.

“Easy, buddy,” I said reaching up to pat him. “What’s wrong?”

“He wants us to follow him.” Pettikin climbed up to my shoulder. “This is his world—he knows where we need to go.”

“Oh.” I thought about this for a second, then reached up and unhooked the alpacas from their ropes. I assumed at this point they weren’t planning to run away from us. At least I hoped not, because if they did, we were kind of screwed. I unzipped the day pack on Taos’ back and saw the map Mrs. Widgit and the Professor had placed inside.

“Should we take a look at this?” I asked, pulling out the folded square of paper and tucking the alpacas’ ropes into the pack.

I unfolded the map, and Pettikin reached forward to hold one corner while I held the other. The page was covered with dozens of long, straight lines, some intersecting in crosses or stars, and groups of concentric circles.

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