Mountain Echoes by C.E. Murphy

Author:C.E. Murphy
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: Fantasy.Urban
ISBN: 9780373803514
Publisher: Luna
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

They insisted on feeding us before we left, and since I wasn't sure when I'd eaten last, I was glad to accept. They fed us a veritable feast of deer and possum and a few things I couldn't identify, all of which was enough to make my constantly hungry belly round and content for a little while. The elder, whose name I never did get, thought we should wait until morning to leave, and it was hard to argue on a full belly and a couple of days of no sleep. Morrison and I were given blankets to share, blankets woven and patterned in styles I'd never seen.

"This is what it looked like," I said to him, under the cover of a crescent moon and the blankets. The Milky Way sprawled above us, clearer than I'd seen it since I was a kid in the wilderness with my dad. The only sounds were the wind carrying light voices and the avid songs of horny bugs, and the only scents of small fires and clean human beings. "This is what America looked like before Europeans got here. All of this life and all of these images we'll never see on our end of time, because it's all been destroyed."

"Then hold on to every minute of this," he suggested, "because we're the only ones who ever get to see it. Walker, do you have any idea...do you have any sense of how incredible this is? I'm not sure you do."

I turned my face against his shoulder and closed my eyes. "Which part, that we're chasing black magic across time, or that we've just finished having dinner with a people who nearly went extinct?"

"Either," he said, quiet and steady. "You do that, Walker. You phrase everything like that, making light of it. Some things deserve more respect than that. The power that pulled us into that deserves more respect. You deserve more respect, even from yourself. Especially from yourself."

"Heh." It was sort of a laugh, muffled against his shoulder. "You're probably right."

"I am right."

"I can't, Morrison. I can't take it seriously that way. I'd be overwhelmed. Making stupid jokes is the only way I can cope. I don't know how you and Gary take it in stride. I mean, Gary, God. Gary goes charging along just asking for more all the time. I wish I was like that. I wish I was like you, unflappable."

Morrison chuckled. "You think I'm unflappable? Even with the number of times I've blown my top at you?"

"It's not like I haven't given you cause. But when it counts, yeah. You're unflappable. Witness our current situation, for example. I told you we'd time traveled and all you said was, 'So what do we do next?'"

"I've spent a lot of years cultivating an unflappable exterior, Walker. Would it make you feel better to know I was as amazed as a kid on the inside?"

"Maybe."

We lay down, Morrison taking my hand and putting it over his heart, which beat a lot more quickly than a quiet evening stargazing might account for.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.