The Sphere of Time by TIME S. O

Author:TIME, S. O.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

I have no problems staying awake. All I can do while Botan and Hitori sleep is think about the dream. I can’t get the image of Sahra out of my head. The fire. It’s not until I feel the rays of the sun hit me that I realize it’s morning. I crawl quietly over to the stream to get a drink when I notice a thin line of purple liquid flowing through it. It’s faint, but noticeable in the clearness of the water. I rise and follow it upstream.

Farther up the creek, the underbrush grows thicker and taller, blocking my way forward. After a few moments of study, I identify a place to wriggle through. I begin to wind through the bushes, but as I near a thinning of the growth, I trip on a vine. I don’t fall, but I rustle a few leaves as I gather my balance. As I look forward through the bushes I freeze. In front of me, about forty meters away, is a wounded nymian drinking from the stream. The animal looks up in my direction. My heart nearly stops, and I have to bite back a gasp as the memory of my first encounter with a nymian comes rushing back. Rooted in place by fear I stare unblinking toward the creature, unsure if I am still far enough into the bush to remain hidden.

After a few moments the nymian returns to drink. Purplish blood trickles from a shallow wound on its neck into the water, making the strange violet thread that drew me here. This nymian doesn’t look sick like the one that attacked me and Kou.

It takes me at least another five minutes before I’m willing to move. Every movement I make as I retrace my steps is so painstakingly slow and tense that I feel fatigue run through all of my muscles. Once I’m finally out of the bush I take my shoes off so that I can move at a quicker pace without making more noise.

As soon as I make it back to our campsite, I get to Hitori and gently shake her shoulder until she comes to.

“Eiji? What’s going on?” she asks.

I put my finger up to my mouth and I pull out my holo. I type out and show her a message:

Nymian ahead. Quiet.

Hitori looks at me and nods. I feel her energy jumpstart, and she slowly gets out of her sleeping bag. She searches through her rucksack while I move on to Botan, who wakes up as soon as I walk up to him. Instinctively he jolts up but doesn’t say a word. I show him the message I showed Hitori and he moves cautiously to his feet. Rucksacks in hand, we move slowly away from the stream and head back to the path we came from.

I pulse out to find that there are several nymians scattered about, though none directly within our path. The sun rises to our right as we continue our trek to the comm tower.

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