Kyle collapsed onto the dirt floor of the cave, gasping for breath. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and there were little white spots dancing in his vision. He had not run that hard for that long in, well, ever.<\/p>\n
Of course, Pocahontas was not even breathing hard.<\/p>\n
They had run for what seemed like hours. It had not even been a simple run over even ground, which would have been hard. Instead it had been a crouched darting and weaving through trees and undergrowth, trying to make as little noise as possible. His legs had started to hurt after only a few minutes, but every time he started to think about stopping there would be a noise or movement in the forest, just out of sight. A constant reminder of their pursuit. Each time they heard or saw something the girl he was following would change directions and speed up, and somehow they managed to avoid contact.<\/p>\n
After only a little while he had been too tired to even see clearly, much less think. All he could do was follow her, and he knew that if he had been alone he would surely have been caught.<\/p>\n
The girl, on the other hand, moved through the forest like she had been born for it. She never seemed to tire, made almost no noise, and always seemed to know where she was going.<\/p>\n
Kyle was finally starting to catch his breath, and he looked around a little.<\/p>\n
They were in a tiny space under the root base of an old tree, where two rocks leaned against each other. The tree had grown over the two boulders, and covered them, forming a triangular space underneath. The entrance was a hole between the roots of the tree, barely big enough for Kyle to fit through, and completely concealed in underbrush. The cave was only about ten feet long, and maybe six feet wide at the back and narrower near the entrance. There was just enough headroom at the peak of the cave for Kyle to sit up, so he did.<\/p>\n
The girl was at the back of the cave, her back to him, digging at the dirt floor.<\/p>\n
Kyle said \u201cWhat-\u201d but at that moment she pulled something out of the dirt and turner around.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood,\u201d she held up a bag. \u201cStill here.\u201d It was covered in dirt, but it looked like canvas coated in wax. She pulled at the wax at the top, ripping it off and pulling the bag open. She pulled a small cloth-covered bundle out of the bag, and unwrapped it. \u201cAnd still good.\u201d<\/p>\n
She dug a bit more, and pulled a pair of clay jugs out of the dirt, their tops also sealed with wax. She tossed one to Kyle. \u201cWater. Drink up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyle tore the wax seal off, pulled out the cork, and chugged.<\/p>\n
He downed almost half the bottle before stopping and gasping for breath. The last time he had something to drink he had still been in Tennessee.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright then, stranger.\u201d She was looking at him intently. \u201cLet\u2019s talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHeh. Yeah, let\u2019s. How \u2019bout we start with where the hell are we, and why are people trying to kill us? What did you do to them, and why\u2019d you have to get me mixed up in it?\u201d<\/p>\n
She blinked. \u201cWhat? I did nothing. They\u2019re orcs. Killing is what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre they some kind of gang, or something?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2026I\u2019m not sure what you mean. They are orcs. Do you not have orcs in the south?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d Kyle stared at her for a moment. \u201cYou keep saying \u2018orks\u2019, do you mean, like, Orcs? Like real orcs, like Tolkien orcs?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure what tribe they are, but yes, orcs. Although these are much more organized than I\u2019ve seen before. I saw them marching rank and file this morning. Not sure what that means, but it can\u2019t be good.\u201d She paused for a moment, staring at nothing, distracted.<\/p>\n
Kyle leaned back against the wall of the cave. \u201cGreat. I\u2019m in Middle Earth. God, I must be tripping. Or in a coma. Or something.\u201d<\/p>\n
The girl looked at him again. \u201cWell, either all Southerners are this strange, or you are sun-touched. Either way, let\u2019s start again. My name is Llara ka\u2019Vardin. \u00a0What\u2019s yours?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKyle Hunter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKy-el. Interesting. I can tell from your clothes that you are quite wealthy in your land, and you are clearly not from the north. So, nobleman, where are you from?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI live in Atlanta, but originally I\u2019m from Florida. And until last night, I was in Tennessee. Now where the fuck am I now?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard of none of these places. This is the Darrowood, and we\u2019re almost a day\u2019s hike north of New Rinsdale. Or where New Rinsdale used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh god. I\u2019ve got to be tripping.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, you are, um, sitting. Were you hit on the head recently? Perhaps when you fell?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGod I hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n
She blinked. \u201cThat is a strange wish.\u201d She carefully wrapped her hand around the hilt of the sort sword at her waist. \u201cYou\u2019d best tell me how you came to be alone on Broken Hill in the middle of an orc invasion. If you had anything to do with what happened in New Rinsdale, I swear by Kala I will end you now, addled or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyle held out his hands, and backed away a little. He did not like the look in her eyes. \u201cWoah, woah, calm down. I\u2019ve never even heard of New Rinsdale. And the last thing I want to do is get involved in some gang shit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeak, Ky-el. Tell me your story. Now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUm\u2026\u201d How much of it should he tell her? How much of it was he sure of anyway? \u201cLook, I was just hiking the Appalachian Trail, and I saw this shiny rock in the water. I reached down to get it, and I must have hit my head or something, because next thing I know I\u2019m face down on that hill. Okay? That\u2019s all I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re lying.\u201d Her hand tightened on the sword.<\/p>\n
Shit. He was not even sure himself what had happened, how could he explain it to her? Well, he had better think of something, she looked like she thought he was working with the orcs or something<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I don\u2019t know what happened, I swear. I don\u2019t know where I am, I don\u2019t know how I got here, and I don\u2019t know how to get home. If I did, I\u2019d be out of here right now. See, here\u2019s the rock I was talking about!\u201d He fumbled in his pocket, and yanked out the rock, glad it was still there.<\/p>\n
Light was filtering in through the vegetation blocking the entrance to the little cave, just barely enough to see. Kyle\u2019s eyes had adjusted to the dim light, and when he pulled the stone from his pocket he expected to see it glimmer, just a bit, in the dim light. Like it had in the water when he found it.<\/p>\n
He did not, however, expect it to glow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kyle collapsed onto the dirt floor of the cave, gasping for breath. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and there were little white spots dancing in his vision. He had not run that hard for that long in, well, ever. Of course, Pocahontas was not even breathing hard. They had run for what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boa.emeraldfyre.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}