Dec 7, 2003
CHAPTER 6
It was nearly afternoon. We hadn't moved yet. The tent was still set up, even, and Saryn was still sleeping inside. Finder was smoking a cigarette, and I was staring into the fire. Have you ever had a conversation with an inanimate object before? Or maybe an object you think is inanimate?
Here I was, talking to the fire. I didn't talk, exactly. It just kind of let off information like smoke, and responded to queries. So did all the trees, and most anything else around me. I don't think it's actually an individual thing- I have started to see a web, a pattern, in it all.
Nothing had anything interesting to "tell" me, so I turned to Finder. He always had something intresting on his mind.
I felt cold steel in my hands, and I could see myself looking down at a pistol. the information that it was made by Colt comes into my mind. I personally know very little about guns.
But Finder knows alot. I can't understand most of the thoughts jumping in and out of his conscious mind, and he never bothers to slow down and explain the principles to me. No surprise, since he doesn't know I see his thoughts as easily as he sees the ground in front of him.
Finder put the colt 'away,' I can't see where it went. It just does, like the lighter. It's not speed. it's more like he's calling it from somewhere.
Something nags at the back of my mind. I can feel the mice in my head again, louder, angrier. Am I responsible for what has happened? Am I responsible for where we are?
Finder looks up. He is cleaning some sort of a rifle, It's completely matte black. I have no name for it. Finder has it labeled as an M23A1 in his head.
He looks over at me. "Figured we could use something to eat," he says.
You're going hunting with that??
"Sure," he replies. The fact that I didn't open my mouth doesn't seem to bother him. "What do you expect me to hunt with? a bow and arrows? Maybe the colt, but this works better."
I look over at the bag again. "What all do you have in there, anyway?" I ask.
He looks over at the bag, absent mindedly giving the rifle a loving caress with the oil cloth.
"Not as much as you'd think. I have this rifle, the colt, and a .338 AWSMS Sniper rifle. I also have the pots and pans, and the tent and sleeping bags. Plus the assorted odd things I have picked up so far."
It was my turn to raise an eyebrow.
"You know, someone could help carry that."
He took a long drag of the cigarette, and then he extinguished what was left of it with his boot. I noticed that the cigarette was not on the ground. I wondered how he did things like that.
"I don't mind. I'm going to be the only one using the guns anyway, and they're most of the weight." He looked sideways at me. "You don't even know how to shoot, do you." He simply stated it, as if he already knew.
"If I ever did, I don't remember," I said. "I'm not sure I want to learn how to try."
He starts putting the rifle back together as he speaks. "I first started shooting as a kid, then in the military. Before I found myself here, I was a supernatural bounty hunter. So I've had a lot of experience."
Finder holds up the assembled weapon. It doesn't look like any rifle I've ever seen, it's kind of squarish and boxy, and it's barrel is much shorter than that of an M16.
"This is the newest 'small' rifle that I can buy, illegally, as you'll normally only find this used by the police or the military. It uses a standard 5.56 round that you can buy almost anywhere, it's used by alot of rifles these days. I however, have a couple of magazines of SHT 5.56 ammunition, in addition to the normal rounds."
He grimaces. "We call them SHIT! rounds, because if you have to use them you're in deeper shit than you should be. they're Silver Hollow Tips. We use them to take down lycanthropes... most shapeshifters. There is also a SHTSN round. It's filled with Silver Nitrate and then sealed. They kill vampires very quickly. There isn't much that can. I load those in the .45."
The idea of Finder hunting someone or something bothered me.
Finder frowned. "Well, It really doesn't matter. I don't think we'll encounter any werewolves or vampires here, maybe a mountain troll or something. I'll go get us some dinner."
He turned, and walked quitely off into the forest.
I looked at his bag, trying to feel what was inside. I couldn't feel anything, the bag felt empty to me. I picked it up, and it was light, as if there really was nothing in it. I reached a hand in, and there was nothing there. I didn't think finder was lying, so I guessed that it only effected him, somehow. I wondered if it was somehow connected with the dissapearing tricks he pulled with the cigarettes and lighter.
I wondered if I could control my 'slips.'I tried, concentrating on the bag, but I didn't know what to do. a brief image of night, Finder was bleeding, he had deep cuts in his shoulder. His shirt looked as if it had been savaged, something had scratched him. A dark shape ran to his right, and he spun sideways towards the movement. It was large, and it wasn't quite human
The vision slipped away into the darkness, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to retrieve it. I heard a rifle report somewhere, and I wondered if it somehow had moved out of the vision, or if it was Finder, killing some hapless animal.
A sound from the tent broke me from my musings. I spun, instantly feeling the fact that Saryn was up. She was dizzy, and she was cold, but she was awake.
I stood, wondering if I should go to the tent. The mice in my head chittered at my indecision, and I absent mindedly swatted at them. They seemed to still in angry protests. I walked towards the tent, and I opened the zipper of the tent.
Saryn was standing up, wrapped in the sleeping bag. her hair was kind of dirty, and the fact that she had been sleeping for the last three days showed.
I smiled. "Welcome back."
She looked at me, her eyes drifting between yellow gold and orange gold, as if they could not decide what color to decide on. She was going to ask what had happened.
I waved my hand imaptiently, realizing that I was miming the shadowman from my dream almost exactly.
"I'll tell you everything in a second. For now, come have a granola or something until Finder gets back with dinner!"
I found her a granola and related most of the events that had happened after the cave. She didn't interrupt, she just sat and ate her granola, her eyes glazing over from time to time. It was almost distracting, when her eyes glazed over, it was like a ripple of water spread over them.
I didn't tell her about the visions I had of her, and I didn't exactly explain about my dreams, either.
I looked into her burning eyes.
That's about all that has happened, I finished.
She almost dropped her granola. for some reason, my eyes followed the path it would have taken. It bounced once, twice, and then fell into the firepit.
"You can talk in my head!" Peices of granola shot out of her mouth. She seemed intrigued and frightened all at the same time.
I wondered if she was afraid I could touch everything she thought.
"I can't feel everything, just thoughts specifically aimed at me and really absented minded musings so far. It clears and clouds alot, I'm still learning how to use it."
She didn't exactly seemed reassured. "How did you know that that upset me just then, unless you were reading my mind!"
I felt guilty. "If it wasn't for the fact that your face got all tight, it would have been the fact that you almost dropped your granola. I could see it hit the ground..."
She looked down, and her eyes seemed to glow brighter for a second. She was looking at the spot where I had seen the granola, covered in ashes.
She jerked her head up, and gave me an inquiring look.
"You can see things now, too?"
I watched her eyes shift, fascinated. I wondered if she could mesmerize someone with them.
"Not exactly. Only strong possibilities, I think. things that could have happened. However I work, I seem to be associated with time pretty strongly. I'm pretty sure I can move through it, to a certain extent."
She looked at me for almost ten seconds, like she was weighing me. Her eyes were glowing a light blue color, and I wondered how many shifts they could make. It felt somehow familiar. Then her eyes returned to their yellow orange glow, and she looked down.
"Okay," she said. "I guess I can deal with that, but, I've never thougth about having to watch my thoughts before and edit them for content."
I ran a hand through the back of my hair. "I can't control it, and It seems focused, like 'It' knows what to pick up on and what not to look at. So far, I haven't picked up any thoughts from Finder that were really private, and I know he has them."
She looked at me again, taking the last of the granola and finishing it off. She chewed thoughtfully, as if accepting my words, and then swallowed. "When that creature flashed me-"
She shuddered. "I was stuck in my childhood somehow. I was reliving a single part of it, but I couldn't do anything. It happened, exactly as it had, but as I lived it I couldn't wake up."
She stopped. "That aside, I think I can replicate what that creature was doing on a smaller scale."
I raised an eyebrow. It seemed appropriate, Finder wasn't here to raise his.
She tucked a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear absentmindedly. I tried not to notice as much as I had. somewhere inside me, a mouse stirred. I stomped violently at it, but it ran into a fold, scratching angrily.
"See, any light that I have seen I can somehow replicate and send back out. Flashlights, laser sights, weak daylight... and now maybe a weak version of the creature's light. It wouldn't do whatever it did to me, it would stun a couple of targets for anywhere from 15 seconds to 5 minutes. I think."
I thought about the angry scrabblings that had been in my head while I was in the cave. Even the clamorings in my head seemed scared.
You thought of all of that just now? I asked.
She sucked in a breath of air. "It's going to take me a while to get used to that, I guess. No, I didn't. after the first two nights I had plenty of time to think, I just couldn't move or wake up. I knew where I was, and I knew who was around, but I was paralyzed in sleep."
She looked past me, and I could feel Finder walking in.
"What's for dinner?" we asked.
Finder looked at the two of us. He raised an eyebrow. "Wild pig," he said.
Finder had the lighter in his hand and was starting the fire. Ser was watching intently, and when he absentmindedly tucked the lighter away I could tell she was trying to see where it had gone. I wondered if she had had any success.
The fire started to grow, flamelets eagerly jumping over the sides and trying to escape. I remembered the flame crystal in my pocket, and pulled it out. I handed it to Saryn. "This is for you, you'll need it for something," I said.
She gingerly turned it over, fascinated. I could see her eyes match the dancing light trapped in the crystal, almost a heatless flame.
"Where did you get this?" She asked. "I've never seen anything like it!"
I shrugged. "Out of a dream," I said.
She looked at me. "You can take things out of dreams? What else have you up your sleeve?"
"The other night he made me smell cinnamon rolls," Finder grumbled. "I haven't had a good cinnamon roll in weeks."
I rolled my eyes. "I don't know how I do it! I just do! It bothers me more than it does you."
"I'm not so sure abou-"
I cut Saryn off with a look, and I sent her a brief feeling that I was sure and that I knew. She looked startled.
Finder was cutting the chunks of pig into slices that would look good cooked. The thought of eating raw meat made me shudder. "I think he's right, Saryn. Spiech can't control it, and If I had some weird power I couldn't control, it'd sure as hell bother me more."
Saryn glared at Finder. "maybe so, but the fact that Spiech can do some of the things he does scares me."
Finder shrugged. "It shouldn't. It doesn't bother me at all. Maybe it's the fact that things completely out of my control don't bother me, or maybe it's the fact that the unknown doesn't scare me. Whatever it is, he'll find his answers. Probably more easily if we aren't scared by it all."
Saryn looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn't. I knew she was scared because she couldn't control it, control me. She had never had much control.
I wanted to reach out and comfort her, and words came to mind. I knew that they'd only scare her away more. I just looked into the fire, watching it's writhing patterns take on different stories. I knew that the shadowman would come again tonight.
Saryn was staring into the crystal. She said, "You take things too lightly, Finder." Beneath the words, wrapped around them so tightly I could barely feel them, was I envy you WHY can't I be more laid back about all this!!!
I thought about what the shadowman had said: What you say only serves to cloud meaning. I knew that he was right.
Finder shrugged it off. "Maybe so, but if that's the way you react, then you're like every other normal human out there. Think about how they react to you, your eyes. I know it can't be normal. you're the only glowy eyed person I've ever seen, and I've seen some crazy creatures."
Saryn thought for a while. "Maybe you're right," but I don't like admiting it! she said/thought.
I wondered why I hadn't picked up any undertones from Finder. Maybe he was more honest with himself.
Finder cleared his throat. "So, what went on in your head while you were asleep?"
Ser went through her story again, relating the part about the creature at the end.
Finder sat thoughtfully. "That'll be useful," he said. He turned one of the sides of ham over, the juices running into the fire and hissing. The scratching in my head was drooling. I grinned at the image of what I thought of as a "mouse" in my head, drooling over meat. The scratching ran back and forth, seemingly pleased at my image. I wondered if I was going crazy.
Finder pulled one of the peices off the makeshift grill he had made. He cut into it to see if it was done, and then set it on a plate and put it in front of Saryn. She bit into it hungrily. I could feel her wince, it was hot. I decided I wouldn't be so eager when I got my peice.
"The last thing I wish I could figure out," Finder said, putting a peice of the pork on my plate, "is where we are."
I waited for the pig on my plate to cool. I sent thanks to the pig for offering us it's body, wondering if it even cared.
Saryn slurped up the last of her pig, and held her plate out towards Finder for more. "Oh yeah," Saryn said. "It almost slipped my mind- I know where we are."
It was nearly afternoon. We hadn't moved yet. The tent was still set up, even, and Saryn was still sleeping inside. Finder was smoking a cigarette, and I was staring into the fire. Have you ever had a conversation with an inanimate object before? Or maybe an object you think is inanimate?
Here I was, talking to the fire. I didn't talk, exactly. It just kind of let off information like smoke, and responded to queries. So did all the trees, and most anything else around me. I don't think it's actually an individual thing- I have started to see a web, a pattern, in it all.
Nothing had anything interesting to "tell" me, so I turned to Finder. He always had something intresting on his mind.
I felt cold steel in my hands, and I could see myself looking down at a pistol. the information that it was made by Colt comes into my mind. I personally know very little about guns.
But Finder knows alot. I can't understand most of the thoughts jumping in and out of his conscious mind, and he never bothers to slow down and explain the principles to me. No surprise, since he doesn't know I see his thoughts as easily as he sees the ground in front of him.
Finder put the colt 'away,' I can't see where it went. It just does, like the lighter. It's not speed. it's more like he's calling it from somewhere.
Something nags at the back of my mind. I can feel the mice in my head again, louder, angrier. Am I responsible for what has happened? Am I responsible for where we are?
Finder looks up. He is cleaning some sort of a rifle, It's completely matte black. I have no name for it. Finder has it labeled as an M23A1 in his head.
He looks over at me. "Figured we could use something to eat," he says.
You're going hunting with that??
"Sure," he replies. The fact that I didn't open my mouth doesn't seem to bother him. "What do you expect me to hunt with? a bow and arrows? Maybe the colt, but this works better."
I look over at the bag again. "What all do you have in there, anyway?" I ask.
He looks over at the bag, absent mindedly giving the rifle a loving caress with the oil cloth.
"Not as much as you'd think. I have this rifle, the colt, and a .338 AWSMS Sniper rifle. I also have the pots and pans, and the tent and sleeping bags. Plus the assorted odd things I have picked up so far."
It was my turn to raise an eyebrow.
"You know, someone could help carry that."
He took a long drag of the cigarette, and then he extinguished what was left of it with his boot. I noticed that the cigarette was not on the ground. I wondered how he did things like that.
"I don't mind. I'm going to be the only one using the guns anyway, and they're most of the weight." He looked sideways at me. "You don't even know how to shoot, do you." He simply stated it, as if he already knew.
"If I ever did, I don't remember," I said. "I'm not sure I want to learn how to try."
He starts putting the rifle back together as he speaks. "I first started shooting as a kid, then in the military. Before I found myself here, I was a supernatural bounty hunter. So I've had a lot of experience."
Finder holds up the assembled weapon. It doesn't look like any rifle I've ever seen, it's kind of squarish and boxy, and it's barrel is much shorter than that of an M16.
"This is the newest 'small' rifle that I can buy, illegally, as you'll normally only find this used by the police or the military. It uses a standard 5.56 round that you can buy almost anywhere, it's used by alot of rifles these days. I however, have a couple of magazines of SHT 5.56 ammunition, in addition to the normal rounds."
He grimaces. "We call them SHIT! rounds, because if you have to use them you're in deeper shit than you should be. they're Silver Hollow Tips. We use them to take down lycanthropes... most shapeshifters. There is also a SHTSN round. It's filled with Silver Nitrate and then sealed. They kill vampires very quickly. There isn't much that can. I load those in the .45."
The idea of Finder hunting someone or something bothered me.
Finder frowned. "Well, It really doesn't matter. I don't think we'll encounter any werewolves or vampires here, maybe a mountain troll or something. I'll go get us some dinner."
He turned, and walked quitely off into the forest.
I looked at his bag, trying to feel what was inside. I couldn't feel anything, the bag felt empty to me. I picked it up, and it was light, as if there really was nothing in it. I reached a hand in, and there was nothing there. I didn't think finder was lying, so I guessed that it only effected him, somehow. I wondered if it was somehow connected with the dissapearing tricks he pulled with the cigarettes and lighter.
I wondered if I could control my 'slips.'I tried, concentrating on the bag, but I didn't know what to do. a brief image of night, Finder was bleeding, he had deep cuts in his shoulder. His shirt looked as if it had been savaged, something had scratched him. A dark shape ran to his right, and he spun sideways towards the movement. It was large, and it wasn't quite human
The vision slipped away into the darkness, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to retrieve it. I heard a rifle report somewhere, and I wondered if it somehow had moved out of the vision, or if it was Finder, killing some hapless animal.
A sound from the tent broke me from my musings. I spun, instantly feeling the fact that Saryn was up. She was dizzy, and she was cold, but she was awake.
I stood, wondering if I should go to the tent. The mice in my head chittered at my indecision, and I absent mindedly swatted at them. They seemed to still in angry protests. I walked towards the tent, and I opened the zipper of the tent.
Saryn was standing up, wrapped in the sleeping bag. her hair was kind of dirty, and the fact that she had been sleeping for the last three days showed.
I smiled. "Welcome back."
She looked at me, her eyes drifting between yellow gold and orange gold, as if they could not decide what color to decide on. She was going to ask what had happened.
I waved my hand imaptiently, realizing that I was miming the shadowman from my dream almost exactly.
"I'll tell you everything in a second. For now, come have a granola or something until Finder gets back with dinner!"
I found her a granola and related most of the events that had happened after the cave. She didn't interrupt, she just sat and ate her granola, her eyes glazing over from time to time. It was almost distracting, when her eyes glazed over, it was like a ripple of water spread over them.
I didn't tell her about the visions I had of her, and I didn't exactly explain about my dreams, either.
I looked into her burning eyes.
That's about all that has happened, I finished.
She almost dropped her granola. for some reason, my eyes followed the path it would have taken. It bounced once, twice, and then fell into the firepit.
"You can talk in my head!" Peices of granola shot out of her mouth. She seemed intrigued and frightened all at the same time.
I wondered if she was afraid I could touch everything she thought.
"I can't feel everything, just thoughts specifically aimed at me and really absented minded musings so far. It clears and clouds alot, I'm still learning how to use it."
She didn't exactly seemed reassured. "How did you know that that upset me just then, unless you were reading my mind!"
I felt guilty. "If it wasn't for the fact that your face got all tight, it would have been the fact that you almost dropped your granola. I could see it hit the ground..."
She looked down, and her eyes seemed to glow brighter for a second. She was looking at the spot where I had seen the granola, covered in ashes.
She jerked her head up, and gave me an inquiring look.
"You can see things now, too?"
I watched her eyes shift, fascinated. I wondered if she could mesmerize someone with them.
"Not exactly. Only strong possibilities, I think. things that could have happened. However I work, I seem to be associated with time pretty strongly. I'm pretty sure I can move through it, to a certain extent."
She looked at me for almost ten seconds, like she was weighing me. Her eyes were glowing a light blue color, and I wondered how many shifts they could make. It felt somehow familiar. Then her eyes returned to their yellow orange glow, and she looked down.
"Okay," she said. "I guess I can deal with that, but, I've never thougth about having to watch my thoughts before and edit them for content."
I ran a hand through the back of my hair. "I can't control it, and It seems focused, like 'It' knows what to pick up on and what not to look at. So far, I haven't picked up any thoughts from Finder that were really private, and I know he has them."
She looked at me again, taking the last of the granola and finishing it off. She chewed thoughtfully, as if accepting my words, and then swallowed. "When that creature flashed me-"
She shuddered. "I was stuck in my childhood somehow. I was reliving a single part of it, but I couldn't do anything. It happened, exactly as it had, but as I lived it I couldn't wake up."
She stopped. "That aside, I think I can replicate what that creature was doing on a smaller scale."
I raised an eyebrow. It seemed appropriate, Finder wasn't here to raise his.
She tucked a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear absentmindedly. I tried not to notice as much as I had. somewhere inside me, a mouse stirred. I stomped violently at it, but it ran into a fold, scratching angrily.
"See, any light that I have seen I can somehow replicate and send back out. Flashlights, laser sights, weak daylight... and now maybe a weak version of the creature's light. It wouldn't do whatever it did to me, it would stun a couple of targets for anywhere from 15 seconds to 5 minutes. I think."
I thought about the angry scrabblings that had been in my head while I was in the cave. Even the clamorings in my head seemed scared.
You thought of all of that just now? I asked.
She sucked in a breath of air. "It's going to take me a while to get used to that, I guess. No, I didn't. after the first two nights I had plenty of time to think, I just couldn't move or wake up. I knew where I was, and I knew who was around, but I was paralyzed in sleep."
She looked past me, and I could feel Finder walking in.
"What's for dinner?" we asked.
Finder looked at the two of us. He raised an eyebrow. "Wild pig," he said.
Finder had the lighter in his hand and was starting the fire. Ser was watching intently, and when he absentmindedly tucked the lighter away I could tell she was trying to see where it had gone. I wondered if she had had any success.
The fire started to grow, flamelets eagerly jumping over the sides and trying to escape. I remembered the flame crystal in my pocket, and pulled it out. I handed it to Saryn. "This is for you, you'll need it for something," I said.
She gingerly turned it over, fascinated. I could see her eyes match the dancing light trapped in the crystal, almost a heatless flame.
"Where did you get this?" She asked. "I've never seen anything like it!"
I shrugged. "Out of a dream," I said.
She looked at me. "You can take things out of dreams? What else have you up your sleeve?"
"The other night he made me smell cinnamon rolls," Finder grumbled. "I haven't had a good cinnamon roll in weeks."
I rolled my eyes. "I don't know how I do it! I just do! It bothers me more than it does you."
"I'm not so sure abou-"
I cut Saryn off with a look, and I sent her a brief feeling that I was sure and that I knew. She looked startled.
Finder was cutting the chunks of pig into slices that would look good cooked. The thought of eating raw meat made me shudder. "I think he's right, Saryn. Spiech can't control it, and If I had some weird power I couldn't control, it'd sure as hell bother me more."
Saryn glared at Finder. "maybe so, but the fact that Spiech can do some of the things he does scares me."
Finder shrugged. "It shouldn't. It doesn't bother me at all. Maybe it's the fact that things completely out of my control don't bother me, or maybe it's the fact that the unknown doesn't scare me. Whatever it is, he'll find his answers. Probably more easily if we aren't scared by it all."
Saryn looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn't. I knew she was scared because she couldn't control it, control me. She had never had much control.
I wanted to reach out and comfort her, and words came to mind. I knew that they'd only scare her away more. I just looked into the fire, watching it's writhing patterns take on different stories. I knew that the shadowman would come again tonight.
Saryn was staring into the crystal. She said, "You take things too lightly, Finder." Beneath the words, wrapped around them so tightly I could barely feel them, was I envy you WHY can't I be more laid back about all this!!!
I thought about what the shadowman had said: What you say only serves to cloud meaning. I knew that he was right.
Finder shrugged it off. "Maybe so, but if that's the way you react, then you're like every other normal human out there. Think about how they react to you, your eyes. I know it can't be normal. you're the only glowy eyed person I've ever seen, and I've seen some crazy creatures."
Saryn thought for a while. "Maybe you're right," but I don't like admiting it! she said/thought.
I wondered why I hadn't picked up any undertones from Finder. Maybe he was more honest with himself.
Finder cleared his throat. "So, what went on in your head while you were asleep?"
Ser went through her story again, relating the part about the creature at the end.
Finder sat thoughtfully. "That'll be useful," he said. He turned one of the sides of ham over, the juices running into the fire and hissing. The scratching in my head was drooling. I grinned at the image of what I thought of as a "mouse" in my head, drooling over meat. The scratching ran back and forth, seemingly pleased at my image. I wondered if I was going crazy.
Finder pulled one of the peices off the makeshift grill he had made. He cut into it to see if it was done, and then set it on a plate and put it in front of Saryn. She bit into it hungrily. I could feel her wince, it was hot. I decided I wouldn't be so eager when I got my peice.
"The last thing I wish I could figure out," Finder said, putting a peice of the pork on my plate, "is where we are."
I waited for the pig on my plate to cool. I sent thanks to the pig for offering us it's body, wondering if it even cared.
Saryn slurped up the last of her pig, and held her plate out towards Finder for more. "Oh yeah," Saryn said. "It almost slipped my mind- I know where we are."
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