Chapter 27 - Do Not Stop

  Alex gulps the water, barely pulling his head up in time to breathe. He plunges his burned arms into it too, feeling the soothing coolness seep into his skin. Then back in his head goes. He rubs at his eyes under the water, the red haze in his vision slowly clearing up as his parched body reacts to having moisture again.

  Hara watches him, wagging as she sees Alex revitalized by the water. Then a scent catches her attention. Something that wasn’t here before. She sniffs around the sand, finding a weird furrow in the ground leading away from where Alex had been laying. But there’s no sign of whatever made the marks. Shrugging it off, Hara returns to Alex’s side. She finds him sitting up next to the bowl, scooping water out with his hands and rubbing it along his chest and legs.

  “I can see! Sort-of.” Alex says, his voice still rough and cracking. His eyes are still unfocused. But he can see. Everything is blurry, just shapes of color and shadow. But it’s enough to know where Hara is, and where the bowl of water lies. “Not well, but hey, I’m not blind.” He lets out a relieved laugh, then the sound dies on his lips.

  Alex tries to look around, but his impaired vision can’t really help with what he’s looking for. “Hara, there was something else here. It spoke to me. It was waiting for me to die.” He says, then drinks a bit more of the water. “I think it wanted to eat me.”

  Hara goes on full alert. “Where?” She demands, turning to face away from him. “Alex no be eaten.” Was it the thing she smelled, that left the weird track in the sand? She wouldn’t let anything eat Alex, she just saved him!

  Then both hear it, the strange voice that had spoken to Alex before. “I… have… no… desire… to… fight… If… you… aren’t… going… to… die… then… I… will… hunt… elsewhere…” It feels fainter, further away, to Alex. but all the same, he’s unwilling to let his guard down with such an unnerving presence lingering nearby.

  Hara growls, hackles raised. The sound startles Alex, it’s the first time he’d ever seen her display any aggressive inclinations. He reaches out, his hand missing a few times before he rests it atop Hara’s back. “I’m ok. It ran away when you howled.” He says, patting her. With her on the defensive, he can feel how her body hardens. It’s like rubbing unpolished granite.

  It takes a while before Hara accepts that there’s no lingering danger, long enough that Alex’s vision mostly recovers. Once he’s able to see again, Alex inspects his abused body. The cracked skin had already started to mend, but everything was still tender to the touch. At least the blisters were gone. Looking back towards the flaming territory, Alex notices that the fires had intensified again, the opening of the tunnel appearing like a solid wall of flame.

  “Whatever’s going on to make it go crazy like that, we probably have to wait it out.” He says, absolutely fine with not rushing back into the torturous heat. “Hara, how’d you manage to bring that water?” He asks, turning back to face the hound.

  Hara had settled down to rest, cozily nestled into the sand. She lifts her head when Alex speaks to her. “Hara found water in sand pools. Hara no have way to carry water.” She says, then tips her head to the side. “So Hara have to make bowl out of sand. Like how Hara catch Alex when falling.”

  Alex can feel his brows rising into his hairline. “I thought you didn’t know how you did that?” He asks in amazement. If this was the kind of power Animus could grant, it was something Alex was even more eager to get his hands on. Impending dissolution not withstanding.

  The hound nods animatedly. “Hara no understand before. But Hara have to do it to save Alex. So Hara did.” She says as if that explains everything. Alex just chuckles and takes another drink of water. Pressing Hara for details probably wouldn’t get him anywhere for now.

  The ever-present sound of the air being drawn into the inferno chamber is broken by a low rumble in the stone. The vibrations are so potent that it causes the sand to shudder and ripple like liquid, not to mention making what’s left of the water dance within the bowl. Alex finds himself sinking into the sand, and he struggles to keep himself on the surface. Standing upright though, he discovers that the layer of sand is only a foot or two deep. Hara, though, ends up buried before she can rise from her laying position. As quickly as it starts, the disturbance ends.

  “Hara?” Alex calls out for her, seeing only the tops of her back crystals still visible over the sand. With a bit of struggle, Alex pulls his feet free of the sand and starts towards her. He shouldn’t have worried though. Hara pushes up from the sand and shakes herself off, utterly unbothered. “What the hell was that?” Alex asks as he shakes the sand out of his clothes.

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  “Fire gone.” Is all Hara says in reply, looking back towards the opening of the tunnel. And as Alex turns to look as well, he discovers she’s right. The flames were gone. The stones still glow dully and sparks still dance into the air. But not a single tongue of flame licks at the air.

  “What…” Is all that Alex can manage to get out before a familiar black form descends through the tunnel to meet them. Corvus has returned. The crow flaps down and lands on the edge of Hara’s water-bowl. “Corvus!” Alex says with clear relief painted on his face.

  “Good. You both are safe. I must apologize for my absence.” Corvus begins, addressing them both. Then the crow’s gaze turns critical as he takes in the condition of Alex’s clothes and burns. “Perhaps not entirely safe. What has happened?”

  Alex recounts how they had crossed a few of the stretches between tunnels without issue, and then the flames and heat suddenly grew stronger. Hara adds her own commentary here and there. Then Alex gets to the part where he was blinded by the sparks, and Hara leading him to safety. Then she picks up the tale with her retrieving the water and making the bowl. But when Alex mentions the creepy voice, Corvus’s crow form grows still.

  “Yeah, it only said one word at a time, really slow and deliberate.” Alex shudders. “Said it was waiting for me to die. When it realized Hara was coming back, it ran off.” He finishes explaining, then notices how rigid Corvus had gone.

  Corvus stares straight at Alex, the crow’s unblinking gaze locked on him. “What did it say to you? Specifically?” He asks, the usual sardonic humor completely absent. “What did it sound like?”

  Alex has to think for a few moments before he answers. “I can’t remember the exact wording. But the first thing it did was ask if I was dead. Then when I jumped, it said it could be patient and wait. Then when it heard Hara coming back, it said it would have to find somewhere else to hunt.” He explains, rubbing the back of his neck. “As for how it sounded. Kinda raspy, like paper rubbing together.”

  The crow flutters his wings, looking back and forth between Hara and Alex. “I believe you may have encountered a Deep Hydra. They are scavengers, carrion feeders. But one being here is an oddity. They more frequently prey on areas adjacent to Nexus Points near major cities.” Corvus says, pacing back and forth along the bowl’s edge.

  Alex suddenly remembers the tremors. “Hey, Corvus, what was up with the earthquake just before you arrived? Was that you?” He asks, sitting down next to the crow-demon. By now, his skin had stopped hurting, and touching things no longer causes him to wince.

  Corvus shakes his head. “No, it was not caused by me. Very likely it was the result of something being done by Last To Burn. His presence is still far from here, but the intrinsic tie between a territory and its owner knows no limitation for distance.” He explains. “However, we should make haste and take advantage of the opportunity.” He says, gesturing with a wing.

  Alex follows the gesture with his eyes, noticing that some of the flames had started again. But with the majority of the fire still absent, the thermal drafts had subsided, reducing the wind to a gentle breeze. But from seeing the stone starting to burn again, Alex knows the time is limited.

  In a rush, Alex pulls his shirt off. The edges were still charred, but the fabric had mostly repaired itself too. He dunks it into the bowl, soaking up what he can of the remaining water. Then he dunks his head in too. With his shirt back on, he grabs his knife off the sand where it had fallen earlier and shoulders his pack. “Don’t need to tell me twice. I think we’ve got one more tunnel opening between us and the one we’ll need to go down.”

  Hara takes a few quick laps from the water, then rears up, stomping down with her paws on the crude bowl, shattering it. The jolt dislodges Corvus, who flaps into the air with an indignant caw. Alex looks at her questioningly. “Hara can’t make it sand again.” She simply says as if that answers everything.

  Reunited, the trio moves back to the edge of the burning chamber. Alex focuses inwards, once more aligning with that subtle pull on his sense of direction. Looking in the direction it aims him, there’s an opening in the cavern wall. “Should we hug the edge again? Or with the flames gone, should we cut across?” He asks Corvus, looking up to the circling crow overhead.

  The answer comes a few heartbeats later. “If you can run, cut across. But do not stop, do not stall, and do not falter. If you have any doubts, stay on the edge.” Alex takes a breath, looks over at Hara, then nods and starts to sprint. As soon as he sets foot on the stone ground of the territory, he starts kicking up sparks in his wake. Each bootprint left behind kindles flames, and wherever the sparks land catches fire. Alex barely spares a glance over his shoulder, and the sight spurs him onwards.

  Hara keeps pace, an easy lope is capable of staying in stride with Alex. This time though, she stays closer. If he stumbles again, she has to be ready. Something tickles at the corners of her mind. An impulse, a desire. But as soon as she tries to think about it, the feeling evaporates. So she focuses on running too,

  Corvus warily watches the pair as they run. Alex is not looking well. His condition is deteriorating far faster than Corvus had thought. Being nearly cooked alive had taken far more out of the boy’s spirit than Alex would realize. He had hoped that Alex would have a month or so in New Europa to secure his future, but now, that timeframe had shrunken to a week at best.

  The flames of the territory pose no risk to him, but Corvus can’t help but feel the apprehension weigh on him for Alex’s sake. The territory was reigniting behind his charge, and soon everything would be ablaze again. Corvus just hopes that Alex’s legs hold out.