Chapter 12
Hills above Tá Súil Abbey
Little Sister
Then
Spencer
One moment the plane was lifting him up and threatening to drop him hard against the deck. The next moment he landed just as hard, but it wasn't against the deck.
Spencer lay there a moment and just caught his breath. Everything had stopped moving. In fact everything had changed. It actually took him a few before his brain reset his gears. It felt like static, something that didn't happen very often. Some small part of him actually almost enjoyed the sensation.
Eventually he opened his eyes, experienced the sensation again as he stared at the blades of grass in front of his nose, and then finally got it together enough to roll over onto his back. At which point he wallowed in static a while as he contemplated the trees above him. I was on the plane, he thought. I was on the plane and now I'm here. Where is here?
In times of crisis keep calm and call Garcia.
He sat up, slowly, sore as hell from being put through the blender of turbulence, and then just as slowly got to his feet, dusting off his pants and shaking leaves out of his hair. He pulled out his phone and sagged. "Damn it." No signal. Maybe it was the tree cover. He heard the sound of water nearby, perhaps a river. The trees would open up there, and if there was a waterfall he might be able to get higher. He might be able to get a signal that way.
Or he had cracked his head and this was all a dream, or a hallucination, but that was…unlikely. It would be highly unusual for a hallucination this complex to come on suddenly. Schizophrenic hallucinations usually came on gradually, and he hadn't been noticing anything. Granted he could have somehow experienced some kind of brain damage and was merrily dreaming in a coma, but if that was the case there was nothing he could do about it. So we will proceed with the assumption that this is real and work with it as we go. Royal we, he thought with a private smile.
It was then that he heard voices up ahead.
"Do you want me to help?" A female voice asked.
"No. I just need to dig a little more." A male voice replied. "You're supposed to be on guard, remember."
"Yeah, like a wild cat is going to come anywhere near us."
"Wild pig will. Those have nasty tempers."
"Good trading though."
"Yeah, assuming you can hit it."
"I can hit it."
He came around the tree and spotted the female speaker. She appeared to be in her early to mid-20's, was wearing a black knit shirt that hugged her curves and black trousers under what appeared to be a leather vest and leather gauntlets. She stood just barely under his height, with a sturdy build, soft brown hair that hung in curls and multiple small braids dotted with beads on either side of her face, peeking out from under the red kerchief she was wearing. She also had a bow in hand, a quiver strung across her back, and a large hunting knife on her belt. He was distracted enough already to step on a branch, letting out a sharp snap, which had her spinning and nocking and arrow at the same time.
And then her crystal blue eyes made everything go right back to static.
When she saw it was a human she lowered the arrow, but didn't lessen the draw on the bow. "Who are you?" She asked, pleasantly enough.
"I'm um, Dr. Spencer Reid. I'm with the FBI." He pulled out his badge. "I'm kind of lost…"
Her eyes widened at the sight of the badge, and her jaw dropped. She eased back on the bow and came over to take a look, giving him a chance to take in those bright, intelligent eyes, rosy, bee stung lips, and a very pretty face surrounding it all. "Wow, you are a long way from home. I never thought…" She grinned hugely at him and turned and called over her shoulder. "It's okay, he's a Healer. He's from the Other Place!"
That call brought her companion out into view. It was rare that Spencer met anyone taller than he was, but her companion topped him by a good two inches or more. He was also built along Morgan's lines, muscle and lots of it. Like her he was in his mid-20's and was wearing a blue, loose, coarsely woven vest over a knit shirt and canvas trousers in neutral colors, and like her he was wearing a kerchief, but his was indigo blue. He also had those clear blue eyes, and a similar facial structure. Genetic similarity, Spencer realized; siblings were the most likely option. "Wow. Welcome." He called back, also clearly impressed. He went back to working on something buried in the ground. "But where's his team?"
The girl turned back to Spencer, blinking. "Good point. Where is your Guardian, or the rest of your team?"
Guardian. Clearly I'm supposed to know how that word relates, he thought. Team I can manage though. "Um, I don't know." He answered honestly.
"Oh." She looked crestfallen, as if this was an awful circumstance. But even as she did he could feel some kind of spark between them. She really was very pretty, amazing eyes. For a moment he expected her to volunteer something. "I'm sorry. We can help you look for them."
"That would be very helpful, thank you." If he wasn't so lost here…
"You're welcome. If it doesn't look like we're going to find them by nightfall we'll head back to the abbey. There's lots of room and I'm sure Mother Abbot will assign you a new Guardian until yours is found."
Just then the male let out a groan and toppled over onto his backside. They hurried over only to find him clutching an impressively large root. "Ginseng?" Spencer asked.
"Golden root. And this one will last us a while." He got to his feet and dusted off, then kicked the dirt back into the hole to fill it, and cover the seed pods he dropped there. "Let me grab the collecting basket and we'll start to look."
"Did you get everything you need?" She asked.
"No, but we can come back out tomorrow." He replied as he shot her a teasing grin. "That way you have to come back out with me."
She shot him an evil look before she turned and started walking.
The basket was back in the direction of the river. As soon as they stepped out of the bushes at the edge of the gorge he spotted a familiar figure on the other side. "Reid?" She called. "Reid!"
"Emily!" He called back, waving his arms. Oh thank goodness, he wasn't alone.
"Is that your Guardian?" The girl asked.
Spencer thought fast. It was clear that they expected him to have one and that a Guardian and a Healer (he'd have to correct them at some point) were expected to remain in close proximity, and that if he didn't have a Guardian one would be assigned and he and Emily would lose all privacy. But if they had that relationship they might have more autonomy to travel and find a way home. "Yes." He replied.
"Oh excellent!" He looked over and saw that they were both beaming at him.
"Where are we?" Emily called.
"I don't know!"
"Tell her to head downstream to the first bridge." The girl said. "We have to cross to get to the abbey anyway, we can meet her there."
"Just tell her to stay on the path." The guy added. "She can't miss it."
He relayed the message, and they started walking downstream.
