Chapter Two: The Statue by the Creek
Kelley's house sat near the base of a small mountain. In front of it was the shallow gulch in which the pond resided, fed by a small creek. Several hundred feet to the south lay a jagged cliff, a rugged outcropping of rock splitting the edge in two. Across the pond from her house lay a mirror image of her mountain, which led to a range further east.
Apart from the clearing at the pond, the area was thickly forested. Kelley sat, reading, in the dappled sunlight beneath a tall elm. A cool breeze blew, shaking the tree's leaves and alleviating the heat and sticky humidity of the summer air. A lone bird called, twittering and chattering as if angry with the heat. Broken from her concentration, Kelley sighed and gently closed her book.
The twitter came again, sounding frightened this time. Kelley located its source, an oak about fifty feet away, just as a bird-hawk soared down and snatched it off the branch. As it flew away with its catch, one of its reddish-gold tail feathers drifted down. A sudden gust pushed it toward her, twirling wildly, and the quill pushed its way into the pages, where it sat, quivering slightly, as the wind died down.
Kelley opened her book to the feather-marked page. The first sentence read, "As the sun reached its zenith, she made an amazing discovery." Huh? I don't remember this. Kelley looked out from under the elm's branches. The sun was about halfway between the horizon and noon. I think I'll take a dip in the pond. The heat must be getting to me already.
As she walked onto her sunlit deck, scorching heat seeped into her bare feet. Half hopping and half running, Kelley scrambled to the sliding door, wrenched it open, and dashed inside. The cool ceramic tiles felt good on her feet, and for a few minutes, she lay down on the floor and let the chill soak into her back, which still glistened with a slight sheen of sweat.
Kelley climbed slowly up the stairs, her torn, faded jeans sticking damply to the backs of her legs. As soon as she entered her room, she flung off her shirt and pulled off her jeans as quickly as she could. She stood, panting slightly, in the darkness of her unlit room.
Walking over to her closet, she gently unhooked her bra and let it fall to the floor. She pulled out her suit; a bikini with low-cut bottoms and a halter-tie triangle top.
Just as she finished tying the top on, the glowing man appeared again. He wasn't glowing this time; rather, surrounded by an aura of mist. He took one look at Kelley and hastily turned around and disappeared. Kelley shook her head and rubbed her eyes. I'm still seeing things, she thought. I'm just still suffering from the heat. She changed the rest of the way into her suit, grabbed some clothes and a towel, and headed down to the pond.
She dipped her toes into the water. It felt fine, but she was feeling restless. Suddenly, she looked sharply at the creek. It seemed almost as if the woods were calling her. Keeping her eyes on the trees, she drew on her cutoff shorts and pulled her shirt over her head. Looking down, finally, she scratched the word "woods" into the dirt beneath her.
The woods, thick and silent, seemed like another world. There was a surreal quality to the rustle of the trees as a bird took flight. The creek danced over a few stones, chiming like so many tiny bells. Kelley followed it upstream, watching as the sunlight shifted on the leafy carpet that covered the forest floor.
After a while of slow walking, Kelley sat on a rock by a small pond. Her feet dangled in the water, making small ripples as they swayed gently beneath the glassy surface. The heat swirled around her like mist, urging her to get up and walk on.
She complied, sighing, and continued to walk along the creek. Shortly afterward, she spotted a large clearing. She turned her head away, but something made her double take.
There were two odd things about the clearing. Firstly, there was a pond in the clearing, though it wasn't even near the creek. Secondly, although it was a clearing and had no trees, the whole place was in shadow.
Kelley walked tentatively toward it. She entered cautiously, but when nothing happened, she grew bolder and walked the rest of the way in.
Beside the pond hulked a huge rock. It was an unusual rock, unnaturally tall and rather rounded and smooth. As she reached it, her feet sank in mud up to her mid-calves. There was no way onto the rock from that side, she realized, for it was more than twice as tall as she was.
Kelley walked around the base of the rock. Looking at it, she realized that it was quite angular in places. She reached the spot she had started from- and hit something hard. She scooped handfuls of mud aside and unearthed an angular protrusion that looked remarkably like…
She moved several feet to the left and started to dig. A couple minutes later, to her shock, she unearthed an eye! Numbly, she realized what the rock was- a statue, its blank eyes nearly as wide as she was tall! It stared to the north through its battle helmet, but following its gaze, Kelley could not see what it saw.
Hoping to find a vantage point, she set off toward the source of the statue's stare. Instead, she found a downward slope about seventy feet from the head, and protruding from the earth ten feet down were- what were they? Kelley scrambled down to see.
They were five stone cylinders, hewn into the shape of fingers, each as tall as a fully-grown man, the thumb half as tall, and still all were partially buried! They were raised in warning; the four fingers all together, rather than separate.
The ground fell away behind them. Kelley jumped down and inhaled sharply. Combined, the palm and fingers were at least four times taller than she was! She supposed it fit, considering the proportions of the helmet-clad face.
Kelley shook her head, trying to clear it of a feeling of recognition. The statue seemed so… familiar. She had no idea where or when she had seen it before, but somehow, she knew this colossal, stone-hewed man.
The sun burned into Kelley's shirt, causing her to look up. She realized with a shock that it was just past noon. Unbidden, a mysterious sentence crept into her mind. "As the sun reached its zenith, she made an amazing discovery." It was right, Kelley thought. It was right.
Feeling faint and slightly dazed, Kelley stumbled back home and fell asleep, sprawled, beneath the elm.