Disclaimer: Mercedes Lackey owns all pertaining to Valdemar, Velgarth, Heralds and Companions. I own only my Original Characters and Plot.
A/N: Tis the return of I'm WHERE?! Rewritten so far, and continuing. Updates will be sporadic according to how my original goes.
Chapter 1:The Blue Ridge Mountains
I glanced out the window of the late model sedan that I was a passenger in and sighed in pleasure as the landscape changed from the gentle fields to rolling hills that precluded the Blue Ridge Mountains. I had really been looking forward to this for months. It was the only thing that made my 24-7 job worth while.
Don't get me wrong I loved my job but I loved my two weeks in the mountains every six months, so much more. Here, I could come upon a doe and fawn and not worry about them trashing my car. Or I could see a falcon riding the thermals and then dive with no warning for a morsel down on the land below. Up there I could imagine myself anyone or anything. I didn't have to worry about a schedule or about time. I only had to keep careful track that I was on the agreed upon spot in a fortnight.
'Ahhh, I can smell it now. It won't be too long before I pass the Ranger station and I'm on my own.' Such thoughts sustained me these last few miles.
"Now you be careful up here, Sarana." My employer and friend, Bill Gillespe, warned me. "We will be waiting at the rendezvous point in two weeks. The children will be glad to have you back." I glanced at the middle-aged man, amused.
I chuckled at his thinly veiled plea. Every time I went on one of these hikes, he was always worried that I wouldn't come back. But I'd been doing this for over ten years. I am only twenty, but my mother had started me on these hikes as a child. It had been our time when I was a kid. In a family of eight, me being the only girl, mom and I needed "girl time". "Don't worry, Mr. Gillespie. I'll be there, right on time. And you'll only be without me tonight. Charlie will be there tomorrow morning." I didn't add what I wanted to, which was "as always."
Charlie was one of my best friends. She was an illustrator of children's books and gladly took two weeks every six months to care for the children that were normally my charges. She was just as great with them as the Gillespies swore I was. The good thing about being a full time nanny was that I could follow my preferred career of writing.
Granted, I hadn't actually sold a story yet. Several of my manuscripts were still out there. Hopefully, when I returned there would be some form of communication waiting for me. Still, I was good at it. I knew that. Just wish the publishers and editors did.
"I know, Sarana, but we still miss you." He said pulling off the highway, onto the access road that led up to the Ranger station, also pulling me out of my thoughts.
I had sucked in a breath. We were so close. I could almost feel the freedom calling to me as we pulled into the gravel parking lot. Mr. Gillespie parked the car and I almost bolted out of the door but managed to control myself. Sedately, most calmly, I got out of the sedan and waited while he opened the trunk. I threw my camera around my neck with the high power binoculars and reached in to get my pack. Grunting as I slung it up on my back, I started to buckle it into place and then stopped with a grimace. I had forgotten. A new policy in the National Park was that all "backtrail" hikers had to have their packs checked at the Ranger station before heading out. There they would get their pass that anyone could see that they had been inspected and that they were passed to be out on the trails.
Mr. Gillespie watched me, concern written on his face. I smiled, trying to give him reassurance that I knew what I was doing. Apparently it didn't work. His face still bore the look, as I finished grabbing things out of the trunk, shutting it carefully, the thud startling near by birds into squawking flight.
So I just shouldered the pack and trudged up to the Ranger station. Mr. Gillespie waiting outside to see if I needed to run back to the last town we had passed for any supplies. Inside, an older Ranger sat behind a desk arrayed with a computer and radio, with a very large map on the wall behind her. I glanced at it briefly, seeing trails denoted in different colors and campsites pegged out carefully. I walked up and cleared my throat politely since she was staring at the computer screen intently. The Ranger looked up with a smile. "Put your bag on the table and give me a sec." She looked back at the screen, tapping a few keys and moving the mouse a bit as I dropped my backpack with a sigh. Before the day was out I would gladly drop it.
Finally, the Ranger stood and stretched, coming around the desk to inspect the pack. She glanced over the craftsmanship of the pack, making sure all was in good repair. (I had already done that and sighed with relief that it was still in good repair.) She said nothing as she continued her inspection. So I stood and waited. She then began unpacking the pack and I barely held in a groan. It was hard enough packing the dang thing but to have to repack it before I even hit the trail was downright annoying!
Then she repacked it. I handed over my fanny pack so she could inspect that as well, since it contained a lot of my smaller things that I didn't want buried in the large one. Finally, she smiled and handed it back to me. "Well, young lady, it looks like you're prepared for everything short of nuclear fallout." She said chuckling a bit. I laughed as well, relieved that she hadn't found anything missing. That meant the trails would be all mine. She handed over an eliminated pass. I could barely contain my excitement. The time had come! Let the hiking begin!
Outside, I said my "see ya laters" to Mr. Gillespie. He admonished me one more time to be careful, a still concerned look on his face. I just turned away, unable to reassure him any more. Before he had even put the car into reverse, I was on the trail and into the wilderness.
I breathed deeply of the cleaner mountain air. Around me I could almost forget that I lived in the modern world. All around me, nature thrived and pulsed with life. I could hear birds calling to each other. Somewhere surely there were deer and elk grazing, without threat from guns or humans. I hoped to see them. Life was buzzing around me. It infused me with a sense of well being that only nature could provide.
Six days into my trip I'd already taken one roll of film. I smiled to myself reloading my camera. There were still four blank rolls in my pack. My steps came easier with every mile I walked. Every turn in the trail still brought a surprise for me.
It probably always would. No matter how long you looked at something, no matter how often, there was always something new to see. Or at least, that's how I found things. Or how they found me. All a matter of perspective really.
I enjoyed this so much. The one draw back to hiking the "back country" in the Blue Ridge Mountains was that I had to stop each night in my designated campsite. If I wasn't there and checked in, they'd give me a few hours after day break, and then send out the search and rescue teams. I preferred to camp on the trail but bent to the rules so that I could keep coming back.
If I lost my mountains, I'd probably be gnawing on the furniture within a year. I felt more… well more alive out here than anywhere else. Born and raised in a city I may have been, but I was at home out here.
Luckily these back trails were inaccessible to horses and pets and the like. So, I only had wild scat to worry about. Still it made life interesting. Overhead a bird of prey screamed and I looked up seeing a hawk, too far away to see what type, dive for some food I couldn't see below. So I walked on into the evening. I was a good couple hours hike from the next campsite, if I hustled. Which of course I had no plan of doing. I had pretty good night sight and not one, but two high power flashlights. So, I was quite happy to just idle along and make the campsite a bit late.
The Rangers tended to frown on it, but never said anything against it. Night hiking didn't bother me. Not really anyways. Besides, I did have the night lens on my camera and a flash. I could get some really nice night pictures. The nocturnal animals would make a nice addition to my photo albums (of which there were almost more than my books) back at the Gillespies.
Have you ever noticed just when things are going the best, when you're sure life is great, Fate reaches out and smacks you right on the back of your head? Well, they also say the best laid plans are the ones that end up in the worst disasters. So ready to hear my spectacular disaster? And it was singularly a spectacular disaster.
Anyways, I was walking along the trail which was pretty clear, when something just off of it caught my eye. Honestly I thought I saw some of the elk herd they had reintroduced into the area. So, prepping my camera and making sure I actually had film in it (I had done that once: taken almost a whole roll of pics of some spectacular wildlife only to find out there was no film in the darn thing!) I walked off the path into the woods. I was hoping to get some really nice shots of the elk. I had seen footage of them on the web and wanted to see some for myself.
Well, anyways. Being careful to watch where I put my feet, not only because I didn't want to trip on anything but I didn't want to step into anything. So even as carefully as I was watching my steps, something was bound to happen. And it did. Boy did something ever happen! I had almost gotten into a good spot when I saw the herd. Elk. Just what I had wanted, right there below me. The head stag (or what I assumed was the head stag) stood in stately repose.
Elk, and really all deer, were absolutely beautiful. This one more than most. I can't ever really decide if they, or the majestic birds-of-prey, are my favorite animals. Then again, there are horses, or cats. Cats I like simply for their "I really don't need you humans, ya know." attitude. But I digress. Again.
I pulled my camera up and quickly snapped off a few shots just of him. He was gorgeous! I just couldn't believe my luck! Looking around I saw mothers with young and a few young males hanging around as well. Thank you Lady of the Lake! (Sorry forgot to tell you: I'm a pagan.) Here in one spot were all the pictures I had really wanted to take. So, creeping forward, keeping my camera in front of my face, I never saw the drop off. I crept forward, keeping to cover so that they wouldn't spot me and hoping the wind wouldn't shift and send my scent down to them. Keeping them in my sight, I kept moving snapping off shots as I saw one that caught my fancy. As I was almost out of film I took another step into thin air.
Thin air is not something I recommend you try stepping on. Firstly, it doesn't hold your weight at all. Secondly, its always a shock when you begin that fall. Thirdly, well, there's the whole sudden stop at the end.
Down I went, falling quite fast, unable to stop myself. The bottom hadn't seemed that far away. Oddly enough, I saw the elk herd go into flight, hearing my fall. Finally I saw the base approaching, way too fast for my comfort. So, as I hit another bump and was turned about again, I cursed myself, my foolishness and my carelessness. Then all went black.