So...the Photobucket thing. I have no votes for 'nay' and two for 'yay'. So I'll draw the sketches, and post the link in the next chapter. A'ight?
Window to the Past
Chapter 14: I Can Do It
They're all idiots, Tristan thought sourly. They're so naive. That thing was going to kill us. And to think I was going to walk right into her trap.
He had been walking for a while now. Wayford was out of sight, and the sun was high up in the sky. High enough so that it was unclear which way north was. Tristan grimaced inwardly.
"They're going to hate me for this," he mumbled. But he kept walking, readjusting his grip on the sack over his shoulder. The journal seemed to call to him, but he ignored it. He couldn't afford to switch right now. He wasn't quite sure how the switch worked, but the journal seemed to speed it up. Somehow.
Tristan looked up at the sky again and frowned. The sun was already halfway to setting. The days go by pretty fast, he remarked. Then he realized he didn't have any shelter. The field also seemed to be quite barren; there weren't any places he could hunker down and sleep.
It looked like it'd be another all nighter.
Tristan, waiting for some sort of landmark to reveal itself on the horizon, quickly became bored. He began talking to himself quietly to amuse himself as he walked.
"We've been doing a lot of walking lately, haven't we?" he asked himself aloud.
Yes, I'd have to agree, he thought back in an aristocratic accent. All this travel by foot is simply murder on the feet, wouldn't you say?
"I do agree," Tristan said with a small smile, mimicking the same accent. "We simply must do something about this. Walking cross-country does not quite fit my fancy."
Nor mine. Say, do you believe we're going mad?
"What makes you say that, dear boy?"
We're talking to ourselves in quite a peculiar tone of voice, wouldn't you say?
"I'd have to concur, good man, though I do not think it a symptom of insanity. Rather, I assume it to be-"
Tristan froze. Something else was out there. Something big. Something menacing. Something...asleep.
The sun looked ready to set in the sky, granting Adrian a bit of light to survey his surroundings. He wasn't sure where he was, but he had heard the sound. Moving slowly and smoothly, he looked around, trying to pinpoint where the snoring was coming from. He looked straight ahead of him and swallowed nervously.
That black blob thing. It was back.
Adrian could hear the blood pumping through his body as he received a generous dose of adrenaline. He didn't move. Neither did the black thing. The only motion seen throughout the quickly darkening field was the slow motion of air moving in and out of the thing's body.
Adrian would have to go around.
Does it have ears? Can it hear me? he thought as he calmed himself down, trying to think back to his first encounter with it. Is this even the same one?
Carefully, with deliberate precision, Adrian inched forward, giving the black thing as wide a berth as he could. He had to remember which direction he was going, too; he'd probably need to keep walking all night to make progress towards Wyvern. Facing what he thought was northwest, he looked to his left.
He nearly shouted in surprise. The blob was still asleep.
Yet Adrian swore on his life that it had somehow gotten impossibly closer. It was looming over him now, no more than five feet away. Adrian finally got his first real look at it.
It was around eleven feet tall, if he had to guess. The black skin seemed to mix and swirl within the creature, making Adrian even more confused as to what matter it was made of. The sides had small round orange flaps circling the creature. Continuing on his way, he took another step.
The grass shifted slightly from his step.
A huge red eye was staring at her.
Alice nearly fainted right on the spot. Trembling violently, she dared not move as the pupil of the eye focused on her. Now she was pretty sure that she wouldn't move even if she had wanted to.
An agonizingly long time passed where neither of them gave any sort of movement to the other. Finally, though, the black thing began to back up. Slowly. As if it didn't want to make Alice angry.
Alice didn't catch on to this little nuance. The only thing she could hear was her heart beating violently somewhere in her body.
Then just like that, the black creature turned tail and fled, leaving Alice standing staggered on the field. She slumped down onto the grass below her.
"...What just happened?" she breathed.
"Update: We're on our way to Wyvern, I think," Alice wrote quickly. "I woke up staring that blob thing that most of us saw the second night in the face. And...it ran away. I didn't even do anything. But...now I don't know which way to go. I don't know if I'm facing north or west, or whatever. Let's make this exchange quick, so that we can get right back on our way."
"Hold up, it just ran away?" Adrian asked incredulously. "What the heck!? That thing looked like it was going to murder me!"
"But it didn't, and we should all be thankful," Daphne finished, ending the topic. "But we need to know which way is north."
"So we should probably just wait for the sun to rise again," Mia suggested.
"No, that won't work," Tristan asserted. "The sky's really cloudy. And if we can't see the moon, we can't see the sun."
"We don't need to," Toby wrote. "When I got out of Wayford, the sun was right behind the mountain. So if we just head towards the mountain, we'll be on the right course."
Toby closed the journal. In case anyone else came up, that should be good enough instructions for them to follow. He scanned the horizon looking for the mountains, then frowned when he saw it a bit farther back. Did someone go the wrong way? He shook his head.
Who would? Toby thought, shaking off the notion. We're all in this together, right?
Toby began walking towards the far-off mountain again, completely unaware of Tristan's deception.
And completely unaware of how warranted that deception had been.
"I hope you know where you're going with this," Chaos said as he read over my shoulder, unimpressed.
I turned around to face him. "That could've been a great end to the chapter, you know. And you just ruined it."
Chaos simply raised an eyebrow. "You only had around one thousand one hundred words. It'd be a pretty short chapter."
Wanting to come up with something to counter that, I left my mouth hanging open as I looked from my friend to the laptop, and back again. Finally, I closed it, admitting he was right. "Okay, fine. But what did you mean by what you said?"
"Do you have any idea what you're going to do up in that mountain?" he asked.
"Uh, ch-yeah!" I said, nodding my head.
"Don't do that."
"Okay."
"Well, if you think you're prepared enough," he brought up his hands and shook his head. "Then go ahead. I just don't want the story...derailing or anything like that."
I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean by that?"
"You kind of...get off track when you're writing," he said quietly, refusing to look me in the eye.
Crossing my arms, I stared at him defiantly. "Oh, yeah? Give me one example."
"The town they were in the first day," he stated immediately. "Why'd you put it in? They can't mention it anymore. The Mayor made them promise."
"I...I, uh..."
Chaos sighed and put his hand on my shoulder. "Look. I know you have the best intentions. You probably did have a plan for that town. But you got overzealous and it got out of hand." He straightened up. "Now. Do you have a plan for what's going to happen up in that mountain?"
It was more of a statement than a question. Probably because he already knew the answer. "...Not really...?"
"Can't say I didn't expect that..." he mumbled. "Here. Move over."
David, as he walked, felt an unnerving chill down his spine. The mountain was getting closer in front of him. The clouds were clearing away. He knew where he was going.
But something just didn't feel right.
David stopped. The mountain looked only about five minutes away now. Gazing up at the gigantic mound of earth before him, David started to feel afraid.
It's...so...big...
The far-off mountains weren't so far-off now. The ground started to slope gently upwards as it went, but by the looks of it, the going wouldn't always be so easy. David could've sworn the tip of the mountain was curving down to sneer at him, challenging him to scale it. The top was white, tipped with snow and ice. This betrayed exactly how large this mountain actually was. There even seemed to be some black smoke coming from the other side.
David wasn't ready for it. He couldn't do it. He didn't care if the others called him a kid or a wimp. This was one task he couldn't follow through on. Tears began to well up in his eyes.
"I can't do it," he whispered. "I got so much...they almost liked me...but they aren't going to-" he stopped, and sniffed. "-they aren't going t like me n-now..."
He could almost hear them talking.
Seriously? Can't you even freakin' climb a hill? Why are you even here?!
We're all very disappointed in you, David.
Calm down, guys. He's just a little kid. We've been asking too much of him already.
Maybe he should be on the backburner a bit, y'know? Like, we should repress him or something so he doesn't get hurt. This is a job for older people anyways, right?
That's a good idea. It's okay, Davey. We'll handle this, okay?
Okay. He can't climb the mountain. I'll do it.
"No!" David's quiet sadness gave way to self-caused fury. "I'm not a kid! I can take care of myself! I'll do it! I'll climb the mountain all by myself! I'll show all of you! You'll see!"
He stood up, staring down the mountain. "I'll show you! You think you're too big for me!?" David screamed as his voice became higher and higher. "I'm gonna climb you! I'm going to get to the other side! I'm going to get to Wyvin all by myself and there's nothing that's gonna stop me! You hear me?! NOTHING!"
Blinking back hot tears, David yanked the sack up from the ground and threw it over his shoulder. He began running down the path towards the far-off mountains.
I'll show all of you. I'm not a kid.
I can take care of myself.
"Holy crow, man," I breathed. "That's good."
"It was your idea, Cameron," he said, waving off my compliment. "All I did was write it."
"The writing's what I'm praising you for, dude! That's good!"
Chaos smiled. "Thanks. You want to take over?"
"No."
His smile disappeared. "Cameron, this is your story."
I gave a short huff. "Fine."
David was still grumbling under his breath about what the others had said about him as he walked upwards along the slope of the mountain. The air was starting to get a bit nippy, but David was able to block it out. He had to block it out. He couldn't be weak.
The sack was beginning to get heavy. He was tempted to take a drink of water from the canteen, but he restrained himself.
I don't need it, he thought, wincing as his throat cried out in protest. I don't need it.
The air began to get thinner. Was it? No. Air can't get thinner. It was probably just his imagination. He kept walking, ignoring the growing pain in his chest.
I'm not weak.
His vision began to blur. There seemed to be something in front of him. David blinked and his vision cleared. Whatever was there was gone. He smiled weakly.
I don't need help.
The air David breathed began to sting as it passed through his body. That's not normal, is it? David shook his head violently. He couldn't let those thoughts into his brain. He was going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
The ground changed from a pale green to a pale white. David wasn't exactly sure what this meant, but his feet were getting uncomfortable. He wasn't quite sure what this meant, either.
I can make it.
David's vision started blurring again. He blinked. It refused to clear. He felt some sort of cold thing pushing him to the left. What was that? It was cold, but when he tried to push it away, there was nothing there. What was that?
I can do it all by myself.
The peak. Where's the peak? David's breaths were short and shallow. But that's not bad, right? The water started calling his name again. Where's the peak? He could only see white. What is this stuff?
It's kind of cold.
Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Face. Get back up or they'll hate you. Left foot. Right foot. L...wait. No. Right foot. Face.
All by...myself...
David couldn't breathe. It wasn't like his dreams, though. This was different. His vision began to cloud. He started seeing black spots surrounding him, blinking in and out of existence. What are those?
They'll hate you...
David closed his eyes.