Catalyst

Chapter 12

Warnings: Language, Violence

Chapter 12:
402 A.V; Month 9; Day 18

The grass grew up into the sky. It was so tall it faded up into blue nothing, clouds swirling around the leaves. My back was on the ground and all I could seem to do was look upward, at the clouds. Then, there was cawing and the flapping of wings. Two crows circled above. The grass ballooned before me and the world was tipping or I was standing up. After I was on my feet I looked around for the grass and there was nothing but dirt, lying in the middle of the empty ground was a black mass. Slowly, I walked forward, with pounding footsteps. There, lying on the ground was a dead crow, its wings splayed out, its neck bent at an odd angle, and its eyes cold and unseeing. I knelt down, feeling extreme sadness. My bird had died. I picked it up and its wings drooped, its head lolled off to the side. For some reason I couldn't see it, very well, but my hands grew slick with blood, black blood, like oil. The feathers melted away to reveal flesh, bone, and maggots. I screamed, dropping it and scrambling to my feet. There was nowhere to run. There were arms around me, hands dragging me down.

I screamed again and struggled away only to sit up with a shout, making Payton jump.

"You okay?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. It had to be early morning some time. The sky wasn't pitch black, but it wasn't bright either. I let out a breath and ran my fingers into my hair.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I told him, lowering my hands to grab a canteen. It'd been almost two weeks and we were running low on everything. I took a small sip of water and put the canteen back down.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," he said. I ran my hands down my face and tried to concentrate.

My dreams had been getting increasingly nightmarish. It was the second night in a row that I'd actually shot out of sleep. Sabre had been awake the first time and said close to the same things. He'd tried to touch my face, though. It just so happened that I had dreamed him tearing the wings off the second crow as it cried out for me to save it.

"I don't know, Payton," I murmured, "Maybe." He sat there quietly, not saying anything for a moment.

"It's probably just the stress of traveling."

"I hope so." He rubbed his eyes again and I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep again. "Get some more sleep. I'm not getting back to sleep if I tried."

"Nah, I'm fine, seriously. You probably only got a few hours in."

He was a good kid, no matter what Sabre thought. Whether he looked up to me in some manner or respected me, he was always looking out for me, and Leola as well. He'd offer to carry extra weight, stay up longer to watch, walk even though he had blisters on his feet.

I did eventually lie back, but instead of sleeping, I watched the stars slowly fade into an overcast dawn. Finally, I sat up and began to move about. Payton slowly woke Leola and I reached over and shook Sabre's shoulder. He squinted and blinked awake. When he saw that I was there, a wicked grin came over his face.

"I was having a nice dream about you," he murmured, slowly reaching up as if he were going to touch my face. For a moment, I saw the warmth in his expression, but below all that I saw the burning need for more. I backed up out of his reach.

"We need to keep moving," I stated and got up.

It instantly put a frown on his face, but I was always making him frown so one more wasn't going to matter. We packed up camp as the sky started to roil. I could smell the rain that was on its way. Sabre looked around and then focused on something in the distance.