To Rhial

6

Desmond

The warmth of her arms, the calming sensation of being in bed became a crackling fire and chilled earth. Alone, up for the rest of the night. I had nodded off for a couple minutes only to reawaken to whispers. Video didn't wake anyone up for another watch. I would have heard it. Hell, I heard damn near everything in the forest all night long. The woods around us were so alive and painfully loud. Every chirp from what sounded like frogs and insects was grating on my ears, a hundred decibels louder than before. Her whispers were like a soft breeze between the grating chirps and I couldn't stop my ears from focusing on them, even though she was facing away from me and by any right I should not have been able to hear her. Once the migraine set in, her voice was the only thing I could pay attention to without going nuts. Every now and then I would nod off again, returning to that bed, to my happy place, then I would be rudely awakened by some distant screech of an animal.

Between her whispers and the grating noises of the forest, I never got a chance to put my mind to rest. We all missed our families, me probably the least. To be whisked away out of nowhere and dropped here jarred me. I didn't want to be alone with my thoughts. They hurt more than the unbearable cacophony of noise. If it was bad for me, it had to be bad for the others. My only goal was to get everyone to safety in one piece. I didn't exactly have many worries aside from their own dipshittery.

"Get up cocksuckers! It's the dawn of our new lives!"

I shot up straight and the world spun around me like I was a top, sending me back onto my ass in less than a second. My head pulsed harder as the migraine took hold and my stomach twisted. I propped myself up and slowly rose to not provoke the head pain, but it worsened yet. I painfully glanced around and saw everyone laying down, but sure enough their heartbeats were rapid after I yelled. And fuck all if that wasn't the most unsettling thing I had ever heard. It was like listening to their heartbeats through a stethoscope, except everything around me was amplified to that oppressive level. I covered my ears and let my eyes do the sensing. So much shit everywhere. The sun's excessive light burned into my corneas, but when I looked down I could see for miles through the forest with complete clarity. My eyes strained like they were being squeezed violently, like they wanted to pop right out of my head.

I fell to my knees, grasping at the sides of my head. I covered my eyes and ears, only to realize my nose was just as strong. The forest didn't smell particularly bad, but I picked up on scents from all over. I couldn't explain it, but I could recognize the scent of my friends. Adam smelled like damp earth, Tells smelled similar to pine, Brenden smelled like milky flowers, and Vegemite smelled like sulfur and roses.

In and out, in and out. Deep breaths. Fuck! It hurts. I can't even clear my head. Are they getting up? Yeah, and two of them are coming toward me. Sulfur and milky flowers.

A rosy hand fell on my shoulder and my eyes locked with the two across from me. Brenden's light blue eyes and Vasectomy's deep red eyes with vertical pupils locked on me in worry. I snapped backward, pushing away from them as their smells overwhelmed my nose and my own heartbeat pounded in my ears.

"Stay back! Just, fuck off for a minute, please! I can't-" my breathing sped up and I didn't know if I could slow it down again. My head was on the verge of exploding.

All of a sudden I couldn't hear or see, and the only smell around me was damp earth. It reminded me of being back home, on hazy summer days where I would go to the firing range and shoot to my heart's content. Walking through the mud to put out targets and feeling the damp mist on my face. The scent of soil and gun smoke washed over me on that quiet range out in the woods. Just me and my rifle.

I opened my eyes, calm as I have ever been. Adam had me in a tight bear hug. I pushed away from him, realizing my senses were gone. I stared into his sunlit eyes for a moment.

He put a hand on my shoulder. "You good?"

"Uh, yeah, no homo."

I realized that I had blood on my fingers, looked up at him, then felt around my eyes and ears, where I had been digging into my own skin because my senses were so overbearing.

"Peachy." I turned around and Velma was already taking out her book.

"Alright, Squiddy, lemme fix those eyes for you."

She waved her hands in some strange motions that made a bunch of weird shapes in the air and then reached out to touch my face. I instinctively pulled away.

"Bro, just let me fuckin' heal you."

"Don't waste the magic. We don't know how much you have. I'll wipe it up, I barely scratched myself."

She furrowed her brows dismissively. "Yeah, okay then."

I remembered everything she had been muttering to herself in the night and I couldn't help keeping my distance.

My old friend is still in there, right? Rowan's still in there even though he looks different?

I glanced at Adam and Brenden, then Tells.

They're all different. Me too. She's still him. Guess I'm still just getting used to it.

I sighed and looked up at the group, who were making a spectacle of me. "While I was looking around, I saw the forest end and some kind of clearing in this direction. A few miles out I think. It's where the wagon would have been coming from, so maybe it's where we're supposed to go."

Everyone turned away to look at the area except Brenden, who I had lost. I couldn't hear him approach, but his hand touched my shoulder anyway and I damn near jumped out of my skin. Couldn't I hear everything? Brenden's hushed voice pulled me away from the group.

"Fucking shit!" I put a hand on my chest and let out a deep breath.

He shot back in response to me being scared. "Shit, man, take it easy. Did you see what was ahead of the wagon?"

"Yeah, it seemed like it was a cave or something, but we got our shit rocked yesterday. I don't think getting lost in a cave system is exactly the best plan."

"Maybe. Best thing for us might just be to get some gear and learn how to use our weapons better. I know you prefer blasting shit with guns, but that bow might be the only thing we can rely on for now, considering you're the only one of us who's shot a bow more than once."

I popped my knuckles one by one as I thought, then flipped the flimsy wooden bow in my hands. Sure, there was plenty of tension and it was crafted sturdy enough, but it completely relied on the strength of the one pulling the string and would take a lot of training to used effectively for long periods of time.

"I use compound bows, not this garbage primitive shit. I can pull it back, but it's gonna kill my arm fast. And aiming with it is gonna take some time to learn. And look at this."

"Alright, well I'm gonna be reading through this book to see if I can find any magic to help you fight, but don't count on it. Adam is strong, but he doesn't know how to use his sword, or really his body at all. Tells has been really quiet, so I don't know if she can be of much help with her weapons cause I'm pretty sure she's having an existential crisis. And Vetia seems pretty useless aside from her healing."

"Oh yeah, that's her name. Sure. If you can help, that would be great. I wanna get the hell out of this forest though. I like forests that aren't homes to gigantic wooly mammoths, forests I can chill in and hunt without worrying about some fantasy bullshit. If the mammoth is native to here, then there's gonna be other shit that hunts those fuckers and I do not want to get caught out by one."

"Me too, buddy. There's gotta be civilization nearby." Brenden gazed off into the forest longingly and then back to me. "Well, you're the eyes. Lead the way."

"Word. Break."

I walked back over toward the others, whistled, and pointed in the direction of the forest. We packed all our shit up on Adam and started off toward whatever was on the other side of the trees.