Between The Crystals

Ch 13 Strange Happenings

The cliffs hazed into sight as the ache in my chest, arms, and legs redoubled. It took a force of will to pass the snakes to someone and walk to the nearby hides without visibly shaking. I picked a spot on the ground and sat down harder than I intended to. Leaning my back against a rock, I closed my eyes and congratulated myself on being wise enough to not check an extra village.

I cracked an eyelid open, finding it odd that neither Grant nor any of the other porters were nearby. Sure, I was later than usual, but Grant rarely moved away from the main crystal until everyone had made it back safely. Perhaps it was for the best. It would give me a few minutes to regain my strength before he made an appearance.

I stretched my legs out, trying my best to look lazy, as if I was just humoring my adoptive father's instructions to rest and wasn't trying to ease the ache left by notable porting strain.

The ache had halfway faded by the time footsteps approached.

"You were gone longer than I expected," Grant said.

I opened my eyes as he took a seat on a nearby rock.

"I pushed myself a bit farther than I should have," I admitted. "And, no, I didn't pass out, so you can save your lecture for someone else."

He chuckled faintly, less concerned than I expected. I pulled the shard out of my shirt and passed it to him.

"I only found one, although it wasn't for my lack of trying. One crystal had a crack, so it'll probably shed it sometime in a month or so. What did you learn?"

The faint amusement on his face disappeared. "Mason was from Veredyl Village. He's actually the son of one of the porters. They've been reunited." He gave me a pointed look. "The boy is still too traumatized to say much, but he says the lizards found him hiding in his room."

"Does he remember how he got to the forest?" I asked, pulling myself into a sitting position.

"Sounds like the Saursunes wrapped him in a blanket and took him to a small forest circled by brown cliffs too smooth to climb. No crystal, and no obvious way out. The Saursunes came back in the morning, wrapped him in a blanket again, and left him by the crystal you found him at." Grant shrugged. "His father might get more out of him later."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Have the Saursunes ever done anything like this before?"

"Not that anyone remembers, but Mason wasn't the only one the Saursunes relocated."

I gaped at him, completely and utterly shocked. "There were others?"

"Two. One was a teenager they left near one of the savannah crystals. Most of our information came from her. She was found by a returning hunter group. She also said the Saursunes caught her in a net and put her in the small forest with Mason until today. The scanner located a tracker on her anklet."

"And the third one?"

"A man who blacked out when he fell and hit his head. He woke up near a field yesterday and was found by the group raiding the grain."

This one was too easy to guess. "He had a tracker?"

"Two, according to the scanner, and one pointed to his stomach. There's no marks or cuts, so it's not under his skin. All we can guess is that they stuck it in his mouth and he swallowed it before he woke up. He's currently in an abandoned village and hoping to pass the tracker in a couple of days."

Goosebumps crawled up my arms despite the desert heat. "That's...a rather chilling story."

"It gets weirder."