Ortai Legacy

2 - New World (L)

Three moons in various states of waning told me I almost certainly had a concussion. Wonderful. Which of James's two brain cells had decided to throw medieval weapons at people? I lifted one off my chest—a seven-foot pole with a thin metal doughnut on the end. It was engraved with symbolic runes. The outside of the doughnut was sharpened to a fine edge, so it was a miracle James hadn't split my head open with it. 

I touched my face, just to make sure I wasn't bleeding. No blood, luckily, but I was still going to kick James's butt.

I snorted. No, I wouldn't. I would probably struggle to tell him not to do it again before pretending to move on. But I would definitely daydream about kicking his butt.

Setting the weapon aside, I propped myself up on my elbows. Something was wrong. Something other than my triple vision. It took me a painfully long time to realize what it was. The insanity of a ritual that ended with weapons thrown at my face had distracted me. But when I realized where I was—or rather, where I wasn't—my heart jumped into my throat.

The ruins were gone, replaced by grass so tall that I couldn't see anything but the sky. Why the hell had James dragged me away from the ruins? I might actually have to hit him for this.

Leaning on the pole weapon, I stood in the chest-height grass. All around me grew more grass. Beyond that, rolling hills with even more grass. The nearest trees were at least half a mile away, and there couldn't have been more than five. I couldn't think of any area around Silvervale that had this much open ground. James was beyond insane.

I turned around, searching for any hint of street lights or lit windows. In the dark, any man-made light should've been visible from miles away. Where was James's car? He couldn't have actually left me here. He must've parked nearby to watch.

"James?" I shouted. "Grace?" I didn't think she was a part of this stupid prank, but she might've been dropped off somewhere around here. "I swear, if you don't come out right now-" I didn't have a clue how to finish that threat.

A low grunting sound made me shiver.

"James? That's not funny or scary or whatever. Just come out already."

Movement out of the corner of my eye drew my attention to a dark figure rising from the grass about fifty feet away. It was an animal the size of a small elephant or an enormous horse—maybe eight feet tall at the shoulder. I stood very, very still as it raised its head. The largest animal around Silvervale was a grizzly bear, but even standing on its hind legs, it would barely reach eight feet tall—and this animal was on all fours. It had to be a costume James and his friends were wearing. They wanted me to run and scream. I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction.

"This is stupid, James." I wished my voice hadn't risen an octave, but at least it wasn't shaking too badly. "I know it's you."

The 'animal' grunted again and started toward me at an alarming pace. I shouldn't run; it was just a costume. But it didn't move like a costume. It moved like a bear. Moonlight illuminated hairless wrinkly skin, which was an odd choice if James was trying to convince me it was a real bear.

"I've got the pole weapon, and I'll cut you, idiot!" I braced the butt of the pole against the ground, angling the sharp doughnut at the 'bear.' "I swear, I'll do it!"

The 'bear' was running too quickly for two or more people in a massive costume. It was too fluid, too real. But it couldn't be. Even polar bears weren't this big. What if it was something else, an elephant? A very angry elephant that escaped from a zoo or a circus or-

Whatever it was, it wanted to kill me.

I took off running perpendicular to the animal's path. Hopefully, it couldn't turn quickly. I didn't know the turning radius of an elephant, but I knew they could run over twenty miles per hour, and I could run about five miles per hour on a good day. I was so dead if I couldn't find a building to hide in. There had to be something around here. Please, let there be something.