Fathom [On Hold]

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen: Stalemate 

By the time I get to the cave, I am way past exhaustion. The last steps seem like the longest ones I've taken in my life. I am not aware of sinking to my hands and knees, but only of the cool rock beneath them. Suddenly I feel the it  beneath my cheek, too. I must fall asleep at some point, because eventually everything just goes black. 

When I come to, I panic. I bolt up into a sitting position so fast that for a second spots cloud my vision. I stay very still for a moment and breathe steadily through my mouth until it passes. The last twenty four hours come rushing onto me like a tidal wave, and when I remember where I am I relax a bit. 

Jaycen and Saoirse look as though nothing short of an earthquake will wake them, and I know there's no way in hell I will be able to go back to sleep. Slowly I stand and stretch my arms over my head in efforts to relieve some of the achiness that lingers from sleeping in such an awkward position. I exit the cave, drinking in the sight of the mountain top. It seems like I haven't been here in centuries. 

It's different yet all too the same being back here. 

The sun shines directly over my head, indicating it's noontime. My stomach growls softly, but I'm so used to hunger by now that I barely notice. A small movement over by a near bush makes me start a little, but it turns out only to be a little gray squirrel. At first I pay it no mind, but then my hand absently brushes against the knife still tucked into my belt. What if maybe, just maybe....

Slowly I extract the blade, and take a cautious step towards the squirrel. Luckily it seems fixated on something else - a nut possibly - and takes no notice of me. I lift the knife up and over my shoulder, and then bring it forward and let it fly out of my hand. 

The knife sails into the bush roughly six inches from the squirrel, startling it and causing it to flee. 

"Damn it," I mutter, and head towards the bush to go and get it. Oh well, no breakfast (or lunch, I suppose) for me. 

I pace for a bit, eyeing the valley nervously. They came from the valley last time. From what I gather, they're creatures of blind habit. 

Every once in a while I poke my head into the cave to check on my companions, and every time I still find them fast asleep. 

After about an hour Jaycen wakes up. He looks like a little boy when he emerges from the mouth of the cave. His face flushed from sleep, hair sticking up at odd angles, eyes bleary and unguarded. His usually stoic countenance is absent for the time being, replaced with an expression of just simply being. Something I don't see from him often. 

"Good morning. Or afternoon, rather," I say. He blinks at me a few times, and rubs his fingers into his eyes. 

"What are you doing?" he asks in a gravelly voice. I grin mischievously and wave my prize up at him. 

"Hunting," I respond, the long stick I hold bobbing up and down in my hand. Various bugs are skewered on it to make a crude kabob. He laughs and shakes his head, plopping down next to me. 

"How long have you been up?" he asks. 

"A bit. Saoirse up yet?"

"Doesn't look like she will be for a while." I nod, and we are quiet for a while. I rub the stick in the dirt, tracing meaningless designs in the ground. 

"What are we going to do?" I ask, and he doesn't answer. I didn't expect him to. "We should tell Saoirse about - " 

"No," he says tersely. 

"She's going to find out at some point. What's the point of trying to hide it from her?" Once again, he fails to answer. "Why are you so opposed to it?"