Challenged - Skinwalker Book 2

Chapter 29

When Sierra woke the next day, she found herself in her bedroom. The drapes were closed and it was dark, but light was peeping around the edges of them indicating that the day was well along. She pushed the covers aside found her way to her feet slowly. At first she felt a little disoriented and faint, but the feeling soon passed. A glance at the clock told her that everyone would be downstairs finishing up their lunch.

Whoa! When last did I sleep like that? Not that it matters - I don't exactly have very much to do today...

She frowned and gave her ribs a little rub. They were barely even tender now - hardly worthy of such coddling. If they didn't heal up soon she was going to go crazy.

But I wasn't crazy yesterday, was I? I was surrounded by them - everyone was so close to me, and I didn't once even think of trying to touch them!

She smiled to herself, grabbed a towel and headed to the bathroom to freshen up. Then she stopped by the kitchen to grab a plateful of leftovers and went to the library. Since she'd last been there, she'd thought of a million things to search the internet for. Online Bestiaries, for one. Nanaue's for another. Energy manipulating were-creatures was a very new addition to that list. She sat down, tucked into at least half of the plate with a decidedly ravenous hunger, then pushed it back and nibbled at what remained while she tried to coach the computer to life. That was when she realised that something was wrong with it. The stupid thing was working, but there seemed to be some error connecting with the internet. She spent at least fifteen minutes fighting with it in dogged determination, trying every standard trick in the book. Finally she had to admit defeat and leave her search for another day.

She took her plate and headed over to the watch room. Her watch shift started soon anyway and she knew Ken and Senka would be working till then. Besides, she figured that she might be able to talk Ken into helping her figure out the problem with the library computer.

The door wasn't locked, so she pushed it open a little wider and slipped inside. Senka threw her a look that she wasn't even sure how to read, but Ken smiled warmly at her.

"How are you feeling this morn... er... this afternoon?" he asked her in a friendly tone.

"Pretty good now that I've had some brunch," Sierra replied heartily as she tucked into the last leg of cold turkey on her plate.

"I just went down to the library, but there was something wrong with the computer there," she noted as casually as she could.

"I'll check it out sometime. It shouldn't be anything serious," Ken remarked as he continued scrolling through the various articles on his screen.

Well that went well! Maybe I can try again later today...

He flipped a file full of items up onto the big screen and started going through them with tedious monotony, pausing only briefly to speed read or fact check the details that had made it fall into the high priority file folder in the first place. Sierra settled herself down behind them, half-heartedly paying attention to the screen as she mused over how seemingly effortless it was to be near them now that she'd stopped resisting the flow of their energy. Her eyes trailed over the back of Ken's neck then danced over to the image on the screen reflexively as he opened a file and started checking it. Something in the background of the picture caught her attention.

"Doesn't that box thing look a lot like Jocelyn's?" she remarked before taking another bite of turkey.

"What box?" Senka asked, suddenly interested.

It speaks!

"There, behind the nerdy-looking guy," she replied casually.

She took another bite. "It's not nearly as big, but those grooves on the sides look a lot like hieroglyphics - and the picture on the top looks like the flowery pattern that frames the sphinx on hers."