The Nameless

Chapter Three: "Smoke and Water"

The girl woke choking in the night. Her breaths came in ragged, guttural gasps and she could not bring enough air into her lungs. The more she gulped at the air, the worse the situation became. Her panic served only to make things worse. It was pitch black and she imagined that her life was to end in a fit of mysterious choking atop an unfamiliar mountain peak. But it was not the end for the girl with the braids just yet.

A light appeared: the traveller holding a fresh torch, a grim look on his face. From the darkness a voice addressed him, little more than a rasp, but the voice carried and the girl imagined she would have heard it even had she been back in the foothills. The voice rattled her bones.

"Finally found someone else to lie to, observer."

"She's none of your business."

"Ceo will decide that."

"Not if I have anything to say about it. She comes with me to Fordham."

"I do her a favor, saving her from that fool's haven and taking her to a place where she can truly learn."

"You'll take her nowhere if she asphyxiates."

In that moment, the girl saw someone or something glide into the torchlight. It was a creature, a jot of floating black smoke in the relative form of a man. He had been directly over her, choking her with his essence. There was no face or mouth to be found on the creature, but the voice rasped once more.

"You can't stop me, observer. Try if you will. Try and bind grass to smoke, or have a tree swat at me. Two choices. She comes with me or she dies."

"I will follow," the traveller said, as if daring the creature to challenge him.

"Very well. Ceo would be most pleased to see you."

"I can assure you it won't be mutual. Are you alright?" This last was directed at the girl, who had largely been ignored in this exchange, though she had nearly choked to death.

"I think so," she said.

"Good. I suppose you'll have to follow this unpleasant creature."

He indicated the smoky form hovering between them. "Otherwise, he's made some unfortunate threats." The traveller did not seem nearly as concerned as the girl thought he ought to be, but his calm kept some of her own panic at bay.

And so they followed the wisp who had woken them from their pleasant slumber. It was sometimes hard to follow a creature without corporeal form, as he would drift from the road and into the open mountain air, only to find his way back and be frustrated at the lack of progress by his captives. The girl noticed that the traveller had drawn a soft type of moss to his face, wrapping his mouth and nose in its embrace. She imagined his was a precaution against their captive, should he decide that he did not want the traveller coming along after all. It occurred to the girl to ask where they were going, because it seemed to her that their path had hardly changed, though she assumed they were going somewhere else, at least it had seemed as such from the conversation between the traveller and the creature of smoke.

As a new day dawned, the three creatures found themselves at the edge of a still, mountain lake.

"The water is okay to drink," the traveller said. "In fact at Fordham many years ago there was a young apprentice who swam ac-"

"Enough," the smoke rasped. "None of your useless blathering."

The traveller fell silent but the girl was pleased not only at the cool, almost-sweet water she drew to her lips, but also by the presence of the traveller, whose attempt to tell her of the history of the lake brought her back to the happier days that were only hours in the past but seemed so far gone now that they marched in sullen silence lead by a noxious gas.