Jumper

Chapter 7: Arid Air

I can't breathe. A rough texture pulls into my body, it covers me.

It's so cold it burns. So very cold. I try to inhale but I clog up with the rough texture-sand-and it burns. Burns.

Must open my eyes.

Burns.

The curtain opens. My eyes are vulnerable to the world, and again a burn.

Burn all throughout my body. I'm so light.

My eyes feel dry,like a cold stone. They feel deprived of oxygen, and the air dries them more. I need them moist. Lukewarm tears stream down my face. My whole body is so dry. I lick my lips, only to find my mouth is dry and bitter.

So arid.

My eyes are open yet I don't see-I'm not trying to see.

Focus.

Hurts.

Come into view.

A black sky. Little lights flickering. Darkness with shadows ahead of me. People.

People.

People.

That inhale I last took becomes an exhale of pure power, two invisible arms full of power that lift me up and make me sit, fast and swift like a recoil.

I cough, a cloud of sand that sprays out into the dry air.

I can breathe.

"Good, you've woken up." A man tells me. His eyes are cold like the night and empty like the dark sky above, a little twinkle of light that sparkles on each pit of darkness. He takes a deep breath and a cloud of his exhale appears and fades away like a storm cloud.

To my right, a girl stands watching me with worry. Her lips are pursed and her eyes are impossible to read. I snap with recognition-I know who this is. I don't know her, but I have seen her.

Seen that face.

The ash hair, black and shiny, and the olive green eyes. She sees me too-she remembers.

But how? What happened when I saw her in my mind?

"I've seen you." I say.

She is taken aback, and I see her flinch. Her eyes look sharp now, wide and clean cut, ready to split me in two.

"No, you haven't." She says with almost command, as if she's telling me what I have and haven't seen.

I open my mouth to speak but I lack or words to say, afraid the ones I make could damage whatever she's trying to hide or ruin my chances of later speaking to her privately about this. Instead, I lay back down on the ground.

A crisp hand appears in front of my face, and I grab on. I stand and look to the person who reached out to me-the girl.

"I'm Malayne." She says. Malayne. Moon. The name fits her well, mysterious and luminous.

"Ribenar. But call me Robyn." I smile weakly, and she makes an effort to smile back, but it lacks feeling.

And trust.

The cold looking man comes up to me and his icy breath chills me. He holds out a hand for me to shake, and as I shake it, I can't help but feel uncomfortable by the stiffness of his hand. It feels like a stone that has rested long in the night, cold and frozen to the touch.  His face holds a wry smile, sharp and slanted like an icicle that pierces me as it falls. "I'm Abeth, the chief of the Desert Tribe. Welcome."