Advanced Clockwork: Young Writers Prize 2014

Chapter 16

As the sun set bellow the horizon, the cold winds of the desert sank their teeth into sandy skin making the burning hot barren wasteland as cold as ice. The caravans were stopped in the comfort of a rock formation that blocked most of the winds from both sides, all of the men, women, and children setting up fires to set the rugged camp alight in this dark hour. Most of the men were armed with their pistols and sabers, but they were more edgy about being out in the open in a dark of the night. Eve could hear the howls of the creatures that used to be so distant from her bedroom window with Gig and Samuel, yet to here everything was still a blob of black that clouded her vision to no end.

She sighed, leaning her back up against the wall of the dark interior of the caravan wagon she was in, her eyes still open but unseeing to what was around her. She missed the blurred shapes and colors now that she was stuck in this black void. But it wasn't completely horrid. It was actually fun, in a way. She expanded on her other sense that she had, hearing farther and her nose becoming more than just a little sensitive to other smells around her. She could hear what the people were saying from a few wagons over, she could smell the roasts they were making just a little father away. 'Was this what it was like to be Gig?' Eve wondered. 'She always did have those amazing senses, but I never took them into consideration.'

Sighing, she leaned her head back against the wall and let her eyes close even if it was still dark. She was blind, but it gave her something in return. It was strange to her how this could be a bad thing when it was simple and not so crippling. She could not see, but that meant that her other senses were better. But that wasn't what she enjoyed about it, it was the game that came with it.

Figuring out what the person looked like from just their voice to go by, a challenge that she would know the answer to in one day's time. When she listened, she could hear Sparrow yelling and barking orders, but Eve could always picture a woman who was worn from travel and loss with a broken smile that could have brighten the world if she were only younger. Ivin, when she listened, was young and child like. Innocent, caring, honest. She could just see the short black hair and sparkling polished opal eyes that would brighten when she was excited or dulled when she was sad. She would look like a boy though, since she was masquerading as one for now. But the tricky one in this game she played was Trev. He did not say much, and when he did it was as if he were an older brother that was trying to help. But the smells that fallowed him were like death and herbs boiled over in a disgusting aroma that clung to him everywhere he went. There was something wrong with him that was going to kill him in the end, she knew that. But what was it?

She snapped out of her thoughts when the voices started speaking just outside, the roaring of the camp fire muffled by the steal and wooden box she was in. She didn't need to press her ear to the wood to hear anymore, she just needed to be silent as a mouse. And that was what Eve did best, stay silent.

"The storm's getting worse over town." Sparrow mused by the fire light, Eve imaging that she was looking out at the way they had to go to get to their destination. "We might have to wait till it passes to even start heading there."

"I'll agree with that." Trev mused, the sound of his voice rasping a little as he took in a deep breath of something. "But what if the desert dogs find us? They have hunted our tracks before."

"We will deal with the animals later," She spat, her voice filled with a venom that was not fitting of a woman with a bird's name. "what we need to worry about it how to get the other clans to come together to fight."

"You mean you did this without talking to the council!?" Ivin squeaked after gagging on something. Eve hoped it was only water and not something they were cooking.

"I did this with them knowing that I would with or without them." She snapped, though she sounded a little less harsh than she was with Trev.

"Let me get this straight." Trev started, Eve imagining that he would shift so that he was facing her with a glare. "You did this, knowing full well that we would go at this alone, to start a war that no one is prepared for except us and your half-sister back in town?"