Chasing Fate (Sentinel & Guide)

Chapter 55

[[Unedited. The clues are starting to line up, but not everything is as it seems]]

In a distant forest, another sentinel was also enjoying the darkness of the new moon. His steps were silent on the dry earth despite the heavy load he carried in his arms. To him, it felt like nothing. Everything was lighter without a soul. 

Vacant brown eyes stared blankly at the sky, the flecks of stars reflecting brightly. Drool dripped from her open mouth, and her breathing was so shallow it could barely be noticed. There was not much time left in this world for Marina. 

"A pity" he murmured as he crested a hill to reach a rocky mountain outcrop. His advanced vision could pick up the beautiful details of a rolling plain, a nature preserve. In the distance a few coyotes prowled, lifting their snouts to catch his scent in the wind. Somewhere in the distance, a mountain lion stalked its prey. 

He was rather unfamiliar with this type of ecosystem, but predators understood each other. None came to bother him on this night.  That was good. He had a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time. His eyes were beginning to perceive the first grays of dawn far in the horizon. He had a few hours at most.  

On this outcrop was a rather large boulder, a relic from a prehistoric landslide. He bent to sit his bundle down, turning her to face the coming sunrise. 

The sentinel stood back, staring down at her  with a calculating look on his face. He pulled open the small tarp she'd been wrapped in for the journey up. Revealing the emaciated body beneath.  

Marina was now unrecognizable to any and all who knew her. Her usually candy-colored hair was now its natural cherry brown, shaved away and regrown into an austere ponytail. Her once plump and rosy cheeks were sunken,part of her face misaligned from a hit. Despite the poor state of health, she was clean and dressed very strangely for a grown woman. 

The ponytail was capped with a ccarefully tied bow, and on her body was the easily recognizeable outfit of a Blair Ellison School student. The outfit was old, a little motheaten in places. The navy and sky blue plaid of the skirt and bow had faded, and the crest sewn into the sweater was loose. It was far too big, obviously made for a taller girl than Marina, and barely hanging on to her malnourished body. 

"You had been so close," the sentinel murmured. He crouched down to caress her cheek, pushing a stray hair back into place.  Her dark curls and deep brown skin were almost perfect matches, closer than any other had come. 

"But you were so...Misbehaved," his voice hardened into steel. His grip tightened, and several strands broke into his grip, pulled out to the root. Marina did not even wince, her heartbeat as slow as sleep, despite her eyes being wide open. 
 
"You thought you could win, didn't you?" he continued pulling, yanking strands until her scalp bled. "You thought someone would come and save you. Save all of you." 

Marina's face did not move. She did not respond as he took those hairs and moved away, rustling about as the darkness turned slowly into grey. Empty ears heard the sounds of digging, the sound of metal scraping against stone. In her years of capitivity, those sounds had become familiar. 

"But you weren't as smart as you thought, huh? You thought you were different, that you could keep a secret. But I'm your sentinel," He was laughing now, his teeth the only thing glistening in the near blackness,"Going against me is going against your own life. And now you'll get your punishment." 

The sentinel returned into view just as the sun began to crest the horizon "But I guess I should thank you. You helped me find my little bird."

At that, Marina's once unresponsive eyes began to glisten with tears. A red sky, a fat cloud of rain on the way. He'd planned it perfectly again.