Gravity Rises (S3)

PP: Part Eight

Lincoln woke with an unidentifiable dread in his stomach.

He was lying on a hard surface on his back. His eyes fluttered open, revealing a thatched roof above his head. Light came through a high window just beneath the thatching. The area was comfortably warm, and someone had taken off Lee's snow gear. He was wearing only a t-shirt and jeans.

Lee stared at the thatching, trying to figure out where he was.

Then he remembered, and he sat bolt upright.

"Woah," said a voice. "Are you okay?"

Lincoln whirled around and found himself face to face with a minotaur. The sight startled him; he put his hands up defensively. "Stay back," he said on instinct.

"It's okay," said the minotaur. "I won't hurt you."

As Lee calmed down from his initial scare, he looked closer at the minotaur. She appeared to be a female, with a more narrow face, a slender body, and a shirt over her round breast. The shirt was leather; it appeared to be armor of some kind.

"Sorry," Lincoln said. "You startled me."

"Do you remember what happened before you fell unconscious?" she asked.

Lincoln thought back. The memory of what had happened — Bill possessing him and coming to the minotaur village, Bill getting Lincoln knocked out, Lincoln watching as a spirit as the minotaurs brought him to this hut — came back easily. "Yes, I remember," he said. "Am I a prisoner?"

The minotaur nodded. "You are. But, like I said, we won't hurt you."

"Thank you," he said quietly. "What's your name?"

"I'm Xítway," she said, making a hissing noise at the beginning that Lincoln would never have expected to hear from a cow. But, he reminded himself, she wasn't a cow — her head just happened to look somewhat like one.

"Heet-wuy?" he repeated, trying out the name.

She nodded. "Xítway." The name rolled off her tongue easier than it did his. "I'm your guard."

He stiffened a bit at the word "guard," then forced himself to relax. "Nice to meet you. I'm Lincoln."

She tilted her head. "They told me your name was Stanley," she said.

"It is, but I go by Lincoln," he said, "or Lee." Though he accepted that Stanley was his "real name," he didn't feel comfortable with it. He frowned. "Wait, who told you my name was Stanley?"

"Andrew did," Xítway answered. "He learned from your brother."

"Stanford was here?"

"Yes, a few hours ago. He plans to come back sometime and visit you."

Lincoln's heart lifted. Stanford knew where he was, and he was going to come see him. That was enough to make Lee feel better. Plus, Ford would never allow the minotaurs to keep Lee captive if he thought Lee was in danger. Feeling a lot safer, Lincoln asked, "And who's Andrew?"

"I'll let him introduce himself," she replied. "He wants to talk to you."

"Is he another minotaur?"

"Yes."

Lincoln frowned. "Then why does he have an English name, but you don't?"

Xítway flicked her ears; she seemed amused. "We minotaurs get our names from all over the place: our old dimension, the native American tribes from this area, the English-speaking humans of today. Our names and our native language are a big mixture."