“We’re not in the Primary Continuum.” Gabriel’s shoulders began to tighten again.
“We’re in an alternate branch of time?” Teresa frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. But it’s worse than that.” Gabriel’s voice rang with despair. “We’re in an alternate branch of an alternate branch of time. We’re two bifurcated realities away from the Primary Continuum.”
“How could the Apollyons even do that? Create a bifurcation this far back in time?” A look of confusion crossed Teresa’s face as she tried to puzzle out an answer to her question.
“I don’t know.” Gabriel thought about it for a second, applying what he knew and what he had intuited of the Primary Continuum. “If they destroyed a significant species it could create a bifurcation this far in the past. But they would need to do it again in the first alternate timeline to create the second one.”
“Which means life could evolve completely different in this world.” Teresa glanced around at the jungle foliage.
“Maybe.” Gabriel wasn’t certain how life in a tertiary continuum might develop. “Humans may still evolve the same way since the dinosaurs will probably still be wiped out.”
“Why go through all that trouble?”
“Because it makes a safe hiding place…and a perfect prison.”
Teresa looked away from Gabriel and sat in silence. She grasped the intricacies of time travel as well as any Time Mage. She understood what it meant to be lost with no relics in an alternate branch of time, much less what being marooned two branches of time away from the Primary Continuum implied. While a Time Mage could find someone with a relic by searching its past with their space-time sense, this became a much less predictable endeavor when using a relic from an alternate branch of time.
Alternate branches of time were, by their very natures, less stable than the Primary Continuum itself. This allowed them to absorb greater changes to events in their timelines without bifurcations easily being formed. History in an alternate reality would essentially rewrite itself to compensate for even serious variations. Events could change. People could appear or disappear. Alternate timelines were flexible.
However, massive changes in these secondary continuums would produce new bifurcations, creating tertiary alternate branches, like those of a tree trunk splitting outwards. These tertiary continuums were even less stable, able to absorb wild changes to their timelines, potentially altering the past and future in fluid ways. While this meant these timelines were less prone to bifurcations, it also meant that relics within them were unreliable for time travel. In a continuum where the future might change, a relic became an unpredictable method of finding a fixed point in time. More importantly, it made locating someone lost along the timeline of a relic in a tertiary continuum impossible.
“Cross-dimensional degraded chrono-coherency,” Teresa finally said.
“Exactly.” Gabriel had no idea what the words meant, but he knew she recognized their predicament.
“That leaves us with only one choice.” Teresa’s face hardened as she turned back to Gabriel. “You have to go back alone.”
“What?” Gabriel blinked in surprise. “No.”
“You have to.” Teresa’s voice sounded fierce. “They need you. The Council. The war. Saving the Great Barrier. You’re essential to all of that. You need to go back, no matter what. I’m expendable. You know that.”
“You’re not expendable to me.” Gabriel glared at Teresa, his eyes filled with anger and fear. The responsibility for the danger threatening her rested with him. He would not leave her behind.
“This is about more than you and me.” Teresa grabbed his other hand to hold them both in her own. “We have to think of more than ourselves. You have to consider more than me. They can’t save the Great Barrier without you. I know that like I know I love you. Without you, the Apollyons will win. You have to go back.”
Gabriel sighed, emotions roiling within his chest and making his arms weak.
“Even if I agreed to leave you behind — which I won’t — it’s not as simple as that.”
“You can manage enough magic to take yourself through time. I’ve seen you do it.” Teresa’s voice quavered with her passion. “You can use yourself as a relic.”
“I doubt it.” Gabriel shook his head. “Do you think the Apollyons chose an alternate world, two steps removed from the Primary Continuum, where I actually exist in some form? Whatever the future of 1980 CE looks like in this reality, I guarantee you, I won’t be in it. And I can’t imagine the amount of magical energy it would take to use myself as a relic to jump straight back to the Primary Continuum, or if that’s even possible.”
“You can find a fossil here in the past and then locate some relic in the future that exists in both this world and the Primary Continuum,” Teresa said. “It may take a while but you can do it. It’s not impossible.”
“No, it’s not impossible,” Gabriel said. “That exactly what I’m going to do, only I’m taking you with me.”
“You’ve never been able to take anyone with you on a time jump without a talisman, and you don’t have time to learn how now.” Teresa threw Gabriel’s hands away and crossed her arms.
“I will practice until I am strong enough to take us both forward in time with a fossil so we can find a talisman and a relic we can use to get back to the Primary Continuum.”
“And how long will that take? Six months? A year? Two? Ten? How do we survive that long? No, you need to go. Now.”
Gabriel glared at Teresa. Why was she being so stubborn? Couldn’t she see he had no choice, no matter how long his plan might take?
“You’re the one who made me promise not to leave you behind.” Gabriel’s fear swiftly transformed to anger. “You’re the one who said we have to watch each other’s backs. I’m watching your back.”
“This is not what I was talking about.” Teresa’s eyes narrowed as her nostrils flared. “I was talking about you leaving me behind to protect me while you went off to do something stupid.”
“I was trying to leave you behind so you would be safe.” Gabriel shook his head in frustration. “Now you want me to leave you behind so you can die.”
“I am not a fragile thing to be protected in a basket.” Teresa’s voice began to rise in volume as it lowered in pitch. “I am not the Seventh True Mage’s girlfriend. I am me. I don’t need to be protected any more than the Council needed to protect you by hiding you away.”
“I wouldn’t be hiding you away,” Gabriel shouted. “I’d be letting you die to save me.”
“Exactly!” Teresa got to her feet and started to pace along the jungle moss. “You would die to save me. I should be able to make that same choice. We all risk our lives fighting this war. People make sacrifices and they die. It’s my life. I’m giving it to save you and to save the war. There’s more at stake than my life.”
“And what would happen to me if I leave you to die, have you considered that?” Gabriel stood up to face Teresa. “What would that do to me? How do I live with myself? How do I face down a hundred Apollyons knowing I killed you just so I could fight them? I don’t want to be that person. I refuse to be that person. You may die one day, but it won’t be because I didn’t do everything I could to save you.”
“You are so stubborn.” Teresa threw her hands up in exasperation.
“Would you leave me behind to help the Council win the war?” Gabriel stomped toward Teresa and thrust his face next to hers. “Would you leave me to die here in this jungle if you could travel through time to save yourself?”
“Yes.” Teresa’s lower lip twitched as she wiped tears from her eyes.
“Liar,” Gabriel growled, the ball of anger in his chest feeling like it might explode.
“I would. I would leave you if it meant saving everyone else. I would.” Teresa bit her lower lip to cease its continual twitching.
Gabriel stared at her in silence, holding his breath.
“I would. I’d leave you behind
to save everyone else.”
Gabriel said nothing, his lungs holding tight to air that filled them.
“I would.”
Teresa seemed to vibrate with anger, her hands clenched at her sides as she held her breath, the silence stretching out between them as they stared into each other’s eyes.
“Idiot.” Teresa’s shoulder’s slumped in defeat.
Gabriel released his breath in a long sigh, anger leaving him like water flooding from an upturned bucket. He held out his arms and Teresa fell into them, wrapping hers tightly around his ribs as she buried her face in his chest.
“I’d never leave you behind. Ever.”
“I know.” Gabriel tilted his head down to hers. “We’ll get back. Together. I know we will.”
“I hope so.” Teresa raised her lips. “I really don’t want to play Little House on the Paleozoic Prairie.”
They kissed as the insects hummed nearby, oblivious for a short time to their predicament. Many moments passed in perfect bliss before Gabriel’s senses overwhelmed his concentration, pulling him back to the jungle as he pulled away from Teresa’s lips.
“Did you feel that?”
“Feel what?”
The ground shook beneath their feet, vibrations running up along Gabriel’s legs.
“Where have all the insects gone?” Teresa glanced around them.
“Something is coming.” The ground trembled again and Gabriel tried to gauge the direction of its origin.
“You think maybe we made too much noise?” Teresa stood beside Gabriel, still holding his hand.
“No more yelling in the jungle.”
“You were yelling. I raised my voice for emphasis.”
The colossal leaves of the trees began to vibrate and sway as the shaking of the earth grew in intensity.
“I think something big and ugly is coming,” Teresa said.
The leaves before them parted to reveal a long leathery snout.
“I think we should run,” Gabriel released Teresa’s hand as they spun on their feet and dashed into the trees, clasping hands once more as they raced between branches and bushes.
As they fled, Gabriel glanced back to see what looked very much like a dragon pounding through the jungle behind them.
Chapter 11
The spiny edges of wide leaves scraped Gabriel’s arms and face as he and Teresa ran, hand in hand, through the dense jungle, leaping over fallen tree trunks, pulling each other along, racing to outpace the creature crashing through the underbrush behind them
Gabriel glanced back at the massive reptile-like monster closing the gap between them, the tall, spiny fin along its back whacking tree branches as its four squat legs propelled its nearly ten foot long body through the jungle.
“I think that’s a Pelycosaur,” Gabriel panted.
“Great!” Teresa knocked a tree branch from their path and pulled Gabriel to the left. “I think they’re carnivores.”
“Since we’re the only mammals in sight for millions of years, that makes us an easy lunch.” Gabriel tugged Teresa to the right, running between two close-set trees. “I hear something.”
“More giant uglies?” Teresa glanced from side to side as they ran.
“No. Water.” Gabriel heard it clearly, even over the racket they made rushing through the jungle foliage. The roaring sound of moving water came from straight ahead. A second later he spotted a turbulent blue river coursing between the vibrant green of the jungle.
“A river?” Teresa looked behind briefly before turning to run faster. “That giant reptile’s ancestors were amphibians a few million years ago. What if it can swim?”
“I’m hoping the current will be too fast for it.” Gabriel saw white crests of water in the river.
“We could always try to fight it off with magic,” Teresa said.
“If I thought I could stop panicking long enough to focus my mind, I might try,” Gabriel said. “But I’m not even sure how much magic I could manage.”
“Neither am I,” Teresa looked to Gabriel and gave him a wild, terrified grin. “I guess we swim.”
Gabriel and Teresa burst from the thick jungle leaves and leapt blindly into the swiftly flowing waters, the churning current sweeping them in circular eddies as it carried them rapidly downstream and toward the middle of the river.
They surfaced together, still holding hands, spitting water from their mouths and trying to steer themselves with their free arms. The river stretched 100 feet from bank to bank and seemed to be at least 15 feet deep. Gabriel looked back to see the Pelycosaur rush from the jungle and flop half into the water as it tried to stop itself from falling in the river. The creature’s powerful hind legs dug into the earth, pulling it back to the edge of the riverbank.
“It worked. It’s staying out of the river.” Gabriel thought the look on its face appeared almost dejected at being denied a succulent meal.
“Wonderful. Now all we have to do is keep from drowning.” Teresa’s legs kicked in the direction of the shoreline.
“We should stay in the river and put some distance between us and our lizard friend.” Gabriel tried to match the stroke of Teresa’s free arm. It would be easier to swim if they let go of each other but also more likely that one of them might be carried along the current alone.
“Good idea.” Teresa bobbed in the water. “But the river is getting faster. We’ll be safer near the shore.”
As Gabriel paddled toward the slower, shallower water along the shoreline, he spotted something upriver behind them. Something in the water. Something that looked like a large log. A large log with four legs. Four legs and two eyes poking up above the water line. Eyes that were looking right at Gabriel.
“Bad idea. Change of plan. We need to get out of the water. Now!” Gabriel watched as the crocodile-like creature’s legs churned the water, propelling it in their direction.
“Why?” Teresa glanced over her shoulder, swallowing a mouthful of water when she saw what pursued them. “Seriously? Do I have a sign on my back that says eat me?”
“Over there.” Gabriel pointed between strokes of his free arm toward a slight clearing along the river’s edge twenty feet away. If they timed their swim toward the shore correctly, the river’s current would take them right to the clearing.
Gabriel looked back, seeing the eyes of the amphibious beast 15 feet behind them. They reached the shoreline, letting go of each other’s hands and using low hanging branches to pull themselves from the water and up onto the soft grass carpeting the small clearing. Gabriel jumped to his feet as he looked behind to see wide, tooth-filled jaws snapping out of the water. He knew they had no time to run. They need to fight the creature and scare it off, if not kill it. He focused his mind to manifest the subtle energy of his body, calling it forth as the massive reptile’s powerful claws tore into the wet earth of the riverbank, pulling it closer, its enormous mouth only a few feet away. He struggled unsuccessfully to get his energy to align with his will. Realizing he would be too late, he abandoned the effort and frantically scanned the ground for a fallen branch or rock he could use as a weapon.
“Run.” Gabriel said, hoping to distract the prehistoric crocodile long enough for Teresa to escape.
Gabriel looked over toward Teresa just in time to see a slender filament of lightning arc from her index finger and strike the charging creature on its snout. The reptile skidded to a halt with a wild, guttural yelp of pain, shook it elongated head vigorously, and then turned to slide back into the waters of the river.
“Nice shooting, Annie Oakley.” Gabriel grinned at Teresa. He knew she had been practicing cultivating her subtle energy, but he had never seen her manage more Fire Magic than lighting an oil lamp.
“I thought that thing was going to eat us.” Teresa wiped water from her face and wrung her hair. “I guess a little fear helps focus my mind.”
“It didn’t do anything for mine.” Gabriel shook the water out of his own hair. “I was preparing to hit it with a rock.”
“And if I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have had the energy to scare off that croco-saurous thing. So we’re both right.”
“Croco-saurous?” Teresa laughed at Gabriel’s newly coined designation. “Is that the scientific term?”
“It’s more scientific than big ugly thing,” Gabriel teased.
“I’m a math prodigy, not a paleontologist.”
“We’re going to need a paleontologist.” Gabriel looked around at the jungle surrounding them. “It’d be nice to have an idea of when and where we are and how to start looking for a fossil to get out of here.”
“We need to establish a basecamp first.” Teresa scanned the vegetation near the riverbank. “We can make this clearing a little bigger, push it back into the jungle more. That will give us the river on one side and the jungle on the other.”
“We can build a fire and keep it going.” Gabriel began to walk the clearing, pacing out how much jungle they would need to remove. “That should keep the big uglies away.”
“These rocks are easy enough to use to fashion hatchets or blades.” Teresa picked up a large stone from the river’s edge and smashed it against a nearby rock, chipping off a small piece. “With a little sweat and a little magic, we can double the size of the clearing and have enough materials to build a nice lean-to hut. And we can fashion wooden bowls, and you can harden them with magic, so we can boil the river water until it’s safe to drink.”
“Then all we need to worry about is finding some small uglies to eat.”
“I may become a vegetarian for the duration.”
Gabriel walked over to Teresa and wrapped his damp arms around her wet waist and pulled her into a kiss. As they broke apart he touched his nose to hers. “There is no one I would rather be stranded in the far past of an alternate world with than you.”
“This is not the romantic road trip I keep suggesting.”
“I’ll pick you some flowers.”
“Make sure they’re not poisonous.”
The Wizard of Time Trilogy (A Fantasy Time Travel Series) Page 70