“When we arrive at the ritual site, we will join the others that have gone before you. I will lead the way to the time we will jump to. We all will gather in a ring together and step in with the group there. It is far in the past.”
She stopped and turned to look at Aithagg. “There is a bright moment in time where you will need to follow me. You will see nothing else. From there you will travel to your own time where you will sync and begin your journey to find your own place in this universe.” Eterili turned and looked at the others. “To begin your eternity protecting time.” Those close to her shied away as she came near. The dried blood on her body stank of death and decay.
She moved on through the woods and the others followed. At first, they spoke and eventually they fell silent, concentrating only on their footsteps and the path in front of them.
At last, they stopped as the sun was near rising. The sky on the horizon, barely visible through the trees and brush, had a small streak of pink and orange.
Catha looked at Aithagg and without hesitation he looked through time. The rising sun paled the ghost images of the past and made them difficult to see. The ghosts were so numerous as so many had passed through this path over the thousands of years. Aithagg chided himself. He should have known. He had been this way and saw the cloud of ghost images marking the passage of the Vechey. He had to see through them to find a time just at the beginning of this night safe for Catha to jump to. It took concentration; eventually he saw through the misty visions and found a clear moment. There had been no one on the path then.
He thought to himself, if they all traveled in the same evening that kept the likely hood of colliding with other groups down to a near impossibility. Any Linear observing, if there were any around this time to observe, would see a constant group moving through the night in one area and a hundred other different areas at the same time as they moved forward in space but back in time.
This would not be a challenge after all. Aithagg bent and placed a small stone as a marker onto the ground. He nodded to Catha, and she nodded back.
The group disappeared from this time and reappeared at the beginning of the evening just as the sun set. Catha stood there a moment to see the orange and pink clouds in the sky. Then with complete faith in Aithagg she stepped next to the rock and back in time hoping she would not collide with someone from the group who had already arrived before her. She had not meant to close her eyes, but she had.
Aithagg touched her arm. “You can open your eyes now. You made it.”
She gave a laugh of relief. “Well, that is completely frightening. Thank you.”
They both looked around, and no one seemed to have noticed anything out of the ordinary in their behavior. After a brief embrace they carried on in their march towards the ritual site.
Catha pulled a pouch from her waist bag and nibbled at the contents when she needed and occasionally a teen glanced her way.
Aithagg glared at them if they stared too long. Ygolz slowed his pace to walk next to Aithagg.
“She eats Linear food.” Ygolz looked over his shoulder at her then faced forward again. “I did not know that she was displaying Linear tendencies. Did you know?”
Aithagg mustered patience and answered, “What does it matter? She is Catha. She has been our friend as far as we have memories. Being slightly Linear does not change the fact that she is Catha.”
Ygolz considered, then replied, “Her whole family is filled with Linears so we can not be surprised.” He grimaced and picked up his pace.
By the tenth shifting with the sunrise, Catha was slowing. Her cheeks had grown gaunt and her eyes sunken. Aithagg looked at her with concern.
“You need to drink more water, I suspect.” This trait the Vechey and Linears had in common. “Here, have my water. I will fill it soon. There is a river ahead of us.”
She took his offered water-skin and drank deeply.
“We could pause and you could sleep. We can catch up with them at any time. Such is the benefit of being a time-walker.” Aithagg placed the empty water-skin on his waist.
“I can push a little further. Then I will consider it,” Catha answered.
She lasted four more transitions and then nearly stumbled into the river when they came to a stop. All sat down at the water’s edge. Aithagg helped her sit down. They sat apart from the group. By now, the rumors of Catha’s Linearness had spread and no one from the group came near them.
“Supportive group,” she harrumphed.
“They are young and afraid of the ritual.”
“They perceive me as weak and shun me.”
He motioned for her to fill her water-skins in the river. He capped his full bag. It dripped with moisture.
“I will not hurt them. What do they think I do, eat Vechey? It is the other way around do they not kno…” She blushed with indignation. “They are not thinking of feeding on me, are they? Do you think that? I am Vechey.” She sank. “Mostly, Vechey.”
Aithagg filled another skin and capped it. “Your mind works too quickly that it runs away. No one is thinking about feeding on you. They just do not know what to think about someone that is different. They will come around.”
She sat still and looked at him. “And you? Do you think about feeding on me?” Her tone was serious.
“Maybe a little nibble,” he jested and bit at her shoulder.
Trying to stay angry she protested, “I do not know about eternity with you. I will pull out your fangs myself. I will bet that is where Eterili gets her anklets from—promised ones that kill each other from the desperate endlessness of eternity.”
Eterili pointed at the river. “We will need to shift to a time where this river was not, then cross, then shift back and meet on the other side. Walking through water is like being cut with so many shards of sharp rock. It will drain your energy.” She disappeared and then reappeared on the other side of the river. She lifted her staff above her head.
Catha turned to Aithagg. “Now would be a good time for a nap to build my strength back up. Everyone is shifting and we can sync right back there.”
Aithagg looked around. “We will need to find a place that you can safely sleep and shift. I can stay awake.”
“I do not always shift. Rarely, we have found.”
“You can not sleep out here and shift through time, you could shift into the daylight,” he added.
“I can take the daylight.”
“You think you can. You have never walked when the sun was high above.” Aithagg shook his head.
“Yes, I have.”
He looked at her.
She continued defiantly, “I tend the garden in the day. It helps feed the young ones.” She looked down and shrugged. “I will rest. If I shift, there is nothing we can do about it. If I do not rest, I cannot go on. Either way, I end here.” Catha hefted her water bag and her pouches of food. “I’ll rest and then you can help me shift to walk across the dried riverbed and then appear over there with the rest of the group. No one will be the wiser.”
“You do not think Eterili will see you sleeping?” Aithagg looked at the group who one by one was disappearing.
“She knows already what I am.” Catha stood and walked away from the path. “I will make it not so obvious and remove myself to a clearing away from the path.”
Aithagg turned and watched the others appear on the other side of the river and trudge on. No one stopped to see if Aithagg and Catha were with them. He thought Eterili might have glanced over her shoulder, but it may have only been a trick of the dim light.
He helped Catha move back to the beginning of the night to sleep while he stood vigil in the dark. If she had staye
d and slept through the day, Aithagg would have been helpless to come to her side if anything should go wrong. Luckily for her she did not shift during her slumber. It would be catastrophic to shift to a time where a tree was in the same spot in which she slept. The sun was near to rising when she finally stirred.
She awoke and pointed to a pile of small rocks sitting between her and Aithagg.
“What are these?” she asked.
“You’ll know these when you see them. I carved them while you slept.” Aithagg held dozens of rocks in his cupped hand, each carved with a small spiral and five dots around the spiral.
“What do the symbols mean?”
He shrugged. “I liked the look of it actually. It made me think of skipping stones on the water, but instead its time.” Aithagg looked down. “Stupid, maybe.”
“I see it,” she said encouragingly. “The dots are the rocks leading me through time. I love them.”
He smiled awkwardly not sure how to accept the compliment.
“Why does she hurry everyone so? They could stop and rest. The Vechey have no reason to be in a hurry,” she asked in between bites of dried venison.
“I suppose it is a test of endurance.”
“But anyone could do what we are doing right now. Slip out. Rest. Slip right back into the timeline.”
“True.”
Catha thought on it more then added, “Except, the Linears wouldn’t be able to slip in and out. Only those with Vechey ability. So it is meant to weed the weak out.”
Aithagg stayed silent on the subject.
She continued, “I suppose there are those that do not have someone helping them.” She eyed Aithagg. “I am thankful and hate it at the same time.”
He smiled and maintained his muteness.
She eyed the swiftly moving water for a moment then declared, “I think I can just walk across it. Water may not bother me like it does you.”
Aithagg crossed his arms and watched from the shoreline as Catha dipped her toes in the water, then walked in until the water was at her ankles. A large smile spread on her face and she called back, “Actually, it is cool and wonderful.” She frowned. “An upside to being a Linear, I suppose.”
Catha took unsteady steps and tried her best to cross. The bottom was unsteady and the rounded rocks slid under her feet. The water continued to push past her and babble in protest. She held her arms out for balance.
“It could be deep,” Aithagg called out as a warning.
No sooner had the words been uttered Catha’s next step forward found no rocks for purchase and she plunged into the water with no time to cry out.
A splash and she vanished.
The heavy current battered at her and pushed her head over heels downstream. Catha curled into a ball and protected her head. A lesson well learned as a Vechey: getting one’s neck broke, be one a Linear or Vechey, made a being dead. She bounced about on the bottom of the stream and hit rocks and sunken logs.
She was Vechey enough to not need to breathe. Ironic, she thought to herself, she was adept to water unlike Vechey. She did not need to breathe and she could experience being submerged. A sharp rock bit into her shoulder, slowing her progress downstream and she clung to it with all of her might.
Water splashed up her arms and into her nose. She sputtered as she took an intake of breath to call out. Clinging harder she pushed herself up onto the rock and struggled against the current to gain purchase. Like a turtle, she collapsed on top of the rock. Sweating and exasperated, Catha called out in defeat, “Can you help me get through time to where the river did not exist?”
Aithagg stepped into the stream and winced.
“You should not get in the water,” Catha said hoarsely. “I can make it to the shore.”
She struggled and tried a few times for the shore. The current pushed her further downstream.
Aithagg waded into the water, ignoring the searing pain and the drain of his energy. Sweat streamed down his face in pink rivulets.
Eventually he grasped her hand when she pummeled into a thicket of bramble on the shoreline. She held onto him and together they slogged to the shore.
Catha and Aithagg collapsed on the sand as one soaked mass regaining their strength.
“It is very deep in the center,” she uttered in a deadpan voice.
“Indeed,” Aithagg replied. “We may have an issue getting you back through time until that water is shallow or not even there. You can jump to a time you have seen if I put a marker in place. How will I get you to jump to a time well before you were born?”
“I suppose many, many little jumps. Like Ygolz did to go so far back when we played hide and seek. Do you remember how he sat there in the snow for so long?” Catha looked at Aithagg expectedly.
Neither one moved. Aithagg reached towards Catha’s forehead and removed matted leaves, which stuck out at every angle.
“Yes. He did nearly freeze, did he not?” Aithagg answered. He kissed her forehead and together they proceeded back up the bank of the stream to where the Vechey had crossed.
With a little negotiation Aithagg led her back through time until the river had been dried with a drought. They were careful to choose a time none of the others had used. Once on the other side of the river they slipped forward in time and joined the others.
Catha turned back to glimpse herself and Aithagg when they had walked into the woods to catch up on her rest. She stared after herself for a moment. A sense of disassociation came over her. How odd to go in and out of time and see one’s self, she thought. She did not slip through time as easily as the others, the experience was very new to her and she marveled at the surreal-ness of it all.
Aithagg was thankful Catha was unable to see through time as they were passing the area where her distant brother had died of snakebite. Later they would pass where another had dropped dead instantly, Aithagg surmised from starvation by the gaunt look on her face. He tried to not look at her. The features reminded him of Catha.
“What do you see?” she asked.
“There are so many images of past travelers here it is disturbing to see so many. It gets cluttered,” he told half of the truth.
They continued on for the next 15 days in the same manner and without incident, though Catha needed more and more rest as the continuous movement sapped her energy. Even Aithagg and the rest of the group slowed their pace as they all began to hunger.
Eterili walked amongst the group giving them a keen eyeing over. Evening rains had caused the dried blood on her body to streak and cake. The entire group wore a layer of filth. She paused at Catha and looked solidly at her. Aithagg pulled Catha close to him and stood as if poised to come to her defense.
Eterili flicked her eyes toward him and smiled quickly. Then she turned to the rest of the group and called out, “There is a tribe in main-time where we are going. We will feed well. We will feed before we go to the ritual time. It is not much further from where they are,” Eterili reassured them.
***
The night was still and moonless. They stood in the same evening they had started in. Conversations turned to wondering what a frozen-time must be like: what it must be like to be the only one moving, for shadows to not flicker, wind to not move, the force of the earth not pull things to it. Eventually, hungry and tired, they stared into the distance and whispered of nothing.
Aithagg leaned towards Catha. She was nearly listless from exhaustion. “You should eat. We all will feed now. I can see a tribe encampment up ahead in main-time.”
She nodded her head absently and reached into her pack.
Aithagg watched her and realized the pack was empty. “How long have
you been without food?”
“A few nights,” she whispered.
“Do you have water?”
“Yes.” She sloshed her bag, which was nearly empty.
“Come feed with me and there will be food for you at the tribe’s campsite.”
She recoiled for a moment then softened when she saw the hurt look in Aithagg’s eyes. “I did not mean it like that. I fear being caught. I can not shift easily, remember.”
They planned their approach to the tribe as a group. Eterili led the way.
“Beware of our hunger do not let it get the best of you. If you awaken a Linear you ruin the feed for us all. You need this to survive your journey forward,” she said.
They approached the camp and stood in the center. Aithagg watched as main-time unfolded in front of them and focused so only main-time was visible.
Catha stood near Aithagg and tried her best to see but was unable to. The slight wind pulled at his long curly locks. Her own hair, straight and coarse like her mother’s, was tied into braids at either side of her head.
Aithagg turned to her and smiled. “I’ll place rocks along the way.”
She smiled in return and watched him disappear. He wavered from visibility and then disappeared. A rush of air filled the void he left behind. Catha stared for a moment, defeated. A stone was near her feet. On it was a hastily carved symbol. It had become their symbol: a spiral with five dots.
She saw slightly around her in time, only a hundred years. A long Linear life span, she thought to herself. Ironic. All had left the night and moved forward in time. She stood there alone. The magnitude of her aloneness was as heavy as the sky falling down on her with all of its magnificent stars. With an effort she pulled up what last strength she had and shifted through time from stone to stone, following the spiral mark.
When she shifted into time next to Aithagg, he smiled warmly at her and pointed to a thatched hut in front of them. It was large and had an opening at the top for fire smoke to escape through. Hanging outside of the hut was cluster of drying meat and fruit.
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