"I'm sorry...I just. I don't want to go through that again. It's too much. " I sighed turning away. She hung back a bit before she finally followed close without saying a word. She kept walking around me stopping at times to say something then thinking better of it she moved on. We'd gone a long way before I finally snapped the uncomfortable feeling getting to me. I eyed her for a while as she avoided eye contact while avoiding a branch.
"I don't bite." I tried and quickly sighed as she looked at her leg then back at me with an unsure gaze.
"I mean, just spit it out. I won't attack you for talking". She seemed to ponder this before she stopped in front of me.
"The sun burned me you know" she started then began walking backwards and away continuing in the general direction we were moving in.
"You healed then." I spoke and she nodded. we got to a rocky terrain and began slowly traversing it.
"But that's not your point, is it?." I added while we climb down a drop. Turning I offered an arm to steady her while she descended using a boulder to assist her. Then she walked off approaching a spot on the ground where sun rays shone through a gap in the tree canopy. She raised a palm slowly her eye drifting to make sure I was watching before it focused back on the spot. Inhaling sharply she raised and put a palm into the light and waited.
She took back the palm and walked to me raising it for me to inspect. I stared as I looked at the palm still not getting her message. Sure I understood from her recount of the previous day she'd gotten burned by the sun but now she didn't. It actually made me wonder, was she not a vampire or did it work differently than in myths. Why burn then but not now, what was different.
"I don't think we can burn again, I can burn again"she corrected before she stepped back and kept walking down the path leaving me staring where the sun still shone on the ground. The sound of my bones snapping, the pain from the cracks replayed in my head. The inner voice seemed to come forth wrapping itself around my mind as it calmed me and soothed me.
"I doubt that." I said then looked forward. Her gaze followed me waiting for me to speak.
"You're a vampire. Myths say you burn in sunlight. so there must be a reason why you aren't now.".
We both came out the other side of the forest on top a cliff, below a large expanse of field spread out much longer and larger than a football field. She eyed the ground swallowing at the height before she turned to regard me.
"Well. Which way now.?". She asked. Without a word I took off running along the edge of the cliff. I ran fast with Aurora taking jogs beside me. I pointed to an opening between the trees. It looked like a tree had been cut to make the entrance more noticeable. We headed for it her form suddenly bolting forward and heading for the entrance.
"Woah. That was..."
*Just like last night. You're quickly getting the hang of this"I added. she nodded a look of awe splayed across her face.
"Alright let's go. you can awe yourself later" She nodded in agreement still looking at herself as if expecting to find something different. Beyond the treeline within the space made in the tree line we spotted a makeshift path.
Walking down the makeshift pathway that had been made. The bushes and branches around looked broken and snapped like something large had passed by. The path seemed to grow less grass too and those that managed to be around looked weak and frail.
"People walk here a lot". I thought before turning to look back where we entered from. Inside the entrance it looked more magnificent the cliff after it and a drop that eyed the floor. But it was the huge stone boulder that sat on the cliff that drew my attention. My inner voice pulled me to it and I found myself obeying.
I walked round it three times as I inspected it. There were deep lacerations running all over it four finger lacerations that made me breathe in deeply. Leaving the rock I accessed the area around the rock and found few lacerations in different spots.
"Hey let's get going. It's almost way past two. If there is still anything left there to find by now". She sounded hurried and I nodded as we took off. But we didn't need to go to far, as we came to a halt several familiarities pulling at me . My eyes raked the area over like it had done the previous night when I rose from the mud. I stepped closer to where I remembered I had been.
I breathed in, and it came to me my nose was assaulted with different scents of the forest and of me and another one that felt familiar. . My gaze travelled forward to a spot where there had been a struggle. As I came closer I realized it wasn't a struggle, it was more or less my writhing body as my bones broke and reformed.
"It's here, it's right here." I muttered to myself. Before I looked up to Aurora who seemed to be staring up at a tree. Following her gaze my eyes widened, it stood tall as most trees but there was a feeling around it like a pressure of sorts, it felt like what most would call aura or something. The width was broad and thick, infact I'd call it fat. Like four full grown men standing side by side thick. The roots all lay above ground only the tips disappearing beneath. From its bark though hung several talismans and bones, and beneath it's weaving and curling roots lay some dried bones and skulls. It looked and felt ancient.
"This is where I woke." She murmured her finger pointing to a corner for the tree's roots. My gaze locked on the spot then moved the roots and to my spot then back again. Then i realized the familiar scent I could perceive was hers. Us both waking up at the same spot, same day but different time. Coincidence or...
"Well let's see if there's anything around the roots we might notice." She suggested and I nodded. Both of us began searching looking under large roots and at times pushing aside leaves to see if something was hidden. It took a a good thirty minutes but I found nothing looking up I saw the same on her face.
We were back to square one., If we ever left it that is.
I sat on the root my hands in my head as I gazed at the ground while she stood looking around. The annoyance in her gaze was hard to miss as she kept narrowing her eyes to slits, her palms clenching and unclenching in hidden rage.
"There's nothing to see here. If there was anything it's either gone or just, well gone. " I hissed a sharp burst of anger spiking within me. I fisted my hands and breathed stepping back and walking towards the spot I had turned.
"C'mon let's get outta here. There's nothing to see here anymore. It's a deadend". I began walking away in slight defeat.
"Wait. You see that?" Aurora called. I turned to her following her pointing finger. Her finger was pointed at the tree itself not its roots, as I walked back to her to see what she saw. Her finger traced something in the air then squatting she drew a circle into the ground, a circle that broke at the tip and descended inwards towards another circle that she drew. My eyes found he tree again and I still saw nothing.
"How, where are you seeing that?". I asked perplexed.
She looked up at me her irises aglow with the red, pointing she stood and whispered.
"Try your other eyes. The gold" Then stepped back. I looked back at her with a raised brow to which she raised her own brow. Then turning I pulled and searched for the voice myself willing it out.
It readily answered my vision flooding with colors and patterns. Everything magnifying and drawing closer like I was nose deep in it. My eyes found the tree bark again and I saw it . Etched into the bark was the same drawing on the floor she had made with her finger. Walking around I saw though that there were others,three other drawings etched into the tree bark dimmer and surreptitiously etched into the bark. Each drawing was different, each a weird pattern.
The more I looked at it the more it bugged me like I had seen it before, strange but familiar, a ringing began slowly at first then increasing in tempo till I winced before finally looking away and casting my gaze down. My eyes saw it immediately a print, a paw print.
"I think I got something." I stated as I stared at the print then looking ahead I found another and another .One was right beside the spot I had woken few others around it too, obviously belonging to a wolf. I turned and looked to where I had changed seeing my own prints that led away into the woods not back here.
"There was a wolf here. Another wolf. Right where I lay.". I spoke as Aurora now stood behind me looking at the spot I was staring at.
"You think..."
"It has to be. I mean I became a wolf right. So it has to be a wolf that turns me into one right. I mean in the movies usually there is a bite right, to turn one into a wolf.". I thought out loud.
"Okay. So you think a wolf bit you and dumped you hear to turn. Sounds plausible but doesn't explain me neither does it explain why they haven't come looking. I mean in books and movies plus naturally wolves run in packs. So why abandon one of their own.?. Plus I doubt a wolf made me. " She finished waving her hand over her form. I sighed as I thought it over.
"What if they were disposing us off. Thought maybe we'd failed to turn or something and were getting rid of bodies." I tried.
"I don't see that being wrong, but right now were all speculation. Until proven we don't know shit that happened to us ". She huffed then bent over grabbing a log and throwing it into the tree. The wood shattered raining splinters everywhere while her eyes watched it burning crimson.
"Throwing a tantrum won't aid us. Come let's go. We can look up those symbols, see what it means. Got your phone there, we need to take a picture haven't seen my phone since yesterday".
I looked to her and she simply shook her head.
"Haven't seen mine either. I think whoever it was that took us didn't think it necessary to give it back. " She joked. My mind reeled as it pondered then I looked around.
"Idea. We can track it, the phones. See if we can get their locations, hopefully this person might still be hanging on to it." I tried.
"We're gone for a week, have no memories of said week, wake up under a tree with supernatural curses laid on us and you think this individual would forget to throw or destroy our phones." She ranted eyeing me. I rolled my eyes at her before arguing back.
"Right now. It's all we got. We still can take pictures of the drawings and search them out see what we find, but for now I guess we're stuck. I doubt we'll locate them but it's out best shot." She didn't look convinced.
"Every criminal makes a mistake woman" I huffed exasperated I didn't need her fighting me on this.
"Look hopefully they didn't totally destroy it or anything. Maybe we find it and hopefully can use it to get to this person. It's all a maybe but it's all we got. That and the drawing." I argued.
"Hmmph" she scoffed.
"Don't fight me on this we need to be on one page if we gotta get to the end of this". I suggested. She rolled her eyes before nodding.
"Yeah sorry. Your right. Just looks bleak." She muttered a frown on her lips. I raised a palm slowly hesitating then placing on h and wgiyke I patted it slowly.
"Two 'A's are better than one anyway " she stated and I looked back confused.
"'A's?"
"I mean . Like two heads better than one. Aurora, Asher. So the As. If you get what ..I .. mean." She drawled. I stood just staring dumbly at her.
"Never mind "
"Double As." My lips moved to the side etching a half smile on my face while my head bobbed gently. "I get you". Looking back around I turned to walk away when she grabbed my arm.
"If you see the prints you can see the rest right?" She asked. I nodded unsure where this was going.
"So can you track the prints see if we can follow it to where ever it came from. " She suggested. Now why'd I not think of that. I'd never felt more stupid as I stood staring at her. It was the most obvious thing to do.
"Let's check your side see if there's prints there too. " I suggested. My eyes gleamed as I took in the ground around her body while I neared it. I searched for quite a while but only noted the overlapping foots on it. Some big some small. I went back to my side and looked it over finding the same thing but with wolf prints. Prints that had dashed forward to where I had thrashed about while shifting. Pushing the pain of that shift away I focused back on the task at hand my eyes searching for the print that came previously. Eyes locking on it I smiled then looked on ahead scanning the forest floor till I found the next paw print. Turning back to Aurora I nodded my head in it's direction my eyes not missing the smile on her lips.