"What's going on?" I quickly interjected before things became physical.
There was a pile of smoldering ashes on the ground and Ishi was poised to attack.
"I tried to light a fire and cook some of the chimera meat, but she won't let me." Marshall complained.
"Daylight is going to break soon. The smoke will draw unwanted attention if anyone else is nearby." She hissed.
"The meat will go bad if we don't cook it." He said.
"This is neither the time nor the place for you to be prioritizing your stomach!" Ishi retorted.
He growled at her and she growled back. I stepped in the middle of them to mediate.
"Marshall, Ishi is probably right. This fire is going to create a lot of smoke and when day breaks, they will be able to see it for miles. However, Marshall does have a point about the meat. We are getting low on provisions and with the addition of another mouth to feed it would be wise to use the chimera meat…" I trailed off.
If only there was a way to keep the meat preserved while we traveled, then we wouldn't have this issue.
"It won't keep long before it rots." Ishi said, "Best to just dump it and hunt something tomorrow before dusk."
"But there is so much meat! It would be a waste to toss it all." Marshall added.
I wished I could have a thermal lunch box, that would keep the meat from rotting until we could cook it.
"What the hell?" Ishi asked
"Huh?" I looked to see what she was looking at. It was that vortex again. The one that had the recovery water in it. "You can see it too?!" I asked her.
"Yeah!" She and Marshall answered at the same time. Ishi sounded excited, Marshall sounded confused.
"What is it?" Marshall asked, sniffing in the direction of the vortex.
"It's an interdimensional space!" Ishi exclaimed.
"What's it do? And why is it here?" I asked as I poked at it.
"It's like a storage room where time doesn't exist. I'm guessing that you summoned it." Ishi answered.
"Me?!"
"Yeah. Isola did say that you might be linked to the progenitors, and they were known to have this ability. We have only read about it, but it looks exactly as they described." She said in wonder as she stared at it.
"If it exists outside of time… Then things can be stored here indefinitely?" I asked.
"Without going bad!" Ishi finished the thought.
"But how did you make it?" Marshall asked.
"Oh.. umm.. I don't know." I answered honestly.
"What were you thinking about when it appeared?" Ishi asked.
Marshall started taking things out of his backpack and chucking them into the void, then reaching in to fish them out, then throwing more things into it.
"I was thinking about how I wish we had a place to keep the meat so it wouldn't go bad..!" I realized the link when I said it out loud.
"That's it then!" She exclaimed. "Maybe focusing on the space will summon it?"
I remember the first time I saw something like this was when the recovery water disappeared on my first day.. I was thinking about keeping it somewhere until I needed it. Then when Marshall was hurt, I was able to summon it again when I needed the recovery water. Maybe this could be useful!
"Marshall-" I turned to ask to him toss as much chimera meat into the space as he wanted, however I stopped mid thought. When I turned to ask him, I saw he was already throwing everything in his possession into the space.
He froze with his arm ready to chuck a spatula into the space.
"what are you doing?!" I asked him.
"Um.. testing… it?" He said, guiltily.
"Take all that crap out of there. Place only perishables in the space and let's see what happens."
"What's a perishable?" He asked, cocking his head to the side as he was shoving the spatula back into the bag.
"Anything that can rot." I answered as I walked away to grab some clothes for our new guest.
Ishi transformed into a leopard and made herself comfortable in the tent since Marshall wasn't using it anymore. She watched me with her deep blue eyes as I grabbed some of my extra clothes and went back towards the pond.
I was only a little ways from the camp when the disgustingly familiar scent of blood assaulted my nose. I dropped what I was carrying, I felt my heart stop as I realized it was coming from the direction of the pond.
"Blood!" I yelled as I ran towards the pond.
Ishi and Marshall darted after me.
I ran as fast as I could, worried about the little girl we saved. I felt like it took forever to get there, even though I arrived in a flash.
I stopped before I reached the shore. I found the source of the blood. Mallory laid lifeless and pale on the shore of the pond, wrapped only in the large towel I gave her. In her hand was a sharp, bloody rock. The shore was soaked in blood from her neck, where a large gash was.
I was so shocked by what I saw that I fell to my knees, gasping for air. Hot tears stung my eyes and fell down my face.
After everything she had been through, I shouldn't have left her alone. Rather than live with those memories and face the possibility of giving birth to a monster, she chose to end it. She was so young too..
"I got her." Ishi said to Marshall.
He walked off to take care of the body, lest it attract any monsters.
"Why are you crying?" she asked me gently, as she crouched down next to me and placed her arm around me. "You barely knew her."
"She's so young.. and..Because that could have been any of us."
"Nonsense. None of us are that dumb." She simply said.
She held me while I cried, whispering how silly I was being. When I finally caught my breath and could talk again I decided to share a little truth… I didn't want her thinking I was some overly emotional drama queen.
"I almost did it once." I confessed.
"What?!" She balked, clearly understanding what I meant.
"I felt similar to what she felt. I thought that living was more painful than a quick death, I almost-" I was cut off by Ishi grabbing my face in her hands and jerking my head to look at her.
"NEVER talk that way again." She said seriously. "Never do anything so foolish!"
"It's in the past, Ishi-" I said, my face squished between her hands as she stared at me with her intense, deep blue eyes.
My heart started racing and I thought she was going to kiss me. She was very close to me, and was holding my face. I couldn't look away, it was like I was mesmerized..
She gently let go of my face and sighed deeply. "Go get some sleep, I don't want to have to carry you again tomorrow." She said as she got up and walked off.
I felt my face flush crimson. My thoughts are all over the place.. and Ishi was the one carrying me?! I thought it was Marshall! I only ever relaxed like that when I was with Marshall.
I walked back to the campsite and crawled into the tent, exhausted. I was feeling a little chilly and regretted that we couldn't have a fire. I looked at my fingertips curiously. I created fire earlier, I wonder if I can do it again.
I stared at them and focused.. I tried and tried and no fire appeared. Guess it's not as easy as opening the interdimensional space.
I heard Marshall return and he crawled into the tent with me.
"Ishi said she wasn't going to be able to sleep anyways, so we should get some rest while we can. She's going to wake us up in 1-2 hours." He said.
I was feeling groggy again and just nodded in response. He held me against his chest as we both fell asleep. The warmth and the gentle movement of his chest lulling me to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FLASHBACK:
My mom has been dead for 2 weeks.
We have been living in the house with our P.O.S father who has used his grief as an excuse to beat us all equally.
My brother wisened up quick, and left home after the first week. My sister and I were still fairly young, and we had nowhere to go. I used to be the one who caught his fists while my siblings were untouched. I learned quick to stay quiet and show no emotion, he would get bored quicker that way.
My sister was used to being an entitled brat; so when he came for her, she would scream and shout and try to fight back. The sounds of him beating her to a pulp made me even more frightened. He would find any excuse to beat me, however I was no longer his favorite toy. He found joy in my sister's screams.
One day, about a year later, I was outside with my dog, Bear, and my cat, Bella. Bella was hunting for mice while bear and I sat in the grass. The sun was warm, but my heart was cold. I began to think of my mom as lucky for being free of this sh*t.
A few days after that He killed my dog. He scared Bear by yelling at him, Bear ended up peeing on the carpet out of fear. He beat and kicked Bear while I cried and begged him to stop. Bear was a bloody mess when he threw him outside and grabbed his shotgun.
I couldn't watch the rest. I was scared and hurt. Bear has been my best friend for years, he didn't deserve that. The squeals and the yelping tore at my heart and made it even colder. I locked myself in the bathroom and grabbed a razor, planning to put myself out of the fear and misery.