Myles

Chapter Fifteen (Spring, 2037)

(6k words, ~30 min read)

Myles Willis awoke to the reality he’d hoped was just a nightmare. The right side of his face was on something scratchy, but for the most part his body was warm. The air around him was alive but cold. He heard birds and most of all, he felt undeniably safe for the moment.

He put his feet beneath him and looked around. Myles was in a barn, that was certain. Old rafters ran overhead and the sloped roof sat above them. Around his feet was mostly old hay that still had some fluff to it. Enough to keep him warm from whatever climate he was in now. Behind him and to his right was a large shattered mirror.

So it takes two mirrors to travel.

“Pretty?” Oh, FUCK. Where was Pretty? Where’d everyone go?

His stomach felt yanked toward the floor. Where are they? Where are they? Langley? Pretty? Oh, shit and the others. Where are they? No, they didn’t die did they?

No.

They were alive.

“How do I know that?” Myles rasped. His throat was parched, his body dehydrated. Myles put his hands on his knees and took several deep breaths. Standing up was making him light-headed. He grabbed for the walkie talkie in his backpack. It failed to power on like the batteries were dead. “Oh, shit, that’s not good. These things were working earlier…”

At last he asked himself, Where am I? The air was thin and he felt like he was high up. To gain a better vantage of his surroundings, he looked out the gaping barn door. Night was falling.

Gray clouds floated by on the horizon next to the ground.

The clouds were alongside him.

“Whathefuck?” He wheezed, thinking he should be much shorter of breath now. Why were the clouds so low? Wait, was he in the clouds?

“Oh…” He stumbled to the barn’s door. Why was walking so hard? Must be the altitude. He needed water.

Myles opened his backpack and grabbed his mostly empty water bottle. Why had he brought it only partially filled? What kind of idiot does that? He drank the dregs, the liquid diluting his thick saliva and relieving his parched throat.

Leaning against the barn’s wide doorframe, he gazed out onto the clouds and then sank against the outer wall. It was tiring to stand. He’d get up later, after he processed what just happened to him and his friends.

They’d escaped the two novis and were safe from them now. They’d all jumped through the mirror in that House in the Woods behind Bushkill Avenue. Now they were separated, exited different mirrors and were put somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains. Where else had clouds up high? He was on some kind of mountain.

Breathing was hard, let alone standing and breathing. Myles needed water and he knew there was a puddle in some tarp just a few yards away. The tarp was covering an antique plow half-buried in the soil.

Myles looked to his right at the tarp.

“What the fuck?” Myles stood groggily, spurred by the reward of water. How did he know about the tarp and what it was covering? He staggered over to what looked like an overgrown lump of something. Grass surrounded the brown lump and had grown up past knee-height. Water had pooled heavily in the top between the handles of the archaic horse-plow. He reached for his water bottle again and fully submerged it into the deep bowl of crystal refreshment.

“Is this even safe to drink?” His voice had returned significantly after the first drink.

Yup. It’s rainwater and cloudwater, not six hours old.

“Must be my prophecy ability?” It was good to hear a human voice even if it was his own. It made him feel less alone.

Though he had water, Myles’ head still spun from the altitude. “Technically, I didn’t say where we’d go, just that it’d be cold.” He walked back inside the barn. Find the rest of the Astronomers, that was the first step, but it’s hard to take the first step when you don’t know where you are beginning.

Myles checked the area for anything useful. The barn really only had the broken mirror and the hay. It was a bleak, tired refuge and reminded him of the House in the Woods. He decided to move, looking around and then heading in some particular direction.

Now that he knew he could rely on this thing like a sixth sense for survival, he was less concerned about where he was going and more concerned about getting to his friends fast enough.

Surrounding the barn were trees: Aspens and oaks. It reminded Myles of the woods behind his own house; maybe the mirror he’d shattered out of was close to Pennsylvania, or maybe he was just in Kentucky or something. The forest canopy was breezy, the wind rustling the treetops. After the drink the air didn’t seem so thin, but he was constantly short of breath. Wildlife bustled about: birds, a squirrel or two, and some things that darted into the shrubs around him.

He wandered the woods for over half an hour when he found a path. This comforted him, knowing he may be close to civilization. Myles’s walk continued along the path for another half-hour. Even walking was making his lungs feel like they were full of crumpled paper, dry and sharp. He stopped in a clearing, sitting down on a fallen tree.

The clearing was calm and the sun was beaming, showering the forest with light, filling Myles with warmth. He smiled for the first time that day and let the sunlight brush his face. He had another sip of water and looked up into the trees.

“What part of the world am I on?” He asked aloud, hoping his prophesying would answer for him. He didn’t get any feeling back. “Mmh.” He continued sitting, letting his breath steady from a heaving ocean to a gentle tide. This was relaxing, he had to admit; there was almost nothing to stress about at this moment.

The light around him began to swim, swinging shadows around like elastic yo-yos. Like a bunch of balloons throwing colorful translucent shadows onto him. He looked up.

There was a massive, impossible bubble of water twenty short feet above his head, filtering the evening sunlight. The water, in a waning sphere, hovered and floated gently in front of Myles now. He noticed many smaller rocks and dirt at the core. The impressive ball shuffled into the trees and passed into them like a cloud, but also moving them aside as it went.

Myles sat speechless for several minutes. No experience in his entire life had caught him so completely off-guard. A floating ball of water. At least fifty feet in diameter.

“Floating?” Was all he managed to say. The words grounded his consciousness enough for him to stand up and continue walking, muttering, “Floating water? Is this what Kentucky is like?”

After seeing that shocking and inexplicable entity, he was unsure. What did that mean? Where does water float around like that in the world? And as his mind attempted to pile that onto the other problems he was facing and considering, he decided to stop moving. He’d continue away from the barn tomorrow when he felt stronger. 

Back at the barn, Myles climbed to the hayloft. At least there was some grounding and surety at this barn. No warm hay in the loft, but he felt safer now that he was up higher.

The gargoyle instinct was what Langley used to call that. It was the want to climb buildings to get up as high as possible.

Myles sighed and frowned, discomforted. He knew in his heart of hearts that his friends were alive, but he didn’t feel near them and didn’t think they were safe. He wanted them to be close! Where were they?

He pounded his fist onto the wood flooring he was sitting on and grunted angrily. How was he going to find them? Myles decided to watch clouds for the time being, his hunger rolling in and out, panging like an irregular gong. As he watched, he felt himself become far more aware of his body. How long had it been since he’d eaten? He didn’t know. He felt that even if he were to eat, he wouldn’t want much. What was this clarity of mind he was feeling now that he was only relying on the energy his body possessed? And wasn’t he able to survive with his regular body fat for like a month? As long as the tarp kept pooling water, maybe he would be fine for at least a week before he started eating tree bark or grass or some shit.

The clouds seemed to wave as they passed, like they wanted to check in on Myles. He waved back to the thin and billowy, the gray, blue, and white, the nimbus and cumulo-nimbus. He didn’t consider how much time had passed until he realized an entire storm had been conceived from twilight and cloud, grew old, rose above him, and began to scatter drops of water all over the barn. Burps of thunder reached his ears.

Is this what meditation feels like? Myles wondered. It was peaceful, but too lonely to keep up. He wanted to stay here and die in this peace that he felt right now. The storm had picked up and the metal roof was under fire making planking and tanking noises from the numerous raindrops. Though he began to fall asleep, Myles pulled himself together and rose clumsily to his knees.

“I’m going to find the rest of the Astronomers.” He spoke into existence.

Only a few seconds later a human walked into the barn, as unexpected as a three bipedal rhinoceroses driving a push-mower down a highway.

She had spider-web white hair that just brushed her shoulders; at the moment it was damp. Her outfit was warm, a perfect match to the surrounding: a thick but flexible coat, skinny jeans, shin-high boots, a spear and backpack strapped behind her, and a knife sheathed on each shin. She looked as old as Myles.

It was that girl from his dream. She was here!

She didn’t notice Myles.

“Hey, who are you?” Myles called out.

In a blinding response, the girl reached and grabbed one of the knives on her shin and flung it at Myles’s head.

Fortunately, Myles’s prophesying protected him and he ducked. The knife nicked his forehead in a sear and slapped the wall behind him before hitting the ground with a metallic clinking.

Myles rose again, slowly this time. The girl was holding the other knife, but her free hand was covering her mouth, eyes so wide he could see from the hayloft that they were a sharp green.

“I am so sorry,” She finally said. “Did I hit you? I think I did.” Color walked to the hayloft ladder and climbed up to Myles.

“Yeah,” Myles said, annoyed, touching his head. His fingertips returned red. He decided to act tough and pretend it was nothing, though it stung something awful. He picked up the knife and walked back to the loft edge. “What was that for?”

The girl was inspecting his head and had her hands clasped just above her small chest. “I was just startled. You need to make sure that gets cleaned.”

“It’s nothing; it’ll heal. Why are you carrying so many weapons? And how did you get so good at throwing?” Myles said, trying not to sound rude. He felt one small, hot droplet start to form on his forehead.

“The Cavaliers. And because I’m a hush. May I have my knife back?” She asked.

Myles didn’t hear the question. “Cavaliers? And hush? What do those mean? And where are we?” The droplet started to run and he wiped it with the back of his hand.

The girl laughed and tapped the strap around her stomach. The backpack she was wearing came unclasped and she pulled out a small bit of gauze. Myles didn’t know why, but that laugh made him feel safer and he accepted the gauze, putting its hot dryness on the cut. “We’re on earth, the Great Hook.”

The first part of the sentence gave Myles hope, but, “The ‘Great Hook’? Where’s that?”

The girl shrugged. “Depends.”

“What? ‘Depends,’ I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.” Myles said, taking the cotton off and looking at it. Now the air felt colder on his forhead.

“Well, it’s true. I don’t know where the Great Hook is, only that that’s where we are.”

The fuck? “Man, that makes no sense! Is it in Africa?” He touched his head again and held the gauze there.

The girl’s face scrunched, pondering.

“You know what Africa is, right?” Myles asked condescendingly. The cut had put him on edge.

“What’s your name?” The girl asked at last.

“Myles Willis,” he said impatiently.

“I’m Color.” The girl grinned and held out her hand.

I don’t give a shit, but he shook her hand. “‘Color’? Don’t only black people name their kids stuff like that? And what’s your last name?”

“I think it’s just that people in general name their kids that.” 

“Man, I don’t know. I’m just really fucking lost,” Myles said. “Where is the Great Hook? Where the hell am I? Where do these mirrors take us? Where are my friends? Fuck.” He felt like crying partway through his small rant and finally cursed because he couldn’t speak without choking.

Color waited a few seconds and asked: “You okay?” 

He took a deep breath, “Yeah. I’m kind of lightheaded, so I’m going to sit down.”

As he sat, she sat next to him. “How’re you holding up?”

“Uh…” Weird question. “I’m alive, how bad could it be?”

She laid her spear and backpack on the wood loft. “Hungry?” The bad was still open as she continued, “Found some roots earlier today.” She dug around inside and pulled out what looked like a mix between a carrot and a tree branch. It was tan, but soft enough to chew.

“What is it?”

She bit into it and broke off a piece for him. “A root. We used to watch deer eat it when we were hunting.”

Myles bit into it; he didn’t realize how much flavor a regular carrot had until he bit into this tasteless vegetable. “Whathe shit?” He said through his mouthful. This was going to give him one hell of a stomachache, but he ate it.

“We just call it ‘grab’.” Color had the back of her hand to her mouth as she said this with her mouth full.

“Hmm,” Myles kept chewing until it was ultra-pulpy so his stomach would have an easier time digesting it. “Thanks.”

“Sure.”

They continued eating in silence. Myles felt much better and cool-headed after eating something and taking a long drink.

“So, which are you?” Color asked as she zipped up her backpack.

“Hm?”

“Fraiser. Which are you?”

Finally, something he knew. “Oh. I’m a prophet. I don’t know the other ones. Is a hush a type of fraiser?”

Color’s jaw dropped, “Serious?”

Myles smiled, “Yeah. I don’t know much about ‘em. I’m a bit new at it, but I’m a prophet I’m pretty sure.”

That made her think again. “‘New at it?’ What do you mean?”

“Uh… I haven’t had much time to practice, I guess?” Myles felt less sure.

“But… you’re what… eleven?”

“Twelve.”

“That’s a lot of time. You’re sure you aren’t messing with me?”

“Oh… uh. I’m not from here.”

“But even if you aren’t from here, that shouldn’t matter. Especially being out in the wilderness. At least, from my village we all felt much stronger living in the wilderness.”

“No, like… fuck… one of us needs to start from the beginning. I have a feeling there’s a lot we don’t understand about each other because we don’t know each other’s stories.” Myles said.

“Okay!” She grinned again. “You first.”

“Okay. Uhm… one second, I need to think where to start.” He thought for a few seconds. “Okay, let’s just start from the beginning.”

“Okay!” Color grinned. Her enthusiasm made Myles feel good.

“I met Pretty first and he’s my best friend.”

“His name is ‘Pretty’?”

“Nah, that’s just what we call him. His real name is Beau Lewis. We met on the first day of kindergarten and I was listening to music on my walkman.”

“You have a walkman cassette player?” Color started. “Do you have it with you?”

“Yeah, and a couple tapes.”

“Sorry, go on.” There was small wave of her hands like she was fanning away the smoke of an interruption.

“We hung out all the time after that, just us two, and then Langley moved in like five years later. The night we met him, Pretty, Langley, and I started the Astronomy Club. Then we were going out into the woods looking for this house from this crazy event called the Bushkill Massacre, that’s the street I live on, and wound up running into these three others who were also looking for…” He trailed off. “I’m not doing a good job of this.”

“I was following,” Color said.

“Yeah, but… I need to start even further back.”

“Okay!”

“Alright,” Myles took a deep breath. It was easy to talk to her; he didn’t feel bad about his conversational blundering as much, “A long time ago, this mansion appeared in the woods and these monsters came out and killed a bunch of kids.” Myles shuddered away the image of those monsters. They’d almost gotten Langley and him in the basement. “It came back to eat me and my friends just last night and we crashed through the mirror to escape, but only I made it out so far. I don’t know where the others are.”

“My friends are the Astronomers. First day of kindergarten I met Pretty in 1996 when I was five years old or something. A few years later we met Langley behind my house. I actually stomped on him while he was stargazing.”

Color’s face was now filled with concern, but she said nothing.

“So…” Myles was worried about her expression as he considered the timeline. “Alright, forget about me, Langley, and Pretty. This different kid, Blink, would always go fishing, but what he didn’t know is that he would always walk through the same clearing that the house appeared at all those years ago.”

“The plot thickens,” Color still had concern on her face. “Go on.”

Myles smiled politely, something he didn’t do often. Let me finish, dammit.

“At the same time, this kid, the son of a cop, decides to investigate the site again after finding a box of evidence from the Bushkill Massacre that had literal drawings of the novis that were brushed under the rug. So Marshall went looking for it on that day.

“And so did Mariah Smith. Pretty sure she’s a prophet too.

“On that day, before Mariah or Marshall went to the clearing, Blink fell into Beck’s Creek and we, Langley, Pretty, and I, pulled him out. We asked how he fell in and he said he saw a big black lizard which we assumed to be a novis. We got him to take us to the clearing where we met Marshall and Mariah and that’s how all the Astronomers met. Then we initiated the three into our club by playing arcade games and riding bikes, and then made a plan to outwit the novis. 

“That was technically just a few days ago, but we’ve all known each other, or known about each other, for years. We’re the motherfucking Astronomy Club,” Myles finished.

“Wow,” Color said, “That’s a long, crazy story.”

“Yup. That’s how I got here.” He was glad she paid so much attention. Usually he was in a group setting and you needed to partially fight for attention, but she gave it freely. Out of politeness, he asked, “Why did you look so worried partway through my story?”

“You said the years back in the 90s. It’s just that that was a long time ago.”

Myles cocked his head. “It wasn’t… that long ago. How long ago was it?”

“Around thirty years ago?”

Myles smiled. “What? Nah.”

Color nodded with a bit of a know-it-all face which Myles disliked. He said, “Prove it.”

Color threw up her hands. “How?”

“Where do you live?”

“Nowhere right now.”

“So you’re wandering the mountains alone and you don’t have even a family to live with?”

Color’s eyes fell and Myles feared he might be right.

“Well, I don’t remember my mom or dad, I just remember my Aunt Marie and the village. Teer, our leader, was a father to everyone. Then there were the elders, Music and Enichi. And there were the other fraisers: Gear, the youngest, he was a little rascal. Mason was the oldest, Flint was just a little younger than me. And finally, Hannah was almost my age and we competed a lot. She had the walkman that we’d listen to music together with. We liked a lot of the same stuff, too. Especially Wasteland, Baby! By Hozier. Do you know him?”

“Nah…okay, slow down. ‘Village’? Does everyone live in a village around here?”

“No, but those who want to keep fraisers safe will raise them in villages. I’ve heard of fraiser farms. Such a horrible thing.” She shook her head. Then she said, “So you’re from the pre-rise era? You’re living in a time where people lived on the surface? On the Below?”

Myles scrunched his face. “Pre-rise era? Elaborate.”

“We’re about a mile from the Earth’s surface. That might be why you’ve been having trouble breathing if you came from a regular Earth that I’ve only heard about. Part of me thought they didn’t actually exist.”

Myles sighed. “Okay…” He sat there knowing what she’d just said was true, but still having the hardest time digesting the information. Way harder than that root he’d just chomped. 

“So… I traveled to the future?”

“That’s what it sounds like.”

“Or… no. That’s not right.” Something didn’t click, like the fraise wouldn’t let him believe it because it wasn’t the truth. An automatic truth-finder. “Not just forward in time, I think this is an entirely different planet altogether.”

“Really?” She asked.

Myles vision launched forward and everything went blurry automatically. He stared and concentrated on this thought, this fact. He was on a different planet, one that was exactly like Earth. One that was Earth! Color said there was America, she spoke English, she looked just like a human… she had a Van Halen tape in her backpack along with a walkman, just like him. But still, this was an entirely different planet.

“There’s a Van Halen tape in your backpack.” He shook his head once to break his stare and looked at the pack.

Color vibrated her head in the confusion, the white hair gently brushing her shoulders. “What? You say you’re from another planet and you’re focused on the Van Halen tape?”

“I know him. Them. This is Earth, but it’s not my Earth.” Myles said.

“A different universe?”

“Yeah. Another Earth from another timeline.”

“Oh,” Color seemed sad. “You think you’ll find your way back?”

“I don’t know, man.”

“Do you call everyone ‘man’?”

“Yeah.”

“Just wanted to make sure.”

“Yeah,” He sighed. “Shit. I know you’re telling the truth about it being like thirty years in the future, But, it’s just still a lot to process. I’m literally in the future.”

She sat quietly with him and let him think; it was a powerful moment for him. His life was changing and he probably didn’t know how to get back to his own life. 

Myles felt like he was zooming out of life; like his mind’s eye was seeing the bigger picture, but more of the bigger picture than was possible to comprehend all at once. It made him dizzy, but it was like his consciousness was dizzy, not his body. He couldn’t think straight. 

“I need to sleep again or something,” he finally said.

“I understand,” She said. “Where are you going to sleep?”

“Last place I slept was in the hay down there.” Myles pointed.

Color looked over the ledge. “That’ll keep your body heat. Mind if I join you?”

Myles didn’t like that idea. “Uh…”

“I do it all the time when traveling on the road. Mason, Hannah, and I used to just pile up really close to one another because we don’t move much in our sleep. We were in sleeping bags, but since the nights get so cold, it’s the smart thing to do. And you don’t wake up because you’re too cold because you have someone else warming you.” Color presented.

“Great pitch,” Myles said, not wanting to be convinced. “Sleeping with a girl… would be a new experience for me.”

Color laughed. “You’re not sleeping with me like that. If you don’t want to, I understand. I’ve been warm enough for all the other nights that I’ve been traveling.”

“Maybe tomorrow? I don’t know, it just feels weird to me. Different cultures, I guess. I’m going down there and probably going to pass out on my way because this altitude is killing me.” He rose to his knees and picked up his stuff. Then he headed toward the ladder and stepped down. Stumbled over to the hay and nestled into it. From his lying position, he could see Color making her way down too. She walked over to the other side of the hay and lay down as well. The last thing he remembered was his breathing before he fell asleep once again and thinking that this was really the only thing he had done since arriving here.

The sunlight pried under his eyes and woke him up. “Mmh.” The hay was warm, kind of wet, and comfortable, the surrounding air was sharp, but the sunlight was what made the whole situation less comfortable.

If he were to get up, he’d better move around so he didn’t get chilly. He rose and brushed the hay off his back. Then he dropped to his knees as his head spun like a top. “Oh, jeepers and weepers.” This elevation was really taking a shit on his basic functions. Just a few feet away was Color, still asleep on her side, curled up like a baby.

cute

“Color,” he pretended he didn’t think that.

Color’s eyes sprang open and she reached for her shin where her knives were strapped in, ready for action. “Shit, you scared me.”

“Sorry, just one of the most harmless people you’ll ever know. And you said ‘shit’?”

“Uh-huh. When you scare me like that, I might swear. How’d you sleep?”

“Just fine. I was warm all night in the hay, even without your girly body heat.” He smirked and she smiled back. “What about you? How was it, sleeping alone?”

“Fine. A little chilly, but I slept a lot.” She said, rising. She walked right up to him and gave him a hug.

“Uh, hi,” he said, partially returning the hug. She released him like nothing happened.

“So, what’re you doing today?”

“Hunting,” she said. “Then I’m going wherever you’re going; I don’t have a particular direction. And if you don’t want to go anywhere, we can stay inside this barn for however you like. It’s a pretty nice spot.”

It felt weird to have all this responsibility of deciding what to do. Usually, he’d wake up and eat, then see what Pretty and Langley were up to. Once they confirmed that they weren’t doing anything, they’d all hang out somewhere and mess around. Or it was school week and they had school all day. He had better be back in Winton before the school semester started. Then he remembered he was 30 years in the future and wondered why was he worrying about that. And what if the novis were still there when he went back? And where would he look for his friends? That was what he needed to do today; find out where to start looking for his friends. If they were even on this planet. He was pretty sure they were. They had to be, this was where he predicted for all of them and he had wound up here. Why shouldn’t they?

“I want to find my friends. I just don’t know where to start looking,” Myles said.

Color picked up her spear and worked her way into her backpack. “Do you know where they are?”

“No, but maybe… are there common places that lots of people wind up in? Like cities or towns? If I know my friends, they aren’t good at surviving in the wilderness… maybe Marshall, but not Pretty or Langley. Blink too, maybe. They’d find people first and then live from there. I wonder what they’re up to right now?”

“Yes.” Color was rolling her arms around and stretching her legs; she did a full split in every way Myles knew. He cringed at the movements, but also couldn’t take his eyes off of her; the movements were fascinating and enrapturing. In hindsight, he found that they were also attractive.

“Doesn’t that hurt? Jeepers and creepers,” He said as she bent herself backward further than Myles had seen a human ever bend themselves. 

“No. Hushes have really good flexibility,” Color said. “I’ll be right back.” And she took off out of the barn. Then she reappeared. “Unless you want to come?”

He waved her on. “I can barely stand up.”

She grinned. “When I come back, we can do some breathing exercises. I do them every year when we rise really fast like a half-mile up in two days. Sometimes I just do them for energy.” 

“Okay,” Myles said. Breathing is going to save him? Yeah, right. Then again, he just jumped into a different universe via a fucking mirror, so why couldn’t breathing give you energy?

Color jogged out of the barn and Myles grabbed his water bottle again. He needed more water. “Gracious.” He was amazed at how little he’d peed and how much water he’d drunk. He returned to the pooled water on the tarp and refilled his water.

This was exhausting; he just wanted to sit, so he did. Plopped himself on the ground in the barn and waited for Color to return. She was back in fifteen minutes, two rabbits hanging from her right hand. Her spear had a light red stain. Myles stood, surprised she caught them.

She put down what she was carrying. “I killed each of us a coney.” She pointed to two rabbits.

“Oh, nice.” This was gross… but he was hungry. “We’re eating those?”

“No, I figured I’d just nail them to a wall for decoration,” Color said.

“Funny.”

Color started a fire with sticks and some of the hay from the barn; Myles was surprised at how adept she was. And how long rabbits took to cook. And how bad they tasted without salt and how good they tasted anyway after not eating for almost a day.

The two finished their meals with a long drink of water and then sighed.

“Let’s go for a walk.” Color stood.

“‘Go for a walk,’ what? We just ate.”

“Yes, and now’s the best time to go for a walk. ‘Like the french.’ A french walk.”

“I’ve never heard of this. Is this a floating-planet-person thing?”

“It helps you digest.”

“It also might help me hack up my coney.” Myles was still sitting.

“Get up, lazybones, it’ll help you with the air. I’ll teach you some breathing exercises to help you acclimate faster. Everyone here knows them because the land goes up and down depending on the season, but I figure you don’t. I think it’ll help you not be so lightheaded.”

Myles groaned as he rose to his feet. They grabbed their things from the barn, refilled their water once more, and began to walk.

“Where are we going?” Myles asked.

“Not sure. Stablefield is probably a week’s journey this way, or more,” Color said, “But for now, I think it’s just a walk.”

“What’s Stablefield?”

“It’s the biggest city on the Hook. It’s a good place to start looking for your friends. Fraisers live there too, but it can be dangerous. Cavaliers rule the first level of the city, so we need to be careful.”

Myles felt comfortable talking to her, like he could ask her anything or say anything and she wouldn’t be surprised, no matter how he asked it. There was no tact needed which to him was exactly how he liked to carry on a conversation. “Why’d you hug me this morning?”

“Do they not do that where you are from? My village always used to greet each other with an embrace each morning after waking up and just before bed. It had to last longer than five seconds or you couldn’t feel the connection between the bodies or think about how the hug affected you and who you were hugging and why. At least, that’s what I got out of it. I didn’t hug you last night before bed, but I wanted to, but I figured it was just too soon since I’d just met you. Why, what’s it like back in your world through the mirror?”

“That makes more sense I guess,” Myles said. “I dunno, it was like whenever we hadn’t seen family members in a while we’d usually hug them, or when my Dad would leave for business trips he’d hug us before he left and when he came back, but that didn’t happen much…” Come to think of it, there wasn’t much hugging that happened in the Willis household, aside from Mom and Dad. They really liked each other.

“Oh,” Color said this like she’d just heard of a great loss. “What about your friends?”

Myles thought about this. He and his friends never really embraced, did they? They just joked and messed around, they had some deep conversation, but nothing girly like hugging. But now that Color was talking about the subject like this, it didn’t feel girly, it felt necessary.

“Different culture, huh?” Myles reasoned, though he didn’t believe it now. He felt like he’d missed a lot of… something… from his family, from the Astronomers and now he wanted to know more. “Five seconds? Why’s that?”

“Five seconds,” Color confirmed. “It’s hard to explain… want to try again?”

They paused on their walk. “Yeah.” He did.

She looked right into his eyes, smiled that charming smile, and wrapped her arms around him, one under his right, the other over his left. This hug was tight enough that he could feel her plush chest. Myles felt that five seconds was too short and kept holding and thinking. What did he feel in a hug? It was like a handshake, something you did to someone close to you as a sort of formal greeting… but with more connection? Then what was the connection? The closeness of two bodies. Hmmm…

Color rocked back and forth, letting him know they were still hugging. He felt safe, that was for sure. And needed, like he was more than just an object. He also was a form of comfort and safety to her, someone she could connect with on a deeper level. What was it that physical touch unlocked? Why did this particular embrace feel so much closer and stronger, more important? Was it really just because he was thinking about it?

Color broke off the hug. “Feel different that time?”

Myles just nodded.

“Keep walking?” Color asked.

“Yeah, let’s go to Stablefield. I think that’s a good start.” Once he said this, he knew it was where they were to start.

“You do want to go to Stablefield?” Color confirmed again.

“Yes. That’s where we’re supposed to go; it just feels right.”

Color considered his words and said, “I trust your prophet senses; let’s go. We should go back and get your backpack and then start the journey.”

Myles nodded again.

They walked back to the barn, retrieved Myles’s things, emptied their water bottles into their mouths, refilled them, and decided they were set to go. Color and Myles stood near the path.

“You ready?” Color asked, wondering why Myles was waiting.

“It’s like the whole adventure is finally beginning. I feel a little scared.” He wasn’t usually this honest with people.

She offered her hand.

He grabbed it reluctantly and held it. She looked forward, her white hair gently swishing around, and walked the first steps. “Let’s find the Astronomers!”