Chapter 30: The Long Middle

A storm sat above the road before the rain got there. Lightning kept landing somewhere out beyond the trees. Not always close, but close enough to warrant being more careful.

Victor felt the difference in the air, breathing took a little more work; not enough to slow him but enough to notice. The wind kept changing too. It moved one way through the trees, died, then came back from somewhere else.

By the time the sky really went dark, the whole afternoon looked off. The road ahead had lost distance under the dark clouds. He cut their pace to match. Valessia caught it and pulled her cloak in tighter, hood down farther over her face. Xavier trailed a step behind, one hand inside his coat where Echo rested. He looked up once, quick, then back to the road.

The rain hit hard and fast. Water filled the ruts first. Then the packed earth started glossing over with streams. Stones went slick. Mud got thicker along the sides where the ground had already been churned up. Victor kept his eyes ahead while they walked. What still looked solid. What didn’t. Where the road held its shape and where it looked ready to sink under weight.

That was the thing about long travel. After enough hours, people started moving by habit. Same pace. Same road. Same sounds. Victor had learned this was when mistakes happened. He was still paying attention when the ground moved anyway.

About twenty feet ahead, the mud in the center of the road bulged upward and split. The surface rose in thick wet folds. Then it cracked open wider as something pushed out from below. Water sheeted off the thing as it came up.

The first creature pulled itself out on the left side of the road. Another came up near the middle. Then a third rose behind them, bigger, with dull slabs of stone stuck through packed earth across its upper body. More movement broke through along the shoulders. Seven total.

Victor took a second and read the spread. Two bigger ones near the center. The rest were wider, drifting out where the ground was softer.

Valessia already had her bow in hand. Xavier shifted his footing, one arm still close to his chest.

The creatures came forward without rushing. Just heavy, steady movement. Rain ran off them and changed nothing. Victor let out a breath. “Center.” Then he went.

The nearest creature had only just started to push forward when Victor hit the seam where the stone plating met packed earth at the shoulder. The strike jarred back through his arm. He hit it again right away. That was enough. The thing folded in and dropped into the mud under it.

Valessia moved at the same time on his left, drawing as she stepped. Her first arrow went into the softened section under a creature’s front limb. The second hit higher where the stone joined the earth. Heat flashed at the impact point. Quick. Focused. Cracks spread. The front end gave and the creature dropped hard.

One of the larger ones shifted toward Xavier.

Victor saw it and called the angle. Xavier stepped left through the slick ground as the creature lunged. It tore through hitting nothing but empty rain. The boy turned and drove a fist into the side of its neck where the earth ran thinner under the stone. The hit knocked it off line. Its head dipped. The body dragged wrong for a second.

Victor closed in and finished it before it could fix itself. The others came in shortly behind. One drove low from the right. Another pushed through the middle, less like a beast and more like a moving chunk of road trying to crush through whatever was in front of it. Victor shifted to meet the first and his boot punched through a soft patch hidden under the water.

The ground gave way. He let himself drop with it instead of fighting for balance, one knee sinking into mud as he turned and drove upward into the underside of the thing coming down on him. That broke enough of its structure to throw it off. The next hit finished it.

To his left, Valessia caught a glancing blow that still had enough force to throw her backwards toward the edge of the road. She went down hard on one knee, slid through mud, then forced herself back up before the creature could get to her. Her bow came up with her. She drew while still moving and loosed from close range. The arrow buried itself in a weak line along its side. Heat flashed. Its body gave up and collapsed.

Another one turned toward Xavier. He was already backing up, keeping himself between it and the coat pressed to his chest. For a second his focus split. That was all the thing needed. The distance closed too fast. Then heat pushed out into the rain.

It came from under his coat.

Strong enough to make water hiss off the fabric. The creature in front of him stuttered for half a second, like something inside it had missed a step. Victor took the opening. He crossed the gap and drove through it before it could recover. The last one barely got time to turn. Valessia had already circled behind it with another arrow ready. She loosed into the back of its frame where the structure looked thinner.

The shot cracked through with a short burst of heat. Its body folded before it could come around. Killed on impact.

Then it was just rain again. Victor stayed where he was and looked over the road, then the tree line, then the churned mud where the beasts had come up. Nothing else moved. After that he checked the others. Xavier had both hands on his coat now, head lowered, attention fixed inward.

Victor stepped closer. The heat coming through the soaked fabric was obvious. Too much to dismiss. Xavier adjusted the coat with careful hands.

Victor looked up once at the sky, then ahead at the road. “We move.” They took the incline instead of staying down low. The ground was better there and the runoff was not hitting as hard. By the time they got up to it, the cold had started getting through wet clothes and tired muscles.

Valessia worked on the fire while Xavier sat close to the rock face, shoulders turned around the coat. The flame took its time. Damp kindling. Bad weather. It almost failed before it finally caught and stayed.

Victor took first watch.

Rain kept moving through the trees in long patterns. Sometimes lighter. Sometimes harder again against leaves and stone. The fire dropped to embers.

He opened the system because habit said to. Let the pale light cross his vision. Closed most of it again.

Only the last few lines had stayed in his mind.

\[ Thermal irregularity \]

\[ Location: Proximate \]

\[ Unclassified \]

Victor looked across the fire at Xavier. He was asleep now, curled around the shape under his coat, one arm still over it. Small enough that a person could miss it easy if they were not looking for it.

The system had noticed it too. The heat. The fact that it was holding steady. Victor leaned back against the rock and listened to the rain.

The road had been getting worse a little at a time. Fewer clean places to stop. Travel like that wore people down slowly. Across the fire, Xavier moved in his sleep. His hand tightened once, then eased.

Victor watched the embers a little longer.

Then he waited for morning.