Page 233 of Hunters and Prey

Dragon

IFOUND MYSELF watching Black, a little worried at the expression on his face, and the way his light felt––not to mention how quiet he was.

It took a while to explain everything to him.

Through most of it, he had that far-seeing, doubtful look in his gold eyes.

He seemed to blank out for long and short periods while I was talking, or I’d catch him staring at Revik and Allie, or at their kids, Lily and Narik, like he still doubted whether he was dreaming, or if they were actually real, and he was really in their house.

I couldn’t exactly blame him for that.

At the same time, I hoped as I kept talking to him, explaining what we’d managed to figure out so far, that the bare fact of things would begin to sink in for him.

I started with a detailed description of what I’d experienced so far.

I told him about how, after an hour or so of being here, I generally remembered all of the visits and conversations that had happened here before, as well as most of what happened to me on all of the other versions of Earth, including our own.

I told him how time worked differently on each of the different Earths, and how in all of them so far, it moved more quickly than it did back home. I explained how it moved fastest of all here, on the version of Earth they called “Urtre,” where the time differential meant I could spend weeks here, and still return home within hours, even minutes.

I also told him that Allie had worked with me and my light to try and bring me back for this, meaning the gathering happening that night. She’d worked with me to focus on returning to Urtre on this specific day, in part to see if I could control the process from this side, the side where my light was more awake.

I told him that Allie and I both saw this as a good sign, that I managed to make it here on the very day of the opening ceremony, despite my not remembering anything consciously when I returned to me and Black’s version of Earth.

Allie was hoping we might be able to talk to some of the elder, sage-like seers, the ones who spent months, years, decades… even centuries… meditating in caves, spending most of their time on long-distance Barrier travels, mapping different parts of the world behind the Barrier and in the lands beyond the Barrier.

She explained how hard it would be to interrupt them from these travels, and how much better it would be for me to be here for the gathering, so I could meet them in person.

And, well, more importantly… so they could get a look at my light, and maybe help me learn to control what I could do.

Again, I don’t know how much of this sank in for Black.

He sat at the edge of the wooden table, eating something Allie’s husband made for him, looking around the inside of their house like he still expected it to vanish around him.

Allie seemed to get it better than I did.

You were a bit like this the first time,she told me in my mind. Like you kept expecting to wake up. Like you were happy to humor us, because you were ninety-nine percent certain we weren’t real anyway. I imagine the physical process of just the jump itself would produce that to a degree. But the psychology alone has to be a big factor. Just the fact of being on a different world is probably hard to see as fully real.

Pausing as she thought about that, she added,

On the plus side, that means you are getting better at this. Maybe not as fast as you’d like… but youare adjusting to the process. This time, you pretty much knew exactly where you were. You knew who I was right off. There wasn’t much of a lag at all, maybe only a few minutes or seconds… and most of that could have been physiological recovery from the jump itself.

I nodded, my mouth pursed as I thought about her words.

I couldn’t help but be worried about Black, though.

Remember, too,Allie added. We’re more or less mythological creatures to him. Like unicorns or bigfoot. Revik might be his blood cousin, and Black might be as nonreligious and cynical as you say, but I still think the myth thing is affecting him. I felt it on him when he was staring at both of us. Especially when he was staring at my husband, which makes sense, given when he left. It’s difficult to explain just what a big deal that was, back on Old Earth. I never fully got it, either, to be honest.

She shrugged, taking a drink of some kind of juice where she curled up next to her husband. Like you, I was raised human.

Exhaling, she put down her mug, fingered her long hair out of her face, and leaned back against her husband’s chest as she added,

Truthfully, dealing with you has been kind of refreshing. You have no idea who we were, in terms of all that, and you don’t much care.

When I frowned a little, about to protest, she waved me off.

Believe me, that’s much, much better for both of us. I know Revik appreciates it, especially. A lot of our people on Old Earth viewed him as some kind of boogie man-slash-dark angel-slash serial killer.

I laughed at that; I couldn’t help it.

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