The walk back to the mesa was eerily quiet, especially after spending half the afternoon on top of the first mesa in the open wind, and Fox’s furtive glances into the darkness made it worse.

  It occurred more than once to Oskar to ask her what she was so afraid of, but it was clear she was a little tense. Also, wouldn’t have reacted well to any noise.

  She’d probably jump three feet into the air and stab me when she landed, and we don’t have time for that.

  // Yeah, that seems pretty time consuming, all things considered. //

  On edge, everyone froze when something flew overhead, but the Kobolds relaxed, ears perked up, and a moment later, Oskar saw a subtle disturbance of Sora overhead caused by a weaver spider gliding through the air. That didn’t relax Oskar at all, and for a moment, he wondered if he really was developing arachnophobia.

  He wasn’t, he concluded, but he could at least admit they were a little creepy. Erik seemed bored by the whole thing, but Erik had a great poker face. Goggles or not, it was harder while walking in the dark to notice the small habits Erik had that indicated otherwise- namely less blinking and less fidgeting.

  I guess his tells are more like “don’t tells,” since it’s what he doesn’t do that tips me off.

  // I’m torn between picking on you for that one and being a little mad that you wasted the joke on that attempt. //

  What would you have said to make that funnier? Huh?

  // No point in wasting the processing power now. //

  Though it was cooler than it had been, Oskar smiled at the PUB and wiped sweat from his forehead with his scarf as he tilted his head to listen for any changes in the sound. When they drew closer to the tall mesas, Fox slowed and signaled the entire group to stop, where she and Touwon spent a few seconds listening- and Oskar also heard sniffing- for anything unusual.

  She gave the all-clear, and they stepped from the soft sand back onto the rock. Again, every step Oskar took sounded too loud to his ears, but they made it to the tallest mesa without incident. Fox passed the one they’d watched the suns set on top of, however, and Oskar followed in silence a few hundred meters, on and off sand and rock surfaces until she finally stopped in front of one flat-topped rock formation that was almost as tall, but much thinner than their previous one.

  By Oskar’s reckoning, this mesa, a pockmarked swirl of yellows and reds, was close to where Bluebottle’s small Oasis lay. His senses spread outward as he looked around, but Oskar could not find the peak and there was no sign anywhere of the spirit creature itself.

  There was a low whistling in the air that reminded Oskar vaguely of the night he spent sleeping and hiding within the Kobold caves in the Gramm Collective. Other memories followed, of course; the trails and desperate battle that followed that fateful night. They’d escaped with Erik, but there had been a cost. Erik’s arm, eye, and tongue. All-Red the Croc, who’d fought with them and gave his life paying back a debt to the Kobolds. The big Croc had taught Oskar a very valuable lesson about the beast-like people of this world; like humans, there was also good among the Croc people to balance the evil. This was a lesson he’d needed desperately after having seen some of the worst of the Crocodilian people.

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  After Valla.

  Her name swam through his thoughs daily. She was the reason they were constantly on the move, but this time the name caused a physical reaction in Oskar, and he could taste bile in the back of his throat.

  He didn’t realize exactly how much he’d let his hate for her grow inside him until that moment. As if torturing Erik for who knows how long wasn’t enough, she’d been trying to have them killed since she first met them. Valla was likely most of the reason Bastet had run out of power when she did, and Oskar sat there for a moment thinking about her statue, partially buried in the glass cavern far to the south.

  Without Fox’s knowledge of this world, Oskar had to rely completely on his PUB for location information, but after some calculation, the PUB told gave him a “reasonably reliable” arrow pointing out the direction of the glass cave. Interestingly, the wind directly overhead was blowing almost perfectly southwest as well.

  Staring in the direction the wind was blowing overhead, Oskar imagined he could feel her in the distance… but he knew that was only wishful thinking. He could feel so much life around him it was hard to pick out any single thing unless he was close, and he hoped that wouldn’t keep him awake all night.

  I’ll be alright going light on sleep. I’m sleeping more here than I did back on earth, that’s for sure.

  It helped to be around people he trusted again. Oskar looked at Erik, who was standing by Touwon and awkwardly holding an unopened waterskin in his hand. His brother’s mismatched eyes were scanning the sky but caught Oskar staring at him and Erik gave his brother a questioning look.

  Erik acted like he was gonna throw his waterskin at Oskar as a joke, and Sara jumped off his bag and shoulder, meowing at him in irritation. Erik harshly whispered, “Son of a nutcracker!” through clenched teeth and reached back at his freshly scratched shoulder.

  The past hour had been tense enough that the “Elf” reference caught Oskar off guard, and he was immediately wheezing into the crook of his arm trying to stay quiet while Erik grinned. The Kobolds looked at the humans like they were stupid.

  “I cannot take you anywhere,” Fox said with mock exasperation.

  ***

  Halfway up the mesa, there was a shoulder high, uneven tunnel that cut through the rock that they ducked into, Oskar trying not to trip over his own spear in the cramped space. The whistling stopped as they entered, but as they settled into individual dips along the side of the tunnel, the sound returned.

  That’s a neat little alarm system. Maybe I will sleep tonight.

  He wrinkled his nose.

  Despite the mild sulfur smell. I’ll just try my best not to mouth-breathe.

  Fox took the first watch, and after snacking on dried lizard meat, Oskar cleaned and dried his stump and liner, loosened and cleaned his Goggles, and then propped his food up on a purring Penny to go to sleep. Apparently, Sara had chosen Oskar tonight after Erik’s earlier transgression, but the dang cat settled beside his head instead of on him somewhere like a normal cat. That was fine until Oskar was falling asleep and turned his head into a face full of fur. Oskar spent the next thirty seconds pulling cat hair out of his mouth and off his face. He then pulled his scarf off and put it between his head and the big calico, and she snuggled closer into the softness of the threadbare scarf.

  Little monster.

  Luckily, sleep returned quickly, and as he drifted off, the feeling of the cool rock beneath him and the soft whistling helped him forget any small worries he might have had about weaver spiders.

  ***

  Eyes still closed, Oskar listened. He’d awakened as soon as the whistling sound dropped pitch and disappeared. He peeked an eye open and saw the silhouette of Fox moving toward him in the tunnel.

  Is it already my turn for watch?

  I thought Erik was staying up with her. He was gonna wake Touwon when he got ready to sleep, and then Fox was gonna wake me, but it seems too early.

  Sitting up, he leaned his head in the tunnel to see if he could catch a peek at Erik, and was about to check his PUB to see how long he’d been asleep, but Fox had already closed the distance.

  “Oskar… some bone-dry fool has a lit lantern off in the distance.”

  “Bone-dry fool, or someone strong enough that they think they’re safe?”

  She shrugged and looked back down the tunnel as Oskar pulled on his liner.

  “Maybe both? Vulk was both.”

  “Vulk is dead.”

  She gave him an even stare.

  “Because he was wrong about being strong enough. That is why he was a bone-dry fool.”

  “Fair point.”

  I was forced to write a paper in high school about the differences in cows and clowns. The subjects were chosen randomly, and the goal of the paper was to be able to articulate between two unrelated things and potentially find unexpected similarities. I focused entirely on the similarities, and wrote what I thought was an at least *interesting* thought exercise. I don't think she failed me, but she didn't think I was funny at all... and I found that was hilarious because I kind of agreed with her.

  I either had teachers who loved me and encouraged me, or seemed mean at the time until I grew up enough to learn what they were teaching me. I only had one bad teacher I remember, and looking back, I think she was just ill-equipped to deal with a kid who was capable but didn't have the skills he needed to make himself follow through. She saw every unfinished homework assignment as an act of open defiance (most of which were completed, but folded in a text book- effectively lost). I spent two days alone in the hall, sitting in my desk being handed assignments through the door before my mom stepped in and had me moved to a different class and a different teacher. Mrs. Smith, who treated me like a son and understood me in ways I didn't understand myself.