All That Falls

2 A Mortal Reminder

I had been wrong before. There was no truer nuisance than an avalanche.

Soldiers lifted me, one and then two, the second of which was already limping himself. I was fading in and out of consciousness but I felt their hands holding me aloft, felt the sharp and frigid air beating against the cool skin of my face as we reached the helicopter, heard the tremendous roar of natural fury as a wave of white tumbled toward us.

"Just hang on!" one of them was screaming, inches from my face, over the whirring of the helicopter blades and the rumbling of the mountain.

"Hadley," I croaked, gripping him around the collar, my eyelids already fluttering closed again. "I need... to get back..."

But I was gone. Both mentally and physically as the helicopter lifted from the ground, the last of the soldiers still dangling from its sides, scrambling on.

We left it all behind. The rift, the equipment, the chunks of minotaur. Things we could have salvaged, things we could have studied. But I was already itching to return by the time my eyes opened again in a hospital room back in New York City.

No one was there to greet me. I wasn't surprised. I just stood, ripping the IV from my arm, and snatched up my briefcase that had made it back to the city long before I had and was in much better shape. I changed back into my clothes in the bathroom before making my way out onto the street. I had opted to forgo the bloody fur coat as I trudged through the streets of NYC but the stains on my trousers couldn't be helped.

So I ignored the horrified stares of everyday citizens as I made my way south.

"Is it true?" My uncle asked me the moment I stepped onto the Hadley University campus. "A real minotaur? Is it true?"

My gaze slid over him, as annoyed as I could ever be with my beloved uncle.

Xavier Belling was the head of the prestigious astrophysics program at Hadley University. He was to be blamed for my love of all things celestial and unexplained. And I could tell he was champing at the bit to gain some insight into this fascinating new discovery.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking," I remarked sarcastically. "Perhaps you heard of the avalanche as well? The one I was unconscious for as they flew me out on an emergency chopper?"

He just stared at me expectantly.

"It's true," I admitted and he beamed, bouncing on his toes as he followed me through the courtyard like a kid given permission to choose a candy at the confectionery.

"Remarkable," he breathed in awe. "You must tell me everything."

"Does this count as our faculty meeting for the month, then?"

I raised a brow. He laughed. Faculty meetings for the astrophysics department only ever comprised my uncle and myself, since we were the only professors who taught the discipline. Hadley University had become the breeding ground for success in the venture of cosmic exploration. Our alumni had been directors of NASA, corporate pioneers, tech masterminds. And because of our achievement in the subject, the university had determined that it would be very selective about the students it deemed qualified enough to excel in the course of study. Therefore, my schedule was inundated with Intro to Astrophysics classes in which the Dean expected me to flunk over half of my students. So I deserved to be among the first scientists to interact with a minotaur since the dawn of recorded history. I had earned it.

"What did it look like?" He asked, drawing me out of my reverie, and I smiled as he opened the door to our wing of the sciences building and I stepped inside.

"It was enormous. At least fifteen feet tall. It was just like all the old stories describe it to be. Part man, part bull. All muscle and fur and rage."