Stranger Spirits

Awaking Into the Nightmare [Chapter Eight Part Three]

"Ah!" I shouted myself awake my breathing was jagged. Gasping for air I looked above towards the roof of my tent.

"Finally, you're awake." Crawling into view was the woman from before.

"W-Wren?" I turned my head only to see that Atticus was nowhere to be found. "Where's Atticus?" I grunted as I tried to move but I couldn't. "What have you done? Why can't I move?!" Panicking I began to breathe faster.

"I didn't do anything." Wren shrugged as she idly looked through my bag pulling out my money pouch to weigh its amount by resting it on her palm. "There was a group of men who went into your tent. It didn't look like much of a fight. Your friend was dragged out and taken west to the dunes." Wait, what? Why would he be taken there?!

My eyes widened in shock. "The Talod dunes?" Please let me be wrong. Please let me be wrong.

"The one and only." Oh my gods. What's going on?

"Then I know why I can't move." I was only able to tilt my head towards her. "I need you to force feed me water and rub my legs.

"Excuse me?" She gave me a bewildered look.

"Someone put a pseudo-poison in me and I already know how to handle it. The only way I can be rid of it is if I hydrate myself and manually move the muscles in my body to dilute it. We need this done as soon as possible!"

She came towards me and paused for a moment. "If you try anything I will end you."

"Deal! Now get to it!"

The process took a while but we were eventually able to get me moving. After I took a piss behind the tent I went back to Wren. "Wren, which way is west?" Now normally I could tell which direction we were going because Atticus taught me how to navigate in the daytime but now that the sun is down I'm utterly lost.

"That way." She pointed to my left and I started to hobble towards that direction. I need to get to Atticus! "What are you doing? We should wait here! I have some friends who can help!" Wren shouted and ran towards me clawing me back by the shoulder.

"I can't wait." Tears were already flowing down my cheeks. "I have no idea why Atticus was taken but as long as I know where he is I'll come after him. We have no time to waste!" I pulled myself away from her when she came from behind, wrapped an arm around my back and hooked my arm that was closer to her across her shoulders.

"I like you, kid. You're a little on the crazy side but I can respect that." She huffed at the sudden weight of responsibility she burdened herself with. "Let's go get your lover."

"Wait, excuse me, what?" I halted wiping away my tears. "I-uh-we're not lovers!" I countered an octave lower with a gruff tone.

"Oh," She gave me a cheeky grin. "Him being dragged out of the tent naked must have given me the wrong impression."

"Oh shit!" I turned back quickly and went into our tent. I took out a pair of light clothes from Atticus's bag and got out of the tent. "He's gonna need this if he's naked."

"I'll hold onto it." She took it out of my hands and stuffed it into the small pack strapped to her back. We returned to our previous formation and resumed towards the dunes.

Time isn't really a measurable thing in the night. It also didn't help that there was only a small sliver of moon to illuminate the way across the outskirts of the desert. Eventually, Wren pulled us to a stop. "I have no idea how we got here so fast but look ahead. Those dunes are illuminated from behind by a large fire."

The multiple stone dunes almost acted as if it were a natural fortress. They weren't exceptionally high but there were only two entrances beyond the hills unless you wanted to spend an exceptional amount of time traveling around. From where we stood it looked like there were probably many more stone dunes behind it.

"That's-" I yelped as Wren clamped a hand over my mouth and quickly pulled me behind some cover. "Look, Vaughn, there are guards posted around." She whispered in my ear as I peeked from our spot.

It looked to be three men from the group that had helped us out of the carriage upon arriving at Sincostan. When I first encountered them they seemed like nice and sincere doctors. Now they looked so intimidating standing as barriers before us. It's almost astonishing to think about how a day can change one's circumstances so.