Chapter 32 Reflection

I could hear singing. It was beautiful. A soft melody from a familiar voice. I didn’t move, even as I awoke. I could have laid down there forever, bundled in furs, that beautiful voice. I didn’t know where I was, but when my senses returned, I started to recognise. The mud hut. The sounds of the river nearby. Children laughing. I was back in the village. I kept my eyes closed, snuggling into the furs. How was I back in the village?

My mind flashed back. The stone guardian. Kaleo. The Gate.

[Would you like to advance to the Bronze Epoch?]

Gone. All gone. I should’ve known better. I had known Kaleo’s true nature from the beginning. He’d been lying to me from the start. I had just hoped he hadn’t been lying about this. Fool I was. But alive. That meant I could come up with a plan. That meant there was still a chance.

I rolled over and saw Ayla. Maybe it was because I thought I was going to die, or maybe because I thought I’d never see her again, but god was she a beauty. The light caught her just right. Honestly? I could almost have given up with the hunt for the Gate right there and then, just to spend more moments like this with her.

Almost.

‘You’re awake,’ said another familiar voice, Miggy entering. At the sight of him, I had to admit my heart lightened, even more so when Larry came bounding in, pressing his head against mine. The enormous sovereign beast really thought he was just a cute kitty. I gave him an affectionate scratch beneath his chin, and his ears flopped as he settled beside me, with an air that suggested he’d never leave my side again.

‘So I am,’ I said. Ayla’s singing had stopped immediately as she looked to me. ‘Hi.’

‘Hello.’ She seemed nervous. Why was she nervous? She got suddenly to her feet. ‘I’ll get you some fresh water,’ and she paced out, despite a full jug of water sitting very clearly at the little wooden table.

‘She nursed you back to health when they brought you here,’ explained Miggy, sitting cross-legged before me. ‘Think she’s pretty taken with you after that dashing rescue.’

I sat up. It took me a few seconds to even remember what rescue Miggy was referring to. My head was pounding as I downed a cup of water. I saw that I still had the tired debuff, though it was mild. How was I still tired after…how long had I been here?

‘They brought you here yesterday. Fully unconscious. I thought they’d been the ones to rough you up. Didn’t explain why they were bringing you back either.’

‘Figures,’ I said. My mouth tasted like ash despite drinking the water. ‘But why bring me here at all?’

Larry gave a whine. ‘Well, obviously I’m happy to see you,’ I said, giving him another scratch beneath the chin. The sabretooth king purred, laying his enormous head on my lap. Felt like a weighted stone.

‘No idea,’ admitted Miggy. ‘So…where were you? I knew you weren’t dead because we stayed in the same party. Good thing too. Ayla was ready to set out on her own to find you, and I’m pretty sure they’d have killed her.’

‘Yes, you have survived where many would not have.’ Oma had appeared in the doorway, resting on her walking stick. ‘The Skybreakers are rarely so merciful.’

I looked to them both. Still so shaken. As if I were still atop that stone colossus, fighting the final fight of the Stone Epoch.

‘I was with the Warlord,’ I said, finally. ‘His name is Kaleo.’

They wanted to speak to me, those of the Komo tribe. Ayla’s father was the chief, but Oma seemed to be the real power here. The presence. She alone seemed unsurprised that I had been with the Warlord, that he had even let me live. She alone seemed to know the real him.

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But I just couldn’t deal with it right now. I couldn’t even face the notifications, even though I could see from the little glowing arrow that I’d levelled up. My mind was all over the place, so I just let it go blank.

I let Miggy catch me up on all that had happened in my weeks away. He and Larry had remained with the camp, defending it from vandal raiders. They had been there when Ayla and the others of her tribe had come back. Runners had been sent to the other villages. They’d expected the Warlord and the Skybreakers to immediately retaliate.

But it had never come, though Miggy and the tribe had never stopped preparing. The defences were stronger now, the palisades reinforced and dotted around the area leading up to the village gate. Miggy told me he had spent every day laying traps.

This seemed dangerous, until he told me there was a feature of the traps that allowed the one who laid them to set them as active or inactive. I had grinned at that. Miggy. Always full of surprises. He’d levelled up as well, growing to level six. He seemed to fill out more, less scrawny. This place was good for him, or at least better than being alone in a cave for months.