There might be something important in it. I don’t want our survival to be based on my assumptions and Gran’s limited research. Tail’s notes will give us another perspective.
Talon steps between Tail and me. “What is it?”
“It’s mine.” Tail tries to dart through Talon but bounces back like he hit something. There must be some substance to Talon that I can’t see.
“Then why does she have it?” Talon presses.
“Because I don’t have pockets.” Tail slaps his side like he expects pockets to appear in his scales. “No pants.”
I laugh, but it’s more of a playful yip. None of us are wearing pants and the only pockets we have between the four of us are the ones in the scavenged purple robe I’m wearing. I put the notebook back into my pocket, then I write in the dirt.
We need to find a safe place for the night.
When Talon doesn’t read it immediately, I bark at him. It’s not a question, but a demand. I need him to be my voice.
He obeys and reads it.
He then waits for my next line, and I can sense his anticipation, his need to please…to be part of something.
Then we can seal our new deal.
Talon hesitates on the last word and glances at Tail. Tail looks like he’s gotten a mouthful of his own poison, but Michael appears to be thinking.
I have a theory that I want to test.
When I reach out, it isn’t for Talon’s hand, but for where I assume he has an ankle…hopefully only two. My hand sinks into his shadow and connects with something cold that feels like human skin.
He gasps. “You can touch me?”
“I couldn’t run through him, so he must have a body in there,” Tail snarls.
“But no one can see me unless I let them. I almost don’t exist.” His claws glint as he talks.
Maybe he has a body, but because he didn’t want anyone to notice him and no one was touching him, he began to disappear until he believed he was invisible, and then he was.
I bark to get their attention. I underline my previous comment about sealing the deal with Talon. I need to offer the same to all. All need to be willing to accept the others. There can be no fighting between us.
I write that for Talon to read.
Agreed?
I wait. Tail and Michael nod, but Talon speaks, “agreed.”
Then Talon will read the notebook to us.I look at Tail. I want to learn who he was, and how he came to be like this. He wants to know, too.There might be important information. And Talon will tell us how to escape.
Talon reads that last bit and sighs. “I will do that now. You deserve to know what is coming.”
My stomach knots.
Michael moves closer to me and places his hand on my head as though to offer comfort. I lean against his leg, drawing on his strength, knowing I’ll need it for what is coming.
“In the center is a spire that’s so tall it seems to pierce the sky. You climb that.”
“And then what?” Tail tilts his head, all four eyes bright and blazing as he studies the shadow that is Talon.
“You climb until you reach whatever is above. The place we all came from.” He lifts his gaze to the sky. “A place I can’t even remember.”
“And you failed to climb it?” Michael’s fingers tangle in my hair.
“I got further than some, but with every failure I changed a little more and on my next attempt didn’t make it as far before the spire became smooth with no hand holds like it doesn’t want to let the monsters out.”
I soak in his words.
To reach the center, we must be monsters, but to leave we must be human.
* * *