Chapter 24 – Wasteland.

Everything felt different. Not just the cleaner air, the dry cracked earth, or the dull warmth from the orange sun that hung low in the sky. But also the atmosphere itself, the feel of the land, and the magic that permeated it. It was weak, like the land itself was dying. And they were stuck here.

Callie raced over to Julia, who was now sitting on the ground, her clothes covered in dust, Felicia sitting on the ground beside her in her human form, both leaning against each other companionably.

“Are you alright?” she asked. Her mind was clear now, the pain all gone, the bonds telling her that everyone was in fact fine, if you ignored the situation that they were now in. But it never hurt to ask.

“I never, ever, want to go through that again,” Felicia stated, looking up at her. “And we’ve been waiting for hours for you two to show up, while that rift pulsed and bled.”

Callie blinked, confused. “But we were less than a minute behind you...”

“Time must pass differently here,” Uriah said as he came up behind her, and placed the two packs on the ground beside them. They were dusty and dirty, but no surprises there. “There is no reason that it would have to be the same, and Riddling did hint to that. He was right, though. This was their realm. I... I was the key, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah,” Callie admitted with a sigh. They’d let loose during the battle against Alyther, and let his nature slip, and Riddling had picked up on it. Even though he had been sealed inside a utility vehicle with a mess that would have made her pass out at the very least.

Julia looked at them confused. “What is going on? I feel like I missed a whole lot of what happened...”

“Riddling opened a rift to another realm, and shoved us all through it. He wants us to collect a seed from the last remaining totem, whatever that is, and return it to him.”

“And we’d do that for him, why?” Julia asked, letting the question hang as her face fell. “My family...”

“They could be a part of it? I think that you know more on that than us. But also because we can’t get home without it apparently, and no doubt he’ll be waiting on the other side for us, especially if time passes a lot faster here?” Callie offered. “He made a promise but...”

“He’s a liar,” Uriah growled. “His view of freedom won’t match ours, and I doubt that’d he’d just let us leave afterwards. He’s after more than whatever this seed is.”

Callie sighed. “Yeah, but irrespective, we have no choice but to move forward, and at least consider what he asked, even if we decide not to give it to him. There is no way out here, and no life either. We stay here, in this spot, and we die.”

“So, we’re going to be wasting a whole lot of our life on this errand for him.” Julia growled as she stood up, and made an attempt to dust herself off.

“Yes and no.” Felicia stated, also standing. “Vampires are meant to be immortal, you know, and with the magic Callie and Uriah have, I doubt they’ll be ageing as fast as most people do. Call it intuition from being bonded to her, and the evidence known as Dryad.”

“Huh,” Julia stated, looking a little perplexed.

Callie didn’t know if that was true or not, but she did like the idea of having a really long life ahead of her, to share with Uriah, and with Felicia and Julia as well. They just had to survive this place first.

And the initial outlook was not so good. They were in a valley, and if Callie had to sum it up in one word, it felt like death. Its entirety was just dry cracked earth, like there hadn’t been any rain here in a very long time, the land itself dangerous to walk on, shifting beneath their feet. The sky was clear with no signs of any moons, or birds, the temperature at the lower end of pleasant.

They were certainly not going to be staying in it any longer than necessary.

“Any idea of where we’re going?” Julia asked, poking one of the backpacks and then hoisting it onto her back. Callie gave her a confused look, to which Julia laughed. “Like I’m going to let the delicate one of us carry a full pack. Fox-boy can carry the other.”

Callie opened her mouth to speak, Uriah beating her to the punch. “The little vampire’s developing some sass huh?” he said, giving her a smile as he easily lifted the other one and put it on his back.

Julia’s grin was... alluring actually. “Just calling it as I see it,” she said, the stare that she gave Uriah one of hunger, the way in which she held herself just further emphasising it. “Do you have any idea where we’re heading, since you were the key and all?” she then asked, the seriousness of it at odds with, well, everything else.

‘She’s hungry, but she’s not going to admit it. Not till it’s desperate, like last time.’ Felicia gave a little fox sigh as she shifted forms. There was desire there from her too, for the one that she was commenting on.

Uriah looked thoughtful for a moment, and then raised his arm, pointing roughly in the direction of the sun. “I can sense something that way. It is... really far away though.”

“It’s as good a direction as any,” Callie quickly stated, attempting to shift the focus away from what was making her a little uncomfortable and a lot jealous. He’d just been teasing, but still...

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They were in some form of poly relationship, and even though she wanted it as well, to be honest she had no real understanding of it at all. She knew that it was unlikely to just be limited to the feeding, given how it made her feel, and in turn the others, and the fact that she did in fact find Julia attractive, and well...

Callie tried to focus back on the landscape, and started walking in the direction that Uriah had pointed out. It was the stress of the situation and the warmth that was making her blush this time. Definitely!

Felicia mentally laughing at was just more fuel to the fire. Her familiar was rather attractive too.

“Hurry up you three,” Callie grizzled, picking up the pace.

The landscape was fighting against her though, and it took them a lot longer to crest the hill surrounding the valley than she would have thought. Almost tripping far too many times as the ground shifted under her, the group being forced to find a new path multiple times as the hillside just gave way, clouds of dust leaving them coughing as they scrambled to the side. Dead was beginning to feel like an understatement for what the land here was.

Apparently it had been late afternoon when they had arrived, the sun now touching the horizon as they finally made it to the top and looked at the orange bathed land that lay ahead of them. It was very much a stark contrast to the valley, a vast grassland stretching out before them, mountains in the distance, and a river that meandered through it. Assuming that it wasn’t poisoned or anything, that would make their time here a lot easier. They just had to reach it first. There was going to be a lot of walking in their future, but were they in a rush? Callie had no idea. They could be here for weeks, or perhaps a lot longer. She really didn’t want to be walking for the majority of most days, and well, they also needed to locate food as well, or they’d be having a lot of trouble very quickly. Hunger had a way of making people not think straight.

At least there was the four of them though. Being alone by herself would have been...

She didn’t finish the thought there. She had no need to. She wasn’t alone.

“Any further indications?” She asked Uriah as he stood there beside her, staring out across the land.

“No.” Uriah shook his head. “Just the general direction, and it feels really weak. We’re... going to be here a while.”

“Do you think we’ll have enough supplies to reach the river?” All that training was going to get some use, even though she’d hated a lot of it.

Uriah took off the bag and rummaged through it briefly, before putting it back on his back. “Yeah, we should. But, it’s the bare minimum. We’re going to need to be clever with what we do and how we use our magic if we’re going to have any form of comfort here. Or find some form of civilization.”

“Do you think there is anyone else here?” Julia asked as she looked around. “It seems so empty.”

Uriah shrugged. “Pass? But we should try and make some progress before night falls properly. We won’t be getting to the river today.”

On that Callie agreed.

---

Progress was... well, not as good as Callie had hoped. Even though the land was covered in grass, it was initially still a bit unstable in places, the death of the valley slowly seeping out, and none of them had a lot of experience with extended periods of walking. Uriah was the fittest of them all, given that he had been an active spellsword, but Callie could feel that perhaps she had let her level of fitness drop too far. For the way that she dressed, Julia was also at about her level. Felicia she had no clue about, nor if it was a factor. Even in her fox form she easily kept up and didn’t make any noises one way or the other.

They managed to clear the slope and make it a little distance from it before Uriah called a halt, saying that if they left it much longer they’d lack the light to organise camp and eat a meal. It felt a little weird, given that they’d skipped a good portion of the day when crossing the rift, but he was right, and there was no point in being stupid. The food wasn’t much of anything, just the standard Guardian rations, nor did they have much to make camp with either. There was a couple of insulated blankets, and the packs could probably function as pillows, albeit lumpy ones, but they’d have to make do with what they had. They then just sat there, waiting for night to fully fall, none of them tired enough yet to attempt sleeping. Though they would need to eventually, and in turns, given that keeping a watch was a must in an unknown place. The thing of books that she had read, now suddenly very much a reality.

The night sky was absolutely beautiful, a blanket of stars of every colour, more so than she’d ever seen before. Perhaps it wasn’t a good sign, like the colour of the sun, which she hoped wasn’t its usual state, but only time would tell there. It would be a waste though, to not admire it, so that they all did, staring up and pointing out the interesting constellations that they could all see. None of them were familiar at all, but just like with clouds, shapes did take form. Shapes of animals and creatures.

Callie and Uriah took the first watch, sitting back to back, Julia trying to make herself comfortable as she snuggled up in one of the blankets, Felicia in her fox form wrapped up in her arms. She looked both content and worried as she fell asleep, murmuring little noises to herself. Given Felicia’s comment, Callie had expected her to feed before now, but apparently she wasn’t quite ready yet. The night was still and quiet, the only sounds coming from them. No rustling of the grass, no hints of any other life at all.

‘Do you think it’s the influence of the valley, that we haven’t seen any other creatures?’ Callie was a little worried. ‘If there isn’t any animals or fish, or other forms of food, we are going to be screwed.’

Uriah shrugged, the sensation easily recognised. ‘That valley did have an aura about it, and surely for an ecosystem to still exist there has to be something? I guess we’re going to find out soon enough. I... don’t want to die here either. Certainly not after we’ve finally gained this.’ Uriah reached a hand to hers, Callie happily intertwining their hands.

They sat there, watching, and perhaps dozing a little as well, waiting for the hours to pass. The moons eventually rose, two of them, one three times the size of the other and very much dominating, and crawling their way across the sky. They had no real idea of the length of the night, but once they were sure that at least half of the night was over, they woke a somewhat groggy Julia and Felicia, and took over the sleeping spot, snuggling up together. Uriah was very warm, and Callie instantly melted into his embrace, enjoying it more than she probably should be. His scent, his warmth, everything. It just felt so right, as it always did.

‘You remember the first time we did this?’ Uriah asked as he seemed to settle, his breathing slowing a little, his body relaxing a little.

‘Snuggled in the grass you mean?’ she thought back. That she certainly did. Well, mostly. She certainly remembered waking up snuggled with him, her first memory of him. She hadn’t realised that at the time, the magic doing its thing, but she had a decade later. And that realisation hadn’t changed a thing for either of them. They were best friends, and that was all that mattered. Now they were a couple, and it was still the same. Callie made a happy noise, sending warm feelings back to him as sleep started to take hold.