Chapter 27

Kopius awoke to aches and pains. His muscles were tight from the fighting as well as the journey, and his joints were stiff for the same reasons. The soreness was exacerbated by the fact that he slept upon an unforgiving stone the whole night.

Cici, after their fifth skinwalker encounter, had led them for no more than thirty more minutes when they came to the first trail marker. There were four trail markers in total, spread out to be roughly a day's journey apart and meant to pass the night by in safety. Travelers had created these safe places, long ago, by knocking over a stone column and then climbing to the top of one of the broken pieces.

Atop the fallen hoodoo, anywhere between twenty to forty feet off the ground, Kopius and Cici could make a camp without the fear of the night and its creatures. They had climbed the broken pillar piece that Cici was most familiar with, made camp, and were asleep before their food could settle.

“Top of the morning,” Cici morning-yelled, like morning people do. His booming voice echoed off the surrounding stone pillars, giving the impression there were morning people everywhere. Kopius involuntarily shuttered at the thought. Thankful for that not being the case, Kopius got to his feet, summoned his waterskin and rinsed the sleep from his mouth.

Cici had revived the prior night's fire and offered a steaming mug to Kopius when he approached. Now familiar with Cici’s morning concoction, he sipped at the pungent drink knowing it would taste sweeter in a few minutes. Once the two had finished their breakfast-in-a-cup, Kopius thought it would be prudent to stretch before getting the day started.

Though his new body had all the proverbial bells and whistles one might want, he still needed to build up his stamina and endurance… and strength… and intelligence. He wasn’t sure if pulling a muscle could be cured by drinking a healing potion or eating a healing herb, nor did he want to waste one to find out. Cici joined in without a question, but synchronized they were not. They both had different aches for different pains, and their bodies contorted accordingly.

With stretches done and camp broken down, they climbed down from their perch and returned to the ground level. The morning left dewdrops on all the plants, and shadows brought with them a chill for a lack of sun. The light came through in beams, cutting through the small spaces between hoodoos to reach the ground. The two men picked up where they had left off, Kopius a few steps behind Cici, who led the way.

Cici hummed melodies as they journeyed, sometimes raising his hand in a way that looked as though he was conducting his own internal symphony. Kopius kept a mindful eye on his surroundings, not wanting any surprises with sharp teeth pouncing at him. As they made their way through the various stone pillars, Kopius tried to get a wider view as one might try to see the whole forest and not just one tree.

Initially Escher Pass looked and felt like a maze: multiple paths leading in a variety of directions, many to dead ends. Yet the more he looked, the less of a traditional maze it became. Many of the pillars appeared to be the same shape and size. They even looked to have the same plant life growing in the same places. Looking to the left and to the right, in many cases, looked the same.

“It’s like a house of mirrors without the mirrors.” Kopius said absently.

“What’s that now?” Cici replied over his shoulder.

“How do people navigate this?” Kopius replied. “It looks the same all over the place.”

“True enough. Now that the trail is no longer maintained, older methods are required.”

Cici stopped and gestured at a pillar they were soon to pass around.

“See this one here? Notice that towards the bottom on the right it carves in sharply like a piece was removed?”

Kopius stared at the giant column. He did see the sudden indentation starting roughly ten feet from the ground. Plants had long covered the surface, giving it enough coverage to camouflage the otherwise noticeable missing chunk. It was hiding in plain sight.

“I see it.”

“Excellent! There are many like it if you are paying attention. Those will keep you on the path.”

“They don’t exactly jump out at you.”

“No, they are quite stationary, I assure you.”

“I mean, they are not very noticeable.”

“It is much easier when you know what to look for.”

“I guess I know now.”

“And knowing is–”

“–half the battle?” Kopius interjected.

“What? Why would you fight knowledge?”

“No, it’s… it’s a thing from a cartoon?”

“Cartoon?”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Yeah, like moving pictures; kids watch them. They teach lessons and entertain and whatnot.”

“Like a play?”

“Something like that.”

“Lessons on fighting knowledge? It's no wonder you have struggled,” Cici said apologetically.

“Nononono, that’s not… you know what—” Kopius replied, unwilling to dive down this rabbit hole any farther. “What were you going to say? Knowing is… what?”

“Knowing is going to keep you from getting lost.”

There was a long pause as the two men stared at each other. One stood with a quiet confidence while the other tried to maintain his composure.

“Were you hoping for something more… profound?” Cici said, breaking the silence.

“I guess I was.”

“I see. Well then… a wise man once told me that to suffer is divine.”

“Sounds like an asshole.”

Cici laughed. “He was a bit of a pucker-pot.”

Upon Kopius’s request, he took the right side of the trail, and the two men were off. He paid closer attention to which way Cici rounded the hoodoos. At first, he had to really stare at the column before picking up the indention. After an hour of walking, he could accurately predict which way the big man would travel. At some point, a blank, glittering pop-up window appeared, and Kopius whisked it away, only able to guess at what it was communicating.

Cici had moved on from the humming and was playing a tune on his musical instrument. He played in such a way that he used his own echo to create the illusion of multiple instruments and sounds playing together. If Kopius were to close his eyes it would be as though he were listening to a music band of four or five people playing. It was quite beautiful.

Travel was uneventful, until it wasn’t.

“That’s not a skinwalker,” Kopius stated, his summoned sword pointing towards the distant creature. The two men found cover best they could and watched. A few hundred yards down the twisting path, a brightly colored animal was grazing among the plants. Its pink and yellow body stood out like a beacon in contrast to the dark-green and blue plants. It hunched over on two legs, bending at the waist to reach the ground. It gave Kopius a strong Road Runner cartoon vibe.

“It’s a scavenging gleamer,” Cici answered, looking about for more. ”Looks to be alone. If you fancy chicken, that’s pretty close.” He looked at Kopius expectantly.

“You want to catch that thing?” Kopius asked.

“I want to cook that thing.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“It’s got a bit of a piercer.”

“A piercer?”

“Yeah, like an overgrown toenail.”

Again, Kopius felt like he was not getting the whole story, but lacking any evidence to counter, he went along with the big man. “Well, okay, fine, how do we do this?”

Kopius stepped out from his cover and stood in the middle of the path. In his right hand was a single, roundish rock with just about the right amount of heft. In his other hand were two similar rocks, about the size and shape of baseballs. From his closer position, Kopius gauged the distance to the grazing animal to be sixty to eighty yards away. He guessed that he was roughly the distance from center field to home plate, and that was an easy throw for him.

The plan was for Kopius to draw the attention and ire of the gleamer, to which it would seek retribution. Cici, laying in wait, would tackle the unexpecting kangaroo-sized creature as it rushed by. Once on the ground, the big man's size could make short work of the animal.

After a few stretches and arm twirls, Kopius reared back and tossed the boulder. It sailed through the air, but he knew the moment it was out of his hand that it would fall short. Fall short it did, coming to a quick stop and not even registering on the animal’s radar. The second stone was a much better throw. Using what is popularly known in the baseball world as a “crow hop”, Kopius missed the beast just to the left, startling it.

“HEY!” Kopius shouted, getting the gleamer to look his way.

Using the crow-hop again, he nailed the beast, and it let out an audible squawk. Kopius picked up three more rocks that he had by his feet and started slinging.

Wap, wap, wap.

Each successive throw pelted the gleamer until it finally rose to its full height and started running at Kopius. At the original distance, Kopius would have guessed that the gleamer would be no more than five feet tall. Yet as the beast quickly approached, its size seemed to double. Once within a reasonable distance, Kopius could make out that the flamingo/ostrich crossover was a bright and terrifying sight.

“It’s coming,” Kopius yelled.

“I’m ready,” Cici confirmed.

Thump, thump, thump.

The closer the gleamer got, the louder its footsteps became. Its squeals and squawks echoed amongst the stones. Each thump felt like his heart trying to hammer out of his chest. Before Kopuis could say anything further, Cici pounced with all the alacrity and grace of a jungle cat. He caught the beast just below its elongated neck, causing the animal to veer off course but not to the ground. The big man bounced and flopped as he held firm to the gleamer. Cici looked like a rodeo hand trying to rustle a rogue horse.

Kopius turned and ran. Five paces into his retreat, the sound of the thumping ceased. Unwilling to stop and look around, Kopius chanced a glance over his shoulder while on the run. The next few moments felt as though the world had slowed down so that everyone could really get a good look at the calamity as it ensued.

Behind and above, like an ungraceful albatross about to land on ice, the gleamer stumbled through the open air. Clinging to the animal's neck and obstructing its flight, Cici’s face bore the expression of someone frustrated by a word puzzle.

In a dragged out moment, he wrapped his legs around the flying animal and twisted and turned at its neck, trying his best to liberate its head from its body. The two wrestled mid-flight, and that is when the creature's legs rose up like a striking cobra, giving Kopius his first glimpse at the “oversized toenail.”

On the front of each foot was a hooked appendage, one that would make even the largest of velociraptors jealous. The things looked like industrial-size blades meant to peel open a car's roof. Kopius jerked to the left, avoiding a pillar. Bits of rock and plant debris pelted his backside as the gleamer’s massive talons took out a chunk of hoodoo. The ground shook behind him as the large creature and Cici smashed into it. Kopius heard an ear-piercing squeal before it was quickly cut off, leaving only its echo to carry on.

He finally stopped and looked back in time to see the big man unravel the gleamers neck from his arm.