The first night of travel was surprisingly pleasant for Flip. Conversation gradually became more general or transitioned to speculation about what the tomb housed. It was surprisingly easy to talk among the three of them, a fact which surprised all three travelers. Even when morning came, absent and casual talk continued as the three travelers hunkered down in the flat. And even as morning broke and the hatch was closed so the three could sleep in relative darkness, there was less disdain than there had been initially. And though Flip found himself uneasy sharing space with his companions, the other two seemed content enough to sleep easily. Flip still kept a wary eye on Dovhran, who had proven skilled at faking sleep, until he became too tired to keep his eyes open.

Late into the second day, before the sun had even entered its twilight hours, all three travelers found themselves well rested and restless. Each was eager to resume travel, though perhaps all for different reasons.

“I think we could start early and correct course if we need to once the stars are out.” Selian mumbled amid her impatient pacing in the cramped lane she had made for herself in the flat.

“I’m still worried about someone seeing us.” Dovhran sighed. The changeling clearly wanted to agree, his expression upon answering was one of regret. “We could be within visual range of the quarry still, and I have the impression that will be safer in general if we travel by night.”

“You get the impression?” Selian let out a breath that sounded like it had been held in since her suggestion.

“I don’t think I could explain it adequately to you, but there is an intangible force within my being that tells me we are better off traveling only after dark. At least for now. These kinds of feelings can change.”

“An intangible force tells you, you say? Like a voice?” Flip muttered out his question, barely recognizing that he was talking.

“Not a voice… it’s more like… the way the magnetic forces of the world pull a compass needle in a certain direction.” Dovhran paused amid his explanation, as if to consider if he was doing a proper job of it. “It is like a force in the pit on my stomach is pulling me down to keep me in place and my body knows instinctively that this pull will fade when night comes.”

“That is strange.” Flip remarked offhand. “It makes no sense. Perhaps you need to relieve yourself.”

Dovhran was about to protest, and Flip anticipated a high degree of snark in that protest. But both men were cut off as Selian interjected herself back into the conversation.

“That reminds me…” the eld looked deeply uncomfortable as she spoke, “when we emerge from the hatch, we must all agree to only face north. And for reference, the hinged side of the hatch seems to be pointing north.”

“Yes.” Dovhran nodded in deep agreement. “Only north.”

“Indeed. We must not look back, lest we judge one another for being mortal creatures that consume and expel.” Flip leveled his bushy eyebrows in a serious expression as he glared at the far wall of the flat. The display left his two companions completely baffled as to whether or not he was being serious or sarcastic. “And hopefully we have all walked at least ten feet away…”

Selian interrupted Flip and held a hand up to indicate that the conversation should not continue. “I think we have all been rather thorough with our… plans.”

“Perhaps we should all pick a cardinal direction the next time we find a place to rest, so as to avoid overlap.” Flip muttered. He was aware that the topic was making his companions uncomfortable, but he also considered it an important enough conversation to warrant continuation.

“If I agree with you, will you talk about something else?” Dovhran turned to look directly at Flip in order to convey his clearly displeased expression.

“Yes.”

“Then I agree.”

“What do you suppose the weather in the wastes is like?” Flip easily adjusted to a topic he was actually incredibly curious about.

The speculation and conversation on the weather lasted an unusual amount of time, several hours in fact with Selian providing a substantial amount of information on weather in harsh landscapes. And when it finally came to the point where there was not much left to say, the evening twilight had begun.

All three travelers emerged quickly and began to move north with little hesitation. Though there was no strict marching order to their travel, Flip remained the furthest back of the group. The wizard moved slower, though almost imperceptibly, than his two companions and had a more difficult time seeing small stone and cracks on the ground that might cause him to stumble. He felt it safer to observe where his companions stepped and moved and follow in their path.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“How is it that your instincts don’t tell you that the evening twilight is dangerous, but that full daylight is?” Selian asked the mercenary not long after they began their march.

“It still feels dangerous, that feeling is still there.” Dovhran sighed. “But weighed against the wearing of my sanity in a small space with boring conversation and nothing else… I have chosen danger.”

“Well, I see no danger.” Selian shrugged.

“I see a shadow in the distance.” Flip called out in a steady voice, careful not to speak too loudly or look at the shadow too long.

Selian and Dovhran froze immediately and turned to face Flip as he attempted to discretely point in the direction of the shadow in question.

To the east of their position, already a few hundred feet away from their starting point, there was a small black dot against the otherwise pale gray ground. It was questionable to call it a shadow at all, and given that the sun was still in the process of setting in the opposite direction, Flip was not confident at all that it was anything more than a small rock not very far off.

“That’s a rock.” Dovhran let out a held breath as his body relaxed. His hands had instinctively gone beneath his cloak to grip his daggers, but they fell limply to his side as the changeling resumed his mostly northward course.

Selian, likewise relaxed upon seeing the object in the distance. It had not moved at all, and was so small it was either too far away to be an immediate threat or too small to be anything significant. Like Dovhran, the navigator had instinctively reached for a weapon beneath her cloak, but Flip wasn’t exactly sure what. He had seen that she carried both a bow and several knives, but Flip had the feeling there was some other weapon concealed on her person that she had reached for on instinct.

Not long after they had all resumed their travel, however, Flip looked again to the east and could not see the object that had attracted his attention. The wizard did not announce his discovery, lest he be shamed further for slowing their progress over not being able to see a solitary rock from a different vantage point. Though, as more and more time passed, Flip began to regret his decision to remain silent. The longer he waited to speak, the worse he felt and the more afraid he became of the potential response as the stakes continued to escalate in his mind. It was horrible. But also, nothing of note. It was a rock. In a vast expanse of small rocks and flat ground so large that the curvature of the planet seemed to be the only distinguishing feature of the area.

As Flip’s anxiety began to mutate from what he was or wasn’t seeing, he began to fixate on how large the space around them was. Though he had never been out on the open ocean, Flip became more and more aware of how similar the experience probably was to being on the ocean. There was nothing for miles in any direction except for flat gray stone and the occasional loose rock that was small enough to fit in a closed fist. The expanse was such that there was a razor thin division between the earth and sky, as though one could merely jump and be among the clouds.

“Are you tired, Faengil?”Dovhran called back to Flip.

The wizard quickly realized he had fallen farther back than intended and began to jog lightly to catch up. The hatch on his back jostled uncomfortable with the added speed but there was no damage done to either the wizard or the wood.

“No.” Flip quickly caught back up to his two companions. “But the wastes are… vast.”

“They are.” Selian let out a sort of dreamy sigh, as though she was enjoying what was bringing Flip dread. “It can be disorienting with this much light left, but it helps to not look around too much.”

Rather than listen to the advice he was given, Flip took a wide sweeping look around him. It seemed to confirm what Selian had said. Moving around his head and looking in more than one direction was incredibly disorienting. Almost claustrophobic. But also, not at all claustrophobic. Like being locked into a small box, but the inside of that box was endlessly large.

“I warned you.” Selian had a half cocked grin on her face as she watched Flip nearly fall over in his disorientation.

“I had to see for myself.” Flip grumbled, having to catch up once again.

There was something wrong beyond disorientation though. As Flip had scanned the never ending horizon, something had caught his eye. He wasn’t sure if it was in the same eastward direction, but the small shadow in the distance had reappeared. Flip couldn’t resist the urge to look one last time, even if it made him dizzy. With eyes closed to avoid most of the disorientation, Flip turned his head to look to the east. There was nothing. Even on the fringes of his sight.

On a whim, Flip also turned to look south. The motion caught Selian’s attention, as she still wary of the wizard's predilection for poor choices. The wizard and navigator saw, at the same time, the thing that Flip had feared. The same shadow, perhaps a bit larger, now closer to where they had started their evening’s march. It was almost imperceptible to Flip, as the twilight was beginning to give way to true night, but Selian saw much better what the wizard could only guess at.

“We’re being followed by something.” She announced coldly. “Taller than a dwarf, adorned in black, no reflective surfaces.”

“I can hardly see it.” Flip grumbled. “But if it’s intelligent, we shouldn’t pay it much direct attention.”

“Indeed.” Dovhran hummed, more to himself than his companions. “We don’t want it to know we know about it. If it's a wild beast, we should just let its curiosity run out.”

The three attempted to carry on with their trekking at a steady pace, only occasionally glancing over their shoulders to see if the shadow was still behind them. It always seemed to be, and just close enough they it could be seen. Dovhran seemed both nervous and invigorated by this development. And it was with a twisted grin that the mercenary announced:

“We should see if we can get a better look.”