“Do you think night is approaching? Do they have night and day in this inner space?”
“Not sure. Voyager, did you hear Paige’s question?”
“I heard her. They have what you need here, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Do you think you could be less vague?” She stopped to glare at him.
“No, Girly, I’m sure I can’t.”
“You might want to stop watching me and try to catch your male.”
Cal was in the claws of the biggest bird she ever saw. It was black with a red beak and yellow beady eyes. Its wings looked like they covered ten feet, she hoped that was her imagination. It was flapping its huge wings trying to lift him, while he twisted and turned, doing his best to break free.
“Cal, I’m coming to help you.”
“Stay away from its beak, Paige, it’s poisonous,” he called down to her.
The bird gave a massive flap of its wings, the wind knocking her off her feet. It rose swiftly in the air taking Cal with it. It flew off into the sun heading for a distant mountain peak.
“Where did the mountain come from?” she asked in a slow measured voice.
“I told you, this place gives you what you need.”
She turned on him. “I didn’t need a huge bird to carry Cal off and I definitely don’t need a long arduous walk to a mountain.”
“Maybe you should find your male and tell him that. He’s the one who brought you here.”
“He’s not my male,” she ground out between her teeth.
“Then why are you here?”
Turning she began stalking across the land thankful the sun wasn’t out making her thirstier than she already was.
“Do you know anything about that bird?”
“It was big?”
“Let me rephrase, do you know anything helpful about that bird?”
“Why didn’t you just say that in the first place? When he gets hungry he’s going to take a big chunk out of your male. That poison he told you about on the beak, it’s going to run through his system in no time and paralyze him. That bird likes his food living when he eats it. Your male will die a slow painful death.”
“His name is Cal, you could use it.”
“I thought you didn’t care about him.”
Clamming up she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
“You know we’re not going to make it at this pace”
She wanted to scream at him, she was biting her tongue to hold back the words, but he was right. The more she walked the further away the mountain got. It made no sense, either she was walking away from it or it was moving away. Either way she wasn’t going to get there in time.
She dropped to the ground panting, she felt like she had been walking for hours. There was a stitch in her side and her legs ached. If she ever got them out of here…she dashed a tear from her eyes…she promised him she would prevail. The most important thing to her was saving him like he tried to save her.
What was it Voyager said? Why was she trying to fight a spiritual battle with physical tools?
When Cal pulled her into her body he didn’t use a long process, one minute she was in her reality, the next she stood in her abdomen. It was even faster when they traveled to her heart. She never physically moved. Cal was actually the one doing the transporting, but why couldn’t she do it. It really would have helped if he told her how he did it.
Standing up, she threw Voyager a frown for good measure and then started to think about how she could transport herself to the top of that mountain. Maybe if she pictured where she wanted to go, except she had no idea what that mountain peak looked like. She tried anyway. Nothing.
Next she went over everything she ever read looking for a clue. Some people claimed they could levitate. Think light thoughts, she told herself. Nothing. Maybe she just needed to find her center.
“Are you going to stand there all day humming, Girly? Or are you going to tap into your talent? It’s getting hot out here.”
“If you’re hot you should leave,” she snapped.
Reaching inside, she wrapped her hands around a glowing light she could see in her mind and looked at the mountain top.
“I was beginning to think you’d never get us here.”
Chapter Ten
Getting to the mountain top may actually have been the easy part. Paige stopped breathing for a moment as she caught sight of Cal trapped in a corner of the bird’s huge nest that was filled with baby birds with poisonous beaks. This bird definitely brought Cal home for dinner and the diners would be its children.
Cal was hopping around avoiding their beaks as the mother blocked any chance he had at freedom. The look on his face was one of terror. Paige felt the grip of desperation clinging to her as she looked around for a weapon.