• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

James sits there and thinks for a minute while he eats a bite of dried beef and has a drink. “We’ll skirt the edge of the glass to the east,” he finally announces. “We know there’s a main road moving north and south to the west. From the maps I went over back at Al-Ziron there doesn’t look like there is too much east of us to cause us much trouble. Just a few villages here and there.”

“We shouldn’t go too far,” joins in Miko. “You are quite tired and need to rest.”

“Let’s put distance between us and that before we stop,” he says as he gestures to the field of glass behind him. “Then we’ll rest through the night.”

“Very well,” agrees Miko. Getting up, he goes to make sure his horse and things are ready for travel.

While the others are busy with getting something to eat and seeing to their horses, Jiron comes and sits next to James.

“Don’t you want to see to your horse as well?” James asks.

Shaking his head, Jiron says, “Shorty said he’d do it for me.” Biting off a piece of dried beef, he remains silent for a second before he asks, “What do you think happened here?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” he admits. “That I played a part in it is without question.” He gazes at Jiron while he bites off and chews another piece of dried beef. “However, I do think there is more to this than just what I did at the end of the battle. A meteorite falls from the sky and happens to strike at the precise spot that would cause a rip and let in the creature? I hardly think it’s mere coincidence.”

“Then what?” Jiron asks.

“I don’t know,” he replies, “and that’s what is bothering me. Something else is going on. That discussion we had earlier where Brother Willim was saying that the gods are becoming more involved worries me.” Gesturing to the glass behind him he continues. “Something like that could hardly have just happened.”

“You think it has anything to do with Tinok?” he asks.

Shrugging, he replies, “I doubt it. Maybe if Tinok were someone like Miko who has a god interested in him, maybe.”

“So what should we do?” Aleya asks as she comes to join them.

“Listening in were you?” James asks.

Nodding, she gives him a grin. “Couldn’t help it,” she admits. “You two talk pretty loud.”

James returns her grin and says, “Continue on as we have been. We’ll keep our eyes and ears open for whatever else may be developing, but we’ll keep looking for Tinok.”

Jiron sighs. “That’s good,” he says.

Finishing up with their meal, James allows Jiron and Aleya to help him to his feet and then onto his horse. From behind him he can hear where Scar is explaining to Reilin why the creature turned to glass. “You see,” he explains, “since it wasn’t from our world, it couldn’t survive long. When James torched it with fire, it died. What you see there is simply its bones that were left behind.”

“Bones?” asks Reilin incredulously.

“Of course!” states Potbelly as he backs up his partner’s explanation. “You can’t expect something from another world to have the same kind of bones as we do.”

“I suppose not,” agrees Reilin, though he doesn’t sound entirely convinced.

James smiles to himself and doesn’t say anything.

“Is that right?” asks Miko from beside him.

“What?” asks James. “You mean what Scar said?”

Miko gives him a nod.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” he says, keeping his voice low. “When the creature entered our world, it took on the characteristics of the first thing it came into contact with.”

“The sand,” interjects Miko.

“That’s right, the sand,” agrees James. “Where I come from it’s long been known that heat will turn sand into glass. In fact, lightning striking a sandy beach can leave glass behind.”

“Interesting,” comments Miko. “So Scar is wrong?”

Grinning, James nods his head. “Of course he is, but I think we should keep that to ourselves.”

Miko turns back with a grin and glances at where Reilin is hanging onto Scar’s every word. “I suppose it would spoil it.” Then he looks back to James and they both laugh.

Scar breaks off in the middle of a sentence and turns toward them. “What?” he asks.

Shaking his head, James