Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 292

Chapter 292: Golden eyes
Mia stopped after a few dozen steps into the tall grass, her face flushed.

She’d been so eager to get away from Ford that she’d paid no attention to the direction she’d fled whatsoever.

It had been the entirely wrong one.

This didn’t happen to her often; her magic made it so that a sense of direction was almost entirely unnecessary. She’d fled Ford’s secondary pull without regard to the correct one this time. Berating herself, she looked for the camp and began to wind her way through the grassy maze.

She nearly tripped for the second time in ten minutes and cursed herself. She wasn’t normally clumsy!

Looking down, she picked up the offending object.

It was, to her surprise, a small but perfectly intact skull. Bleached white, it appeared to be that of perhaps a large rabbit. She blinked, a little confused as to why it was so pristine. Most carcasses, she reasoned, would have been chewed on or devoured by a predator or scavenger, but no damage was apparent.

Idly, Mia passingly wondered if the rabbit had any family, and if so, where they were now. She often felt compassion for wild animals. A tug on her soul began, and she thought perhaps seeing some live, happy bunnies might cheer and distract her from her confusing conversation with Ford.

Because it had been confusing. Why was he so intent on finding out if he’d done something wrong? She felt back to square one with understanding him.

Following the pull for a few steps through the tall grass, Mia was startled when she stumbled again. Closing her eyes for a moment before looking down, her heart rate picked up its pace.

Another skull, this one even larger than the other. It appeared like a rabbit, but the skull was the size of a large dog’s rather than a normal sized rodent.

Mia swallowed. She was torn about whether to run or stay and investigate more. A skull couldn’t hurt, but an unpleasant sense of dread was beginning to curl up inside her.

Leaning down to look at the skull more closely, her eyes briefly unfocused and looked deeper into the grass.

Where two yellow-golden eyes, almost the exact color of the swaying blades, stared silently at her.

Mia froze. Should she run? Stay and stare? The eyes weren’t human. The pupils were pointed on each side. With the eye contact, they narrowed.

The girl’s heart beat loudly enough for the creature to hear her, whatever it was.

Neither moved for a long moment as Mia considered her options. None seemed quite right, and she was paralyzed by indecision.

Searching for a safe place, she felt no pull at all.

Did… did that mean she was already safe, or that there was no place where she would be safe??

She tried to calm the panic in her mind. If there was nowhere safe to go, she had to stay here and deal with things, for better or worse.

Make the first move, or wait for the creature to lose interest and move on? She didn’t know. It nosed forward through the grass as if to get a better look.

Its snout was long and reptilian, a mesmerizing and highly camouflaged pattern of browns, greens, and yellow. Did it come from the forest?

A slender tongue flicked out towards her with a low hiss, tasting the air before withdrawing, and Mia swallowed nervously.

This animal was clearly not the relative of the unfortunate ones whose skulls Mia had been examining so shortly before. It must have been what ate them.

The large lizard took a step towards her with one large paw. Paw?

A backwards-facing paw.

Another pair of eyes now looked at her. Oblong, sideways pupils glared at her as she recognized a goat’s head.

Panic rang through her mind. Chimera.

That meant that at the other end of the animal, a lion’s head waited to devour her.

Mia again looked for safety, and felt nothing. No pull whatsoever. She knew now that she must be doomed, but she remained still.

The buzz of wings almost made her look away, and she flinched when a large grasshopper landed on her shoulder.

Her eyes widened slightly. The cricket gave a mighty leap directly at the chimera, and only narrowly avoided a swipe of the snake’s tongue.

The goat, as well, was distracted by the insect’s intrusion. It turned its head, and a hand grabbed Mia’s.

She almost cried out, so startled was she, but clamped her mouth shut tightly and obeyed the insistent pull on her arm, taking one step after another.

Her eyes were locked on the distracted creature’s heads, hoping she didn’t have to see the lion as well.

None of them looked at her again, though the snake seemed to glance around in an effort to find her.

Once they were out of her sight, she turned to see her rescuer’s face. She saw nothing.

In fact, she couldn’t even see her own arm!

Or her feet! Confusion rolled into further panic and she began to tremble. Or, at least, she felt like she did.

A gentle squeeze on her invisible hand gave her enough calm to continue moving with her companion until the grass parted and the little camp came into view.

Though she hadn’t moved at a run, she was nonetheless suddenly exhausted. When her body came back into view, she breathed shakily.

Ford was holding her hand, searching her eyes worriedly.

“Are you all right?” He whispered.

She hesitated. The concern in his gaze was enough to make her heart flutter slightly, and she suppressed it.

“How did you know–?”

“Grandpa heard the hiss, and he and I went after you. I think he’s using bugs to lead or drive the thing away,” Ford explained quietly. “You’re not hurt?”

“No, no I’m not hurt.” Mia smiled slightly.

“What were you doing?” He questioned with angst in his voice. “Looking for trouble? Danger? I don’t even know what that was!”

“A Chimera,” Mia replied, remembering the images Daniel had cast into the air from his research. “I didn’t know they were real.”

Ford squeezed her hand again, and Mia began to draw it away from him as she realized Anaisa was sitting at the cookfire, staring at them with surprise on her face.

“What, exactly, is happening here?” Seth demanded, entering the camp with an armful of firewood.