Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 359

Chapter 359: Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening
Ford opened his eyes slowly, hating the raging headache that filled his mind.

And hating how waking up like this seemed to be slowly becoming a habit.

Yet, waking up at all must mean that his magic held out long enough. That was a blessing.

He lay on his side, wrapped in a blanket. His pillow was soft, and warmer than the chilly air around his face. Several worried expressions stared back at him.

They seemed to be in a kind of cleft in the chalky white cliff. Rain fell at the entrance in great sheets of water so thick that they looked to be behind a waterfall.

It reminded him of that stormy night hidden in the rock with Mia. A small smile pulled at the corners of his mouth as his mind recalled the memory of that night.

But where was Mia now? There were only four faces staring at him from the loose semicircle of people. He opened his mouth to ask, but didn’t get the chance.

“How are you feeling?” Mia’s voice came from directly above him, and he turned his head to realize that he was–to his utter horror–using her lap as a pillow.

“Gah!” he flinched away, shooting to a sitting position, all too aware of her father’s gaze. Of course, the man had caught them sleeping and holding hands–again–just a short while before, to Ford’s dismay.

This wasn’t his fault!

Sitting up so quickly made his head swim, and Mia’s arm came around his shoulders as he put a hand to his aching head.

“Don’t move too quickly,” She said. “You can rest. We’re as safe as we’re going to get, for now.”

Why hadn’t the woman gotten him a pillow? Why make him put on edge from the moment he awoke?

Of course, he would have been entirely comfortable if not for the many eyes watching them…

“You did well, Ford,” Grandpa smiled at the young man. “Very well.”

“And if we’d just waited, I would have been practically unnecessary,” Ford’s shoulders sagged. All that work when the monster was going to run up the cliff and out of their way in less than a day! “And we wouldn’t have lost two horses.”

“Don’t worry about the horses,” Seth told him. “What’s happened has happened, there’s no changing it.”

“Your magic might not have held out long enough with two extra horses,” Grandpa pointed out. “We just barely avoided the last of those monsters.”

“He’d already used a lot of power, though,” Daniel pointed out. Ford sighed.

“It doesn’t matter, I’m just glad we all survived.”

“Except Judd.”

“Who?”

“The packhorse, from yesterday,” Daniel explained. “His name was Judd. Poor Judd is dead.”

Ford blinked at the child, who shrugged.

“As you said, we survived,” Anaisa cut a sharp glance at her son before focusing on Ford. “Are you all right? You never answered.”

“I’m fine, just a headache,” Ford blinked hard as the throbbing renewed with his attention on it.

“You should rest,” Mia urged, offering him a pillow.

A significant look passed between them as he took it from her. He didn’t quite know everything in Mia’s gaze, but he did know he wanted to talk about it. In depth. Without her family overhearing every word they said.

That was unlikely to happen anytime in the foreseeable future, so for now, a glance would have to do.

Ford looked away first, and Anaisa handed him a canteen. “Drink something first. And probably change out of your wet clothing.”

“This is normal water, right? I’m not injured,” He squinted at the canteen.

“Yes,” She assured him with a grin. “Stay hydrated.”

“Hydrated? I’m waterlogged,” He joked lightly, realizing he really should change out of what he was wearing.

He stood slowly, Mia holding his arm to help him balance. No one commented on it.

“Thanks,” He offered quietly before gathering some dry clothes and moving to the other side of the horses to find what privacy he could.

Wrapped in dry clothing, he felt noticeably better. The world was a happier place when one wasn’t dripping.

At least, that was what Ford thought.

“The monsters…” He spoke quietly and glanced towards the downpour.

“They haven’t gone back down yet,” Mia responded flatly. “I’m half a mind to go exploring and see what they’re up to, up at the top.”

“Absolutely not,” Seth’s command echoed slightly in the alcove.

“It was a joke, Papa.” She raised one eyebrow.

“Hmph,” The man narrowed his eyes, but his posture relaxed slightly at her assurance.

“I could,” Ford volunteered tiredly. “I could go see.”

“That’s even more out of the question,” Anaisa told him. “Your magic needs to be replenished, and as much as I hate to say it, we might need you again if they all come traveling back down past the mouth of our little shelter.”

“They couldn’t see us now if they tried,” Grandpa gazed at the dense water tumbling from above, covering the entrance.

“I’m surprised none of them stopped here,” Seth looked around. “It’s a great shelter from the storm, and surely they knew about it.”

“Maybe they weren’t after shelter,” Anaisa said thoughtfully. “They ran up, all up… I’ve been thinking about it, and it is an incredibly curious thing to do. Birds will take to the ground, or shelter. Squirrels, rabbits, wolves, all the animals we know of will run to ground when danger comes. But these monsters, all together, ran up. Surely, for some of them, the nearest shelter would be down.”

“There are none below us now,” Mia said confidently.

“Do we need to know what they were doing?” Seth shook his head. “I think we should just be grateful we’re safe and stay hunkered down until the storm passes.”

Ford lay back down, using the pillow this time, while Mia sent him a shy look.

It felt abominably lazy to sleep while the day burned, but as they weren’t going anywhere right now anyway, he might as well get some sleep… right?