Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 373

Chapter 373: Deja vu
The top of the cliffs made Ford’s face go pale for a moment. The vast clearing was exactly as it had been in his dream. He swayed under the oddness of deja vu.

“Ford?” Mia asked, turning back to him after seeing that her family had room to join them.

“I’m fine,” He responded automatically, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at the tree line.

The clearing was a mass of dried mud and grass, with footprints and evidence of the monsters’ presence. Here and there, a large, deeper print was placed… in what Ford recalled were the exact positions the monsters had been as they faced the sky.

He dropped Storm’s reins, trusting the beast to stay put, and Ford closed his eyes, slowly retracing his steps from the night.

He wound between the large prints as he had before, cognizant that Mia’s family was all staring silently at him. Ford paid them no mind.

At the other end of the clearing, there was a tree exactly as it had been before.

Ford fell to his knees, both hands coming up to grip his head as he struggled to recall more of the dream. Was there some puzzle here he was missing?

In the dream, there had been a black space. A sort of tunnel leading downward, into the ground, right? Or was it simply into the tree?

He opened his eyes, and felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Ford?” Mia’s voice was soft, concerned.

“There. Trace was standing there,” He pointed, shaking his head, trying to rattle the images into place by force. “He told me…”

“To find Martin,” Mia’s voice was distant now as he tried to concentrate.

“Yes. Intruders, they hate intruders.” Ford murmured. “But we will be…”

Mia’s fingers slid off his back as she stepped forward. He was momentarily too confused to react; Mia was empathetic enough that she did not normally abandon people who were having difficulty.

He watched her stride forward, directly towards the tree he’d indicated to her. She knelt down, laying her hand on the ground at the base of the tree.

“What are you doing?”

“Waiting,” She whispered, looking at the ground.

“Mia?” Seth asked from behind Ford. The man turned to see the rest of the family standing now on the top of the ledge. Daniel was looking at the view, but everyone else was staring at Mia.

She bent low to the ground, a befuddled expression marring her features.

“That’s odd,” She tilted her head and brushed aside some crumbly dirt at the base of the tree.

“Being cryptic isn’t the best way to make the rest of us feel confident we’re not about to encounter some new and unspeakable danger,” Ford quipped, and finally gained her attention. She blinked several times and grinned slightly.

“Glad to see your sarcasm’s back.”

“That wasn’t sarcasm, it was fact,” Ford raised an eyebrow. Was Mia actually glad that he was playfully rude to her?

She shrugged, and pointed. “Look here.”

Grandpa took the reins of the horses to let them graze on what grass there was amongst the dried mud, while everyone else moved closer to Mia’s direction.

“It’s a rock,” Daniel stated the obvious as if he had discovered some mighty fact. Mia glanced at him before brushing away more of the dirt.

“When I search for Martin,” She explained, and pointed directly downward. “There he is.”

“I don’t think he’s a rock,” Daniel frowned, and Mia scoffed.

“Son, that’s not helpful,” Anaisa warned.

“He’d underground?” Ford clarified.

“I think so,” Mia blinked. “The pull is here… straight down.”

“How deep?” Daniel asked curiously.

“It doesn’t really work that way,” Mia sighed. “Sometimes, with angles, I can kind of guess distance, but in general, I only know the direction.”

“Maybe he was hiding from the storm, or the monsters,” Anaisa guessed, but Ford was only half listening to the conversation. He was searching around for a proper instrument. There were no rocks quite large enough to suit his purposes, but he did have a pickaxe still in his bag.

He went to retrieve it while the conversation continued amongst the others about how to proceed.

“If we’re supposed to find Martin next, but he’s deep underground, do we start digging?” Seth asked skeptically.

“Ford’s a miner, maybe he knows a quick way–Ford, what are you doing?” Anaisa asked.

“I’m not a miner, not anymore,” He told her evenly, digging through his things. He would never go back to that life, no matter the incentives there. “But I do remember a thing or two. Can everyone move back a bit?”

Shouldering his pickaxe, he strode towards the group. All but Mia jumped back, obviously assuming he was going to start digging right away.

“Is this the easiest way?” Seth challenged. “Surely it will take ages…”

“If it will provide us a guide to rescue Trace, isn’t it worth it?” Anaisa argued back.

“Can I have a bit of quiet?” Ford requested, confusing the group further. He grinned slightly as they stared at him.

“Does digging require silence?” Daniel squinted at the man, and Ford shook his head.

“I’m not about to dig. That would be silly.”

“Would it?” Anaisa blinked.

“Shhh,” Ford hushed as he knelt on the rock Mia had uncovered. “Here? Directly down?”

“Yes,” She answered simply, scooting to give him some room.

Ford lifted the wider end of the tool and held it over the rock, then began tapping out a message.

Though it had been months since he’d used the method by which miners communicated through or along a wall, it came back to him easily.

[M-A-R-T-I-N. C-O-M-E.]

There was no easy designator for the word ‘please’, as manners were not paramount in the life of the rough men who spent most of their time underground.

Ford pressed his ear to the ground, not knowing whether Martin would hear and comply, or get spooked by someone knowing his name and that he was there, and bolt. Surely not, the wights wouldn’t know miner code, would they?

Several moments of silence passed before his ear picked up a faint tapping in return.

[W-H-O]