Valcore - The Ancient's Rise

CHAPTER TWO

After dinner was being cooked and the fire and tents were set up, Sophie wanted to go swimming with me, so we got up, grabbed our stuff and went to the waterfall.

The sun was setting now, painting streaks of deep purple and vibrant red-orange across the sky. As we walked into the clearing where the waterfall was the light reflected off the water, casting a shade of color on everything in sight, illuminating the atmosphere. Sophie changed into her swimsuit and dove in. After I changed I broke off a huge tree branch near the edge of the clearing and waded in with it.

"What's that for," she said, pointing at the branch, she looked so damn good with her hair wet. "You parting the red sea?"

I was going to say something smart but changed my mind. "No, I gotta make sure the waters deep enough in certain places so we know where to jump from the top. The..." I stopped because she was holding back a smile.

"What," I said.

"You're a dork." She started laughing. "I was just teasing you, come kiss me." So I did. Then I checked the water, it was fine, you could see it perfectly and there weren't any big rocks hiding at the bottom. I swam over and started climbing up the side, I used the roots and trees to pull myself up and hold onto.

As I got to the very top I looked down to the pool for a couple seconds, making sure it was okay to go and that my landing was safe. She wasn't near it, she was off to the side, faced the other way, I turned around and walked back a couple yards.

On the count of three I got a running start and leaped off the top, I launched out and over the water, then started leaning back, slowly - more and more - as I went all the way through the air. In those few moments, everything else disappeared, time stopped, nothing existed, nothing else mattered. I closed my eyes, I was free. Eventually, I plunged into the pool feet first, I must have gone ten feet down, and just stayed there - suspended in perfect coolness - not moving a muscle, completely relaxed. What a rush. When I finally needed air I swam to the top, broke the surface and laid there. I felt Sophie swim up and wrap her arms around me "Your crazy," she whispered in my ear.

"You're sexy," I told her.

"Guys! Dinners ready!" Kristy yelled at the top of her lungs as she walked out of the woods. "Oh," she said when she realized we were fifteen feet away and could hear her perfectly.

"Come on, dinners ready."

"Coming." We reached the edge of the woods, where our tents were set up a few feet in when the smell from the food hit us. We ducked under some branches and walked into our little circle to join the others around the fire. We sat on some logs I had dragged over and created benches out when we got there. We took a seat and Blake gave each of us a plate.

We had steaks with sauteed onions and peppers; some kind of smoky teriyaki glaze on top, mine had portabella mushrooms on it and Sophie's had a mountain of broccoli on hers. Blake and Kristy's were similar. "Damn Blake," said Kristy "this steak is amazing." Blake shot me a knowing glance. He told me earlier he had the best recipe.

Kristy went into her bag and pulled out a bottle of merlot. Blake passed around paper cups after she poured us some, Sophie passed around a bowl of rice. "Hey Hayden," Blake said, "what year is this one."

I looked at my cup, it was a trick he taught me. "Um, 03?" Kristy looked at the bottle, "Damn."

"Um, did I miss something?" Sophie asked.

"Blake here knows damn near everything there is to know about wine." I told her, "His dad's a rep. He taught us about the color difference in the meniscus of a glass of red wine, and how to tell - about - what year the wine was made based on that level of contrast. The more the difference, the older it is, the less, the newer it is. Here see" I showed her.

"Huh, Y'all are weird, but that is cool."

I was beginning to feel all warm from merlot when Blake handed us all a shot of Tennessee honey whiskey, I held mine up to the sky, "here's to us. We've made it this far, were on the best vacation all year, and I'm with the best people I know. Cheers to the future."

"Cheers!" We all touched glasses, I kicked back the shot and felt it warm everything as it went down, then I just sat and looked at the dancing fire - wood popping - and held Sophie's soft hand.

They all conversed about random things, I headed out into the clearing near the waterfall - I hadn't noticed how dark it was getting - the fire - I could hear - was still going behind me.

I looked up and noticed the stars, "Holy shit." Hmm, I wondered idly if the exception for current use of profanity was because - I thought - of the required emphasis needed to adequately describe exactly how amazing these stars really are, or because I was drunk.

Regardless, you didn't get stars like this anywhere near the city, ever. I spotted the big dipper through the break in the trees, and Ursa Minor, and Orion's belt.

It was quiet out here and very peaceful, I looked around and noticed I was by myself, so I just laid on the ground and watched the sky. "Sophie, come over here" I called.

'So huge' I thought as I closed my eyes and listened to everything around me. I suddenly felt how small I was compared to the entire world, let alone the vast forest surrounding me. I focused more and let my awareness slowly drift out. I could feel it just as much as I could feel my entire pulse throughout my body, stretching endlessly farther and farther as I concentrated on the racing distance. Then, out of nowhere, it hit something or someone, what was this.

I stopped, trying to focus on whatever it was, then caught another vision of me walking up the path we were on earlier, - just like the last one - but I was further along this time. Actually, I was at the river bank right down the stream from where I was right now. That's when it hit me, I snapped out of it, it wasn't my mind I was in, I could feel it, it wasn't me I was seeing walking up the trail, it was someone who was following us. My whole body went rigid and goosebumps went down my entire spine. 'What the hell does this mean?' I heard a roar of laughter from everyone else at the fire, so I turned around to head over but as soon as -

"BAAH!" Sophia jumped out in her flip flops and scared the shit out of me. "Muther son of a bitch" I enunciated each syllable, my heart was racing. "You should have seen your face! Babe, you were like-" she began to say, but as soon as she did she was instantly cut off by a sound so screeching and deafening it made the entire forest go quiet. The terror on her face was palpable. It came from right down the stream. "Babe," she asked in a hushed tone "what was that." I didn't know what to say or how to respond...

"They're here."