OTHERBORN: THE CREVASSE

EPISODE TWO, PART TWO

I wake up next to the image from my dreams, the creature rocking, tending the fire.

This time, it feels very different. The cold is biting the still exposed butt cheek of my backside, and the front of me burns far too hot. The smoke makes me cough.

I'm in and out of consciousness and the creature is humming and howling insanely from time to time.

So, I insanely try to join in.

A huge, yawning maw turns and gapes at me. It sighs, shaking its head.

I try sitting up. My arms don't feel like mine. I shove myself against the rock wall of the cave to steady myself, but my head sings, vibrating, too clear.

Somehow, my mouth says, "I may not have a good voice like you do. Actually, nah. You sound as bad as you look!"

"I wouldn't make fun." The Fur...no... Fur Man...no... Fire Man starts beating his chest. "As if you are one to look at."

"Well, I've made fire too. In fact, I made this fire. You only carried me and found wood. I scrounged for all sorts of things to do this. And that's not enough? This is my fire." I now remember.

I was bringing my camp up here. I don't tell him I accidentally dropped the mirror from my pocket and started Brush Man on fire.

(Nor that I actually had not even noticed the smoke until I got all the way to the cave, then had to rush back down with a piece of wood from the collapsed hut-that-once-was and get that to burn—had to set my own belongings alight to do that—while I searched for more things, so the fire wouldn't go out...)

Bringing the burning red poker back to the top...

Was that when I fell?

I see the beast rise. He towers over the fire. This creature could rip me apart and toss me onto the flames without blinking. In fact, that's what he may intend to do, any time now.

But instead, we exchange sarcastic, challenging glances, and Second yells to the outside air without so much smoke before he returns to sit again at one edge of the fire, near the front now, watching me.

I must have drifted. I wake with a start. "Oh, you're still here. I thought I was dreaming. You look too real!"

"What makes you think you're not dreaming?"

"Oh, terrific. You aren't helpful!"

"Dreams aren't real?"

"No!"

"Maybe...I'm dreaming you?"

"Oh, noooo...don't you do this!" I'm banging my head with my palm.

"Did that help?" he murmurs.

I glare. "Only when I don't stop!"

A desert owl begins to hoot above us.

"Ooooh," it says. "Ooooh. Oooooooooh."

I cover my ears.

"Oooooooooooooooh," it says.

Second flutters his long lashes that resemble the bristles of a painter's brush.

The owl flaps nearer, unseen on some perch over us, a crag perhaps, something buried in the granite but hollow enough to amplify.

"Ooooh ooooh oooooooooh," the bird persists, reverberating.

"Lovely." Second looks up at the sound. "So melodic and pure."

I clamp my ears tighter beneath my palms.

He squints at me. "Listen to the owl."

I spit on the coarse cave floor. "It's annoying. Let's hunt it and eat it, huh? Will you hoist me up there?"

He shakes his head. "I'd sooner eat you."

Gasping, I scoot away from him.

"Ah?" He chuckles. "Not real, eh?" Then he turns back up to where the bird, unseen, hoots, and he joins it, his voice too deep and gravelly but managing its own indistinct, earthy song: "Ooooh ooooh oooooooooh."

My hands leave my ears.
"Will you at least climb up there and shoo the thing away? It will drive us...me...crazy!"

"The world needs music, ugly man." Second wiggles the bushes of his brows. "Maybe a little music would make you more beautiful. I doubt it, though."

"Am I seriously being called ugly by Bigfoot's smarmy cousin?!"

"Calm down."

"Don't tell me to be calm!!" I listen to the tail end of my scream bounce off the walls of the cave, and soon there are dozens of me screaming there. "Don't tell me to be calm," I repeat, quieter. "I am calm. Calmer than calm. I'm so calm I've got serenity oozing out of my ears."

"Sounds like an infection."

I scoff. "Fine. We'll listen to the darn owl."

The owl flaps away.

I punch the ground repeatedly.

~~~/

Wahahaha...

And... Did you expect this development here?

Could Second be real? Is Custer real? Is Custer a figment of Second's imagination? 🤣

What did you make of this turn of events? Can you see how Custer checks out of his reason...?

Not yet?

Well stay tuned... We're just getting started...

Poor fellow! He'll soon be right lost...