DUSKLIGHT ODYSSEY

Chapter 6

Naim focused on the feeling of grass beneath her feet as a soft wind blew through her hair. She closed her eyes and stretched her arms into the sky, reveling in the warmth of the sun upon her face. The breeze picked up and whistled a pleasant tune as it passed through a series of hollow rocks along the lake's shore. The trees, too, added their rushing sough to nature's song as their branches danced at the wind's command.

Naim opened her eyes and took a deep breath, filling herself with the sweet, musty scents of the forest caught in the breeze. She looked into the calm water and saw her own freckled face smiling back.

Suddenly Vio was in her arms, and the sun's warmth was coupled with that of the egg's, and that of love's. She gripped him tighter and nestled her cheek on his crest. She stood and held the egg at arm's length as she spun and pranced along the lakeshore. She couldn't help but laugh as joy swelled within her.

Finally, dizziness caught up to her, and she found herself laying on the soft grass next to Vio. She held him close, and gave him a gentle peck. "One day," she told him, "you'll grow into something even more amazing."

"That's right," said the wind.

Naim sat up to listen closer to what the wind had to say.

"Far west—against frozen winds, past sorrowed lands, and soaked in a never-ending sunrise—lies a lake where trees grew, and children laughed. Beneath the lake, far beneath, life can nest anew, and the sun will set on a world of hope again. Bring it there."

Naim looked to the lake and saw a small island at its center that she hadn't noticed before. On it was a great tower of elegant stonework that reached so far into the sky she couldn't see the top. She looked down at Vio, nestled in her lap.

"Bring it there," bade the wind.

Naim's eyes opened, and saw nothing. She was awake.

"Ion?" she called. There was no reply, not even the sound of his uneasy breath. He wasn't in the room. Naim wasn't sure what to do. "Ion?!" she called again, louder this time. She had no light to find him.

She laid a hand on Vio, making sure he was still there, before she shakily stood using the rough wall as a steady. Which way was the exit? And where was the door that led further in? She didn't know, but felt her way along the wall, skirting the room.

Suddenly her toe struck a wayward piece of rubble, and she gasped in pain. She bit her tongue and held her tears as she continued, more carefully this time, stepping over more bits of fallen cinderblock. Finally, her fingers met a doorframe. She turned and walked a few paces into the hallway, but stopped.

It was pitch dark, but she knew someone was there. She could sense it, though she couldn't see or hear a thing. She took another tentative step and stopped again. It was a tingling sense of paranoia. She reached out and immediately felt coarse fabric clothing hard muscle, which moved as its wearer softly breathed.

She whispered, dead quiet, "Ion?"

With the rustle of soft motion and a distinctive click, she saw his face mere inches from hers. Lit by a tender flame, she saw his sunken, grey eyes; dilated in the dark. They seemed not to focus on anything in particular. Lacking any depth or glimmer in their hue, they stared flatly back. His pale pallor, caught in the glow, looked so incredibly tired. The only colors on his face were the stark shadows cast by the light, the dark rings beneath his eyes, and the shaggy, jet-black locks which draped over his forehead.

Naim's hand withdrew from his chest, and she stepped back. "...Where'd you go?" Her voice was merely breath between her lips. It somehow felt wrong to speak at full volume, as if she was embarrassed someone else might hear. Though she was face-to-face with the one she sensed in the dark, she still felt the tingling sense of another's secret gaze, as if their isle of light amidst the dark was unwelcome.

His eyes turned to the right, and he gestured with his head to the darkness behind him.

"... Did you find anything?"

He gave a slight shake of his head.

She didn't want to speak. She wanted to leave. The way Ion looked at her, and his quietude, made her uneasy. The dark, as jaws, seemed to close around them as they stood there. "Let's go," she breathed.

Ion nodded, and moved past her. As he walked by, she noticed the heavy-looking cross-shaped beam he carried over his shoulder.

She followed him back into the room in which they had slept, and could just barely make out the shape of Vio on the floor. She quickly scooped him into her arms.

Ion heaved his pack onto his back.

Without words, the pair made their way to the exit. Amber light still poured through the foot of the door at the bunker's entrance.

Naim approached the door and cracked it open, peering out. The sun was close to setting, bathing the outside world in gold. Fresh air filled her nostrils, and she began to swing it open to step out, but a hand quickly shut it.

"Not yet," said Ion.

Naim stepped down and held Vio close as she sat on the stairs leading up to the surface.

Moments of quiet turned to awkward minutes, maybe even an hour, before Naim cut through the silence. "I had a dream," she said.

"I know," said Ion.

"... But it wasn't a dream. Not like one I've had before." She paused. "It was more like ... a revelation." She turned to look at him. "I had a revelation, I think." From the slightest slivers of light from the door she was able to see him peering down at her; or rather, past her, at the egg so comfortably nested in her arms; at Vio.

"So did I," he whispered.