I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Crossing the flint hills was like crossing the river: a journey stretched to the point of reality's distortion. I didn't lose track of time. I lost my whole sense of it. We could have been on that field for hours or days and I wouldn't have known the difference. Hunger, thirst, and weariness did not bother me anymore. I could not shake the feeling that this was not a good thing, but Jem and Emma and the gods were ahead. If creeping towards half-death meant I would get to them faster, I would take it.

We were some ways out of the flint hills before I realized the soil had lost its scales. I lifted my eyes from Tochtli's paws. We were at the edge of a field. A vast one, stretched out to the horizon and probably beyond in a way that cast me back to the desert back home. I felt like I hadn't walked that desert in years.

Tochtli's ears were back again. Their angle this time was nervous rather than scared, but I had learned it was better to trust her than not. She crept back to me and sniffed my snowpants all the way up my leg, then around the hem of my jacket. I moved my hand, and she flinched. When she had finished her investigation, she sank her teeth into my bag. I dropped it with a hiss. Was there something in it? Tochtli put it down and looked at me. Ready to burn anything that emerged, I pulled it back towards me. As soon as I opened it, Tochtli dragged out my sleeping fur and deposited it at my feet.

Was there something in the fur? I picked it up by one edge. Tochtli's tail wagged. In a motion, I whipped it up and shook it violently, like I would if I'd seen a spider crawl into its folds. Nothing fell out. Tochtli was still wagging. I started to reroll the fur, and the wagging stopped. I lifted it again instead. Like a game of guess-acting, I followed the dog's cues until I had the fur around my shoulders, then over my head. With a final wag, Tochtli trotted out across the field.

That was it? I wished Xolotl was here to translate his dog for me, then unwished it. Just thinking of what it would take to get him back right now made me panicky. I wished for Emma instead. The fur was hot, so I lowered it to my shoulders as an icy breeze licked my cheek.

I realized in that moment why this plain was so empty. A warm line felt its way down to my chin from the place the wind had touched. I did not need to touch it to know it was blood.

Another breeze was building. I yanked the fur over my head. Where were the dogs? If this fur was my protection, I had to protect them, too. A halo of calm enveloped me, and I looked down to find Tochtli at my side. She was immune to the cutting wind. Grifo shed bits of fur and kept his head down as the air whined around us, but it did not seem to harm him either. Would it damage my bedfurs? Gods, what was I even doing, worrying about that? I stumbled as a pushy gust threatened to rip away my cover. How did souls cross this field? Unless they were buried with blankets, none would arrive in Mictlan with anything resembling my bedfur.

Actually, 'buried with blankets' rang a bell. When I came to Mictlan with my bag and belongings, then, did that mean I buried myself?

Tochtli hovered around me until she confirmed I was safe, then trotted out onto the vast expanse. Gusts slapped me like irate hands as I followed. The field only got broader the longer we walked. Once, I thought I saw another figure in the distance, but Tochtli steered us in the other direction. The horizon and the flint hills stood at equal distances when her head twitched up. Her tail sank, and her whine drifted back to me on the whining wind.

"What is it?" I said, not sure she could hear.

Tochtli dropped her head and wove off at an angle. There was something on the plain ahead. A rock? Gods, I hoped that was a rock. We had barely started towards it when we crossed the faint imprints of tracks on the ground. The other gods had also moved towards the landmark. Tochtli held herself lower and lower to the ground as we followed.