How could she know there was a cave in this God-forsaken realm?
She didn’t know how it worked, but she was damn glad it had. What she needed was a few moments to get control of herself and figure out what she could do to get Trevor to hear her. He had to hear her and come for her.
An answer was there, somewhere in her altered brain, a brain that was now as much Fae as it was human. In fact, probably more Fae, than human.
“Okay,” she said out loud, “This is good.”
Trevor had taught her how she could use the elements. She had only been able to nearly master the simplest of tasks. He had said her skills would improve with time. The Fae blood now surging through her and making her strong in ways she never could have imagined, would eventually replace all trace of human blood. He had said the most difficult thing to overcome would be her human characteristics as they were embedded in her psyche.
One of the things she had enjoyed was discovering she had the power of what she as a human would have called telekinesis. This was in actuality Trevor had said, a science of mind and body and the power to use the elements.
He had begun her training in this science, though she thought of it as magic. She told him she would always think of it as magic.
For the moment, she didn’t need to transport anything with her mind. There were things she could use laying around the mountain ledge.
She picked up a long branch from a nearby tall tree, tore off a piece of her top, and laughed as she looked at herself. She looked like a castaway grimacing ruefully, because in essence that was what she was.
She wrapped the cloth around some dried grass she gathered and then picked up some pine bark. The Fae in her kept telling her she didn’t need all of this. She had a link to the elements and could create fire with a thought, but her human side needed something to keep her busy.
Once her torch was ready, she sighed and resigned herself to do what only the Fae in her could do. She concentrated on one vision; fire. Just like that she had a working torch. She couldn’t help but grin but then she faced the dark beckoning mouth of the cave.
The entrance to the cave was angled and partially hidden by a jutting rock. The cave’s mouth narrowed as she went in deeper. The light from the torch allowed her to see two passages.
She worked the torch into the dirt to stand it up and looked around. She needed time to figure out what she was going to do to help herself get out of this situation. She had learned a valuable lesson, if it looked too easy, it was. Pestale had not seemed too unconcerned when they found him opening a portal. She should have known it was a ruse. He wouldn’t do that to her again. She had to come to grips with what she was becoming, and used the skills that were newly hers, but hers all the same.
She was fairly certain the shape and size of the entrance wouldn’t allow larger predators to stick their grubby claws inside and get to her.
Sighing with a certain amount of resignation, and extremely wary, she looked down at the forked trails and realized something else. She could see in the dark.
Not as well as during the day, but so much better than a human. She left the torch at her back and moved towards the joint of the two trails and contemplated them.
Something could come at her from either of these trails, something her size, for the corridors at least at this end, wouldn’t allow for anything, or anyone larger.
There would be no sleeping here, but did she need sleep?
And was she doing the right thing—hiding out like this?
Would Trev still be able to find her if she stayed in this cave?
&n
bsp; What if the cave was lined with iron? Would he like Superman? Would iron be his Kryptonite? She had seen what happened to him when he handled iron. It had sapped him of his strength and even caused him severe pain.
His senses would be affected and he would not be able to find her. Now she was imagining things. There was no reason to believe this cave was coated in iron.
She was going to have to get herself together and venture out into this realm and use the Fae skills he had trained her to use if she was going to stay alive long enough for him to find her. Stay alive. She was becoming Fae. Could dinosaurs eat Fae?
That was something she didn’t want to chance.
She continued to explore deeper into one of the narrow avenues. It seemed dry which surprised her as she had always thought that caves were not only dark and slimy, but damp as well.
The ground was solid. The low and rocky ceiling was smooth, just like the walls. The entire cave looked like it had been carved out with a file.
The path she had taken seemed to be headed downward.
At that moment she decided that was where the exploring would have to end.
She returned to the torch lit area and realized she had forgotten an important fact. She was Fios, still a Fios and that part of her wasn’t human either. The combined force of her Fios and her Fae blood should be formidable when it had matured.