Billy's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Billy walked for two days before the spirits returned. They flooded his journal with light the moment he stopped to rest, brighter than any vision before. The pages glowed with an image he'd never seen — a wall of ice rising like teeth, blocking the path ahead. He pulled the spirit board from his pack, the one with purple and blue swirls he'd used when the visions first started. His paws traced the letters while he stared at the glowing warning in his journal. Stop, he thought, moving the pointer. But the ice wall could mean hurry before it grows higher. He tried again and again, spelling out questions, waiting for the pointer to pull toward an answer. It never moved on its own. The board had always been just a tool to help him focus, to make the spirits feel more real when doubt crept in. Now it sat silent while the journal blazed with light he couldn't interpret. He closed the board and made his choice. The spirits had spent three months showing him the way north. If they wanted him to stop, they would have shown him turning back. He packed the board away and kept walking. The warning wasn't telling him to quit. It was telling him what waited ahead.