Vick's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Vick saw the ambush before it happened. In his mind, the hunters closed in, and his crew fell one by one. He blinked the vision away and pressed his broad blue hand against a tree trunk. His crew huddled behind him, ten tired people trusting him to find the sanctuary he kept glimpsing in dreams. But the sanctuary was days away, and the hunters were close. He knelt and studied the mud. Fresh boot prints. The hunters had found the trail. He heard their dogs faintly through the trees. If he ran, they would corner his crew by nightfall. Running was not enough. He needed a wall between them. Vick shut his eyes and reached forward in time. He saw a shape in the deep forest. A tree that walked. Its trunk was knotted with vines, and a small wooden house sat where a head should be. In the vision, the thing woke angry and crushed anything that came near. Vick smiled. He knew what to do. "Wait here," he told his crew. "Stay quiet. Do not follow me." He ran toward the sleeping giant. He found it exactly where the vision showed, still and rooted, the little house dark. Vick gripped a low branch and pulled hard. Bark groaned. He tore a vine loose and threw a stone that cracked against the wooden walls. The giant shuddered. Two amber windows lit like eyes. The creature rose. Roots ripped from the ground. It swung a massive arm and missed Vick by inches. He ran, drawing it back toward the trail, toward the hunters' path. He knew the timing from his vision. He had to lead it there at the right moment, or it would turn on his own crew instead. Behind him the dogs barked louder. The hunters were nearly on the giant now. Vick cut sideways and dove into a thicket. The living tree crashed through where he had stood a breath before. Then it met the hunters. Vick heard shouting. He heard the dogs yelp and scatter. He heard men screaming orders that broke into panic. Wood smashed against metal. He did not look back. He climbed a slope and circled wide, returning to his crew by a hidden path. They were where he left them, wide-eyed and silent. "It worked," he said. "The hunters are broken. We move now, while they run." But the vision had already changed. As his crew climbed to their feet, Vick saw something new. Far ahead, past the trees, a tower of green crystal rose against the sky. It glowed with a cold, jeweled light. Soldiers gathered at its base. That tower had not been in his dreams before. The hunters were beaten. Vick had bought his crew time. But the path to the sanctuary now ran straight beneath that shining tower, and whoever commanded it was waiting.