Scarlet was startled back to wakefulness, not quite knowing where, who or why she was. Even just the concept of thinking needed a moment to emerge in her head but the process of waking was greatly sped up when there was a snuffling sound below her, combined with some scuffing.

Keeping very still, she let her awareness out, covertly feeling out her surroundings. Below her, on the ground, were animals, she couldn’t quite tell what kind of animal, only that they were moving around and that they were hungry. Careful mental probing made it clear that those were not crystal monsters, but normal animals. She was quite grateful for that, the idea to face a good dozen monsters at the same time was not a pleasant one. Sure, the Doctor had told her that crystal monsters were generally territorial but there had to be exceptions.

She let out a sigh of relief when she was quite sure that the animals below made no attempt to climb the tree and decided that letting Cyca out for her night vision capabilities was a reasonable risk to take. She pulled herself into a sitting position and placed the crystal on her lap before relaxing the control, letting Cyca emerge. The moment she did and their minds linked in the more direct fashion, the world changed. Gone was the pre-dawn blackness, replaced with a grey scaled view of the world. The resolution was quite bad and she couldn’t see as much, but it allowed her to follow Cyca’s vision.

Reaching with her mind and quietly speaking, she explained her problem.

“There’s something down there, can you show me?” she asked, transmitting the idea via their link.

Cyca hopped from her lap and Scarlet closed her eyes, focusing only on the sensation coming from Cyca. Cyca hopped over to another branch, looking down and Scarlet saw a group of hogs milling around the tree and investigating the remains of her fire. The image made her smile, not because hogs were harmless but because she was quite certain that, no matter what they did, they had no chance to either climb the tree she was on or bring it down. Up, in the branches, she was safe.

Suddenly, there was a bright light, burning through her eyelids and into her eyes. The surprise caused her to blink and keep blinking, to clear the flecks before her eyes. Below her, there were squeals and panicked sounds, making her curious.

It took a moment, but the fact that she had her eyes closed in the initial flash, helped a great deal. Looking around, her surroundings were illuminated, not quite as bright as day but almost. The source of the sudden brightness was Cyca, or rather her two tails, between which arcs of golden light flashed, connecting them and forcing back the darkness. The light allowed her to look down with her own eyes and watch the boars flee. A wicked smile spread over her face, thinking of having bacon for breakfast.

“Can you electrocute one of them?” she asked Cyca, adding the mental question to it. Not quite a directive, she didn’t want to order it, if there was no chance of success.

Cyca seemed to think so and for a moment, the arcs between her tail grew stronger, until a bolt of lightning shot out, striking one of the smaller pigs, in the back of the sounder. The bright discharge and followed darkness caused both Scarlet and Cyca to lose their night vision and Scarlet had no desire to climb down there, not knowing if the boar was dead or just waiting for her, to go hog wild.

She felt through her connection to Cyca and noticed that there was a bit of lethargy, telling her that while Cyca could attack a few more times, it would leave her drained. Thinking for a moment, she asked for more light and Cyca obeyed, again causing lightning to spark between her tails and driving back the darkness.

Looking down, Scarlet was a little disappointed, there was no crispy bacon waiting for her, the boar seemed to have managed to get away, despite the attack. There were some strange marks on the ground, hinting that the pig had fallen at first but gotten back up but at the end of the day, or the start, if one wanted to be literal, it didn’t really matter.

Pushing the problem out of her mind, she sent Cyca back into her crystal and stretched out as best as possible, trying to get some more sleep. She dozed off a little, until the sun got back into the sky, tickling her nose through the tree she was sleeping in. Stretching as best as she could in the tree, she worked out the kinks in her muscles.

Before climbing down, she let Cyca out and down, using her senses to make sure that nothing was waiting for her. The area still smelled of pig, choking off Cyca’s sense of smell but looking around a little, there was no danger so Scarlet climbed down. Thinking for a moment, she decided to eat the rest of dinner cold, not bothering to make a fire to heat it up. Her stew was still quite tasty and soon, she was back on her way, further south. Part of her wanted to find out what had happened to the pig, but the prospect of running into the sounder without the benefit of a secure refuge made her think twice.

Scarlet and Cyca continued on their path until they finally found the stream she had expected for a while. From the Doctor’s map, she knew that the Alb was roughly in the middle of the valley, with more and more streams joining it as it moved south, until it left the valley and joined a larger, currently unnamed river that continued on, until reaching the sea. The small stream she found that morning came from the western mountains and, once she had checked for danger, Scarlet happily pulled off her clothes, washing herself and the clothes she had worn the last few days. The stream she had found was smaller than the Alb, only a few meters across and crystal clear, allowing her to see the sandy bed, a good meter deep. The flow was far faster, great for washing and when she tasted the water, it was gloriously tasty. The Alb-Water hadn’t been bad, but the water here, in the unknown stream, was simply better. She quickly drank her fill and filled her bottles, making note to use the stream whenever possible. Maybe she would call it Crystal, for the clear water flowing in it.

Afterwards, she found a nice rock, stretching out and enjoying the sun on her skin, letting the heat dry her and her clothes. Lying there, she drifted off again, simply enjoying the warmth and general contentment. She started thinking and had to giggle softly, despite the fact that she was in a quite dangerous environment, she felt relaxed. Not because she believed herself strong enough to defeat whatever came at her, but because she felt that she knew what to expect.

Before coming to the untamed wilderness of Verdun, she always had been forced to deal with humans, all of them with their own agenda, never knowing when a particular human would stick a knife in her back. But despite that danger, she was forced to work and rely on them. She had been strongly encouraged to join Psicom, not that it had been necessary, she had believed that joining up would open up incredibly possibilities for her, but in the end, they had thrown her away as soon as she became a liability. Not to their organisation, but because her death would have caused an embarrassment, forcing Psicom to take action in a way they didn’t want. After all, what good was a governmental organisation that couldn’t defend its members from attack? No, better hide the problem, create a top-secret paper trail that can be used to discourage any question.

She pushed those thoughts away from her, refusing to dwell on them, instead focused on her environment. Not just the sun’s heat, soaking into her skin, but letting her mind roam, as she had before.

Again, she started to feel every living thing around her, especially the mind of Cyca, radiating contentment on a nearby rock, doing what she did, lazing in the sun. But there was more, small insects in the ground around her, grass a little further away, algae in the water, a cornucopia of life, hidden from her sight but so radiant in her mind. The seconds slowed down, each beat of her heart taking hours, as her mind struggled with the diversity that was life around her.

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After four beats of her heart, the world snapped back into focus, her mind reeling from the short glimpse at infinity. Her mind throbbed in glorious pain, telling her that she was reaching for things beyond her. Laughter bubbled from her stomach, breaking free and joining the gurgling of the stream next to her.

Reaching, she was reaching for infinity. And she would grab it, if she had anything, it was time.