Chapter Text
Naomi Westerkamp sat on a rock, scrolling through the pictures on her camera she had taken so far on the hike. Most were of the surrounding mountains, but there were nearly as many of flowers and plants she had encountered along the way, though half of the photographs were out of focus. In addition, she had at least three replicates of each landscape composition. She considered that she should start deleting some of the duplicates, but her memory card was far from full, and though she tried to ignore it, she kept getting distracted by the argument drifting from across the clearing.
“And what are you going to do in Austin? Have you looked for jobs.” her mom asked her younger brother James.
“I’ll figure it out…,” James grumbled.
“You can’t just move without a plan. You need to find a job, a place to live…” their mom continued, voice raised slightly.
“I know that!” James returned, his own voice near yelling. “Just drop it, I can take care of myself.” Their mom laughed. Naomi glanced away from her camera’s screen to see James glaring.
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” their mom said. A moment’s silence, and Naomi thought they were done. “Well, you better find a better job than working in a restaurant if you’re going to pay for everything. And you’ll have student loans to pay…”
“Well Makenzie and I can split rent, so...” Naomi winced. Why did he have to bring that up…?
“You what!?” their mom yelled, shooting daggers from her eyes toward James. Naomi shot a glance toward her younger sister Abigail, wrinkling her nose in disgust. Abigail rolled her eyes, and buried her face back in her sketchbook, pencil scratching furiously across the page.
“Aleida…” Naomi’s dad said wearily. “We’re on vacation, not now…” Her mom turned her glare to her husband.
“No! He can’t just move halfway across the country and live with his girlfriend! They’re not even married!” Naomi watched James stand, angrily stuffing his water bottle back in his backpack. “Where are you going!?” James swung the backpack over his shoulder and turned up the trail.
“I’m not going to stay here and listen to you yell at me!” he shouted, walking away. Naomi sighed. So much for a fun family trip…
“Wait for me!” her youngest brother David yelled, running up the trail after James with long, loping strides.
“What is he thinking!?” her mom continued to rant, turning to Naomi’s dad. “And I don’t need you undermining me like that Hans. Does he have any idea what moving will be like? He’s not responsible enough for this. And I am not going to let him live with Makenzie…”
“I know that Aleida, he’s not ready for this…”
“Can you two just give him a break!?” Naomi finally yelled, glaring at her parents. “He’s not a kid, he can figure it out for himself.” She turned off the camera and put it back in its case, standing and collecting her own things to follow her brothers. She had heard enough of her family’s bickering for one day.
“And where are you going?” her mom asked. Naomi rolled her eyes.
“Well I’m trying to have an enjoyable hike, so I’m going ahead on my own where I don’t have to listen to you guys.” She started walking. “See you at the top of the trail,” she muttered, half to herself as she left the clearing.
Nearly an hour later, Naomi found herself scrambling over rocks, trying to breathe deeply and control her racing heart. She paused and pulled out her water bottle, drinking deeply. She looked back, but was unable to find the figures of her family, and wondered where they could be, hoping that her mom’s knee injury hadn’t caused her trouble. She had had surgery less than a year before, but her mom was too stubborn to give up a day of hiking with her family. But Naomi really couldn’t blame her for that.
Naomi looked ahead, eyes following the trail leading up the valley, toward a small glacier that flowed down from the peaks in a dirty white cascade. She searched for her brothers, finding their figures already at the top of the trail. James was standing with his hands on his hips on the rocky ledge that marked the head of the valley, David next to him, mirroring his stance. Naomi shook her head. She had thought she was making good time, but James and David were definitely fitter than anyone else in the family, and when James was in a mood to move, nothing would slow him down. Still, she knew it didn’t help that she stopped every few minutes to take pictures.
With a sigh Naomi returned her water bottle to its pouch and continued forward. She estimated she would reach her brothers in the next ten minutes, unsure of how long it would take the rest of the family to catch up. She looked forward to those few minutes alone with her brothers. She loved her family, but by the fifth day of vacation nerves were grating, as the argument at the last water break had shown. She wished she could say it was the first time it had happened, but arguments such as those were nearly daily occurrences. It was exhausting, after a while, especially when this trip was supposed to be a time to get away from work and enjoy the mountains.
The valley they were hiking was carved out by a glacier whose only remnant was the trickle of ice at the head of the valley. This far into the valley, most of the surrounding mountains were blocked from view, but looking back revealed several sharp peaks. It was the end of July, so even here, in the Canadian Rockies, the summits were nearly devoid of snow. As she climbed, Naomi breathed in the fresh, pine-scented air and smiled. Her family was from Nebraska, in the middle of the USA, and though she loved her home, she always looked forward to the annual vacations her family took, when they could escape the flat, humid interior of the North American continent and enjoy the clean air and soaring vistas of the mountains. This was supposed to be a special trip, as it was the first time they had ventured to another country, but it was proving to be more stressful than anything else.
Still, as she approached the end of the trail, she felt most of her stress melting away. She found it difficult to stay angry with her family for long, and being outside always raised her spirits. Hopefully everyone else would similarly calm down by the time they were all back together.
With a final burst of energy, Naomi finished her climb and headed toward her brothers. They had moved away from the edge of the overlook and were sitting by some rocks near the stream that originated from the glacier a few hundred feet further up. With burning legs, Naomi joined them, pulling her backpack off her shoulders. After rolling the tension from her limbs she sat down, pulling out her water bottle and a granola bar. Shifting on the rock so her butt was more comfortable, she appreciated the view.
“Naomi, how far behind are they?” James asked, chewing on his own granola bar. She took a bite and shrugged.
“I don’t know, I couldn’t see them on the trail when I got to the top.”
“God, they’re so slow!” James criticized, reaching for his water bottle. “I don’t know why Mom and Abby even come.”
“Yeah, it would be so much more fun if it was just us and Dad,” David chimed in. Naomi looked at her younger brother, over a decade her junior and just entering his teenage years. She shook her head.
“That’s not fair. Just because you two like to rush ahead doesn’t mean everyone does. And Mom just had knee surgery, so of course she’s going to go slowly. It’s not fair to expect them to stay behind.”
“Well I’d rather not have to deal with Mom’s criticism all the time,” James grumbled. Naomi raised her eyebrows at her brother.
“Well, maybe you should have found a better time to tell them you’re moving in with Makenzie.”
“It’s not that big of a deal,” James scoffed. “Besides, we were going to get engaged first…” Naomi raised her eyebrows in surprise. Not because her brother was planning on getting married, but because he had told her about his plans.
“Hey, I agree with you. But you knew how they would react to finding this out.”
“It’s stupid,” James said, stuffing his face with more food. Naomi turned to her own food, thinking about her brother and her parents. It wasn’t completely fair for them to be so worried about him getting a job. It wasn’t like she had one at the moment. They were both living at home, and James at least had more of a plan. She knew he was already looking for jobs, despite what her parents thought, and now he was going to propose to Makenzie, his girlfriend of almost four years.
And while she had a Master’s degree in biology, she had spent months trying to decide what she was going to do next. Finding a job in prairie conservation had been difficult, so she had moved home. Which would have been fine, but the house was crowded and nearly all of her high school and college friends had moved away from her hometown, gotten married, were having kids… Still, after contemplating leaving biology entirely and pursuing further education with that bachelor’s degree in anthropology she’d gotten, she had finally gotten a foot in with a researcher at Iowa State University, and was seriously considering going for a PhD. But that was still months away, so in the meantime she was living off of the goodwill of her parents.
Having finished her food, she wiped the back of her hand across her sweaty face, and rested her chin in her hands, watching a ptarmigan a few feet away emerge from the bushes. Pointing out the bird to her brothers, she reached for her camera. But as she brought the device up to her eyes, her vision suddenly filled with bright green light, and the quiet of the mountains was punctured by an explosion. Before she could scream or turn her head, her body was jerked from its perch, the movement stealing the air from her lungs and making her stomach lurch, as if she was falling. An unbearable roaring filled her ears, and her world went dark.
-----
Cullen Rutherford lowered his sword, taking a moment to catch his breath as he surveyed the battlefield. He noticed two soldiers who had fallen from the latest wave of demons, their armor charred from their encounter with a molten rage demon. He counted the troops remaining in his squad, grimacing at the numbers. We can’t take much more of this… but they just keep coming.
It had been two days. Two days since the sky had torn and the world had started to fall apart. He glanced at the sky, at the swirling, boiling green mass of clouds that marked the source of their problems. The Breach. Even as he watched, it flashed, and a piece broke off from the main maelstrom, hurtling from the heights. He followed its trajectory, stomach clenching as it disappeared behind a hill, green light flashing from the impact. For days these new rifts had been falling from the Breach, with no pattern, no way to know where they would appear. But from every one poured demons, threatening to overrun the survivors of the initial explosion.
He turned to his troops, motioning with his sword. “There, another rift! With me!”
When they reached the rift, Cullen felt a small stab of relief. The only figures moving beneath the crystalline rift were a few of the wispy green demons. They could attack from a distance, but were the easiest to destroy, once they were reached. It would be a welcome relief, by comparison, to some of the other demons they had encountered.
He charged with his troops, aiming for the furthest wisp, to save the other’s energy as much as he could. Shield up, he caught the balls of energy hurled from the demon, and when he reached the figure, destroyed it with a sweep of his sword.
Turning back, he saw the other wisps had been destroyed, with no casualties to his…
“Commander!” He turned to the source of the voice. “You should see this!” He jogged toward the soldier, noting the man was standing over a body. His heart sank a notch, dreading to see who had fallen during this attack.
But as he got closer, he could see that the fallen man was not wearing armor. In fact, Cullen realized the man was wearing hardly anything at all, only a pair of bright red, short breeches and a short-sleeved tunic with strange symbols covered his body. The soldier had bent down, inspecting the body.
“He’s alive,” he said, carefully turning the strange man to his back. Cullen bent down, inspecting the man himself.
He had dark hair, nearly black, not cut long enough to cover his eyes. It was dirty, a piece of red cloth tied around his head in a band. Cullen could tell the man was tall, even lying on the ground, and well built, though not particularly strong, and clearly not trained as a fighter. He also had a bright blue bag strapped to his back.
“Where’d he come from?” the soldier asked. Cullen shook his head, testing the man for signs of magic. He could detect a whisper of… something, but he didn’t trust his judgement at the moment, not with the Breach and rift so close, or his waning Templar abilities. He did not think the man was a mage, but he could not understand how he had come to be beneath a rift, dressed this way and unarmed.
“I’m not sure, but he’s alive. Find someone to help you take him back to Haven…”
“Commander! Over here! A woman and a child!” Cullen stood, quickly crossing the clearing, eyeing the rift warily, looking for signs that more demons were about to come through. But the rift was quiet.
He reached the group gathered around the new figures, his confusion growing when he saw them. A woman, dressed in even less clothing than the other man, breeches barely covering her upper thighs, tunic sleeveless and cut low across the chest, all in similar bright colors, was tightly holding a tall, thin child, dressed like the man. The woman’s hair was light brown, pulled back and tangled, her skin tan, shoulders and face covered in freckles. The boy was blonde, skin also darkened from the sun, and Cullen detected a familial resemblance between the three. The adults were clearly not old enough to be parents of the child, and he decided they were likely siblings. And unlike the dark-haired man, the woman and child were clearly injured.
The boy had a large wound on his head, still seeping blood that ran into his dirty hair, and scratches covered his arms, with bruises everywhere, his clothing ripped. The woman also had a head wound, near her right eye, and a deep cut opening up her right thigh. She was also covered in additional scratches, her tunic ripped and stained with blood. The worst, however, was the obvious bend in her arm, the bones underneath broken. But though they were unconscious, they were alive.
At that moment the rift began to crackle, and Cullen’s skin crawled as it began to expand and throw out green tendrils of light. Maker… more demons…
He stood and turned to the closest soldier. “Get a group to take these three back to Haven, make sure their injuries are seen to. Find something to eat, then return as soon as you can. These demons show no sign of slowing.” The woman saluted, then yelled for a group to take the injured people back. Cullen turned to the rift, a shade materializing a few feet away. He gripped his sword, moved toward the demon, and prayed to the Maker for strength, and that this nightmare would soon end.