Once Zuberi deemed all had had time to catch their breath, they resumed their climb. Twilight deepened into the eternal indigo dusk Zuberi had learned to associate with night. He pushed them onward, discarding another pause to rest despite the haggard looks he received when he peered back to his companions. Only the boy, atop his strange mount, was breathing with ease. Yet, Zuberi denied their unvoiced requests, determined to find a more defensible position for a longer stay. Eventually, the ridge flattened into a broad shelf overlooking cracked mesas. A rocky overhang provided shelter.
Zuberi surveyed the area. The broad shelf offered limited access points, making it easier to defend against attack. From this vantage, he had a clear, unobstructed view of the surrounding mesas and the path they had ascended, providing ample warning against approaching threats.
"We'll rest here," he said. "After that we look for a better shelter where we can stay longer."
Hanz shook off his jacket, revealing a complex leather harness strapped against his chest. His shadow-weapon hung against his ribs, caught in the leather contraption like a fly in a spider's web.
Lisa sank onto a stone, looking outward in silence. The boy slid from the creature's back, pressing close as it curled its tail around him. Zuberi set his spear beside him, leaning against the cliff wall. The wind carried a faint, sweet scent. Beneath exhaustion, a quiet thread of victory remained—not in killing foes, but enduring. Names still unspoken, yet blood shared. The canyon ambush was behind them now, but ahead lay a world vast with more threats and stranger gifts.
Zuberi grunted, his eyes scanning their group. Five strangers, once disparate, now united by necessity. They had fought as a pack, and now they had to stay one if they were to survive.
Lisa winced as she moved her arm, her face tightening. She watched the shadows dancing at cliff edges. "It feels… thinner up here," she murmured. Zuberi wondered if she meant the air or something more intangible.
The boy patted the creature's scaly neck; it chuffed, frills pulsing amber. It struck Zuberi again how he had never seen a child whose skin, hair, and eyes carried echoes of different peoples. On his savanna, tribes mingled, and in peace times cross-tribal marriages were one of the best ways to cement that peace. But children that resulted of those unions bore one line's traits or the other's, features or height, differences too subtle to notice. The boy was proof that barriers he had once thought too rigid, too high to ever cross, had crumbled here. He refused to let his mind wander to Isabel and her people, lest the memories sully what grace he had managed to see in his companions.
Zuberi planted the butt of his spear in the dust, his voice cutting through their shared exhaustion. "We survived because we fought as one." He smiled, wondering what Father would think of him if he saw him today, rising after the greatest of falls, trying, again, to build a bridge, despite—no. None of that.
He let out a deep breath, and continued, ensuring his voice stays level. "Where I come from, this makes us kin. And yet, every brother knows his sister and she him. Our names bind us and remind us of who we are." A gust of wind swirled around them, as if the land itself paused to listen. Zuberi placed a hand against his heart, peered into the mismatched eyes of the creature, held the look for a moment, feeling it gaze back, before he shifted to the boy. "I am Zuberi," he said.
Lisa stepped forward, dust streaking her cheekbones. "I'm Lisa," she said, her voice quiet but firm.
Hanz's shoulders twitched. "Hanz," he said, his mouth crooking wryly, a glint in his eye warning Zuberi an instant before he added, "Don't hold your breath for a speech from me. You'll have to rely on the tri—" his jaw muscles rippled as he cut himself off and spared a quick glance towards Lisa. He finished with a tight smile. "Zuberi is our resident pep talker."
Zuberi chose to ignore Hanz's comment and inclined his head instead.
The child swallowed, then lifted his chin. "I'm Eli," he said in a whisper. He then placed a palm on the mottled flank beside him. "And this is Shifty."
Hank snorted. "Where's the imagination, kid? You named your lizard Shifty?"
If possible, the boy's voice dropped in volume. "She was Shifty before I met her."
Hanz barked a short laugh. He moved closer to the boy, eying the creature as it tracked him with its colored eyes, and knelt before the boy. "She?" he asked.
Eli's face flushed, but Shifty simply blinked, pupils tightening to narrow diamonds, gaze never leaving Hanz. Colors flickered across her scales or feathers, dawn‑peach, ember‑gold, then back to stone‑gray.
"She shows me things," Eli said in his barely audible whisper, fingers playing with a torn cuff. "Pictures. Feelings. I just know what she means." He punctuated the with a helpless shrug.
Lisa crouched next to her brother, giving his shoulder a playful bump, which Hanz played into as if they'd rehearsed it, tumbling to the side and rolling dramatically, eliciting a rare and furtive smile from the boy.
Lisa gave him a warm smile. "So," she said, tilting her head towards Shifty. "Shifty's your guide? A friend?"
Eli laid his hand on Shifty's tail and stroked it, ripples of colors traveling along her body. "She's my friend. But she can't tell us everything she knows."
Lisa turned to look at Zuberi and Hanz. They did not speak, yet Zuberi knew they had all agreed, in that single exchanged look, not to press the boy. They knew the creature posed no danger, which was all that mattered. Besides, Zuberi recalled stories Grandmother would swear were true, in which ancestors communicated through owls, wind gusts, and termite mounds. He couldn't dismiss the possibility that this creature was a similar form of guidance. Not after what he himself, and his companions, could do.
Zuberi caught Hanz and Lisa's eyes and inclined his head to the side, as he walked a little ways off where the boy would not hear them.
"What do you make of this?" He asked.
Hanz ran a hand over his weapon, the dark metal taking on bluish hues under the now dominant though fainter blue sun. "I don't know, man," Hanz said, eyes riveted on his weapon. "I mean, unlimited bullets?" He looked at Zuberi. "Point, think 'bang,' and it shoots a bullet made of shadow—or something." A shudder ran through him. "At this point, a talking lizard ain't no more unbelievable than this," he raised his weapon before tucking it back into its holster. "Or watching you turn into a nuclear blast—or Lisa somehow seeing the future."
Zuberi met his gaze, glad to have someone else voice their incredulity. He was about to open his mouth, to say what, he had no idea, when Lisa beat him to it.
"I wouldn't call it seeing the future," she said.
"Oh, really?" Hanz said with a derisive snort. "And what would you call it? You did exactly what you did in that weird mist, Liz. Called out attacks moments before they landed. Probably saved our asses more times than…" he paused, but didn't have to catch himself. "Our friend here."
Before Liza could protest, Zuberi made a calming gesture. "It does not matter. We all helped one another. There is no tally to keep." When no one made to speak, he continued. "Like any other ability, to walk, to speak, to run, no one starts proficient. I believe we are at the beginning of a long journey. We will have to learn to control these abilities, until we can learn more."
Hanz gave a curt nod, and let out a frustrated sigh. "Right. Control. My forte."
Lisa watched her brother with a shake of her head, an amused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth while her eyes and creased brow hinted at a deeper worry. Zuberi found it incredible that that many emotions could be expressed at once.
He was about to ask her if there was something to worry about, but she spoke first. "Is someone going to mention Shifty's beams shooting out of her eyes?" She pointed her chin at Hanz. "She saved your butt at least once with it."
Hanz grunted, running his hand through his long hair to scratch at the back of his head. "Tell me about it," he said with a sigh. "And the kid and his… dread field?" He paused, tilted his head this way then that, as if tasting the word, then shrugged. "The silverbacks would'nt go anywhere near him, but it felt like—" He cut off, eyed Lisa, then apparently decided he was done speaking.
Zuberi narrowed his eyes for a moment, wondering if he should push the siblings to deal with whatever issue was between them, but deciding against it. Not only did he not have a close relationship with either, he knew nothing of their conflict. Instead, he craned his head and peered at the two newest members of their party. They had not moved from where the trio had left them.
"We should ask them. Shifty knows more than she's saying. The boy said as much."
Lisa shook her head, voice gentle but firm, a deep scowl showing a new side to her. "That would be a bad idea," she said. Then, softening her voice, she added, "Besides, he didn't say that. He said she couldn't say everything she knows." She let out a deep breath, then she locked eyes with Zuberi, a desperate need to convince resonating in her voice. "Eli's barely holding together. He's exhausted, Zuberi. If you push, he might break."
Zuberi bristled at the caution, but held his tongue. He did not intend to be rough or even to push, but this was a dangerous place and the needed to adapt to it. It would not adapt to them. Still, it looked like this was a hill Lisa would die on. Trusting her had not led him astray so far. She was this certain for a reason and he would defer to her. For now.
After another silent exchange of looks between all three, they went back to where they had decided to set camp. Eli was curled inside a loop Shifty had made by wrapping her whole body around, bringing her tail under her head to serve as a pillow, the boy in the circle's center. Shifty's eyes drooped, but every so often she shook herself awake, frills pulsing with faint color.
Zuberi crouched beside them. "We'll rest now," he said, voice low so as not to wake the boy, raising his head to indicate he spoke to all. "When the red sun fully sets, we move. We'll walk until we find water or a safer place to stop. So, rest up."
He reached out, slow and deliberate, letting Shifty see his hand. She watched him, unblinking, but didn't pull away as he laid his palm gently on her wounded forearm. The gash was nearly closed, only a faint line beneath the scales. "It's all right," he said in a faint murmur, meeting her gaze. "Sleep. Hanz and I will keep watch."
Hanz, already settling in, grumbled, "So Lisa gets out of watch duty? Figures."
Zuberi couldn't resist a smile or prevent his eyes to roll in their orbits. "Your sister was vomiting her guts out hours ago. She needs to rest."
Having taken off her blazer to use as a makeshift pillow, without even turning to look at either of the two men, Lisa let out a loud yawn and said, "You boys know I'm right here, don't you?"
Zuberi allowed himself a rare true smile. He watched as Shifty's eyes finally closed, her breathing deep and even. Something shifted inside him, a quiet elation, the same spark he'd felt after passing his first hunter trial, when the world seemed, for a moment, to open, to make sense.