Reflection Doubled

Bookapy User License

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please go to Bookapy.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Crossing the stream had been the easy part. All they had to do was step over a two foot wide segment that was more like a ditch than a creek. No getting in and wading, no felling logs, no real effort at all. They had thought this was a stroke of luck, maybe even a sign that their journey was going to be fruitful and prosperous. Then they started climbing further up the mountain.

Their first day didn’t seem too hard, just some basic mountaineering and making sure they marked out where they had been. Then they walked up to a cliff face and had to circumvent it. That wasn’t a hard task, but it majorly deviated from the account that had recently been published. It still didn’t discourage the two would-be adventurers. They had been friends their whole lives, growing up in the town together constantly hearing stories from the merchants and travelers that passed through. They spent their childhoods playing out imaginary quests, finding untold riches and fame, but they were grown now. This trip was different, they had to put their everyday lives on hold to go out here.

It wasn’t easy for both of them to get their respective bosses to let them head out and still have jobs to come back to. Acacia had managed to convince her employer to not schedule her any tailoring clients for two weeks under the promise of looking for cheaper trade routes for textiles. Tourmaline had agreed to work through the next festival to keep his apprenticeship, though this agreement worked out to be more of a bet. If he didn’t find any treasure he’d have to work through the next festival, foregoing the merriment. If he found something of value, however, he would be able to keep his apprenticeship if he wanted to and wasn’t too rich to care about carpentry afterwards.

Now the two of them were hopelessly lost on a cursed mountain. Skirting around the cliff side made them unable to use the map that they had fashioned for themselves. It had been crude, but it was comforting to think they knew where they were going. Surveying the area that they had found themselves in made it quite clear that they were nowhere near any of the landmarks they needed to be.

“Maybe we should turn back?” Acacia suggested half heartedly, she still wanted to see this through and it was the most minor of setbacks, but her instincts were telling her that this wasn’t right.

“I think this deviation is a sign that we’ll find it.” Tourma said, referring to the mysterious ‘signs’ that were supposedly a prerequisite to finding the mountain’s power.

Acacia didn’t believe that he was right but she kept this to herself. He had been ‘noticing signs’ the entire trip, even before they were supposed to show up. His eagerness had worn on her, and made her even doubt big things like the ease of crossing the stream and the major deviation of the pseudo-trail. Her experience traveling with merchants made her the more able traveler and his wide eyed wonder wasn’t affecting her ability to sense danger. It was, however,  wearing her down to be the only one with actual wilderness skills.

Tourma was able to cut firewood and could take directions, but Acacia didn’t realize before they came out here that that’s where his skills ended. If she had known that she would have to teach him everything from the basics on, she would have insisted on a shorter practice trip first. As it stood, Acacia was the only one that could navigate and she had to be constantly vigilant, afraid that Tourma would make a mistake that would prove deadly this far from civilization. That constant vigilance was taking its toll on her, she had to eat and take breaks twice as frequently as she normally would to stave off her headaches. Tourma was being kind and understanding about her headaches, but nearly oblivious of their true cause.

Tourmaline’s mind was preoccupied with his feelings of excitement and adventure, and toward Acacia. He hadn’t seen her as a girl while they were young, just a friend to play and get in trouble with, but now that they were adults his feelings had evolved. Now every time that she mentioned the man she had been dating for a few months it hurt like a small knife in his chest. Tourma had no real urge to break them up, the guy seemed to treat her well, but it hurt just the same. Being out here alone just highlighted how much he had wasted by not wanting to ruin their friendship.

Whenever Acacia was in the lead or focused on pitching the tent, Tourma would find himself staring at her and would need to be told what to do next. He didn’t realize that this was making him seem oafish and unskilled, he was merely taken in by how her chestnut hair blew in the wind or how she scrunched her mouth when she concentrated. He’d jolt into action when Acacia gave him the next task, and he stirred from his trance. He had once almost walked head first into a tree branch because she was fixing her hair into a bun and had to be shouted at mere seconds before the stick would have caught his eye.

Continuing to be lost for days had taken its toll on both of their enthusiasms, causing them to decide to go back down the mountain in defeat. They expected this to be physically easy, just walk downhill until they reach the stream, cross it and then follow it back to a real trail. That was the plan, but like the rest of the trip it didn’t go as expected. After walking for less than half a day they reached a sheer drop off.

Below them was a rushing river that shouldn’t have existed. There was geographically no way for such a prominent water source to be on the mountain without it going somewhere downhill. It also struck the pair as weird that the fifty foot drop on either side hadn’t been seen during their wanderings before. It no longer mattered that Tourma had finally acquiesced to Acacia’s concerns and threw in the towel. Without gear to rappel down or cross rapids they were on the mountain until they found another way down.

“Well, no point in dwelling on this for too long right now.” Acacia said, seeing the color drain out of Tourma’s dismissed face. “We’ll just have to go back and find another route.” She was trying to be brave, but she knew that their supplies couldn’t last forever.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Tourma agreed, putting on a fake smile that Acacia saw through, but was grateful for anyway.

They doubled back until they found what looked like a fork in the woods. There weren’t any real paths carved out, but there were clearer trails to follow so they didn’t have to cut their way through underbrush. This direction took them down a sloping hill and immediately up another. Both hoped that this way wasn’t going to entirely be undulating terrain, but they felt as though there was little choice in where to go. The strain of traversing the constant elevation changes got to them fairly quickly so they decided to make camp for the night on top of what looked to be the tallest hill. They could see that the summit of the mountain was still a long way off, but they didn’t have a good way of determining how far they were from the mountain’s base.

They spent the night not really talking to each other much, just whatever was necessary but no conversation. Tourma felt like this was his fault for repeatedly saying they should keep going. Acacia thought that it was her responsibility for not insisting when she saw things start to get weird or when she realized that Tourma was completely untrained. This mutual feeling of guilt hung in the near silent air. The crackling of the fire was the only thing still daring to make noise. The silence continued when they climbed into the tent for the night and into the next morning.

That was a preview of Reflection Doubled. To read the rest purchase the book.

Add «Reflection Doubled» to Cart