Chapter 24

The rising sun bathed the rocky terrain, slowly heating up the rocks and the land. The wind shifted, bringing the scent of dry heat to replace cool moisture as the shadows of the nearby mountainous peak shortened to allow the sunlight to expose what had been hidden in the night.

There was no plant growth this high up the side of the mountain, though the tree line far below consisted mainly of burnt tree trunks and blackened land with only a hint of green that persisted in occasional clumps of growth. There were also no insects, since nothing was alive in this region to attract them.

The wind shifted again, and memory of a more solid existence seemed to coalesce in the air. Sparkling particles drifted, floated, drew themselves closer together with each heat-driven change in wind direction as the sun warmed the mountainous peaks. The ghostly remnants of a sleeping mind drifted with the swirling zephyrs, asking no questions, paying no attention to the vague surroundings.

Another ghostly awareness hovered as well, patiently waiting for the young woman who had sacrificed herself to save an entire train full of people to awaken so it could escort her to a more friendly place – a world with more of a future than this one, populated by beings similar to herself so she could start life anew. She certainly deserved to be rescued, but for now, it watched and waited, curious as to what this once-human creature would decide when she awakened.

If she awakened...

The Hurrah had seen phenomena like this before – a powerful personality, violently killed, refusing to surrender to death, sometimes manifested itself in the physical world. Humans would call it a shade, or a ghost, and sometimes that personality could make itself visible by 'glowing' its lost shape at a living person. Often, and this occurred on battlefields more than anywhere else, the soul would manifest as a dust devil, a swirling, miniature tornado such as the one beginning to form right now.

The awareness that was unknowingly creating the dust devil began to wake up. The Hurrah could feel confusion emanating from the being as she tried to become aware of her arms and legs, her physical position, her location, not realizing she no longer had a body. There was simply nothing there for her mind to latch onto.

'Please try not to fight so much, ' the Hurrah thought at the spirit. 'There is nothing there for you to inhabit. You were killed.'

'I'm dead? Then how am I talking to you? And exactly what are you, anyway? You look all fuzzy and since I'm looking at you, I obviously have a body; I just need to wake it up.'

If the Hurrah could have smiled, it would have. This being he was sent to collect was spunky; fearless. She would be pleasant company compared to the frightened, disoriented beings with which he was used to dealing. Perhaps she could even join his own race and become a guardian.

'Your logic is flawed, young one, ' the Hurrah mentally replied. 'You aren't using a body to look at me, and if you were, it wouldn't be asleep.'

The dust devil was becoming a whirlwind, now, and there was a decidedly bluish tinge to the sparkling particles swirling wildly in its midst. Then suddenly, there was a flash, much like an explosion except that, inverted, it began with a diameter of several meters and almost instantly coalesced into a solid point.

Or rather, a solid ... body.

Definitely human.

Naked.

Blood everywhere.

It fell, seemingly lifeless, collapsing onto the rocky dirt.

'Well, ' the Hurrah thought, experiencing that rarest of Hurrah emotions, surprise. 'That's new... '

The body convulsed, then began to scream, radiating an intense amount of pain and agony. The Hurrah inspected the writhing form more closely to determine what was wrong with it. After a few seconds, the problem was understood.

'You forgot your skin, ' the suggestion was made to the screaming, incoherent but well-muscled female. 'Let me help.'

Willing the female to return to her unconscious, or rather, pre-conscious state, the Hurrah used the same universal energy that this amazing creature had used to recreate her body, and formed a soft, epidural covering of living cells to protect all those raw, brand-new nerve endings. 'How could she remember all those capillaries and nerve passageways and then forget her skin?' A decision was made to check her thoroughly in case she had left out anything else – like her heart or her lungs.

'Well, it appears as though you will live.'

'Good, ' came a mental reply. 'I was worried for a minute, there.' There was a moment of silence before she continued. 'What do you want, anyway?'

'I was requested to find you and take you to a new place, ' the Hurrah replied. 'A new life, a new world. I and others like me have taken many of you – many humans – to other worlds, to continue their existence in a more pleasant, more permanent environment.'

'Requested?' she asked, directing her query to the most interesting part (in her opinion) of that many-faceted explanation. 'By who, God? And did he ask for me, specifically?'

'Not specifically, ' the Hurrah replied. 'I was told there was a lost soul in the Alps. I searched for several hours before I detected your presence.'

'A lost soul, huh?' she mused as she considered what this weird dream spider had told her so far. 'Don't suppose he told you who I was... '

'A user?' she asked. 'What is that supposed to mean? A user of what?'

'You just recreated your entire body just now, ' the Hurrah exclaimed. 'You use power! Universal energy!'

'Yep, definitely weird dream going on here... '

'If you insist, ' the Hurrah decided. 'Who are you, if I may ask again? You are obviously one of those human females who have recently begun to play with universal energy. What are you being taught to do with it? Besides creating immortal bodies... '

'Immortal? Getting weirder and weirder. Time to wake up, now – wakey, wakey! And hopefully I'll remember who I am once I'm awake... '

'Don't be concerned about that; Forgetting your old identity is common when moving from your old life to your next one.'

'Next one?' she asked. 'I'm planning on living this one for a while, yet, so why don't you just go away and let me sleep – I mean – let me wake up!'

The sun was hot and beat down on her back, unmercifully. Marlena knew that, once she woke up, she would have a horribly massive sunburn, but she also knew that it would only take a moment to sooth down the fiery sensations with a quick caress of witch-fire. As she thought about it, she did it, and her back, arms and legs immediately relaxed as her vicious sunburn faded.

Her mind was still caught in the edges of that crazy weird dream she'd just had and Marlena was certain that, if she could just open her eyes, she would actually see a friggin' giant spider hovering and ready to pounce on her. That was impossible, of course. Reality seeped into her mind as her memory returned; the memory of that fantastic fuck she'd had from 'Spy Guy' – she couldn't remember his name, mainly because he kept changing it – and then finding the bomb and (how stupid was she turning out to be, anyway) actually teleporting the nasty thing right there on the bed with her, scaring the shit out of both 'Spy Guy' and herself.

Her memory of being sucked out of the roof of the sleeping car jerked her sleepy mind further awake and she remembered letting go of her shield – the one that had surrounded both herself and the friggin' bomb – and watching as the explosive device tumbled away; as they both tumbled away from each other in an arc that would bring her crashing down into some very hard-looking mountainous granite.

She shielded again, hoping that, somehow, her witch-fire would break her fall, though she had no idea how that might work. Before she could think about that for more than an instant, the landscape was lit up with bright, white light, and the blast wave threw her against the cliff face. Marlena's shield faded as she lost consciousness, and she rolled down, tumbling and falling until she came to rest...