“No, I’m not tripping balls. Come on. Let’s go that way.”
They turned away from me and I followed for a few hundred feet.
>
Her weapons would have no effect on me, but she didn’t know that now, did she?
“Nancy, Tina, we’re all armed, maybe we’d cover more ground if we split up.”
I exhaled with relief. Nancy and Tina left her. I heard their boots crunching through the snow. Jess stayed still until they were far out of earshot.
“Show yourself! I don’t know what kind of forest spirit you are but just know, I’ve got a gun and I’m not afraid to use it!”
I liked her spirit.
I approached her, enchanted by her waist-length black hair, her high cheekbones and her skin, paled by the Alaskan winter but still that unfamiliar alienpink.
Once I was close, I revealed myself. I was 7’5” tall, towering over the 5’5” woman like a giant as I appeared. She gasped and raised her gun once she saw me. I raised my hands up in defeat.
“Don’t shoot!”
Terrified, Jess pulled the trigger.
THREE
JESS
After I shot him,time stopped, or at least it seemed to. The trees stopped moving. The Alaskan frontier’s wind slowed and my hair whipping past my face, floated in the air. The giant moved out of the way of my bullet which whizzed past him and lodged itself in a tree. Everyone would have heard the gunshot.
> he insisted, his voice crawling into my head like he’d done before.
He walked toward me and my hands trembled too much for me to pull the trigger. He touched the barrel, pushing it down and away.
>
“Yes.”
“Fine. Your friends heard the shot so they’ll be here soon. I cannot reveal myself to them.”
I understood why. He was at least two feet taller than me, broad shouldered, and dressed like he couldn’t even feel the cold. His brown leather sleeveless tunic wrapped around his chest, exposing his arms which were a deep blue color.
His hair was silvery white and long, down to his waist, with the top part braided out of his face and pushed behind pointedears. His ridged aquiline nose highlighted the angles on his face. I wanted to be afraid of him.
I’d seen him dodge a bullet. He could climb into my head. But I didn’t scare too easy after what I’d been through. He was an oddity, but he sparked my curiosity more than my fear.
“What are you proposing then?”
“Take my hand.”
“Will you take me to Taylor?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. But you’d better take me back. Bullets might not work on you but there’s plenty ways to skin a cat.”
He reached for my arm and then tapped a button on his tunic. I dropped the gun in surprise and then my body disappeared from the forest and reappeared somewhere strange. When I reappeared, I felt nauseous. I nearly fell over, but found myself leaning against white chrome metal walls.
“Welcome to my ship. The name is Kronos, by the way.”
