NOVEL NEXT 92: Together Forever
The first fat raindrops splattered against the trail, and within seconds a diresome wall of clouds reached us. The sky unleashed a torrential downpour and by the time I pulled out the ponchos, we were both soaked to the bone.
"THIS IS WORSE THAN THE SPIDERWEBS!" Nessy yelled over the roar of rain. "AT LEAST SPIDERS ARE DRY!"
"The cabins—" I shouted, pointing at the trail.
"Too far! The path ahead is getting flooded! Look!"
I looked. "Didn't we take the blue trail?!"
"I distracted you and led us down the orange trail," she confessed. "'Cus I… didn't want to run into Kristi. And I wanted to get to the caves."
"Damn it Ness," I growled.
Lightning cracked overhead, far too close. The thunder that followed made us both jump.
"Which way to the caves?" I growled.
"There!" She pointed.
I spotted a dark opening in the rocky outcropping to our left.
We scrambled off the trail, sliding on wet leaves and mud. Nessy reached the cave first, shaking herself violently and sending water everywhere once we were inside.
"Bleh!" She threw off the poncho at me and continued shaking, fur standing out in all directions. "This is your fault! You and your human…!"
"How exactly is rain my fault?!"
"You summon rain with your human weather powers!"
"Those don't exist."
"Yea they do, it's called cloud seeding," Nessy stated. "Humans invented it. Silver iodine dropped from planes! I read all about it on the net. Therefore I blame your people for this weather."
"Not every storm is cloud seeded."
"This one assuredly is. I bet the raptors paid for it."
"Why?"
"The raptors own the weather stations. It's an anti-dog plot."
"You're being ridiculous."
"Am not! You and your…" She paused mid-speech, pulling out her phone to check the time. Her ears perked up oddly. "Wait. That's... huh?"
"What?"
She stared at the clock on the phone, her entire face twitching. "We're early."
"Early for what?"
"I'm not entirely sure. Just... early. It feels like… like we're ahead of schedule somehow." She shook her head, sending more droplets flying. "It doesn't make sense."
"You're not making sense."
"Shh! This is different non-sense!" She paced in a small circle, leaving wet pawprints on the cave floor.
"What?"
"I got up at like 4 AM because I wanted to see you so bad. Couldn't sleep. Brain was all buzzy."
"Four AM? Nessy, that's getting a bit obsesso." I pulled off my backpack, stretching.
She whirled on me, eyes wide. "Obsesso? OBSESSO?! I'm not obsesso! I just... I just wanted to be with you! There's nothing wrong with that. We're best friends! Best friends Syn-pack who want to be together all the time! That's normal! That's the most normal thing ever!"
She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "Accept your best friend-ness!"
"I will if you stop shaking me right now."
"Shaking is love! It's how you distribute affection evenly!" She shook harder. "Feel the love! FEEL IT!"
"Ness please chill out."
"Why?"
"Because you're being ridiculous and… clingy."
"Am not! This is perfectly normal prad behavior when…"
"Kristi doesn't behave like this," I said.
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The shaking stopped. Nessy's paws froze on my shoulders, her eyes going dark.
"What. Did. You. Just. Say?"
"I just meant—" I waved a hand in front of her face. "That she's a prad and maybe you could le—"
She bit me. Hard. Her teeth sank into my hand before I could pull away, sharp canines breaking skin. Blood welled up immediately.
"OW! What the fuck?! You bit me!"
"I warned you! Stop bringing up the raptor! This is your own fault! You and your big mouth and…"
I stared at her, my heart beating fast.
Nessy never bit me. Sure, she bit other people before, but never me and never this hard. What was wrong with her today?
She stared at my bloody hand and then her ears flattened against her skull. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so sorry!" She grabbed my bleeding hand, licking at the wound frantically. "I didn't mean—I just—you keep talking about HER and something is terribly wrong and I—"
"That hurt, you jerk!" I yanked my hand back.
"You can do whatever you want back to me!" She thrust her paws at me. "Bite me! Hit me! Whatever makes it even! I deserve it!"
"I'm not going to bite or hit you, Nessy. I'm not a prad."
"College… you were supposed to promise me things about the future… but I guess we skipped over that, hum."
"What?"
"Whatever, not important. You're running away regardless. Then... then..." She spun away, suddenly leaping towards and digging frantically through my backpack. "Where is it where is it where IS it—"
"What are you doing?"
She pulled out my camping knife, the blade glinting in the dim light filtering through the rain.
"Nessy, put that down."
Instead, she pressed the blade to her right paw. "If you won't hurt me back, I'll do it myself. Make it even. Make it correct. Blood for blood."
"Nessy! Don't—"
But she was already cutting, carving deliberate lines into her paw pad. Blood beaded up, mixing with the rainwater still dripping from her fur. I stared, mouth open wide.
She wasn't just randomly cutting—she was making a shape on her paw.
"Nessy, what are you—"
"Dagaz," she said, showing me her bleeding paw, momentarily lit by a flash of lightning. "The rune of breakthrough. Of transformation. Of endless binding." She finished the symbol with another stab. Two triangles touching at their points, forming a sideways hourglass. Blood ran down her paw, dripping onto the cave floor.
"Ness. You're scaring me," I stepped back, shuddering.
Thunder crashed outside, shaking the entire mountain. In the flash of lightning, I saw her face. Her expression was desperate, wild, but also strangely distant, like she wasn't entirely here.
"Shake on it," she said, holding out her bloody paw. "So we can be together forever. No matter what. No matter where. No matter WHEN."
"Nessy—"
"Please." Her voice cracked. "Please, Alec. I love you. I love you so much it feels like I'm going to explode. Like there's too much of it for one body. Like I've loved you before and I'll love you again and it just goes on forever and ever and I need you to understand—"
"This is crazy."
"Everything's crazy! Reality is holographic! Time isn't real!"
"Ness you're taking my granddad's book too far and…"
"Am not!" She dug into her backpack, pulling out the 'Holofractals' book. I stared at the scruffy cover.
"Did you… steal my grandfather's book?! When did you even?!"
"I'm a fast doggo. Look, it's all here. I read it while you two slept. The door to everywhere is already open. It's just a matter of… staying together when the end comes."
I stared at the poor, insane husky. She had to be in cycle. This was the only rational explanation for her irrational behaviour. Her cycle must have finally started and…
"Alec!" She thrust her bleeding paw at me again, dropping the book. "—this is real. This matters!"
"What?"
"We have to shake on it! One handshake! Then it will all make sense, I… think!"
"You think?!"
The rain pounded harder, a solid wall of water beyond the cave mouth. I looked at her outstretched paw, the Dagaz symbol still bleeding, her eyes desperate.
"I... okay," I said finally, reaching out reluctantly. "Okay. One handshake. Just, no more biting, kay?"
"No bites," she nodded. "Just a… harmless handshake between friends."
Our hands connected, her blood mixing with mine. The moment our wounds touched, thunder exploded directly overhead, the flash so bright it turned the cave white.
I blinked.
"Yes!" Nessy gripped my hand tighter, not letting go. "In the name of Infinity Paradox Proxima! By Number Eight! Bind the past and future, all timelines, all possibilities! Bind Alec Benoit Foster to Nessy Rex Whitepaw! A bridge from the forgotten past to the nameless future!"
Her other paw slammed into the ground, claws digging into the mossy rock. "I bind us to the current moment itself! I bind Namelesness to this place, this time, this moment—CLASHRIDGE PEAK!"
I struggled in her grip, unable to escape her stronger pradavarian hand.
The world lurched sideways, like my body was a record and someone had just bumped the needle.
Everything skipped, stuttered, felt wrong. Skewered.
"Forever," she was saying, or had already said, or would say. "No matter how many times. No matter how many lives. You and me, Alec. Always."
"Nessy… what are you on…" I began.
This was wrong. Something was off. She was right. We were early. She was much more aggressive. Much more clingy. Much more… musical.
Things lined up and also didn't line up.
"Nessy, what—"
"I fixed it," she grinned, still gripping my hand. "I fixed everything. Now you can never leave me. And I can never leave you. Even if we die. Even if the world ends. Even if—"
Lightning struck directly outside the cave, the boom so loud it knocked us both to the ground. When my vision cleared, Nessy was on top of me, rain and blood dripping from her fur onto my face.
"Mine," she said. "From now and forever. From this moment onto eternity."
I blinked up at her. She kissed me fiercely. I struggled to dislodge her.
Again, the feeling of unreality returned, like a wave rushing across everything.
Lighting flashed, revealing a very large spiderweb hanging above us.
One of Nessy's eyes ignited silver, flickering erratically.