It was a brilliant day in Yosemite National Park, the wind was soft and the clouds drifted by in the midmorning air like cotton balls. My breath was thick in my lungs and my fingers burned, yet I hadn’t felt this alive in months.

Ever since my discharge from the Rangers, I had been feeling like a lost soul, drifting from one job to another without ever really finding what it was I was trying to find. Finally, I moved into a small cabin in the western half of California, someplace where I could just get away from it all and find my own path in life. Yet even that didn’t last for long. By the end of the third month I was about to go stir crazy, my mind jumping from crazy idea to equally crazy idea. Then, I thought about something I hadn’t done since I had joined the Corps.

So, without much fanfare and without really thinking too much about what I was going to do, I packed up some camping gear, stuffed all I would need for several days in the woods alone into the back of my car, and drove out to the National Park with every intention of doing something stupid. The drive had been slow and by the time I had gotten to the parking area for the campground, the sun had already crested the pines and was well on its way towards noon. Yet I didn’t let that stop me, if anything the heat made me want to go out and climb the rocky cliffs that surrounded me even more.

Now I found myself clinging to a smooth rock face, my fingers buried into a crack no thicker than my wrist, hanging above the forest floor by a good two hundred feet. Far below, my backpack was resting against the cliff face, containing all the gear I would need once I set up camp for the night. My heart was pounding in my chest and my muscles burned with every movement, but I was having the time of my life. I had always gotten a kick out of the action every time my team went into an active combat zone, this was just one of the ways I had enjoyed the rush of adrenaline before I enlisted.

The metal pistons in my artificial left leg hissed with compressed air as I lifted it to the next foothold, the smooth steel and composite glinting in the sunlight as my shoe bit into the sandstone. It had taken several months to get the hang of my new limb after my real one got blown off by an IED in Afghanistan. Of course my best memory of that incident was the Taliban I blasted in the head from fifty yards while the medics worked on keeping me from bleeding to death on the side of the road. My lips curled into a grin as my fingers pulled me further up the cliff face, good times, good times.

Yet my mirth was short-lived as a sharp gust of wind hit me from my left, making my grip loosen for a split second before I could correct my momentum.

I hissed as my fingers twisted between the rocks before me, and I had to slip one hand completely free in order to get my grip straight. At that moment I was very aware of the distance to the ground, and the most certain doom that would meet me if I happened to fall.

“Come on Sarah,” I growled to myself as I got back into a comfortable position, “keep it together. Just a few more feet and then you can take a nice long rest at the top.”

Apparently life just likes to prove me wrong, because no sooner had the words left my lips then another huge gust of wind hit me from my right. I yelped as one foot slid off the rocks, and it had to hang from nothing more than my fingertips for several seconds before I could get my feet under me again. By that moment my heart was pounding in my chest and my breathing was ragged, but for a completely different reason than it had been a minute before.

I swallowed thickly as I tried to get my body back under control, “I think that’s enough climbing for one day. Time to get off this rock.”

That was the moment the first wet drop landed square on the crown of my head. I jerked my head up and saw that the sky had become overcast seemingly out of nowhere, and that the sound of heavy rainfall was getting far too close for comfort.

“Shit.” I hissed as I began to rapidly descend from the rock face. I knew that I wasn’t going to make it to the ground, but maybe I could get far enough down that if I slipped I wouldn’t end up a paint splatter on the rocks.

Only a few seconds later, the rain hit like a solid wall of water. My eyes were immediately shut against the whipping drops as they pelted me like a high-pressure hose. I could barely see the rock in front of me, and in the instant it happened, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on. Like everything was moving in slow motion, I could feel my fingers losing their grip on the stone crevice before me, at the same instant my shoes lost their connection. Seconds seem to stretch like hours as I slowly began to fall backwards, yet I didn’t scream or flail. I had been trained to stay calm under stress far more powerful than this, so I let my body go limp as my vision slowly rotated until only the sky was visible.

All at once time seemed to resume at a normal pace, the pounding rain, the howling wind, the rush of air around my body as I fell. It seemed almost like a dream, yet when my body impacted the first spindly tree that jutted out from the rock face, I couldn’t keep the cry of pain from escaping my lips as my left shoulder popped clean out of its socket. I only had a second to register the pain before the tree gave way, dropping me onto the next obstacle as my body twisted in midair. Next came a jut of rock that managed to catch me under my right breast, breaking several ribs at least as I was spun the opposite direction before crashing into the ground flat on my back.

I lay there, gasping and trying not to move as lances of agony shot up and down my body in every direction. The rain had completely drenched me from head to toe, yet as fast as it had come, it was already letting up. Even as the rain pounded into the top of the cliff I had just been climbing, already shafts of sunlight were dotting the ground around me as the summer squall continued on its way.

Breathing hurt, trying to move hurt even more. I turned my head to one side and spotted my pack just beyond the reach of my mechanical leg, resting against the cliff base like it had every right to mock my current predicament. My chocolate brown hair was partially draped over my chest, and I watched as thick streams of red began to slowly trace each hair until it began to stain my dark blue tee a muddy brown.

I let my head fall back onto a rock that had conveniently placed itself for my use, my vision spinning as I tried to figure out what was broken and what wasn’t. My leg seemed to be fine, and as far as I could tell my prosthetic wasn’t damaged, yet from my hips up it just seemed like one big bag of ouch. I could feel my broken ribs shifting with each shallow breath I managed to get into my lungs, and I was certain my left arm wasn’t supposed to be hanging from my armpit like a limp noodle. My right arm was bent the wrong way in at least three places, both on my forearm and just above my elbow. I couldn’t get my eyes to focus properly, so add a head injury to the list of what fucked up Sarah’s body today. I tried to move something, anything to get at my phone. It was sitting in the outside pocket on my pack, right in my line of sight, and yet it might as well have been at the top of the cliff for all the good it would do me.

For several hours I lay there, fighting to breathe as my broken ribs jabbed at my lungs with every motion. The sun had made its way behind the cliffs, casting my sorry hide into shadow as the day wore on, and yet I had a feeling I wasn’t going to last the night. It was well known that mountain lion roamed these parts, and in my current state I wouldn’t be able to do much more than flip one the bird if I ended up on the menu. So, I closed my eyes, and contemplated what it would be like once I died, because if the mountain lions didn’t get me, dehydration certainly would. I had always imagined going down in a blaze of glory, shooting up terrorists with one hand while dragging a civilian out of the firefight with the other. To die out here, all alone, it just seemed to be kind of, sad.

“Well,” I whispered to myself, “at least I managed to do something before my time came.”

“While I would love to see you groveling in your own self-pity,” a male voice echoed around my little clearing, “I don’t think you’ll be dying just yet.”

In an instant hope flashed through my body, I would have turned to face the speaker, but my body screamed at me the moment I tried to shift my weight, “Who’s there? Can you help me? Please, call nine-one-one, I need help.”

My eyes were drawn to a figure as it materialized in front of me, his shadow somehow forming on the rock face even without direct sunlight. I squinted, trying to get my eyes to focus, but what I was seeing didn’t make any sense. Either this man was wearing the craziest clothes I had ever seen, or I had hit my head harder than I thought.

He stood at what I assumed to be six seven, his hair a wild mass of white with a long goatee to match. His eyes were either bloodshot or were naturally yellow in color, and he seemed to have one sharp fang poking out of his mouth on the left side. His suit was even more bizarre. The left sleeve was bright yellow with markings that resembled the leg of an eagle, while the right one was a golden brown in color. The twin coat tails were salmon red with scale designs running down each strip, and the torso was a deep mud brown.

His lower half was even more weird. The left pant leg was a fawn brown while the right was lime green, his left shoe black leather while the right was one of those toe shoes that you used for climbing. It too was a bright green in color.

I blinked several times, trying to get my brain to work properly, “Alright, I know I must have hit my head, because there is no way you are real right now.”

He chuckled, his impossible shadow doing a little tap dance on the rocks behind him, “Oh I assure you I’m real, although I understand why someone of your kind would have trouble believing it. You see, I’m not from around here, and I’ve searched countless realities for something that my home is in desperate need of. I’ve popped from universe to universe in search of something that even I didn’t even fully understand, and what do I find when I reach my destination?”

He walked closer to me, a magnifying glass appearing in one hand out of nowhere as his enlarged eye looked me up and down, “Some half-dead ape that has next to no magical potential and seemingly won’t make it another night. Curious, very curious.”

The magnifying glass disappeared with a pop, and I let a groan slip from my lips as I leaned back and closed my eyes, “Come on brain, if you’re going to make deathbed hallucinations, at least make them entertaining.” I hissed as pain raked up my spine, and the world swam in front of me as my sense of up and down took a momentary vacation.

“Oh dear,” the figure said as he leaned in and tapped me between the eyes, “it seems you really aren’t long for this world. Alright then, here’s the deal. I can take you to somewhere where you can get your wounds tended to. You’ll be fine in a matter of days with nary a care in the world.”

I coughed once, wincing as blood sputtered between my lips, “The old deal with the devil gag, eh?” I coughed again as more blood began running down my chin, “What will you get in return, my soul?”

He seemed to roll his eyes at me, “Oh nothing so trivial. I’ve tried playing around with souls before, dreadfully boring things really. All they’re really good for is looking pretty on my mantle, can’t really do anything with them other than that.” He shook his head, creating a rattling sound like a ball in a bucket, “No, all I ask is that when we meet again, and we will meet again, I will ask you one favor. It can be anything from a small token to some grand desire, but no matter what it is, you have to fulfill that request. That is my offer.”

I mulled it over in my mind for a moment, “Well, for a deal with the devil that will seemingly save my life and get me out of this terrible situation, it’s not a bad idea. Too bad this is all in my imagination.”

He chuckled again, “Whatever makes you happy. So, do we have a deal?”

I shrugged, wincing as my dislocated shoulder made itself known again, “Sure, why not? If I’m going to die, I might as well have some fun with it.”

I could see the grin that split his lips impossibly wide, his hand lifted with his fingers pressed together, “So be it then. Remember, I’ll see you again soon, so keep one thing as you put yourself back together.”

He snapped his fingers and the world began to shift around me, yet his smile remained crystal clear as the rest of my vision faded to black, “Discord will be watching you.”

My body felt weightless for a moment, and I struggled to breathe as a tight feeling encompassed my body. Then, with a bright flash and a loud popping sound, I found my body laid out on a flat surface, my head supported by the side of my backpack. A rapid string of gasps and high-pitched screams echoed around me, my eyes snapping shut as pain lanced through my brain.

“What is that thing?” A female voice asked in a very posh tone.

“Ah don’t rightly know,” a second voice replied, sounding like someone from the deep south, “but if’n it tries anything we’ll set ‘em straight before it can get very far.”

I forced my eyes open, only to realize that my vision was still blurry beyond belief. Other than blobs of color that were way to rich to be natural, I couldn’t really make out anything in my surroundings. I turned my head to look to my left as more voices chimed in, allowing my gaze to latch onto the set of bright teal eyes that came into view.

They were soft and filled with what looked like equal parts fear and curiosity, although it was hard to tell with all the bright pink and canary yellow that seemed to surround those eyes. I couldn’t make out if the person was male or female under all the clothing, but if I had to guess I would have to say it was a girl, if the colors were anything to go by.

“Please,” I croaked out, blood running from my mouth and onto the surface below me, “help me.”

The eyes widened in shock, followed in turn by a sharp gasp. I closed my eyes as the figure began nodding frantically, and I felt myself slipping away as her soft voice rose in volume to address the others in the room.

“Um, girls, I think this creature is injured. We should get it to the hospital before it gets any worse.” I could barely hear her over the din caused by the other girls, but her voice seemed to have an urgent edge to it that made the others pause and listen.

The rest of the conversation faded into the background, although I was put together enough to feel the warm blanket envelope my body, holding me gently but firmly as I was carried towards what I hoped was medical attention. I felt my lips curling into a smile as my mind faded away. Whoever these girls were, at least they were being nice about moving me. Would hate to have my already shattered body made even worse because some country bumpkin thought it would be a clever idea to set the bones back in place with a ball-peen hammer.

Author's Note

So here's the new book I've been working on!!! Hope you all enjoy it so far! In the meantime, please feel free to check out my other works if you have the time or desire, as this one is going to be slow on the updates until the summer starts. Both of my other stories are complete so they should at least keep you busy for a day or two. Anyways, I hope to see you all later, sometime before the middle of season 7 hiatus I would hope.

See you all next chapter,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.