A Star is Born: The Coming Dawn: Book I (3 page)

“Well, if you can see me, I suggest you walk on my heels because I’m
never
touching you again.” Kylie couldn’t help but scoff. He marched up a steep, uneven hill. The sight of it was odd, because he seemed to float in a black sky as he ascended.

She glared because of his uncaring response. She was confused about her location, her world shaken to its core, her eyesight gone, and her battered body was sore. Yet he wasn’t decent enough to even slow down. His only concern was not touching her.

The more she thought about her situation, the closer she felt to sobbing or a panic attack. She was baffled and confused about where she was, if and when her eyesight would return, and how to get home. The more she dwelled on the situation, the more defeated she felt. She felt broken and overwhelmed, and silently wept. How was any of this possible?

Soon he was yards ahead of her. She could tell from how blurry his body became that he was some distance. “For the love of Lu Lush, will you hurry up?”

“I’m trying.” She wiped her eyes with her hands, determined he wouldn’t see her tears.

“We’re going to have to climb up to that cave. It’s about a hundred yards. Nothing in comparison, really,” he said.

“Nothing in comparison to what? The Grand Canyon?” Kylie scoffed. “You want me to free climb a rock wall,
blind
?”

“Look, Princess, you can either climb the cliff or die. Your choice.”

“They both mean death.”

He huffed and waited for her to walk the few last steps to where he stood. She continually blotted tears from her cheeks, and once again begged for compassion. “I can’t see anything, but a blurry outline of you. I’m not exaggerating. I can barely see me. I’ll die if I climb. I’ve
never
rock climbed before in my life. The only thing I’ve climbed is a stair stepper and we both know that takes you nowhere.”

He didn’t wait for her to finish talking. He spun around and scaled the steep rock face. He ascended with ease, making it look effortless and as if he’d done it innumerable times.

Kylie almost smacked her head, but at the last second, her hand swung into the cliff and she froze. She stubbed a finger, which only angered her. “I’m going to die,” she mumbled, stood back from the rock face and debated if she would even attempt climbing.

The thought of the mountain troll brought her to her senses. Maybe if she attempted to climb and showed him how incapable she was, he would assist her.

Another possibility occurred to her. Maybe she was dreaming; she fell through the trapdoor and hit her head. The idea was convincing. The most plausible explanation was that she was unconscious and needed to awaken from the terrible nightmare. There was a strong possibility the reason she was thinking of trolls and such a strange world, was because the play was fresh in her mind when she fell. Surely, fairies and evil witches would appear at some point. Kylie tried to manifest a fairy. When not a single fluttering set of wings flapped, she pinched herself. Nothing happened. She slapped her cheeks. Still nothing changed.

“Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll climb the stupid rock.” She grumbled as she felt for a sturdy grip. She groped, finding rocks for her hands and feet. “Now what?” She had no idea how to climb a cliff. Did she reach higher, or find a higher step on to hoist herself higher? She felt for both.

Before she found an adequate protruding stone, there was a small landslide of pebbles. She covered her head as she was pelted. The man landed inches from her with a loud thud. “Well, you went far.” She was in no mood to be teased. “Good thing. You’re lucky this time. We’ll have to try another cave. There was a strange smell in there. I didn’t trust it.” He continued onward. She smelled the stench of sulfur again as he walked by, the same stink of troll. She expected another large hand snatch her, but nothing except black haze was around her. Then she remembered he carried a portion of his kill.

She guessed the awful smell was a defense mechanism to ward off beasts, because nothing would want to eat something with such a horrific smell.

“I, uh…I could hold that for you if you want,” Kylie said and hurried to catch up. He stopped as if her words were shocking.

“You want to carry something
for me
?” he asked, confused. She nodded in response. “It’s too heavy. You couldn’t lift the dense meat.”

He walked away, and then commanded her to follow him again. He checked cave after cave. There was always something wrong with the chamber. Either it had water on the bottom with stinging rockfish, poisonous ants, was too small, too large, or too low. Waiting was fine because she was able to rest as he swiftly ascended and descended.

After what seemed like an hour, he finally found a cave he liked. “Come on up,” he called from inside the cave. He was high up; he looked like a fuzzy dot. Kylie estimated he wasn’t a yard shy of five hundred feet above her.

Kylie wanted to shout, “Are you crazy?” but she thought it best to bite her tongue. After all, he was trying to help.

Kylie felt around for rocks she could hold onto, but the texture of the earth changed. It was sharp and so thin the stone felt like she was squeezing knife blades. She gripped a handful of the least serrated rock and cringed as she tightened her grip. She whimpered while she found her footing. Then she stepped up, feeling the rock painfully gouging into the flesh of her feet and hands. She wondered if it broke skin, but she would have felt the blistering heat from her blood escaping her body.

While clutching another rock, she heaved herself up a good foot and a half. At once the stone under her foot broke. She slid as sharp edges scraped her skin. Instantly, she was close to tears again. She tried a second time, and then another. She was taking forever, and getting nowhere, because the rocks kept breaking. With each pull-up she cursed from the pain. There was no way she could climb the wall.

She felt a breeze and then heard a thud. A faint sulfur smell filled the air again. “You truly are the slowest woman I’ve ever seen.” There was a pleasant tone in his voice now. She could have sworn he was smiling, but his features were blurred. Why his sudden change, was a mystery. Maybe he decided she wasn’t trying to make him carry her. Then he could have realized how rude he was being. Or maybe it was the offer to carry the troll meat for him. She wasn’t about to tell him she wanted it for protection. “You should be sleeping. That is the only way you’ll get your eyesight back. You shouldn’t use your eyes anymore. Close them.” He easily flung her piggyback.

His touch sent the strangest tingling through her body. She had a strong impulse to wrap herself around him with an odd need for closeness. She never wished to be near anyone, and it was very unlike her. She guessed it was the night’s events; he saved her and was now charming. Nevertheless, she refrained from doing anything more than encircle his neck and lock her arms tightly.

She clumsily tried to wrap her legs around him. She didn’t realize how wide he really was. “Hold still,” he commanded, and then in one fluid motion he jumped, clutching the wall. “The trick is to brace yourself on the flat rocks between the brittle blades,” he explained, but Kylie wasn’t listening. She was too distracted with how strong he was. He was so muscular she could feel his brute strength as he moved. All his muscles tightened and shifted. Again, she felt a strong urge to embrace him. She liked that she was hugging him. The feeling was borderline lustful. She never wanted to lay with a man, and always thought performing was her one true love. Yet, she imagined them on the ground, and giving herself to him.

What was she thinking? She wasn’t about to have meaningless sex with a stranger, when she had never gone farther than kissing a few boys in high school. She shook her head, trying to rid the feeling.

With startling strength, he bounded up the side of the cliff. She held on with all her might. She pinched her eyes closed as he leapt and quickly clutched rock after rock. Right when she felt she couldn’t hang on any more because of the jerking movements, he yanked her off his back and hurled her up over the cliff’s edge. She screamed, not expecting he’d throw her though the air hundreds of feet above the ground.

She fell onto the ledge, and clutched the dirt floor, thankful to be alive. She panted and coughed, choking on dirt. All she could think about was how thankful she was for her life. “Thank you,” she panted.

He hopped on the ledge, and then took three large steps into the cave. When she didn’t hurry to follow him, he came back, grasped her arm, and then lugged her into the cave. Again the strange urge returned, but only until he let go of her when she was apparently deep enough inside the cave. Then she heard him stack two large rocks at the front of the cave, shutting them in.

She sat, listening to him move. She was amazed how familiar sounds were, even in such a strange world. He lit a fire by striking stones together. In no time, the entire cave was warm. She could vaguely see a glow. At least she thought she saw it, but then maybe her wishing she could see made her believe dancing orange flames flickered in the cave.

Kylie could see the man more clearly. Curiously, he looked different. His hair was shorter, no longer touching his shoulders. He was young. His voice was so low she expected to see an older man, but he was only a year or two older. His well-defined muscles were tone, and bulged almost unnaturally, but she liked his strength.

She watched him move, as he did something with his hands. The sight was peculiar seeing him work with a dark unknown object. Several minutes later he threw something he made to her feet. She felt leather against her skin.

Then he took the meat, which reeked as he wafted the stench by dropping it over the fire. Instantly, the food crackled and popped. The strong sulfur smell was smothered by the sweet scent of brown sugar and bacon. Her mouth watered. She didn’t realize how hungry she was.

“Get dressed,” he said with a nod to her feet.

She didn’t see anything. She felt around, picking up the leather garments. She determined one item of clothing was a string with few dangling scale straps for a skirt, and one band for around her chest. “I can’t wear this, there’s nothing to it. I might as well be naked.”

“Fine. Go naked,” he snapped.

“Well, I don’t want to do that either. I’d rather wear what I have on, thank you very much.”

“You don’t have anything on,” he stated calmly.

“What?” Kylie squealed. She mistakenly thought her sequined dress covered her, because her skin had swirls on it. Her entire body was on display and the majority of her body had very little tattooing. Her pink skin had nothing more than few elaborate swirls that glowed crimson. She instantly curled her legs up, covering her bare breasts and her inner thighs, and shed silent tears of humiliation.

She huddled, feeling exposed and embarrassed. “I can’t see. I can’t put clothes on I can’t see.”

“Then I won’t look at you. You’ll have to trust me.” Sizzling meat hissed and spit sugary juice. He paused while checking the food. “I won’t help you. I’d rather you stay where you are, and I will stay here.”

Keeping his word, he kept his back to her letting her stand and fiddle with the clothes until she dressed. Feeling self-conscious and unwilling to deal with any more problems, she curled into a ball, rolled away from him and the fire, and silently cried herself to sleep.

CHAPTER THREE

Kylie was sore from sleeping on the unforgiving ground. She knew she was not dreaming, but was afraid to open her eyes.
Not yet
, she told herself. She had three pillows and her mattress was cheap but more comfortable than stone. She was still in the cave, in a strange land, and had no answers for the bizarre circumstances.

“How is your eyesight?” the man asked before she even twitched a muscle. Kylie didn’t respond, hoping if she refused to acknowledge her circumstances they’d disappear. She wanted to be in denial for as long as possible. All she wanted to think about was home. “Come on. I know you’re awake; your breathing changed.”

“Please, leave me alone. I don’t want to be here. I’m wishing this away.”

He ignored her. Then as if trying to cheer her up, he said, “You slept a long time, three days. That’s good. The longer you sleep the more time your eyes have to recover. It might mean you regain complete eyesight. If you haven’t opened your eyes, I’d try to sleep more.” He waited as if she was supposed to respond to a hidden question. When she didn’t say anything, because she wanted to avoid her new reality, he questioned her. “Have you opened you eyes?”

“No,” she sighed, and then rolled onto her aching back. She let out a pained groan.

“Good. Then try to sleep.” He moved about the cave quietly. Resting was pointless. Kylie wasn’t about to fall asleep. Every pebble and protuberance in the ground was digging into her already tender muscles. Her bones were sore and her ribs were tight. She could hardly breathe, let alone relax enough to sleep again.

Then Kylie realized he had said she
might
have complete eyesight. “Do you think my sight will be much better today? I mean...it’s most likely back to normal, right?” Kylie asked nervously. She didn’t dare open her eyes.

“I could put something on them that might help. It would take me some time to find a cave-cactus, but they’re not rare. If it would calm you, I could do that.” He was much closer to her now. She could tell he was nearby from his voice.

“I don’t know what would make me feel better. What I really want is all of this to go away. I want to be at home in my bed. I’d rather be back on stage while Neil yells at me. Anything but this.”

“Who is that?” he growled. His response was odd and she almost opened her eyes to gape.

“He’s the director of a play I was in. I was on stage when I fell through it and landed in water,” Kylie explained, and for some reason she felt she needed to start at the beginning as if telling him meant he could help her return home. Maybe he knew the way.

“I see,” he said when she divulged the entire tale but there was still confusion in his response. “So, tell me about your life. What do you remember?”