Including today's chapter, there are three to go.
You might see Dante's Exoddus as early as next week, or, if I decide to write the entire thing before posting any of it, you might see it as late as September.
I haven't finished blocking out chapters yet for Exoddus. I want to plan what happens so I don't run headfirst into a writers block down the road.
Sorry this and the last few chapters have been on the short side. The upcoming, final two are a bit longer.
Chapter 42
With my body no longer focused on movement, I managed to recollect what had happened to me.
And I was again painfully aware of the blistering cold.
I prayed that I could stop feeling the pain ... if I were to die, if I were to be plucked away by a giant bird, if I were to fall into a coma ... whatever. Just ... stop the cold.
I sat and moaned in self pity and self loathing for a while, wishing I could move a little to generate some body heat. I felt my joints beginning to stiffen ... the little water in my nearly dehydrated body was freezing.
My joints ached, my vision blurred, even the sounds of the howling wind dimmed. I started to go numb, and even the eternal cold began to subside.
Instant understanding flowed through me, and I focused on my arm. Though I couldn’t feel it, I could see where it was, and force it to drag me along the bridge.
In response to the severe cold and my dwindling senses, my body gave up the function of touch to save my psyche from the cold and allow me to see and hear things around me.
A miracle? Hardly. I think it was just luck. My body was trying everything to keep from shutting down, and it stumbled on a solution that would both save me and allow me to keep moving.
And I carefully pulled myself across the shaky wooden bridge. I may have gotten splinters, but I didn’t notice or care. I needed to get out of the cold, and the back of the chamber was closer than the entrance.
I know how terribly cliche this sounds, but the seconds really dragged on like minutes, and the minutes felt like hours. Each was as painful and difficult as the last.
After an eternity, I grasped solid ground. My hand seemed to thaw out, and I could feel warmth just past the bridge’s end. For all my wrecked body could tell, the temperature may have been at water’s freezing point on the other end of the bridge ... but in comparison, that felt like a sunny, hot, and humid day at the beach during a heat wave.
I still couldn’t stand and run onto land. I hand to pull with every fiber in my body, and that was even a close call.
I lay on the ground, panting, slowly regaining the sensation in my body. After a few minutes, I managed to roll over and see what the totem was.
It was a mudokon.
All that, and I was at the mudokon totem.
Useless!
Forget it. I give up. I pulled the earring out of my ear with a rough yank (which by now didn’t bother me) and slammed it into the outstretched hand of the wooden mudokon.
There was the same familiar flash, as if not realizing I was returning the ring, not asking for the power.
And a small choir started up, soon accompanied by a gentle ripping sound... and three thuds.
“Dante!”
“You did it!”
“You’re the bestest!”
What the hell?
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