Afterlife Part 4

We’d been standing in the desert about ten minutes give or take, my brother and sister yelling at me the whole time.  I completely ignored them while I examined my new bathorse.  He was quite large, probably seven feet at the shoulder.  His coat was silky black with red highlights throughout it.  His feet vaguely reminded me of a velociraptor’s and I decided I didn’t want to be on the end of them for anything ever.  His eyes were a smoldering darkness with blood red pupils.  At a glance, they were absolutely terrifying, but just eyes of an intelligent nature upon closer inspection.

“Do you have a name?” I asked him.

He shook his head.

“Well, that’s rude that no one gave you a name.  All right…”  I grinned.  “How about Bruce?”

He mulled this over then nodded.  

“Nice to meet you, Bruce.  My name is Ava.”

            “You can’t name a bathorse,” said Felix.
            Not turning to Felix, I narrowed my eyes a little.  “Sure I can.  Wait.  They’re actually called bathorses?”
            “What else are they going to be called?”
            My grin returned.  “Bruce.”
            Felix groaned and muttered under his breath then said, “Well, we’re not bringing him with us.”
            “We're not?”
            “What are you going to do with a bathorse?  You don’t even know how to ride a regular horse.”
            “The placement of his wings would make riding very uncomfortable without a specialized saddle anyway.”  I pet Bruce’s nose and scratched behind an ear.  “He can follow along behind us and kill things.”
            “I don’t want that thing anywhere behind me,” said Marianne.
            We stared each other down for a beat then I shrugged.
            “As you wish.”  I stood up on my tiptoes to  whisper into Bruce’s ear, “Just follow us.  It’s not like they can stop you.”
            After giving him a big hug around his neck while Felix and Marianne stood by looking a little horrified, I stepped back and bowed with a flourish.
            “You have been a very good friend for the last five minutes.  I wish you a wonderful future.”
            Bruce stuck out a leg and bowed his head over it.  Felix slipped his arm into mine and started to pull me back away from Bruce.
            “Come on.  Let’s get out of here before he comes to his senses and realizes what he is.”
            My bathorse stayed with feet firmly planted as we trudged onward through the sand.  It was a sea of sugar stained with coffee, dunes rising us up and lowering us down.  Marianne, being a jackal, was singularly suited to this environment.  Felix's lean body seemed to be handling it pretty well as well.  I, on the other hand...I was a mom.  Sure, I could clean my 2000 square foot house in under four hours and could run around and play tag and basketball, but that was it.  This Olympic sand dodging event stuff was not on my resume.  So, I decided to do the only thing I could do when faced with insurmountable sands and physical hardships: pretend to drive a dune buggy.
            With my left hand out in front of me on the “wheel” and my right hand on the “shifter” I started to half jog/half skitter over the sand while humming the Ride of the Valkyries.  There was a mesa in the distance that seemed to have something more than just rocks on it so I started to head in that direction.
            This worked great for about ten minutes before breathing became troublesome and my muscles started to burn.  I made it to the top of a very large sand dune then collapsed on the ground.  With my arms around my head as protection, I straightened out, turned, and rolled.  This got me down one sand dune and half way up another.  It also got me covered in sand.  A lot of sand.  In fact, sand was still pouring on top of me.
            Slowly, I looked up to see something was rising.  Something large.  It had been buried and, likely, sleeping until I woke it up.  At first, I started to worry greatly then recognized the carapace of a tortoise, sand rolling from its back.  A giant tortoise, granted, but a tortoise.  While I was still prey sized, I could probably get out of its way.  I stood up and started to brush myself off and wander away from it when I saw my brother standing at the top of the dune I had just rolled down, his staff over his head and sheer terror on his face.
            “Ava!  Don’t move! Don’t talk.  Don’t breathe.  Just stand perfectly still.”
            The only move I made was to turn around.  Slowly.  Whatever it was, I intended to face it head-on.  It didn't seem to notice that motion, still focused on pulling itself free of its nest.  By its eight furry, pointed legs.  Don't breathe.  Right.  I'll need that air. 

To scream.