Empowered awakening

Unexpected Company

Chapter 6

After 2 days devoid of the sound of another living creature the last this I was expecting was to hear a voice behind me, so hearing those words combined with the adrenaline still running though my system causes me to almost jump out of my skin. I whip around to look behind me half expecting to find that my mind is just playing tricks on me to find that there not 2 meters from me, casually leaning against another of the surviving trees is a tall young man dressed in a pair of steel-cap hiking boots, blue jeans that hang off a pair of narrow hips and an open, green, plaid, flannel, short sleeve shirt over a tight, black singlet showing off broad shoulders, a pair of muscular arms and well defined chest. He has his legs are crossed at the ankles and his arms crossed over his chest as he gazes at me with a quizzical expression on his face. 

The actual shock of seeing another person causes me to jolt once again and I start to fall sideways as my feet slip in the soft slick mud. I reach out to grab a hold of something to stop my fall but fail to get my hands on anything so l land rather ungracefully on my butt in the mud. 

"Wow easy, are you okay? I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you. Here let me help you up" he says. His voice is deep with a slight New Zealand accent. I can't help but find my gaze fixated on his features as I look up at him. He has a smooth, natural tan all over so I can tell he spends a lot of time outside. His hair is a dark brown, almost black and falls in a natural wave down to just past his collar bone. An open, friendly face with sharp cheekbones, a strong jaw and eyes the colour of jade with flecks of pure gold gazes back at me with a warm smile as he moves towards me and reaches his hand down. 

I'm still so entranced by the sight of another human being (and an extremely attractive male specimen at that) I've forgotten what I'm doing and continue to just lie there dazed. The sudden feeling of his large hand wrapping around my upper arm brings me back to reality and I realize I've been just staring at him rather rudely for a while now. "Ah n-no, I mean yeah, I'm fine. I just wasn't expecting to hear or see anyone. I haven't seen hide nor hair of anyone around since I woke up yesterday." I say in a rush.

It's strange but I'm sure he couldn't possibly have been standing there moments ago because even though I was distracted by getting out of the way of a deadly mudslide I pretty sure I would have notice him standing there. "Wait, How did you get there? Where did you come from? Were you following that mudslide down?" I ask

 Once i'm on my feet I do my best to brush myself off but i'm a mess of broken twigs, leaves and mud. there isn't a clean scrap of skin or material left on me and i seriously don't want to know what my hair looks like. I'm not normally someone who cares one way or another about my appearance but with this hot guy standing here with his attention fixed on me I feel rather self conscious all of a sudden.

He gives me a lopsided grin and reply's "I followed the mudslide in a way. Actually I guess you could say that you summoned me here. I was on the other side of the river when I felt a massive burst of power. It perked my curiosity so I simply followed the echos here, where I found you." He c***s his head to the side a little "You say you've been here since yesterday and that I'm the first person you've met?" he asks. I nod and he crosses his arms over his chest again with a confused expression. "Huh that's strange. When I first got here I woke up in a cave near here and Auros was waiting there for me when I woke up. They then told me what was going on and why I am here. Maybe you got lost in transition and they are looking for you. What area did you arrive in?" 

I shrug "Maybe I don't know. I woke up alone in some clearing a few hours walk north west of here. I followed the river hoping to find somebody but then that storm last night drove me to take shelter in a cave I was lucky enough to find up here on this mountain. Since I woke up this morning I have just been wandering about looking for food. That is before that mudslide nearly wiped me out anyways. You're the first living creature I've come across in all that time." 

As I finish speaking a sudden wave of exhaustion rolls over me. This coupled with the cold steadily seeping into my flesh from the mud covering me head to toe causes my knees to start to give out on me so I have no choice but to catch myself on the tree once more to keep myself from falling again. I know i'm starting to loose focus when all i can think in that moment is that i really owe this tree big time.

The guy seems to notice that my batteries are running low so he grabs my arm again to help keep me steady despite my mud covered state. "Easy does it, look maybe we should get you someplace a bit more comfortable and you can rest. An entrance to Auros cavern should be near by. Once we are there you can clean up and rest before I introduce you to Auros, if they really did pull you through but you got misplaced in transition they'll probably be worried about you........ though I don't know how they could have lost you if the first place." Despite my muddy state he places my arm over his shoulder and helps support my weight as we start walking back up the mountain along the edge of the canyon in the direction I originally came from.

"Sorry I haven't introduced myself yet have I, My name is Austin. What's yours?" he asks as we continue up hill at a steady pace. "Naomi, my name is Naomi. It is nice to meet you Austin." I reply before we resume our trek in silence. After a few minutes i start to feel better and am able walk on my own without tripping over my own feet. Now that I am not having to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other so as not to kiss the dirt again, I reach up and clasp my pendent in my right hand as I walk start thinking about everything that happened before Austin diverted my attention by appearing out of nowhere and helping me.

My dice glowed and started spinning by itself! I'm certain I didn't imagine that and the power that flowed through me as I was able to suddenly stop tons of mud and rock from crushing me and sweeping me over a few hundred meter drop seemed to be connected to the glow coming from my dice, the crystal glowed too but it felt like I was using it more as a focus then that it had any power of it's own. Thinking about that burst of energy reminded me of something Austin had said when he helped me up earlier. "Hey Austin, What you said earlier about feeling a burst of power and following the echos being how you found me. What did you mean by that. How could you feel it or even know what it was and what did you mean by echos?"

"Well you see Naomi, beings like you and I are able to channel and release power that is related to our aspect. We are also able to feel when others like ourselves release that power. It's hard to describe it but it feels almost like a thunderclap or like a loud heavy base beat through an amplifier but it also ripples out like if you drop a stone in still water. Each of the ripple circles or echos feels like a slightly lower pulse of the original sound that gets stronger as you approach the original source." He laughs to himself "It's hard to explain but you'll understand when you feel it for yourself. Anyways we are here and I bet Auros will be able to answer any other questions you may have better than I can."

As he says this we stop walking and i take notice of our surroundings and find a familiar cave entrance standing before me and i can't stop my jaw from dropping. "Wait, this is the cave I stayed in last night during the storm. I had decided to make it my base until I discovered any people in the weird land. but I didn't find any sign of anyone here, only some weird glowing crystals. Here i even have one with me." I take the crystal out of my pocket and show it to Austin who just chuckles to himself and guides me inside. "I guess you were drawn here by Auros energy in those crystals. I am impressed you managed to carry one of those with you without stabbing yourself, it's probably why you were able to release your power without training. I am however guessing you didn't go through the opening at back cave or we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. " I shake my head as I reply "No i didn't it was too dark and I was too hungry to think about making a fire for a torch to explore. I figured i should eat first and explore later. You know survival 101" 

"Well let get you cleaned up and rested. While you bathe I'll head out and find us some food, then I'll take you to meet Auros so he can give you the run down on what's going on and why you are here, sound good?" he says as he leads me past the crystal growths and stalagmites to the other entrance at the back of the cave. Once we reach the pitch black opening he lifts his hand and stares at it for maybe a second before a ball of pale green light the same colour as his eyes grows out of thin air and begins to hover just above his open palm. As the light blossoms before my eyes I can feel something almost like a soft drum beat resonating from it. My gaze jerks up to Austins face in shock and he shoots a lopsided smile back at me. "See you can feel it can't you." I nod dumb founded as i look back down and just stare in wonder at the pretty ball of light. "Come on. I'll show you where you can wash up." he says as he leads me into the next cavern that pretty green light guiding the way.