Time Slip, Part 1

Erieri, the sole guardian of the Plains of Time, found no solitude in their expanse this day. “You can’t ignore us, Erieri.” Hendat stomped after her as she strode further and further from the great clock and into the unending plains.

Stopping abruptly, Erieri faced him and Cormac. Did the two never part ways? Whatever, she was not so easily cowed anymore. Sticking her hands on her hips, she scowled. “Watch me.” Spinning away, she relished the shocked expression on their faces as she selected another random direction.

Hendat’s footsteps hustled through the grass behind her. He couldn’t just leave her be. True, the man had been her master once, but who knew how long ago that had been. Erieri huffed. She doubted that mattered. Time had no meaning here. Erieri was the master at this juncture. Not him.

“Hendat, stop,” Cormac, the more reasonable of the pair, said. Not that Erieri expected him to be entirely reasonable either. Cormac, Hendat’s master, Erieri hadn’t even met until she’d rescued him from the sands in the distant past. No, the future?

Erieri screamed, and the planes swallowed the sounds, giving none back. Maybe if they had, she’d have heard why she was so blasted frustrated.

Was it with them? Her guardianship? Or perhaps her frustration stemmed from what they insisted she must face?

“Let me go, Cormac. Someone needs to beat sense into her.” Whatever Cormac’s response had been, Erieri didn’t hear it. The next she heard was Hendat’s frustrated grunt and correction, “I meant that figuratively.”

Good, let them argue. Erieri quickened her steps, nearly running. She didn’t need to hear whether Cormac believed Hendat. He barked, but he never bit. Not literally. Not that Erieri cared for his lectures either.

His words drifted into the distance. Either the men tussled with each other, or Cormac had won the argument. She felt relief with no footsteps pounding after her, and Erieri didn’t pause until her lungs burned and her side ached.

Drawing in ragged breaths, she examined the plains. Only the vast distance spread in every direction. She couldn’t see the outcropping or the ancient ruins. Not even the center with the great clock and her obligations.

Nothing. Just endless vista.

Erieri collapsed, scattering her staff, sword, and bow about her. She allowed the tall grass to swallow her, and she wrapped her arms around herself. The stalks beat against her cheek in rhythmic waves, reminding her of the ocean. Ebbing and flowing. Coming and going. Time, grass, and the ocean all had far too much in common. They insisted on movement, and Erieri wanted to be still.

Curling into a tighter ball, she clasped her hands over her head, resting her forehead against her knees. Emotion rippled through her, but Erieri couldn’t call it regret. She didn’t, wouldn’t regret visiting her past.

She didn’t regret that she had not let the time play out. She cherished holding the moment suspended in her mind like an unmalting crystal.

Nor did she even regret being the Guardian of Time, with the far-off clock calling to her even now. That presence filled her and gave her purpose in the increasing flux of her existence. She’d always find her way back and could not imagine abandoning the times which she shepherded.

She didn’t even regret her friendships with Hendat and Cormac. Nor that they’d circumvented the rules to return to the plains and spend time with her.

How could she regret being a Chooser? Not just a guardian, time had appointed her to select guardians. No, she regretted none of it. She simply wanted stillness for a moment. She ached for it.

“Can’t I even have one day.” Erieri screamed into the vastness of the planes.

“One day,” her voice echoed.

Erieri straightened, spinning toward the noise. The echo had come from somewhere to her right. “An echo,” she whispered. An echo should not have existed on the plains.

Her stomach clenched. Already Erieri heard Hendat lecturing her, while Cormac stood stoically disapproving behind. Worse, Erieri imagined being drug by herself into a lecture about her failures. Most only had to contend with their inner monolog. Time allowed her disapproval to glower at her directly and demand why she attempted to destroy all of time. Even when Erieri had no notion what she’d done.

If she had done anything. Only one way to find out.

Moment gone, Erieri stood, gathered her equipment, and turned toward the echo’s source. “Find me,” she called.

“Find me.” The words returned, twitching in her ears. Correcting her stance, Erieri turned more surely toward the source, ready to answer her own call. She crept through the grass, slow and cautious, searching for any sign of an abnormality. She paused occasionally, calling out to renew her orientation.

Finally, the grass parted, revealing a low mound in the center of which a black chasm cut into the earth. Erieri blinked staring at the mundane sight.

Erieri retrieved her crystal lens and held it before the cavern, squinting to pear through it. Nothing. The opening was no portal. She’s seen plenty open themselves in the plains now. One had led a stranger through. Another the Allurer could open. Time itself had shoved her through one to retrieve Cormac. This was just the plane darkness of a cavern.

Inching forward, Erieri tapped the cave mouth with her toes. Nothing changed. It didn’t draw her in. It didn’t surge with power. It truly was just a cavern, leading into darkness and stillness.

Stillness.

Erieri glanced over her shoulder, but Cormac and Hendat were nowhere to be seen. No one to order her about. Or try to. Her heart quickly beat as the quiet within drew her. She would not ignore this opportunity, a chance to disappear into an endless void.

Crouching before the cavern’s mouth, she reached toward the confines within which she could pretend time held no sway. The only thing in there which would chase her were her own footsteps. Erieri slid into the tunnel which never should have been.