The Towers of Adrala - Book One, Part One: Saranoda

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  Eris found herself sitting next to the hole in the island a second time, watching as the deep waters turned from black to icy gray in the morning light.  An ashen color seeped across the sky as the distant cold sun rose above the ring of stormy clouds on the horizon.  She had awoken hours before and had wasted no time nearly strangling Pird in tear-ridden joy.

  Now, the welcomed distraction of seeing her friend alive was beginning to wear off, leaving her again to dwell on the cold things around them.  The hole before her had taken many lives, lives that had been thought to be spared from the island's wrath.  A cruel joke had been played on them all.

  Pird came to sit next to Eris, grumbling something.  She glanced at him, then turned quickly to face him.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  Pird gingerly touched his swelling cheek and winced, “Zook woke up.”

  “And?”

  Pird gave her an isn't-it-obvious look, “He saw me, went white, stuttered a bit, and then attacked me!  He was yelling 'You think this is funny?'.”  He carefully put his cheek against a cold slab of stone, “Damned loon.”

  Need to find him before some poor soul wanders in his path, Eris thought, stepping outside.  She scanned the horizon and saw a figure a ways away from the encampment, up on a hill of debris.  It didn't take Eris long to close the distance between them.  It was, of course, Zook who stood there, arms crossed, brow deeply furrowed, the dark of his eyes flickering with a reddish hue.

  “You all right?” asked Eris feebly, failing to think of anything better to say.  Zook didn't reply, didn't move, and didn’t give any indication of hearing.  Eris sighed, she hadn't expected any different.  She followed his brooding glare and found, to her surprise, that he was looking to Saranoda.  Even at this distance the monolith dominated nearly a fifth of the horizon.  Eris was suddenly struck by the eerie sensation that it was gazing back at them.

  Eris waited beside Zook, allowing him to organize his thoughts.  He suddenly turned away.

  “I'm leaving,” he said, then began walking back to the encampment.

  It took Eris a moment to realize what he had said.  “Where?” was all she managed to say through her puzzlement.

  Zook didn't look back, but she still heard him.

  “To Saranoda.”