Chapter 4 - The Ghost Child

The ranger is now in hostile Warkhan territory. Murdering Red Skull hunters could be anywhere. On his way he has a most mysterious encounter with a being from this world and the other

    It was at night that the really bad creeping and crawling things came out to hunt, the monsters no one wanted to believe in let alone f**k with. With roughly three hours of daylight left, the ranger was trying to make the most of it as he lead the big mustang southwest. They edged along the perimeter of a strange canyon zone that stretched far and wide. Raiden avoided this region, because when he could have it, he took the high ground. Irregular inclines careened into scabrous depths, a labyrinth of ravines and shallow gulches that interconnected and diverged around a hodgepodge of red-rock formations. Many of these large isolated monoliths towered over the skyline, capped with massive crags and boulders, bizarre in shape, precarious in positioning, with top heavy shelves that seemed to defy gravity.
       They were in the same mountains he’d roved all day, but everything wore a more threatening guise now that he knew he was trespassing Warkhan territory. He was keenly aware that he didn’t belong, that if he had any sense, he’d make himself scarce in double-time. The unease didn’t slacken. At times the sound of the breeze was more a hiss than a sigh. Potential hideouts for hatchet-swinging ambushers abounded at every bend. The anxiety wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but Raiden harnessed it as best he could. One of the biggest dangers was letting the uneasy subside too much. That opened some ground for the lackadaisical quarters of the mind to gain a foothold, which could droop your guard with complacency, and become your blind spot, where the one thing you missed took your a*s off.
       From time to time he checked the compass. To his unsettled surprise, the signal had disappeared again. Probably just out of range. Awful crafty for a coyote. Whoever was following him knew what they were doing. He kind of hoped the bloodhounder would come right at him so they could end this business. Unfortunately, an adept assassin knew better, they were patient types, usually waiting until their target fell asleep, or had obtained some other kind of cowardly advantage.
       With the cold steel of the Strider-hawking at his side, Raiden shoved on over a knot of hills. The terrain broadened into a windswept tableland of cracked auburn that stretched in a river of crusty dirt. It was on this snaking mesa that his spectral senses were alerted. Someone else is out here. Someone the compass hasn’t been able to catch.
       The ranger heard his name whispered softly, a breeze that sifted through his thoughts.
       He came to a halt and turned to see who it was. About thirty paces back stood a little boy. The kid looked no more than six or seven years old tops. He wore a white sweater, and a pair of beaten up blue jeans with patches sewn on the knees. In one hand he held a lumpy folded patch quilt that partly dragged on the ground. The dusty wind caused his wispy blonde hair to undulate.
       The kid’s clear sapphire eyes were trained on the ranger in hopeful expectation. When he spoke, his lips didn’t move, yet Raiden heard his small voice as if the boy were right next to him - Hey, can' t you hear me?
       Raiden contemplated whether to speak to the boy or ignore him and move on. During this impasse a solitary gale gusted, and the alluvium it pushed passed through the child, causing him to shimmer and ebb faintly.  
       This stirred Raiden’s pity. The boy was a lost a spirit, and his initial optimism at finding the ranger was giving way to sadness, for it didn’t look like he was going to talk to him. The longer the rejection ran the more translucent the child became, until he started to evanesce in an evaporative glittering.
       Raiden nodded and spoke by mode of the same telepathy.
       Yes, I hear you Skyler      
       A cheerful smile lit the child up, setting him to sparkle and take on an appearance of greater solidity with colors more vibrant. Raiden didn’t want to encourage him, and so he curbed the boy’s enthusiasm when he asked, with a pinch of exhaustion - What are you doing here? I told you not to follow me around like this.
       But I want to come with you - said the child as if it were more important than anything and should be obvious.
       Raiden sighed - I know, but you can't, not when I’m on my missions, not unless I call on you. It’s too dangerous - he’d almost said, too dangerous even for a ghost, and was glad he hadn’t.
       A mission? I knew it! - Skyler jumped in a small circle, raising his quilt in excitement.
       Raiden shook his head regretfully - Forget about it. You’re not coming.
       Ah come on! - the boy was still walking around on the little plot of ground, charged up with the prospect of adventure. The black mustang sensed what was going on and flicked his ears, dropping his head passively. The boy pointed - See! Even he wants me to come!
       I’m sorry - Raiden moved his hand in a low arc, as if indicating a cutting off point - It’s out of the question. This mission is bad, real bad. Maybe the worse of all.
       Blah! I don’t care! If it’s so bad, then you really need me! We can be a team and get the job done!   - he punched at the air with one fist to show his mettle.
       Raiden looked at the kid for awhile. He wished he could let him come along, but he had to be stern. He shook his head and spoke with that dreaded unpliable and leaden adult authority - Not this time. I forbid you to follow me any further. I order you to go back.
         That’s not fair! I just like to go where you go. - The boy started to iridesce and dim again. He pleaded - Please let me come with you! I feel safer,… no matter where you go. I promise I’ll be good. Just don’t leave me alone…
       Raiden paid the implorations no heed and continued his march west. He didn’t like to treat the boy so callously. Skyler didn’t appear all that frequently, and it was true, the ghost child could also be of help, he’d aided Raiden in the past, but it was too much of a risk where he was going on this assignment. While the boy continued to protest and call after him, Raiden tried to pretend he didn’t exist. As the child saw the ranger recede, he began to give up, shoulders slumping in dejection, and murmuring futilely as he sat down on the patch-sown blanket, wiping his tears as he slowly started to fade.
       The sound of crying was difficult for Raiden to ignore. He’d come across many lost spirits, but there was something different about Skyler. The boy was the youngest wandering amnesic ghost he’d ever met. He recalled when Skyler had first followed him he’d kept his distance, uncertain that the ranger could even see him. Raiden didn’t know why, but the ghost child was the only spirit-person the compass couldn’t detect. He’d been a silent specter trailing the wake of the ranger’s steps across expanses.
    The first time Raiden had tried to shoo him off had been the first time he’d heard, and felt him cry. Skyler might be invisible to the rest of the world, but not to Raiden. He took pity on the boy and allowed him to follow him around. The boy’s first words had been - How much longer are you going to keep on walking?
    Why are you following me?
    The boy answered  - I don’t know, I think I’m lost.
           Raiden realized that the child was trapped in this world and didn’t have anywhere else to turn, and so he asked - Do you have a name?
       The child scratched his head befuddled - I don’t remember.
       Alright. I’m gonna call you Skyler then. Since it seems like you pretty much fell out of the sky and don’t know what’s going on
       The child didn’t care about the pun. He was very happy to have a name.
    Over the years Skyler had appeared to accompany him on many journeys. Raiden had done his best to watch out for the child and ease his loneliness and fears, but on many occasions it’d actually been the boy who’d unknowingly eased Raiden’s angst.
    He hadn’t been able to completely ignore the ghost child all those years ago, and he couldn’t now. Without looking back, he reassured Skyler - Don’t worry partner, when this is done, I’ll make sure to find you, … and if I need your help, …I’ll call on you.
       The child sadly mumbled his solace.
       A few minutes later when Raiden checked over his shoulder, the boy had already vanished. He didn’t know where the child went during his absences, but when he returned it never seemed that he’d been that far away, but like he was always close by, just waiting to be acknowledged.
       Over the years Raiden had grown accustomed to the boy, and felt reciprocally linked to him in the way he looked up to him as a combination of an older brother, father, and a best friend all in one. Regardless, Raiden hoped that one day he could help Skyler move on. At times he disappeared for extended periods, even months, and although Raiden knew he’d miss the child if he didn’t come back, he prayed he’d found his way to the Spirit-Circles. That the boy be truly free was more important than any emotional attachment. Tagging along with a ranger wasn’t always a good life for the living or the dead.
       But it was hard to know where you were headed if you didn’t know where you'd come from in the first place. So far Raiden had been unsuccessful at learning the child’s origins - who he’d been before he’d died, or how that’d happened. All Skyler knew was that one day he’d woke up and everything before that was hidden behind a murky curtain. Raiden reckoned that the boy wasn’t condemned, just stuck in a moment, or lost, like someone who’d taken a wrong turn and conked themselves out real bad. Raiden had an inkling that when he was alive he’d witnessed or experienced things he wasn’t ready to remember. Eventually he’d have to haul those dregs up if he wanted to take the next step.
       It might come down to something else however. Skyler had hinted at, and Raiden had a hunch, that he had a real important task yet to accomplish before he could get his ticket punched to the great hereafter. Mortality was a strange thing. No one wanted to die, especially without doing what they felt they’d been sent to do. Things had to be made right, debts canceled, a balance restored. Until that day came, the ghost child followed him about as if he were a part of Raiden’s own forlorn past.

       Another two hours of day remained as the ranger booted on towards the peaks like a giant’s broken bones. The memory of White Elk’s voice was deep and gentle the morning they’d watched the sparkling mountain rivulet, “The many paths of people are like creeks, joining to a river. No stream that reaches the rushing water is not meant to be there. The great waters need all the smaller waters to be strong, to be whole. And it is so - that anyone you find on your path through wilderness or desolation may be part of that same joining force”
       The wind moaned disconsolately in the distant perturbed way that someone tries to talk in their sleep. Raiden reckoned he hadn’t seen the last of Skyler on this mission. Who knew, he just might need the ghost child’s help if he was going to get through all the brume that had gathered out west in the accursed land.

Author's Note

Please help me figure out if I'm doing a good job!

Reviews

[Georgie]

I love this. I really enjoy your writing but I particularly love the imagery of discovering the spirit child in the desert, your words really paint a picture for me. This is a fascinating plot, seriously, keeps me reading... Great work.

[Kuandio]

Thank you! I'm curious how it is that you picked this chapter out all of them? I'm going to shelve something of your in my library, if there's something in particular you'd like a review of let me know. I'm going to get around to it in the next few weeks I think