They’d struck camp with the sunrise, and double-timed it west toward the coast, taking advantage of the gentle descent in elevation that continued from the mountain trail toward sea level. Jack estimated they’d made twenty-five miles before Layla and Rory had begged him to pack it in for the day.

He’d made sure to spend a portion of the day simply walking next to Rory, talking and occasionally giving him a reassuring thump on the back. The salesman himself appreciated Jack’s gesture, but he’d mastered the stiff upper lip before ten, and today wouldn’t be any different.

Other than his time spent worrying about Rory, Jack seemed distant, and when he opened his status screen for the second time after they stopped to make camp, Layla finally had enough.

“Alright, Jackson, what the fuck have you been preoccupied with all day? How the fuck you can hike for seven hours and still daydream, I’ll never know, but that’s gotta be the thirtieth time you checked the green-screen today” she sat on a lumpy rock, massaging her feet while Rory and Erin helped Jack build a campfire and lay out the mess kit.

He swiped at the screen, dismissing it with a wave, “Oh… umm….”
Erin dropped her load of deadwood next to the campfire, dusted her hands, and ruffled his hair, “C’mon Jack, it’s not that big a deal, whatever it is. She’s right. You’ve been obsessively checking your panel all day. What is it?”

He looked down at the grass for a minute, then sighed and pulled his status up, flipping the panel around so the group could read the ominous message.

“Oh, Jack…” Rory stared at the panel, unformed tears glistening in his eyes.
“What is a ‘dark oath’?” Erin was very still.
“Last night, he swore to Rory he’d put out the sun so he could go home. It was very sweet,” Layla popped a handful of berries into her mouth.
“You were awake?” Rory was mortified.
“Course I was. You were crying. I just… didn’t know what to say….” she replied sheepishly.

Jack swiped at the panel again, dismissing the viridian glow that had seemed to creep across the camp as the sun fell further behind the treeline.

“I’m not sure I want to be undead. To give up my humanity. Who even knows if I’ll still enjoy food or beer. I know I won’t enjoy being in the sun. That’s in the damn description. Will I enjoy sex?” he gave Erin an embarrassed glance. “I mean, you know… I don’t want to give up the things I love about being human.”

She leaned down and kissed his cheek, then sat down next to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

“No complaints from me about my race change, Tex,” Layla munched again.
“We know, Layla, we know,” Rory rolled his eyes at her, but smiled all the same.
“Just take some time and think about it,” Erin ran her fingers through Jack’s short hair and planted another kiss on his cheek.
“Yeah,” he stared at the ground. 

They decided to give him the night off and snack on trail rations, polishing off the rest of the tart fruit and berries. The next day would be a rougher hike, without a grade to ease the distance. Jack tossed and turned for half the night, until he woke to Erin lifting his blanket and crawling in next to him. She nestled into his shoulder and pulled his arms around her, rubbing gentle circles across his back, until his breathing evened out, then she too fell asleep. 

Before she drifted off, she whispered, “Help him make the right choice, Ouroboros.”

-----

Erin was cold. 

She leaned forward, trying to get closer to Jack. She could still smell the musty scent of his exhausted skin and the strange rich smell of the oils worked into his gambeson, which he wore even to sleep now.

She could smell him, but she couldn’t feel him.

She opened her eyes with a start. He wasn’t there. His bedroll and blanket weren’t there. The campfire wasn’t there. She jerked upright. Her shadow trailed away from her, lit by something behind her. Something pale blue and oddly bright. Her head turned, almost involuntarily, her neck and shoulders following suit.

The source of the pale blue ghostly light was a distant tree, rising from the horizon up to the sky, its branches reaching as far as she could see from left to right. Pale threads and veins of gently pulsing light were woven through its twisting bark, and brilliant blue orbs of shining fruit hung from its boughs.

As she stared, dumbfounded, the lights across the tree shimmered and twinkled in a way that gave her the oddest sense of being laughed at, though not in an unkind way.

A thick ribbon of darkness rose from the horizon, coiling up the vast trunk, blotting out the lights as it passed, until it wrapped halfway up the mountainous tree, then quested out into the pallid twilight, where it seemed to loom closer. The massive dark shape slowly unwound itself from the tree, floating through the air with serpentine grace, until it filled the sky over Erin’s head. It twisted in the air, the coils bunching and floating ever higher, until the end pointed directly at her, hundreds of feet in the air, and a single colossal eye like a golden moon blinked open. On the other side of the titanic head, a mass of grey scar tissue stretched from the cavernous snout nearly to the neck.

Erin’s mouth was abruptly dry, and the only sound she could hear was the jack-hammering thud of her heart attempting to escape her ribcage.

SELDOM DO MY CHOSEN PRAY TO ME, ERIN AMANDA WARD, EVEN FOR EACH OTHER.

“I… I just want him to be ok… sir… your night-father-ship… Look, I don’t know what to call you, and I’m freaking out a little,” she was still attempting to swallow.

YOU KNOW MY NAME.

“Yeah, but like... won’t I burst into flames if I say it?”

YOU SAID IT ALREADY.

She watched as the great serpent’s mouth parted ever so slightly, revealing rows of fangs each as big as a building. She got the impression he was amused with her.

“Ok, that’s fair,” she chuckled at herself, unable to keep the smile from showing. “I just want Jack to be ok. He’s not gonna go crazy if he becomes undead, right? Or try to eat us all? Or waste away from never eating or sleeping and losing all will to live? I mean, it won’t change his personality? And… will he be able to have sex? I mean, two years-” she clapped her hand over her mouth.

“I’m so sorry. That’s more information than you needed,” a shocked squeak escaped her lips.

IN TIMES LONG PASSED, BEFORE THE COMING OF THE BROTHERS, THE NIGHTWRAITHS WERE THE MOST DEVOUT OF MY BLOOD PROGENY. THEY KEPT THE STORIES OF THE FIRST TIMES, AND THEY GAVE PRAYERS AND OFFERINGS IN THANKS FOR THEIR CREATION.

The great serpent gave a long blink, and his massive head turned to look back and the shimmering tree on the horizon. To Erin, he seemed lost in a fathomless well of sadness and longing.

THE BROTHERS HUNTED THEM TO EXTINCTION, LIKE SO MANY OF THE DARKLING THINGS THAT ROSE FROM THE BLOOD OF MY WOUNDING. I SEE IN JACKSON AVERY HOLT THE DEVOTION AND FIDELITY OF THOSE WHO SAW BEAUTY IN THE NIGHT SKY, RATHER THAN FEAR.

“I think I understand,” she blinked away a tear.

THE DAWN COMES, AND MY POWER WANES. GOODBYE ERIN AMANDA WARD. WE WILL SPEAK AGAIN.

Erin woke to the sound of Jack cooking breakfast and whistling Hotel California. She inhaled a lungful of the delicious sizzling scent and turned over, staring up at the receding twilight of dawn.

“Thank you, Ouroboros. Again.”

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