Free Revelations by Sophia Sharp

running through the woods, you weren’t thinking about it. Yet right now, you can’t get it out of your head.”
    “That’s true,” Nora said, feeling oddly frustrated that she could fall so easily for such a simple trick.
    “It’s the same thing with the bear. Now that I’ve seen him, I’m aware he’s there. And thinking back, I realize that he always has been. But before I noticed him for the first time, he was all but invisible to me.”
    “That’s fascinating,” Nora said.
    “It’s like that with all the Vassiz. You are the first I know of who doesn’t share that trait.”
    “Hmm,” Nora said, again in thought. “I wonder why.”
    “I couldn’t tell you. It’s something you have to figure out on your own. But I have a feeling it’s not mere coincidence that you’ve picked Gray up on your journey.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Some things, Nora, are meant to be…more so than others. And sometimes, gifts can come from the most unexpected of places. Fate lays our lives out before us, and all we do is traverse the course as best we can.”
    “You think Gray has a part in my… fate ?”
    “I think he might have a bigger part than you and I yet realize,” Alexander said. “What that might be, of course, I don’t pretend to know.” He paused and smiled. “Then again, he might not have a part to play at all.”
    “I guess we’ll see eventually,” Nora said. Something about what Alexander said about Gray’s role in her life resonated with her, because it sounded so familiar. So…similar to what she’d heard before.
    Then she remembered Hunter had told her nearly the same thing, when she first picked Gray up. She looked down at the bear, who stared back at her sleepily.
    “His fur is also an unusual color,” Alexander continued. “I don’t think there are many bears alive today like that one.”
    “That’s why I intend to keep him alive,” Nora said, with unexpected determination.
    Alexander spread his hands. “I meant no offense, Nora. Simply curious.”
    Nora shook her head. She didn’t know what brought such strength in her last words. Certainly Alexander hadn’t said anything that offended her. “None taken,” she told him.
    “Anyway,” Alexander said, stretching his arms, “you’ll want to get a good night’s sleep tonight. We’ve got a long, hard day ahead of us tomorrow, and we’ll be nearing the village, where the archive sits.”
    “So we traveled as far as you had planned today?” Nora asked, somewhat proudly.
    “Farther,” Alexander told her. Then he paused thoughtfully, holding a finger to his lips. “You know,” he started, “it’s been a long time since I have last been there. It will be interesting to see how the years have changed the place.”
    Nora went to sleep deliberating what Alexander told her, that her affinity with Gray was not the normal way of being for the Vassiz. She wondered if it had anything to do with the latent ability that she had gained during the transformation…the one that she hadn’t yet realized.
    When she dreamt that night, Gray was in her dreams, and he warded off all of her nightmares.

Chapter Ten
    ~The Run~
     
    “Ready to go?”
    Nora woke to Alexander’s voice, along with a gentle nudge on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and saw that it was just past dawn.
    “Already?” she mumbled. It was the first night she’d slept without nightmares, but despite that she felt like she barely had any rest.
    “Already.” Alexander smiled and helped her up. “We should be able to get to the town by nightfall.”
    “What’s it called, anyway?” Nora realized for the first time that she didn’t know the name of their destination.
    “Nakusp. Natives have lived there for hundreds of years, but it was only settled by Europeans at the turn of the century. They came and made it a mining town, before realizing there weren’t many minerals to be found. So, most abandoned it. But the people who stayed still safeguard the