Chapter 25 - Dancing of the Skies

That same night that Tyra had her dream of the reunion between herself and Jude, Jude had no dreams. The night was calm and peaceful, and he slept easily and without incident. He thought little of his friends or lover.

He woke in the morning feeling lost. Although he knew about where he was, or, more importantly, how to get back to the City, he did not know how to find his quarry. Survivor's message still meant nothing to him. "Follow the dancing of the skies, the dancing of souls." What exactly was that supposed to mean?

Jude did not know. He got up from where he had slept that night and began walking in the direction in which the sun rises.

He purposefully walked a different route back than the one that he had taken out, so that Lukäski and his band of kryons would not be able to find him. He did not want to know what would happen if they did.

And so he traveled, his gun in both of his hands and his eyes on constant alert for any sign of movement. Birds and other small animals frequently caught his attention, though they were clearly not kryons or Lukäski. He only stopped when he had to eat or excrete, never due to weary feet.

Night fell. Looking around, Jude saw nowhere to sleep for the night. Sunlight was decreasing rapidly, and so Jude began running in the hopes that he would be able to find a place in which to sleep.

Just as the sun was sinking below the horizon, Jude found a house that was still relatively intact. One of the walls was burnt and the roof had collapsed, but the furniture was still there and Jude could get a good night's sleep on the bottom-floor sofa.

Jude walked inside and lay down on the sofa. There was a hole in the ceiling directly above his head, which in turn was beneath the collapsed roof, giving him a clear view of the night sky.

He stared at the stars, wondering from where the kryons came. And although he had never heard stories about it, he wondered if humans had ever colonized another planet. He suspected not, as they likely would have returned to defend their homeworld.

Night passed slowly, and Jude was unable to fall asleep. He toyed with the cube for a bit, but was unable to make any progress. He looked through the hole again. The aurora raged above.

He watched as the colors twirled above him, and slowly he began to fall asleep. His mind mixed the reds of the aurora with the red of the fires at his camp, and the other colors as the people dancing around it.

And then he had a revelation. Just as the people danced around the fires, this was the sky dancing around the Earth. It was the Dancing of the Skies, just as Survivor had told him in his dream.

He watched the patterns overhead, and quickly realized that he would have to follow them in order to find his friends and lover.

But then his heart sank. The dancing was chaotic, and it did not follow a set path.
So how was he supposed to follow them to his friends? The aurora could surely not lead him to where he wished to go.

He thought back to Survivor's words. He had also mentioned the Dancing of Souls. Jude had taken this to simply be a synonym for the Dancing of the Skies, though now he thought differently. Though what the Dancing of Souls could be, he did not know.

Jude thought about these things until late into the night, when darkness finally overtook him.