Page 3 of Proven By The Highlander (Highlander Forever #15)
CHAPTER 3
W hen Leanne was a child, she’d steadfastly studied the names and distinguishing features of every dinosaur that had been discovered. It rapidly became an obsession, and not the kind that wore off after a few months, either. At school, she was the dinosaur kid… and as the years went by, she remained the dinosaur kid. Her passion for the subject drove her on academically, and it wasn’t long before her passion for dinosaurs was joined by a fascination for science generally. When she hit high school, she was just as obsessed with dinosaurs as she always had been — and she had a ten-year plan for how to make that her career, and not just a funny little quirk of her personality.
But right now, all of that had disappeared, swept away in the moment she’d looked up at the creature in the lake. Even the scientific names she’d been so proud of learning were gone, replaced by the wild, brilliant shock of recognition, of unbelievable joy. This was a dinosaur. She was looking right up at a dinosaur… and if it was a dream, she didn’t care, because it was the most vivid dream she’d ever had in her whole life. The creature tilted its head, just slightly — and she spluttered, realizing belatedly that her shock had stopped her from paddling, and she’d almost sunk beneath the water.
The creature seemed to huff, and she could make out slits in its nose expanding and contracting with the sound. That meant it must have lungs, she thought faintly, her scientific mind struggling to function in the wake of the sheer, childlike delight she was experiencing. An aquatic dinosaur that breathed air… but if it was the same creature she’d encountered down beneath the surface, that must mean it spent much of its time under water too. Like dolphins, maybe, or whales — lung capacity that meant a breath could last hours? Water slopped into her face again and she spluttered, realizing she was sinking again.
As if in response, the creature swam forward, and for a frozen moment she wondered if it was about to eat her. But she needn’t have worried. She felt the beast’s chest bump up against her in the water, gently but firmly, and her eyes widened as she felt the creature persist, bumping her gently through the water with gathering speed. Leanne had been hoping she’d wake up from whatever strange dream this was, but right now, she’d have given anything for this moment to last forever… her hands trembling with a mixture of cold and excitement, she carefully wrapped her arms around the creature’s neck, feeling it rumble with what she could only interpret as encouragement. The beast picked up speed, and she found herself whooping with joy as they began to power through the cold water, faster than she could ever have hoped to swim on her own.
Much too soon, she made out a shoreline approaching. The creature turned and swam for some distance along the coastline, however, passing beaches of rock and sand. She looked up at its head, suspended above her on that long, elegant neck, and realized with surprise that it seemed to be scanning the shoreline, as if it was looking for something. She followed its gaze, seeing only darkness and the shape of trees in the gloom beyond the shore. A lake in a forest, then? A lake with a dinosaur in it… something was troubling her, but she found herself distracted as the creature finally turned and swam closer to the shore. Leanne felt her feet bump against the sandy bottom of the lake, and the creature slowed and stopped, seemingly waiting for her to get her balance.
She looked back up at it, seeking those dark, strangely intelligent eyes. The creature’s face was more like a reptile’s than any mammal she’d ever encountered, but there was something about its dark eyes that put her more in mind of a dog than a lizard or a fish. She couldn’t help the huge smile that was still dancing on her face, and she reached out to touch the creature’s neck gently with one hand.
“Thank you,” she whispered, hearing her voice crack and rasp in the cold night air. “Thank you for saving me.”
Did it understand her? It certainly held her gaze for a long moment… and then it was gone, the water swirling and splashing around her as whatever appendages the creature had below the surface of the water powered it backwards and away. She stood there, chest-deep in the water, unwilling to miss a single moment of what she was seeing, until the creature’s long neck had lowered its great head closer and closer to the water… and then it was gone, leaving nothing but the moonlight dancing on the surface of the lake.
“That wasn’t a dream,” Leanne whispered under her breath, feeling her heart pounding hard in her chest, her body shivering with cold and shock. “That can’t have been a dream. That was real.”
There was no answer from the lake. Regretfully, she turned and began wading ashore, shivering as the water dropped from her chest to her waist and then to her knees, leaving her wet pajamas clinging to her skin. The cold air touched the fabric, chilling her to the bone and making her wonder if she wouldn’t have been warmer with no clothes on at all. Gone was the fear of drowning, but as the wonder of the encounter with the creature faded, she was quickly beginning to wonder whether freezing to death might be a worse fate altogether. Her bare feet squelched unpleasantly through the sand as she finally stepped out of the water and onto the shore of the lake, and she hastened awkwardly up the slope of the sandy beach toward the thick grass beyond. Lake water was dripping from her sodden pajamas and she looked around her, searching for any sign of civilization that she might be able to set off walking toward. A bit of exertion might keep the worst of the chill at bay.
In one direction, she could make out lights that looked like they might belong to a building… a fairly sizable one, too, if her judgment of the reflections from the water was right. But it was a long way away, and as she climbed up from the sandy beach and onto the grass beyond, she winced at the sticks and rocks beneath her feet. What she wouldn’t give for the thick, steel-toed boots she wore to digs and excavation sites right now… or failing that, just a thick blanket to wrap around her shoulders. She picked her way along the shore toward the lights in the distance for a little while, shivering and swearing under her breath every time she stepped on another rock or pointed stick .At this rate, she was going to be a popsicle by the time she got halfway to the distant building. There had to be another option.
There — she blinked, half convinced she’d imagined it, but she hadn’t. Through the trees, she could make out a distant point of light, just beyond where the treeline began, but not in such a dense patch of forest that she couldn’t see the light. A campfire, perhaps? Were people camping out here on such a freezing night? She knew she probably looked a fright, dripping wet and wearing nothing but pajamas, but there was no helping it. She needed their help, whoever they were. She only hoped that once she explained the absolutely ridiculous series of events that had brought her here, that they didn’t immediately assume she was crazy or trying to steal from them or something.
Leanne winced as she picked her way through the trees, the thick grass from the shore giving way to more sticks, rocks, and leaves strewn across the forest floor. The light was coming more and more into focus, and her eyes widened a little as she made out the shape of a horse in the firelight, a blanket over its back and a loose harness keeping it tethered to the overhanging branch of a tree. And there, by the fire, was the sleeping shape of a person. Leanne crept a little closer, wary of waking whoever they were but desperate for the warmth of the flickering fire on her skin.
It was a man, she realized as the firelight fell across his sleeping face. A blond man, maybe a few years older than her, wrapped in some kind of thick fabric that seemed to be affixed around his neck. Was it a cloak? Some kind of wearable blanket designed for camping? Whatever it was, it looked warm… but her eyes widened as she took in what else was lying by his side. A rucksack, the remains of a meal… and what was undeniably a crossbow, loaded with iron bolts. It was close at hand, and she could all but picture him sitting bolt upright at the slightest sound, reaching out to grab the crossbow and send a bolt hurtling into his enemy… she shivered. But what was he doing out here alone, with replicas of medieval weapons? There was a blade there, too… she recognized it as a dirk, probably made of iron. The horse, the cloak, the weapons… was he some kind of medieval re-enactor?
For a moment, she hesitated, wondering whether it might not be smarter to just keep walking. He was a strange man alone in the woods, and there was no way of predicting how he might react if he woke to find a strange woman sharing his fire. But as if in response, a cold wind stirred, chilling the wet clothes where they clung to her skin, and she sighed, squatting down on the opposite side of the fire, and trying to breathe as quietly as she could.
If he woke up and shot a crossbow bolt at her, at least she’d die warm.