Freeing my mind of any other thought, I let the numbers flow through my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the streaks of Tela’s body right by my side. With flat, even ground and no hills to navigate around, we blister across the flats.
When the Fist of Stone begins to take shape in the distance, we’re still neck and neck. The enormous rock pillar looks exactly like an arm with a clenched hand on top. The creases in the round top of the gigantic stone perfectly shape four curled fingers with a thumb pressed against the inner two.
Making a mad rush towards the finish, I burn forward with everything I have. As the Fist of Stone flies towards me, it’s nothing but a blur. Tela and I torpedo past it in a dead heat.
I exit from the beams and slow to a jog. When I finally come to a stop, I drop my hands to my knees and inhale like a vacuum. Sucking down air, Tela trots to my side, rests her hands on her waist, and looks up at the sky. After catching my breath, I return to upright and look at Tela.
“That was incredible!”
“What did you have?” she asks, lowering her eyes from the clouds to me.
“Three-eighty-one,” I say. “What about you?”
“You won’t believe it,” she replies. “Three-eighty-one.”
“I do believe it. It looked like we crossed the finish at the same time.”
“It looked that way to me too.” She raises a hand in the air and takes a step towards me with the biggest, brightest smile I’ve ever seen from her. “We beat Larn!”
I slap her hand with mine. “What was his count?”
“Three-ninety-two,” she answers. “He had the fastest time ever.”
“Do me a favor, “I say. “We traveled two thousand miles in three hundred and eighty-one seconds. Divide thirty-six hundred by three-eighty-one and tell me what it is.”
“What are those numbers?” she asks.
“It’s the number of seconds in what we call an hour on Earth divided by the number of seconds we traveled.”
“Nine-point-four-four-eight-eight,” she says without even thinking about it.
“You can just round it off.”
“I did,” she replies evenly.
I shake my head, once again in awe at how fast people’s minds in Krymzyn can calculate things. “Anyway, multiply that times two thousand.”
“Eighteen thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven-point-six.”
“Unbelievable,” I say. “Almost nineteen thousand miles per hour.”
“What does that number mean?” she asks.
“Distance compared to time in my world. We use it to calculate speed.”
Tela cocks her head to the side. “The people in your world are obsessed with measuring things, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, I guess we are. It’s mind-boggling how fast we were going.”
“The fastest ever,” she says. “Except probably for Sash.”
“I know she’s faster than us, but she’s not a Traveler. Her count doesn’t matter. She even said so.”
“Larn will be proud of us,” Tela remarks.
“I’m sure he will,” I say, knowing that he’ll share the same belief that many great athletes on Earth have—records are made to be broken. “You said that’s about thirty percent faster than we’d normally travel?”
“Approximately,” she replies.
“Wow,” I say. “Even when we’re not on the flats, you and I are killing it with our speed.”
“Killing what?” she asks.
“Just another one of my stupid expressions,” I answer. “It means that you and I go really, really fast.”
“Awesome fast!” she exclaims.
“You got that right,” I laugh.
After I raise my hand, we slap another high-five with so much force that we fall against each other. Without even thinking about it, I loop one arm around her and pull Tela into a friendly hug.
“I’m thrilled we did this,” I say. “I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having.”
She awkwardly puts her arms around my waist and squeezes me. “Me too. It’s much more enjoyable doing this with you than it is alone.”
“And now you’ve had your first hug,” I say as we take a step back from each. “It’s a custom between friends and family on Earth. I think I explained it to you once.”
“I remember,” she says thoughtfully. “You told me about hugs and kisses.”
I smile at her. “Before you know it, you’ll know all the Earth customs.”
“I like learning about them,” she replies.
“We should do this again sometime.”
“We definitely will,” she says.
We each take one of the two flasks from our belts and drain the contents. Even though our travel time across the plain was relatively short, it took us about six hours to get to the starting point. I definitely feel how much energy I’ve expended, especially from reaching the speeds we did across the flats.
After we return the flasks to our belts, we run past the Fist of Stone and travel towards the plateau. Our pace on the return over the empty plain is about half of what it was during our race. We reach the area where we rested before to find our spears and empty canisters right where we left them.
“Instead of going back to the Stone Crossing,” Tela says, “we’ll travel to the north and use the bridge above the Delta. It’s faster from here, and you can learn your way back from this part of the Barrens.”
“Sure,” I reply, not at all disappointed at missing out on another frenzied dash over the Stone Crossing. “Lead the way.”
Chapter 15
Less than an hour into our return trip to the Delta, Tela swerves sharply to the west. She disappears inside a narrow valley as I continue to the north. I glance in her direction several times, but she doesn’t reappear. I whip through a u-turn and follow her trail.
Slowing my speed to search for her, I enter the same valley that she did. In a flat area surrounded by low hills at the end, I spot her standing in front of a black-barked tree. I come out of my
