Unfound

Death is Only Another Adventure

"Go then, there are other worlds than these. . ."

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

Severus Snape had no idea where he was. He remembered nothing of the last hour, only the beginning of the battle at Hogwarts. After that, he drew a blank, although the startling image of Lily Evans' eyes kept popping into his mind, wide and lovely, a bright, unrivaled green. There was also a dim, throbbing pain in the side of his neck, but he ignored it.

He had woken up in a forest, with a cool autumn wind blowing across his face, under a grove of trees. He ached all over, and his head felt like he had been hit with an anvil, but he forced himself to sit up nevertheless. The action made his headache worse, to the point where he thought he was going to pass out, but he fought of the darkness that went across his vision. After a moment's consideration, Snape walked toward the sound of a small stream, which he found shortly and splashed water over his face. Then he heard the voices.

They were loud voices, obviously unafraid of anything that could be lurking in the grove of trees. He found an odd thing - in his own mind, he had never expected to see another living being here. It felt like a dead world.

As Snape drew closer, he could see four human figures and what appeared to be a long-necked dog sitting with their backs to the grove, eating. Three of the figures were obviously adults, one was a child. The first was tall and foreboding even from behind; he seemed to be the eldest of the group and also the leader. Beside him was a much younger man with long dark hair. He sat in an unperturbed, relaxed sprawl, and his loud, somewhat sarcastic voice carried with no problem. Snape guessed that this one was the one he'd heard at the stream - loud, a bit obnoxious, and a general first impression that reminded him of Ron Weasley.

A young black woman was propped up beside him, and after observing her for a moment, Snape realized a startling thing: her legs were cut off just below her knees. She had strong arms and from her body language he guessed that she and the young man were perhaps in love.

The boy he found the most interesting. He was like no child Snape had ever seen, even at Hogwarts, for this child seemed more adult than many of the actual adults he knew, from just his movements and the things he said. He looked at the tall man with an admiration that was childlike in nature, and Snape felt temporarily relieved that there was something childlike about the kid. Perhaps he was simply quiet. The odd-looking canine sat beside him, curled up at the boy's feet like a cat would do, occasionally barking hoarsely.

Suddenly the young, dark-haired man stood up, clutching some type of soda, and said loudly, so loudly that Snape heard every word:

"When I'm traveling through the Land of Oz in my new Takuro Spirit, I drink Nozz-A-La! It fills me up but never fills me out! It makes me happy to be a man! It makes me know God! It gives me the outlook of an angel and the balls of a tiger! When I drink Nozz-A-La, I say 'Gosh! Ain't I glad to be alive!' I say -"

The boy laughed uproariously and said somewhat sternly, "Sit down, you bumhug."

"Ug," the dog-like creature barked, much to Snape's astonishment. It seemed to be following every movement of the boy's sandwich. He saw the man start to sit down, and then something caught his eye. Thinking it might be him, Snape shrunk into the darkness, but he needed not worry - the man seized a scrap of paper. He examined what seemed to be a scrap of newspaper, and then turned it over. A look of surprise crossed his face.

Disturbed by the man's haunted eyes, he retreated to where he could only watch their movements through the trees, and hear their occasional laughter. He was unsure whether it would be wise to engage in such a society, where that look could cross a man's face. He had seen it too many times, that look of desperation and hatred, of fury and the pain of memory tearing at the heart with ungodly force. He wanted none of it.

Time passed; the dim afternoon light deepened to evening, and he found himself getting somewhat cold. Unwilling to be apart from the only remnants of society he had found up to this point, he followed the group as quietly as he could down the path, always staying in the trees. Then night fell, and the boy started a fire with surprising skill.

"Son of a bitch!" he cried out a moment later, startling Severus.

"Itch!" The dog-like creature yelled out in shock. Snape was probably more startled by this than he was by the boy. Dogs didn't talk . . . not in his world, at least. . .

The woman's voice was worried from where she sat on the other side of the fire. "Jake, honey, what's wrong?"

The boy was sucking on his wounded thumb, a look of disgust on his face. "Nothing, Susannah. I caught my damn thumb between the steel and the flint. . . my nail's going to fall off. . ." he wasn't whining, just looking down at his bruised finger in mild curiosity.

The young man leaned over and looked at Jake's thumb and then jumped back in mock disgust. "Wow, Jake. That's what Roland's hand looked a lot like when the lobtrosities bit his fingers off." He shook his head mournfully. "It's gonna fall off, and then you'll look just like him."

Susannah glared at him. "Eddie, you're not funny."

Eddie didn't seem perturbed. "Come on, Suze. You know what they say about how you start to look like a person if you hang around with them enough? Yeah, well, I think I'm startin' to look like Roland. I mean, really, my face is changin'," he turned his head up in the light so she could see his jawline. "I think old long, tall, and ugly might be rubbing off on me."

"The horror," the older man remarked dryly. Eddie grinned.

"Roland," Jake said, his voice thoughtful, "I've been thinking about that note from R.F. What did it say again?"

The man, Roland, looked thoughtful. "It said for me to renounce the Tower. That it was our last warning. And the sigul for the land of Thunderclap was underneath it."

"So you think we have to go to Thunderclap," Susannah said.

"No, I know that. Of course we'll go to Thunderclap. The question is, what's going to try to stop us?"

Eddie didn't seem particularly disturbed. "Roland, we're gunslingers. What could stop us?"

Roland laughed wryly. "I think quite a lot, Eddie."

"But if R.F. is Richard Fannin," Jake said, "shouldn't he be dead by now?"

Roland shook his head. "Jake, haven't you learned anything about this place by now? I thought you would know better than anyone. The dead here don't stay dead. Especially the wizards." Their eyes met for a moment across the firelight and Snape saw a glimpse of something between them, something hard, painful, and related to the dead not staying dead.

"I've died twice," Jake said pensively. Snape felt his stomach drop. "I remember both times clearly, and I know that Walter killed me once. No, Walter killed me twice." Roland dropped his face into his hands. "It wasn't you, Roland. There's a difference between killing someone and letting them die. I know you let me die, but it was Walter that killed me. Understand?"

The older man nodded, but he could say nothing.

"Anyway," Jake continued, obviously not particularly upset about his previous deaths, "I was wondering how Walter climbed back and forth between worlds to kill me, and I came to the conclusion that there was a door at the Way Station. So it would make sense that Walter could have come through one of those doors to beat us here, while we were on Blain the Mono."

"Those forespecial doors," Susannah chimed in.

"But Walter's dead," Eddie said.

"We don't know that. And R.F., whoever the hell he is, just kinda came out of nowhere. So where's Walter? What's he up to?"

"No good, I'm sure," Roland said bitterly. "Ka would have it so. That Walter and Fannin know the doors. Like it was ka when Jake didn't kill Tick-Tock in Lud."

"I thought I killed him," Jake said defensively.

"You couldn't have known you didn't," Roland murmured, as if soothing him.

"I've noticed we've discussed ka quite a lot today," Eddie said good-naturedly.

"It's like I said earlier, Roland," Susannah said, her face placid. "As scary as the idea of ka is, the idea of no ka is even scarier. I'd rather have fate following me around like some heat-seeking missile than to be alone on this."

"What did you say it was today, Susannah? You called ka Fate with eagle eyes. . ."

". . . and a bloodhound's nose," the woman finished. "It's like a mythological creature to us now, Roland. Dragging us all unwillingly to the Tower, disposing of us as it pleases."

"I marvel at how the lack of that disturbs you, Susannah," Eddie said, sarcastically. "Me, I want to see that goddamn Tower. You hear that, Roland? I'll die for your damn Tower, too. Me. Eddie. The junkie. We're all Tower junkies now, just like you."

"Out of the fryin' pan, into the fire," Susannah chuckled.

"Yeah," Eddie said, "You get me off of heroin and hook me on the Tower."

"My apologies," Roland said. "It disturbs me, you know. The fact that you will see a glimpse of the Dark Tower or die trying. I'm proud, of course - that's inevitable - but I'm disturbed, too."

"It's ka," Jake said glumly.