Chapter 80
Eighty
Tobias
T he sky had just begun to lighten when we reached the first camping spot. The moment we were told to set up camp, all sixty men pulled out the paltry supplies we were given for protection. It consisted of a foil tarp that could fold small enough to fit in a pocket on our vests and a string. Twine, they called it, but it certainly wasn't a rope.
The twine went around a tree on one side, then was wrapped around a stake on the other. Well, a stick that was pounded into the ground with a local rock. More sticks secured the edges, making a triangle shape that would block us from the sun as we slept.
I'd just finished setting mine up when Sylis made his way over. "I'm supposed to check to be sure you know what you're doing," he teased. "Mind if I use the other side of your tree?"
"Nope," I said.
So he passed me his twine. "Willing to tie it up by yours?"
I let out a hearty laugh. "You're going to owe me for this, you know."
"Worth it for the reach," he assured me.
But I helped him set up his cover as well. Without these foil sheets, we'd all roast in the daylight as we slept. Since many of these men weren't used to walking so far, the sheer exhaustion of the effort would likely be enough to make them sleep through the heat.
But when we finished, Sylis sat down on the short side of his shelter and pulled a package of dried trail mix from his vest. With a grunt, I joined him, finding my own. It was little more than the parts they used to make our daily vegetable mash, and not exactly tasty, but it was food.
"Hey, I wanted to ask a favor," I said.
He gave me a confused look. "About? "
"Callah." I popped a pinch of the grains into my mouth and chewed loudly. "You said you were thinking you might need to get married, right?"
"Yeah," he muttered. "They want all of us to have a child by the time we're twenty-five now. As hunters, they say the sooner we start, the less chance of our line being lost."
I grunted at that. "Well, that's the thing. A lot of us aren't making it back, and um..." I took another bite as I desperately tried to figure out how to ask this. "If I die, would you marry her?"
"What?" he huffed. "Tobias..."
This was not the conversation I wanted to be having. It definitely wasn't something I should be planning for, but I'd forgotten to tell Callah one thing. The Wyvern had told me to get numbers and a map. I hadn't. I'd tried, but while I could make some vague guesses, there was no way for me to get such things without raising too many suspicions.
And I was sure the Wyvern was not a very forgiving man.
Between the grenades, the lack of information to help them, and the reality that I might not see Ayla or her Dragon friend? The odds were not in my favor for making it home. I couldn't dwell on that, though. If I did, the fear would become crippling. Instead, I simply needed to make sure I planned for everything - including my death.
"Callah's a sweet girl," I told Sylis. "And she's kind, and caring. She's pretty too."
"That she is," he agreed. "Saw that when you made a fool out of yourself proposing to her."
"But she said yes," I pointed out.
"And yet you're asking me to marry her?"
"If I die," I clarified. "Just so she doesn't get stuck with someone like Reynold Saunders. She's scared of him, and I think she's too good for an old man who's already had a dozen kids. She needs a husband who'll take care of her."
He swirled around the contents of his bag. "And not hit her, right?"
"Yeah, that's the important part," I said. "She's so scared someone will hit her. She got punished a few times as a girl, you know. And it makes her cry, and I don't like it when she cries, so I thought maybe..."
He tilted the bag, pouring a bit into his mouth. I looked over as he chewed through the overly dry mess. Around us, the sky was shifting to a blue color, and pinks were creeping behind the trees, yet I refused to look away until he finally swallowed.
"At least think about it?" I asked.
"Okay," he said. "But on one condition."
"Name it."
"If you don't die, you ask her to help me find a girl to marry?"
My head twitched at that. "You don't want to find your own?"
"Everyone's so worried about pretty," he said, "and I just want a girl like yours. One who'll talk to me. Someone I'm not always fighting with. And yeah, it'd be okay to have some sons and all, but I dunno. The whole marriage thing just seems like it'd be weird having someone in my space all the time."
"Like back when we were boys," I said. "I mean, I figure that's what it will be like, but they won't fart as much."
"There's that!" Sylis said around a laugh. "But seriously. I think Callah knows the girls better than I do. So yeah, maybe see if she'll help me?"
I nodded. "I can promise that. She has some friends. I mean, how would you feel about a widow? Or do you want a girl?"
He shrugged. "Doesn't really matter either way. I want nice."
I nodded again, and for a bit, silence fell between us. The sound of us chewing the hard grain kept it from being weird. Around us, other men struggled to get their shelter set up properly, but most of this crew were all new hunters. Nearly two-thirds, they'd said.
Not that I'd know. I hadn't been a hunter long enough to get to know anyone alive. Gideon and Sylis were pretty much it. The rest had been decimated by the dragons. Even thinking about that had me sighing again.
"Worried about this?" he asked.
"Yup," I admitted. "I mean, grenades?"
"Yeah," he breathed. "Last night, I kept having nightmares that I dropped one and it exploded at my feet."
"I don't even know what an explosion would look like," I admitted.
"I don't either," he said. "It was just a loud bang, then I woke up with a jerk. Took me forever to slow my heart and fall asleep again." Then he hummed. "Tobias, why do you think they're using grenades?"
"Because so many died last time." That was a simple answer. One he wouldn't question.
But he gave me a sideways look. "And why do you really think they're doing it?" he asked - then grunted. Shifting closer, he lowered his voice. "Look, we both know you aren't an idiot, okay? That's why I asked for you on my team."
"You asked?" Okay, I hadn't known that.
He nodded. "You helped me out last time. And sure, you say simple things when people push you, but then you turn around and point out how women don't want to be hit. Maybe you're not the smartest man in the compound, but you're not as dumb as you pretend. I get it, though. As big as you are, it's hard not to be noticed unless you're too simple for anyone to care about."
My heart was now beating just a bit too fast. My fingers wanted to clench. I had the urge to leave this discussion, but I knew it wouldn't help. No, what I really needed to do was shift the blame a bit.
"I've been told I'm stupid my whole life." I shrugged, trying to play it off. "I never had anyone say otherwise. Well, except Callah."
"Well, I'll say it," Sylis assured me. "You're not an idiot, Tobias. You're just a nice man, and nice men get walked on. You also fought off a beast with your bare hands, so I'd prefer to have you on my side." Then he flicked his finger towards where the fletching hung from my belt. "You somehow survived those."
"Yeah..." I breathed.
"I just want to know how Ayla Ross learned to fight," he said, shaking his head as if that was the silliest thing he could imagine.
I glanced back, checking to make sure no one was in the tent beside us. "Saying her name is a good way to get shot out here, Sylis."
"And there's the smart guy again," he countered. "But the guy behind you went to boil his breakfast. Same for the next tree over. I checked that before I asked."
So I nodded. "Well, since I saw her speaking to the Wyvern, that might be how she learned."
"By the gates of Hell..." he breathed.
"Yeah," I agreed.
"No!" he hissed. "Don't you see? If she can talk to him, then maybe she can stop him."
"But why?"
That made him sit up and look at me like I'd grown a second head. "To keep us from dying."
"No, for her. Why would she want to stop him? We come and hunt them like animals, but he was speaking to her. We threw her out. We told her she was worthless, but they took care of her, so why would she help us instead of them?"
"Are you sure she's helping?" he asked.
"Makes the most sense. She got kicked out, and now they're meeting us in the woods? Gideon said you used to go to their town."
He blew out a heavy breath. "Maybe she could tell us where to get food that isn't them?" he tried.
I shrugged. "I mean, if I see her, I can ask. She knows me. She might shoot me, though."
"But don't tell anyone," he whispered. "Seriously, Tobias. Not even the other guys in our group, okay? I mean, these new kids are all excited about proving they're men, but they're barely out of sermon!"
I chuckled. "And how old are you?"
"Twenty-three," he said. "Well, next month I will be."
I nodded. "Happy birthday, just in case I miss it."
"Happy marriage," he said in return, "just in case I miss it."
I chuckled. "Here's hoping we're both smart enough to make it back alive - or dumb enough. I'm not sure which one works."
Sylis groaned and leaned back onto his hands. "I figure most of us are going to get killed by grenades."
"And there still won't be any meat for the compound."
"Shit, this? I'm not sure it counts." Then he sucked in a breath and jerked upright as if trying to take the words back.
I waved him down. "I'm too stupid to think anything of that, right?"
His eyes closed as he sighed, his entire body relaxing again. "Sorry. That was dumb of me."
"Yep," I agreed. "It's delicious and good for making us strong. "
"I don't eat it," he mumbled.
"Me either," I agreed. "I used to say I liked the vegetables because I carried them."
Sylis chuckled. "Okay, that's a good one. I might try a variant. I don't want to eat the meat because I know how much lead was pumped into it."
I thrust out my lower lip and bobbed my head in approval. "Yeah, that'd work."
But Sylis jerked his chin at me. "I wonder if there's going to be any meat left after we blow it up."
"Will we be able to tell if it's us or them?" I pointed out.
He made a disgusted face. "Oh, I didn't even think of that!"
"It's all I've been thinking about," I admitted. "They want us to bring back enough for three weeks of weddings. I can't imagine how."
"Does Callah eat it?" Sylis asked.
My eyes narrowed. "No, why?"
"I know a few who won't," he explained. "Most are quarantine kids. We used to pick on them because they only ate mash and tubers as babies. Well, that's what my childhood roommates said."
"No, we had meat," I assured him.
His head jumped back to me. "Sorry. I forgot you're from there."
"And you aren't." I nodded. "Surprises me even more that you don't eat meat."
"Stopped when I saw the hunting," he explained. "But I was thinking..." He paused to check around us. "If it's like last time, and we're the only ones? What if we fill up the carts with the pieces?"
I murmured, thinking about that. "Would it encourage them to keep using these grenades, or discourage them?"
"Does it matter? They're going to keep sending us out, and since we won't be eating it..."
I couldn't have stopped my grin if I'd wanted to. This time, I really didn't. Sylis's idea was horrific! But it also seemed like exactly the sort of thing the elders deserved.
"Let's do it," I said. "I mean, if we both make it back."
"We'll be extra careful and make sure of it," Sylis told me. "You're my second, so we'll find something we need to handle on our own."
"Uh..." Yeah, I didn't really want this guy following me around in the fight. "Well, let me know what, because living sounds good to me."
"Same," he said before stifling a yawn. "And I'm wiped. Get some sleep, Tobias. Gonna be a miserable walk tomorrow."
"And a tense sleep," I agreed. "Just don't forget your promise, okay?"
"Or yours," he said. "I need a good wife, not one of the annoying ones everyone complains about. I want a wife I like being around."
"Yeah," I breathed. "That's the dream." And I crawled under the sheer foil to find a spot soft enough to fall asleep on.