16. Vesper #5
“Almost there,” he grunts, hoisting himself out of the water and then dragging me up behind him. My arms stay locked around the giant fish as we both struggle to get it on shore and away from the hungry teeth of the caimans.
“They can walk on land,” Cipher warns. “They are semi-aquatic, remember?”
I swear, finally remembering Cipher’s explanation from earlier. “We gotta get away from the river! Back into the trees!”
“Seriously?” Locke grunts as we both haul the partially eaten Minor Boss from the water. The logs keep moving forward, and when one of them takes its first step on land, Locke’s eyes widen. “Yep,” Locke says. “Keep going! Run!”
We both rush away from the water, dragging our prize behind us. I don’t have time to grab my boots and I mourn their loss as one of the caimans snaps at mine, dragging it into the water and making them disappear. Locke grabs his as he passes, screams, “Inventory,” and keeps running.
“Go, go, go!” I say, running as fast as I can while hauling the nearly two-hundred-kilogram fish behind us.
We hit the tree line and keep running, putting as much distance as possible between us and the caimans.
The carnivorous plants snap at us as we rush past, but we avoid them as best as possible.
A few of them get dangerously close to taking a piece of us with them, but we manage to keep moving.
Only once my arms start to burn and threaten to stop working altogether, once I’m gasping for air and I can’t catch my breath, do I stop and fall to my ass on the wet earth.
A boom overhead makes both of us duck, but a second later, water starts to fall through the trees and drip around us, washing the mud away from our bodies as we sit there with our kill.
“We have . . . to . . . eat it,” I rasp, looking at the now dead fish, Locke’s blunt sword barely protruding right from its throat.
I didn’t really think that would work. The fish is so large, surely the sword wasn’t big enough to choke it.
When I yank at the sword, I realize it wasn’t because it went into its throat at all.
Due to the shape of the fish, the sword had gone inside and up, piercing into its brain and then out of its back.
I hadn’t realized before in our panic. I can see now how I managed to kill it. Purely accidental, but effective.
More water falls heavier from the sky and I look up, letting it wash away the muck of the river.
It feels like a baptism of sorts, a purifying waterfall that makes it easier to breathe again.
I get why the Suffer Saints do it now, shoving each other into a basin until they struggle for air.
If it felt anything like this, maybe I would have lined up with them.
“Rain,” Cipher offers. “You are experiencing rain for the first time.”
I sigh. “Rain.”
I’ve never felt more holy.
We manage to make a fire beneath a large leaf to keep the rain from putting it out.
The ground beneath it is still thankfully dry enough to light and my sticks from my inventory come in handy again.
Luckily, the caimans don’t find us, and Cipher explains they typically stay within twenty meters of the river. Thank the stars.
Our larger blades aren’t sharp enough to cut the arapaima up, so we end up having to use the pocketknife I’d gotten in the beginning. It’s small and takes forever to cut loose some edible pieces, but eventually, we have the strips of fish cooking on a piece of wood over the fire.
It smells good at least, and when it finally looks cooked, both of us take our pieces and taste it carefully.
Surprisingly, it tastes as good as it smells.
I was worried the fish would taste like the mud of the river we dragged it out of.
We end up eating until we’re full, and then we hang up the rest of the fish from a tree and leave it.
It won’t stay good for long and we don’t have time to smoke it and preserve it for later.
Maybe someone else will be able to use it.
I do put a big chunk in my inventory for later, just in case there’s some magic that will keep it from going bad while there.
As soon as we hang the fish up, a menu appears in front of me and in front of Locke.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
You killed the minor boss of the red bloom court and ate it. How savage of you.
REWARD: new boots! You can finally get rid of those cobbled together dross boots and relish the feeling of new, perfectly worn-in leather.
“Oh, thank the Harrow,” I breathe as the new boots appear in front of me. “What did you get?”
“Finally, a better blade,” Locke growls. “It’s about fucking time.” He holds up a sharper dagger. “And a blade sharpener.”
My shoulders ease. “We can sharpen the other blades then.” I glance at my menu again and see a small exclamation point blinking over my XP bar. I click the menu open and stare at the progress bar. “How much XP did you get?”
Locke frowns, opens his menu, and then his face lights up. “Just enough to level up! You?”
I consider lying. If he got just enough to level up, it means he got around forty-five XP for that. But I got more than enough to level up. I’d been rewarded nearly a hundred XP. But we’re a team, and lying won’t do any good.
“I got enough to level up,” I tell him. “And then some.”
Locke’s expression doesn’t change. “Whatever.” He must tap on the exclamation point because his eyes light up. “Time to level up this strength, so I can punch those Ascendant assholes right in the face!”
I hit the exclamation point and see large menus pop up in front of me, words trailing down them as I flip through the options.
“Choose wisely, Vesper,” Cipher warns. “You cannot change your Glitch once you select the option. This glitch will follow you for the rest of your life, however long that may be.”
His warning floats in the air before me as I start to read through my options.
The rest of my life. However long that may be.
Years. Months. Days . . .