Chapter 12 Vhaena #2
“Good idea,” she groaned, pushing up onto her hands and knees to crawl toward the gently flowing brook. She’d done her best to keep up, but despite her efforts, she was slowing me down.
The thought crossed my mind that we could go our separate ways, and I nearly considered it.
But seeing her fighting for her life and pushing past her ailment, literally crawling on all fours just to get a drink of water, made me think of my mother.
If my mother had been from Helmfer, she could have been voted out, too.
It wasn’t her fault her body had stopped working, yet she was punished for it.
I sighed as my mind involuntarily replaced Inka’s face with my mother’s. I couldn’t leave her behind. If it were my mother, I’d want someone to give her a chance at surviving.
And it wasn’t as if Inka wasn’t doing anything for me in return. Having her with me gave me the opportunity to sleep while still being able to be warned of dangers instead of them creeping up toward me without my knowledge. Two sets of eyes were better than one.
I went over to the water as well and cupped my hands, gathering the cool liquid before bringing it to my cracked lips.
I drank and drank until I filled my stomach—which also helped stave off the feeling of hunger, though I knew it was only temporary.
Soon, we’d have to find food. By this point, we hadn’t eaten in two days.
Inka’s hands shook as she struggled to cup them to gather the water.
“Here.” I dipped my spoon in the water and let her drink from it, refilling it as needed until she was satisfied. Then I drank some more.
Once I had my fill, I sat back, resting on my hands and tipping my head toward the sky.
With so much adrenaline coursing through me, I hadn’t taken in any of my surroundings. My sole focus was to go as far as I could, and as fast as possible. But now that we had stopped, I took the opportunity to observe the landscape of this strange island.
I had already become accustomed to the towering trees, but I hadn’t really noticed just how massive they were, even as I stood before one earlier.
I craned my neck to see the green tops, the blue sky peeking between the dense foliage.
The stream wound between the large trunks, curving through the land.
The sun was poking out through an opening in the treetop, and judging from its position, we only had a couple of hours of daylight left.
I closed my eyes, concentrating on the scents, sounds, and feeling the earth beneath me.
Inhaling deeply, I could still smell the salty air from the sea mixed with the scent of the loamy soil.
Aside from our breaths, the only other sounds were the gentle trickles of water and the breeze rustling the leaves above.
It was peaceful.
Well, despite the daunting nature of our purpose for being here in the first place. It wasn’t going to be peaceful soon.
I opened my eyes and stood.
“Inka. We need to keep going.”
She sighed deeply. “Yeah, okay.” She shakily rose to a stand, wincing when she put weight back on her legs. “But can we talk this time? I could use the distraction.”
The side of my mouth lifted into a grin, and I gripped her arm, placing it around my shoulders in the hopes it would alleviate some of her discomfort. We wouldn’t be able to travel as fast, but we might be able to go for longer if she weren’t in so much pain.
“Sure. What do you want to talk about? Do you have any exciting adventures you could share?”
She huffed a laugh. “I’m a thirty-year-old widow who’s practically crippled. I haven’t lived long enough or well enough to have any adventures. What about you?”
I shook my head and picked up speed. “Nope. Nothing exciting happens where I come from.”
“Where are you from?”
“Nillah.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Exactly. Nothing worth telling, so why would word spread?” I huffed.
“Hmm.” She pursed her lips for a moment. “Tell me about your family and friends, then.”
I was silent for a moment. My brother flashed through my mind before I quickly shut out the oncoming memories.
I wanted to think about him. Hells knows I needed to.
I hadn’t even had the opportunity to process what had happened.
But now wasn’t the time; I knew I’d crumble once I did.
I knew lingering on it would be fatally debilitating.
“Maybe a town’s worth of pining men who are grieving you right now?” she added when I didn’t answer.
I raised a brow, glancing at her from the corner of my eye.
She shrugged. “Might as well find some kind of entertainment in this predicament of ours.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “No town’s worth of pining men, I’m afraid.
But I do have a mother back home. I think you’d like her, actually.
You remind me of her.” I wasn’t going to tell her that they both struggled with physical ailments and were widows now alone in this world.
The thought pierced my heart, imagining what Ma was going through right now.
“Why don’t you tell me about the city? I’ve heard stories, and I had been trying to save up to take a trip there. What’s it like?”
More than anything, I also needed the distraction. So while I supported the weight of Inka’s body, she supported my heart from crashing to the ground.
For hours, Inka told me about Helmfer. About the different districts and diversity, the history, entertainment, and dangers.
I was particularly interested in the part where she told me about the “old city” that had been completely decimated by demons over a hundred years ago, when no woman was sacrificed one year, and everyone was killed.
The only reason anyone knew about it was because of those who had returned from traveling and found a warning note pinned to the city hall’s door for any town that dared to defy their demands again.
Helmfer had been rebuilt right next to the old city because of its natural resources and central location to the rest of the world. And they never missed a sacrifice again.
“Aside from everyone in agreement on the sacrifice, hardly anyone gets along. No one cares for anyone other than themselves. They might live next to each other, but they’re far from neighbors. In a city full of people, it’s the loneliest place in the world,” Inka told me.
I nodded slowly as we quickly pushed through a thick, thorny bush. “I know the feeling. If it weren’t for my family, Nillah would be the same.”
We continued to chat, keeping ourselves distracted from the dread of the lowering sun—like a clock slowly ticking down to the time of our doom. It was nearly dusk. The thought of nightfall being upon us had me even more on edge.
“We should find a place to hide for the night,” Inka suggested as she gazed west toward the setting sun.
“Uh, yeah. Good idea.”
I brought us to a stop and looked around.
I had no idea how big the island was or if there was anything other than forest. All I could see were trees in every direction.
Trees we couldn’t even climb. There were no boulders to crouch behind, no caves to take shelter in.
This really was the worst place to hide.
No wonder the demons chose it as their hunting ground.
We kept going for a bit longer; only now we were searching for any possible concealment within the wooded area.
“Vhaena, look there.” Inka pointed to a large tree in the distance, silhouetted by the sunlight.
My shoulders sagged with relief. Within the trunk of the tree was a hollow crevice, large enough for us to fit inside.
Letting go of Inka, we made our way over to the tree.
Her legs gave out, and she slumped to the ground, resting against the bark.
I would have liked to continue for a couple more hours, using the darkness to cover more ground since we had a bit of a head start.
But she couldn’t go on anymore, and I had no idea if we’d find another hiding spot in time.
I took a step closer to the opening in the tree, inspecting it for critters and ensuring we could both fit inside. Something crunched beneath my foot, catching my attention.
Nuts littered the forest floor all around the base of the tree. Most looked rotted and inedible, but several seemed safe enough to consume. It wasn’t much, but I wasn’t going to complain as long as I was able to get something in my stomach.
“Wow. These go for a high price back in Helmfer,” Inka said, gesturing to the nuts.
“What are they? I’m assuming we can eat them if they’re valuable.”
“Mainly in cooking, yeah. But they’re selten nuts. I’ve never had one, but I heard they’re delicious.”
While Inka recuperated, I took the liberty of gathering up as many nuts as I could find, sifting through the bad ones and piling up the good ones in the fabric of my skirt.
Keeping my mind on something else, I thought of what kind of exotic dishes could be made with these desirable nuts.
Perhaps they could have been used as a topping on a pie, or a crust for fish to give it an earthy flavor.
I rounded the tree back to Inka and dumped the nuts in the tree’s fissure along the inside edge so we wouldn’t step on them. I handed a few to her. She struggled to grip one in her hand.
“Let me try.” I squeezed one between my palms, exerting as much strength as I could, but couldn’t.
I was finally able to do it, but I cracked it too hard, and the meat inside was crushed.
“Eating the small crumbles at a time will take all night for us to get any decent amount of food, and our palms will be raw after several of them,” I grumbled.
I was already cranky enough as it was, and being hungry wasn’t helping.
“Oh, here.” Inka leaned over and pushed a rock toward me with the back of her hand. “We can crack them against the tree root, then pry them open.”
“Thank god I paired up with someone with a brain,” I chuckled, taking the rock after she cracked a few of her nuts. And it worked.
We were able to eat a couple of dozen nuts between the two of us until we were sated enough. Once dusk arrived, we wouldn’t be able to make much noise since the cracking was a loud process.
Inka looked absolutely exhausted. And while I was, too, I wasn’t nearly as spent as she was.
“Why don’t you rest for a few hours, and I’ll keep watch. We can switch halfway through the night,” I offered.
“Yeah. Sounds…good,” she said sleepily.
She crawled into the tree, and I followed, pressing myself against the inner wall as much as possible so I wouldn’t be seen, but close enough to the opening so I could see well outside.
Thank the hells neither of us were claustrophobic.
Inka quickly fell asleep, her head resting against the tree beside me just as the last of the sun’s rays faded.
The demons would begin hunting soon.