Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
I wake up slightly disorientated. The moon is further along in the sky than it should be for my watch. My rage squeezes around my heart as I sit up and count the sleeping forms around the dead fire.Riley is missing. I get up and tie my boots on before searching for him with my knife in hand.
I find himasleep.The fucker stinks like alcohol, and a slight snore escapes his nose as he’s slumped against a tree with arms folded.I move my knife to my other hand, and I punch him. In the face. Hard .
He at least reacts immediately, though sluggishly, as he falls to the side and tries to kick my feet out from under me in some feeble attempt to fight back. I’m too quick for him, and I pin my knife to his throat.
“And you’re dead. So is every single other fucking person in this camp. Because I’m a mercenary or an assassin or skin trader who found an unsuspecting group of people asleep and no one on watch,” I angrily whisper at him. I was too angry to be amused by the fact that technically, I was an assassin .
I snort at him in disgust as I stand and sheathe my knife. He lies there leaning on his arm and watches where I put my knife with detached interest.
“Nothing to say?”
Apparently not, because he stands up, dusts off his pants, and leans down to grab a bottle of alcohol that I hadn’t noticed was resting against the tree.I kick it from his hand, and it goes flying off into the forest.
“What the fuck is your problem, Mika?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the drunk who was supposed to be on watch, who decided to put us all in danger instead?”
“We’re still in Nemoris, and it’s safe—it doesn’t even matter!”
“If it didn’t matter Riley, then why do it at all?” I hiss back, trying not to wake the others who are hopefully still sleeping. “Your selfishness is astounding.”
Riley grumbles something unintelligible and stomps after his bottle before returning to the camp and slumping onto his bedroll.The asshole is snoring within moments. I hate him. My rage is a roaring beast that slams inside my ribcage, unwavering and unwilling to calm.
I start my perimeter checks, looping wider and wider before turning around, crossing right through camp and out the other side, and then looping in the opposite direction back toward camp. I do this a few times, stopping and crossing back through the camp at different intervals.
I don’t bother to wake Tovi for the next watch because the sun is already starting to peek over the horizon. I do one final sweep of the area, tiptoeing through the dense Nemoris forest. Satisfied all is well, I go in search of some of the fresh herbs I’d seen while checking the snares we set last night.
I find an enormous bush of honeysuckle simply because I can smell it. I pull a good handful of the flowers off, using my untucked shirt as a makeshift bucket. When I find a cluster of milkear mushrooms hiding between two fallen trees, I emit a little squeal. I had always instructed the children I looked after in the compound never to eat anything you don’t recognize when foraging, especially mushrooms. But I could spot milkear from a mile away and I hope I continue to find more.
Swordmint is growing wild everywhere, so I grab a few bunches to replenish my pouch. Excited, I see a rosemary plant and break a few stalks off to tie together to dry.
Pleased with my little haul, I return to camp to relight the fire Riley had let go out. Luckily, there were still a couple of embers I could use to get it going. I fill up our pot from the stream nearby and put it on to boil, throwing some of the honeysuckle in to brew.
Tovi is the next to wake up and looks bewildered. “Why didn’t you wake me for watch?”
“It was a short night, so I let you sleep,” I reply, not wanting to tell her what Riley did.
As Tovi goes to relieve herself, I begin making breakfast for everyone. First, I rip up the milkear mushrooms. I dig out a brown onion from the bottom of my bag and dice that up too. I pull some embers out of the fire so I can set the teapot to the side to keep warm.
The pan is heating when Bitty wakes up, bleary-eyed but smiling. I can’t help but smile as well when I throw the mushrooms and onion into the pan and hear that satisfying sizzle. While they’re cooking, I chop up some of the dried sausages we have (since the snares remained empty) and throw them in as I go.
“You can never leave us, Mika. Travel food has never been so good,” Beans growls with his unused morning voice.
Once the mushrooms, onion and sausage are done, I remove them so I can add the corn millet into the pan with water and salt to cook down. Finally, it’s time to add the other ingredients back in with another pinch of salt. My stomach is making loud announcements of hunger, which has Bitty laughing.
“What is this tea?” Tovi questions in a whisper.
“Honeysuckle. There’s a ridiculous bush growing back south a bit—I can’t believe we didn’t smell it as we were walking.”
“Might be my favorite yet,” Beans says with his eyes closed, large hands engulfing the metal mug. Bitty and Tovi both agree.
Bitty crawls with their tea, into Tovi’s bed roll. Tovi wraps her arm around them, resting her head on top of Bitty’s. I’m not sure if I imagine the protective, almost possessive look I get from Tovi over Bitty’s head. Bitty sighs contentedly, and they watch me finish making breakfast.
Everyone licks their plates clean with sounds of rapture. It’s not till the sun is over the horizon that Riley finally stirs. He has his back to the rising sun, so his face is in shadow, but I’m fairly sure he’s frowning.
“Mika made breakfast, and there are leftovers in the pan for you,” Beans offers to Riley, who grunts his response.
Beans gets up to relieve himself, and Tovi is relaxing on her bedroll, humming a tune to herself. I’m looking at a yellow dragonfly behind Bitty’s head when I see their eyes widen looking at Riley, and then look at me and back to Riley.
Riley leans forward to grab the pan. A black bruise from under his left eye down to the top of his cheekbone is clearly visible. He makes a pointed effort to ignore both Bitty and I staring at it with mouths open. “I love milkear mushrooms,” Riley states with a husky disused morning voice. “They’re my favorite.”
I guess we’re pretending that last night didn’t happen. Tovi rolls her eyes and mutters a curse I don’t quite catch when she sees Riley’s face.
After breakfast, surprisingly, everyone announces they have gifts for Bitty. It’s their birthday, and no one bothered to tell me. I clench my teeth, trying not to make it obvious how annoyed I am that I didn’t know .
“Twenty-two! You’re still a baby,” I tease, as everyone else reveals the gifts they hold in their hands. Bitty is not even five revs younger than me yet the age difference seems immense.
“We’re assuming that’s my age, I really have no idea.” Bitty laughs as Beans hands them a gift.
“Technically, this is the date seventeen revs past that I found a teeny tiny Lilleck, passed out from hunger. Damn kid was feral!” Beans jokes, with a smile reserved for fond memories.
Beans’ gift is a piece of thin leather rolled up. When Bitty unties it, their face lights up, and they turn it around to show everyone. A picture has been, I assume, tattooed into the flesh of the leather. It’s of Bitty, Beans, Mama, and Frankie. Simply beautiful.
“Your name is Lilleck?” I ask Bitty as they carefully wrap up Beans’ gift.
“I think so. Apparently, that’s the name I eventually gave Beans. I don’t remember at all.”
“Only took you a week to say something, and even then, it was only your name. You didn’t speak again for almost two revolutions,” Beans adds, pulling Bitty in for a big hug.
Their affection for each other is sweet. Bitty acts like an annoyed teen whenever Beans fusses over them, but you can see it in the sparkle of their eyes or the small dimple in their cheek that appears, that they love it. It’s a strange dynamic to witness, let alone be traveling with.
Tovi hands her gift over which is a new set of lock picks. “ They’ve been made of the finest metal in all of Erdu, but the best part is that they can be slotted together and made to look like a simple hairpin.” Bitty’s face is full of wonder as they inspect Tovi’s gift.
“So where did the name Bitty come from?” I ask both Bitty and Beans as the former uses the disguised lock picks to create a small bun at the top of their head, exposing their shaved undercut.
Beans laughs. “I started referring to them as ‘Lil bit’ because they were just a little bit of a thing—only a little bit of a Lilleck! And ‘Lil bit’ morphed into Bitty when they started complaining that they weren’t so little anymore.”
Bitty punches Beans in the shoulder, rolling their eyes. I can’t help but smile at the story, temporarily forgetting my selfish annoyance at being left out.
Lastly, Riley hands over his gift. It’s the thing he’s been carving in secret, a knife in a leather sheath. The wooden handle and hilt have been so delicately carved with all sorts of Laguz sea creatures, still managing to keep the shape of the handle comfortable despite the intricate carvings.
Everyone gave such thoughtful gifts.
I hate how jealous I am about it.
“My gift is a promise to kick your ass later.” I shrug with a smirk, hoping to at least make Bitty smile. I’m successful—Bitty laughs and says they can’t wait.
After a long day of travel, I start to teach Bitty some tricks to help with intuitive fighting.
“I don’t have fighting instincts!” Bitty complains.
“Instinct is not the same thing as intuition. Instinct is reacting and doing what comes naturally, but intuition is learned. The more we do this, the better you’ll get.”
Bitty gives me a dubious look but moves back into a fighting stance. “Ok, come kick my ass again.”
“Oh, I will, but this time, you can’t hit me with your hands.” I grin, as I run at them. Bitty barely has the chance to register what I’ve said before I’m on them.
I can still see everything running through their mind before they move, but they are quicker. Bitty has to rely on what they’ve learned about fighting in general rather than exactly what comes after each move they already know.
I’m about to elbow Bitty to the side of the head when they drop to the ground, twist their legs in mine so I trip, and then pin me by sitting on my back.
“Ok, I got you down, but I was so excited I couldn’t think of anything to do next that didn’t involve hands!” Bitty laughs as they roll off me, out of breath.
“Is that a usual move for you?”
“Dropping onto my ass? No!”
I nod as I sit up, raising my eyebrows and doing a dramatic shrug with my hands in the air. Bitty beams at me, and then their gaze moves over my shoulder. I turn, and behind me stands Tovi, leaning against a tree. How long she was there watching, I have no idea.
Our day is long and cold. I regret ever thinking I would miss the wind because the Nemoris wind is awful. Whenever we’re in areas that aren’t densely packed with forest, the wind feels like needles, despite the layers.
Only the incredible plant life brings me joy today. There are all manner of plants that I’ve never seen, or only read about, like a veritable expanse of teeny tiny green leaves with the teeniest tiny pale blue flowers dotted through, creating a carpet of the flowers. I want to lie down and snuggle into the cushion they create on the forest floor.
There are enormous trees of bright green leaves that start out red. With the sun streaming through, the young, red leaves at the top and at the ends of each branch turn to a bright yellowish green. The smell is intoxicating. A pungent citrusy smell with a woody, almost medicinal tang to it.
I’m not the only one in a mood—Riley’s gray pallor and pinched face suggest he’s not doing so great. This is further proven when he refuses to respond to Tovi’s playful teasing.
As if the long and cold day wasn’t miserable enough, the rain then comes in earnest. So much so that after only an hour of straight downpour, we spread out to look for a cave to shelter in. Tovi finds one first, a giant cavernous thing on the side of a mountain, but it’s out of the rain and already has a large stack of dry wood. Clearly, we are not the first to seek shelter here.
There’ll be no inn for us tonight.