14. Chapter Fourteen #2
Ty debated what he should tell her. Should he reveal the existence of his companions? What if she and her people were hostile? He didn’t want to reveal to them that there were more strangers from the other side of the Chasm Mountains and have her or others go after them. But…
Wasn’t this the whole reason they’d come?
To find these people, befriend them, and seek their help?
He needed to start things out on a good foot if he hoped for that and, more importantly, he needed to find Turner and Ena himself—and without his horse or any supplies, he’d likely need this woman’s help to do that.
“I was traveling with two companions, a woman and a man. We have come to find a group of people.”
“What kind of people?” she asked again, suspiciously.
“Ones that worship a being called Omnis,” he said.
If he expected her to have a big reaction to that, she didn’t. She continued to stare at him, as if trying to figure him out. “And why are you looking for those people?” she asked.
“Because…we need their help.”
“What kind of help?”
“Just…” Ty began, wondering where to begin and how much to reveal. “It’s a long story, but…” He really did not want to play this card, but he knew it would expedite the process considerably, so he decided to grin and bear it. “There’s a woman with them. A witch. I—I need to speak with her.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed on him further, if that was even possible. “Why must you speak with her?”
“Because,” Ty said harshly, a bit pissed at this woman’s continued suspicion of him. “She’s my mother.”
The woman had no response to that, but she did continue to stare at Ty like he was a curiosity, tilting her head slightly like a hellhound trying to understand human speech.
Without a word, she reached up and undid one of the furs wrapped around her shoulders and neck. The one that had covered her lower face, so Ty was able to see her more clearly.
Her face was feminine and pretty, though with a harsh edge to it that made her slightly intimidating, especially when coupled with her slightly animalistic and strange-colored eyes. She had straight, jet-black hair, and her skin…it was deathly pale—even paler than Ena’s.
She lowered the fur over top of his body, and the warmth of it instantly added to his body’s slow progression back to a normal temperature. He nearly sighed with the pleasurable relief of it.
“I’ll take the offering as a sign that you believe me,” he said, his teeth chattering once more.
She didn’t say anything, just continued to stare at him.
“I promise, if you mean us no harm, we mean you no harm either.”
She seemed to accept that and stood up again to break a few more branches and throw them on the fire. “I believe you,” she said simply as she worked. “Besides, if you did mean me harm, know that I could put an arrow through your skull in three seconds.”
Ty eyed the bow and quiver of arrows strapped to her back, and decided he believed her. She definitely had the air of someone who knew how to kill.
The two of them sat in silence for a while as the movement came back to Ty’s body.
The woman offered him a drink from one of her waterskins—she had two for some reason—and some dried meat she carried in a small pack attached to her waist. It wasn’t much food—Ty figured their village must be close if she didn’t have many provisions.
And he was curious about where her village was, but there was a much more important task first.
“My companions,” he said as he began eating. “Have you seen any sign of them? I was separated from them when we were crossing the river.”
The woman shook her head but otherwise remained silent.
“I need to find them,” Ty said, some of the desperation he felt slipping into his voice. “I need to go back to where I was lost.”
“You traveled through the canyon,” she said simply.
“The what?”
“The canyon—a tight waterway. It would take weeks to route around it and go back to where you were separated,” she said matter-of-factly. “There is no way they are anywhere near here.”
Ty felt his anger rise at her words, though truthfully, it was not at her. Just at the situation. “I don’t care if it takes months, I need to find them again.”
“Aren’t they trying to find my people too?” the woman asked, slightly condescendingly.
“Yes,” Ty said, his patience thinning for this woman’s attitude.
“And if they cannot find you, which they will not, what do you think they will do?”
Ty grew silent, seeing her point. If Ena and Turner couldn’t find him…
fuck, he didn’t even want to think about how upset they would be.
They didn’t even know he’d survived the water.
But…they would continue on, right? He hoped they would.
He knew Ena was strong. And Turner…he wouldn’t give up on a mission.
Ty sighed and closed his eyes. It went against his entire being to not run back in the direction he’d come from right now to find them, no matter how long it would take.
But if he truly was that far…maybe it did make sense to continue on himself, and hope to Iblis that he found them with the rest of the Omnis worshippers.
Ty looked back up at the woman, who looked slightly smug. “So you see what I am saying,” she said.
Ty reached up with his uninjured side, rubbing his hand through his beard.
He was grateful that the movement was coming back to his fingers once more, though he wondered if he would ever regain the feeling in his blackened fingertips.
“I see,” he said reluctantly. “But if they are not there, with your people, I will need to go find them.”
“Understood,” she said simply, agreeing to his terms. “None of us will stop you.”
The ball of anxiety in Ty’s chest loosened slightly, hearing that, but did not dissolve completely. He needed to find Ena and make sure she was alright for that to happen.
Ty sighed again, resigned to his current course of action, before he realized something else.
“What’s your name?” he asked her. She had helped him after all. She didn’t seem a threat—although she was a bit annoying. He supposed they should travel as friendly acquaintances from here on out.
“Xena,” she said.
“Thank you,” Ty began stiltedly. “For your help.”
“Do not thank me,” she said dismissively. “Omnis works in mysterious ways, no?”
Ty wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, or what Omnis really was, but he nodded in agreement all the same.