38 Harvest, 385 - Midlands, Charan

“Shit!” Jet screamed as he thrust with his spear into the flank of the twenty foot long alligator that had surged up out of the river they had been looking for a way to cross. “Kat get back!”

She dodged backward, her own spear gouging a line along the side of the alligator’s face, barely missing the eye. “I’m fine Jet, just stab the damn thing.” The gator lunged forward again, teeth snapping just out of range of Kat’s feet.

Sophie jumped on the gator’s back, wrapping her arms around its mouth. “Quick, tie it closed.”

Cora rushed in to help as the gator thrashed underneath Sophie and Kat added her weight to the gator’s head. “Got it!” Cora said at last and all three of the women rushed out of the way, preparing their spears.

“Get it!” It was Kat this time and everyone stabbed down at the gator. It struggled and thrashed for longer than Cora thought possible, but eventually it went still.

All four of them were breathing heavily, but no one was bleeding. Cora flopped down to the ground on her back, out of the mud and blood. “Jesus. Can we have one day without any excitement on this fucking hike?”

“Tell me about it,” Sophie said as she settled down next to her friend. “It’s always something.”

Kat sat down nearby, but stayed upright so she could keep watch. Jet looked at the three women he traveled with and shook his head. “What? I’ve got to be the one to butcher this shit again?”

Sophie lifted her head, just enough to look at him. “I’m the one that jumped on the damn thing.”

Jet continued to grumble as he went about skinning and preparing the animal, but there was a good natured grin on his face as he did. The four of them had been working together as a team for a long time and they worked very well together.

“Should we set up camp here and cross the river tomorrow?” Kat suggested.

Cora, her eyes half closed, just grunted in response, but Sophie pointed vaguely east. “Let’s camp up there, it’s a better vantage point.”

“Do you have the meat bag, Cora?” Jet asked.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get up in a minute.” It was almost exactly a minute before she climbed to her feet. The reeds on the north side of the river swayed in the wind, ticking against one another. She gave Jet the meat bag from her backpack. “I’m going to go up and scout out the rise.” She whistled for Tillie and the dog climbed up out of the mud where she had been rolling.

“Be careful.” Jet admonished.

“Always,” Cora said brightly over her shoulder as she headed toward the rocky rise. Between the tickling sound of the reeds and the burble of the wide river, she could barely hear the susurration of the falls as they tumbled over the rocks. Tillie bounded through the river near the bank, splashing and cavorting. Cora couldn’t help but smile as she watched the dog. Tillie had such sheer delight in the world, nothing seemed to bring the blonde dog down. Not even traipsing through a portal into a completely different world seemed to bother Tillie in the least.

From the riverbank, it wasn’t the easiest climb up to the top of the rise, but she decided not to look for an easier way up. A good climb wasn’t a bad way to work the shaking feeling out of her stomach.

Tillie leapt from rock to rock as she flanked Cora. The dog’s warm brown eyes kept glancing at Cora, keeping track of the young woman. The climb wasn’t difficult and it didn’t take long for her to reach the top. The river was fed by a bubbling source at the top. Cora was still looking at the source when there was a shout from the north side of the river. She whirled, dropping down into a crouch and reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there.

Across the river, in a similar crouched position, but carrying a crude bow was another woman. She was short, likely only a couple of inches over five feet, and had long dark hair that was matted and tangled. The dark brown eyes that glared across at Cora were equal parts fierce and frightened. Cora’s heart stuttered, stalled, and clenched. The breath stalled in her lungs and she couldn’t draw another in. Her stomach had been shaky after the fight, but now her whole body was trembling. Tillie reacted immediately, rushing to Cora’s side and putting one paw on her foot. The big dog’s warm flank pressed against Cora’s side and the wide head came up under her hand, giving the young woman something to hold on to as the panic set in.

The bow, crude though it may be, was aimed at Cora. The language that she used when she spoke was rough, filled with harsh syllables and sharp consonants. The voice was much deeper than Cora had expected, throaty and edged in the same trembling panic that had settled in Cora’s stomach. Cora dug her fingers into the long fur on Tillie’s head as she slid back a careful step, other hand rising to show that she was unarmed. Again the other woman spoke, gesturing with the bow back toward the climb and the river below where Cora’s friends were. Tillie swung her large body between Cora and the stranger. The stranger shifted the bow so it was pointed more at the dog than at Cora.

“Tillie, watch my back,” Cora said as soon as she noticed where the bow was pointing. She could barely keep the panic from swelling up and overwhelming her, but she wouldn’t let this dark haired stranger harm Tillie.

The blonde dog glanced over her shoulder at Cora, almost as if she was asking for confirmation of the order, before she circled around to behind the woman. “We’re no threat.” Cora said, both hands up now, heart beating as though it was going to escape her chest. “No weapons.”

The bow wavered only slightly as the woman studied Cora and Tillie. “No threat?”

“No harm. I mean you no harm.” Cora said, her voice steadying slightly. She raised her hands a little higher. “Empty, see? No weapon. No harm.” The shorter girl’s dark eyes studied Cora, taking in her bright clothes and neon pack, her empty hands and waving honey-colored hair.

The dark-eyed stranger took a deep breath and lowered her arms, the bow pointing at the ground as she eased the pressure on the bow. Her arms were trembling and as she lowered them, Cora noticed a rip in her clothing at the shoulder that exposed an angry-looking wound. Cora’s own arms were trembling and she lowered herself to the ground. She focused on breathing, trying to settle her racing heart. Tillie crowded her way into Cora’s lap, putting her head on the woman’s shoulder and whining softly.

Cora couldn’t take her eyes off the stranger, trying to watch for any hostile movements. Her hands were trembling as she stroked Tillie’s soft fur, murmuring to the dog soft words of comfort, as though Tillie were the one that needed it.

“Cora!” She heard the call from down the little cliff face and tried again to pull herself together. “Cora!” Sophie called again when her friend didn’t answer.

She tilted her head to the side, still watching the stranger. The younger woman looked confused for only a moment before she nodded, not putting the bow down, but not drawing it either. “I’m up here, Soph. Be careful. We’re not alone.”

“Is it another awakened?” Sophie called back, excitedly.

“No. She’s human, I think.” Cora, of course, couldn’t be sure. Just because something looked a certain way, didn’t mean it was.

Salidda tried to keep her knees from wobbling as she watched a second girl climb the lip onto the promontory. This one was shorter than the first, with darker hair. They spoke quickly to one another in the language of the awakened, which Salidda understood well enough, but not so quickly spoken. Her eyes kept darting between the two, seeking some sort of assurances that they really were harmless. Her bow still pointed down, but she could have it knocked and aimed in seconds given provocation.

The first girl, with the honey-brown hair still had her hands in the air, but the second tucked her hands into pockets on her pants. She eyed Salidda warily, but not with the fear that the first one showed. “Listen, kid,” She began, “Let’s start over, yeah? I’m Sophie and this is Cora. What’s your name?”

It took just a moment for her to parse the words and answer. “Salidda, of Blu-” She cut herself off, shaking her head. “Just Salidda.”

“It’s nice to meet ya, Salidda.” Sophie said, stepping between her and the woman sitting with the dog. Her voice was much softer and had less of the harsh accent common in her people. “We’re traveling toward Ward and were looking for a place to rest for the night. We just had a successful hunt and we could share our meat if you’d be willing to share space with us. There’s safety in numbers right?” She kept her hands in her pockets out of sight, but once she was between Salidda and Cora she made no further moves.

The bow she had cobbled together from green wood and sinew was pulling at the wound in her shoulder, she could feel it break open and begin to bleed again. She dropped the bow, putting her hand up to the wound and applying pressure. Dark sparks gathered at the edges of her vision and it was all she could do to remain on her feet. Her voice, when she spoke, she was glad to notice gave no hint of her weakness. “You may stay.” She said stiffly. “My shelter is too small to share, but you may share my fire.” She turned around, intending to return to her shelter and see about the wound, but she made it only two steps before she fell.

“Medic!” Sophie yelled as she pulled her hands from her pockets and raced toward the falling woman, splashing heedlessly through the shallow stone-bound water. She was fast, but the girl hit the ground faster. Cora had frozen in place, holding tightly to Tillie’s fur. She immediately checked the small dark haired woman for a pulse and gently checked her over.

Kat was up the cliff almost instantaneously. The call for a medic had her responding almost without conscious thought and she was at the fallen stranger’s side in a matter of breaths. “What happened?” She asked as she began checking signs, wishing for a real medkit and all the tools of the trade.

Sophie glanced back at Cora and seeing that her friend had her head buried in Tillie’s soft fur, she answered instead. “Looks like she has an infected injury. She was holding Cora at arrowpoint when I came up to check on her.”

“Swit.” Kat cursed, “She okay?”

Sophie looked to Cora once more and winced. “Probably?”

“This wound on the shoulder is definitely infected.” Kats skilled hands shifted the stranger’s dress off her shoulder so she could inspect it more closely. “Goes straight through. Looks like she might have burned it at one point, trying to cauterize it.” Her brown eyes narrowed as she studied the track the wound had taken. “Wish I had some antibiotics or a scalpel or something.” She glanced down at her hands, noticing the tremble before clenching them and then shaking them out. “Should we try a healing potion?”

“It’s probably our best choice. Though I don’t know what they actually do.” Sophie kept sneaking glances back at Cora, keeping an eye on her.

“I need to clean this wound first. Can you get a fire started and boil us some water?” Kat followed Sophie’s gaze then continued. “Cora, sweetie, can you take Tillie and go tell Jet what’s going on?”

Cora didn’t answer, but she did glance toward the path down to the riverside where they had killed the gator. Kat nodded in satisfaction and went back to tending to the stranger, checking for more wounds. She spoke softly to the young woman as she tended her, but the words were mostly meaningless. Sophie climbed down the cliff and came back with a pot and a firestarter a few minutes later. “Cora is safe with Jet now. Thanks for sending her down. She’s not doing too badly.”

“Good, good. I’m going to pick all the debris out of the wound and then I’ll need the boiled water to clean it. Think you can get that fire going?”

“Yeah, the stranger said she had a fire and a shelter through those trees. I’m going to go check it out. Might as well use hers if it's already burning.”

Kat nodded, but didn’t watch as Sophie walked away. The tweezers in her emergency kit were great for pulling out splinters, but they weren’t really suitable for picking dirt and grime out of a heavily infected wound. She could see a dull green pus deep in the wound and she could smell that the wound was definitely infected. “Easy does it,” She said softly to the stranger as she worked on debriding the wound. The woman shifted uncomfortably away from the touch, but did not wake up. “It’s alright, honey. We’ll get this nice and cleaned up and I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Truth or lie wasn’t really important at this exact moment, but Kat kept up a soft patter of conversation as she cleaned the poor woman’s wound.