34 Harvest, 385 - Source of the Puugnixi River, Midlands, Charan

Cora stayed with Jet while he finished skinning and butchering the gator. It took a long time, longer than she wanted to admit, to find the calm that she so carefully clung to. Tillie stayed near her, offering physical comfort and support. Jet’s mossy brown eyes had swept over her when she joined him, but hadn’t lingered. He kept glancing at her as he worked, but he did not speak to her. She needed quiet and calm, he knew from experience. Of the four of them, Cora suffered the worst, but none of them had escaped unscathed.

He scraped the hide as clean as he could make it before rolling it and adding it to the pile he had been making. His knife worked smoothly as he butchered the gator, putting the meat in the bag. He could hear Sophie and his wife talking on top of the cliff at first, but only faintly. It didn’t take long before the sounds faded. He was dying to know what had happened up there, but it wasn’t as if he wouldn’t know before too long anyway.

He buried the remains that he couldn’t use and finally turned to Cora, she was looking at him, still petting the dog, but she wasn’t shaking any longer. “Help me carry? Soph said there was a camp up there we’d be staying at tonight.”

Cora nodded, but didn’t speak as she grabbed up the meat bag and slung it over her shoulder. “I think there’s a way up if we head around the cliffside.”

“Lead on then,” Jet made a noble gesture and then followed when she turned to lead. Variegated grasses gave way to brush as Cora walked, bowed beneath the burden of the bag. It took longer to walk around the cliff and climb the steep incline that lead to the promontory. “Can you tell me what happened up there?”

Cora stiffened slightly. “There was a woman up there, she threatened Tillie and I. She was wounded.” Cora shrugged, her every action still stiff.

“Shouldn’t be too dangerous then.”

She only grunted in response and continued up the steep incline. Eventually, they reached the summit and there was the river’s burbling source. “This is where I met her.” Cora said as she walked around the large, bubbling pool. Tillie darted ahead, sniffing her way around the other side and then heading into the brush. “I think Kat and Sophie are that way.” She pointed at Tillie’s vanishing tail.

They lugged the supplies, three of the packs, the meat bag, and the pack of rolled leathers, into the brush and through into a small clearing amidst large grey barked trees. A small, crudely built, shelter wobbled next to the fire. Sophie was next to the fire, soaking clean cloths in cooling boiled water. Kat was kneeling on the ground next to the dark-haired stranger. She was cleaning out the deep wound with a blood soaked rag. The stranger moaned and struggled, but she did not regain consciousness. For that, Cora was more than grateful.

Jet was quick to draw Cora’s attention away from Kat and Salidda. “Let’s see if we can get a smoker set up so we can dry some of this meat. We’ll probably be staying here for a few days.”

“Alright.” Cora mused, “A smoker. We could use one of the tarps we put under the tents and wrap it around a framework.”

He smiled as he watched her, murmuring to herself as she thought through how to devise a simple smoker from materials they had or could harvest from nearby. With a purpose, she was able to completely ignore the injured stranger and focus her attention on something. Anything. Between her leatherman type tool and a good multipurpose knife, she gathered some long mostly straight branches and pared all the twigs and leaves off of them. Simple notches, pressed together and tied, created a square stand with racks stretching across it where the meat could be hung. Wrapped in a tarp to catch the smoke, the simple smoker was ready for use.

Together, Cora and Jet loaded the smoker with gator meat. They built up a second fire and put a few of the larger cuts on to roast. They would eat heartily tonight, with fresh meat and whatever else they could gather in this stand of wood. The stranger had probably been surviving off what she could find in the area and they could likely benefit from it just as well.

“Let’s check the camp to see what we can find. We should be able to tell what’s edible by what she’s gathered.” Jet said.

“Good idea.” Cora agreed. Since they had set up everything else, Cora was glad for the distraction. Even though it had taken quite a while to set everything up, Kat was still working on the injured stranger. Bloody cloths, cleaned and reboiled, tweezers picking bits and pieces from the festering wound. Cora studiously avoided looking at the process, instead heading toward the simple structure, looking for clues on what they could forage for in the wood.

It took hours for Kat to fully clean the wound, every time she thought she had finished and rinsed it with cooled, boiled water, she would find more pus and grit. She was starting to worry that the stranger would wake up before she had a chance to finish. Eventually, when she felt the wound was clean enough, she pulled out one of the potions that Hestor had purchased for them and looked at the clear red liquid.

“What do you think, Soph? Should we use the potion?”

“Shouldn’t hurt, right?”

Kat shrugged. “We don’t know what they’ll do. We’ve never had to use one.”

“True.” Sophie came over to kneel next to Kat as they looked down at the stranger. “I wonder what happened to her?”

“I’d say it was a bullet, but that’s unlikely.”

“No wonder it bothered Cora so much.”

“Probably an arrow.” Kat shook her head. “You’d think humanity would focus on killing all the dangerous creatures around here rather than each other.”

“What says it was a human?” Sophie countered.

“I suppose that’s a point, though it didn’t look like any of the awakened could draw a bow.”

“What says the awakened are the only other species around here?” Sophie snorted. “You’re procrastinating.”

“A wound this grave?” She huffed out a sigh. “This girl is going to die.” She kept her voice low, so Cora wouldn’t overhear. “Without antibiotics, modern medicine.” Kat shook her head, then waggled the potion. “This is our only chance.”

“And we don’t know what the hell it will do.” Sophie immediately understood.

“Exactly.” She breathed deep, looking down at the stranger and the angry red wound. “Hell, I don’t even know how to use it.” She shook her head, uncorking the bottle. “I guess, there’s only one way to find out.”

Kat braced herself one more time, taking a deep breath and steadying her hands. She poured some of the potion into the wound on the stranger’s back. Almost as soon as the crystalline potion touched the wound, Salidda’s brown eyes shot open and she screamed, writhing away from the pain. Immediately, Sophie grabbed the woman’s arms and held her still as she tried to prevent her from exacerbating the wound. Though the stranger cried in earnest as the wound began to stitch itself back together, beginning with the skin. “Not the best for punctures. We had better leave the other side open, or we could trap infection on the inside.”

“Couldn’t we use something to apply more of the potion to the deepest parts of the wound while leaving the outside open?” Sophie was surprisingly verbose, giving the struggle she was having with the woman. Though small, she was surprisingly strong.

“If I had something like a syringe or an eyedropper or something, I could do that. As it is, pouring is the best that we have.”

“In games you always drink healing potions. Maybe we should have her drink it?”

Kat frowned. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Sophie shrugged. “Not really your preferred type of game.”

Shaking her head as she watched the wound finish knitting closed, she wiped away the remaining blood with one of the clean cloths. “At least part of it is healed, look it hasn’t even left a scar. Should we have her drink the rest of the potion?”

“Maybe we should ask her when she wakes up again.” Sophie said, rolling the woman onto her back and smoothing down her hair. “She seems to have lost consciousness again.”

“Probably for the best, that seemed painful.” She glanced at the potion she still held in her hand, “I wonder if it’s always like that or if this wound was just more severe?”

“I fucking hope it’s not like that every time. Who in the hell would ever use a potion?”

“It’s better than dying, isn’t it?” Kat answered.

Looking down at the unconscious woman, Sophie couldn’t help but wonder.

34 Harvest, 385 - Source of the Puugnixi River, Midlands, Charan

It was dusk when she awakened, she was warm and comfortable and for the first time since she had gone hunting with her father, she was without pain. Salidda took her time opening her eyes. The last thing she could remember was inviting the two strange women to her camp. Her shoulder had been burning with pain, so bright and frightening. Salidda had been certain that her father’s arrow would eventually kill her through the infection.

She could hear people talking nearby as she slowly opened her eyes. It took her a moment to fumble her way toward understanding.

“... and then Cora tripped over her own feet, fumbled the ball, and it rolled right into our own damned goal.”

The group laughed.

Salidda opened her eyes slowly, wincing against the firelight for a moment as she adjusted to the brightness. She couldn’t help but groan as worked to sit up. While there was no pain, her muscles were stiff and protested the movement. Her stomach grumbled hungrily as she took a deep breath, resplendent with the smell of roasted meat.

“Ah, you’re awake!” One of the strange women said. She could see that now there were three, gathered around the fire. Two with pale skin similar to her own, and one a much deeper color. A man, also with dark skin, sat next to a strange, bright blue cloth box.

There were several good sized roasts cooking over the fire and the scent of it had Salidda’s mouth watering. She glanced around the dusk-draped clearing and saw her own shelter off to one side. “Thank you for helping me.” The strange words in the awakened tongue took longer to summon than she would have liked.

“Thank you for sharing your space with us.” It was the second girl she had seen, the dark haired, pale skinned one. “As promised, we’ll share our bounty. The meat is almost cooked.”

Her stomach rumbled again as Salidda nodded. “Thank you, again.” She rubbed at her once wounded shoulder, the flesh was tender but whole again. “I don’t know that I can repay you. I have no money.”

The strangers exchanged glances. “You don’t owe us anything, We would help without reward.” The man was the one who spoke. “Though I certainly wouldn’t turn away some lessons about what’s edible in this place.”

Salidda eyed the meat, her expression concerned. “You don’t know what’s safe to eat?”

“The meat’s from a gator we found in the river.” He explained. “We’re pretty sure it’s safe.”

“They are.” She looked again at the four people around her fires. “I can teach you what you can eat, but how do you not know?”

“We’re not from here.” It was still the man who spoke.

The women were listening to the conversation attentive as they put the finishing touches on the meal. Roast gator, hornroot fried in fat, and slices of sweet-reed. An excellent meal overall, Salidda decided as she watched. “Where are you from then?”

Again the strangers shared a glance and this time one of the women finally spoke up. “Salidda was your name, wasn’t it?” It was the dark haired pale skinned one. “I’m Sophie, if you remember. If you don’t remember, it’s okay.”

“I remember.” She pointed at the other pale woman. “And Cora, right?”

The blonde woman’s hazel eyes flicked toward Salidda and she nodded.

“But where did you come from, if you are not from the midlands?” Salidda asked again

Another unreadable glance. Salidda started to worry, the hunger in her stomach souring. The last one of the strangers, the darker woman spoke. “I’m Kat and this is Jet. We came through some kind of portal.”

“Portal?” Salidda repeated, “I’m sorry, that’s not a word I understand.”

“A rift, a hole, or something. A doorway between our home and this place, I think.”

Salidda frowned, “There is no magic in the midlands.”

It was Jet’s turn to frown. “The door wasn’t magical then?”

The young barbarian shrugged. “How should I know? Magic is forbidden among my people.” Forbidden and punished by death. She shuddered. One of the women passed her a plate of food and Salidda settled it down on her lap. The strangers settled in to eat as well. “I was certain I would die out here alone.” She said softly as she looked down at her food. “Thank you for saving me.”

“You’re welcome, but it was the right thing to do.” Kat said.

“Not everyone does the right thing when offered the choice.” Salidda said.

“We always try to.” Kat said.

“Where are you traveling to?” Salidda asked, still looking at her meal rather than eating.

“Ward. Hastor of Brazen Hold said we should travel there if we wanted to find our kind and get our questions answered.” Sophie said.

After looking down at her meal for another long moment, she asked. “Would you let me accompany you? I could help you forage. My people are nomadic and I’ve traveled much of the Great Valley and the plains beyond so I could guide you.”

The strangers looked at one another again and didn’t answer immediately, but soon enough the man, Jet, said, “Sure. We’d be grateful for the assistance.”

Salidda breathed a sigh of relief and finally began eating. She wasn’t entirely certain what the strangers were after, but she wouldn’t be alone anymore. She didn’t want to be alone anymore.