It rained heavily that night, a cool fresh rain that soaked Rial to the bone before he could dash beneath the trees for cover. Already wet but not cold enough to cause him to shiver, he resolved to travel through the night until he reached the site of the attack that had taken his companions from him. As he had hoped, when he reached the area he found the tents collapsed but whole. It was well after midnight by the time he set one up and crawled inside.

When he awoke the following morning the ground was water-logged and soft, sucking at his feet as he stepped outside. The slopes around the plateau had washed out, large smears of dirt left where the grass had been swept away. His skin chafed from the damp. The sun, however, was shining, and as he stepped into the light Rial felt his spirits revived by its rays.

He was further buoyed when his foot kicked against something hard in the mud and, looking down, he saw the crimson sheath of Brin’s… his sword lying there. He quickly untied the blade from its makeshift cloth tie and replaced it in the sheath, pulling the belt tight around his waist.

His pack, too, was still there, though soaked through. He removed the now inedible rations and the sodden clothing, hanging the latter from some nearby branches to dry, burying the former along with the nekota-skin pack he had been using. Now he could supplement the few snares and equipment Rei had left for him with his full set, and he set about laying traps with abandon.

It was whilst he was roasting a freshly-caught rabbit[1] over a fire that he realised he hadn’t stopped to wonder at the lack of bodies.

Where were they? Certainly, Rei had escaped, but he had seen both Brin and Eselwol fall beneath a number of the beasts. Shaleigh, too, could surely not have withstood much more of the khiladri attack. There must be something left.

A chill went down his spine that belied the warm afternoon sun. Were the bodies of his friends close by, lying unattended between the trees where the khiladri had dragged them? Had someone survived, to take the rest away?

His appetite gone, Rial left the rabbit roasting over the fire and stood, retracing the path he had taken to lay his traps but this time looking for any sign of the others. He found nothing; whatever may have been left to find had been washed away in the rain. He counted it fortunate that he did not find any corpses.

He ate the charred rabbit and lay under the sun, eyes growing heavy. He may have slept, he wasn’t sure, but however long he dozed his rest ended abruptly in sudden realisation.

He’d been so stupid.

“Mead,” Rial said, reaching across and pulling the weapon to him. “Can you… detect… any of the people I came here with?”

“The females named Shaleigh and Rei are approximately one hundred and fifty kilometres away towards your village. They are carrying the male named Eselwol,” replied Mead.

Rial felt a thrill of elation, then curiosity.

“You can tell what they’re doing at this distance?” he asked.

“Dependant on atmospheric interference my scanning capabilities operate on a fine scale for distances in excess of several hundred kilometres and at lesser clarity for multiples of thousands.”

“When you say ‘fine’ scale…”

“I could tell you what they ate for lunch.”

Rial shook his head in wonder at this strange machine.

“They’re carrying Eselwol? Why?” he asked.

“He is unconscious and badly injured. They appear to have been carrying him for much of the journey.”

“And Brin? Can you detect him?” Rial held Mead up as if it could help him search.

“His biometric signature does not appear on any of my scans. I am afraid he must be assumed to be lost.”

“Lost?” said Rial, heart sinking.

“Expired. Ceased to be. Deceased. An ex...” said Mead in flat tones.

“Thanks Mead, I get it,” said Rial, placing the weapon to the floor and pacing away from the stream of synonyms.

Rial was getting tired of the constant mixed feelings he had been forced to confront since this had all began, and this time was amongst the worst of them.

He felt sad at the loss of Brin; the man had protected him, had protected the village, had treated Rial as an adult, but this sadness was tempered with the ever-present resentment Rial realised he still carried deep-down. Brin was the man who had deserted him, traded him to the slavers like a cheap bauble. It did not matter that it was at the Kotaku’s behest; Brin had been the one to commit the final act of betrayal.

The sword hung at Rial’s side in its crimson sheath, a reminder of both treachery and regret as they journeyed on.

The trek back was uneventful, a monotonous sequence of downhill hiking and evenings setting snares. The easy hunting of the few days since Mead had purified the stream had ended, and the lower he descended the smaller and scrawnier the catch. The rabbit was a pleasant memory amidst thin flesh and gristle. At least the yanotake mushrooms had bloomed well in the rain, their vivid blues fluorescent in the twilight.

On an evening of the second or third week he reached the plateau from which his group had taken their last glimpse of home. He knew something was wrong in the village the moment it came into view.

The smoke of numerous fires poured into the air, far more fires than was usual. They looked like controlled fires, and the vast majority burned on the side facing the plains, but Rial could think of no reason for the villagers to kindle even half that number.

As his eyes adjusted to seeing the village from this angle Rial realised something more. The cleared area of the forest was far wider than when he had left, a swathe of vegetation now missing around the area where the fires burned so numerously. It must have taken a great number of people to clear such a large area in so little time, but why?

Rial drew out Mead. As he did so some small part of him protested; Rial knew he feared becoming too reliant on the weapon, but the thing could offer him answers where he found none.

“Mead, can you tell what’s going on in the village?” Rial asked.

“Yes.”

The machine must have registered the annoyed look on Rial’s face, as it continued after a short pause;

“I will require more specific instructions. What is it you wish to know?”

“Why have they cleared the forest? What’s going on down there?” asked Rial.

He knew what the answer would be before Mead spoke.

“Unknown.”

Rial took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He just needed to make his questions more focused, he told himself.

He tried again.

“Mead, how many people are in the village right now?”

Rial hardly noticed the now-familiar tingling sensation of Mead performing its scans.

“There are currently over 1000 people within the environs of the settlement. This is an increase of approximately 350 over the population at the time of our departure.”

An increase of 350 people? The population of the village had increased by more than a half in the short weeks since he had been gone, and Rial had no idea why.

[1] Rabbit, once a common meat of both the mountains and the plains, had become increasingly rare over the past few generations and was now considered something of a delicacy.