Jamal VII

PA 1.1

Night fell quietly on their campsite.

As the hours had passed, Ishi’s condition had somewhat stabilized, the thrashing and convulsing calming down enough for the three of them to feel comfortable stepping away for a bit. The tent flap was still open, allowing them to see him from their place around the fire while they ate.

After what had happened to Ishi, they refused to eat anything new they hadn’t eaten before, even with the Wise Woman’s assurances it would be fine. So off to the side sat a large pile of wild fruits, roots, and other plants they were too scared to touch. A waste, perhaps, but better safe than sorry.

A tired silence had fallen over them as they ate. Not quite an awkward silence, but they were all too mentally and emotionally exhausted to speak. Not with Ishi’s condition in the back of their minds.

At least, not until Jamal sighed, dropping his head into his hands.

“Fuck,” he muttered softly, digging his fingers into his scalp. “This is all my fault.”

“It’s not your fault, Jamal,” Yue immediately went to reassure him.

“Uh, no, it kind of is,” Fei cut in.

“Fei!” she hissed, glaring at him.

“What? It is! And pretending it’s not is dumb as shit!” Fei shot back, before turning to Jamal. “Look, you’re my friend, and I think of you like a brother. But you’re actions might have ended up killing Ishi—and even if—when he makes it through this now, he still ended up hurt because of them.”

Each point Fei made was like a blow to the chest, a truth he hated to acknowledge forced upon him.

“But… that doesn’t mean we also don’t share the blame,” the gruff man continued. “We all made mistakes—yours was keeping us isolated, and Ishi’s was eating something he wasn’t sure about. Ours was not stopping either of you when we had the chance. So, stop moping around! We all fucked up! And the only thing we can do from here on out is stop being dumbasses and fix our damn mistakes like the adults we, and not children still clinging to their mother’s teats.”

“Fei…” Yue breathed. “…I’m surprised. I didn’t think you were eloquent enough to get something like that across.”

“Oh, fuck off!”

Jamal took a deep breath, ignoring their continued squabbling as he took in Fei’s words.

It was painful, what he’d said. Acknowledging one’s own mistakes was hard, especially when the consequences were so dire. But it was something he had to do. Something he needed to drill into his head.

‘I messed up, big time,’ he told himself. ‘Because I was too cautious—no, because I was too afraid—to enter any villages, Ishi was hurt. I was so worried about my enemies threatening my friends that I ignored more pressing threats to their safety. I took a stupid risk, and it could have cost one of us our life. It’s only luck it didn’t. I can’t do that again. I refuse to do that again. And if that means I need to take the risk of entering civilization, then so be it.’

Nodding to himself, Jamal muttered under his breath, “Never again.”

--

Yue and Fei eventually had to fall asleep, their mortal bodies needing rest in a way Jamal’s did not. It left him alone that night, watching over Ishi. At this point Jamal was hoping things would be alright—Ishi’s body had stopped spasming constantly and his breathing had evened out. The Wise Woman had said that the longer he survived the more likely he would be to survive, and that if he made it to morning he’d be fine. Hopefully, this was a good sign.

In the meantime, to keep himself occupied sitting alone all night, Jamal had begun scratching pictures in the dirt. Some of it was just abstract doodles and shapes, but at one point he’d gotten it in mind to try and sketch out the path they’d taken to get where they are now.

‘We started on a river, and I think Yue said we were near the coast, right…?’ he mused to himself, dragging his stick through the dirt. ‘And we went East… and then we hit that huge mountain range… I think we ended up drifting north a bit, though I don’t know how far… We came out at this plateau, and hit the river, which currently bends south… Didn’t one of those villagers say that it fed into the ocean? Or maybe just a big lake, hard to tell. Whatever, not important. We’ve still got a way to go before we get there anyway, so that would put us… here.’

Pulling the stick away, Jamal stared down at the vague map he’d drawn on the ground.

It was… not a very good sketch.

Dragging his foot across it, he erased the drawing with a sigh. It wasn’t like it mattered that much anyways. Where they were going mattered more than where they’d been.

That was right. Like Fei told him—learn from the past, but focus on the future.

--

Morning snuck up on him like it always did following a sleepless night.

First came the insects, the faint chirping of crickets fading away to the croaking of frogs. Birdsong from birds he’d never heard of before followed, flooding the forest with their sweet melodies. Finally came the sun, the orange light of sunrise flooding through the treetops as that giant burning ball of gas finally peaked above the horizon.

It was a quiet morning like any other. He hated that, a little bit. His friend might be dying, the least the world could do was act like it.

But they weren’t that important in the end, were they? Immortal or mortal, the world didn’t care for their lives. Perhaps there was some comfort in that.

Maybe he should’ve taken a nap.

“Jamal?” Yue crawled out of her tent, sounding exhausted. “Is Ishi… no. Is Ishi awake?”

Jamal turned to her, feeling sympathy when he saw the bags under her eyes—he didn’t feel physically exhausted anymore, but emotionally he was just as drained.

“He’s still alive,” he grunted. “Don’t worry, I checked. He’s just asleep right now. His body’s calmed down as well—he’s no longer thrashing about anymore. He’s shuffled around in his sleep, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was earlier.”

“Good,” she breathed, holding a hand over her heart in relief. “That’s good. So that means he’s fine now?”

There were sicknesses that made people get better before they got worse, but he wasn’t going to be the person to tell her that. “Yeah. Hopefully he’ll wake up soon.”

Yue gave him a tired smile, before leaving to go start up their morning routine. Check the food and water to make sure nothing got in them, grab a small breakfast, and start maintaining their tools. The only thing missing was taking down the tents—with Ishi ill as he was, there was no way they were leaving until he was better.

His attention was taken away from watching her work by Ishi, who began shuffling from where he was lying beside him.

With well-worn dread, he turned to his sleeping friend, prepared to hold him down for another hour to stop him from hurting himself in his thrashing about.

However, it seemed that wasn’t what was going to happen.

Ishi, with herculean effort, opened his eyes.

“…Jamal?” he rasped, sounding as bad as he looked. “…Am I dead?”

Jamal, despite himself, couldn’t help but let out a wet laugh, tears forming in his eyes. “No, but you certainly gave it your best shot.”

“…Hah…” he blinked slowly. “Wow. I feel like shit.”

“I’d imagine,” Jamal nodded, rubbing at his eyes. “You’ve been out all night. We were… pretty worried about you for a bit. You spent most of the night trashing about.”

“…Is that why my everything hurts so badly?”

“Yeah, probably—wait, Yue!” he called, sticking his head out of the tent. “Ishi’s awake!”

“He’s awake!? Really!?” she shouted, dropping everything to run over to them.

Ishi winced, jerking sharply. “Ow… Please don’t talk so loudly.”

“Oh, sorry,” she whispered, crawling down next to him. Checking over his body, she let out a relieved smile. “Oh, Ishi, thank the gods you’re alive. We were so worried. Are you feeling alright?”

“No,” he croaked. “I want… I want to go back to sleep.”

“Not until we’ve gotten some food in you, buddy,” Jamal told him. “You’ve got to eat something, especially after everything that happened last night.”

Ishi blinked lethargically, before letting out a groan. “Fuck. Fine. Just… just give me a minute.”

Leaving Yue there to help him into a sitting position, Jamal left the tent to grab him some food. He also shook Fei awake while he could, bringing him back to Ishi’s tent with him.

Fei, upon seeing Ishi sitting up and talking with Yue, smiled. Jamal had to stop and stare as he did, as he realized he’d never actually seen Fei smile—smirk, grimace, and laugh, but never smile. It was jarring, in a way he hadn’t expected.

“Hey dumbass,” Fei grinned as Ishi, sounding relieved. “You’ve been sleeping like the dead.”

“Yeah,” Ishi gave him a pained smile back. “One could say I almost did!”

Upon seeing their aggrieved expressions to that joke, he winced. “Uh, too soon?”

“A little,” Jamal admitted. “But it’s fine—if you’re good enough to crack crappy jokes then you won’t be dying on us any time soon.”

“Here’s hoping,” he tried to raise an arm, but halfway up it spasmed, making him drop it with a wince. “Ouch. Damnit. I hope that doesn’t last that long.”

“Are you alright?” Yue asked worriedly. “Do you need us to do anything? Anything at all?”

“Maybe some water?” he half asked, rubbing at his throat with a wince.

“I’ve got you some, here,” Jamal shuffled forward, handing him a waterskin.

With shaking arms, Ishi barely managed to grab the waterskin out of his hands. Pulling it closer to himself under the worried looks of his friends, he managed to stick the opening in his mouth, but not much else.

“…Do you want us to help with that?” Yue asked awkwardly.

Ishi scowled, his arms violently twitching and causing him to drop the waterskin. Picking it back up, he said, “No, I’ve got this. Just give me a sec.”

“…Well, okay. But just know that we’re willing to help you if you need it.”

“Thanks,” he grunted, finally managing to get the waterskin in the right position. With an audible sigh of relief he started gulping down water so fast Yue had to remind him to slow down.

…Well, at least he seems more aware now then he was when he woke up.

Leaning back, Jamal took in the scene before him. Yue, fretting over Ishi like she was his mom. Fei, standing over them and smiling happily. And Ishi, alive and breathing.

They could have died today. Ishi could have very easily died. No modern medicine to help him, no doctors or nurses, not even a Wikipedia article to read. It had been entirely up to luck that Ishi hadn’t died. And it wasn’t even to some imaginary enemy he’d been worried about all this time—but from poison, because he ate the wrong fruit off the wrong tree. Because of that, he’d almost lost one of his few friends.

In that moment, Jamal fully comprehended how close his friends had been to death.

And how if they’d all have died, only he would have survived. All alone. Again.

He took a deep breath, and then shoved out any negative thoughts from his head, any worries for the future or fears from the past. Instead, he simply smiled, committing this scene to memory. Committing the faces of his friends to memory.

Yeah. All told, it could have been much worse.

9,902 God-Kings Remain