Page 20 of Shadow Caster
“Looks like we’re out of the woods,” Minnie said. “Literally.”
The forest opened onto flatlands, green fields, and the odd shrub or bush. Green, bright green. Colors so vivid in the warm buttery rays of the sun.
“Back home, I sometimes wake early to watch the sunset,” Minnie said.
“Me too,” Thomas replied with a sigh. “I went out during the day once, and my parents went insane. I got grounded for a month.”
“How old were you?” Minnie asked.
He ducked his head. “Fifteen.”
The Academy took cadets aged from seventeen to twenty-one and some even older if the Watch felt they’d be valuable assets or if their families happened to be legacy. But everyone did three years at the Academy unless you were a prodigy like my cousin, Kat, who’d completed all the requisite programs and exams in a year and a half.
“So, when do you think they’ll throw another curveball at us?” Thomas asked.
The vista was too serene, and his words put me on edge. “Let’s hope whatever it is, it’s not till tonight. We’ll be three men down if we get attacked again during the day.”
“Look!” Harmon picked up the pace. “Fruit.”
Bushes laden with colorful fruit dotted the ground ahead.
“Ah, the opportunity to gather supplies,” Oberon drawled.
Thomas let out a whoop and rushed ahead.
“Not sure why he’s getting so excited. It’s not blood,” Oberon said.
“Nightbloods eat food,” Minnie said.
“But only for show,” Oberon countered.
“Some of us do enjoy the taste,” Minnie countered.
She was right, but our bodies weren’t designed to digest it. Eating regular foods too often made us sick.
We joined the others in the grove of fruit. Oval-shaped pink fruit, and what looked like oranges but much smaller.
“I recognize these,” Oberon said. “We have them at home. Mother grows them in the hothouse. Seeds from Faerie that have been cultivated over generations. This fruit is rare.”
I picked one and turned it over in my hands. It had velvety skin like a peach and felt warm from the sun. Nice touch. “Are they safe to eat?”
“We have them on special occasions.” Oberon shrugged.
“That doesn’t mean they’re safe for us.” Harmon leaned in to sniff one.
Thomas was reaching for a peachy fruit but dropped his hand. “Good point.”
“Come on.” Harmon set off again. “We’ve made good time. Let’s keep up the pace, and we can be at the water body by nightfall.”
If I hadn’t fucked up and used the herbs on Minnie instead of sticking the human under her nose, then we would already be strolling up to our mark by now. Instead, we had several more hours of walking left.
An hour later, and the human was flagging.
“We’ll have to stop,” Minnie said. “The human needs to rest.”
“Henry, my name is Henry.”
My stomach twisted in guilt. We’d pretty much ignored him, and no one had bothered to ask him his name. The whole is he real or is he a computer-generated construct was messing with all our heads.
