Page 68 of The Warrior's Oath
But now that she thought about it, she actuallywasgetting hungry. All of this exertion, stolen energy or not, was taking its toll.
Nyota pushed on, sipping her water as her eyes now scanned the area beyond the faint prints she was following. Korvin had taught her the basics of his tricks of the trade, and she found that she actually had a knack for it. The footprints were becoming easier and easier to spot, allowing her to split her focus as she looked for something other than survivors.
After nearly a half hour a smile spread across her face. “Gotcha.”
She pushed through the low brush, careful not to break the small branches or leave any other overt signs of her passage, and made her way to the cluster of fruit. Korvin had pointed out a great many edibles on their journey, and she was now putting that knowledge to good use. And by good use, she meant in her belly.
“Oh, yeah. That hits the spot,” she murmured, slurping down a mouthful of juicy fruit.
The sugars and amino acids in the plant hit her system almost immediately, renewing her sense of wellbeing and boosting her energy levels back to normal. She had let her blood sugar fall low, clearly. A mistake she would take care not to let happen again.
She tucked some of the less-ripe fruit in her pack, careful not to pick any that might make her sick but also making sure they weren’t so ripe they’d gosquish, then closed her eyes and sniffed the air.
It was a trick she’d seen Korvin do on occasion, not knowing how in the world he could find fresh water like that. But she was embracing this new power she wielded, and if it really did come from her bond with him, then maybe she could do it too.
A strange sensation tickled the back of her nose. It was almost like walking into a fog bank mid-breath. She turned her head, focusing on the source of the feeling. She opened her eyes, the path now directly ahead of her.
“Water! Holy shit, it actually worked!” she exclaimed.
In less than ten minutes she found herself at a small spring feeding into a slightly larger brook. Korvin had said the water in this area was fresh as long as they drew it close to the source, and this was about as close as she could get. She dipped her finger in cautiously.
“Ow!”
It was hot. Not scalding, but enough to get her attention.
“Lesson learned,” she said, filling her water vessel and setting it aside to cool a bit before taking a big drink.
She repeated the process, filling it to the top then heading back to the trail she had been following. Just a few days prior she’d never have been able to find the faint markings of the passage of her fellow humans, but she was not the same woman anymore. Not remotely.
Refreshed and hydrated, Nyota focused once more on the task at hand. “Now, where did you get off to?” she wondered quietly, picking up the trail and following with a keen eye.
The survivors had been walking aimlessly, or so it seemed. What she now saw as obviously edible plants were left untouched and the short game paths leading to fresh water were bypassed entirely. Whoever these people were, their survival skills were clearly lacking.
Reluctantly, she had to admit, perhaps Korvin had been right about them. He was a total dick for saying it to her face, but the guy had a point.
“Don’t think about that. Focus,” she chided herself. There was still an unknown distance to cover if she hoped to catch up to the survivors. Maybe their slow human bodies would actually be a plus in that regard.
The footprints seemed to follow a thin game path that appeared to weave around a long trail snaking up to a rocky hilltop from what she could see. It would be quite a walk, but what if she could shorten it?
Nyota strode off the trail and grabbed ahold of the rock face.
It was solid, her grip firm and sound.
She looked up. Maybe forty feet or so. Nothing crazy, and scaling it could cut a lot of time off of her pursuit.
She stood there, psyching herself up for the risky climb. “Come on, you can do this. It’s not that far, and you’re a lot stronger now.”
Her body heeded her urging and before she could think twice, she began climbing. The handholds were a bit small, but her grip was more than adequate for the task and in short order she had scampered up a good thirty feet. She was cutting a huge amount of time off her trek, and every foot higher got her that much closer to her fellow survivors.
Thirty-five feet up she could almost feel the top, she was so close. But it was there the rock face had degraded from weather, water, and wind wearing down the surface, leaving it hard to grasp and unstable. Nyota felt the stone in her left hand crumble under her weight.
“Shit! No!” she exclaimed, frantically swinging her leg in an attempt to get a better foothold.
Her feet scraped the rock but could find no purchase as her hand flailed for a new grip. Then, without warning, she felt her stomach rise to her throat.
She was weightless.
She was falling.
