The Undertaking

Part 8

I woke up feeling hot and sweaty. It looked to be mid-morning as I, got up andstarched out. My arms and legs felt numb. I could feel sand in my shoe as I began to walkforward. Looking down I saw a hole in my right boot. There was nothing I could do so Ibegan walking. Even though the temperature felt rather hot the steady wind helped keepme cool, though it also made the ground hard to see with all of the shifting sand.I took a step forward only to feel no ground as I began to fall. I threw myselfbackwards and onto solid ground. I reached out and realized that this crack must go all theway down to the paths in the canyon. I looked over to see a group of trees sticking out of theground. Grabbing a branch that looked dead I snapped it off. Going back carefully to the gapI used the stick to determine that the crack was about three feet wide.I continued using the stick to guide me over the uneven ground. By mid afternoon Ihad lifted my backpack over my head to use as shade. I could feel a blister start to formwhere the hole was in my shoe. I continued at a steady pace for the next couple of hours, ofwhich by then it was midafternoon. I continued to forward poking through something soft.The winds died down in that moment and I realized with mounting horror that I opened anest of poisonous pit scorpions. A leaped backwards, but it was too late I felt a sting on myright foot where the hole in my boot was. I was able to shake the scorpion off, but I couldalready feel the effect of the venom.I was able to carry myself thirty feet from the nest to the left, before becomingunable to move my leg. I opened my pack and frantically searched for anything I could useto heal the wound. Not finding anything I felt pale. The canteen! I grabbed the canteen fullof the red sap that healed the trees. I began to pour some of it onto the wound. As it leakedin, I began to feel a little better. I poured some more on the wound hoping it would heal thewound completely, and while it did close the wound, I could still feel the poison in my body.Well, I'm dead anyway might as well try drinking it. As I began to drink, I could feel thetexture was a bit heavier than water, but not thick enough to be considered a syrup. It hadno taste, and as I finished the canteen, I sat there waiting for me to either die or feel better.It took a minute, but I slowly began to feel much better. I could feel my chest becomeless sore and my arm with the bandages. My arm felt so good I decided to unwrap mybandage. All I could see were three scar marks why my cuts used to be. Sadly, even thoughmy physical wound were healed I still felt somewhat devoid of emotion. I guess the liquidcould only do so much. Still I was very grateful to have had the foresight to take some withme, in the first place.I began moving forward again, much more cautiously this time. As I continued at theslower rate, I did notice that the sand began to be lighter and lighter, soon I was able to seehe ground quite clearly. Looking up I saw two things, the first, was the ground had no moregaps, and the second was I saw some Terrin grazing up ahead.I almost managed a smile. Terrin could be described as large beast with four legsand a horn in the center of its skull just above its eyes. back at the capitol around the maincity they were used to pull carts and work in the fields. They were very docile creatures,however in the wild a smaller creature know as a chameleon dart frog would attach itself tothe creature eating the insects the Terrin would attract, but also defend the animal fromother predators.There was a group of Terrin about thirty feet from me. Moving up to the one closestto me I took my pack off and used it as a shield, The Terrin took no notice of me as I movedcloser. I got as close as I dared looking for the dark red spot that would give away the frog'splace on the beast. The chameleon dart frog could blend into any object almost perfectly,matching even the texture like the greyish blue skin of the Terrin. The only thing thecreature could not hide was the red circle on its forehead about an inch in diameter.I spotted it behind the pointed ear of the Terrin on the side of its head. As I inchedforward, I saw the frog open its mouth and shot its tongue towards my face. I lifted the backquickly, blocking the shot. Taking my knife out I looked to the side of my bag and lunged atthe frog. The poisonous frog fell to the ground dead. Luckily, there can only be one frog perTerrin.Grabbing my bandage, I wrapped it around the horn of the creature, near the bottomso it would not hurt the animal. Getting on its back I pulled on the strap, and the Terrin'shead moved up and away from the grass. It grunted in annoyance. I nudged its side a littlewith my foot and it began moving forward.While the most people thought that Terrin were slow moving creatures they wouldbe wrong. The only reason they seemed to slow was since they were usually pullingsomething quite heavy. Since I was rather light it moved quick, much quicker than I was onfoot.As the sun set I could see the mountains getting closer, and hopefully I was only aday and a half away. By the time night began to fall, my ride had begun to slow. Deciding thiswas as good as any place to stop I released the reigns and slid off the Terrin. It grunted andmoved of a couple of feet away to eat some grass. While having a ride was in my bestinterest my legs did not appreciate the ride as much as my feet did. Though I was hungry Idecided to wait to eat until tomorrow morning as I only had two rolls left. As I lay on theground I could not help but feel at least a small spark of hope as I got closer to reachingsafety. While I would be relieved to find civilization, I could not help but wonder what trialawaited me at the Avarosian caves, as I drifted off to sleep.