Alexis of Troy (Book I)

θ′ - Eneah

"I don't remember," he whispered.

"Great," I sighed. "I need you to try and remember, okay?"

That was a problem. We could use the treeline to travel, but who knew if it would take us to civilization or further away from it? We needed supplies too. The androphagi had raided Dryope's satchel, leaving us high and dry—I bit my lip. Glanced over my shoulder towards the campsite. I tried to avoid it, but I had no choice. They had supplies, things we needed.

Everything was so still, though the fire put up a valiant fight to stay alive. It sputtered and cracked, sending spurts of embers pathetically into the air. The smoke was black and thinning as it reached desperately for the gods.

I limped around the fire, avoiding the ravaged carcasses and focused instead on the packs they'd been carrying. My stomach's angry protests spurred me forward. They had to have food in there, right? And possibly water. I'd been so exhausted and alert that only now the real need for survival kicked in.

I yanked open the first bag and rummaged through clothing, random junk before pulling out a handful of trinkets. Most were bronze, but there were a few gold and silver pieces in there as well. Some coins too. They were way bigger than the standard in our time and heavy but unmistakably currency. Well, that was lucky.

Some, however, were teeth. Pristine, ivory teeth of various sizes. None of them were rotten, which meant they had been deliberately picked. There were even a couple that was suspiciously tiny. Young—

"Ugh!" I gasped, wrenching my hand back. The weight of the teeth was heavy on my hand and no amount of rubbing them off did anything to erase that feeling. "Ew, ew, ew, ew."

I dropped that bag, nervous about finding any straggling souvenirs, and went for the second one. There were no teeth in that bag, blessedly, but there were locks of hair. Black, blonde, copper, brown locks bundled into a drawstring, leather bag.

I stared at the bag, and then at the other leather items, I'd come across. They were all pale leather, like tanned hide, and really smooth. The softest and most pliable material.

An unsettling realization dawned on me. I swallowed thickly.

On top of eating humans, the androphagi were collectors. How revolting.

I rummaged through the other two bags until I found some pears, figs, a chunk of hard bread, and what I thought was a waterskin. "Leather"... I tried not to dwell on that. And a golden fruit that I'd never seen before. It looked like a mix between a pear and an apple and was quite firm. The thought of trying some strange fruit was oddly thrilling, especially since my first time trying it would be in the ancient world.

I barely brought the fruit to my lips, and I was literally drooling. I was so hungry. It smelled disarmingly sweet because, as I sank my teeth into the flesh, it felt like I had eaten ten warheads in one go, minus the sweetness. The texture was leathery and, yet at the same time, sandy. However, that was possible.

Gagging, I spat out the piece I'd bitten off and threw the weird fruit into the bushes. Still, the taste lingered. It was like I went and licked some rough hide or something.

"Blek!"

I scrambled for the waterskin and downed its contents, completely forgetting what it had been made of. Only to spit it back up again as the tart liquid hit the back of my throat. Really? Of course, it was wine! It couldn't possibly be water. No, that would be too easy.

"And my luck has run out," I grumbled, reaching for a fig instead. At least I knew those were edible.

It was so unbelievably sweet and soft that I actually moaned in relief. Thank god Paris was out of earshot. I munched on a couple of those as I tried to rip some of the clothing to use as bandages. I tried not to think about how these clothes might not be the cleanest as I tugged and pulled on the fabric. They made it look so easy in the movies...