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Chapter Six

LOI SNORTED AT Sian, gave Kassie a final hard nudge then reached to pull her pack close, lifting out one of the bundles Henja had provided.

Henja tied it well, Loi grumbled to herself while she struggled with the knots in the rough cord wrapped around the cloth. When the cord fell off, she spread the fabric out and blinked.

'These parcels Henja gave us will last a week easily,' she turned to Sian. 'How much did you pay her?'

'I gave her two gold coins. She seemed really impressed by it,' Sian frowned. 'We really need to get an idea of what money is worth here, I just didn't want to draw any more attention to us at the time.'

KASSIE STARED AT all the carefully wrapped food that Loi spread across the cloth on the ground, her stomach growling.

'We all have a few gold coins, it'll be good,' she assured Sian. They turned at the sound of crashing and laughed when Cat half fell out of the bush, twigs in her hair and a big pile of wood locked in her arms.

'DON'T LAUGH,' I growled. 'My foot got caught in a stupid root.' I stomped to the wood pile and dropped the wood onto it. 'Can we eat now?'

Loi and Kassie divided the food from Loi's parcel and put most of it away for another day. I sighed in relief when Kassie finally handed over a sandwich bulging with fillings and bit straight in to it, feeling my grouchiness disappear when the food hit my stomach. We munched away and passed the water around while admiring the fire. My stomach now happy, I lay back on my cloak and studied the sun.

It appeared to be past its zenith, but not too far; one o'clock, maybe two?

'I'm guessing it's early afternoon at the moment, what say we practice until nearly twilight then set up camp here for the night?' I said. 'We already have lots of firewood.'

LOI NODDED IN agreement. 'Right then.' She stood and brushed down her pants. 'Bring your weapons.' Grabbing her sword she marched out to the grassy knoll in front of them, the others following suit.

SIAN STAYED CLEAR of them, wanting to practice with her bow first and while practice would just be with sticks so not to waste the quiver of arrows, she didn't want to take out anyone's eyes. Roughly measuring out a distance of around twenty yards, she created targets out of piles of stones balanced on a waist-high boulder. Targets in place, she headed back to the starting mark and picked up the bow. Fitting the notched end of a stick into the string she took aim and released. The stick shot through the air and easily took out the lowest pile of stones. A thrill of delight ran through her at the accuracy and speed.

A strong bow, she thought regarding the weapon in her hands with absolute pleasure, it almost sings when I release.

Taking another stick, she slipped into the rhythm of the bow, time flying while she practiced.

LOI, WHO'D PRACTICED kenjutsu for nine years, instructed Kassie and I with our swords and my daggers. First she showed a move and then explained the reasoning of it. Kassie and I then took turns in attacking each other. When Sian turned up to practice with my daggers, I realized in surprise that twilight wasn't far off.

*****

THE BRANCHES WE used to make the shelter stunk and the distractingly pungent smell made our sleeping space feel even smaller. We'd created the shelter out of long and slender fallen tree limbs, draping boughs of whatever that smelly tree was over the structure. Then we'd jammed the back of the shelter into the base of a tree, its large roots stabilizing the framework. A pretty basic design but it kept the wind out and might keep us dry.

It's just that smell, I thought with an internal groan, shifting my head over a makeshift pillow of leaves under my cloak which bunched uncomfortably. Sighing, I sat up to try and fix it, scrunching the leaves into a better shape. I re-fixed the hood of my cloak over them and lay down.