What would you do if your body and your kingdom were stolen?
[A FEATURED STORY]
Uther is a young prince who's reluctantly thrust into having to defend his throne against his usurping uncle and all-around powerful wizard, who uses his powers to s...
After their first full day out in the wilderness, Septimus sat down and leaned his back against a tree. The staff helped, but he still staggered after Brinn, who picked her way sure-footedly through the forest. She scolded him for scaring away any animals she might hunt for dinner, but he was rock footed while wearing his pack.
"We're not even at Shinshelling Crossing," Brinn said. "We've been on the animal tracks all day. Not much underbrush."
Septimus held up his hand, where red scratches stood out on his yellowy skin. He said, "I'm bleeding. Wounded."
"But only a little," Brinn said, gathering kindling for a fire. "You can get up and help me."
"Animals can smell blood," Septimus said. "You know animals scent things out long before humans do. They'll smell me and come for me."
"We don't smell right to them, but," she said with a wicked grin, "if you keep whining, the mountain cats will think you're the weak one of our herd and come down from their dens to pick you off."
Septimus scowled. "Great," he muttered, looking around. "They don't do that usually, do they? I thought you were safer in a group."
"Two is hardly an army," Brinn said, striking the flint to light the fire. They ate smoked goat they'd bought back in Hereweald's Hollow, and the saltiness was life to Septimus after sweating all day. The physicians wrote you lost your natrium during the day and needed to eat other animals to replenish it. Some of the physicians like Ektricus would even mop the sweat from brows and lick it from the rag. This was a bit of an extreme practice, Septimus decided, and meat was a fine way to replenish natrium.
Brinn unfurled her sleeping blankets, making a spot for them free of twigs and stones. She hadn't brought a tent, and Septimus now knew why her pack was so light. He pulled out the canvas, rope, and iron stakes. He strung the rope between two trees and hung the canvas over top like a rug that needed a beating. He tied the rope on the corner edges of the canvas to the staked and drove them into the ground.
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"That won't keep you safer than sleeping under the stars," Brinn commented.
"It'll keep me drier," Septimus said. "You're going to be covered in dew."
"That's part of the fun," she said. Septimus tossed his bag underneath the tarp, mouthing 'that's part of the fun'—where Brinn couldn't see him. He went through his pack and grabbed several of the maps, taking them with him to the fire.
She'd stretched out a sensible distance from the flames, propping herself up on her arms. He sat down and hugged his knees to his chest, pulling his cloak round him to keep out the damp cold.
Septimus rolled a map out on his knee, studying the topography, which gave him an idea of where they'd find flat, marshland and where they'd find the hillier areas that would take more time to cross. Brinn said, "I can tell you how we're making for it. It's not the way the army went. A bit rougher, but I know these woods, and it'll take us to Shinshelling Crossing faster than dropping down into the planes."
