The Eggwife

Chapter 7

The early morning sun had just peaked over the edge of the valley where Sethyr and Brayden traveled.  The surrounding hills were well forested and had offered the pair a comfortable camping site the previous evening.  In contrast, the floor of the valley was nearly barren.  Until a few years before, it had been as verdant as the hills, but a scouring flood had washed away almost all of the trees and underbrush, leaving behind an unbroken mud flat.

Sethyr groaned when she realized that they would have to cross the flat to reach their destination.  She had spent her entire early life living in a swamp and was not eager to reacquaint herself with the mud.  Brayden had merely nodded and set his shoulders determinedly, setting out into the mud.  Nearly an hour passed, taking them almost halfway across the valley floor.

Brayden slogged through the heavy mud, his breathing deep and rhythmic.  With each step his boot first broke through a paper tin layer of ice and then sank into the muddy ground past his ankle, making every move an effort.  If the weather had been any colder and perhaps the mud would have been frozen enough to walk on easily.  Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.  Sethyr walk slowly next to the struggling Protector, but was somehow able to keep from sinking into the mud.  On closer inspection one could see that her reptilian feet splayed widely when she set them down.  In addition, a thick leathery web stretched between her three long toes.  This combined to allow her to distribute her weight evenly enough to avoid the clutches of the mud.

Every dozen steps or so Brayden eyed Sethyr in irritation.

“You are enjoying this, aren’t you?” 

Sethyr flashed him a toothy smile.  “Actually no, I hat walking this slowly…and the edge of my robe is now terribly soiled.”

Brayden grumbled, but did not say anything else.  Sethyr was baiting him for a good verbal sparring match and he knew it.

“Oh don’t be such a bear.  I happen to be blessed by my heritage with a certain affinity for swamps.  Believe me when I say I do not enjoy this any more than you do.  I simply have the physical gifts to cope with these abominable conditions more easily.”

Brayden grumbled again.

They continued across the valley floor, the mud lessening as they approached the craggy hills on the opposite side.  If Vijhan’s descriptions of the Canid campsite were correct, the camp lay in those hills.  Sethyr did not share her friend’s faith in the truthfulness of the Canid packleader’s information.  Perhaps she was judging Vijhan too harshly, but thinking the worst about the outcome of a situation had very rarely left her disappointed.  In the rare case that things did turn out better than expected she was elated to be wrong.

In this case, however, she had little doubt that this investigation was futile.  They just did not have enough information go deduce an intelligent hypothesis.  Unless the hooded figure had left their shoe behind with their name sewn into the lining, she doubted their chances of success.

The laborious trudge through the mud finally came to an end. The ground abruptly rose upward, joining a sweeping hillside covered with soft, thick grass and dotted with small poplar trees.  Further up the hill Sethyr could see much larger trees that had been out of reach of the flood waters.

Brayden pulled himself out of the last patch of mud, clinging to a nearby poplar.  His breathing had increased, but he did not appear to be too terribly out of breath.  He sat for a moment; his back cradled by the soft grass and closed his eyes.  The sun had risen considerably higher and its bright rays helped chase the chill of the icy mud from his bones.  Sethyr also turned toward the sun, pulling up her sleeves, letting the rays fall on her upturned face and arms.