Twenty One: Follow the Birds

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*A small amendment to the previous chapter, they got to stay and party for five days so I can have the timeline more accurate to the new moon*

On the night the moon is at it's darkest, follow the birds.

It had almost been a month since I met the Oracle in her hidden pocket of Sulls. It had been more than two since I last saw Thian. 

I clutched the pendant around my neck, rubbing the stone with my thumb as I had developed a habit of doing when I missed him. I stared up at the stars, we had slept for our last daytime since we were leaving the hot sands. None of us were ready to get up, though I could hear the heartbeats around me and the breathing that told me we were all awake. Getting up meant a final goodbye with Kai, but it also mean the next leg of our journey and it had to start sometime.

A sigh next to me told me that Nassir was the first one to give up. 

"We should probably get going if we want to put plenty of distance between us and the hot desert." Nassir sat up with a grunt. 

I whined into my sleeping mat and Schula sighed. 

"The new moon is the day after tomorrow," Schula said. "Couldn't we just camp out here for a day?"

I didn't move from my mat yet, but I did look up at the sky and repeat our instructions. "South, as the red star takes us. On the night the moon is at it's darkest, follow the birds."

"Caw!"

I glanced over at Puko, who was messing with one of our packs that had food in it. 

"Too bad we can't follow that bird," Schula said. "We could have been there by now if Puko could show the way."

I rolled over and pulled the flap of the bag open. Puko stuck his head in and yanked out a little paper wrapper with dried cherries in it. 

"At least let me open the paper before you eat it," I said. 

Kai rolled onto his side from his mat, sighing and propping his head up with one arm. "If you have a day to spend, I can recommend a couple directions to go from here. If you head west along the desert's edge, you'll come to a village in about half a day. That's usually where I drop off travelers crossing the desert, because by that point they need to restock on supplies. You have the extra food from the shaman, so you don't have to go there if you don't want to."

Schula rubbed her snow white skin. "I'd just as soon avoid glamouring again so soon if we can."

I nodded. "If we don't need the supplies, I don't see needing to go there then. What was the other direction, Kai?"

"There isn't much along the desert's edge east of here," Kai said. "But if you follow this land due south, it will start to roll into hills. Be careful because the lands here have a lot of caves and it's easy to get lost in the labyrinth of them. But you'll find a lot more game to hunt and foods to forage if you want to avoid the village."

Nassir sat up on his mat and placed his hands on the earth next to him. "Hm, a lot of limestone. I'm not surprised you have caves here."

I yawned and stretched. Sitting up earned me a fat raven hopping onto my lap to finish devouring his cherries. I stroked his feathers absently as I spoke. "We're more likely to find these birds in the hills to the south, right?"

"A reasonable assumption," Nassir said.

Kai sighed and stood up with a grunt. "If this is going to be it, then I'm going to make one last good meal for us."

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