THE IMMORTAL: Dance with the Dragon

18: Among Nature

The three companions were sitting near a hill taking a break and eating lunch: a bag of trail mix shared between the three of them and a protein bar each. The girls drank from their own stainless-steel, filtered water bottles. Samara and Leela had brought their own from the survival box Kalahari kept in the Blue Room. They bought a third for Kit so they would all have their own fresh water. They collected water from rivers and streams; the filters made it potable.

Kit, now finished with her food, was sitting on a boulder and picking at her teeth with her fingernails.

"Kit," Samara said, frowning, "use the floss."

The pre-teen rolled her eyes as she hopped down from the boulder. She went to the bag that had the floss and toothbrushes in it and pulled out a floss pick to use on her teeth.

"Anyway," Leela said, eyeing Kit with disgust. She had the map out and had been showing Samara the path to Port Thunder. They were following a river that led to the sea right by the town. "I think we only have about two or three days left before we reach Port Thunder."

"That's not bad, doesn't look too difficult from here," Samara said looking over Leela's arm while taking a bite of her protein bar.

"No, the terrain doesn't look bad. I think there are some small mountains—or hills as some people would call them—but looks passable."

"Yeah, that says the tallest mountain is only 1,500 feet." Samara pointed to a spot on the map.

"We could do that in a day, right?" Leela asked.

Samara shrugged. "Doesn't sound too difficult."

"Hey guys, look, I'm a vampire."

Samara and Leela looked at Kit, who had stuck two of the floss picks in her teeth to make it look like she had fangs. Samara laughed. Even Leela looked like she was trying to hide a smile.

After lunch, they shouldered their belongings and continued, following the river through the hills and trees until near sun down. This is what they had done the last several days. Their trip had been uneventful up until that point. Samara hadn't seen any more signs of Danteous.

But the moon wasn't full anymore either....

"I do feel like we're being watched every now and then," Leela had admitted to Samara one night when they were quietly discussing Danteous.

Samara had the same feeling, but they never saw anyone.

That night, they set up camp under a large oak tree. They unrolled their sleeping bags and arranged them around what would be the fire later.

Once camp was set up, the girls decided to brave the water for a bath. They hadn't washed their hair since leaving Midland and had only sponged off a few times during their journey so far. They took some of their supplies with them to the river and found a calm place to bathe. They gave the area a quick glance to make sure no one was around (they didn't see anything but trees) and stripped down to their panties and bras.

"This is going to be cold," Leela said looking at the water with disgust.

"Not as cold as it could be, at least it's been warm the last few days," Samara said as she knelt at the edge and dipped her hair in.

Kit ran into the water, splashing around like a Labrador. Leela curled her lip in disgust.

"It's not terrible," Samara assured Leela. "Pass me the shampoo bar."

Leela tossed her the bar of soap and then eased into the water, gritting her teeth against the chill. She dipped under the water quickly. They passed the soap back and forth until the three of them were clean.