Half Magic | Book 2

Thirty Eight: Finding the Forest

Schula yawned as she nudged me awake. "Your turn for watch."

I nodded, still sleepy. My mat on the cold cave floor was comfortable as it could have been, considering I had just spent a month with a bed. I was already tired of the mat again, and I hoped we found the elves soon, and that they had beds. 

Schula took my warm spot, comfortably curling in the blanket and dropping off to sleep. I rubbed my eyes and found a place against the wall to stand. 

We had been in the cave system for a day or two. There was no real way to tell, since we couldn't see the sky from in here. Still, from how often we stopped to eat and rest it could easily have been two.

The caves proved to still be a mystery, even after spending a month studying with the witches. Schula and I even spent some time speculating about them while skimming over the journals, but we didn't find anything of use. Lark had never mentioned anything to Nassir about the caves either, so they would simply have to remain a mystery.

I sat my watch in relative silence. The cave was a damp one, offering echoes of drips and splashes from other tunnels. I glanced over to Nassir. He was barefoot, a habit he had picked up after we left the hot sands and he had increasingly left his shoes off as he walked to more places. After we entered the limestone caves he had left them off entirely, trying to sense more through his stone shaping magic. Puko was sitting on top of the stack of books next to my mat where Schula now slept. I watched them for a moment, content to be together. The pull of a triquetram was strong. So very strong. I didn't know what I'd do without her. 

A few hours passed. I practiced fading in and out of the kind of seeing meditation that Nassir had been using until it gave me a headache. It would be a useful thing to master, if I even could. Finally, when it felt like about time for the watch to end and our next stretch of walking to begin, I began pulling food from the packs to prepare some kind of breakfast.

The first to wake up was Nassir, closely followed by Puko. We pulled together the last of our bread to eat before it got stale, and Schula woke up as we had just settled everything else back in our packs. 

"Is it time to get up?" she mumbled.

"We have the last of the bread, if you're interested." Nassir said, handing her a large piece.

She yawned and took it, climbing out of the warm blanket. "Thanks."

"Hey, Nassir," I said. "Can you tell how far the caves go?" 

"That's an interesting question." He gave me an odd, crooked smile and scratched his chin. "Sometimes it feels as though we are already at the exit, and other times it feels as though it could go on forever. Far out of my range, anyway."

"Ah." I sighed. "So we won't know we're getting close until we're on top of it."

"Caw!" 

"But I have the feeling we could be close now," Schula said, a mouth full of bread and pulling crumbs off her share to feed to Puko. She swallowed. "Have you noticed the temperature change?"

I immediately stuck my arm out in front of me to the open cave. I tried to feel the still air on my skin and compare it to the rest of our journey so far. Instead of cool cave air, it was just a little bit warm. I stood, my bread falling out of my lap and onto my pack. 

"It's warmer!" I exclaimed. 

"It's a bit humid too. We may be nearing water," Nassir added.

Schula grinned. "I noticed on my watch, but we were all dead tired so I figured it would be best to approach the new lands when we were well rested."