By midday, my feet were killing me. Not that my boots were new - I still used the pair Isobeau had traded with me - but the ground was much more rocky than I expected. And it looked like I wasn’t the only one with aching feet - everyone in the troupe except Bhasi, walked gingerly.
“Bhasi, can you scout a different path for us?” I asked the bird shifter, “we need to have some relief from these rocks.”
Bhasi screeched and took to the sky.
“Hey everyone, let’s take a break. Bhasi is looking for a new route for us,” I told the group. Collectively, they responded with a single sigh of relief.
“If she came back with good news, I want to make a little more headway before we set camp for the night,” I told them.
“I don’t think we’re all that far from the sea,” Aurie said, “maybe we should check the map.”
I spread the map out on the forest floor and we huddled around it. There was the sea to our left, but walking its shore would take us off the northeast direction we needed to go to get to the Inquisito.
“It’s going to take us a long way out of our way,” I said, “but I don’t think we’ll last very long walking on these rocks. Sure wish someone had put that in the map!”
“Yeah, would have been nice,” Aurie agreed, “but at least they marked where the sea was. Maybe if we have a chance to soak our feet in the salt water, walking won’t hurt so much and we’ll make up time we lost otherwise.”
Considering this, I watched Toci pull off one of her boots, a huge mounding blister on the side of her toe. Yeow. That was enough to make up my mind - enough with our experiencing pain on a rocky path when there could be a better one.
“Ok, when Bhasi comes back, we’ll plot out a new route at the edge of the sea,” I told them, “and probably camp just at the edge here where the woods and sand meet.” I pointed to an area where the woods turned to what appeared to be sand dunes by the map’s illustrations.
When Bhasi returned with encouraging information, we made our detour. We didn’t have far to go before we could walk on sand and that gave the troupe a little boost of will.
*********************
Limping to the open water, I waded in the cold, salty liquid, my feet and ankles stinging. But it was a relief.
“Ahhh,” Toci said, as she sat in the sand afterwards, rubbing her tender toes, “can we stay here awhile?”
The other three looked up anticipating my answer.
“We need to go a little further or else we’ll be behind,” I told them, “we still have quite a ways to go to get to the Inquisito.”
Toci whined but the others just let their shoulders slump in resignation - they knew we needed to keep moving.
This team thing seems to be working out pretty good I think.
The group trudged toward distant sand dunes where I hoped to find a flat space between two dunes - it would keep us from experiencing too much wind off the sea, making our cooking fire possible, and keeping us from being too cold for the night.
That first night out away from all our sisters was quiet. We were fortunate to find just the area I had hoped for between two dunes, there was no wind and the sand amazingly soft. The fire was bright and the dunes returned the warmth they had taken in from the sun, lulling us after a long day of walking. Soon after dinner, most of us fell into sleep. I didn’t think about setting a guard watch. What was the point? We were still far from the Inquisito and walking the shoreline might confuse the Shadows waiting for us on the path.
I awakened the next morning to hear the roar of the ocean and gulls. This world was different but there were some things that were just like back home - the sound of the sea and her birds. The world began to swim into focus and I felt an arm draped over my waist as someone spooned me.
“Toci, are you wrapped around me…” I asked as I rolled backward to face my snuggler.
Not Toci. Aurie. Should have guessed.
“Aurie. Aurie, wake up.”
“Mmm… let’s just stay here,” Aurie mumbled in reply, using her arm to leverage herself closer to me.
Looking up, I saw Ursel and Artio stoking a morning fire, big grins on their faces. Toci and Bhasi were nowhere to be seen.
“Good morning,” I said to the two women, unlocking Aurie’s arm from my middle. I got up off the ground with relatively little stiffness, which came as a total surprise.
“Mm,” Ursel said.
“Morn,” Artio said, “sleep well, did ya?”
Ignoring the question or the innuendo, I asked where Toci and Bhasi were.
“Toci went looking for berries,” Ursel said.
Toci alone in the woods? Sure, nothing could go wrong in that scenario.
“Bhasi is keeping an eye on where she is,” Artio said.
“Oh, ok, good, I would hate to think we needed to go rescue her on Day Two,” I responded, reaching for a hot cup of something Ursel had brewed. It smelled of tea and honey. Had she packed a jar for herself and Artio?
She must have since I didn’t tell her or anyone about the one Nana had given me. I ended up carrying it because Isobeau and Arion weren’t with the troupe. The thought still made me mad. Or was I just feeling sad that one of the people I’d depended on, and a horse I’d come to trust, were not here. I contemplated what we were going to do without them.
Aurie yawned and stretched behind me.
“Mmm, morning all,” a groggy smile on her face, “what’s for breakfast?”