knowing if it’s better to stay or better to leave, I wait, holding my breath.
Silence.
Phlix breathes, “Is it—”
“Shh.” I listen some more.
I sit up, leaning back against the rock. Phlix moves next to me. A darkening pool is seeping beneath the tree by my feet. I pull the blanket away from it. “What is it,” Phlix whispers.
“I don’t know,” I reply. On my knees, I crawl near the oozing dark patch. Touching my finger to it, it comes away red. Cringing, I rub my finger in the dirt, trying to get the blood off. I join Phlix again. “It’s blood,” I say near her ear.
“Blood” Blood from what?” she asks.
“I have no idea,” I reply. “Stay here and I’ll go look.”
“I’m coming with you,” she whispers, clutching my hand so that I don’t leave her behind.
We creep out of our tree fort. I pick up a medium-sized stone, and grip it tight, ready to throw it at anything that moves. It’s growing dark, but it’s not quite there yet. We have to walk around the tree’s massive roots in order to see what’s on the other side. With cautious steps, I lead us there. I press my back to the tree’s uprooted base. Holding my breath, I peak around the side. My heart hammers in my chest and I pull myself back, flattening against it again.
“What is it?” Phlix asks urgently.
“Hovercar-sized wolf with horrifying fangs.”
“What’s it doing?”
I peek around the tree again. It hasn’t moved. “It’s either sleeping or it’s dead.” I take a deep breath and sneak around the end of the tree. Walking slowly near the beast, I can’t see any breathing. The head comes into view. It has several recurve arrows sticking out of its face. I straighten immediately, turning around and glancing at the tree line behind me. Nothing moves, but I know we’re being watched.
Hurrying back to Phlix, I grasp her elbow and urge her back to our fort. “Cavars are watching us. They killed that thing. Let’s get our packs and move.”
“How do you know Cavars killed it?”
“They used recurves,” I growl. “No one else uses those.”
“Why would they help us?” she asks.
“Maybe they want the pleasure of tracking us and killing us.”
“Like sport?” she asks.
“I don’t think we should hang around and find out.” We grab our backpacks and consult our map quickly. Hopping on our flipcarts, we leave as soundlessly as possible. We travel without incident for the next few hours, traversing fields by surfing waves of flowers.
When we stop for a water break, I pull my flask from my backpack and take a sip. There’s not much left. We’ll have to find more soon. Phlix makes a frustrated sound next to me. She’s pulling all the contents from her backpack out. When it’s empty, she glances at me with fear in her eyes. “I think I left my water flask where we slept last night.” I extend my flask to her. She takes it and sips from it. “We’re going to need more water soon,” she says guiltily.
“Then we look for some on the way. Does the map show where we might find some?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “It just shows the basin where we depart Ethar. That’s still at least two rotations away if we don’t increase our pace.”
“Then let’s increase our pace,” I reply. “There has to be some somewhere.”
At the next stop, we waste valuable time looking for water, but come up empty. It worries me. Maybe we can just push through this without water, I think. Then I look at Phlix, whose normally pale face is flushed and sweaty, and I worry that she won’t be able to handle it. She’s not used to this much exertion. I hand her what’s left in my flask and insist that she drink it.
Morning comes, and I find myself licking the dew from leaves to ease my dry throat. Searching for shelter to rest during daylight, we find a niche in a rock formation. It’s only large enough to fit the backpacks and the two of us. We place our flipcarts on the ground inside and lay on top of them, using our backpacks as pillows. Phlix has several muscle cramps during the day that keep her awake. As soon as night falls, we emerge from our hiding place, gathering our stuff together quickly.
“What’s that?” Phlix asks, pointing at a shiny metal object on a nearby stump. Walking to it, she reaches out her hand for it.