Luna of Rogues

Part 38 - Running off the Rails

"Skye."

The whisper woke me, and sooner than I would have liked. I came back to awareness slowly and reluctantly. There was something heavy on my abdomen. Breathing was difficult. Not even to mention that my head was pounding like a drum.

"Skye."

It was louder this time, loud enough that my headache flared up in protest. Irritated, I opened my eyes and murmured blearily, "Whatcha want?"

It was Leo, and he looked about as awful as I felt. He pressed a finger to his lips and beckoned me to the tent entrance. Getting up was difficult, not least because Tally was lying on top of me. But to be fair, I had been squashing both of the twins. The world span as I finally eased out and stumbled into the dawn light.

Never. I was never going to get drunk again.

Leo looked me over sympathetically. "The sun's up — we should have left already. And you were thrashing ... and projecting through the link. Nightmare?"

I nodded silently. There was no use talking about it. The dreams were nothing new. They came and went from time to time, and at some point I had just stopped caring.

He was right. It was midmorning. Golden light set the forest aglow with an intensity that was more reminiscent of spring than winter. Yet no one was awake. No one except Leo, of course, and Rhys, who was crouched by the fire and looking annoying functional.

He acknowledged me with a lazy grin, then went back to stirring last night's coals. Trying to get a spark from an ember, I guessed. Everyone would want hot food before they left, and clean water was a necessity, so we needed a fire.

And that prompted another, more worrying thought. We couldn't carry water for more than a day, so we would need to fetch some before we left. And while I hadn't been scouting yesterday, I didn't think anyone had spotted running water in the vicinity. There was snow, obviously, but no one liked the taste. Besides, there was only a thin coat in this part of the woods, and it was muddy.

"Let's take a walk," I suggested, grabbing the water canteens from an equipment heap. Leo collected half of them, which I took for assent.

"You look like shit," Rhys told me cheerfully, "so don't go too far."

I showed him my middle finger before leaving camp.

We headed towards higher ground, hoping to find a viewpoint. After walking over a mile, when we were still drawing a total blank on water of any kind, I found a dry rock and sat on it, hugging my legs to my chest. Walking was definitely not going on my list of hangover cures. And as if my headache wasn't bad enough, a faint rushing sound was aggravating it.

Leo sat down too, catching his breath. We were descending a muddy slope which never seemed to end, and it wasn't all too easy on the lungs. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the snow had begun to fall again, erasing our footprints. It was fortunate that I had the mind-link to guide me back if necessary, as well as a degree of familiarity with the area. I had vague memories of Rhodric teaching us to hunt in these hills. No — I wouldn't be getting lost today.

I gave up on the aimless wandering. It wouldn't work as fast as we needed it to. So I tried something else, telling Leo, "Imagine you're an animal..."

"That's not difficult," he muttered.

"Just roll with it, alright?" I growled, and he nodded. "You're an animal in new territory. How do you find water?"

Leo didn't even hesitate. "I dig for it."

"That won't work for us — our stomachs can't cope with the bacteria in stagnant water. We would have to shift every time we wanted a drink," I sighed. Fion had drilled this into me years ago, and even the thought of those lectures made me miss her even more. "Any other ideas?"