The Arrival (Birthright Trilogy #1) (11 page)

Loi winked at me.

'And apparently our kind will be fine no matter what.'

I rolled my eyes.

'I’m glad to hear it. Now I won’t panic.'

Kassie picked up the pace, relieved to leave all the staring—albeit very polite—villagers behind and pulled Lucky out of the bag, draping the compliant cat around her shoulders.

We enjoyed the scenery as we walked the track,. It was strange it nearly looked Earth-like, just the occasional thing was odd. Fantastic blue flowers grew in sporadic bunches along the way and seemed to quiver as we passed them.

Ooo-oo they’re pretty.
I stopped to have a closer look, the others stopping too. The flowers were trumpet shaped with beautiful gold and pink markings on the inside of their ‘mouths’. I leaned closer, sniffing.

No scent, how disappointing
. As I straightened, about to turn back, an insect rather like a bee came bumbling along, flying lazy loops in the air. Its brilliant orange stripes were gorgeous, and in sharp contrast to the delicate black wings and antennae. The bee flitted just out of reach of one flower then buzzed toward it.

Suddenly the flower jerked forward and snapped the bee up. We jolted back in shock and watched as the squirming bee made its way down the neck of the flower until it hit a bulge near the base of the plant. Then the squirming stopped. The flower slowly opened its mouth back up. We stared at each other in astonished silence.

I’m so glad I didn’t try to pick one.
Ewww
. That made me shudder.

Feed me, Seymour,
a voice in my mind teased.

Kassie stared at the flower in fascination and revulsion.

'I guess that’s their version of a Venus fly trap?'

'Guess so', replied Loi, looking a bit wide-eyed.

We turned back to the track.

The next couple of hours went surprisingly fast as we chatted away, pointing out anything that caught our attention and there certainly didn’t appear to be any scary creatures or “uglies”, as we took to calling them.

The forest Mentan and Lenol had spoken of came into view and we continued until we reached the entrance, the path trailing on. Deciding it was time for lunch, Sian and I scraped out a circle of dirt for the fire. Then, with Kassie, we went to search for wood while Loi lit the kindling.

Kassie bent down, clutching a pile of wood tight in one arm while groping on the ground with the other. Feeling the dry stick she added it to the pile and pushed through the undergrowth to where Loi was. Dropping the wood on the now rather large pile, Kassie had a seat beside Loi who glowed with pleasure at the fire.

My fire, Loi thought proudly.

'Only took a couple of minutes to light,' she informed Kassie, who laughed.

'Well done, Loi, we’ll have to see if I can beat your time when I give it a shot.'

She nudged Loi with her knee, teasing.

Sian pushed through the bush with her arms full of wood and smiled at the two shoving each other like a couple of kids.

'Now, now, girls, don’t make me put you in time out.'

Loi stuck her tongue out at Sian and reached to pull her pack close, then lifted out one of the bundles Henja had provided and set to untying the cord around it.

Henja had made sure it was well tied. Loi grumbled to herself as she struggled with the knots. When the cord fell off, she spread the fabric out and blinked.

'These parcels Henja gave us will last a week easily,' she turned to Sian.

'How much did you pay her?'

'I gave her two gold coins. She seemed really impressed by it,' Sian frowned. 'We really need to get an idea of what money is worth here, I just didn’t want to draw any more attention to us at the time.'

Kassie stared at the food, her stomach growling.

'We all have a few gold coins, it’ll be good,' she assured Sian.

They turned at the sound of crashing and laughed as Cat half fell out of the bush, twigs in her hair and a big pile of wood locked in her arms.

'Don’t laugh,' I growled. 'My foot got caught in a stupid root.'

I stomped to the wood pile and dropped the wood onto it.

'Can we eat now?'

Loi and Kassie divided the food from Loi’s parcel and put most of it away for another day. I sighed in relief when Kassie finally handed over a sandwich that was bulging with fillings and bit straight in to it, feeling my grouchiness disappear as the food hit my stomach.

We munched away and passed the water around while admiring the fire. My stomach now happy, I lay back on my cloak and studied the sun. It appeared to be past its zenith, but not too far.

One o’clock maybe two?

'I’m guessing it's early afternoon at the moment, what say we practice until nearly twilight then set up camp here for the night?' I said. 'We already have lots of firewood.'

Loi nodded, it was a sensible idea.

'Right then.' She stood, brushing her pants down. 'Bring your weapons.'

Grabbing her sword she marched out to the grassy knoll in front of them, the others following suit.

Sian stayed clear of them, wanting to practice with her bow first and while practice would just be with sticks so as not to waste the quiver of arrows, she didn’t want to take out anyone's eyes.

Roughly measuring out a distance of around twenty yards, she created targets out of piles of stones balanced on a waist high boulder. Targets in place, she headed back to the starting mark and picked up the bow. Fitting the notched end of a stick into the string, she took aim and released. The stick shot through the air and easily took out the lowest pile of stones. Taking another stick, she slipped into the rhythm of the bow, the time flying as she practiced.

Loi, who'd, practiced Kenjutsu for nine years, instructed Kassie and I with our swords and my daggers.

First she showed a move and then explained the reasoning of it. Kassie and I then took turns ‘attacking’ each other. When Sian turned up to practice with my daggers I was surprised to realize that twilight wasn’t far off.

*****

The branches we used to make the shelter stunk. I wasn’t sure yet if it was a good smell or a bad smell, just distractingly pungent.

We’d created the shelter out of fallen tree limbs that were long and slender; draping boughs of whatever that smelly tree was, over the structure. The back of the shelter was jammed up against a tree, its large roots stabilizing the framework.

A pretty basic design but it kept the wind out and might keep us dry.

It was just that smell.

Maybe it isn’t just the branches, I thought, it might be my pillow.

Sighing, I sat up to try and fix it again. Scrunching the leaves into a better shape, I re-fixed the hood of my cloak over them and lay down.

Loi watched with an amused expression.

'Can’t manage without a pillow?'

'Not yet anyway,' I rolled my eyes. 'But with leaves crunching in my ears all night I might learn to.'

'Why don’t you use Audi as your pillow,' teased Sian.

Audi looked up at hearing her name and then snuggled back down with Lucky.

'Shuuuussh,' mumbled Kassie, curled up like Lucky and Audi, snuggled down in her cloak.

I sighed.

Not going to work.
Scooping the leaves up, I crawled to the entrance and dumped them out. I could learn to manage like Kassie.

Crawling back to my cloak I stuck my tongue out at Loi, who still wore that amused look. Wrapping the cloak around me I pulled my knees up and tucked into a fetal position.

Only until we reach the castle, then I’m getting a pillow.

Sleep came quickly and it must have been around midnight when Audi’s soft growl woke me.

What?
What was she growling about? Blinking, I peered around. The moon was full, making it surprisingly light in the shelter. I whispered her name and Audi crept to my side then gave another low growl. Placing a hand on her back I was shocked to feel the fur erect, like when we’d been chased by the elgrids.

Oh God, what now?

It couldn’t be anything little, considering Audi hadn’t raced out of the shelter to scare it off. Audrey wasn't a chicken, but she was sensible. With trembling hands, I knelt and strapped on the sword and daggers. The shuffling outside had gotten closer. My stomach seemed to sink to my feet and a wave of dizziness hit as fear swept through me.

Not again, I thought, the village is half a day’s walk away. There was no way we would be able to make it back.

I crawled over to Kassie and shook her, placing a hand over her mouth. She mumbled, then her eyes flashed open in shock.

'Shhh, something’s outside and Audi thinks it’s bad. Strap your sword on and get ready.'

She reached for her sword and I turned to repeat the process with Loi and Sian. We packed the loose gear into the packs and Loi placed them at the back of the shelter into the tree’s roots, explaining, 'When we jump out we’ll pull the shelter down quickly so the packs are covered, we can dig them out later.'

We nodded in agreement.

Kassie scooped Lucky up and draped the cat over her shoulders, wincing as she clung tight. Sian crouched at one side of the shelter’s opening and Loi at the other, with Cat and Kassie right behind them. Audi, pressed to Cat’s side, growled again.

Sian nodded to Loi, they ducked and stepped out of the shelter, the other two following.

Loi turned back and with a hard kick, knocked the main supporting branch down. The roof collapsed covering the packs as intended and she turned back to the others.

'Right, back to back until we sort out what we’re facing. Have your swords ready and if you go to strike, step forward so you don’t clip the person next to you.'

We stared, white faced, at one another for a moment then fanned out and peered into the forest. The rustling in the undergrowth stopped then odd noises began. Soft snarls, whines, and a strange, husky grunting.

I shifted into a fighting stance and pulled my sword out. The rustling and strange noises started again, moving closer. My eyes widened in shock at the number of creatures that stepped onto the path before us.