The Guided Journey (Book 6) (23 page)

He stood still and scanned the area intently, looking for signs of Passet, and wondering how the human had managed to travel so far without leaving a trail.  He heard the sound again, coming from a deeply shaded dell, one where a thicket of brambles and undergrowth blocked a clear view.

“Passet?” he called, as he walked towards the thicket.

There was a rustling sound among the canes and leaves, and Kestrel saw motion.

“How did you get so far into the brambles?” he asked.  “That has to hurt.”

He pulled his knife out and began to cut away at the leafy stems, careful of the hooked thorns that ran along the plant.  As he did, Passet suddenly pressed towards him; Kestrel heard grunts and moans as
he watched the progress through the thicket, when the man suddenly appeared in front of him.  Kestrel rapidly backpedaled, took a position several steps outside of the thicket, and held his knife ready to protect himself.  The human that burst out of the growth was not Passet.

Chapter 22 – Orren Joins the Group

The unknown man emerged from the greenery, his face and hands scratched and torn, but the pricklings of the briars was minor compared to the bruises and torn flesh that was visible, as well as the blackened clothing he wore in tatters.

“Elf!  Thank the gods I found you!” the man fell to his knees, and started to cry.

Kestrel stood still in place, shocked by the turn of events.

“Who are you?” Kestrel asked.

“I’m Orren, one of the miners,” the man said.  He hugged himself tightly.

Kestrel recognized the face as he put it in context.  He had seen the man standing in the back of the pack of miners when he had entered the mine the day before.

“What are you doing here?” Kestrel asked.  “What happened back there?” he asked a second later, remembering the rumbling earth his group had experienced.

“It came back,” Orren said.  He was still on his knees; he started to try to stand, but winced, and stopped trying when he had one foot on the ground in front of him.

“Krusima appeared before us again, in the mine.  He said that there was gold and silver ore further inside the mountain, and we could have it if we worshipped him.  As soon as he said that, I left the others and started running for the mouth, to escape.  I knew it was evil, and I knew something bad was about to happen,” the miner said.

“I don’t know what happened inside, but just as I got to the sunlight, there was a terrible scream, and then the explosion, and I was thrown out of the mine and down the side of the mountain,” he continued.  “I saw fire and stone and smoke, and then I passed out.

“And when I woke up, I just knew that the only hope I had was to try to follow you and find you and ask for your protection from the evil,” he finished telling his story.

“I didn’t think I’d find you, and I was lying in the bushes, ready to die, when I heard your voice,” the man added.

Kestrel looked at the man with compassion.  He had suffered a horrific trauma.  “Can you walk?” Kestrel asked.  “Our camp is just a few minutes away,” he explained.  “If you can make it there, I can heal you and we can take you with us to Narrow Harbor.”

“I’ll go anywhere; just get me away from that mine,” Orren said.  “The farther the better.”

He struggled to his feet.

“Come with me,” Kestrel advised, and began to slowly walk back north towards the camp.

“Did you see or hear anyone else out here?” Kestrel asked after they had started to walk, as he suddenly remembered he had left the camp to search for Passet.

“No, no one,” the miner answered as he limped along.

Kestrel stopped as they left the forest and returned to the open space along the river banks.  The scenery was beautiful.  The riverside was stark with piles of stone and drifts of sand that had been moved into place by the power of the flooding river, yet plants and small blooming wildflowers provided a gentling splash of color.  The mountains rose on both sides, clothed in green, and the sky was blue overhead.  Had he not experienced the past day and a half of horror, Kestrel could have imagined the scene as a peaceful place where he could retreat from the world.

They began walking forward.  Kestrel wished he had brought a skin of water from the healing spring, but he had left it at the camp site, not expecting to need it while he fetched Passet back to camp.  After a long half hour, as they reached the edge of the camp, Kestrel saw Putty kneeling on the river bank, looking down into the water.  The yeti’s hand suddenly swooped down and pulled a large trout out of the water, throwing the catch up onto the river bank.

The monster turned gleefully, proud of its accomplishment, then saw Kestrel approach and gave a howl of greeting.  It started to charge towards the two arrivals, making Orren howl in fear.

“Come to me!” Kestrel urged
Putty, stepping away from the injured miner, creating space to give the man some peace of mind.  He accepted the yeti’s hug and then moved back.

“Go eat your fish,” he gestured to the still trout that lay on the sandy bank top.

“Go sit down over there,” he then directed the miner, as Raines and Hampus came over.

“What’s this, Kestrel?” they each asked in their own language.

“Orren, you tell Raines why you’re here; I’ll tell my elf friend in his language,” Kestrel directed, as he rooted through the pack of supplies until he found the healing water.  He explained briefly to Hampus what he had learned.

“The evil was still there?  Will it follow the miner?” the elf asked Kestrel.

Kestrel paused.  “I hope not,” he said softly.  “I hope it had to stay in the mine, in the mountain,” he said.  “Pray to Kere,” he added, then took the water skin over to Orren and Raines.

“Here, take a good drink of this,” he directed, then he worked with Raines to remove most of the man’s clothing, after which he dribbled the spring water over the burns and bruises and scratches.

“Should we stay here today so that he can recover?” Raines asked, as she looked at the man lying still, with his eyes closed.

Kestrel scowled quietly.  He hated to lose yet another opportunity to travel.  “We’ll wait until afternoon, and see what shape he’s in.  I’m going to go hunting in the meantime,” he said.

“Hunting for Passet?” Raines asked.

“I didn’t find any sign of him,” Kestrel answered.  “I’m going to go hunting for food.”  He picked up his bow and arrow, and called Putienne to follow him, then went into the woods to look for game, noting that Hampus was heading out as well.

He began going north, choosing the direction that Passet had apparently traveled in, and he soon found boot prints that confirmed the man had fled in that direction.  He paused, and decided that he didn’t really care if he found the man or not; Passet had deserted his family to foolishly run away with Raines, and then run away from Kestrel’s group, deserting Raines.  The man wasn’t someone to be trusted or counted on, and Kestrel was just as happy to not retrieve him, he decided as he caught sight of deer tracks, and sent Putty after the prey.

He held his bow ready, and when the yeti flushed a young doe out of the undergrowth, Kestrel easily brought the game down with a single, clean shot.

Putty looked at him in annoyance as he arrived at the site of the carcass.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get at least half,” Kestrel assured her.

“But I’d like for you to carry it back to the camp site for me,” he added, then led his yeti-as-bearer back to the river side campsite, where he stoked the coals of the camp fire, and butchered several cuts of venison for roasting, much to the dismay of Raines.

“The rest is yours,” he told Putty.  “Take it out into the woods to eat,” he directed his friend.

“Have you lived in a city all your life?” he asked Raines, who had her back turned to him to avoid seeing the butchering, as he skewered the meat and set it roasting over the fire.

“A village outside Narrow Bay growing up, then in the city after I was married,” she agreed.

“You can look.  I’m just cooking the meat now,” Kestrel told her. 

“So when we deliver you to Narrow Bay, now that we know you’re not a wilderness girl, will you stay in the city?” he asked as she came and sat next to him.

“I don’t know,” she moaned.  “I wish I knew where Passet was.”

“He’s headed north,” Kestrel revealed.  “I saw his boot prints while I was hunting.”  He leaned forward to turn the pieces of roasting meat over.

“He’s heading home without me?” she asked incredulously.  Kestrel saw her eyes grow moist.  “He’s going back to Janek, his wife,” she said piteously.

“A pretty thing like you?  H
e’s crazy to walk away from you,” they heard the miner speak for the first time since being treated for his wounds.

“Thank you,” she sniffed, embarrassed that her abandonment had been discovered by Orren.

“How do you feel?” Kestrel asked.

“Somewhat better,” Orren allowed, stretching and flexing to check his condition. 

“Will you be able to leave this afternoon, to start hiking north?” Kestrel asked him.

“If you’re ready to go, I’ll come along.  You saved me at least twice already, I figure, so I’ll stick close to you,” the miner answered.  “Isn’t that something?  Relying on an elf to save me from I-don’t-know-what.”

“I’d feel better getting as far away from that mine as possible too,” Kestrel agreed.  “We’ll cook this meat and eat something to tide us over, then head north.”

Hampus came back to camp soon afterwards, as did Putty.  They ate and packed, and proceeded to depart northward.  Clouds moved in during the afternoon, and they were rained upon, but Kestrel kept them moving north.

The clouds were low, and came sweeping down from the north.  They brought not only rain, but gloom as well, and so, despite Kestrel’s fear of what was behind and his eagerness to reach the goal that was ahead, they ended their march early.  To avoid any problems from the river rising, they climbed up out of the floodway, and camped in a damp dell.  Kestrel tied the corners of his blanket to the tree branches overhead to give them a small degree of shelter.  They ate very little that night, and lit no fire in the dampness.

When the sun rose the following day in a lighter sky without any rain falling, they immediately resumed the journey, and by midday they began to pass cabins, tended fields, and people – people who screamed at the sight of a yeti walking down the trail that followed the river.

At first the screamers and the other people who simply ran and hid at the sight of the yeti were no inconvenience while in the lightly populated countryside.  But by the end of the day they had reached a village that sat on a bluff overlooking the now-substantial river, and Kestrel called a halt. 

“Raines, would you and Orren want to go into town and get a room at an inn?” Kestrel asked.  “I think Hampus and Putty and I will go around to the other side of the village and spend the night in the woods.”

Raines’s hand shot out and slapped Kestrel’s face.  “You think I want to spend the night with this man?” she hissed.

“No!” Kestrel replied.  “I didn’t think that at all!” he protested
as he rubbed his cheek.  “I’m sorry.  I was thinking that Orren needed to sleep in a bed to recover, and I thought you’d like a bed and maybe a bath,” his voice trailed off.  He truly had failed to think about what his proposal had implied.  He’d been in the mountains, away from civilization, for too long.

“What was that about, Kestrel?” Hampus asked, unable to follow the conversation.

“I would like a bath,” Raines admitted.  “But I can’t share a room with a man!” she adamantly declared.

Putienne gave an anxious moan, sensing the strong emotions among the members of the group.

“Hold on!” Kestrel said to them all, holding up his hands in a universal gesture of silence.

“Everyone will stay here, except Raines and me,” he said in human, then repeated in elvish.  “We will go get a room at an inn with a bath tub.  Raines will take her bath, then the imps will bring her and I back here, and take Orren to the inn so that he can spend the night there, while the rest of us go around the village.”

He started to repeat the same explanation to Hampus, when Orren interrupted.

“My elf lord Kestrel, let’s all just go around the village together.  This isn’t worth the trouble,” he expressed his opinion.

“He’s right,” Raines said mournfully.  “I’d like a bath, but it’s not necessary just now.”

“We’ll all go around the village together, and spend the night outside the village together,” Kestrel quickly told Hampus.  He shook his head ruefully.  “We’ll wait here until it’s completely dark, then we’ll make our way around.”

They settled into the woods outside the village, as the sky overhead darkened, and when the stars overhead were clearly visible, they began their trek through small fields and patches of woods to arrive at a spot near the road north of the village.

Having a yeti along was going to prove to be a problem, one that couldn’t be avoided much longer, Kestrel realized, and he wasn’t sure what to do.  Putienne was still growing rapidly, but was still just a juvenile.  He didn’t feel that he could turn the monster loose, or send her back into the wilderness to live on her own.  But her presence was going to be a real problem in moving through any heavily populated area.

“What are you going to do with her?” Orren asked as Kestrel stood abstractedly staring at Putty.

“I don’t know,” Kestrel answered.

“What if you disguised her?” Raines suggested.

“How do you disguise a yeti?” Kestrel asked skeptically.

“A long dress and a big floppy hat,” Raines replied.  “And a scarf,” she added.

“There’s no way that could possibly work.  You can’t be serious,” he said.

“It might work,” Orren spoke up.

Kestrel stared at Putty, who seemed uncomfortable with the scrutiny she was receiving.

“If the hat was a big floppy one that hid her face, and you bunched the scarf up around her neck,” Orren tried to support Raines.