Victana built a shelter against a rock. The storm had knocked branches onto the beach. The leaves created an adequate, if cold, barrier. She had managed to shelter them behind their fishing nets intertwined with branches. She didn't have blankets or heavier clothing for them to wear, but the nights were still warm enough that it didn't bother them too much. Amos tried to help, but he was working automatically. She directed in through lacing the branches in the net, through lighting their very small fire, then she helped him find a comfortable spot and let him sleep.
She couldn't sleep. Everything had happened in such a short time period. Since the attack on the village, she had been fighting and running. Even on the duvkanan, she had kept herself ready should the magical shield falter. Now, she was on the solid ground and relatively safe. A cold knot had been burning in her stomach since she'd seen that face by the Guardian Tree, but now it leapt into her throat.
She'd never been one for crying. Not that she avoided it, necessarily, but it did very little to relieve her distress. Other people had cried. She had always worked.
But now her work was done and she had nowhere to go. A tiny tear trickled down her cheek. She poked at the fire as she swatted her tears away.
"We're alone," she said.
She had only seen a few summers. She was tired and scared and thrust into a world that had revealed some of its worst evil to her without exception or apology. That she feel sleep, her face buried in her arms, her knees drawn up to her face, is perhaps forgivable.
She woke with a start when she heard an axe smack into wood. She went from exhausted slumber to jittery wakefulness instantaneously. Her belt knife was in her hand a mere heartbeat later. She sprang to her feet, and collapsed as her knees gave out.
"Peace, child," said a hoarse male voice.
"It's ok, Victana," said Amos, coming from somewhere to her right and very definitely not in the shelter. "He found us both asleep and has been watching over us all night."
"That is not reassuring," Victana said.
"You are Lhem," the male voice said.
Victana raised her head. Her heart was beating from her collapse and now her head hurt. She was able to see a man dressed in leather tunic and leggings, a giant fur hung across his shoulders.
"You're not," she said.
"I'm not," the man said. He squatted down, his bearded face on a level with Victana. He was careful to maintain his distance, however. Victana still grasped her knife in her hand. "I'm Huka."
"Hello, Huka," Victana said. "Do you always watch sleeping people?"
"No," Huka said. "But I was asked to be on the lookout for survivors from the Raid on Lusketo. You are from Lusketo, correct?"
"We..." Victana choked up.
"I know you by your boat," Huka said.
"Are there others?" Amos asked. "Other survivors, I mean."
"Not that I have found!" Huka said. "You are my first!" He looked at the two Lhem, a smile on his face, before looking crestfallen. "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Who asked you to look for survivors?" asked Victana. She was still gripping her knife.
"The Great Council of Dorkeno," said Huka. "They employ me as a forester. Perhaps you have heard of them? They are also a Lhem village."
Amos laughed a little. Dorkeno was the largest Lhem village, with a Guardian Tree over two thousand years old. It was the sole point of interaction for those who wished to leave Lhem lands and head over the mountains into the Central Provinces of the Imperial Republic. Some called it the capital of the Lhem, but that was a misnomer. Each Lhem village belonged to itself.
"Did it happen anywhere else?" Amos asked. "The attack, you know, like happened to our village?"
Victana noted that he avoided saying their families. She realized with a gulp that she would not have been able to say it either.
"It would seem that whatever happened in Lusketo, was unique to Lusketo!" Huka said. "Are you feeling able to stand, woman who falls on the ground? If we are strong and persist, we can reach Dorkeno before nightfall."
"I can walk," Victana said, scrambling to her feet. "I was surprised when you woke me, is all."
"I have prepared waycakes!" said Huka, gesturing to a fire he had built fifty feet from her shelter. Victana realized that her last few dreams had, in fact, been filled with the smell of baking. The surprise of waking to a man dressed entirely in the skins of animals had made her ignore her rumbling stomach, but now she also realized she was deeply hungry.
"Let's eat," she said. "Then, lead us to Dorkeno, Huka the Forester."
*old episodes archived at www.pathwaysbook.com.