She halts, and I nearly trip over her.
“I can’t go that long without food! Especially with all this walking.”
“Still, you find no shame in your weakness.” I say the words sighing, shaking my head in disdain.
“Everyone has to eat, Ramsey!” she insists.
“Hurry ahead, and if you make good progress, we will stop for a time.”
I stay at her feet, occasionally nipping them with my own, causing her to stumble. She curses me, saying things that do not even make sense in lesser tongue.
A short time later, when she cannot take it anymore, she goes over to a tree, bracing her hand against it as she pants.
Her face is wholly pink, and sweat drips down her face in a rush.
Unable to prod her forward, I hand her a water skin. She takes a big sip and gags.
“Of course you would choke on water,” I snarl, twisting the dagger deeper.
She scowls at me, taking another sip, and this time, keeping it down.
I open a leather sack, pulling out a cloth full of food. “Let us have some jerked meat and that bread Violet makes.”
“You really have a taste for Penticari bread, don’t you?”
I make my features hard, trying to convey annoyance.
She sighs. “I knew you wouldn’t want me, but I thought we could at least be friends or something. Then again, I was the one that created this situation. We were doing fine until…” Her voice trails off, and her pretty eyes flutter open and shut.
If only I did not love her back.
“Are you going to give me a hard time back at the village?”
I shake my head no.
She chews a piece of meat slowly, her eyes trained on the ground, her hands clenched on her lap.
My coldness will make it easier on her,I tell myself.
I purposefully cut our time short, hastening her to further her annoyance with me.
She groans as she moves, which makes me furious, but I force myself to keep back because I know if I touch her, my resolve will be lost.
“How much farther?” she snaps.
“We should make it back to the village before the sun sets,” I tell her, which will only be true if she can keep a brisk pace.
She mutters something and starts walking forward, but after just three steps, a long muffled roar makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK…
Terragulf!
I grab my axe from its sheath and look in the direction whence it came, seeing two golden eyes directly in front of Asha.
It was the roar that gave the giant beast away, as the clicking sound could also be made by an endergulf.
A far easier animal to kill.
