Broken Glass - Taekook

49

We spend about a week in the savannah, heading in a south-eastern direction towards the centre of Eithyr. As we move, Namjoon and Hoseok spend a lot of time consulting the map and checking our direction, talking quietly amongst themselves about where we're likely to end up by the time the day is over. 

Every night, as we sit round a low fire, eating whatever meals we've managed to make from the surrounding area, the two of them talk us through the progress we've made so far, and the possibilities that lie in tomorrow. There's something almost motivating about it, even though we only travel about fifteen miles or so a day sometimes, on a particularly tough day. It doesn't sound like far, and it really isn't in the grand scheme of things, but being aware of that progress somehow makes it feel like time is passing faster, like we know what we're doing somehow. 

Their plan is to bring us through the centre of Eithyr, swinging a good fifty or so miles south of the capital to keep as far away from the king's stronghold as possible without adding too many weeks to our journey time. This route means we'll spend longer in the Yarolian Plains than we necessarily would otherwise, as we'll be heading further south before we properly start going east. That also means we won't go too close to the Cursed Towers, though it's inevitable that we'll be near one or two at some point. 

And one day, maybe soon, we'll have to try and fix those places, bring them back into a more positive state, make the golden river flow underneath them as it did before. We'll have to stop the pain and the anger that still pumps through those places like blood through arteries, calm it with reassurance and patience and love as much as we can. It'll be difficult, but it's been done before, on a smaller scale. We know that it's possible. It's just not something we have the time to do right now, even if we wish we could. 

There's an odd serendipity to it, this monotonous lifestyle we slowly start to get ourselves used to, the repetitive tread of our feet over soft-packed earth, through waving grasses that seem to have far more life than the ones we saw on our journey to Mavathyr. As the first band of light appears on the horizon, every morning, we wake up and clear out our camp, ready to start on a day of walking by the time the sun is peeking halfway over the horizon. 

The weather seems to remain pretty consistent the entire time, too, with the only shift in  conditions being a slight difference in wind speed, or in temperature. The early mornings are cool, and we always move faster then, to make up for the fact that we always slow down when it heats up again later in the day. 

By mid-morning, our pace has shifted to more of a crawl, and we pull thin swathes of cloth over our heads to prevent the sun from striking onto our bare necks. Jimin pulls out a similar, bigger piece of cloth and drapes it over the horse's back, checking the places where the harness meets her body every time he gets a chance. Any time he spots an issue, he calls us to stop, so that he can readjust and ensure that she is comfortable. Taehyung only has to get involved and make a soothing solution to stop a blister once or twice, thanks to Jimin's caution. 

On our journey to Mavathyr, we didn't really have the time for any of that, because we were just trying to get away from the Rymateri Forest, away from potential danger at the border between the territories. Now that we're heading in a new direction, that hurry has disappeared, though we're still keen to get back under the cover of trees and mountains as soon as we can. There's something comforting about having the shadow of a mountain at your back, though that might just be my fondness for Taju k'Eithyr, the Crown itself, talking. 

Ever since that night in the plains, where we woke the golden river, and I dreamed of the golden sphinx, the mental image that comes to mind when I think of the energy flow under our feet has changed. Instead of the familiar guardian of Hazelpoint, I see the knowing smile of a human face on a lion's body, flickering feather-like wings spreading in either direction. There's something about the Yarolian Plains that turns the golden river into a new symbol, a new being almost, and there's part of me that's beginning to wonder whether that change has any significance.