Jay's Journey

Chapter 13

In the quiet of the night, the group's adrenaline began to fade and all of the pain of the battle began to catch up to them. There was the lingering sting of the water's impact in Jay's case. In Zira's, there was the pain where she'd been kicked, and it was clear to her that the area would heavily bruise. Thankfully, that was all it would do.

Vayen, on the other hand, wasn't doing nearly as well.

The group had quickly found a trail and a small tree next to it. Vayen sat up against it, his boots taken off and his pant leg pulled up past his knee. The cut was bleeding heavily, but that was to be expected. It didn't gush or anything otherwise that was particularly alarming, so it didn't seem immediately life threatening. That was, unless it got infected, in which case Vayen might die.

He breathed frantically through gritted teeth, tears streaming down his face and overflowing through his nostrils. The cool night air stung against the bare warmth of exposed flesh. The laceration was deep, but it was thankfully formed by a very sharp dagger that left a narrow wound.

"W-What should we do?" Jay stammered.

"We need to stitch up the wound. For that, we're going to need a needle and thread." Zira answered.

"Where the fuck are we gonna get that?! We just got whatever the fuck'd across the damn world! Where the fuck even are we?!" Vayen cried.

"I'm pretty sure we're in the Flatties." Jay answered, recalling the slang term thrown around at home for the plains that stretched from horizon to horizon.

"Are we near jack shit?!"

"We're... at most about a hundred miles from where I live. There's hamlets almost everywhere, and... yes! I still have my money on me!" Jay said, breathing a sigh of relief that his coins hadn't drifted away or been lost in the ebony journey that Madame Midnight had hurtled them into. It was uncertain whether she was toying with him, and knew just how intimidating the prospect of talking to his parents was or if there was something else. Regardless, Jay sincerely hoped that he never had to see her again, as she was a terrifying combination of seemingly amoral and extremely powerful.

"Do you still have some of your seamstress tools?" Zira asked. Jay shook his head.

"Why the fuck wouldn'tcha bring 'em?!" Vayen screamed.

"I didn't think I'd be stitching up your leg! I-I don't even know how to make stitches like this!" Jay replied defensively.

"Can't be that fuckin' hard!"

"I don't want to take the risk!"

"It was one of the women who slashed you, right?" Zira interjected suddenly.

"Yeah, fuckin' toldja already!" Vayen shouted angrily.

"How did they track us?" Zira whispered, her wide eyes locked on the ground.

"You said they were good at findin' people." Vayen loudly pointed out, snapping Zira from her thoughts.

"Yes, but I was sure that I covered all our bases. I don't know how they could have done it." Zira said.

"They're better than you, dumbass! You probably weren't done with your training or whatever the fuck so you wouldn't know." Vayen reasoned. Zira shot Vayen a glare.

"Alright uh, let's not worry about this right now, we should worry about Vayen's leg." Jay said.

"Couldja use magic?" Vayen asked. Jay took a deep breath and attempted it, but realized with wide eyes that it was almost impossible to even register the Omnocean.