Between The Crystals

Ch 15 Exhaustion Sets In

With a sigh, I wrestled my shirt off and inspected it. Despite checking each seam, I couldn't find anything like the tracker bead they'd taken off Mason. I'd have to go to the Guard Station to get scanned. There was no way I wasn't packing a tracker after how long it had pinned me.

I furrowed my eyebrows. How could it have planted the tracker? One hand had been on my back, and the other had been on the ground, supporting its weight. Nor had it sat on its hind legs to free up its hands.

I kept an uneasy eye on the sky while I rested, still sitting within arm's reach of the crystal. No airships haunted the horizon. Eventually, the sun grew too warm, and I stiffly got to my feet. I was still tired, but that was to be expected after a long hike in a thick jungle on a mountainside and then being pinned in the dirt by a deadly predator.

With trepidation, I reached for the crystal while murmuring, "Guard Station."

The temperature dropped as I appeared in the shade. The wind gusted past like it always did up here, ruffling my clothing and hair. A guard I wasn't familiar with came over with the scanner.

He paused when he noticed my dirt-smudged knees and elbows, then quickly closed the distance and brought up the scanner. "Were you pinned as well?"

The question made me blink. "How did you know?"

"You're the fourth one today," he replied as he moved the device up and down.

"The fourth?" I gawked at him. I would have been less stunned if the sun had risen in the west this morning. A female guard came over and gently brushed the dirt off my elbows, revealing a few small scrapes, but no cuts or larger abrasions.

The guard lowered the scanner, whose lights remained a steady green. "Yes, and just like them, you don't have a tracker on you."

I just stared at him, unable to form coherent thoughts.

The female guard walked around me, checking for any other injuries. "You must have played dead if you only have lightly scuffed elbows. Most of the others did the same." Her lips twisted. "A couple of the hunters who tried to fight back were injured."

"Did they survive?"

"Yes. Minor slashes along their arms from when the Saursune disarmed them. As long as they can keep any infection at bay, they'll recover."

I sighed in relief and relaxed.

"Sit down for a bit," she advised me. "You look beat."

I didn't need a second invitation to go to the hides spread across the packed sand. The final wisps of adrenaline were wearing off, leaving me in dire need of a prolonged break where I wasn't on high alert. A nap would have been better, but I didn't feel comfortable enough here.

My fingers played with the thin scraps of fur that had been sewn together. The hair wasn't right for rabbit or rat, but it was too tattered for me to properly identify what it had come from. The air near the crystal shimmered a mere second before a porter and three passengers appeared.

The porter's legs gave out, and the hunter barely slowed his fall. The two gatherers didn't look much better. Their wide eyes darting around as if expecting a Saursune to leap out at them.

I sat up straighter as the guards converged on them and helped them to a stone bench. The guards half-carried the porter to the seat, where he rested his head between his knees.

"Got caught by a couple of Saursunes," the hunter said shortly, still out of breath. "They snuck close to the crystal and ambushed Vic. The other one knocked me to the ground."