Between The Crystals

Ch 15 Exhaustion Sets In

With a sigh, I sat up and glanced over my shoulder. "Did it stick a tracker on me?" I asked.

Brielle moved behind me and began brushing leaf fragments off my back. "How close did it get?"

"It pinned me in the leaves," I admitted, making a face. I furrowed my eyebrows as something occurred to me. 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.

She frowned and carefully examined all the seams, eventually saying, "I don't see anything."

"We should stop by the Guard Station," Tib said, keeping an eye on the horizon.

I nodded, still sitting on the sand by the crystal. "I need a break first."

"It was a long hike. Rest as long as you need to," Brielle told me, still checking my shirt seams. "It's too bad the Saursune showed up. We got good shots on two peccaries."

"I'm just glad you got away," I said truthfully.

"So am I," she murmured.

We 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.

The hunters held onto my shoulder as I reached for the crystal. "Guard Station."

The temperature dropped as we 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.

Tib and Brielle frowned at that news and exchanged a look. 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 gaze drifted to the hunters. "I assume you weren't close by?"

Tib and Brielle shook their heads, and Brielle asked, "Did the others survive?"

"Yes. The porters just have bruises. A few hunters tried to fight back and got minor slashes along their arms when the Saursune disarmed them. As long as they can keep any infection at bay, they'll recover."

Another guard told me, "Sit down for a bit. 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. A nap would have been better, but I didn't feel comfortable enough here.

Brielle and Tib chatted with the guards while I rested. 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.