Between The Crystals

Ch 31 Clams

The next morning, it was easy to pinpoint who the new additions to my group were. The faces weren't ones I was used to seeing among the gatherers and hunters. Oddly enough, the three older people from yesterday were absent, apparently having been replaced by three regular hunters. All twenty-four stood to the side as everyone else gathered near the main crystal.

As soon as Grant arrived, he told me, "Roxanne didn't see any Saursunes at Orange Flower last night, so I'm sending you there. Your group is all hunters, and they'll go far afield to avoid depleting the area around the crystal. If that doesn't rebuild some of our reserves, I'm out of ideas."

I'd never escorted an all-hunter group before. As tempting as it was to try taking two groups of twelve just to see if I could do it, it was wiser to port them in three groups of eight, especially with the other porters watching me. That experiment could wait until I had to bounce them out in a hurry.

"This is going to take a few trips..."

"Take as long as you need," Grant said, gesturing me toward my new super group before starting to give the other porters their assignments.

"Let's try eight," I told them as I made my way to the crystal.

As soon as the specified number had gathered around me, I ported them to Orange Flower. The hunters immediately broke into teams of two and disappeared into the forest. I returned to the village, and since Grant was still preoccupied, I nodded to the group. Eight more arranged themselves around me.

"Orange Flower," I murmured, casting a furtive glance at Grant to see if I was sneaking away undetected. Who was I kidding? Eight people would be missing. He'd notice.

The world disappeared around us as we appeared in the forest. The porting strain I should have felt was absent. Two back-to-back trips with eight should have been worse than taking a ten-person group. Instead of deep strain radiating throughout my body and forcing me to take at least a ten-minute break, there was...nothing.

Pursing my lips, I bounced back to the village. Grant looked over and raised an admonitory eyebrow at me, silently telling me to sit and rest.

I sat on a rock as my stomach grumbled and demanded breakfast. It would have to wait until I returned to Orange Flower and picked some greens. Callie had been given a tiny strip of dried meat, but otherwise, no one else going out today had eaten yet.

Grant worked his way through the crowd, and porters headed out with their groups in tow. Ariel and Belle waved as they went by. I waved back.

If they had their energy drained by the Saursunes a few more times, would they be able to port their groups of four without feeling the strain as badly? Or, perhaps, any strain at all? My idle musings were definitely not something I'd ever mention aloud.

The Saursunes would show up whenever they showed up. And if the trend continued, they'd continue appearing a lot. Time would be the ultimate judge, and...and if it was just me whose abilities were strengthening, I had other worries.

As the last of the porters disappeared through the crystal, Grant came over. "Why did you immediately take the second group out?"

My last eight people drifted toward the crystal, pretending to be distracted with their current conversation while evacuating the potential fallout zone.

I shrugged uncomfortably. "There wasn't really any porting strain, and I won't be porting much today, so I can rest when I go back." My preferred excuse of not wanting to leave the crystal empty wouldn't work since our village was the only one that knew about Orange Flower.

Grant frowned slightly, then sighed. "Please be more careful. I ask people to rest between ports because it's easier than finding volunteers to carry them to their room if they pass out. And if you think the lectures I hand out are bad, imagine having a hundred villagers miffed at you because a porter fainted on your watch."