The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

The weather snapped suddenly the next day and the gradually worsening weather told of the impending autumn. The arrival of evening was helped by the slow encroachment of grey clouds which loomed menacingly on the horizon as their tendrils began to spread smoothly across the sky, turning it a steely silver which transformed the once bright day into a crepuscular world. As the clouds above melded into one another the sun sank below the horizon and bathed everything in flaming orange light, setting fire to the metallic clouds and leaving flickering embers glowing in trees and bushes while golden rays broke through the clouds like angels' light from the heavens above which turned everything they touched to fire.

Amongst all of this blazing glory Finred and Safita were illuminated like two angels, fiery halos manifesting around their heads as they walked through the burning landscape, the glowing sunlight blinding them with its final rays before the sun sank defeated beneath the black silhouettes of the distant trees and retreated reluctantly, leaving the world in darkness.

Their camp was silent that night, as if the clouds which had drawn in like a grey blanket which covered the sky had also smothered the noise of the birds, the rustling of the leaves and the calls of other nocturnal animals. Neither Finred nor Safita said a word as they sat by the fire she had made from sticks and branches gathered in the gloaming, its flickering tongues, reminiscent of the evening's earlier sun, dancing brokenly as the embers crackled.

"It's going to rain," Safita whispered, her voice breaking the deafening silence; Finred looked up at her startled.

"How can you tell?"

"Aside from the clouds you mean?" she joked. "There's a heaviness to the air and if you stay very still you can almost feel it pressing down on you; it's hard to describe but I've been travelling around here for years; I know a lot about the land. There's even something in its smell which tells of rain," she said with a crooked smile. Finred listened intently to her words as he tried to really feel the air and he was almost convinced that he could, though maybe it was just his imagination.

The chill of the early morning seeped into their bones as they waded through the mist which grasped at their ankles and calves; gradually it dissipated as the sun rose, instead shielding the tips of the trees from their sight as the low lying clouds pressed down on the ground. Beads of moisture clung to them as they walked, settling lightly on their cloaks and hoods and creating a dewy film; gone were the sunnier days of their earlier travels and Safita was proved right, something which impressed Finred when he noted it.

The rain began half way through the morning, slowly at first as if it was limbering up and preparing itself, giving the two travellers just enough time to pull up their hoods and clutch their cloaks around their bodies before beginning in earnest; sheets and sheets of it hammered down on the ground, turning the road into a muddy river, hundreds of tiny streams racing along its surface as its relentless pounding drowned out the sound of the drenched pair that struggled through it.

"Should we stop?" Finred asked, his voice dwarfed by the drumming of the rain on the leaves above.

"No, stopping won't accomplish anything," Safita bit out, "we'll still get wet but we'll get cold because we won't be moving and we won't get any nearer to the prince. We must press on, I know you're a city boy but surely you're not scared of a little rain?" Just as she said that a streak of lightning burst from the sky, flashing violently through the roiling clouds. "Or a little lightning," she amended.

"You really are desperate to find this prince aren't you?" Finred muttered to himself, slightly amused despite their dire circumstances.

"The sooner I find him the sooner I can sleep in a warm bed and have my reward," she answered as she dodged a rapidly filling puddle.