Sember (Forestfolk, Book 2)

Chapter 7a

I stormed straight into the tent. It wasn't like I could knock on a tent anyway. I found Dozan crouching next to his father, who lay on a bedroll on the floor, looking pale and weak. He seemed much older than I would have expected. Dozan was feeding him soup and cringed when I burst in, nearly spilling the entire bowl onto his father's chest.

He quickly set the soup down and would have scrambled backward if his father had not been in the way. He just cowered there on the floor, staring up at me in terror.

Had I been in any other mood, I might have felt sorry for him. I was, after all, the source of his terror. But I had no patience for that right now. I sighed sharply and said, "I'm not here to hurt you."

He stopped shaking, but remained huddled on the floor. I noticed his burns were gone and he had a clean shirt on. A small pile of scorched material lay crumpled in the corner. Two large packs full of who knows what sat in another corner. Other than that and two bedrolls, the tent was pretty sparse.

"You brought this disease here," I said, keeping my tone even, determined not to lose control this time.

"Wh-what?" Dozan blinked at me.

"You heard me."

"We-we didn't know. Honest. We thought we were outrunning it."

"Outrunning it? You didn't find it odd that you would show up in a healthy tribe, and by the time you left, it was full of sick people?"

He looked away and stared at the soup. "I didn't want to believe it."

"What happened to your father in that cave?"

"I don't know." He dragged a hand through his curls. "He barely speaks anymore. He's like a hollow shell of what he used to be."

I felt a twinge of sympathy and glanced at his father. A white, scraggly beard covered half his face, and dark circles smudged under his eyes. He turned his head then, fixing his dark, sunken eyes on me.

"Don't blame the boy." His voice was raspy, and I could tell it took a lot of effort to speak. "I should never have gone into that infernal cave." His eyes drifted to a spot somewhere next to my head.

"What was in there?" I asked, needing to know.

His eyes snapped back to mine, fear lurking in their depths. "Evil."

"What was evil?" I crouched down next to him. "What caused this?"

He doubled over into a coughing fit, then laid his head back down, exhausted by the effort. I looked to Dozan, hoping he might rouse the man for further answers, but he just shook his head. "He needs to rest."

I growled with annoyance. This man knew something! "There's nothing more you can tell me?"

"I'm sorry." Dozan pulled a blanket over his father's chest. "He never spoke about it."

I sighed. There was nothing more I could do here. No point in terrorizing the poor guy any further. I stood and headed for the exit. "I'll be back tomorrow."

"Sember," he called.

I stopped and turned around.

"I'm really sorry about, you know, earlier."

I met his apologetic gaze with indignation. "You should be."

"Not that it excuses my actions but . . . I only do it to . . . escape. To forget"—his eyes flitted to his father—"all this."

Unexpectedly, this struck a chord in me. I shook off the unwanted sympathy and turned to leave.

We all have different ways to escape our woes. Maybe voting is one of them! ;)