Wings of fire: The Scavengers of Pyrrhia

Chapter 12

"Are you sure your home is this way?" Nixi said politely behind Terrin.

"Positive. Now, if I didn't happen to have this compass you had in that bag...eh, I couldn't say." Terrin replied, eyes flicking from the horizon to the needle of the compass in his hand every now and then.

"So, what you're saying is, without me, you'd be...lost?" The girl chuckled amusingly.

Terrin shook his head with a laugh. "Yeah, you could." The sun was teetering on the distant ocean, and stars were beginning to appear in the sky, one by one.

Its a good thing Nixi was using her head back there He thought to himself.

It was only half a day that had passed since they climbed the cliff. When Nixi and Terrin had met each other at the top, they immediately headed down a smoother, less steep face of the mountain range as fast as they could run without falling or tripping. It was about an hour later that they had found themselves entering a wooded part of the mountain that had enough cover from the view of dragons soaring in the sky. Panting and exhausted, they agreed to take a break before continuing on.

The pair unanimously agreed to stop at a nearby boulder while they recovered from the sprint down the mountain, both collapsing onto it gratefully.

When Nixi had enough breath to speak, she gasped "I...I got some supplies back there, by the way."

"You...wh-what?" Terrin had asked her.

She mustered enough strength to sit up and remove two packs that were slung around each shoulder, setting them on the ground.

"I-I don't know what's in them, but I hope we can use it." She had explained hoarsely.

"How did you get two bags from the dragons?" Terrin had managed to ask in awe.

"I found an entrance to a shallow cave on my way up" She explained. "There was a bunch of weapons and bags and stuff. I think when they catch humans, they put their stuff in there, maybe to sort through it for treasure and useful things." The girl opened one bag and began to look through everything. "I just grabbed two bags and took them with me" She went on, pulling out a knife and sheath and setting it aside.

Terrin would have expressed more joy if he wasn't so tired, so instead he settled on saying "Good job." He knelt down next to the unopened bag and began to remove its contents one by one.

When they took everything out, they found:

   Three unlit torches
   A tinderbox with flint, cotton and a vial of oil
   One knife with its sheath
   One bowstring
   Two intact arrows
   Three broken arrows
   One flask of alcohol, half full
   One empty water canteen
   A brown cloak
   An old brass compass
   A faded, worn-out map book of the different regions of Pyrrhia
   A rope of about 15 feet in length.
   5 gold coins
   About one and a half pounds of dried meat and vegetables
   A  thin sleeping mat
   A worn out, woven blanket

Terrin couldn't believe how much there was in just two bags! He looked up at Nixi, who was also quite shocked. "Looks like we ought to thank whoever owned these bags!" he said in a low, amazed voice.

Nixi nodded wordlessly, focus still on the items laid out in front of them.

"And you carried all of this up the cliff? On your back?!" Terrin exclaimed.

Nixi looked over at Terrin, head tilted. "It wasn't too heavy," She insisted, but Terrin wondered if she was just saying that to be nice or seem tougher. She tilted her head to the side. "Why? Did you think I'm too weak to carry two whole bags of stuff for this long?" she said, sounding genuinely offended.

"What? No! Th-that's not what I meant! What're you laughing at? I-oh. You're joking with me." Terrin looked away, flustered. "What I was trying to say was just that I should have been there to help you carry it," He had said apologetically. Instead , you were in the talons of a dragon, screaming your head off like a lunatic, He scolded himself, looking at his feet.

"Well, you didn't help," She pointed out, and at first it sounded like she too was upset with him. When he looked up at her though, Terrin saw her gentle, calm expression. "All that matters is that we got out of there, and we now have things that can help us out on our quest home."

Quest? Terrin thought when he flashed his mind back to the present. She says that like this is some grand adventure, some story being read or something!

"Should we set up camp now?" Terrin nearly jumped out of his clothes when Nixi snapped him out of his daydream. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya." She added, obviously trying to hide an amused grin.

"Its okay," Terrin said. He looked back at the sunset, then nodded. "You're right, should set up camp."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The largest of the three moons was full, giving them enough light to find a good place to set up for the night. Terrin had offered to light one of the torches or start a fire, but Nixi voted against it. "We're still really close to the dragon's kingdom," she pointed out. "And a fire sounds to me like a really good way to be spotted if a dragon flies over us." (It seemed that whenever Nixi brought up a good point like that, it was followed by a warm, fuzzy embarrassed feeling in Terrin's stomach. It was like nothing he had ever before felt, and he couldn't quite figure out what it was.) Terrin agreed with her, and they soon stopped in a thicker wooded area.

Nixi and Terrin moved a few rotted logs and branches to make room for the sleeping mat, taking a few piles of dead leaves and covering the ground under it for a bit more padding between it and the ground.

They both agreed it would be wise to take shifts between watching guard and sleeping (Not like they could sleep at the same time anyways; the mat wasn't exactly big enough for two people). Terrin immediately offered to take the first shift, even though he really wanted to collapse on the mat and sleep. But Nixi's probably even more tired than you, he said to himself. You can rest after she does. It took a bit of convincing, but Nixi eventually gave in and let Terrin stand guard for the first part of the night. "Just wake me up in three or so hours from now." She had said to him, crawling onto the mat and pulling the blanket up. "Even if I complain and groan, keep bugging me until I get up."

"I will, trust me." Terrin insisted. "I'm not going to let you sleep a minute more than three hours, you hear?"

Nixi chuckled a bit, interrupted by a small yawn. "In that case, you better shush your face so I can sleep," she muttered, turning away from him and pulling the covers up over her head. Terrin watched her a minute longer, and for some odd reason, that strange, warm-fuzzy, butterflies-in-stomach feeling crept into him. He shook himself as if to shoo the figurative butterflies away and sat down on a fallen log, then scanned the forest a few times, glancing down at Nixi now and then as if at any moment she could suddenly disappear.

We should get back to the clan in about a week, if I was reading that map correctly, Terrin thought. And if we pace ourselves quickly. And then we'll be safe. I'll be safe. He took another look at Nixi.

She'll be safe.