Meddling in Foreign Affairs

Chapter 16: A Mountain Hike

After a few hours they emerged from the side of the mountain. The view was amazing and the trail that Dyomahai had mentioned was overgrown, but could easily be seen winding away to the northwest. They walked until it got dark and didn't light a fire so that they wouldn't be noticed if anyone had been looking their way. Dismas was very cold when he was trying to fall asleep, so he stayed close to Byulat. The dwarf didn't care enough to move, but grumbled unhappily.

They kept a fast pace the entire next day, so it was mostly silent. The only noise was Dismas' occasional sneeze or suggestion that they go off the path to throw anyone following off the trail. Byulat mostly ignored him, but Aya seemed more concerned about his health than escaping the dwarves. It was frustrating to Dismas that despite his experience in running away from everything, his companions wouldn't let him do basic things that could only help them go undetected.

The mountains were beautiful, if you liked that sort of thing. Dismas was getting frustrated by the scattered trees and bushes, and by his general lightheadedness as they continued to walk, and there was almost nothing entertaining around. Because he seemed to be more out of breath than usual, Byulat wasn't great at conversations, and he had no desire to talk to Aya if she already knew what he was thinking anyways, Dismas was incredibly bored.

The most interesting thing that they encountered were signs that a huge beast had been through the same area a few days ago. Various claw marks in some of the trees they walked by led Dismas to believe that it must have been at least two people long, and that it was able to climb the trees and rocky hills quite easily. It would have been something terrifying to encounter, for sure. By the end of the day, Dismas was stumbling a bit, so they stopped about an hour before it got dark. He fell asleep almost immediately.

He was feeling significantly better the next morning, but was still sneezing. Aya thought that they should wait before starting walking to make sure that Dismas was actually doing better, but Dismas insisted that he was fine, especially because they had no idea how frequently the large beast hunted around the trail they were following. Byulat also thought that it would be best to keep moving, so they didn't wait. Byulat still wouldn't let Dismas take them off the path. Every time Dismas would bring it up, he would claim that no one was following, and if they were, they should focus their efforts on getting away quickly rather than throwing them off the trail.

They still hadn't lit a fire, and Dismas was still cold at night. It was annoying how he was overheating during the day, but couldn't keep any warmth at night, even wrapped in his cloak and right next to the living heater that was Byulat.

The next morning, Dismas threw up his breakfast after walking about a mile. He had been feeling sluggish since he woke up, so he'd been trailing behind Aya and Byulat. Neither of them noticed, and Dismas pretended it hadn't happened and kept walking. When they stopped for the night, he didn't bother with trying to eat. He struggled to fall asleep again and kept shifting between feeling really hot or really cold.

When he refused to eat breakfast, Aya decided that she had had enough. "Dismas, you have to eat, you only ate breakfast yesterday."

Dismas groaned, feeling nauseous at just the thought of putting food into his body. "I'm fine, really."

"You are not fine. You haven't slept properly since we got to Dragstyenost, and you keep sneezing. And you look like a ghost, you're so pale."

"I said that I'm fine, Aya," Dismas said angrily as he stood. "We should get going."

"And I said that you are not fine! You're going to hurt yourself. Byulat, tell him to stop!"

Byulat looked up at Dismas. "I will not tell you to stop, but I will tell you that you look even worse than you usually do."

"So we'll keep going. We're almost to that village anyways, we can get there by the time it gets dark."

Aya tilted her head. "How are you so sure that we'll be there today?"

Dismas shrugged, and winced when his shoulder hurt. "The mountains can only be so large, right?" He started walking down the path before either of them could respond. Which would have been significantly more dramatic if he had gone the right way.

"Dismas? Aren't we going northwest on the path?" Aya asked.

Dismas spun around. "Yes, yes, of course I knew that."

Byulat stepped right in front of Dismas so he couldn't get past him. "Rowell, are you sure that it is a good idea for you to continue?"

"What's that? Are you concerned about me, Byulat? Be careful, or I might start thinking you don't hate me."

"Not hating you has nothing to do with it. You are being an idiot."

"We need to get away from Dragstyenost, so that's what I'm doing. I'm in perfectly good health for walking." Dismas negated his own statement by dry-heaving into the bushes next to the overgrown path. "Right. Now I'm fine. Let's go."

Dismas walked away (in the correct direction this time). Byulat and Aya followed behind, paying extra attention to make sure he was okay. As the sun was starting to get close to the horizon, they could see a small village at the edge of a forest. The trees were smaller than the ones in the Escatar Forest, and it seemed generally younger.

"Wow, Dismas, you were right! We'll be there before it gets dark!" Aya said, walking over to where he had paused at the top of a hill. Dismas didn't respond but was swaying in place and his brain was feeling super extra fuzzy. "Dismas?"

"Rowell!" Byulat shouted out as Dismas collapsed. He and Aya kneeled next to Dismas, and he slapped Dismas' face. "Hey, wake up!" Dismas' eyes opened a bit and he mumbled something, but neither of them could understand what he said.

"If you can, try to think what you need to say to me. If you can get a clear thought to me, I can help."

Dismas was having difficulty thinking at all, but concentrated as much as he could.

"Who is Yael? Can she help?" Dismas heard Aya saying as everything went black.