Chapter 15: Chapter 15

The two friends were ready by the time Damon reappeared the next morning. Clara stepped close to Lilitha’s side. His tall, dark figure was daunting in the foggy gloom.

“Don’t worry,” Lilitha whispered to Clara. “He’s all right.”

“Are you ready?” he said curtly.

Drawing his cloak around him, he took the lead, taking long strides ahead, leaving the two girls hurrying to follow.

Turning away from their previous course, he steered them in a completely new direction. Lilitha and Clara looked at each other in dismay.

“Were we wrong?” Clara said. “Were we not going the right way?”

“No. This is the right way. You have been traveling in circles.”

Lilitha felt her heart drop. All color vanished from Clara’s face.

“How long will it take?”

“Four days, give or take, depending on our pace.”

They walked in silence for a long time, Damon’s tall, broad back inscrutable. Though he was walking fast, he made the journey easy, skillfully finding a route that managed to avoid the worst obstacles.

Still, Lilitha’s legs were starting to ache and she was finding it more and more difficult to catch her breath. She paused to pull off her cloak.

“Wait!” Clara called when the man didn’t stop.

“What?” he snarled, whipping around.

“You’re walking too fast,” she snapped back.

“I’m just hot,” Lilitha panted. Slinging her cloak over her arm, she raked her fingers through her sweaty hair. “Aren’t you two hot?”

Clara was frowning. “Are you sure you’re not sick? Your cheeks are all flushed.” She reached out the back of her hand to feel her forehead. “You don’t ~feel~ feverish.”

“No. I’m just hot. And my stomach…”

“Here, let me take that.” Damon’s voice was surprisingly tender as he took her cloak and slung it around his neck. “I’ll slow down, but it’ll mean the journey will take longer.”

“I can keep up,” Lilitha said resolutely.

He nodded.

Their journey remained silent. Every now and then he would look over his shoulder, as though checking up on her…or was he trying to work something out?

“Who are these monsters?” Clara asked. “Lilitha says you know about them.”

“Like I’ve said, they’re not monsters,” he snarled.

Clara looked at Lilitha grumpily.

Lilitha gave her a sympathetic shrug. “Tell me, do these…do these…er…~animals~…usually speak?”

Clara jerked beside her. Lilitha ignored her surprised look, watching Damon’s back.

“They can speak, yes. Did it speak to you?”

“Kind of… It…it wanted to eat me. I ~thought~ it was going to eat me. It said it would. How can it not be a monster if it was going to eat me?” Her voice rose with anger.

“And what about all those people? Didn’t you hear it? All the screaming…and the…and the roaring? If it’s not a monster, then what is it?”

Damon’s boots thudded against the soft ground.

“Tell me, Lilitha, do you think a snake a monster for eating a mouse?” he asked. “Do you think the spider a monster for catching its flies?

“How about the bear or the wildcat? They tear their prey apart. Are ~they~ monsters?”

“That’s different,” Clara said.

“How?”

“We’re human. Logical and rational. They’re not.”

He stopped and turned upon them. “Is that so? So you don’t slaughter your lambs to eat? Kill calves to steal their mother’s milk?

“And when you sow your fields, you don’t kill those starving animals who seek to consume it?” When they couldn’t answer, he turned and continued walking with a shake of his head. “You know nothing.”

Clara looked like she was about to say something, but Lilitha took her wrist and shook her head. “We need him,” she whispered in her ear.

They didn’t speak after that.

By noon, they stopped to rest. Though the slope they had been climbing was only slight, it was constant. Lilitha sat on the ground with a moan, rubbing at her legs.

Clara sat beside her and dropped her head between her knees.

“Here, I will leave you for a while,” Damon said. “Stay put and I’ll return later.”

“Where are you going?” Clara asked.

“None of your business.”

The girls watched him disappear into the trees.

“I don’t like him,” Clara said, glaring after him.

“We don’t have to like him. We only need to use him.”

“I don’t trust him either.”

“But what can we do? He’s the best we’ve got.”

“What if he feeds us to these…~animals~ he loves so much?”

“Is that what you think?”

Clara shrugged. “Maybe not you.”

“What do you mean?”

“He likes you.”

“No, he doesn’t!” She felt herself flush.

Clara was watching her carefully. “And I think you like him too.”

Lilitha snorted. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe you know nothing.”

Clara folded her arms with a huff. “What does it matter? Like him if you want.”

Lilitha was too tired to argue.

It was late afternoon by the time he returned, wordlessly, without greeting. They continued their steady ascent, walking in silence until dark. Soon, Clara started to stumble.

“We need to stop,” Lilitha said.

“Why?”

“It’s getting dark.”

“So?”

“Clara...I mean...~we~ can’t see.”

“It’ll only take you longer.”

“Then it’ll take us longer.”

“Fine,” he growled. “Fine! Do whatever you want.” And he stalked away.

“You’re really just going to leave us here alone?” she called after him. Lilitha gritted her teeth. He’d been rude and aloof all day. What the hell was wrong with him?

“Wait here,” she told Clara. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“What are you doing? Leave him!” Clara hissed after her.

She followed his path into the dense brush. She was growing more confident, more skilled, and she crept along quietly. How could she not after so many hours following Damon and seeing how he did it?

She cleared the brush, only to immediately jump back, concealing herself.

It was Damon. He was standing with his back toward her, bracing himself with one hand against the trunk of a pine tree, hunched over. He was urinating.

Lilitha flushed, suddenly realizing her error. She should go back, she should give him some privacy, but something made her stay. Something in her hips.

As she watched on, she felt herself growing hot.

Soon, his grunting turned to gasping as he jerked hard at himself. Sucking in a sharp breath, he arched his neck. Lilitha swore she could hear a light patter against the leaves as he finished up.

He gave a small groan and a sigh as he leaned both arms against the tree, his head braced between them. Lilitha ducked her head as he turned, pulling up his pants.

He left.

Lilitha stared after him, forgetting why she’d followed him in the first place. Slowly, her eyes turned toward the bushes. On quiet feet, she approached—and stared. His semen.

It was glittering upon the leaves. She could smell it too. Even as she stood amid all the sweet scents and decaying matter of the forest floor, it seemed to rise above it all.

She actually reached her hand out before stopping herself, stepping back with a start. ~Gross!~ Shaking her head, she returned to Clara.

Her friend looked up. “Did you find him? What did he say?”

“Oh... uh... I didn’t find him. He’s gone.”

“I wonder where he disappears to. Where is there to go?”

Lilitha shrugged.