Trek For Survival

"Wow! That"s a tree?" he asked, gaping at the sight.

"Yep. Maybe someday you"ll get to see it," she said, thinking of what the elves said about his lifespan being so long. "Slovak told me that it gets so dark the closer to the trunk you get, that nothing grows there, so you need to make sure that you take lots of food if you ever go."

"I will!" he agreed, nodding enthusiastically, before turning back to help finish filling the water bags with water.

They had stopped at the watering hole the traders always used before heading across the plains to the orcs.

"What should we expect on this trip?" asked Vonn to Sudar as they loaded the heavy water bags into the elephant.

"We should avoid most of the dangerous animals, since the elephant is so tall. The snakes are dangerous because they are attracted to your heat in the night and like to bite to eat you the next morning. There"re some small furry creatures that look cute until you get close enough for them to attack you. They eat just about everything, even the snakes, if given an opportunity. I generally keep my ride moving so nothing gets an opportunity to climb the legs while I"m sleeping, and it cuts down on the travel time when you never stop."

"How long do you think it will take to cross the fields to the orcs?" asked Carla.

"Well, the gra.s.ses only last a couple days before it peters out to dry dirt. There"s no water to keep the gra.s.ses alive out that way. If you go too far north, you"ll hit sand and sandworms. It can get really dangerous there, so we tend to swing more south while we"re traveling. Some of those worms could swallow our elephants if they wanted to. I prefer not to give them a chance. The worse we"ll run into, in the south, is herds of wild elephants, but they tend to steer clear of these guys. It should take us a couple weeks to reach the orcs, if we don"t stop anywhere for too long."

"Wow, if they can eat something that big, I hate to think what they eat normally," said Tom.

"There"s large beetle things, that sift the sand, eating anything edible, that they eat, I believe," said Sudar.

Gia looked back at the small stream that emptied into the small lake they were getting their water from, wondering if she should try and get a bath before they traveled over the coming wastelands, but decided whatever clean she managed to get from it would quickly disappear while traveling in a huge dead elephant.

Glancing back at the other traders, she noticed Geth was still watching her. There was no way she would get a bath now. Helping Tom and Carla arrange their things in the elephant, she heard Vonn send Mikey in to help moments before Geth"s voice drifted in to them.

"h.e.l.lo, friend," said Geth.

"h.e.l.lo," answered Vonn in a neutral tone.

Gia glanced up at her parents, to see that they had both slowed their movements to listen as well.

��I was wondering about those traveling with you," continued Geth, seeming to not notice Vonn"s tone.

"What about them?" asked Vonn.

"Is the young girl available for sale? I can pay quite a bit for her?"

Gia"s face froze in horror as her parents shared her reaction. Mikey"s head shot towards the conversation, but everyone frantically waved at him to be silent and still.

"I"m sorry, I must have misheard you," said Vonn, his voice having dropped into a deep growl. "Are you talking about my wife, or my mother in law?"

"Ah, so you are a couple. I apologize if I insulted you. It has been a very long time since I have dealt with such family structures. The few people we meet out this way don"t hold to such traditions," said Geth, continuing as if he didn"t notice Vonn"s reaction.

"Let"s put it this way, friend," he spat. "If I catch you so much as looking at my wife, I will sever your head from your body and shove it where the sun doesn"t shine! Is that clear?"

"I understand," said Geth, his voice dipping as if he were bowing, and then the sounds of his footsteps could be heard fading in the ensuing silence.

When Vonn reappeared, at the entrance to the elephant"s chest, where they were all currently, Gia gave him a big hug and hid her face in his chest.

"Can you believe that creep?" exclaimed Vonn shaking his head. "Traditions my foot! If you see that jerk even glance at you, you let me know immediately, you hear?"

"Yes," she murmured, feeling loved and protected as he wrapped his arms around her and took a deep breath to calm down.

"I need to get the rest of the water loaded so we have enough to make it to the orcs," Vonn finally said in a normal voice, kissing the top of her head before pulling away. "Sudar wants to leave by midday."

"We"re about ready here," said Carla, stowing the last of their things between the ribs of the elephant, where Sudar had showed her the skin had been stretched before it dried to form nice hollows to store things. Her hands hardly shook, almost hiding the intense rage she was feeling at the moment.

"I still can"t believe this thing is dead and able to carry us all," said Mikey, looking up at the ma.s.sive skull of the beast.

"It"s death magic of some kind," said Tom with a frown. "I don"t like that the same type of person who did this also restored my eyesight, but I"m not going to complain."

"I"m glad you have your eyesight back," said Mikey with a grin. "Otherwise you would never get to see my sketches!"

"When we get situated," said Gia, ruffling his hair, "I"ll buy you some real paper to be able to draw your sketches on, instead of just in the dirt."

"Really? But paper is so expensive!" he exclaimed with a large grin.

"I"m sure I can figure something out," laughed Gia in a much better mood now that she didn"t have to worry about Geth bothering her.

"Alright, I think we"re ready to head out," said Sudar, coming around the end of the elephant and ducking under its ma.s.sive tusks. "If you need to pee, now would be the time before we leave."

"Nope, we"re all good," said Vonn, stepping up beside him. "I just finished loading the last water bag in the spots you showed me on the back."

"Great," nodded Sudar as they all repositioned themselves to get underway. "We"ll make two short stops a day, to let everyone stand and stretch their legs, and use the bathroom. Otherwise the trip will be nonstop. If anyone wishes, the other traders have offered to let you travel with them, but I think we have plenty of room here, right?"

"Correct," said Tom, shifting his leg to the side to let Mikey stretch out.

"It will be a little crowded for the next two weeks, but I think we"ll pull through," said Vonn, patting Gia"s leg.

"What do you plan to do once you reach the orcs?" asked Sudar, turning his elephant towards the eastern horizon.

"We"re going to keep heading east until we reach the human lands," said Vonn.

"I would love to hear how you ended up all the way out here," said Sudar, settling cushions around him and pulling the curtain he used as a wind block into place as the wind started to kick up a little.

"It"s really long," said Vonn, glancing at Gia, who nodded and smiled at him. "But I suppose we have time to talk."

As they started on the two-week travel, Vonn started to tell Sudar how they fled from the incoming army into the forbidden forest, starting their trek of survival across so many foreign lands. Sudar only interrupted to ask a few questions about the incredible creatures they encountered and some of the harrowing adventures they had found themselves in.

"If I didn"t know any better, I would say you were a bard and just making all of this up, but I can tell in everyone"s faces that you"ve actually been through all of that. That is an incredible adventure, and you"re not done yet! You have the orcs to deal with, and then past them you have the goblins and dog riding halflings. I can"t tell you exactly how far east you will have to travel, as it"s been too long since I"ve been that way. There"s no telling how far west the humans have pushed. The last I knew they were just on the other side of the mountains, but they might be on this side by now, I don"t know."

"Where ever they happen to be, we appreciate your help," said Tom from the back, not bothering to look up from his carving.

"No problems at all," chuckled Sudar.