“This seems steeper than before.” Ha’na remarked under her breath.
The three women stood upon the edge of the entrance to the cave. Before them stretched a wide and far expanse of greenery. A verdant sea. It was the second day they spent in the cave. Yesterday, the women prepared to depart for supplies and hushed out some more the plan to be safe while out in the dense jungle vegetation. It seemed like making plans was something they did. Larisa thought back to the heist. Hopefully this time things would work out better.
The plan was for Farre and Ha’na to go down to the ground. Gather water and food, as much as they could, and then immediately go back. Larisa was supposed to look out for signs of anyone coming closer. The three women haven’t exactly figured out how Larisa was supposed to warn them if they were in danger, but in the end they settled on Larisa simply screaming for them to go back. The blond woman hoped there wouldn’t be a need for that.
“Is the smoke closer or is it just my imagination?” Farre spoke from Larisa’s right. Her hair was dishevelled and there were black bags under her eyes. Larisa could've heard shuffling coming from where Farre slept last night. She wondered if the woman got any shut-eye.
“Possibly. If so then they moved a miniscule amount. We should be fine.” Ha’na answered from Larisa’s left. When the women prepared and gathered the necessary gear, Larisa tried to weaponize and protect Ha’na as much as she could. She dressed her in the spare leather armour that laid around and gave her the least rusty dagger and a bow that still had some pull. Apparently, Ha’na did use those things before. A little bit, she said. Larisa also left her the bear skin. The dark fur on it was perfect for blending in and it had residue of earth Essence, which meant Ha’na would be able to cover her tracks. At least that’s what she said she could do. Larisa didn’t even think of doing that once. Apparently the Essence that clung to the hide worked as some sort of proxy to the Wild Essence that permeated the jungle air. Larisa listened some to Ha’na’s explanation but still most of what she heard vaporized as soon as it landed upon her ears.
Larisa thought that maybe she was simply a bad listener.
“There’s no point in standing here. Come one, let’s go. Larisa you hold this, right?” They decided to use the rope they had left over for easier descending. They tied it to one of the protruding ridges near the entrance to the cave and Larisa was supposed to hold it in case it broke off.
“I got this.” Larisa assured the other women. They nodded and with grim and serious faces set out to slowly climb down. Farre came first and Larisa hoped her lower energy would not impede her progress. Ha’na, on the other hand, seemed to Larisa as calm and stoic. There was not much information about how she felt that she could gleam from the black-haired woman. In part that was due to the bear hide shrouding her face and figure.
Larisa hoped that Ha’na could do this. They started to descend. Larisa held strong.
Last night she told the two women the most important things one should know about the jungle. She spoke to them on that some when they trekked through the jungle, but last night she tried to give them as much knowledge as she possibly could. The blond woman told the others about where to find water and what plants they should look for. Rdest, manioc, platan and yun grass where only some of the edible flora that grew in the jungle. With the right preparation those things could taste great, in Larisa’s opinion.
She also told the women about what they should be wary of. The biggest danger could come from the beasts as most of the predators that prowl the jungle’s floor are ambushers and nearly undetectable if a person is not in touch with the Essence. That’s why Larisa spoke to Ha’na about how the Essence changes around some beast. Cienjas’ have dark and smooth Essence that gathers near their paws which means the patterns that they leave can be prescribed to this creature. Latavis’ are full of fire and air. When they approach they do it fast which means creating a swish in the Essence, or powerful swelling of air and fire could be felt from above.
The blond woman spoke of many other creatures, but she was certain not everything could be remembered so easily. Though, Ha’na certainly tried. Larisa sometimes felt an intense focus coming from the dark-haired woman when it came to listening to what Larisa was saying. Last night was such time. The taller woman hoped Ha’na would be able to recognize a threat coming their way and for Farre to be able to defend them if the need arose.
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“Fuck! The rope’s burning my hands.” Farre exclaimed halfway through. Larisa still held onto the rope and looked down.
Below her Ha’na was slowly descending while Farre stopped for a while.
“Are you alright?” Larisa asked from above the two women.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I just need to move slower.” Farre sighed with irritation and pain.
“I’ll stop for a second then.” Ha’na proposed.
After a minute or two the two women started to move down again. Larisa couldn’t help but exhale with relief when their feet reached the ground.
“Larisa, hey! We’ll go now. Scream if you’ll see something and keep the rope high. We’ll be needing it to go back up.” Farre said to Larisa who nodded.
After that the two women’s silhouettes disappeared into the foliage. Larisa was now alone.
The blond woman felt strange. It was the first time in many weeks that she was left to her own devices. It shouldn’t feel strange, though, as Larisa spent most of her time living by herself in the jungle. The proximity to the other two women felt natural to Larisa; their company appeared to mean a great deal to the blond woman. She would’ve never thought that something like that could exist. How a bond - yes, a bond - could form between creatures. Humans, Larisa corrected herself.
Although, the two women called her bestian she didn’t feel like she was any different from them. They looked similar, spoke the same language and had the same feelings. They might be different when one were to look at behaviour, but weren’t all things different like that? Not every creature behaved the same.
And even though Larisa couldn’t understand the two women sometimes, she felt as if they had the most important bits in common. Being by herself made Larisa more aware of herself. Of her feelings and thoughts.
She thought of her father and went inside the cave.
Larisa wasn’t supposed to do that, but because of the danger the smoke symbolized, the three women didn’t spend any time on finding the book Larisa told them about. The book with her father’s name in it. The blond woman couldn’t handle the curiosity anymore.
Actually, she could find the book and go back to the entrance to still be on the lookout. For that, though, she’d have to find the book first.
Larisa tried to look back to the memory that resurfaced a couple of days ago. She remembered the book to be big but that just might’ve been to young Larisa’s scale. It was a shade of blue, Larisa suspected. The whole memory was blurry in the blond woman’s mind, but then there was something. A golden ribbon set across the pages. Bookmarking ribbon. Larisa started to look out for that.
The cave was not spacious and there weren’t that many things inside, except for the books. Some had insides that looked like pure gibberish to Larisa and others had some useful information. The rest was too boring and offered nothing of use. Maybe that book fell into that last category?
The books were not ordered and simply sat on a shelf carved out into the cave’s walls. There were many of them but not enough that Larisa wouldn't be able to find what she was looking for. If the book was still here, that is.
Larisa didn’t want to think about the possibility that it was not here. That perhaps her father took it when he left. Because that’s what he did. He left her. Of that Larisa was convinced.
As book after book turned out to be not the one she was looking for, Larisa started to become irritated and worried. But, thankfully, luck was on her side and when she pulled a book she has never bothered to read, something gleamed from behind where it stood on the shelf. There, in the recess of the rocky bookshelf, was a golden ribbon. Larisa launched for it and pulled out a heavy and light blue leather-bound book.
This was it. It had to be. Larisa wanted to open it now and look inside but she said to herself before that she was going to look out when she got that book so that’s exactly what she did. She took the heavy tome under her arm and looked outside.
At first, nothing jumped out at Larisa. There was still smoke coming from further ahead like before, but there was also more smoke closer to the spur.
A lot more. Something was burning and Larisa strained her eyes. She couldn’t see much through the foliage of the tree crowns so she tried to listen instead.
A crackling sound and a beating rhythm - those were the things Larisa made out. The first one could be attributed to the flame destroying the trees and the other reminded the blond woman of steps. A lot of steps. As if ten, or twenty packs of basilisks were running around her.
Larisa looked down to the bottom of the spur and no one was there. Then she looked back up again and heard a piercing cry.
“LARISA!”
Her companions needed help. Larisa started to climb down.