Dev ran towards the camp, trying to quickly secure his bag as he did so. He didn’t want to lose it in the crossing of the river.
“Hello, the camp!” Dev shouted as he approached. “Monster inbound!”
“Come back here and grovel, you coward,” Axel shrieked at him.
Dev ignored him, flashing through the camp and past surprised trial takers.
“Hey!” one of the guys shouted, grabbing at him as Dev spun out of the way. He jumped over an unlit fire pit and slipped between tents as heads poked out of them. This was the largest camp he’d seen, with over two dozen tents set up.
He cleared the camp, and when he reached the riverbank, dived in.
The cold water was a shock to his system, nearly making him gasp. He fought his way to the surface, furiously paddling across the current. He tried to lift his head up to see where he was going, but was blinded by the spray.
Around midway, he heard a roar and shouting as the Leshy hit the camp. Hopefully, they would be able to hold it.
He struggled across, and eventually landed on the opposite shore, and lay there for a minute on the shore, before sitting up to look towards the ongoing sounds of fighting.
The camp was now around thirty meters up river from him, and he winced as he saw that a quarter of the tents were torn up from the leshy. He hated disturbing new campers.
Suddenly, Dev saw a small, dark figure slip out of the chaos, diving into the river. Thank the heavens he didn’t wait. I don’t know how I would handle him if he got the leshy across.
“I said get back here, you coward!” Axel shouted as he emerged from the water. “Getting others to do your dirty work?”
“You’re one to talk!” Dev shot back, as he took off into the trees, running along the incline of the mountain.
He dodged around trees, nearly tripping over roots as the terrain got rougher further from the path.
As he ran, Dev brainstormed. Previously, he’d mostly been moving in and along paths, but by leaving them, he had to be approaching the edge of the island, and he had no idea what to do when he got there. As he ran, he could hear Axel’s swearing and shouting slowly fading as he fell behind, so he dropped his pace to match him.
While they ran, Dev reached into his backpack for his water and came up empty. He panicked, pulling his backpack around his front so he could look through it. Shuffling through damp herbs, he groaned when there was still no sign of his water bottle.
Damn it, it must have been lost in the river!
Dev grimaced and ran on, continuing his brainstorm. I’ll need to find a water source if I’m going to keep the chase going.
Suddenly, Dev felt the inkling of an idea. He grasped for it mentally, but it disappeared. Damn it. Maybe if I let my mind wander…
As the sun crested high in the sky, Dev saw the edge of the island approaching. How long have I been here? Five days? Six? Short days, with us moving east. Only 23 hours.
Suddenly, it was like a lightbulb went off in his head. Eight hours, times twelve islands… He grinned as his plan came together, and he changed direction to be moving east along the edge of the island. He wanted as much leeway as possible for tonight’s operation.
------
Dev jerked awake in his tree. He had found a spot an hour after dark, circling around when Axel answered nature’s call. From there, he quietly followed Axel by hearing until the boy gave up on finding him and took shelter underneath a bush once more. Dev was starting to think Axel, too, had left his tent behind.
Looking towards the horizon, Dev saw the last milky sunglow disappearing and thanked the heavens his accidental nap had only cost him a few minutes.
Clambering down the tree, Dev slowly made his way to where Axel had stopped for the night. He snuck closer, then froze as he stepped on a branch, which sounded out like a gunshot. He waited but didn’t hear any movement. He carefully edged his way forwards, until he could see the buy underneath the bush. He mentally thanked heaven once again when he saw that Axel was lying on his side, facing away from him.
He slowly moved closer, trying to avoid any noise, but Axel was clearly even more exhausted than he was and slept like the dead.
Reaching the bush, he pushed some of the branches aside, then froze again as he heard Axel cough. He waited with bated breath, then relief as he heard Axel’s breathing ease. He continued reaching in until his fingertips were hovering just over the backpack. He gently touched it and felt his way to the zipper, pausing every few seconds to make sure that Axel was asleep.
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He grasped the zipper, then began slowly drawing it back, wincing with every click as he opened it. He opened it halfway, then slipped his hand inside. Feeling around inside, he winced as he ran into a ration bar wrapper, causing it to crinkle. He kept an eye on Axel the whole time, mentally cursing that Axel was environmentally conscious enough to keep his trash in his backpack. Suddenly, he felt something smooth under his fingertips and carefully drew it out of the bag.
It was Axel’s knife, so he set it on the ground and slipped his hand back into the bag. This time, he managed to pull out what he was looking for, and carefully drew it through the bush. He released a pent-up breath and stepped back from the bush.
As he did so, he carefully uncapped the water bottle he’d just stolen, then emptied it on top of the bush. “Wakey, wakey,” he bellowed, startling Axel awake.
“How are you going to catch me if you’re sleeping,” he taunted, causing Axel to sit up.
“You are the most insufferable, low life, worthless…” Axel screamed, “Do you not understand who I am going to be one day?”
“I don’t think you’re going to be anyone. Especially not without water!”
That last taunt being said, Dev took off towards the edge of the island. It was time to see if his math was right.
Ten minutes later, he reached the edge of the islands, Axel close behind. He began running east not a hundred feet from the edge, scanning the horizon for what he needed.
There! It was hard to see under the dark of night, but there was an island swiftly approaching, though not nearly as close as he’d hoped. He continued drawing closer to the edge, Axel cursing behind him.
As he ran, he examined the island, seeing its essence, a golden brown expanse floating on a cloud of purple.
I wonder if any inheritances are on the bottoms of the islands? I’d love to get a look at their runes. Then he mentally slapped himself. No, Dev, this is not the time!
Then, the moment he’d been waiting for arrived, flashes of multicolored light nearly blinding him as the islands almost came close enough to touch.
Dev ran for the rapidly forming bridge, Axel close behind. “Don’t think you’ll get away from me that easily!”
Dev stepped foot on the lights and was astonished at how solid the bridge was. He’d expected something soft and flexible, not a bridge as sturdy as any he’d ever been on. He ran across, watching the dark terrain on the other side change rapidly as the islands sped past each other. Behind him, he could just barely hear Axel’s pounding footsteps. As he made it across, he got the final confirmation that he’d been correct, seeing the course sand of the desert island he’d seen on his second night.
He hit the sand running, at this point already in the middle of this side of the island. He started struggling up the side of a dune, hearing as Axel’s steps changed from the sharp sounds of the bridge to the muffled cruch of the desert sand.
Dev gazed towards the top of the dune. Sand, I hate sand. It’s… it’s not important. I need to climb regardless. Dev shook his head and continued struggling up the steep side of the dune. Now, I just need to give him the run around for a day, and he’ll need to give up without water.
Dev crested the dune, and gazed across the dark expanse of the island. His dune sloped gently downwards towards the inside, and he couldn’t see any of the oases from his vantage point. Hearing Axel cursing his way up the side, Dev turned to the east. The further he went in that direction, the less time Axel would have to cross to an island with more abundant water.
He hiked along the ridgeline for several hours, pausing periodically to let Axel catch up, drinking from the water bottle as often as possible to combat the coming heat of the day.
At five hours after the island arrived, Dev nearly had a panic when he looked back and Axel was nowhere to be seen. He quickly backtracked, and let out a sigh of relief when he found him collapsed on the backside of a sand dune. He nearly passed him, until his essence sight detected a mass of shadowy essence where he lay. Dev slowly approached, and nudged him with his foot, only for him to look up.
“I give up,” Axel croaked out.
Dev was surprised, to say the least. He’d figured after two days, Axel wouldn't stop until he dropped. Then again, he did drop. It seemed that two days with little sleep, plus several hours of grueling hike had finally been enough to break him.
“Forgive me if I don't believe you,” Dev said, kneeling at his side and quickly pulling Axel’s bag open.
“Take my stuff, if you want. Just please, let me go to the next island. I can’t survive in the desert during the day without water.”
Dev didn’t answer him, instead going through the bag, only to be disappointed when the only things he could find were rope, the small bowl, a flashlight, and nine empty ration bar wrappers. Add not eating to the things that did him in.
“Where’s the knife?”
“It should be in there,” Axel slurred out.
Dev searched again, coming up empty. A flash of memory hit him, and he cursed when he remembered gently placing a knife on the forest floor.
Dev hesitated, then reached down and pulled up the face covering the boy had been wearing the entire time, revealing an unremarkable face, with blond hair and blue eyes.
“Had a good look?” Axel coughed out, bitterly.
“Yeah,” Dev said, dropping the wraps. “Now I know what you look like. If you’re smart, I’ll never have to use that information.”
Dev quickly moved the items he had found to his own bag, standing up and looking down at Axel.
“Fine. You can go. I’ll be watching to make sure,” Dev said, shouldering his bag and moving inland to the top of the nearest sand dune, where he sat down to watch Axel.
Dev kept watch for several hours as dawn approached, and allowed himself a satisfied grin when he saw the next island approaching. A massive, active volcano stood glowing in the center, bright enough to be a second sunrise.
“It’s time to go!” he shouted down to Axel, who was clearly too out of it to notice the island.
Axel looked at it with trepidation, then looked back at Dev and trudged to the edge of the island. As the lights formed, he stepped slowly onto them. Axel made it two-thirds of the way across before the islands separated, and Dev watched in disappointment as the rainbow threads dragged him across the rest of the way
Hopefully, the heat over there will trigger his emergency beacon before any would-be Good Samaritans show up.
Dev made his way down the inside of the dune, then lay down to hopefully catch some sleep. There should still be an hour before sunrise, and he was running on less sleep than Axel.