Tam adjusted Penelope on his back, before glancing behind himself to ensure Luca was doing alright.
The children, like the adults, were drenched in sweat and exhausted to the bone.
They’d been walking from morning until dusk in the mountains for almost two weeks, and while the journey hadn’t been all terrible, they were running horribly low on water, and the vegetation was bare.
Eli was in her beast form carrying most of their things, but Tam could tell by the heaviness in her powerful legs that she was struggling as well.
“Hopefully we reach the woods soon.” Tam tried to smile at Luca but the boy had his eyes fixed on the ground ahead of himself in a daze.
Tam looked at Harris who shared a look of concern.
They couldn’t keep going like this.
At the very least they had been able to stay on their designated path that Eli had mapped out, and there hadn’t been anyone coming after them, but even so…
They needed time for rest and recovery.
Tam was about to suggest they stop for a little while to catch their breaths, when Eli’s head lifted abruptly.
Everyone stopped walking as the great cat’s nose twitched and her ears twisted forward.
“Is something wrong?” Tam asked worriedly.
Eli gave no indication of what was making her react in such a way, but she trotted forward, her steps once again light.
Penelope gave a soft groan from Tam’s back, but she didn’t fully wake.
Adjusting his hold from under her knees carefully, Tam followed Eli while increasing his speed.
Harris placed a hand on Luca’s shoulder, making him wait.
Tam continued following Eli, until he caught up with her ropey tail swishing back and forth.
There, spread out before them like the divine afterlife itself… was a lush forest that wove its way through the mountains like an emerald ribbon.
Tears warmed Tam’s eyes. “Thank the Gods.”
He looked up into Eli’s slitted golden gaze, and they shared in their relief.
“Can you smell water anywhere?”
“Hrm.” Eli swung her head back to look out over the cliff, her nose and whiskers twitching. She stiffened abruptly, and her tail started to swish a bit more enthusiastically.
“What is it?” Tam wondered if there was perhaps some large animal they’d be able to kill and eat for dinner. Thus far they’d been surviving off of dried salted jerky, cheese, and beets.
His thoughts were interrupted, however, when Eli did something she’d never done before…
A low, rolling purr echoed from her, and Tam found himself caught between a laugh and shock.
Just what had made her so happy?
*
“I’ve… I’ve only ever read about these. Is it safe?”
“I tested it earlier, it isn’t too hot.”
“It looks like it’s too hot!” Penelope announced warily.
Eli smiled down at the little girl, the excited gleam in her eyes just as bright as when she confirmed what she had smelled before. “You don’t have to get in, and it might take a bit of time to get used to the temperature, but once you do I bet you’ll like it a lot.”
Tam, Eli, and the children all stared down at the steaming pool of water that sat nestled at the foot of the mountain they’d been climbing that also just so happened to exist on the edge of the forest they had been hoping to find. To make matters even better, there was an icy blue, clear river gushing a short ways away that would allow them to refill their water supplies.
Luca was on all fours in front of the water, raising a nervous finger to prod the gently burbling surface, when a shout alarmed all of them into looking up.
Harris came scrambling out from behind a boulder and some shrubs he’d found while still doing up the tops of his trousers and waddling awkwardly.
“Tam! Tam, I might be dying!”
Tam and Eli both turned, frowning to see that the Daxarian duke did indeed look quite pale.
“What’s wrong?” Tam’s panic was already climbing. They were in the middle of nowhere. Gondol was a week and a half away on foot. In other words, there wasn’t going to be a physician around for a long time.
“Blood! I’m…” Harris looked down at the two children then back at Tam and Eli. “I seem to be… producing blood when I… Relieve myself,” he cleared his throat, his hazel eyes shifting.
Tam’s panic melted away.
He closed his mouth, and turned around with shuddering shoulders.
“I know! I know this is at a horrible time. I feel fine now, but if that changes, you can all leave me, and I will find my way. Or you can send for help when you find a town.” Harris turned to Eli who had her lips pressed into a thin line, her expression unreadable. “I know my wife said I should start drinking less… I suppose I didn’t want to think I was that old yet! Gods… My youngest son is only eleven. There is still so much I–”
A peculiar snort sounded from Tam.
The duke stopped his grave speech and stared at Tam’s back.
“Are… You… Laughing?”
Tam held up his hand over his shoulder without turning around, though the rise and fall of his shoulders becoming more dramatic.
Harris then looked at Eli then, and found that there was the telling twitch at the corners of her mouth…
“What is so funny about a dying man?” Harris snapped.
Unable to control himself any longer, Tam let out a very loud “HA!” before doubling over and laughing uncontrollably while clutching his middle, gasping for breath.
Even Eli had lowered her forehead to her head as she succumbed to her own quiet laugh.
“Will someone please tell me just what is going on?” Harris demanded. Having finished belting his trousers again, he put his hands on his hips.
Penelope stepped forward looking thoroughly disappointed in the eldest member of their group. “Beets make you pee red. Everyone knows that.”
“H-how,” Tam wheezed from the ground. “How have you… only just noticed, Harris?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“I was only going to pis—to take care of my business in the dark! And always off the side of the ship, or in the dark in some hedges!”
“You only pee twice a day? That isn’t healthy,” Eli noted sternly.
“I beg your pardon, but in case you haven’t been aware,we’ve been busy!” the duke defended loudly. “And we didn’t have a ton of water to go around! Good Gods! You laugh in the face of someone terrified for their life, and—”
“Have you pooped yet?” Luca interrupted, smiling up at the duke who fell silent at the question.
“Not… where… I can see— Good Gods, is that red too?”
Luca burst out in a fit of giggles.
By this time, Tam was lying down on the ground, unable to stop laughing, and even Eli was trembling fiercely.
Only Penelope was staring flatly up at the duke. “You’re old. You should take better care of yourself.”
Harris threw his hands in the air. “We’re fugitives on the run! I don’t exactly have the healthiest choices available right now.”
Penelope sighed and shook her head before turning back around to investigate the hot spring they had discovered. She proceeded to step over Tam, who was only then regaining his breath while laying flat on his back and wiping the tears from his whiskered cheeks.
Harris glared down at him. “A little warning would’ve been nice.”
“S-sorry, Harris. I warned the children, but thought you’d have heard.” Tam allowed Luca to seize his hand and help him up into a sitting position.
“I don’t buy it. This is exactly the kind of thing your father would’ve done.”
Tam smiled up at Harris. “Weren’t you the one just saying how busy we’ve been? I genuinely thought you would’ve already heard what it does.”
Harris’s eyes remained narrowed. He didn’t seem to have much faith in Tam's claims of innocence.
“I don’t know about the rest of you,” Eli began a little louder. “But I am more than a little excited to wash.”
“You and the children go first,” Tam called out, bringing himself up to his feet. “Harris and I will go after. I’m going to go scout the woods for firewood and any edible plants.”
Eli nodded. “See if you can also find a spot by the river that would be good for us to make camp.”
Tam waved in acknowledgment and set off to do exactly that.
Meanwhile Harris turned to look at the steaming water with an arched brow. “I’ve read about this kind of thing. Legend has it they came to be because of a fight between a nymph and a dragon long before humans walked the earth.”
Both Penelope and Luca’s heads snapped round. The two children, despite having polar opposite personalities in most regards, shared a deep love of stories.
Eli gave a weary half smile as she set to removing her boots and socks. Her feet already had scars from the blisters she’d ignored during her multiple weeks of traveling on foot.
Slowly, she dipped her toes in the water, and the rush of heat and relaxation that coursed through her body from the small interaction inspired a hunger in her to feel such a thing all over her body.
Stripping off the majority of her clothes, Eli left her undergarments on, and then turned to see that Luca and Penelope were intrigued enough to do the same without additional questions.
It didn’t take long for Eli to ease herself into the water, and let out a soft moan of appreciation.
Luca sat on the edge with his feet dangling in, and was soon after joined by Penelope.
“Don’t you want to come in?” Eli asked, though she was suddenly finding it incredibly difficult to not fall asleep.
Both Penelope and Luca peered over the stone lip at the water, then at each other.
“Can we stand up in it?” Penelope wondered in a business-like tone.
Eli glanced down and noticed that the water nearly came up to her collar bone. “It’d be a little deep, but you can lean against the edge or float.”
The children again looked at each other shyly, then pointedly away.
“Can either of you swim?” Harris guessed wisely from his spot a short distance away where he had started clearing space to build a fire.
Luca shook his head first, and then Penelope followed suit.
“Well alright. I guess we know what we’re going to be doing until Tam returns,” the duke announced as he, too, removed his boots and rolled up his pant legs.
He sidled over to the children who, despite the cloudy day, still had to squint when they stared up at him.
The duke grinned down at them, then in one quick swoop he shoved both kids into the water, making them both shout.
Eli dove for them immediately, right as they came up spluttering.
“LORD HARRIS!” she roared as soon as she was certain she had both children out of the water, clinging onto her shoulders.
The duke continued smiling down at her. “Yes?”
“There are kinder ways of doing that!”
“This was a lot more fun.”
Luca slowly turned in the water to stare up at him, while Penelope continued coughing out the water that had found its way into her mouth.
The duke proceeded to slowly sit himself down, looking entirely too pleased with himself to bother feeling guilt for an instant.
“Alright, Luca, You are going to kick your legs as hard as you can, and you are going to reach forward to scoop the water backward first with your left hand, and then your right. Eli, be a dear and stand on the far edge. We’ll have these two swimming like two daring carp’s in no time!”
Penelope was scowling ferociously, but Luca seemed to be rather interested in the idea.
Not knowing what else to do given that the children weren’t outright objecting to the idea, Eli obeyed the duke’s orders, and made her way back to the other side of the pool while Harris slipped his legs in the water and let out his own breath of relief.
When everyone was set, Harris held out his hands. “Alright, Luca? Are you ready?”
The duke’s exuberance was difficult to resist, and so despite the unceremonious introduction to the lesson, Luca smiled hopefully.
And thus began the two children’s swimming lessons where they learned to kick and hit the water as hard as they could, propelling themselves back and forth between the duke and Eli until the two barely needed any help at all.
As a result, when Tam returned, he had the great surprise and joy of getting to see both Luca and Penelope beside themselves with elation over their new skill, and even more thrilled to be able to tell Tam what they had accomplished.
All in all, it had been the best day any of them had had in a very long time, and it allowed them all a well deserved wash and rest that eased the tense, worrisome journey they had embarked upon.