The first light of dawn filtered into the house through the hole in the roof. Gage sat at the bottom of the ladder with Eshu, looking up at the light. “This is it boy. It won’t be much longer until we are out of here.” And who knows if we will ever be coming back. He looked around the room. It was bare and empty, sand already piling up in the corners. This had been his room. His first where he had truly been on his own.
He turned to the door at the faint sound of shuffling to see Elfric wincing at the bright, early morning light. “I’m surprised to see you up and about. I hope this means you are feeling better, not pushing yourself?”
The elf was short, but evenly proportioned out. Despite that, he was well muscled. When he reached up to brush his hair back over his head, his flexed bicep seemed almost as thick as his head! Except for the hair on his head, he appeared to be smooth all over. Faint scars marked his skin. What looked like a bite that wrapped around his forearm and a thin line that ran along his side.
Elfric looked up, his eyes bright and clear. “I am feeling better, thank you.” He took a seat a few feet away from Gage. Taking his shoulder-length hair in one hand and a leather cord in the other, he quickly tied it up.
Gage waited to see if he would continue. When he did not, Gage continued instead. “I’m glad to hear it, truly.” He watched as Eshu snorted and rolled onto his back. “I wish we could stay longer, but I’m worried about supplies. If you’re okay with carrying a bag, we could take a good deal more with us.”
The elf was nodding slowly. “I can understand that…”
Tilting his head, Gage looked to the elf. “I am sensing a ‘but’?”
“I am concerned about leaving the waste. If my people are here, how can I find them if I am not here?”
“How can you find them if you stay?” Gage paused, looking to Elfric who furrowed his brow. “What I mean is, even with the supplies I give you, there is little chance for survival. Together, I don’t even know if we’ll make it out of here.” He held up a hand to head off Elfric speaking. “That in mind, if we do make it out of here then it gives you a much better chance of finding them, even if they’re in the desert. You can map the edge, gather supplies, and even meet others who may have heard something about your village. Starting in the interior with limited supplies… I am from a place similar to this. Even experienced and well prepared people can lose themselves in a place like this. You can’t find your family if you don’t save yourself first.”
The silence stretched once more. Elfric sat cross-legged, looking down at his hands in his lap. Nodding, he lifted his head, straightening his back. “Then let us survive. Show me your gear and I will help you pack. We can use the day to test how we will fend off this heat.”
Gage showed Elfric into the garage where everything, besides the water, was all laid out. He started going over the gear. Some of it the elf was already familiar with, or at least with some variation of it. The tent and how to set it up was new to him. Apparently, the setting up of camp was a task given to someone called a ‘sagn’. From what he could gather, it wasn’t ‘female’ or ‘submissive’, like he originally thought when Elfric tried to describe it. Instead, it translated closer to a mix of ‘home-maker’ and ‘protector’. Elfric was a ‘tak’, which was closer to ‘one-who-goes-out’.
While the two of them worked, Eshu patrolled the house. His ears perked at the slightest sound, his nose twitching as he sniffed about. Gage couldn’t help but to watch him fondly, a warmth in his chest whenever he saw the dog go by. Elfric noticed, “What animal is that? I have not seen one like it before. There is a creature it reminds me of, but it is much larger and fiercer.”
Gage laughed, “Eshu is a corgi. A type of dog that was originally bred to herd livestock,” Gage said, his voice full of affection. “Dogs are descendants of wolves, which sounds close to that description. Though there are some dogs that had been bred to protect people and fight other, larger animals.”
“YIPE!”
Both of them jumped at the sound. “ESHU!” Gage ran from the garage, dropping the bag he had been working on. Elfric was faster, making it through the door first. In his hand was a hatchet Gage had used for firewood on camping trips. They skittered into the hallway, turning to see Eshu standing at the end of the hall. He was growling and snarling, his ears back and hackles raised. His gaze was pointed through the door into the sunlit room. Gage froze and his eyes went wide. Blood was dripping steadily from a small gash across Eshu’s nose.
Elfric did not stop. Instead, he charged down the hall to stand over Eshu and look into the room. He let out his own growl, focusing in on something. Shaking himself, Gage was a few moments behind getting to his dog. He looked into the room just in time to see Elfric swinging the hatchet down and slicing the head of what looked like a large insect in half. The elf began searching the room for more.
“Oh Kin’s Tears!” Ma’tuk whizzed past Gage to circle around Eshu while wailing lamentations, most of them some invocation of Kin.
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Gage pushed the thudding in his chest aside as he checked on Eshu. Freaking out could come later. The wound was a little odd. While it looked like a cut, it was much deeper at one end, like something small had been stabbed in and ripped out. It certainly did not look life threatening, but it was still a decent wound to deal with. After checking Eshu and making sure things were fine for the moment, he turned to Ma’tuk. “Would you please go check the room with Elfric and make sure there aren’t any more of those things in my house?” His restrained emotions making his tone tight and tense. Instantly Ma’tuk quieted, did a single bob, and rushed into the open room. With the danger having passed, the dog started to whimper and pushed himself up against Gage.
Gage started to breathe, half closing his eyes as he focused on the wound. In and out. The sounds around him quieted. The thrumming pulse inside him rolling out. One of his hands was on Eshu’s back, the other was under his snoot, lifting it up so he could see the wound better. He could see his pink energy flowing through his hands, pulsing softly with his breathing. In and out. He pushed with the energy, guiding it to where his hands were touching the dog. As his power went into the dog, he closed his eyes.
His energy slowly entered Eshu, it filled out a mental image of his shape. Gage began concentrating his energy around the snoot and wound. As he did, more details began to take shape. The wound outlined itself as a dark, deep shade of pink. Using his Breath, he began checking around the area of the wound. First for anything that wasn’t supposed to be there, be it poison or something that may have broken off in the wound.
Satisfied the wound was clean, he began to mend it. Like with his own scalp, he used the energy to close up the wound. This time, instead of just pulling the skin together, he started at the deepest part and began stitching it back together. Like a puzzle, he did his best to match the sides of the wound together, and slowly sealing it back together.
As he finished up, he pulled his power back only slightly. Once again going over the area to make sure there wasn’t anything he missed. As he double checked his work, he focused in on Eshu’s nose.
He had begun to feel an unusual connection as he was healing Eshu, a rush of sensory information began flooding his mind. While healing the wound his power had touched on some other aspect of Eshu. Gage realized it was Eshu’s sense of smell. The little nerves at the end of his nasal cavity, there were so many! As he pulled in the scents, breathing deep, something twinged at the back of his own nose, almost as if in response. His own receptors of scent were a tiny fraction of what Eshu was working with, but he was sure he was feeling some semblance of what Eshu was experiencing.
As Eshu drew in another breath, his power got pulled along with it. The scents swirled up the nasal cavity to dance along the receptors. From there he felt the energy go further into Eshu’s brain. As it did, he mapped it out inside his own head, finding the similar areas. The spot that Eshu’s mind used to process all the information he was taking in was massive compared to his own. It was like comparing a marble to a grapefruit.
"Remarkable," Gage whispered, amazed at the depth of Eshu’s world. A hand on his shoulder pulled him out of his stupor and he gasped for breath, his body going rigid as he blinked about wildly. Elfric was kneeling next to him, his hand on Gage’s shoulder.
“Gage? Are you alright?” His voice was soft and his grip firm. His eyes searched Gage’s face.
Dimly, Gage nodded. “Yeah, I’m alright.” Exhaustion hit hard, but he felt a little pride at not passing out immediately this time. He shook himself and drew in a deep breath. “What was that thing? Were there anymore?”
Elfric gave him another look over, “I only found the one.” He stood, waiting for Gage to struggle to his feet. Once Gage was standing upright, Elfric led him into the room. In the middle of the room was the body of an insect. It was about the size of a cucumber. About a foot long, thinner near the head and thicker near the back end. Segmented bands wrapped around its entire length. Its legs were focused toward the front of its body. The head had two large eyes on either side and a pair of antenna set between them.
On the very front, just above a small pair of mandibles was a spike. It was about an inch long and stubby, the point of which looked to be quite sharp. Elfric’s aim had been true and the head of the insect was split apart, a black green ichor oozing out. Eshu crept forward, sniffing at the dead insect tentatively.
“Thank you Elfric, for taking care of that.” A shiver ran down Gage’s spine and he turned away from the bug. “I will find something to put that in. Hopefully, it shouldn’t attract anything else, but perhaps it is best we are leaving soon.”
With Eshu's injury tended, they refocused on their preparations. The limited resources were packed strategically, accounting for ease of access and weight distribution. "We'll travel by night to avoid the worst of the heat," Gage suggested, outlining a basic strategy. “We will be able to create shade during the day, but it will still get hot. Rations are all set for each of us. I think we are good.”
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As night fell, the four of them sat outside in the sand. A small fire, made from the remains of some chairs that broke during the quake, sat before them. Eshu and Ma’tuk were playing some game of chase. Gage, wrapped in his thoughts, gazed up at the sky. There were a multitude of stars out, more than he had ever seen in his life. The moon was out as well, slightly bigger then Earth’s moon and even had a green tint to it.
The magnitude of their journey weighed heavily on him. He pondered the transformations in his life, his ability to use magic and to heal, and the daunting responsibility of leading them through the desert.
"We will make it," Elfric assured, breaking the silence and startling Gage from his spiral of thoughts. The elf did not even look at him, but stared into the fire instead.
Gage smiled, finding comfort in their shared determination. Eshu, sensing the mood, trotted over between them and flopped down. His panting and smiling presence acting as a silent vow of companionship.
Ma’tuk moved towards the dog and lowered itself down to rest on top of Eshu’s head. Its light dimmed slightly. With some exuberance, it spoke. “Tomorrow, we move towards the future.”