I had no idea how long exactly I had slept when I woke. I had no idea how exactly we had gotten to the hidden campsite of Kor'za and Kivilan. I sure could tell though that we were inside some cave. The ground was uneven and fell probably towards the direction of the exit. The ceiling had numerous cracks running through it. Both probably was for the best as a decent sized bonfire was spreading light and warmth. The fire's smoke dispersed through the cracks in the ceiling and the slanted ground made sure no bad air would collect here. I couldn't see the exit either. Our campsite probably was hidden from the outside by two or three bends in the cave. Otherwise the light of the fire might have given it away.
I was still resting on the improvised stretcher. The stretcher in turn was resting on a bed of branches though, to provide some comfort. I could still smell the sap oozing from some of them. It was a rather soothing smell. Someone had spread some kind of pelt over me as well. A wolf? Or a bear? I couldn't tell. It was rather big though. I felt a little better as well. I wasn't feverish anymore. That had to mean that Kaele's spell had successfully worked its magic. I was still aching all over though. It was as if every single of the numerous little and at times not so little cuts felt the need to make its presence known to me. I probably would be feeling them for a little longer.
It was hard to move as well. It took me a moment to realize that that wasn't solely due to my injuries. Kaele had fallen asleep, huddled up close to me with her head on the fur on my belly and an arm around my waist. I worked an arm free, careful not to wake her, to run my fingers through her hair. She barely even stirred. “She really exhausted herself with all the spell casting she did and the trek through the forest finished her off for good. She fell asleep the moment we got you somewhat comfortable here.” I looked up at Kor'za. She sat on an elevated perch a little to my side. She had one of the crossbows in her lap and her bow and her few remaining arrows within easy reach.
As far as I could tell she was the only one awake. The way she sat there she probably was on watch duty. Her darkelf companion sat near the fire, with his back against a pretty sizable stack of firewood, snoring softly. Out of the corner of my eye I could catch a glimpse of Eld'tide and Khuzan as well. The two were huddled up close together. The two children were with them too. I sighed and kept caressing my sisters head softly. I focused on Kor'za again. “How long will we be safe here? If they search us in earnest?” I kept my voice down as I directed my question at her, as not to wake any of the others.
She shrugged. “Hard to tell. Tonight at the very least. We will have to venture outside to get water and food. We don't have enough supplies for so many people.” She paused briefly. “And if they have headhunters looking for us in earnest, they could probably find us sometime tomorrow. We obscured our tracks to some degree, but that doesn't mean we didn't leave any. A human might overlook them, but the headhunters sure won't. And if they find us here, we will be trapped. This cave only has one entrance big enough for us. Well, at least for us adults.” She didn't sound thrilled by the prospect, which was understandable. She didn't sound too worried either though, which piqued my curiosity.
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I raised an eyebrow. She sounded like she had a plan. What kind of plan would it be though? An ambush? Probably. Did she have something special in mind? She probably knew the lay of the land. Probably better than any of us. Certainly better than any of them. I just couldn't muster the same amount of confidence as our new companion. I let my hand rest on my sister's back and decided to just ask her instead of speculating. “We have to keep moving then. Do you have anything in mind?” I surprised myself a little as I spoke. How could I sound so confident when I didn't feel any of that confidence? Was I getting reckless? Was that a good thing? If not in general than at least in this one very specific case?
She grinned and hopped down from her perch to shake her companion awake. He took a while to come awake for good, but once he was she handed him the crossbow and he took over watch duty from her. She put some fresh wood on the fire and sat down in the spot he had vacated. “I have an idea or two that could allow us to even the odds a little.” She paused, still grinning. “A plain ambush probably won't work. Not anymore. Not after you caught some of them in one more than once. They will be cautious for sure. So we will have to get creative.” She nodded in the direction of Kivilan. “It's a good thing that the two of us know the forest and its inhabitants like the skin on our backs.”
The forest's inhabitants? I pondered what she could have meant with that for a while. Wolves wouldn't be tricked into fighting anyone easily, so that probably wasn't it. A bear might be an option. Especially if it was a female with young ones. I wasn't quite sure if that was enough to even the odds though. Then realization dawned upon me. “Boars? Dire boars?” There were some of those up here in the hills. It was the duty of the hunters to keep a close eye on them, should they wander to close to the farmsteads or the village. I groaned. You couldn't bait any hunter or woodsman worth the name near a pack of wild boars or dire boars. You had to agitate the boars enough to charge after you and run them over. “I'm not sure I'm up to something like that. I might be faster than these damn beasts on a good day but not in my current state.”
She grinned like a madwoman anyway. “Never mind that.” She nodded towards he darkelf companion again. “The two of us will take care of that. You just have to stay out of the way and mop up any stragglers that survive our little surprise.” She sounded confident. That didn't change the fact that the idea was incredibly dangerous or even near suicidal. She edged a little closer to me and continued before I could protest. “And don't underestimate yourself. You are healing just fine. I think you will be back on your feet in the morning.” She eyed my arm on my sisters back. “There will be plenty of scars though since we had no way to sew those cuts.”
I eyed my arm as well. She was right. There most certainly would be scars. Not just on my arm either. They didn't look that bad anymore though. They didn't look like fresh wounds at all. I would have been more inclined to call them halfway healed. I yawned and Kor'za winked at me. “Get some more sleep. We will wake you in the morning and then we can talk things over with everyone else.” Even as she spoke I could feel my eyelids grow heavy. I sighed once more, nodded weakly and dozed off again. A little more sleep sounded just too good to resist.