Astra in Camp

Astra was not tempted to explore the caves. She believed in picking her battles, and she was little better prepared than she was when the "disciple" had toyed with her. She hoped that the "Master" of the "disciple" that Fred had killed would not notice her. Also, the longer she stayed in the mountains, the more she would tax her horses and supplies. If she did not make good time, she would have to spend a cold night in the mountains, with few materials for making a fire. It was time to press on.

Hershey Mountain was casting a long shadow over Astra and her two horses when she found what she was looking for. She was now below the tree line, and she had been riding through the pines for some minutes. A meadow broke the forest, and she could see a mountain creek choked with reeds and dwarf aspens. With the strange spell of the "Eye of Hayzus" afflicting the Great Kingdom, this trail was almost abandoned, as no outsiders chose to go to Allaria. Astra gathered some downed pine twigs and branches from the forest litter, and piled them into her camp. She placed the end of a thin but sturdy twig of aspen on a chip of pine wood that had some shavings on top of it. Holding the twig between her hands, she rubbed then back and forth as fast as she could. After doing this for some time, the end of the twig ignited some of the sappy pine shavings on the chip. She put a few more shavings on the chip and gently blew on the fire. As the other shavings caught fire, she set up some twigs in a small cone that surrounded the fire. The pine wood was dry and caught fire easily. As the cone of twigs was burning, she placed some aspen on the fire. She wanted to heat some of the dried meat that she had packed, and did not want to spend the rest of the trip fighting a case of pinewood- induced diarrhea. By the time the stars had started to appear in the sky, she had a steady fire going, hung the meat that she was not going to use from a tree a few hundred paces from the fire, and had started to heat the meat that she was going to eat.

Astra slept soundly that night, having eaten in moderation. At first light, she awoke. She was certainly out of Allaria by now, and she hoped that she was beyond the reach of both the Eye and the "Master" that sent her to the swamp. She was now in no-man's land. But today she should certainly see a toll collector at a bridge or gate as she approached the towns and villages of Malboncton.

It was now about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

1. Astra found the first sign of civilisation - a group of four men behind a pike that blocked the trail.
2. There were no signs of settlement. That was a bit strange.

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree