A Very Dull Day

Before moving on, she drank from the river and had another mud bath, after which she felt a little refreshed, though still not as alert as she had been yesterday. She also repeated the exercise of writing some words in the sand. It felt if anything a little more alien and difficult than it had done yesterday. She hoped that was a result of her torpor rather than a sign of a continuing deterioration in her ability to use words.

Then she resumed following the river down the valley. Fortunately she was not nearly as dependent on the direction of the sun for navigation now as when she had been human. In any case, it was clear that there was no sensible alternative to heading down the valley until she eventually emerged from it.

Before long it began to drizzle, and this soon intensified into steady moderate rain. That did not bother her at all. What did bother her was that the light did not noticeably improve. The sun's rising higher in the sky was evidently being counteracted by the thickening of the grey sheet of cloud above her. When she looked back, she could see that it now shrouded not only the mountains but also the peaks of the higher foothills.

Astra had boped to leave the valley behind her at some point during the day and emerge onto the plain that covered most of the region between the mountains and the capital, but if the weather did not get any better she was afraid that her hours awake might be too curtailed for that. Though she was not trying to meet any particular timetable in getting help for the others, she naturally wished to do so as quickly as possible.

1. The weather improves, and Astra's lethargy vanishes.
2. The weather improves, but Astra's lethargy does not. She realises that it cannot be due simply to the earlier gloom. Something must be wrong with her. She recalls her concern of yesterday, that she does not know what her body needs to survive.
3. After what seems to Astra like only five or six hours, the light deteriorates to the point that she falls asleep.

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