(Photo by Nashwan Guherzi)

It was pitch black when Nis awoke to the sounds of angry shouting.

“KYV!” the man, Skav, all but screamed into the night. “SHEZA!”

It seemed that Kyv’s appraisal of Skav’s injuries were incorrect. Heavy, stomping footfalls paced an area just beyond the thorn bushes. From time to time Nis heard the man stumble and fall before rising again and resuming his pacing. She wondered if he was just tripping over the uneven ground in the dark or if he was still suffering the effects of the strike he’d received from the woman, Sheza.

“It’s, it’s too dark,” Skav said with a hint of fear. “I…I don’t think I can see.”

It was incredibly dark, Nis noted, with no sign of the moon and heavy canopy above blocking out any stars, but she could still make out a few things here and there. If Skav truly couldn’t see anything then he just might very well be blind. She’d heard of people hitting their head and losing their sight, especially if it was the back of their head that got struck.

“Come on, Kyv!” Skav shouted again though with less force as though he were losing hope in his companions still being nearby. “I always did whatever you told me to do, least you can do is not leave me here!”

There was a long pause and Nis found herself listening hard, just as she thought Skav was doing, wondering if indeed Kyv had left the area.

Without warning, Skav let out a roar of pure rage and Nis heard him pounding the ground and throwing whatever bits of forest litter he could find. He shouted curses and swore his vengeance on both Kyv and Sheza numerous times until finally quieting. 

Nis didn’t sleep any more that night as she remained on alert but no other sounds came from Skav and neither were there any sign that Kyv had returned to collect Skav.

The sky above the trees eventually began to shift from black to purple and the faint light of dawn began to filter through the canopy and down to Nis. The hours crept by and a thousand different thoughts floated through her mind. How long would Skav stay out there? Would he strike out on his own in search of Kyv? Would he still die from his injury? How long would Nis need to stay inside this copse and would her food rations last her that long? Could she perhaps slip out and get away without Skav noticing?

By the time morning arrived, Nis couldn’t stay hunkered down inside her shelter any longer. Her body ached from sleeping on the cold ground and she needed to get moving if she wanted to avoid being sore for the rest of the day. Slowly, Nis crawled out and began stretching. Her shelter had functioned much better this time around, effectively keeping the dew from collecting on her again and as a result she wasn’t as cold as the morning before.

Her latrine needed to be re-dug but since all she’d had time to do yesterday was push sand back into it, the latrine wouldn’t be too difficult to get reestablished. Digging was, again, fairly easy, although she was slowed by needing to dig quietly in case Skav was still out there and listening. With how stressful things had been, Nis had no appetite for breakfast but forced herself to eat at least a few bites of cheese any way to avoid adding yet another stress to her body.

It was only after she’d eaten the cheese that she realized she had no water. She’d been counting on having easy access to the stream. In hindsight, she knew she ought to have packed some sort of vessel to store water but it was too late for that now. She’d intended to weave a couple water baskets, tall and narrow ones that were sealed on the inside with tree sap, but those would take a couple days each to weave and she had no reeds in the copse to weave with, having left all the ones she’d gathered out by the rock with her unfinished fishing basket. As long as she didn’t think about it, she could ignore her thirst for now. How long that would be the case was unknown.

Inside the copse there wasn’t much that Nis could do besides begin whittling a sharp stick as a means to defend herself should the need arise. The small knife she had with her would be of little use should she need to fend off any attackers. The stick, with its greater reach, would allow her to hopefully keep any potential attackers at a distance. 

Eventually, she heard what she assumed was Skav moving about. There was some brief splashing of water indicative of Skav bathing and he let out a few heavy sighs, either from relief or from pain as he washed. He continued to stumble about as he had done the night before, falling and rising again every so often.

With the day wearing on and Skav giving no indication that he intended to leave this place, Nis’ thirst began to demand more and more of her attention. Even with all the shade it was hot and humid inside the forest and Nis was so covered in sweat that she wasn’t sure whether her clothes had been more or less damp from the dew the day before. Either way, she needed water. Her head was beginning to pound from dehydration and she knew it would only get worse for her the longer she waited.

With her sharpened stick in hand, it’s haft being nearly as long as she was, she began to make her way out along the game trail. She was hoping Skav was indeed blind, giving her an advantage while it was still light enough for her to see. Otherwise…well, she brought along her pack of supplies in case she needed to run for it. At the very least she knew Skav was unsteady on his feet and unlikely to be able to catch her in a chase.

Nis was getting somewhat practiced at crawling through these thorns and she was quite pleased with how little noise she made on her way out. Before exiting fully from the thorns, Nis made sure to locate where Skav was. He sat a short way away from where the game trail came out, his feet resting in the stream. One of the larger berry bushes was to his side and the stains on his fingers and around his mouth showed he had been eating them throughout the day. The back of his head was matted with dried blood and his eyes stared off unseeing into the forest.

Stealthily as she could manage, Nis slipped down to the edge of the stream beside the large rock where she’d left her weaving. Skav and his soaking feet were, thankfully, downstream from Nis and she took several long gulps of water. She never took her eyes off Skav and while there were a few times that he cocked his head this way or that he never gave any indication that he had noticed her.

It was tempting to go off and find some other place to hide but Sheza’s warning about waiting a few days before venturing out again was still too fresh on her mind. The last thing she wanted to do was stumble into Kyv or some other group who was looking for her. At best, the others that Sheza had hinted at in her message were the archivists but even that gave her little comfort.

Gathering up the reeds and the basket she’d begun to work on the day before, Nis crept back to the game trail. Unfortunately, the reeds were not so easy to carry without some rustling and Skav perked up the moment he heard them.

“Hello?” he said, turning this way and that, leading with his ears as he tried to hone in on the source of the sound.

Nis stood still, hardly daring to breathe as Skav rose to his feet.

“I heard you there,” Skav said pointing vaguely off to Nis’ right. “I don’t mean anyone harm,” he went on. “If that’s you Kyv, or even Sheza, no hard feelings, honest. But whoever you are, I can’t see and I’m lost in these woods.”

He sounded earnest in his words and there was fear in his expression. Still, Nis wouldn’t forget the anger and threats he’d shouted only the night before, not to mention the violence Kyv had hinted at that Skav was apparently capable of.

Nis took another couple of steps towards the thorns, taking every precaution she could manage to keep from making a sound. She managed to get all the way down to her hands and knees before her stick, poking out a bit farther than she’d intended, caught on a branch and made a quiet but very definite thck as it pulled and then released the branch, smacking it into the foliage around it.

Skav immediately honed in on Nis and for a moment she thought he was going to pounce on her. He was only a few steps away from her, really, and it would be a very close thing if it came down to a race for which one of them would be faster.

Skav remained where he was.

“Look,” he said in a controlled voice although the anticipation and barely restrained emotion were obvious in his face. “I don’t know who you are, and I’m in no position for bargaining. But I’ve got no way out of here. All’s I got is water and berries to keep me going but that won’t last me for long. I’ll die out here, and you got a chance to save my life. That means something, and I swear you won’t regret it, helping me. I’ll be no trouble. I’ll help any way I can. But please, please don’t just leave me out here. I don’t want to be alone.”

She wanted to leave him there, leave him to wonder if he was just hearing things, but memories of her past lives rose up, times when she’d been the one left behind, injured and afraid. She knew that fear, knew that horror of slowly waiting to die.

Leaving the reeds and her bag of supplies where they were, Nis quietly got back up. She leveled her stick at Skav but didn’t touch him with it. If he attacked she wanted him to be as ignorant of her weapon as possible.

“Don’t move,” Nis said slowly.

Skav nearly fell to his knees as relief flooded his face. A few tears ran down his face and he reached out with his hands, though he was careful not to step towards her.

“Please,” he sounded on the verge of hysterics, “help me, please!”

“I will help you,” Nis agreed, “there’s a large rock to your right, near the stream. I will place some food for you there. I don’t have much right now so I can’t give you a lot.”

“Thank you,” he gasped. “I won’t complain, anything you can spare. Just don’t leave me alone here.”

He stepped forward and Nis immediately hopped away and out of his reach. She slapped her stick across his hands, though regretted doing so since he looked more as though he had been trying to give her a hug rather than attack her.

“I’m sorry,” she said as Skav retreated, rubbing his hands, “but you came here to capture me and I’m not going to just trust you all of a sudden.”

“Yes, I’m sorry,” Skav muttered his apology and Nis wasn’t sure if he was sorry for being part of the plan to capture her or if he was just sorry he’d rushed her. Either way, he sat himself down on the ground and crossed his arms. “Here, I’ll sit and be still until you’re tell me I can get up again.”

Satisfied, Nis withdrew a couple strips of meat and a roll from her bag and placed  them on the stone. She then crawled backwards along the trail towards the copse, stopping as soon as she was sure her head was out of Skav’s reach just in case he changed his mind.

“It’s ready for you,” she said, and then added after seeing him clumsily begin making his way towards the stone, “Be careful you don’t knock them into the stream.”

Skav moved more slowly along the bank, feeling his way with his hands until he found the stone. Then, with even greater care, he searched around until he found the food. He took a bite of the meat and immediately the tension in his muscles relaxed.

Nis crawled the rest of the way through the thorns, the sound of Skav crying quietly to himself filtering through the branches and leaves. She’d have to really hope there were a decent number of fish in the stream if she was going to be able to feed both herself and Skav, not to mention forage for other things they could eat since fish alone would not be enough to sustain either of them. She’d also have to keep her guard up since she doubted very much that Skav had experienced a real change of heart. He was scared and feeling vulnerable now, but if his sight returned, or if he thought he could go on without Nis, she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to turn on her. She’d known plenty of people just like Skav in her past lives. She’d been just like Skav, too, in some of those lives.

It was a foolish risk to take, but Nis had made her choice and she’d just have to live with it. As long as she was careful and her luck held out, she’d be able to get through this. What she would eventually do with Skav she wasn’t sure. Maybe she’d take him back to the old road and point him towards Duran. Whether Skav would accept that or not was uncertain but Nis would make that decision when the time came. For now, she needed to get to work weaving.