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Nis had been sitting in silence on the raft for the better part of the morning. Patience End came into view as the sun reached the highest point in the sky. The narrower fork of the river was swift but shallow and there were boulders and logs that might catch and stall the raft. The wider fork was slow but free from obstacles. Both were still plenty wide for their raft, though, and Mel had secret places down both forks of the river. Had it not been for the fact that Gorvis was potentially hot on their trail Nis would have probably chosen the wider, easier course. However, if she was really going to have much chance at extending the distance between them and Gorvis she would need the speed of the narrower branch. But, again, there was the risk of getting stuck and then what would they do?

Her memory wasn’t perfect regarding the various rivers so before the raft could reach the point of no return and get swept down one way or the other, Nis pulled out her maps and checked a few of the potential routes down the various rivers and streams. If she took the narrower fork, it would widen out after a few miles. It still wouldn’t be as easy to traverse but the risk of getting stuck would lessen.

“I can manage a few miles,” Nis assured herself.

The better parts of the Unexplored Wastes were down that way as well, meaning foraging would be easier for them.

Her mind made up, Nis tucked the map away and guided the raft towards the narrow fork of the river. Immediately, the raft began to pick up speed. Her natural instinct was to look only at the part of the river that was directly in front of the raft but her knowledge gained from Mel warned her that she needed to look further downstream so she could anticipate the obstacles along the way.

Most boulders were easy enough to spot since the water was thrust upward and around them. The rudder on the raft didn’t allow for any sudden changes in direction but it was sufficient to shift the raft out of the way of those points in the river. Most logs were caught lengthwise against boulders in the river, forming small dams that Nis had to swing particularly wide to avoid, but as long as she was looking downstream she was able to correct her course in time to avoid them. However, as she went along, Nis couldn’t help but notice the occasional log that stuck out along the direction of the river. These were like spears, braced against the bottom of the river. Most of them protruded far enough out of the river to see and were easily avoided but there were some that did not breach the surface and their narrow tips allowed the river to flow around them without creating as noticeable of a point in the river.

“It’s just a few miles,” Nis reminded herself when she noticed a particularly large log, one of the pointed spear-like ones, pass by on the right side of the raft. She hadn’t seen it until it was already going passed. Had the raft been just a couple feet to the one side, they would have smashed right into it.

The one good thing about taking this route was that it distracted her from every other thought or worry. She didn’t have any spare time to think about Gorvis or Trow or anything else besides navigating the river.

Something thumped against the bottom of the raft, making the whole thing shudder and jerk. Nis braced herself but the raft kept moving forward. Looking behind, Nis thought she could just make out the shadow of a log beneath the surface.

“Hmm, s’alright?” Meric’s tired voice spoke from inside the shelter.

“Yeah, everything’s okay,” Nis assured her.

Meric didn’t say any more and Nis assumed Meric was still too affected by the herbs to really wake up yet. That made her think about Trow and she allowed herself a brief glance over to where he lay. The jostling raft had shifted him around a bit but he wasn’t in any danger of falling off. Unless, of course, they hit something truly substantial and then it wouldn’t really matter how well she’d situated Trow since all three of them would most likely be thrown into the river.

Another thump on the bottom of the raft and this time the raft pitched forward, almost knocking Nis off her feet before righting itself and carrying on down the river. Trow was rolled forward from the impact but stopped when he hit the side of the shelter.

Nis turned her eyes back onto the river and was just barely able to swing the raft around and avoid striking a log dam.

“Come on, just a few miles.”

That statement was losing its comforting nature each time she said it. How far along had she already gone? She hadn’t been paying enough attention before to gauge the raft’s speed and now she didn’t have the time to watch the shore and figure out how fast they were going. She’d just have to carry on until enough streams joined the river to swell it back into a deep enough river that the boulders and logs wouldn’t pose a threat.

Once the river was a bit calmer, she’d have time to really pick out their route along the map. They wouldn’t reach any forks in this river until the next day, though, and then those forks would start coming on almost constantly until they reached the sea. It was all of the innumerable, branching rivers and streams that Mel had spent the better part of her life exploring and mapping.

The river bent and wound its way through the forest, gradually growing deeper and wider as it moved northward. Nis’ grip on the rudder was still tight but she saw fewer and fewer logs in the river as they went along. Even the boulders began to be less apparent but then that began to pose its own risks. Keeping near the middle of the river meant she avoided the shallower water but it also meant that if she struck a boulder it would be a truly massive one. The larger the boulder, the more likely their raft was to be damaged if they hit it.

For all of her worrying, however, Nis was able to safely navigate the river and it was with a sigh of relief that she reached safer waters. Without the river to worry about, she became aware of how hot the afternoon had become and she splashed some river water on her face to wash away the sweat. The cool water was refreshing and she cupped a few handfuls of it to her mouth to drink. It wasn’t as good as well water but she wasn’t going to be picky. Next she found the package of hard biscuits in Trow’s pack and spent a few minutes crunching on those while she looked over the map in greater detail.

Without being able to know how close Gorvis was to finding them, Nis didn’t want to risk stopping off at any of the nearer hideouts Mel had made for herself. Instead, Nis marked a path that would keep them moving along the faster rivers for the next few days. They could stop at a few places and forage but she wanted to minimize those excursions since they would leave clues for Gorvis to potentially find and follow. Eventually they would need to stop and truly stock back up on food so Nis made a mark of where she thought they should aim for as their first real stopping point where they could spend a few days foraging and preparing for the next leg of their journey.

Mel had made a point of cultivating a number of edible plants in that area. Given the centuries that had since passed, Nis wasn’t counting too heavily on there still being veritable gardens along the shoreline but she at least had the hope in finding a higher density of edible plants in that area.

It all just came down to rationing their food and being able to navigate the river without stopping too frequently. Nis hadn’t put much thought into it at first, but navigating at night would only work so long as the stretch of river they were in was relatively safe and there were no forks in the river that they might accidentally go down. Her maps had some markings to denote where there were rapids or other hazards but Nis wasn’t completely confident in the map or in her and Meric’s ability to accurately measure where they were on the map, especially at night.

“Hey,” Meric said.

Nis looked up from the map to find Meric out of the shelter and chewing on a biscuit.

“Sleep alright?” Nis asked.

“Not bad, actually,” Meric replied, stretching. “Weird dreams, though.”

“Which life did you dream about?” Nis asked.

“Oh, it wasn’t one of those,” Meric said, looking somewhat uncomfortable. “I only dream about a past life a few times a week. This one was just me rolling around in a big bowl of soup.”

“That is weird,” Nis said.

“You have our route picked out?”

Nis nodded and turned the map around to show her.

“We’ll really need to ration how much of Trow’s food we eat,” Nis said, “and I’m hoping we can start catching fish or something so we don’t have to stop as often to forage along the way.”

Meric looked over the map and the route Nis had marked out, then looked over to where Trow lay, still asleep. Nis followed her gaze and the knot in her stomach returned somewhat as she remembered what she’d nearly done to him earlier that day. Still, he was breathing easily and he’d long since dried off.

“We’ll need to make sure he doesn’t see this,” Meric warned. “The less he knows, the better.”

“You sure we can’t just drop him off on the shore?” Nis asked.

“He’ll be able to signal to Gorvis,” Meric said. “Light a fire or something. That would get them back together and we’d lose that bit of our advantage.”

“I know, it’s just…makes me nervous, having him right here with us. We can’t just keep him drugged with those herbs, can we?”

“We could for a while,” Meric replied as she considered the option. “We’d have to let him wake up and eat and do all that once a day, but as long as we only offer him drugged water to drink, he’ll either have to risk dehydrating or accept it and go back to sleep for another day.”

“I think we’ll have to,” Nis said. “Otherwise I’m afraid of what he might do if he did manage to get free.”

“We can just retie him while he’s sleeping,” Meric said with a shrug and got up to seemingly do just that.

“Don’t untie him!” Nis exclaimed as Meric bent down and took hold of Trow’s ankles.

Meric looked over to her and was about to speak when Trow yanked his feet back. Meric, her hands still holding the ropes, was yanked forward as well. Trow rolled himself over and Meric tripped over his body. She landed hard on the deck of the raft beside Trow who rose up into a sitting position only to fling his face back down, headbutting Meric on the side of her head, knocking her out. He was already pushing Meric closer to the edge of the raft by the time Nis overcame her shock and sprang into motion.

Getting close to Trow, even tied up as he was, clearly wasn’t a very safe option. Instead, Nis hurried around the opposite side of Meric where she could keep her from being pushed overboard while staying out of Trow’s reach.

“Stop it!” Nis cried out.

Trow met her gaze and there was fury in his eyes. It would be pointless to try and argue with him so Nis grabbed Meric by the wrist and pulled her away from Trow. The raft wasn’t very large so there was only so far that Nis could move Meric but Trow could only move by either rolling or scooting and neither of those methods were fast enough to really threaten Nis as long as she kept an eye on him. She tucked Meric back inside the shelter and then rounded on Trow.

“Please,” she begged him. “You don’t have to be like this.”

Trow didn’t respond. Instead he rolled himself over onto his chest and turned his face away from her.

“Fine,” she said and picked up the last two remaining lengths of rope they had left.

Nis tied the rope to the deck a couple feet from where Trow lay, then walked around him, carrying the free end of the rope as she went. She pulled the rope tight across Trow’s chest and then tied that end to the deck. She repeated the process across his legs as well. Trow avoided looking at Nis while she worked and she was fine with that.

“You can just lie there for the rest of this trip,” she told him, double checking the ropes and knots to make sure they were sufficient to hold him down.

That done, she went over to Meric to check on her. A large bruise was already forming on the side of her head where Trow had struck her. He had a similar mark on his forehead but Nis was feeling far less sympathetic towards Trow. Not sure if there was something she could really do besides wait for Meric to wake up, Nis at least cupped some of the river water into her hands and used it to wash off Meric’s face. The cool water appeared to rouse Meric and her eyelids fluttered slightly.

“Meric?” Nis asked. “Can you hear me?”

Meric opened her eyes only to close them again almost at once. She blinked a few more times and Nis continued talking to her, trying to help her wake up. When she did finally open her eyes and manage to keep them open, Nis waved her hand in front of Meric to catch her attention.

“Meric, can you hear me?”

Meric’s eyes rolled around briefly before they managed to lock onto Nis but there wasn’t much recognition in her expression.

“Keep looking at me, Meric,” Nis said when Meric’s eyes began to wander again. “Can you say something?”

It took a moment for Meric to form the words but as she began to speak she seemed to regain more and more of her faculties.

“H-head hu-hu-hurts,” she stammered, holding her hand up to the side of her head. “Feeling dizzy t-too.”

“Yeah, Trow hit you pretty hard,” Nis replied. She glanced back over he shoulder to where Trow still lay tied to the deck. “I’ve got him tied down pretty good now.”

“B-best news I-I’ve heard all d-day,” Meric said. “Maybe we should h-have dumped him.”

“Yeah,” Nis agreed, “but like you said, it’s a bit late for that now if we want to stay ahead of Gorvis.”

Meric nodded and immediately scrunched her face up in pain and cradled her head in both hands.

“Just take it easy for now,” Nis told her. “There’s a few more hours of daylight. If you’re feeling up to it by the time it gets dark, you can take over and I’ll get some sleep.”

Meric nodded, this time much more slowly, and Nis left her to return to steering the raft. Fortunately, with the river as calm in this section as it was, it didn’t take much guidance for the raft to stay near the middle of the river.

“Well look at that,” Trow said unexpectedly after a few minutes.

“What?” Nis asked, looking around. She had been watching the river and so hadn’t noticed the thin smoke trail rising up above the trees a little ways further downriver from where they were.

“I guess Gorvis caught up faster than even I was expecting,” Trow gave Nis an unpleasant grin. “He’s probably waiting for us around that next bend in the river.”

“If he is,” Nis replied, gripping tightly to the rudder, “he’ll still have to catch us in the water. I can steer us away from whichever bank he’s on.”

“Nis,” Trow said in such condescending tones it made her want to kick him, “when will you realize you can’t get away? You’re only prolonging the inevitable and making things worse at every step of the way.”

The raft rounded the bend in the river and both Nis and Trow gaped at what they saw.