UNGLOVED

Chapter Five

Liriel looked around for firewood. There wasn't a lot of brush to collect for tinder in a pine forest. Tall trees shaded the forest floor, discouraging the growth of shorter plants. There were lots of dried needles, a whole carpet of them, but they contained a resin that would ignite nasty sparks, and Liriel worried that she might have difficulty keeping a fire under control with these.  The rush of fast flowing waters sounded off in the distance. She needed hardwood and kindling, so she wandered toward the river's edge, where she hoped to find some bushes growing in the open sun. 

Erallium was a large river, dissecting the continent from North to South. At this latitude it was nearer to its glacial source in the high peaks than its mouth, where her stranger came from. Here, early in the season, it brought melt waters from the mountaintops rushing in great torrents of icy water. 

She skirted the water's edge, under overhanging trees, careful not to get swept up in the swift current. In the open air she would be visible, and she wasn't ready to face her countrymen.

A stab of hunger robbed her of breath. Would they come after her, or would her brother keep her part in his prisoner's escape a secret? She would have to find out. If they story had spread widely. It might not be possible to ever return home.

The noise of the river thrummed. She immersed her thoughts in the musical sound and watched the play of the light upon the water and forgot her predicament for a while.

As she picked her way across the ground in search of bracken, Liriel smiled. It was a simple task, but as her pile grew, so did her satisfaction. When she finished, she went to the river's edge, locating a place where a little inlet had been carved by years of swirling waters. Carefully, she leaned over to scoop up handfuls, quenching her thirst. It was cold and fresh and it tasted especially good.

Turning to head back to her clearing, she spotted a bush with some berries. She knew this species. It was safe to eat, so she gathered as many of the dark blue fruits as she could and stuffed them in her pockets. Her silver Marulan robes could scarcely be made any worse by a few berry stains, as soiled and stained as they were.

She gathered up her kindling and headed back into the forest. Among the pine trees Liriel found the muffled sound of the bare, needle carpeted floor disquieting. She quickened her pace until she arrived at the clearing where she had parted from Lorenzo. It hardly looked much different from the rest of the wood, yet to Liriel, it already felt like home.

The spot made a good campsite. A large clear area looked suitable to set up the fire in. She swept away the dried needles and collected stones, stacking them around in a circle. She broke up the smaller branches and piled them in the centre of the stones, and rested the larger sticks in a cone shape around the pile. Fire, she had learned, needed air, and the cone shape would create a chimney that would feed it well.

She didn't have anything with which to start a fire, but as her stranger had pointed out, she only needed a little help from maru. She closed her eyes to concentrate, and placed her hands just outside the circle of the cone. Thinking of the twigs and the air around them warming, as if rubbed together, the friction and a surge of maru, and in an instant, the first branches licked with flame. She leaned over and blew a little at the base of the fire, and it glowed, spreading to the next clump of wood. 

Keeping the fire lit, however, took a great deal more skill. She had to run back to the waterside twice to collect some more fuel, and in the end, it took a little help again from maru to break a larger log into fire-sized pieces. It was sweaty work, fanning the flames, and blowing, but Liriel was please with her results in the end. She hoped her stranger would return soon with something worth eating.

The work made her very hungry. She nibbled on the berries in her pocket. They were small and hard, and each bite let out a sharp, sour taste. She sat and waited. She made mental lists of the people she should contact. She thought of who she should go to for advice.