Luminari

Chapter twelve

Ahiga's shortcut became less and less convenient, the path got thinner and muddier. and quickly became overgrown with a smelly plant Inola referred to as stinky weed. The path dead ended at the edge of a muddy pond. 

"Let's turn back and head for the main road," I suggested but Inola was already taking off her boots.

"No way not without the horses!" She complained, then she stepped into the pond with her bare feet holding her boots above the water.

"Step where I step and if you see a snake stand still and let it pass you by," she ordered like it was nothing at all.

I really didn't want to walk through water that could have snakes in it, but like I established before I didn't want to be left on my own. So, I took off my shoes and socks and followed Inola into the pond. The pond was wide and stretched for half a mile, but it was shallow the deepest part only went up to the middle of my calves. The bottom of the pond was made entirely of slimy green mud that squeezed between my toes. My feet continued to get stuck and sink deep into muck, at one point I stepped in a bad place and my leg plunged in up to my knee and Inola had to help me get out. 

Inola was in the lead walking ahead of me with proud steps that splashed pond water onto the bottom of her dress. She gasped then stopped walking she stood on her left leg and held her right one out of the water.

"Are you okay?" I asked trying to get a look at her foot.

"I'm fine, I just stepped on a rock that's all," she said stepping back in the water.

She made a detour around the rock and continued trekking through the pond. I noticed she was walking kind of funny, limping a bit.

"Are you sure you're fine?"

"Yes mom!" She said sarcastically continuing to limp. 

We made it out of the pond, and I got a clear look at Inola's foot. There was a purple bruise the size of a quarter on the side arch of her foot, there were two small holes in the middle of the bruise leaking blood. The blood mixed with the pond water, and she left a thin bloody tail behind her.

"That looks pretty bad do you want a bandage?" I asked pulling off my backpack and searching for a bandage I had almost used them all up.

"I'm fine," she said with an eye roll walking on her tip toes so the cut wouldn't touch the dirty ground.

"It'll speed things up," I figured if I gave her a good reason, she would take it and she did.

She sat down on the stump and held out her foot. I had expected her to do it herself, but I had nothing against doing it, so I got down on my knees and awkwardly held her foot in my hand. I dumped some clean water from my water bottle, and she flinched. I dried it off with my shirt and put the bandage on.

"Thanks," she said putting her boots back on.

I cleaned my feet off the same way, and we continued heading down the trail.

I noticed Inola was walking slower than normal, and she chose to walk behind me which was a little odd since earlier she had been making an obvious effort to stay in the front. I made sure to look over my shoulder every once and a while to make sure she was still there. Dark circles began to form under her eyes and her skin fist turned pale then a strange color of green.

"Inola, you don't look so good" I said, I looked down at her feet and saw that her right boot was leaking blood.

"I'm fine," she said angrily her voice dry and raspy.

"I think you need to sit down."

"I told you I'm- "she started saying then she fell over onto her knees and threw up.