Dhanurana

Chapter 35: Trials

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"They're testing us." Dhanur took the arrows from a dead northerner's quiver.

"Isn't that what the spirit said?" Janurana practically bounced as she licked the blood from her fingers after draining another fallen warrior.

"Urgh. No. I mean they're prodding us, seeing our weaknesses, just looking for us. That's why only three came at us. If your warriors start disappearing, you send a party this size to scout and at least triple that to set an ambush. You okay, Abba?"

Brachen was trying to gain as much energy as he could from the sliver of light piercing the canopy. To his dismay, it looked larger than it was compared to the jungle's darkness. "Yes," he wheezed. "Much too old for this gallivanting. You'd think these northerners part wolf seeing so well in the dark."

"Maybe their magic is helping their eyes now." Janurana giggled, lost in her bloody energy though she tried to control her volume as Dhanur glared.

Dhanur then took a slow breath. "Maybe. Never seen them use magic like this though down south. Must be some kind of magic from the land here. I dunno. But they have some Clan Macaque spirits with big eyes for night vision." She lifted the head of the northerner, exposing his clan rhino markings. "If they knew we were around and not some party out past their return time, one of these groups would have had a spirit. They're probably all at their bases or maybe up in Aram."

"How far are we now?" Janurana bounded up to Dhanur's side, then fell back as she was glared down again.

Dhanur scratched her wound and helped Brachen move the bodies off the road as respectfully as they could. "Don't know. But probably a good ways in now, if they didn't move us from the gate. Maybe the fog did all that, dunno. Never seen that though." She got them moving.

"The Light is less powerful than before." Brachen caught up, stopping for a moment in another sun ray to stretch his back. "Night is coming, I believe."

"Great. Probably no dry tinder in a jungle," Dhanur scoffed.

"What are we gonna do?" Janurana asked.

"Go until it's darker. Hope we have a plan by then. Can you see any better yet?"

Janurana sucked her teeth and rubbed her thigh as if the memento patch would be there. The moment she touched her new pants and not it her energy tumbled off a cliff. "No, the same as before. I can still smell and hear as well as ever."

"Then it is some kind of magic or something that's blocking just us. Whatever, smell and hearing is our best option right now." Dhanur had tried to summon Dekha again, but only confirmed that the magic wouldn't work. She sighed. "Blood'll keep you up, right?"

"Yes."

"Then we keep marching, through the night. Drink as much as you can to keep awake."

"Yes, madam warrior." Janurana bowed.

"I'm not a—"

"You're certainly acting like one now." Janurana giggled.

Dhanur raked her hand through her hair and winced when some got caught in a new knick in her gloves. "Now I see why you were so peppy back in the capital."

"The northerners from the inn," Janurana declared proudly, then sighed and shoved the last image of the innocent northerner's silently screaming faces aside.

"Ha!" Dhanur covered her mouth and chastised herself for her volume, despite the battering sounds of far off guars rutting drowning them out. "Bet they tasted like sugar and fruit, huh?"

"Actually, yes. I find the person's diet tends to add a flavor to their blood. It's the only flavor I can enjoy anymore."

'I guess it helped Janurana that you failed to help that northern girl back there,' Dhanur's inner voice would have had a wry smile if it had a face.