The Laws of Paxia

24. Bloody Orange

Chapter Twenty-Four

  Bloody orange.

  I like black clothes, but mine is now covered in the most orange mud I ever seen. It looks like I’ve been through a game of paintball! I slowly try to lift myself from my stomach up to sitting position but my hands slips on the loamy surface and I fall back into the mud with a moan. It has a woody smell mixed with wet dog.

  A pang of sorrow goes through me when an image of Dilly flashes before my eyes. Unlike most dogs, Dilly loved the rain. She used to run around and play in the puddles. I wipe away the tears that are falling down my face, leaving more mud on my skin. I haven’t had a mud mask in forever and this is not how I thought my next one would be like.

  I twist myself around and rest my head against the muddy ground, not caring if I ruin my hair. I’m weak out of hunger and loss of sleep. I sense a trail of fear going through me and I don’t like it. Killing people hasn’t given me any nightmares, so why should an unknown world do it?

  The air is humid and cold. It’s quite windy and the ground has orange pools of mud covering most of the red gravel. Despite that everything looks normal. Grey clouds are covering the sky but it doesn’t feel that it’s going to rain anytime soon. Massive mountains are stretching out through the distance and only the muddy desert can be seen everywhere I look.

  It’s not Paxia, but it can be just as dangerous. I’m not going to take my safety for granted. I grab my necklace again and twist the globe a few turns. The familiar feeling of Tarih surrounds me and I give off a relieved sigh. I let the webs grab my legs and it lifts me up steadily onto the ground. I feel a lot less vulnerable and secure in myself with the threads help.

  I need to find some kind of shelter where I can rest. It looks like the mountains would offer the best sleeping place. Walking over there would probably take forever, but with Tarih I can run. I use my super-speed and even with that the mountains are longer to reach than I expected. The wind is slapping my face and it wakes me up a little bit. My back hurts from the fall and I hope there will be some kind of soft material I can sleep on. It better not be another plant-less planet like Paxia.

  First on my list is to find mud-free water. I’m so thirsty and can’t even remember when I last drank something.

  After ages of running I finally reach the mountainside and to my delight a small pond is resting by the foot with meter-high trees partly surrounding it. The trees are red with a few yellow leaves in them. Most leaves are on the ground and I guess it is fall here at the moment. Paths are leading into the mountains, but it doesn’t look like anyone has been here recently. The familiar smell of rotten leaves is comforting. It should be a safe enough place for me to rest.

  I walk up to the blank surface just to be faced with my hideous reflection. I dip my whole head into the water and return back quickly with shivering teeth. This water is a lot colder than on Paxia! Water is dripping from my hair down my body and I try to squeeze the cold drips away. If only I had a towel. At least on Paxia I had a bed and a bathroom.

  It’s just me and the wild over here. I lean down carefully and drink the water slowly. It tastes good. I just hope it won’t make me sick. I’ll look for food tomorrow. For now I just need to rest. I wipe up a whole pile of leaves between a crevice that’s large enough to work as my overnight camp. Loneliness is starting to creep up on me but I remind myself to be strong. Lex survived by himself for four years. One night shouldn’t be a trouble for me.

  The night falls quickly as I lie in the leaves and I realize it’s not the loneliness that makes me scared; it’s the unknown. Stars are covering the sky and I picture one of them as the sun I know from Earth. I’m cold, but there’s not much I can do about that now. I should try to fall asleep quickly so I can go into my emotionless state of soul-walking.