Pernicious- True Evil

Chapter 10

By the time she climbed down, Elde was fully healed and his horns were no longer glowing and hot. Though he was coated in red, she knew that it was only a matter of moments before he would enter the water and wash himself clean.

Elde approached, his sharp teeth once again covered by his lips. A string of bloody drool dripped out of his mouth. He snorted and sniffed any cuts she had. His massive head made its way over every inch of her body before moving to the men and doing the same.

"What's he doing?" She wondered as she watched him lick a deep gash in Sagan's calf. "Oh my God, I didn't even see that! Are you okay?"

"I know it's gross, but look." Sagan twisted his leg. Like a spider weaving his web, his skin weaved together, leaving no evidence of his previous injury.

"Does he have healing spit?" she wondered with a curled lip.

Sagan laughed and threw the brown bag over his shoulder. "No, it's the blood from the animal he ate. Fresh blood here heals. Old blood though, depending on the animal, is dangerous when consumed. The whole thing is kind of weird if you ask me." He turned to his friend. "What are you doing here? I thought you were going to stay back at the cave and wait for us?"

"No. You're my family. I can't just leave you like this. If you are going to make stupid decisions, I am going to be right there with you to get you out of them."

Sagan smiled and wrapped his arms around him. "I knew you'd come around."

Alek looked down at the corpse of the animal. "We can't have what just happened, happen again. At some point we are going to be attacked and we need Astra to be a lot stronger than she is now. Let's gather some herbs and then get that root we had when we got here. She could use that. We need food for tonight and she needs to learn what is edible and what is not, in case we get separated and she ends up on her own."

"What root?" She wondered.

"I'll show you soon and I will explain everything."

Alek and Sagan gathered herbs, fruits, and a variety of nuts for about half an hour. They placed them within the satchels as well as hung them on the outside to dry. Once the bags were full, Sagan pointed in the direction where they needed to head to and they began their journey, this time as a group of four.

The land continued to be rugged for the rest of the day, but the piles of boulders became less in number and more spread apart. Some of the land they walked through was covered in green grass while other areas were covered in red flowers. These flowers reached about the length of her ankle and became so numerous that it was oftentimes hard to see if there was any grass underneath.

The air became more humid the further they walked and left her skin uncomfortably sticky. She could feel sweat had formed between her shoulder blades and wanted nothing more than to dive into the crisp waters of the river. The sun felt hotter here than it did back near the cave. Even though her shoes were typically comfortable to walk in, she had walked for so many miles that she could feel the soreness of blisters which had formed on the back of her ankles. Everyone but Elde seemed exhausted. The animal walked with a bounce in his step and would occasionally nudge them if one of them started to slow down more than the others.

Finally, they came across a rocky structure in the shape of a "U" around twenty feet away from the river. Though it didn't have a roof to protect them from the elements, the shade that crossed over the structure at least provided protection from the sun's harsh rays. The structure was about ten feet high and looked more like the remains of something rather than a natural occurrence.