Awakening (Born From Shadows #1)

“This is it, the border,” Nik announced.

“How can you tell?” Tatianna asked, “it looks the same as before.”

“Haven’t you noticed how the trees started to thing out? The cold air is no longer numbing your fingers?”

“Spring is here,” Riley pointed out.

“And we are no longer in the North of Crénia,” Freya added.

“Which mean no more nice animals to eat, only field mice and things like that. There are a few farms in the villages but that’s it and water will be scarce,” Nik explained.

“So, we are gong to starve and dehydrate unless we find a village,” she summarised. Perhaps they should turn back if it meant they were all going to die anyway. Although she wondered if she could even die of starvation and thirst, she had felt the effects of both numerous times in her life but is that it? She is immortal, but that doesn’t mean her body doesn’t require supplements. She debated whether it was possible for her to die like this, if not then that knowledge would have saved her from a lot of pain in the past.

“Yes,” Nik confirmed, “So we better get moving because I have no idea where any villages are around here.”

“Just fucking perfect,” she said with sarcasm dripping off every word. Ida continued forward and Tatianna was about to tell Nylif to stay. To stay where food and water were discoverable. Yet as she looked at the wolf for some reason the thought of being apart for such a long period of time, perhaps never seeing each other again was unbearable for her. Just thinking about it made her chest burn. Due to her own selfish desires, she did not tell the wolf to stay.

She leant back into Nik as Ida moved at a steady trot. Watching the trees thin out and the grass thicken. At least the horses would have food, she thought. As they continued forward the sun aligned with the middle of the sky and for once in her life, she felt warm. Warm enough to remove layers of clothing from her body. The ground was dry, and the grass was yellow, despite its evident growth it looked almost dead. It was all so empty.

“Why are they like this?” She asked, “why isn’t there any trees?”

“The same reason as many things we see, the war,” Nik answered vaguely. “Both here and the wastelands were the main fighting grounds. Nature got caught in between and never fully recovered. At least here the grass has grown back to some degree. The wastelands is just dirt and sand.”

“I can’t believe people willingly fought in that war. If I was a human back then I would have not fought, protested against it. If the leaders have no soldiers there would be so much less destruction,” she thought.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Nik replied.

“How? I’m sure those people who died did not wish to so why die for someone else’s hate?”

“They died not for the leader, but for the leaders cause. The Elves believed the humans to be a plague that could not be allowed into their lands. They needed to stop it, while the humans were fighting for a place to live, a home and in their opinion the Elves were the evil that kept them away from that.”

“It all sounds too dramatic,” she groaned.

“It definitely was,” he replied.

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Tatianna couldn’t remember the last time she had a drink. Had something to eat. The sun shot rays of heat down upon them and she couldn’t will herself to move one more inch. They no longer travelled on top of the horses’ backs in fear that they would collapse on them except for Riley who was still unable to walk properly. The wound on his ankle looked like it was healing fine, not a sign of infection yet he still limped. She suspected something else was wrong, but she could not know for sure seeing that she was no doctor. They needed someone with medical training and in these plains with nothing to be seen for miles there was no hope for them to find one. She would be surprised if they even made it to the next village.

Her legs we are wobbling slighting beneath her and with every step forward she took. Her vision started to blur. Her Elven nature did nothing to cure the pain in her stomach. The scratching against her throat. She prayed and prayed that a god or goddess would take pity upon them. Will offer them something, a glimpse of hope. For hope could push someone through the hardest of times yet she saw no sign of salvation.

“Shit,” a male voice mumbled from behind her. Tatianna put in effort to turn and see Riley’s horse’s legs shaking beneath him. A few second later the great beast fell to the ground, succumbing to exhaustion. Soon they would follow.

Riley fell down with the horse, quick to move his feet from its sides so it did not crush him. He staggered up and Tatianna walked over, placing two fingers to the horses neck. A faint heartbeat answered back at her and she felt it slowly fade away.

Nylif growled beside her, staring a the now dead horse with hunger and she realised what she had to do.

“We need to cut it up, use it’s meat,” she told the others. It wouldn’t cure their dehydration, but it would help the hunger. Also, all food when processed releases some water so she hoped that would keep them going for a bit longer.

“You want me to eat my own horse?” Riley said in disgust. Not able to contemplate the idea. She didn’t like it, but she knew it was needed to survive.

“Just close your eyes and pretend it’s something nice, that’s what I do,” she replied thinking about all the mouldy and dirt covered food she had eaten in her life. At the time she was surprised how she hadn’t died of food poisoning, but now she realised it was because she was immortal.

She pulled out and dagger and stumbled over to the dead horse. She removed it’s saddle and other accessorises its carried. Taking a deep breath, she got to work, knowing the blood that soon covered her hands would stain both her clothes and her mind for years to come. She loved horses with every part of her soul and here she was cutting one up to eat it.

She tossed some of the uncooked meat to Nylif who devoured it without a second thought. They all needed to tap into their animal instincts in order to get through this. She then looked around her and realised that they had no fire to cook the meat on. No sticks to start a fire. All they had was grass and that burned quicker than the meat would cook. With her luck she knew she would end up staring a mass grass fire that killed everyone. She looked back towards Nylif eating the raw meat and noted that they had to do the same. As far as she knew raw horse was not poisonous and it was better than nothing.

“Here,” she said and passed out slices of the meat, blood still dripping. The thought of eating this made her stomach churn.

“I can’t…” Riley said looking at the raw meat in his hand.

“You can, and you will,” she replied. Closing her eyes, she moved the raw meat to her mouth. The taste was horrid, and she felt the food coming back up before she forced it down into her stomach.

Nik followed her actions, placing his hands over his mouth as the food also threatened to not stay down. Freya looked at the horse then at the meat in her hand and placed it in her mouth. Tatianna took another bite, forcing it down again. Then another till her piece was eaten.

She looked at Riley who was still staring at the meat unable to digest the thought of eating it.

“Riley, you need to eat it,” she told him.

“If it was Ida, would you eat it?” he asked.

“Yes,” she responded without hesitation. She did whatever she could to survive, she didn’t know what would happen to her if her body gave up. Would her mind still be conscious as her body laid still, indestructible yet drained?

Riley stared down at his meat, his reluctance evident through his crystal blue eyes. Despite this he leant down and ate. They would be haunted by their decisions later, for now they would survive.

Tatianna ate as much as she could without throwing up, knowing that they couldn’t carry the food around with them. It would start to rot in a day, bacteria would taint the meat.

“We need to keep moving, once we stop, we die,” she told the others.

“I can barely walk,” Riley stated looking down at his bandaged ankle.

“You can get on my horse,” Freya said.

“My weight added on would kill the mare,” Riley replied.

“We are going to need the horses in the future, lean onto someone,” she told him. Riley swung his arm around his sister and then they pressed onward. Saying nothing and just listening to the crunching of the grass.