AnnouncementIn order to keep myself from burning out, we’re moving to a 5/days per week schedule. No chapters Tuesday or Wednesday, sorry! Patreon remains 6 chapters ahead though.Chapter 39: To Push Beyond

  TASTKA POV

  My mat was getting uncomfortable again. Lifting it up and shaking it, I saw a number of the tiny tree hairs tumble away from it – clumps of pale, curling fibers that were now dry and brittle. It was definitely not staying together for much longer, and I didn’t have the magical talent to even strengthen what magic was in there.

  For some reason, I had a terribly low amount of Cruxis talent. It normally wasn’t a problem, but my sleeping mat needed to be soft and full right now.

  I really hated the slopes here, and I think I’d always disliked them. When the cn had moved here st time, I had ended up counting down the days until we left, and this time was no different… except I knew we had more than eight and eight days left, because it was more than I could count easily on my fingers and toes.

  Even if my shelter was rger and sturdier than the st time I had been here, that did nothing to soften the ground. At least my foster father was very good about keeping the shelter up, even if he had no idea how to do it himself. But the rocky slopes were uncomfortable to sleep on without a good mat.

  The only problem with my mat was that we were no longer in any area where the tree hairs could be gathered. The tumbling slopes had few trees in this region, and the nearest ones were nearly a half day of winding travel down to the forest. With the roaring waters season upon us, there was no way the rest of the cn would allow me to go there and gather any.

  My ears fell as I dropped the mat again. I would just have to live with the uncomfortable sleep for the next eight-and-eight days at least… and however many more beyond that. Maybe another eight.

  I trudged out of my shelter with a sigh, but my ears and tail both perked up immediately when I heard the shrill whistle nearby. My worries evaporated as Fisk and Eyssa both gave a wave to show me where they were, a little further down the path. Fisk was already hurrying toward me, breathing a little hard, while Eyssa took her own time.

  “Do you have the rest of the day off too, Tas?” he wheezed at me.

  I nodded back. “Yes. Father is shaping with the others for the feast tonight.”

  My tail hung low as I said that. Here in the mountains, there were few sweet things to gather. The only thing to look forward to during the feast was the stew. The herbs in this area made the gamy meat of the animals here much more interesting… but without good fruits, I just couldn’t enjoy it as much.

  I grumbled softly. “I hear the Cloven Peaks cn has a way to keep fruit fresh when they migrate. I wish they would share it with us.”

  “That’s probably just a rumor,” Fisk countered. “If anyone could figure out how to do that, it would be our cn.”

  He thrust out his chest proudly, and his mane lifted as Eyssa just shook her head behind him.

  It was Eyssa who tilted her head, her tail curling forward and around to wrap around an ankle in an obvious sign of concern. “Are you okay, Tas?”

  I briefly reflected on how she had opened up recently. It used to be very difficult to get her to speak, but now she was talking on her own more often without even being asked.

  My ears drooped again as I answered, “My sleeping mat is coming undone. Getting it fixed won’t be hard, but it’s already lost so many of the tree hairs. It’s going to be really hard to sleep on until we get back to the forest.”

  Fisk wrinkled his snout in distaste. “Oh yeah, that isn’t going to be nice… and they won’t let us down in the valley.”

  I nodded and wasn’t surprised that Fisk knew that detail. Even if he was younger than me, he had chosen his mentor st year, and the mentor had accepted. Now he was already picking up what he needed to know to become the next [Cn Guide].

  It annoyed me how he thought that made him more important, but mostly I was happy for him. It was an important task, and one that everyone looked up to. Our [Cn Guides] were how we were so prosperous and still growing. Every child knew that, and I was old enough now to understand it too… or at least, I told myself that.

  It was Eyssa who spoke up in a quiet voice. “Aren’t there shrubs higher up the mountain? They have thin leaves. I think you could shape them into something that you could use.”

  Fisk and I both looked at her, ears perking up.

  “That’s right,” Fisk said. “We could. We don’t have anything else to do, and they aren’t that much farther up. We could be back in time for the feast.”

  My tail twitched in worry. “Maybe… but aren’t we supposed to not go up that high?”

  Fisk snorted. “There’s no rule against it.”

  I wasn’t sure about that. We had all been told that the roaring water season made the forest too dangerous, but we were also told never to go too far from camp. It was true we hadn’t been told directly not to go higher—but I couldn’t remember any children ever doing it, and I had trouble remembering many adults who had gone up either.

  “I don’t think that’s what they meant,” I countered slowly.

  But then Eyssa took Fisk’s side. “It isn’t that far, and if anyone wanders up to see where we are, we’d still be in sight of them.”

  That was technically true, but something about it still felt off to me. If even the adults didn’t go, maybe there was a reason.

  I didn’t voice it, though, because something about this whole situation felt strange. Not wrong and not right, but… heavy. That was the only word I could find to describe it at the time. In hindsight, maybe the proper word would be momentous.

  “I guess we can go take a look,” I agreed.

  All three of us were in good condition. The cn walked long distances during the Moves, because we migrated six times a year instead of four times like many cns. Our guide said that was why we were so prosperous. Maybe that was true, but it did keep us all healthy.

  There was no such thing as a zy Calen elf, but our cn was even more fit than most. Despite this, my ankles were hurting after a little while. The rocky slopes that we camped on were ft – or retively so – around our camp, but once we started going up, the way was more treacherous. None of us ever lost our footing. A Calen is far too sure-footed for that, but our cws and toes were meant for climbing trees, not the rough rocks.

  I was starting to regret having agreed to this, and I could see Fisk was as well as he forged ahead. He was several tail-lengths ahead of me already, and despite his grunts, he was still scrambling upward whenever he found a fresh trail.

  Eyssa was quiet for a while, but a little bit ago she had stopped at a rge outcropping and told us to go on ahead without her. I was a little puzzled by that since this had been her idea, and she hadn’t seemed out of breath or tired despite her smaller build. My younger part-sister was wiry and definitely could have kept up with us. Maybe she had changed her mind.

  “I can see the shrubs!” Fisk called out, breaking into my thoughts.

  I perked up and squinted, but I was too young to know any enhancement magic for my eyes, so I couldn’t see for sure. The leaves looked like they would work, but until I got my first css, my shaping skills would be very simple. I had to hope they were small and thin enough to work. I didn’t even have to make them exactly like the tree hairs… only thin enough for the mat-maker to work with.

  “I see them,” I answered. “I think they’ll work.”

  Fisk grunted as he scrambled up higher, and I sputtered as his movements tossed some rocks down at me. I gagged at the sudden influx of dirt and dust into my nose. It hadn’t directly struck me, but dislodging it had hit me with the scent right away, and the thin, crisp mountain air up here made such a potent mineral smell all the stronger.

  I shook my head clear and followed, dragging myself up the near-vertical gap to the next gentler slope. I’d barely gotten up there before Fisk darted on ahead, letting out a trilling whoop of victory.

  “We’re probably the first ones up here in many turns of the seasons!” he called out.

  And he just wanted to brag. Fisk was full of himself, but he meant well. That didn’t stop him from ughing and calling out to me, “Fisk, your next cn guide, who scouted the mountain path when no one else could!”

  I sighed and shook my head at his antics. He was really letting that get to him, and it gave me a mildly uneasy feeling, even if I knew he was just enjoying the moment. I hauled myself up, breathing just a little harder and shaking myself to dislodge some of the dust. “Good for you,” I huffed.

  That’s when the familiar giggle of Eyssa came from nearby.

  “Well, I wouldn’t say the first,” she teased.

  She peeked up from behind the low, reddish-colored shrub and tilted her ears up all the way in an expression of fond but victorious amusement. That’s when I remembered how, in the st few eight-days of our time in the forest, she had been testing herself against some of the other children climbing the trees. She had started to enjoy being first, which felt strange to me – but for her, it seemed like that was all she cared about now.

  Now that it was done, her tail swished and her ears stayed up happily.

  “Come on,” she offered. “Let’s get a few of these plucked and get back before they notice we’re gone.”

  Well, the adults did say this was the age we found ourselves. I guess this was what Eyssa was really like.