Day 4 (Thursday, April 28, 2022) Adirondacks, Tupper Lake, New York, United States

Tauthe stood on the porch looking into the woods. The valley was beautiful — lush and green. A butterfly flew by. Birds were singing softly. She hated it.

If pressed, maybe she would admit she missed Cairo and the desert. Here, the air felt too wet. It was too cold in the mornings, and the sun didn’t feel bright enough.

She also never got to spend time in her natural form.

To make it even worse, there was everything that happened since. Her and her crèche mates were the last of the Aqrabuamelu. She had known that for a long time now. And they tried every twenty years or so to make more and the last time had failed. Without magic they were a dead species.

Then they had been forced to accept a human in their midst. She had turned out to be crazy. She worked all the time and didn’t seem to sleep or take a break. The revelation she was the heir to Ekerri had been a surprise but at least her presence made more sense. However, when she had come into that weight room, her eyes had been bright torches, and she had put up numbers that were insane. She was Inanna Reborn. Or would be.

Tauthe did not like her one bit. She was arrogant, constantly pushing the boundaries to make them look inferior, and a human. The others didn’t talk about it, but surely they felt the same.

So she kept an eye out for Ella and hoped to catch her out there. Unfortunately, today she was stuck on house guard duty after that stunt Ella had pulled, as if she would dare to do it again. They had been lucky they hadn’t unpacked all their foodstuffs or they would have been the ones hunting in the wild.

Ella woke up feeling wrung out and hungry. She was lying outside where she had passed out, and she felt weak. Her mouth had a horrible taste in it and her head hurt. She forced herself up and then stumbled over to the creek. She almost fell in as she gulped down water which she could feel go into her empty stomach and slosh around. Mud and dirt caked her.

Her headache didn’t improve. She needed to eat something and as she lay there, time passed. She must have drifted off as the sun had moved position. Her face was caked in dirt from where she had fallen asleep on her side and she a small snuffling noise woke her up.

A flock of geese were at the water. One was right next to her hand and she paused for a moment. Then she made a sudden grab and managed to grab it. It squawked some as she held it tight and the other birds took off into the air. Ella wrestled it into position and looking at it, snapped its neck. She almost threw up, it was so different than shooting it. But she needed something to eat.

This time, despite her hunger, she meticulously cleaned the bird, removing the feathers and cutting into the flesh carefully. Every piece she cut with the knife she put to the side to make sure it wasn’t contaminated as she suspected the rabbit had been.

Then she cooked the meat. It smelled amazing, but she intentionally let it cook too long. By the end, the meat was tough and unpalatable but she chewed it and made it work.

After she ate she lay down and stuck the remaining meat above the fire. Either it would dry out or burn but she had to try and preserve it. She had been lucky.

She looked at herself, she was filthy and she thought about going to clean her clothes and herself but then she realized the stink would cover her scent and she needed whatever she could get.

Eventually Ella grabbed her rifle, she had plenty of ammunition, her knife was still sharp. How long could meat sit out before it became inedible? She didn’t know but probably this would be her meat for a while.

She felt immensely better. She pulled out her survival manual and it suggested drinking animal blood as a last resort re-hydration method. Yuck.

She crept out of her cave spent time hiding her presence. It took a while to cover the disturbance she had made. Then she decided to use her energy to go up.

The Adirondacks were famous for climbing. Ella had never done more than the occasional indoor climbing and had no idea how to do most of it outdoors and just stick to the shallower inclines she could manage. She focused on one hand and one step at a time and got to a good vantage.

And she waited. She was still hungry and it would only get worse. After some time she saw a deer with a white fluffy tail. she took careful aim and waited. The deer bounded out of sight.

She kept waiting. Later, another deer came into the clearing and she lined up her shot. The dears head was down and it was in partial cover. She kept it in sight trying to predict which way it would go when it stood up. The shot was maybe 200 yards.

She pulled the trigger and missed. The sharp report echoed through the trees and the deer bound away.

Ella waited longer but nothing else came by and she cursed her luck. She would have to try tomorrow.

As she lowered herself down the incline, pure luck kept her hidden from Adra and Davcina who were in her cave. Shit!

“She was definitely in this cave. Look at this meat and the fire is still going. Here are some wrappers from the food she took from us. And her gear.” Adra said.

“Let’s gather it up. We’ll try and spot her when she comes back but taking her stuff will make it more likely yo catch her,” Davcina was a cold one despite her sunny and somewhat spacey disposition.

Adra hesitated but agreed and they made their way into Ella’s cave to see if they could catch her.

Ella looked around. Could she distract them and somehow get her book and other stuff back? She had her rifle, her knife, and a canteen with some water. Even her map of acceptable bounds was in there.

She waited to see what would happen. She made her way around to a better vantage point to the entrance and kept an eye out.

Night fell and she still waited. Both Adra and Davcina were in the cave still and Ella was trying not to let hunger get to her. Her food was a major loss here. She should have cached some elsewhere.

The moon was high and both of them came out.

Adra called out, “Ella, maybe you can hear me. We are going, and taking your stuff. Going to leave the map here since you’ll need that for the rest of the game.”

Adra and Davcina headed out. Ella debated whether this was a trap. Perhaps they would double back or Etana and Tauthe were here somewhere. She scanned the brush and didn’t see anything.

It was too risky. She backed away and made her way west. She would have to find another place to hide and she would need to find food soon. Her stomach grumbled in agreement.

“Did she come to the cave?” Adra asked.

“Would I be here if she did?” Tauthe responded testily.

Zaidu walked in through the front door and they stood at attention.

“It is taking us far too long to find her. If she was a sniper, we would all be dead. What haven’t you been doing.”

Tauthe mumbled something.

“What was that maggot?”

“Sir, we could set traps,” she barked.

“Then why haven’t you? Get out there and get to work.”

They had discussed setting traps before, but Adra and Etana both had vetoed it as being too dangerous for Ella. Tauthe didn’t care. Davcina had abstained.

They headed out. Adra took the house guard this time and started laying out snares nearby.

Ella felt like her stomach was trying to eat her from the inside. She had managed to get to a couple of the plants she had marked as food sources. Now she was eyeing some of the trees, she had read you could eat the layer just underneath the bark of several trees.

If she hadn’t been sick the previous day, she would probably be okay fasting. But now she was ravenous all the time. Hunting at night, even with her superior night vision was difficult and she was scared to eat half-seen plants in the dark.

Should she stay nearby to her first cave on the theory they would spread out and search elsewhere more intently? Or go as far as she could?

She decided to go far but the best route was to almost cross the cabin that the others were staying in. It was a risk but if she had to go far around, she would not get nearly as far.

She set off at a good walking pace not bothering with cover. She needed to make time more than anything and she just periodically stopped to listen for anyone following her.

And she almost got caught out when she saw Davcina and Etana, both of them digging. She stopped and stayed behind a tree and listened to them talk.

Davcina revealed what was going on, “I don’t care what Tauthe says, we are not putting spiked in the bottom of this.”

Etana’s raspy voice laughed, “She has only grown meaner as she has gotten older. Hasn’t she? But do you remember when we were all four and…”

Ella wanted to listen to these stories about their childhoods. But she couldn’t. They weren’t being quiet at all and she easily moved around them in the cover.

Now she had to keep an eye out for traps. And maybe vicious ones from Tauthe. What fun.