Darla nodded. He was right, of course. She was on an utterly alien world and taking chances like that when she didn’t know the first thing about this place was foolish.
“Thank you for coming back for me,” she said.
Heydar lifted up the closest of the animals and pulled free a knife once more, slicing it open in a single stroke, dumping its entrails in a steaming pile.
“I was tracking prey,” he said. “That they came for you was a fortunate coincidence, though I would only have taken one of them given my choice. In any case, we will not want for food.”
He then moved on to the other two, cleaning them quickly before butchering them and wrapping their meat in their own hides, tying them into tight bundles.
“We must continue,” he said. “There is still much ground to cover, but at least we will no longer need to slow our pace to hunt.”
With that he turned and headed back to their original path. Darla flexed her arm. It felt normal now, and her adrenaline was returning to normal levels. But somehow, she’d tapped into the strange, powered runes, though she had no idea what she’d done to do so, or how to recreate the event.
I’m so much stronger, somehow, she marveled as she trotted off after her savior. But hot damn, hopefully, I won’t wind up needing to do that again.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“How much farther are we going to hike?” Darla asked as they crested yet another rocky hill.
They had been walking all day, stopping only to rinse off the blood of the animals they had fought and Heydar subsequently butchered, and then once more for an afternoon snack of wild greens and a few pieces of dried meat from their packs.
As for water, Darla had been worried about drinking directly from the small stream they had washed up in, no matter how clear the water seemed. But Heydar informed her that the pigment she now bore in her skin would negate any digestive issues from mildly contaminated water.
The nearly white ink in particular was supposed to be extremely powerful. That the Oraku had supplied him with any at all for a newcomer’s designs was almost unheard of. But Darla had the pale ink interwoven all over the runes on her body, accenting them and increasing their power.
At least, that was what it was supposed to do in theory. In practice on a new species, there really was no telling exactly what the end result would be.
In any case, it was warm out and she was thirsty, so any qualms she had about drinking from the stream quickly evaporated with her first sip. They filled their water skins and kept hiking, making as good progress as could be expected as the terrain grew more uneven.
And now as the sun began to lower and dusk fell over the land, they finally reached the crest of yet another exhausting climb. Even with the help of her strange new runes adding to her strength, Darla’s legs and feet were aching.
Heydar gazed at the sky a moment, then pointed off in the distance. “There.”
Darla squinted and followed where he was directing her. “What?”
“Your vision runes have not yet formed completely. There is a gap in the trees, and not a natural one. A section of the Raxxians’ ship landed there, and seemingly intact judging by the lack of burning trees.”
She squinted and looked harder but still couldn’t see a thing. And did he just say the runes were somehow going to enhance her vision? But he hadn’t marked anywhere on her face or head. The only rune there was the one the Raxxians had placed behind her ear. He had touched that up a bit, but other than that there was nothing above her collarbones.
I guess I’ll find out, she mused.
One thing she had learned as they trekked across the wildly varying landscape was not to doubt Heydar’s eyes. Or his ears. Or any of his senses for that matter. He had exceptional situational awareness, and if he said he saw what looked like part of the downed ship, then that was what was most likely what it was.
He looked at his human companion, sizing her up. She had managed to keep up, which he had not expected. More surprising, she had also handled herself well in the face of danger. She had done well today.
“Come,” he said. “It will be dark soon. There is not much in the way of shelter, but we have our bearings now. We will head lower to a less exposed location and set up camp for the night.”
He began trekking down the slope, but now at a more casual pace. He was looking for a good spot to settle in, not trying to cover as much ground as possible. He picked up some small sticks on the way, bundling them under his massive arm as they walked.
“Here will suffice,” he said twenty minutes later, dropping the wood atop a mostly flat stone in a level patch of relatively open ground.
The area was a mix of reddish dirt, lush trees, and rocks ranging in size from small to large, the latter providing shielding from wind and creating a little pocket of safety for them to have a small fire. In addition, the rock would absorb heat, ideally giving some back as it cooled overnight.
Heydar dropped his pack and animal skins and began setting up the wood, arranging it with the smallest kindling at the bottom to help ignite the larger pieces above. He then snapped the lone long branch lying nearby into manageable lengths with his bare hands, making it look easy.
“Hey, if you want to give me the matches, I can get the fire started if you want to look for some thicker wood.”
“What are matches?” he asked, crouching before the pile and adding a few more pieces.
“What are matches? You know, to make a fire.”
Heydar looked up at her, amusement sparkling in his gold-rimmed eyes. He held up his hand, pointing to a small rune tattooed on the underside of his wrist just below his palm.
“What’s that?”
“Watch,” he replied, holding his hand over the kindling. A second later the small shavings began to smoke, bursting into flames a moment later.
“Holy shit! You can make fire with your hands?” she blurted, looking at the small tattoo inked on her own wrist. It was nowhere near as complex as Heydar’s, but the location was the same.
“Among other things,” he said, blowing the small fire until it surged into a full blaze. “This particular rune channels a few types of power. It takes time for the pigment to develop and grow into the full design. Yours is just the starting point we all begin with, but in time it will grow stronger.”
“And I’ll be able to start fires?”
“Among other things, as I said.”
Darla looked at her wrist, studying the rune and the faint lines traveling from it up her forearm, connecting to the patterns highlighting the natural curves and muscles of her body. She had felt stronger, sure, and she could understand alien languages. But this? Making fire out of thin air? It made it all seem more real. More tangible and not just some abstract concept.
Heydar rose and walked over to the bundled furs, unwrapping them and removing two disjointed legs from the animals they’d fought. He took two lengths of wood and drove them through lengthwise then set them up to roast over the flames.
The smell was amazing, and Darla found her stomach grumbling with hunger. It seemed she was going to be surviving on a meat eater’s diet for the near future, though she preferred plant-based most of the time. But in a survival situation she’d take whatever she could get. And these things had tried to eat her, so it really was only fair the tables be turned.
Heydar let them roast a long time, rotating the meat periodically but letting the outside burn a bit, ensuring the internal temperature was enough to cook all the way to the bone. Char could always be cut away, but an unexpected bite of raw meat could spoil an otherwise tasty meal.