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Chapter 5
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OurCasts Chapter 6
When Ryou woke up, he was feeling clear-headed once more. The fact that it was day again didn't annoy or confuse him this time. On the other hand, he was suddenly conscious of how very uncomfortable and full of small, sharp rocks the ground beneath him was.He was lying on his back in the dirt with the cut-out car seat cover over him. The fire was as dead as the squirrel's lower half, which was still there, complete with a fly scurrying around the haunch. Somewhere off to the right, high up in the air, the floating island persisted in flouting the laws of physics.Ryou felt a sense of surrealism so strong that even the stones poking him through his business suit trousers didn't feel solid enough to cling to. It was a sensation he'd never had before.It only lasted a few seconds, then he became aware of what had woken him; a crunch of footsteps through bracken and thick, dry grass."Bad luck, magian," said Darius, coming through the underbrush from the direction of the car. "Ryou, that
OurCasts Chapter 7
A crunch of tall wheatgrass, pussy willows and ferns heralded Darius's return from a quick reconnaissance up ahead."We're stopping here tonight," he said when he was within earshot.Ryou had sunk down onto a rock near the large stream they'd discovered ten minutes ago. He moved the worn-down stumps of what had once been his legs and said, "I can still go on." Hopefully that was true. It had to be true, Ryou grimly reminded himself; this was only the second day they were walking, who knew how far they had yet to go."No, here's good enough. We need some rest." Darius peeled up his sweatshirt and looked at the bandages, wrinkled and sagging around his middle, with some concern. "We won't be able to follow this waterway up ahead, there's too much underbrush. Let's take advantage of the water here.""Advantage?" Ryou asked blankly, most of his mind on Darius' injuries and what they would do if they got infected. He noted the sweatshirt and shoes dropping to ground near their pack at the
OurCasts Chapter 8
Halfway through the fourth day of their travels, the countryside around them changed abruptly. They were still traveling through highlands dotted with occasional clumps of trees, but now it stretched out to the horizon the way a decent landscape should."Praise Inder and Seraosa for leading us out of that bloody puzzlebox," Darius said, looking with grim satisfaction at the uninterrupted scenery spreading around their hillock.Ryou sank down into the grass nearby. It smelled wonderful when crushed beneath their feet, like sunshine, water and green, growing things; a smell Ryou was getting heartily sick of by now."Do you know where we are?""Not a clue. We'll figure it out sooner or later, let's just head east for now and see if we can hit a settlement, or even better, a road or a crossing. The sooner we get back to Assyria, the better."Ryou stared at the great wide and totally empty sweep of hills around them with only the occasional rocky outcropping or tree to break up the uninter
OurCasts Chapter 9
The river wound and curved its way through the grasslands, marked by occasional clumps of trees like beads on a string. The strangers had opted to camp by its bank about a kilometer away from where Ryou and Darius had stopped. Darius led the way through the darkness with such caution that it took them over an hour to creep nearer. For the last twenty minutes, Ryou could hear horses snort, stamp and whicker, and sporadic shouts and laughs. He had grown used to how dark the nights were in this land, and his eyes could lead him without too much stumbling and falling by the light of the quarter moon and stars. By contrast the pinpoint yellow light of a fire looked as alien in the distance as neon.At one point Darius gestured at Ryou to stop and hunker down in the shadow of a dense thicket, then he crept away. He took nearly an hour to get back, stretching Ryou's nerves at every shout and outburst of laughter from the other camp.Then Darius appeared at his side like a phantom, making him
OurCasts Chapter 10
Dawn woke Ryou from a light doze. While drifting in a somnolent state, he heard Darius yawn, stand up and move off into the bushes for a few minutes."You awake?" Darius asked as he returned, fitting the jogging pants back under the buckle of his sword belt."Yes." Ryou sat up and felt gingerly at the left side of his face. It was swollen, his left eye couldn't open more than a crack, but it was hurting less already.Darius stretched, rolled his shoulders and then nodded at the fireplace. "Know how to make a meal out of hard tack, soaked jerky and lard?""No," answered Ryou without having to ponder the question much. It was only the cramping ache of a stomach that had not seen much food these past five days that stopped him from saying, "Neither do I want to.""Know how to wash clothes?" His friend was in a good mood this morning, if the undertone of teasing was any indication."I believe I can manage that," replied Ryou with a good ladle of reserved dignity, since Darius was undoubte
OurCasts Chapter 11
The horses continued to walk at a constant pace that sunk the kilometers behind them (or possibly the Roman miles) with only one small break for the riders to stretch themselves and have a swallow of water mixed with vinegar. Well, that was what it tasted like, though Darius insisted it was wine. Then Ryou was back in the saddle, once more with Darius's help. It was a relief to be off his feet, though after a few hours he'd figured out that riding a horse wasn't that much more comfortable than walking, it just ached in different places.They reached the way station around two in the afternoon according to Ryou's watch. He had assumed that the sun rose at six AM in these parts and had set his Seiko accordingly days ago. He knew the small illusion of control this gave him was just that, an illusion, but he'd spent every moment of his adult life knowing what time it was to the second, and the idea of 'look up, see if it's past noon' just didn't fit into his world view.Th
OurCasts Chapter 12
The road through the moorlands went on and on. Ryou was nodding on his horse and at real risk of falling both asleep and off the animal altogether. They hadn't seen a tree since the way station three hours ago. The sun was sinking towards the horizon, sending shadows to wash around the far side of the highland's hillocks like an ever-frozen sea full of billows.The stone marker on the side of a road was sheer relief, not least because its upright angles were a welcome break in all these soft, flowing lines."Finally," Darius muttered, touching his heels to the flanks of his horse to spur it on.Whatever he read on the milestone made him smile when Ryou and his dispirited horse had caught up. "Hang in there, my friend. We're nearly at the crossing. Another five minutes and we'll be at the Paths of Everywhere."With such a grandiose name, the primitive stone-and-wattle building was a letdown. Crushed by the vastness of the moors, it skulked at the center of
OurCasts Chapter 13
A series of bumps and thuds woke Ryou up. He sat up in bed, heart beating."Ah, he's awake," said the passer, the door swinging shut on its leather strips behind her. She was carrying a small copper pail. On the other side of the room, Darius dusted off his hands as he stood up from a pile of logs he'd dropped into a wooden bin near the fire.The passer grinned toothlessly at Ryou. "Get up, young man, get up if you want to break your fast. Then we'll be going. How about you, my handsome? Want some milk?""Yes, thanks, and if you can sell us some of your cured ham too, I'd take it as a favor," Darius answered, putting a couple of logs and a few branches in the fire and building it up from the embers. From what Ryou could see out of the single glassless window opening, it was still night outside. The light from the two bowls of tallow was too dim and flickering, he couldn't read the time on his watch face.It took an hour to pack, get the horses ready and e
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