VI
They walked on and on through the forest, moving away from the Norfess.
“It’s a bit early, but how about we set up camp here for today?” said Stacia, pointing. Ashton followed her finger and, through a covering of undergrowth that made it almost invisible, he made out part of a cave. While he wondered with admiration how she’d managed to pick it out, Stacia made her way cautiously toward it.
“Just so long as there aren’t any current occupants...” Ashton said, wanting to make sure Stacia was on her guard. The cave was just the sort of place a beast might have made its den.
Stacia kept her eyes on the cave. “Obviously, I’m going to check.”
They arrived at the cave in what felt to Ashton like about a minute, then Stacia stationed him at the entrance before stepping warily inside. Ashton sat on a nearby boulder and kept watch on their surroundings until Stacia came back. Seeing the look of reassurance on her face, Ashton let out a sigh of relief. The sun had dipped low into the west, bathing the forest in crimson light.
“I’ll scrounge up something to eat before the sun sets,” Stacia told him. “You build us a big stock of firewood.”
Ashton hesitated. “Not that I mind, but will you be all right?” Getting this far had taken a lot out of Ashton, and he thought even Stacia must be feeling it too.
But when she replied, it was with a mix of contempt and mockery. “Please, I’m no bag of bones like you. If we’re going to get our strength back, we need to eat.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Ashton admitted. “All right. Be careful.” For just a moment, Stacia’s gaze crossed Ashton’s; then she plunged back through the trees of the forest, bow in hand. Ashton got straight to work gathering firewood.
Night fell. The blazing sun had fully set, and the forest donned a cloak of darkness. Meanwhile, the inside of the cave, now aglow with red light, played host to a strange scene: a man and a woman, sitting around a fire in only their underthings.
“It was a bit of luck that I caught the gray rabbit so quick, though. You feel the difference in how your strength comes back when you eat.” Stacia, sitting with her legs crossed, sunk her teeth into a hunk of meat dripping with fat.
She had come back from hunting as Ashton was getting a fire going and, inexplicably, started to pull her clothes off. Panicking, he pleaded for her to stop, but she came back at him with the sound argument that she’d catch cold as she was. In the end, Ashton had grudgingly agreed, forcing himself to believe it was fine so long as he didn’t look directly at her.
I could never let Olivia see this. Thinking of Olivia and her easy smile, Ashton looked over the fire and asked Stacia about their way forward from here.
“If we set out in the early morning, we should reach the road by midday—if the Norfess doesn’t get us, mind you,” Stacia said. Ashton responded vaguely, turning to look at the entrance to the cave. It was scattered with torn-up safflowers, a beast deterrent that had been popular among hunters of late. According to Stacia, the most vicious beasts supposedly hated the smell of safflowers the most, but Ashton wasn’t sure how effective it would be in reality. It felt like ingratitude after Stacia had gone out of her way to pick the flowers in addition to procuring their food, but he thought that at best it was probably better than nothing.
“Ahh, that hit the spot.” Stacia polished off the last scraps of the gray rabbit, then turned to stare directly at Ashton. He tried as hard as he could to cover himself.
“Wh-What?”
“Ah, well,” Stacia said, “it’s just what I’ve thought from the start. You don’t act like a soldier at all.”
“I’m told that a lot. It’s because I didn’t want to be a soldier in the first place.”
“Huh. Then how come you’re soldiering?”
“I was conscripted.”
“Ah, conscription. Makes sense—no one’d make a soldier of you otherwise.” Stacia cackled with laughter, then asked, “Whose army are you in, anyway?”
“I serve in the Royal Army of Fernest.”
“Oh, you’re with those down-and-outs. Now a soldier like you makes sense,” Stacia said, looking satisfied. Apparently Fernest’s plight was well known even in far-flung foreign lands such as this one. Ashton suppressed a grimace, then asked a question of his own.
“What about you? Why are you a hunter?”
“Me?” Stacia said, surprised. “Well, my old man made a fair name for himself as a hunter—taking it up after him was the natural thing to do, and I never thought much of it.” For a moment, her eyes grew distant; then, noticing that the fire was growing low, she snapped up some branches and tossed them on. The wood crackled and popped, and the fire gradually strengthened once more. A hooting bird call slipped in through the cave mouth.
“I’ll take watch, so you should sleep first,” Ashton said.
Stacia considered this. “Guess I’ll take you up on that.” Putting her hands on her knees, she pushed herself up to standing, exposing her full figure. Ashton hurriedly averted his eyes. As Stacia got dressed, she muttered, “Today really took it out of me.” She lay down, curling up in a ball with her knees hugged to her chest. Less than a minute later, Ashton heard from her breathing that she was asleep.
Goodnight, he thought. He slipped on his hastily dried uniform, then, doing his best to keep his drooping eyelids raised, he sat down once more in front of the fire. The night still had some way to go before dawn could break.
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