Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 83205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
I swallow hard, my mouth dry. All this talk of parasites is worrying me. We need one to survive? Every creature here has one? I wish there was someone else I could ask, because I worry I'm not getting the full story, but there's no one. I have to trust what Corvak says.
Honestly, Corvak hasn't steered me wrong thus far. "I trust you. What do you need me to do?"
"Wait here for me to return. When I acquire the parasite, I will likely pass out, like you did. You will need to watch over me and protect me until I awaken."
I'm strangely touched that he thinks I can protect him while he sleeps. "You trust me to watch you? I thought I was just a prize."
The look Corvak gives me is quizzical. "Of course I trust you. We are in this together. Our goals are the same—we want to survive. The best way to survive is to avoid the others and to make ourselves stronger."
He makes it all sound so simple, so obvious. There's no mention of my weakness, or anything sexy. No "you are mine" chest-beating shit. This is a partnership, nothing more. I relax at that and smile at him, glad that I misunderstood. "I won't let you down."
"I know," he says, unbothered.
But I don't like that I'm not carrying my fair share of the work. Corvak has had to do most of the heavy lifting since we arrived on this planet. It's time for me to do my part.
CHAPTER
FOUR
AIDY
Corvak heads out to go hunting in the cold, and I'm left to guard the cave and pack things. There are several leather sacks and stacks of furs to go through, and I touch and sort everything. Whoever left this all here has done a ton of work. Some of the furs are hard on one side, and some are so soft on the inside that they feel like butter. There are packs of dried meats of varying kinds, and I snack as I put them aside. There's an unnervingly large pile of bones at the very back of the cave, just like in the horror movie, The Descent, but at least there are no human skulls in the mix. Small consolation.
Very small.
There's plenty of food but no water, but I have a fire and I know how to keep it going. I have a vague memory or two of camping trips in the desert, followed by random flashes of shaking out shoes before putting them on. Names and faces, I don't have. But random footwear knowledge? Horror movie visuals? Got that covered. It's irritating me because I feel I should know the basics, and I don't.
However, I do know that melted snow makes water, and that's something I can do easily. I spend a good amount of time scooping up snow in one of the stiff leather pouches and then setting it near the fire to melt.
I don't find clothing or shoes, so after I stuff two packs with everything I think we'll need and set aside a couple of spears, I turn to making clothing. There are a few crude knives fashioned from pale bone lying nearby, and I use one to slice long, thin strips from one of the biggest furs. I don't know how to make anything without a needle, thread, and scissors, so I figure the best option is to pile furs on our bodies strategically and then just bind them close with the strips. I take smaller furs, covering my foot with them and then crisscrossing the straps before tying them off in a bow atop my ankle.
I test the shoes for a few steps…and they immediately fall apart.
I'm sure there's a way to make this work, so I keep experimenting, trying to come up with a method. I'm tying the now-stretched-thin strips around my foot once more when I hear a high-pitched snarl come from outside. Grabbing a knife, I race to the entrance, my heart pounding in terror.
I pull aside the partition and see Corvak approaching, arms outstretched as he holds a writhing, squirming creature about the size of a beaver. It reminds me of one, with its big yellow teeth, but there's no tail and its eyes glow eerily blue. "Stay back," Corvak calls, even as the creature twists in his grip again.
Pressing against the wall of the cave, I stay out of the way as he enters, the thrashing creature in his hands. He storms inside, trailing snow after him, and once he's near the fire, he holds the creature down and sighs heavily. "I am sorry," he tells the creature. "Thank you for your sacrifice."
He kills the thing with a quick twist of its head and then turns to me, holding out a hand.
I notice that his lower arms are striped with scratches and lacerations. He bleeds from a dozen long strips, and his hands are covered with blood. "Oh my god, you're hurt."