Gods Remembered (The Forgotten Gods Series Book 8) by ST Branton & CM Raymond & LE Barbant

Author:ST Branton & CM Raymond & LE Barbant [Branton, ST]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2019-01-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

A brisk tap on my bedroom door woke me from a dead sleep the next morning. The kid was there, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and all geared up for our expedition. His pack was at least as big as the one I’d brought with me, and he still grabbed mine and slung it on his back.

“Hey, I can carry that,” I said as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

“Nope,” was his only reply. He ran to the other room and returned with some breakfast in the form of bread, water, and dried meat, which he pressed into my hand. “Eat. We have to go. The climb is half a day’s journey and we do not want to come down in the dark.”

I decided not to mention the fact that I had no idea what was in store up there or if I’d even come down at all. Instead, I stuffed some jerky in my face and trailed down the hall after him, out of the house, and into the still-dark street.

The first misty fingers of morning had barely pushed up from the horizon, and the air was bitterly cold. The kid’s trajectory was set and sure. He trotted to the town center, where the empty skeleton of the bazaar waited to fill up for the day. A few young men stood around with rickshaws and rubbed their hands together. The boy picked one and hopped on. I joined him.

The two of them talked for a while on the way out of town. I sat in the back with my hands in my lap and felt strangely unencumbered without my pack. My young guide, on the other hand, looked like he shouldn’t have been able to move under all that weight, but he was as hardy as a goat. The rickshaw operator dropped us off at a trailhead in the steeper foothills, and the kid walked unbowed ahead of me, his hair blowing in the wind. My leg protested but I picked up my pace to draw even with him.

“You are limping,” he observed. “Would you like to return to the town?”

I waved away his concern. “It’s nothing,” I said. “I’ll be fine. I’ve looked forward to this hike for weeks.” It was something of an exaggeration but not wholly untrue. I did want to know what waited at the summit of this mountain. Also, I wanted this trip over with so I could head back to Indiana as soon as possible. Delano wouldn’t wait around and look for me forever.

“Let me know if you change your mind.” Those eight words were the most the boy spoke aloud for a long time.

He traversed the trail effortlessly and his expression never deviated from one of simple calm. I realized that he was at home up there, even loaded down with two packs and thick, insulated clothing. I wondered if he liked it better at higher altitudes because of all the Forgotten in his town.

It was tough to simply dive into that kind of heavy discourse so I decided to start small.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.