Whispers from the Poisoned Isle (Jekua Book 4) by Travis M. Riddle

Author:Travis M. Riddle [Riddle, Travis M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

24

How Long

Balt sipped an iced coffee pouch through a loop-de-loop in his plastic tube, feeling hollowed out. Like he was dead inside. He didn’t even typically like iced coffee, but it was the only caffeine-fueled pouch available. On top of all that, it was unsweetened. He took another sip of the dark brown liquid and gulped it down.

He was sitting outside a small inn in Lopatowk. There was a set of wrought iron benches pushed up against the long, low building, overlooking what was described on a tiny wooden signpost as a community garden. None of the vegetables sprouting from the ground looked familiar to Balt, and even if his mouth was accessible, he would not risk eating any of them. One looked vaguely like a carrot, but its leaves were miscolored and oddly wet.

Everyone else was still inside, either tucked away in their room or milling about the lobby. He’d wanted to get some fresh air—so to speak—to hopefully wake himself up. For a few minutes, he’d summoned his Mudlad Prince to get a bit of practice in with him, before deciding he was still too tired to bother with any training.

After their run-in with the Stalker, the group made the unanimous decision to press onward to Lopatowk, no matter how many more hours it would take. None of them wanted to take their chances being ambushed by another vicious Jekua in their sleep, not after seeing what the Lightbloom Raptor was capable of. Balt wasn’t even entirely sure that was the Stalker, although it seemed to fit the bill. If there was a different monster out there hunting Jekuas and people, something more savage than the Raptor, he did not want to meet it.

It took close to three hours of uninterrupted walking for them to reach the village. Balt’s mana was damn near depleted in the scuffle with the Raptor, so he was more exhausted than any of them. It felt like he was dragging his feet on the ground, unable to lift them a mere centimeter, like some Jekua was enacting Gravity or Friction magic on him. That would be a nice excuse, actually, instead of having to admit how worn out he was. Too bad the Raptor only possessed Radiant- and Growth-Type abilities, so he couldn’t concoct lingering effects from the battle.

With his mana slowly refilling (emphasis on “slowly”), he was tempted to borrow the soulstitcher from Alani. Just for a few minutes, just enough for it to jumpstart his mana flow. Perk him up a little for the rest of the walk. He knew the device could absorb mana at a much faster rate than his own body could naturally, but he also knew Alani needed it more than he did. He didn’t want to be selfish, even if he only intended to use it for a couple minutes. It wasn’t right of him to ask that of her, especially since he didn’t need it. He just wanted it.

They eventually arrived in Lopatowk in the dead of night.

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