Wood by Cathryn Fox

Author:Cathryn Fox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781928056812
Publisher: Red Press
Published: 2017-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Nature’s Creatures

“How long of a walk is it to the trading post?” We’d left the village an hour ago. The last thing I wanted to do was complain, but after the events of the last two days, my body was in complete shock. Everything that could ache did, and I hadn’t been lying when I’d said my feet had gone numb. Too bad that didn’t take away from the pain of my blistered heels. After everything I’d been through, a little bit of raw skin on my feet maybe shouldn’t have been such a big deal, but after an hour of walking, every step nearly brought me to tears.

“Not much further.” I saw Wood cast me a sidelong glance. After the stern lecture he’d given me in the village, I expected him to mock me for insisting on this trip when he didn’t see it as necessary.

But when he slowed and pulled a flask from his pocket, making a show of stretching out those insanely large arms, I knew that the tears stinging the back of my eyes and his timing weren’t coincidence.

“We will rest for five minutes.” Unscrewing the metal flask, he took a large sip, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand before passing the small vessel to me. The scent reached me before I even closed my hands around it, making my eyes water.

“Is this your moonshine?” I grimaced, then felt like that was in poor taste. He was sharing; I should partake.

I tried not to wince as I lifted the lip of the flask to my lips. The liquid burned on contact, but I poured a little out onto my tongue.

I almost dropped the flask when fire burned a path down my throat and straight into my belly.

I gagged, coughing as Wood nipped the flask back out of my hand, then helpfully thumped me on the back. I looked up at him, tears pooling in my eyes from the strength of the liquid.

He thumped me again, and my coughing lessened as the liquid settled fully into my gut. When I was able to blink the tears out of my eyes, I found him looking at me curiously.

“What is moon-shine? That is the second time you have said this word.” He pronounced it as two separate words. “This is liquor that I make myself.”

“Same thing.” I swallowed again, trying to get the fiery taste from my mouth. “Is there any water?”

He furrowed his brow. “You do not bring water on a hike. You drink when you get to the river.”

Of course. How silly of me.

We started forward again, moving from a fairly sunny patch of the woods to a denser, thicker area of forest. The sweet scent of decaying vegetation was everywhere, and rotting leaves were a soft carpet under our feet.

I was enjoying the brief respite from the sun, because the strenuous hike had sweat trickling down my back under the flannel shirt. Clutching the fabric in front in my fingers, I pulled it in and out, trying to create a breeze.

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