They of the West by Dani Finn

Author:Dani Finn [Dani Finn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dani Finn
Published: 2024-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

8

Jaela had to hand it to him. When Dralen came up with a bad plan, he took no half-measures. They waited in the cramped space between the rocks, Dralen’s bony butt and elbows poking into her no matter which way they turned, until the light from the ribbon of sky above finally dimmed. The fisherfolk filed down the cliff, talking and laughing quietly. Jaela didn’t dare to look, for fear they would see her eyes peeking between the rocks, but Dralen hurried over to the edge once the sound of their voices had faded. Jaela crept up beside him but didn’t peer over the edge.

“They’re scooping some of the pinchies up and…sorting them.” She could barely hear his whisper above the roar of the falls. “Putting the big ones in a sack and tossing the little ones back…and now they're leaving.” He turned to her, his eyes glowing in the shadows. Jaela’s stomach twisted with hunger as she thought of the taste of steamed pinchies dusted with spice and served with steaming buttered new potatoes you got to eat with your fingers.

“You think they’d mind if we borrowed a few?”

She couldn’t see much of Dralen’s expression, but his silence was cutting.

“I’m sorry I’m a human who needs to eat, Drale,” she hissed, suddenly flushed with anger.

“I know, Jae, I’m hungry too, but we can’t—we can’t risk stealing from them. We’ve already risked enough just being here.”

“Yeah, and whose idea was that, anyway? Going into the canyons following after this mysterious stranger is one thing—a stupid thing, to be clear, but I was on board with that. But now that we know this is clearly their home, their land, their territory or whatever, maybe it’s time we thank our lucky stars we haven’t been caught yet and get out while we can!” Jaela had let her voice rise a little bit, and Dralen grabbed her wrist and pulled her in close, hissing in her face.

“Are you trying to get us caught?”

Jaela breathed deeply through her nose, glancing down at Dralen’s hand, which released her wrist slowly. She was tempted to punch him in his stupid mouth for putting a hand on her like that, but he wasn’t wrong about her being too loud. She was just so hungry and angry all at the same time. There should be a word for that.

“Sorry,” he whispered, as if out of breath. “I just…there was no sign, no monument or statue, nothing like that. A village or a settlement has to have a marker telling you, ‘This is our territory, you are guests in this land.’ Like the rock pyramid back in Graueck. Or the plaque on the tree in Niehugg.”

“You’ve really been thinking about this a lot.” Jaela’s anger rose up again, but it was tempered by curiosity at just how far up his own ass Dralen was at this moment. “You’ve got a whole explanation built up about how it’s okay to go exploring through someone’s territory just because they, what, didn’t put up a sign?” She noticed her voice rising and lowered it again to a whisper.

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