Despite the strange tension between the three of them, Thaddeus couldn’t help a smirk. “No, it means I need to use the bathroom.”
“Bathroom?”
Thaddeus sighed. “I have to piss, okay?”
“Oh, I see. By all means, then.” Dulindir waved toward the trees.
As Thaddeus moved off through the bracken and undergrowth, he wondered what Fetter and Dulindir had been discussing, and why Dulindir had ended the conversation so abruptly. It hung in the back of his mind as he peed, and when he finished, he went back to camp, glad his leg had loosened up a bit more. Teofil and Astrid had awakened during his absence and were both sitting up and yawning.
“Good morning,” Thaddeus said to Teofil, leaning down to kiss the top of his head.
Teofil smiled sleepily and ran a hand up and down Thaddeus’s uninjured leg. “Good morning. Sleep well?”
“As well as can be expected when sleeping on a bed of leaves on the wet ground,” Thaddeus replied, stretching his arms overhead and feeling his vertebrae crackle.
Teofil and Astrid walked off into the trees to relieve themselves, and Thaddeus gathered his belongings he’d set out to dry overnight. The humidity had prevented his few changes of clothes from drying out very much, even with the fire they’d managed to start, and he reluctantly rolled up the damp clothes and stuffed them into his backpack.
“We weren’t talking about anything bad,” Fetter said from just behind him, and Thaddeus jumped.
“You startled me,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I didn’t hear you come up.”
“Dulindir and I,” Fetter continued as if Thaddeus had not said anything. “We weren’t discussing anything bad. We just went into the trees to keep from waking you three up while we talked.”
“Okay,” Thaddeus said, wishing Teofil and Astrid would return. He was unsure what Fetter wanted to hear. “I wasn’t concerned.”
“It’s just that you had a funny look on your face when you walked out into the woods. I didn’t want you to think Dulindir and I were plotting against you three or anything.”
“I wasn’t thinking anything like that until you just mentioned it,” Thaddeus said. Then, with his ire up a bit and his courage following suit, he met Fetter’s gaze. “If you’re so concerned with what I might be thinking of the conversation you had with our guide while we were all sleeping, then maybe you should tell the three of us just what it was you and Dulindir were talking about.”
“He wanted to know if there was a shortcut to the village,” Dulindir said as he approached from the river.
Fetter glared at him, then looked back at Thaddeus. “He’s right. I was asking if we could find a shorter route to get to the well more quickly. I am concerned for your father’s health. It’s taken us quite a bit of time to get this far.”
“Well, I appreciate it,” Thaddeus said, suddenly uncomfortable. “I want the same thing you do, Fetter. But I trust Dulindir is leading us along the fastest path he knows. Right, Dulindir?”
“You are correct. We will be at the village—” He looked at Fetter. “—and the Well of Tears, before sundown tonight.”
“Did I hear correctly?” Astrid asked as she stepped out from around a tree. “We’ll be there tonight?”
“Precisely,” Dulindir said. “If we get underway quickly.”
“If that was directed at me, I’m here and ready to go,” Teofil said as he stepped into the clearing. “I just need to pack up my bag, and we can leave.”
“What about breakfast?” Thaddeus asked with an embarrassed blush. “I know we’re in a hurry, but we need to eat.”
“There are mooshberry bushes off in that direction,” Astrid said. “Isn’t that the way we need to go?”
“Mooshberries?” Thaddeus repeated with a sigh. “Again?”
“What’s the matter?” Teofil asked with a grin as he loaded up his pack. “Tired of mooshberries already?”
“Sort of.” Thaddeus grinned back at Teofil as he put his arms through the straps of his backpack. “Okay, let’s hit the dusty trail.”
“It’s rained far too much to be dusty,” Dulindir pointed out.
Thaddeus waved it away. “Forget it, it’s an expression from old movies. My dad likes Westerns, and I’ve had to watch a lot of them, and….” Tears welled up in his eyes, sudden and embarrassing. “Sorry. Not sure why this is happening. Maybe I’m just as damp as the ground around us with all the rain and everything.”
Teofil took his hand and squeezed it. “It’s okay. You’re worried about your dad, that’s all. We’ll be at the well tonight, get the water, and get back to your dad quick. Ready?”
Thaddeus wiped away his tears. “Ready.”
“Let’s go, then. Dulindir, you lead the way.”
The ground was soaked from the heavy rain the day before, and the air grew even more humid as the sun climbed overhead and beat down on the heavy green canopy. Insects buzzed around them, and Thaddeus waved them away, slapping those that landed and cursing the ones that bit.
“Here,” Astrid said, handing him a frond she had broken off from one of the large ferns. “Use this. It shoos them away better than your hands.”
She demonstrated brushing her own frond side to side over each shoulder and then around her head. Thaddeus mimicked her, pleased to find it worked better than he’d expected, and soon all four of them waved fern fronds around their heads and shoulders as they followed Dulindir. Thaddeus thought they must look pretty ridiculous, then realized Dulindir didn’t seem bothered by the insects. Maybe bugs didn’t like elf blood.
They walked straight through, eating handfuls of mooshberries and some of the jerky Miriam had given to Astrid as they continued to move. Thaddeus was excited and nervous about reaching the village. He wondered what it would look like, and hoped the air was okay to breathe. Did they have to worry about becoming infected from the virus that had killed so many of the villagers? Granted that had been long ago, so it should be all right for them to touch things. Wouldn’t it?
Too many questions with no good answers, he thought, so he focused on his steps and kept swishing the fern branch side to side to keep the bugs off, wishing his father was with them. Though, if his father had been with them they wouldn’t have decided to make this detour.
His brain was bouncing from thought to thought, and he forced his mind to quiet down and simply focus on walking, ignoring the steady throb in his leg as he tried to keep the bugs away. He could make it. All he needed to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other.
As if Dulindir had been able to see the future, they reached the edge of the village with about an hour of daylight left. Something had felt off about the last half mile they walked, but Thaddeus didn’t understand what it was until Astrid pointed it out.
“So quiet,” she said in a low voice. “No birds or insects, nothing.”
“Feels like even the wind has stopped,” Teofil added.
“The village is near,” Dulindir said from the front of their single-file line. “Not much farther.”