We’d been traversing the endless plains that billowed with golden fields for days. And while I should have marveled at my surroundings, taking in the beauty and wonder of this undeveloped landscape, I was obsessed with the sickness in my body. I was both exhausted and ravenous. I couldn’t eat enough food when we managed to kill a rabbit or forage greens. But after I consumed my meal, my stomach would reject the contents.
Finally, I stopped eating so much, nibbling small bites until my belly quaked.
Marcellious had been solicitous and kind—unlike the surly, angry man I knew him to be. He insisted I rode with him and clung to his back when I felt too weak.
“It doesn’t matter to me if you have to hang onto me as long as you stay put on the horse,” he said.
I appreciated his kindness but longed for the day I could regain my strength.
We encountered a dead soldier in a field a few days ago. We’d taken an iron pan, a coffee pot, utensils, a hunting knife, and a flint. So at least we had something to prepare food in.
This morning I was a wreck. I’d slept fitfully, missing Roman terribly, hoping he was okay. I had no more sense of where he was than I knew where to find the journal.
“Maybe you need a different kind of food,” Marcellious said as he returned to where we’d rested last night. His hair hung in wet curls around his shoulders from his morning ablutions in the creek. “I’ll see if I can find a small deer to kill.”
He left Emily and me and took off on foot.
I curled around my cramping stomach while Emily prepared more broth over our campfire.
A small creek burbled nearby, singing its cheerful tune as it tumbled over stones.
I tried to focus on the sound of water, wishing it would soothe me.
“You need a doctor or a proper healer,” Emily said as she spooned a mouthful of nourishing liquid into my mouth.
“No doctors. I’ll be fine,” I said as my stomach shook its meager contents.
“You keep saying that, but you’re not fine,” she said, a set to her mouth. She reached out and felt my forehead. “At least your fever is gone.”
“See?” I said as my insides pinched and contracted. “I’m fine.”
Dry heaves took over, preventing further speech. I managed to rise onto my hands and knees and wretched while Emily held my hair away from my face.
“Oh, God,” I moaned once the violent heaves had subsided. I crawled away from my sick and fell to my side.
“I’m worried,” Emily said, patting my shoulder. “You can’t keep anything down, and I don’t know what to do.”
She wrung her hands.
“I’ll be fine once we find the tribe. You’ll see.”
With the morning sun warming my body, I fell into a drowse.
Sometime later, the smell of blood awoke me. I opened my eyes to see Emily and Marcellious slicing the flesh from a small deer, as Marcellious had promised.
They worked efficiently, side by side, carving the muscle from the bone and removing organs.
They smiled, laughed, talked, and teased as they labored, sharing an easy camaraderie.
I marveled at the friendship they’d developed.
Marcellious looked over at me. “You’re awake. This fare will keep us for many days. We must remain here while everything dries, and Emily and I prepare the hides. This is the perfect place for you to rest until we are ready to depart.”
He said that as a command, not a suggestion.
I acquiesced and fell back into a drowse.
I awoke sometime later to the smell of cooking food.
