He patted her on the shoulder and headed fortheir men. Shea followed, mumbling a reply to Flint’s greeting asshe took a seat beside the campfire. Leaning against her pack, shestretched her legs out and fished inside the front pocket, pullingout a small notebook with a pen tied to it. Luckily for her, shehad it stashed in her jacket when Darius and his men took hercaptive. Otherwise it would have been lost to her like themaps.
The notebook’s cover was leather and solidblack. Enough nicks and dents had accumulated on it through theyears to give it an entirely new texture. Rough and pockmarked.Crumpled loose pages worn smooth from being handled too oftenthreatened to spill onto the ground. Shea shoved them back intoplace before flipping through the entries to the one she wanted.She flattened the page in question, gazing at the crude sketch of ashadow beetle.
Pathfinders specialized in many areas. Somewere guides, like Shea, who were embedded into a community andexpected to provide whatever skills it needed. This mostly entailedleading trading expeditions or acting as the go-to person when itcame to knowledge about beasts, other villages, and the easiestroutes. This was the most common type of position a pathfinderundertook.
Then there were those who led expeditionsinto the furthest reaches of the Highlands to gather knowledge andperfect the guild’s maps. Only the most talented pathfinders roseto this station.
Next were the pathfinders who recorded andsafe guarded knowledge from both the current world and the past.These were the rarest type and even they were broken further downinto subcategories according to the type of information theyrecorded.
A younger Shea had once dreamed of being thelast type of pathfinder, what her people called a keeper. As thebrightest apprentice in years, she’d been well on her way toachieving that dream. She would have been granted access toarchives containing endless knowledge and would lead her ownresearch expeditions, until the fiasco in the Badlands had burnedaway her ambitions. One mistake cost her the position and served todemote her to a simple village pathfinder.
She might never be able to gain access to theguild libraries or contribute her own observations for futuregenerations. That didn’t mean she couldn’t create her own catalog.It was unlikely anyone would ever see it, but she couldn’t fightthe need to record things. She likened her hobby to a magpiecollecting shiny treasure, only her treasure came in the form ofknowledge gleaned from the world around her.
She read through the entry before adding herlatest observations. Next to the hypothesis of a weak spot at theback of a beetle’s neck she wrote ‘confirmed’. Under it she gave abrief description of her encounter and added a few nuggets Eamonhad given her about the beetle’s offspring, including the fact theyused a hard sticky substance to keep their food trapped andfresh.
“What’re you doing?” a curious voice askednext to her ear.
Shea’s head snapped up, and she shifted back,the book held like a club in her hand.
The boy, not much older than seventeen, heldup his hands in a peaceful gesture. He had wide brown eyes and anengaging grin. Spotty patches on his chin said he was trying togrow the beginnings of a beard.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.” Hefolded his legs and sat next to the spot Shea had just vacated.“I’m Clark.”
Shea relaxed, letting the notebook rest onher knee. The boy looked expectantly at her and then down at thebook.
“Can I see it?”
Her grip tightened on the leather, notwanting to share this piece of her. He looked so hopeful, though,that she didn’t have it in her heart to deny him. Hesitantly, sheopened it to the page she’d been working on and handed it tohim.
He examined the entry quietly, flipping thepage to read the back and then the next entry. Shea found herselfholding her breath but released it quickly, chastising herself.What exactly did she expect from this boy? Whatever reaction he hadwouldn’t matter in the long run.
“This is amazing,” he said, looking up at herwhile he flipped slowly through.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. It was ridiculous tofeel a sense of accomplishment from a few words of thoughtlesspraise. He’d never seen the archives in the Wayfarer’s Keep. Hedidn’t know what amazing was.
“I mean, really. This is amazing. I’ve nevereven seen some of these beasts and wouldn’t know the first thingabout dealing with them. You’ve cataloged what types ofenvironments they like to live in, strengths, possible weaknesses.Here you have a section on what worked against,” he squinted at thewriting, “an Anzo Scorpion. Nasty creature. Where did you get theidea to do this?”
Shea shrugged noncommittally. She couldn’tvery well tell him she’d been training to do this since she wasyounger than him.
He didn’t hesitate to continue, his wordsrunning together in an endless stream. “The possibilities withsomething like this are endless. If even one scout in a party hadsomething like this, it would make things so much easier. We couldsave lives. We might even have a chance against some of thesebeasts.”
Shea plopped her chin on her knee, wonderingif he would even notice if she left. He didn’t seem to need anyoneto carry on a conversation, happy to just talk and talk andtalk.
He finally looked up and noticed herattention had wandered. He laughed and handed her book back to her.“Sorry about that. I tend to ramble when I get excited. You’reShane, right?”
She blinked at him and leaned back. How didhe know her name?
Seeing the distrust in her expression, helaughed again. “Relax. Buck’s been bragging about this amazingDaisy who saved all their asses from death. Said that you got abattlefield promotion to full scout. I just got rid of my yellowribbon a few weeks ago so I know how exciting that is.”
Shea’s eyes began to glaze over again at thisonslaught of information.
“Just tune Clark out, lad. He’s a good boybut tends to let his mouth run away with him when he gets excited,”Eamon advised, setting his pack down next to Shea’s.
“Eamon!” Clark cried, jumping to his feet andbounding over to clap Eamon on the back. Eamon grinned and slappedhim on the back in return. “It’s good to see you. I hear you andyour boys are going to be helping us tomorrow.”
“You heard right. We’ll be traveling with youfor a spell before we head back to the main body.”
“That’s a relief. I don’t want to think whatmight happen if we attempted this with what remains of ourcompany.”
