Broken Wings

Flashpoint

This is a terrible idea. My face wrinkled as I regarded my single, wriggling option for breakfast with utter disgust. Grubs. Why did it have to be grubs? This morning, after striking my campsite and scattering the branches I'd built it with to obscure my trail, I'd noticed a few white things crawling among the upturned roots of my tree. Turned out this tree had a beetle infestation, which probably explained why it had been weak enough to fall in the first place. Further fantastic news, insects in general and grubs in particular are an easy to catch, highly nutritious source of protein. Whether my stomach recognized it or not, I needed fuel to keep going out here. I couldn't just pass up this food source.

I cautiously pinched one of the fat, crawling, wormy things right behind the head and picked it up to inspect, shuddering as it squirmed and flailed its legs to escape. I let myself wallow in revulsion for a few more seconds, then I suppressed my first-world propriety with a focused act of will. Fuck it. I stuck the bug's head between my teeth, crunched down to kill it, then chewed the body up as quickly as I could before swallowing. "Ugh..." I groaned, shuddering as I resisted the urge to hurl. Kind of nutty... Like slimy, chewy, rotten peanut butter... I gagged and uncapped my canteen to rinse the flavor out. "Bugs," I cursed under my breath, turning back to find another as my stomach settled down.

"Adrian?" Anea replied from thin air. I froze and covered my ears so the only audible sounds were my breathing and pulse. "Was that you? I think I heard you just now," she paused with a hopeful air, and I dropped my hands, shaking my head. That would never work. It wasn't really sound I heard when the dragon spoke. I just hoped she wouldn't keep at this as long as yesterday. "Well if that was you, Adrian, keep trying. I know the storm doesn't seem so bad right now, but it could get worse any second. I can't take off until the weather clears up. Any signs you can give me will make it far easier for me to find you." She paused once more, then continued apologetically.

"Adrian, there's something else. I've been thinking about yesterday... Well, first let me say that if Faolin has you, then just think of this as my worries talking. But it is also possible that you decided to run away on your own. I thought you were acting odd, but at the time I thought that was because of what Faolin put you through. The timing though..." She paused, and I sighed. I knew Anea would figure it out, even if her trust in me had caused her to dismiss the idea at first. "You disappeared right after I told you this storm would ground me. I just want you to know that either way I'm not angry with you, and that I will find you. If Faolin isn't around when I do then I might get angry, but I swear I will not harm you. You don't have to be afraid of me." She stopped speaking, and about a half a minute later, I began to relax.

"And if Faolin has taken you like I think he has," she added in a sudden rush, "Then he'll die, and I'm very sorry for suspecting you." Anea fell silent again, and this time I felt confident she was done. Which left me nothing to do but finish my bug breakfast. Yum...

About fifteen minutes and a handful of grubs later, I'd eaten all I could stomach. Each one went down a little easier than the one before, but they were raw grubs. Not appetizing. Guts still twisting from the unpleasant meal, I checked over the campsite once more for any evidence I might be leaving behind. I found nothing but the freshly exposed wood where I'd stripped leafy twigs from branches, which I couldn't do anything to hide. So, I set off once more.

The rain had continued nonstop since yesterday, but for now the wind was down to little more than a breeze. There hadn't been any thunder since I woke up. Cold and raining. Slightly less miserable than fucking cold and raining plus lightning.

I kept the stream in sight at all times and otherwise concentrated on maintaining an easy, consistent pace. I'd made a decent initial push yesterday, now it was a marathon. Staying on the move as long as possible was more important than raw speed. This went doubly so for me because of the crutches I had to use. Lacking yesterday's panic to fuel my flight, it was much harder to ignore my body's complaints at moving like this. My abs were already sore and threatening to cramp after barely five minutes. Meanwhile, my arms burned from the strain of supporting my weight at my hands to get it off my pits. This was going to be a long, hard, cold, wet day.