Chapter 47: Second day as a porter

It seemed sleeping had given his body enough time to properly consider everything he had put it through, and it had decided to file a complaint.

He stayed there for another few minutes before forcing himself upright, then stood slowly and stretched as much as he dared. It wasn’t much. Even lifting his arms above his head felt like an unreasonable demand, but he couldn’t afford to spend the day lying around.

By the time he reached the place where the party had told him to meet them, most of them were already there.

Krazz was sitting on a low wall, Erzaci stood nearby checking the points of her polearm, and the bear-like man had Frost’s greatest enemy beside his feet. Frost’s glared at it, and for a moment, he almost considered turning around.

Nick, the man who had hired him, noticed him first and raised a hand. "You came back," he said, sounding a little more surprised than Frost would have liked.

"You told me to," Frost replied, stopping beside them. "Was I not supposed to?"

"No, you were. I just thought you might have changed your mind after yesterday."

Frost glanced at the pack again, then gave him a tired smile. "I considered it."

"Good morning to you too," Krazz said, getting off the wall. "Let’s hope you spend more time walking and less time falling over today."

Frost decided not to answer that, mostly because he couldn’t think of anything that would improve his chances of being paid. Instead, he waited while the others finished preparing, trying to keep his attention away from the pack.

The woman with the bow arrived a short while later, carrying a small bundle that she handed to Nick. He opened it, checked the contents, then crouched to put it away with the rest of their supplies.

Before closing the pack, he took out a waterskin and passed it to Frost. "Keep that where you can reach it," he said. "You looked ready to die by the time we stopped yesterday."

Frost took it without giving it a second thought, giving the man a more sincere look than he had managed so far that morning. "Thanks. I was starting to think that was part of the job."

Nick chuckled, then took another waterskin for himself. As he raised his free hand, a shimmering triagram appeared before his palm, and a thin stream of water flowed into the open container.

Frost’s focused on it. He watched the triagram closely, trying to follow the lines within it, but Nick finished filling the waterskin before he could get a proper look.

The stream stopped, and the shimmering shape vanished with it.

Frost stared at the space where it had been. Seeing it up close had only made him realise how poor his attempts to remember it had been; he hadn’t even got the arrangement of the lines right.

"What?" Nick asked, noticing his expression. "Something wrong?"

"No," Frost said, looking up at him. "Could you do that again?"

Nick glanced down at the full waterskin, then back at Frost. "It’s already full."

"I mean the triagram," Frost explained, rubbing the side of his nose. "I wanted to get a better look at it."

Krazz turned towards them, and Frost immediately regretted speaking loudly enough for him to hear. The swordsman looked from the waterskin to Frost before giving a short laugh.

"What, you think staring at it will teach you a rune?"

Frost kept his expression as plain as he could, though the question struck rather close to what he had been thinking about. "No," he said. "I just want to see it."

"Well, you’ll see plenty when we’re hunting," Krazz replied, gesturing towards the pack. "For now, put that on. We’re leaving."

Frost looked at the pack, then at Nick holding the waterskin, who gave him a small shrug.

His education would have to wait until after he had returned to his duties as a walking storage room, it seemed.

"Ready?" Nick asked, looking him over as Frost adjusted the straps. He nodded, though ready was a rather generous word for what he was feeling.

The party set off, and Frost followed behind them, trying to find a pace that didn’t make every step hurt.

Having water within reach was an improvement, at least, and he took a small drink before they had even left the streets. He had learned his lesson yesterday; waiting until his tongue felt like a piece of dried leather wasn’t particularly clever.

Their journey to the hunting grounds passed with the usual arguments, though Frost paid less attention to them this time.

Instead, he watched the others whenever he could, looking for any sign that they were about to use a rune. Unfortunately, they seemed quite happy to walk there using nothing more than their legs, which left him with very little to study.

By the time they entered the trees, his shoulders were already aching badly enough that he welcomed every pause.

Rosalie, the woman with the bow, moved ahead, while the others settled into the same formation they had used yesterday. Frost stayed close to Nick, doing his best to watch without looking as though he was watching too closely.

He got his first opportunity when a faint triagram shimmered above Rosalie’s body. Her gaze moved slowly across the trees, and a few moments later, she raised a hand, bringing everyone to a stop.

"Something up ahead," she said quietly, pointing towards a cluster of rocks half hidden by bushes. "Behind the largest one."

Frost tried to lower the pack carefully, but his arms weren’t quite up to the task, and it landed with a heavier thud than he had intended.

Krazz glanced back at him with a scowl, and quite clearly he was about to curse, though before he could say anything, a scraping sound came from behind the rocks.

A long, low creature crawled into view, its body covered in dull brown scales. It looked something like a lizard, except it was far too large, with thick limbs, a heavy tail, and a row of jagged ridges running down its back.

Its head turned towards the sound of the pack hitting the ground, and Frost had the unpleasant feeling that he had just volunteered to introduce himself.

"Back," Nick said, placing a hand against his chest and pushing him towards a nearby tree. Frost didn’t argue, stepping out of the way as Randal, the bear-like man, moved forward.