Chapter 49: A helping hand

By the time they stopped to rest, they had encountered another creature, and the pack had become noticeably heavier.

Frost lowered it beside a tree and sat down with a relieved groan, taking a drink while the others settled nearby.

The simple pleasure of having nothing on his back was enough to make him forget what he had been waiting for.

Nick sat beside him and held out his hand.

"Watch," he said, and a shimmering triagram appeared before his palm. A thin stream of water flowed from it, spilling onto the ground between the roots.

This time, Frost had nothing else to distract him. He leaned forward, studying the lines within the shimmering shape, trying to follow where each one began and how it connected to the others.

He had thought getting a longer look would make things easier, but after a few moments, he realised he was still losing track whenever his eyes moved from one section to another.

The water stopped, and the triagram vanished. Frost kept staring at the space where it had been before letting out a quiet breath.

"That’s more complicated than I thought."

Nick chuckled, lowering his hand. "And that’s a simple one."

Wonderful. Frost had barely managed to understand where to look, and apparently, he was already struggling with the easy stuff.

He picked up a thin stick from beside the tree and cleared a small patch of dirt with his palm. Then he began drawing what he remembered, pausing every few strokes to consider whether the next line had actually been there or whether his mind was helpfully inventing it.

Nick leaned over to look, and Frost glanced at him with a faint trace of hope. The man studied the drawing for a moment before pointing at one side.

"That part’s wrong."

Frost looked down, then erased it with his thumb. "Which part?"

"Most of it," Nick replied, and Frost slowly turned towards him.

"You could have started with that."

"I didn’t want to discourage you."

Frost gave him a flat look before returning his attention to the dirt. Somehow, that considerate little gesture had managed to be considerably more discouraging than simply telling him he was wrong.

Still, he adjusted what Nick pointed out, listening as the man corrected the placement of several lines.

Before long, the drawing looked rather different from what he had started with, and although it still wasn’t perfect, at least Nick had stopped immediately finding something wrong with every section.

"Don’t mistake that for learning the rune," Nick said, watching him study it. "You’ve copied what you saw. That’s all."

"I know," Frost replied, though he continued looking at the drawing. It wasn’t much, but yesterday, he hadn’t even been able to do that.

"Break’s over," Krazz called, getting to his feet. "Come on. We’re not being paid to sit around."

Frost looked towards the pack, then back at the lines in the dirt. Before standing, he took one last moment to study them, trying to fix the arrangement in his memory.

For once, when Randal lifted the pack towards him, Frost had something on his mind besides how much it was going to hurt.

Unfortunately, having something else to think about didn’t make the pack any lighter.

By the time they had walked another stretch of the hunting grounds, Frost was beginning to suspect that his shoulders had developed a personal hatred for him, and the constant shifting of the straps wasn’t helping.

Still, whenever they stopped, he tried to recall the arrangement Nick had shown him.

He traced it with a finger against his thigh while waiting behind the others, going over the sections he remembered and quietly cursing whenever one slipped from his mind.

It was rather frustrating to lose something he had been looking at only a short while ago, but apparently, wanting to remember it badly enough wasn’t the same as actually remembering it.

The next few encounters gave him more opportunities to watch, though he kept his attention mostly on Nick.

Whenever the man used a rune, Frost followed the shimmering triagram from its appearance to the moment it faded, comparing what he saw with the drawing they had made in the dirt.

Some sections looked familiar, while others were different enough to leave him wondering whether he had remembered anything correctly at all.

At least he was beginning to notice those differences. That wasn’t much of an achievement, but considering his recent history, he was willing to take whatever he could get.

They stopped again near a shallow stream, where Rosalie and Erzaci went ahead to check the surrounding trees while the others rested.

Frost lowered the pack beside a fallen trunk and sat down carefully, taking a drink before reaching for a small stick lying nearby. He cleared another patch of dirt and began drawing.

Nick watched him from across the stream, then came over and crouched beside him.

For a moment, neither of them spoke as Frost worked through the lines, pausing whenever he reached a section he wasn’t certain about.

"You remembered more this time," Nick said eventually, pointing towards one side. "That bit still needs fixing, though."

Frost looked where he was pointing and rubbed out a few strokes with his thumb. "Here?"

"A little farther over," Nick replied, watching him redraw it. "Yeah, there."

Frost sat back once he was done, studying the result with a faint sense of satisfaction.

It still looked like a collection of lines he didn’t understand, but at least it was now a more accurate collection of lines he didn’t understand.

Nick glanced at him before looking back at the drawing. "Do you have a water affinity?"

The question made Frost pause, his fingers tightening slightly around the stick. He had known it would come up eventually, but that didn’t make it any easier to answer, especially after all the trouble the subject had caused him.

"No," he said.

Nick raised a brow. "Then why are you spending so much time studying mine?"

Frost looked down at the drawing again, dragging the tip of the stick through a patch of untouched dirt.