Chapter 19: The Plot Finally Remembered Me

Niva sat by the fire, stealing glances at the meat turning over the coals. The drifting aroma made her swallow again and again, yet she still couldn't fathom where Seraya had dug up such a dinner.

Just a while ago she had stood among the other women waiting for a handful of fruit, and now she sat outside her own cave roasting meat, as if all it took was checking under the nearest rock to find a ready cut.

Seraya turned the makeshift spit, inspected the browned surface, and parted a thicker chunk to check the center before handing Niva the skewer.

"Here. Careful, it's hot."

The girl snapped out of her daze, but instead of taking the food, she held up both hands and shook her head - even though her rabbit ears stayed pointed toward the meat, as if they held their own opinion on the refusal.

"No, warrior, you eat first."

"I've got another piece right here," Seraya replied, slipping the stick into her fingers. "Take it before my arm falls off."

Only then did Niva give in, blowing carefully on the roasted surface before biting off the first mouthful. From the look on her face, Seraya knew at once that any questions about where dinner came from had lost all urgency.

She smirked to herself, watching the girl try to chew and blow on the next bite at the same time, looking like she was locked in fierce combat with her own appetite.

"Easy, it's not going anywhere," she said, lifting her skewer. "If you're still hungry after that, we'll split this one."

Niva nodded hard, pointing toward Seraya's untouched portion, clearly having no intention of letting her fuss over everything except eating again.

"You eat too."

"I'm eating, I'm eating."

She tore off a bite with her teeth, waited a second for it to stop scalding her tongue, and started chewing, feeling her empty stomach remind her that it had been running on fumes all day.

It was hot, fatty, and after so many hours of work tasted far better than fruit, but once the edge wore off her hunger, Seraya let out a long sigh, staring down at the browned meat.

Niva stopped eating at once.

"What happened? Did someone upset you?"

"No, it's just..." Seraya turned the skewer in her fingers, eyeing dinner with growing longing. "If only we had a little salt and ground chili, then we'd really be talking."

The girl furrowed her brow, trying to dredge up anything from memory that matched those words, then sniffed her own cut carefully.

"It smells good, though."

"It smells good, but it could taste even better."

Niva looked at the meat in disbelief, as if she had just been told the sun itself could be improved, while Seraya waved a hand, not even knowing where to begin explaining.

Try explaining marinades, pepper, and garlic sauce to her now... I'll only depress myself.

She took another bite, resolving not to think about things she didn't have for at least a few minutes, even if their absence grew more grating by the hour.

After dinner, Seraya set the skewer aside, wiped her fingers, and walked over to the timber stacked against the cave wall, standing with hands on her hips as she stared at the fruits of her day's labor.

Up close, it looked just as it had before - a pile of uneven poles with zero intention of turning into a bed on its own.

She crouched, shifted one pole, and laid it across two others, trying to picture a frame that wouldn't collapse the first time she rolled onto her side.

Niva joined her a moment later, wiping the last trace of grease from the corner of her mouth.

"Warrior, what is this going to be?"

"A bed," Seraya answered, eyes still on the wood.

"A bed?"

"Something to sleep on, just off the ground."

The girl looked at the poles, then at the pelts deeper in the cave, her face brightening once she thought she understood.

"I'll help you!"

Seraya looked up, surprised by the sudden enthusiasm.

"You know how?"

"Of course, I make the beds for everyone back in our cave," Niva assured her, laying a hand over her chest with as much pride as if announcing her greatest achievement. "I know how to layer them so almost nothing pokes you."

Seraya gave a wry smile; while she didn't doubt the girl's skill, she suspected they were thinking of two completely different things.

"I've got to tinker with this on my own first," she said, pointing to the timber. "It's going to be a different kind of bed."

Niva's ears drooped at once, her smile vanishing as quickly as it had come, but Seraya had already turned back to the poles, missing how the girl shrank back half a pace.

She probably thinks I'd make it uncomfortable...

Meanwhile, Seraya ran a finger along the rough surface of the wood, her scowl deepening. She lacked something far more vital than a plan for the frame.

She could arrange poles until dawn, but without decent lashings, sitting on one end would send the other flying off on its own.

No nails, no rope, and the damn vines I found in the valley snap if you look at them wrong...

While hunting for stones, she had tried bending several vines hanging among the brush, but most were brittle and dry. Pressing any harder made them snap with a sharp crack, leaving useless scraps in her hands.

She needed something else entirely - strong and pliable, something she could wrap tight around the timber and knot without fear of the whole thing collapsing under her weight.

That was when she remembered the bindings the Obsidian Maw warriors had tied her with, grimacing on reflex as phantom pressure squeezed her wrists.

Those would be perfect... If they could hold me, they can hold a few poles.

"Now where the hell do I find vines like that..." she muttered under her breath.

Niva looked up at once.

"You need vines?"

Seraya spun toward her so fast the loose pelt slipped from her shoulder, baring the upper curve of her chest, but she hitched it up without a second thought, far more interested in what she had just heard.

"You know where they grow?"

"In a few places outside the valley. I see them when we go out foraging."

"Pliable ones? The kind you can bend, twist, and haul hard on without them snapping?"

Niva nodded, and Seraya held up one of the poles at once, demonstrating how she wanted to lash it to another, taking her time explaining that a thin, brittle stem wouldn't cut it, no matter how promising it looked.

The girl listened patiently through it all, assuring her she understood and would try to bring back the right vines tomorrow.

"Really?" Seraya beamed so broadly that Niva smiled too. "That would be a massive help."

White ears perked back up, her earlier gloom vanishing into open delight.

Seraya looked at the wood with renewed hope for a second, then remembered that "tomorrow" still meant another night on the ground, and her shoulders slumped with a heavy sigh.

Great, so I'm sleeping on the floor again tonight, and any critter with too many legs can come check if I'm comfortable.

"I can make you an ordinary bed for tonight," Niva offered gently, glancing at the pelts deeper in the cave.

Seraya looked at her, pushed the pole aside, and stood up.

"You know what? I'd love that."

This time she let her take charge, only helping carry the pelts, and quickly realized the girl hadn't been boasting for nothing; the bed she arranged looked far tidier than anything Seraya would have tossed onto the dirt.

They adjusted the hides, talked for a bit by the dying fire, and when Niva moved to leave, Seraya walked her to the mouth of the cave, thanking her for the help and the promise of vines.

The girl returned briefly with the fruit she had saved earlier, refusing to be talked into keeping it for herself this time, before saying goodnight and heading off toward the communal cave.

Seraya set the food aside, left a small fire burning near the entrance away from her bedding, and made sure no pelts sat too close to the coals, hoping the light and smoke would ward off uninvited guests.

She had no urge to test whether the local crawlers respected the title of First Warrior.

When she finally lay down, tired muscles groaned with every shift, but she soon found a position where nothing dug directly into her hip, counting that as a solid win.

Outside, Niva looked back over her shoulder several times, watching the warm glow spilling from the mouth of Seraya's new home.

In Emberfrost, only the chieftain and the Grand Shaman were permitted to keep the Holy Fire burning by their beds through the night, a privilege even the elders had to respect. Yet Seraya had simply kindled her own and gone to sleep.

She hadn't asked for coals, hadn't waited for permission, and didn't seem to realize she was doing anything out of the ordinary.

Niva pressed her hands together, a familiar flutter of awe rising in her chest.

She really can do anything...

Reaching the communal cave, she was still smiling, while the object of her admiration had already crashed from exhaustion, resting on a bed she hadn't known how to make properly hours before.

The next morning, Seraya woke after the hunting and foraging parties had already left the valley, the daylight streaming into the cave reminding her that complaining wouldn't build a bed.

She ate some of the fruit Niva had left, worked the ache from her shoulders, and headed back onto the rocky slopes to search for flakes to shape the timber.

After a few hours, she felt like she had inspected every rock on earth, and each one had been placed there solely to drive her mad.

Finally, she slumped beneath a tree, leaned back against the trunk, and pushed damp hair from her forehead, panting through parted lips.

"If I had my backpack, I wouldn't have to hold a fucking beauty pageant for rocks..."

The thought of the knife left inside sparked another surge of anger, which only sharpened when she looked down at the morning's haul.

A whole morning for three rocks... A little longer and I'll start cheering over a stick.

She stretched out her legs, rubbed her sore thighs, and tilted her head back into the shade. Sweat trickled between her breasts, the damp clothes clinging to her heated skin and chafing with every breath.

She tugged the neckline loose, fanning herself with a hand, but it offered little relief.

"I'm done. I'm not looking for another damn thing today," she told the tree with the absolute finality of someone making a life-altering choice.

The tree didn't object, but birds chirped somewhere in the boughs, and once Seraya stopped cursing her predicament, the faint murmur of running water caught her ear.

She lingered a moment longer, letting the cool shade and forest sounds settle her mood, before glancing toward the splashing sound.

Niva better have better luck with those vines than I did...

Gathering her stone flakes, she pushed up with a low grunt and headed toward the stream, figuring that before abandoning her carpentry career for good, she could at least quench her thirst.

Crouching by the bank, she cupped water in her hands and drank greedily, the cold so sweet after hours under the sun that her eyes drifted shut.

"Holy fuck... that's the stuff."

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and was about to scoop up more when a small patch of plants with narrow, elongated leaves caught her eye across the stream.

She froze, bent over the water, then slowly lifted her chin to study them more closely.

Wait... Is that...?

She edged along the bank for a better angle, but after a few paces her patience ran out; setting the stones down, she waded straight into the water.

Cold water rushed around her calves, and stepping into a deeper pocket, she hissed through her teeth, hitching up her clothes to keep them from soaking through.

A slick stone sent her wobbling hard, her chest jolting as her free hand flailed out, saving her from an undignified faceplant into the current.

"Don't you start with me," she muttered at the stream, splashing onto the far bank and dropping to her knees by the plants.

Barely a dozen grew there, low and unremarkable at a glance, but Seraya studied them with mounting tension, parting the leaves to inspect the base of the stalks.

She began scraping away the damp soil with her fingers, working more gently as a familiar shape emerged, until she pried a section loose and lifted it before her face.

She rubbed away a clump of dirt, sniffed it, and a grin spread across her face so wide it looked almost unhinged.

"Ginger..." she choked out, disbelieving her own luck, before bursting into a loud laugh. "Holy fuck, it's actually ginger!"

Birds scattered from nearby bushes, startled by the shout, but Seraya didn't spare them a glance, too absorbed in her find.

Moments ago she had been a sweaty idiot foraging for rocks, and now she was kneeling over something that could make her next meal taste like something other than plain meat.

I knew it! I am the main character - the plot just needed a minute to remember!

She laughed again, bending back over the patch to scrape at the earth, taking extra care not to tear the rhizomes in her excitement.

Images from her old life surfaced at once: sliced ginger, steam rising from a hot mug, meat spiced with something sharper than her own misery, even a plain warming tea she wouldn't have looked at twice before.

Out here, every single one of those things was suddenly a luxury.

She also remembered ginger featuring in home remedies for all sorts of ailments, though the details blurred with memories of old advice, kitchen chatter, and things read long ago.

It didn't mean she had unearthed a cure-all, but after yesterday's run-in with Vaelira, the thought struck her that a hot, spiced drink might interest the shaman.

And if Vaelira wants to repay me with food again...

Seraya looked down at the root in her hand, her grin widening.

Mugwort and a warm compress yesterday, ginger today... Maybe this time I'll score enough meat for both Niva and me to eat our fill.

With that in mind, her aching thighs stopped bothering her, and the measly three flakes that had driven her to despair earlier suddenly felt like a decent bonus to a great morning.

She carried the roots to the water, rinsed away the dirt, and laid them across a broad leaf, pausing every few seconds to take in the familiar, pungent scent.

She had no intention of eating the whole haul, though; she had no idea if another patch grew anywhere in the valley, and burning through the entire stash for a single good dinner struck her as idiotic.

She set aside several plants with intact roots and shoots, aiming to replant them near her cave where she could keep an eye on them.

She had no idea if they would take, but if they could thrive here, they deserved a shot near her home.

For the first time all day, she looked at something other than rocks with the distinct feeling that all this toil might actually pay off.