Month 2, Day 2
A drop of cold water fell through the roof and hit my cheek before sunrise. I wiped it off, dressed, and tied my boots while another drop landed beside my bedroll.
At the river, I cupped cold water over my face and flattened my hair with both palms. I knew every root along the bank now, and the walk to the old log took only a few minutes.
Rafi jumped up the second he saw me. "YES. Finally. I beat you. Somebody record this somewhere official."
Mirae sat beside him with her hands inside her sleeves. "You've beaten one person. I've been here for an hour."
"One is more than zero." Rafi pointed at the log. "It counts. Don't ruin it."
"Morning," I said, sitting down.
"He doesn't even care. Look at him. I did this for nothing."
Jonas approached from the main arsenal with the assignment bark under one arm and four spears bundled over his shoulder. His stick was gone. He crossed the wet ground carefully, though the bad knee no longer slowed every step.
"Good, everyone's here," he said. "We're a hunting squad again. Properly this time."
Rafi lowered his arms. "We stopped being one?"
"Apparently city expeditions and daylight sweeps counted as special work." Jonas opened the bark while Rafi still watched him. "Hrytsenko put us on the west route. I collect it at the arsenal, we hunt, and the kitchens get meat. Same tomorrow, unless somebody finds another city."
"You had to say the last part."
"Yeah. Sorry. I heard it after I said it."
He handed out the spears, took the marked path west, and we went to work.
The forest floor stayed wet from the night rain. Two hours in, something moved through brush ahead of us with enough force that all four of us raised our spears. I had my feet set and the point level before Jonas gave any signal.
Branches snapped again, closer. Jonas lifted two fingers toward the sound. "Left. Wait."
A Vellion stag broke through the ferns. Its antlers spread into thin, wide plates, and a high warning tone came from them when it saw us. Rafi breathed out through his teeth.
"Right. Good. That's food," he whispered. "I know what makes that noise."
Jonas sent Rafi around the lower ground and put Mirae on the path behind us. The stag turned toward a gap between two trees. I reached it first and lowered my spear point into its path. It changed direction, and Rafi's spear struck behind its front leg.
By midmorning, the carcass was tied between two poles. The four of us carried it through the gate while the wall crews worked on the last open stretch. Barely thirty paces remained between the two ends.
Rafi took the front of one pole to the butchering tables. Once the meat was handed over, he rubbed both palms on his trousers and looked around at us.
"Early finish," he said. "Daisuke and I are doing a Two-Man at the mess square tonight. Anybody want in?"
Jonas looked at him. "A what?"
"Two guys, one evening, drinks, people, conversation and hopefully we're gonna get some girls."
"So this means going somewhere with your friend."
"No, because that sounds sad. Two-Man has some structure."
Mirae stared at him for a moment. Then she turned away. "Idiots."
"That's not a no!" Rafi called after her.
"See you tomorrow," she added.
She lifted one hand as she walked and waved without turning around.
Jonas flexed his bad knee once. "I'll pass. I'd sit there without saying anything, then spend an hour explaining I wasn't angry. No."
"Fair. Aleks?"
For one second, I almost said yes. The evening was free, and nobody had invited me to this kind of night before.
Then I tried to picture the first five minutes. A stranger might recognize me and ask about the ruins. People repeated Antoine's version at every fire now. I'd have to support the lie or tell strangers that the camp's report was false.
"Nah... not feeling it, bro."
"Ah, shame." Rafi glanced between us. "All right. Tomorrow morning, then."
We split up near the butcher tables. Before I reached the mess square, I wanted to turn around and call Rafi back.
During the day, work crews filled the mess square. Food stands occupied three sides, and long benches filled the middle. People ate quickly and went back to their shifts.
I collected grain stew and a piece of flatbread. Carmen sat near the front with two women from the water crew. Amina was at the other end of their table with people from the med tent. Nobody looked my way.
Sitting there meant approaching six people at once. I pretended I hadn't seen them and took a rear bench by myself.
My spoon had just touched the stew when an elf boy stopped beside me with two human boys behind him.
"Hey, bro. Is this free?"
I nodded.
They sat on both sides and across from me. The two humans continued an argument about wall shifts before their bowls reached the table. One elbow kept passing over my food. None of them asked my name.
Halfway through their argument, the elf boy went quiet and looked toward the stands. "Bro, that's Antoine from Squad One. My cousin says he killed the arena thing in full dark."
One human twisted around. "He threw at a sound and hit it. That's insane."
Antoine crossed the square with two men from Squad One behind him. I knew neither man. He wore a clean black shirt, and his hair was tied back from his face.
All three boys turned to follow him. The elf boy leaned across my bowl to keep Antoine in view.
Antoine collected a bowl and walked straight to Carmen's table. One of her coworkers moved over before he asked. He set down his food and offered his hand to the woman nearest him. His pitch didn't change. "Antoine."
The women gave their names quickly. Amina laughed hard enough to make both of them look at her. Then she leaned forward with her forearms on the table.
Antoine stopped across from Carmen. "Carmen, right?"
She put down her cup. "Yeah."
"You're the prettiest girl in this camp." His hand stayed open between them. "The wall closes soon. You're coming to the feast with me."
One of Carmen's coworkers leaned close and whispered too loudly. "Say yes."
The other woman caught her wrist. "Let her answer."
"I know, I just... Carmen."
Amina laughed again and pushed her hair back. Antoine kept his eyes on Carmen. Amina kept smiling for another second, then her fingers started turning her cup against the table.
Carmen looked at his open hand. I stood before she answered.
The elf boy pulled his knees in to let me pass. Both human boys had stopped arguing and turned toward Antoine. People at the next bench said his name too.
Nobody at my table knew mine. I knew what Antoine had done under the arena, and I still hadn't challenged the story everyone repeated. His open hand stayed between him and Carmen while I walked away.
I carried my full bowl to the return stand, set it among the empty ones, and left the square. Behind me, the boys resumed their argument about wall shifts.
Of course she'd say yes. Everyone knew Antoine's name. I was the boy from the rear bench who'd left half his food because he couldn't keep watching.
At our fire, Carmen had told me I was going to the feast with her. I decided she'd only been kind. She'd warned me early so I wouldn't feel left out, and I repeated that until I reached Squad Seven's empty fire pit.
Practice weapons stood on a rack beside the cold pit. I took a wooden sword and hit the nearest post. The blade landed flat. Both wrists jolted, and my right hand slipped toward the guard.
I reset my grip and tried again. This strike caught the old cut marks. My feet were too close together, so I widened them and swung again. The wood scraped down the side of the post.
Between swings, I tried the answer I should've given Rafi. "Yeah. I'll come." It came out easily with the fire pit empty.
I hit the post again. The sword bounced away, and I caught it before it fell. I shifted both hands, set my feet, and swung harder.
At lunch, Carmen had been thirty paces away. I'd chosen the rear bench and left before she answered. "Come on," I said.
One hit landed where I wanted. I aimed at the same cut and missed it, then reset and tried again. My palms heated under the rough grip. Sweat reached my eyes, and I wiped it away with my sleeve.
I kept swinging after both shoulders began to burn. On the final attempt, my arms slowed before the blade reached the post. The sword struck low, turned in my hands, and dropped into the dirt.
I bent to pick it up. Both forearms shook, so I left it there and went to the river.
I washed the dirt and sweat from my face. Both palms were red, with two raw patches below the fingers. I held them under the cold water until the heat eased, then returned to my hut.
Back inside, I pulled off my damp shirt and lay on the bedroll. Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw Antoine's open hand and Carmen looking at it.
Back home, two months in my room had started with one evening I'd decided to skip. I refused the next invitation too. Soon people stopped asking.
By the time I sat up, little daylight reached through the flap. Rafi and Daisuke would be at the mess square. My hands hurt too much to go back to the post.
Before I found another reason to stay, I put my shirt back on and went outside.
Different people filled the mess square at night. Fires burned in shallow metal bowls between the food stands. One stall served brewed grain drink from a barrel, and another had cups lined beside clay jugs.
Someone played a hand drum near the center. An elf beside him played a stringed instrument. People laughed, argued, sang badly, and ordered refills between the benches.
I stopped at the edge and looked. Four rows of tents separated our fire from the square. For a month, I'd stopped at our fire or returned to my hut instead.
A woman carrying three bowls asked me to move. I stepped aside, then kept walking.
Rafi and Daisuke sat at a bench near the drink stand. Three cups stood between them. Daisuke moved two of them farther apart while he spoke.
"No, because you keep saying you'll just walk over. What happens after hello?"
Rafi noticed me first. He grinned and stood. "Bro. You came."
Daisuke turned, pushed his glasses up, and stood so quickly that his knee hit the table. "YOU came. Okay, wait." He looked at the three cups. "We need new tactics. Two-Man's a Three-Man now."
"Let him sit down first," Rafi said.
He pushed the third cup toward me. I sat, and Rafi filled it from a shared jug.
"Somebody here got it right," Rafi said. "Grain, water, no pine trees."
Daisuke took a careful sip. "Mine was stronger. This is only sour."
"Yours took my voice."
"For four minutes. You keep adding time."
The drink tasted sour and warmed my throat. Daisuke's version had burned with pine resin.
"Right," Daisuke said. "There was this guy in a video back home. Thirty seconds, maybe. He said one person starts, then the other... no, the second person joins when the first stops."
Rafi looked at him. "Stops what?"
"Talking. You know what I meant."
"I have hello," Rafi said.
"And after hello?"
"It depends what they say back."
"That's exactly the part we're supposed to plan."
Rafi rested an elbow on the table. "Fine. What do you say after hello?"
"I ask something."
"What?"
Daisuke opened his mouth, closed it, and looked at me. "Give me a question. Anything."
I finished the cup. "Ask if the bench is free."
"Okay, that's the opening."
"You needed a video for that?"
"No. Aleks gave us that. The video was for what comes after."
"Which you don't know."
"I know enough. Stop helping."
Rafi filled my cup again while he told me about Daisuke's first jug. By his third version, he claimed the foam had risen above Daisuke's head. Daisuke kept interrupting to correct the number of circles Rafi had walked around the fire.
When Rafi acted out his first swallow, I laughed loud enough for people at two nearby tables to turn. I stopped when I saw them. Rafi continued before I could apologize, and Daisuke argued with his version again. When they finished, my cheeks hurt and my cup was empty.
Five minutes later, Daisuke stopped with his cup halfway to his mouth.
"There," he said. "The long bench. Don't both look right now."
Rafi turned. "You said there."
"I know what I said. Just... we need the empty end."
Three girls occupied one end of a long bench near the musicians. The blonde had one braid tied with blue thread. Beside her, a brunette wore her hair cut at the jaw. The third girl had rolled both sleeves above her elbows.
My stomach tightened. I held my cup against the table so my hand would stop moving it.
"We could stay here," I said.
"We could," Rafi said as he stood. "We're only asking about a bench, bro. Come on."
Daisuke collected the cups, and Rafi took the jug. "Wait. Who starts?"
"I do. I'm already standing."
Rafi reached the long bench first. "Hey. Mind if we sit here?"
The blonde moved her cup. "Sure."
Daisuke pointed once at the free space, then sat down beside Rafi. We crowded our cups onto the table.
"I'm Rafi. That's Daisuke, and Aleks."
"Nora," the blonde said. She touched the brunette beside her with two fingers. "Lenya."
The drummer struck once while the third girl answered. I missed her name, nodded, and didn't ask her to repeat it.
Rafi pointed toward the barrel. "Honest question. Is that your first cup, or did it start tasting good at some point?"
"Third," Nora said. "I'm still waiting."
"See, that's commitment. Daisuke made a batch that stopped me breathing."
"He drank too much at once," Daisuke said. "The drink fermented. It did what it was supposed to do."
The girl with the rolled sleeves leaned toward Rafi. "How bad was it?"
"There was foam on the ground before I swallowed. Then my throat closed, and I walked three circles around the fire because I thought moving would help."
"One circle," Daisuke cut in. "You keep adding distance."
Nora looked at Rafi. "How long was your voice gone?"
"Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen."
"Four."
"You stood there saying 'good body' while I couldn't speak."
"The foam had good body. I wasn't talking about you."
Lenya laughed into her cup. The third girl leaned closer to Rafi. "Did anyone else try it?"
"The dwarf finished a cup, said he'd had worse, and handed it back."
Nora turned toward him. "What was worse?"
"He wouldn't tell us. I asked twice."
Rafi rested both arms on the table. "All right, forget the drink. What's the first food you'd want from home?"
"My dad's potatoes," Nora said. "He used too much oil and burned the edges."
"How burned?" Daisuke asked.
"Black at the corners. I liked them that way."
"Right. Sorry. I thought you were complaining."
"Chocolate," Lenya said.
The other girl shook her head. "That's not food."
"It counts after a month without any. What did you pick?"
"My mother's dumplings. Rafi?"
"Rice. Proper rice, not this camp grain."
Nora turned toward him. "What made it proper?"
"You wash it first. Then you put it in the pot."
The third girl pointed at him. "With water."
"Obviously with water. I was getting to that."
"How much?" Nora asked.
Rafi looked down at his cup. "My mother did that part."
Daisuke leaned across the table. "So you don't know how to make it."
"I know when it's wrong. The kitchen crew makes it wrong every day."
"You also lost a cooking contest," Daisuke said.
Lenya looked between them. "You had a cooking contest?"
"Daisuke burned a pot of stew," Rafi said. "Aleks fixed it, and somehow their team won."
"That leaves out most of the evening."
"The part about Aleks fixing it is true."
Lenya turned to me. "You cook?"
"A little."
"He's doing the stew at the feast," Daisuke said.
"Apparently," I said.
"What kind?" Lenya asked.
"Whatever meat the kitchens give us."
Nora looked at me. "Were you four carrying that stag through the gate this morning?"
"Yeah. It was a Vellion. Its..." I raised one hand and searched for the word.
Rafi put both hands above his head and spread his fingers.
"Antlers. They spread into these wide plates, and they make a sound when the animal gets scared."
"What does the sound do?" Nora asked.
Daisuke leaned forward. "It probably warns the herd, or it could..."
Lenya kept her eyes on me. "What did the stag do after it made the sound?"
"It ran for a gap between two trees. I was standing there."
She stopped with her cup near her mouth. "You stayed there?"
"I had a spear."
"He put the point in front of it," Rafi said. "The stag turned, and I hit it."
"You left that part out," Lenya said to me.
"Rafi killed it."
"After you stopped it."
"How close did it get?" Nora asked.
Rafi and I started answering together, and I stopped. He pointed at me with his cup and waited.
"Maybe six paces," I said. "It turned before it reached me."
"How long did the sound last?" Lenya asked.
"It kept going for a few seconds after the stag fell."
Eventually I needed to piss badly enough that sitting hurt. I leaned close to him.
"Which trench is closest?"
"North side. Go past the wall carts, then turn left at the first marker. You'll see the screens." Rafi tapped the table once. "The beautiful trench behind them is mine."
"Half yours," Daisuke said. "The dwarf dug the other half."
"He never claimed it."
"Got it," I said.
"Don't miss. I've suffered enough."
The air away from the fires was cold against my face. I found the screens and the trench. On the way back, I nearly took the wrong path at the carts and corrected before anyone saw.
Lenya came around the nearest fire bowl before I reached the musicians. She held her cup in both hands and placed each foot carefully on the level ground.
"There you are," she said. "I thought you'd gone home. I've been looking for you."
"I had to... yeah. Rafi's trench."
"He told everyone." She looked into her cup, then back at me and said something else. The drummer began a louder rhythm at the same moment. I heard "you" and nothing more.
"What?"
She glanced toward the others. "No. I'm not saying it twice in front of all of them." She pointed toward the quieter edge of the square. "Come on. It's quieter over there."
She moved the cup to her left hand.
Then she took my right hand.
Her fingers were warm, and her grip stayed firm. I looked down once and nearly caught my knee on the end of a bench. Lenya led me around it without letting go.
We reached a row of unused benches at the edge of the square. She set her cup on the ground, and we sat with the music behind us. Then she released my hand.
"I said I think you're cute." Lenya looked straight at me. "There. You heard it that time."
I looked down at my boots before I could face her again. "Oh."
"Was that a bad oh?"
"No. I just... I wasn't ready." I rubbed one palm against my trousers. "Thank you."
"Okay. Good."
She picked up her cup and pulled one knee onto the bench. "You barely said anything back there. I thought you wanted us to leave you alone."
"I didn't. I just don't know when to talk when everyone talks at once."
"You managed when we asked about the hunt."
"You kept asking me questions."
"That was on purpose."
She took another drink. "Do all four of you go out every day?"
"Most mornings now."
"Do you ever sleep outside?"
"Only on longer routes. Today we were back before midday."
"Were you scared when the stag came out?"
"Yeah."
"You didn't sound scared when you told the story."
"It was already dead by then."
She smiled into her cup. "How heavy was it?"
"It took all four of us to carry it."
Lenya nodded, then waited. I looked toward the table behind us.
"What kind of chocolate?" I asked.
"What?"
"The food from home. You said chocolate."
"Oh. Milk chocolate with hazelnuts. The cheap ones."
"I'd pick that too."
"Good." She tucked her hair behind one ear. "So. How old are you?"
"Sixteen. You?"
"Seventeen."
We both nodded. Neither of us spoke for several seconds. Lenya looked at me, started laughing, and I did too.
She cleared her throat. Her thumb moved around the rim of her cup. "Okay. There's one more thing."
"Okay."
"Do you want to go to the wall feast with me?"
At lunch, Antoine had asked Carmen. I'd left before her answer and decided she'd said yes anyway. Lenya sat beside me and waited.
"I... yeah." Only the first sound came out, so I started over. "Yes. I'd like that."
Her cheeks lifted when she grinned. "That's a yes."
"Yeah. Definitely."
She bumped her shoulder against mine once, then stood. With the cup in one hand, she offered me the other. "Come on."
I took her hand and got up. We returned to the table together. Daisuke looked at our hands, looked at me, and opened his mouth. Rafi caught his sleeve.
"Don't."
"I wasn't..."
"You were."
Nora moved over for Lenya. I sat beside Rafi. When he offered me the shared jug, I shook my head and brought back water from the nearest stand.
The third girl was still asking how Rafi knew the camp's rice was wrong when he couldn't explain how to cook it. He started again from washing. Lenya rested her shoulder against mine while we listened.
Later, I left the square alone and took the river path toward my hut. My toe caught an exposed root. I corrected my step and watched the ground after that.
Carmen came around the corner of a storage hut with her sweater sleeves rolled to the elbows. "Oh, hey, Aleks. What are you doing out here?"
"Rafi and Daisuke had this Two-Man thing. Then I came, so Daisuke changed it to Three-Man. He had three cups on the table because... I think the cups were people."
Her mouth pulled into a smile while I kept going.
"There was a video too. Thirty seconds. That was most of his plan, except Rafi started talking and then we moved tables anyway."
"Wait." Carmen leaned closer. "Are you drunk?"
"What? No. I'm just really tired. We hunted all morning, and then a lot happened. Too much."
She folded her arms. "How many cups?"
"One."
She waited.
"Two. Rafi filled the second while he was telling a story."
She tucked a loose strand behind her ear. "Right. And you're tired."
"Very."
"Sure." She kept smiling. "The wall crew says the gap could close in a few days. I'm really looking forward to going to the feast with you."
The only word I had was shit. At noon I'd decided she would go with Antoine, and an hour ago I'd told Lenya yes.
"Me too... and I'm really tired."
"That much is obvious." Carmen stepped past me, still smiling. "Good night, Aleks. Drink water before you sleep."
"Night."
Inside my hut, I drank half a cup of water and lay down. One roof beam shifted left when I blinked. It returned to the middle, then shifted again.
The wall would close in a few days. There'd be one feast, and two girls expected me to arrive with them. I hadn't found the courage to ask either one myself. My eyes closed before I decided what to do.
At least with a monster, somebody handed me a spear.