Mantle of the Gods

“Why?”

I heard Rix's voice before I saw her.

I turned around a few times but couldn't see where the voice had come from. Wherever she was hiding she was doing it well.

Rix appeared to my left with her arms crossed. I knew I looked in that direction but she hadn't been there.

“I was experimenting” I planted the stick in the ground.

“What did you do?” she walked closer to my monster ornament looking cautiously at it. She poked it with the broken sword in her hand.

“I pushed it into the water,” I motioned towards the creek beside us, “It became like this. I was curious how long it would stay like this.” I saw the disapproval on her face but she just turned away from it and back to me.

“Have you found many berries?” I nodded to the black and red berry bushes that lined both sides of the bank.

She motioned towards the creek bed and I saw a few leaves with a couple of handfuls of berries on them.

“Cool!” I moved the sling bag so that I could open it and begin putting the berries inside. “How many do you think we should get?”

She looked at the pack and then looked at me and shrugged. Without a word, she went back to picking berries.

I took off the sling bag and left it open on a flat rock, “We can fill this up.”

We worked in silence for around an hour before we had gathered about two gallons of berries.

“That should be more than enough.” I said as I finished zipping the bag closed. That was about all the bag could hold anyway and I didn't want to start cramming them in because I had a feeling that and I was already going to have to wash the juice out of the bottom of the bag.

Our crystals were secure in a side pocket so they wouldn't get lost amongst the berries. My ration bar was in the other side pocket.

“Have you seen anything else?” I walked over to the brambles skeleton and poked it. With how often we had been being attacked by monsters, I had expected that one would have attacked us by now.

Rix raised her eyebrow at me, “No.”

I started to pull the bramble skeleton out of the ground but saw the look on her face.

“You're not bringing that thing back.”

I looked around, “Maybe this is the reason why we haven't been attacked yet.” I looked at her, “Maybe the dungeon isn't sending another one after us because this one is still here.”

She raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

“Besides…” I picked up the stick and slung it over my shoulder. I could see the curiosity on her face when I remembered that Ether was having trouble lifting these things and I had just done so effortlessly. “I thought these things would be heavier.” I said as I patted the stick, “Maybe this thing helps.”

She just shook her head and started walking back, staying just barely in the water as she walked down the creek. I wondered if she was doing that as a way to either keep the bramble skeletons from attacking her or as a defensive measure in case she needed to cross to the other side quickly.

We walked in silence for the rest of the trip. Every time I thought about asking her something, I was reminded of her one-word answers. She wasn't being hostile to me, it was just that she still wasn't being particularly open. I didn't think I needed to try to rush things, especially since I already had Edward that I was going to have to deal with at some point.

Before we got to our camp Aelin came running up the bank.

“Did you get some?” she shouted as she ran up the bank towards us. She froze when she saw my other package. “What is that?”

I looked behind me and then back at her.

“It drowned.”

I pulled the sling bag over my head and offered it to her.

“Is it dead?” she cautiously took the bag.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged as I kept walking towards the camp. “Maybe, but it hasn't disintegrated so I'm not sure.” I tapped on the end of the stick, “But I made sure to find a long enough stick so it isn't getting down.”

Aelin unzipped the bag a little and her eyes lit up when she saw the berries inside. Food replaced fear as she ran back towards the others.

“They found berries!” She shouted, “A lot of them!”

I chuckled as I turned and noticed Rix had disappeared again. I shook my head. I had a feeling that she was going to be fine wherever she had wandered off to. She would probably show up as soon as we got ready to go out and hunt down more monsters. Until then I assumed she was going to try to avoid any social interaction. I chuckled as I thought about her and then congratulated myself.

“I did it.”

I smiled. I had actually spent a significant time alone with a woman besides Justia since I reached the cathedral and nothing had happened between us.