Hanna POV- The swamp
1030 Words
When I wake up I felt dizzy and my head is pounding. It must be the lack of water. This planet is dry and I will be long dead before anyone from that stupid Galactic Imperium comes. A safe place, they said. What a joke. If this is safe for them I don't want to know what dangerous means.
I turn to my side and see Seth, still asleep on the other bed. He looks so young, so... childlike. And he is so thin, I can see his ribs. This is what months of being on the bridge of starvation mean. I am amazed we could walk this far yesterday without collapsing.
"He is strong, and the heart of a warrior," Artemisia tells me.
"He might be strong, but if we don't find water there will be no Seth left to be a warrior. Or Hanna, or anyone else," I think.
And then I think of every from the cargo bay.
"I hope they are ok. That nothing attacked them," I say to Artemisia but she doesn't reply.
A moment later I rise from the bed and go to wake up Seth.
-Rise and shine, I yell at him but he turns his back at me and puts the pillow over his head.
-Five more minutes, mom, then I promise I will wake up, he mutters from under the pillow.
Aww, poor baby, he thinks I am his mom. My heart breaks for him.
-Seth, honey, it's Hanna, you need to wake up, I now say in a soft voice.
He bolts straight up.
-I knew that, he says. I am awake now.
I chuckle.
-We need to leave, I tell him. Maybe we will have luck and find water today.
He nods and prepares for the day.
After we eat and sip a bit of the water we still have I go to where the weapons are. I look at the bows.
- You know how to use a bow? Seth asks.
-Yes, me and my father used to hunt with bows. It was a hobby of his.
I think of all the great memories me and my dad shared and how much I learned from him.
"Hanna, he used to tell me, even if we are werewolves, there will be a time when you can rely only on your nose. You need to hunt like a human."
I touch one of the bows, remembering the first day my mom took me hunting. A tear falls down my cheek.
-Are you ok, Hanna? Seth asks me.
I whip away my tears and smile at Seth.
-Yes, just remembering something. I will take a bow and a spear with me, I say.
-I will take the other spear. I am afraid a bow will be useful in my hands.
I study the bows and the spears observing that the bows were made of good, strong wood, while the spears were entirely made of metal. The arrows had metal tips. Whoever made these weapons knew how to work metal and took great care in making them. To my surprise, the spear is light but the metal is nothing I have ever seen before or touched.
I take one of the bows in my hand feeling its weight in my hands. It is lighter than the one I was used and I give the other bow a try. This one feels better. I take it outside and practice a bit to get used to the bow. When I am satisfied I retrieve all the arrows I used.
-Seth, ready to go? I ask.
-Ready when you are.
Seth takes a while to climb down the ladder but in the end, he manages to get down. I make sure to leave the ladder as I have found it, having to climb up, roll the ladder and hike down the wall to get down.
-Where now? Seth asks.
-Yesterday I observed that the mountain is split into two. These mountains almost touch. We might find something useful, it may be a to get out of this desert.
-Sounds like a plan, Seth tells me.
We walked for about half, having the wall to our left, and sure enough there two mountains. Between them - a large passage. And still no signs of water. Only teal sand, pink rocks, and a long passage. I am getting desperate because the signs of dehydration were showing hard.
-Where do you think it leads? Seth asks.
-I don't know. Think we should follow it?
Seth shrugs.
-As long as we find water.
-I promise we will find water.
But this is a promise I am not sure I won't break.
We follow the passage, that stretches for a few miles. It was mostly empty, except for an occasionally pink or blue tree, or yellow bush.
Nothing prepared me for what we found at the end of it.
At the end of it looked like we up on the mountain and there were strange strange steps that lead to the bottom of the mountain. The steps were made from big, squared with oval corners bright yellow rocks. They were about one meter tall. And at the bottom of of the stairs, and let me tell you, there were a lot of stairs, trees.
Big, almost black, crocked trees. Miles upon miles, a sea of them. And the smell that came from above was awful.
-Swamp, Seth says in a grim voice. I am not going in there.
-But we have to, Seth. We might find...
-Water? he says before I could finish. Not good for drinking. But you know what you can find in a swamp? Crocodiles, mosquitos, snakes... And let's not forget that we are on another planet. Maybe we will find cannibals. There is no way I am going into that swamp.
I look at Seth and see he is scared, very scared of the swamp.
-I am from New Florida Prefecture, I was in a swamp before. There is no way I am going into this one, he continues looking straight at the swamp.
-Fine, we will go back and figure out something else I say.
- Writer
