MAETHYS POV
Water first.
Always water first.
I dropped to my knees at the edge of the pond, hands shaking as I cupped what I could and brought it to my mouth. Cold. Clean. I drank too fast and choked, coughed it back out, then forced myself to slow down. Panic made people stupid. I couldn’t afford that.
I took wide leaves from a low branch and folded them, crude bowls, and crawled back into the underbrush where she waited.
We had been gone for hours, living to see a second sunrise. And I was worried. The woman who had saved me. Her skin was pale beneath the dirt, her chest still rising too fast. She didn’t argue when I lifted the leaves to her mouth, just drank when I tipped them carefully.
“Easy,” I murmured, though I wasn’t sure who I was talking to.
When she finished, I let the l
