Chapter 39
Four more days crawling through the Deadwood did little to raise Elias’s mood. The night after finding the kirn and the clearing, Mila and Elias had returned to their meager camp to finish eating the berries Elias had found that day. They found the bush again and picked it clean before setting off West.
From beneath the dark ceiling of leaves only sparsely penetrated by errant rays of light, it was impossible to judge their headway. They followed the stream they had found, which ran in the direction they wanted for the first two days until they had to leave it when it took a turn northward on the third. They parted ways with the water there and set once more in the direction of the setting sun with as much water as they could carry.
Elias kept an eye on Mila’s walking while
