Siena (Forestfolk, Book 1)

Chapter 19

A warm hand gently shook my shoulder. “Siena, we need to get going.”

My eyes refused to open and I pouted, uttering incomprehensible sounds of protest.

“I know, but we can’t waste time.”

I rubbed my eyes, and when they finally opened, I found Remi sitting next to me, arms resting on his knees.

“I’ll never make fun of your heavy sleeping again,” he said. “Well, except maybe to tell you that you snore.”

“I do not,” I said sleepily. “Do I?” I looked for Galen for confirmation, but he was on the other side of the tree, packing something.

Remi grinned. “Only a little.” He glanced in Galen’s direction, then leaned in and whispered, “You’re so cute when you’re sleepy.”

I looked away and sat up, a blush creeping over my face. I was awake now, and acutely aware of my disheveled hair. I found the fallen hair tie on the ground next to me and ran a hand through the tangles. I noticed Remi still watching me and said, “Don’t you have something else you should be doing?”

He grinned again and stood, leaving me to my task.

When I finished packing, Remi dropped out of the tree and offered a handful of acorns. I took them, and he scrambled up the tree for more. I found two flat rocks and smashed the acorns open. When he returned with more, I smashed those too. There was no time to soak the bitterness out of them, so we just ate them with corn cakes to dilute the taste.

We set out again, with Galen striding ahead of us to sense for danger. Remi walked alongside me. “Sember’s mother once described what it felt like to be healed by you.”

“Oh?” It was strange, no one ever bothered to tell me such things when I lived at the compound. I always thought it felt like nothing. But ever since settling at Foresthome, people seemed to go out of their way to express their amazement to me.

“She said it felt like she was being filled with liquid love.”

“Liquid love?” I looked curiously at him. “That sounds . . . dramatic.”

“I thought so too,” Remi replied. “But now I know exactly what she means. It really does feel that way.” He saw my doubtful expression and continued, “It’s not just energy that you give us. I think . . .” He paused and searched my face. “I think you’re sharing with us your love for life.”

Something unfurled inside, and my breath left me. This was the closest anyone had ever come to knowing how I truly felt. “All lives are valuable,” I murmured.

“I think that is the source of your power,” Remi stated.

I looked up at him, suddenly wishing we weren’t plodding across endless plains toward uncertain doom. He squeezed my hand and let it go again. Then he glanced up ahead of us and said, “We’d better catch up.”

* * *

It was another hot, sweaty, vigorous trek across open ground. And it was only morning. I felt my fair skin burning and my bones melting. I never spent this much time in the sun when living at the compound.

When we reached a small stream, I nearly fainted into it. The water felt so cool against my hot skin that I gasped with relief. I examined my arms and found them bright red. I was thankful the short sleeves of my shirt covered my shoulders. I hadn’t been sunburned since I was six. I didn’t like it.

Galen and Remi refilled their water skins as I splashed water onto my burned face. It felt so good that I decided to drop onto my belly along the edge of the stream and dunk my entire torso into the water, face and all. I closed my eyes and held my breath, enjoying the feel of cool water rushing past me and letting my arms float on either side of my head.

When my lungs reminded me about the necessity of air, I pulled myself up to my knees and sucked in a huge breath.

“You take the heat about as well as Zelly.”

I pushed wet hair out of my eyes and looked up to find Galen standing there, his dark eyes twinkling with amusement.

“I think the sun is out to kill me,” I huffed, blowing the dripping water off my nose.

“We won’t be traveling by day anymore,” he said, his amusement gone. “We’re too visible, and we’re getting close to Krat territory. We’ll rest this afternoon, then travel by night.”

“Good,” I sat back and watched him scan the horizon for a moment, curious about what his ability was like. “Galen, do you sense danger all the time? Or is it something you can turn on and off?”

He smiled and sat down on a dry patch of grass. “When I was young, it was on all the time. I would feel anxious, and I wouldn’t know why.” His eyes drifted to the stream. “It took me a long time to figure out what it meant. I would have bad feelings, and then something bad would happen. Or a person would approach me, and all I wanted to do was run away from them. For no reason.”

He shook his head and plucked a blade of grass. “Needless to say, I was a nervous child.”

“Then you learned to control it?” I tried picturing Galen as a child, ducking behind a tree every time a bad feeling hit him.

He glanced up at me and smiled. “I was about your age when I finally learned how to harness it. Concentration didn’t come easily for me, took me years to master. But I eventually got it.”

I thought about how useful that would have been, living in the Zurbo tribe. “Did anyone know about your abilities?”

He twirled the blade of grass, watching it spin. “Only my mother.”

He probably didn’t have a bratty half brother who resented him.

I waited for him to continue, but when he remained silent, I decided to stop the questions. “I’m glad you’re here,” I said instead.

The smile chased away the haunted look in his eyes. “I’m glad you’re here too. You’re a ray of sunshine.”

I looked down at my reddened arms. “Not exactly.”

Galen chuckled and wandered off, so I dipped my head back into the stream. I could heal my burns, but I wanted to conserve energy. Though we would be traveling at night now, the pace wouldn’t be any less brisk, and I was hoping not to rely too much on taking energy that wasn’t mine.

The water was unusually deep here, and farther downstream was a thick growth of reeds. It was perfect for a bath. I flipped my head back, causing wet hair to fly up and around to my back.

I saw Remi approaching. He grinned and looked at my shirt. I looked down and discovered it was covered in mud. I smiled back at him and twirled my finger for him to turn around, and then shooed him away with a couple waves of my hand. He obliged, and I scampered off to the secluded part of the stream.

Not liking how wet hide stuck to skin and chafed, I removed my trousers and laid them on dry ground, then waded into the pooled part of the stream. Feeling confident that the reeds gave me privacy, I removed my shirt and washed it. Then I washed my hair. The cold water felt wonderful against my overheated skin. I wanted to stay there all day.

Feeling refreshed, I found my companions settled among a small copse of trees by the stream. I was squeezing water out of my hair when Remi saw me.

“You remind me of cooked crayfish,” he said with his lopsided smile.

“Just what every girl wants to hear,” I replied, flicking my dripping hands at him.

Galen grinned and tossed a piece of jerky to me. I caught it and handed it to Remi.

“Siena, you need your strength,” Galen admonished. “Have a little meat.”

I thought about which was worse, eating flesh for energy, or taking it from plants. “I don’t need it yet,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t press the issue.

Galen cast one more worried look at me, then shrugged and lay back on his bed roll. I scooted closer to Remi so I could talk to him without disturbing Galen.

“What you did when we were in that tree,” I said in a hushed voice. “I didn’t know you could do that. It felt so strange. How does it work?”

“When my skin takes on colors and textures, things that I touch are also affected, like my clothes or other people. When you touched Galen, I wasn’t sure if that would work, but it did. That was new for me. Exhausting, though. Camouflaging myself doesn’t take much effort.”

“I found it fascinating, but my skin felt like it was covered in ants. Is it like that every time?”

“You get used to it.” He pulled a shred from his hunk of dried meat. “I didn’t know your gift went beyond healing. You can energize people too?”

“It’s something I learned recently while working with Sember.” I absently stroked a tuft of grass near my foot. “I think all the Gifted should spend more time talking with each other. As we learn about each other, we learn more about ourselves, don’t you think?”

Remi nodded. “You’re right. I think most of us tend to isolate ourselves because, even though we’re accepted in Foresthome, we still feel different. Like no one really understands us.”

“That’s exactly how it feels,” I said, reveling in the kinship I felt with this boy who was so easy to talk to. “We understand each other.”

He nodded in agreement and smiled contentedly. “We should get some rest,” he said and leaned back against a tree.

Instead of unrolling my bed, I chose a patch of low-growing grass and lay in it, enjoying its tickle against my arms. I gazed up through the thin canopy of leaves at the dappled and ever-changing patchwork of blue sky peeking through. A hawk circled overhead, looking for prey. A squirrel barked from a tree nearby. The stream gurgled its fluid melody. Best of all was the soft rustling of leaves and the whispers of the breeze through tall grass. It cleared my mind, centered me. Birds sang a chorus, and I felt myself soaring into the branches with them.

I felt connected, like I was nature itself. A familiar tingling flowed through me, though I was not consciously trying to absorb energy. It was gentle and soothing, and I felt like I might start glowing. I closed my eyes and saw flutters of color beneath my eyelids. At that very moment, as I lay there stretched out in the grass, everything was right in the world.

* * *

When I awoke, I found Galen resting against a tree, keeping watch. He inclined his head in greeting, and I smiled back at him. I felt even more refreshed than I had after my bath. I sprang to my feet and began foraging for edibles. By the time I came back with fistfuls of nuts and dandelion leaves, Remi was getting up.

“You’re awake!” he said with some measure of astonishment. “And you’re not red anymore.”

“I’m not?” I didn’t recall healing myself. I looked down at my arms and found them back to normal. “Huh.”

He walked up to me and tapped my nose. “This was about to blister earlier today. Now it’s back to perky.”

I swatted his hand away. “I don’t think I’ve ever healed in my sleep before. Healing drains me, and sleep is when I get it back.”

“Thus the near-comatose sleeping habits,” he teased.

I ignored him and looked up at the sky. I couldn’t have slept more than a few hours. “But . . . I feel like I slept all night! I kind of feel great.” I looked back down at where I had lain, expecting a patch of dead grass the shape of my body, but there was only the impression my weight had left. Could it be that I had somehow absorbed life energy from . . . my surroundings? From everything at once?

A thought occurred to me, and I cast a worried glance at Galen who was packing, then at Remi. “How do you feel?”

His brows scrunched a little and he shrugged. “Fine, I guess. Why?”

I guess I hadn’t drained them after all. The worried tension left my shoulders. Then I realized that Remi was still examining me. “Um.” My eyes flitted back to my impression in the grass. “I might be discovering something new.”

His expression transformed into comprehension. “There’s nothing in the world like uncovering something you didn’t know about your gift.” His voice held a sense of wonder. “It’s like discovering new lands, within yourself.”

He described the feeling so perfectly that a huge grin spanned my face.

He grinned back, and our eyes locked in that moment of clear understanding. For several heartbeats, I gazed into his forest-colored eyes. Then those eyes dropped to my lips, and my heart began to race.

The sound of Galen clearing his throat dashed the moment to pieces, and I blinked rapidly, trying to pull my mind out of its haze.

“The sun is setting,” Galen said from afar. “We should get ready to head out.”

Reluctantly, I stepped away from Remi as he turned to pack.

* * *

This time Remi led the way. He scouted ahead, often disappearing and then returning with a course correction. I walked with Galen, our pace not so frantic anymore. My eyes followed Remi’s lithe body wherever he went, until it became too dark to see him anymore.

“Are we taking turns scouting ahead?” I asked Galen.

“No. He knows this territory like no other,” he replied. “He used to live with the Krat tribe.”

“He did?” A brief moment of betrayal flashed through me. “He never told me that.”

“I think he prefers not to talk about it.”

I looked out ahead of us, not seeing any sign of Remi. “How could a tribe be so cruel?” I murmured. “Murdering innocent women and children . . .”

“Siena, when we were at the Zurbo compound”—Galen broached the subject carefully, watching my face for reactions. Watching my face for hysteria, probably—”I noticed there weren’t any children among the . . . bodies.”

I looked at him with surprise. I actually hadn’t noticed. “There weren’t?”

He shook his head. “No, it was mostly women and a few men.”

My brow furrowed. “You think they took them?”

“It seems likely.”

I adjusted the strap on my shoulder while this realization trickled through me. “Why would they do that?”

Galen faced the darkening horizon ahead of us. “I wish I knew.”