Edvard faces another test.
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♫♪Suggested Music: from Revenge of the Gods on AudioNetwork
By nightfall seemed two days away to Mina as they traveled that day. Not all of her turmoil was the journey, although the heavy and hot weather pressed down on them mercilessly and shade was non-existent until near evening. Yuila pleaded for Edvard to stop at the clump of banana leaf type of trees that they reached, but he continued on to the next stand still two hours away.
Yuila whined, not loudly, but consistently, until they reached the next group of trees surrounded by an underbrush of ferns, and Mina and Edvard took to ignoring her. The trees were worth it, however, and they found their reward in a pair of pineapple trees and three shorter ones bearing avocadoes.
The Crone happily collected her bag when they finally stopped for the night late that evening. She tossed her bedroll to one side and didn't pause on her way to the smooth bark of the nearest pineapple tree.
"I'm going to find water," Edvard told Mina as Yuila looked up at the tall trees and their large fruits.
Mina nodded, glancing to his bandaged hands. "We'll have to take supplies with us. We're getting low.”
He looked up at the pineapples Yuila was talking fondly to the trees. "We'll stock up. Yuila, see if you can scrounge up any from the ground."
"Yes!" the girl cried, her violet gaze dropping to the ground immediately.
When he left, Mina sighed and knelt to the packs at the base of a non-fruit tree. Edvard hadn't yet decided on building a fire for the night, and she was anticipating a simple meal of fruit.
She wasn't anxious to tell him the truth about her homeland. Not yet. His mood had shifted considerably after Sova, and she didn't want him to regret helping her, too.
She shook set the bedrolls to one side, this time pulling Yuila's closer to hers, and looked to where the girl was collecting fallen pineapples.
But there was no getting around the fact that she'd have to tell Edvard.
"Look at these!" Yuila settled next to her with three pineapples in her arms. "They're kind of prickly, but they smell good."
"They sure do." Mina took one mushy fruit that bore a strong smell, and shook her head. "This one is over-ripe. We're not keeping it.”
Yuila pouted at the large fruit, but nodded, setting it aside. "Can we eat one now?"
"We'll wait on Edvard."
They looked to where he was crouching at a patch of larger ferns by a few other trees, studying something on the ground.
"There're berries over there," Yuila said, pointing to one of the farther avocado trees surrounded by dense ferns. "Can I get some?"
Mina looked skeptically to the bushes she indicated. "Yes, but don't eat any until Edvard looks at them. In case they're not edible," she added when the girl stared at her.
"Oh. Okay."
When Yuila was gone, Mina picked up one of the pineapples and smelled it. She smiled, inhaling the sweet fruitiness, appreciating the change in terrain that would now render a new diet for them.
"You know you can't eat it like that," Edvard said, breaking her thoughts as he met her. "They have to be peeled first."
"I know," she said, smiling, and then looking up as his fingers brushed her hair where the comb was set.
He placed five black avocadoes beside her. "These were at the spring. I'm going to water the animals."
By the pensive look on his face she knew he was thinking of the Pinto mare no longer with them. "Thanks."
He glanced to Yuila in the ferns near a bulkier stand of trees. "What's she picking?"
"Berries."
He nodded and left with Neito and Makka to the spring.
The growing darkness seemed thicker in the low light of the twin moons, and Mina wondered if they would need a fire for light. She inspected the avocadoes, their rough skins taking a slight dent but still firm when she touched them. She reached for a pack and opened it to find the knife she used for cooking, and then looked up to see Edvard return. He set his scabbard and bow and quiver to one side of their bedrolls, looking out to where Yuila had been.
"Where is she?"
Mina looked up immediately, searching the ferns at the trees. The Crone's head popped into view as she stood up from collecting berries, then moved along the brush to where the trees were clustered more tightly together.
Edvard nodded and knelt a few feet away from Mina. "We're going to need a small fire, for light."
She nodded. "I think so." She turned the avocado over, determining how to best prepare it. Maybe they could just eat them, like any other fruit.
"Have you ever eaten one of those before?" he asked, eyeing the fruit she held.
"Oh, uh, yes." Maybe she should have said no, she thought. "A long time ago."
"They come into the valley green sometimes." He cleared out a spot to build the fire, pulling clumps of thick grass to expose the bare soil. He found a flint from his pack and kindling from the underbrush nearby. He nodded to the pineapples lying beside her. "I'll cut up those in a moment."
"I need to change your bandages," she said, nodding to his hands.
He shook his head and was about to say more when another voice reached them.
"What have we got here?" a man's tone said from the thicker part of the trees. A short cry from Yuila accompanied it.
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