Page 69 of Synodic

It was a long shot, but it was all I had.

I spun on my heel and ran full speed toward the chasm in the ground. The wounded forest laith charged after me, its worthless arm not slowing it down in the least.

I had tried my hand at long jump throughout my track career, and while my marks were decent, they weren’t enough to land me in a division-level spot, but I hoped they were enough to land me on the opposite side of that bursting water hole.

Charging my runway, I came to the last step of earth before the ground plummeted down into a watery prison. I planted my dominant foot on the pit’s edge, swung my lead knee and opposite arm upward, and jumped forward.

I propelled myself across the chasm, the forest laith leaping right behind me. The swipe at my back let me know I was mere inches from being shredded apart, and I barely cleared the jump as I fell on the other side in a slippery mess.

Just as I thought I had timed it wrong and that the beast would crash down upon me, a violent pillar of water shot from the deep hole like a cannon blast. Nature’s hydrous claws caught the beast mid-jump, and in a flurry of white, green, and blue, the laith was dragged down into the abyss of churning water.

I clambered up from the wet ground and darted towards the fallen moss, scooping it up before searching my way back to the cave. I didn’t even look behind me as I sprinted through the unrelenting rain, praying Rowen was still alive. I had no idea how long I’d actually been away from him—adrenaline had a way of skewing your sense of time. But I was grateful for that adrenaline; it was fighting off the impending shock I knew would catch up with me eventually.

Especially the trauma of taking the life of two creatures today. I’d never killed or harmed anything in my whole life, and even though it was in self-defense, knowing it was them or me, I still felt changed for ending the existence of another creature.

I hated it and hoped I never had to do it again. But I couldn’t dwell on that now, I had to find my way back.

I don’t know how, but as I ran through the fog, rain, trees, and pitfalls, my feet knew exactly where to land to bring me safely back to Rowen. And thankfully, he was just as I left him, slumped against the cave wall, unconscious, and breathing in convulsive shallow gasps.

I dropped the ax and raced to his side.

Fingers trembling, I took the slimy bundle of smashed green moss and pulled the lichen into long, thin strands.

I knew everything had an antithesis, a counteraction, a cure—fascinating how sometimes the very thing that weakened you was also the very antidote that healed and strengthened you.

I placed the first bit of moss onto his opened bloody flesh, begging it to work.

Rowen inhaled sharply as my fingers gently prodded and adjusted the dressing onto the uppermost gash, and his eyes shot open from the pain.

As soon as the moss touched his mutilated wound, tiny tendrils of vines reached out and clasped onto Rowen’s torn skin like a symbiont latching onto its host. It was creating its own sealed bandage, stopping the bleeding and mending the mangled flesh with a webbed netting. I only had a moment to marvel before I went to work on the next slice of his skin.

His whole body was tensed and flexed beneath my touch, and his bulging chest and flat stomach glistened with a sheen of sweat. A fever had set in.

“It was dead?” he confirmed in a pained rasp, tilting his head back to reveal the throbbing pulse at his neck.

“Nearly.”

His eyes shot to me, searching my body with concern. “Are you h—“

I shushed him before he could continue. “Save your strength. I’m fine.”

“The moss will help with the wounds and absorb the venom, but it won’t stop the hallucinations from running their course,” he said through clenched teeth, the burst of lucidity most likely brought on by the awakened pain.

I sealed the last of his gashes with the binding moss, pained that his ordeal was far from over. He was dangerously hot, and I knew a high fever could be just as fatal as any blade to the heart.

What would Takoda do? I tried to remember what he had taught me earlier today, hoping with my whole being that he was alright. I flipped through the Rolodex of memories trying to recall if he had said anything about fevers. Strange how that already seemed like a lifetime ago.

I looked down at the remaining bit of moss in my hand.

Takoda’s words flashed through my mind.Everything is connected.

“Rowen, eat this,” I said as I handed him a web of wet moss. “It will go directly into your system, helping heal you from the inside out.” I spoke with such conviction there was no way it could be anything but true. It had to be.

Without hesitation, Rowen slowly reached and took the greenery between his broad fingers. He ripped off a piece with his teeth and began chewing.

“See, aren’t you glad I came along, Copeland?” he asked through a pained smile after swallowing the last bit of moss.

It seemed to be working!

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