Chapter 24
Four days had passed since they had left the mines, during which time Alistar had committed hundreds of plants, animals and insects to memory. Not only that, but his uncle had taught him how to fish.
Their paltry rations had hardly lasted into the third day, so that afternoon they'd returned to the river to try their hands at catching fish. His uncle had snapped a suitable branch from a tree as if it were the spindly limb of a dead sapling, and made sure that the angle left its tip jagged. Somehow, the crude spear had wound up in Alistar's hands and he was asked to attempt to stick a fish with its tip. To his surprise, he'd missed completely, and the passing fish had fled in the blink of an eye. He had been sure of his aim but had missed by a large margin.
His uncle had laughed at his perplexity, and then speared a fish on his first try. He went on to explain how the location of the fish was slightly off from where it appeared to be. This seemed to happen when things underwater were observed from the outside. When asked why, Raidon admitted that he didn't know the reason, and that it was just the way that things were. After much trial and error, a patient Alistar finally managed to catch his own fish, a foot-sized critter that he'd hefted up into the air with a yell of triumph.
Rather than eat the spoils, they had set off down the river until the trees encroached up to the edge and there was no longer any room to walk along its side. They'd stopped there for lunch, and eaten the fish raw out of fear that the smoke of a fire might draw unwanted attention. Alistar hadn't cared much for the taste, or the bones that constantly troubled him, but he'd helped himself to every last morsel of his catch.
That night, they took their chances sleeping on the trail, since the slope along the riverbank had become too steep. Thankfully, nature left them alone that night.
Although the fish had been filling, Alistar had woken up to a grumbling belly and abdominal pains. They had resumed their harrowing journey as soon as they were awoken by the sun's first rays. Not long after they had set off, he and his uncle stripped a large bush that they'd stumbled upon of nearly all its fruit, which filled their ration bag almost to the point of overflowing. Alistar had almost eaten red berries from another bush nearby, but was stopped by his uncle and told that those berries, and many others besides, were poisonous, and could do anything from upsetting his stomach for an afternoon, to seeing him dead on the forest floor with a foaming mouth.
Currently, it was well into the afternoon of the fourth day since they had left the mines. The sun was directly above them, small beams of light piercing into the heavy shade of the forest through gaps in the foliage above.
"What will we do once we get to Malford?" Alistar asked, as he was helped over a fallen tree.
"We hope that people are still willing to help an old friend," said Raidon, swatting at a fly. "If not, we find work and save up until we can afford to join a merchant caravan. No matter how many years have passed, there'll always be plenty of people traversing the Winding Road. Ah, it's the only road that connects both sides of the mountain range."
"Bigger than the one leading to the mines?"
"Yes, and much more dangerous. That's why we'd need to join one of the caravans, which hire escorts to protect them from beasts and bandits."