47. Traveling in the Reaches

Moon landed on the branch nearly blind, the driving wind and rain too heavy to see through. Balm landed beside him, her claws scraping on the wood as she overshot and nearly went off the side. Moon hissed in fear, but she clawed her way back up. Maybe I should have carried Stone, he thought, but there hadn't been any time. He tightened his hold on Chime's dead weight and followed Balm up the branch. 

They climbed long enough for him to think he might have landed on the wrong branch, but then he spotted Jade ahead, her spines outlined against faint light. Moon clambered over the rough wood of the knothole down into the tree's hollow.

The sudden cessation of wind and rain made him stumble with relief. Jade caught his arm and held him up, though most of her attention was on Balm. The space was large but oddly shaped, the light from the mentor's rock showing Moon a rough lumpy floor and curving walls. The place smelled of plant rot and bugs, but there was no predator musk. It wasn't completely enclosed either, with cracks and gaps in the narrow upper portions, letting in cool air and stray rain drops. Balm had already shifted to her groundling form and laid Stone down on the floor, tucking her pack under his head. Moon eased a semi-conscious Chime to the floor, letting him slump back against the wall. 

Jade said, "You're all right here? I have to go after those idiots."

Those idiots were the other warriors, separated in the confusion. Moon swallowed back half a dozen arguments: he should go with her, she should stay here and let him go, she shouldn't go at all. Instead he said, "We're fine."

Jade twitched her spines in acknowledgement and scrambled out into the rain. 

In the wan light, he and Balm stared at each other, then Balm said, "We are not fine."

Moon snorted and shifted to his groundling form. His clothes were instantly soaked with the water from his scales, dripping onto the wood. He crouched down and pulled his pack open, and tossed Balm his blanket. It was dry, thanks to the pack's mountain-tree sap-coated fabric. He unwrapped his mentor's rock and set it aside, the extra light chasing away shadows and a few stray beetles. "Chime, can you hear me?"

"Of course I can hear you, I'm right here," Chime muttered, sounding vague and grumpy.

"I need you to take your wet clothes off and wrap up in your blanket," Moon told him. 

"Oh, that's a good idea." Chime pulled at his own pack, still wrapped around his arm.

Balm had already gotten Stone's wet clothes off and wrapped him up in Moon's blanket. "I can't believe he's not burned," she said.

Moon shook his head. "I can't either. I saw him get struck by lightning." Stone was breathing but Moon would feel a lot better when he woke up. Not if, he reminded himself. When.

Chime was fumbling to get his shirt off and Moon got up, stripped him, got the blanket wrapped around him, and set him down on the floor again. He dug through Chime's pack and got his mentor's rock out, then checked to see what else Chime had in there. "Can I use these leaves you collected?" They were rolled up mountain-tree leaves, a variety Chime hadn't seen before, each as long as Moon's arm and twice as wide.

Chime nodded. His teeth were beginning to chatter but his gaze was still unfocussed. Slamming into a tree during the whole Stone-struck-by-lightning incident had knocked him partly unconscious, but at least he hadn't broken any bones.

The spelled rocks provided light, but they needed warmth in here. Moon carried the thick leaves back to the center of the hollow and twisted them into a rough bowl shape. Then he used the tinder and flints from his pack to make a small fire in the center, feeding it with chunks knocked off the dry wood of the hollow. He felt around the sides of the leaf bowl and decided his guess had been right; there was too much moisture inside the leaves and too much thick sap on the outside to catch fire. He wouldn't want to leave it alone, but it should be fine as long as he kept the fire small and watched it carefully. And it gave him something to do besides think about the terrifying suddenness of the storm. At least the thunder had stopped.

The warm light of the flames made their little hollow seem cozy though it would still take a while to get the chill out of the air. Moon glanced at Balm. "Do you still have your waterskin? I'm going to try to make tea."

Dragging his blanket, Chime crawled over and settled next to Moon, leaning against him. "How do you feel?" Moon asked.

Chime groaned wordlessly, but he seemed more coherent.

Balm was watching Moon, bemused, as she chafed Stone's wrists. "You are really not a normal consort, are you?" she said, and handed him her waterskin.

"I used to do this alone, you know." Moon got the small metal pot out of Chime's pack and filled it from the waterskin. 

"Get knocked out of the air during an unexpected storm, and turn a rotting tree hollow into a comfortable camp?"

"Without the comfortable part." Moon got the pot situated in the fire and found a small block of tea in Chime's pack. "Usually without the tree hollow part, too." Jade had been the one to find shelter. He just hoped she found the other warriors too. 

Chime roused enough to say, "You hate storms."

"I hate them even more than I did before," Moon admitted. When Jade got back with the others he was going to pretend to be a normal consort and huddle uselessly under a blanket.

He was scraping tea into the steaming water when Stone said, "You put the tea in too soon."

Moon almost dropped the whole block in. Balm pressed her hand against Stone's chest and said, "Don't try to sit up! You got hit by lightning."

"I know that," Stone told her in exasperation.

"Do you want tea or not?" Moon asked, relief making him snap.

"I don't want oversteeped tea," Stone protested.

They argued about it until Jade showed up with the rest of the warriors.