Chapter 12 - The Journey Continues
Thankfully, the night passed by Shi without much hassle, though the coldness of the winds did chipper at her body once the flames went out. It seems that her body is more resistant to the cold, to an extent, because even though she felt cold, it wasn't as bad as the dwarf had explained it to be, nor did the coldness harm her— just one of the many things she has yet to fully understand about her new changes.
Waking up, she no longer felt the fatigue of yesterday's events, in fact, she hasn't felt as good as she does currently ever in her short life. It felt like she was made fresh, her body no longer aching in the places it did yesterday, her mind clear even though she just woke, her body not sore from sleeping on the hard floor. 'This is great,' she thought to herself with a smile.
As she stretched her body out of habit, she rose herself off from the ground and stood, looking around the cave. She made sure the horse was still where she left him last night, which to her expectation, it was, thankfully. She noticed something different about her surroundings this morning; it seemed brighter than usual, or perhaps it was due to the lack of clouds in the sky?
Either way, it looked like she would be in for a very heated day, and even if she was very reluctant to leave the shade of the cave, she knew she had to do it, otherwise, her trip would be delayed even more than it was already. She estimated, that alone, without a proper navigator, it would take her around a month to reach the closest kingdom.
With a sigh, she walked over to the edge of the cave and looked around. Sand, sand, and stone as far as she could see. What did she expect to see, she doesn't know. Well, that was a good thing for her, at least it meant there wasn't anything nearby that would harm her. So, after glancing around for a bit, she returned into the cave to eat breakfast.
Salted meat was breakfast. It tasted terrible, honestly, it didn't have a taste at all, it was like chewing on rubber, minus the flavor. She couldn't complain though, at the very least it would keep her filled until she reached her destination, if she didn't have it, she might have starved, or worse, need to hunt for food.
She sat next to the horse as she ate, using one hand to softly brush its mane with her fingers.
"It's just you and me now huh boy?" She said with a chuckle as she looked at the horse, obviously, it didn't know what she was saying, but as if noticing her gaze, it lowered its head for her to rub it properly.
"Alright, today we are going to be riding for a while, you deserve it." She smiled and started to rub the horse's head, finishing off her meat quickly.
Eating didn't take very long, so after a few minutes of eating, along with playing the horse, she checked the map once more, making sure she was heading the right way and set off once she confirmed she was. Hopefully, today will be as uneventful as yesterday was. Wait no, yesterday was very eventful, she got attacked and killed people. Let's hope today wasn't eventful at all.
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Hours had passed by quickly with Shi riding, the sun was beating down on her back without rest, to the point where she was dripping wet from the heat. It was so hot she couldn't even think straight, she was pretty sure she had seen multiple things along the way that wasn't even there, she needed water quickly, but she didn't have any more with her. Without water, she would most likely not make it through this trip.
With a groan, she pulled the horse to a halt and looked around, seeing nothing but sand and rock, it didn't look like she was anywhere close to civilization, not that she expected she would be. What she was looking for was animals, animals normally stayed around where water could be found, so if she could find some normal animals, she would be able to find some water. That was her best shot at least.
Well, that was better said than done, because unfortunately for Shi, it seems she had terrible luck. There was not a single animal in sight for miles, Shi couldn't even hear the cries from one, and she had a great hearing. 'This is going to be troublesome,' She thought to herself with a sigh under her breath, she needed water otherwise she mightn't make it through the desert.
'Whatever, I'll just ride until I see an animal then follow it, no point in waiting around in the heat.' With that thought in mind, she ordered the horse to start going against, taking off once more on her sandy pathway through the blazing sunlight. The horse was a bit confused at first, it also wanted to stop and drink water, but it did as it was ordered, and kept moving, slowly at first, but eventually picking up speed as it moved.
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As Shi rode, she finally spotted a bird in the distance, it looked like a relatively normal animal, which means it needed a water source to survive. At least Shi hoped that was the case. When she saw the bird take a turn and started to head right, she pulled on the lead of the horse and steered him in the direction to follow it.
The bird continued to fly for a few minutes, towards a small hill. Even from the distance, Shi could see a small pond of water on the top of the hill, which caused Shi to smile, 'Finally, I won't die out here'.
The bird landed on top of the hill, and Shi followed suit, letting go of the horse as she dismounted by the foot of the hill. She tied the horse to a tree that was growing near the hill, taking a leather pouch from it as she walked towards the pond to fill it up. Kneeling near the water, she first sniffed it to see if it was clean, well it wasn't the best, but it was better than nothing. Once she confirmed it was water, she sighed with relief and took a few big mouthfuls of the water, saturating her insides.
It was so good, so very good. She felt the instant cooling effect the water had on her insides, allowing it to finally get a break from the terrible heat that the sun was abusing her with. 'That's great, Kami, I needed that.' After she drank her fill, she made sure to fill up her leather pouch with the water, this was for the road because she couldn't stop here for long, nor come back whenever she needed water. Hopefully, she found another source before it ran out.
Scooping up some of the water, she poured it onto her face, wiping the sweat and grime off her forehead. She hadn't taken a bath in, who knows how long. Six days? The thought of going six days without taking a bath, especially in the state she was in, soaked with dried blood and sand, was insane. She had a thought though, 'I've not needed to use the washroom all this time, that's, weird?'. This thought made her realize that maybe her body changed a lot more than she had thought, and she still had yet to fully understand how it changed.
"Screw it!" She said loudly as she just stood up, and jumped into the shallow pond. She needed to wash her clothing anyways, plus, the water would help her entire body cool out, so why wouldn't she.