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No wonder I never noticed.
“Yeah, I’m not eating anything that leaks like it’s infected,” Zeke said, pushing off the tree. “Seen any bushes?”
“We passed some a few minutes ago,” I said. “Why?”
“There are only two things I know of that you can eat here, and they both come from the only bush species in the forest. It’s been here since before Elyrdin’s walls had to go up. It survived the curse of this place. You can eat both the berries and the bark from its skinny branches.”
I glanced behind us.
I’d seen a cluster of dark green bushes with tiny white growths resembling pearls. I’d mistaken them for flowers. It was the only cluster I’d seen since waking, though I had no idea how long ago that had been. It felt like hours had passed.
“Let’s head back,” Cyn said, stepping over a rotting log. “Don’t know when we’ll get another chance.”
Zeke pressed his clawed hand to his stomach. “When we get back home, I’m getting a huge chunk of niphi to grill. What do you want to eat, Rae?”
“Sonker.”
Cyn looked at me as if I were missing a few brain cells. “What the fuck is a sonker?”
“Ever hear of a cobbler?”
“Yeah.”
“Similar, but with a pancake batter-style topping, making it like cake over the fruit filling.” I glanced to the side as Cyn studied me as if actually interested in what I had to say. “It’s a traditional dish where I’m from,” I mumbled.
Zeke held a cluster of branches out of my way. “Can you make it sometime?”
“Maybe, if y’all have the things I need. I’m actually good at that one.”
Cyn squinted at me. “What is it?”
“Huh?”
“You sighed.”
I waved a hand. “Just thinking about the dishes I’m not so good at.”
“Like?”
Shrugging, I stepped ahead of them, surprised he even cared to ask. “Biscuits. Never got them right for Grandma.”
The guys fell silent behind me, and I appreciated it.
Talking about Grandma while I was in such a vulnerable position—lost in a cursed forest where I could die at any moment—wasn’t something I wanted to do. In fact, I’d reached a point I didn’t want to talk about her at all. We’d said goodbye in Cholian. I’d gotten to see her spirit depart in peace. I needed nothing more.
“I think I see the bushes up—mmph!”
Cyn grabbed me and pulled me back, clamping his hand over my mouth. He dipped his head, whispering in my ear, “Don’t move or make a sound.”
The seriousness of his tone was the only reason I wasn’t stomping his foot with my boot to make him release me.
Rustling in the thick undergrowth to my right made me freeze, holding my breath even though Cyn muffled any sound I could have made.
An emaciated figure with pale skin resembling weathered bone, covered in strange perforations and gaping holes, shambled out onto the path we’d carved through the foliage.
It paused, inhaling the air through a human-like nose. A series of hisses and clicks escaped its crooked mouth, filled with blunt, rotting teeth, as it swayed from side to side, sensing the surroundings it couldn’t see.
I now understood why Cyn had silenced me.
