“We headed to Klaxxon,” Nighteko said.
“Oh,” the trader said. “I’m sorry about that. I’m headed in the opposite direction, I’m afraid. But I won’t let you go empty-handed for your kindness.”
Nighteko waved his hands. “That’s not necessary.”
The trader stepped on a spoke of the mended wheel to reach into the back of his cart. He came out with a single container. “It’s not much, I’m afraid, but enough to keep you going for a day.”
He opened it, revealing a small amount of cooked food. It looked like a rice stirfry but I couldn’t identify most of the ingredients.
I wanted to turn him down, to tell him there was no need, but then my stomach grumbled.
“I can only spare one, I’m afraid,” the trader said. “I carry everything I own with me. My food has to last me until I reach the next village where I can bargain for more. But please, take this.”
His face was gaunt and I suddenly realized why Nighteko refused it.
This was all the food the trader had.
But he was a trader. Maybe he was willing to go a little hungrier if I gave him something in return…
I slipped the bracelet from my wrist and gave it to him. “How much food will you give us for this?”
Nighteko shook his head. “Don’t give it away. It’s worth too much.”
“If it helps us see the end of this day, I think it’s worth it,” I said.
Nighteko was starving too. Still, he didn’t like to see me lose the only keepsake I had of my father.
The trader held it up to the light.
“It’s made from silver,” I said. “I don’t know what it’s worth on this planet but it’s worth good money where I’m from.”
The trader opened the locket, revealing the images of my parents. He handed it back to me. “I can’t take this.”
“I don’t need it,” I said, and I tapped my temple. “I have everything I need to remember them up here.”
The trader nodded gratefully and tucked the bracelet in his pocket. “I’ll get a good meal for it in the next village. It’s only right we trade more fairly.”
He climbed back into his cart and came out with a second, slightly larger container of food.
“You need to keep your strength up,” the trader said. “Especially in a place like this.”
The trader climbed onto his cart and made a clucking noise out the corner of his mouth. The not-horse took the mended cart down the narrow winding path. It wasn’t a regular road but two tracks, worn into the soil from hundreds of similar carts on identical journies.
He took a corner and was gone.
We tore into our containers without needing to mutter a single word. I didn’t care what was in it or even what it tasted like. I couldn’t shove it in my face fast enough.
“I guess both humans and Titans are beasts when it comes to being hangry,” I said.
Nighteko chuckled as he sucked his fingers.
Neither of us were full but it would keep us going for a few more hours, at least.
I’d never seen Nighteko so warm and generous before. He really did have a streak of honor in him. We followed the tracks through the jungle.
It was a much more pleasant journey, especially when I had his firm ass to keep me entertained.
Nights came and went much faster on this planet. Maybe it spun faster or had a different tilt? I didn’t know. As someone who loved their sleep, it could only be a good thing.
The path we took was not straight and tended to move in wide arcs. I got the feeling this road hadn’t been designed. The pioneers had simply moved around the jungle’s hardiest impediments rather than cut through them.
I began to wonder if we would ever make it out of there.
The hoots and the howls and the growls from mysterious creatures deep in the jungle had come out to play. Eyes glowed and floated in the trees and swung from the branches, following our progress every step of the way.
“Nighteko…” I said.
“I see them,” he said. “Keep walking. With any luck, they won’t bother us.”
We finally reached the path’s mouth on the other side of the jungle. It fed onto a wide plain dotted with small huts. They were dilapidated, the roofs having caved in. Black scorch marks ran up the walls like tattoos gone wrong. It might have been picturesque in its day.
But no longer.
The jungle had already begun to reclaim what was once its domain. Trees sprouted through the closest huts, roots cracking the walls and tearing them apart from the inside out.
Nighteko moved among the remains and ran a hand over a craggy wall. This place held significance for him.
“We’ll sleep here tonight,” he said.
It was a huge step up from the beach. At least now we had a roof over our heads—even if many of the roofs now had holes in them. We passed through the former village until we came to the hut with the least amount of damage. There was still a big split in the roof, so Nighteko picked up an overturned trough and placed it over the hole. It was good enough for tonight.
It even had a bed inside. I jumped on it and immediately regretted it. It was hard as rock. I rubbed my ass. It’d be badly bruised in the morning. When I raised the woven mat, I found it really was rock. Still, it beat sleeping on the floor, and with all the crazy creatures they had running around, that could only be a good thing. It’d been built for creatures larger than humans, that was for sure.
Some of the huts were connected by small tunnels. I got the feeling that as families grew, they added extra rooms like we would with extensions back home.
Nighteko stood at the entrance. He hadn’t taken a step inside yet. “I’ll… make a fire,” he said.
Something
