Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 305

Chapter 305: Thirsty
“What if this place is magic?” Daniel surprised Ford by being the first one to chime in with an opinion. “This circle. Maybe we’re not supposed to make a fire here. And the flowers… maybe we shouldn’t trample more of them than we have to.”

“That’s an interesting perspective,” Mia pulled away from her aunt’s hug to look at her cousin. “I have to agree that we made good time today, considering, but part of that was due to skipping lunch. I’m starving!”

Ford’s stomach grumbled loudly as if to accentuate the statement, and he dismounted without waiting for help.

Mia’s eyes flashed towards him, darting significantly to his leg. She’d caught him masking the injuries again. Oh well, it wasn’t really her business whether he hurt himself worse or not, was it?

He shrugged at her, and she huffed slightly as she turned away. It seemed he’d irritated her, but he couldn’t say her concern was unfounded. In the race away from danger, he’d needed to mask the pain to keep going at a gallop.

When they arrived here, he’d been paying more attention to their surroundings than himself, and simply forgotten to stop hiding his wounds from himself. He would do better next time.

“Let’s have a meal and bed down for the night. It seems like it will stay warm enough to camp without the tents,” Grandpa looked at the sky. “I don’t think it will rain. My bones don’t ache.”

“Without tents?” Anaisa blinked at her father-in-law.

“We’ve now seen how quickly things can change,” He said evenly. “This place is not like what we’re used to. It’s due to pure luck that we were able to get the tents down and across the river before the wildfire reached the camp. If something comes for us here during the night, we should be as mobile as we can be, and quickly.”

Ford agreed, but didn’t say so out loud. There were far more dangers here than the group had predicted. It was best to be on guard and ready to move.

Mia and Anaisa put together a meal that didn’t need to be heated, and the men unsaddled and brushed the horses. They were no longer lathered and tired, but seemed refreshed by the spring water.

Daniel was aching to try it, but the adults were still reluctant.

Eventually, Ford looked around at each of them and decided to just take a drink himself. It would make their journey easier to replenish their water supply as often as possible, since they didn’t know how far the next water source would be.

Since this one seemed safe enough for the animals, and no one here really had any authority over him, he was in the best position to try it. If it was harmful, he would be the least mourned of anyone.

The morbid thought crept into his mind, berating him. Didn’t self sacrifice bite him hard in the mines? Warning others was what began the mess in the first place. If he’d just kept quiet, and run…

Well, none of this would have happened, certainly. He’d still be working at the mines, in all likelihood, on starvation wages. Mia and her family would all be home, together, and happy.

Wouldn’t they?

Shrugging, he finished brushing his horse and moved over to the brook, leaning down over it while Seth watched warily.

The man made no move to stop him at all, and Ford wondered whether he was wishing the water would be safe, or poisonous. Mia’s father had been… less grumpy, but Ford was sure there was still underlying animosity there.

Scooping up a handful of the crystal clear water, Ford sipped it. It was sweet, he realized with some surprise. He let it rest on his tongue a moment before swallowing and drinking some more. His shoulders began to relax, and the aches and pains he was masking seemed less dire.

He drank until he was no longer thirsty, and laid down on the bank for a moment to stare at the sky. Stars. The clearing was wide enough for him to see the bright, full moon and an array of stars that he’d only dreamed of for many years. It was a clear and temperate evening, pleasant in almost every way.

If he wanted to, he could easily and contentedly fall asleep exactly where he was, on the bed of lavender flowers.

Relaxing further, Ford let his magic fall away from masking his injuries. Startled, he suddenly realized they were all but gone.

Not simply masked, but healed. That’s why his muscles were relaxing; they weren’t holding him back from reinjuring himself.

Ford bolted to a sitting position and untucked his shirt, pulling it up to reveal that the bruising all around his ribs was gone.

“Ford?” Seth’s single word was a mix of several emotions, and the young man’s head snapped up to make eye contact with the man.

“My ribs are healed,” He sat up straighter to let the man see. “And… my leg. I think my leg is all better.”

“Healing water??” Daniel perked up and rushed over. Mia was beside him, her eyes wide as she stared at Ford.

There was a faint blush of embarrassment on her cheeks, and quickly, he pulled his shirt back down into place.

That was incredibly careless of him!

“I think it might be,” He spoke to Daniel rather than apologizing to the ladies for exposing his bare chest and stomach by lifting his shirt.

Maybe he should ask Grandpa for the next ‘man lessons’ to include more etiquette on behaving well around women… but then, that might be taken the wrong way.

He would just learn to figure it out on his own!

One by one, the others tasted the water. On Seth’s recommendation, they consolidated their existing water into existing canteens and then filled the now-empty water vessels from the brook.

If the water truly was healing, it was worth having around. If some strange side effect appeared later on, it was best to have the known water quarantined off from the new.

Ford hoped that was an unneeded precaution.