Chapter 12 - Signal Fire
The torrent carried them away.
Mud surged around Antonius like a raging river.
Rocks slammed into him.
Branches struck him from every direction.
Still, he forced his eyes open.
He could not lose sight of the monster.
Not now.
Eventually, the current began to weaken.
Had they been swept all the way to the valley floor?
Mud pressed against him from every side, threatening to crush the breath from his lungs.
Gritting his teeth, Antonius clawed his way upward.
At last, he dragged himself free.
Pain flared throughout his body.
Cuts covered his arms and legs.
His mouth tasted of blood.
He spat red into the mud.
"Andri! Where are you?!"
He searched desperately.
Then he saw it.
A massive shape lying half-buried a short distance away.
Antonius stumbled toward it, shoving mud aside with his bare hands.
The creature's enormous head was buried beneath the debris.
He dug frantically.
At the very least, he had to clear its airway.
Then—
The gigantic body began to shrink.
Before his eyes, the monster became a mud-covered five-year-old child.
"Andri!"
Antonius hurriedly pulled him free.
He checked for a pulse.
Then for breathing.
Alive.
Barely.
The valley floor was no place to remain.
If another landslide came, they were finished.
Antonius hoisted Andri onto his back.
Despite the child's small frame, his exhausted body found the weight crushing.
Even so, he climbed.
Step by agonizing step.
Eventually he found shelter beneath an outcropping of rock.
It offered some protection from the rain.
Perhaps even from another landslide.
Or perhaps that was merely wishful thinking.
Antonius laid Andri down.
Then, with stiff and trembling fingers, he stripped off his soaked clothes.
He intended to share what little body heat he had.
But the moment he touched the boy, he froze.
"What is this?"
Andri's body was cold.
Not merely cold.
Corpse-cold.
Panic gripped him.
He checked again.
Pulse.
Breathing.
Still there.
Weak, but present.
The creature reminded him of illustrations he had once seen.
Snakes.
Lizards.
Reptiles.
When he had once asked about crocodiles from the southern lands, his tutor had explained that such creatures could never survive in Imresia's climate.
They required warmth.
Warmth.
He had to warm Andri.
But he himself was freezing.
At this rate, both of them would die.
A deafening crack split the sky.
Lightning.
For an instant, the valley blazed white.
And in that brief flash, Antonius saw something.
"There!"
He wrapped Andri in his cloak.
Then he drew the practice dagger hanging at his waist and hurried toward the fallen tree illuminated by the lightning.
He scraped away the rain-soaked outer bark.
Just as he had hoped.
The wood beneath was dry.
Carefully, he shaved off splinters and shavings, shielding them from the rain with his own body.
Gathering as much dry wood as he could carry, he returned to the shelter.
Then he searched his pockets.
A cotton handkerchief.
By some miracle, it remained dry.
Next, he began searching the surrounding rocks.
The search took time.
Far too much time.
Eventually, he found what he was looking for.
A vein of pyrite exposed along the cliffside.
He struck it with the dagger.
Sparks flew.
"...Good."
His hands trembled.
His fingers had long since gone numb.
The repeated impacts sent pain shooting through his swollen palms.
They were redder now than when he had struck Andri.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Finally—
The handkerchief began to smolder.
"Yes..."
Carefully, he blew on it.
Then transferred the ember to the dry wood.
A tiny flame appeared.
Back and forth he went.
Between the fallen tree.
The pyrite vein.
The rocky shelter.
Again and again.
Patiently feeding the fire.
Until at last, a proper campfire crackled beneath the overhang.
Smoke rose into the stormy sky.
Good.
If anyone was searching, they would see it.
Theodoros.
Eventually, Antonius lowered himself beside the fire.
Only then did he allow himself to rest.
