Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“Is that a… good thing? Is it at the edge of the rainforest?”
“Not exactly,” I admitted. That particular river went from the edge of the rainforest to pretty deep inside, where it met the Amazon River. “But it tells us where we are. Roundabout.”
“I guess any insight is better than nothing. And we—“
“Sh,” I said, holding up a hand. “Hear that?”
“The men?” she whispered, turning in a circle.
“Water,” I said, the relief palpable. “Over that way.”
We’d both clearly been suffering in silence with our dehydration. Because as soon as we heard water, we both fucking ran.
“Don’t drink it,” I warned when we came up to a white-water river, the current creating racket that drowned out the usual animal sounds all around.
“I can just rinse, right?” she asked, leaning down at the water’s edge.
“Yeah, of course. Just try not to get it in your mouth.”
I set my pack down, digging around until I found the bag with the filter, thankful I’d decided to fully pack the bag, even though I’d only planned on a short trip. With a guide.
I filled the bag as Violet scrubbed fresh water up her arms, over her chest, around the back of her neck.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked as she moved flat on her back to hang her head over the water.
“Listen, your hair is short; you don’t get it.”
Then she dipped her hair back into the current and reached up to scrub at her scalp. “Honestly, better than any shower head I’ve ever come across,” she said as she sat back up after squeezing out her hair. “I feel almost human again. Though it would be nice to get in the water.”
“That water would rip you away in a heartbeat,” I warned her as I handed her an empty water bottle so I could squeeze filtered water into it.
It was a slow process to fill the bottles, only to have us both guzzle down two each before starting the process over again, so we were stocked up.
“Isn’t that going to be heavy?” Violet asked as I filled up the filter bag again, then worked on fitting it into my pack.
“Yeah, but it will be worth it if we don’t have to try to seek out another water source if we run through the bottles.”
With that, we started walking again, this time with a little more speed—bodies hydrated, stomachs somewhat full of fruit.
It was impossible to tell how much ground we covered, and this part of the forest was thick as hell, making progress likely a little slower, despite the quicker pace.
We’d even lucked into another small rain shower that kept the sweating at bay as we went.
My rough estimate was it was close to dusk when we stopped near a banana plant.
“Oh, wow, those are far up there, huh?”
“Yeah, this is a really mature one.” I’d lucked out that the other few I’d come across were on the shorter side with some low-lying bananas that were reachable with just a few jumps.
If we wanted some of the ripe bananas on this plant, I was going to need to climb.
We were low on food. And I hadn’t come across more guava or anything else on our walk.
If we wanted to keep morale up, we needed more food.
“Alright. I am going to see if I can find some rocks to stand on.”
“Rocks?” Violet asked, brows pinched.
“Seems like we’re in an area of old lava flow. I’ve seen more rocks around. If I can get one under the tree, that might give me a couple of feet, so I only have to climb maybe five or so feet.”
“Shouldn’t I come with you?”
“I’d rather you stay here, so we don’t lose the tree. You can whistle me back.”
“I can’t whistle.”
“You can’t whistle? Really?”
“I know. Believe me, I’ve tried. But I can Marco Polo you back.”
“That’ll work. I won’t go far. If I can’t find a good rock, I’ll circle back and just use the climbing strap I have.”
I was only opting to find a rock or two out of sheer laziness. I was uncharacteristically worn out and didn’t want to tax my upper body as much as my lower body felt.
But I would do what I needed to do to keep us fed, one way or another.
“Okay. But if some giant beetle attacks me while you’re gone, I’ll never forgive you.”
My smile was immediate as I closed the space between us grabbing Vi by the back of her neck and hauling her against me as my lips claimed hers.
It was supposed to be a quick kiss, but it wasn’t long before we were getting a little carried away.
It was the hoot of a monkey somewhere overhead that had us breaking apart.
“Go get your rock. Then we get our food. And get into the hammock together.”
I was looking forward to it.