Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
There was no cover from the elements. We’d be sleeping outside with nothing but our packs and our clothes. We probably should’ve asked a few questions when the basajaun had said accommodations would be provided.
“After tonight, I will be sleeping among you. Tonight, I must meet some others and will adjourn with them.” The basajaun checked over the wood as Ulric smirked at him.
“Adjourn with them?” He waggled his eyebrows. “That’s what you call an orgy here, huh?”
The basajaun’s hair puffed out slightly, but he didn’t comment. More eyebrows rose, and a few of the crew looked at each other with an obvious question in mind. Did the basajaun have a bed buddy?
The basajaun glanced at what would be our natural beds. “It is late now. We had thought you’d have time to hunt, but we could not have foreseen the snail’s pace we’d take over the mountains. I will bring you something to eat.”
“You’ve been around us for how long?” Ulric asked. “Did you think we moved slowly in normal life for funsies or what?”
The basajaun pointed at the firepit. “Do you know how to start a fire?”
“Yes,” Austin said. “We can handle it, thank you. We can fish as well, come tomorrow. We don’t want to be a burden.”
The basajaun nodded and walked away without a backward glance.
“Well, this isn’t exactly as planned…” Mr. Tom surveyed our camp. He pursed his lips. “I suppose we’ll have to pull up a clump of dirt for our bedding, will we?”
“What a shame that the clover will be crushed.” Edgar walked toward the nearest bed of clover. “I’d better hurry and find all the four-leaves or they’ll be smashed.”
“Isabelle, Layan, get a fire going,” Austin commanded a couple of his people as everyone else looked around.
I didn’t bother. I just plopped down close to the soon-to-be fire and waited patiently. I was too tired to care about a lack of bed or chair.
“Kace, take a few wolves and patrol the area. The basajaunak are all over. Give them a wide berth. We don’t want any trouble.”
He chose a few others for the duty, and they all put down their packs, shifted again, and took off at a trot.
Austin pulled my pack from my back, took his off, and chose a mossy location behind us, more central to the camp than most of the other available spots. He set both packs down before sitting beside me.
Isabelle, a chiseled-faced woman with white-blonde hair who often trained with me, crouched next to the fire. She held up two sticks, a smaller one with a blunt tip and one that looked like a really thin, somewhat hollow log. Tilting the tiny log toward us, she lifted her eyebrows. It had a small groove streaked with black that would fit the blunt end of the other stick.
“When the basajaun asked if you knew how to start a fire, were you expecting he meant with sticks?” she asked.
I felt Austin’s humor through the bond, but he was in alpha mode. He didn’t show it. “That would’ve taken a minute.”
“Several hundred dozen minutes.” She shook her head and grabbed her pack to get fire-starting supplies.
“Cyra, they need fire,” Hollace called, coming into the area while zipping up his pants.
“Oh. Sure.” Cyra peeled away from Edgar, whom she’d clearly been helping look for four-leaf clovers, and walked to the firepit. “Here we go.”
Isabelle stopped rummaging in her pack.
A thick spread of flame blasted from Cyra’s hand and onto the firewood. Given the blistering heat, it took no time at all to catch and start them burning.
“That is incredibly handy,” said Layan, a guy with light blue eyes who turned into a snow leopard.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Austin murmured a moment later, looking out through the trees. The other camps were a respectable distance away, allowing for privacy. “I’ve never seen the basajaun’s…living quarters. I honestly don’t even know where he sleeps. I’d thought a cave, but now, I’m not too sure. This is…pleasant, though. Serene.”
“I can’t imagine it’s so pleasant in the winter.” Broken Sue sat on the other side of the fire with his knees bent and his arms draped around them.
“This is the California coast,” Nessa replied, stopping as she walked past, coming from who knew where. Even after that crazy hike, she was always on the move. “It’s temperate most of the year, and you have the trees for protection. I’m sure it gets cold, but not like you’re thinking. For you, coming from the Midwest, it would be chilly at best. Besides, they have all that hair. I’m sure they’re just dandy. It gives a new definition to fur coat.”
He barely glanced at her. “I stand corrected.”
“And you are most welcome for it.” She smiled and continued walking.
Sebastian, who’d been hovering around the outskirts of camp, returned and sat beside me. When Nessa walked briskly back into the area, she plopped down between him and Broken Sue.