Chapter 17 · Rust and Relic - Chapter 17: Two Black Fires

"Stop."

Liv's hand slammed into my chest before I took another step down the scree slope. Her palm was cold through my shirt. Her eyes were colder.

"What now?" I said.

"Smoke. Two directions."

I looked where she pointed. West, a thin gray thread rising from the forest canopy. North, thicker, darker, maybe three miles out. The northern one had been there since dawn. The western one was new.

"Hunters," I said.

"Obviously."

"So we go east."

"East is the cliff we just climbed down from." She pulled her hand back, but didn't step away. "South is open ground. They'll see us before we see them."

My stomach cramped. We'd been moving for six hours on nothing but adrenaline and the last of the dried meat. That was gone now. The shard's interface hovered at the edge of my vision, pulsing faint blue. No new quest. No helpful tutorial. Just the same mocking progress bar: Level 2 - 67% to Next.

"We need food," I said.

"We need to not die."

"Same problem."

Liv turned and started walking south anyway, her stride long and deliberate.