
.
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22nd of Autumn, 515 AV
The last three days after they crossed Ehktar Pass had been painfully slow, and this day was no different. Shadyn was more than relieved when they finally touched down. The gouges on his chest were throbbing from being pressed against the saddle for all of those hours on end, and his right shoulder was incredibly stiff from the high altitude’s low temperatures. While the cold had served to quickly stop the bleeding, it had not helped sooth him in the least. Now, though, they were going to be camping near Kalea’s eastern coastline, where the balmy inland waters still held onto the vestiges of summer that had long been lost in the northern and central mountains.
Stepping down from the saddle, he sighed, but before he did anything, he used his hands to make some general measurements of the sun’s position. Squatting down, he scrapped up some loose dirt, placed nearby twig in it, then began drawing lines, intermittently looking back up at the sun. After about ten minutes, he had been able to approximate the time and his location. He left his markings to keep himself oriented. There were few landmarks here except for the mountains behind him. The night held so many different stars and heavenly bodies to track and compare. Daylight extinguished all but one – the sun. While all of his calculations could be made using the sun alone, it was vastly more difficult and required a great deal of thought, as well as a keen memory. Also, there were a few factors that, being outside of a city like he was, could only be generally known at best. Still, he knew that he would not be more than a half-day’s travel off in his measurements, so he was not particularly concerned.
He had chosen this landing for the relatively large creek that ran nearby in the field. Stripping down, Shadyn eased himself into it, keeping only his tomahawk and waterskin at hand. After giving himself a brisk scrub-down, he began to examine the state damage he had suffered so far in this journey. He was fortunate that he had reacted fast enough to begin to jump away from the bear by the time it swiped at him, since the three cuts were large enough as it was, and they were merely the result of a glancing blow. They cuts themselves had scabbed over, but the scabs were blackened by dirt and sweat. Judging from the slightly puffy redness around the edges of the cuts, it was also likely that they were slightly infected. Though he had considered the wilderness go-to treatment – cauterization – due to the size of the wounds Shadyn had thought it better to try to let them heal on their own, washing them daily. Medicine was commonly practiced by Inarta, but that was a task for Avoras, not Endals usually. He had learned only the most basic of treatments, since it was assumed that one would either be killed, or be able to get back to Wind Reach in time to be treated, and thus not truly need any real medical assistance in the field.
The Zith’s marks looked horrid. Adrenaline…and later testosterone and endorphins…had kept the pain at bay, as had the cold wind during travel. Now though…it hurt just to move it. From what he could see, the laceration was rather deep. No tendons had been severed, thankfully, as was indicated by the fact that he could still use it. Hopefully the fact that each individual laceration was relatively slender would make it heal quickly, but being wounded so deep worried him. Endals who had been unfortunate enough to lose their mounts in battle had sometimes lost limbs to gangrene…and some, even though they survived battle, wilderness, and the return to Mt. Skyinarta, died of the subsequent blood poisoning. That was not something that he was looking forward to.
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22nd of Autumn, 515 AV
The last three days after they crossed Ehktar Pass had been painfully slow, and this day was no different. Shadyn was more than relieved when they finally touched down. The gouges on his chest were throbbing from being pressed against the saddle for all of those hours on end, and his right shoulder was incredibly stiff from the high altitude’s low temperatures. While the cold had served to quickly stop the bleeding, it had not helped sooth him in the least. Now, though, they were going to be camping near Kalea’s eastern coastline, where the balmy inland waters still held onto the vestiges of summer that had long been lost in the northern and central mountains.
Stepping down from the saddle, he sighed, but before he did anything, he used his hands to make some general measurements of the sun’s position. Squatting down, he scrapped up some loose dirt, placed nearby twig in it, then began drawing lines, intermittently looking back up at the sun. After about ten minutes, he had been able to approximate the time and his location. He left his markings to keep himself oriented. There were few landmarks here except for the mountains behind him. The night held so many different stars and heavenly bodies to track and compare. Daylight extinguished all but one – the sun. While all of his calculations could be made using the sun alone, it was vastly more difficult and required a great deal of thought, as well as a keen memory. Also, there were a few factors that, being outside of a city like he was, could only be generally known at best. Still, he knew that he would not be more than a half-day’s travel off in his measurements, so he was not particularly concerned.
He had chosen this landing for the relatively large creek that ran nearby in the field. Stripping down, Shadyn eased himself into it, keeping only his tomahawk and waterskin at hand. After giving himself a brisk scrub-down, he began to examine the state damage he had suffered so far in this journey. He was fortunate that he had reacted fast enough to begin to jump away from the bear by the time it swiped at him, since the three cuts were large enough as it was, and they were merely the result of a glancing blow. They cuts themselves had scabbed over, but the scabs were blackened by dirt and sweat. Judging from the slightly puffy redness around the edges of the cuts, it was also likely that they were slightly infected. Though he had considered the wilderness go-to treatment – cauterization – due to the size of the wounds Shadyn had thought it better to try to let them heal on their own, washing them daily. Medicine was commonly practiced by Inarta, but that was a task for Avoras, not Endals usually. He had learned only the most basic of treatments, since it was assumed that one would either be killed, or be able to get back to Wind Reach in time to be treated, and thus not truly need any real medical assistance in the field.
The Zith’s marks looked horrid. Adrenaline…and later testosterone and endorphins…had kept the pain at bay, as had the cold wind during travel. Now though…it hurt just to move it. From what he could see, the laceration was rather deep. No tendons had been severed, thankfully, as was indicated by the fact that he could still use it. Hopefully the fact that each individual laceration was relatively slender would make it heal quickly, but being wounded so deep worried him. Endals who had been unfortunate enough to lose their mounts in battle had sometimes lost limbs to gangrene…and some, even though they survived battle, wilderness, and the return to Mt. Skyinarta, died of the subsequent blood poisoning. That was not something that he was looking forward to.
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