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After about an hour and a half later Jentus and Alexandra left the valley, and climbed the thirty-foot high ridge that was formed long ago by the legendary river that once was here. The wear over time left it the way it was now. Jentus led Alexandra over to a small outcropping of bushes away from any well-traveled area and leaned his pack against one of the bushes.
“We will camp here tonight and then continue on our journey towards the place we need to be for your training. Now, let’s set up camp.”
Jentus instructed Alexandra to go and find some small rocks so that he could surround the fire and keep it from spreading during their slumber. Alexandra went into the forest to look for some rocks, leaving Jentus at the campsite. She found that she could see pretty well even though the light was very quickly being depleted by the fast departure of the sun. Night would soon be upon them and that did not leave them with much time to get the campsite ready.
A few moments after entering the dense forest, she stopped. From her position she could see some appropriately sized rocks down an embankment a ways in front of her and slightly to the left. She would need to scale the side of the hill to get down there and once there figure out how to bring the rocks back up to her current position. Remembering a large sack that Jentus had given her before she went into the forest, she immediately set about climbing down the side of the hill.
Tying the rope that Jentus lent her to a tree at the edge of the embankment, she let it unravel and fall to the ledge where she would gather the rocks that Jentus instructed her to get. The end of the rope hung just above the ledge. Alexandra got a hold of the rope and shimmied down the side of the hill. Once at the end of the rope she noticed that it did not reach all the way down and she had to drop a good ten feet to the ground.
Not being prepared for the landing and never having been trained how to do such a thing, she twisted her left ankle. Alexandra’s legs buckled from the impact causing her knees to be brought up and into her chin. Blood rolled lightly through pursed lips shortly after she bit her tongue. She grimaced in pain and momentarily forgot the injury to her ankle. She paused for a long moment in her crouched position to get her bearings and then attempted to stand. It was then that she remembered her ankle.
Pain shot up from her ankle and tormented her thoughts with daggers that twisted and tortured her mind. Never had she experienced pain like this in her entire life, it only paled to the night of the inauguration. It was unbearable and nothing could be accomplished while it remained. So, she sat in pain for a long while, sweat and tears running together with the effort of bearing the pain. At last it was too much for her and she collapsed lying still on the jagged rocky ground.
It was unfortunate that her consciousness would not leave her and an hour passed while she waited for the pain to go away, but it would not. She wished the pain would go away and some how it did. Alexandra felt an incredible heat pass through her and realized that that heat was somehow linked to her spirit. It was something she never could understand and all but blocked it out of her mind when it happened the first time long ago when she was only shortly out of her egg.
*
She was remembering how she was able to heal a scratch on her finger. Her friends had told her to forget about it ever happening because if people knew of her gift they would burn her at the stake, despite the fact that she came from a large egg and to them coming from an egg was okay. Alexandra never knew why that would be so because she felt that healing was a key part of all the Sevlin, even though she knew that that could not be because she was not Sevlin and was actually Dochani.
Alexandra longed to find someone that was like her. Her ankle was still tender and not completely healed, but at least she was able to stand. Unfastening the large sack from her pack she got ready to collect rocks for the fire. She collected the rocks in the sack and approached the dangling rope. It was ten feet above her head and she would have to climb the embankment part of the way until she could reach it. Scraping and bruising her hands she managed to climb the necessary distance up the embankment.
Just as Alexandra grabbed the end of the rope she slipped on the side of the hill and wrenched her shoulder out of the socket. She tried to heal her arm, but she seemed unable to mend it in the least amount. Deciding to figure out the reason for this later, she grabbed the rope with her other hand and slowly climbed up the embankment. By now her shoulder was throbbing and the pain was quickly getting worse. Alexandra gathered the rope and untied it from the tree.
Tired, in pain and with a lack of understanding of her reacquainted healing abilities she headed back to the camp. Many times she tripped and fell along the way and despite all of the pain and lack of light she eventually made it back to the camp. She handed the sack with the rocks in it to Jentus and he set them in the middle of their camp in a circle, placed some twigs and chunks of wood in the center and lit it with a spark from something that looked like a stone and a piece of steel.
The fire started slowly and eventually caught on the rest of the wood. It blazed in blue, orange and yellow hues. Jentus handed Alexandra a thick wool blanket. It was huge compared to the size of blanket that she would need for her size. Getting beneath the blanket so she could take off all of her clothing except that which covered her pelvic area and breasts she wrapped herself up tightly. Alexandra, now warm and completely covered by the blanket, fell fast asleep.