They left the village a couple of days after the Council meeting. From there, their camp went to the furthermost island to attack the base there, but found it fortified. Andromeda had used her power to lure the MTs out, but Sonam called for a retreat before they could get into the base. A week later, they returned with another camp to finish what was started.
Autumn passed, and with it, the storm season. Andromeda had arrived a little too late to witness any hurricanes or typhoons come in off of the ocean. Sonam took his rebels to some coastal towns to help with the cleanup; the Empire did not offer any sort of aid.
The winter was less eventful: there were only a handful of skirmishes. They ambushed Imperial troops as they delivered supplies from one base to the next. The rebels took those supplies for themselves, several of them now using Imperial-issued guns. It didn't mean much to steal from the Empire—not when everything was expendable to them. These ambushes and skirmishes were simply disruptive. They did not get any more attention in the newspapers, other than an occasional small article.
They were disruptive enough that the Empire did issue a statement about the trouble in Galahd: the generals were going to track down the camps and put an end to the rebellion again, once and for all. Troops had taken to surveying the jungles, or questioning locals about rebel activities. A few camps had been ambushed, but all of the leaders had doubled-up on their watches, so they had an advanced warning of approaching Nifs. Imperials were never very good at being stealthy. They had come after Sonam's camp once. Andromeda had used the chaos to confuse the troops, helping everyone else get away faster.
With less planned attacks over the winter, there were more visits to villages. The frequent moves and risk of ambushes caused the camps to carry less supplies at a time, and thus needed to restock more often at villages. They also needed more news than what they could gather from messengers and rare radio transmissions in the jungle. Andromeda was still responsible for healing people.
Not every town had a doctor, and travel could take too long. She worked along with Tshering on the mundane ailments. He also came along when she healed Starscourge, as that was the only way to get the locals to cooperate. Her reputation as the witch from Tenebrae only grew from this, and maybe the Galahdians weren't wrong about that.
Though Andromeda still relied on Tshering to translate, her Galahdian had gotten better while there wasn't much to do over the winter. She was able to hold simple conversations on her own, read children's books, write in their script, and understood more nuances of their culture. Less action gave her more time to study during the holidays and downtime.
Many in the camp were getting restless with inactivity, including Andromeda. Yet Sonam was building up to something: he began recruiting more people to join them. The restlessness abated somewhat as the seasoned rebels had to train up the greenhorns before spring. Like everyone else, the greenhorns had first been apprehensive of Andromeda, then feared her after they first witnessed her chaos, and finally grew to accept her presence.
In the spring, the camp stopped near Sonam's village once more. He needed to speak with the Elders again, and for some reason, it had to be in his home village of Kotun.
Andromeda and Bulan waited for him to return, staying up as the hour became late. Sonam's wife had gotten more comfortable with her over the holidays, especially as Andromeda became more comfortable around the children and her Galahdian improved. Bulan spoke to her a bit more whenever she was in town, accepting that Andromeda was part of her household. No one liked how sneaky Sonam had been about the oath, but they couldn't say Andromeda was a bad person.
The two women watched the late-night news from Insomnia; Galahd did not have its own cable television, but the islands could all pick up broadcasts from the mega city on the continent. Insomnian news wasn't very useful in that most of it was only concerned with what happened within city walls. Any news on the war was usually done through discussions with people who hadn't actually gone out to the battlefield, people who had never been soldiers. How could anyone in Insomnia know what was truly happening beyond their borders?
A part of Andromeda was interested in the news broadcast, as it gave her news of the outside world. While in the jungle, she was completely isolated from the grander things; she had no idea what happened beyond the islands. It was a little fascinating to watch the people in their business clothes talk, or watch the busy city streets, and remember that she had once lived there. She knew people who lived there.
Yet another part of her was disgusted by it. People in business suits talking about things they didn't really know, not acknowledging that the casualties outside of the city walls were people just like them. Most of Insomnian news had to do with what happened within the city, as if the rest of the world didn't exist. Insomnians were comfortable; they had nothing to fear.
It was getting late enough that Bulan was about to go to bed, and Andromeda was considering the same thing, when Sonam finally returned. He took at seat in a chair in the living room with them, settling in. Bulan turned the television off, her attention on him now.
"That was a very long meeting," She said. "What happened?"
He shook his head, rubbing his face with one hand. "It was a lot of pointless debate. The Elders were in the mood for it tonight." He looked at Andromeda, dropping his hand. "I've been told that you said your people in Tenebrae also partake in the First Hunt, but you weren't able to participate before you left. So I spoke to the Council about that. You're from allies, and you've done a lot over the winter."
Andromeda became more alert at his news. She hadn't gone to the meetings with Sonam other than that one time months ago, when the Elders needed to see her. She hadn't thought she was worth their attention after that. She was a foreigner, so she was not allowed to sit in on Council meetings unless absolutely necessary. She was fine with that, just as she had come to terms that she would never partake in her First Hunt. By the end of summer, Andromeda would be twenty-three. It seemed too late for her.
"I've convinced the Elders to let you complete your First Hunt here. But you'll be following our way of doing it: you're going to go out into the jungle alone, with only the clothes on your back, your kukri, some warding charms, and some water," Sonam explained, adding the last bit about water a little begrudgingly. "You can only return when you've killed something, and you must bring the body back. You'll go out when the sun rises. We shouldn't give the Elders the chance to change their minds. You're already eleven years late in doing it."
It was a lot to take in. Andromeda hadn't yet gone out alone into the jungle, nor actually hunted before. It had been over eleven years since either of her parents had taken her hunting, and they had had more tools at their disposal. Her memory was a little fuzzy on her childhood.
"We should have gone to bed awhile ago," Bulan sighed with a smile. "You won't get much sleep on a First Hunt."
"The others will come by in the morning to help you get ready," Sonam continued to explain. "You should get some rest."
It didn't feel like Andromeda got much time to sleep before Bulan was waking her up for breakfast. It was a very early hour; the sun hadn't risen yet. They crept out of Malai's bedroom, which they put a spare cot in for Andromeda while she was there, and went to the kitchen so Andromeda could eat breakfast.
By the time she was finishing, Klahan, Tshering, and Hira arrived, knocking quietly at the door. The guys were empty-handed, but Hira came carrying a clay bowl. Bulan had picked out clothes for Andromeda to wear that wouldn't be too hot or cold this time of year, then sent her to the bathroom to change.
Once she was properly dressed in pants and another tank top (it seemed to be all she wore; Galahd's temperature didn't fluctuate that much), Andromeda was told to sit on the couch. Hira sat next to her with the bowl, taking the cover off. Inside was black paint.
"What's that for?" Andromeda asked.
"If you're doing it our way, you're going to wear our paint," The other woman told her, dabbing two fingers into the paint. "If you encounter anyone out there, they'll know that these markings are for the First Hunt. They'll leave you alone."
"What if they're Nifs?"
"Avoid them," Sonam said, having come downstairs at the sound of voices. "Don't come back. Just avoid them. There will be scouts out there."
Hira took Andromeda's arm then, drawing her wet fingers down its length, to the back of Andromeda's hand. She spoke in Galahdian, and Andromeda felt proud of herself that she could understand: "May the ancestors guide your left hand." She dropped the arm, dabbed her fingers into the bowl again, and picked up the other arm. "May the ancestors guide your right hand."
Narayan and Malai became wise to something going on in the living room, and were surprised to find so many people awake and in their house before sunrise. Bulan hushed them as they came down the stairs. Andromeda smiled slightly to them, but didn't move while Hira still worked on her.
She applied more black paint to her fingers. "Close your eyes."
Andromeda did as told. She had never had her face painted before. She knew such painting was a part of the warrior culture in Galahd, yet she had never seen any of the rebels apply it to themselves before. They didn't quite get the time to prepare. The scarves and bandannas always covered so much of their faces already.
Hira drew her fingers across Andromeda's eyes, dipping down slightly on the bridge of her nose. "May the ancestors help you see." She then firmly pressed a thumb in the center of her forehead, then again on either side of the initial press. "May the Three Hunters watch over you and bless your hunt."
She placed the lid back on the bowl, which Andromeda took as the sign to open her eyes again. Hira set the bowl aside and picked up a mirror for her to see herself.
A band laid across Andromeda's eyes, with a slight dip on her nose, reminding her of a black bird. The middle dot on her forehead was the largest of the three, the other two leaning slightly on either side of the large one. The lines down her arms jerked this way and that over the rough terrain of her scars. The meaning was still there, though. It was a simple design overall; First Hunt paint was generally worn by twelve-year-olds.
"It'll dry in a couple minutes," Hira put down the mirror, seeming pleased with her work. "First Hunts usually take a day or so. Most kids usually come back with something medium-sized, like a wombat or a wild pig. But considering you're so much older than those kids, you should really bring something back much bigger."
She was smirking. Andromeda grinned, but did not promise anything. She knew that hunts couldn't be planned so thoroughly. "In Tenebrae, First Hunt was when a kid killed their first deer, with the help of an adult. We got our first knives when we turned eight, and we learned how to make traps for small critters."
The adults had been responsible for bringing food to the village, and the children were in charge of pest control. It only helped them to contribute food. Andromeda remembered trapping a rabbit once; she had hesitated, so her father had had to kill it for her.
"Well, you're going to have to get a deer on your own," Hira said.
"Is there anything I shouldn't kill?"
"Coeurls," She answered. "They have significance in our culture. No one will blame you if you get attacked by one, but it would be very bad for a foreigner to kill a coeurl without a good reason. The Nifs like to poach them."
"Alright, the sun's about to rise," Sonam announced, having been watching out the window for the signs. "Let's get outside."
He herded everyone out through the front door. The horizon was pink, and steadily growing lighter. The stars above the house began to fade as the dark drew back.
"Here," He handed over a bag and leather pouch, the latter clearly filled with water. The bag had four carved stakes inside. Andromeda pulled the straps of both over her shoulders. "They're warding charms. They'll keep the daemons away at night, but they only work in a small space. The waterskin only has a day's supply. You're going to have to find more if you're out there any longer than that. Traditionally, we never gave water out. It's a modern adaptation."
"Thanks," Andromeda hoped she wouldn't take so long. She would try to conserve the water as best she could.
Sonam pointed towards the northeast, into the jungle. The trail head could be seen from his house. "You'll start out on that trail. It'll take you right to the hunting grounds. Stay in the jungle. An open area will make it easy for the Nifs to pick you up, and no one will be happy if you wandered into a private field."
They were simple instructions to follow. Once again, Andromeda was concerned about Imperial scouts, but she didn't voice it to anyone. Sonam would have his own scouts out in the jungle, but what would that do for her, when no one was supposed to interfere with her First Hunt?
They waited a few more minutes. Narayan had Klahan and Tshering occupied with expectations for his own First Hunt in a couple of years. Like all boys, he expected big things from himself.
Soon the golden light covered the village. Sonam nodded to Andromeda. "Alright, get going."
"Bring back something good," Hira reminded her.
"I'll keep it in mind," She grinned, then began walking, not looking back as everyone said their goodbyes and wished her luck.
For a couple of hours, Andromeda simply walked. She didn't expect there to be anything all that close to the village. Though Hira explained that First Hunts usually took a day or two, she suspected it would be a couple of days before she made it back there. Thankfully, she knew something about the plants; she knew what she could eat more than how she would get clean water.
Once again, she couldn't help but think this had been thrown at her rather fast. She was finally completing her First Hunt, long after she gave up on it happening. She had believed, some time after entering Insomnia, that it would never happen for her, and had made peace with it. Now, Sonam was very eager for her to participate in it—whether or not Andromeda actually wanted to do it.
She did. The First Hunt was a very important thing to accomplish in Galahd. As far as she knew, everyone at camp had already done it as soon as they turned twelve. It was more important than finishing school. Hira would definitely think even better of Andromeda when she returned, but Andromeda had to hunt a suitable quarry for her expectations.
Whenever she had thought about her First Hunt in the past, she had seen it going very differently. She had been so determined to go on the hunt with one of her parents, even well after they had died. Hira had asked the "ancestors" to aid Andromeda—she didn't know whose ancestors she was beseeching: her own Galahdian ones, or Andromeda's Tenebraen ones. She was always reminded that she was foreign in this land, and she had been away from Tenebrae so long that that didn't feel like home either. Andromeda didn't belong to either people; the ancestors would pay particular attention to that.
When the sun was high in the sky, sometime in the mid-afternoon, she stopped near a pool of water and took cover in some wild shrubs nearby. She hadn't been on a hunt in many years; she tried to remember what her parents had done when they took her along as a kid. Watering holes were great places to lay in wait for prey, and also provided a water source when they were few and far between. Andromeda recalled that hunting was a lot of sitting and waiting, not wandering around and getting lost. She could get to better know the land by scouting the area and tracking animals, but it seemed unnecessary when she had found such a nice watering hole. Something would come around eventually.
Andromeda didn't stay around very long before realizing how hungry she was. She wandered a bit from the watering hole to find an edible plant. She still had over half of the waterskin left; she was conserving it as much as possible, as there was no way to purify water out here. At least she knew how to build a fire from sticks and stones. No one had checked to see whether she knew basic survival skills before sending her out on her own. Then again, she had to know some in order to get by at camp.
It didn't take long for her to find some reeds with edible roots. They were shallow plants, making them easy to pull up. She took a few more roots than she needed, knowing that she would need them later. She placed the extras in the bag with the warding charms, skinning the ones that she would eat right away. Then she returned to the watering hole.
Once Andromeda was settled back into the shrubs, she decided to stake the warding charms into the ground, giving herself some space to sleep against a tree. The charms didn't stand very high, and she had to wonder how effective they would be against daemons. They had the same markings as the larger poles at camp and in the villages, and they had worked well for years. But what of nocturnal predators? No one had said anything about them. Such creatures would avoid camp and villages simply for the amount of humans there. But one human alone would be an opportune meal too good to pass up.
In the remaining sunlight, Andromeda scoured the area for dry sticks. It wasn't easy in a humid jungle, near a pool of water as well. As some golden light broke through the trees above, she amassed a pile within the boundary of the warding charms. She only gathered enough sticks to get her through the night, then assembled a small fire. It wasn't to keep warm or to cook with, but to keep predators away, if anything.
Andromeda sat back against the tree and watched the surrounding jungle get progressively darker. When it was difficult to see, she worked at the tiny campfire until a spark ignited in the tinder and grew into flames. She sat back again. There was no one else to take watch so she could sleep—she had to rely on the small warding charms to keep everything away. They did so at camp and the villages. They had done so for every hunter before her.
She drifted off, then woke sometime during the day. A heavy snow covered the ground, all the trees around her dormant without their leaves. Andromeda recognized the Tenebraen forests in winter. Near her laid the white chocobo, its throat ripped out. Across from it laid the struggling coeurl, its back broken by a large tree branch. The chocobo laid in a pool of blood; Andromeda stood to see the snow where she had been laying was also splattered with blood.
A sharp pain in her side reminded her that the coeurl had ripped her open there. Her own blood was splattered about her. She could see a village not too far from where the attack had happened. Not questioning it, she limped her way to it, grateful that help was close by.
As Andromeda got closer to the village, night suddenly came on. Flames rose up from nowhere and consumed the wooden homes. Daemons cried out and descended upon the village.
She was grabbed by her neck. A horrid face was suddenly in front of hers, pale and splotched with Scourge. Ardyn's yellow irises were piercing as his Scourge spread to Andromeda, consuming her. She writhed, but it did nothing. She prayed Etro would come in time to save her, but she already knew the goddess would not come.
The roar of daemons was suddenly much louder. Andromeda was alone in the dark. The fire had gone out. Still, she could see shadows contorting wildly among the trees. Winds blew forcefully through the leaves above.
A large ball of flame flew past the boundary of the wards. It was much too close, yet it passed Andromeda by in its search for the source of the chaos. It made all of the daemons around frantic. She panicked, wondering if the wards would hold up against the chaos. The charms were so small, and the maelstrom so violent.
A shadow idled nearby. Andromeda flattened herself against the ground, kukri in hand. It wasn't a shadow from her power—they did not stay still. Still in between waking and dreaming, she feared Ardyn had come to track her down. He had done so in Tenebrae, after he had carelessly let her escape. Maybe that had been his intention.
No matter what she did, Ardyn would see her. It was too late. The Imperials had to know she was in the islands again by now, yet they hadn't tried so hard to retrieve her. It made no sense that he would still trouble himself with Andromeda. Nothing Ardyn ever did made sense.
The shadow crept closer. She could see two gleaming eyes—blue. Not Ardyn, but a massive animal. As it came closer, she should have been able to see the whites of its eyes if she could see its blue irises, but she couldn't. The eyes weren't white, but as black as the shadow creature. Andromeda felt especially small as she tried to hide against the ground.
It stopped just before the warding boundary, towering. She sat up and scrambled back against the tree, holding her kukri out. A subtle growl sounded. It wasn't an overtly aggressive sound. Small white sparks appeared on either side of the creature's head, floating lazily as they crackled.
This wasn't something to hunt; Andromeda was the hunted. She had no desire to encounter a coeurl after her experience in Tenebrae. She didn't want to kill one, and there wasn't a chance she could fight off a coeurl of this size, even with her kukri.
The shadow turned away then, and was suddenly gone. As big as it was, it must have moved very fast. Only the daemons remained, continuing to rage as they looked for any living creature to attack. They had never acknowledged the massive coeurl.
Andromeda continued to hold her kukri close for when something came out of the darkness to attack. The shadowy coeurl had been able to see her through the warding charms. It hadn't been a daemon, nor did it come from her power, so what could it have been? It hadn't even reacted to the chaos around them.
Keeping her guard up, she didn't start the fire again. Andromemda was disappointed: she thought she was past the nightmares and accidents where she summoned chaos in her sleep. It hadn't happened since she joined Sonam's camp, where there had been plenty of work to take her mind off of what was behind her. But out here in the jungle now, she was isolated, with nothing to keep her mind preoccupied away from the memories.
That isolation filled her with dread—dread that the Scourge was eating away at her while the chaos raged around her. Etro would not come for her, because she feared Verstael and Ardyn. Andromeda might be too far gone by the time she decided to approach again.
She caught herself on that train of thought. She wasn't in Verstael's lab anymore; that was many months ago. She tried to remember where she was, but it was difficult. She couldn't tell if she was dreaming or not, either. Andromeda could be in Lucis, trapped in a dream state again. She couldn't remember how she had gotten here exactly.
One of the warding charms had come out of the ground somehow. She scrambled to fix it quickly before the daemons could take notice. It had to be a sign that the charms were failing against the chaos. She kept an eye on all four of them as the storm went on and the daemons continued to run past.
As always, the chaos eventually died out, but Andromeda didn't realize it until the jungle became eerily quiet. The daemons still prowled about, but they moved with more calm. She watched them, keeping her kukri out, until she couldn't help but give in to sleep.
It was a little after sunrise when Andromeda awoke again. This time she was certain she was awake. She remembered that she was in Galahd, and everything that transpired leading up to her First Hunt. In the calmness of the morning, she didn't understand all that had happened the night before. Perhaps that was what Tshering had meant when he had said the First Hunt was personal. He didn't have nearly as many nightmares as she did, though.
The watering hole was quiet. Nothing had come around while she slept. Nothing would come around now—not after all of the noise that had occurred the night before. After eating a couple of roots and drinking a little water, Andromeda pulled the charms out of the ground and packed them into the bag. Then she left, wandering again.
She didn't walk long before finding a small trail through some dense brush. There was some mud in front of it, with tiny hoofprints pressed into it. They were relatively fresh, as the mud was wet. Finally, it was something.
Andromeda followed the trail carefully as to not startle what could possibly be ahead. As she followed it, she also found more hoofprints in the dirt. The trail had been made by a smaller creature; sometimes she had no choice but to crawl through some sections, which only made more noise. She moved even slower, thinking that perhaps she should have seen if there was another way around.
Eventually, the trail opened up to a small clearing. Andromeda stayed back on the trail, only going as far as she needed to see what was ahead. The first thing she noticed was the medium-sized animal chewing at a bush off to the side of the clearing. It used its elongated snout to grasp at a branch. It had the body and hide of a pig, but its legs were a little longer than what a pig would have; it was a tapir. She had seen a few of them since coming to Galahd.
Pulling her kukri out, Andromeda tensed her legs. The tapir hadn't noticed her yet. It would be suitable prey, and it was still early enough that she could get it back to the village before sundown. The tapir was somewhat cute, but she was too hungry and tired to care too much about that. She would rather not experience a second night of daemons and nightmares.
As she took a careful step forward, Andromeda suddenly noticed a movement in the trees above the tapir. A large snake, spotted with black-ringed brown splotches along its body, draped over a tree branch. It was cautiously sticking its head downwards, its eyes also trained on the tapir.
Even if Andromeda got to the tapir before the snake did, there would still be the snake to contend with. Yet if she attacked the snake, the tapir would get away. It was too big for the snake to eat, but for whatever reason, the snake still targeted it all the same. The rule of the First Hunt was that Andromeda had to kill the animal herself; she couldn't take the snake's kill. She would feel cheated of the experience. She could pass on both animals, but it would be awhile before she found a suitable quarry again.
The tapir was the ideal target. No one in their right mind would tangle with a snake that size. What if it was venomous? Andromeda didn't know very much about snakes. Even so, she had to make a choice: the tapir or the snake.
The snake did not have such a hard decision to make. It suddenly dropped itself onto the tapir, which began shrieking as the snake quickly wrapped itself around it.
Andromeda burst out of the brush, charging at them. The tapir stumbled under the weight of the snake, trying to escape. She stabbed into one of the scaly coils as they constricted. The snake loosened a bit in surprise. She made to stab it again in another thick coil, but suddenly its head appeared and its jaws closed on her left arm, many sharp teeth biting into her flesh.
She screamed. It went dark. The darkness pressed against her entire body. Smoke filled the air; along with the pressure, it made it impossible to breathe.
Fire was approaching. Andromeda could hear it crackling, feeding on the wood all around her. It was creeping along the wood that laid across her chest. It was uncomfortably warm and only getting worse.
She could lay there and die again, as she had done when she was twelve. But she was ten years older now, and stronger. She found the strength to push the wood beam off of her chest. The darkness went away, returning her to the jungle.
Blood seeped from underneath the snake's lips on Andromeda's arm, its teeth dug into her arm like needles. She didn't jerk her arm. Snakes were not known to be expressive, and this one was no exception. Yet she thought there was some kind of knowing in the snake's eyes. It certainly wasn't anger.
Her other hand held her kukri. Andromeda thrust it into the snake's throat, pulling it downwards along its body. In shock, the snake let go of her arm and the tapir, flopping limply on the ground.
She dropped the kukri to cradle her bloodied forearm to herself. Scrambling out of the coils, the tapir took off, squeaking as it did. A smaller one appeared from the brush, speckled with white markings. The baby had been the snake's true target.
Andromeda carefully moved her fingers on her left hand, then rotated her wrist. She still had movement in them, albeit it was painful. She pulled the waterskin from her shoulder and poured the rest of the water over the wounds, washing away some of the blood. The snake had had many needle-like teeth that had punctured her skin. She couldn't tell how deep they had gone. Her arm was just a bloody mess.
She picked up the kukri and clumsily cut a rag from her shirt, then wrapped it around her arm as an impromptu bandage. Blood soaked through. She still didn't know whether it had been venomous—it had to have been, for the illusion she had experienced upon being bitten. She expected for her throat to close up, preventing her from breathing, or that she would start vomiting. Maybe this venom caused hallucinations.
Glancing down at the snake, Andromeda decided to cut a bit more from her shirt, using the rag to tie the snake's jaw shut. It was most definitely dead, but she didn't want to take the chance of those teeth coming out again.
It was big and bulky; she hefted some of the coils over her shoulders. The tail dragged on the ground and the head hung at her side. Despite what Andromeda had planned, the snake was her kill. Thankfully, she knew the way back to the village. She went around the massive brush she had come through as she made her way back. There was a chance that she wouldn't make it, but she had to try. It would count for something if her body was found in the jungle, underneath the slain snake.
The walk back was very long, and Andromeda was encumbered underneath the weight of the snake. It only seemed to get heavier as she went along, even with the hope that she was getting closer with each step. Blood dribbled on to her pants from the snake's gaping throat, and more dripped down her back from the other gash in its body, mingling with her sweat. She was hungry, thirsty, and tired, but didn't stop. Stopping would mean another night alone in the jungle. She wasn't certain the warding charms could withstand her chaos a second time. That there was food and water at the village was enough to keep her going.
Andromeda never stopped breathing or began to vomit, but she started to get confused about where she was: whether it was Galahd or Tenebrae, and what exactly had been real. Her parents would be so proud of her for finally completing her First Hunt. Then again, maybe they wouldn't be, since she had killed a snake instead of the usual deer. Were snakes acceptable bounties? No one had ever mentioned them.
She caught her herself in these thoughts, reminding herself that she was in Galahd, her parents long dead. Tenebrae was far behind her. Andromeda reasoned that the snake indeed was venomous, but gave victims hallucinations, rather than poisoning them. That she was dehydrated and starving, and that it was very hot, only made the effects worse. Her mind kept slipping into muddled thoughts as she continued walking. Occasionally she caught herself, but she always became confused again.
When the jungle gradually began to darken with the sunset, Andromeda encountered someone. She recognized Klahan, but didn't know what he was doing out here. She took it as a sign that she was close to the village at last.
He approached her and looked her over. They hadn't grown any fonder of each other over the winter. "Give me the snake."
"No," Andromeda spoke hoarsely. Of course he would try to take this away from her. "It's mine. I'm going to carry it into the village. I can handle it."
The last claim was questionable. Klahan didn't argue. He only shook his head and walked alongside her. As they came to the edge of the village, he spotted another scout and told her to go find Sonam and the others.
Andromeda made straight for Sonam's house. By the time they finally arrived, Bulan and the kids were already waiting for her. Sonam, Hira, Tshering, and some others from camp were hurrying up the road to join them. Andromeda grinned in triumph as they all gaped at her. She was covered in mud, blood, and sweat. Her shirt had become a ragged crop top. The snake was what held the most attention, though.
Sonam looked her over once he was in front of her. "You can put it down now."
Lifting the large coils over her shoulders, Andromeda abruptly dropped the body on the ground in front of her, a sharp pain in her left forearm causing her to lose her grip. She held it close to herself again as she waited for the pain to subside.
"Let's see it." Bulan stepped over the snake without much thought, taking hold of Andromeda's arm. Tshering also came closer to inspect the rags wrapped around her arm. The older woman looked at everyone gathered. "Narayan, go get the doctor, and the shaman. Take your sister with you. Sonam, take care of this." She looked down at the snake, then at Tshering and Hira. "You two, come inside with us."
Bulan ushered Andromeda into the house, which was noticeably cooler. She pushed her along all the way up to Malai's room, where her spare cot was set up. Andromeda was made to sit on it. Bulan began to dig through the few clothes Andromeda had.
"Tshering, go get some water," She instructed without looking up. "In a glass and in a bowl."
He left the room just as he stepped in. She picked out a shirt and shorts for Andromeda to change into in the mean time. What was so simple and everyday seemed much more arduous. Andromeda sat on the cot again once she was in clean clothes. Tshering returned by then and gave her the glass of water. She was grateful for it, drinking quickly despite a warning to go slow.
Hira took the bowl of water and a rag and began cleaning Andromeda's face while Bulan and Tshering undid the rag wound around her arm.
"I think it was venomous. I saw things out there," Andromeda began to tell them. "Something came up to me in the night-"
"Now's not the time," Bulan said, looking up at her with concern. "You need to rest before you tell your story."
"It wasn't venomous," Tshering joined in. "That snake is rare and usually hides from sight. It has lots of medicinal uses—I'll show you later. It uses its teeth to hold prey in place. Fighting against it tears skin, veins, and tendons, making it all worse. You were very smart not to struggle. You won't lose the ability to use your hand, and you got a trophy to remember your First Hunt by. Not many are so lucky."
Once Hira finished washing Andromeda's face and arms, she left to get some food for her and more clean water. Tshering and Bulan washed the wound more thoroughly with the clean water and a rag while Andromeda ate from a bowl of quinoa with one hand, Hira holding the bowl for her.
The doctor and an older woman arrived as she finished eating. The former examined the wound, determining that Tshering had done a good job in cleaning it out. He told her the same thing Tshering had said about the snake bite, and how lucky she was to still be able to use her hand. The pain would subside in a few days.
Once his examination was done, the woman stepped forward with a scalpel. She also looked at the many puncture wounds. She pointed to the smallest ones. "The teeth did not go so deep here. The scars will fade away into your other ones. I'm going to cut into them and make them a little deeper. The whole set will heal consistently that way. It'll look good. It's a big deal to get such a trophy, especially for your First Hunt."
Only the doctor seemed reluctant to the woman's offer. Everyone else appeared to be in support of it. The woman's reasoning, explained so simply for a foreigner, made sense to Andromeda. "Okay."
The pain of the tiny knife digging into the smaller wounds was much worse—almost like she was being bitten again. Tshering and Hira both held her arm still as the woman worked. It was quickly over; she had only needed to cut into a couple of small ones. The doctor put a salve over the wounds, then properly wrapped a bandage over Andromeda's forearm.
Lastly, he gave her some pills to take with more water. They weren't only for the pain: Andromeda was feverish, and everyone agreed that she seemed a little delirious from it. The medicine would knock her unconscious for the night.
As the doctor and the woman left, Bulan encouraged Tshering and Hira to follow them out. Cleaned up and bandaged up, all that was left was for Andromeda to get some rest. Even if she would rather have more to drink and eat. She was a little put out that everyone was leaving already; she wanted to tell them about what had happened out there. At the same time, she was also very tired.
"Is the snake a good bounty?" She asked as Bulan picked up the bowls, the glass, and the dirty laundry.
The older woman paused for a moment before answering. "It is. Now lay down. You need to sleep. Tomorrow will be another big day."