The Seer by Rowan McAllister (reading comprehension books .TXT) 📕

Before the wave of dizziness his sudden movement caused subsided, Horse had already started walking away, back the way they’d come.

“Hey!”

Ravi staggered after him but could barely keep up. He had no idea how far they walked. He was so absorbed in his misery and just putting one foot in front of the other that he literally ran into Horse’s rump, knocking himself back on his ass in the mud, when the animal suddenly stopped.

Thinking all kinds of nasty thoughts, Ravi lifted his head to scowl and glare but stopped when he spotted the dark shape of a building through the rain. After scrambling awkwardly to his feet, he staggered toward it, his hopes rising until he got a good look at the place and he groaned. Three of the four walls of the small log structure were still intact, but the fourth and part of the roof had been caved in by the large tree that had fallen on it. It was obviously abandoned, but it would provide shelter out of the rain, and Ravi didn’t think he could walk any farther.

“Hello?” he called out as he approached, but received nothing but the splat of rain in response. He tried again in Sambaran, for good measure, but still nothing.

At least the tree hadn’t hit the door, so he wouldn’t have to clamber over the trunk and through branches. He never would have been able to get Daks inside, if that were the case. He wasn’t sure if he’d even have the strength to drag Daks through the doorway, as it was.

When he pushed on it, the slightly rotted, moss-covered door creaked loudly on rusted hinges. Gray light streamed through the door and filtered through the branches spanning the hole in the roof. Strangely enough, part of the tree was still alive, despite having toppled over, and small green leaves sprouted along the branches and caught the rain. Ravi wiped away the water still dripping into his eyes and scanned the mostly empty space bleakly before taking a deep breath and jutting out his chin. He’d lived in worse over the past decade.

He stomped a bruised and battered bare foot against the floor to announce his presence to any current inhabitants. Only small rustlings and scurryings answered him, which was good. He wouldn’t have to try to wrest the place from anything bigger. A quick survey showed him the fireplace and chimney were still intact, and he allowed himself a weak smile. There were a few bits of old, broken furniture strewn around, and some of the branches on the underside of the fallen tree looked dead enough to burn.

He limped back to the doorway and found Horse calmly waiting outside with Daks still slung over his back, unmoving.

“Right,” he said, mostly to encourage himself to keep going. “Let’s see about getting the big jerk inside. Are you going to cooperate again?”

As if Horse understood him, the animal dropped down before Ravi even reached its side. Ravi stared wonderingly into Horse’s eyes for a few seconds, before turning away again with a shiver. He dragged Daks from its back, wincing when his strength failed and they both hit the ground harder than he’d intended.

Horse whickered at him, and Ravi huffed. “I know. I know. I’m trying, but you obviously felt how heavy he is. And if you hadn’t noticed, I just survived a flood.”

With a series of grunts and curses, Ravi managed to drag Daks into the abandoned cabin and out of the rain, but only as far as he needed so the big lug’s body wasn’t blocking the door. Ravi shouldn’t have been surprised, but Horse tried to come through the door right after them, only to be stopped by the bulk of the packs tied to his saddle. Horse turned to look at them, as if they offended him, and Ravi let out a raspy chuckle. The stallion then swung a baleful eye in his direction, and Ravi laughed harder, only to start coughing soon after.

“Looks like you aren’t as mystical and amazing as you like to let on,” he wheezed after the coughing subsided.

Horse lifted his head haughtily and turned away from him.

Ravi studied the animal in the rain for a few beats before shrugging. He really couldn’t afford for Horse to wander off, and the cabin had plenty of room. With effort, he stood, limped over to it, and began undoing the straps holding the sodden packs to the saddle. After all four had plopped to the ground outside the door, Horse primly stepped over them and entered the cabin to take up residence against the far wall.

“Anything else I can do for you, Your Highness?”

Horse swung his head over his shoulder toward the dripping saddle on his back and Ravi groaned. With numb fingers, he fumbled at the straps. The saddle hit the ground with a loud thud, but that was the best he could manage.

He shuffled out into the rain one last time and dragged the packs inside. He had no idea if anything in them would still be useful, but he remembered Daks had stowed the last of their food in one of them, and he’d be hungry eventually.

After closing the door, he sank down by Daks’s side and searched the man’s face. The cut on the side of his head had mostly stopped bleeding, but he still showed no signs of waking.

“Don’t you dare die on me,” Ravi whispered to him, fighting another spate of tears. “You promised me you’d get me to Scholoveld. I’m not there yet, you big jerk.”

Unable to move even one more inch, Ravi spooned against Daks’s back, draped an arm over the man’s waist, and fell into a damp, cold, miserable sleep.

DAKS WOKE to the crackle and pop of a fire and the smell of wood smoke. The second he tried to open his eyes, he regretted it, as pain stabbed through his skull. He let out a moan