Ashwin took a small quite step back, then another, and another.
“Easy, easy.
That’s it, good.
That’s right, ignore me.”
Ashwin continued to backtrack around the abdomen the way he came.
After getting clear he took a deep breath and quickly checked his surroundings.
His stomach growled again painfully, it nearly doubled him over.
Ashwin gave a low hiss between his teeth.
“Damnit, I know, just give me some time!”
Ashwin’s head snapped to the lake, “Just get to the lake Ashwin, it’s already too damn hot.”
Crouching low Ashwin hurried off in the direction of the lake which was about eight hills over from the jawbone that he had originally spied it out from.
But without touching his Animus to enhance his movement speed, it was a hot and slow process for Ashwin.
Suddenly Ashwin stopped and scolded himself for being careless.
“You’re hungry and getting sloppy, that’s not like you, Ashwin.”
Ashwin had gone days without food before it was nothing new.
“Must have been my morning jog with the Death Gigas.
Bastard got me up before breakfast.”
Now he stopped every twenty meters and looked, listened and smelled.
He noted the direction of the wind, which was blowing east to west, and kept it in his face, he checked the ground for tracks or large predator scat.
To the sky he looked for any circling birds of prey.
“No smell of carrion on the wind, nothing dead is near.”
Ashwin’s renewed vigilance made ascending each hill even more slow and pain staking, the sun beat down on him.
Heat shimmered above the white fossil beds until the ground itself seemed to breathe, the pale bones of extinct primordial beasts reflected the sunlight back at him, turning the valley into an oppressive furnace.
The tongue in his mouth was like sandpaper between his jaws.
shriveled and dried up, it clung to the roof of his mouth.
The heat made him feel dirty and dizzy, and weak.
Soon he started feeling aches and pains from bruises he hadn’t even realized he had.
As Ashwin panted, he swore to himself that he would never operate in daytime hours again.
Cresting the last hill the lake opened up in front of him, he took in all the details.
The water of the lake was remarkably clear; he could see large fish swimming from his position atop the small hill, and it was huge.
Ashwin couldn’t see the opposite coast.
“I guess this makes you a great lake”
But most striking of all was the purple baobab tree that grew by the lake.
Thirty meters high and anywhere from ten to thirty meters wide at the base, the odd-looking giant tree was a sight to behold.
Ashwin got lost in a trance just looking at it.
The Purple baobab tree was a striking contrast against the crystal blue lake and the pristine bone white fossilized surroundings of Death Valley.
Its trunk was broader than clan halls.
Thick limbs twisted skyward like the arms of ancient giants.
Purple leaves shimmered in the dry wind, scattering patches of violet shade across the white fossil shore.
For a heartbeat, Ashwin forgot his thirst.
The crystal-clear water in this furnace of dry bones looked sweet and incredibly tempting, but Ashwin thought he could make out fruit in the Baobab tree.
“Okay change of plan” He heard himself say aloud.
With the last of his strength, he ran low in the direction of the purple Baobab tree, and as he did, he found it getting strangely cooler around him.
The oppressive heat of the Beast Vein sun no longer beat down upon him.
Ashwin reached the base of the purple baobab tree and circled around it till he had found the shady portion, which to his surprise was much, much cooler than the shade of some other tree.
Ashwin looked up at the huge purple leaves of the tree.
“It’s like they absorb heat.”
The difference was like night and day, as he stood there pondering it a wind came along through the branches of the baobab tree and jostled it, when the air hit Ashwin, it was cold and refreshing.
The tree had two distinct features.
The first was the large flowers that oozed with a sticky honey like resin, and the second was large fruit pods that hung underneath branches.
The fruit drew him in, but they were high up in the baobab tree.
His stomach growled again.
Gritting his teeth he hissed; “Climbing this tree will take less time than fishing.
So shut up.”
Dropping the rod whip on the ground he began to climb up the tree finding hand holds and foot holds as he ascended.
In little time at all Ashwin had reached the top of the Baobab tree and was raiding a cluster of the fruit pods, using his curved obsidian clever he gashed one open and water splashed out.
He drank the water in with big, greedy gulps, it tasted like a blend of apple, oranges and coconuts.
It went empty.
Ashwin reached for another, splitting it open more carefully this time.
He drank deeply again.
He repeated this process two more time until he felt his thirst fade away.
Inside the pod was a dense white fruit pulp that Ashwin carved out and ate.
He looked around.
It was Spacious up here.
There was food and water.
And being this high off the ground was a level of security from threats.
Ashwin smiled.
“Who’s got the high ground now you bastards.”
Ashwin looked out over the lake.
“I’ll name this place…baobab lake.”
Ashwin laid down under the shade of a branch and closed his eyes, the air that blew through the limbs of the tree became cool and it was refreshing.
Soon, before Ashwin knew it, he had dozed off completely, exhausted from the morning affair.