HUNGER WOKE HIM. AFTER losing the flitter, his stomach had griped with pangs for about a day but then the pain had gone away. His digestive system had seemed to accept it wasn’t going to receive any food for a while. But this time after a sleep that, judging from the sun’s position, had lasted into the afternoon, horrible cramps were wracking him.
Ethan sat up. The weather had luckily remained dry all the time he’d been traveling on foot. However, though the temperature didn’t seem to have dropped, he was trembling with cold. He thought of the warm jacket he’d brought along on his expedition, now lying sodden underwater somewhere, courtesy of whatever had taken his flitter—perhaps the thread creatures. He also thought of the packets of dried food that were now ruined by the river water.
