At that moment she felt truly connected with the plants that she sat among in the dark. She was giving her energy to protect and nourish them, which in turn would nourish the people of this village. The plants roots grew and the size of the food stuffs that the plants produced was increased.

  She pulled her hand away from the soil and panted deeply. She could just see the plants had risen around her but she was a little dizzy from the exertion. She caught herself by kneeling for a moment. Putting her hand to her head to steady herself, she slowly stood and walked down the row of crops.

  Acharya had made a similar patch of enlarged crops and was moving to his next position as well. Tara knelt down and slipped more of her energy and life force into the surrounding plants. It felt like tendrils of pure life that she forced into the roots of the crops, into their fruit, seeds, or roots.

  As she moved among the crops, she left more and more of herself behind. It took her longer and longer to stand up. Soon she couldn’t see straight. Everything was blurry and she was getting amazingly tired. She fell to the ground but caught herself before doing any serious harm to herself. She was light headed and dizzy, but she had to finish her task.

  Suddenly Acharya was there, holding onto her, steading her for a moment. Tara looked confused, wondering where he had come from.

  Acharya said into the quiet dark of the night, “We’re done Tara, we’ve done all we can.”

  Tara nodded as her eyelids closed by themselves. Even if he was lying, she couldn’t see anything in the dark to prove it. She let him support her as they walked away from the field out into the desert surrounding the village.

  *   *   *   *   *

  Tara woke up to excited shouts in the distance. She opened her eyes and found that she was lying under a sort of rock overhang in the side of a hill. She tried to get up but all she got was a painful headrush and decided to lie back down before she hurt herself.

  The excited shouts were coming from off to her left and she rolled over, propping her head up on her arm. Her eyes grew a little wide in spite of herself when she saw what the villagers had recently discovered.

  The field of crops had tripled in size and in some places the green plants and stalks looked so thick they may had quadrupled in size. She was looking at a green box of plants and food surrounded by an arid, tan sandbox. She couldn’t help by smile at herself and at the work that she and Acharya had done that night. She laid down gazing at her handy work, knowing that those crops would help these people survive for another year. A future generation was safe from starvation, for now, a lack of food was not going to be a threat this year, at least.

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  “Can we cook, or can’t we?” Acharya said somewhere above her head.

  Tara smiled as she turned her tired head upward looking at her pack Alpha. “We might both be able to cook, but who had the cook book and found the recipe?” She answered with a sarcastic playful air of superiority.

  “We will have no doubt earned the blacksmith’s respect for this,” Aiman said.

  “Yeah, respect, sure,” Mary said, “Or it’ll scare him shitless, and he’ll never talk to us again.”

  Tara slowly rolled onto her stomach and brought herself to a kneeling position. She breathed deeply and evenly, holding the head rush and waves of dizziness at bay.

  “Tara, honey, maybe you should lie down for a bit more,” Malikah said with genuine concern. “You look like you’re about to fall over.”

  Tara closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She may have given more of herself than she had wanted to or planned on. But lying here wasn’t going to get them any closer to their goal. She shook her head, “No, Malikah. I’m…I’m fine. Just give me a minute.”

  Asclepius walked over to her and lowered his jaws to Tara. But Tara shook her head. “I’m not hurt, seriously. Thank you, Asclepius. But really, I’m fine.” She rocked forward and lifted one leg up and pushed herself to a standing position as she swayed dangerously before swinging back and holding herself against the hill and rock overhang. She stood there for long minutes, just breathing, with eyes closed, trying to make the world stop spinning.

  “She needs to eat,” Aiman said, “and soon.”

  Tara knew that their Enforcer was right. She was so light headed that she wouldn’t be able to stay on her feet for long.

  She felt Acharya wrap his arm around her waist and support her. Mary slid up next to her other side and they moved as a group back to the hut of the old black smith.

  They knew that he didn’t speak English but the old man had to see that they weren’t enemies at least. They found that the smithy was already operating in the late morning. A single line of smoke was rising from the hut. They moved into the smithy. The old man looked up and made towards his hot tongs that were near the fire.

  Aiman stepped forward, “Have you seen?” He pointed to his eyes, “The field?” He pointed outside the hut to the far field.

  The old man looked at him out of the corner of his eyes. He knelt down and gazed into his fire and hot coals, raking them over the piece of metal that he was working in the forge. No longer angry, or threatening, just ignoring them.

  Aiman pointed again outside, “The field, please look.”

  The old man looked up suddenly. His frustration and contempt were plainly written there.

  Tara couldn’t see all that clearly. She was being propped up almost completely by Mary and Acharya. “Sir,” she croaked. Her voice was raspy and harsh like she hadn’t drunk or eaten in a few days and she was feeling very thirsty. “Please…just look.”