Word Count: 78,028
Summary of Events:
Nadia talked things over with Horea, who urged her to leave Moldova for Western Europe in spite of her parents' objections, telling her he was sure that if she joined Vitaly in resisting her parents' expectations her parents would relent and let her live the life she wanted to. Borden trudged unhappily through rain, castigating himself for having forgotten a raincoat and worrying about how tall the approaching mountains were for his sake as much as Honour's; he ended up crossing a gravel road just as some provincial government officials — probably in the forestry department — were driving by; they chased him, since he wasn't in an area popular with vacationers, which wore Borden down, but he managed to keep ahead of them . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
Borden dared to check his compass app again and decided he was heading a little too far due north, so he shifted to be more west and kept on walking, his main focus being to put one foot in front of the other.
A fallen tree prompted Borden to halt, he turned around and sat down on it heavily, desperate to catch his breath so that he would have the energy for the remaining distance that — no matter how far along the Nadina River he’d crossed — had to be less than five kilometres to Tagetochlain* Lake.
Once he’d restored his energy — sucking back several good gulps of water from the bottle he carried with him, full of cooled water he’d boiled last night — and become confident that the provincial officials who’d chased him down had given up and gone back, Borden swung his legs over the tree and continued on his walk.
It was only once the trees naturally thinned and revealed a rather large open space that Borden realised that it had completely stopped raining. He might be able to have dry clothes for the next day, but probably not dry firewood for the night.
Borden crossed another road that was relatively straight and devoid of traffic and headed for where the trees looked to get the thickest. He then followed those trees to thicker trees and across another road, skirting along the edge of a large open area until the trees ended abruptly, revealing before him an open expanse of water.
Tagetochlain Lake. Finally.
Checking the time on his cellphone, Borden found that it was half past eight, almost fifteen hours since he’d set out in the morning. He lowered himself to the ground and leaned against a tree, basking in the sight of the open water.
It was only after gazing at the water for a few minutes that he realised that the water not only extended northwest of him — where it met with the horizon as it was a long, narrow lake, like most in British Columbia were, as they needed to fit between all the mountains — and also a ways to the northeast where he could see a shoreline, but also southwest of him.
According to his map there were no peninsulas into Tagetochlain Lake, but there was one that pointed west into Nadina Lake.
Borden felt concerned. Was he at the wrong lake?
Taking out his cellphone, he checked the compass app. He was facing northwest, not west or southwest. Either there was a too-small-for-the-map peninsula that jutted into the southeastern end of Tagetochlain Lake, or he was at some other lake entirely.
At the moment Borden was just too weary from the long day of trudging in the rain to care. He was by a body of water he could — hopefully — get what he needed to make his supper from, and along whose southwestern shore he would walk tomorrow with the hope of reaching Atna Lake within the Coast Mountains the following day.
*pronunciation unknown.
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