Every step Talia took felt more and more like a mistake. The scenery was nice, sure, and she had been able to forage for enough food to keep her going — the entire elective semester she had spent on mycology had turned out to be more than helpful when it came to surviving off of mountain mushrooms — but she felt like she was getting nowhere, slowly. She could travel during the day in the mountains, that was nice. But no guides could help her here, her AI was beyond useless, and she was starting to try and calculate how much food she would have to gather up to even attempt a journey back. There was no guarantee Saleh’s tribe would be anywhere near where they had been, but their last spot had been on a trade route, so there was a good enough chance someone else would be there who could at least help her find her way back to his group. Or maybe she could just stay with whoever found her. She had a feeling going back would mean Saleh would try to court her in earnest, and as much as Talia had enjoyed his company, it just wasn’t a feeling she thought she could return. He didn’t know enough about plants, for one. That was always going to be a dealbreaker.