As the trip continued, Isanna and I found ourselves engrossed in conversation as time flew by. Days turned to nights, and then to days again.

The only clear signs of passing time were the camping stops every other night and the occasional beast attacks, quickly dispatched by the caravan leader and his followers. We had been instructed not to fight the beasts, otherwise I would’ve loved to test my new skills on the lower level ones.

Now, over 2 weeks later, we were finally approaching the first destination on our trip: the city of Mezkio. It was still at least half an hour away, but excitement had me on edge. Finally, a taste of civilization again! Staring out the back of the carriage, I let my mind wander as I waited for the impending sight of stone walls.

Isanna and I had made plans to explore the city together, and unfortunately we hadn’t made any other potential friends among the other youth in our carriage yet. A few had joined in our conversations halfheartedly, but they just seemed intent on either alleviating their own boredom or talking to the silver-haired girl beside me.

I often caught the eyes of some of those boys and saw their fiery looks, their desire to rip her away from me clear as day. But despite having listened to me talk for 16 days, she was still firmly planted by my side with her arm pressed against mine. She had even slept on the ground next to me during our stops, which caused me quite a scare when I woke up the first time.

I was still questioning her intentions quite a bit, but maybe that was just my slum rat paranoia talking. I had never been too close to anyone, not even my friends back home, so spending this long by someone’s side was starting to chip away at my mental fortitude.

But after looking at her soft smile and dangerous eyes for this long, I could feel my resolve wavering a bit. She was intelligent, funny, caring, and a good storyteller to boot. It was a shame someone like her was being sent to the war front.

That’s right… we were all being sent to die. These thoughts were silly and pointless, who knew if we’d see the next year? Let alone have time for going on dates. Summer was around the corner and before we knew it we’d be facing down the blades of our enemies.

As the trees around us started to thin, I felt my companion tap on my shoulder. Meeting her eyes as I turned my head, we exchanged nods and both looked towards the front of the carriage.

Standing at the other end of the carriage was one of the men employed by training camp for this trip, a young brown-haired man quite a bit older than us. “Alright, you all. We’re almost to Mezkio, we expect you to be on your best behavior. You have the freedom to explore the city and can spend whatever you carry with you, or stay with the group and get in some basic training. We’ll be here for 2 full days and leave the following morning soon after dawn, if you don’t board with the rest when the time comes you’ll be considered a deserter.” With that he sat back down.

Looking around, it seemed everyone was on edge after that statement. There was nothing like threatening a fate worse than death to get us excited about the first real stop on our long journey!

bloody divider [https://i.imgur.com/yTIGwtI.png]

Jumping down from the carriage and walking a small distance, I immediately set about stretching my lethargic muscles. Despite trying to keep myself in shape everytime we stopped to camp, my muscles still weren’t happy with the long carriage rides.

After a short chat where the carriage supervisor repeated his instructions, our carriage’s conscripts all went our separate ways. Now that Isanna and I were free to explore, we headed towards the nearby inn that we’d been directed to..

We had asked earlier and apparently we didn’t need to stay with the others if we could afford our own lodgings, so the two of us had decided to get our own rooms to escape our peers. It looked like early afternoon, so we’d probably be able to at least sightsee and visit some shops today before grabbing dinner and retiring.

Arriving in front of a large wood and stone building with a sign reading “The Kitten’s Nap”, I let out a low whistle. This place was huge on the outside, much larger than any of the inns back in Rhondale.

Looking at the girl, she flashed me a teasing smile and pushed through the front door. Following behind her, I found it was much more impressive on the inside than I had imagined. We had entered into the lobby, but off to our right was the entrance to a huge tavern.

Approaching the empty reception desk, my companion rung a bell and we waited for someone to show up. As we waited, I let my eyes wander across the well-decorated walls. There were decorative weapons, a collection of paintings, and two separate notice boards. One was local news and the other was a list of important buildings and directions to get to them.

Engrossed in my inspection, I didn’t notice the large older woman behind the desk until she cleared her throat. Noticing Isanna was also staring at me and waiting, I felt my face flush as I scratched at the back of my head. “Sorry about that. I was admiring the decor in here.”

“No worries, hun. Your girlfriend here just seemed to be waiting for you.”

Feeling my face get even warmer for some reason, I avoided looking at my companion directly. “Would we be able to get separate single rooms for the next two nights?”

With that, the woman gave me a weird look. “Not to overstep, hun, but our single rooms should be large enough for both of you. No need to waste your coin.”

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As I went to respond again, Isanna put her arms around my right arm and stopped me. “Do you have double rooms, ma’am? He’s a bit shy still.” She winked at the woman.

Smiling sagely, the woman checked a piece of paper behind her counter and then nodded. “It looks like we do, that’ll be 7 Copper Droe for both nights. Food is not included.”

Before I had a chance to do anything, Isanna pulled out her purse and handed the amount to the woman. “Thank you, we’ll take it.”

“No, thank you. I hope you two have a wonderful stay here at The Kitten’s Nap.” With that, the woman handed us a key to a room and walked off. The way she said wonderful didn’t set well with me, but it seemed the girl beside me had decided our fate already.

Looking at her, I saw the devious look in her eyes and felt something funny in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t like where everything was going, something still seemed off about all of this. But, maybe I was too accustomed to bad things happening?

Trying to take control of the situation again, I adopted a devious look of my own. “Well, dearest. It looks like we have a room for the night, so shall we explore the town now?”

Flashing me a smile, the girl nodded and pulled me towards the door we just entered through. A moment later we were back in the street, heading towards the market district.

bloody divider [https://i.imgur.com/yTIGwtI.png]

The rest of the day passed by in a flurry with Isanna by my side. We explored market stalls packed with fresh produce, inspected weapon shops, and explored multiple craft shops.

The stores were all amazing in their own ways, as a former fledgling tradesman I was drawn to all of the goods up for sale and had a million questions. The proprietors were mostly willing to answer my questions, and I ended up making a handful of small purchases. I mostly bought a few knicknacks and some fabrics I could use to practice my needlework for the rest of the journey. I figured having something to do might make the trip easier.

The rest of the day passed with my arm in her iron grasp, moving from one store to the next until we found ourselves sitting in a courtyard under the dying sun. With her head on my shoulder, my arm around her, and us both staring up at the sunset, I belatedly realized today probably counted as a date between us.

Resting my head against hers, I made a decision. My plan for tonight was clear. After we got dinner tonight at the tavern, I’d make my feelings known and address the elephant in the room. This is what any good man would do.

With that resolve in my heart, we kept our eyes trained on the sunset and enjoyed the silent presence of each other with the background musical track of our beating hearts and the fountain behind us.

Eventually, as the sky began to lose its light, we stood up together and slowly made our way back to the inn. Tonight we had agreed we’d eat at the inn’s tavern, but tomorrow we had some other places we wanted to try.

As we entered through the front door, we waved to the woman at the receptionist desk we had met earlier that day and took our seats in the now-busy tavern. Looking over the menu, I was surprised how many options they had and how reasonable the prices were.

Looking over the menu, I couldn’t help but feel drawn to either a boar steak or rabbit stew. “So, I think I want one of these — what do you think?”

“Oh, those both seem like great choices! I was eyeing the rabbit stew or the deer strips. If you want then I could get the stew, you could get the steak, and we could share?”

Flushing slightly, I nodded and we placed our orders with a passing waiter. “This place is pretty lively, huh?” I asked.

“Yeah, really seems like it came to life, huh? It looks like most of the folks around us are adventurers too, I met some of the ones back home.”

“Oh? What were they like? I mostly spent time around the guards and the tradesmen myself.” I had always wanted to spend more time around the adventures, but it was just rarely feasible for me. I always had work to do, or wanted to visit the library.

With a wistful look in her eyes, she rested her cheek on her hand. “Oh, loud. Always loud and rowdy. I remember this one time a fight broke out between two groups of them because of some bet neither side could agree who won. Something about who could slay the most goblins or something? Well, both sides broke out into a fight and then a third group tried to break up the fight. Before I knew it, chairs were flying and tables were knocked onto their sides. They’re good fun, if nothing else.”

“They sure sound like it. Tradesmen would do basically anything to avoid a fight, but it sounds like adventurers are completely different in that regard.”

“Yeah, they really are. I know we haven’t talked much about our dreams, but… I always thought I’d end up as an adventurer instead of the military. Maybe I still will if we survive all of this. What about you? What are your dreams, Rose Knight?”

Chuckling slightly, I stared down at the table and thought about it a bit. What were my dreams now? With the military and everything, I guess I had been avoiding the deeper question about my future.

“I guess I’m not sure, honestly. I want to help people somehow, but what that means… we’ll have to see, I guess. Someone told me I should stand tall and aim high, but I’m not sure that’s what I’m particularly good at. I’m a survivor, you know?”.

Realizing I got a bit too deep for a casual tavern conversation, I felt my face warm up again and tried to look away before I caught her eyes. But, before I knew it, she grabbed my chin and pulled my face close to hers. “You have a good head on your shoulders, Rose. Just don’t do anything too reckless, okay? We all only have one life, you included.”

With that, she grazed her lips on my cheek and pushed me back gently. Sitting there in silence we both stared at the table for a bit until our food and drinks arrived. Before we knew it, we were digging in and drinking ourselves stupid. Like that, the next hour passed in a drunken haze of food and booze as we shattered the awkwardness with good conversation and laughter.

As the night came to an end, I paid our tab and we stumbled up the stairs together. Once we found our room number, which took longer than I’d like to admit, we threw down our bag from the shopping trip in the corner of the room, locked the door, and approached the single bed.

Looking around, I felt a blush rise to my face. “Isanna, I thought we got a double room?”

“Oh, I guess she must’ve made a mistake with the arrangements.” With that, a devious look spread over her face as she pushed me back onto the bed. Before I knew it, she threw herself on top of me and pressed her lips to my neck. In that moment, my mind froze as I tried to mentally process the situation I was in. A moment later, clarity broke through and I wrapped my arms around her. I knew exactly what I wanted out of tonight.