Night fell and the caravan stopped once again, they were once more flanked by trees on both sides of the road they had been traveling on for days. Ever since the attack the bushes and trees that once made one feel “one with nature”…now only gave the members of the caravan anxiety.
Aegon was sitting by the campfire with the other youths, every injury had already healed but the sadness felt from the loss of a person couldn't be surpassed so easily. As such, the mood of the group was predictably somber.
“Another safe day huh?” Blurted Percy awkwardly.
He only received weak nods and soft grunts as a response.
Scratching his head he continued. “Do you guys think we're close to our destination?”
A few people absentmindedly shrugged their shoulders, not really pondering the question.
[Tough crowd today…maybe I should just let them be until we arrive, we should be getting close.]
His thoughts froze right then.
[Where the hell are we going?]
Struck by realization that he didn't know the answer he asked aloud. “Guys, where are we going?”
Heating this question, everyone was similarly stunned.
[Where are we going really?]
“Actually, I don't know either…” Travis added from the side, feeling somewhat embarrassed, he didn't care enough to ask even though they had been traveling for a few days already.
Still, he didn't seem to be the only one, no one seemed to know anything. They looked at each other searching for answers, except for one person who focused their gaze on Anna who was still oblivious to the conversation.
[I think you know.] Aegon thought as he looked at her.
Under the light produced by the campfire shadows danced around her face, and yet he could still see the dark circles under her caramel eyes and her lashes fluttering slightly.
At that moment, while the group was still engrossed in conversation, Anna stood up and walked away into the night as she had been doing occasionally ever since that time she ran back to the campsite in the middle of the night.
Aegon could see her face clearly, the tense and worried expression but with a tinge of curiosity stubbornly hanging on, he could even see the tiny strands of hair dancing at the edges of her face…
[What? I can see strands of her hair?]
He looked upwards at the moon that was mostly hidden in the cloudy sky with little light passing through to illuminate the surroundings of the campsite, it wasn't really pitch black but it was still pretty dark.
He turned to Roy at his side.
“Hey Roy, look at Anna over there, do you see anything different?”
Roy frowned at the odd question but nonetheless complied and looked towards Anna.
He squinted for a while as he struggled to make out any details and soon enough he simply gave up and turned to Aegon.
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“I can hardly see her and you want me to tell you if I see anything different? Ask me when she’s closer dammit.” He said with annoyance as he laid down with his back facing Aegon.
[If he can barely see her…] Aegon rubbed his eyes and looked at the fading figure that was still easily visible even if the details were not so easy to catch as before.
His gaze moved from Anna’s figure to his surroundings, really looking, paying attention to his sense of sight like he had rarely done before.
He saw the treeline some distance away, the leaves gently swaying with the wind, the owl perched on a tree looking back at him for a moment before turning its head and focusing elsewhere, he saw the stars and the moon above clearly, almost like they were brighter than usual.
He silently got up and walked into the forest, he wasn't walking into the darkness, to him the darkness wasn't the same, he could feel it was darker, he could “see” it was darker…yet he could still see clearly, as if the sun was still shining down and illuminating his surroundings.
[What the hell is going on?]
Aegon searched his mind for any reasonable explanation for this capability and that’s when his memory brought him back to that day in the cave.
…
“As for the inheritance, it's pretty simple. I will give you my bloodline and that will take care of any talent problems you might have had, it won't make your journey faster but it guarantees that you won't stop halfway just because you hit a bottleneck. It will also give you some neat abilities that you will discover down the line.”
…
[Is this what he was talking about?]
He thought back to those moments in the cave and the primordial and ethereal feeling that it had left in him, he felt it was all a dream and thinking of those red eyes still terrified him.
Shaking this memory away he remembered the owl perched on the tree and a mischievous smile returned to his face…
“I'm not becoming a glorified owl am I?”
Aegon turned his neck to its limits trying to check if he could also look behind his back…
Ultimately failing he nervously laughed. “Haha, well that was dumb.”
He looked around, searching for a sign he might have just angered a god, but there was nothing.
[The thought of making fun of a dead god is pretty exotic] As he inwardly laughed, cold sweat trickled down his back.
“So did I really just get night vision? This is pretty weird.”
“You’re talking to yourself now?” A familiar voice came from behind him.
Looking behind him he saw Anna leaning on a tree, looking at him with amusement.
With a sly smile on her face she made her way towards Aegon.
“And night vision? Are you gaining superpowers now?” The derision on her face was palpable.
Aegon opened his mouth ready to retort, to prove her wrong…
[Let’s see if you’ll still have that smug smile when I can still see you clearly from dozens of meters away…]
He stopped for a moment.
[But should I be talking about this stuff?]
Anna took his silence as embarrassment and continued.”Fine, if you don't want to talk about your new powers let’s talk about something else, I’ve noticed you looking at me a lot lately, what is it?”
“You know why I’ve been looking at you.”
Anna’s countenance became tenser.
“Yes I know, you got me.” Sighing, she added. “But I can't really tell you anything either so I was hoping you could stop looking at me so much, you are putting me on edge…more so than I already am.”
Aegon simply stared at her for a few moments before shaking his head.
“Nah, I don't believe you, you can definitely tell me you got caught by the old man while snooping around, it isn't that big of a deal.”
Surprise appeared on the young woman’s face but it soon faded into a derisive smile as she muttered. “You might actually have night vision.”
“Well, since you know that much, what more is there to tell?”
Aegon answered immediately. “I want to know what he told you for you to be like this, you have been acting like a frightened rat for the past few days… apart from the day of the attack.”
“What makes you think I'm not just a weak person?”
Aegon snorted with anger. “Yeah, because it’s normal for a person to be this down because of a scolding but be perfectly calm during a bandit attack where people are dying left and right, cut the bullshit Anna, spill it.”
Anna hesitated for a few moments, looking around as if looking for a way out of that conversation but ultimately she answered.”Ok ok, I'll tell you...”