The cold wind was blowing at Elliot's face, as he was looking around. Deep sadness could be seen in his eyes, his life suddenly changed, his grandfather died and he was immediately sent somewhere else by the next closest person he knew.
Fear and worry were slowly sipping into his mind, many weird thoughts jumping here and there, memories of the last moments of his grandfather's life.
Ryder looked back at Elliot's weird complexion and said, “Don't you want to join me here? The scenery from the front is much better.”
Elliot returned from his stupor and saw Ryder pointing at the seat next to him with a smile. Elliot thought for a moment before slowly standing up and balancing himself before sitting right to Ryder.
As he did he was immediately taken aback by the two galloping horses and the snow that they were throwing around everywhere. The trees were passing fast from both of the sides and the cold breeze gave him a weird feeling that he couldn't really explain, slowly his turmoil mind was calming down.
“See, told you this is the best seat in all of the carriage.” Ryder smiled at Elliot who was looking around as if trying to engrave this moment into his memory.
Ryder continued, “We are going with momentum because we are going downhill, we will slow down soon so you should enjoy this moment.”
“En…” Answered Elliot nonchalantly.
“You a quiet one aren't you?”
“Are you a merchant?” Elliot asked while still looking forward.
“Yes, a traveling merchant.” Ryder answered.
“Where is your cargo?” Elliot looked around the cart but could only see a few small boxes that most likely only had their provisions for the road.
“Already sold out, the last village was my last stop before I resupply, but who knows maybe we will get something from a few villages on our way.”
“How far is the city?” Elliot asked.
“We will arrive in twenty days if the roads are clear and the weather calm.”
“That long?” Elliot looked at him with surprise.
“Well, what do you expect? We are around the countryside and even the city we are going to isn't that big, don't worry about the food we manage, I always do.” Ryder smiled confidently.
Elliot looked at him suspiciously and then asked, “We don't have enough food for the trip?”
“We will be fine, we have another village on our way.” Ryder said with a broken smile.
Elliot's suspicion only grew stronger, he looked back and asked himself, “Is there even food in one of these boxes?”
He only could *sigh* as he turned forward to look at the road.
Hours passed and the night was already closing in. The carriage stopped between a few trees and Ryder jumped off. He went to look around for some food after telling Elliot to not leave the cart.
An hour passed and Ryder returned surprised to find Elliot sitting in front of a campfire while heating up a pot.
“Oh you know how to start a campfire, why haven't you told me sooner.” Ryder smiled as he came closer.
“You never asked. Oh sorry that I took the pot out of your bag without permission.” Elliot answered while stirring the pot slowly, in it there were a few types of herbs.
Ryder didn't think that Elliot was really sorry but he didn't really care.
“Are you making tea? Where have you found the herbs?” Ryder found it quite weird because when he looked for food he hadn't seen any herbs and plants.
Elliot pointed at a few piles of snow and said, “Found it there and there.”
“How did you…” Ryder looked confused.
“The snow was dented.”
“Oh I see, is there any more around here?” Ryder asked, thinking that he most likely just missed them.
Elliot nodded with his head and pointed to two other snow piles. Ryder looked straight at them but saw no difference in the density of snow, but after digging into one of them he really did find a few herbs.
“That's a pretty nifty trick.” Ryder said while holding one of the herbs in front of his face to examine it.
“Yeah, I learned it from grandpa…” Elliot continued to stir the pot, with zero emotions on his face.
Ryder stopped examining the herb and scratched the back of his head, “I heard what happened, I am sorry for your loss.”
“En.” Elliot nodded his head with little response.
“Eh… I heard you went down the mountain for a few days trying to save him, I think that is something really amazing.” A smile formed on Ryder's face.
“Yeah not really, in the end, it was for nothing…”
Ryder's smile broke a little bit, “You know what they say it's the acts that count not the result. I am sure your grandfather really appreciated it.”
Elliot raised his eyes for a moment from the pot and looked into Ryders, for some reason Ryder's heart skipped a bit it was a weird feeling like those innocent eyes could see through him.
But a moment later Elliot removed his gaze from him and continued to stir the pot. Ryder could only shrug his shoulder and go to the cart to take out some food from one of the boxes.
“Have you found anything edible in the forest?”
Elliot's voice drifted into Ryder's ears, almost making him drop one of the boxes.
“Well it's dark and you barely can see anything…” Ryder thought up an excuse.
“I guess you usually don't get stranded without food, what happened?” Elliot poured himself a cup of tea.
“You see I met this beautiful lady on my way, that had those two big… Em, horses. But sadly she barely had enough food for herself and even less for the *cough* horses, so I knew that it was my destiny to share some of my provisions with her.” Ryder told his story with little dazed eyes as if he was remembering something pleasant.
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As he finished he looked at Elliot who was looking back at him with a little bit of disgust in his eyes, but Ryder shrugged it off as nothing telling to himself, “He's just a kid what can he understand.”
“What a pervert.” Elliot murmured as he took a sip out of his tea, Ryder's face immediately became red as a tomato.
“Do you want some tea?” Elliot raised a cup of tea at Ryder without raising his eyes from the pot.
“*Sigh* Yeah it would be nice.” Ryder joined Elliot in front of the campfire.
Time passed and night approached swiftly, it was Elliot's turn on guard duty. He was sitting in front of the campfire sadness could be seen in his eyes, he was holding a blueish knife while deeply thinking to himself.
Elliot's hands were slowly clenching stronger around the handle of the knife until they started to hurt.
***
A few days passed, and each day the duo would drive on the carriage. While driving Ryder would tell some stories about cities and villages he had visited.
While closer to the night they would let the horses rest and eat, while both of them were scavenging for food for themselves and the horses.
Well, it was mostly Elliot who was the one scavenging for edible things while Ryder would follow him and carry all the things that Elliot could find.
Elliot found out that Ryder almost always had run out of food on his trips and when he did, he would just starve for a few days until he got to a village or a town.
Elliot called him with two words “careless and reckless” living from day to day and not thinking too much about the future while endangering himself not even bothering to learn survival skills.
At first, Ryder would even question if the roots that Elliot would find are edible or not, but after Elliot cooked them with a few herbs he couldn't even stop his mouth from drooling.
“Another!” Ryder shouted as he raised his bowl with a big smile.
“That was the last serving for today.” Elliot answered as he packed the pot.
“Eh, but there is more left.” Ryder complained.
“That's for tomorrow.” Elliot took the bowl from Ryder's hand.
“Why wait for tomorrow if we can eat it today.” Ryder smiled as he led back onto his bedroll while Elliot continued to do his things without answering.
“You know you can be a really good cook. You should open a restaurant in one of the bigger cities, surely people would love it. Though there is a lack of food currently because of the war, but sooner or later it will end and nobles always love to eat food even when commoners starve.” Ryder complimented Elliot and suggested for him to do the impossible, completely forgetting that he was still just a child.
A minute passed and snoring could already be heard from Ryder. Elliot could only sigh and think how nice it was to be so carefree. Occasionally Elliot would add some more fuel to the campfire while playing with embers with a stick.
Suddenly a rustle came out of one of the bushes further ahead, Elliot stood up and drew his knife from his belt. He came closer to Ryder to wake him up just to be safe, but before he could a white creature jumped out of the bushes.
It was a white rabbit, but it was a little bit different from any other rabbits that Elliot saw. It had a bluish icy horn protruding out of the middle of its forehead, the horn shined lightly.
But for some reason, it gave Elliot a weird feeling as if he was looking at something really bright. He even had to close his eyes partially just to look at the rabbit.
The rabbit looked at Elliot with its intelligent eyes as if he was a person and not just a normal animal. Suddenly Elliot's breathing became ragged and he found it difficult to breathe, not only that even his back became drenched in a cold sweat from fear as if he was looking not at a small bunny but at a tiger.
That continued just for a few moments until the rabbit broke eye contact with Elliott but for him, those few moments felt like an eternity. The rabbit continued to jump on his way and only when he couldn’t be seen did Elliot could breathe a sigh of relief.
Elliot didn’t dare to create any unnecessary movements and gently shook Ryder awake.
“I am awake, I am awake…” Ryder yawned out as he stroked his face then he looked around and fell back on the bedroll.
“Elliot, you woke me up too early, let me sleep a little more.” He murmured as he snuggled his roll bed while smiling lightly.
“I saw a strange creature.” Elliot murmured with a shaken voice.
“Strange… How strange...?” Ryder's voice became weaker as he was ready to fall back into his dreamland.
“It sounds weird but it was a white rabbit with a shiny horn on its head, it was painful to look at and it was really scary...” Elliot tried his best to express what he saw without sounding insane.
“A shiny horn?” Ryder's eyes popped open and he jumped to a sitting position with a weird light smile on his face.
“Yeah…” Answered Elliot, still not sure if what he saw was a dream or reality.
Without a change in his expression, Ryder stood up and picked up Elliot, and placed him on top of the cart.
“Catch.” Ryder said one word as he started to pick up and throw all the boxes and other miscellaneous items that were around the camp into the cart.
“Eh?” Elliot could only release a small surprised voice as a sea of items started to fly at him, he tried his best to catch what he could but most of them hit the floor of the cart.
Ryder picked up the last item which was a frying pan and threw it in the cart missing Elliot's head by a few centimeters.
“*Whistle* Light, Shadow up up!” Ryder whistled and called for the horses. Light was already standing so he immediately ran to the cart while Shadow was resting under a tree so it took him a little bit longer to get there.
After tying them to the carriage Ryder jumped to the driver's seat and shouted, “Go go go!” As he stuck the reins urgently, again and again, completely ignoring the fact that it was nighttime and the only illumination was from the moon and stars.
Elliot almost lost balance as the carriage started to accelerate.
“What's wrong?!” Elliot was barely able to shout out a question because of the strong wind that assaulted his face.
“What you saw is not a normal animal, it was a magical beast, and trust me you don't want to anger a magical beast.” Ryder answered with a tinge of fear in his voice while still concentrating on the road.
Elliot looked back in the direction where the rabbit went, only asking himself, “A magical beast?”
Only after two hours did Ryder stop the cart. The horses were completely exhausted, every breath they took was heavy and would release a big cloud of mist, and even some steam could be seen coming from their big back muscles.
After Ryder stopped he had a big sigh of relief and said, “We should be far enough.”
“What's a magical beast?” Elliot asked as he moved closer to the driver's seat.
Ryder looked at Elliot with tired eyes and spoke, “In this world, there are three kinds of creatures: animals, monsters, and magical beasts. And let me tell you this Elliot, we are lucky to be alive because magical beasts are the most dangerous of the three.”
“Are magical beasts dangerous because they can use magic?” Elliot asked a normal question he deducted from the magical beast's name.
“Yeah and the scariest part is that they can use it instantly, one moment you're there and poof next moment you're dead.” Ryder made a vanishing motion with his hands.
Ryder continued, ”And their size does not represent their danger, even that small bunny you saw can instantly kill a small squad of men.”
“Really?” Elliot asked in surprise.
“Well… Maybe, I don’t really know if it was that strong.” Ryder scratched his head a little bit.
Elliot thought about it for a moment and he could agree that the suffocating feeling he got from the rabbit wasn't a jock, still, it was quite hard for him to believe that it was that dangerous.
“Some people would call us lucky to find it but most of those people are delusional and lunatics. The only way to profit from a magical beast is to kill it, otherwise, it will kill you.”
Ryder continued, “But believe it or not some people do make a profit from hunting them though even if by doing that they would endanger their own life in the process. Those lunatics are called adventures and they are the bloodthirsty bunch you can ever find.”
“Adventures?”
“Yeah, living on the edge for them is normal and they get a living by killing monsters, bandits, and sometimes magical beasts. What else to call them but lunatics?”
Ryder looked at Elliot but only could see a spark of interest in his eyes.
“Oh no, another one had fallen to the charm of danger, well whatever if you want Elliot I can tell you a few stories about some adventures I met, but before that, we better remake our campsite.” Ryder's slick smile returned to his face.
Elliot nodded, he indeed was quite intrigued to hear about the adventures, as it was one of his hobbies to read stories about soldiers. So after making a small campfire and making some tea, Ryder started to jump around, and with exaggerated moves, as he started to tell stories about monsters, adventures, and heroes until sunrise.