It took another week and a half for the pendant to fully charge. Every day, Gu Cheng checked it at set times to see if it was behaving oddly. When it began to writhe and then take on a pink hue, Zaria packed up their belongings from their newest campsite while Gu Cheng went out to check his snare traps and dismantle them.
The day was almost over, but they continued to work even after the sun went down. Gu Cheng came back with two rabbits that he field dressed, and Zaria built up their final fire. The meat would give them a protein dinner and, when put in one of the empty resealable jerky bags, would last until lunch the next day.
Once the meat was on branch skewers over the flames, Zaria ducked into the tent and emptied out both of her bags. Quietly she separated out the items inside them. Her clothing and remaining feminine products went in the messenger bag, and all remaining rations and survival items in the backpack. She kept the stun gun in her own bag. Gu Cheng had enough weapons of his own, and she might need it while trying to find somewhere safe that she could live inside the current world.
Since the hug by the stream, she kept Gu Cheng at arms length. She could tell it bothered him, not being able to kiss or hold her when he wanted to. But when she ignored him for a few days, he backed off. A few times, she woke up to find him curled up behind her back, but she couldn't prove to herself that he did it while awake. It was also getting cold at night, and the body heat shared between them helped.
The day before the pendant changed, they sat by the fire and talked about finding a village somewhere, and figuring out a way to buy some things to help keep them warmer as autumn began to turn to winter. Zaria wondered the next day as she took down the tent, if she could still do any of it once she was alone. Maybe she should try to find somewhere that would accept her as a worker, like an inn, where she could have a roof over her head during the cold months. Gu Cheng might need the tent, so she tried to think of what she could do to keep from freezing to death out under a tree somewhere until then.
She caught Gu Cheng watching her during her mental planning sessions, but he did not ask questions and seemed to accept that she needed space. She wished she could talk to someone about all the fears going through her head. Zaria knew that if she didn't let Gu Cheng go on without her, if she didn't do whatever she could to get him home as soon as she could, she would not be able to look herself in the eye again. If he hated her when he realized what she had done, she could deal with that. Hopefully, once he was back home and back on track in his life, he would understand why she did what she did. She calmed her nerves some nights by imagining that he would eventually forgive her.
It was hard to plan for a future alone, with limited supplies, in a world that had already treated her poorly. How many stories from her own world came from this one, beyond the cursed duke/prince/whatever ones? Did all magical Renaissance age stories start off in this world? Would she be spending the rest of her life pretending to be a shy and quiet girl who would have to marry whomever came along and offered? If the crown tracked her down and wanted to punish her for killing the duke, would the saintess tell them about her not-magic ability. It was hard to choose which future was scarier, being used her whole life one way or another because of her ability to absorb magic, or dying because she didn't want to be used but didn't have any rights because of her reproductive organs.
Zaria swallowed the sigh that wanted to come out. She was sighing a lot recently, and every time that she did, Gu Cheng stared at her as though he could peel back her scalp and read her brain like it was a book if he stared hard enough. It was more than a little unnerving. She wondered if he suspected something, but what could he be suspecting? It was too late to change their interactions since that kiss to make him let down his guard. Not that she would kiss him again. Not that she wanted to. Badly. Back in City C, Zaria was already becoming aware of why so many women liked the story of the cold CEO who only had eyes for the female lead. Having someone so sexy and powerful look at you like you were the thing that made everything worthwhile. It was a type of drug. She wished she could pretend for just a little while that she really was his female lead.
The next sigh came out before she could stop it, and she felt those dark and intense eyes boring into her back. She cleared her throat. "I put the heavier things in the backpack for you to carry, but I didn't make it too heavy. I carried it along with the other bag by myself and it wasn't a problem. With the sword around my waist, it will be pretty even. The sword around your waist would make it harder for you to get to your other weapons, so I should still carry it."
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Zaria trailed off, her eyes unfocused on the bag in front of her. Gu Cheng had added more holes to the sheath belt and trimmed the excess, so it now fit well above her hips. When no reply came to what she said, she mentally shook herself and finished tightening the straps holding the tent in place. " I wish I could have brought a sleeping bag or something when I left City C, but I was thinking about trying to get as much as I could in a little space. Maybe the next world will have a blanket or something that can be rolled up with the tent or in front of it. I don't know."
The clearing was quiet except for the popping of the fire as the fat dripped from the meat angled above it. She could still feel his eyes, and she was confident that they had not left her for a moment. Walking closer to the fire, she held out the backpack with both hands. "Can you check this and see if it will be comfortable enough for you to wear?"
Gu Cheng took the bag, noticing her staring at the pendant hanging on his chest. Since it began to writhe, he kept it on the outside of his shirt so that it wouldn't accidentally activate. Zaria purposefully didn't tell him how that would happen, but she didn't think she made it too obvious that she did so. Sitting against the dark shirt, the area lit only by the waxing moon overhead and the firelight in front of them, the pendant glowed a bright and eerie red.
"It looks like it is ready to go. But we should eat first." Zaria watched as Gu Cheng settled the pack on his back, tightening the straps so that it sat in a good spot between his shoulders. Zaria fussed with the different zippers and the tent to make sure it was tied down well, and Gu Cheng removed one of the skewers to check the meat. Finding it done, he took the skewers from the fire and lightly blew on one before handing it to Zaria.
"So," he started, allowing his meat to sit for a minute so that he wouldn't burn his tongue. "Are you ready to tell me what it is that you are planning?"
"What do you mean? I plan on getting you home as quickly as I can,but I have no idea what the next world will be like, so I can't really plan anything else."
"You know what I mean, Joseph Zaria. I know you well enough to know that you are planning something, and that is why you are pulling away from me. How does the pendant work?" He took a bite from his meat while he waited for his answer, and Zaria tried not to show her relief on her face. If he was able to eat, then he couldn't be too angry. The air around the fire felt warm as well, so he was not putting out any of his cold either.
"When you are ready, you press it against your chest and count to five. It will flash, and then you let go, and it takes you away. I have only used it once, so I am guessing on the count. He didn't give me an instruction manual with it."
"Mm. And it will work with both of us? It won't just leave you behind?"
"I don't see any reason it wouldn't work for us both. It might take longer to charge afterward, I don't know. Again, there is no manual." Zaria shrugged and concentrated on her food. When she was done, she stood up to lead the horse out to the road as they had previously agreed on. It would be let loose on the road so that it had a better chance of being found by someone. Perhaps it would even make it back to the manor from memory. Wherever it went, it would be safer than if they left it in the clearing.
Once she was on the road, the firelight a dim glow behind her, she removed the parts strapped to its head. The bit, the bridle, the reins, all of it was taken off and thrown to the side of the road so it didn't get caught on anything if the horse decided to take a walk through the woods or something. A sharp smack on the rump and it started down the road. Zaria wished for a moment that she could have kept it somehow, to be able to make better time and get away from danger faster, but then she would have to find some way to care for it. She knew how to ride, but she had no idea how to properly take care of a beast that weighed easily twice as much as she did. The sound of hoofbeats slowly faded into the night, and she turned back into the woods and followed the firelight back to the clearing.
Gu Cheng was crouched down at the stream, his figure hard to make out at first out at the edge of the lit area. Zaria walked over and crouched nearby, admonishing herself for not washing the meat residue off of her hands already. "Was there any left? Did you see the bag I left by the fire?"
"I did, and I put it into your bag so I wouldn't have to rebalance mine." He watched her closely as she cleaned up and followed her back to the fire to put it out. "Alright, how do we do this?"
Zaria bent over to pick up the messenger bag and pulled out her phone in order to use the flashlight to see if anything was left behind because they couldn't see it in the firelight. Seeing nothing, she turned off the light, slid the phone back into the bag,and began to kick dirt over the flames to put them out. "Press the pendant firmly against your chest and hold onto it. Let me know when you do it, then count to five before you let go."
She watched as Gu Cheng hesitated. His hand hovered over the pendant, and she gave him an encouraging smile. He pressed in, then darted forward and grabbed her arm.
"No, Gu Cheng, let go! Stop!"Zaria screeched and tried to pull her arm away before it was too late.
A bright flash of light filled the clearing and lit the sky above the tree tops. When it faded, the night was still once more, the clearing empty and calm.