I pulled a piece of bread out of my spatial ring and watched as everyone gathered their belongings. Melian saw this and nudged my side as if she wanted me to share.
I turned away, “I’m a little more hungry than usual today.”
I said this partly because I didn’t feel like sharing and partly because it was true. I didn't know if alternating with Richard all night to watch the party made me more hungry or not, but I could feel my stomach whine for sustenance.
She leaned toward my ear, “I think you more than owe me, Walker. I thought me and you built trust, but you lied to me.” Her voice fained hurt as she said this.
“Technically, I didn’t lie. You just didn't ask if I could use high magic.”
She frowned and crossed her arms, “Even if that is true, you hide things from your partner and that could've gotten us killed.”
I sighed and tossed her a piece. Her face seemed to beam as she caught it and instantly took a bite. After she gulped it down, she spoke, “See that wasn’t so hard. All is forgiven.” Then left to get the rest of her things.
Although I didn't want to give away my food I was glad it went the way it did and Melian is the way she is. Even if she didn't say it, I felt as of she understood why I didn't tell her everything.
Hell, she probably didn't tell me everything either. I thought, Well, that or she's just a fool.
I was pulled out of my thoughts at a tap on the shoulder. It was Lizzy and behind her was the entire party.
She smiled with her hands held out “Melian said you had breakfast for everyone.”
“Yeah, good looking out, Walker,” Chark said
I sighed and was eventually robbed of every last piece of bread in my spatial ring. The only one who didn’t take one was Hannah, who was standing by the cave exit with her arms crossed and looking out into the rays of light shining in through the barricade of sticks and leaves.
I looked over at Carrolton who was currently stuffing his face, with another two loaves of bread in his hand.
I went and took one from him.
He shot me a confused look, “H-hey that's-”
I cut him off, “I think you've had enough.” and tossed a loaf to Hannah.
She caught the bread and looked at me for a moment before putting it in her own spatial ring.
“See! She not even going to eat it” Carrollton rebuked, his face still stuffed.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Carrollton,” I said.
flourish divider line swirl border decoration calligraphy [https://svgsilh.com/svg/31609-9e9e9e.svg]
Leaving the cave I could already tell everyone was in better shape than last night. On top of that, we now knew what to expect from the journey from now on, and Richard informed everyone to use their mana wisely because he couldn't predict if we would be able to get another full night's rest once more.
“All Right.” Richard called as he looked at everyone at the party, “Let's head out.”
At his call, we all got into our traveling positions and followed him. As we traveled beasts came and went with time. The party's chemistry seemed to get better also. It looked like everyone had gotten used to Melian and I and let us play to our strengths in the battle.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Due to the beasts' unpredictable appearances, we had to continue like this for four days. Our only way of getting rest was alternating when we found a good spot, and with the short time periods we each got, it was hard to even call it rest.
With the party's ever-growing fatigue Melina had to constantly heal wounds due to slower reaction times from the party. Wounds that wouldn't have happened if we had just had somewhere to regain strength.
But soon enough, things changed. The next day came and something odd happened.
We had just got done with a battle and kept forward. Minutes passed, then an hour, then two, and no beasts.
“Can we finally rest now?” Carrollton asked, breaking the party's silence. This entire time we were all on edge, listening in for beats and waiting for the next fight, but his question seemed to loosen us all up.
“Let's find somewhere to rest up,” Richard responded as he dropped his guard.
I still stayed observant, suspicious of what was happening. This entire time beats had come at us from left and right, non-stop and now there was none? It didn't make any sense.
I didn’t seem to be the only one as I saw Hannah and Richard both keep looking from side to side.
Nevertheless, I followed Richard along with the party to the best place we could find, which was an area with a cluster of many trees, we didn't see a cave anywhere near so this would have to do.
“Thank the gods.” Lizzy said, as she threw her sleeping bag, along with herself on the ground, “I can finally sleep.”
“Yes little one,” Chark chuckled, “get some rest, you deserve it.”
Soon after, Carrollton did the same and they were both fast asleep. Everyone else, though, looked at Richard.
It was silent for a moment and finally, Hannah spoke. “Something obviously going on, this is odd and shouldn't happen.”
Chark shook his head, “I agree.”
“So what do we do,” Melian cut in as she gazed at Lizzy and Corrlloton sound asleep. “You guys can’t keep going on like this, look at us.”
She was right. Looking at the remaining people still up it was easy to see they had their fair amount of damage done.
Chark’s arms were bandaged all around due to the overload of cuts he received when we fought a pack of gale ravens.
Hannah had sustained a good amount of burns around her legs when we fought the flaming boar, and on top of that, I could tell her mana reserves were running low.
Melian, of course, tried to patch them up as well as she could after each battle, but the wounds kept getting more severe after each fight and she could only do so much at that point. This also caused her mana reserves to run low nearly putting us out of our healer.
For Richard and I, or Richard for the most part, our problem wasn't wounds, it was tiredness. Just looking at Richard now I could see dark circles forming under his eyes. He was more of squinting rather than actually looking, but even with this, he hadn't gotten any injuries so far which spoke for his strength and skill in battle.
I myself knew I could push through this tiredness which made it the least of my worries. In my past life I would have to stay awake for weeks on the high-end. How I was able to do that in this body, I had no idea.
“You guys rest, I’ll keep watch,” Richard said.
“No,” Hannah said, her voice filled with anger. “You always do this Richard! Look at yourself. You and Walker have barely slept this entire trip. It looks like you can drop dead at any moment-”
“Quiet.” He said, cutting her off. “I have a party to lead. My job isn’t to rest while you guys are fighting, my job is to lead and fight alongside you.”
“How will you fight alongside us if you get yourself killed?” Hannah shot back, her voice seeming to quiver, “Please rest, Richard.”
Chark stood up, “Hannah's right, you two need to rest. We three will keep watch instead.”
Richard stayed quiet and just looked at them. “Fine, wake me up in one hour.”
They all watched as Richard and I pulled out our sleeping bags and got comfortable. It wasn’t long until I heard Richard fall asleep.
Since the rest of them couldn’t see my face to tell if I was asleep or not, I decided to stay awake still weary of what was going on.
flourish divider line swirl border decoration calligraphy [https://svgsilh.com/svg/31609-9e9e9e.svg]
Hours went by and nothing happened. The three obviously didn't plan on waking Richard up in one hour like he had told them to and let him keep sleeping.
Melian and Hannah even had time to meditate to replenish their mana which was great. I didn't know when it happened, but Hannah and Melian seemed to be all buddy-buddy now, and it was weird.
As they chatted, I could hear them giggle and laugh with each other, their conversation, though, was inaudible.
Chark on the other hand, stood a good distance away from up and kept swinging his hammer. I assumed it was his way to exercise his arms.
As they did this I just observed from my sleeping bag, but as the seconds went by I sensed something. Something that caused me to stand up.
The sound of the blanket falling off my body caused the three of them to look at me.
“Walker, you're up. Did you sleep well?”
“Do you sense that?” I said, ignoring her question.
She looked confused for a second, then quickly closed her eyes to focus. “What is that...?”
By this time Chark had already made it to us, “What's going on?”
Hannah appeared to realize what we were talking about as well, “Chark, wake everyone up quickly.”
As he went, we all felt the ground begin to rumble. Something was headed our way.