Chapter 10: Where rivers meet

I felt the first rays of dawn gently brush onto me as I woke up slightly startled. Oh, I remember now, I was on my escape, no journey to Yang Ying academy for a possible scholarship before that happened. After our conversation last night, we had moved further away from the scene of attack and then we slept. Well, I slept. Shiara was busy learning how to control her mana so that it didn't leak and stopped absorbing mana from the surroundings. I noticed her lying nearby, curled in a fetal position. Looks like one night was enough for her to learn it, her talent must be extremely good. I could see the beginnings of bags under her eyes.

The birds in the forest, probably of some normal wild kind, were chirping away there morning songs, diligently creating a soothing melody. It sounded similar to the melodies my parent- no, I shouldn't think about that. Mentally steering clear of the dangerous topic, I decided to stop the other melody; my stomach. Subduing the grumbling, I grab some moulded food, from my bag, just enough to satiate my hunger and stop the pangs of pain. The black bread was chalking against of the inside of my mouth, but I ate it with satisfaction. Beggars can't be choosers, and some food was always better then none. The dry food made me thirsty, but that would have to wait. I promised not to ditch her, so I wouldn't...unless I really needed to.

I crawled over and started shaking Shiara's shoulder, her red hair waving along. We probably should do something about it, it stands out too much. She reminded me of the feral cat I found dumped on the side of the road back then-except she wasn't unconscious and about to die from bleeding

"Hey, hey, wake up."

"Hugh? Hmm?

"It's morning. I know you're tired, but I wanna go grab some water." She turned away from me, muttering something before going back to sleep. Looks like I will need to use my trump card. "If you don't wake up soon, I'll leave without you. I'll be back in a few-"

She suddenly jumped up, slightly startled and flustered.

"I'm up!...I'm awake, so what's happening?" It wasn't very convincing with a bit of drool on the side of her mouth, her hair all over and her fists slowly rubbing her eyes. Well, I guess I should just remain silent. At least she still remembered where we were when she initially woke up, unlike someone else....maybe I got some head injury during the fall from the fort, my mind has been more clouded recently.

"Let's go to the river nearby. According to the map, it should be somewhere to our right, just slightly ahead." The map I was referring to was an old worn out parchment I got from an mercenary in exchange for a certain other information. The map had a leather outing, and although worn with ale stains on it, was still valuable. The map had so many symbols on it, it almost seemed like a decorated rug- luckily I managed to weasel out of the meanings of most of them. I knew most of the important ones and I could probably figure out the rest...or so I thought.

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"Ok, let's go!"

...

We reached the river before midday. There was only one slight problem.... we wouldn't be able to use it.

"Hey Vaxen, what do you think we should do now?"

We were staring with bloody thirst at the river from on top of the cliff. Sorry, bad joke. Anyways, encamped on the bank were our recently made best friends! The bandits from before.

"Hmmm. Let me think. This river has cliffs on either side throughout the forest according to the map. There's no other way to get water nearby. We would die of thirst before we get to any of the other nearby spots. The only reason this bit hasn't got a cliff is because the river splits here. Of course we could rely on rain water..."

"No we shouldn't Vaxen. You've lived in the slums long enough; you should know quite well how many kids have died of thirst. Unless we stay around and collect water from the rain, we will run out of water-"

"-and if we hang around, we will run out of food or run into the bandits." We were in quite a dilemma. I should of considered the possibility that the only good camping spot in forest would be occupied. Guess our naivety was beginning to show.

This river was the core of this forest. And this spot split the core of the river. The reason why this was labelled as a good camping spot was probably because all the animals in this forest that didn't have a way to go down sheer cliffs had to come here to drink. The forest wasn't big enough to support any monsters or even carnivores, only the small herbivores and animals existed and the river was too fast flowing for anything other then fish to survive. Camping here meant an easy food source and water source. I should of realised the only spot a group of bandits could camp would be here...it was also the only place where you could cross the river. If we didn't cross here, a big detour would be required.

"Should we try to go down a cliff for water and find somewhere else to cross?"

That was a possibility, but the chances weren't in our favour. We were bound to get injured while trying. Yes, Shiara could probably heal herself and me but that's only if she stays conscious and if she can reach me. Healing over the distances should be impossible for her or greatly reduce its effect. Besides, the possibility of being stranded at the bottom is high.

"I feel like we should just sit here and spy on them from above... I've been meaning to say this from a while ago, but maybe we should try to save the princess if we get the chance." She had an unpleasant face so I hurriedly continued on "I know that we have no strong reason to, but think about the benefits we could get if we do. You must have realised by now that surviving in the wild and hunting will be a lot harder then we first thought. We haven't seen a single animal apart from birds. And I prefer the chances of fighting past bandits and going through a shallow river here then traversing the rapid rivers and steep cliffs. We have surprise on our side-"

"-which will not be enough to overcome them. From your description before, they must have at least an advance-"

"- expert magician. About two other intermediate magicians and about five close combat personnel."

"Yes, exactly, and my point being that's too many people for two of us to overcome. We don't even know if that was all of them, or if there are more magicians."

"Yeah, the foreign person may have been a spell blade. He was carrying a rapier and wielding a staff I think. There was also an archer probably. Didn't see his bow, but it could have easily been unstrung and his cloak had a bulk that could of easily been a quiver. I know what you want to say and I get what you mean. But Shiara, that's why I suggest we hang around and see what happens. We don't have any better options, do we. Besides, the situation may change. They might get attacked by some low level thirsty monsters or people-"

Shiara gave me a quizzical look at my abrupt silence before she noticed my eyes. She formed a silent 'Oh' and turned to follow my line of sight. The foreign looking man and 4 others left the small cave at the bottom of the beach, slowly ambling up the slope coming towards us. Shiara should of been hiding her mana right?