Having ridden all night in steady speed, following stole... borrowed map for guidance, I still can't stop helping to think that I'm moving too slow. I know that I can't force my steed to run full speed and I have to stop and let it rest periodically or I'm left with more food but less rides than I started with. Never really thought what the limits of my powers were, but if I later find out that I could turn into a wolf and I could have done this whole trip by myself and faster, I'm going to be mad.
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"There is a great disturbance in the Force" I think-quote as I'm woken from my slumber. Now, I don't really sleep thanks to that Owl-thing that possessed me in that desert temple, but I learned a nifty trick of letting its consciousness to take over our shared body and let mine drift into a sleep like state. And the best part of the trick is, that the Owl has no consciousness of its own, only some basic instincts and commands it obeys, so it doesn't actually do anything in my body, like run rampant or something, but simply lies where ever I left my body. So I get to imitate sleep when ever I'm bored, well unless I haven't eaten, then the instincts take over, but otherwise it's safe. But back to the disturbance.
I rise into a sitting position and think where ever I felt this same feeling I'm currently experiencing. Still hazy from my fake-sleep it takes me little too long time to realize it's a third one of us, "our-worlders" or "possessed people" or whatever one would call us. Yes, the second slipped from my grasp as I was sleeping, having no idea about the world around me, but this time I was fast enough to get a location; somewhere in the north. Not that much, but seeing that there's a ocean out there, as long as I have my men watching the harbor towns, I should find him or her, as we are quite easy to recognize from the group. Plus, if it goes like with me, I should have one to three months while he's lost in the forbidden area around the sea-temple to move my troops. Yes, it'll work.
Now rising up to a standing position in my tent, I try calling the village girl I got from recent business trip only to not get an answer. Furious, I look all over my tent searching for her only to find her slumped over, with one my better sheets wrapped around her. "Wake up, got a job for you, go tell..." I got out as I kick her gently to wake her up, only to have her fall over with no response and no reaction from the fall. "Huh..." Oh, it might be another case of me getting hungry during the act I realize and begin unwrapping her. Yep, there's a nice big piece of soft flesh missing from her face-neck-shoulder wide area. "Shit, killed another one." Well, if I'm ever questioned by the other two, I should just blame the demon bird, that should work.
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After getting a slight bite out of the situation and her I'm forced to go and order my men myself.
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Waking up inside a big column of white smoke, I get up and stand tall, taller than I ever stood. Suddenly I feel less like I should worry about my family and more like I should try to swim a shore and head towards either east or west. But first, I should deal with my hunger.
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Author note: Okay, here is the deal; The Chapter 14: Journeys was supposed to be longest chapter up to date and end the season 2, but recent events have forced me to cut the chapter in three pieces. As some may have seen that there were two chapter fourteens, "The journey begins" and "The journey", which are after this update renamed to chapter 14.1 and 14.2 of "Journeys". Some may also have noticed that the chapter 14: The journey begins, didn't have the normal space between the number 14 and the chapter name, that's because when I was writing that chapter, personal reasons forced me to cut the chapter and rename it from "Journeys" to "The journey begins" and in my hurry, I forgot to but the space in. I later returned to write the second part of the chapter, but it also got distracted and I ended that chapter premature and then went in to a hiatus. Because of this break and chapter cutting, season 3 begins immediately (as soon as I get it written) after this update instead of the normal in-between-season-hiatus.
Also, I'm thinking of writing more comedic than serious, slice-of-life style story that would upload alongside this one, but slower. Update day not yet decided.