“Cooked I am, that is not good for a man made of snow such as I. Melting, melting, to a puddle I go.”

Dramatics aside I slumped into the ground. Wearing black had been a mistake, I thought we were close to the south, but apparently the sun exists here too. I felt sweat drip out of every pore, it itched, but I was too roasted to move. I had another problem as well, I couldn’t take my cloak off, then I would really be cooked.

Just one more day, that was all it should take. Just one more day and we would be back in Cliffsin…

“fhaaak”

I deflated further nearly becoming one with the ground. After all this I did NOT want to deal with mother.

My peril was only worsened by Marks relentless humming.

“…mm, mmm, mm hmm, mm, old ocean, oh, oh, mm, mmhmm, old sojourn, mmm, hm hm, what is the way…”

I left the old man to his humming; he had probably gone insane from the heat… if he wasn’t already.

Boredom didn’t allow me to sit still for long and I soon pulled out all my equipment. I checked the stitching of my pouches and sharpness of my tools. It took a while but I identified what needed sharpening and I tried the best I could to touch up what I could of the pouches.

It didn’t take long after this before the sun finally decided to bugger off. The stars in the sky looked pretty, but I was far too occupied with sleeping to watch them. it didn’t matter if I was too hot if I just made it the mornings problem.

The mornings problem It was indeed, and I awoke with the taste of iron in my throat. The taste wasn’t exactly pleasant and It caused me to think about the night where I popped a muscle. It was actually something stupid about breaking a limit, but I was sure the old men just made it up to make me feel better.

Thinking leads to doing and I roused from my sunken abode and walked over to their shelters. What I found was not one grown man per shelter but two grown men cuddling. The only thing that confused me was how they could sleep with their cloaks on.

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Taking one last look at Mathew… that didn’t feel right, Mr Cedar It shall stay. After ensuring that the two were actually asleep still I headed out of the camp. I had water at the camp, but I also wanted a wash.

I wandered the forest until I found a hill. Once at the top I looked around but was unsuccessful at locating a river. instead of giving up I climbed the tallest tree near me. the sap coated my hands and branches were spread far apart. It took far too much effort but I eventually reached the top and bore witness to the sprawling web of treetops.

The was a slight gap between some of the trees that snaked through the canopy. I took the line that severed a part of the web as evidence of a river and made the journey down. Jumping from branch to branch was probably more dangerous but it made going down so much easier than going up.

My feet touched the ground, and my feet were itching so I set them free. I thought that with every step I took while running would create a loud thud, but it was more of a soft squish mixed with the occasional snap.

In truth I had no real reason to run, but I got to the river faster so that was good enough for me.

The crystalline blue that shimmered in the morning light nearly distracted me. unfortunately for me however it’s beauty was ruined by the thought that I forgot to tell the old men what I was doing. It was probably going to be fine but me just up and disappearing might cause some issues…

I wasn’t going back, at least not now, I had a river to enjoy.

I was right again. Everything was fine, they just sulked a little when I got back. Mark also made me promise that I would get a few books out of the manor’s library for him… maybe I should have listened to my better judgement.

Future pain was for the future however and right now we were on our way to Cliffsin. I wasn’t going to head back to the manor immediately, maybe after a few days would I return.

There wasn’t much to say about the trip anymore. There was walking, more walking, walking around a familiar area, then more walking. I did realize that we were close enough to sleep in a town last night… we didn’t but I wasn’t going to pester mark about it. definitely wasn’’t because I felt bad for ditching the spiteful old men.

the town was the same as usual. It always confused me whether Cliffsin was a town or a village. The tiny town didn’t actually fit any of the normal town descriptors, but it was listed as a town in the records. Why?

That was a question that always confused me... and I did it again. My mind drifted into tangent after tangent, but luckily that took up enough time for us to arrive at the guild.

I pushed open the door and found that the entire bar was filled with patrons. At the sight of us they all cheered, and I felt like I knew why. Not a single one of the patrons was without a drink.

Mark erupted in laughter while Mr Cedar rubbed his forehead. The sight of Mr Cedar taking his hand down from his face in shame after trying to rub his mask sent Mark spiralling further.

If the cheers didn’t make me feel good to be back somewhere familiar, then Marks loud ass surely did.