The hover car haphazardly swooped through the forest, bumping various debris as it ran through different speeds. The trees were much denser here, as they had passed the clearing where Aerith had left the crater. Not too many interesting things had passed them at this point except for a small burnt colored pig, the only change in color throughout the lush hills and fields.
“Where y’all think we are right now? On like a map I mean” Jake asked everyone, Nadene was seemingly the only one to think about it. She pulled down her scarf and contemplated for a moment,
“Zackory? I need an analysis of the time and weather” She commanded
“Oh you mean right now? It’s not noon, doesn’t smell like it, the wind’s blowing south west and there isn’t going to be rain for a while. The air’s cleaner then back home, so take whatever you want from that”
“We’re probably going to be driving here for a while…” Nadene sighed, “There’s just not enough information to decide anything, we don’t even know if there’s any civilization nearby...or at all”
“PLEASE tell me we’re going to stop soon” Stephanie gagged, “If I have to stay in this thing one more minute I’m gonna take my chances and walk the rest of the way there…”
“Oh come on Steph! Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“About 20 miles back, probably doing better than I am right now…” Stephanie gagged over the edge of her seat.
“Do you get carsick or something? I can go slower if you want”
“Jake, you asked for a go kart and you cannot legally drive” Nadene pointed out, “This car handles like garbage enough without you on the wheel, anyone would be car sick in this situation. So why don’t you slowly pull this kart to a halt, destroy it, and give us some type of way to see where we’r—”
“Hey look what’s that over ther—“
“Hey look I think I found someone” Jake interrupted. Zackory looked back down again, his passion faded. Jake took a shortcut by ramming off a hill and forcing the car to a stop, it nearly bounced upside down in the process, kicking up dirt and plants and it continued. The person Zackory had spotted was a knight on horseback, they were wearing a huge amount of armor, the horse as well and a huge lance dangled of the horses side. Jake stopped the car a few feet away, and the knight stopped in their riding and gave a sharp tug on its horse, which neighed in pain loudly and rose itself up, kicking its hooves about.
“Now now girl, we have visitors...ahem, I am sir Leo III, and to whom owes me the pleasure?”
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“Ehm, I’m pretty sure it goes the other way around” Laylli piped in, “If you say it that way then—“
“Greetings Sir Leo. My name is Aerith Greindsworthia, I travel with my brother, Jake, and my companions, Stephanie, Zackory, Nadene, and Layalli. We beseech you for a request in our travels” Aerith said with a slightly posh accent, “If you will, may you please point us in the right direction to the nearest town or village, my fool of a took brother failed to bring the correct map”. Aerith pretended to laugh and sheepishly smiled.
“Why, I spot quite a few mages if my senses are intact. A simple navigational spell or prayer should do the trick, that is at all if you are at all familiar with the art of magecaft” Leo responded with an eyebrow raised.
Aerith attempted to reassure the knight by only continuing to laugh, “Yes yes, of course. But if one wanted to, if you will, navigate themselves without said magic...how would they go about doing it?”
Leo’s voice grew slightly angered now, “But my eyes do not lie! I see two highly talented mages right before me, surely one of you could navigate yourselves no? That is of course assuming that these items of significant powers belong to you? Forgive my assumptions my dear, but I speak from my heart”
Aerith could only nervously giggle until she was eventually forced to shake her head yes. Leo nodded and began to ride off again,
“Well then, I’ll forgive this infraction on my time. I shall go back to my hunt, I search for the legendary best, the Cibous! It comes paired with a meat so devious in it’s creation that only I shall have it’s head” Leo proudly chanted. His horse seemingly grumbled as it rode off once more, but just before it got anyone Nadene stopped it,
“Sir Leo, I beg your pardon. We are criminals, and this girl that you’re speaking to right now just put a crater in your little forest. That ciby-whatsit might’ve been vaporized in the process. Please, arrest us at the nearest village…” Nadene uttered in a monotone voice
Everyone except Nadene let out a shocked gasp, especially Aerith. Nadene only quietly hummed to herself and waited for Leo’s aghast expression to come forth,
“I-I dare say Lady Luck herself has granted me my wish! Haha, a full confession as well! I shall heed your orders and complete them dutifully my dear Nadene...If you’ll just get out this...device of transportation I’ll take you right to where you want to go!”
Jake’s pen shot out of the car and immediately spun out a large rope. Jake caught it in midair and looked at Leo, “Drag it across this forest, that’s our one condition”
Leo laughed heartily, “And what!? I’m just supposed to assume that this vehicle isn’t stolen as well?”
“If you bring this here you can return it to it’s proper owner later” Nadene pointed out. Leo thought for a moment,
“Well then, seeing as it you’ve thought of everything I figure that you’ll tie the rope yourself no? I shan’t sully my hands with items that have been shared by a thief”
Nadene nodded solemnly and took the rope from Jake. She maneuvered herself carefully around the horse, hearing it grunt with annoyance as it felt more weight being attached to it. Nadene secured the rope around the horses body, and then did the same with the hood of the hover car. Once she got back in the car blazed back to life, and Leo’s horse began trotting through the forest once more. As the rope stretched out the length gave a few yards between the Leo and them, giving them room to at least whisper to each other.
“Wow, we’ve been here for god knows how long and you’ve already gotten us arrested, really doing good with that whole ‘don’t fail me’ gig” Aerith mocked.
“Yeah, I did get us arrested, rightfully I might add, I didn’t lie. Now we’re getting to a city with a prison, that means civilization. Jake can just draw us out of here or better yet buy us out of whatever prison we end up in. Then we can get situated with some type of house or room, and then we can figure out how to get out of here, if anything goes wrong I’m sure you can turn the place to dust in a few seconds”
“Yeah actually” Stephanie groaned, exhausted, “It’s a solid plan for now...ach”
Aerith scoffed and crossed her arms, looking off in the distance of the car. While she waited to see a town of some sort appear.