Wynn passed new clothes to everyone, including Eskaria. She had managed to get Reeve a new, white tunic, which had red threads, and black pants. It seemed as if she went all out on this purchase. As for Soren and Riza, they got generic clothes, and this made Riza pout even more, which seemed out of character.
Eskaria didn't mind when she got a long dress. In fact, it made her look very graceful and mature, which was the exact opposite of what she really was. Well, Wynn even went so far as to get her some herbal medicine, which helped to cover up her bruises.
Someone would ask, why would Wynn go so far as to do that for some strangers? That was a question which she herself didn't know the answer to. At least not right now.
The journey resumed, with Reeve and Wynn talking and laughing as they reminisced about what had happened a few days before. Riza kept glaring daggers at Reeve, while Soren was confused. He didn't know how the two got so acquainted, considering that Reeve had just come to Sky City some time ago for the first time. This meant that he wasn't supposed to know much about this girl. Actually, he was right, and he figured that out from their conversation which kept going back to that one day.
Eskaria didn't care about this at first, since she was now feeling home sick. She had been through a lot, and the mental scars were still there. Every time she heard the word "pride" being mentioned, she flinched involuntarily. And she hadn't even met the person, yet a mention of his name caused her body to shudder involuntarily.
As time went on, she remembered that her "husband", who was supposed to be comforting her, was actually sitting with another girl laughing! She couldn't help but start glaring daggers at Wynn as well. When she realized that she was feeling jealous, her cheeks turned into a deep shade of pink.
They arrived at the second city, which was called Heaveworth, three days later. During the night, they had to set up camp somewhere along the road. Riza and Reeve had to act as the guards, since they were the only ones who could be counted on as protectors.
Heaveworth was just as big, if not bigger than Sky City. This time, everyone went inside the city, since they already had clothes and whatnot. Besides just plain window shopping, they didn't manage to do anything else. The reason was simple; they were all broke. The only thing they could do was sight see. And it didn't take long before they were tired of that.
They stayed at an inn, which Wynn paid for begrudgingly. Reeve didn't know where she had gotten enough money for this, but as if reading his mind, she said she had been saving up for some time now. Even Reeve began to grow suspicious. This girl stayed in the slums in Sky City, and she worked part time at her grandmother's shop, selling herbs. What did she spend her other time doing? And what sort of job would give her such liberty?
Reeve thought he was overthinking things. After all, he didn't really understand a lot of things about this world. He couldn't place it, but this girl gave him a dangerous feeling. It wasn't as apparent, and he thought he was imagining it, so he threw his suspicious at the back of his head.
When morning came, they left Heaveworth, and headed for the capital. Nothing of note happened during the first half of their travel. However, when they were halfway, they were suddenly attacked by large, grey wolves. They seemed to have been a pack of them close by.
"It looks like there are other people ahead!" shouted Wynn, as she urged the caravan driver to hurry up. The wolves followed them, and tried to pounce on them, but due to the caravan's motion, they ended up failing, and this drove them somewhat insane.
Reeve kicked one of the wolves that was pouncing in the nose, before asking, "Will that do us any good?"
"We might be rescued", she replied.
They arrived at a junction, where some merchant carriages were burning. Some were overturned, while the rest were on fire. There were bodies scattered everywhere, and from the looks of it, the people hadn't died of natural causes.
There was a howl, which caused the attacking wolves to pause, and then retreat towards the trees, before disappearing completely. The caravan slowed down, before stopping.
"What happened here?" asked Eskaria, as she covered her mouth and nose. She still ended up throwing up.
No one answered, after all, no one knew. Reeve, who was paying close attention to Wynn, noticed the frown on her face. In other words, she wasn't showing much discomfort from seeing this scene. Eskaria threw up, and Soren refused to get down from the caravan altogether.
This caused Reeve's suspicions to rise from the back of his head to the front, again. Riza went around searching people's pockets, and for some weird reason, she found most of them still had their belongings with them. Some had gold watches, while others had necklaces and so on. There were even more people who had money, and this meant these people were not robbed.
"Looks like whoever did this had been paid to. They didn't even bother searching the corpses", said Riza, as she produced pouches filled with money and jewellery.
"Are you sure you should be robbing the dead?" asked Reeve.
"Oh, didn't take you for the superstitious type", she smirked as she replied.
"That's because I'm not. However, I just think it's a bit rude, that's all."
"If we go with this road, there's a chance that we might encounter whatever caused this… umm … are you sure we should continue?" asked Wynn, while looking at the driver, who was engrossed in his thoughts.
The middle-aged man coughed awkwardly, before replying, "Well, it seems as if time has passed since this incident happened. These people look like merchants. We might have to report this incident when we get to the capital."
"Don't you mean 'if' we get to the capital?" asked Riza, as she pointed at the junction. "We don't know what's ahead of us."