The merchant caravan disappeared nearly immediately, though we could hear their wagons for four more minutes as we went in opposite directions.
The silence didn't last long, though. Faivere broke it with her complaints in under ten minutes.
After a handful of complaints, and rebuttals from Elengail, Mayliam leaned towards me. "I can't imagine anyone else having enough complaints to not run out after three days," she whispered.
"She special."
"Yeah."
We fell into an uncomfortable silence. She had something on her mind, but when she opened her mouth to say something, she closed it wordlessly.
We continued for hours more, Kendalyn calling Mayliam away at some point, and taking more than one break amidst the hours.
Elengail had apparently purchased additional rations, but that didn't stop her from being stingy about how much we ate at a time. She had to swat Faivere's hand away once to enforce the rule.
We set up camp at dark, the women rolling out bedrolls off the side of the path. I removed my pack - I refused Mayliam from taking it all day - and sat leaning against a tree. The only creatures around us were small game like squirrels and birds. That said, I hadn't seen squirrels specifically. The small animals had kept hidden from us.
"Wake me when you sleep." I said as I closed my eyes.
"You aren't going to eat dinner?" Faivere asked.
"Leave him be," Kendalyn said, rummaging through her pack for something, "he can eat while he's on watch."
"What do you mean, 'on watch'?" Mayliam asked.
I stopped thinking about the words they were speaking. That allowed their voices to fade into incoherent nonsense as I drifted to sleep.
A branch snapped. My eyes flicked open. I had slept for three and a half hours. Much longer than they could possibly have taken with dinner.
In the middle of four bedrolls, a small camping fire lay in embers. Kendalyn, Faivere, and Elengail lay asleep in their bedrolls. Mayliam sat on top of hers, hunched over.
I stood up slowly, making an effort to be quiet, and approached. There was a bowl of stew for me. Cold. Mayliam didn't turn to look at me. She didn't move except for the slow bobbing of breathing evenly.
She fell asleep, I realized. She had tried to take up watch and had fallen asleep. I looked around for the source of the snap that had woken me. I saw nothing. Nothing but trees, shrubbery, and the path.
Keeping a cautious eye about, I touched Mayliam. She didn't stir, so I gently laid her down. I draped my cloak over her as a makeshift blanket and sat next to her.
There was something about watching her sleep that made me want. Want to hold. Want to touch. Want...
Another branch snapped, to the south-west, if I were to use the road as my compass.
I drew my sword quietly - the one I looted from Farsfield - and watched. I finally spotted a group of rat men. They wore camouflage that matched the shrubbery. Each carried a bow and had its beady eyes focused on me.
I held my sword in a offensive-defensive position in front of me with my left hand. It was a bit smaller than I would like, but it's what Farsfield had.
A rat man drew his bow, pulling an arrow ready to fire.
"Goddess of Air, protect them with a barrier!" I commanded loudly. There was no other way. I couldn't let the others get hurt, even if it meant hurting their beauty sleep.
I charged them as the first arrow flew. It deflected off an invisible wall that stood between the rat men and the awakening women. The next several were aimed at me. I zigzagged to throw their aim, but one stuck in my right shoulder. Another sliced my cheek as I narrowly dodged it.
Then I was upon them, chopping them down with one powerful swing after another. They began to flee, but I killed at least a third of their number before they got away from me.
I watched them disappear from sight, then turned back to the others and released my barrier. Mayliam's face carried a mixture of guilt and shock. The others wore various levels of shock and discomfort.
"I watch."
Mayliam shrunk.
"You can't possibly stay up all night every night. You would collapse from exhaustion." Elengail argued.
"Better I than you."
"I know I messed up." Mayliam said, causing us to turn to her. She wasn't quite as shrunken in anymore. "But you're taking a load that is too heavy for any one person to bear, even if that one person is as powerful as you are."
"It fine," I answered, "I fix what I break."
"What happened to Farsfield wasn't your fault. It was that dark wizard's. He attacked. He was to blame."
I turned away wordlessly, facing the direction that the rat men fled.
"I'm sorry, Mayliam," Elengail said, staring holes in my back, "but until he can believe for himself that he was not at fault, there is nothing we can do."
I heard the rustle of Mayliam standing up. My magic sight caught her coming closer.
As she started wrapping her arms around me in a hug, I stepped forward, leaving her arms. I continued forward until I was out of sight. Mayliam dropped her arms and slumped against Elengail.
Once I was sure they couldn't see me, I sat down at the base of a tree.
It was my fault. It would always be my fault.
The rat men were gone for good, from what I could tell. They were proper cowards. That, or they realized that their numbers were not enough to stop a rampaging Argolex.
I came back twenty-two minutes later to find Kendalyn tending a re-started fire. She glanced at me but said nothing as I returned. The others had laid back down.
I sat at the base of the tree I had slept under earlier.
Kendalyn and myself just watched the fire for several minutes. We heard nothing but the crackling of the fire and the occasional shifting around by one of the other three.
Finally, she whispered, "They're right, you know."
"I know, I not believe. I know wizard fault. But I fail. My fail hurt others."
"I know. None of us should be alive right now." She spoke gently, clearly having put a lot of thought into it. "You asked too much of the Gods. That usually kills a man. Faivere was stuck in a closet with no option but to starve to death. Mayliam, Elengail, and myself were nearly sacrificed to the Forgotten God. You changed that. You changed all of it. I don't blame you for not saving my husband or son. You tried, and that is all I could ask for. I will rejoin them in due time."
"You not wish family live?"
"That's not it at all." she was still calm, quiet, lost. "Of course I wish they were still here with me, but looking backwards slows your progress forwards."