Alea and I walked down the dirt road that led south out of the city. Alea kept our map within easy access and we followed the path that the map laid out. In the south of Eshos was a small fishing town called Stormlight and that is where we were headed. Our train of thought was pretty straightforward; if they have fishing boats, we can hire one of them to take us to this mysterious island.
Every once in a while, a carriage would ride past us and we had to awkwardly say hi as they slowly passed us and left a huge dirt cloud behind.
For the first little while of our walk, Alea and I walked in silence, both of us too tired to even speak. But as noon rolled around, small talk turned into huge conversations about everything. We talked about the Gods, then death, then our favorite plants, and a lot of other random topics.
We were only an hour outside of Velglow when we came across our first big problem; The Kingscanal. The Kingcanal was a large river that ran through the heart of Eshos and into the bay of Freedom, through Padrea and the heart of Pretion before sloping down and into the channel of Drios in Ashijan.
As we neared the Canal, a large bridge came into view. As we neared, we both saw that the bridge was gigantic and made of stone bricks except for the center of the bridge. We walked up the ramp and we could see that the center of the bridge was made of solid ice, split cleanly down the middle. I could see there were four Relmith on either side of the ice standing patiently. I looked on both sides hoping that a boat would come so we could see the bridge rise, but no such luck.
I took a good look at the Relmith soldiers as we passed them. I was as tall as they were, but they were much larger, full of muscle, and suited in shiny steel armor. On the crest was the mane of a lion embroidered with a large S. The Relmith themselves bared some resemblance to the Chuvith, but they also were very different. They weren't as tall as your typical Chuvith, but they had deep ocean blue hair that was probably down to their shoulders, but they kept tied up in a neat bun on the back of their head.
They eyed us as we walked past but otherwise ignored us. They stood perfectly straight, holding a long steel spear with a sharp-pointed spike coming out of the top. Alea and I silently communicated to each other that we shouldn't doddle and chose to speed up and get out of there as soon as possible. As soon as we were off the bridge and back into the forest, both of us let out a relieved sigh and kept walking.
Right, when the sun was in the middle of the sky, another cart began to catch up to us, but this one was different from the others. This one was much bigger than the typical merchant carts, and even from a distance, we could hear loud singing coming from the cart.
As they neared, Alea and I counted six people on board, five of them singing, but one of them was wrapped up in a cloak of some kind and not moving.
"OI MATE!" the coachman shouted to us, waving his arms in the air. "Where you guys headed?"
Alea looked at me with hesitation in her eyes, telling me she didn't trust whoever these people were. I knew she would never say it, so the burden fell on my shoulders.
"Sorry man, we'd rather not say!" I shouted back.
The carriage was now adjacent to us and the coachman slowed down so we were walking at the same pace.
"Awe, don't be like that my man. I'm just trying to be polite" he said. "Where are you guys going?"
"We're heading to the south of Eshos," I say, careful not to give away specifics.
"Let me guess," He said. He began to stroke the one very long chin hair that he had. "Stormlight?"
I tried to keep my reaction minimal, but a bit of my surprise must have crept through. The man suddenly cracked a big grin and I was able to count his missing teeth; all but his two top teeth and one of his bottom teeth.
"Bingo," he says and he extended his long and filthy hand. "We're headed to Prefilia, but that one quiet guy back there is apparently going to Stormlight as well. We'd be happy to take you guys"
I gulped and looked over to Alea who looked even more against this idea than before.
"I don't know, I think we're just going to walk there. Thank you though!" I say to him and he and the four other singing people burst into laughter.
"You guys are hilarious, you really think you're going to walk all the way to Stormlight? My man, it would take another full day by carriage, it would take three days just to walk there. You guys up for that?"
Alea's patience looked like it was wavering, but Alea isn't stupid or that stubborn. She knows that she'll probably go crazy if she has to walk for three straight days. Finally, she nods and I relay the message to the tooth man.
"Fantastic!" he cheered and the carriage came to an abrupt stop. "Just climb on board, your luggage is good wherever, and enjoy the ride, that's the most important part"
"Will do, thank you!" I say politely.
"The names toothless by the way. You guys look smart, I am sure you can figure out why"
He laughed maniacally and it sounded like a deranged cat, but Alea and I both smiled and pretended to laugh to be nice.
I turned to look at Alea who still looked rather uncomfortable with the whole thing, but she tolerated it. She and I began having another small conversation that eventually led to her parents.
"Well, it's good that your parents let us go, right?" I ask. "I mean, it really looked as if they were gonna stop us until you stepped up. Congrats I must say, you really came through on that one"
She pretended to take a bow. "They've always been super over-protective of me, ever since I was a little girl. I'm lucky that I was even allowed to play with you as a kid, I was never allowed to see or hang out with anyone but you. They trusted you for some reason"
"Awe, that's nice to hear, but also not nice, you know?"
"Yeah I know what you mean, and I'm kind of glad that they were like that, I feel like I only got as close to you as I did because you were the only one I was allowed to get close to"
I smiled and raised my hand to give her a pat on the head, but right as I put my hand above her head, we hit a bump and I ended up smacking the top of her head. I apologized profusely, but it was still a little difficult to not laugh.
"I am glad that we were allowed to go. It feels good to not be under their oppressive control all the time, I get to spread my wings and fly all on my own like I am an eagle"
"I'm glad that you feel that way," I say to her and she smiles up at me.
"I don't know if I have ever told you this, but I was almost forced to go to Equinox when I was younger," She says. I tilt my head and stare at her, in complete shock.
"I beg your pardon? Why am I just hearing about this now?"
"I didn't want to worry you or anything. I managed to get away out of it so it's not a big deal"
"That is true, but I still would've liked to have known if my best friend was leaving," I say.
"Awe I'm your best friend?" She asks, looking intently up at me.
"I am gonna throw you off this carriage"
"I am just messing with you. You need to lighten up" She said. Her face went dark. "This isn't the first time they have done something like this. They control everything that I do. Who I see, what I eat, where I go. The only thing I have control over is what books I'm allowed to read. That's why you saw that one book that I was reading, it's my only escape away from them"
"Porn is your only escape?" I ask, raising my eyebrows at her.
"I am gonna bite your insensitive ass," She said, whacking me on the back of the head. "You know what I mean. I read a lot because reading allows me to go to another place. I can see everything that the author describes, I can hear every character's voice as if they were sitting right in front of me. You go to your own separate world when you read"
"I am glad that you have that escape, but why have you never told me about your home life? You know that I am here for you at all times" I say
"I know you are Sorian, but I really didn't want to burden you with my problems. You have your own home issues and I didn't want you to give me sympathy for mine. I would choose mine over yours any day and I didn't want to come off as insensitive"
"So who's the insensitive one now huh?" I say and she cuffed me on the back of the head again. "Back to topic, I would have supported you either way. Your problems are your own and you shouldn't have to worry about what I will think of them"
"Thank you Sori, I really appreciate it," She said and she leaned her head on my shoulder.
I placed a kiss on the top of her head. I realized what I had done after it was too late, but she didn't acknowledge it at all, so hopefully, she didn't notice.
"Oi, quiet one over there!" Toothless shouted suddenly.
Alea and I looked at him and then at each other, unsure if he was talking to one of us. I noticed that he wasn't looking at us, so I followed his line of sight with my eyes until they fell upon the cloaked guy in the corner of the carriage. He didn't respond to Toothless, but to be fair, it looked like he was dead.
"Not that I'm judging or anything," I thought to myself quickly.
"Are you alive or Nah?"
Nothing.
Toothless pulled a long stick practically out of thin air and reached over everyone and poked the man in the head. He took the first poke but moved his head out of the way of the second.
"SO!" Toothless boomed. "He lives!"
The man said nothing again.
"This is not typically how you treat someone who is giving you a ride across the province for free. I'm not gonna do anything, but that's a life lesson for ya"
I was suddenly intrigued by who the man was as I quickly noticed that he didn't have any bags, weapons or anything with him. Just the cloak and the clothes on his back.
"I wonder what his deal is?" Alea whispered to me, motioning to the cloaked man.
"No idea, but I did notice that he doesn't have anything with him. I wonder where he's going"
"Me too, maybe he'll get up soon. I'm really curious to see what he looks like"
I glared at her but otherwise ignored her comment. I looked up and noticed that the sky was beginning to transition from baby blue to a blend of blues, reds and oranges. I reached into my travel bag and pulled out two premade and pre-wrapped sandwiches I bought from the Market District before I left. I handed one to Alea and she tore into it like a feral dog, hoovering it back in seconds and then proceeded to look at me with her puppy dog eyes.
"I packed just enough food for us to get to Stormlight. If you eat any more now, you might not get some later" I say, wagging a winger in her face.
"Yes, but, I'm still hungry" I looked blankly at her. I was about to give in anyways when Alea added another thing. "You packed as much food as we would need if we were walking to Stormlight, but we got a ride which means we're going faster"
I continued to look at her blankly until she sighed very dramatically. "Sori, we are going to arrive sooner, meaning we have food to spare"
I thought about it for a second and realized what she was trying to say. I rolled my eyes and handed her the sandwich I was holding in my hands. I was going to tell her to slow down a bit more with this one, but she was way ahead of me and only ate it in five bites instead of her two bites before.
I reached into the bag and pulled out a third sandwich for myself. I made sure not to make eye contact with Alea or else I would be suckered into giving up my dinner. I unwrapped the sandwich and bit into it, savouring the flavour of ham, lettuce, tomatoes and some seasonings. It was absolutely worth the money.
After we were all full, Alea pulled a blanket out of her bag and slung it around the two of us, resting her head against my shoulder again. I noticed the cloaked man scoot up in his chair and he almost looked as if he was watching us, but I chalked it up to me being paranoid.
Before long, the sky was an inky black and the thousands of stars began to sparkle in the night sky. All the other passengers on the carriage were also getting ready for sleep and I saw Toothless pull his shirt off his body and ball it up to use as a makeshift pillow.
Alea's soft snores began to sound in my ears and I noticed everyone else was asleep too, even Toothless. We really had put a lot of trust in these horses to know where they were supposed to go, even at night.
I took one final look at the stars above before closing my eyes and embracing the dark embrace of sleep.