Faye awake first the next morning, which was surprising to her considering the number of times she'd awoken the night before. She stirred and slowly lifted her sore body from the ground. She couldn't wait to sleep in a bed again. The hard ground was difficult to deal with.
She sat up, staring at her new companion. Rider slept in an undignified manner. His legs and arms were sprawled out and drool dripped from the corner of his mouth as he lay with his mouth wide open. He snored, but his snores weren't loud.
After watching him for a little while, Faye started to pack up the camp. She packed up the meat that was dried out throughout the night into jerky.
After being up for over an hour, Rider still had not awoken. She tapped him with her foot, trying to shake him awake.
He awoke with a start. His arms flew out wildly as he cried out in surprise. He looked around for his apparent attacker, his eyes rested on Faye. He groaned as he lay back down and turned over.
Faye pushed him again, realizing he was preparing to go back to sleep.
"Get up, we have to head out."
Rider harrumphed in response, but slowly turned back over to sit up.
"Why are you up so early? Aren't kids your age supposed to like to sleep in?"
"Aren't adults supposed to get up early?" She retorted back.
Rider gave her a grin as he replied. "I'm one of the lucky ones that doesn't have to awaken at the crack of dawn, so if you'll excuse me..." he turned back over to try to sleep some more.
Faye stared at him for a moment, before loudly sighing. "Alright, well, you sleep there, I'm gonna head out..."
Hearing her words, Rider jumped up.
"Wait!" He followed behind her. He seemed to delay by looking over their small camp, as if to pack up his things. Realizing he brought nothing with him, however, Rider quickly followed to catch up with Faye. He eyed Faye's backpack as they began their walk.
Feeling his gaze, Faye sighed and pulled her bag off to pull out a couple pieces of jerky for Rider. He accepted them gladly, and hummed as they made their way forward along the trail.
The night before, while they had been preparing the camp Faye and Rider had discussed their plans for the next day.
Rider intended to return to Echanburn, despite the fact that someone wanted him dead. When Faye asked about this, Rider waved her off, stating he knew how to deal with it. He agreed to accompany her along the road to Echanburn. He said it was actually a couple days of travel before they would reach the city proper.
When asked, he said he was actually traveling with some people who ended up betraying him and leaving him in that state she found him in. The people that betrayed him wouldn't return to the city for a couple weeks after they arrived. They had business in another town that was a little ways away and it would take some time to deal with their business.
Faye noticed Rider often used vague words to describe the group and his relationship with them.
It didn't matter to her. What she wanted more than anything was for Rider to help her understand the state of the current world. It didn't matter to her who he associated with.
She used the excuse of her being from a really small village and not know much about the world outside of her village when questioned about her lack of knowledge of the world.
This seemed an acceptable answer to Rider, as he didn't ask again. If he didn't believe her, he didn't say.
Through talking to Rider, Faye found that her world from before was completely gone. Even the country she lived in was no more. She asked about the ruins, speaking as if she'd come across then coincidentally, but Rider had little to say other than it used to be a city that fell before the last Great War.
When asked about the last Great War, Rider gave another surprised look, but didn't seem too stunned that she didn't know much about history. She told Rider that there was no school house in the town she grew up in and she hadn't been taught much about history. He seemed to accept this answer, but she wasn't sure if he completely believed her or not.
Regardless, he answered her questions as they slowly made their way along the road. The last Great War was sparked after the previous country, Gosmarre, was set upon by its neighbors after some internal strife. The fighting lasted for almost a century before it was finally brought to an end. That was almost fifty years earlier and the country had stabilized in the mean time.
Rider claimed not to be too interested in politics or history, so his answers weren't too detailed.
Faye fell silting as they continued along the road. She munched on a piece of jerky occasionally, to keep Rider from becoming too suspicious of her.
After walking most of the day, the two came to a bridge over top a flowing river. The river wasn't too difficult to cross even without the bridge. It was shallow and flowed rather slowly. It seemed to be low at the moment.
Rider slid down the side of the bank and began happily slurping up some of the water. He also used the river to wipe away some of the dirt still left on his skin.
Faye followed his example, trying to wash some of the grime from her arms and legs. She drank a bit from the river, though nowhere near as much as Rider.
"You got anything to hold water in? This will probably be the last water source we'll fine for a while...."
Faye was about to shake her head when she remembered the glass bottles she'd found before. She reached into the magical bag without pulling it from her tattered backpack. She didn't want Rider seeing her magical ware in case he got any ideas....
She pulled out two bottles, handing one to Rider, who gladly started cleaning it out in order to use it.
Faye quietly followed suite.