We all stood and started to clear off the area we were just in. We all knew that we needed to be ready in case of an emergency.
I walked up to Kind who was making her way back to the house.
"Are the guards here?" I asked her
"They're doing a thorough inspection at every house. Meaning that the guards will go into everyone's houses, inside and around." She replied "It would be safer for all of you to leave for the next town already."
I nodded my head. "Thank you for everything"
She sighed and shook her head "I'm not doing this for any of you. Don't think this is going to be a regular thing, me helping all of you. I'm not going to end up like my sister"
"…understood" I said
I turned back to the others who had bags of supplies that Kind lent us. The fire had gone out and scattered everywhere. The logs we were on had been thrown deeper into the woods. I took the map out and with the help of Terre, we were off to the next town.
"Terre, don't you want to say goodbye to Kind?" Luna asked
"Or at least a thank you?" Cielo added
He shook his head.
We kept silent after that. As we walked further through the woods, I looked back and saw the town Recht. It was the late afternoon and the sun had begun to settle in. I wondered why we were guided there. It's like we were given a giant puzzle to complete without the picture. We have all the pieces but are totally clueless on how to solve it. Hopefully, this next town we go to gives us more answers than questions.
I turned and kept walking.
"Terre, Gun, do you guys know anything about this next town we're going to?" I asked
Terre shook his head "No one really goes beyond Recht."
"Once someone goes over the mountains, they never come back" Gun said
"Mountains?" I asked
"Ugh! We need to climb mountains now?!" Cielo wined
I actually agree with him on this.
"Why don't they come back?" Luna asked
"It could be a number of reasons" Terre said "They could have starved on the way on the mountain, eaten on the mountain, dehydrated and dried up on the mountain, or-"
"What about the people who went over?" I asked
Terre shrugged.
"I'm not sure if this is true but I've heard of people who left their families to find a better home over the mountain." Gun said
"And what happened to them?" I asked
"They never came back" he replied
"Whatever is over that mountain must be something if they never came back" Cielo said
He sighed "I still don't want to climb a mountain" as he pouted
Gun threw his arm over him and said "Don't worry. If you get too tired, I'll carry you"
"Knight" Cielo whispered as he stared up at Gun
"Hmm?" Gun asked
"Nothing! Nothing!" Cielo said
Luna, who had been watching them, turned towards me "If you get-"
"I can walk myself" I interrupted
She huffed and walked further ahead. She hadn't been paying attention and slipped over some loose rocks.
She fell on top of me and we tumbled down. I held her head close to my chest and took the blow from the tree that stopped us. My back ached as my vision went blurry and actually went blank for a second.
"Estrella? Estrella!" Luna yelled in my face
I looked up at her concerned face that was inches from mine. I pushed her face away as mine heated up from how close we were.
"Space" I said
The others were also surrounding us and I reassured them I was alright.
Terre turned back to where Luna fell.
"We're getting closer to the desert." He said
"Scuse me. Desert?!" Cielo said
"The mountain is in a desert. I hadn't noticed since everything is so green. At least we're traveling in a good season" he continued
Cielo threw his hands in the air.
"But the good this is that we're getting close, right?" I asked
"We should be able to see the mountains soon enough" is all Terre said
We kept walking forward. We eventually saw cacti and our surroundings turned more rocky.
Night had started to fall on us and we made a camp close to a lake but far enough to not get in any animal's way of water.
Terre grabbed a knife and started chopping the cacti.
"Oh! I've heard of this!" Cielo said "Are you getting water from the cactus?"
Terre shook his head "These don't have water. I'm collecting the fruit from them"
He pointed at the pink fruit balls that was growing in the cactus.
He carefully cut into the inside of the fruit and handed it to us.
We all bit into it…and instantly regretted it. We spit it back out as Terre gave us a conserned look.
"Is it bad?" He asked
Luna gave him a look and said "Are you trying to chip our teeth or something?!"
"There are seeds! Like small rocks!" Cielo cried
Terre looked down at his fruit in hand "Isn't it like an apple?" He asked
"No!" We all said
"But I've read that you can eat the seeds and that the fruit tastes delicious" Terre said
"You can hardly taste the fruit because your swallowing a bunch of seeds" Gun said
"How do you not know what they taste like? I thought you knew this from how you acted" I asked
"The man from the forest gave me a book about the desert. Said that I might need it one day" Terre said
"Alright! That's creepy! I thought this guy was just psycho but now I'm thinking he psychic" Cielo said
"Do you still have that book?" I asked Terre
He shook his head "I left it back in Sud after I went back"
"Oh" I said
I layed down on the ground and looked up at the sky. The moon shines brightly as the stars surround it. I yawned and turned to my side. I saw Luna who was sitting up as she stared up at the stars.
"What a lovely sight" I thought as I fell asleep.