"Kyaaah!" I heard kale yell. The horse neighing and huffing in response.
Well, except for one of them.
"Oh come on, Ben! We're like halfway, You're holding up the other horses!"
We've been stuck in the middle of the Prusha bridge. A long Trail that traveled from Prusha to Ozoth, it was all grassland here. Through this route we were on, we'd make our way through the Cascadia plains and end up at Shanford.
It was a three day trip back to Shanford on this route, but Kale planned for us to continually travel through the night so we can make it in just two days.
The horses however weren't pleased with this decision. More precisely, one of the horses.
"Look, we can't sit here all day! We are burning sun right now!" Kale leaned towards the horse, his hands pressed against the neck of the horse.
Benjamin snorted as he casually stood. The other horse stood idle as passers watched us with amusement. Luckily, other drivers were able to pass us.
The rest of us watched from the carriage as he argued with the horse. My head poked out of one of the windows, along with Lilith. Chris was watching, but then he decided to go back to writing.
Chris was oddly quiet most of the time since we hit the road. Besides talking with Claire about herself, he tended to have his eyes painted onto a large notebook he had that dotted his thoughts into with an ink pen. The carriage even had a small foldable desk that he could use. At first, I ignored his scribbling. I thought for a moment that he was just writing a journal as a sort of report of what he was seeing on the road. But after some time, I managed to get some peeks on what he was writing.
The kid was writing stories in his notebook. Actually, it was more like ideas that came to his mind. I saw the first couple of ideas that he jotted down, and I was either cringing at them or questioning them.
I don't think anyone else really bothered him at all, they were either too focused on the road and landscapes or just talking with others. Amelia stared out of the window, looking out to the field while Claire talked with Amelia.
And now here we were, watching Kale now desperately try to persuade a horse.
"Here." Kale grabbed something from the driver seat of the carriage. It was a brown bag that he waved in front of the horse. "See this? It's a treat! You start walking and I'll feed you after we finish our trip to Shanford."
Benjamin stared at Kale, almost contemplating before snorting and looking away.
"Oh, come on!" Kale slammed the brown bag to the dirt ground. "Ten years of traveling and you treat me like this? I asked you to come so that you could see Gerald!"
"He seems quite talkative with his horse…" Lilith murmured.
"He sounds insane." Amelia shrugged.
"I am not insane!" Kale shot a look at us. "I just know that he's being a little jerk right now! He's been off the road for some time, he's just getting used to it!"
Amelia, Lilith and I looked at each other before nodding and starting a private conversation in the carriage.
"You didn't tell me that Kale was…Like this." Amelia looked at me and Lilith. "I thought he was going to be more…Savvy or something else besides…Whatever he is right now."
"I'd assume you should've expected him to be like this when you stayed at our place." Lilith said. "He can be serious and professional when it's needed."
"Like right now, isn't this a specialized escort? Feels like we're all on a weird road trip." Amelia glanced at Chris. "Hey, prince."
"Yes,Flat chested Claire?" Chris said without looking up from writing.
"Flat cheste-I have a name, you little weirdo!" Amelia angrily glared at him.
"Aren't we about the same age?" Chris looked up at her finally. "What are you…Seven? Six? I'm eight."
"Ten! That makes me older than you!" Amelia grinned. "You're the youngest here!"
"Wah- No way!" Chris seemed shocked at the reveal of her age. "No way, you can't be real!
Amelia cackled as he looked at her. As he stared, he slowly squinted his eyes as something came up in his mind.
"So when do you start growing?"
"Eh?"
Chris eyed her, particularly her chest area before he demonstrated what he was looking for by putting his hands up against his chest.
"These things." He simply said.
"Wha-!" Amelia looked at him shocked, her face brightening as she stood up from the carriage seat. "You don't ask a girl that sort of question! I'm going to smash that head in with my staff!"
At first, I was going to do something. But a side of me wanted to see this happen just for amusement. Lilith seemed to have thought the same as she simply watched on as Amelia charged her way towards Chris's seat as he screamed. Chris instinctively threw his notebook towards Amelia, but it had no effect on her.
"Stop! It was a valid question! Uh-Lilith, Do something before she kills me!" Chris put his feets up and tried to fight off amelia. I noticed Lilith shrugging asChris looked onward at Amelia. "Y-you! You're about to harm a king's son! You know what they'll do?!"
"Ohoho, they won't know a damn thing if they can't find you!"
As Amelia raised her staff up, she spotted something that caught her eye. The look of confusion and disturbance filled her eyes as she quickly snatched the notebook that Chris had dropped.
Chris looked at her with absolute terror for a moment, before desperately trying to open the carriage door.
What the hell did he write in his notebook?
Chris finally managed to open his door, hopping out and tumbling into the grassy plains. Amelia's face then contorted into anger as she clenched the notebook, crushing it.
"That little freak is writing perverted stories about Claire in his damn book! I'm gonna kill him!" Amelia then clambered her way out of the carriage, Jumping out the way Chris did.
The crushed notebook plopped to the ground of the carriage, but it managed to open itself as it fell down. A single page opened for all of us to see now.
Without a doubt, it was indeed a story that involved Claire. It reminded me of the other story he wrote about Lilith.
"Kota, we should see if he's alive." Lilith patted my shoulder. "I don't think Amelia will be easy on him.
"I'm sure he's fine." I shrugged. "Besides, wouldn't he deserve some little punishment for writing this kind of stuff?"
"Erm…Still, we have a job to do." Lilith frowned, she stood up and made her way towards the open carriage door. She took a quick glance outside and held a stare. "…I think we should help."
I scooted myself across the seat, sitting behind Lilith as I peeked under her. Outside was Amelia and Chris, the latter frantically sprinting for his life as Amelia seemed to be chanting something. She stood in the grass plains with her staff held up high in the air, Clouds rolling in.
I think she was preparing to do a wind spell. I've only really seen her do Beginner or intermediate…But this looks a little extreme for a kid.
Lilith was the first one to bolt out of the Carriage, landing quickly and jogging her way towards Amelia to stop her. I noticed Claire looking out of her window with worry and concern.
I quickly hopped out of the carriage as well, Kale making his way to our side of the carriage with a look of concern.
"Uh…Mind telling me what's going on? I look at the horses for a few moments and now it seems like Amelia is going to Kill Chris."
"Uh, Well Chris was writing erotic fiction about Claire in the Carriage." I explained, being as straightforward as I could be.
"…He was-What? Doing what? Why?" Kale said with utter confusion. "Wha-That's weird."
Claire popped her head out of her window. "To be quite Frank, I do find it amusing that he is quite a writer at such a young age. I think Amelia is taking a bit too far."
Kale opened his mouth to say something, but it didn't seem to come out. He shut his mouth and began to tap his fingers against his head. Perhaps contemplating his choices and wondering if this was a bit too much for him.
He pointed his finger at Claire and spoke. "I'm going to ignore what you said because What you said was incredibly horrible. And yes, Amelia is going too far."
He lowered his finger and put his hands on his hips, looking annoyed. "Ah…Today is not my Day. I expected this job from Lucian to be a lot easier-"
The heavy winds that blew past us cut him off as we noticed a small Tornado beginning to Form in the plain. It twirled and lifted the grass from their roots. The Tornado itself was that Large, it was probably around Twelve feet. It was Enough to lift Chris though as he was caught within it. He was floating upside down and twirling within the Tornado, frantically yelling and begging for the spell to stop.
"-But I ended up having to babysit a bunch of kids. Whoopee." Kale finished his sentence as he walked towards Amelia and Lilith. "Alright! Stop with the stupid stuff you guys are doing!" His tone towards the two girls is much more serious.
Amelia took a glance at Kale and immediately lowered her staff. The tornado died out slowly as Kale walked his way toward her and snatched her staff out of her hands.
"Why are you trying to kill him? You understand that he is the Heir of Prusha, right? What's with this petty nonsense?" Kale asked Amelia.
"I don't give a damn if he's the god of whatever or the king to a mediocre kingdom! I don't want some weirdo writing disgusting things about my Sister!" As Amelia finished, she aggressively stomped her foot into the grass floor. "And I wasn't going to kill him, I was going to make sure he'd never walk!"
"Uhh…No, we don't want that! Stop being a brat, you Overreacted! Could've just brought it up to me!"
"You were talking to a horse! And Chris has been talking mean hints to us already in the carriage!"
"Don't bring Benjamin into this!" Kale warned her.
"I'm not, I was just stating what you were doing! Now give me my staff!" Amelia jumped up for her staff, but Kale raised his hand up.
"No! Ok, I'm the adult here!" Kale firmly said. "I'll speak with Chris and see what we can do. But for now, this staff stays with me. You aren't getting it till we get to Prusha…Ok, where's Chris?"
Our gaze searched the plains for Chris, but it was Lilith who managed to find him. She quickly Hustled her way towards the boy. Chris was laying flat on the floor, face first into the dirt. His brown hair matted with dirt along with his clothes.
When Lilith got to him, he quickly got back to his feet and angrily stared wildly.
"I'll let my father know about this! He'll put you in the deepest parts of the jail!" He angrily yelled. "I'll get you kicked out of that University!"
"Boohoo." Amelia shrugged. "Maybe if you stop writing disgusting things in your journal, I might apologize."
Chris whipped his head towards her and gave her a ugly look. Amelia responded with a look of disgust as well.
In an attempt to get some payback, Chris lifted his arms and tried to cast a water spell at her. A pool of water formed in the front of his palm, but before he could shoot it, Lilith swatted him on the back of his head. The water spell slowly lost its form, pooling down to the ground.
"No fighting!" Lilith firmly said, rubbing the palm of her hand that she used. "Listen to Kale!"
"Yeah, both of you are overreacting! Now, we need to get back on the road! If I hear you guys starting fights in the carriage, I'll throw one of you guys in the storage part of the carriage!" Kale called out.
Amelia gave Chris an angry glare before turning around towards the carriage, not looking at Kale. Lilith cleaned some of the dirt and grass off of Chris before he stormed his way towards the carriage as well. Lilith followed in suit for a moment before she paused to look at kale.
"Hey, don't give me a look." Kale said to her. "I…I'll give Chris a talk once we head to Prusha. Just Go back to the carriage." His gaze quickly turned away from her as he looked at me.
Lilith stared for a moment more before slowly walking back to the carriage.
I found myself strolling up to Kale as he rubbed the front of his forehead, looking quite stressed now.
"Ahh….This is a pain. A tornado? Who uses a tornado to do that?"
"Hey, at least you stopped it from going any further." I said to him, I gave him a pat on his arm before the both of us walked to the carriage.
"I told you I wasn't good with kids."
"What? Telling us to stop doing something wrong is bad?"
"I…Ugh, let's just get back to the carriage. Want to sit out on the front with me? Lilith can handle those three, I'm pretty sure."
"Um…Sure. I'll sit with you." I shrugged.
Seems to be a lot on Kale's mind, which is understandable. He's gotta watch all of us, and take us to Ozoth without any issues. I'd be more concerned and serious as well. He's probably also trying to show some professionalism to Lilith as well…
Me and Kale hopped onto the front of the Carriage. Something that Lilith noticed immediately as we sat down.
"You're sitting up there, kota?" She asked.
"Yeah, Kale wanted me out here. You can handle those two, right?"
"Yeah, I can do that…" There was a pause when she said that. Perhaps she was wondering why she wasn't asked. She didn't say anything further, only shuffling back to her seat and waiting for the carriage to move.
I'm starting to feel that this trip was going to be…Quite awkward from here on out. Lots of tension from everyone besides me and Claire.
"Come on, Benjamin! You had your break, let's go!" Kale yelled at the horses.
The horses stirred and finally began to move, Benjamin snorting as he did finally move his legs.
We were now inching closer and closer to Shanford.
A/N: a year ago, I made this WebNovel! So happy one year anniversary! I never expected myself to make it this far, but here I am! Things at work have been cranking up, so I've had less time to write. Luckily I managed to have this out on the day I first uploaded! I'll continue to do my best to Upload! Hope you enjoy this Chapter!