"Kota!" A voice awoke me from my sleep. I found myself laying sideways on the seat of the carriage, looking at Lilith. She knelt down,looking at me with concern.
I noticed immediately that the sun was out. The sunlights beams breaching into the carriage, some of the light hitting my chest and legs. I also noticed that Everyone was not inside the carriage. Ameli, Claire and Chris seemingly vanished.
"H-huh? Where-where's everyone?" I sleepingly got up, rubbing my eyes.
Lilith pointed outside. "They're outside looking at Kale. He fell asleep!"
"…What?"
With the two of us stumbling out of the carriage, I made my way to the front where I saw the other three watching with disappointment. As my gaze turned to kale, I soon figured out why.
The carriage had slightly gone off trail, the horses standing idly in confusion or eating the grass as I saw Kale sleeping in a sitting position. His head leaning back with his mouth open, snoring loudly as his hands still held onto the reins.
"Look at him!" Amelia pointed out. "Kota, weren't you supposed to be out here with him? Why'd you call back in to sleep with Lilith?!" Her posture shifted so that her hands grabbed her waist.
"Huh?!" I gave her a confused look. "I was told to go back inside by him!"
"Well maybe you shouldn't have listened to him! He's out cold like a rock!"
"Wha-have any of you even woken him up?!" I asked, pacing my way towards the front of the carriage.
"Ppffft, I can see from this distance that he's in deep sleep! Plus, I don't wanna touch him!"
I rolled my eyes as I climbed up the driver seat, I stood next to kale as Lilith paced her way towards me.
"Hm…Maybe you should've stayed with him. It's not good for someone to be up all day, especially for Kale." She called from below.
Ok. well if she's agreeing as well, then it's obvious that I made a dumb choice.
I squared down and stared at kale for a moment. What would be the best way to wake this man up? A slap? A gentle nudge on his shoulder? What would ease him back to this wo-
Suddenly, the carriage shook violently as of there was an earthquake. In a panic, I searched around to see what was going on. But instead I found that Lilith was just pushing the carriage. Using one of her arms to gently rock it.
…Hold on, she's just able to do that? I keep forgetting how strong she was. I'm wondering if she had used her full strength, that this carriage would somehow fly…
Kale was obviously awoken from this tremor, his eyes shot open as he quickly tried to eye the problem. But once his eyes noticed Lilith, he frowned.
"Hey! What's the-Oh." He looked at everyone else. I then noticed how tired he still looked, his eyes had bags underneath them and I noticed his tired movement.
"Kale! You fell asleep!" Lilith looked at him with disappointment. "You shouldn't have done an all night riding, we could've just camped out for a bit!"
"Ah, you know….that's the same thing Tera said." Kale rubbed his eyes as he said that.
"Should've listened to her!"
"Yeah, yeah! Alright, I made a mistake! Just…Need more sleep…" His words slurred as he began to close his eyes, that prompted me to nudge him so he'd open them again.
Alright, we got ourselves in a Pickle here, huh? Well I guess it was kind of my fault for just leaving him alone, that was a poor choice on my side.
"Alright, Kale, you need rest." I said. "We can take the wheel."
Lilith gave me a concerned look. "You can drive horses?"
"…No. Does anyone here know how to drive the horses?" I looked at Amelia and Claire. It'd be a bigger problem if none of us knew how to. I'm only suggesting those two would be able to, as I'm pretty certain Chris would manage to flip the carriage somehow.
Claire then nodded her head. "I've ridden horses in Ozoth. So I should be able to handle this."
"Alright, we got our replacement." I looked back at Kale, who had already fallen back to sleep. "Ah, Kale?"
Well if Claire is able to drive the horses, I guess it's best to have Kale stay in the carriage to rest…
I gave Lilith a look, which was enough info for her to know what I thought. Lilith looked up towards him and proceeded to climb up onto the driver seat, putting her hands to her hip as she looked at him.
"Tsk, now we have to haul him off of here…" she then gave me a look.
I squinted my eyes. "…What, are you asking to help bring him down? I'm looking at the girl who punched a huge demon bird and casually shook this carriage! You bring him down!"
"Well it's your fault for leaving him by himself, the least you can do is grab his legs!" Lilith shot back at me. She then quickly grabbed Kale by his two arms and almost began to pull.
"Hey-Wait! Don't pull him right here! How about this, you can pull him from the ground and I can help from up here?" I quickly said. Not even sure what was going through her mind when she was doing that.
Lilith nodded and hopped back Down to the floor, turning around and grabbing kale again by his hands. I quickly grabbed his feet as I felt Lilith begin to pull.
And she pulled fast. I almost stumbled over kale. Luckily, we managed to slowly haul him off of the driver seat. Lilith slowly grabbed Kale by his back as he slid down. And with that, Lilith casually hauled him to one of the doors of the carriage. I could see his feet leaving a trail as she moved him.
"Hey! You sure he isn't like…dead? Wouldn't someone wake up to something like this?" I turned to Amelia, who said that in a confused tone.
"I don't know…Usually he wakes up to any sort of danger, he's kind of a light sleeper. I guess he's just so exhausted that he became a heavy sleeper."
I felt the carriage rumble and shake as Lilith put kale into the carriage. A few moments passed before I saw Lilith appear again.
"I put him in one of the seats. He seems fine…I think? Seems like he'll be out for a bit." Lilith said.
Then Claire spoke up. "Then it's best we get back on the road. Allow me…" she then strolled her way to the front of the carriage, hopping her way up to me.
"How good are you at driving horses?" I asked her.
"Well…Good enough, I suppose…" She didn't seem to have much confidence when she said that. She eyed Benjamin, the horse. "I know Kale had issues with that Horse. I'm not sure if the horses would even trust me…"
"Get acquainted with the horses?" I suggested.
"How?"
"I don't know, touch them? Make them feel comfortable? I don't know how horses work!"
Claire frowned and eyed the horses. With a bit of hesitation, she finally got out of the driver seat and hopped her way down.
"If the horses kick me, you better heal it." She said as she walked cautiously towards Benjamin.
It was at this moment that another carriage was coming by. A brown wagon that held boxes and sheets. It awkwardly adjusted its path to avoid our carriage, but not before stopping beside us.
There was a small man…No, it was a dwarf! Like Mary! The dwarf was a red haired man that had a particularly long beard, and he looked quite old. Alongside him was a younger man, not a dwarf and he had blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Oi!" The dwarf said in a very heavy accent. "See you got yourselves in a pickle?" He looked at the carriage and then towards me. "You been ridin this drunk?"
I think I'm finding it more odd that I'm hearing a Scottish accent from this small man…also it's become apparent to me that my staring is taking offense to him.
"Oy! Don't go staring at people like a bird! Answer my damn question!" The dwarf yelled.
"Does it look like I drink?! I'm twelve!" I pointed at myself as I yelled. "Are you drunk?!"
"Pffft, Absolutely!" The dwarf laughed. "I only stopped because I saw that you managed to fuck up on this trail! Tsk, shouldn't let youngsters drive these days."
Ok, actually getting a better look at the man…Yeah he was drunk. And his younger companion seemed to be feeling secondhand embarrassment from all this. Avoiding contact and twiddling his hands.
Before I could talk back, Chris put himself between our Carriage and the dwarf's. He put his hands to his side and stared hostilely at the small man.
"…Fuck you looking at?" The dwarf looked at Chris in confusion.
What was Chris doing? I looked on as Chris slowly took a deep breath and raised his right arm, pointing at the dwarf.
"…Hey, Big Nose!" Chris yelled. "We don't talk to random strangers, especially those that reek of alcohol! We don't need your help or anything!"
"Watch your damn tone!" The dwarf stood up from his seat, although to be honest it didn't do much for him. "You know who you're talking to?!"
"Uh…You know who you're talking to?! The Prince of Prusha! Now scram!"
"I don't believe you!" The dwarf hopped down off of his carriage and slowly walked towards Chris. "If outta smack the shit out of you for saying such stupid things!"
As the dwarf raised his hand, Lilith raced her way towards Chris and firmly grasped the dwarf's hand. It caught the dwarf by surprise. Lilith held a stern look at the dwarf as he struggled to loosen her grip.
"Ugh-Get yer fucking hands off me! He-He-Ow!" The dwarf turned towards his younger companion. "Help me out here!"
I watched as Lilith turned her head towards the younger man as he almost hopped off the carriage.
"You hop down here, and I'll toss you and this small dude into the back of your wagon." She said sternly.
And slowly…The younger man went back into his seat with worry in his eyes.
Lilith turned her gaze back to the dwarf. "Don't ask for help for something you started. Who you are talking to is indeed the prince of Prusha. Any physical contact with him will certainly end with you and your wagon split in half."
Talk about aggressive, Lilith. I noticed Chris bearing a surprised look on his face, along with Claire who was near the horses.
Amelia stood off to the side, her arms folded as she nodded in approval to Liliths aggression.
The red headed dwarf stared back at her with anger. The two held their place before the dwarf finally backed down, Lilith loosening her grip on him and he swatted his hand away from her.
As he rubbed his grasped hands he muttered. "Shit, sobered me up. Fucking kidding me." He took some steps back towards his Carriage, eying Lilith before he turned and hopped right beside his younger companion who moved.
It was then the younger companion spoke. The blonde hair man looked cautiously at Claire.
"F-forgive him, he's been drunk ever since we left Bulbec. I'm just his apprentice."
"What is it you two do? With what you carry, you seem to be on route to supply." Claire pointed out. "My family works with trading."
"Who are you? We're with the Grant company." The young man said.
"Grant?…Oh, I know! Your group helps with bringing things from the eastern side!"
"Yes, supplies are brought in from The eastern continent….Say, who is your family?"
"Mallory. I'm Claire Mallory." She nudged her head in the direction of Amelia. "That is my sister."
"Ah. The Mallory's. I've heard about your family…The name is Manuel." Manuel paused for a moment as he looked at the two blue haired girls. "Actually why are you two out here near Prusha? Aren't you all located in Ozoth?"
Before he could continue, the red headed Dwarf grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him back.
"Alright, we've had enough damn chit chat! We're wasting both of our time! We gotta head to Ozoth ourselves!" And quickly, the red headed Dwarf grabbed the reins for his horse and readied to take off.
As their carriage began to move, I could hear the two men talking to each other.
"Michael, what the hell are you doing?"
"Trying to get the hell away from that Silver haired girl! Damn, she had a good grip on me! And you didn't do anything!"
"Well it was your fault! You know I'm not good around these sorts of things!"
"Shut up before I kiss ya!"
"Huh?!?"
Soon, their conversation slowly faded as they moved farther from us.
"Yeah! Scared them didn't you, Lilith?" Chris spoke up, turning towards her with a hop.
Lilith gave him a shrug. "Just doing my
Job…I think?" Her gaze turned to me. It seemed she was rather upset about something. "I think I handled it too harshly?"
"I mean, someone was harming the prince. Wouldn't expect a guard to not use force…Or threats." I replied back to her. "Though to be fair, what Chris said was pretty dumb."
"I was just repeating what my Father said to me!" Chris said, annoyed. "What? I'm assuming you all talk to random strangers?"
"Well that's how people become friends, idiot!" Amelia said. "How'd you think I met that dumbass up there?" She pointed at me.
…well she isn't wrong. She stormed into my class to duel me. Now look where we are.
"Well I thought you both were classmates or something!" Chris looked at her with confusion.
Ameli had a look of dumbfoundedness. "Have you never been to a school before?!"
"I'm taught classes in my castle, that's a luxury! Everything I've been taught has been taught at that university!"
"No wonder you're so stupid!"
Alright, this is starting to heat up. Any more of this and the most likely scenario is Chris being lifted into the air again. Something I don't really want to see. I should probably get us back on the road…
"Alright, stop arguing!" I shouted. That immediately caught the two's attention. "We need to get back on the road!"
"Agreed." Claire said, her hand patting Benjamin. "It seems I've managed to get acquainted with the horses now."
"Ok, we're good on that then." I folded my arms as I looked at Chris and Amelia. With the bantering they do, it'd be an issue if they both were together…
It'd probably be best if Chris stayed inside the carriage alongside Kale. Some alone time could help calm him, plus he'd be able to write without us…Watching.
"Chris…" I looked at him. "We'll have you stay inside the carriage."
"What?! Why?"
"Erm…we'd get in the way of your writing! Yeah, you could use this chance to write and make all the stories you want!"
The idea intrigued Chris as he rubbed his chin. A few seconds passed when a grin appeared on his face.
"…yes, I could use this time to write about the trip! Ooh…About how someone threw a person through a carriage! Or-or they cut the whole carriage in half!" Chris snickered.
Lilith gave him a concerned look as he rubbed his hands together, his ideas running wild in his mind.
"I'm off to the writing room!" He said as he ran towards the carriage doors. "Do not bother me as I write a masterpiece!"
As I heard the carriage door open and close, I noticed Claire walking towards the driver seat. The horses neighed and flexed their muscles, preparing to ride on.
"I suppose we'll get ready then?" She asked.
"Yeah, though I didn't think Chris would agree that quickly."
"Lots of things happened, maybe he knows some quiet time will let him concentrate…On his odd stories."
"Perverted writing…" I heard Amelia say as she struggled to hop onto the driver seat. "Can this fit all four of us?"
I looked at the seats. When I sat up here with kale, there was enough room for another person. Judging by everyone's size…We can only fit three people on the seats. Amelia had sat next to Claire, placing herself in the middle and Claire on the right end. Leaving just the left side for someone.
"Hm…Looks like we can only fit three of us."
I noticed Lilith looking up towards the seats, in her thoughts. Maybe she wanted to sit?
"Lilith, do you want to sit up here?" I asked her. She looked at me and smiled.
"Yeah!"
It'd probably be better if I just headed back into the carriage. I think I've caused enough trouble this morning, I should look after ka-
"Sit down!" I heard Lilith say.
I took a glance at her, confused..
"…huh? Don't you want to sit down? You being kind now?"
"Nope. Just thought of something. Now sit!" Lilith then waited patiently as she looked on.
"…alright." I was still confused by what she was asking me to do. What, was she going to have me sit in the front and she'll just walk? Maybe because since Kale was out, his aura wasn't going to keep any harmful monster from attacking us…
I took a seat and watched as Lilith simply hopped up, moving across Amelia and Claire. She took a second to give me a look before she made her way to me, and then unceremoniously plopping herself onto my lap.
"Comfortable seat!" She said cutely.
I heard Amelia groaning towards us.
…It's not too uncomfortable for me. Usually when she does sit on my lap, she doesn't have her armor on. Now that she does have that on, there is some weight to her.
"Hey, are you comfy?" Lilith looked back towards me, smiling.
"Well it's not bad. But I'm sure in about an hour, my legs will go numb or something. Just don't move too much."
"Then just grab onto me." As she said that, she grabbed both my hands and wrapped them around her waist.
I'm not really complaining here…Though This act of affection caused another painful groan from Amelia.
Claire didn't seem to mind at all. Her gaze fixed onto the trail as she spoke.
"Everyone ready? Not sure how far we are…Shanford? But we'll probably get there in the afternoon."
Collectively, we all nodded.
The horses began to move once again, setting themselves back onto the trail. The carriage rumbled as it corrected itself, straightening as it finally got itself on trail.
And for another hour or so, we traveled onward to Shanford.
A/N: Hey all! Been quite busy at work since I'm in a new area, I've been trying to find the time to write! Hope you enjoy this chapter and await the next!