"Now where are we going?" Vanya demanded, turning her back on the flames. "We don't have time to waste any longer." She no longer carried a hint of reverence for Jason. In fact, she seemed to disdain her need to ask him where they were going.
Now that Jason had proven his weakness in her eyes, she didn't even seem to think of him as an equal anymore. All because he wanted to help a little girl bury her parents. This world was insane, and it seemed he was stuck with two people who were even crazier than most.
"The sparrow told me we have to go to the capital," he said with a sigh.
"You are listening to the sparrow?" Vanya asked with barely contained rage. "I will not follow the words of one of those creatures let alone someone who listens to them."
"Well you're going to have figure out what to do then!" Jason yelled at her. "Your tellers said that I would know where to go, and the sparrow is the one that told me. I'm sorry that everything isn't going exactly how you hoped, but you can either do that or kill me and I'm slowly leaning more and more towards the latter."
Vanya looked like she wanted to yell back, but Nora interrupted her. "I think the sparrow is cute, what's his name?"
Her eyes were still red and the blood on her clothing hadn't even dried yet, but she seemed determined to look strong. Jason couldn't help admiring the girl once again. "I think she does need a name," Jason answered her, glad for the excuse to avoid the demon. "And I don't think we've been properly introduced," he continued. "My name is Jason, it's nice to meet you."
The girl looked somewhat uncomfortable at the awkward introduction, but she nodded anyway. "I don't know how you know my name, but I'm Nora, but I might need to change my name when I become a demon."
Well that certainly was a conversation starter. Jason didn't want to upset her anymore than she must be already so he decided to go along with her. "Well then, you'll need to come up with a name for yourself and the sparrow then," he said, bringing a smile to the girl's face.
"Now how are we going to get to the capital?" he asked Vanya who was still stewing over what Jason had said. Jason may not be accompanied to death and hardship like the people in this world seemed to be, but he also wasn't about to let himself be stomped on. "I suppose you can't just make one of those gate things to get us there."
"No," she said in annoyance. "I can only go to places that I have been before."
"Well then, let's get walking," he said in as cheerful a voice as he could muster. "I'd imagine that we have a long walk ahead of us."
They followed a very similar path to the one Jason had run just the day before in the opposite direction. The massive mountains that apparently lead to the capital never seemed to change in size.
The small party had more reason than ever to avoid the farms and any civilization in general for that matter. Vanya insisted that they run, which was no issue for Jason. He seemed to have near unlimited stamina in this body using mana like the sparrow had said. Nora however, was another problem.
Jason was surprised to find that Vanya insisted that they maintain a pace that Nora could keep up with, and the girl for her part, turned out to be a much better runner than Jason would have given her credit for. That didn't mean that she could come close to competing with Jason or the demon though, and after less than half an hour at a pace that barely seemed faster than a walk to Jason, her breathing was ragged.
Vanya did not let her stop though, and it wasn't until she collapsed from exhaustion that she allowed them to stop for a moment while Nora drank from one of the canteens that they had brought with them.
Despite the damage to the house, the shed had been nearly untouched and had contained all sorts of dried meats that Nora had said were being saved for winter. That along with a large bag of food that they had been able to take from the fields would at least get them by for a little while.
After Nora finished drinking, Vanya allowed Jason to carry her while they ran until she recovered enough to run again.
The demon picked up the pace a great deal now that Nora wasn't slowing them. She went steadily faster and faster as they ran as if she was trying to test Jason, but he found that even with Nora on his back, he had no trouble keeping up with her. Based on her breathing alone, it actually seemed that she was tiring more quickly than he was.
"That's some incredible mana regeneration," she finally said as she slowed down from the full sprint that they had been maintaining for some time. "To think that a weakling like you can keep up with me."
Jason thought that he was doing more than keeping up with her, but he kept that to himself. "What do you mean mana regeneration?" he asked instead. This might be a good opportunity to figure out a little more about his powers. Maybe she could even help him learn better control of the few things that he could do.
"How can you not even know what mana regeneration is?" she asked with a cocked eye.
"Mana doesn't even exist in the world that I come from."
"That's impossible." She sniffed as if he had said the grass was red. "Mana is what gives life to everything, if you don't have mana then you're dead."
"That may be how it works here, but there is no mana where I came from."
Vanya still looked like she wasn't sure if he was joking or serious. It was so strange to have a normal conversation while running this fast.
"Mana is what gives everything life," she finally explained when he didn't say anything more. "Everything that is alive has mana, and they use it to live even when doing nothing. Most beings regenerate mana at about the same speed that their body consumes it, so if they exert themselves they will eventually need to recoup lost mana like the girl is now."
Nora's breathing had returned to normal, but she was still too exhausted to keep her head up as Jason ran. He did his best to keep from bumping her too much, but it couldn't be helped completely.
"In my case," she continued, "I have trained extensively to increase my mana regeneration rates, but running at this speed still uses more than I can actively regenerate. You on the other hand," she nodded at Jason, "could likely run even faster without ever dipping past what you can naturally regenerate,"
"I take it that's more than most people," Jason said jokingly.
"I've met few who could come close to rivaling it."
In the distance Jason could see the village that he had visited yesterday, and a short time later, the road that led to the village slowly came into view. Unlike the day before when it had been completely devoid of traffic, there was a small caravan of riders heading towards the village.