"If something's bothering you that much, why don't you take the first watch?" Amelia demanded, startling Beth out of her thoughts, only to find Amelia glaring at her.
"Sorry," she apologized, not sure what else to say.
"Look, just calm down, okay?" Amelia advised. "You're probably just imagining things, since we haven't had any real problems since we started out."
"Yeah, but we haven't found a place where we can try to trade one of the goats for something to eat," Beth replied, feeling like engaging in this conversation was a waste of her time, but unable to not say anything.
"Hey, it's not like we haven't been able to find anything to eat," Hannah remarked. "There were those raspberries, I think, that we found yesterday. Even Hesha was able to point out some roots that aren't too bad."
"Yeah, but how long will that last?" Beth shot back. "We may have gotten lucky so far, but whose to say that we're not heading for a time when we'll be lucky to find water we can drink without using our magic?"
"Relax, Beth," Tim urged. "We understand that. It's just that while things are moving along well, why focus on what could happen? Maybe we'll run out of luck soon, not that I believe in luck, but that's something we'll have to deal with then."
"You know, that reminds me," Ralph commented. "Have I told you guys that story about the farmer whose horse ran off?"
"Yeah, you've told us that, about every few months since you read it in that book," Amelia grumbled.
"Well, point is, just because you get things that you think are good, doesn't necessarily mean that it was good luck that brought it to you," Ralph stated, as if he was an authority on the subject. Which also made Beth roll her eyes. "Just like if bad things happen, that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad luck that they happened."
"Don't care," Beth sang out to Ralph. Then in a regular tone, she continued, "Maybe I'm just tired from walking all day. I'll just go to bed and see if I wake up feeling better."
"Uh, isn't it your turn for the first watch?" Tim asked, giving Beth the urge to scream out her aggravation.
She had to admit, it was her turn, which she'd completely forgotten about. Which brought home what she'd been getting at in regards to luck.
It might not have been something that affects the entire group, but it still was affecting her at the moment. Where she just wanted to sleep, but now she'd have to stay up for a couple hours, at least, before she could pass the watch to someone else.
While Hesha, Feon, and Cinder could take a watch themselves, which they were rather vocal about being able to do, Beth and her friends had agreed that those three shouldn't have, or be allowed, to take one, since they were still children and needed their sleep more than the rest of them. Not that they were happy about it.
While she wasn't happy about the fact, she couldn't help but feel that it wasn't completely bad, as it was the first watch, so it wasn't like she'd have to get woken up some time during the night, only to have to go back to sleep later on.
"You could take a nap and we'll wake you up when the rest of us are going to bed," Amelia offered.
Beth merely shook her head. "Thanks, but I can't be sure I wouldn't fall right back asleep right after you guys woke up me," she said.
"Well, I thought I'd offer."
"Thanks anyway."
Amelia nodded her response and walked over to where they were boiling some water.
Beth thought about doing some kind of physical activity to get her blood pumping and get herself more alert, but even the thought of doing that seemed to make her feel more tired.
Beth looked up at the trees above her, wishing she could see the stars in the sky as they appeared, but she didn't have a clue as to if there was a clearing or break in the trees anywhere nearby. Plus, she also doubted it would be good for her to go wandering around to try and see if she could find something like that. It just felt like it would be a stupid thing to do, especially with how tired she was feeling.
"Maybe you weren't as recovered as we thought you were," Hannah said from behind, startling Beth as she sat down next to her. "I mean, all I had were the broken bones, which Amelia was able to heal shortly after she finally woke up." Hannah sighed, as if the memory still troubled her, before shaking her head. "But you pretty much nearly killed yourself saving Amelia. Oh, and not to mention how we really don't know how the effects of things like that might have or how long they could really last."
Beth took a deep breath before replying, "Yeah, maybe."
"Would you like some company on your watch?" Hannah asked. "I don't have a watch myself tonight, so I could keep you company if you'd like."
Beth considered it. It would be nice to have someone keep her company. Even if they stayed quiet during the entire watch. However, she couldn't help but think that'd be a bad idea in and of itself.
"I'd like that, but if you are right and I'm not fully recovered from… that incident, then I probably should refrain from even wanting to use my magic," Beth answered. "You know, at least for the time being."
"What would me staying up with you have to do with that?"
"Just that at night, voices carry, so we wouldn't even really be able to whisper. So, using our magic to talk would be what we'd probably do to work around that," Beth replied. "Even if we didn't do that, the temptation would still be there."
"I see," Hannah said cheerfully. "No problem. Though, if you change your mind at any point during your watch, feel free to wake me up, okay?"
"Sure," Beth said, feeling a smile spread across her face as she nodded to emphasize her agreement.
"You know, it's funny," Hannah said, surprising Beth. She'd thought they were going to go into a period of companionable silence, but it seemed Hannah still had more on her mind. "Flare is your dog, but she seems to like spending time with Feon and Cinder."
Beth couldn't help but smile as she watched Feon and Hesha play with Flare while Cinder took care of Lyshean. Flare certainly seemed to be enjoying herself.
"If Flare wants to stay with them, I wouldn't mind," Beth said after a minute. "Though, I get the feeling that if I called Flare over to me and started leading her away from them, that she'd still follow me, no matter how much she likes spending time with them."
Hannah nodded. "Yeah, I can see that happening, too."
Beth expected Hannah to say more, since she was the one who brought up the subject of Flare, but Hannah seemed to be fine with the silence now, so Beth didn't feel like saying anything either.
As it is, if she didn't need to eat what Tim and Wes were making, with a few suggestions from Ralph, she doubted she'd eat anything. Maybe it was partly because she felt so tired, but largely she suspected that it was more because she just didn't feel like eating at the moment.
She hardly felt hungry, even though she hadn't eaten anything since they had breakfast that morning. So, she knew that she should, it was just that part of her was making it clear that it was tired and wanted her to giver herself rest.
A lot of it too.
Yet, she knew that if she didn't eat anything, even if it turned out as terrible as she suspected it was going to, she might not have the strength to last to when she really could rest for a while. Until her body, and maybe even her magic, was satisfied with it.
_
Ralph wasn't happy when he was being shaken awake. Partly because he had a sensation that he was being attacked, while part of it was from the dream he'd been having.
In the dream, he was back in the burning building, but no matter which direction he turned, he couldn't find a way out. Even when he bust through the walls in a single direction, for much farther than the building should have been, he was still inside it, with flames all around him.
When he was shaken awake, it took him a minute to realize that he wasn't surrounded by flames. Just Beth being as much of a pain as she often was when he wanted to be left alone.
"Ralph, get up. We have to talk about something," Beth said in a harsh whisper, that somehow felt louder than he would have thought it should.
"Can't you talk with one of the others?" Ralph groaned softly as he turned over, acting like he wanted to go back to sleep. Mostly because he didn't want the others to know about his nightmares about that fire.
"They're already up," Beth said. "We have to talk about something. I don't think it'll wait until morning."
Ralph sighed as if they were demanding something outrageous, but couldn't refuse. Then he climbed out of his sleeping bag, careful not to wake up Cinder, who had taken up the extra room in his tent, while Beth got the three girls in her tent.
Ralph didn't want to say it out loud, partly because of how bad it would sound, but it seemed like Charlie leaving their party was at least beneficial for the sleeping arrangements with their newest additions. Another reason was also because he still couldn't help but feel guilty about Charlie leaving.
While it had been Charlie's decision to leave, he still had been part of the reason why she had considered it in the first place. With his teasing her about the incident with the fungaloid and the spores. He still thought it was hilarious, but he also knew that Charlie really didn't want that incident hinted at, let alone brought up in any form.
Still, as he made his way over to the others in the gloom, where they were really only able to make out the shadows of each other. He could also hear some grumbling from the others, so he at least felt a little happy that he wasn't the only one unhappy about this meeting.
When he took his place with his friends, he couldn't help but ask quietly, "Alright, so what's this about? I was having such a wonderful dream too," he said, hoping no one think it was as terrible as it actually was.
"Well, when I was passing the watch off to Wes, we heard what sounded like fighting in the distance, I think just over that hill," Beth said.
Ralph thought she might be indicating a direction, but with how dark it was, he couldn't really be sure.
"Which direction?" Tim asked, starting to yawn as he finished his question.
"To the south," Beth said, sounding a little grumpy.
Serves you right," Ralph thought childishly, still annoyed that she'd woken him up, even if it saved him from that dream.
"You haven't taken a look yet?" Amelia asked, her voice rather groggy.
"We didn't look," Wes said. "We felt it was something that we should discuss before any of us went to take a look, because we can't be certain that it wouldn't bring something bad to the rest of us."
"Well, I'm in favor of someone else taking a look," Ralph replied dismissively as he held back a yawn. "Just let me go back to sleep.
"If something did happen, should we take a look?" Tim asked, sounding more serious than Ralph liked.
"What good would that do?" Ralph replied, doing his best to dig his heels in metaphorically to a subject he was confident they'd be looking into, no matter how tired they were.
"You never know," Amelia said, confirming to Ralph that at least some of them were heading over there.
"Well, if you're going to take a look, have fun," Ralph said, starting to get up to head back to his sleeping bag. "I'll be going back to sleep."
"Actually, Ralph, we're going to need to take a look as well," Tim said, making Ralph wince, even though he was sure no one would be able to tell. "The two we need to stay back here is Beth and Hannah."
"Wait, why me?" Hannah asked, clearly caught off guard.
"Because Beth hasn't fully recovered from when she healed me. Nor does she really have her magic back either," Amelia replied. "Plus, don't you think it'd be better to have two people stay back? You know, just in case something happens?"
"But that still doesn't explain why I'm the one who has to stay with Beth," Hannah protested.
"Yeah, let me stay," Ralph said, eager for the excuse to go back to bed.
"Nice try Ralph, but we need your devious mind in case we encounter a situation that requires it," Wes said, his voice making Ralph imagine he had a smirk on his face.
"In regards to you, Hannah," Tim added, "it's because you work the best with Beth out of the rest of us. If something happens and we need you to get everything ready for us to hit the road, we'll let you know and we'll also know that you and Beth will be able to take care of it without bumping into each other."
"I understand," Beth said, as calm as she usually was.
"So, what're we going to do?" Ralph asked. "It's not like we have much light to work with. I can barely even see you guys."
"If you need, we can tie a rope to each other so we don't get separated," Wes suggested. "I mean, that is what you're concerned about, right?"
Ralph sighed, but didn't say anything. Wes knew that Ralph wasn't concerned about that. As the rope could still get snagged on trees, if the two of them were tied together and walked on the other side of a tree without realizing it in the dark.
If he did say anything, he was confident it'd just get taken out of context again and give him more of a headache. Aside from which, the sooner they finished looking into whatever it was over there, then the sooner he'd be able to get back to his sleeping bag.
Or at least that's what he hoped anyway.
"Fine, let's just get this over with," Ralph said, rising to his feet, not really sure which way was 'south' at the moment.
"Okay, after this, we should only talk using our magic, unless absolutely necessary," Tim said, also standing up.
"Sounds good to me," Ameila said, another shadow standing up, making Ralph wonder if there was a way for him to use his magic to be able to see in the dark.
He was pretty sure there was a game or a book that he'd once seen that had a spell or something for that. Even though it was fiction, it still was an idea to consider, he thought. Besides, the only reason he hadn't thought of that before was there hadn't been a reason to.
Whenever they'd been moving at night, there'd always been enough light to see more than just the shadows of each other. Which in this case was more of shadows on shadows.
Ralph wasn't even sure how he was able to identify the others in the first place. With how dark it was, it felt like the trees blocking out the light should make it so he couldn't see anything in the first place.
Still, as he saw the shadows that he was certain were his friends moving, he followed them, not sure what they were leading him to. Or if they were going in the direction that had been stated.
All he could do was hope that they were leading him in the direction that whatever it was that Beth and Wes had heard. Otherwise he could imagine that they'd be going a good distance, just to make sure that they hadn't 'passed' whatever it was that they were so concerned about. Even as they moved up a slope, he didn't let himself think that it was the hill that Beth had mentioned earlier.
Despite his doubts, however, as they reached the top of the hill, he could see some lights in the distance. Faintly, but it was clear they were there. If the hill hadn't been in the way, they probably would have been able to see it from their camp.
Yet, even though there was a beacon in the dark for them to head towards, it wasn't like they could make out anything else. Too many trees and bushes were in the way.
Ralph tried to ignore his friends, just in case they were looking at him like he should have accepted their word at the start as he walked along with them. While Ralph wished they could hurry up and get this over with, he didn't try to get them to go any faster, just in case they really needed to move quickly when they got close enough to see what exactly was going on.
It felt like hours before they could make anything out, even though Ralph was sure that it hadn't been that long. Maybe fifteen minutes at the most. Though, what they were able to make out first were the shapes of wagons with lanterns hung on the sides by where the drivers of the wagons would sit.
As they got even closer, he could see that the wagons were pulled by mules, or at least what Ralph imagined mules to look like, and had clearly been traveling along a road.
There were at least ten wagons, though he couldn't be sure of the exact number, as they had clustered together as there were people on horses, who looked like an image of knights out of a fantasy book.