Ralph yawned as he woke up at the clatter others were making as they prepared a quick breakfast. He was hungry, though he wouldn't have minded to have been able to sleep just a little longer. Sleep was something that was always good to get when he had the chance. Especially since it wasn't like he'd been getting less to eat on their journey.
Besides, he wanted to see what had been discussed during the dream conference. It had just been bad luck that he'd agreed to take that watch and even more bad luck for it to have \occurred just when he was trying to get something out of Charlie in regards to where she was currently.
'Undisclosed location' my ass, Ralph thought to himself. You're somewhere I've been before and as soon as I figure out how I know that, I'll be on my way to get you to understand why that was messed up for you to have said it that way.
"Someone wanted to sleep in," Beth commented as Ralph collected his portion of the breakfast. "Either your watch had to have been rather rough or you were even more tired than we thought."
Ralph merely shrugged. He couldn't find it in himself to care about coming up with a retort or comeback at the moment. His mind was too preoccupied with the dream conference to care about much else right then.
"What happened in the dream conference after I got up?" he asked, not feeling like talking about anything other than that at the moment. Besides, he doubted he'd be able to focus on much else until he was satisfied that he'd learned all there was to know about what Charlie had wanted to talk about. After all, it had been a while since he'd had any actual news about her, let alone from her.
"What're you talking about?" Wes asked as he was rolling up his blankets. "Wouldn't Charlie have to have gotten any dream conference started up?"
Ralph felt stunned. He knew for a fact that Charlie had initiated a dream conference. He might have been the last one pulled in on it, but he remembered what it had felt like. Yet, as he looked at Wes, it was clear that he didn't know what Ralph was talking about and a glance at Beth said that she was just as confused as Wes.
"Really?" he asked, partly wondering if he'd just had a dream that felt more real than any he'd felt before. If so, he'd have to figure out what might have caused that. As he certainly wouldn't mind having another one. Especially if he had control of it. "I could have sworn she'd pulled all of us into one."
Beth merely shook her head. "Sorry, I'm pretty sure that we'd have remembered if she'd done that."
"What'd Charlie say in that 'dream conference' you were in?" Wes asked, though Ralph ignored the slight mocking tone in his voice.
Not sure if he should just move on to a different subject, Ralph merely shrugged and said, "I really wasn't in there for long before I got woken up for my watch. I asked her about why she'd felt comfortable enough using her magic for it when she'd apparently been made into a slave while she… uh, I guess was under the influence of the Lost or something. Then she said something I'm still not sure if I got right. That she'd been saved by individuals as well as the other slaves with her or something."
"Certainly sounds like a rather involved dream," Beth remarked as she carefully started to put out the cooking fire.
Ralph merely shrugged as he took a few bites of his breakfast. While they were trying to make do with some of the food in this world, as well as seeing what they could recreate from what they remembered from Earth, this was close to a kind of porridge or cream of wheat or something, but just not quite. Especially the flavor. Yet, at the same time, it wasn't that bad overall.
"It would be if I could just be sure it was a dream. It just felt like it was so real. Just like the other time we had a dream conference."
"So, was that all Charlie had said?" Wes asked, his tone telling Ralph that he was enjoying this too much for his tastes.
"Nah, she also said that she and the slaves that either had been rescued or that she had rescued were in an undisclosed location."
As he finished talking, he couldn't help but sigh. While he had been convinced that it had been a dream conference when he'd woken up, now he wasn't quite so sure. If it wasn't, he wasn't sure if he'd really be able to trust another one again. Not with how real the possible one the night before had felt.
"Well, whatever," he quickly said, not wanting to dwell on it too much. The fact that they were almost all ready to go meant that they'd be able to head out soon. That they could return to where they'd left their friends at the marquis' castle as well as all their stuff. Especially sleeping bags.
While the sleeping bags weren't really designed to have padding on the ground, at least they gave some padding. Though, that wasn't the reason he missed his sleeping bag the most. The reason was because he'd noticed the nights in the mountains had started to get a little chilly. It wasn't much, but he had a feeling that it either might be the turn of a season, like winter, or that there might be some weather that might not end up well for them.
Not that he knew much about weather in the first place. He just remembered from the weather report on the news at home about things like 'cold fronts' as well as air getting blown in from colder areas dropping the temperatures significantly. Though, he couldn't be sure that there wasn't another explanation in this case. All that mattered was the fact that he didn't have his sleeping bag and that the blankets they did have were rather lousy.
Though, as Ralph glanced at some of the slaves that Beth had rescued, Ralph quickly pushed the thought that was starting to form in his mind. While he could do what Beth had been doing with a couple of them, Ralph certainly didn't care to sleep with any of the rescued slaves. Even if it was to just make it easier to stay warm at night.
For some reason, he couldn't help but think of Embris when he thought of that.
Besides, he also didn't need to deal with getting anyone pregnant. Not only would that screw him up financially, since he was more than confident that his parents certainly wouldn't help him deal with anything like that, but he also had a feeling that this world didn't quite have the same ideas about how raising a child works. Nor did he have time to figure that second part out. Not while they were still searching for that griffin canyon. There was just only so much his brain could handle at one time before it started to make him want to just blow something up. Even if it was more of a metaphorical explosion than a literal one.
"If it really was a dream conference, I'm sure one of the others would remember it, right?" Wes said, though Ralph had a feeling that he was just messing with him about that.
Although, as he thought about it, they really didn't know that much about them to begin with. Since, if he remembered correctly, after Charlie nearly killed herself without realizing it on that first dream conference, they kind of got side-tracked on other things and hadn't tried another. Or at least he couldn't remember if they had.
So, it was entirely possible that there might be a reason the others didn't remember it. Even though he couldn't say why that might be. As it wasn't anything that stood out as a possibility for him. It just made him wonder if there might be more to why he was the only one who remembered the dream conference.
If there really was a dream conference.
_
Jenn opened her eyes, feeling rather miserable. After everything ended with the dream conference, she did manage to go to sleep, but it hardly felt restful. In fact, she hardly felt like she'd gotten any sleep at all.
Like she'd closed her eyes one moment and the next the sun was up and Haln was waking her up as Saelea was getting ready as her stand-in for the first day. Though, while the girl didn't understand why Jenn had insisted that they always wear the mask and hood while they were working as her stand-in, Jenn had been insistent and hadn't budged on the matter, so all of her stand-in candidates had all accepted that requirement.
Jenn wished she could feel more enthusiastic about this, but right then she couldn't help but want to push Haln away and go back to sleep. Even though she was pretty sure that doing so would hurt Haln's feelings quite a bit.
Though, she also was confident that if she didn't leave around when she'd already decided to, that everyone here would likely be trying to pressure her into staying. At least another day, if not changing her mind about having someone else, like on of her stand-ins, go in her place. With the same authority.
So, Jenn carefully got up and kissed Haln's head who blushed as he smiled at her, clearly looking pleased. Which Jenn felt rather happy about. She did her best to push her fatigue down so even she wouldn't notice it. Though, she had a feeling that it might only be working in her mind.
Regardless, Jenn quickly got ready for the day and quickly ate the breakfast that had been prepared for her. Though, she still wished that she wasn't getting a special kind of treatment. It kind of made her feel like she was apart from the people, even as she accepted that this was how their culture worked. Even though she was still trying to figure our the details so she could try to find a workaround on the matter. As she was confident that doing so would help her find a work around that the people she was responsible for would accept.
Even if it was on a special occasion or something.
Finally, when she and the people who had been selected for the excursion had all gathered near the gate, Jenn looked behind her at what she could see with the settlement and felt a little excited at what might have changed when she got back, even though she couldn't say that she expected any real significant changes. As it wasn't like they were going to be gone for very long.
After a minute, Jenn was about to turn back towards the gate when she noticed the way everyone was looking at her. It wasn't the indifferent way that she was used to on Earth, nor was it the way most had treated her when she was a slave, as in that she was beneath their notice unless they actually needed her for something or she was involved in an 'incident.'
The way that 'her people' were looking at her was closer to respect and trust. Which Jenn couldn't help but wonder if that was part of the reason why she felt so weirded out about it. She also realized something else that she suspected had more to do with why she wasn't happy with how things were.
That was the fact that she was popular among these people.
She'd seen too many people become popular and let it go to their heads. Part of the reason she never wanted to be popular or really even stand out that much. Or at least that's what she told herself, though she also couldn't help but wonder if her hesitation to open up to others was also part of the issue. As every movie, TV show, or time in actual school that she'd seen someone who was 'popular,' they had a group of friends that they'd talk to. Naturally, Jenn wouldn't have minded one then, but at that time, she knew that she'd have to let them in and the very idea then was enough to have tried to fool her mother that she was sick. Which failed before she could even say anything in the first place.
Still, she did her best to push that out of her mind. She knew it wouldn't be helpful and would merely take part of her attention away from what she knew she should be focusing on instead. Which was ahead of where they were heading: north of the Forest of the Lost.
When Jenn stepped through the gate, she slung the pack that she'd packed for herself over her shoulder. Each person was supposed to carry the supplies that they would have on this trip, but when the weight settled down on Jenn's back, she suddenly realized that it wasn't as heavy as it should be.
While she wanted to reach out with her magic and check the minds of each person in the party, she refrained because she knew it wouldn't help foster the level of trust that she'd want. She couldn't say even if it was anyone in the party who did that anyway. She hadn't exactly left the packs unguarded, but she also seriously doubted that they had a thief in the settlement. Then there was the fact that the packs had been stored in a rather public location while the main supplies weren't in as an open area with lots of traffic.
No, what Jenn suspected was that some of the supplies in her pack had been divided up among the other packs. Then there was also the possibility that everyone involved in that effort included more than one person. Which Jenn suspected to be the most likely.
Regardless, she didn't see the point in making a deal out of this. She had an idea of how to try and keep this from happening again, though she wasn't sure how well it would work. She only had a hope that it would.
Not that she had any clue as to come up with something that would work for certain. All she could do was try something and hope for the best.
The trip back to the road took less time than Jenn had expected, though it wasn't like she knew precisely how long, since she still couldn't see the sun through the mist in the trees. Although, one positive from having been with the Lost and aware of it, was the fact that she somehow knew that the mist was because while the Lost couldn't really be seen, or at least not in the normal visual spectrum, they would die if they were exposed to sunlight. Which is why they kept the mist over the trees.
The only thing Jenn couldn't figure out is why they had to stay with the forest. As far as she knew, they could have set the mist up anywhere, or even moved it as they wanted. Yet, they hadn't. Though, if it was because they liked the forest, Jenn didn't think that she'd be able to come up with an argument against that. As she certainly liked the trees in the forest herself.
When they reached the road, however, Jenn couldn't help but notice the lack of the wagons that had brought them there.
Jenn was confident where they'd returned to the road at. She knew that someone would eventually notice the wagons sooner or later, but at the same time, she also couldn't help but wonder if it might the a sign that their settlement would get discovered sooner rather than later.
Although, Jenn kept the fact that the gate wasn't so easy to see on its own in mind, as that certainly would help decrease the chances of the settlement from getting discovered. Or at least on this side of the gate.
Still, they continued moving without any real problems. As they walked, Jenn couldn't help but wonder if it might be possible to build a city on the top of the trees here. They'd be able to be above the mist, so they'd be able to grow food up there, plus they'd be able to build it almost anywhere and it wouldn't be likely to be visible from the ground.
Jenn suspected that the buildings on top of the trees and bridges between one tree and another could easily create silhouettes that would be visible during the day, though she doubted that. Especially if they built the city a distance from the road.
Though, as she thought about it, she wondered if they could create an entrance to that city at the ghost town that still existed. Where she'd helped resolve the unsettled emotions of a child who had been killed by either bandits or soldiers. Then the next thing he knew, he was inside Jenn and going through the village as if it had been any other day up to that point where the child talked with their grandfather about what happened.
The village had been built to be hidden, though Jenn knew that it only took an accidental encounter in order for those who would wish the village harm to become aware of it.
Though, while she debated about a large number of possibilities about the treetop city, Jenn hadn't yet ironed out all the details by the time they started to make camp along the side of the road. She had at least worked out a large number of aspects to it, such as seeing how good the wood in this forest is sometime down the road. As she had a feeling that it would be good to work out the quality of the wood of these trees. Though, she couldn't say when she'd be able to get that looked at. She had a feeling the forest was large enough that they'd be able to learn which trees would be better to have cut down and when rather than letting them die of old age or illness.