The food Joren cooked was the meal he first prepared to get Tessa's attention. Fried rice, stir fry noodles, minced scrambled eggs, chopped vegetables, and orange chicken. The smell was amazing. Even if you weren't hungry, your stomach would still grumble wanting to get a taste of the food.
He put a plate for Tessa and himself when he noticed the two wolves walk over to him, nudging their noses on his leg.
"Don't worry, I prepared some for you guys as well." He took out a large plate and stuffed it with food. He placed it on the ground and the two wolves went to town.
Tessa looked as if she was looking at food from the heavens. Drool dripped from her face. Her eyes stayed glued to her plate and she was shaking with anticipation. She twisted her noodles, scooped up some rice, and pierced a piece of chicken with her fork. Slowly moving it towards her mouth, she ate the food and savored the taste.
"I-It's so good." Tears fell from her face as she ate Joren's amazing food. She went back for another bite, then another, and another, and another until her plate was completely empty. "More please!" She begged still chewing her food as a grain of rice fell from the side of her mouth.
"You must have been hungry huh?" He put more food on her plate she started chowing down immediately.
Once everyone had their fill, Joren washed the plates and utensils and packed everything up. The wolves cuddled together as they went to sleep and Joren went to his futon.
"What now?" Tessa asked. She was wearing a black nightgown that showed off her figure nicely. Because of the servant sigil on her, she was more comfortable around Joren, which also applied to how comfortable she was showing her skin to him, but since they didn't know each other that well, she wasn't comfortable showing him her body.
"We rest. They can't track us because the insect is dead and they are probably following my footprints when I was traveling on the ground. The good thing is that my footprints are in the exact opposite direction of our current location and they suddenly cut off. But that doesn't mean we can relax. They still know we are trying to get to the royal capital so they will be around the path that leads there." Jore spoke.
"I hope Sir Carter is okay." She moved her covers over her mouth and closed her eyes.
"I hope my friends are okay as well but we can't worry about them right now, as much as it pains me to say that. If we get caught, we die and we can't afford that. So for now, we rest, then we can worry about what happens next." Joren put out the fire and called it a night.
"Goodnight," Tessa spoke before she also turned in for the night.
...
Although she was sleeping in a cave, Tessa had a great sleep. The food she ate last night was the best she'd had in a while and she felt relieved knowing she didn't have to be constantly on the run since the insect was killed.
Lifting her upper body from the futon, she yawned, stretched, and rubbed her sleepy, but awakening eyes. She looked down to see one of the shadow wolves curled up beside her so with a warm smile, she petted it.
She stood up and got dressed, ready to start her day when she noticed that Joren wasn't in the cave. She walked out to see him sitting in the grass in the lotus position meditating.
'Even at a time like this, he's training. Amazing.' She thought to herself. She sat across from him and waited for him to be done.
She saw how his aura coated his body followed by lightning crackling around him. She wondered what he was trying to do.
After an hour, he exhaled and then opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Tessa staring at him with a warm smile.
"What?" He asked
"I was just watching you meditate. You were training, right? What are you training for?" She questioned
"I'm trying to work on something." He started to demonstrate. "I'm trying to wrap lightning around my body but not the way it's normally done, like aura, but instead, I want to basically have it like a second layer of skin." Lightning crackled around his hand but it only danced around it instead of merging with his skin.
"Oh, a body art. That's what you're trying to do?" She asked
"A body art? What's that?" This was the first time he had heard of a body art. Nothing he read mentioned it neither did Glenn and his teachings.
"You don't know? You have an element yet you don't know what a body art is?" She was genuinely confused. She had forgotten that she was a noble and her access to information was leagues higher than his.
"It hadn't even been 24 hours between the time I awakened my element and us accepting your request," Joren stated.
"What?! You've awakened your element less than a month ago?!"
"Yeah." He shrugged
"That's insane." Calming herself down, she took a deep breath and explained to him what a body art was.
"Okay so if a mage uses magic in the form of spells, then a martial artist uses magic in the form of body arts. It's basically spells for martial artists. They combine the elements with their craft and create a whole new style of martial arts. One of the highest accomplishments of this is learning a body art which is the combination between one's self and one's element." She explained
"That's interesting. So a body art is just one of these 'martial spells' correct?"
"Yup. Don't ask me anything else about martial spells though, I'm a mage so I didn't focus on that." She waved her hand as if him telling him to stop asking about it.
"I see." Joren looked down and contemplated his next move.
"Hey, I'm hungry, make something." She pouted, her hands on her hips.
"Alright. After we eat, we're going back on the road. I don't want to stay in the forest any longer. Let's find a town to rest up in for a few days."
"Okayy!" She cheerfully followed Joren back to the cave where he made breakfast.
...
"Do you think they will find us here?" Tessa asked as she jumped face-first on a bed.
"They haven't caught us yet, but don't assume that we are out of the clear. Although we have changed our route, we're still going to the royal capital so they could find us if we're not careful." Joren said as he got undressed and prepared for bed.
It had been a month since they started traveling together. Normally, they would have been halfway to the capital by now if they went on the normal path, but to evade their pursuers, Joren thought it would be best to double back around before moving forward. So instead of moving in a straight line, they moved in the shape of a U instead. They decided to rest at an inn to get proper rest as sleeping in the forest isn't always safe or comfortable.
"Well, I'll admit, this past month had been pretty great for being on the run." Many things happened over the past month. Tessa decided to join Joren in his daily training and hone her skills. She also wondered like a lost child and almost put them in unfortunate situations like stumbling into a giant poison serpent lair. He had also saw her naked body while bathing. The consequence of that was a punch in the face but he thought it was worth it.
"Just don't wonder like a little kid next time we're out." He blew out the candle to the room and scanned his surroundings to make sure no one suspicious was lingering around. When he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, he relaxed and went to sleep.
...
"Is everything ready?" A man in a black skin-tight suit spoke. He had on a black hood with a black mask that covered his mouth and nose.
"Yes. I have secured the area and was informed by the innkeeper that those two match the description." Another man in the same attire spoke.
"Good. Is everyone ready?" he turned around and 19 others dressed just like him all nodded and readied their weapons, a single dagger with its sheath on their back waist.
"Let's go." They all vanished into the night.
...
It became a habit for Joren to sleep lightly. Over the past month, he had trained his body to keep his senses on high alert and always kept his mana sense activated. There was a slight noise that normal people wouldn't have heard. Even if you had mana you would probably have a hard time hearing it, but since Joren stayed on high alert, he was able to catch even the most faint noises.
"Hmm?" Opening his eyes, he turned toward the only window in his room. When he looked at it, there was nothing there, only the bed that was close to the window that Tessa was sleeping on.
He walked over to the window and extended his mana sense but found nothing. He opened it and looked around but still found nothing so he closed it and went back to bed but not before sensing the area once more. When he didn't find anything he relaxed and closed his eyes.
"His senses are good." One of the assassins spoke in a super low voice.
"But not good enough." From the shadows, five assassins appeared from the shadows and slowly made their way over to Tessa and Joren.
"We need the girl alive. You can kill the boy."
"Understood."
One of the assassins hovered their dagger over Joren's neck and stabbed at it with all their might. But as soon as the tip made contact with his neck, lightning crackled and blew the assassin away.