Eizit and Azael kept walking through the forest, they had 2 weeks of travel time until they got to the Ironguard mountains, so they still had a long way ahead. For the incoming days, they still had some food that they got on themselves, which means that they could survive for a while without hunting any animal, and therefore without taking any risks.
It had been 3 hours since they departed, judging by the position of the sun it was probably around 12 pm. They had been talking about the Mandela Effect and how mysterious Spiegel is. This time, Eizit resumed the conversation.
"I think I once heard about the game having a map feature."
Azael replied to him, with a curious look
"That would prove to be pretty useful, but do you know how to use it?"
"No, I barely remember their conversation. Though I think they said it was unlocked after dying. The downside is I don't know how many times."
Azael went quiet for a bit, his eyebrows slowly arching as the seconds passed, then he raised his hands and pulled from his horns, screaming "AAAGHH" out of rage. Eizit left a soft giggle.
"If you cannot access it, that means that it is restricted over 2 deaths... Perhaps it's unlocked on 3."
Azael nodded, and they kept walking for a while.
(1 hour later)
Everything was quiet, too quiet, Eizit looked over at Azael, and Azael looked over at him. They both couldn't know if something was fine or not, but they could surely feel it. They had a feeling about something not being right, at all.
Eizit gulped as he made a sign for Azael to keep quiet, and he looked around, focusing on the sounds around him.
It was silent, as if nature was holding their breath. Then, a soft 'tot-tlot, tot-tlot" could be heard in the distance, something was approaching them. The sound of nature resumed abruptly, as if the breath held had been released. Birds stopped singing and most of them flew away, sounds of small animals could also be heard, and the crickets stopped cricketing.
(Tot-tlot, tot-tlot)
Eizit's eyes widely opened, and he rapidly pulled Azael out of the road.
Azael was about to yell at him for the push when he also started to hear that sound, growing closer and closer.
(Tot-tlot, tot-tlot)
And so he ducked on the side of the road, hoping that whoever is approaching is not The Berserker.
Eizit would do the same, and then get an idea, he whispered to Azael his plan. But the constant in synch 'tot-tlot' muffled his voice, Azael didn't hear him. The sound was getting closer.
(Tot-tlot, tot-tlot)
Running out of time Eizit tapped Azael's shoulder and, when he turned to look at him, he spoke, whispering, but making it easy to read his lips.
"Shadow!"
(Tot-tlot, tot-tlot)
It was getting closer, and Azael didn't seem to understand what Eizit was saying. Eizit could only duck further and hope for the best.
(tot-tlot, tot-tlot)
Azael then finally got it! Covering both of them with his shadow control would make them harder to be spotted.
(tot-tlot, tot-tlot)
Azael ducked as a shadow covered them quickly, and right after doing so both of them could hear that sound again, but louder than ever.
(TOT-TLOT, TOT-TLOT)
Followed by some voices, the first one being innocent but deep, a very contrasting and interesting combination.
"Ma'am, I don't understand why you want to go so fast!"
The second voice was a sweet voice with a soft tone of superiority, another opposing combination that only made her voice seem interesting.
"It's because I en-..."
The voices disappeared in the distance, along the galloping sounds. It was a false alarm, just two young adventurers enjoying a horse ride. Thank god.
"We're stupid, man. What are the chances that big guy got a horse?"
Eizit sighed, one of relief, scratching the back of his head. It was true, it was unlikely. He replied, smiling slightly
"Or that he even knows how to ride one!"
"Yeah, true. Though, now that I think about it... Having a horse wouldn't be half bad."
Eizit thought on it for a while, having resumed their walking. After some minutes thinking about the people that lived in the forest and what he learnt about the elves when he started checking the game's background, he got an idea for what they could do.
"What if we take a deviation towards the east? We might be able to find someone who can lend us a deer or raindeer"
"Riding a deer? That sounds... weird. But better that than nothing, I guess. However, what even is the chance we stumble across one?"
"Uh... I'll explain it real quick"
Eizit stopped walking, looking at the floor as he started drawing a very simple map with a stick. In the left side was the kingdom of Chamuel, in the right side was the Republic of Sacrifice. In the top was the Gate of Iron, and in between the Kingdom of Chamuel and the Gate of Iron was the Mystical forest, where they were right now.
"You see, in the depths of the Mystical Forest lies Rainëgar, it's the most important kingdom of the wood-elves. Regarding the name, I heard it's a combination of two words in the elven language that has something to do with peace, but I don't know the whole meaning."
"Cool. But, what does this have to do with there being deers randomly placed along the forest? Or even better, houses that randomly got deers in them. Never heard of something similar before"
"You see, in the older ages, people used to travel a lot to Rainëgar in order to trade products, mainly minerals for wine, as Rainëgar's wine was said to be the best in all of Spiegel. Because of the constant travel, a group of friends formed the Isilndil, a guild of wanderers that helped people travel through the forest."
"How are you so good at pronouncing elven words...?"
"I'm a dark elf"
"Wait- true. I'm stupid"
"Anyways, the reason why we may find deers is because of the Isilndil, they placed houses in specific places were deers would go to."
"Why deers though, and not horses?"
"The Isilndil were a group of elves, and we don't really enjoy riding horses. Mainly for two reasons, we don't like forcing horses to be used for riding and horses aren't easy to raise in a forest, horses usually live in plains too, so bringing them out of their natural habitat also seems pretty bad."
"I guess, so basically, deers live and work better than horses in the forest... I would've never said I would end up riding a deer, but I guess there's always a first time. Hmm.. how much longer would it take us to get to the the Iron Gate if we follow this plan?"
"Between 3 and 5 extra days to find one, but we'll end up saving time as we'll be galloping. And we never know when the Berserker could get to us, the faster we move, the better. Plus, not moving in a straight line will make it harder for the Berserker to follow us"
Azael nodded, whipping the map from the ground in case the Berserker found it.
Eizit was a dark elf, and therefore didn't really need to ride. He knew that well. Because not only did elves need just 4 hours of trancing, instead of the 8 hours for a full rest, but some could even trance while performing simple actions. It was basically as if they emptied their mind, resting as they could still, for example, walk forward. Eizit wasn't as experienced as to be able to pull these kind of actions, so he needed the 4 hours of trancing to be able to work in full capacity. However, because of being able to travel with 4 more hours available, he could save time if he had happened to be alone.
But he wasn't alone, he had Azael alongside him. And so, he had to think on the best option for both of them. Not only that, but riding a deer or reindeer would save them time anyways, despite elves' capabilities.
The duo kept walking through the forest...
***
(Half an hour later)
Navi galloped through the forest, eventually stopping upon seeing something in the floor. He hopped off the horse and looked at it with a menacing glare, no words were necessary to transmit the message, the horse wouldn't move an inch.
In the ground was drawn a map, which seemed to be whipped.
"It's possible they drew this, let's see...Chamuel, the Gate, the Sacrifice, and even Rainëgar. If he displayed this map so well, they must be planning on something..."
Navi was going to shrug it off when noticed something, a crimson red hair string and an arrow in the map painted that indicated going east. People with red hair were not that usual so it probably was from Azael.
Now that it was clear that both the duo wrote the map and where they were heading (east), Navi resumed his chase, now adjusting as he went towards the east. Would he get them?
***