The night went through without any issues, and once the sun rose at 07:33, the two elves could feel relieved. It meant that were only 2 hours and a half until they could resume their journey.
Only 3 days until they arrived to the Iron Gate, it was currently 17th of April. Sophie remembered about something they had mentioned and asked him.
"Hey Eizit, how did you guys beat the man that was trying to kill Azael"
Eizit looked at her and sighed.
"The first or the second time?"
She seemed surprised, and amazed.
"You beat him twice!?"
He nodded.
"Yeah... The first time he was trying to kill Azael, and he had already killed me. By using some teamwork we managed t-"
She interrupted him.
"Which teamwork? Explain it well!"
Eizit giggled slightly, he was looking at her eyes and it was obvious she was excited, her eyes almost had a fire burning on them.
"Okay, okay. I'll explain it well." Eizit explained the first fight they had with Navi, unlike some egoistic people he explained everything objectively, without sugarcoating or modificsting stuff in order to make him look better. "... And then I exploded my middle finger, making the point of it penetrate the big man's head, he died."
Her eyes almost shined bright, maybe this girl was a bit... Crazy.
"Wooow. That sounds cool"
Or maybe it just sounded so cool
"Yeah... But it was a bit troublesome"
It didn't take her too long to realise something.
"Wait, is that the reason you're here now? Are you guys actually escaping from Chamuel because you killed someone?"
Eizit sighed, looking up at the sky. The sun had already risen, so the stars were no longer visible.
"Yeah, it was in self defense, however, they'd never trust a dark elf and a tiefling..."
She nodded, understanding why they had to flee. Whether or not she thought it was fine or justified was unsure, Eizit couldn't tell.
"And so then both of you started getting followed."
Eizit nodded.
"Yeah, and he caught up to us. He used the same horse than Azael gallops with, just that he probably treated it way worse."
"And I assume you guys beat him again"
Eizit confirmed her assumption and started to explain how it was. The battle started off simple, barely dodging his attacks and doing their beast to minimise the damage of the hits they couldn't withstand. Due to that, he explained that he had to use his star too often and ended up without any limbs remaining.
Following the loss of his limbs, Eizit said that Azael was forced to resist to Navi by himself. Luckily for both, Eizit could recover fast and counter attack, but Azael became unconscious.
Sophie seemed to be enjoying Eizit's summary, she thought: "I hope I saw the fight".
Eizit kept explaining what happened. After Azael became unconscious he then used a more rational use of his star and managed to weaken Navi enough, that done Azael managed to find a voodoo doll and used it to slash the Berserker's legs and incapacitate him.
"That is some cool teamwork! Did you kill him?"
"Nope, we left him there alone. However, we believe that he died forever after that. Seemingly, someone very strong gave him orders, and he got told that if he didn't catch us he'd be killed"
She seemed to be slightly sad for the man.
"Well, he did try and kill you two but he was also forced to by someone stronger... I hope he hadn't to go under all that."
Eizit nodded, although he couldn't feel completely sorry for him, he did think it was unfair. The young elf lady kept speaking.
"Besides, I've always thought that if we can die 9 times it should be enough to allow us to choose our own destiny."
Eizit replied, keeping on the conversation
"Yes, I believe it is a bit weird that he could be killed so many times in a row. However, if they are able to pull off such a thing, this 'Void' he talked about is surely someone to be wary of"
She nodded back.
"To be able to do such a thing, it's... Scary"
"Definitely, I hope we never have to deal with that person"
It was already 9 pm, their chat had been long enough as to take them 1 hour and a half. The two elves managed to make some time and after a bit more of chatting it became 10 am fast enough.
They woke Azael up and the group resumed their journey, clueless about how close was the one girl chasing them.
***
(12 hours earlier)
It was 10 pm, the sun had already set down and like the previous day Dianne wouldn't accept stopping for the night, she didn't want to lose time. And so, the girl would light up her oil lamp like last night and keep following the footsteps.
The horse wasn't tired yet, it could gallop just fine, this made Dianne slightly less annoyed... But she was still mad at the fact they couldn't pull this off the day before.
"You know the deal, B&W, if you fall asleep, you'll be punished"
The horse would have gulped if it could, instead, it softly neighed. It was obvious that the horse got the message, and not only did it get it but it also understood it. Which meant the horse was pretty much scared.
It wouldn't fall asleep as fast as it had done before.
Dianne kept galloping for the next 3 hours without any complications, as previously, she didn't go necessarily fast, as she had to follow the footsteps, and having to use the lamp meant she was pretty slow on the galloping.
That aside, it was always better moving than not moving. So galloping, despite doing it slow was better than just waiting for the night.
Sadly, as the night went on the horse couldn't help but get tired and sleepy. It was just natural, horses were not nocturnal mammals and therefore they needed sleep. Just that this one may be one that not only needed sleep, but also loved it.
Due to both of those reasons, not only was the horse already staggering, but it was also daydreaming, or rather 'nightdreaming' about starting to sleep.
Dianne did as she had done previously, and tapped the horse everytime it seemed to get tired and started to tilt to the sides.
They kept like this for the next two hours, the horse had a surprising stamina when it came to keeping on. But the only reason was probably the danger it expected to go under if it falled asleep.
No danger is enough to beat wanting to sleep, though. Specially if you're both a horse and really want to go to sleep. With really I mean really.
Again, if it was a human it would probably be repeating every 3 minutes 'I wanna sleep'. But it was a horse, so not only was it unable to speak, but Dianne was a stubborn woman who thought that animals were no better than humans.
It wasn't too weird or hard to understand when you realise that she treats every single human being, or any other similar humanoid race... Elves, dwarves, everyone. She treats everyone as if they were weaker, dumber and most importantly less relevant than her.
The only person that's free from this is, for obvious reasons, her boss. Void-Man.
Despite the danger, the horse couldn't cope with it anymore, and it stopped walking. It just couldn't keep on! It was too tired.
Dianne knew there was nothing to do, and despite her trying to make the horse wake up for over 10 minutes, she understood there was no way.
Eventually, the girl surrendered and pulled the horse out of the dirt way. Between some bushes she prepared to sleep.
(6 Hours Later)
It was 9 am already, the girl woke up and didn't lose any time. She stood up and slapped the horse softly, twice. The horse stood up and only then it woke up.
She hopped over the horse and they started galloping.
The girl galloped for the next hour straight, the horse was tired but it seemed to have slept enough as to be in conditions that'd finally allow it to gallop normally.
At 10 am she heard noises in the distance and silently approached them, she hid behind some bushes and looked over them, but she did not find anyone.
***
It was 10 am, the group was going to set off when they heard some noises behind bushes towards the southwest. They decided to check the bushes, Azael approached them.
Upon getting there they noticed the bushes shake slightly. Azael expected the worse!
The tiefling slowly moved his hands towards the bushes and opened them, looking behind them!
...
There was nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Not a person, not a wild boar, nothing.
Just, nothing.
...
Eizit approached, he looked behind the bushes and saw... Nothing, there was nothing.
...
Sophie approached too and took a peek, but there was nothing. Just that, nothing.
...
They looked at eachother, and sighed in relief. It had just been a false alarm. They turned around and walked towards their mounts, hopping on them as they started galloping towards the North.
Sophie could feel as if they were being watched, but surely it was nothing.
***
Dianne kept following the footsteps, making sure to be silent to not be spotted by anything or anyone.
***