23 Back To The Cave

FIVE HOURS BEFORE THE GRAND FEAST: MOUNTAINS OF BENZUA ,EARTH

"Amelia, would you mind Sienna coming with us for a while?" Aster asked doubtfully, seeing Sienna and Amelia busy with cooking outside the cave.

Their works were distributed now. Sienna and Amelia together did the cooking. The others did the other things well. Higman was a bit aloof and indifferent towards Sienna in the beginning. He clearly, did not approve of a praesen living with them. Doctor Schwann somehow convinced him to believing that Sienna would be of great help to them. Hogman wasn't convinced in the beginning. But, Sienna did turn out to be of help. They used her to spy on the ministry's developments on their case. They were very happy to find that the ministry had no idea about their whereabouts. But, the authories listed Eren and Sienna in the wanted list too.

Aster had to take up training sessions with doctor Schwann everyday. He was given concessions in doing the other works as Schwann was strict on the training he gave Aster. Schwann wanted Aster to be physically and mentally strong to face those mages. Aster had to undergo a hard physical training as a result of this. But the part that Aster couldn't understand was that he was given no information about new spells or his powers. All he did was sweating all day because of his workout and also listening to motivation speeches from Schwann. Hogman was nothing less in delivering such lectures. It ran for many hours which got him bored and sulking. Eren and Sienna always laughed at him for his pathetic condition.

As for Eren, he was now doing most of the firewood gathering and food gathering as Aster was taking 'Emotion lectures' from Schwann. The three, Aster, Eren and Sienna, had to follow a curfew. Anywhere they went after the work, they have to return before 6 pm in the evening. It was a rule the older ones had made for Aster's and his friends' protection.

"You done with the training?" Amelia asked puzzled at Aster's request.

Eren knew that Amelia was pretty serious about the training and didn't want Aster to flinch when the mages return again.

"Off day, sis. It's an off day." Eren replied, not wanting Amelia to know that Aster had broken into a fight with Schwann and had skipped his 'emotion lectures' on purpose.

"Off day? He planning for a motivational class.... Why now?" She mumbled to herself. But it was loud enough fir the others to hear.

She shot questioning glares at Aster and Eren. On thinking hard, she could guess what had happened. But she let it go as Aster was having a hard time with all his training. She was actually surprised that Aster did not do so earlier.

"Ohk! But where are you all going?" She asked Aster.

"We are just seeing around. We have been here for about three months and we haven't seen the place fully." It was again Eren who replied. Aster chose to be quiet.

Amelia sensed something wrong in her brother's behavior. Nevertheless, she decided to let them go.

"Come back before 6." Amelia reminded them gently.

Instead of going to the open spaces inside the misty boundaries, Aster pulled Eren and Sienna inside the cave.

"Haist! Why are we going insidd the cave again?" Eren asked irritated. Aster had promised him that he would take him to a different place. And now, look! They were back in that dark, damp cave again. Eren was clearly unhappy. His thick brows cringed clearly stating his unhappiness.

Aster looked at them. A look which which the others understood very well. That was the bond they shared. They could guess out the meaning of each glare and each action without being told. They understood that this particular glare mean't 'silence'.

Aster did not speak a word until he reached a lot away from the mouth of the cave. Sienna and Eren slowly followed behind him without uttering a word. When Aster found that they were far away from the mouth of the cave, he turned to look whether someone was following them or not. He made sure that there was no one trailing them. Hw let out a gasp.

Sienna looked at Aster's face and felt that there was somethig going on in his mind.

"Why did you bring us here?" Sienba asked confused.

"Sienna, before I tell you that.... Will you please use your gifts to see what my sister and the others are doing. It's a please." Aster said emphasizing the word 'please'.

"What? I'm not supposed to-" Sienna started.

"Don't follow that rule this one time. Anywaym I think they are just using you." Astef said that right on her face.

"Aster..." Eren tried to stop him.

"Sienna, just this once. Please..." Aster was literally pleading before Sienna.

Sienna couldn't bear to see her friend pleading in front of her. She gave away.

"Ok. Wait. Lemme check."

She pressed her arms on her temples trying to concentrate on what Amelia and the others were doing. She waited a bit for the scene to clear. A small smile appeared on her red lips. The next moment, Aster and Eren could see her smile widening into a grin.

"What did you see?" Eren asked barely able to contain his curiosity.

"Hogman is still collecting firewood." She replied plainly.

"The other two?" Aster asked.

The grin now gave way to bits of giggles. She was chuckling remembering what she just saw.

"Where are they?"

Sienna broke into laughter. She saw Eren's and Aster's curiosity increasing. Their eyes were fixed on her. She tried not to laugh and replied, still at the verge of giggling, in hushed tones.

"They are kissing."

Aster and Eren was taken aback. Their jaws dropped. Aster almost froze. But still he managed to get some words out of his throat.

"W-what? W-where?"

Eren looked as puzzled as Aster.

"Wait! You both didn't know? They have been like this for some time now. I thought you knew." She said pointing at Aster.

Aster had 0% idea about the thing. He hadn't even noticed. Anyway, he let it go. Schwann was not bad afterall. He was helping them.... Slowly, he could link everything. Schwann always took Amelia's side on fights. He was always overprotective of Amelia. That dump brain of his started untangling the knots one by one. Now he had a clear picture of the case in his mind.

"Now, what did you bring us here for?" Eren asked, breaking Aster's chain of thoughts.

Aster kept the 'sis matter' aside and started talking,

"Did you people know why I chose this place for a hideout?" Astef asked, which mortally confused Eren and Sienna.

He saw their perplexed looks and decided to answer the question himself.

"I will tell you." He told them everything he remembered about going there as a child. He told them how he had ended up in another dimension and returned when he was a child.

"You want to look for that chamber now? Like, is that why you prevented others from entering the inner chambers of the cave?" Sienna asked.

"Yes... I did not want them to get any idea about these things." Aster looked serious.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go. If we do not find anything, it can be taken as a dream. If we do find anything, we can try going into the other dimension too." Eren said as cooly as ever.

But, Aster wasn't sure about the last thing Eren had said.

"Let's go." Aster said. He walked towards the forbidden chambers of the cave. Eren and Sienna followed his lead.