18 The Second Day of the Trip

I had a very disturbing dream, I didn't have a talk with Arael or anything. But it was very…odd.

I was in a forest that was covered in snow, and a man stood there. White fur coat and a deathly stare. I couldn't recognize this man, but he was clearly strong. In my dream, Derrick and Edward were ripped to pieces. An arm gone, leg gone. And Lilith was badly hurt, leaning on a tree as her side was bleeding. I couldn't move, I was frozen.

This man had decimated everyone and I was the last one standing in This winter forest.

I could hear Lilith yell for me to run, but I couldn't respond.

The man moved, almost like he was gliding through the forest floor with his palm open, and right before it made contact with my face. I woke up.

I gasped and choked when I woke up, I had my hands all over my face to confirm it was still there.

What the hell was that? Who was that? What kind of dream was that?

"Kota? Are you ok?" Lilith was standing in front of my bed, a worried look on her face.

I must've woken up late as she was already packed up and ready. If that's the case, then so must Derrick and Edward be.

"Yeah, I just had a nightmare…" I stared at Lilith, seeing the nightmare dilute my vision as I imagined her smashed into a tree. I shook my head.

"You sure, do you need some head pats?" She waved her hand around. It's a very nice offer, but we needed to move out. Still, it doesn't mean we can't let that offer go.

"You can give me one on the carriage when we leave." I gave her a thumbs up to show that I was well.

She stood there for a moment before giving me a thumbs up as well. I feel like she's becoming more like me now. Some point she'll make some sort of reference or something.

I hopped out of bed, fixing the bed so that it wasn't messy before looking out the window.

It was somewhat cloudy, so the view looked somewhat dark. There were some people outside, most likely travelers, who were looking at the tree in the middle. The tavern was open again as well. I wonder how well they cleaned there?

Actually, what'd they do with the guy in there?

Maybe they let him go?

…I don't really wanna know what they did with him in sort of details..

I grabbed my cloak that I put on the ground and put it on, Lilith was at the door waiting for me to get ready.

The nightmare still lingered in my head, but I tried to hide the fact that it was on my mind to Lilith. No need to worry her.

As I got ready with my backpack and staff. I stumbled my way to Lilith as she opened the door to go to the hallway.

We headed downstairs where we saw Mary at the reception desk. Derrick and Edward were already down there, sitting at one of the tables. They had already finished their breakfast and were relaxing.

I gave an awkward wave at them and we got to the last steps of the stairs. when they saw us, they returned that wave with smiles. It seemed like everything was normal for them.

"Morning kiddos, how was your sleep?" Mary leaned over the desk, her small body was basically on the desk itself when she called to us.

Mary seemed to enjoy watching me suffer, maybe it's possibly because she sees Synthia and Gerald in me and decided the only way to vent it was to their kid.

Though she had a smile when she said that, I can't help but feel like there was a sarcastic tone in her voice.

"It was..fine.." I paused when I ended my response.

Mary had a smug face when I said that. This woman.

"Oh, did that little stealth mission of yours from last night keep you up?"

"You know, inciting a certain event to a kid could possibly affect their mental state, hmm?" I talked back to her.

Mary looked taken back from that response and gave an irritated face.

"Pfft, alright kid. Have it your way." She turned the other way. "Even acts like synthia.." she mumbled those last words.

I don't see why she's so upset about those two. Not that I care about it, it's not my issue. But she incidentally is putting all that frustration on me, and I don't like that. She can buzz off with that attitude with me.

"HAHA. Good morning, Kota! Come! Eat your breakfast, We'll have Mary over there, even bring it to you! HAH" Derrick was back to his eccentric attitude, Pounding the table when he said that.

Edward tried to hold the table steady, trying to not have it break on them.

Me and Lilith sat next to them at another table, Lilith hopped into her and waved her legs back and forth in her seat.

"Good morning Derrick. Good morning, Edward." I said awkwardly.

"Morning, Kota! And a good morning to you, Lilith! Seems like you were the only one who woke up on time, HAHA" He gave Lilith a pat on her head as she gave an awkward smile.

Edward gave me a look, before giving Derrick a look. Seems like Edward had noticed our predicament. Though he didn't say anything about it.

My breakfast was some Pork ribs with something that reminded me of Colesaw. It had some vegetables in it and carrots from what I saw. But the carrots had a more grayish orange color to them. When I took a bite of it, it tasted somewhat sour and had a weird aftertaste to it. The pork ribs were nicely done though. I could see when I cut into it that the juices were drooling out of it. Its outer skin was nicely golden brown.

Lilith ate her breakfast which was what looked to be like oatmeal, but it had a very yellow look to it. Inside of it were cherries and strawberries. It gave off a very sweet fragrance and when she took a bite of it, She held her hand to her face. It was a very expressive face that she gave to be honest. I'm thinking maybe she has a sweet tooth.

"Ok you two, now that you are eating your breakfast. Let's tell you the plan on getting to Prusha." Derrick pulled out of his back a large paper map that he held up.

"Right now, we are in Grasshorn. Once we leave we will head North for a couple more hours before we head into the Greyhill Woods. It's less used and possibly the safest route to Prusha. If nothing happens on the road, It should take us three days to get there. Meaning that it'll be two days less of travel. Normally, people would take this route." He pointed to a route that was heading northeast. "This is what most travelers use, This is what's called the Bridge to Prusha. The only reason we are not using this route is because quite frankly, There have been a lot more Bandit ambushes and…" Derrick paused there.

"...and?" I asked. Something tells me Derrick and Edward have been up to something before they came to Shanford and picked us up.

"HAH, ah well you see. We ran into some problems with the Guards that patrol there, and uh… we may have been declined access to that route for a while.." Derrick rubbed his head when he said that.

Gerald, who have you put us with? I thought Derrick was just the blacksmith dude in your group and now he's showing occupations as a hitman and a law breaker. At least I can trust Edward…

"It wasn't my fault." Edward quietly said.

"You say that every time we manage to piss off enforcement. See Kota, Edward was the one that got us into that mess and we got to take the route through GreyHill." Derrick pointed his unused hand at him.

I looked at Edwards, I trusted you. You were supposed to be the quiet and smart one!

"Anyways, Let me tell you about Greyhill woods. It is a typical forest that is usually used by those who want to reach the Bandavor Valley. Those valleys are usually also reachable just by going through the Bridge to Prusha, But this route is just a more simpler route for us instead of going through the kingdom."

Well that didn't make sense, Why wouldn't someone want to go through The kingdom to get through a valley? You'd have a stop that would give you a chance to get food and rest. If anything, going through this route just meant a harder and more risky trip.

"Um..I thought it'd be simpler to go through the kingdom?" I inquired

"No." Derrick waved his hand. "The kingdom makes sure that you'd have to pay a fee to get through there, even adding a restriction to what can go through. Especially how many people can go through on one fee. There's also another issue"

"What do you mean?"

Derrick looked at Mary who sulked in her seat.

"The Kingdom of Prusha acts as a gateway to the northern continent, Which is named the demon continent. Those who reside in there are a mix of beast and Demons. The kingdom of Prusha holds a substantial amount of power over that area since they have no kingdoms there. Which means they can rule anything from leaving or entering their territories. If you are coming from the demon continent or even leaving from there. They might not even allow you to. They might even attack you or arrest you on sight."

Ok, So the Kingdom we are going through has some of racial problems? Not that I didn't see this coming. Reading the Race and Creatures books did make it sound like these other races were horrible and had a bad reputation. Still. I don't see why any of that would apply to us since none of us were even part of any of those races.

"But that's not an issue for us, is it? We are only just staying at Prusha. There's no need for us to go to demon continent." I gave them a confused look. Why were they telling me this?

"Edward here is part of the beast race, it's why he keeps his Hat on at all times." Derrick pointed at Edward, Who took off his hat to show that he had Floppy ears like a dog.

Oh, This was new. Thinking of it now, I've never seen Edward without his hat. He had Blond hair. Why weren't we even told about this?

"If we were to head through the bridge of Prusha, they would have to check us. And since we've already gotten in trouble with the guards. Him being found out as part of the beast race would cause even more of a stir. Us going through the GreenHill woods is the most safe for Edwards and just for us in general." Derrick adjusted his sunglasses as he said that.

"I see." Well that puts things in an odd place.

"Now that you get it, let's move onto our next issue." Derrick wrapped the paper map up and placed it on his table.

"The next issue?" What else could there be?

"We need to talk about last night." Derrick's face has a frown on it. His whole mood changed from that eccentric one to a more serious one.

"Oh.." I looked at Lilith and saw she shyly looked down.

"Now, I know you two were curious. But I feel now is the most appropriate time to address what me and Edward have been up to." Edward shifted in his seat to face me and Lilith, so did Derrick.

"When your father left the group with your mother, The group disbanded shortly after, Me and Edwards decided the best thing to do with our skills was by becoming mercenaries. We take up bounties and jobs. That includes anything from killing to even kidnapping. It's a different case with you guys since those are favors that need to be made. However, in the case of Mary's situation.." He looked at Mary, Who gave him a smug look. "It was an ordinary mercenary job, she paid us to beat the hell out of that man, And to dispose of him"

I was drinking some water when he said that. I nearly choked on it when he said that. I guess Padook had other plans…

Lilith gave a shocked look before giving a sad look. Since I gave her some sort of reality check, she must have acknowledged that this might've happened.

"Hmph… seems like you two have thought this, huh? Well, that's the truth right there." Derrick yawned after that as he got up from his chair.

"Let's get moving, we wouldn't want to be in the forest late at night. There is a checkpoint there that we can use. Once we get there, we'll rest there."

Him and Edward got up from their table and walked to the reception desk.

"And Mary, thanks for having us and the kids here." Derrick gave her a smile.

"Hah, don't worry about it. You got a job done and I got to see Gerald's kid. Not that I don't hate him, I do hate him. But that girl with him is loveable." She looked at Lilith, she gave a warm smile and waved at her.

Ok, it seems like I'm on someone's list to hate because I'm someone's kid…nice.

"Alright, Kota and Lilith. Go outside and stay near the carriage. We'll say our goodbyes to Mary and be with you." Derrick waved us away.

I got out of my seat and grabbed my staff as Lilith hopped out of her seat.

Once we headed outside, we led our way to our carriage. There were more carriages in this designated area. So there were about three other carriages here that were not ours.

There was a young man who was guarding one of the carriages, maybe in his teens. He was dozing off until he saw us walking towards him.

"Hey there kids, what are you guys doing out here?" He said, trying to seem like he hadn't fallen asleep.

"Waiting for our group to head out." Lilith said.

"Woah, aren't you two a bit too young to be adventuring?"

"We aren't adventuring, we are going to Prusha to study." I interjected.

"Prusha huh? You guys wouldn't mind if we tagged along, would you?" The man stuck his hand out.

What's this guy's gimmick? Giving a free hand to some kids? I'm pretty confident we don't need anyone other than Derrick and Edward.

"Ah, no. We should be fine." I declined his offer.

The man gave me a smile, and drew his hand back.

"Ah, I see. Well I just thought that since my group was heading there. We could just tag along. But it's fine." He walked back to his carriage and eyed us from there. A couple of his group members came back and he started talking to them.

"Why didn't we have them tag along?" Lilith asked.

"Remember what I said last night? Not everyone is going to be friendly. This guy might be acting friendly to just take advantage of us. We need to be careful." I said back to her.

"Oh, so he's a threat?" She grabbed the handle of her blade.

"Woah-uh hey, no. Not yet. Uh…we can't be sure if he is. But let's be cautious around people." I calmed her down as quickly as I could. Those people were staring at us.

"HAHA, Kota! Are you and Lilith ready?" I heard Derrick bellow. Looks like he and Edward had finished up their goodbyes with Mary.

"Yeah." Me and Lilith said in unison.

"HaHA, good! Le-" Derrick stopped mid sentence and looked at the carriage. "Oy, what gives.." He ran to the front of the carriage and ripped out a piece of paper that was pinned to the front. "OY, what'd ya mean we gotta pay ten rubees!? This is designated area?!"

"You didn't say anything about a carriage or nothing like that when you talked with me!" Mary yelled from the front of the inn.

"Ah, fucking woman…" Derrick mumbled, taking out some two gold coins and placing them on the ground.

"Here's ya coins! They're here!" And Derrick climbed onto the front seat.

Edward didn't say anything, but he was looking at something. It was a moment before he seemed to snapped out of it and jumped onto the front seat with Derrick.

"C'mon you two! Get in! The horses need a workout! HAH!" Derrick patted the horses as they neighed.

I opened the door to the carriage and set my backpack on the front bench as Lilith joined alongside me.

Once the carriage started moving, I sat onto the back bench and relaxed. Lilith took her sword off of her and laid it onto the front bench. Once she sat down, she began to pay my head.

"Here's your head pats…" she cutely mumbled. She remembered I asked for these.

Ah,. Sweet bliss.. her hands smoothly went through my hair and she patted.

Though she was looking behind as we left the village, when I looked back I saw that the man we were talking to was eyeing us as we left.

"Kota…" she kept patting my head.

"Yeah.. I know…he's not friendly…"

As we got farther away from Grasshorn and into the north. I laid in Lilith's lap as she continued to pat my head.

And the second day of this trip began.