The Return - Part 4

They now had a destination. It was quite a distance away, and there was a possibility it was just a random abandoned village, given that the village they were currently in wasn't on the map, why would other Lamia villages be? But it was in the direction the door was facing, and it was possible the next was less secluded than this one, and it just hadn't been realised it was a Lamia village. If no one knew what Lamias were and the place was in ruins, how would you know if belonged to an extinct race?

Before heading off though, Sylvia still had some note-taking to do. While she couldn't see the building, she asked Octavia to describe it so she could put something down about how it looked. She also wrote a little about the trial, but through some deliberation, kept it somewhat vague and didn't go into too many details. While she hadn't been a Lamia long, she was now stuck as one, and these were the secrets of her race. If these notes got lost or ended up published in some way, which could be Sylvia's and her mother's end goal, which isn't a problem as far as Octavia saw, telling people you could get an ability at the end of the trial could cause people to hunt the villages down and break into the building. That would be a lot of history and technically her heritage ruined if that happened.

After describing all that, they then went on a tour of the village, where Octavia showed her what she thought were the houses, as well as the several shops she could discern the roles of. There wasn't much to see, the ruins and nature making it hard to tell what was what, so the tour ended quickly, and that was when they decided how they should proceed.

"The village is quite far from here. While it would be best to go in a straight line, being the least distance and all, I think the forest would just double or even triple the time it would take to get there." Octavia said as she looked over the map they go from Lord Desmon.

"Makes sense. If we head this way," Sylvia said as she trailed in the opposite direction from where the town of Caldaria was, "we can reach that road and then head west towards the elven kingdom. There should be a village or two along the road we could stop by. There might even be one we can get a carriage at to take us to the next." She continued as she ran her finger over the map marking out the direction.

As far as Octavia could see, it was a good plan. It would take way too long to travel on foot, even if they did get to the road, so taking a carriage would help immensely. Roads are also there for a reason, connecting towns and villages, so it only made sense there would be some along it.

But before they headed out, they decided to camp out for the night in the village, given that the skies were starting to darken. Pitching up the tents, they got to work making their dinner, gorging themselves on a few fruits, and camping rations.

As the night drew nearer, there wasn't much for them to do. Octavia did practice a little with her poleaxe, recalling the training that Althea had provided her. She ran through the drills, trying to increase her speed and accuracy as she did. Sylvia on the other hand was just watching her train.

"Maybe I should learn how to fight." Sylvia brought up.

The statement wasn't a shock. Given the journey they were going on, and the journey they had been on so far as well, this has been brought up way later than it should have. But, as a noblewoman, having guards and the like around you, learning to fight yourself just doesn't come up as a need. Even in Caldaria, she was staying in a castle and when she left, several guards shadowed her.

"What weapon would you want to train with?"

"I'm not sure yet. I don't think I could use a massive thing like your poleaxe. Maybe just a sword then, a short one. Or even just a dagger." Sylvia said shrugging.

"I think it would be a good idea. With everything that happened and the long journey ahead of us, you being able to defend yourself would be good. Would also give me some comfort knowing you are a little bit safer if we get into any problems."

She didn't feel like she would be able to train Sylvia how to wield a dagger, with her only knowing the basics for her own weapon. But she did still have the knife and machete from when she first arrived here.

Taking them from her bag, she handed them over to Sylvia. She told her to try them out, get a feel for them, and see which one felt better. That wasn't to say one of these would be the weapon she ends up using, but for now, it would do.

Standing up, Sylvia went ahead and gave each weapon a few swings, not finding one better than the other. Octavia also handed over her poleaxe, but as Sylvia had thought, it wasn't the weapon for her. So, while the decision over the weapon was still in the air, and with Octavia not really knowing how to train her in using it, that didn't mean she couldn't do anything.

…

"Surely…that's…enough…" Sylvia said as she gasped for air.

Like Octavia had thought, knowing how to use a weapon, while necessary, wasn't the only thing that was needed. Improving one's physique was also important. So that is what she was helping Sylvia with, by taking her through her exercises.

"Really, but we've hardly done anything," Octavia replied as she watched Sylvia almost collapse onto the floor.

"Maybe…for you…but this….is more…than I've…ever done."

Taking mercy on the girl, Octavia decided to end the exercises there, letting her catch her breath.

By now the sun was no longer in the sky, and it was pitch black. The only thing allowing them to see each other was the campfire they had built. All that was left was for them to get a good night's rest and then wake up bright and early tomorrow in order to set off.

As Sylvia managed to pick herself up from the floor, she moved her gear into her tent and got ready to end the day. Their tents were positioned quite close to one another, where one of the corners from one touched the other, the main reasons for this being for comfort and security. She had to wonder though; would it be a good idea to get a single large tent that they could both use?

She liked the idea, and she was sure that Sylvia would too, perhaps if there were any at the village she would broach the idea. Why they hadn't done just that when they were in Caldaria was a shame, but they were still figuring things out with each other, and with her already having a tent that seated one, it probably seemed a waste to throw it away and buy a larger tent when a smaller single would be cheaper. Not that Sylvia had any pico problems though.

Anyway, Octavia shook her head, not wanting to get bogged down with thoughts like these, and so curled up by the fire in order to take the first shift. She said goodnight to Sylvia as she clamoured into her bedroll, and threw another branch onto the fire to keep it going.

She didn't expect anything to happen during the night. So far in all the time they had been in this village, they had not seen any sort of beast or monster. There had been no bandits or the like, so she doubted they would be attacked in the night. But better to be safe than sorry, which is why she was taking the first watch of the night.

They had ended up in one of the ruined buildings, which beefed up security nicely. They had chosen the most secure of the lot, having all for walls, and while the door was gone, that was nothing a bit of scrounging and shifting stuff around couldn't fix. They managed to find old bits of wood and what looked to be a piece of furniture. What its purpose was though, they didn't know as it was mostly destroyed. But it was quite large and covered the gap they came in nicely, which they finished by propping the wood against it. The only other way in was through the roof…given that there wasn't one, and therefore meant climbing over the walls was the best bet for someone trying to get in. Damaged as they were, most were holding strong, but some areas of the building's walls were much shorter than they should be and posed a risk.

With all of that though, she hardly expected anything to happen. So all she could do was look around the house and stare at nothing as the night ticked on.

The worse part though was how eerily quiet it was in this dead village.