A Long Trip [ Part 2 ]

They traveled until late. The sun was setting and they had started setting up camp. Elayna and the hidden person were going to be bedding down in the carriage while the mercenaries and party began to set up around it. Emre set up his tent on the outskirts near Idris's.

"Can anyone use fire magic? We need this fire lit." One of the mercenaries called.

It was a large woman, even taller than Emre, but still shorter than Gerrar. A greatsword was placed on her back and she wore half-plate armor. Her long black, loosely braided hair was draped over one shoulder. She was setting up a fire and pot for cooking.

"Ah, yes." Idris stepped up to the fire and casually lit the tinder.

It didn't take long for the fire to pick up afterward. She gave him a haughty thank you and gave his back a hardy pat. Emre wondered how that felt as he finished up his tent. Idris quickly came afterward and began to finish his.

Ragan had already finished his and was helping Nalia. Gerrar and Conin were sharing a tent so it was already set up as well with the two of them having worked together. Killan was still fiddling with his tent like Idris was.

Emre was starting to walk toward Idris to help him when he spotted Elayna hopping out of the carriage with another woman. She looked tall and noble, wearing pretty fancy looking armor. Her dirty blonde hair was mostly tied back, showing off two pointed ears.

She had one hand resting on her hilt, but not in an aggressive manner. She gave off a very regal feel, however, it seemed Elayna noticed him looking over and waved. He lifted a hand to wave back only to see as she switched it into a beckon. Glancing to Idris, he diverted his course and began to walk over with a raised brow.

"Did you need something, Young Miss?" He asked as politely as possible.

"Not particularly!" She said with a cheerful smile. "What is your name?"

"Ah, my name is Emre." He couldn't help but glance at the guard behind her who wasn't even trying to hide her glare.

Elayna seemed to notice and gave a small wave of her hand. "Oh, don't worry about her! She just seems scary." She laughed.

Emre forced a small smile on his face and nodded only to see as the guard promptly held a hand out. She wanted to shake hands? He grabbed it, feeling her harsh squeeze. It hurt but he kept his hand firm and didn't squeeze back. What was her problem?

"Raina Maller." She introduced herself before letting go.

He resisted the urge to rub his hand. "Nice to meet you, Miss Raina."

"You can call me Sir Maller."

"Ah, alright."

"Raina is my personal Knight!" Elayna butted in with a cheery voice.

The two of them were a stark contrast in personality and Emre couldn't help but feel a cold sweat starting as Raina continued to glare. Truly, what was her issue?

"By the way, are you the leader of the party?" Elayna asked curiously.

"Eh? No, it's uh, Killan." Emre turned and gestured toward Killan who had only just successfully managed to get his tent up.

"Oh! I thought you were." She sounded genuinely surprised. "Everyone looked at you earlier when I asked if you all could help out."

"Ahh… I guess it's because I'm the stickler of the group…"

"Oh, I see!"

"I told you he was too weak to be the leader." Raina muttered, although Emre could still easily hear it.

Emre let out an awkward laugh, giving his neck a small scratch.

'Rescue meeee!' Emre pleaded to Idris.

Idris glanced up from his finished tent toward where Emre was standing in front of the noble and knight. He raised a brow and crossed his arms.

"Emre." His voice was surprisingly loud despite the monotone voice he was using. He almost sounded mad.

He didn't usually raise his voice, so the rest of the party looked toward him in a small bit of shock before going back to what they were doing. There was a lot of new things Idris did now that Emre was around. It was best not to be shocked anymore. His face remained stoic as Emre looked toward him with thankful eyes.

"Ah, is there anything else you need, Young Miss?" Emre asked as he turned back to Elayna quickly.

She thought a moment before shrugging. "Hm, I guess not. You can go."

"Alright." Emre gave an awkward bow before turning and scuttling away.

He could feel Raina's glare continuing to bore into his back as he quickly walked away. Elayna had already begun walking off toward Killan, probably to talk to him about what she was going to say to Emre. He could see why he was assumed the leader, but what he didn't understand was the damn Knight.

"Why did you need rescuing?" Idris asked, now that they were out of earshot from the two ladies.

"I thought the Knight woman was going to glare me to death."

"What? Why?"

"I have no clue. The Young Miss thought I was the leader apparently."

"Hmm…?" Idris paused and looked like he was thinking. "I guess that is easy to assume."

"Well, sure… But that Knight lady wouldn't stop glaring at me."

"She is still glaring at you."

Emre couldn't help but whip his head around to look behind him. Although not very obvious, she was definitely glancing toward him.

"The hell?" Emre quickly looked away again. "Why?!"

"Did you say something?"

"Like what?! She was glaring even before I said anything."

"Odd."

Emre nodded his head, feeling defeated. There would probably be no way to figure it out unless he actually asked her. Which definitely wasn't going to happen. He just had to hope that she would stop eventually.

"Alright boys!" The woman who set up the fire spoke out loudly. "If we want a good meal tonight you better get the juiciest game!"

She seemed to be addressing the other mercenaries. Emre remembered that he had wanted to do some old fashioned hunting. It was still strange that he felt like raw meat was a good meal, but it seemed it wouldn't be quite possible to do anymore anyway. Not if they were going to be traveling alongside these people.

"We should help out as well!" Killan called out, seemingly done talking with Elayna.

"Fantastic! Let's get two hunting parties out there. The rest will remain here at camp and guard the Young Miss." The lady mercenary shouted out.

The mercenaries and the party grouped up in the middle of camp to divide out who was going and who was staying. They only had so many bows for quick and silent hunting. Emre did not know how to use a bow, nor was he very good at controlling the power output of his magic arrows.

As such, Emre ended up on the guarding group along with Conin and Gerrar. Killan, Ragan, Idris, and Nalia would all be going on the hunting group. There were also two mercenaries left to stay along with Elayna, Raina, and the carriage driver.

Emre wished them luck as they headed into the forest. Reluctantly, he ended up sitting around the fire with everyone else as they waited. He was adamantly avoiding any eye contact with Raina or Elayna and focused on the flickering flames.

After a few minutes of hushed talking, Conin found his way to Emre and sat beside him. Emre felt a light tap on his knee and he looked away from the warm flames, blinking the lingering bright spots away from his vision. Emre could only really see the lower half of his face as he gave Emre a small smile.

"Are you okay?" Conin's high-pitched voice was hushed as he asked so that none of the others could hear them.

Emre felt a bit surprised at the sudden question, and also the fact that Conin was the one asking. He didn't let it show on his face much. He found that shy people who don't talk much don't want to talk more if the person they are talking to is shocked or amused by it.

"I mean… I've been thinking about it..." Conin decided to clarify his question before Emre was able to answer. "You and Idris… You're both dealing with something that none of us can really imagine."

He fiddled with the edges of his hood as he continued. "Even though the rest of us know about it, it's different for you two. We can leave and hide away at any time we want. We can back off and stay safe right now if we wanted to. But you two? You're stuck dealing with it without that option. You guys can't escape like we can.

"So, I was trying to imagine how it would feel to be stuck like that… And I figured out that it would be very stressful. I was just wondering how you and Idris felt about it all. I-I mean, you don't have to tell me, but think ultimately, I just wanted to let you know that there are ears that will listen."

Conin let out a small awkward chuckle as he finished his spiel and Emre couldn't help but feel his heart warm. He wasn't sure how to process everything that Conin was saying but it put a smile upon Emre's face. He felt a mixture of gratitude, relief, and stress all at the same time.

"I would like to think… that I am okay." Emre started. "It is definitely stressful. And there is still so much to learn and there are still things that none of us know. It would probably be much harder for us without you guys, even though I didn't want to drag you guys into it in the first place. But I think we'll figure it out… It might take a while and there will be bumps that we have to get through, but I think it will be okay."

"Me too." Conin agreed, his smile becoming brighter. "I know we aren't comparable to you two, but I hope we can help."

"You're already helping." Emre lifted his hand and gave Conin's head a small pat.

Conin let out a small laugh. "I'm glad."

It seemed Conin was a lot more talkative than Emre had thought. It seemed once he felt more comfortable with someone's presence, he began to speak more. He was definitely a good person.

"Also… Did you say something bad to the Young Miss or her guard?" Conin asked, his voice getting even quieter.

Emre glanced up as Conin asked, catching sight of the glaring Knight. At this point it was just getting irritating. Looking away just as quickly as he could, his mood was quickly exasperated.

"No, I said nothing bad." Emre answered.

"Maybe it's just her face?"

Emre stifled a laugh. "You mean the glaring guard?"

"Yeah… it's like someone put a beetle in her breakfast."

Emre was barely able to hold back laughing. Gerrar walked up shortly afterward and tossed a piece of bread toward Conin who easily caught it.

"To hold you over while we're waiting." Gerrar commented with a grin.

Conin gave a small grateful nod before taking a small bite. The large man then sat down with a grunt, rubbing his hands together closer to the fire.

"How long do you think it'll take em?" Gerrar asked without being quiet.

"Our group is the best of the best. They'll probably be back first." One of the mercenaries responded.

'Yeah but ours has Idris…' Is what the three of them were thinking.

"Hmm… wanna have a friendly bet, then?" Gerrar suggested.

"Ohh? What we betting?" One of them leaned in.

Raina let out a disdainful scoff and Elayna let out a small laugh.

Gerrar didn't think too much of them and began to wonder. "Money seems too basic."

"What about a stupid dance?"

"What?" Gerrar let out a chuckle despite his confusion.

"The loser has to dance stupidly in front of everyone."

"Oh, yeah, we use that one a lot." The other mercenary spoke with a nod.

"Ha! Why not?" Gerrar laughed.

So whichever party returned first was the winner. The loser had to dance like an idiot in front of everyone. Emre guessed it taught humility? Even if they lost, Gerrar probably wouldn't mind it and would probably enjoy it. At least that was what Emre assumed.

Gerrar was a reasonable and optimistic man. He was loud but not in a bad way. Conin and him seemed fairly close, but Emre wasn't sure how far it went. It wasn't any of his business anyway.

Now it was just the waiting game. The atmosphere did end up a bit more tense as time went one, each wondering who would return first. Emre's curiosity grew too much so he decided to cheat.

'Idris, are you nearby?' His telepathy traveled quite the distance.

'Yeah, we're almost there.' Idris responded.

A smile appeared on his features unintentionally. It disappeared as quickly as it came and he hoped no one noticed. Although it could mean many things, he didn't want to seem weird smiling out of nowhere. If anyone noticed it, it would have been Raina given by how much she's been staring.

Right now, however, she was talking in a hushed voice with Elayna. He honed in with his perception out of curiosity since they were both glancing at him now. Looking another direction, he focused on his hearing.

"Just ask." Elayna was saying.

"What if it's not the case though?" Raina responded.

"That's why it doesn't hurt to ask."

"But what if he thinks it's strange? I'll probably ask wrong."

"You've already been staring the whole time. Might as well explain why."

Oh? Emre had to stop his brows from lifting. They were definitely talking about him. Raina seemed to want to ask him something. Perhaps her glaring was really just her face. The staring, however, seemed to be fairly obvious. He was glad he honed in when he did.

He wanted to hear more but the rustling of the foliage behind him caught his attention more. Walking up to the camp was their hunting party. Each of them was carrying some sort of game. Rabbits and a bird.

"Ha!" Gerrar laughed out loud as he looked at the mercenary he made the bet with.

"Damn." The mercenary cursed but didn't seem too pressed.

Killan had a questioning look on his face as they started to place the game down nearby. The lady mercenary would prepare it, but she had joined the other hunting party so she wasn't here right now.

"Looks like the hunting trip was quite successful." Gerrar commented.

"Of course! We'll be eating good tonight." Killan responded with a grin. "You should have seen Idris get that bird. It was even mid-flight."

"I'm not surprised!"

The two laughed among themselves. Idris paid no mind to them and took a seat next to Emre with a small exhale.

"It was only mid-flight because Killan scared it." Idris casually said.

"Oi!" Killan couldn't say much more to retort.

"That one is weird too…" Raina's hushed voice met Emre's ears.

It was probably too quiet for everyone else as they laughed, but Idris might have caught it. In fact, Emre was sure he did judging by the quick glance of his currently chocolate brown eyes.

What was this Knight talking about? There was no way she could have figured out they were dragons. Emre was sure of that. Ah, he had looked too long. His and Raina's eyes met. Emre ended up holding it for a second longer than intended as he wondered how she would react.

She surprisingly looked away first. Emre let out a small breath of relief, wondering if they would have been locked into a staring contest if their gazes lingered any longer. Emre was the one avoiding her gaze but he suddenly stared after her words just now. It probably put her mind in a bit of turmoil.

'You heard her, right?' Idris asked mentally.

'Yeah, she was talking about me just a moment ago as well. Apparently, she wants to ask a question.' Emre responded.

'Is that why she's been staring?'

'Most likely. She is probably just bad at being subtle.'

'Quite.'

Then another bout of rustling came from their left. The other hunting party had returned. They each had something in their hands as well. Two rabbits and something that looked like a muskrat.

"Guys, I lost a bet because of you…" The mercenary immediately began to complain.

"Don't make bets then." The lady responded as she placed her rabbit among the obvious game pile.

A butcher table had been set up just out of view of the camp by the request of Eleyna. The lady got straight to work in picking out the plumpest ones in the bundle before heading off to get the meal prepared.

Emre stopped paying attention when Ragan clapped his hand onto his shoulder. "Do your stretches."

Gek. That's right. He hadn't trained at all today. It was a good break, but it seemed Ragan wanted him to do at least something. Stretching wasn't hard, just tedious. With a sigh he stood up.

"I'll do them near my tent." He said.

There was more room around his tent. Plus he didn't really feel like stretching in front of everyone. It might be a bit embarrassing. Finding a grassy spot near his tent, he started without hesitation. His legs were already strained from sitting on horseback most of the day, but it was too terrible.

Of course, he couldn't do them in peace though. It was like Ragan had conspired against him, for Raina stood up and split away from the group to head toward him. He continued anyway, ignoring her until she was a meter in front of him. Straightening up, he placed his hands on his hips.

"Yes?" He tried to keep his voice polite but there was definitely underlying irritation.

"I… have a question." Raina began stiffly.

Emre raised a brow. "Alright."

"Do you know the Paladin of Tirian?"

"Eh?"