Chapter 5 What have you done [Part 5]

It's been a couple of hours since Amari and Athena sneaked into the caravan and nothing interesting happened yet, other than some drama that has been building up between the south-east and south-west knights. Apparently both quadrants have been fighting over certain rules that the mayors have put in place. 

Every quadrant has 3 classes, the upper class which sit on the highest level of Valandor, aside from the castle which sits on the peak. The middle class which sit on the median level of Valandor, and the lower class which sit on the bottom level of Valandor, and with every quadrant there is a mayor, and the mayors get orders from the king's advisors unless the king himself needs to address an issue.

The main issue though is, the south-west mayor stated that if a south-east animal crosses the border between quadrants and they are of middle or lower class they are to be beaten and publicly shamed on sight.

This caused a huge commotion for obvious reasons, and caused the south-east knights to do the same for the south-west people. Things like that were common in the south side of Valandor. That's why in the north-east and north-west, even the lower class citizens are considered upper middle class in the south.

That is why the south is seen as a pain in the backside of the royal guards and knights of Valandor.

Amari didn't care though, he actually enjoyed seeing the two quadrants fight like two little children being as petty as possible. It was odd to Amari though, he wasn't the type of person to get off from violence or abuse, but he still thought it was somewhat interesting on how humans function.

"Hey, Amari. How far are we from the dig site?"

"About another hour or two, get some rest I can keep watch for now"

"Ok, but if anything happens and you are not sure what to do, just wake me up."

"Ok, get some rest now"

As Athena laid her head on Amari's shoulders Amari couldn't help but wonder when it would happen…

'When will I confess to Athena? And would it turn out well? What if it didn't? Would our friendship crumble? Would it just be a dumb inside joke we create? But what if she accepts my confession? Then what, we're still too young to marry and have children.'

As always Amari falls down the rabbit hole of thoughts. He continues to think of other useless things to pass time away. And pretty soon, they will arrive at The Mines.

***

"Hey, hey, Athena, wake up. We made it."

Athena looked at Amari like she had seen a ghost.

"Oh, right. Are we at the mines?"

"Yea, if what my dad said is true in this book we have to leave and walk about two or three kilometers and enter the valley. But we're only gonna enter the edge of it, we can not risk facing any creature or demons. Understand?"

Athena felt a bit sad, she gave Amari a slight nod and rose up stretching. Amari sneaked his head out the window and started to scout the area. 

Fortunately, it was still dark for them, they actually made it faster than they thought they would since the caravan didn't stop once on its way to the mines.

"The cost is clear. Let's go"

With that, Amari and Athena jumped down from the caravan and started to crouch around the horses and the campsite of the knights and guards. It was in a semi circle formation where the guards and knights were sitting in the middle surrounded by the caravan and the horses so they didn't see the two children.

Amari Slowly approached the edge of the camp sight and looked at Athena with a dark expression.

"What is it?"

"We can't use a light source until we're far away from here, so hold onto me or my hand so we don't get lost."

For once in her life Athena didn't make a joke and took Amari's hand, for some reason the tension and thought of getting caught or lost made it even more intimate.

Amari didn't mind though, he was actually rather happy.

"Ok, let's get ourselves a Scroll of Present shall we?"

With that, the two young teens ventured off into the unknown, but without their knowledge, a general of the camp site knew about their existence since leaving Valandor.

And they had no idea what he would do to them in the future.