Towards the front (8)

Karen slowly woke up but she was still tired so she kept her eyes closed

'cold, why is it so cold?'

she pulled up her legs and hugged her knees as she tried to fall asleep again but the cold wind kept making her more and more awake so eventually she slowly opened her eyes

"where is this..?"

she looked around and found herself in a forest next to a burnt out campfire

'oh right... the crash'

her memory gradually came back to her as she was waking up, but with it also came the feelings she had suppressed all day yesterday as tears began to form in the corners of her eyes

"teacher... Chris..."

Karen cried as silently as she could but someone still heard her

"this is why I don't like humans"

"who..?"

Karen nearly jumped in fight but she managed to stay calm as she turned and saw the elf Chloe looking down on her

"you always cry, it's annoying"

Karen blanked out but gradually she got angry at Chloe, she had never like this elf anyway as she always seemed to looked down on her

"what's your problem!?"

Chloe didn't expect Karen would yell at her so her green eyes widened slightly when Karen yelled at her before she put on a mean smile

"and now you yell, really humans are just so funny..."

Karen gritted her teeth and glared at Chloe

"what nothing else to say..? not going to cry anymore..? then why don't you think about what to do next?"

Karen got confused by what Chloe said and repeated

"...what to do next?"

"yeah, or are you going to cry and yell again..? because that doesn't help our situation one bit"

Karen realized what Chloe was doing and became embarrassed by her own behavior, but quickly hided it by turning her face with a cold humph and mumbled

"...you really are a nasty woman"

Chloe's mean smiled widened a bit before she reached out her hand to Karen

"no not at all, unless you touch Mars that is"

Karen stared at her hand for a bit before she took it and was pulled to her feet by Chloe

"I don't have any interest in him..."

Karen gave a slightly mean smile and grabbed Chloe by her hip

"but maybe if your interested?"

this caused Chloe's smile to stiffen slightly before a blush spared on her face

"n-no my heart is only for Mars"

"really... your no fun elf"

Karen let go of Chloe with a teasing smile on her face

"y-you... your a rather nasty women yourself"

Karen gave a warm smile

"thanks for the compliment"

"easy now Victoria..."

Mars was hunched over in the brushes looking at, if all went well his breakfast, Victoria was next the him also hunched over ready to strike

"I got... this... watch... over there"

"over there?"

Mars looked past the heard of deer that was drinking from a small creak and in between the brushes on the other side of the creak was another Victoria, or most likely a shadow clone

"get... ready... NOW"

the shadow clone jumped out of the brushes scarring the heard of deer before they fled towards where Mars and Victoria where hiding

"nice"

Mars activated [Instant movement] and appeared in front of a deer before he quickly drew his sword and cut its neck, meanwhile Victoria pounced on another deer and brought it down

"did... I do... good?"

"yeah you did, good job Victoria let's head back to the campsite"

Mars grabbed the legs of the 2 deer and swung them over his shoulders before he began heading back to the campsite followed by Victoria, when he returned he was greeted by Chloe that was chatting with Karen

"hey Mars, you got breakfast I see"

"yeah I figured I would do some hunting with Victoria"

Mars showed off his trophy

"looks good, let me help you butcher it"

"sure"

Mars and Chloe went along and butchered the 2 deer carcasses and when they were done Mars started roasting some of the meat with his flame while Karen looked at his flame and sighed

"fire magic is so convenient"

"yeah, but it doesn't help if your trapped in a desert"

"yeah, well that's true... anyway... let's do as you say and head back to Mirefield"

"...okay then let's set off after we're done eating"

"sure"

Mars roasted some meat for the group to eat and after they finished eat they set off towards Mirefield...

"hmm... I might see it"

Mars was standing on the branch of a tall tree and was looking into the distance

"do you see it or not?"

Karen yelled from the ground, after spending the past 5 days she looked rather... wild, her hair was messy and her clothes were torn here and there

"...I see it, I can see the walls form here just a little more guys!"

Mars looked fine, he was after all a past caveman so living in the forest suited him rather well

"really! finely a proper bed, a shower!"

Karen raised her hands above her head and began crying tears of joy meanwhile Chloe looked at her with a weird look on her face before she gave a sigh

"Karen calm down, we still need to get there first besides we need to deal with the lord"

"geh... fiiiine"

Karen put down her hands meanwhile Mars having climbed down the tree rejoined the group

"wait where did the twins go?"

"they properly ran off with Victoria"

"again..?"

Mars gave a sigh, the twins had really made him tired over the last couple of days, after they recovered from the loss of Chris and the vice principal they had been running around playing with Victoria

"well they acting their age for once"

Mars gave a shrug, he could roughly feel the direction Victoria was though their contract so there was no change of them getting lost

"let's go, we're close to the town so we should be able to get there today"

"...finely... a bath..."

Mars ignored Karen's grumblings and began walking in the direction of the walls he had seen from the top of the tree, just as he began walking Chloe walked up next to him and latched on to his arm

"hey"

"hey you"

Chloe remained silent only after they had walked for a while did she speak up in a low voice

"do you still have nightmares?"

"...no, not at the moment"

"I see, that's good"

"yeah"

Chloe fell silent again but Mars could feel her worry about his nightmares so he felt a need to reassure her

"really it's been fine, I have mostly dreamless sleep these days"

"okay... that's good"

Chloe finely gave a smile and the 2 of them walked on in comfortable silence, until Mars noticed something moving in a brush ahead of him

'what's that... wait is that Lee? or maybe Lily?"

Mars spotted a hint of white hair in the brush and assumed it was the twins trying to play a prank on him or one of the others in the group

'well might as well play along...'

Mars did his best to ignore the 'clearly not a ambush' and walked along until he got close to the brush and a white blur jumped out at him and grabbed his legs

"got you Mars!"

Mars gave a smile and dropped a hand down on the head of Lily and ruffled her hair for a bit

"yeah you did... where is your brother?"

"he's playing with Victoria"

"okay"

Lily grabbed Mars's free hand with a grin on her face and began walking along with him

'is this what they call a flower in each hand?'

Mars walked along with Lily and Chloe and soon Victoria and Lee joined the group, Lee having played himself tired laid on Victoria's back currently exploring dreamland as he steadily breathed in and out with closed eyes

'well it's good he's okay again...'

Lee had been blaming himself for some time, after all it was him that said it was okay to leave Gas alone, but Mars had explained to him he wasn't at fault at all, this of cause didn't work the first time it only got Lee mad but after telling him the same thing over and over he gradually accepted it and let go of his guilt

"I need to cheek the direction again, Lily you want to come with?"

"yes!"

Chloe let go of Mars's arm and watched with a smile on her face as Mars picked up Lily and looked around for a tall tree

"Mars what about that one?"

"hmm... yeah let's use that tree, nicely spotted Lily"

"hehehe"

"ready..?"

"yeah, go Mars!"

Mars jumped and landed on one of the top branches of a 35 meter tall tree and looked around along with Lily that he carried on his arm

"Mars over there"

"over there..? yeah I see it"

Mars looked in the direction Lily had pointed and saw the walls of Mirefield some 5 kilometers away

"good job Lily"

"eheheh"

Mars praised Lily and patted her on the head

'well the only question now is... how should I kill Gas Fedeson?'