Quest | A Fantasy TMF AU ~ Paused

Chapter 4

Gabriela's POV

"Can we take a break?"

I groaned. Alex had been asking the same question ever since we started going down the path. "No breaks. If we want to get to Snyk City as soon as possible, then we need to keep going," I shouldered my bag and continued walking down the trail. It was travelled often, and the trees overhead provided protection from the sun. Light still shone through the leaves, dappling the path and making a nice atmosphere. I heard a sound from behind me and stopped in my tracks. I turned and saw Alex collapsed on the ground. I rolled my eyes. He was so weak. Like, how bad was his endurance? How was I related to such a weakling?

Dad stooped down to help the winded Alex up. I let out a huff and looked up at the leaves overhead, bouncing my leg back and forth in impatience. "Gabi, you need to slow down for us. You may be able to go fast, but we can't," Dad explained softly, standing up with an arm around Alex, supporting him. I glared at them. "Fine, I'll sLoW dOwN," I mocked, and turned on my heel, stalking forwards. Snyk City wasn't that far from the castle, just a few miles. Well, more like 30, but if you think about it, it's not super far. A couple days' journey and we're there. It wasn't like we were travelling all the way to Nedrag Meadow, which was super far away. Even if you were riding a dragon, it would take days to get there. Clozy Kingdom was big. And Mom was somewhere in Clozy Kingdom. We'd just have to find her.

A thought crossed my mind. She wasn't going to be in Snyk City, that was for sure. We'd have to keep on searching, and searching, and it could take forever. We might never find her, I thought. There were so many places she could be. For example, she could have been taken to Enoph Ocean, and hidden in a sunken ship. Or she could be in the middle of Hawt Desert, surrounded on all sides by sand dunes. She could be in Peerc Forest, up in the treetops. The crushing reality sunk in. We'd have to look everywhere.

My thoughts were interrupted by Alex collapsing again. I spun around and halted. "You fell. AGAIN." He glared up at me. "Oh, I didn't notice, Miss States-The-Obvious. And, don't tell me, are you not going to help me up?" came his sarcastic reply. I wanted so badly to prove him wrong, but to do that I'd have to help him up, and no power on this earth could make me do that. I stood there with my arms crossed, tapping my foot impatiently. We stared each other down, mentally cursing each other, wishing the other would give up. After what seemed like forever, but was probably just 10 seconds, Dad sighed and stepped between us.

"If you two are going to keep this up, we'll never find Hailey. Now, let's focus on the task at hand and get to Snyk City," he suggested, holding a hand out to Alex. He grumbled and took it reluctantly. I turned my head, snickering at how he needed Dad's help to stand up. I continued walking forward on the path, stopping every so often to wait for Alex and Dad to catch up.

For the hundredth time that day, I sighed, sitting down in the dirt to wait for the slowpokes. I shook my head, tracing curses in the dust. This was going to be a long journey.

>><<

Three days. We had been travelling for three days. Three days of my life wasted with these idiots. The path was never-ending, it seemed to go on forever. We stopped for a break in the middle of the day, and stopped to sleep at night. At least, those were the only note-worthy breaks we took. The rest were Alex being a weakling and commanding that we stop so he could 'rest up'. If only I could have gone alone, then it would've been easier on all of us. But nOooOoo, Dad had to insist that we all went together. Stupid Dad. He's such a stupid, blind, idiotic simp.

Nighttime approached, for the fourth time this trip. I was determined to keep going until it was completely dark, but Alex, of course, had other plans. And because he's older, we did what he suggested, which was sleep ASAP.